Amazon (AWS) Broke The Internet - WAN Show October 24, 2025

A major Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage disrupted internet services, highlighting the centralized nature of the internet and raising concerns about the reliance on a few key providers, while the group also discussed the impact of Valve's update on the Counter-Strike 2 skins market, and the use of jet engines to power AI data centers.

• An Amazon Web Services outage disrupted much of the internet, emphasizing the risks of centralization.

• Jet engines are being used to power AI data centers, revealing the extreme energy demands of AI.

• Neuralink-like technology and AR present both opportunities and significant risks for society.

A significant outage of Amazon Web Services disrupted a large portion of the internet, impacting numerous services and underscoring the internet's reliance on a limited number of providers. The group also analyzed Valve's recent update to Counter-Strike 2, which caused a $2 billion drop in the skins market cap, and discussed the controversial use of jet engines to provide supplemental power for AI data centers.

AWS Outage

• 00:02:22 A major AWS outage rendered large parts of the internet unusable, impacting services like Reddit, Snapchat, major banks, and even heated beds, highlighting the extent to which the internet relies on Amazon's infrastructure. The root cause was a defect in AWS's automatic DNS management. While the financial impact could be in the hundreds of billions, some less serious impacts included users being unable to change their smart bed settings or leave Slack audio conversations.

CS2 Skins Market

• 00:32:58 A Counter-Strike 2 update affecting item combinations led to a $2 billion drop in the skins market, which the group thinks will incentivize more transactions through Valve's marketplace due to pseudo-financial investment vehicles. The update has winners and losers, as one knife was valued at half its previous $14,000 price, while some common items have increased in value tenfold. Ultimately, Valve benefits from increased transaction fees.

Jet Engines for AI Power

• 00:44:38 Some US data centers are using aeroderivative gas turbines, jet engines bolted into trailers, to supplement power for AI data centers due to grid limitations, with each turbine delivering up to 48 megawatts of power. The high cost of jet fuel raises questions about cost-effectiveness compared to diesel, but long lead times for large diesel generators makes jet engines a faster solution. This leads to discussion about how little things are holding the internet together, and that the twigs are getting thinner.

Windows Network Connectivity

• 00:16:52 A Windows feature sharing a Wi-Fi connection over Wi-Fi sometimes fails because airlines manipulate DNS to prevent access to Microsoft's NCSI. Windows uses NCSI (Network Connectivity Status Indicator) to detect internet connectivity, and some services won't work if the computer doesn't know it's online. To fix this, one must disable active probing in the registry and switch to passive mode, which monitors for internet traffic instead of pinging a specific URL.

Samsung Galaxy XR Headset

• 01:01:19 Samsung launched the Galaxy XR headset, the first mixed reality device powered by Android XR, priced at $1,800. Featuring the Snapdragon XR2 Plus Gen 2 chip, micro OLED display, hand and eye tracking, and AI integration, the Galaxy XR aims to provide proactive app awareness. The UI/UX is similar to Apple Vision Pro and MetaQuest, and it supports Google Play apps reworked for XR like Google Photos.

Smart Glasses and Smartphones

• 01:03:38 Though smart glasses are improving, they are far from replacing smartphones, as natural language instruction is less efficient than tapping a screen. The group discussed the limitations of current smart glasses, noting that while they have some uses, they don't offer a compelling enough experience to justify replacing a smartphone. They speculated on neural interfaces in the future, and that current falling literacy rates is a concern.

Superbox Softlocking Devices

• 02:09:56 Android box manufacturer Superbox is softlocking consumer devices sold below the official minimum price to get back at retailers, directing consumers to contact the retailer to resolve the issue. Minimum advertised price (MAP) and price maintenance are legal in the US and Canada, but bricking a consumer's device is likely illegal. While Superbox operates in a morally ambiguous legal area, this is a highly egregious case of a company controlling a product that a consumer bought.

OpenAI's Atlas Web Browser

• 02:15:32 OpenAI is launching Atlas, a Chromium-based web browser with chat GPT functions, including browser memory for content suggestions and task automation, to enable "vibe lifing", while Microsoft is introducing similar Copilot features in Edge and a new Clippy-like mascot named Mo. Atlas looks and functions like a traditional web browser but with integrated AI capabilities, and both browsers, who claim to care about user privacy, ask for sensitive permissions.