2026-05-28 Charlie Mac is back

We're back. The Charlie Mac newsletter is back again with information we’ve stumbled upon during the week that we hope you find is thought provoking and interesting.

AI is very strange

I am finding AI is opening up lots of possibilities. As Miley Cirus says, “The greatest opportunities in life come with fear and risk”. Here’s a few things you may find useful in broadening your mind around AI.

• Few are talking about the impact AI could have on our identity and personality. The Psychological Crisis of AI-Driven Identity Loss | Psychology Today explores this further. From Dec 25.

• AI in Defence. Listen to this fascinating podcast from the RAF on the use of AI in combat operations. Its further advanced than you may think. InsideAIR Podcast Episode 139: The RAF Warfighter's Guide to AI | Royal Air Force

• Want more security, guardrails, and control? Build your own AI app using AWS bedrock. Deploys well known LLMs into your own container. Build generative AI solutions with Amazon Bedrock | Artificial Intelligence. Or build your LLM using open source with PyTorch. Or use the Microsoft equivalent - Microsoft Foundry. Don’t know where to start. Reach out.

Security things

The security landscape is changing. Mike Burgess, Director-General of ASIO in his Lowy Institute address (Nov 25) highlighted these changes. I hope the following articles help you thinking forward, of the future.

• Frontier AI models and their impact on cyber security published ASD. Interested in the likely impact of Claude Mythos on the cyber security landscape. Read this article [Frontier AI models and their impact on cyber security | Cyber.gov.au] (https://www.cyber.gov.au/about-us/view-all-content/news/frontier-models-and-their-impact-on-cyber-security-update). Updated 8 May

• You know phishing, but do you know quishing? Here is ASDs explanation. Quishing | Cyber.gov.au From Nov 23.

There's normal discourse on social media, and then it gets weird and overwhelming. Read more about Troll Farms and how nefarious actors use them in this MIT report from 2021.

Latest Govt tenders

The word on the street. What have the neighbours got planned?

• City of Darbin. Enterprise Resource Planning Solution Procurement. Closed 15/05/2026 14:00
• Whittlesea City Council. Implementing Salesforce Public Sector Solution (PSS) modules. Closed 12/05/2026 16:00
• Southern Grampians Shire Council. Microsoft Windows Server license renewal. Closed 11/05/2026 17:00
• South Gippsland Shire Council. Microsoft Licensing. Closed 19/05/2026 14:00
• City of Monash. Financial Planning and Budgeting System. Closed 18/05/2026 14:00

More recently closed tenders here.

History hole

Amaze you friends at parties with these dazzling facts from the past. Let’s build on the shoulders of giants of IT, rather than chase nothing burgers.

22 May 1973 - Bob Metcalfe writes the memo describing the Ethernet network (2) 23 May - Paris, France and Rome, Italy are connected by telephone for first time (1) 25 May - The third installment in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi, is released six years to the day after the first Star Wars movie (1)

References (1) This Day in Tech History - The History of Technology in a Daily Blog! (2) On This Day in Computing History.

Where in the world is Charlie?

We try and get out and about during the week, as too much screen time is not good for any of us.

• Last week Ryan and I went to a gig staring Mary Aldred at the Moe Racing Club as part of the Latrobe Valley Business Chamber meet your local pollie series. Mary was engaging and candidly talked about the trials and tribulations of being a first termer.

• Week before we all went on road-trip to Marvel Stadium to see the Leader peeps tout their wares. Leader is one of our wholesalers.

That’s all for this week! Send any topics you would like included in next week’s newsletter to olivia@charlie-mac.com or forward this email to a friend.