689: The Positive Effect of Enthusiasm

What It Covers

Accidental Tech Podcast episode 689 covers Anthropic's Mythos AI model and its security vulnerability detection capabilities, Backblaze quietly dropping cloud-synced folder backups, Apple's CEO transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus, leadership style comparisons, Mac platform longevity arguments, and alternative backup strategies including ARQ and Parachute for users affected by Backblaze's policy changes.

Key Questions Answered

• •LLM Security Scanning: AI models like Anthropic's Mythos are finding security vulnerabilities in decades-old codebases like OpenBSD and FFmpeg because they scan exhaustively without fatigue or bias toward "safe" legacy code. The practical response is immediate: install software updates on all personal devices as soon as they release. A wave of security patches is expected across major platforms as vendors run AI tools against their own code before public model release.
• •Backblaze Cloud Folder Exclusion: Since approximately August 2024, Backblaze silently stopped backing up OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive folders on both Mac and Windows. The technical reason is that modern cloud sync clients use OS-level file provider frameworks that create stub placeholder files rather than actual on-disk data, making reliable backup and restore technically impossible. Users should audit their Backblaze backup scope immediately and not assume cloud-synced folders are protected.
• •GitHub Commit Volume Surge: GitHub reported commits are on pace to increase roughly 14x compared to the prior year, a volume increase that cannot be explained by new developers entering the field. The growth is attributed to AI-assisted code generation. This creates a dual risk: more code means more potential vulnerabilities introduced at scale, while simultaneously AI tools are being used to find those same vulnerabilities in existing codebases.
• •Backup Diversification Strategy: Relying on a single cloud sync service like Dropbox or Google Drive is not a backup — deleting a file removes it from both locations simultaneously. A resilient strategy requires at minimum: a local Time Machine or SuperDuper clone, a cloud backup service like Backblaze covering local files, and a separate independent destination such as ARQ pointed at Backblaze B2 or AWS S3. Diversity across vendors and storage types reduces single points of failure.
• •Backblaze Workaround via Non-File-Provider Dropbox: Users running Dropbox in legacy non-file-provider mode on macOS have all Dropbox files stored as standard on-disk files, making them eligible for backup by most tools. This mode can still be toggled within the current Dropbox client settings. However, Backblaze may still exclude these files based on directory path heuristics regardless of sync mode, so verification through the Backblaze backup report is necessary to confirm coverage.
• •Ternus Leadership Style vs. Cook: Multiple sources characterize Tim Cook as conflict-averse, preferring to push decisions downward rather than resolve cross-divisional friction directly. John Ternus is described by colleagues as willing to make clear product calls quickly, even if occasionally wrong. Apple's hardware division produced a strong run of products under Ternus, suggesting his direct decision-making style may translate well to the CEO role and could reduce the organizational bottlenecks that slowed software and AI feature development.
• •Mac Platform Strategic Value Beyond Revenue: The Mac represents under 8% of Apple's revenue, but removing it would eliminate the primary development platform for all other Apple platforms. Xcode has no full-featured equivalent on iPad or iPhone. Beyond developer tooling, the Mac's relative openness — supporting command-line tools, cross-application data sharing, and unrestricted scripting — is what allows Apple to participate in the current AI development ecosystem at all. Closing or eliminating the Mac would remove Apple from that conversation entirely.