Silicon Florist links arrangement for October 22, 2026

Here’s a roundup of interesting startup links I came across today:

How to become a great conversationalist – Big Think

Most of us seem to believe we’re facing a trade-off: You can be liked, or you can be interesting. It’s the logic behind the popular advice, “It is better to be interested than interesting.” Somewhere along the way, “be a good listener” turned into “don’t say too much.”

Endurance Energy hits a brief milestone in its quest for undersea geothermal power – GeekWire

Endurance Energy says its prototype marine geothermal power system generated more electricity than it consumed during a recent deployment 300 miles off the Oregon coast — though the milestone lasted just 8.7 seconds.

‘Difficult relationship’: UW task force proposes splitting Allen School from College of Engineering – GeekWire

The split would give new independence to what has become one of the world’s leading schools for computer science and AI, and a major source of talent for the Seattle region’s tech industry. As an independent, college-level school, the Allen School would gain greater control over its finances and a seat at the table with UW’s other deans.

(2014) Funding is only one of the impressive things about the Lytics announcement today

If you haven’t caught the news, Lytics announced that they have raised a $7 million Series A led by Comcast Ventures, bringing their total funding to over $9 million. And while that’s headline worthy, there are a number of other things about this announcement that pique my interest—probably even more so than the cash.

Amazon Threat Intelligence identifies PHP2Shell exploitation prior to public disclosure in MadPot

Amazon Threat Intelligence identified a PHP2Shell exploitation attempt dating to Oct. 17, 2026, in MadPot telemetry, four days before public disclosure of CVE-2026-109618 and CVE-2026-109619. The exploit attempt originated from an IP address associated with a commercial anonymization network. While the vulnerability was under embargo, the targeting of a honeypot from an anonymized IP address suggests the activity was conducted by a threat actor, though it remains unclear how the actor acquired exploit information prior to disclosure.

‘This Is Not a Drill’: Critical PHP Vulnerabilities Are Setting the Internet on Fire | WIRED

The PHP Foundation has revealed two serious vulnerabilities that could impact millions of websites. Security experts warn that failure to quickly patch the flaws could have dire consequences.

Empires of AI: The Rise and Fall of a New Global Order

By controlling the large language models, chips, physical infrastructure, and capital that provide the foundations for advanced machine cognition, Beijing and Washington are not only attaining new heights of economic performance and power projection; they are also setting the terms of all future scientific and intellectual progress.

eMudhra to Exit global SSL/TLS Certificate Business

eMudhra Limited (BSE: 543533 | NSE: EMUDHRA), a global digital trust company, today announced that its Board has decided to voluntarily withdraw from the global SSL/TLS certificate business.

Thread by @DarioAmodei on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App

At the core, a good fraction of the things you criticize are consequences of Anthropic’s basic theory of change that we have held for many years. Our strategy has always been what I’ve called the “race to the top” — by showing how it’s possible to build the technology responsibly, we can raise the bar for the entire industry. The forces that drive the race to the top are hugely more effective if the company practicing them is at the frontier; that’s one lesson I’ve learned repeatedly. And looking at that strategy as a whole, I’m proud of our track record and stand by it.

How Our Leisure Time Got Monetized – by Ted Gioia

Most of the world’s free time has now been monetized by tech companies. In fact, the monetization of leisure time is how Silicon Valley execs make their billions. Our fun is their gravy train.

The Agentic Dispatch: C1.ai to Join Workday

On October 13, Workday announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire C1.ai. Workday serves more than 11,500 organizations, including more than 65% of the Fortune 500.

In Community: Looking Back on the SCN Richmond Summit — Startup Champions Network

We were able to occupy so many unique spaces throughout the summit because Richmonders are so welcoming and excited to show off their city. We held panel discussions over lunch in local restaurants, we took tours and held programming in Startup Virginia, Studio Two Three, CNTR, VCU da Vinci Center, Black Iris, and Hatch. Heather Lyne herded a group of 20 on the Pulse, showing visitors our free, rapid transit option. We also had seven local hosts sponsor Dinner with Locals, where they took a small group to their favorite restaurant to share a meal. One of my favorite parts? Every night a small group of us landed at GWARbar for a nightcap to discuss the day.

Korea Investment Accelerator teams with Japan’s AS Capital to boost cross-border startups – CHOSUNBIZ

Korea Investment Accelerator’s bases for supporting startups’ overseas expansion are diversifying. Korea Investment Accelerator began collaborating with the U.S. “Oregon UAS Accelerator” in July. In August, it established and has been operating the “Oregon Defense Tech Basecamp” in Portland, Oregon, to help domestic defense and drone startups expand overseas.

The internet is having a very bad cybersecurity day | TechCrunch

The internet is having a bad day, from a cybersecurity perspective. Government websites around the world went offline, Reuters reported, after AI discovered critical security vulnerabilities that impacted the programming language PHP. The issues were severe enough that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) advised organizations using PHP on their systems to either immediately update or take their systems offline until they could.

Automattic begins layoffs following board upheaval and executive departures | TechCrunch

The departures represent more turmoil at Automattic, whose team is still reeling from the board’s failed attempt to oust CEO Matt Mullenweg in September, resulting in a complete board turnover and other exec departures, including its CFO, interim CFO, and chief legal officer. Automattic’s director of communications, Megan Fox, posted about her departure last week on LinkedIn, saying the move was an “unexpected end” and that her role had been “eliminated.”

PACs and Megadonors Shift Millions as Oregon Governor’s Race Enters Final Stretch — Oregon Journalism Project

Behind each candidate is a network of financial backers. OJP analyzed the giving to determine the top contributors for each candidate—and who backed them in their 2022 matchup but didn’t show up in 2026.