Tech Stories

Issue #62

Hello Reader,

I wasted over an hour on Saturday evening trying to figure out why Office 365 was mysteriously dropping my newsletter emails when everything had worked fine since last year. Turns out the answer is related to AI - and it's frustrating. More on that later.

Today, I want to talk about how data centres are changing, protecting your data, and the limits of AI.

The data centre complexity crisis

Ask an industry insider ten years ago about what a data centre is, and chances are fair that you'll get a dismissive "it's just plumbing" practitioner who insists it's just four walls, cooling and electricity.

This changed as digitalisation took over the world. Before you knew it, data centres weren't just designed for reliable operations but had to be secured from physical threats, protected against cybersecurity threats, and run in a resource-efficient way.

Then AI and growing sustainability considerations entered the picture. Think new generation of high-density equipment for AI workloads, large-scale water reclamation, building renewable energy infrastructure, or experimenting with novel fuel. And that's just the start.

My point is this: data centres are getting more complex than before, and operators are scrambling for expertise they never knew they'd need. Anyone still calling it 'just plumbing' today is clearly out of their depth.

Your laptop's dirty secret

Did you know: You can remove the storage drives of PCs and most laptops to make a copy of the data?

So yes, a stolen or misplaced laptop could have its data extracted in short order. Even an unattended laptop left in a hotel room could have its storage drive cloned by a hotel employee with malicious intent and the right tools.

That's why business laptops like the Lenovo X1 Carbon have an anti-temper switch on the motherboard that triggers when the bottom chassis is removed. Or more commonly, enterprises turn to encryption like Windows' built-in BitLocker to encrypt the entire storage drive.

Of course, this assumes that BitLocker-protected drives are inaccessible without the password. But what if there's a vulnerability in the implementation that lets hackers get to the decrypted data? Or as reader Serge pointed out when he DM'ed me a YouTube video, there are other ways to break in.

Is it true? Does BitLocker have more holes than Swiss cheese?

Of course, when it comes time to decommission it, the only way to ensure your data is gone for good is to... physically destroy the storage drive (vide0). If you live in Singapore, I once spoke with Donald Wee of Data Terminator who specialises in that.

At the limits of AI

It increasingly looks like GPT-5 is partly a cost-cutting exercise for OpenAI. The approach? A router model that acts as a "load balancer," directing queries to either lightweight or heavyweight LLMs based on complexity. This lets OpenAI optimize for cost by default.

The evidence? The dramatically lower cost of the GPT-5 API and the abrupt removal of all other models from ChatGPT. GPT-4o access has since been restored, but the picture is clear.

Which brings me to the real question: While GPT-5 undoubtedly shows improvements, are we witnessing a slowdown in AI advancement or reached a tipping point cost-wise? Have we hit the ceiling - meaning some of us might actually keep our jobs through the decade?

Switching things around

Finally, as promised, here's what's happening with Office 365. Despite setting up all email authentication protocols properly for my techstoryteller.co domain, changes at Microsoft mean those of you on Office 365 won't see this newsletter.

The culprit? Office 365's ML-based spam filtering has apparently decided my email address is suspect - likely because I send through Kit.com's infrastructure. My options are all bad: use another domain (which might get blocked too), pay SG$250 monthly for a dedicated IP address (no guarantee it works), or migrate to an expensive email provider (massive time and cost).

I've always kept things lean cost and timewise to keep my content creation sustainable. There's no simple solution here.

So I'm switching things around. For maximum reach, my editor's note will now appear on both Clearly Tech and LinkedIn alongside the newsletter. This way, more readers can access what I write regardless of their email provider's whims. What do you think?

You have a great Sunday ahead!

Regards,
Paul Mah.

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