The Overlogix Sunday Times #14
USA Edition
Contents
Sources and new landing page
Job Market News
· The white-collar job recession
· In the News
Technology News
· General Technology News
· Artificial Intelligence News
· Classical (Non-AI) Automation News
Overlogix: Recent Articles
· Upcoming
· Published
· Evergreen Articles
Footnotes
· Your help is welcome!
· LinkedIn
· Substack
Sources and new landing page
As of last Sunday’s edition, (23 March 2025), we concentrated our listing of news sources at our special edition: The Overlogix Sunday Times, Special Edition: Switzerland and USA Regional Editions. The new home for The Overlogix Sunday Times is now online. Subscribers are invited to bookmark this page as an ongoing landing page; new editions will be posted there immediately after publishing. These changes will keep the newsletters shorter.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Job Market News
Overlogix: We tend to pay little attention to job market forecasts, since they are often wrong and there are so many incentives to skew the numbers for business and / or political reasons. However, readers are interested, and so we’ll provide a few, heavily curated stories on the topic.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
The white-collar job recession
We seem to be in a white-collar job recession (more likely, an outright depression), which has picked up steam in the last year or so. The articles below tell some of the story; the rest can be attributed to promiscuous over-hiring on the part of large tech firms during the pandemic and its aftermath, the direct cause of much of the reductions in force, and the C-suite’s unholy fascination with artificial intelligence.
We’ll research and publish an in-depth article a bit later in the spring about just how much replacement of workers can be expected from the development of AI; intuition and direct experience tells us the real answer is not much. The situation with AI hasn’t changed much in the last year, and in our judgement, AI simply cannot write complex software yet.
Manufacturing robots and some specialized narrow-AI-enhanced analysis tools have made incremental differences, particularly in medical diagnostics, but software development itself has seen little to no replacement in any practical sense. Current AIs have too small of a context window, and training that is insufficiently curated and dense, to have much of any impact on software production.
Our observation, repeatedly validated, is that software quality has never been so low, and software vulnerability to hacking attacks never so high. Given the truly gargantuan number and severity of data breaches, the economic value of software continues to deteriorate.
Each breach requires expensive and reputation-damaging investigation; when software vulnerabilities are identified as the culprit, a very common finding, the incentive to continue to roll out new software installations fades away, leaving executives scrambling to either find scapegoats or move to new companies. The liability costs to the companies of a single serious breach are very high.
We anticipate, at some time in the next two years, a turnaround in the software development market, when it becomes clear to C-suiters that AI isn’t going to allow them to cut their head counts as promised, and they realize, belatedly, that the quality and security of their software tools isn’t very good, and matters a great deal. We’ll suppress our “I told ya so!’s” and simply jack up our prices.
That being said, a two-to-three-year gap in hiring will do two terrible things to the software development workforce: first, workers who had to go elsewhere for a paycheck may not be too interested in returning, and having to reboot their fragile skill sets; second, the downturn in the job market will have a chilling effect on young people entering into professional schools. Why prepare for a career when there are no jobs?
The AI bubble is showing early signs of collapse. Recent AI rollouts by all of the magnificent seven have been perceived as merely enhancements to their previous products, and there has been no giant leaps in capability. AIs still hallucinate and are still unreliable. These companies, intoxicated by the notion of artificial general intelligence (AGI), are still losing money on a mega-industrial scale.
We are guessing that software startups established since late 2023 will be mature just about the time the “trough of despair” subsides and industry growth picks back up. It is to be hoped that a large fraction of the incredibly lousy cohort of management now driving the industry into the ground will have moved on or retired by then. Good riddance to bad garbage!
The combination of the foolhardy quest for AGI by AI producers and the short-sighted vision of their customer C-suiters, seeking to replace workers with machines before they are ready to do so, will crash the industry, and in the not-to-distant future. Software developers who manage to hang on past the crash and maintain their skill sets will experience a boom and high earnings in the post-crash aftermath period. We are counting on it and plan to take it to the bank.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
In the News
Over 4 million Gen Zers are jobless—and experts blame colleges for ‘worthless degrees’ and a system of broken promises for the rising number NEETs’ “Over 4 million Gen Zers are not in school or work in the U.S. and in the U.K. 100,000 young people joined the NEETs cohort. But it’s not generational laziness that’s to blame. Experts are taking swipes at ‘worthless degrees’ and a system that ‘is failing to deliver on its implicit promise.’”
Overlogix: There are a small number of degree plans that can reliably pay back the investment in a college degree. This is left as homework for the prospective student. Hint: take a ten-year history of average work histories and salary after college, make graphs, do the math. Include number and duration of layoffs, since it matters a great deal to the calculations. Borrowing money for a high-priced degree is very rarely worth it. Student loans are a life-long economic trap.
The psychological toll of the white-collar recession in 2025 10.03.2025 “A white-collar recession isn’t the sort of economic collapse we’re used to from time to time. It’s a deep cut on high-skilled, high-earning roles. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) suggests 248,000 jobs have been cut since May 2024, leaving a 17-month decline unseen outside previous recessions like 2008. The current white-collar recession sits at 4.2%, up from 3.1% a year ago, while blue-collar sectors such as manufacturing hold steady at 3.7%.”
The “White-Collar Recession” Hiding in a Red-Hot Job Market 05.03.2025 This well-researched article spells out what we have noticed ourselves: the trades (read: blue-collar workers) are doing great, while office workers (white-collar workers) are experiencing a very serious downturn. One detail this author missed, and we have highlighted, is the IRS Section 174 legislative glitch, which appears to harm private research, quite arbitrarily. That glitch doesn’t get enough press, and is literally enough to warrant recycling Congress for the next several elections. Seriously: let Congress feel the bite of unemployment, too. Make a habit out of it!
The White-Collar Recession of 2025: AI and the Great Professional Displacement 28.02.2025 “We have moved beyond what we have labeled the Quiet Erosion, a period when AI incrementally absorbed routine tasks without dramatic layoffs. Today, the erosion is neither quiet nor gradual. We’re in a new phase—one characterized by what we’ve referred to as the Super-Exponential Effect, where AI-driven efficiency improvements compound rapidly, accelerating job displacement at unprecedented speed.”
The ‘white-collar’ recession is pummelling office workers, but the end might be near 17.02.2025 We are very skeptical about the “end might be near” part, since fired or laid-off government employees are helping to flood the white-collar market. Upshot: the white-collar job market is currently in the toilet, unlikely to recover this year. Desperate job hunters are advised to grab any employment they can get on a survival basis, until they can upskill / pivot elsewhere. This is regardless of skill level or experience; the market is just plain bad, and no one is considering hiring expensive experts for anything right now.
The White-Collar Recession: What It Is - and How to Win in It 13.02.2025 “According to this Forbes article, the labor market is experiencing a massive shift, and the white-collar recession is here. It’s happening quietly and without the “newsworthy” dramatic factory shutdowns and mass unemployment of past recessions. Instead, it’s a slow burn: Companies are tightening budgets, slashing middle management, and replacing high-paid professionals with automation or offshore talent.”
A Tumultuous Year Behind: A Challenging, Important 2025 22.12.2025 “Why is this happening? The ‘hopes for AI’ have already created a “white collar” job slowdown. A major study in Bloomberg just showed that the top 84 companies in the US reduced white collar headcount by 127,418 people last year. (And more than a quarter of these were black, so the new “anti-DEI” movement is directly impacting black workers.)”
Understanding the White-Collar Recession: What It Means for Professionals in 2024 10.10.2024 “There is an ongoing trend taking place among white-collar professionals at the moment: white-collar recession. Recessions typically affect blue-collar workers, but white-collar recession affects professionals in middle and high-management roles, primarily prominent in tech, finance and management roles. It's a noticeable trend happening in big tech companies at the moment, corroborated by the fact that 500 companies have announced layoffs and some form of restructuring since early 2024, according to Intellizence.”
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Technology News
Back to Contents · Back to Top
General Technology News
Loose App Links to Security Lapse: Consequential Mistake? 26.03.2025 “WWII's brilliant rhyme warned that loose talk in a New York bar could tell Nazi spies where to position U-boats to intercept convoys. My update repeats warnings everyone using a cellphone or email should already know: someone or some device can be monitoring your communications.”
Organic molecules of unprecedented size discovered on Mars 24.03.2025 “Scientists analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA's Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the red planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests prebiotic chemistry may have advanced further on Mars than previously observed.
Scientists probed an existing rock sample inside Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) mini-lab and found the molecules decane, undecane, and dodecane. These compounds, which are made up of 10, 11, and 12 carbons, respectively, are thought to be the fragments of fatty acids that were preserved in the sample. Fatty acids are among the organic molecules that on Earth are chemical building blocks of life.”
Overlogix: (Recovering chemist) This is interesting, indeed, and might well signal living beings once populated Mars. Life isn’t the only possible source of organic molecules, but this is another bit of evidence that there might have once been life on Mars.
Accenture is DOGE’s first corporate casualty as shares dive on warning that contracts will be cut 20.03.2025
“Shares of Accenture tumbled about 7.3% after the consulting firm said efforts to tighten federal spending are starting to weigh on its revenues.
Accenture is among the first of the U.S. corporate giants to get hit by the Trump administration’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
“As you know, the new administration has a clear goal to run the federal government more efficiently,” Accenture CEO Julie Spellman Sweet said on an earnings call. “During this process, many new procurement actions have slowed, which is negatively impacting our sales and revenue.”
USB-C cable CT scan reveals sinister active electronics — O.MG pen testing cable contains a hidden antenna and another die embedded in the microcontroller 05.12.2024 “Industrial CT scanner manufacturer Lumafield imaged an O.MG USB-C cable, and found sophisticated electronic components secreted within the connector.
Lumafield product lead Jon Bruner shared on X (formerly Twitter) a CT scan that revealed the interior of the O.MG cable, showing advanced electronics and an antenna — a much more complicated design than the Amazon Basic USB-C cable that Lumafield scanned for comparison. Security researcher Mike Grover created this penetration-testing cable for fellow security researchers and hobbyists, red teamers, and for awareness training, especially for highly vulnerable or targeted individuals.”
Overlogix: Unfortunately, we’re all going to be forced to read multiple articles and reviews about every piece of equipment we buy going forward, to prevent data leakage or outright espionage. This behavior will stop only after heavy fines have been levied, and prosecutions pursued, including jail terms for culpable executives. In our opinion, this is just plain rotten commercial behavior, and should be punishable under existing law.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Artificial Intelligence News
The following four stories are likely the most important AI news of the last three weeks. Musk will be using a subset of the tweets posted to X to train his AI models.
We take this opportunity to remind Internet users that everything they say on the Internet, whether by typing, talking, emailing, etc., should be viewed as publicly available information. Included in this category are “end-to-end encrypted” apps like WhatsApp.
That which is encrypted can be decrypted. Anything can be leaked. If you want secrecy and privacy for a communication, don’t let it touch the Internet in any form. Write a letter instead, or make a (non-VOIP) phone call.
xAI buys X 29.03.2025 “Elon Musk just pulled off a bold move in tech space: His AI venture, xAI, just acquired X (formerly Twitter) in an all-stock deal valuing xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, including $12 billion in debt.”
Elon Musk says xAI has acquired X in deal that values social media site at $33 billion 28.03.2025
· “Elon Musk said on Friday that he’s combining two of his companies, xAI and X, into a single entity.
· In a post on X, Musk said xAI is the acquirer, valued at $80 billion in the deal, while X is valued at $30 billion.
· Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, and later changed the name to X.”
Musk's xAI buys his social media platform X 29.02.2025 “XAI has used data from social media posts on X to train its models, and its chatbot Grok is a prominent feature on the platform.”
Elon Musk says xAI acquired X 29.03.2025 “xAI has largely been successful in its mad dash to catch up with OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic. In February, the startup released Grok 3, a frontier AI model that’s competitive with the industry’s leading AI models on benchmarks measuring math, science, and coding.”
OpenAI pulls free GPT-4o image generator after one day 27.03.2025 “OpenAI has pulled its upgraded image generation feature, powered by the advanced GPT-4o reasoning model, from the free tier of ChatGPT.
The decision comes just a day after the update was launched, following an unforeseen surge in users creating images in the distinctive style of renowned Japanese animation house, Studio Ghibli.
The update, which promised to deliver enhanced realism in both AI-generated images and text, was intended to showcase the capabilities of GPT-4o.”
Gemini 2.5: Google cooks up its ‘most intelligent’ AI model to date 26.03.2025 “Gemini 2.5 is being hailed by Google DeepMind as its “most intelligent AI model” to date.
The first model from this latest generation is an experimental version of Gemini 2.5 Pro, which DeepMind says has achieved state-of-the-art results across a wide range of benchmarks.
According to Koray Kavukcuoglu, CTO of Google DeepMind, the Gemini 2.5 models are “thinking models”. This signifies their capability to reason through their thoughts before generating a response, leading to enhanced performance and improved accuracy.”
Is America falling behind in the AI race? 24.02.2025 “Several major US artificial intelligence companies have expressed fear around an erosion of America’s edge in AI development.
In recent submissions to the US government, the companies warned that Chinese models, such as DeepSeek R1, are becoming more sophisticated and competitive. The submissions, filed in March 2025 in response to a request for input on an AI Action Plan, highlight the growing challenge from China in technological capability and price.”
LinkedIn post: Dr. Jeffrey Funk ~13.03.2025 “AI stock prices plummeted yesterday, resulting in between 7.8% and 19.9% lower prices in the last month and much more since their peaks earlier this year. If we add in Apple and Tesla (the other two members of the Mag 7), the declines are even worse with Tesla’s share price down 36.7% just in the last month.
Stock market analysts are partially correct that some of these drops have come from recession and tariff concerns, but the key point is that there has been a big change in the “narrative” for #AI stocks in the last two months.”
Overlogix: Hopefully, our readers had the good sense not to invest too heavily in AI stocks; they are still highly speculative, and for the mag7 “AGI candidate” builders and their investors, massive financial black holes. Money (lots of it) goes in, and (almost) nothing comes out.
For our part, long practice with a list of popular AIs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Copilot and Grok) has given us a feel for what each can do well and what they cannot do. None of these are worth paying for, even at $20/month.
We decided to give Copilot a chance as part of our annual MSOffice subscription, even though the online edition was (oddly) dumbed down some months ago. The hope is that the paid version is as good as the online edition was. If not, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
For the most part, AGI has been a huge disappointment; we plan to build / train our own later this year, after carefully computing the costs and time required to gather the gigantic amounts of very specific data we’ll need for reliable operation of an AI server. More to come!
OpenAI declares AI race “over” if training on copyrighted works isn’t fair use 13.03.2025 “OpenAI is hoping that Donald Trump's AI Action Plan, due out this July, will settle copyright debates by declaring AI training fair use—paving the way for AI companies' unfettered access to training data that OpenAI claims is critical to defeat China in the AI race.
Currently, courts are mulling whether AI training is fair use, as rights holders say that AI models trained on creative works threaten to replace them in markets and water down humanity's creative output overall.”
Overlogix: We have a feeling that OpenAI’s days are numbered. The most likely end scenario we can imagine is that Microsoft will take it over and merge OpenAI’s knowledge base into their own, possibly into their Copilot product. We’ll be sorry to see Chatty go.
As for Sam Altman, we can guess M$ knows his strengths and weaknesses fairly well, and might put him to work as their AI ambassador. That’s a role we think he can do.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Classical (Non-AI) Automation News
The International Society of Automation Enhances How Members Connect and Share Knowledge 28.03.2025 “The International Society of Automation (ISA)—the leading professional society for automation—has announced a new way for its members to exchange ideas and build expertise. Through technical communities called Connect Forums, the best minds in automation come together to engage in topic-specific discussions.”
Transforming Control System Security with Zero Trust 28.03.2025 “It all started with a support call. A customer reached out, frustrated that after installing their new HMI software they couldn’t do anything. “Everything’s locked down. I can’t access any configuration or features,” they said.
At first, it sounded like a typical installation issue—maybe a licensing problem or some misconfigured settings. But after a few questions, it became clear that they had chosen the "Secure Installation Option" during setup, unknowingly activating a zero-trust configuration.”
Can Europe Militarize Its Way Out of Manufacturing Stagnation? 28.03.2025 “The major regions of Europe’s manufacturing economy are stagnating. Huge regulatory burdens, rising energy and labor costs and lower productivity are pushing up production costs. Coupled with a reduced appetite for risky capital investments and a host of other more minor issues, the largest producers within Europe are struggling to compete with the rest of the world when it comes to growth in the manufacturing sector.”
The Risks of Improper Software Management 17.03.2025 “One of the most overlooked, yet critical, challenges facing industrial operators is the lack of proper software management. This can be an obscure issue until a system fails, leaving manufacturers to discover that they lack access to the necessary software to diagnose and resolve issues.”
Critical Hardware and Software Aspects in the Merger of IT and OT Networks 06.03.2025 “Networks connecting the computers and data sources used in industry come in two basic flavors — information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT). Whereas IT, the more ubiquitous of the two, has generally centered on managing data, applications and internal and external communications, OT controls the automated devices and equipment used in manufacturing.”
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Overlogix: Recent Articles
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Upcoming
Installation and configuration of Microsoft SQL Server in Linux This project, like the below Gemini migration, demonstrates a practical use for AGI candidates like Claude. We asked Claude to help us through this unfamiliar topic and documented the results. Since we need this for a client, the installation is rather urgent and so has been prioritized.
Migration project using Google Gemini to produce the implementation and configuration steps. We’ve been developing, for our own purposes, an internal wiki built on the same platform as Wikipedia, MediaWiki. The interesting part is that we’re using Google Gemini as our research concierge and assistant for this project. The wiki has outgrown the el-cheapo XAMPP Windows installation and must be migrated to our newly rebuilt Linux server.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Published
Databases: Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server 24.03.2025 This brief introduction to MS SQL Server serves two purposes: (1) it supplied decision makers with an overview of where MSSQL is and is not a good choice for a data storage system, and (2) it serves as an index for a series of specialized articles detailing installation, configuration, usage and maintenance of the database system. As new articles are written, they will be indexed and linked in this article. We expect at least one new article this week. As always, all of our articles are always indexed, by subject matter, at our Table of Context.
LinkedIn Free Version: An Analysis for Small Businesses 10.3.2025 This guide for small business owners and marketers outlines what can and cannot be done using the free version of LinkedIn. We remind readers once again of the maxim: “if you are not paying for it, you are the product.”
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Evergreen Articles
Windows Security 101 17.2.2025 In-depth article covering three critical practices we believe vital to securing your home and office computers: regular checkpoints (Windows system restore points), backups of both personal and system files, and aggressive antimalware software, in addition to Windows Defender. Yes, you need to implement all three, as soon as possible.
Business: Improving Your LinkedIn Feed Long-Term 25.1.2025 Yes, your LinkedIn feed is full of garbage. No, it’s not going to change anytime soon. This article explains several ways to systematically improve your LinkedIn feed. So far, one cannot get rid of all the garbage, but you can get rid of some of it on an ongoing basis and make LI a more useful tool.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Footnotes
Thank you for reading this article!
More information about Overlogix can be found at Welcome to Overlogix!
We currently publish on both LinkedIn (general interest articles, summaries, TL;DR’s: easier and faster to read) and Substack (in-depth articles, how-to’s, technical studies and new approaches to business).
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Your help is welcome!
The LinkedIn algorithm doesn’t favor posts with external links. This silly rule is intended to discourage off-LinkedIn-site linking, but, of course, a newsletter has to include many off-site links. Practically speaking, this makes it very difficult to expand our readership, no matter how good the content is, nor how hard we work at it.
If you like this newsletter, and think friends and colleagues could benefit from reading it, please share it with them. We bring news and views found nowhere else, one of many alternative, disruptive fledgling news sources emerging today. Your help in getting the word out is invaluable, and much appreciated!
Comments and suggestions from readers for improvements to this newsletter are also welcome and invited. Your feedback will make this a better newsletter!
Back to Contents · Back to Top
LinkedIn
· Introduction: Welcome to Overlogix!
· The Overlogix Sunday Times Our newsletter, with occasional specials, published roughly every two weeks.
· Master Index All our articles can be found from here in two clicks.
· The Overlogix Table of Context All Overlogix articles in reverse chronological order
· Applied Artificial Intelligence: Index of Articles One of our specialties is Applied AI. This index lists all relevant articles on the topic, in reverse chronological order.
· Applied AI: Stories in the News Our semi-permanent, curated listing of interesting and important news from the world of artificial intelligence, from many different sources.
· Index: Getting a Job Up until recently, getting a job, much less a good job, has been a nightmare for most job seekers. We publish articles on how and why this is so, and what job hunters can do to find the perfect job for them. We also supply credible external resources, so people can consider their alternatives.
· Starting a B2B Business For everyone who can, we heartily recommend starting your own business. The tools are there, and there has never been a better time to do it.
· Building Our Own Robot We’re automating Overlogix from the start, and this series of articles tells exactly how we are doing it.
· Rebuilding the Linux Server: Index of Articles Running AI on your own machine (recommended) requires a modern, up-to-date operating system, and often a lot of additional software infrastructure. This series, dedicated to exactly that sort of system administration, details what we have done to build a powerful server that runs both databases and artificial intelligence, locally.
· The Gospel According to ChatGPT Conversations with various AIs and additional articles on the various challenges associated with actually making profitable use of artificial intelligence.
· TL;DR: Index of Fast Reads Brief, fast reads on various topics in artificial intelligence. If you are a beginner at AI, or a busy human needing fast and factual explanations of complicated technical topics, this is the place to start.
· TL;DR: Overlogix Artificial Intelligence Mini-Wiki Same Fast Reads as previous but arranged in a mini-wiki format some folks may like better.
Back to Contents · Back to Top
Substack
· Welcome to the Overlogix Substack
· Overlogix: Table of Context Index to our Substack articles arranged by topics.
· Criteria for Paid Content Rules for what goes behind our paywall.
· Curated IT and AI Sources Annotated links to sites and YouTube channels we think are valuable.
#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AINews #Automation #DeepSeek #Overlogix #TheOverlogixSundayTimes #Security #Switzerland #SwitzerlandAI #BaselTechNews