In short
The hosts cover a string of internet/AI safety and privacy failures, focusing on sexual-content harms (X/Grok, Meta chatbots, Roblox), surveillance and data access (Ring, DHS subpoenas), and broader “AI agents” risks (OpenClaw). They also discuss tech supply constraints (hard drives, Steam Deck), plus legal/regulatory fights (Meta lawsuits, Tesla robo-taxi crashes, prediction-market crackdowns).
Guests
No guests are mentioned; it’s just hosts Jason DeFillippo and Brian Schulmeister.
Key claims
- X/Grok allegedly generated millions of sexualized images in 11 days, including an estimated 23,000 involving children; Ireland’s DPC is investigating.
- Meta’s internal testing allegedly failed to protect minors from sexual exploitation ~70% of the time (New Mexico trial testimony by NYU’s Damon McCoy).
- Ring’s “Search Party” feature may be a step toward broader surveillance; an internal email cites a longer-term goal of “zero out crime.”
- OpenClaw is criticized as insecure, expensive, and lacking real “regular person” use cases; tech firms are “slamming the brakes.”
- Tesla robo-taxis in Austin show crash rates ~4x human drivers (14 crashes over ~800,000 paid miles).
Notable examples
- Grok placing reporters in revealing clothing and adding visible genitalia.
- Meta AI Studio/teen access changes; New Mexico AG suing over design choices.
- LA County suing Roblox for grooming/sexual content exposure; Nevada suing Calci/Calci on licensing/age issues.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOElon Musk and X Platform Investigation
0:45 to 2:00
Discussion on the latest investigation into X regarding non-consensual images.
“British nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the CCDH.”
Meta's Legal Troubles
2:00 to 3:22
Meta faces lawsuits over chatbot failures to protect minors.
“So as we know, Meta's in the news right now because they're battling lawsuits on both fronts.”
Amazon's Ring Surveillance Concerns
3:22 to 4:00
Exploring privacy issues related to Amazon's Ring and police collaboration.
“Well, Ring had a problem and they addressed it.”
Reddit and User Privacy Issues
4:00 to 5:28
Reddit and other platforms comply with subpoenas for user data related to ICE.
“Sure, we just created a panopticon, but you found Fluffy.”
Supreme Court Rulings and Economic Impact
5:28 to 7:16
Discussion on the implications of a recent Supreme Court ruling on tariffs.
“Sent as part of a recent wave of administrative subpoenas, the Department of Homeland Security had been distributing to Big Tech for the past few months, according to an anonymously sourced New York Times report.”
OpenClaw AI Conversations
7:16 to 9:08
Debate on the utility and risks of OpenClaw and AI assistants.
“Brian, Open Claw has been all the rage for the AI bros for the past couple weeks.”
AI and User Trust Issues
9:08 to 10:01
Concerns about AI security and usability for everyday people.
“Some of them were like, you know, Open Claw will call you in the morning and tell you what your schedule is for the day and any bullet points or things like that.”
The Flaws of AI Dietary Guidance
10:01 to 11:50
Highlighting issues with AI responses regarding food safety.
“Well, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI, saying that he wants to focus on building AI agents regular humans can actually use, like my mom level usable, not running yet another startup.”
AI Companies and Hardware Shortages
11:50 to 13:20
Discussion on the impact of AI demand on external hard drive availability.
“And then it'll spin off a bunch of bots that you have no idea how much money it's going to cost you at the end of the day.”
The Impact of AI on Tech Hardware
14:03 to 14:29
Discussing the consequences of AI companies on the availability of tech hardware.
“Just makes me think of that South Park episode where they started eating in reverse.”
Show all 43 chapters
The State of External Hard Drives
14:30 to 16:36
Exploring the current market situation for external hard drives and related products.
“They basically pivoted to just be a B2B and forget it.”
Gaming Consoles and Component Shortages
16:37 to 17:50
Analyzing shortages affecting gaming consoles and their components due to high demand.
“Maybe you're fine with the one you already have, as I keep trying to tell my son.”
Steve Bannon's Legal Troubles
17:51 to 19:25
Overview of the lawsuit against Steve Bannon tied to a cryptocurrency scheme.
“Each transaction carried an 8 % fee with 5 % marked as charitable donations.”
Roblox under Legal Scrutiny
19:26 to 21:08
Los Angeles County sues Roblox over alleged failures in child safety.
“Los Angeles County is getting in on the action and they're suing Roblox, accusing the platform of unfair and deceptive practices that allegedly exposed kids to sexual content grooming online predators, blah, blah, blah.”
Tesla's Robo-Taxi Challenges
21:09 to 23:05
Investigating the crash statistics of Tesla's autonomous vehicles compared to human drivers.
“Now, for context, Tesla's own vehicle safety report says the average U.S.”
Marketing and Deceptive Practices in Tech
23:06 to 24:44
Discussion on Tesla's marketing strategies and implications for consumer safety.
“interjacent today i feel dirty oh god well tesla has already labeled full self-driving as eight foot cock supervised so brian if you say you have a supervised eight foot cock i was talking about The fowl, obviously.”
Controversial Betting Markets
24:45 to 26:04
Exploring the implications of betting on dangerous outcomes in prediction markets.
“Well, New York just told robo-taxis not so fast.”
Critique of Cryptocurrency and Prediction Markets
26:05 to 28:00
Analyzing the ethical concerns surrounding prediction markets and cryptocurrency betting.
“The company said the contract was never about crew safety, only a hypothetical booster stage hardware failure.”
The Ethics of Prediction Markets
28:00 to 29:39
Explore the moral implications and business models of prediction markets.
“He acknowledged that prediction markets basically require losers to operate and he's not opposed to people losing money.”
Political Influence and Prediction Markets
29:40 to 32:28
Discuss the political ramifications of prediction markets, particularly regarding the Trump administration.
“The Trump administration, of course, has conflicts of interest in this area.”
Comedy and TV Show Reviews
36:11 to 38:29
Review and discuss recent comedy specials and TV shows.
“Brad, I've been a fan of Burt Kreischer for many a year.”
Kid-Friendly Content and Education
38:30 to 40:18
Explore educational content options for kids, including Mark Rober.
“So there's there's well, actually, Antonio Banderas isn't even in the first one.”
Upcoming Movies and Their Impact
40:19 to 42:00
Discuss recent movies, including a highly praised AI-themed film.
“Because also this week, Beast Games had its penultimate episode on Amazon Prime Video.”
Movie Recommendations and Generative AI
42:00 to 43:20
Discussing a movie's impact, generative AI, and its implications on arts.
“I have not seen a movie this good since Everything, Everywhere, All at Once.”
Transitioning from Obsidian to Apple Notes
43:20 to 45:34
Sharing experiences of moving notes from Obsidian to Apple Notes and the challenges faced.
“Because there's no one that killed them quite as quick as generative AI.”
Ditching Software Subscriptions
45:34 to 47:28
Exploring the decision to cancel subscriptions to various tools and software.
“and it did it in about 15 minutes because it does it just note by note by note, and it does a very good job.”
Apple's AI Innovations and Concerns
47:28 to 49:44
Discussing Apple’s developments in AI technology and skepticism about their use cases.
“There's one thing that's different, of course, and that's the fact that it won't have the guts inside of itself.”
Apple Podcasts and Video Integration
49:44 to 52:32
Critique of the upcoming video features on Apple Podcasts and their implications for podcasters.
“I personally don't know why Apple's going down either road.”
New Terminology in the AI Landscape
52:32 to 53:21
Introduction of new terms related to AI and its impact on jobs and the workforce.
“And there's a new bit of internet shorthand making the round, which is AIDR, short for AI didn't read.”
Book Reviews: Cleave the Sparrow and Regicide Report
53:21 to 56:00
Discussing the intriguing aspects of two books, highlighting personal reading experiences.
“oh god do you remember uh hot fuzz the guy from hot fuzz yarp yarp air narb yarp At the library.”
Book Reviews: Disappointing Endings
56:00 to 57:20
The hosts discuss a recent book's unsatisfying conclusion and its implications.
“Now, I do have to ask, is there a Bob wrap-up in this?”
Exploring Neurodiversity with Robin Ince
57:20 to 58:20
A discussion about Robin Ince's new book on neurodiversity and its impact.
“I did get a new book to cleanse the palate.”
Weather Chat and Personal Updates
58:20 to 1:00:00
Casual banter about the weather and personal anecdotes, including a Muppet show review.
“or didn't know you had or why you had them.”
The Muppets and Family Bonding
1:00:00 to 1:01:40
How The Muppets have sparked a love for the characters in the host's child.
“So it was raining all week, so I finally got to watch The Muppet Show.”
Toy Story 5 Trailer Reactions
1:01:40 to 1:04:00
Hosts share their thoughts on the Toy Story 5 trailer and its emotional impact.
“It is no doubt a source of my subversive sense of humor came from the Muppets and Sesame Street.”
Aging and Humorous Observations
1:04:00 to 1:06:40
Funny reflections on aging and personal experiences in relation to physical appearance.
“And they said if you saw the original Toy Story in the theaters, chances are you too have a bald spot.”
The Rise of 3D Printing
1:06:40 to 1:10:05
Discussion on 3D printers, their evolution, and implications for the future.
“Lema wrote in, you all mentioned that there used to be a theory about increased pizza deliveries being an indicator of global happenings.”
3D Printing Evolution
1:10:05 to 1:11:30
Explore the progression of 3D printing technology and its parallels to inkjet printers.
“So now I see that there's another link from going from 3D printing to Dave, you put in a link to Perillo.com.”
The RSS Reader Concept
1:11:31 to 1:13:19
Learn about a new RSS reader called Current that prioritizes news based on its relevance over time.
“And then speaking of RSS feeds, this caught my eye.”
Limiting News Consumption
1:13:20 to 1:14:24
Discuss the struggles of staying informed while managing news consumption and its mental toll.
“I'll revisit this once we've revisited democracy.”
The Impact of Short Horror
1:14:25 to 1:15:18
Dive into the psychological effects of short horror films and their lasting impressions.
“I don't like horror as a genre generally.”
Synth Covers of Nostalgia
1:15:19 to 1:17:58
Discover a YouTube channel that creates impressive covers of 80s synth music, sparking nostalgia.
The Creative Tools of Today
1:17:59 to 1:21:08
Reflect on the evolution of music production tools and their impact on creativity.
“That is absolutely what I'm going to do because every time I see these channels, it's not the music.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:04Brian Schulmeister:Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show where we discuss the finer points of what went wrong on the internet and who's to blame. I'm Jason DeFillippo.
0:11Jason DeFillippo:And I'm Brian Schulmeister. And as somebody that's no stranger to hearing about bad things happening to him on our show, Elon Musk is in the news yet again. Again? X is facing yet another investigation into Grok's reported creation of non-consensual sexual images on the platform. Ireland's Data Protection Commission, the DPC, has announced an inquiry into X regarding the harmful intimate images and processing of EU and EEA individuals' personal data, including children. In an 11-day period, X, theoretically, generated about 3 million sexualized images, an estimated 23 ,000 of which were children.
0:48Jason DeFillippo:British nonprofit, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, the CCDH. I remember when hearing all these kind of acronyms and just letters meant I was listening to like Long Beach early rap. Now it's this stuff. The CCDH from the LBC. You down with the DPC? Yeah, you know me. Has announced the results of its December 29th to January 9th review last month. It's looking into if X has properly assessed and mitigated Grok's risks on X, including the spread of illegal content such as the AI generation of non-consensually sexually explicit images once again, which includes those of children. This disturbing point can't be emphasized enough, as much as Elon wishes it wasn't.
1:33Jason DeFillippo:X claimed mid-January that it was preventing Grok from editing photos of real people to give them revealing clothing, as many pervs on Reddit complained about ad nauseum. However, this does seem to be far from the truth. As we talked about just a couple weeks back, a male reporter found Grok would still put him in revealing clothing and even added visible genitalia. So no ladies, just men. But the Grok thing continues. I hope he got a bump.
1:57Brian Schulmeister:We could use one. Appreciate it. So as we know, Meta's in the news right now because they're battling lawsuits on both fronts. It's all over the news that the Zuck is in town here in L.A. wearing his glasses into court or at least part of his entourage. And the judge had to actually say, that's a no, no. That is illegal. You can't do that. Sorry. Well, this comes out of the New Mexico trial. MetaZone internal testing found its chatbots failed to protect minors from sexual exploitation nearly 70 percent of the time, according to documents revealed in a New Mexico trial. A swing and a miss. An expert witness, NYU professor Damon McCoy, testified that Meta's bots violated company content policies about two-thirds of the time during red team exercises.
2:44Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, two-thirds. That's not great numbers. Definitely not a great number. 66.8 % failure rate for child sexual exploitation scenarios, 63.6 % for sex-related or violent crimes and hate, and 54.8 % for suicide and self-harm content. That's not a rounding error. That is a systematic problem. New Mexico's attorney general is suing Meta over design choices that allegedly put kids at risk. And Meta rolled out AI Studio to the public last year and only paused teen access to its AI characters last month.
3:16Jason DeFillippo:I'm beginning to think that these sites might have a problem, Jason, and they're just not addressing it.
3:21Brian Schulmeister:Do you think, Brian? Do you think? I'm thinking. Well, Ring had a problem and they addressed it. Amazon is backing away from plans to wire Ring doorbells directly into police workflows after a predictable privacy backlash. The company had planned a partnership with Flock Safety that would let police request Ring footage, effectively turning doorbells into a neighborhood surveillance mesh. Officially, Ring says the integration would have taken more time and resources than expected. Sure. Unofficially, this comes after public outrage over Ring's search party feature, which marketed with a lost dog Super Bowl ad, but raised obvious fears about facial recognition, immigration enforcement and profiling and everything else that we're always worried about Ring doing with the cameras everywhere.
4:06Brian Schulmeister:Sure, we just created a panopticon, but you found Fluffy. Thanks for finding Fido and Felipe and Octavio and all my other friends that have been deported. Appreciate it, Ring. Now, here's the funny part. Ring's search party feature was pitched as a feel-good way to find lost dogs, but a leaked internal email suggests this was just the beginning, Brian. Shocking. Shocking. In an email obtained by 404 Media, Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff told employees the system was launched, quote, first for finding dogs with the longer-term goal of using it to zero out crime in neighborhoods. Today it's Fido.
4:47Brian Schulmeister:Tomorrow, everything else. That's right. Yep. Yep. If you go back to last week's episode, you can find the link to disable that shit and turn it off. Because, of course, it's on by default. Of course. It's not now. They fixed that. I went and looked at mine, and it is off. It was off when I went in to check it. So, yeah. So, Dino better stay his fucking in the yard. That's all I got to say. He better not get out.
5:12Jason DeFillippo:All right. Well, how about Reddit? Reddit, Meta, and Google. And what they did this last week, they voluntarily complied with some of the requests for identifying details of users critical of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a.k.a. ICE. We're fucked. Sent as part of a recent wave of administrative subpoenas, the Department of Homeland Security had been distributing to Big Tech for the past few months, according to an anonymously sourced New York Times report. Now, for once, we can't actually be upset with the platforms, the platforms this time, because they did get subpoenas. Yes. But what the fuck is the Department of Homeland Security doing distributing these and getting these?
5:51Jason DeFillippo:You can't say shit online anymore. You can't disagree with the policy anymore. You're not allowed to complain about ICE at all online. And if you do, they're going to find out who you are. What the actual fuck? What country do we live in? Well, do you live in?
6:06Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. Yeah, that was a wee shit, traitor. Yeah, no, it's fucked up. It is absolutely fucked up. And you have to actually go to court to find out what the hell's going on. You know, it is, you know, we've got anti-slap laws for crap like this, you know? So we need anti-DHS laws and anti-ice laws. I mean, actually, we just need no ice and reform DHS and all that other shit. But anyway, yeah, it's bullshit. It's bullshit. At least they're telling people they're telling people that this is happening.
6:39Jason DeFillippo:According to The Times, one or multiple of the relevant companies have stated that they notified users. But that means not all of them. Right. Want to bet that?
6:48Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, exactly. I'm looking at you, Zuck. I'm looking at you, Zuck. Oh, and this just in U.S. Supreme Court rules six to three that President Donald Trump sweeping tariffs are illegal. Wow. How about that? How about that? The Supreme Court actually did something. Holy shit.
7:07Jason DeFillippo:Maybe the eggs won't cost$75 tomorrow.
7:11Brian Schulmeister:In the news.
7:18Brian Schulmeister:Brian, Open Claw has been all the rage for the AI bros for the past couple weeks. And yeah, I tried it. I'm sure you didn't, but I gave it. I did not. But you know what?
7:28Jason DeFillippo:It was a reliable thing for me to base my life on. Basically, anybody that talked about OpenClaw on social media, block.
7:35Brian Schulmeister:Block, yeah, which is why I didn't talk about it. Yeah, I set up a Mac Mini because I had an extra one lying around, and I spent about a half an hour with it, and I was reading the how-tos, and all of the how-tos are about like, don't do this because of security. Don't do this because of bad security. Don't do this, don't do this, don't do this. Make sure you definitely don't do this. and i'm just like this is a bad idea delete i uh i followed a thread on i i think it was blue sky
8:09Jason DeFillippo:maybe it was blue sky i can't remember where but it was somebody uh and i can't remember who it was so i apologize for bad reporting here but it was somebody with a blue mark so they knew what they were doing they were involved in the tech world it was some kind of reporter and he posted an open question saying i am genuinely curious i am not crapping on anything i want to be told i I want to learn what exactly can OpenClaw do in real terms for a regular person? What can it do for me? Please explain. And then all the bros came out and tried to, and then every single time he was like, okay, so, but I can check my own email.
8:47Jason DeFillippo:Exactly. Okay, but I wouldn't give it my credit card. Okay, but I don't need it to do that. Okay, but that's bizarre entirely. that particular situation has never come up in my life and never will. Never will. Yeah. And there was zero use case scenarios that actually make sense to anybody.
9:08Brian Schulmeister:Some of them were like, you know, Open Claw will call you in the morning and tell you what your schedule is for the day and any bullet points or things like that. I'm like, well, I can look at my calendar. Yeah. That's fine. I can set an alarm to wake up. Yeah. And one of them is like, it can make a podcast for you of all of the things you have to do today and all of the news and everything like that. I'm like, I don't want that. I don't want that. That's what we're for. You know, that is what we're for.
9:33Jason DeFillippo:And we've had these sorts of things before. The ladies in the tube, when they first rolled out, they had those kind of features where, like, get your morning report. And it would, like, distill you with a couple headlines. And it would tell you what you had in the calendar. And then nobody used them because we can just do that ourselves. Do that. Yeah. Exactly.
9:51Brian Schulmeister:and do it properly. Yes. We don't have to worry. We don't have to worry that 80 % of the things that we're going to be doing that day didn't actually exist in the calendar.
10:00Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, exactly. So I don't get it. I just don't get it. And it seems like a really bad idea.
10:06Brian Schulmeister:Well, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger is joining OpenAI, saying that he wants to focus on building AI agents regular humans can actually use, like my mom level usable, not running yet another startup. So OpenClaw itself isn't being swallowed by OpenAI. It's moving into an independent foundation and staying open source with OpenAI already sponsoring the project. Now, Steinberger says he shopped the idea around all the major AI labs and got access to unreleased research and concluded that teaming up with OpenAI was the fastest way to scale the vision without turning it into a VC treadmill. Now, here's the funny part.
10:42Brian Schulmeister:It's based on Claude. It used to be called OpenClaude, but, you know, Anthropics said, hold the phone buddy hold the phone and then it went through a couple iterations and ended up in open claw you know who didn't ask him to join the team anthropic so yeah they're like yeah yeah yeah that's fine and it's all it's all just a bunch of cobbled together scripts that you know it is a giant fucking security hole it is the reason that you don't do shit like this yeah uh you know it is giving a child a nuclear weapon and a credit card nuclear weapons and credit cards that's what
11:17Jason DeFillippo:babies get you know i've started playing wordle with my kid every morning i letting my kid play wordle not playing with him just you know i bring it up on my phone i hand him the phone as soon as he's done playing wordle i take that goddamn phone away from it yeah exactly but i'm just supposed to let a bunch of scripts have fucking free reign over my complete internet and my computer and my internet and my accounts and my credit card no fucking way no and i mean
11:44Brian Schulmeister:It's supposed to be cool because you can set up a Telegram account or a Slack account or just message it with iMessage to tell it what to do. And then it'll spin off a bunch of bots that you have no idea how much money it's going to cost you at the end of the day. Because remember, this shit's not free. So what's the fucking point? Well, tech companies are slamming the brakes on OpenClaw. And, you know, even Meta says, no, we don't want this around anything that is important. So, yeah. Let's put that on our internal servers. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Oh, I don't know if this one made it into the – I saw this this morning.
12:21Brian Schulmeister:If I did, I'll take it out later. There's a report that came out that – like from an insider, all of the Amazon downtime that has happened recently, you know, there's been a couple big major outages, all due to AI coding tools fucking up.
12:35Jason DeFillippo:I wonder if that's what donked out YouTube earlier this week too.
12:39Brian Schulmeister:I don't know. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, because I just got a notification that Chrome yesterday has a bunch of new Gemini features that will do agentic browsing for you. The point of fucking web browsing is so I do it. I don't care. It's called browsing. I want to browse. That's the point. Yeah, exactly. I want to do it. I don't know if you noticed. The thing that they're always saying is that it can book a vacation for you. You know, you can get the flights, get the hotels, all that. I don't want that. We used to have travel agents for that. And then we had Expedia. And then we can do it our fucking selves.
13:10Jason DeFillippo:And I want to do it myself. That's the thing. Actually, I don't. But my wife loves to do that.
13:15Brian Schulmeister:My dad, your wife does it. Exactly. Oh, man. Speaking of fucked up chatbots, a new Department of Health and Humane Services, human services, there's nothing humane about the Department of Health and Human Services.
13:28Jason DeFillippo:Hey, don't yuck on people's yum.
13:30Brian Schulmeister:Maybe they like this advice. Yeah, well, the advice is pretty good. Their new food guidance site launched with an AI assistant promising real answers about food and users promptly asked it which foods could be inserted into the rectum. And the bot confidently suggested bananas and cucumbers. It's not wrong for once. It's not wrong. Pretty spot on. Oh, yeah. And this comes after RFK Jr.'s broader overhaul of U.S. dietary guidelines, pushing protein, red meat, saturated fats, while downplaying decades of, you know, science. Yeah.
14:03Jason DeFillippo:Just makes me think of that South Park episode where they started eating in reverse. Oh, I didn't see that one. They shoved food up their ass and they had a fake Martha Stewart and then they would puke it out. It was just very, very funny. Anyways, let's talk about some real world consequences of these AI companies and how they're kind of screwing us if you just kind of want to be a normal human being with computers. External hard disks, man. You want an external hard drive, Jason? Tough shit. I like them. Tough shit. try to buy one because the current you got to get one now because as soon as the current retail inventory runs out that's it you're hosed that's it during a recent q2 earnings called western digital ceo irving tan told shareholders we pretty much sold out of hard drives for all of 2026 we have firm purchase orders with our top seven customers and guess who they are they're all the ai companies ai companies yep yeah so according to tan on that same call two of their agreements with these big buyers go to 2027 and another all the way into 2028.
15:08Jason DeFillippo:They basically pivoted to just be a B2B and forget it. You can't get a hard drive from them. That's it. They're done. You cannot buy one if you wanted one.
15:18Brian Schulmeister:You know, Brian, people used to make fun of me because of my chia farm that I had back during the pandemic. Remember that thing? I had a wall of hard drives. Who's the fool now. Where's that all of our drive, Jason? It's in the storage tub about two miles away. But it's funny, too. Dude, you can start throwing them up on eBay, man. It's killing me. I just gave Andy Preboy my old Synology that had four 7.5 terabyte drives in it because he needs to back up all of his music because he's a boomer and has everything on little thumb drives around his garage. And I'm like, dude, come on, come on. So I gave it to him.
Read the full transcript
15:56Brian Schulmeister:I could retire on that thing now. Pretty much. I'm going to go out. He's going to have moved and like, you know, he's like, oh, don't talk to me anymore. I'm on my island after I sold your Synology. Thanks, bro.
16:07Jason DeFillippo:Well, continuing on, Valve has posted a notice on the Steam Deck page with a warning that the handheld gaming console may be out of stock intermittently in certain regions due to memory and storage shortages. The company also reiterated that the more affordable Steam Deck LCD is no longer in production and will no longer be available once stocks run out. So again, RAM and storage shortages, which are plaguing tech manufacturers due to massive demand for those components from the AI companies. No more Steam Decks. If you want anything tech-related, buy it now. Now. Or start a farm. Or just stop.
16:43Jason DeFillippo:Maybe you don't need a new Steam Deck. Maybe you don't need the Switch 2. Maybe you're fine with the one you already have, as I keep trying to tell my son.
16:51Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, I'm telling you, old technology is great, man. Yeah, get him an old Game Boy. I've actually got an old Game Boy. I'll send it up to you. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. I was going to say tariffs, but now tariffs are legal. They're illegal. Illegal now, yes. We're good. Illegal, so yeah. Oh, my God. I found my carrying case with all my SD cards in it last night. I may have a terabyte worth of SD cards in there at least. So maybe I can just – I'll be swapping. You know, just be like, swap, swap, swap, swap. It's like SD cards with the new ZipDisc.
17:21Jason DeFillippo:Pretty much, yeah.
17:22Brian Schulmeister:I love those zip disks. I think I still have one sitting around somewhere. Oh, man. You know, iOmega was, the OEM for iOmega was Epson. All of those things were actually made by Epson.
17:33Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, that's crazy.
17:34Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. I did the first website for Epson in 1995. And the first Epson America. And as a perk, we had zip disks everywhere because they would just send them to us. And we had the pre-release ones too. It was pretty cool. I wish I still had my PsyQuest drive though. That would have been great.
18:02Brian Schulmeister:well let's go to a different bit of news here steve bannon is being sued in federal court over an alleged alleged my ass cryptocurrency scheme tied to a pro maga token called let's go brandon coin or fjb these guys are such assholes yeah such assholes yeah a class action filed in washington dc claims bannon and associate boris epstein different no relation no relation yeah secretly took control of the token in 2021 without paying for it then promoted it to retail investors while posing as neutral commentators after public promotion on bannon's podcast the tokens price spiked more than 260 % in a day.
18:44Brian Schulmeister:Each transaction carried an 8 % fee with 5 % marked as charitable donations. Well, vacation fund. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. Going to Epstein Island. The lawsuit alleges only about$15 ,000 ever reached charity. Well, roughly$2.7 million is unaccounted for. Look under Bannon's collars. He's got all those collars. He just stuffs money underneath them. Investors say a later wallet freeze, rebrand and shutdown locked in insider control and wiped out the token's value. Now that's to say that the token actually ever had value because it's a cryptocurrency token.
19:22Jason DeFillippo:Yes.
19:24Brian Schulmeister:Well, a little follow up on Roblox here now. Los Angeles County is getting in on the action and they're suing Roblox, accusing the platform of unfair and deceptive practices that allegedly exposed kids to sexual content grooming online predators, blah, blah, blah. The complaint says Roblox markets itself as a safe space for children while failing to implement strong enough moderation and age verification, yada, yada, yada.
19:48Jason DeFillippo:Roblox markets itself as a safe place for children, and Tesla markets itself as self-driving. Oh, both got struck down in California now.
19:55Brian Schulmeister:Oh, yeah. Roblox says it strongly disputes the claims, yada, yada, yada. The county is seeking civil penalties and injunctions under California's consumer protection laws, marking the first state-level government lawsuit of its kind against the company because it sounds like somebody needs to make their rent payment because that's what this is. Yeah, they're looking for a payday. The L.A. County is looking for a payday. It's like, oh, what are you doing, guys? Tesla, speaking of, since you brought it up, Tesla keeps telling us robotaxis are safer than humans, but the numbers are coming out of Austin and telling us a very, very different story.
20:29Brian Schulmeister:According to the NHTSA data flagged by Electric, Tesla disclosed five new robo-taxi crashes in December and January alone, all involving Model Y vehicles operating autonomously in Austin. The incidents weren't exactly high-speed chaos. Think like hitting fixed objects at low speeds, backing into things, and even getting hit by a bus while stopped. But they still count as crashes, as would any other, you know, Waymo's same thing. But that brings Tesla's robo-taxi total to 14 crashes since the service launched last summer. Now, based on Tesla's own earnings report, the fleet has logged roughly 800 ,000 paid miles.
21:08Brian Schulmeister:And if you do the math on that, that's one crash about every 57 ,000 miles. Now, for context, Tesla's own vehicle safety report says the average U.S. driver has a minor crash every 229 ,000 miles. So in other words, Tesla's robo-taxis appear to be crashing at roughly four times the rate of humans.
21:27Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked about that months and months ago, that the numbers seem pretty skewy and pretty crazy and not that solid. So now that we're actually getting solid numbers, we're finding out, oh, yeah, maybe these things aren't as safe, or at least Tesla's. Yeah.
21:43Brian Schulmeister:And these are the ones they get caught for, you know, because before they were under investigation by the NHTSA because they were turning off the autopilot the millisecond before the crash happened. So they could say that, well, technically, FSD wasn't engaged at the time of the accident, just at the time of the airbag deploy, but not by the time that it fully inflated. So we can't count that one. Right. So, yeah, way to fudge the numbers. Well, Tesla did just dodge a 30-day sales ban in California by finally dropping the word regulators have hated for years, which was autopilot.
22:16Jason DeFillippo:You mean the word that tells you that the car could drive itself? Because that's exactly what the word means and that's the way they're marketing it? Yeah, that one. That one.
22:25Brian Schulmeister:Okay. Yeah. The California DMV has been threatening to suspend Tesla's sales and manufacturing licenses over what it called deceptive marketing. No shit. But the issue wasn't the software itself, but the names, Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, which regulators said made drivers think the cars could do far more than they actually can because people who buy Teslas obviously don't read the fucking manual.
22:47Jason DeFillippo:Look, if I listen to our show, if I go to the bar and I walk around telling all the ladies I have an eight foot cock. And I don't have an eight foot cock.
22:57Brian Schulmeister:That would be deceptive advertising. I'm saying.
23:04Brian Schulmeister:those are my jokes brian god damn it i am channeling my energy i'm channeling my interjacent today i feel dirty oh god well tesla has already labeled full self-driving as eight foot cock supervised so brian if you say you have a supervised eight foot cock i was talking about The fowl, obviously.
23:26Jason DeFillippo:Oh, sure. Like, back at home, because chickens and eggs cost so much, I have an eight-foot cock.
23:31Brian Schulmeister:There you go. Okay. Well, yes. They changed it to full self-driving supervised, but kept using autopilot. Now it's autocock. That's it. I'm stuck on autocock.
23:43Jason DeFillippo:The autoblow. Oh, the good old days.
23:45Brian Schulmeister:Oh, the autoblow, too. Yes. Oh, man. Dems was the days. Oh, boy. I remember trying to sell that thing at a, if you don't know what I'm talking about, that was the blowjob device that somebody had me test on the show. Not on the show, thank God. No, I didn't do it actually on the show, for the show. But I had it and I was going to sell it. I was living with a friend of the show, MXV, at the time, and we had a yard sale. It was like the whole neighborhood yard sale where everybody in the neighborhood was walking from house to house to house. And I put it out on the table. He's like, no. Grabbed it.
24:21Brian Schulmeister:So you are not putting that, you're not selling that at the yard sale. Not like anybody would buy it. I would like to know the person that would buy a used blowjob device to begin with. And so we could move or at least label them as a predator. But anyway.
24:32Jason DeFillippo:Say what you will about the product. At least unlike Phil's self-driving or autopilot, it did what it said.
24:38Brian Schulmeister:It actually worked. Yes. No deception. No, I made it to my destination in one piece. How's that?
24:48Brian Schulmeister:Oh, Jesus. Okay. We won't. Let's move on to New York. Get yourself together, Brian. Get yourself together. We're professionals, for fuck's sake. We're professionals. Well, New York just told robo-taxis not so fast. Slow it down. Governor Kathy Holschuhl has pulled a proposal that would have updated state law to let autonomous taxis operate outside New York City. The problem is New York's vehicle code still requires a driver to keep one hand on the wheel at all times. What they do with that other hand is up to them. Up to them. Hochul's plan would have loosened that rule, but legislative support wasn't there.
25:39Brian Schulmeister:Oh, it's a day. It's definitely a day, Brian. Okay. Okay. Well, Waymo can keep testing in New York City. Oh, God. Let's move on. Let's move on. Well, here's some serious news, Brian. Let's get serious here. We're into Polymarket news now. All right? All right. Polymarket yanked a prediction market titled Artemis II Explodes after it went viral and people understandably freaked out about betting on astronauts dying. The company said the contract was never about crew safety, only a hypothetical booster stage hardware failure. to me speak pretty one day, hardware failure after separation, but the headline did all the damage.
26:19Brian Schulmeister:Now, Polymarket tried a quick rename to Artemis II booster rupture and then pulled the market entirely, refunding traders, citing confusion over the outcome.
26:28Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, this is a great idea, this bet on anything. When Polymarket marketed itself by claiming it was legal sports betting, creating markets for things like military strikes and warfare and allowed people to predict if the NASA Artemis II rocket would explode and kill everyone on board, that all seemed fine. Okay. at least to Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin. But betting on the price of cryptocurrencies in five-minute intervals, that's a step too far. Oh, okay. Because that affects my bottom line. Yeah. He says, they seem to be over-converging to an unhealthy product market fit, embracing short-term cryptocurrency price bets, sports betting, and other similar things that have dopamine value, but not any kind of long-term fulfillment or societal information value, he wrote.
27:08Jason DeFillippo:Let me tell you something, Vitalik. Nothing you are involved in or care about has any societal value. I'm just going to go out on a limb. My guess is that teams feel motivated to capitulate to these things because they bring... I use big words is what I'm getting from Vitalik. I threw this into chat GPT because they bring in large revenue during a bear market when people are desperate, an understandable motive, but one that leads to corpo slop. Whatever the fuck that is. Corpo slop is something that AI slop invented, I believe. Let's pause real quick to linger on the fact that it is an understandable motive to want to extract money from desperate people.
27:47Jason DeFillippo:Just like fucking crypto. Let that wash over you and realize that that's their fucking business plan. It's the business plan. Oh, greater fool theory in effect. He acknowledged that prediction markets basically require losers to operate and he's not opposed to people losing money. There's nothing fundamentally morally wrong with taking money from people with dumb opinions, but there still is something fundamentally cursed about relying on this too much. It gives the platform the incentive to seek out traders with dumb opinions and create a public brand and community that encourages dumb opinions to get more people to come in.
28:22Jason DeFillippo:Exactly what Polymarket and CalSheet do. That, again, is the business model.
28:29Brian Schulmeister:Is the business model. I want to go check and see what the run rate is right now for us to attack Iran, because I'm pretty sure we'll be able to find out from the insider traders when we're actually going to attack Iran. It's, you know, it's coming soon. We're going to do it. So let's just figure out there. Like, we got to check the pizza thing. Oh, we'll talk about the pizza thing later. We'll talk about that one later.
28:49Jason DeFillippo:And Nevada is taking action against these prediction markets. The state's gambling regulators and attorney general sued Calci on Tuesday. They accused the company of bypassing Nevada law by operating a sports gambling market without proper licenses. In addition, they say they provide services to individuals under 21, which violates state law. Maybe they can get Roblox age check feature. No, there you go. there yeah because you know those are all working so well yeah of course of course vegas is coming in and saying hang on a second this is our gig but unfortunately this comes a day after the trump administration claimed that only the federal government has the right to enforce the industry which he just pulled out of a fucking hat somewhere because where's that written in any law uh there of course the businesses are saying their event contracts and they should be regulated as financial investments rather than gambling.
29:36Jason DeFillippo:Quick note here, then regulate because you're not being regulated as financial markets either. You're not being regulated at all. At all. The Trump administration, of course, has conflicts of interest in this area. Not coincidentally, prediction markets are growing part of the Trump family business. Donald Trump Jr. is a paid advisor to Cal Sheep. He's also an investor and an unpaid advisor to Polymarket. And in January, he announced on social media that he would launch his own prediction market platform. So yeah, there's all that.
30:07Brian Schulmeister:Okay. Lovely. You know, I'm not even going to go there. Never fucking mind. Never mind. Let's move on.
30:16Jason DeFillippo:You know what? All I have to say about any of that stuff is if the UK can arrest a prince, we can arrest a wannabe king.
30:22Brian Schulmeister:There we go. There we go. Well, inside Jack Dorsey's block, Look, the vibes are not immaculate, as they say. Who's right? I didn't even know. I see ads for it's not straight. What's the what's the one that they use? What the fuck? Stripe, not Stripe. Stripe is the other one. What the fuck is Jack Dorsey's company called? Used to be called before he changed it to block. I can't remember. Jesus. Next time I go get a coffee somewhere, I'll find it. After laying off hundreds of employees earlier this month with cuts, that could hit up to 10 % of staff workers say morale is the worst it's been in years.
31:02Brian Schulmeister:Management is calling the firings performance-based, not cost-cutting, which isn't exactly landing too well. Employees are now required to send weekly updates to Dorsey, who feeds them into generative AI for summaries because his beard was just too busy to read them all. Dorsey has doubled down saying some staff were phoning it in and that everyone needs to lean hard into AI or risk falling behind competitors. Jack, you know what phoning it in is?
31:26Jason DeFillippo:It's when you feed all the feedback that you've asked for into AI. That's fucking phoning it in. That's phoning it in. Get on the fucking ground with your goddamn employees. You're phoning it in, you fuck.
31:37Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. No, because he fired all of his HR people, Brian, just replaced them with one bot. One bot to fire them all.
31:45Jason DeFillippo:One bot to rule them all.
31:47Brian Schulmeister:And it's stuffed in his fucking beard somewhere. Oh, God. Remember the old NFT gold rush, Brian, back in the day?
31:54Jason DeFillippo:Oh, back when the tech news was just funny.
31:57Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. Well, I love this one. This is a palate cleanser here, Brian. Justin Bieber dropped$1.3 million on a bored ape back in the day. That was great. Good for you. Yeah. Guess what it's worth now? Five bucks. 12 grand. 12 grand. 12 grand if he can find somebody to buy it, which he's actually not doing because it would It probably cost him more than 12 grand in his time to actually try and find somebody to buy the damn thing.
32:25Jason DeFillippo:Well, look, he saved a lot of time by performing at the Grammys without putting on pants.
32:29Brian Schulmeister:That's right. He couldn't afford pants because he put them on his board ape.
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36:10Brian Schulmeister:Media Candy. Brad, I've been a fan of Burt Kreischer for many a year. Until recently, the last couple of years, his stand-up has kind of gone downhill. And I've just been like, eh, you know, he's phoning it in. Maybe he should work at Jack Dorsey's company. At Block. Square. Square. That's it. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. Nice callback. There you go. Speaking of comedy. Well, he has a six-part actual show on Netflix called Free Burt. Free Burt. Yeah. I was trepidatious, to say the least, to watch it. And my roommate and I just finally, we had nothing else to watch. All the baking shows weren't recording for a couple more days.
36:49Brian Schulmeister:you know tournament of champions hasn't started yet every cooking show on the planet that we watch is not it was out so we watched free bird after the first episode we were in tears we were laughing so hard it is so fucking funny the whole series it's six parts about 24 minutes an episode watch it you will fucking love it i'm telling you right now it is great uh then cat williams has some new stand-up which is pretty funny because he addresses all of the crap that went down in the interview that, you know, the interview that no one will ever forget if you are a Cat Williams fan. And oh my god, it's good.
37:26Brian Schulmeister:It's decent. I give it a solid B+. Because his last couple stand-up specials were definitely Cs. So it's nice to have Cat back.
37:34Jason DeFillippo:All right. Just on shows that I've been keeping up with, Shrinking remains decent. That horrible first episode seems to have been an anomaly. The Pit is fantastic. Star Trek Starfleet Academy, I thought, came back with a pretty good episode this last month. You liked last night? Yeah, it wasn't bad. It was me. Okay. It was fine. It was fine. Yeah. Let's see. What did I do? I watched Shrek with a kid. He had never seen Shrek before, so we decided let's get into the Shrek-averse, as it were. I'm making waffles. I'm making waffles. And you know what? I remember our memory of that movie is better than the movie actually is.
38:12Jason DeFillippo:Oh, too bad. I guarantee you. There are some funny bits, but it is not as laugh out loud, crazy funny as as we remember it being.
38:21Brian Schulmeister:OK, well, I mean, the Waffles line is that that in the cat, those are the only two things that you got to remember. Antonio Banderas and Eddie Murphy made that movie as far as I'm concerned.
38:30Jason DeFillippo:So there's there's well, actually, Antonio Banderas isn't even in the first one. There is no Puss in Boots.
38:36Brian Schulmeister:There's no Puss in Boots in the first one. No. OK, yeah. My memory definitely is failing me.
38:40Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, there is a really funny bit and the one that like killed us, all of us. The whole family was just rolling on the couch was John Lithgow and doing the, do you know the Muffin Man? The Muffin Man? The Muffin Man? That was hilarious. My kid is really into Mark Rober. Well, he didn't know who Mark Rober was, but a bunch of his. I don't know who Mark Rober is. He's an ex-NASA guy that started a YouTube channel that it's basically Mythbusters for YouTube. Like it's all science and let's blow shit up. and and uh but uh it's quite well done um most of my kids friends are you are on youtube we do not let our kid do youtube so it was very very great to discover that he basically has done a greatest hits series on netflix so he's got a bunch of different episodes uh you do know mark rober because mark rober is the guy that does the tesla video a long time ago where he drove it he was testing it and with the lidar and everything so that that's him so he does a lot of stuff like that.
39:39Jason DeFillippo:And he's got a whole little show on Netflix right now, so I don't have to go into YouTube with the kid. There's two seasons of 10 to 21 minute episodes. They're all great. They're a lot of fun. I have a lot of respect for this guy. He does a really good job. It's showing my age because it's definitely not as science-y as I want it to be. It's definitely YouTube geared. Let's blow shit up. Let's have funny jokes. Quick cuts, all that sort of stuff. But of all the things my kid could be watching, I'm very happy with him. And I think you'd enjoy it too, Jason. It's a lot of fun.
40:16Brian Schulmeister:I've seen it on the, it's come by the scroll. So maybe I'll check it out. Yeah. Because also this week, Beast Games had its penultimate episode on Amazon Prime Video. And it was great. Great cliffhanger. And tonight, actually as soon as possible, humanly possible, the Traders finale is happening. So I have to go see the Traders finale. These are important things for me, Brian. And these are very important things. Traders this season has been incredible.
40:40Jason DeFillippo:I see a lot of promo on the scroll for traders because I'm going into, what is it, the Peacock app for the Olympics. We've been watching a lot of Olympics.
40:49Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. Now, there's lots of traders from all around the world on Peacock. So the only reason I've got it right now is that.
40:55Jason DeFillippo:Peacock is gone as soon as the Olympics are done.
40:58Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. As soon as this season of the traders is over, it's done. But March 5th, I believe, Traders Ireland starts up. So I'll be a bit torning that. All right. I can't wait. Legacy of Monsters is coming back. Monarch Legacy of Monsters is coming back on Apple TV on February 27th. So a week from today. I enjoyed that show. I'm happy about this. I enjoyed it too. I thought it was a little long in the middle in some parts. But, you know, having the father and son play the same part I thought was genius. So that was fun. And I thought it ended on a pretty good cliffhanger. I don't remember what it was, but yes.
41:36Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, yeah. I'm sure they'll have an AI-generated 20-minute recap. Can't wait. Can't wait for that. I did see the movie. Good luck. Have fun. Don't die this week.
41:48Jason DeFillippo:Oh, yeah? The trailer looks amazing. I've been hearing a lot about it, and then he put it in the show notes. I watched the trailer. I love the trailer.
41:55Brian Schulmeister:The movie is so fucking good. Okay. So good. Sam Rockwell is insanely good in this movie. I have not seen a movie this good since Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. That movie was also incredible and just out of left field, like crazy, like what the hell's going on? Same thing, but this is AI based. So AI, phone culture, the whole nine yards. As soon as you can, Brian. It feels very 12 Monkeys. It's very, I mean, teeny tiny little bit. Very teeny tiny bit 12 Monkeys. But it's, yeah, dude, it is so good. It is so fucking good.
42:34Jason DeFillippo:I can't wait for it to come out on some sort of streaming because getting to a theater with a kid and seeing an adult movie is next to impossible.
42:43Brian Schulmeister:There's this place, this land of Sweden you can travel to where the movies fall from the trees magically.
42:53Jason DeFillippo:And having been watching the Olympics, so do the blondes, let me tell you. I'm sure.
42:59Brian Schulmeister:Remember our friend Thomas Benjamin Wilde Esquire? I do. He did a fantastic song called I Have No More Fucks to Give, which I linked in the show notes. He has a new song called Stop Using Generative AI. And it's very cute, very clever. That is also linked in the show notes. And I'm glad Thomas is back in the news with his new song. So I highly recommend checking those out.
43:18Jason DeFillippo:Yes, it's a great song. I was playing it with my wife around and she laughed and sent it on to everybody at Universal Music. Oh, God. Oh, me, oh, my. Do we want the arts to die? Because there's no one that killed them quite as quick as generative AI.
43:35Brian Schulmeister:Oh, God. Okay. Was it the team that just made all the deals with all the generative AI? Yeah, that team. Bittersweet. Apps and doodads. So, Brian, since I am in active bankruptcy court filings right now, I have decided to cut everything that I can that is a subscription-based model because... So, everything? I could have a credit card in about 10 minutes. So I've been paying for Obsidian, which is the, you know, the super ding-dong note taker, your second brain, as they call it. And it cost me five bucks a month for the sync feature on it to sync to all my devices. And it's okay. I find myself not using it very much because the Obsidian interface is fucking garbage.
44:21Brian Schulmeister:It's just one long list. And every time you click on a note, it just opens in a tab. and it's a pain in the ass to use. It's fine. It keeps everything in Markdown, which is kind of nice. But I just wanted to go back to Apple Notes because Apple Notes has been getting so much better. Every iteration, it gets so much better. It's such a solid app.
44:42Jason DeFillippo:I use it so many times for so many different use case scenarios. Unlike OpenClaw, I actually use Notes for a lot of things.
44:49Brian Schulmeister:It has a use. And now the note taking, like on my iPad, I just open a new note and I can just draw graphics. Super easy. I don't have to like do, you know, regions or zoom or anything like that. I just open it up, draw a thing and save it. And it's done. And that was the game changer for me that I can just take my iPad with my Apple pencil and just make a note. I'm like, okay, we're done. We're done. But taking a folder full of folders, full of folders of Markdown files from Obsidian and importing them into Apple notes sucked. It did not work. It absolutely did not work. None of the formatting worked.
45:21Brian Schulmeister:It was just a nightmare. So I found a little$14 piece of shareware called Obsidian to Notes. Best$14 I spent. Less than three months worth of sync, and it just imported everything, kept my folder structure, kept the formatting, and it took about, I had about 500 or 600 notes that I needed to move over, and it did it in about 15 minutes because it does it just note by note by note, and it does a very good job. So I highly recommend it if you're thinking of ditching Obsidian. Speaking of other things I'm ditching, Cursor, you know? uh, the vibe coding, uh, you know, poster child.
45:56Jason DeFillippo:This was a big deal. Yes.
45:57Brian Schulmeister:So if you go to Jason.FYI, that entire thing was vibe coded in cursor with Claude code integration back when I paid for Claude code, which I don't pay for anymore either anymore. Cause yeah, like I refer to the last five minutes. Um, so I canceled the$20 a month cursor subscription. And here's the funny thing. I canceled that before the bankruptcy thing started because they came up with this new model that they're using for like their their basic free stuff or not free the you know the basic without having to put in a side-loaded one i needed it to change i because in the top of jason.fyi there's like the podcasts i'm working on there used to be six now there's three um since all my clients decided that they don't need podcasts anymore or went with somebody else i just like move this from current to past.
46:48Brian Schulmeister:It had so much trouble doing just that one simple task, and it was making shit up along the way. It's like, oh, well, I see since you're moving it from current to past, that means that I'm just going to set where it said present, I'm going to set it to the current date, the year of 2025.
47:10Brian Schulmeister:So, yeah. Fuck you, Cursor. You're gone. So I just installed Visual Studio Code which is free and uh i can just write code when i need to write code right because i'm just telling you right the fucking vibe coding thing is it is getting i everybody says it's getting better and better and better it gets you 94 of the way there it's at six percent that last six percent is pretty fucking crucial because i don't know if you know that's the bit that makes it work with software you kind of need to be a hundred percent before it will compile run you know do all the shit that software is supposed to do 96 is not 100 i guess it's just not gonna do it yep not gonna do it
47:52Jason DeFillippo:well according to blueberg sources within apple say the company is indeed working on an ai pendant that you can pin to your shirt or wear as a necklace uh conveniently forgetting about the fact that they don't have decent ai at all yet well it's coming they got gemini now i was building with gemini so it sounds a lot like the pin formerly made by humane of course it reportedly has a camera for computer vision, a microphone so it can be operated by Siri, and potentially a speaker so that you could have a back and forth rapport with Siri as well, although that may not be happening. There's one thing that's different, of course, and that's the fact that it won't have the guts inside of itself.
48:26Jason DeFillippo:It will rely heavily on an iPhone for processing, which includes a chip that is closer in computing power to AirPods than an Apple Watch. So that's the route that they're going to take, which makes a lot of sense. and if you need or want one of those things. Again, nobody can really give me a good use case for it, but whatever. Yeah, Brad, I want to point something out to you. Yeah. See this?
48:48Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. See this right here?
48:49Jason DeFillippo:Does all the same stuff.
48:50Brian Schulmeister:Same shit. My Apple Watch does exactly the same shit. It talks to my iPhone when I need it to. I can talk to Siri on my watch. I can have to do all the same shit. Why would I buy something with cameras? It's basically, look, man, I've got a birth control personality already. I don't need to hang something around my neck that says, hey, chicks, don't fucking talk to me anymore, okay? So, yeah. It's fair. Have you tried telling him you have an eight-foot cock? No, but that's next on my list. It's supervised. I need a supervisor for my eight-foot cock. Would you like the job?
49:17Jason DeFillippo:They're also apparently working on smart glasses, of course. These will have two cameras, one for computer vision and another for pictures and videos. They'll reportedly have speakers and microphones, allowing wearers to make calls, play music, and snap pics and videos by using Siri. Both the smart glasses and the AI pin are tenuous, to be clear. Obviously, I think the pin is dumb. If you got the glasses, you don't need the pin. And I don't think anybody wants a pin anyways. We have seen that that does not work. So we'll see. I personally don't know why Apple's going down either road. I don't think that they need to do either.
49:50Jason DeFillippo:And if they're going to do glasses, they've got to do, they've got to Apple it. It's got to knock it out of the park. It's got to be something irresistible that won't make Jason even less chance of getting light.
50:01Brian Schulmeister:Exactly. I don't need any more roadblocks, please. He has no more roadblocks. He needs a paver. I do. But, you know, I would love a pair of glasses with a decent display in them. That's all I care about. I want to be able to, you know, see things if I ask something. I was like, show me some displays. Yeah. But I don't need another camera. And they're talking about cameras in AirPods now. No, I don't want those. Don't want that. Yeah. No, I want less technology. I want less intrusive technology in my life. Please. I want things that have use cases that I'm actually going to use and need. That's all.
50:36Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. And some people have been asking. This has been making the news. Apple Podcasts in the next version of iOS 26.4 is going to have more video. So we could have this video on Apple Podcasts. Well, here's two problems here. A, almost none of our audience listens on Apple Podcasts or watches on Apple Podcasts. Very small subset of our audience. Most people listen to the show on Overcast. And if you watch it, we've got it on YouTube now. And, you know, I saw somebody posted this to our Discord channel. I think it was. I just, my$160 investment in four months in time has almost garnered me the first vegetable from my garden that cost 25 cents.
51:17Brian Schulmeister:That's how I feel about us doing video and YouTube right now. It seems to be the case, yes. I bust my ass to make this video up for YouTube. and it is not really doing anything for us except making me grow old faster. So when it comes to Apple Podcasts and video, it gets worse. It gets much worse because you have to host the video yourself with Apple Podcasts and they only have four different podcast providers or hosting providers out of the gate. One of them's Art 19, which is where we host our audio podcast. Now, the ad market has dried up so much, we used to get paid to host our podcast on Art19.
51:57Brian Schulmeister:This last month, we had to pay Art19 to host our podcast just for the audio version, which is the lowest bandwidth that I can actually put out there to at least make the show sound somewhat decent. If you want the high def version, go to Patreon, three bucks a month, patreon.com slash GOG. Now, the video version, we'd have to pay for the bandwidth by ourselves for that. And anybody that has an Apple podcast video show is going to have to pay for that themselves, which means big corporations, big shows, those guys are going to be the ones that do the video, which means they're going to have another leg up on the independent podcaster.
52:28Brian Schulmeister:Great. Just more fun for us. So fuck you, Apple. Sorry. I agree. Oh, wait. The next story is mine. I don't get to huff and puff anymore. Here we go. And there's a new bit of internet shorthand making the round, which is AIDR, short for AI didn't read. That's perfect. Okay. You know? Yep. Makes sense. Yep. I do enough TLDRing. I don't need AIDR is just fine for me. There's also another new term that's making the rounds. This is for the low-grade panic that a lot of workers are feeling about AI eating their jobs, even though actual job losses mostly haven't happened yet in our bullshit press releases, which we've covered on the show for a couple months now.
53:07Brian Schulmeister:Well, researchers are calling it AI replacement dysfunction, or ERD. ERD. Which is the noise you make when you get the pink slip. They hand you the pink slip and you go ERD.
53:20Jason DeFillippo:so yeah what was the sound the guy made on uh six feet under when he died oh narm
53:28Brian Schulmeister:oh god do you remember uh hot fuzz the guy from hot fuzz yarp yarp air narb yarp
53:47Brian Schulmeister:At the library.
53:51Jason DeFillippo:I finished a book, Jason. It's called Cleave the Sparrow by Jonathan Katz. It is Jonathan Katz's first book. This is the strangest, weirdest, most bizarre book I think I've ever read in my life. I don't know how I found it. I don't know how it ended up in my Kindle. I don't remember any of it. It is part dystopia, part magical realism, part real-time, thinly-veiled Elon Musk, Donald Trump, part fucking weird man it is weird and i've got to say if you if you rate your books by i'm still thinking about it days after finishing it have not been able to pick up another book because i just stop and start thinking about whatever the fuck it was that i just read this is one of those books and i don't know if i liked it or not couldn't tell you that but i'm still thinking about it.
54:45Brian Schulmeister:It got into your Kindle queue because I read it and reviewed it on the show. And I had the same exact reaction to that book. That's how I got in my Kindle queue then.
54:53Jason DeFillippo:I don't remember
54:54Brian Schulmeister:you even talking about it. Man, it's weird. It leaves an impression. It absolutely leaves an impression. And I emailed Jonathan after I read the book and I'm like, this is the craziest fucking book I've ever read. And he's like, why, thank you. Here are a couple other books that you might want to read that I used for my, that I based my book on. And I'm like, okay. And I started reading those. I'm like, not as good as your book. Yeah. I think if you're listening, you should read this. I fucking loved it. It is a head twister. It is a completely weird and awesome book. I really loved it. I really loved it.
55:28Brian Schulmeister:Okay. At least the mystery solved of where I found it
55:31Jason DeFillippo:from and how I got in there. Okay.
55:34Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. It was a random Kindle Unlimited recommendation for me. That's how I got it. So now speaking of books that I didn't love, The Regicide Report, Laundry Files Book 14 by Charlie Strauss. Could have done without it. Could have done without it. I actually could have done without The Laundry Files after Bob left. Well, I have. Yeah.
55:57Jason DeFillippo:That's where I took my exit. I read the first post-Bob book, did not care for it, did not follow up after that. Now, I do have to ask, is there a Bob wrap-up in this? Yes, there is. Is it worth reading the last chapter?
56:11Brian Schulmeister:No. Okay. It was supremely dissatisfying. It was a supremely dissatisfying ending. It's an understandable ending, but it was supremely dissatisfying, I think. So I was bummed. I was really bummed. And it was one of those things where, like his latest books, the last run of this whole new regime books, it is chaos, chaos, chaos, story, story, story. And then three minutes of just unbridled wrap up. And it's just like, man, that was quick. It's like they've been like that recently. And I just don't like the style. I mean, that's kind of become his trademark style, just the way that, you know, it's just the slow burn of all of this buildup and then done.
57:01Brian Schulmeister:It's like, it kind of sucked. Kind of sucked. Well, I'll be skipping it then. Yeah, absolutely. There's no reason for you to go back and try and get caught up with that. Because there are hints to everything that happened to all of the other stuff that you won't understand if you haven't read the other books, which makes it pointless. So if you haven't been keeping up, don't worry about it. I did get a new book to cleanse the palate. Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal, My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince. Now, Robin Ince is the co-host of The Infinite Monkey Cage with co-host physicist Brian Cox.
57:34Brian Schulmeister:And I love Brian Cox. Brian Eightfoot Cox. And the best video that Brian Cox did was he did the feather in the bowling ball experiment in a giant vacuum chamber. If you've never seen that, go check it out. It's pretty awesome. But this is his co-host. And I think this was an Audible recommendation. Did I listen to it? And since he's an entertainer, he's been in entertainment for 30 years, it's a fantastic listen because he knows how to speak. Unlike most people who read their own audio books on Audible. By the way, 1.5x on Audible gets you past any horrible reader. So there's a pro tip on that.
58:12Brian Schulmeister:This is a fantastic book if you're neurodivergent in any way, shape, or form, because it will explain to you a lot of things that you probably forgot about or didn't know you had or why you had them. Yeah, if you're just weird, it's a great book. It's definitely a great book. Highly recommend it. Highly recommend it. I might actually read it twice. Although, now I might go back and read Cleave the Sparrow again, because now you got me kind of hyped up about that one again. That was such a good book. It's something. It's something. The Dark Side. Ha! With Dave.
58:51Brian Schulmeister:Welcome back to The Dark Side with Dave with podcast super host Dave Bittner. How is the weather out there? Is it freezing? It's freezing here. It's cold.
59:00Jason DeFillippo:Okay, it's all relative. I'm sure. What is it? a frigid 50 degrees where you are today?
59:05Brian Schulmeister:In my room, it's 55. So outside, it's probably 60. Actually, no, this morning it was 41 degrees when I walked the dog. I long for those temperatures. Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure. Poor baby. What pisses me off, though, is that it's so cold in here that I have to wear a hoodie so nobody can see my awesome hacker shirt. Because this is an awesome hacker shirt, but I have to cover it up because I'm freezing.
59:28Jason DeFillippo:Yeah, it's the glass. It's the Apple glasses you have to worry about, Jason. That's stopping you from getting laid. It's definitely the glasses or the potential pin. That is the problem.
59:40Brian Schulmeister:Shut up, Mr. Eight-Footcock. Well, you've come in late. You can't even late for the show, Dave.
59:48Jason DeFillippo:I've walked in on the middle of something that perhaps I really don't want to know more about. It's 48 degrees here today, and it is dreary and rainy. But we'll take it because it's washing away all of the dirty, yucky, nasty piles of snow. Same here. We have the exact same weather, Dave. Yeah. Yeah. That's what we're in for.
1:00:09Brian Schulmeister:So it was raining all week, so I finally got to watch The Muppet Show. And I have to say you guys were right. It was awesome.
1:00:15Jason DeFillippo:Thank goodness. Yeah, it really was.
1:00:20Brian Schulmeister:Dave would have to quit the show if I hated The Muppet, the new Muppet Show. He'd be like, I'm out.
1:00:24Jason DeFillippo:We'll quit the segment anyway. But yeah, I'm wondering what's taking them so long to announce more. Everything I've seen has been positive on the numbers on. And there's certainly rumors that they're going to make more, but no announcement yet. So who knows? But here's hoping.
1:00:43Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, just the right amount of Seth Rogen. You know, the Maya Rudolph bit was actually kind of funny. So that was good. And Sabrina Carpenter was fantastic.
1:00:51Jason DeFillippo:She was perfect for it. Yeah, I agree. So absolutely fantastic. It might be a bit because we do have the new CEO at Disney. So I'm sure that these decisions need to be made. And he probably doesn't even have his new business cards yet, you know. So you got to wait for these things. One thing that the Muppet Show did was it has fired a love of the Muppets into my child's heart, which I'm very pleased about. He never really got into them before. Since then, we've watched one of the latest movies, Muppets Most Wanted, which was pretty good. and he's been starting to stream Muppets now, which I think we all agreed when it came out was fine, not great, but fine.
1:01:31Jason DeFillippo:But he's really enjoying it. He's laughing hysterically on the couch. So I'm proud to say that my kid is a Muppet fan now. So that's great. All right. That's wonderful. It is no doubt a source of my subversive sense of humor came from the Muppets and Sesame Street. So it's wonderful to hear it's coming to the next generation. Yeah. And we finally got a real official trailer for The Mandalorian and Grogu, not the Budweiser ripoff that we got during the Super Bowl, which, you know, looks good. We'll see. Yeah, looks good. Yeah, I'm pleased. It looks appropriately cinematic. Doesn't just look like a TV show.
1:02:11Jason DeFillippo:So that's great. Although the line between those two things is getting skinnier and skinnier. But no, I'll be there opening weekend with my son, my wife, and we'll see it on the biggest theater we can and hope for the best. So, yeah.
1:02:28Brian Schulmeister:Sadly, I'll have to go to the theater, too, to see that because I'm definitely in. It looks great. I can't wait. I cannot wait. It hit all the right notes for me. Enough action and tongue-in-cheek. And, yeah, I can't wait. Absolutely.
1:02:43Jason DeFillippo:One thing I noted, I thought it was interesting that the trailer plays off of some of the original Star Wars soundtrack motifs, which the Mandalorian TV show conspicuously did not do. Different licensing agreements, maybe?
1:03:00Brian Schulmeister:It could be. It's a big screen. It's a big movie.
1:03:03Jason DeFillippo:You got to hit those notes. You got to hit that nostalgia. You got to hammer home. This is Star Wars. I hope Amy Sedaris is back in it. I do love her. Oh, yeah. Yeah. She's back. Yeah. Yeah.
1:03:16Brian Schulmeister:That's a good chance to go back and watch all the old episodes and get caught up. Mm-hmm. Because that's one, I think that's one you could actually watch again, and it's been long enough where you won't even remember that much.
1:03:26Jason DeFillippo:True.
1:03:27Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. True. We old. We old. Speaking of old, Toy Story 5 trailer dropped. Did you guys get a chance to check it out?
1:03:34Jason DeFillippo:Yes. I've seen it about 900 times, thanks to my kid. Hitting all the buttons. Yeah. Again, I'll be there opening weekend. Yes. Just so that I can feel something. Right? Yeah. I'm along for this ride. I saw someone joke earlier this week that because one of the gags in the trailer is that Woody is so old he has a bald spot.
1:04:03Brian Schulmeister:Yeah.
1:04:03Jason DeFillippo:And they said if you saw the original Toy Story in the theaters, chances are you too have a bald spot. And this is personal for me. Yeah, me too. It's true. So hit a little hard, but I will be there and I will let go and hopefully have all the feels and just have a couple hours away from the rest of the world. I know it's not a particularly controversial opinion. A lot of people have kind of said the same thing. I always felt that Toy Story could have ended at the end of Toy Story 3, that that that was a perfect ending to the series that especially now as a parent, I cannot watch it without. the room getting misty and my, but since we've continued on for the ride, I am, since we did not stop there, I'm happy.
1:04:55Jason DeFillippo:I'm thrilled with the storyline. I'm really interested to see what they do with the digital toys versus the, the traditional toys. And yeah, I'll, I'll be there opening day as well. Absolutely. Yeah.
1:05:06Brian Schulmeister:So speaking of the bald spot thing, it's so funny. There's a, I have to go to my recovery meeting on Wednesday mornings. I used to stop at this drug store, or not drugstore, the gas station right next to the room. And I had to stop going there because the security camera setup is, you see your monitor, there's monitors right in front of you, but the camera is right over the back of your head. So you are confronted with your decrepit body aging shit just to buy a pack of mints. And I'm like, I did not sign up for this, sir. If he was a smart marketer, he'd have a whole thing of Rogaine right there.
1:05:43Jason DeFillippo:Exactly. Seriously. I don't come in this. I don't come here to be humiliated. Oh, where do you usually go? Yeah. I'm with you. Muppets humor coming out there. I'm with you. I have managed to create a haircut and style that looks the way I want it to look from straight on. And so I don't need to see it from behind. And I'm okay being blissfully ignorant about that and pretending like it is different than it actually is.
1:06:15Brian Schulmeister:Yeah. Us and Kevin Smith. He does the same thing. He looks like he has normal hair, but he turns a little bit off camera. Oh, my God. There ain't nothing left. Ain't nothing up there. Baseball hats in my future.
1:06:26Jason DeFillippo:Not a shame to say it. Vanity is a real thing. And so also denial of the aging process. And I'm experiencing all of those. Never underestimate the power of denial. That's right. Lema wrote in, you all mentioned that there used to be a theory about increased pizza deliveries being an indicator of global happenings. They've revived that for today's world and I'd be happy to hear that it is now integrated with Polymarket.
1:06:52Brian Schulmeister:Oh, great. That was disgusting earlier.
1:06:54Jason DeFillippo:But we do have the Pentagon Pizza Index at pizzaint.watch. They may be a little off now scanning the D.C. area pizza places because the Venezuela stuff happened at Bar-a-Lago. So the pizzometer didn't really budge. some decent feeds, though. So, yeah, it exists. There's a site for it, and you can track it, which is great. And bet on it, of course. I'm sorry, you're not betting their financial transactions. Oh, is that right? That's how Polymarket gets around it all? That's their bullshit line, yes. Oh, okay.
1:07:24Brian Schulmeister:Okay, well, I'm going to tell you right now, we were talking about how soon until we bomb Iran, and right now, three of the pizza joints have spiked right now. We have major spikes going on from Extreme Pizza, We the Pizza, great fucking name, and Papa John's.
1:07:42Jason DeFillippo:To Laima's point who wrote in, what we might actually need is a McDonald's tracker near Mar-a-Lago. And I think that might be more. Right, and a diaper delivery service. Yeah. Zing. I don't know if either of you guys have 3D printers. I'm assuming probably plenty of our listeners do so I'm just going to throw that out there it is all the rage at my kid's school right now his cousin has one one of his best friends has one so if anybody has a recommendation for an entry level 3D printer for a kid that won't necessarily break my bank or make me go nuts I mean I'm cautiously kind of interested in playing around with one myself the model that both of my kids friends have is the Bamboo Lab A1 which has the link in the show notes I know nothing about this stuff so I'm going to have to start researching a little bit.
1:08:32Jason DeFillippo:But, you know, anybody, let me know. I have been so intentional about not buying a 3D printer and not going down that rabbit hole because I don't need to. And I have enough other things. I have the ham radio thing. I have, you know, I've spun back up my solar panel project. So I've been really deliberate about just not learning about 3D printers and not following them. For a while here in the office, one of the other startups here had three industrial 3D printers that were the size of refrigerators. Ooh, fun. Yeah, they were just spitting stuff out of. And that was, you know, the temptation for me was to come in at off hours and print out my stormtrooper.
1:09:21Jason DeFillippo:Yeah. But I never did. So, yeah. Yeah. Good luck. I'm curious to know what you find out, but there's been no call for it from my son who's older. He's 19. So it's a curiosity. I think it's interesting how many, when I go to things like craft shows, how many booths there are now with people who have just been 3D printing things. and some of them are really cool you know and this is the normal stuff you'd expect like little dragons and octopuses and things like that but also uh millennium falcons and all the all that stuff and uh i feel as though 3d printing is kind of followed a similar path that inkjet printing did remember the first inkjet printers were just about good enough and they were only black and white and they weren't really that great and they were slow and then they got faster and then they could do color and and you know all that happened and i feel like 3d printers have followed a similar sort of thing where now they have colors and they're way more precise than they used to and they screw up a lot less than they used to and so kind of like ai screws up a lot less now
1:10:40Brian Schulmeister:it's funny here there's a there's a quick juxtaposition here as i'm looking at these show notes i used to work with a guy named chris perillo and every now and again i'd check in on him and, you know, I saw a feed from him where he was at his day job, which was sitting there monitoring a bunch of industrial 3D printers, like to make a living. So now I see that there's another link from going from 3D printing to Dave, you put in a link to Perillo.com. This is very strange.
1:11:07Jason DeFillippo:I'm having weird deja vus here. Huh. Okay. Well, this is a Star Wars centric RSS feed that I thought, well, at least one of us might enjoy. So someone has collected all things Star Wars in an RSS feed and themed it appropriately. So if that is your thing, you might enjoy this as a spacey sort of background. Very nice. And then speaking of RSS feeds, this caught my eye. It's an RSS reader called Current. And they've come up with a different way of prioritizing news that I think is intriguing. And I'll read this. It says, each article has a velocity, a measure of how quickly it ages. Breaking news burns bright for three hours.
1:11:57Jason DeFillippo:A daily article stays relevant for 18. An essay lingers for three days. An evergreen tutorial might sit in your river for a week. As items age, they dim. Eventually they're gone, carried downstream. You don't mark them as red. You don't file them. They simply pass the way water passes under a bridge. as sand through the hourglass. So it's the days of our lives. I find it that's oddly compelling. Thank God they didn't mention AI as part of their pitch. Well, right. I'm sure under the hood, maybe something like that is going on. But there's something peaceful about this notion of news automatically aging out and moving along.
1:12:40Jason DeFillippo:Not gumming up the works, that there's a reader that just automatically disposes things based on time and importance and that sort of thing. So I thought it was interesting. So check it out.
1:12:54Brian Schulmeister:Yeah, it's an interesting concept. I like it for normal news readers. It would absolutely not be good for what we do here at the show. I could not do, I could not run my news gathering on something that timed out. I need to see, I need to see when things happened and what the groupings are between all of the different sources that I follow to make sure that it is actually relevant and then we could put it in the show notes and actually talk about it on the show. So and God, if I see any more news, I just I can't take any more news.
1:13:24Jason DeFillippo:I'll revisit this once we've revisited democracy. I was just talking to a friend this morning who was saying, I think something we've heard a lot of folks say lately, which is I'm trying to stay away from the news or I'm trying to limit my access to the news. and Jason to your point I don't have that luxury yeah which I think is kind of what you're saying as well like that I have to I have to keep up with it and so it's horrible find ways to to um deal with that to to be able to have other ways to recharge my soul if you figure that out let me know i will because the news is relentless um i i put a here link in here to a youtube video uh that someone forwarded along to me that said this is horror in under two minutes i hate you for putting this in there dave i i really do i fucking hate it That was my reaction as well.
1:14:28Jason DeFillippo:I don't like horror as a genre generally. As I think I've said here multiple times, I have a hair trigger startle reflex. So, yeah, I was going through. The first thing I was afraid of with this two minute video was where's the jump scare? Where's the jump scare? It's more of a psychological horror kind of thing. It's horrible. and it's really it's really disturbing oh i can't wait to see it now it sounds great it's really disturbing it ruined a good hour plus for me yeah two minutes
1:15:04Brian Schulmeister:well it's one of those it lingers okay believe me yeah it lingers it's
1:15:12Jason DeFillippo:remarkably successful right yes people who made this made a horror story in under two minutes that sticks with you and leaves you thinking about it so hats off to them but it's just not my favorite it's as effective as what what was the uh the six word horror story uh yeah for sale baby shoes never used oh right right yeah yeah well and then finally to uh kind of kick things stuff a notch uh i came across this youtube account of this gentleman uh who i believe is german which totally tracks uh and he does impeccable covers of 80s synth music impeccable covers like they sound like the originals um what actually uh one of my co-workers sent this over because we were um we used the theme from night rider in a recent cyber wire episode because there
1:16:14Brian Schulmeister:was a story about automated cars and things so copyright theft well and we yeah yeah we'll get
1:16:20Jason DeFillippo:a copyright strike but um that we we came across this guy's cover of the knight rider theme which again impeccable but the one that really uh made me smile was he does a cover of the uh top gun opening theme the title sequence from the movie you know when the when they're prepping the jets to take off the Harold Fultima yeah exactly yeah but in the movie how do I remember that yeah the version in the movie is much better than the version on the album on the soundtrack album because the version on the soundtrack album pretty much immediately goes into the guitar solo and just it's called the Top Gun anthem I believe but the version on the movie just stays with the kind of subtle synths while they're doing stuff on the on the deck of the aircraft carrier and that's what this cover is it's that more subtle dreamy kind of music um and it's it's the part it's a thing that i wish was on the soundtrack i don't know about you guys but i often find myself frustrated when the soundtrack differs from the film in a significant way absolutely and this is one of those occasions of that where what i really wanted on the soundtrack was the version that this guy makes in this cover which to me is way better than what's actually on the soundtrack album so check it out enjoy i will let me know what you think you know dave this is not uh this is at least the third maybe the fourth uh youtube channel that you posted that involves synths and and older synths and things of that nature and uh i have to say like we you've got your ham radio and you've got your stuff and i my child is still young enough that i do not have the luxury of having weird hobbies and things to do that i just don't have that sort of time yet my hobby is now going to be learning about 3d printers because my kid wants it to be his hobby that's the stage i'm at right now i can see uh once once my child has has gotten a bit older and i have that sort of time and money to do my own hobby again i'm 100 going to be like collecting weird old synths.
1:18:34Jason DeFillippo:That is absolutely what I'm going to do because every time I see these channels, it's not the music. I'm like, oh my God, what's he using? Oh, look at that. Oh, I want one of those. Yes. Yes. Again, that is another one I've been avoiding. Same with 3D printers because I could totally go down that path. In fact, I was trading some messages with our audio editors and we were talking about, do you guys remember the Porta Studio? Oh yeah, I had one. Okay, all right. Well, my comment to our editors was, when I was in high school, a buddy of mine had a Porta Studio and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
1:19:16Jason DeFillippo:I couldn't afford one. But just the whole idea that you had four whole channels to mix with on a cassette tape and you could make the tape run faster so it sounded better. And you could mix those four channels down to one. Yes. And then you got three more. Unlimited power. And, you know, these days, unlimited tracks on your phone. So it's just different. But actually, one of the guys was telling me that evidently the preamps on the Porta Studios studio porta studio easy for me to say are highly coveted by people who are into analog stuff they have their own sound and people uh and so they become collectible and therefore expensive yes these are the rabbit holes i intend to go down in my old age no no shame no shame there but the The other part of that story is that when we were, for me anyway, when I was high school, college age, and the DX7 first came out, I think a lot of us thought, well, if I can save up enough money for a DX7, I'll be on Hammer, right?
1:20:37Jason DeFillippo:But what we didn't factor in is that you needed a multi-track recorder. You needed an external reverb. Oh, and talent. Compressor. Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. The talent was assumed. But yeah, just all the support stuff that you would have needed, which again is baked into all the tools now. They're just part of it. So what a great time to be a creative kid who wants to make music. yeah although i i do find it overwhelming that's that's the other side of it when you have unlimited options you sit there like yeah constraints are good constraints are good constraints are good and then that's to my mind that's why music was so much better back then but that's also just being old i agree yeah i agree all right well i feel the need the need for speed, so I'm going to run along.
1:21:36Jason DeFillippo:I'm still on that highway to the danger zone. There you go. We'll see you next time. See ya.
1:21:43Brian Schulmeister:Closing shout-outs! Over at Patreon, we've got no new subscribers. Boo. But Alistair's are up their pledge, so thank you very much. And we'd also like to say thank you to Dan, Brody, Mark, Taylor, Mike, Steve, Chris, Conejo, his enormity, the Marquis of Chipping's Sudbury, and Jacks of Diamonds. thanks everybody
1:22:04Jason DeFillippo:thank you so much over at PayPal we have donations from Arcadio Andrew, Linda, Brett, Sloan Tom, Nathaniel and Mike who said I just sent you guys 100 bucks through PayPal I've been meaning to send you something for a long time though I'm a huge procrastinator I really enjoyed your information about Star Wars in the last episode so this time I did forget to finally send you something love the show thank you all
1:22:24Brian Schulmeister:thank you so much everybody and over at the tip jar we've got Theodore, Sean and Alden with the 20 bucks so thank you all so much and if you'd like to get in And on the fun of keeping this show on the air, which I know you do, just head over to GOG.show slash donate for all of the different ways to donate. Or you can go to Patreon.com slash GOG. Get the show a little bit early, ad-free, and in high definition. We've actually got YouTube memberships now if you want to help us out there. You didn't get nothing extra. You just help us out a lot, like, you know, keeping the show going. So we appreciate it very much, and we love you for it.
1:22:57Jason DeFillippo:Thank you. we have a new five star review weekly updates of topics us geeks like entertaining content with the right level of snark from experienced geeks they know how to deliver it because they lived it or at least RTFM yes those two are a rarity of these current times and actually are patrons of printed word media yes we are
1:23:16Brian Schulmeister:thank you very much unnamed reviewer so we lost a few people this week we lost the reverend Jesse Jackson now I put the link in here If you've never seen Jesse Jackson reading Green Eggs and Ham, you have to. You absolutely must. It is a palate cleanser for these horrible times we live in. You do not like Green Eggs and Ham. I do not like them. Sam, I am.
1:23:49Brian Schulmeister:I could not, would not on a boat. I will not, will not with a goat. it's it's wonderful it is absolutely wonderful yes yes and uh we lost robert duvall who i was never a huge fan of because when i was young i was made to watch the great santini and that is a really shitty movie for a kid to watch so it kind of soured me on him i i i i i respected the talent but uh yeah he had a good run he had a very good run 95 that's a very good run we should all
1:24:22Jason DeFillippo:I'll be so lucky. Indeed. Until next time, I'm Brian Schulmeister.
1:24:27Brian Schulmeister:And I'm Jason Filippo. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from today's episode at GOG.show slash 734. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG.show slash donate. Every penny helps keep the show on the air. Love the show? Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between, and we'll love you for it. Or swing by GOG.show to join our Discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts, feedbacks, cool links? Hit us up at GOG.show slash contact. And hey, don't forget to leave a five-star review at GOG.show slash review, and we'll read it on the air.
1:25:01Brian Schulmeister:And guess what? We've got GOG merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at shop.GOG.show. Stay grumpy.
From the publisher
If you thought the internet was a dumpster fire before, the EU LAUNCHES SECOND INVESTIGATION INTO GROK because Musk’s bot won't stop generating nonconsensual imagery. Meanwhile, META LARGELY FAILS TO PROTECT KIDS FROM AI CHATBOTS, proving that their internal safety checks are about as effective as a screen door on a submarine. If that doesn't creep you out, AFTER RING PRIVACY BACKLASH over police partnerships, a LEAKED EMAIL SUGGESTS RING PLANS TO EXPAND ‘SEARCH PARTY’ from finding lost dogs to total neighborhood surveillance. Of course, REDDIT, META, AND GOOGLE VOLUNTARILY GAVE DHS INFO on users critical of ICE, because why stand up for privacy when you can just comply?
In the news, we look at OPENCLAW, OPENAI AND THE FUTURE as the project’s founder joins the Borg, even though META AND OTHER TECH FIRMS PUT RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF OPENCLAW because it’s basically a security hole that can click your mouse for you. Peak stupidity has arrived with RFK JR'S NEW CHATBOT giving rectal dietary advice, while AI COMPANIES BOUGHT OUT ALL OF WESTERN DIGITAL’S HARD DRIVES through 2026, meaning you can't have storage because the bots need it more. Even VALVE ADMITS STEAM DECK AVAILABILITY IS AFFECTED by this memory hoarding. We also touch on STEVE BANNON SUED OVER MAGA CRYPTO SCHEME, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST ROBLOX for being a safety nightmare, and the fact that TESLA ROBOTAXIS REPORTEDLY CRASHING at four times the human rate. TESLA DODGES 30-DAY SUSPENSION by simply killing the word "Autopilot," while NEW YORK HITS THE BRAKES ON ROBOTAXI EXPANSION to keep the chaos at bay. Finally, POLYMARKET WITHDRAWS EXPLOSIVE ARTEMIS BETTING MARKET because betting on dead astronauts is too much even for them, leading the ETHEREUM CREATOR STARTING TO THINK THIS WHOLE PREDICTION MARKET THING MIGHT BE GAMBLING. As NEVADA SUES KALSHI and Jack Dorsey oversees INSIDE THE ROLLING LAYOFFS AT JACK DORSEY’S BLOCK—using AI to summarize the misery of his employees—just remember: YOU’LL BE SORRY WHEN YOU HEAR WHAT JUSTIN BIEBER’S $1.3 MILLION BORED APE IS WORTH NOW. Hint: it’s twelve grand.
In this week's MEDIA CANDY, we’ve got FREE BERT, KAT WILLIAMS: THE LAST REPORT, and the eternal return of SHREK. We’re checking out MARK ROBER on Netflix, the return of MONARCH: LEGACY OF MONSTERS, and the trailer for GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE. If you need a soundtrack for the apocalypse, Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq has you covered with STOP USING GENERATIVE A.I and the Gen-X anthem I'VE NO MORE F*S TO GIVE!.
Moving to APPS & DOODADS, OBSIDIAN TO NOTES is a $14 well spent, unlike CURSOR and VISUAL STUDIO CODE which are getting bogged down by slow models. APPLE’S AI PENDANT sounds like a watered-down Humane pin that relies on your phone to think, and APPLE PODCASTS AND VIDEO remains a pipe dream because bandwidth costs money. We’ve reached the point where THERE’S A GRIM NEW EXPRESSION: “AI;DR” for things not worth reading, and THERE'S A NEW TERM FOR WORKERS FREAKING OUT over being replaced—AIRD, or AI Replacement Dysfunction—which is basically the low-grade panic of being made obsolete by a machine that thinks bananas go in your bum.
AT THE LIBRARY, we’re thumbing through CLEAVE THE SPARROW, THE REGICIDE REPORT by Charles Stross, and Robin Ince being NORMALLY WEIRD AND WEIRDLY NORMAL.
Then we descend into THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE, where the Muppets are taking over with THE MUPPET SHOW and MUPPETS NOW. We catch the latest on THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU and TOY STORY 5, while tracking the PENTAGON PIZZA INDEX to see if war is breaking out. For the kids, we look at a 3D PRINTER / ENTRY LEVEL FOR KIDS like the Bambu Lab A1, and for the nerds, A STAR WARS-CENTRIC RSS FEED and a NEAT IDEA FOR AN RSS READER, “CURRENT,” which lets news drift away like water under a bridge. We wrap it all up with some HORROR IN UNDER TWO MINUTES and IMPECCABLE COVERS OF 80S SYNTH MUSIC, because at least the 80s had better soundtracks than this AI-generated nightmare.
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Show notes at https://gog.show/734
FOLLOW UP
EU launches second investigation into Grok's nonconsensual image generation
Meta largely fails to protect kids from AI chatbots, per its own tests
After Ring privacy backlash, company abandons plans for police partnership
Leaked Email Suggests Ring Plans to Expand ‘Search Party’ Surveillance Beyond Dogs
Reddit, Meta, and Google Voluntarily Gave DHS Info of Anti-ICE Users, Report Says
IN THE NEWS
OpenClaw, OpenAI and the future
Meta and Other Tech Firms Put Restrictions on Use of OpenClaw Over Security Fears
RFK Jr's new chatbot advises the public on 'best foods to insert into rectum'
AI Companies Bought Out All of Western Digital’s Hard Drives for 2026 Already
Valve admits Steam Deck availability is affected by memory and storage shortages
Steve Bannon sued over MAGA crypto scheme
Los Angeles County files lawsuit against Roblox over child protections
Tesla Robotaxis Reportedly Crashing at a Rate That’s 4x Higher Than Humans
Tesla dodges 30-day suspension in California after removing Autopilot
New York hits the brakes on robotaxi expansion plan
Polymarket withdraws explosive Artemis betting market after backlash
Ethereum Creator Starting to Think This Whole Prediction Market Thing Might be Gambling
Nevada sues Kalshi for operating a sports gambling market without a license
Inside the Rolling Layoffs at Jack Dorsey’s Block
You’ll Be Sorry When You Hear What Justin Bieber’s $1.3 Million Bored Ape Is Worth Now
MEDIA CANDY
GOOD LUCK, HAVE FUN, DON'T DIE | Official Trailer | February 13 - Only in Theaters
STOP USING GENERATIVE A.I (Original Song) by Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq
I've No More F*s To Give! by Thomas Benjamin Wild Esq
APPS & DOODADS
Apple’s AI Pendant Sounds Like a Watered-Down Humane Ai Pin
There’s a Grim New Expression: “AI;DR”
There's a New Term for Workers Freaking Out Over Being Replaced by AI
AT THE LIBRARY
Cleave the Sparrow by Jonathan Katz
The Regicide Report (Laundry Files Book 14) by Charles Stross
Normally Weird and Weirdly Normal: My Adventures in Neurodiversity by Robin Ince
THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE
The Mandalorian and Grogu | Official Trailer | In Theaters May 22
Toy Story 5 | Official Trailer | In Theaters June 19
Impeccable covers of 80s synth music
Top Gun - Opening Theme (Synth Cover)
CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS
Green Eggs and Ham narrated by the Reverend Jesse Jackson
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