Zero Downtime

John Hass

Zero Downtime brings together tech, business, and the everyday experiences of running an IT company. John and Logan discuss what’s going on in their world, the questions people ask them most, and talk with other business owners and professionals in conversations that are real, relaxed, and worth your time.

  1. 3d ago

    FCC Approves Space Mirrors, Gov Paid Hackers $1M, Windows Hides 500GB, Google Kills Earth Pro

    The FCC just approved a startup that wants to launch satellites with giant mirrors to redirect sunlight to Earth after dark, a U.S. government body reportedly paid hackers a million dollars for nothing more than a promise the stolen data was deleted, and there is a Windows 11 bug hoarding hundreds of gigabytes of storage on some machines. This week, John and Logan break down nine stories covering space, cybersecurity, privacy, and the slow death of software you thought you owned. Stories in this episode: Space mirrors approved. The FCC gave California startup Reflect Orbital the green light to launch Eärendil-1, a demonstration satellite carrying a 60-foot ultra-thin reflective mirror that can redirect sunlight onto specific spots on Earth after sunset. The long-term vision is tens of thousands of these satellites, which has astronomers and environmental scientists worried. Government paid hackers $1M for a promise. A U.S. government entity, with circumstantial evidence pointing to Union County, Ohio, reportedly paid a group called Kairos about $1 million in Bitcoin to stop 2TB of stolen data from being dumped. The attackers did not encrypt anything. They just stole files. Taxpayers got a promise the data was deleted. No proof, no audit, just a criminal's word. Windows 11 hides 500GB. A hidden system log file that normally stays a few megabytes has been growing uncontrollably on some machines, in one case consuming nearly 500GB. Windows just labels it "System files" with no explanation. Microsoft has fixed the bug in the June optional update. Google kills Google Earth Pro. Downloads end June 25, 2027. Existing installs keep working, but Google is betting on the web version even though surveyors, engineers, and GIS professionals still rely on the desktop app. Another entry for Killed by Google. Plus why Apple needs to fix iMessage in the AI era, the GDPR reality check for small U.S.-only sites and 4chan's response to Ofcom, Proton Mail complying with a Swiss legal order that ultimately identified a Stop Cop City protester through payment information, Apple committing $30 billion to more U.S.-made chips through Broadcom and TSMC, and a police officer turned Flock cameras whistleblower alleging the systems track far more than just license plates. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  2. Jul 13

    Bryan Johnson Diagnosed, Ford Un-hires AI, Sony Kills Physical Games, Apple's iPhone 18 Leaked

    The man who spent millions trying not to die just got diagnosed with a chronic autoimmune disease, Ford quietly rehired hundreds of engineers after its AI systems fell short, Sony is killing physical PlayStation games in 2028, and 630GB of Apple's iPhone 18 Pro supply chain data just landed on the dark web. This week, John and Logan break down nine stories covering AI's reality check, ownership, cybersecurity, and one of the biggest Apple leaks in years. Stories in this episode: Bryan Johnson diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis. The Braintree founder who has spent millions annually on Project Blueprint just revealed a chronic autoimmune diagnosis. The irony writes itself, but the more interesting takeaway is that his obsessive biomarker tracking is likely why it was caught early. Ford un-hires its AI. After investing heavily in AI-powered quality systems, Ford discovered the AI could not match the judgment of veteran engineers. So they brought more than 350 experts back to teach it. Ford recently topped the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study for the first time in 16 years. The lesson is not that AI failed. It is that AI needed teachers. Sony kills physical PlayStation games. Starting January 2028, all new PlayStation games will be digital-only. This is not really about disc production. It is about ownership. Physical media was a check against centralized control. If someone else can revoke it, you probably do not own it. Apple's supply chain gets leaked. A ransomware group calling itself World Leaks breached Tata Electronics and published more than 630GB and 200,000 files, including iPhone 18 Pro engineering details, supplier lists, and internal manufacturing information. Apple's legendary secrecy may no longer be possible in a distributed manufacturing world. Plus the EU's new digital ID and age verification system rolling out by end of 2026, Meta reportedly building a Kalshi competitor called Arena to sidestep prediction market regulation, an unpatched Hide My Email vulnerability that has been sitting with Apple for over a year, another 4,800 Microsoft layoffs with Xbox taking the biggest hit, and Anthropic bringing Claude Fable 5 back with a safety classifier that quietly reroutes flagged prompts to Opus 4.8. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  3. Jul 6

    AI Just Made Apple More Expensive, RAM Makers Sued, Best Buy's $147K TV, T-Mobile Sells Out

    Apple products are about to get more expensive and Apple is pointing at AI as the reason, Samsung and SK hynix and Micron are being sued for allegedly restricting consumer RAM supply, Best Buy accidentally listed a $149,999 TV for $2,999, and T-Mobile is quietly walking away from the Un-carrier identity that built the company. This week, John and Logan break down eight stories covering AI's real cost, wireless plan chaos, gaming stats gone wrong, and Apple's chip roadmap. Stories in this episode: AI just made Apple more expensive. Consumer DRAM and NAND prices have climbed sharply as hyperscalers hoover up memory supply to feed AI training and inference. Apple has warned that upcoming devices will see price increases tied directly to memory costs. AI infrastructure is now hitting consumer wallets, not just enterprise budgets. RAM makers accused of restricting supply. A new class-action lawsuit alleges Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron have intentionally restricted DDR5 and consumer memory supply to prioritize higher-margin AI and datacenter customers. Whether that holds up in court is another question, but the pricing pattern is real. Best Buy's $147K TV mistake. A Samsung 114-inch MicroLED TV normally priced at $149,999 briefly appeared on Best Buy's website for $2,999. Screenshots spread everywhere. Best Buy caught it, canceled the orders, and issued modest gift cards. Classic pricing error, but the reactions online show how far people will go to argue that a listed price should be honored. T-Mobile drops the Un-carrier identity. The company that built its brand by mocking contracts, junk fees, and forced upgrades is now doing what the other carriers do: migrating customers off legacy plans, raising prices, and rolling out financing structures identical to AT&T and Verizon. The disruptor became the incumbent. Plus the FCC rethinking E-Rate funding for schools, Europe's cultural resistance to air conditioning meeting a hotter climate, the internet completely mangling PlayStation vs Xbox GTA 6 pre-order stats, and the rumor that Apple will skip the M6 Pro, Max, and Ultra tiers entirely to jump straight to M7. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  4. Jun 29

    Unpatchable iPhone Exploit, CD Pirate Convicted in 2026, AirPods Hacked Open, Verizon Shakeup

    Researchers say they have found an iPhone exploit Apple cannot patch, a man in the UK was just criminally convicted in 2026 for burning and selling pirated CDs, and a high school student in India just cracked open Apple's AirPods walled garden. This week, John and Logan break down ten stories covering AI, Apple, healthcare breaches, wireless plans, and one genuinely bizarre medical study. Stories in this episode: Unpatchable iPhone exploit. Researchers disclosed a boot-level vulnerability affecting Apple's A12 and A13 chips inside the iPhone XS, XR, and the entire iPhone 11 lineup. Because the flaw lives in code burned into the chip at the factory, Apple cannot push a fix. The exploit could open the door to new jailbreaks on hardware many believed had become unjailbreakable. CD pirate convicted in 2026. A 47-year-old UK DJ was criminally convicted for selling burned pirated CDs over five years, generating more than £220,000 through eBay and Facebook. Not torrents. Physical CDs. In 2026. The judge called it "hypocrisy of the highest order." LibrePods cracks AirPods open. An open-source project just reverse-engineered Apple's AirPods protocols to bring noise cancellation, transparency mode, adaptive audio, and ear detection to Android and Linux. Built by a high school student in India. Proof that most of Apple's lock-in is software, not hardware. Verizon blows up its lineup. The new Simplicity plans drop the 36-month financing trap, simplify pricing, and add annual upgrades. The catch: the old plans still exist, multiline families may save more on the old structure, and the headline $30 price is mostly a switcher promotion. Plus the alleged 8.8TB Amazon One Medical breach attributed to ShinyHunters, Sakana AI's evolutionary approach to building models instead of bigger ones, AMD restoring a memory encryption security feature after community pushback, Apple's new Hide My Email domain that may make the feature easier to block, a retrospective study claiming 96% remission of tick-borne red meat allergy after ear acupuncture, and new Jon Prosser renders of what may be Apple's first foldable iPhone. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  5. Jun 22

    White House Shut Down Claude, Anthropic Sued, Fox Buys Roku for $22B, UK Bans Teen Socials

    The White House just forced Anthropic to shut down Claude Fable 5 less than a week after launch, and the fingerprints on that decision lead straight back to Amazon. This week, John and Logan break down the wild 48-hour Fable 5 shutdown, the new class-action lawsuit hitting Anthropic over Claude Max usage limits, Fox's $22 billion acquisition of Roku, and the UK's aggressive new ban on social media for anyone under 16. Stories in this episode: The Fable 5 shutdown. Anthropic launched Fable 5 on June 9 as the first publicly available Mythos-class model. Less than a week later, the U.S. government raised national security concerns and Anthropic disabled access entirely. The twist: Amazon (Anthropic's biggest investor at $8 billion) reportedly jailbroke the model, Andy Jassy personally called the White House on Thursday night, and the model was offline by Friday evening. Amazon sells competing AI models. None of them were affected. Anthropic sued over Claude Max usage limits. A new class-action lawsuit alleges Anthropic misled customers about usage available under the $100 and $200 Max plans. This is AI's "unlimited data plan" moment, where tokens, dynamic rate limits, and rolling usage windows are now landing in court. Fox buys Roku for $22 billion. Fox already owns Fox News, Fox Sports, and Tubi. Now it adds Roku's operating system, ad platform, and a direct relationship with over 100 million streaming households. This is Fox buying the front door to millions of living rooms. The UK bans social media for anyone under 16. TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, X, and YouTube are all expected to be covered. Enforcement proposals include facial age estimation and digital identity systems overseen by Ofcom. The UK is also looking at restrictions on AI companion chatbots for minors. Plus Satya Nadella's essay on Human Capital vs Token Capital and why the AI model itself may not be where the long-term value lives, and the "Atomic Arch" supply chain attack that compromised over 400 packages in the Arch User Repository through abandoned maintainer accounts. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  6. Jun 15

    Siri Runs on Gemini Now, Hackers Got Zuck's Instagram, UniFi 10/10 Exploit, Linux in Windows

    Apple's new Siri is quietly powered by Google's Gemini, hackers took over Mark Zuckerberg's Instagram by simply asking Meta's AI, and Microsoft just shipped native Linux commands directly into Windows. This week, John and Logan break down WWDC 2026, the critical UniFi exploit IT teams need to patch immediately, the AI customer support failure that gave away 20,000 Instagram accounts, and the historical shift in how Windows treats Linux. Stories in this episode: WWDC 2026 and Apple's AI pivot. After years of being behind in AI, Apple finally showed its hand. Siri was completely rebuilt, but the surprise is what's powering it: Google's Gemini models running under the Apple Intelligence umbrella. Plus macOS Golden Gate drops Intel support, new AI photo tools, expanded parental controls, and the strangest part of all, no new hardware announcements. UniFi unauthenticated root exploit. Bishop Fox disclosed three chained vulnerabilities (all CVSS 10.0) that allow attackers to get full root on UniFi OS Server with no credentials. Roughly 100,000 UniFi endpoints were exposed to the internet at disclosure. If you run UniFi, this goes to the top of the patching list today. Hackers got 20,000 Instagrams by asking Meta's AI. Attackers exploited Meta's AI-powered High Touch Support tool to add attacker-controlled email addresses to accounts and trigger password resets. Compromised accounts included the former Obama White House, Sephora, a U.S. Space Force official, and Mark Zuckerberg himself. This is not a story about Instagram. It is about AI being given authority before anyone figured out how to secure it. Microsoft ships Linux commands in Windows. Microsoft officially released Coreutils for Windows, bringing ls, cp, grep, find, and other Linux tools natively to Windows. No WSL or Cygwin required. Twenty-five years after Ballmer called Linux "a cancer," Microsoft is actively trying to make Windows the best platform for Linux developers. Plus Google Photos Wardrobe, a new AI feature that scans your photo library, builds a digital closet, and generates virtual try-on images of you wearing different outfit combinations. Useful for some, unsettling for others, and another step toward AI making everyday decisions for you. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  7. Jun 8

    Microsoft's Hacker Returns, Starbucks AI Can't Count, Japan Regrows Teeth, Office 2019 Dies

    Microsoft's banned security researcher is back with a new project that allegedly bypasses BitLocker, Starbucks just retired an AI that could not reliably count syrup bottles, and Japan's tooth-regrowth drug is actually in human trials. This week, John and Logan break down eight stories shaping tech, AI, and cybersecurity right now. Stories in this episode: Nightmare-Eclipse returns with Bitskrieg. After six Windows zero-days and platform bans across GitHub and GitLab, the researcher is now teasing a project that allegedly breaks Secure Boot trust guarantees and bypasses BitLocker. The wild twist: other researchers have reportedly started sending vulnerabilities directly to Nightmare-Eclipse instead of going through Microsoft. Starbucks AI fails. The chain quietly retired an AI inventory system that used cameras, LIDAR, and computer vision to count milk and syrups. It mislabeled products and missed items entirely. Plus Flathub banning AI-generated submissions because the maintainers are buried in AI slop. Japan's tooth-regrowth drug. TRG-035 is in human trials at Kyoto University Hospital, with researchers targeting 2030 for general availability. The catch: the most immediate use case is for people born with missing teeth, not adults who lost them years ago. Microsoft kills Office 2019. Starting July 13, 2026, the suite goes read-only on Mac, iPad, and iPhone. A lot of small businesses and home users bought Office 2019 specifically to avoid the subscription model, and now they are being pushed to Microsoft 365. Plus a critical Windows Netlogon zero-click vulnerability being actively exploited, GitHub Copilot's new token-based billing burning through credits in hours, California exempting Linux from age verification requirements, and Dell undercutting Apple with a $699 XPS 13. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

  8. Jun 1

    Microsoft Cuts Off Claude Code, Pope's AI Warning, Hacker Microsoft Can't Stop, iPhone Ultra Leaks

    Microsoft just phased Claude Code out of internal developer use, the Pope dropped one of the most important AI documents of 2026, and a hacker GitHub banned is reportedly threatening Microsoft for the next Patch Tuesday. This week, John and Logan break down what's looking like an AI cold war inside Microsoft, the Vatican entering the AI policy debate, the security researcher Microsoft cannot contain, and the leaked cases that suggest the foldable iPhone Ultra is finally getting real. Stories in this episode: The AI cold war inside Microsoft. After investing billions in OpenAI, Microsoft's own developers reportedly preferred Anthropic's tools. Now the company is reasserting platform control through Copilot CLI. Plus Uber burning through its entire 2026 AI budget by April, and one consultant client accidentally spending $500 million in a single month after failing to set usage limits. Pope Leo XIV's AI encyclical. Magnifica Humanitas may become one of the defining philosophical documents of the AI era. The Vatican is not arguing AI is evil. It is asking what happens to humanity when machines start mediating nearly every part of human life, and comparing AI development to a modern Tower of Babel. The hacker Microsoft can't contain. Nightmare-Eclipse publicly released a series of weaponized Windows zero-days, got banned from GitHub on May 23rd, migrated to GitLab, and got banned there within days. The blog posts have turned emotional, with threats tied to the July 14th Patch Tuesday. This may be one of the first major AI era vulnerability conflicts. Apple's AI camera future. iOS 27 is reportedly baking AI-powered reframing, scene extension, and natural-language photo editing directly into Camera and Photos. Classic Apple Sherlock move that could wipe out an entire category of third-party camera apps overnight. The foldable iPhone Ultra leaks. Newly leaked accessory cases suggest a wider, tablet-like form factor, book-style design, MagSafe, and Touch ID instead of Face ID. Apple is arriving late on purpose, and the moment they enter foldables seriously, the whole category gets legitimized overnight. New episodes weekly. Follow Zero Downtime for cybersecurity, AI, privacy, infrastructure, and the tech stories that actually matter.

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About

Zero Downtime brings together tech, business, and the everyday experiences of running an IT company. John and Logan discuss what’s going on in their world, the questions people ask them most, and talk with other business owners and professionals in conversations that are real, relaxed, and worth your time.

Information

  • Creator
    John Hass
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    35
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Zero Downtime