Technology Highlight

Get ready, nerds, because Netflix Geeked Week is returning in September – and, this time, the streaming giant will hold a live, in-person event that you can attend.

Announced in a press release, Netflix revealed that Geeked Week 2024 will be take place between September 16 and 19. Alongside four days’ worth of online reveals, the world’s best streaming service confirmed that it’ll gather as many fans together as possible in Anaheim, California on Thursday, September 19 for an in-person event celebrating all things Netflix-related. Per GeekedWeek.com, tickets go on sale for said live event on Tuesday, September 3.

Not content with unveiling those plans to its global audience, Netflix also released a 45-second-long teaser that, well, teases that some of its most popular shows, movies, and video games will take center stage during the four-day showcase.

Chief among the original series that’ll be part of Geeked Week 2024 are Stranger Things, Arcane, Wednesday, and The Sandman – just four of the most successful Netflix TV Originals that, in my view, everyone should watch.

It makes sense that this quartet would be among the shows highlighted ahead of Geeked Week 2024, too. Each one has a new season coming out at some point – Arcane season 2 arrives in November, while Stranger Things season 5, Wednesday season 2, and The Sandman season 2 are all still in production ahead of likely 2025 and/or 2026 launches. So, fans should expect some news, no matter how big or small, to be revealed about the aforementioned series in mid-September.

They won’t be the only ones that will, mind you. Other notable names in our best Netflix shows guide, including One Piece and Avatar: The Last Airbender, are also briefly shown in the Geeked Week 2024 trailer. That duo also have second seasons on the way, so you and I should learn more about their development at the event.

And what about Squid Game season 2, which just received a festive Netflix release date today (August 1) amid news that its third season – which will debut sometime in 2025 – will be its last? We’re bound to hear and see more about Netflix’s most successful series ever at this year’s edition of Geeked Week, too. Would it be too much to ask for a proper trailer, Netflix?

There are plenty of new Netflix movies on the way between September and the end of the year, too, including animated fare like Spellbound and Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Oh, and let’s not forget that Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, aka Knives Out 3, is currently being filmed. I’d certainly appreciate an update on how principal photography is going, Netflix, if not a brief glimpse at what lies in store for Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc.

As for Netflix’s lineup of video games, I’m… less enthused by these, but the streaming titan is clearly showing no signs of throwing in the towel on the gaming front. In short: we can expect to see some of its forthcoming games spotlighted at Geeked Week 2024, too, even if many of its subscriber base has never touched one in their lives. But hey, maybe the fortunes of Netflix’s gaming division will start to turn around if they announce something truly spectacular.

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Micron has announced the availability of what is claims to be the world’s fastest data center SSD. 

Available in capacities from 3.2TB to 30.72TB and in U.2, E1.S, and E3.S form factors, the Micron 9550 is designed for superior performance and power efficiency, making it particularly suited for AI workloads.

Integrating Micron’s controller, NAND, DRAM, and firmware, the Micron 9550 SSD supports PCIe Gen5 server designs and offers 14.0 GB/s sequential reads and 10.0 GB/s sequential writes, outperforming similar SSDs from the likes of Kioxia and Samsung by up to 67%, based on Micron’s own testing.

Sampling globally

The Micron 9550 SSD achieves 3,300 KIOPS in random reads and 400 KIOPS in random writes, with improvements of up to 35% and 33% respectively. This makes it well-suited for demanding AI applications, including large language models and graph neural networks.

The Micron 9550 SSD reportedly achieves up to 81% less SSD energy per 1TB transferred with Nvidia Magnum IO GPUDirect Storage. It also reduces SSD energy usage by up to 35% in MLPerf benchmarks and up to 21% in Llama LLM training fine-tuning with Microsoft DeepSpeed.

Currently sampling globally, the 9550 SSD’s vertically integrated architecture offers advanced security features, including self-encrypting drive capabilities and compliance with SPDM 1.2.

“The Micron 9550 SSD represents a giant leap forward for data center storage, delivering a staggering 3.3 million IOPS while consuming up to 43% less power than comparable SSDs in AI workloads such as GNN and LLM training,” said Alvaro Toledo, vice president and general manager of Micron’s Data Center Storage group. “This unparalleled performance, combined with exceptional power efficiency, establishes a new benchmark for AI storage solutions and demonstrates Micron’s unwavering commitment to spearheading the AI revolution.”

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CrowdStrike shareholders have filed a lawsuit against the cybersecurity company following a faulty software update that led millions of devices to crash around the world.

The lawsuit, filed in Austin, Texas, accuses CrowdStrike of making “false and misleading” statements regarding its software testing procedures.

It claims the company’s share price plummeted a staggering 32% within 12 days of the incident, leading to a market value loss of $25 billion.

Shareholders sue CrowdStrike after outage

Subsequently, those who held stock between November 29 and July 29 are seeking unspecified compensation, alleging that executives defrauded investors by falsely assuring them that software updates were thoroughly tested.

On March 5, CEO George Kurtz had stated that the firm’s software was “validated, tested and certified.”

A company person told the BBC: “We believe this case lacks merit and we will vigorously defend the company.”

The issues stemmed from a bug in the system designed to ensure the proper functioning of software updates, which allowed “problematic content data” in a file to go undetected.

On its ongoing incident report page, CrowdStrike declared that virtually all devices had been restored: “Using a week-over-week comparison, ~99% of Windows sensors are online as of July 29 at 5pm PT, compared to before the content update. We typically see a variance of ~1% week-over-week in sensor connections.”

The disruption hit Delta Airlines particularly hard, costing the airline around $500 million in lost revenue and passenger compensation. The company had to cancel more than 5,000 flights and manually reset 40,000 servers.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian has indicated that the airline will seek damages from CrowdStrike, stating: “We have no choice.” The company has reportedly enlisted the help of renowned lawyer David Boies to seek compensation from both CrowdStrike and Microsoft.

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