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What’s Happening On Earth?

🇨🇦 Blue Jays fans setting new records for data usage - Rogers Xfinity customers consumed 145,000 TB of data during Games 1, 2 and 3 – the equivalent of streaming a three-minute video of Jays’ third baseman and outfielder Addison Barger hitting a grand slam 1.28 billion times.

🇨🇦 Sportsnet+ experiences major streaming disruption during Game 4 of World Series - Rogers Sportsnet+ suffered major streaming issues Tuesday night during Game 4 of the World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.

My Take: 145,000 TB of data. Where did it all go? Forget AI driving traffic. Maybe that’s what took out Sportsnet’s stream. Is anything really reliable anymore?

🇨🇦 Rogers Xfinity Pro Brings Canadians an Elevated WiFi Experience - Rogers today announced that Rogers Xfinity is bringing next-generation WiFi to more Canadians with Rogers Xfinity Pro. Our most elevated WiFi experience, available as an optional add-on for all Rogers Xfinity Internet plans, includes an upgrade to our best-in-class WiFi 7-enabled gateway with device prioritization and WiFi back up with Storm Ready WiFi to keep customers connected through the unexpected.

My Take: I thought they announced this already. Anyway, there you go.

Nokia wins major deal to upgrade Zayo's IP network architecture - Fiber provider to deploy Nokia's high-performance routers across thousands of buildings

My Take: I would imagine there was a significant competitive battle for this one

Corning faces supply crunch from high optical demand - Optical business is booming for Corning, which saw enterprise sales in the segment jump 58% year-over-year in the third quarter. But the challenge lies in pumping up manufacturing to meet rising customer needs.

My Take: Corning is riding a big wave of demand from fibre and optical markets driven by AI and cloud infrastructure, but meeting that demand is proving hard, with supply constraints, cost pressures and manufacturing ramps all in play. Speaking of hollow core fiber, we should speak about hollow core fiber. 50% faster speed and 30% lower latency.

Fixed wireless access snags more than 11% of BEAD awards - “Over 45% of our members have some significant deployments of fiber,” he said. “So, the question isn't whether it's one technology over another, it's really how do you sensibly roll out technology to meet the needs of your community and afford to do it at the same time?”

My Take: The Majority still went to fiber. FWA in 2025 is not the same as FWA in 2020. Many great deployment examples.

Tech spending plans will test stock market's AI trade - Spending updates this week from U.S. megacap companies that are investing massively in artificial intelligence could jolt the AI trade that has been a primary driver of the record-breaking U.S. stocks rally.

My Take: The AI race isn’t just about innovation, it’s about investment timing. The companies spending fastest may lead, but they also shoulder the biggest risk if the payoff doesn’t hit. Big bets can bring big rewards, but also big question marks. #AIBubble.

Verizon's FWA biz loses more steam - Verizon added 261,000 FWA subs in Q3, down from a gain of 363,000 a year ago and 275,000 in the prior period. Those results come as AT&T and T-Mobile saw FWA subscriber additions accelerate.

Verizon adds 'Lite' plan to its FWA mix - Broadening the scope of its residential FWA product, Verizon has launched a new lower-speed 'Lite' plan that starts as low as $25 per month when paired with a three-year commitment and bundled with mobile.

My Take: One loses. One gains. Price remains a significant concern for consumers.

FCC's Gomez slams move to revise broadband labels as 'anti-consumer' - The FCC voted to launch a notice of proposed rulemaking to roll back some ISP requirements for consumer broadband labels. Commissioner Anna Gomez, voting no, called the notice 'one of the most anti-consumer items I have seen.'

My Take: Should the FCC’s goal be to help people make informed choices, and not to simplify rules at the expense of clarity?

🇨🇦 Beanfield looks to expand organically rather than through acquisitions, CEO says - Rizwan Jamal told The Wire Report in a lengthy interview that a slowdown in population growth and the construction of new homes makes the market challenging for companies. This is particularly true for the larger players, he believes.

My Take: Let’s see how that all plays out. The West is coming.

Questions swirl about the fate of unspent BEAD funds - When the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was passed in 2021, few considered the prospect that billions of dollars appropriated by Congress for broadband infrastructure could eventually remain unspent.

My Take: Does it have to be spent?

Broadband Reinvented: Inside the New Battle for Subscribers - The North American broadband and communications market continues to evolve as major ISPs adjust strategies to navigate shifting consumer demand, competition, and technology transitions

My Take: Nothing new. Internet service is becoming a crowded market, so providers have to offer more than just a connection. Many are bundling internet with streaming, mobile, or smart-home services to keep customers, while investing in faster fiber and wireless networks. Competition from new players and rising costs mean companies must balance price, quality, and access - making customer experience as important as speed. In some cases, cost is the experience.

The journey to a self-protecting network - As organizations push deeper into cloud, edge, and AI-driven environments, the complexity of managing connectivity and security is rising at a commensurate rate. Fragmented tools, manual processes, and rising cyber threats are stretching traditional network models to breaking point.

My Take: As cloud, edge and AI environments grow more complex, legacy network and security tools are losing effectiveness. What’s needed it a unified approach, one combining networking and security data to enable a self-healing and self-defending network.

China's 5G-for-drones and 6G appetite is the envy of Ericsson - Talk of a 6G race is ridiculed by some Western commentators, but China's operators are investing in 5G technologies that are unimaginable elsewhere.

My Take: Among many other issues, the article suggests Western regulators and operators may struggle to match China’s pace due to slower core network upgrades, spectrum constraints, regulatory barriers on drones/airspace and fragmented vendor environments.

EchoStar deal already delivering for AT&T - AT&T has started deploying EchoStar's 3.45GHz midband spectrum before their transaction is complete, while Boost Mobile is migrating customers onto its network.

My Take: 👍

🇨🇦 Bill aimed at protecting telecom infrastructure against cyberattacks strikes at privacy rights, say civil society groups - A federal bill that would give the industry minister the power to direct service providers “to do anything, or refrain from doing anything, that is necessary to secure the Canadian telecommunications system,” and would also create a framework to protect such systems “vital to national security or public safety” threatens privacy rights, warn civil liberties groups.

My Take: This is significant. Bill C-8 would give the federal industry minister sweeping authority to order telecom and other critical companies to take or stop actions in the name of cybersecurity. Critics say this could allow the government to secretly force providers to block services, install monitoring tools, or weaken encryption without public notice or court approval. They warn the bill lacks clear limits, independent oversight, or requirements to inform affected Canadians, creating a risk of government overreach and potential misuse. Supporters argue the powers are necessary to respond quickly to cyber threats, but opponents say such broad discretion will erode privacy rights and transparency in Canada’s digital governance.

Telecom GPU-as-a-Service: Beyond the hype (Analyst Angle) - Telecom operators globally are rushing to build GPU-as-a-Service (GPUaaS) platforms, promising to unlock the AI revolution. Their value proposition rests on two pillars: the low-latency of their edge networks and their status as trusted, sovereign entities.

My Take: Telecoms have the pieces to play in the AI infrastructure game, but only if they stop thinking like “network providers dabbling in compute” and start thinking like “trusted regional AI platforms”. 

Data Centres *new*

🇨🇦 Canada Emerges as Global Data Center Powerhouse - Canada has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure hubs, with its data center market expanding at unprecedented speed.

My Take: High build costs and grid constraints remain challenges.

🇨🇦 Cologix gains Calgary foothold in push for national interconnection coverage - Cologix, a hyperscale edge data center company, announced the acquisition of DataHiveOne, a leading network neutral data center services provider in Calgary, Alberta.

My Take: Cologix’s Calgary move turns its interconnection map into a true coast-to-coast network

China Dives in on the World’s First Wind-Powered Undersea Data Center - Powered entirely by wind energy, the initiative has a total power capacity of 24 megawatts. According to the Lin-gang management committee, its completion represents a key breakthrough in incorporating renewable energy into data storage, processing, and distribution.

My Take: Let’s see how this goes and what lessons are learned. The facility uses seawater cooling (instead of traditional air-conditioning) to reduce energy use for cooling to under 10 % of the total power draw. It also aims for a Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.15. More than 95 % of its electricity comes from offshore wind turbines. The plan calls for scaling the deployment up to 24 megawatts, with longer-term ambitions toward larger capacities. 24MW isn’t that much..

Data centers prompt $1T utility capex surge - “Investor-owned utilities in the U.S. have already invested more than $1.3 trillion in the past decade to enhance energy infrastructure,” Morningstar DBRS wrote in a note to investors. “Growth expenditures by these utilities are expected to exceed $1.1 trillion over the five-year period ending December 31, 2029.”

My Take:  If data-centres are the engines, utilities are the infrastructure beneath them, and that infrastructure is getting a make-over now. But the big question is this - who picks up the tab when the freight train of demand slows or shifts? Also, I wonder how different the overall markets are between the US and Canada?

Proposed transmission line for a Wisconsin data center meets public opposition - OpenAI, Oracle and Vantage Data Centers announced $15B investment into Port Washington data center campus Wednesday

Data Center Developer Takes a Small Michigan Farming Community to Court - The Saline Township Board voted earlier this month to settle a lawsuit in which development firm Related Digital and the landowners of the proposed construction site accused the township of exclusionary zoning, or of unfairly limiting what property owners can do and build on their land. This lawsuit, filed Sept. 12, came just two days after the board voted 4–1 against rezoning the site’s 575 acres of farmland for the company’s data center project. 

'Not a fan': Coweta announces proposal to bring in data center

My Take: Just a couple of articles about opposition. We all see the articles announcing the massive builds, but this, and the others presented, show another side.

🇨🇦 AI’s Secret: Power, Water, and Canada’s Data-Centre Boom - We tend to imagine “the cloud” as something weightless and invisible. In reality, the cloud is built on the ground in massive buildings filled with computers, powered by our grids, cooled by our lakes, and increasingly shaping how our infrastructure is planned.

My Take: We have all the raw ingredients and resources. We have to make sure we build smarter, not just bigger.

US gov't urges FERC to expedite data center grid connection reviews - Draft proposal would see the time it takes for reviews fall to 60 days

My Take: The push to fast-track large-load connections signals that data centres are now viewed as critical infrastructure, not just commercial build-outs. The real test will be whether the grid and its governance can keep pace without sacrificing reliability or shifting hidden costs to the rest of the system. Everyone, plug in your Tesla’s at the same time. Let’s see what happens.

Nvidia's BlueField-4: A first look at the DPU built to run AI factories - How the DPU became the 'hero announcement' of GTC and why software, not hardware cadence, drives the roadmap

My Take: Watch the NVIDIA video posted in the AI section. All will be clear.

Qualcomm (QCOM) Ignites AI Race with New Data-Center Chips - The AI200 is scheduled to ship in 2026, with the more powerful AI250 to follow in 2027. Qualcomm positioned the chips primarily for AI inference workloads, running trained models, rather than the heavy training tasks that currently favor Nvidia.

My Take: Qualcomm is shifting from mobile/consumer chips into the high-stakes server/AI infrastructure space. That diversification could reshape its competitive position.

Caterpillar to get profit boost from data center boom, UBS says - Heavy machinery manufacturers Caterpillar and Cummins will get a “meaningful” boost to earnings in the next three years as revenue nearly doubles from selling backup generators to help power U.S. data centers, according to UBS.

Celestica surges on Q3 results as data center demand shows no signs of slowing - "Driven by these strong results to date and a demand environment that continues to strengthen, we are pleased to increase our 2025 annual outlook," said Celestica CEO Rob Mionis.

My Take: Remember, the Data Centre ecosystem is huge and ripe for all sorts of investments.

🇨🇦 Alberta’s new tech mandate set to come to life as Red Deer County approves data centre - Minister says data centres needed, but some experts and residents have concerns

My Take: Everyone wants data centres, except the people who don’t.

Microsoft Azure is down, affecting 365, Xbox, Minecraft, and others - Microsoft Azure, the cloud computing service provided by the company, is experiencing a significant outage on Wednesday. The problems started around noon ET, and Microsoft has acknowledged the issue on the service’s status page.

My Take: Well, it was down. Companies need to stop putting their eggs in one cloud basket.

What it takes to build the infrastructure building AI today - Traditional approaches to data center construction have become outdated seemingly overnight, writes one construction VP.

My Take: higher demand for specialized infrastructure (e.g., power, cooling, GPU densities), shorter construction timelines, and a stronger focus on sustainability and flexibility.

What’s Happening In Space?

China’s is on Track to Beat the US to Extract Lunar Water - Officials from the Chinese National Space Agency confirmed this week that its Chang’e 7 spacecraft is expected to launch in August—putting it on track to beat US lunar water ice exploration missions by a significant margin.

My Take: Hearing and seeing a lot of headlines starting with “China is on track to beat the US”.. Why do we need lunar water? Well, let me check — It is crucial for long-term missions because it can be used by astronauts for drinking, and it can be broken down to create oxygen for breathing and hydrogen for fuel. Sourcing water on the Moon reduces the need to launch these heavy supplies from Earth, significantly cutting costs and complexity. 

The Challenges to Realizing Resilient and Reliable Non-Terrestrial Networks - Non-terrestrial networks (NTNs) are poised to play an increasingly vital role in next-generation networks, with applications in 5G and 6G, as well as mission-critical communications and defense. Comprising base stations aboard interconnected satellites, high-altitude platforms (HAPs), and uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), these networks can extend high-speed connectivity to remote, rural, and underserved areas, and to provide critical coverage during disasters.

My Take: NTNs aren’t just satellites that connect to the internet — they’re a whole new kind of network with their own rules. They have huge potential, but we’ll only see real benefits if we build them properly instead of treating them like an extra feature.

Analysis: Global conflicts push telcos to the frontlines of defence - As battlefields become increasingly digital, militaries and governments are rethinking the role of connectivity in conflict, drawing telcos and commercial satellite players into the defence arena.

My Take: Modern warfare is increasingly network-centric, relying on data, connectivity, unmanned systems across land, sea, air, space and cyber domains.  Governments are allocating larger shares of their defence budgets to secure satellite and 5G/6G networks. Connectivity isn’t just a service anymore, it’s a battlefield asset. Telcos that see themselves as passive carriers may soon be sidelined. The smart ones will treat infrastructure like a strategic weapon system, not just a network. Just don’t weaponize my bill.

🇨🇦 Kepler Welcomes Chris Hadfield to Support Human Spaceflight Initiatives - Kepler Communications, a company building Internet connectivity for space, today announced that astronaut, business leader and best-selling author Chris Hadfield has been appointed as a company advisor. In this role, Hadfield will help advance Kepler’s mission to deliver real-time, reliable communications to the human spaceflight industry.

My Take: A national treasure, and a nice guy. Congratulations to Kepler and Mr. Hadfield (who subscribes to this newsletter. At least he used to. )

Elon Musk, SpaceX mark Starlink anniversary. Satellites launch from California - Starlink, Elon Musk's satellite internet service, has now been operational for five years. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket helps deploy them from the Vandenberg Space Force Base.

My Take: Happy birthday, Starlink. You’e done wonderful connectivity things for the last 5 years. I was expecting some cake, or may be a cookie, but alas, nothing :(

Starlink Users: Here’s How to Update Software by Nov. 17 to Avoid Deactivation - SpaceX warns inactive Starlink dishes with outdated software will become inoperable without a required update.

My Take: I am one of these. Looks like I have to drag it out and plug it in. Also have that $3.96 standby plan that I can play with.

Elon Musk makes Starlink satellite internet free in regions hit by Hurricane Melissa - The purpose, as Starlink stated in a post on social media site X, which Elon Musk also owns, is to "help with response and recovery efforts."

My Take: Thank you, Elon.

Starlink tells the world it has over 150 sextillion IPv6 addresses - According to his analysis, in April 2022 Starlink’s geolocation file mentioned 592 /24 IPv4 blocks – each of which covers 256 IP addresses. As of July, Elon Musk’s space ISP had 1,379 /24s, plus hundreds of smaller blocks, and therefore over 350,000 IPv4 addresses to play with.

My Take: Because many IP ranges may not map neatly to physical locations (e.g., satellites moving, terminals mobile), it becomes harder to reliably link an IP to a specific region. This has implications for law-enforcement, cybersecurity and rights-holders.

🇨🇦 NordSpace Opens Advanced Manufacturing Lab to Accelerate Canadian Rocket Engine Development - NordSpace has announced the creation of its Advanced Manufacturing for Aerospace Lab (AMA Lab) in Ontario, supported by funding from the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI). The facility is intended to speed development of the company’s Hadfield orbital-class propulsion engine, which is scheduled for commercial deployment in 2026. The move strengthens Canada’s push toward sovereign launch capability as commercial providers prepare for domestic liftoff.

My Take: 🍁

🇨🇦 Canadian Spaceport Gets $7M For Orbital Launch - Maritime Launch Services ($MAXQ) will receive a senior credit facility for up to $10M CAD ($7.1M) from Canada’s government-owned export credit agency, for defense, telecommunications and weather-monitoring needs.

My Take: Most excellent that we could have two sovereign launch ports!

🇨🇦 BeWhere Holdings Inc. Successfully Connects IoT Device on AST SpaceMobile's Direct-to-Device Satellite Network - The test, conducted in New Brunswick Canada, marks a pivotal moment for global connectivity. A standard, off-the-shelf BeWhere LTE IoT tracking device successfully connected to and transmitted location and sensor data directly through an AST SpaceMobile BlueBird satellite, the largest commercial phase-array ever deployed in low Earth orbit. The signal was then seamlessly routed through Bell's terrestrial network, demonstrating the capability to provide ubiquitous, two-way connectivity for assets anywhere on the planet.

My Take: THis is really cool. When ordinary devices can link to space and back without custom terminals, the “remote” becomes just another location. I guess battery drain becomes an issue, but perhaps battery-operated devices aren’t the use case. Or maybe I’m wrooo… wroonnn.. incorrect.

SpaceNews : MTN carves out private networks for Starlink’s business users - Florida-based networking specialist MTN has launched a service that enables SpaceX’s Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites to operate as part of a privately secured communications system, giving businesses a way to link remote sites without using the public internet.

My Take: If I understand correctly, this functionality is readily available to multiple partners - PNI, or Private Network Interconnect. I don’t think it’s available in Canada, yet.

Starlink network speeds notch drastic 2025 increase both on download and uplink tests - The greatly increased pace of SpaceX satellite launches in 2025, coupled with software updates to improve beam formation and terrestrial station performance, have now born fruit. The Starlink network speeds have greatly increased this year.

My Take: As they should. Wait until all the Gen3 satellites are up and around. Latency is also down. I believe the multi-beam update has helped a lot of people with visibility impairment issues.. trees and all that.

They wanted to see Earth, but they captured Starlink instead, here’s the image we weren’t supposed to see. - A remarkable discovery on Google Earth has captured the attention of space enthusiasts worldwide. An internet user stumbled upon an extraordinary image showing a Starlink telecommunications satellite crossing directly in front of an Earth observation satellite while flying over Texas. This unprecedented photobomb reveals fascinating insights about our increasingly crowded orbital environment.

My Take: The view from space will continue to get messier. Or is it more messy?

Direct To Device

D2D: Next-Gen Satellite Devices Real-world, or Over-hyped? - there remains considerable uncertainty over D2D. Some D2D operators are working with telcos as partners, others are talking about going direct to the user, some are using MSS, others are tapping into the Supplemental Coverage from Space options. Others will concentrate on specific regions or services. Which might succeed? Potential end-users might see D2D as a very exciting time, but the satellite industry and would-be D2D operators need to get many ducks in a row and speedily, if they are to be successful. And that’s without mentioning which handset manufacturers will assist in the operator’s schemes.

My Take: It’s a rather convoluted space right now. Between spectrum, satellites, features, handsets, market timing, MNO partnerships, and the multiple operating countries, it’s challenging to keep track of everything.

Enabling AI

NVIDIA GTC - October 2025 Keynote

Nvidia wants 6G to be made in America - with Nokia's help -  If you thought Ericsson, Nokia or even Huawei would be driving the 6G train, think again. Nvidia has just come out of the gate with what it claimed is the first “all-American, AI-native wireless stack” for 6G. But it's hedging its bets with a huge investment in Finnish telecom vendor Nokia.

Nvidia takes $1 billion stake in Nokia, sending the 5G equipment maker’s shares up 22% - Nokia announced on Tuesday that Nvidia will purchase $1 billion in new Nokia shares.

My Take: Here’s a summary of what was announced. I encourage everyone to watch the entire video. I have no idea how long he prepped for this, but it’s very good. There are also some great embedded manufacturing videos in there. Anyway, here’s what I captured (BTW, if you’re not using Comet or Atlas yet, get on it..)

Telecommunications Goes AI-Native - NVIDIA introduced ARC (Accelerated RAN Co-Pilot). Instead of optimizing wireless networks from the core, ARC runs AI at the edge—“riding on the air.” It predicts interference, tunes radios, and manages power in real time. The RAN becomes intelligent, self-healing, and energy-aware.

As part of a $1 billion investment, Nokia will utilize ARC to develop AI-native 6G, integrating compute and connectivity at the edge.

Edge Cloud Becomes Core Infrastructure - Huang positioned edge data centers as the next wave of AI growth. Every cell tower and metro exchange becomes an AI micro-data cente. The impact isl ess backhaul, lower latency, and new classes of services, real-time video analytics, industrial automation, robotics, and digital twins. The edge is no longer an add-on; it’s part of the national AI grid.

Security Rebuilt for AI Factories - CrowdStrike and NVIDIA are embedding always-on AI agents across enterprise and edge systems. Built on Falcon + CUDA-X + NeMo, these agents detect and respond locally, before threats ever reach the core. Cyber defence becomes continuous, adaptive, and GPU-accelerated.

Quantum Computing Joins the Stack - NVIDIA announced QLink, a quantum-to-GPU interconnect. It connects quantum processors directly to classical AI accelerators for hybrid workloads. The goal is to make quantum useful sooner by linking it to the world’s most powerful classical systems.

America’s New AI Factories - The U.S. Department of Energy will build seven new AI supercomputers using NVIDIA’s Grace-Blackwell architecture. Each system will serve as an “AI factory”, training, simulating, and running national-scale models for science, energy, and defence.

The Grace-Blackwell NVL72 “Thinking Machine” - A fully integrated GPU+CPU system with shared memory, unified interconnects, and NVLink-connected trays. AI infrastructure has evolved from clusters to coherent machines, optimized as a single unit.

BlueField-4 and the Vera Rubin Platform - NVIDIA unveiled new data-center networking silicon (BlueField-4 DPUs and Vera Rubin compute trays). These extend accelerated computing into the network fabric, offloading security, storage, and data movement.
The net effect is that every packet, every process becomes AI-optimized.

AI Factories, Everywhere - Huang called for a distributed network of AI factories, national, regional, and edge. Each produces models, insights, and agents, much like physical factories produce goods. Every operator, enterprise, or government will run its own AI supply chain.

Nvidia becomes first public company worth $5 trillion - Investors are also likely stoked by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s comments on Tuesday that the company expects $500 billion in AI chip sales, and that it is building seven new supercomputers for the U.S. in areas like security, energy, and science that will require thousands of Nvidia GPUs.

My Take: Does Jensen have more than one jacket? I hope so. $5 trillion. I suppose it’s only worth whatever it’s worth on paper, for now.

AI Services: The Opportunity Telcos Can’t Afford to Miss - The AI-Native Telco Forum in Düsseldorf this week was a good event — and an encouraging sign that telcos are starting to get ready for the next huge shift in technology: AI.

My Take: When cloud computing took off, many telcos ended up as dumb pipes while hyperscalers captured platform and application value. Don’t make that mistake again. The article warns that AI could follow the same pattern. Specialized teams, partner ecosystems, updated OSS/BSS, governance, etc..

🇨🇦 Bell CEO says Canada must own AI to ensure nobody can ‘turn it off’ - Governments and businesses need to build and use domestic infrastructure to keep data secure and seize the economic opportunity of the technology, Mirko Bibic claims

My Take: “By using homegrown technology, Canadian firms can make practical and industrial use of the country’s technical and research capabilities, and help prepare domestic AI developers for export, according to Bibic.”

The right way for Canada to secure cloud sovereignty - True sovereignty lies in contracts, encryption and procurement rules, not in building costly new infrastructure that duplicates global systems.

My Take: Ah, it’s about “who holds the keys” to the data, not just where the data resides. Who can say “no” to foreign powers?

🇨🇦 New study shows Canadian businesses eager to adopt AI, data sovereignty a key concern - According to a new study commissioned by Bell and conducted by The Harris Poll into how Canadian senior business leaders are approaching Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption, data sovereignty is a non-negotiable requirement. With rising global and geopolitical pressures, nine in ten business leaders say it is more important than ever to keep sensitive data within Canada. Most plan to prioritize data sovereignty as their AI usage expands.

My Take: It always has been, but now it’s “more than ever”. Perhaps it signals a serious adoption of AI?

AI Is the Bubble to Burst Them All - AI may not simply be “a bubble,” or even an enormous bubble. It may be the ultimate bubble. What you might cook up in a lab if your aim was to engineer the Platonic ideal of a tech bubble. One bubble to burst them all. I’ll explain.

My Take: The article says today’s boom in AI looks a lot like a big tech bubble. There’s huge excitement and investment, but no clear answer on when or how AI will actually make money. Many startups aren’t earning much, new investors are rushing in, and everyone’s talking like AI will change everything. They compare this moment to past tech crazes like the dot-com boom that grew fast and then crashed hard.

Grokipedia.com is fully open source, so anyone can use it for anything at no cost - Grokipedia is a free online encyclopedia reportedly made by the AI model Grok, launched by Elon Musk's company xAI. It was created as a means to address the lack of a truly neutral encyclopedia in the internet as said by Musk because he believes that Wikipedia has a left-wing bias.

My Take: Enter “Grokpedia” into Grokpedia, and there is no result.

Introducing Agent HQ: Any agent, any way you work - At GitHub Universe, we’re announcing Agent HQ, GitHub’s vision for the next evolution of our platform. Agents shouldn’t be bolted on. They should work the way you already work. That’s why we’re making agents native to the GitHub flow.

My Take: For organizations, this means rethinking dev team structure. Humans + agents = hybrid workflows. Skills shift from writing code to supervising, validating, and managing agent output. Check the robots.

DeepSeek may have found a new way to improve AI’s ability to remember - Instead of using text tokens, the Chinese AI company is packing information into images.

My Take: “contexts optical compression” approach converts document text into images, encodes those images into a small number of “vision tokens,” then decodes them back into structured text. Makes perfect sense…. and used less GPU processing, so it says. Maybe it’s a path away from token-based restrictions?

TELUS and Indigenomics partner to advance Indigenous economic outcomes using sovereign AI - Recognizing the vital role of the Indigenous economy in Canada's prosperity, TELUS is providing Indigenomics with cutting-edge AI compute to develop culturally respectful AI solutions that will elevate Indigenous voices and promote economic reconciliation while keeping Indigenous data secure

My Take: An example of technology as a bridge, not a barrier.

Sora’s uncanny AI makes it difficult to distinguish real from fake - When I opened Sora, OpenAI’s new social-media app, the first video I saw was Queen Elizabeth II in a Costco explaining why she loves cheese puffs. Next was a South Park parody, featuring the Pepe the Frog meme ranting about Tylenol and babies. Later, a grainy TV clip of Martin Luther King Jr. delivering a version of his “I have a dream” speech, but about Sora’s content moderation policies.

My Take: Everyone needs to be a little more critical of the content they’re consuming.

This and That!

Would you get rid of daylight saving time? - The clocks in the U.S. will be "falling back" on Sunday, Nov. 2, marking the end of daylight saving time for 2025. If you could decide, would you abandon it forever?

My Take: Yes. Done. Let’s all just pick one and move on.

The Worst Thing About AI Is That People Can’t Shut Up About It - A plea from WIRED’s top boss: Say less.

My Take: The article argues that while AI has real uses, the bigger problem today is the nonstop hype and chatter around it. The real issue with AI isn’t whether it will take over jobs, it’s that we might talk ourselves into believing it already has.

Bill Gates softens ‘Climate Disaster’ approach, says strategy needs to shift: Interview - In a letter published Tuesday, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said too many resources are going toward climate change instead of issues like welfare and poverty.

My Take: no comment.

China, Russia use ‘asymmetric advantage,’ unleash sex warfare to seduce US tech execs, steal secrets: report - China and Russia have deployed attractive women to the United States to seduce unwitting Silicon Valley tech executives as part of a “sex warfare” operation aimed at stealing American technology secrets, according to a report.

My Take: The human is always the weakest link in the security chain. At least we know they’re not from Microsoft (see below)

Amazon announces cut of 14,000 corporate jobs to reduce bureaucracy and layers - The measure affects about 4% of the workforce estimated at 350,000 people in the administrative area. Beth Galetti, senior vice president of people experience and technology, announced the changes in an internal statement on Tuesday.

My Take: Thart’s a lot of people, but a rounding error in their oberall people pool. Another possible AI caualty.

“We will never build a sex robot,” says CEO of Microsoft AI - Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Microsoft AI, is trying to walk a fine line. On the one hand, he thinks that the industry is taking AI in a dangerous direction by building chatbots that present as human. On the other hand, Suleyman runs a product shop that must compete with those peers.

My Take: The headline was enough for me on this one. Whew! Maybe it’s just a pivot from novelty to responsibility 

China’s Noetix Debuts ‘Family-Friendly’ US $1,400 Humanoid Robot - Beijing-based startup Noetix Robotics has announced its latest offering: a compact, humanoid robot named “Bumi”, priced at 9,988 yuan (approximately US $1,402). Standing 94 cm tall and weighing 12 kg, Bumi is being positioned as a “family-friendly” robot that could bring humanoid technology out of research labs and into everyday living spaces. The move signals China’s increasing ambition to democratise humanoid robots by driving down costs and targeting the consumer market rather than purely industrial or commercial sectors.

My Take: the true test is whether families will find enough utility and trust the tech enough to use it long-term beyond novelty, or if it kills a cat or something.

Introducing Blue Jay and Project Eluna, Amazon’s latest robotics and AI technology for its operations - Designed with Amazon’s front-line employees in mind, these innovations reduce repetitive tasks, improve safety, and boost productivity—while speeding up delivery.

My Take: What are the robots that throw the packages at my door called?

Lab monkeys on the loose in Mississippi don't have herpes, university says. But are they dangerous? - Authorities have killed several lab monkeys that escaped from an overturned truck in Mississippi. The rhesus macaques were initially thought to be diseased and dangerous, but that's not necessarily the case.

My Take: This is the stuff of pandemics right there. Anyway, too bad they had to kill them, although maybe that’s better than what waited for them in the lab?

Infographic Of The Week

My Take: This is an estimated BoM for Optimus, a robot from the most vertically integrated Western robotics developer: Tesla. Morgan Stanley researchers peg Western humanoid costs, today, at $50,000-$60,000 a unit. This is trending in the right direction, down from $200,000+ just a few years ago, but Western robots are exquisitely priced relative to Asian counterparts.

Podcast Recommendation

On the latest Roadnight Taylor Connectologist® podcast hosted by Pete Aston, FarrPoint Principal Consultant Alan Pritchard shared his expertise and practical guidance for data centre developers and businesses navigating the complex challenges of connectivity, power, and site selection.

Listen Here!

Movie/Streaming Recommendation

IMDb: 7/10

JMDb: 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿/10 (..brooding intensity..)

"The Last Frontier" is an action-packed thriller that stands out for its tense, atmospheric setting and fast-paced storytelling. Set in Alaska’s remote wilderness, the show follows U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, played with brooding intensity by Jason Clarke, as he protects his town after a prison plane crash unleashes a rogues’ gallery of dangerous fugitives. The backdrop of snow and isolation creates a compelling sense of peril that fuels the manhunt and keeps you invested from episode to episode.

What really works is the show’s ability to balance explosive action with character drama. The opening episodes deliver suspense and emotion, while the ensemble cast, including Dominic Cooper and Alfre Woodard, adds depth and gravitas. The thrill of chasing escapees gives way to a more layered conspiracy, keeping things unpredictable. Yes, some of the plotting is over-the-top and occasionally bogged down by melodrama, but the creative set pieces - snowmobiles, helicopters, and shootouts - are genuinely exciting.​

Overall, "The Last Frontier" is gripping and enjoyable. Its best qualities are its atmosphere, strong leads, and willingness to deliver bold action in an unusual setting. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun and fresh for fans of thrillers and crime dramas.

By the way, for those of you who are fans of “The Mayor of Kingstown”, season 4 started last weekend. 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

A Word From Our Partner

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