Ctrl-Alt-Upcycle - DTNS 5305 Experiment Week

0:00Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want with Stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust Stamps.com. Go to Stamps.com and use code PODCAST to try Stamps.com risk-free for 60 days. Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad, and I want to let you know that if you want the newest and hottest beauty products, you have to go to Sephora.

0:36I'm obsessed with the One Size Liquid Blotting Paper Spray. It's the first of its kind blotting spray that mattifies for up to eight hours. It's unreal. There's also the Summer Friday Shade Drops SPF 50, which basically lives in my bag at this point. Oh, and the Kayali Eden Plush Pear smells so good. It's sweet, warm, and addictive. Like people literally stop me and ask what perfume I'm wearing, which you know I love. So if you want the makeup, skincare, hair, and fragrance products everyone's about to be obsessed with, shop only at Sephora. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot.

1:14The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI. They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love.

1:54It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. Hey everybody, Tom Merritt here. It is Experiment Week on DTNS. This is a yearly tradition where we take the show down during one of the slower times of the year for tech news, and we hand over the feed to folks to try out new podcast ideas. You're going to get to hear the very first episode of what could go on to become the next Tech John or Behind the Data. We're also running a special promotion for Experiment Week this year.

2:32If you're not already a DTNS patron and you'd like to give a little value back for the value you get from us, use the code EXPERIMENT and you'll get 26 % off your first pledge, monthly or yearly. That's 26 % off for 2026. Just use the code experiment at patreon.com slash DTNS. Now on to today's experiment.

3:01What happens when two dads are too damn fed up? Ladies and gentlemen, you get control alt up cycle. We're looking at how to upgrade your PC or your laptop, your tech situation, how to get by when prices are a little out of control. I mean, if you haven't noticed, it's ugly out there if you're shopping for a laptop or a desktop or a Steam machine. Yeah, and our whole philosophy is you use it up, wear it out, make it do or make do, or you just do without because sometimes you just can't get the bacon. For those of you who have never heard the common version of that, It's use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.

3:44Something that was hammered into my skull through much of my childhood. I thought that went back to the Depression, and it might. But that particular version of that phrase becomes famous during one of the great consumer supply chain challenges of the 20th century, which would be World War II. when everything being produced or much of what was being produced went overseas to fight, well, our enemies, the Axis powers, as it were. And it was featured in ads encouraging Americans to make things go further. Just because you can buy it doesn't mean you should. Let's keep the consumption down at home so we can take care of the people fighting overseas.

4:24Although it is interesting, there's a whole contingent on the Internet, and Roger and I are nothing if not people who make side quests during the middle of every statement because we've spent our entire lives trying to learn everything, failing miserably, but trying. Half the Internet thinks it goes back to Calvin Coolidge. Can't find an original source on this, but many places on the Internet said Calvin Coolidge in the Depression says eat it up, wear it out, make it do or do without. In any case, however it started, wherever it came from, it still applies today, especially if you have children.

4:59Yeah. I mean Go ahead Oh no, I was just One of those things is So, side note I went to a junior high named after A very famous president Perhaps you might have heard of him, Patrick Herbert Hoover Now, he was well renowned For being the president around The time of the Great Depression And there were many encampments Named after him called Hoovervilles And one of the things that I learned from one of my instructors who was a 30 or late 20-something, early 20, he was in World War II, is he often included in our social studies class all the ways you could recycle and sort of stretch out what you had available.

5:48One of the things he mentioned was during water shortages, you would stick a brick in the back of the toilet tank to kind of get it high enough to close the flow ball valve on your toilet. Thankfully, most of us, at least those of us who spent too much time in California, have low flow toilets, which are even better than a brick in the toilet tank. I did point out that we are not currently in a depression or even a recession. I knock on wood as they say that. but you know it is incredibly challenging the cost of stuff right now especially if you have technological needs and it's funny when you think about it something i was looking at is is you know are pcs really more expensive short term absolutely um compared to the 80s when you know computers were kind of a luxury item and i hadn't done a sort of like you know adjusted for inflation comparison.

6:49But the Apple Macintosh would have cost$2 ,500 in 1984. Adjusted for inflation, that's$8 ,200. The first computer for a ton of Gen Xers, Roger and I's peers, would have been a Commodore 64. Now, when that first launch, it was like$600. That's$2 ,000-ish adjusted. It dropped to about$250 in 1984. But that still would be over$800,$900, somewhere adjusted for inflation on what was essentially a glorified gaming machine at the time. Now, the classic, I think of a friend of mine who got a Commodore 64 in no small part by being like, Mom, Dad, I'm going to learn how to program. And that's the key to having a successful career in the future.

7:36He did not, in fact, go on to program for most of his adult life. Mostly, though, he has tremendous memories of typing in basic programs for basic games on a Commodore 64. But what we're dealing with right now is the short term. Well, short term, we hope it's probably going to be a couple of years. Let me pause for a second. Last summer, memory prices were a fraction of what they are today. And as a result of memory prices going up, PCs and just about everything, well, period, everything that uses memory is stupid expensive. Now, if you haven't had the trauma of shopping for memory or a laptop or a desktop or a Steam machine, because the price of that had just been announced right around the time Roger and I were recording this.

8:24Very, very dear. Yes, spendy. unlike unlike say a Sony or a Playstation or an Xbox there will be no subsidies for Valve on the Steam machine so it will be much more expensive than most other you know consoles are used to but what we're calling it now or so I think somebody at the Verge I'm not quite sure where I first saw this was the Rampocalypse so September 2025 5, 32 gigabytes of DDR5 was under$100, probably$90,$95. Right now at the low end, maybe with some funky clock timings, you're looking at$350 for 32 gigabytes RAM, a couple of 16 gigabyte sticks, and somewhere between$450 to$600 or more if you're looking for a particularly fancy style of RAM or some particular strains that are friendly to being overclocked to the moon.

9:29And when you look at the chart, like there's a PC part picker trend chart, there's actually now an entire article on Wikipedia that has a lovely chart where, you know, basically memory prices are flat and then suddenly they go vertical. And that Wikipedia article is the 2025 present global memory supply shortage because it has not ended yet. It is not expected to end until 2027 or 2028. And if you want to know why all this happened, short version is the crew at OpenAI secretly secured 40 % of the output from SK Hynix and Samsung secretly and separately, thus sending the cost of RAM to the moon and beyond, like 40 % for the entire year of 2026.

10:17That is an unbelievable amount of memory. My personal favorite rumors are that it's all sitting in a warehouse. It was done as a strategic strike to prevent their competitors from building data centers. Short answer is AI requires a metric ton of compute. That requires a ton of RAM. And OpenAI decided to secure a tremendous amount of it. Are you telling me all my chat GPT based fan fiction is secretly undermining my ability to buy affordable RAM? Well, it might also be, you know, getting rid of a tremendous amount of one. One, absolutely. And it's, you know, probably flatlining the water supply in whatever area of the country is responsible for generating your fan fiction.

11:01But that's a weird saga. I don't want to get a whole bunch of angry hate mail from people. because, you know, ChatGBT is, or Anthropic, or whatever your tool of choice is. Pick your flavor. They're not going away anytime soon. And, you know, Rampocalypse is kind of a jestful, you know, elbow in the rib kind of thing. Like, oh, isn't that cute? But really, it is expensive. And if you're like us, listen, until I until i hit the lottery i hit one of those powerball those like multi-billion dollar prize winnings you know i'm i'm i'm eating i'm eating you know you know just like everyone else i eat day old week old bread uh i eat plenty of leftovers and i often you know stretch where i can because i got two small kids i got a wife i got a house that i don't live in right now The kids keep eating over and over and over again.

12:00As they get bigger, they have to eat more. Yes, I'm not going to terrify you with what a couple of teenage boys hoover down in a given 24-hour period, especially when one of them is walking 20 ,000 steps a day mowing lawns. But the short answer is a whole lot of things are expensive. A whole lot of things are maybe not short supply. If you have the money, you can go out and buy RAM. So we're in a better position than they were in, say, 2022 when the COVID supply chain crashes hit. But, you know, it's also kind of compounded, right? Because in the last couple of years, our friends at Microsoft, of course, decided to end of life Windows 10 because Windows 11 had to be built.

12:50Windows 11 runs or requires a device called a TPM 2.0 Trusted Platform Module. As Roger pointed out, there are ways of getting around the TPM 2.0 requirements. I don't think either one of us feels comfortable with running any of them, Roger. I mean, they work, but there's no guarantee that security updates and all the other things that you moved up to Windows 11 for are going to work because oftentimes they are security updates. And if you don't have TPM working, sometimes it may not latch on. I have not had that experience, but, you know, TPM is one of those things that they really want you to have because it's not just about doing secure boot.

13:41It's doing things like BitLocker where you want to, like, encrypt your drive using the inbuilt windows tool.

14:13hair smells so good. It's sweet, warm, and addictive. Like, people literally stop me and ask what perfume I'm wearing, which you know I love. So if you want the makeup, skincare, hair, and fragrance products everyone's about to be obsessed with, shop only at Sephora. Shipping, billing, admin, payroll, marketing. You're managing all the things. So why waste time sending important documents the old-fashioned way? Mail and ship when you want, how you want, with stamps.com. Print postage on demand 24-7 and schedule pickups from your office or home. Save up to 90 % with automated rate shopping. That's why over 1 million small businesses trust stamps.com.

14:53Go to stamps.com and use code podcast to try stamps.com risk-free for 60 days. Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. This episode is brought to you by Capital One. Capital One's tech team isn't just talking about multi-agentic AI.

15:33They already deployed one. It's called Chat Concierge, and it's simplifying car shopping. Using self-reflection and layered reasoning with live API checks, it doesn't just help buyers find a car they love. It helps schedule a test drive, get pre-approved for financing, and estimate trade-in value. Advanced, intuitive, and deployed. That's how they stack. That's technology at Capital One. There's a reason millions of people start their day with Morning Brew Daily. Each morning, we break down the biggest news in business from the latest tech headlines to why nobody can afford a house right now. all in a format that fits seamlessly into your day.

16:09You'll leave each episode of Morning Brew Daily smarter and ready to take on the world around you. I'm Toby Howell. And I'm Neil Freiman. And we're ready to show you that business news doesn't have to be boring. So join us on Morning Brew Daily, available wherever you get your podcasts.

16:26Personally, you know, I really tried to maximize the PC I built in 2015 to take advantage of it. And I found out that the TPM module, at least on that board, it was a gigabyte. They had a 2.0 module, but I had to track it down on Amazon. Couldn't find it available. But it was one of those things where I sort of kind of bit the bullet. And I did not buy new. I did not buy a brand new unit. What I did buy, though, was a refurbished unit that was an off-lease corporate product. And the great thing about this is, well, I don't know if this is a great thing. It's a Dell. But because it is a corporate focused machine, in this case, I'm actually using it for this podcast.

17:17It's a Dell Precision. It has all the updates. So if you download the Dell download tool and you run it when you get it, it will constantly update. So even though this model is end of life with Dell, it's still getting regular security updates. It's still getting regular BIOS updates. It's still getting regular firmware updates. So I don't feel like I'm being left behind the curve. Like this model is from 2021. So five years behind, but they're still updating it. And the great thing is I didn't pay that much for it because I got through a site called DellRefurbished.com. This is separate from the Dell outlet, which is run by Dell.

18:01Dellrefurbished.com handles only corporate lease return products. And they are such a Dell company or a Dell third-party company. It's a third-party. Actually, it's FedEx. Would you believe it's FedEx? No, but I'm fascinated. It is under contract from Dell to run this. Okay. So instead of all these – and I really went through because I didn't want to make sure I wasn't getting something shady. There is a 90-year or 90-year, 90-day. 90-year would be great. A 90-day standard warranty. You can, of course, buy additional warranties as well. The caveat is you only can buy what they have available at that time.

18:44You can't do any customization. You just have to go through what they have. Now, I will add that they do stupid sales every other holiday. So whether you're talking about Easter, Christmas, they do 4th of July, they'll give you like 30 % to 40 % off. So I am using an 11th gen Core i7 with an A4, not a Quadro, but an RTX A4000, which is their more professional version of a 3070 mobile TI meant for CAD applications. In my case, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, stuff like that. So it does gain, but not as well as an actual 30Ti Mobile. But I paid$600,$620, including tax and shipping, to my door.

19:38And having bought a number of products from Dell Refurbished, at least seven items, I can say it's solid. I had a problem with the last laptop I bought from them. The battery basically said it's dying. The machine went boot up. I kind of complained to them, and they sent me a brand-new battery. Nice. So, I mean, there are also laughing because the monitor, the 34 inch Dell ultrawide monitor in front of me was also bought refurbished. And this is the thing, like oftentimes people see refurbished and they think automatically used Craigslist, you know, Facebook. Open box may be more accurate, although returns have obviously been used for years.

20:20But, you know, this was essentially this was this monitor was under refurbished, but it was essentially an open box that had been returned. You know, somebody else has been using a monitor for three years. You probably, you know, unless it's a heck of a lot better than the monitor you're running, you probably don't want to spend money on it. But an open box monitor can be a fantastic deal. You were starting to say, Raj. Oh, I mean, the great thing about refurbished is typically they all come with warranties. like actual factory warranty so you don't feel like you're just buying a car a used car off like some unknown light you're there there is some recourse if something you buy is a bum product and apple uh you know has an outlet or or refurbished products lenovo has refurbished products i mean it's it's it's roger and i are thrifty folks you may not have picked up on that It's a really good deal, especially if you are not like, I don't need an M5.

21:22I don't need the latest, greatest MacBook or a Mac Mini. A lot of people do. And what they do is they trade in the machines that they have that might most maybe be a couple of years old. And they trade them in. Apple will go through and they will make sure that it performs up to their specifications. and as they put out refurbished. I mean, they sell it through the store. I ordered it online and it showed up at the Apple store where I wanted to deliver it, picked it up, showed them my ID, and I was on my way. I won't get into one of my favorite things. Micro Center is my local computer store here in St.

21:59Louis. They do some pretty cool stuff with bundles on AMD and Intel where essentially you're paying full price for the RAM and getting an absolutely steep discount on the CPU and motherboard that comes in those bundles. If there's a micro center near you, you should definitely check those out. But we should probably talk about something that has been interesting to watch over the last year or so is that one, since the RAM popcalypse, some of the later ones, but one of the earlier ones is people starting to move in the wake of the end of Windows 10, not wanting to deal or being frustrated. Like in my case with Windows 11, they are moving to Linux.

22:45I've known Will Smith for years. He partnered up with Adam Patrick Murray. And I found this podcast through PC World, the Dual Boot Diaries. Now, they've got about 45 episodes. I think it's shutting down in the near future. But it's essentially two folks that have been using Windows forever that have been migrating their lives on the desktop Linux. You know, if you search for dual boot diaries, you'll find that up on your favorite podcatcher. And some of the crew over at The Verge, Nathan Edwards would be one of them, have done articles about just being frustrated with Windows 11 or not wanting to give up hardware and how what their experience was moving to Linux.

23:29And one of the advantages of moving to Linux is you tend to have a lot less stuff running in the background, which makes your older hardware last a little bit longer, simply because it's carrying less of a load. You know, if you're a gamer, there are vastly more options for Windows gaming on Linux. I've not gotten into those particularly much at all, but there are a bunch of people writing and doing videos about that. But an operating system, moving to Linux may allow you to keep using the hardware you have into the... Well, it really depends on the... ...pocalypse period. Yeah. Well, until things become affordable again, or at least to stretch it out as far as possible.

24:18And I will say this, if you do work on your machine, but most of that or 90 % of that work is done through a browser, Linux is not a bad way to go. There are photo editing tools that are browser based. There are video editing tools that are browser based. Rob Dunwood over at DTNS often likes to emphasize that all the stuff he does for work for DTNS, he does through browser based tools. So he can most definitely use another operating system as long as you have Firefox, Chrome, or whatever that allows him to access those tools. Because oftentimes people are very wedded to Windows because I need to run this particular piece of software.

25:01I need to run, you know, like I run Creative Cloud. So, yeah, it's sort of designed for Windows or Mac OS. but they also have browser-based versions or at least some versions of their tools as well. So it's definitely, you want to check out what you actually do need instead of what you think you need and then sort of line it up with, okay, I can do everything. If there's a text editor, if I need a word processor, I mean, I do all my typing, like columns and stuff in a Google doc, right? Like I don't need a separate word processor. And so once you start thinking it out that way, you feel a lot more nimble about moving from one operating system to another.

25:48Yeah, it's kind of funny. I taught my youngest child to use WordPad when tracking things or when he was debugging software games that were misbehaving to kind of take his notes. And, of course, they wiped out WordPad from Windows 11, and he couldn't open all of these files that were on his machine. So that was his Libre office was his introduction to the open source world. And I found myself starting to use it more regularly myself. But we should probably pause here. Should there be a second episode of this podcast, we do want to have something left to talk about. and two, Roger and I can talk literally for hours and have on an irregular basis since we were children or at least relatively significantly younger than we are now.

26:40But any last thoughts before we shut this down, Roger? Yes. I mean, definitely think about all the stuff you have and think of the ways you can make it either more efficient, more effective without necessarily going out and buying something. or if you do want to buy something, don't necessarily look at brand spanking new in the same way that maybe you can't afford a brand new car. You can definitely afford an off lease or you can afford a certified refurbished car. Yeah, I mean, definitely check out refurbished products because oftentimes they're really good values. You get a lot of the same benefits.

27:20Yeah, it's not the latest and greatest, but you do get a much bigger bang for your buck. Not going to argue with that at all. Next week, or should there be an episode two on Control Alt Upcycle, we will discuss toilet repairs and how to keep your toilet running into the near indefinite future and the improvements you can make in the process because, my goodness, some of the modern toilet valves are vastly better designed than what came with your toilet. I'd like to say I'm joking, but if it's actually a true statement, we'll probably keep on technology. and i will say i actually changed two of these about a week and a half ago and corky is all i'm gonna say corky corky well that's it for control upcycle because i need to search corky before my head explodes if you like what you heard do us a favor let us know feedback at dailytechnewsshow.com i'm patrick norton and i'm roger chang thanks so much for listening

28:20The DTNS family of podcasts. Helping each other understand. Diamond Club hopes you have enjoyed this program.

28:37Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. Hey, it's Paige from Giggly Squad, and I want to let you know that if you want the newest and hottest beauty products, you have to go to Sephora. I'm obsessed with the One Size Liquid Blotting Paper Spray.

29:14It's the first of its kind blotting spray that mattifies for up to eight hours. It's unreal. There's also the Summer Friday Shade Drops SPF 50, which basically lives in my bag at this point. Oh, and the Kay Alley Eden Plush Pear smells so good. It's sweet, warm, and addictive. Like, people literally stop me and ask what perfume I'm wearing, which you know I love. So if you want the makeup, skincare, hair, and fragrance products everyone's about to be obsessed with, shop only at Sephora. Thank you.