Welcome to today’s edition of the Spiceworks Snap!

It’s your daily dose of security and tech news, in brief, along with a mix of other odd or interesting things that might come up. We’re glad you came.
Now, let’s jump right in…

Image by Suzanne from Spiceworks (AI-generated)


Flashback: 1994: Geek Squad was founded. (Read more HERE.)


Security News:

• Microsoft shares temp fix for Outlook crashes when opening emails (Read more HERE.)

• Fake RTX 4090s Keep Showing Up in Repair Shops With Entirely Different GPU chips (Read more HERE.)

• Anubis Ransomware Encrypts and Wipes Files, Making Recovery Impossible Even After Payment (Read more HERE.)

• Microsoft Warns of DHCP Problems After June 2025 Windows Server Update (Read more HERE.)


Something Spacy

FAA May Start Charging Rocket Companies for Launching

According to ExtremeTech:

"The Federal Aviation Administration may start charging rocket companies for every launch as part of their launch and re-entry licenses, if a recent budget reconciliation bill passes later this year. The idea behind it is to improve the revenue-generating capabilities of the FAA, in what is becoming a much busier and potentially lucrative space launch industry.

The FAA needs to approve commercial launch and re-entry operations, and that means checking over the companies that apply for it. That endeavour has grown more costly over the years, and with the number of launch requests seeing explosive growth, the FAA’s $42 million for its Office of Commercial Space Transportation is seen as far from enough for it to continue to function effectively. . . .

The proposal . . . is to allow the FAA to start charging launch vehicle operators for sharing the skies with commercial aircraft. It would be a fee for each pound of payload mass the rockets were launching, starting with 25 cents per pound in 2026, and rising to $1.50 per pound by 2033. At that point, the fee would rise with inflation, allowing the FAA to seemingly keep pace with future launch cadences.

However, to prevent this from stifling innovation of particularly large rockets, the fees would reportedly be capped at $30,000 per launch starting next year, rising to a $200,000 cap in 2033."

Learn more HERE.


Something Odd

Couple uses AirTag to locate and take back their stolen Jaguar

According to BGR (Boy Genius Report):

"In something of a remarkable story, a couple in England recently used an AirTag to help locate and retrieve their stolen car. Originally brought to light by the BBC, the report relays that Mia Forbes Pirie and Mark Simpson noticed that their Jaguar had been stolen.

Recognizing that they had an AirTag in the car, the couple leveraged Apple’s somewhat inconspicuous tracking device and decided to track down the Jaguar themselves. Embarking on what could have potentially been an ill-advised or dangerous escapade, the couple at the very least did make a point to relay their plan to local police officials. . . .

Pirie said . . . “my fear was that we would find the AirTag and not the car when it was discarded on to the street without the car, so I told them that we were planning to head to the location.”

Upon tracking their car down, they found it parked on a quiet street and were able to reclaim it. The fact that the couple managed to retrieve their car is something of an anomaly. The report notes that most cases involving stolen cars in the UK go unsolved."

Learn more HERE.


Something Interesting

Genetics Startup Advertises App-Based Eugenics Service for Parents to Select “Smartest” Embryos

According to Futurism:

"A[n] . . . entrepreneur and apparent eugenics enthusiast has launched an app that allows prospective parents to rank which embryos they want the most. . . . This new, subscription-based platform hails from Nucleus Genomics, a startup founded by 25-year-old Kian Sadeghi who likens potential backlash against his “genetic optimization” service to the fears surrounding in-vitro fertilization (IVF) just a few decades ago. . . .

Along with its standard $500 saliva send-in test box that tests for hundreds of heritable diseases . . . the . . . company maintains that for $6,000, parents can select their favorites from up to 20 embryos based on everything from how smart the future child may be to how they might look. Unsurprisingly, that alleged phenotypic selection has drawn harsh criticism. . . .

This isn’t the first time Sadeghi — who has also advertised his own singlehood when announcing his company’s new genetic-matching dating app — has been roundly denounced for attempting to sell eugenicist fantasies.

As TechCrunch notes, the startup was accused last year of peddling “bad science as big business” by genetic data scholar Ben Williamson when it launched Nucleus IQ, a service that could allegedly tell parents how their genes would affect their future children’s intelligence.

Though Sadeghi insisted that such intelligence predictions were “not snake oil [but] a starting point,” experts called bull — and as genetic statistician Sasha Gustev noted, the youthful startup founder hasn’t done much to explain whether the product actually works."

Gattaca, anyone?

Learn more HERE.


Did You Know?

Purple streetlights aren’t a new fad, but rather ther result of LED silicone phosphor degradation.

(Read more HERE.)


What was the most interesting story today? Vote in our poll below.

  • Flashback 1994: Geek Squad was founded
  • Microsoft shares temp fix for Outlook crashes when opening emails
  • Fake RTX 4090s Showing Up in Repair Shops With Different GPU chips
  • Anubis Ransomware Encrypts and Wipes, Making Recovery Impossible
  • Microsoft Warns of DHCP Problems After June Windows Server Update
  • FAA May Start Charging Rocket Companies for Launching
  • Couple uses AirTag to locate and take back their stolen Jaguar
  • Genetics Startup Advertises App-Based Eugenics
  • Did You Know? Purple streetlights aren’t a new fad.
  • None: leave suggestions below
0 voters

Missed a day? If so, check out previous editions of Snap! HERE.

31 Spice ups

It is kinda cool looking though…

9 Spice ups

13 Spice ups

I’ve said it before (but not here) and I’ll say it again (for the first time here, but likely not the last…) the government SHOULD NOT turn a profit on things they’re mandating…The FAA is not and should not ever become a for-profit industry, especially as long as it remains the sole responsibility of the federal government.

If this had been literally anywhere in America, the couple would have found the remains of the car, potentially gotten into a gun fight, probably been prosecuted for “interfering with an active investigation,” or possibly several other very negative outcomes involving bodily harm…but glad they’re unharmed! Any word on the final outcome of the car thief?

There is so much here that screams fraud…it’ll probably not be long before he/they are forced out of business…and good riddance! Not that the ability to choose what embryo takes (or at least setting up to be ‘next in line’) is inherently bad. If a couple who have had problems conceiving in the past were at their wits end this could really help, and even help prevent childhood fatalities in at-risk parents, etc. but the way this guy sells it is sick. And most likely is just vaporware at its worst…

13 Spice ups

It’s different, anyway! I’m glad there’s no purple LED’s in my corner lights though…

6 Spice ups

its nice when i’m driving, not beaming through my blinds at night ahah

7 Spice ups

I don’t have that problem, as my room is in the back of the house, not street-facing and the one window opens up to a wheat field (not mine) out back.

6 Spice ups

Grrr… I’ve already updated some of my servers. I will certainly need to keep an eye on this. No issues at this time.

I’m surprised that a Jaguar doesn’t have GPS built into it with an app to track it. No doubt modern thieves would soon learn how to disable it, but it’s a start. I have an app that tells me where my F150 is on a map.

9 Spice ups

It doesn’t say what year it is, but considering the owners wanted it back, it’s probably an older model…

11 Spice ups

That’s going to lead to bigger rockets like the Saturn V. EG, I can launch a single one-ton satellite on a small rocket at for a fee of $3000, or I can launch 120 one-ton satellites (Saturn V’s orbital payload) for $200k. Go big or go home! This will stifle innovation because it’s much cheaper to build and test rockets with 1-ton payloads than 100-ton payloads. But man those launches will be exciting!

The best part about this is no one can sue you when their kid is dumb. Your defense would be, “Man, if you think your kid is dumb now, let me tell how much dumber the other embryos would have been! Prove me wrong.”

6 Spice ups

I have only seen this at a very rural roundabout, and it was so nice! The lights didn’t disturb my night vision, but I was able to see what was going on in the intersection. I thought it was intentional.

In my neighborhood, though? Not good.

6 Spice ups

You would think so, and maybe that does happen but there’s tons of stories where law enforcement doesn’t feel like getting involved even when the exact location is provided. Damned if you do damned if you don’t.

9 Spice ups

Yeah, you would need a really, really large family from before you tried it in order to get enough information and proof… and I think they world record for human births is 69 births resulting from 27 pregnancies (obviously lots of multiple births). … So not worth the proof. :slight_smile:

Even if you really wanted a radically immense family and were going for the world record, and you had a lot of money and a lot of extra people to help raise the kids, you still wouldn’t want the trauma of the child standing trial for being the dumbest. :slight_smile:

5 Spice ups

And 90% of launches will move to another country that doesn’t have fees.

11 Spice ups

I read two articles on it. I don’t remember any mention of the thief. Just getting the car back, which was parked in an out of the way place, and having to prove to the company that they were the legal owners to be able to reset the code and get back into it.

5 Spice ups

Those are the times when the police are most likely to react negatively, especially if there is already a known distrust with the community they serve.

I would think this would have made it really easy to track them down. We had some tracking software on company property that…um, grew legs and walked off the facility. Our IT guy traced it back to a known former employee of the company’s apartment and gave all the info to the cops, who did nothing…even when our IT guy took pictures of the former employee carrying those same devices to his car, then to a pawnshop down the street…

6 Spice ups

I was made to watch GATTACA when I was in college and it was a fun movie to use as a thought experiment. It’s scarry to see that some of it’s becoming more of a science fact than fiction and kind of sad too. We just don’t really learn.

5 Spice ups

I keep thinking the same thing about Idiocracy…it was supposed to be a comedy/warning, not a blueprint!

10 Spice ups

Guessing this means Elon is still out of favor.

5 Spice ups

Give it a little more time…he’s only begun to grovel!

2 Spice ups