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- [00:01]
A
Insurance isn't one size fits all. That's why customers have enjoyed Progressive's name your price tool for years now. With the name your price tool, you tell them what you want to pay and they'll show you options that fit your budget. So whether you're picking out your first policy or just looking for something that works better for you and your family, they make it easy to see your options. Visit progressive.com, find a rate that works for you with the name your price tool. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match limited by state law.
- [00:36]
B
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 DeFilippo.
- [00:42]
C
And I'm Brian Schulmeister.
- [00:44]
B
Got a little follow up real quick Brian. I've mentioned my bankruptcy bullshit that I've been dealing with for quite some time now. I had my trustee meeting this week and it went swimmingly. So thanks for everybody that was asking about it and wrote in and sent me nice words. So it's not often that people are congratulating you on being broke as shit. So I really appreciate it.
- [01:05]
C
Hopefully it's a once in a lifetime thing.
- [01:07]
B
Oh, let's hope I don't trump this and have to do it like eight or nine times.
- [01:11]
C
Trump. Okay, let's get into the shit. Since we said the name which should not be mentioned. Yeah, actually we have some pretty innocuous follow up comparatively speaking. Before we get into the insanity that was this week, we've been talking a lot about the age verification plans. There's studies coming out, some saying they don't really do much. The kids are too smart as we argued. We're trying to catch the dumb ones. That mostly works on them. But anyways, Sony is adopting a new age verification policy for PlayStation users in the UK and Ireland. This is the first I've heard of a gaming company actually kind of leaping all the way in, at least a big one like Sony. They're not making it a blanket requirement, but steps to confirm age will be needed to access communication, broadcasting and certain in game features beginning in June 2026. Includes essentials for online and social gamers such as joining parties, voice chatting, text messaging or using third party chat programs such as Discord. Some in game communication tools like chats or sharing user generated content will also only be available after an age check is completed. That makes sense. Don't send the dicky unless you're old enough.
- [02:22]
B
Yeah, I'm down with that. And you know, for us old people, I think the online voice chat will actually probably get better because it's the damn kids that drive you crazy in the games. So.
- [02:33]
C
Six, seven.
- [02:34]
B
Oh f you.
- [02:37]
C
And the Turkish Parliament has voted through a bill that would ban all children under the age of 15 from using social media. As part of the legislation, social media platforms will be required to enforce age verification measures on their apps, providing parental control tools and react more quickly to harm harmful content being posted. Good fucking luck.
- [02:57]
B
Yeah, it's funny too, the, the way that story wrapped in the notes here. It said the Turkish Parliament has voted through a bill that would ban all children under the age of 15, period. No more children under 15.
- [03:07]
C
That'd be fine.
- [03:10]
B
Well, hey, you got one. So.
- [03:12]
C
Yeah, that's true, that's true. Well, that's in Turkey. I'm not there, so.
- [03:15]
B
Okay. Eating turkey. Turkey. Well, let's, let's just start the fun. A year ago, Anthropic's Chief Information Security officer warned that fully autonomous A employees would soon be operating inside major companies, complete with roles, memory and system access. I know it's shocking, Brian, but that didn't happen. What I know, instead, so called agentic AI systems are still struggling with reliability, security risks and limited real world usefulness.
- [03:46]
C
Extremely limited real world usefulness from what I can tell online, once you get past all the hype. Bullshit, yeah.
- [03:54]
B
Studies suggest these systems may never reach the accuracy needed for critical business tasks. Also, CEO Dario Amade predicted AI would write most code within months. But research is showing AI tools can slow down real developers. You know, not, not your, not your vibe coders, but real developers slows them the fuck down. So the bullshit tsunami, Brian, is coming home to roost. And we're going to get balls deep into it shortly.
- [04:19]
C
Well, let's start right now. Speaking of a bullshit tsunami, this one comes from, shockingly, Elon Musk. If you bought a Tesla from before 2023, not all that long ago, in the hopes that a future software upgrade would render it capable of unsupervised, full self driving the as yet unrealized dream of a truly self driving car. In other words, that's never going to happen. And Elon Musk admitted it on an earnings call on Wednesday. Never for those, never. It's possible you might be able to get a hardware upgrade rather than having to trade in your Tesla for a new one. But from the sound of it, that would involve retrofitting hundreds of thousands of cars with new computers and cameras. And it's Going to be a colossal new project for Tesla, which could barely manage their own projects right now. The full self driving hardware package known as Hardware 3 was standard until Hardware 4. What about Hardware wars came along in early 2023, although it took until May of that year for Hardware 4 to reach all models. Unfortunately, Hardware 3, I wish it were otherwise, but Hardware 3 simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised full self driving. Musk said during the call on Wednesday, pissing off millions of shareholders and owners. We did think at one point it would, but relative to hardware 4, it has only 1/8 the memory bandwidth of hardware 4. Customers have voiced frustration about Tesla not delivering full self driving and Tesla faces a class action lawsuit in Australia alleging that despite I always start to go into the Monty Python Australia, Australia, we love you every time I say it. Anyways, there's a lawsuit in Australia because basically you said that it's full self driving and it's not seemingly. In an effort to stave off customer revolt over the revelation that hardware 3 packages will never be capable of unsupervised driving, Musk has described the following program which will probably go as well as his diner for customers that have bought full self driving. What we're offering is essentially a trade in, like a discounted trade in for cars that have the previous hardware. We'll also be offering the ability to upgrade the car to replace the computer. So you bought full self driving and now you have to spend more money to get full self driving?
- [06:33]
B
Yeah, pretty much. But it's discounted.
- [06:35]
C
Brian, he also threw in this curveball. You also need to replace all the cameras, unfortunately to go to hardware 4. In other words, your car has to be retrofit with multiple new parts in order to even stand a chance of ever receiving a software upgrade that still doesn't exist that will enable Tesla's unsupervised full self driving mode. He claimed on the call that they plan to create micro factories or small factories concentrated in population centers where many production lines will change out the hardware. What are the chances of that ever happening? I am going to go place my Kalshi bet right now.
- [07:06]
B
Yeah, go on Kalshi, right now. But they do have all those assembly lines that were making cybertrucks that aren't making those anymore because nobody wants those. So maybe they can retrofit those to.
- [07:16]
C
To do the retrofit. For the retrofit. For the retrofit.
- [07:19]
B
To do the.
- [07:20]
C
Get the thing that doesn't exist.
- [07:21]
B
Yeah, to get the software that doesn't do the thing that the software said it's going to do, which doesn't exist. Oh shit.
- [07:28]
C
Wow. And people call him a genius
- [07:34]
B
in the. Okay, Brian, we have a full on category 5 dystopia about to hit us and I think the news kind of bears that out this week. So let's get to it. And any other CEO in history would have been fired by now, exact from what we just talked about. But Elon is making sure that he can never, never ever get fired at SpaceX after it goes public. So SpaceX plans to retain Elon Musk's control after it iPodOS, which is coming soon by issuing dual class shares that give him and a small group of insiders and super voting power. Now that's about 10 votes per share, while public investors receive shares with just one vote each. And since Elon has the lion's share of the shares, you know how that works. And that structure ensures Musk maintains effective control over major decisions, board elections and company strategy even after going public.
- [08:28]
C
Now, now it's worth also noting that that doesn't mean just SpaceX, because if this goes through, he will of course wrap all his other companies under the SpaceX banner, retaining his superpowers over all his companies.
- [08:39]
B
Yeah, the only one that's missing at this point I think is, is Tesla, because XAI is under there, Shitter's under there. So that's what he's been consolidating for a couple years now with this in mind. So the company is targeting a valuation of roughly $1.75 trillion in a $75 billion raise, which would make it the largest IPO in history. And Musk will remain. He'll be CEO, CTO and Chairman. Give me a fucking break. And Lord of the manor and lord
- [09:09]
C
of the cock ring. Yeah, whatever.
- [09:12]
B
So here we go. New financial disclosure shows SpaceX generated 18.67 billion in revenue in 2025, but posted a 4.94 billion dollar loss, largely driven by heavy investment in AI infrastructure tied to its XAI business. Starlink seems to be about the only thing profitable right now, offsetting those losses because he's still trying to spend all the money on the big spaceship that keeps crashing over the Caribbean. So he's basically. He's Zuckerberging it. So, you know, because Mark is the. Nobody can get rid of Mark Zuckerberg. He wants to be unkillable too. So there you go.
- [09:47]
C
Clash of the titans. From the who could have possibly seen this coming? Files Prediction market Kalshi has taken action against Three political candidates alleging that each was engaged with insider trading of information about their own campaigns. The company has implemented new rules last month aimed at preventing politicians and athletes from placing bets on events they can control. And said it though, and it said those guardrails helped to flag the trio of these cases. These three candidates and I want you to pay attention listeners, so you can vote these out, are Mark Moran of Virginia, Matt Klein of Minnesota and Ezekiel Enriquez of Texas. Kalshee reached settlements with Klein and Enriquez, both of whom cooperated in the platform's investigations. Each will face a fine of less than $1,000 and suspensions from the platform for up to five years. Moran's case has resulted in a disciplinary action with a five year suspension and a fine of more than $6,000. And get this. He then posted on X about the situation and claimed this was essentially a stunt to see if he'd be caught and to highlight how this company is destroying young men. Yes, I did my illegal actions for you, the children.
- [10:58]
B
I bought all that cocaine just to point out the flaws in the system.
- [11:01]
C
I took it out of your nostrils and put it into mine because I'm a fucking hero.
- [11:06]
B
Yep, that's it. That's it. And I'd like to point out that all of these fines are not government mandated fines. These are fines by the platform because there's no regulation on this shit.
- [11:18]
C
Well, if you think. If you think that was fucking with these markets. A hairdryer was allegedly used to rig a polymarket bet on the weather at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, according to a report by the Telegraph. Yes, you can place bets on the temperature at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. French authorities note that the official temperature readings at the airport spiked twice in the past month, reaching levels much higher than expected. The gambling site relies on readings from temperature sensors, and the one at Charles de Gaulle airport is on a public road with nobody impeding access to it. The operating theory is that someone snuck in and used a battery powered hair dryer to bring the recorded temperature up well beyond the actual heat outside. Meanwhile, the polymarket page indicated less than a 1% chance of the airport exceeding a particular temperature. And successful bets on these fluctuations netted an Unknown user around $34,000 because they went out on a road with a hairdryer and gamed the motherfucking system.
- [12:21]
B
Hey, man. Good on them. Good on them.
- [12:23]
C
I say if something can be rigged and there's money to be made, it's going to get rigged. Humans are going to human.
- [12:30]
B
Yep, yep.
- [12:33]
C
All right. Let's get.
- [12:35]
B
But you skipped the best part. Polymarket didn't force them to return the money. They got to keep it. So that's why I'm saying good on you. All right.
- [12:43]
C
Yeah.
- [12:44]
B
Temperature. Hey, look. Temperature went up. That's all that mattered.
- [12:48]
C
Nobody said it had to be like God's will.
- [12:51]
B
Yeah. Was it? Was there force majeure involved? I don't think.
- [12:53]
C
Dyson's will, apparently.
- [12:55]
B
Yeah.
- [12:57]
C
Although those are pretty expensive hair dryers. I know my wife. Yeah, $34,000 is only going to get you like five of them. Anyways, let's move on to the AI mess. Despite the months long feud between Anthropic and the Pentagon, the NSA is using AI's company news mythos Preview According to Axios, the news comes days after Dario Amade met with the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles and other officials, reportedly to discuss Mythos. The White House later said that the meeting on Friday was productive and constructive. And when President Trump was asked about it, he said he had no idea.
- [13:31]
B
No shit.
- [13:33]
C
According to Axios sources, the NSA is one of the roughly 40 organizations Anthropic gave access to. Mythos preview and one said it's being used more widely within the department too.
- [13:43]
B
Now, hold on, hold on. Aren't they still, you know, bad actors sued? Yeah, they're bad actors. The Pentagon. And they're getting. They're suing the Pentagon. And that's still going on. Right.
- [13:55]
C
So as far as I know, that's
- [13:57]
B
why nothing has any fucking rule of law anymore. Because if you're, you know, if you're a supply chain risk and the fucking NSA is using you, are you really a supply chain risk?
- [14:07]
C
Whose supply chain are we risking? I guess that's the question. Well, we'll see, apparently. I mean, we've kind of said that Mythos came out with quite the press release saying that it was too dangerous to be released ever, which is obviously not true since people are using it and it was kind of a bit of a PR thing, but apparently it is helping. It helped Mozilla. Using Mythos helped Mozilla's team find and patch 271 vulnerabilities in the latest release of the Firefox browser. The blog post from Mozilla feels like a positive sign for Anthropic's project Last Swing. Mozilla also noted that in his time with Claude Mythos, the AI wasn't able to turn up any bugs that a human wouldn't have been able to find. Given enough time and resources, which indicates the AI isn't presently able to do more to crack cybersecurity protections than a person can. But of course they did it much faster, right?
- [14:57]
B
But they didn't. Here's what we also don't know. Did they try and run Opus against it? The only reason Mozilla might be running, you know, project Glasswing is because Anthropic gave the two of them for free. Because Mozilla doesn't have any money. Because 271 vulnerabilities is one more vulnerability than the 270 people that are left that use Firefox. Just saying.
- [15:18]
C
I got a little icon in there. I just never launch it. Good to know I have 271 vulnerabilities sitting there because I haven't updated.
- [15:26]
B
You better update that.
- [15:35]
D
This episode is sponsored by Deleteme. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize. Data brokers are making money off your personal information. Your name, contact info, home address, and even details about your family can be compiled, packaged and sold online to basically anyone willing to pay.
- [16:01]
B
That kind of exposure can open the
- [16:02]
D
door to identity theft, phishing attempts, and harassment. Now, as someone with a pretty public Internet presence, I deal with this constantly. People are looking me up all the time, scraping whatever information they can find. It's just part of being a public figure online. But that's exactly why I use Delete Me. They go out and remove your personal information from hundreds of data broker websites, which gives me a lot more peace of mind and honestly helps me sleep better at night. And it's not just me saying it. The New York Times Wirecutter has named Deleteme their top pick for data removal services. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com GoG and use promo code GoG at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com goggles and enter code GoG at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com GoG code GoG.
- [17:07]
C
Well, from the Physician Heal Thyselves category, Anthropic is investigating potential unauthorized access to its Claude Mythos model that has been touted for its ability to find cybersecurity flaws. Maybe you should turn it on itself because somebody got in.
- [17:22]
B
No, this one. This one is genius. I got something to say about this. Go ahead.
- [17:25]
C
Several unauthorized users who reportedly have a private, private chat on Discord supposedly gained access to Mythos through a developer portal. And by making an educated guess as to where the model might be located, that same group may also have access to other unreleased anthropic models, according to the report. This is a bit. This reminds me a bit of like, when you wanted to get into somebody's images and they had a WordPress site and you just start guessing what the folder was.
- [17:46]
B
Just go to WP content date slash. You know, just run through that.
- [17:51]
C
So, yeah, yep, they got hacked.
- [17:53]
B
It didn't. It didn't get hacked, Brian. It did not get hacked. I want to clarify this. They guessed the URL based on the structural layout of all of the previous URLs before them. This is where experience comes into play. You know, these are just these. These guys who are vibe coding everything that work at Anthropic. And, you know, they're just. These are just people who have not been through the shit like we have. Exactly. And know that, you know, you gotta change some shit up. Because if it's just, you know, when
- [18:22]
C
I was doing web development and, you know, we'd have to put things online for clients, and clients could never remember usernames and passwords, so you kind of give up on that. And I learned really quick that you don't put it on like, say, coldplay.com dev because as soon as you do that, those images appear on every fan site known to man. So you start doing things like coldplay.com fucknut25 There you go.
- [18:44]
B
And even that can still get. So then you got to put your Htaccess in with your robot rules, your robot exclusion rules. But the best thing to do is just to send them a user and password that's encoded in the UI that they can then look at, which used to be able to do in the old Htaccess days. I don't know if you can do that now. But, you know, but see, the. Still, the thing is, it's like, we learn shit like this the hard way. So they're now. This is a new generation doing the same shit that we did, but with much higher stakes and much bigger fucking paychecks.
- [19:10]
C
Exactly. Well, today, Amazon announced that it will invest $5 billion in anthropic as, along with as much as $20 billion in additional payments if certain milestones are met. This news follows the initial $4 billion investment Amazon made in Anthropic back in 2023 and a second $4 billion round from 2024. On Anthropic side is committed to continue use of Amazon's custom Trainium silicon for its AI models. This latest agreement will see Anthropic promising to spend more than 100 billion on AWS technologies over the coming decade. So you invest What? That's roughly five. Another. Let's just go all in. So 25 and another eight, $32 billion to get them to spend a hundred billion dollars on your tick. But it's a bet because who knows if Anthropic would be around.
- [19:58]
B
Yeah, we'll talk.
- [19:59]
C
All they're doing is betting Amazon. If you want to make money, just go to Polymarket and bet on temperatures at Charles de Gaulle and fly a fucking couple of your jets over that thing.
- [20:08]
B
That's all you got to do. Oh, man. Yeah, this. It's the fake math. The fake math we're talking about that.
- [20:14]
C
And it's also just. It's everybody just throwing fake money at each other, making deals for like fake money. You give me this and then you'll get that later and blah, blah, blah. None of this is ever going to happen.
- [20:24]
B
Right? But the thing with Amazon is they actually have real money to put behind Anthropic. Who's going to give them back fake money by using Amazon? It's just basically they give it to them and say, can we have it back now? That's it, you know, just running the numbers. Because it's all about data centers, Brian. Now more than 3,000 data centers are planned or under construction across the US and a new report warns the environmental costs could be massive. Massive, massive. I tell you. Just 11 gas powered facilities could emit over 129 million tons of greenhouse gases annually, more than the entire country of Morocco.
- [21:00]
C
But make sure, make sure you don't use any more of your plastic straws.
- [21:04]
B
Oh, God, no.
- [21:05]
C
And we can't get plastic straws anymore. We gotta have the metal ones.
- [21:10]
B
Dude, you can't even get plastic garbage bags in California anymore. It's only paper.
- [21:14]
C
It's only paper. That's right. We got, we all got to do our part, Jason. We all got to do our part.
- [21:19]
B
Yep. And so.
- [21:20]
C
Fucking joke. It's a fucking joke. This whole fucking world is a fucking joke.
- [21:26]
B
Oh. Would you like me to continue?
- [21:28]
C
Please do.
- [21:29]
B
More. I've got more. So Xai has been pulling millions of gallons of drinking water daily from the Memphis sand aquifer to Cool its facilities while take showers.
- [21:40]
C
More than five minutes. Don't be in your shower for more than five minutes, people. Do your part.
- [21:47]
B
So all. All while indefinitely delaying a promised $78 million water recycling plant that was meant to offset that usage. $78 million seems like nothing compared to what these people are spending. So what, what are they, what are they holding back for?
- [22:02]
C
Because that would do something good and it doesn't do anything for them except for maybe decent PR if anybody notices.
- [22:08]
B
Yeah, well it's not working right now because local officials and community groups say the project was oversold with construction now stalled and no timeline for completion. Meanwhile, XAI continues to scale aggressively, including plans for additional data centers nearby. And it even reports significant, as it even reports significant financial losses. Well, maybe you should lose 78 more million dollars just to make the people around you happy so they can take a shower and scrub off all this shit you're putting in the air from all those fucking methane generators that you're using. Just saying. But Brian, it gets better at full build out its operations could consume over 10 million gallons of water per day. Just let that sink in. 10 million gallons of waters per day for Grok the AI that nobody even wants, let alone the ones that people actually use. And this is going to be in, most of it's going to be most permanently lost to evaporation. Now if they should, you know, reclaim it and send it to the people so they can take a shower, that might be something. It turned it into gray water. I don't know.
- [23:11]
C
Make sure you get those low flow toilets. I swear to God you got to get the low flow toilets and make sure you replace your old dishwasher with the new one that uses a lot less water because it's really going to make a fucking difference.
- [23:23]
B
We did just replace our dishwasher with uses one that uses less water. That's just because our old one broke. Now here's, here's where it gets even funner. Brian, I know funner is not a word, but I'm gonna, I'm bringing it back. Startup founders are burning cash on AI instead of hiring humans. And it's called token maxing. Yes, token maxing. It's an AI trend that treats massive compute bills as a badge of honor.
- [23:49]
C
Make sure you work extra hard for your company. Put in those extra hours because they're going to take care of you. You gotta work, you gotta do your best for that company until they fuck you.
- [24:00]
B
Yep, one CEO bragged about $113,000 monthly AI invoice for a four person team claiming those tokens now handle engineering, marketing and more. Now look Brian, I will write shitty code all day for 110 of that. So.
- [24:16]
C
Yeah, but nobody wants to Jason Max.
- [24:18]
B
No, they don't want. Nobody wants to Jason Max. God damn you, Brian.
- [24:22]
C
Jason Maxing. We have a show title.
- [24:24]
B
Ah, damn it. Now see inside companies like Meta Dashboards reportedly track employees token usage, reinforcing the idea that more AI spend equals more productivity. But this is what a lot of these dumb little fuckers don't quite understand is it's easy for Meta to say that because they own the model and the infrastructure. You don't, you little shit. So stop, stop wasting money and hire some goddamn people or get a real idea. Because the AI company that you're running is generally just a wrapper for another fucking foundation model. And you don't own anything because you're building your entire company in somebody else's backyard.
- [25:01]
C
Back to the same thing we've been saying since day one of the show, just AI wasn't around then.
- [25:06]
B
Yep, same thing. Yeah, and they're about to have a real fucking reckoning because the era of cheap AI is starting to get priced to what it actually costs. Yes, that's right. We've Brian, we've said that it's come. We said it's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's finally here.
- [25:23]
C
It's the Uber model. It's always been the Uber model. We're going to price cut ourselves underneath the ground. We're going to make everything so cheap, first taste is free. Have at it people. And now we're going to screw you.
- [25:35]
B
Yep. And here's the fun part. Anthropic and OpenAI are tightening the access and pushing users off their generous free tiers after agents like openclaw started hammering their systems. Now these people have been saying, agentic is coming, Agentic is coming. The world is going to be great. Well, oh, first, no, we had AGI. AGI is not going to work. Okay, let's Agentic. Yes, Agentic is AG in it.
- [25:59]
C
We could still.
- [26:00]
B
It's got it, it's got an AG and an I. It's got to go down the line a little bit, but so they fucking got it. Now Open Claw was, was, you know, and here's the funny part, you know, openclaw was the big, you know, agentic thing that you could go buy a $4,000 Mac mini and run yourself to delete all your emails and probably ruin your life with. So OpenAI goes and hires the guy that made open claw for like $100 million. And just. And the product has just been. Nobody cares about it anymore because everybody else has run out their agentic shit. Because agentic AI is just another fucking wrapper around more AI to run, more compute. The problem is that they didn't really count on the fact that oh shit, everybody's going to use our product now. And we know every time somebody uses that product it costs them more money than they're getting paid. So AI is moving new order single. Yeah, exactly.
- [26:48]
C
They're basically selling Blue Monday on vinyl here, people.
- [26:51]
B
Yep. We lose a dollar on every order but we're going to make it up at scale. That's right. So yeah, all the AIs are moving from flat rate free access to token based. That's it. And it's happening everywhere. Everywhere.
- [27:06]
C
It's not even the paid where you're getting crunched on now. I've been using Claude recently to help write our social media updates, right? And it was always like I only make maybe 10 queries to knock out all of our social media updates for the week. Obviously I edit them, I don't take them as is. But anyways, I ran about 10 queries to knock out the whole week's worth. And that used to never be a problem. Now I can only do like six and then it cuts me off. So now.
- [27:33]
B
Yeah, and by the way, here's the tip for that. Use one of the older models. It doesn't cost them as much to run so you get more shit. You know, don't use the latest Opus, use the Sonnet and it still works. It just comes back a little bit slower. And honestly I found it better when I had to use it. So I, I was that, that program that I've been working on, my Xcode project, the iPhone app. Yeah, I, I would run it for Sonnet for like five hours trying to get stuff done and I would just watch TV while it ran and then I flipped it over to Opus one day to see how much better it was. And my, the meter that shows you how much you have left on your. On your quota went from this to full in about 45 seconds. So I'm like not going to use that one anymore. So I think everybody's going to have to be dialing back because it's coming down to it. Like people are going to have to go back to actually doing the fucking work again. Brian. I know it's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult because everybody's been lazy maxing. And by the way, last one, this Microsoft is going to shift GitHub down to. They're going to token based too. Everybody's going to token based because they can't afford to keep running these, you know, free ones. You know, the quotas are gonna get. The quotas are gonna get smaller and these token maxing guys are just gonna be out on the street because they never learned how to code in the fucking first place.
- [28:53]
C
Yep. All right, let's. Let's switch to other types of dystopia. The Department of Homeland Security is reportedly developing smart glasses that could be used to collect intelligence on immigrants and U.S. citizens. That's great.
- [29:05]
B
Wonderful.
- [29:06]
C
Glasses would help ICE agents identify illegal aliens from a distance by capturing video and comparing it to biometric data like facial recognition and walking gait. According to Budget Do DHS wants to deploy ice glasses by September 2027. This will make surveillance of US residents ubiquitous, according to the report. Which is goddamn dystopia.
- [29:26]
B
Yes, it is.
- [29:27]
C
It might be portrayed as seeking to identify illegal aliens on the streets, but the reality is that a push in this direction affects all Americans, particularly protesters. A DH lawyer speaking on the condition of anonymity because nobody wants to be on camera anymore because this is getting reduced. Ridiculous. So of course this is worrying civil liberty groups who will do fuck all about it.
- [29:50]
B
Yeah. So I want to say this was an Engadget article, but this is from Ken Klippenstein's newsletter. Highly recommend people go find that on Substack and subscribe. He's a fantastic journalist. I give him a few bucks a month. He does great work and you get all this stuff like straight from the horse's mouth. But just, I just want to put in a plug for Ken there because he runs a fantastic, I mean, fantastic newsletter.
- [30:14]
C
Yeah. And in case you haven't gotten around to reading Palantir CEO Alex Karp and Nicholas W. Zemiska's 2025 book, the Technological Republic, because why would you do that to yourself? The company best known for supplying AI driven defense and surveillance software to the likes of the U.S. army, ICE and the New York Police Department shared a 1,000 word X post that last weekend covering its main points. It is a manifesto of staggering proportions that made me want to vomit in my mouth.
- [30:42]
B
Yeah. That's about it.
- [30:43]
C
These people should be in jail.
- [30:46]
B
Yeah. For many reasons. For many, many, many reasons. But yeah.
- [30:52]
C
Links in the show notes. If you have not read this, and you should, this is their plan. This is what they want. And it is as, again, as dystopian as it can possibly be. This is what they're heading for. This is why they're plowing money into Trump people. This is why they're backing politicians. This is what they want. Read it. Read it. Something else you need to read.
- [31:16]
B
And buy some booze before going into bed because you're probably going to need it.
- [31:20]
C
Yeah, and something else you probably want to read. And I've got no real commentary on this other than boy, oh boy, it's eye opening. This is an article over at the Atlantic. What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos private retreat. And if you think that their billionaires are just like us, they are not.
- [31:38]
B
No, they're not.
- [31:39]
C
They are not. They're not even human.
- [31:43]
B
Not anymore. Not anymore. So now I want to, I'm trying to end the news on some highlights and uplifting things, you know, that's what, that's my goal now. It doesn't always work, but so I found. Yes. So if your brain feels like it's been marinating in TikTok sludge, scientists at UC Santa Barbara may have a fixed. And it's not logging off, it's watching weirder stuff. In a study of about 500 people, just seven minutes of experimental animated shorts boosted creativity and conceptual expansion while standard viral videos did basically nothing.
- [32:17]
C
So pretty. Twin Peaks.
- [32:19]
B
There you go. Participants who watched the artsy clips were more creative, wrote more creative stories and showed more flexible thinking even though they actually liked the junkie videos more.
- [32:29]
C
Imagine Doritos are delicious. Broccoli is good for you.
- [32:33]
B
Exactly. Although I like broccoli too, but not everybody. Maybe that's. Yeah, maybe that's why we're the hosts. The theory, ambiguous challenging content forces your brain to work instead of just doom scrolling grooves, grooves deeper. So there's a short video in the article. They, they list the short video site that they used. I went and I watched some stuff on there and it's great. There's actually fantastic videos on there and you can watch them on the crapper and then come out smarter and happier and lighter and actually more creative. There's. I should, I should put a few of them in the show. Notes that I liked. There's some. There's some really, really, really good stuff on there. Highly recommended. But I. This makes sense. It makes sense. Your brain is actually working.
- [33:17]
C
Yeah. And I found this to be a feel good story as well. This came from friend of the show Ross, who sent this to me. This is a story over at Wired. The scammer AI generated MAGA girl to grift super dumb men. A med student said he's made thousands of dollars selling photos and videos of a young conservative woman he created using generative tools. And he's not alone. That's great.
- [33:38]
B
Yep.
- [33:39]
C
Grifting the grifters.
- [33:41]
B
Indeed. Indeed.
- [33:43]
C
And the final feel good story just to end on a good note, the jaw dropping iPhone video of the earth setting behind the moon is rightfully breaking the Internet. This is a link over at Gizmodo. You can find the video anywhere. Watch it. It's beautiful.
- [34:02]
B
This episode is brought to you by Shopify. We use Shopify for all of the grumpy old geeks merch and it was easy to set up and maintain. So easy coming from the old days of having to code all this stuff ourselves, it's no wonder so many people choose Shopify. If you've ever started anything podcast business side hustle, you know the drill. The what ifs pile up fast. What if nobody shows up? What if it breaks? What if I have no idea what I'm doing? And yeah, that part doesn't magically go away? But having the right platform makes a big difference. Shopify is the commerce platform behind millions of businesses around the world and about 10% of all E commerce in the US from major brands to people just getting started. You can build a clean professional storefront with hundreds of ready to use templates so you're not reinventing the wheel or hacking together something that barely works. And it goes way beyond just a storefront. Shopify helps you actually run the business. Their built in AI tools can generate product descriptions, page copy, even enhance your product photos so you don't have to be a copywriter and designer. On top of everything else, you can also create email and social campaigns like you've got a full marketing team without actually having one. Everything lives in one place. Inventory, payments, analytics, shipping and returns. So you're not bouncing between a dozen services trying to keep things running. And that purple shop pay button. There's a reason it's everywhere. It's one of the best converting checkouts on the planet, meaning fewer abandoned carts and more actual sales. And if you do get stuck, Shopify's got 24. 7 support to help you out. Which beats digging through ancient forum posts trying to fix your business at three in the morning. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com grumpy go to shopify.com grumpy that's shopify.com grumpy.
- [35:57]
E
When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Get everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha chings from every channel right in one spot. And turn real time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today.
- [36:31]
B
Media candy
- [36:33]
C
Moving from our real dystopia to sci fi fake dystopias. A hat tip to Jansu on our discord silo. Season three just got its Apple TV release date and first trailer. It will be premiering on July 3rd on Apple TV. And the trailer link is in the show notes. I of course watched it. Having read the books, I kind of, I know what's coming. There's no real surprises here. I'm a little worried about this season because for me, this show is 99.9999-9999. Rebecca Ferguson.
- [37:03]
B
Yeah.
- [37:03]
C
And most of this season will not be about Rebecca Ferguson's character. So, yeah, I'm sure they're gonna work her in because they know that she's the big part of this show too. So I think we're gonna be bouncing back and forth between the timelines a lot. But you know, I love the show. I, I love both seasons. I can't wait for the third, regardless of what's going to come.
- [37:21]
B
So, yeah, I'm, I'm just amazed that it's July 3rd this year. I thought it was gonna be another three years, the way they've been making TV lately. So that's good. That's good. We've also been waiting for Jessica Jones to show up in Daredevil and she finally did for about 17 seconds, which is what we predicted. And it was fine. It was a good 17 seconds.
- [37:39]
C
It was great. I love her. Bring back Jessica Jones, for God's sake, bring back her own show.
- [37:44]
B
Yep, yep. She's still a badass. Still looks great. And we did get a little, little tease on one of the agents that he might not be what he looks to be like, human. So that was, that was a good, that was a good little. They slid that in there very subtly. I did. That was pretty good.
- [38:00]
C
They did. They didn't beat you over the head with it, which is what they usually do with Daredevil.
- [38:03]
B
Yeah. Yeah. And I gotta say, after this season, I think, I don't think there's any, any, you know, toothpaste left in the tube, not Daredevil.
- [38:12]
C
Not unless they bring back all four of them together again. But who wants. Who wants a Fists of Fury guy?
- [38:18]
F
Yeah.
- [38:21]
B
All right, what else we got?
- [38:23]
C
Well, Amazon is here to remind you about its very expensive Rings of Power TV show, which in a surprise move, is apparently dropping its third of five planned seasons earlier than expected. The report comes from the Hollywood Reporter and is yet to be confirmed by the streamer, but a source close to the production told the trade that Rings of Power Season 3 will be arriving later this year rather than the expected 2027 release date. Season two wrapped in October 2024. So instead of three years, we'll only be waiting two.
- [38:50]
B
God damn. I mean, it's a pretty show, but let's put a light a fire under it, guys. Let's go. Let's go.
- [38:56]
C
At least it's coming. I like the show. So we'll see.
- [39:00]
B
Jumping forward several years from the events of season two. Oh, my God, I have to go watch season two again. You got me into it and I gotta say, I fell in love with it and then I was very bummed that it was over. So that sucked.
- [39:13]
C
I think it's a fun show and they definitely spent a lot of money on it. It's very pretty.
- [39:17]
B
Yep. Speaking of pretty fun shows that you should never watch, the very end of Battlestar Galactica is coming back to streaming services finally.
- [39:24]
C
I don't want to spoil it for everyone, but there was no plan. I'm just telling you now.
- [39:32]
B
So May 1st on Paramount plus and Pluto. I have the entire series and all the miniseries and everything on my hard drive because I went to Sweden because I was tired of it not being on streaming. But yeah, I gotta tell you, Brian,
- [39:47]
C
it's a great show.
- [39:48]
B
It is a great show. There are some definite, like, stinkers in there, but that first season is fucking solid. It is so solid. Highly recommended. If you've never seen Battlestar Galactica reboot, you just gotta. You just gotta.
- [40:03]
C
Yeah, it's great. Even with its flaws, one of my favorite bands of all time has Comeback. Dead Can Dance have returned with Death Cults, the latest entry from their newly launched run of monthly 2026 releases. So instead of putting things out on streaming services and all that, these are all being put out exclusively through Bandcamp, thus forcing me to sign up for Bandcamp for the first time ever. They have not announced a new full length album alongside the singles. There's two now, and the official framing remains a month by month release starting rather than the traditional LP rollout. The strange thing about this is Dead Can Dance has always been really two people. Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerard. So far, the songs have only involved, as far as we can tell, Brandon Perry. We don't know if Lisa Gerard's involved. We don't know if she will be involved. There's no public clarification whatsoever about if she's involved or not. She actually hasn't posted anything on her private. Not private, on her own socials, other than some other stuff that she's involved in that isn't Dead Can Dance. So who knows what's happening? But the songs are great. So I don't care. It's been such a long time. The last album that they released was back in, I think, 2020 or something like that. And then they were going to tour and I had tickets and then Pandemic. So tour was canceled and then tour was reannounced and Pandemic came back. Ish. And so tour was canceled again. Then the tour was reannounced and I had tickets and then canceled because of health issues. And nobody said what the fuck was going on. This band has been a mystery forever. I don't care. There's new music, whatever. I'm happy.
- [41:34]
B
Well, here, Brian, from the description that you just told me, I'm really worried that there's going to be another fucking pandemic now. So thanks for that. Because every time they make new music, it seems like the world falls to shit.
- [41:46]
C
We don't need. We don't need an actual pandemic. Have you seen who's in charge of Health and Human Services in your country?
- [41:52]
B
Yeah, Moving on. What else we got?
- [41:57]
C
Well, let's talk about what happened at Coach Coachella. I. I actually did watch a bit of it, particularly the Nine Inch Noise, which is Nine Inch Nails with Boys Noise call out collaboration that they did at Coachella, which was just phenomenal. And the album's absolutely fantastic that they put out. But I, you know, I'm on the wrong coast, so I'm a bit late. So I didn't see any of the later shows that were on. I did not catch Madonna surprise appearance joining Sabrina Carpenter. Sabrina Carpenter, who I've decided I liked since the Muppet Show.
- [42:27]
B
It's amazing to do.
- [42:28]
C
I'm quite a fan. But you want to talk about dystopia, I've included a link in the show notes and there is an image Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter dance music, particularly Madonna, known for dance music. She came out, nobody danced. Everybody is just standing completely still with their phones.
- [42:50]
B
It's really weird.
- [42:51]
C
It's the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life.
- [42:54]
B
It is. So did you watch the TikTok video where they zoomed out to the whole audience?
- [42:59]
C
Yep.
- [42:59]
B
It's creepy. It's like. It's like, how hard does it have to be to be a performer performing to that with no feedback from your audience whatsoever?
- [43:08]
C
Nobody seems to be enjoying it. They're just trying to capture it. For what? There is a 4K stream on YouTube that is capturing it. Put your phone down. You want to watch it. Watch the 4K stream shot with professional cameras later.
- [43:22]
B
Yeah. I mean, you can probably see the zits on Madonna's ass with the cameras that they've got. Why are you sitting there at a show? The show is supposed to be fun. You're supposed to sweat, bump into people, get grind and do fun shit.
- [43:34]
C
Apparently. I'm glad I've aged out a Coachella, because if this is what it is now. No, thank you.
- [43:38]
B
See, there's a different performance that I saw. I saw FKA Twigs perform.
- [43:45]
C
Oh, I like her a lot too.
- [43:46]
B
Yeah. Oh, she amazing performer. A guy I worked with, DeSean Wesley, and a bunch of our Voguers went out to Coachella and they had a surprise performance at the end of her first night, the first weekend in Coachella, and it was awesome. And the crowd is going nuts, Absolutely nuts. And then you can see Sabrina Carpenter. It's completely different. But. And it's funny, the. The last time I. The reason I first had to watch Sabrina Carpenter is because desean was dancing on her Grammy thing. So my. This is my only. He's my only, like, link to new music anymore. But FKA Twigs is insanely good.
- [44:19]
C
Yeah, well, this was. This was dystopian again. And yeah, as the article points out, there's no wrong way to listen to music. And I would say, except for maybe this. Deezer, who has been reporting quite well on how AI generated music is seeping into streamers, has come out with another report. They reported receiving nearly 75,000 uploads of AI made tracks per day on its platform. Per day.
- [44:46]
B
Those are going to start going down now that they have to start paying for them.
- [44:49]
C
They probably have. Probably. They published a report revealing that 44% of its daily uploads are AI generated songs, accumulating to around 2 million flagged songs per month.
- [44:58]
B
Month.
- [44:58]
C
Deezer said more than 13.4 million songs were detected and flagged as AI generated across 2025. Statistics are made possible with their patent pending AI music detection tool, which was launched in January 2025. A few months following the release, Deezer announced that IT saw around 20,000 AI generated tracks uploaded a day, which we reported on when that first came out. So it has just increased despite all that. Deezer says that only about 1 to 3% of total streams on the platform involve AI generated music and that a majority of these streams are marked as fraudulent and demonstrate monetized. So they're working on it, they're trying to do it, but man, that is a flood of.
- [45:37]
B
Yeah, yeah, a tsunami as it were.
- [45:39]
C
A tsunami of a apps and doodads.
- [45:45]
B
Well, Brian, Apple has released a software update for iPhones and iPads to fix a privacy bug that allowed deleted messages to be recovered through forensic tools. Now I told you they were going to fix this one fast and they did. They even released a Point Point patch. It was a point patch to the point patch to get this one out. So yeah, the issue stemmed from how operating the operating system handled notifications. When a message was received and displayed in a notification, its content could be cached and stored locally for up to a month, even if the message itself was later deleted or set to disappear in apps like Signal. So this was how they backtraced those old Signal Signal users and they got convicted for that. So good. Apple is big on the privacy side, so they're like, sorry, we got your shit. Our bad.
- [46:29]
C
Yeah, yeah. Well it missed ongoing legal trouble with several states and more than 100 pending lawsuits. This week, Roblox announced a $12 million settlement with Nevada, allowing the company to avoid going to trial in this case. As part of the deal, Roblox has agreed to give 10 million over three years to local children's support programs like the Boys and Girls Club and other non digital groups, while spending another 2.5 million to fund a law enforcement liaison position and awareness campaign regarding online safety. That awareness campaign should be don't let your kids Roblox.
- [47:00]
B
That's about it.
- [47:01]
C
Additionally, Roblox will also implement more rigorous safety protocols, including an age verification system that combines a facial age estimation system with government issued IDs that will only allow children to talk with other players of similar ages. Furthermore, users under 16 will not be allowed to message adults unless they have been designated as a trusted friend, which can be assigned via QR code. Aren't most kids abducted by trusted friends?
- [47:25]
B
Yeah, yeah, basically. And can't you go to any restaurant and just take a sticker of a QR code and say, it's the menu, please scan it. And then there's Your trusted friend network right there. So some, some old guy's gonna go to Chuck E. Cheese and put his sticker on all of the menus and all the kids that go to Chuck E. Cheese will then be his new trusted friend. I'm sure that's gonna work out great, guys.
- [47:45]
C
I'm sure it will. While Roblox may have settled with Nevada, the company is still facing a number of lawsuits. In fact 99 or so earlier in the article from other part, including Kentucky, Iowa, Louisiana, Texas and more regarding claims the platform has knowingly facilitated child sexual exploitation.
- [48:04]
B
I got 99 lawsuits, but Nevada ain't one. Speaking of kids, Cash app is expanding its financial services to target younger users, launching a new program for children ages 6 to 12 as it looks to build early relationships with Gen Alpha.
- [48:20]
C
But what the.
- [48:22]
B
Brian? Parents can create and manage accounts on behalf of their children who won't have a direct app access but will receive debit cards for spending. Yeah, I want to give a six year old a debit card the accounts can accept.
- [48:35]
C
That's insane.
- [48:37]
B
Yep. The accounts can accept limited peer to peer payments from approved contacts and offer up to 3.25% interest with features like scheduled allowances to encourage saving habits. Brian.
- [48:48]
C
What? What parent is what? What six year old is running around without their parents anyways and needs a debit card?
- [48:57]
B
Have you been to Calabasas lately, Brian?
- [48:58]
C
Okay, fair.
- [49:01]
B
At age 13, users can transition to broader cash app services under parental supervision, including stock and bitcoin trading. No. You have a 13 year old chance to buy stock in bitcoin. What the fuck is wrong with you?
- [49:16]
C
Wow.
- [49:17]
B
The company says it already has around 5 million monthly active teen users entering a competitive and controversial market focused on youth financial exploitation or I mean, education.
- [49:27]
C
Right. You know, it was bad enough that they gave us all those credit cards at college where all you had to. You were walking around the quad and basically you just had to sign a piece of paper and they gave you a credit card at insane interest rates. And I bought very expensive keyboards with it and we're still paying those off well after graduation.
- [49:45]
B
Some of us aren't. Some of us had to file bankruptcy because of those very same credit cards that started us down the wrong fucking path.
- [49:51]
C
Thanks, Chase. That was an awesome plan of yours. So no, don't do this for your kids. Absolutely not. And yeah.
- [49:59]
B
Yeah.
- [50:01]
C
Judges granted the makers of the Ice Sightings, Chicagoland Facebook Group and the Eyes up app a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration from coercing platforms to take these projects down. Similar apps, including ICE Block and Red Dot, were also taken down from the App Store and Google Play. Judge Jorge L. Alonso of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois found the that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in their case, which alleges that the government suppressed protected speech under the First Amendment by strong arming Facebook and Apple into removing ICE monitoring efforts. The lawsuit cites social media posts by former US Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Secretary of Homeland Security. They're all formers. It's amazing how fast this is going. Christine Noem that demanded and took credit for the removal of these apps. In a document filed on Friday, Alonzo called these posts thinly veiled threats. Good, we should be able to have these apps. There's nothing wrong with them.
- [51:00]
B
The Dark side With Dave welcome to the Dark side with Dave with a podcaster who never sleeps, Dave Bittner. Dave covers the daily cyber security beat on the Cyberwire Bust Scams with Joe Kerrigan on Hacking Humans Untangles Privacy Headaches with Ben Yellen on Caveat digs into industrial cybersecurity on Control Loop and still shows up to stir up some trouble on Only Malware in the Buildings. Welcome back, Dave.
- [51:26]
F
Thank you. Nice to be back.
- [51:28]
B
So we got a little start here. Mike M. Sent us in a note, said the only useful use of AI that I've seen so far. Wondering what you fellow geeks thought of it. And it's two links to two Star wars fan film videos. I want to emphasize the fan film videos. Did you guys get a chance to watch these?
- [51:45]
F
I did.
- [51:46]
B
And your thoughts?
- [51:49]
F
Well, I mean, is Mike correct? They're very impressive, yes. Is Mike correct?
- [51:57]
B
Is this the only useful AI that you've seen so far?
- [52:00]
F
No, no. But I think it is a fun use of AI. I would love to know what tool they're using for this. I don't know. Admittedly, I've never dug into this. But I'm curious. What tool allows you to have the consistency that they seem to have here and be able to create what they've created? If you took some of these individual shots, you could plop into a Star wars movie and nobody would know that you'd done it. They're that good.
- [52:33]
C
I disagree.
- [52:35]
F
Well, you're wrong.
- [52:37]
C
Now I'll tell you why I disagree. That the sound is off and I'm so attuned to that. The voice sounds match. Does not match. Oh yeah. Just shots. Okay. Yes.
- [52:48]
F
I'm saying just the visual, the pure visual. And I'd say that many of the AI versions of the main characters are better than the ones ILM has done.
- [52:59]
C
Yeah.
- [53:00]
F
But it's inconsistent.
- [53:01]
C
There's also 10 years difference between Rogue
- [53:04]
F
One, of course, but it's inconsistent. I think, Brian, you're absolutely right on that. The sound is wrong. To me, the main thing that's lacking are the performances.
- [53:15]
C
Like, it's a lot of flat.
- [53:17]
F
It's really bad acting.
- [53:19]
B
Yeah.
- [53:19]
F
And I think they just, it seems to me like they didn't have enough to sample from with Lando to get a full range of emotions for whatever they're using to generate his audio because he always sounds like he's kind of yelling no matter what. But at the same time, it was fun.
- [53:39]
C
Look, I watched all of them. I didn't just watch these. I. I watched the rest by this guy and then it led me to other ones. And honestly, I can't even go onto YouTube now because my entire recommended thing is just CGI Star wars stuff. Or, you know, could be worse. It could be worse. I. I thought it was a lot.
- [53:56]
B
I'm surprised that's any different than normal, though. That's the.
- [53:59]
C
I'm never on YouTube.
- [54:00]
B
Oh, there you go.
- [54:01]
C
So, you know. Yeah, I thought it was a lot of fun. The thing that I really took away from this is that Star wars is such a fun universe and we love it all so much that the beats that Lucas left off because he had to only make a two hour movie, not fucking Hobbit 17 hours from one book. They're all interesting. The behind the scenes things between Darth Vader and Boba Fett and like, like all these little beats, I would watch all of them.
- [54:33]
F
Right.
- [54:33]
C
Like, and you know, the guy points for the creativity. Not so much the, with the AI stuff, but just like what he. What the things that he decided to do with it. The story, the little stories he chose to tell were all good. Like, I liked them all. They were fun. Is the technology there yet? Absolutely not. So, yeah, it's still very uncanny valley to me, particularly with the sound.
- [54:59]
F
Yeah, I agree. Yes, yes. And so the facial movements are very uncanny valley. It's helpful when you have characters like Darth Vader and Boba Fett with no faces.
- [55:08]
C
Yeah, that helps a lot.
- [55:10]
B
Whose lips don't need to move.
- [55:12]
C
That could do an entire movie about Mandalore and everybody would love it. Yeah, right.
- [55:17]
B
Well, maybe he could rotoscope them and turn them into animated shorts and they'd be probably better.
- [55:22]
C
Speaking of which, Mal is still very good.
- [55:24]
F
Oh, yeah, I need to check that out. My son came to me earlier this week and said, hey. One of my friends said, mall's really good. And I said, yeah. One of my friends said it is too. Let's watch it. So we haven't watched yet, but yeah,
- [55:37]
C
I'm watching it with my son. And we fell a little bit behind, I guess. One comes out every Monday and I basically argued with him every single day this week. No, we're only watching one. We'll watch the next one tomorrow. No, we're only going to watch one today.
- [55:49]
F
Well, that's a good sign.
- [55:50]
C
Yeah, it's a good sign. He's enjoying it.
- [55:53]
B
I have to check it out. I finished Fallout last night, season two of Fallout, which was really good. Surprisingly, surprisingly good. And yeah, I think I'll dive into that because the boys, I have to wait every week for the boys now,
- [56:07]
F
which is my son. And I caught up on that yesterday and felt like the most recent episode was a filler episode.
- [56:15]
B
Kinda. Yeah. Yeah, kinda.
- [56:17]
F
And boy, there was some bad dialogue writing in the, in that episode.
- [56:21]
C
Like, I don't know, you should hire this AI Star wars guy, right?
- [56:24]
B
Yeah. There you go. I think, I think it's coming to a good climax though, I think.
- [56:30]
F
I hope so.
- [56:31]
B
You didn't, you didn't go back and watch the, the miniseries though, did you?
- [56:34]
F
No.
- [56:34]
B
See, yeah. You don't know what's coming yet. So. Okay. Yeah.
- [56:39]
F
So there's stuff that, you know, having seen the university, stuff that I don't know, having not seen it, that makes you more excited for what's yet to come.
- [56:48]
B
Absolutely, yeah.
- [56:50]
F
Okay.
- [56:50]
B
Yep.
- [56:52]
F
Well, that sucks for me.
- [56:55]
B
Well, maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised when it shows up and you go, oh, that's cool. I didn't realize that was coming. So.
- [57:01]
F
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know. We'll see. We'll see.
- [57:06]
C
All right, well, let's move from Star wars to the other big sci fi franchise, Star Trek, because we do love our prop sales in this segment. The current era of Star Trek is ending with a fire sale now that Paramount committed to making more Star Trek movies. Maybe we'll see. Right, it's time to say goodbye to its current run of TV shows by selling everything off Prop Store and 403Auction Reach recently launched individual sales of props from recent Trek shows from prop store collectors can put down money for costumes and props from Star Trek Discovery and the Star Trek shorts miniseries. And over on 403, Star Trek Starfleet Academy stuff is up for grabs. Unfortunately, nothing from Strange New Worlds, which is the only show I'D be interested in, really. But, I mean, there are fun little things in there. Nothing I want to spend a ton of money on. You can get. You can buy entire transporter rooms, but they do say you have to come and pick it up. They will not be delivering it to you.
- [57:58]
B
That's a very cool transporter room, though. You got to admit, that thing is really cool.
- [58:03]
C
It's cool looking. Yeah, absolutely.
- [58:06]
B
But, you know, it would be. If I. If I had money, I would definitely get. Some of the Klingon outfits that they have in there are pretty spectacular. They would make amazing Halloween costumes for sure.
- [58:15]
C
That's true.
- [58:16]
B
Yeah. If you have the Klingling.
- [58:18]
C
I don't think any of us are the 6ft tall and 140 pounds that most of the actors that play these Klingons are and would be able to fit into them, but. Yes.
- [58:26]
F
Do you guys remember the Star Trek adventure at Universal in California?
- [58:32]
B
No.
- [58:33]
C
No.
- [58:34]
B
Why would that be at Universal? Star Trek is Paramount, so why would there be a Star Trek at Universal?
- [58:39]
F
I'm just telling you where it was. I don't know.
- [58:40]
B
I was drinking a lot back then.
- [58:42]
C
I just fondly remember the Star Trek experience in Las Vegas where I did
- [58:46]
B
drink quite a lot.
- [58:48]
F
So that was great. This was. I guess it was sort of like a special effects demo kind of thing where they would mix footage from one of the Star Trek movies with footage. They get audience members to come up and get dressed up and they put them in scenes that would then get cut into the movies. So it was a whole behind the scenes sort of thing.
- [59:15]
B
Sounds fun.
- [59:16]
F
It was fun. And my reason for bringing it up is that I once got picked to be in it. And so I got to dress up like a Klingon somewhere. I have a VHS tape of it I'll have to try to dig up somewhere. Who knows where it is. But the funniest thing about it is that I dressed up as a Klingon, but I still had to wear my glasses. So I got the whole Klingon head and all the battle armor, everything, and my little round glasses.
- [59:46]
C
Didn't Chang in the Undiscovered country have a monocle? Is that right?
- [59:51]
B
Yeah. See, that would have been cool.
- [59:53]
C
They get astigmatism too, man. Klingons, they're just like us.
- [59:57]
F
Right? Right. Yeah. So I'll see if I can dig that up. I have so many. Oh, gosh, there's so many VHS tapes.
- [60:06]
B
So many VHS tapes. Get on it, man. They're melting as we speak.
- [60:09]
C
Yeah, they're not going to last much longer.
- [60:12]
F
I know. Anyway, an interesting question came by on one of my feeds this week, and it got me thinking, because I feel like we're sort of in the middle of the generation that this would have happened to. So I'm curious for both of you, because you're both a little bit younger than me in your life. Did you ever know anyone who was born in the 1800s?
- [60:39]
C
Nope.
- [60:40]
B
Yeah, my great grandmother. Yep. She came over from, like, in the 19, like, 1917, and she came over when she was at least 20. So, yeah.
- [60:55]
F
Yeah. Same for me. There's some great grandparents who were born, like, 1898, right at the tail end of that. And I have very vague recollections. In fact, the memory I have of my one great grandmother on my father's side was seeing her in the hospital right before she passed away. But I just thought it was funny, like, there's. There is no one alive who was born in the 1800s. And I have a link to the Wikipedia page on the last person who was alive who was born in the 1800s, who was an Italian woman named Emma Morano. But I don't know. It's funny how these things pass. You know, we're very close to coming up on a time when there will be no more World War II veterans.
- [61:41]
B
That's scary.
- [61:43]
F
Yeah, but. And that was so. Especially when we were. What's that?
- [61:48]
C
One can tell the way society is going. Yes.
- [61:51]
F
Yeah.
- [61:52]
C
Well, when they're not around to remind you that Nazis are bad.
- [61:56]
F
I guess when we were kids, it was such a regular part of life, particularly for me, growing up in the 70s and on TV shows like, you'd watch the Mary Tyler Moore show, and half the characters, if they were men, their background was, what'd you do in the war? And we all knew what the war was. It was World War II. And so they're pretty much almost gone. And same thing with Holocaust survivors. It's not gonna be much longer till there isn't going to be anyone who was there. And I just wonder what happens when we lose those connections.
- [62:33]
B
Look outside. That's what happens when we lose those connections.
- [62:38]
F
Yeah.
- [62:38]
B
Yeah.
- [62:39]
F
I think I shared the story with you guys about how One time, probably 20 years ago, I interviewed a woman who was in her 90s, whose father had been a slave. Not her grandfather, her father.
- [62:51]
B
I do recall this. Yes.
- [62:53]
F
Yeah. Her father, when he was a child, was born into slavery, got freed when he was 4 or 5 years old. And the woman that I was interviewing was born when he was in his 50s. So the math worked out for this all to be. But for me, it was a real reset of my own calibrating history. Because to think that just not someone's grandfather, great grandfather. You think about that time as being so far away, but here it was, one generation before us, that someone, someone I was talking to their father was someone else's property when he came into this world. It's hard to contemplate.
- [63:33]
B
So time is weird.
- [63:35]
F
It really is. I was just saying this week how I still feel like post Covid just how messed up time is. And sometimes the weeks are flying by, and sometimes there are moments that last forever, and I feel like it's not the same way it was before.
- [63:55]
C
I just can't grasp the difference between decades anymore. Like, when I was younger, decades seemed very long. And now I'm always shocked when something was like 20, 30 years ago. I'm like, how that was five years ago.
- [64:10]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm watching this show on Netflix and one of the trivia questions was, the person that you're looking for was born the same year that Fight Club, the Matrix and one other movie came out. And they're like, 1999. And I'm like, fuck.
- [64:32]
C
Which, no, the phrase 1999 doesn't bother me. It's when I do the math. And I realized 1999 wasn't a decade ago exactly. It was almost three of them.
- [64:44]
B
That's the problem. Catalyze the rub.
- [64:47]
F
Yeah. I think part of what's contributing to that. I saw a different video this week, and it was asking, why is it that the most recent decades have been so similar to each other? In other words, like, the people from the 50s looked like people from the 50s. Same with the 60s, same with the 70s, same with the 80s, but somehow from the 90s and certainly starting around the 2000s, if you were to hold up a picture of somebody and say, what decade is this from? There isn't the distinction that there used to be decade after decade with clothing styles and hairstyles? It's all kind of blended together and I'm not sure why.
- [65:28]
C
Mass production of everything. Just homogenization of culture.
- [65:32]
B
So many.
- [65:33]
C
The Internet, the Internet, Amazon, everybody's getting the same clothes, Everybody's getting the. Yep.
- [65:39]
F
Yeah, yeah. So I don't know. I don't know if it's good or bad, but it is.
- [65:43]
C
It's bad.
- [65:44]
F
And I'm with you. It's bad. And so it is. Well, speaking of bad, there's another article that caught my eye here. That I thought I'd share, I spent some time with this week. It's written by Derek Thompson and it's titled if America's so Rich, How'd it get so sad? And it looks at how so many of our economic indicators over the past few years have been quite good. Like unemployment is good, the stock market is doing well. Obviously the stock market is not the economy. But people aren't happy. And what's the disconnect here about why things are good but people aren't happy? And this article digs into that.
- [66:33]
C
I didn't read the article yet. I definitely want to, although I have enough sadness porn in my life that I don't need more, which is what this would be. But my gut instinct is all these economic indicators that look strong, look strong and they are strong for the very rich. But there's no trickle down here. Yes, there's low unemployment, but the people that, well, there used to be low unemployment, we're seeing unemployment is starting to skyrocket again. But even when there was low unemployment, people weren't getting paid well, wages were rising. Yes, but prices are rising faster.
- [67:10]
F
Right?
- [67:11]
C
Stock market, vast majority of people, that doesn't impact them in any way, shape or form. They're, they're not invested. And even if they are in it, it's, it's only retirement accounts and, and even those are getting slam left, right and center at certain points. So all these economic indicators only affect people that are already rich and they're not affecting the middle class and the lower class. So yeah, we're seeing the, just, we're seeing people upset about that. Jason and I particularly Jason has been banging on the drum of class war is coming for quite some time.
- [67:44]
F
So yeah, one of the things this pointed out to the point of low income groups, that wages have been rising significantly among the lowest level of earners in a healthy way. But one of the impacts of that is that the prices of everyday goods like burgers has gone up as a result of that. And that hits the middle class. So now the middle class feels like they get anxious because the prices of everyday things are going up. And it's also harder for the middle class to hire people to do the things that they used to rely on the lower class to do, like mow their lawns and do the handyman work, childcare. Right. All that stuff has gotten more expensive because in a good way, the wages have gone up. But anyway, this thing, the bottom line here is this person posits that we've got this combination of post Pandemic, inflation, institutional distrust, social isolation and this crisis driven media environment makes us all feel worse, despite positive economic indicators. And I think there's a lot to this. So I share arguments.
- [69:08]
C
For me on any of those.
- [69:09]
B
No, I've had multiple conversations with multiple people all across the spectrum just in the past month that there is this general malaise and depression that a lot of people have right now that they can't quite really put their finger on. And it is just, it's kind of blanketed.
- [69:27]
C
You can put your finger on it right here.
- [69:29]
B
Oh, maybe that this is a big part of it.
- [69:31]
C
This is a big part of it.
- [69:32]
B
He's holding up his phone. For those listening on audio. Brian's holding up his phone.
- [69:36]
C
I'm holding up my phone and I'm putting my finger on it. This is a huge part of it because this is the reason that we have that crisis driven media environment because it's being fed into our eyeball calls every five seconds. This is the reason we have social isolation. Isolation because we think that this is keeping us in contact with our friends and our family when it's really not. It's not the same. It's just not. It's not the same as seeing people in person.
- [70:01]
B
Yeah, that, that is, I was getting to that. That's the biggest problem that most of the people I talk to is it's so hard to make new friends. And you're, you're, you know, what's the old friend? You can lose friends but enemies accumulate. The people I know are like, you know, there's a lot of loneliness. There's just a huge amount of loneliness and people can't figure out how to, how to just branch out and meet new people.
- [70:24]
C
Well, my wife, it's funny because my wife had mentioned to me just the other day, I can't remember why it got brought up. It was some, one of her colleagues and dating and you know, my wife was just like, we never would have met each other. Other, not in a million years would we have met each other in today's environment. There's people, kid, people don't go to bars, people aren't going to concerts. And you know, we met through friends of friends at a bar, at a concert. And it's all these sorts of.
- [70:52]
B
Now at a concert you just stare at your phone. You don't even know that the cute girl standing next to you.
- [70:55]
C
Yeah, right.
- [70:56]
F
You guys were talking earlier about nobody dancing to Madonna. You know, like, you're right, everybody.
- [71:02]
B
You're right, Brian. It's just the phone, throw them all away.
- [71:04]
C
A lot of it I, A lot of it is, A lot of it is. This is this constant, this constant contact thing that tricks us into thinking we're having meaningful interactions. Plus it's just a depression machine. It's just sending us non stop comparing. We're comparing ourselves to others. We're being told we're not good enough. We're seeing people present the best possible version of themselves. That's probably a lie. And becoming more so every single day because of generative AI. Like they're fixing everything. Everything is perfect in everybody else's life except yours. You suck. That's what our phones are telling us.
- [71:41]
F
I also wonder how much people completely related to that, how much do people feel unsafe? I've heard people say that they, we, we are in a state where our prey instinct is constantly being triggered. You know, where we feel like we're being hunted. That, that feeling of always having to look over our shoulder because of the barrage of bad news of, and the way that these platforms and the news organizations have capitalized off of that, of pressing those buttons to keep us engaged because we're fearful. We want to go back to see what's happened next.
- [72:20]
B
That's from the algorithm. The algorithm does that, you know, if it bleeds, it leads.
- [72:24]
C
So I mean I see that even as a difference between suburbs and I, and like the, I think about like my, my sister in law and my brother in law and with their kids, they, they, they live out in a suburb and, and they're terrified. They, they, they're, they're really unsure. They're scared to come into downtown Toronto. I would walk around my neighborhood at midnight naked and I would feel completely safe outside of the fact that I would just be sexy. But I would be, you know,
- [72:53]
B
it's.
- [72:54]
C
Yes, bad things happen. Bad things happen in greater proportion in cities than they do in suburbs. True, true. Toronto's incredibly safe. There is no reason for my in laws to feel that the way they do about Toronto. But that's what's being fed to them. They, they think that suburbs are safe, cities are dangerous. You listen to the news, you hear about the bad things that are happening and the bad things that are happening are happening concentrated in the cities as opposed to the suburbs.
- [73:22]
B
It's.
- [73:23]
C
Yeah, I think we're just getting overloaded and all the time.
- [73:26]
F
Yeah, there's no more filter and there's no, I guess when we used to get our news at specific times of the day it was more compartmentalized and
- [73:38]
C
it was a Half an hour. Right. It wasn't a non stop, never ending feed of it. It was. Yeah.
- [73:45]
F
And by the fact of it only being a half an hour, it was more curated as to what.
- [73:51]
C
And they always ended with a fucking puppy being saved.
- [73:54]
F
Right.
- [73:55]
C
That's why we're trying to end our news segment with something nice and light too.
- [73:59]
B
Yeah.
- [74:02]
F
Yeah. Well, it's a good read. I recommend it. I found it to be pretty insightful, you know, not completely unrelated to this. I saw another lecture that commentator David Brooks gave this week week. And he's, you know, right of center guy, someone. I don't always agree with him, but I respect his writing and his capabilities and all that stuff. And he made a lot of really interesting points in this talk. He was giving a talk at Yale and the talk was about what can we do? How is America going to save itself when we're on the other side of all this stuff that's happening right now. Now basically everything that's going on in Washington, how do we get past this? And it was a historical look back and I learned a lot of interesting insights and I sent it to a friend of mine who is way more hard left leaning than me and I'm pretty left leaning. And I sent it to a friend and said, I think you might find this interesting. And she wrote back and said, I don't like David Brooks know. And I was like, I was like, okay, but I understand that. And I calc. I put that in the calculation of sharing it with you, knowing you the way I do, but also having watched this myself and feeling like as your friend you would find value in this. But instead you are dismissing it because of the messenger. And I was very frustrated by that. And there was no convincing her otherwise. She's like, I'm not spending an hour of my life watching that guy.
- [75:46]
B
It's hard to break through somebody's bubble chamber.
- [75:49]
C
The hard left and the hard right are both problems. Like we can't just say it's the hard right, the completely far right that's the problem. It's also the completely far left.
- [75:58]
F
Yeah, no, it was frustrating.
- [76:00]
C
We have to be able to find some middle ground. It's never gonna be both ends wanted my way or the highway. And that's just not how the world works. I mean, it can work that way. We're seeing the world work that way right now. And I think we all agree we don't like it. It.
- [76:15]
F
Right?
- [76:16]
B
Yeah. No. Right.
- [76:19]
F
Well, I'm going to go lock myself in a room and watch some AI Star Wars.
- [76:23]
C
So I'm going to go walk around my neighborhood naked.
- [76:26]
B
All right.
- [76:27]
F
Do you have a ring camera, Brian?
- [76:29]
C
No, but everybody else does and I'm sure that you can hack into them pretty easily.
- [76:34]
F
Oh, my goodness.
- [76:35]
B
I'm going to go. I'm going to go rub a puppy and look at a tree.
- [76:38]
C
So I hope that's not a euphemism.
- [76:40]
B
Not a euphemism. I have a puppy. All right, guys, see you next time.
- [76:45]
C
All right, bye.
- [76:47]
B
Closing shout out over at Patreon. Well, we peaked last week, Brian, because we got no new Patron subscribers this week. But we would like to thank Timothy, Stephen, Jason, Steve, Matt, Jeremy, Dan, Spiezus, Patrick and James. Sorry, Spizus, if I screwed that one
- [77:06]
C
up, but thank you. Well, the lingering guilt donations over your pending bankruptcy have continued. Over at PayPal, we've got Gregory with 50 bucks and Connor who gave us 180 bucks. Thank you.
- [77:18]
B
Thank you guys so much. Trust me. Trust me.
- [77:22]
C
Not out of the woods yet, people.
- [77:23]
B
No, I got 60 more days to wait. Kathleen and Thomas with the 25 over at the tip jar. So thank you very much. And if you would like to keep the show on the air and keep the grump on a grumping, go to either patreon.com gog and sign up for as little as $3 a month. But you can sign up for more if you want to get the show early ad free and in high definition or go to gog.show donate to find other ways to keep us cooking. So we appreciate you very, very much. No new merch this week, but new merch is coming. Like to see my. Oh, what a great mug this is. It keeps my coffee hot. Now that I'm past the thing, we're going to have new merch, I promise. New merch is coming. I'm going to finish it this week because now I can sleep at night. It's great.
- [78:07]
C
I got to get the logins from you or I'll just guess based on URLs from previous.
- [78:11]
B
Exactly.
- [78:14]
C
We did get a new five star review. They didn't give their name but and they used some emojis so apparently. Let's start with Firefries.
- [78:22]
B
Firefries. Okay.
- [78:23]
C
Know what that. But one of shows that make me the most happy to know it's been released. Love you guys. Look.
- [78:29]
B
Love you too.
- [78:30]
C
We'll take any good review.
- [78:31]
B
Thank you so much. And I want fries now, so.
- [78:34]
C
Yeah, thanks. On fire.
- [78:35]
B
Yeah.
- [78:38]
C
Oh, what a week. Until next time, I'm Brian Schillmeister and I'm Jason DeFilippo.
- [78:43]
B
Thanks for listening to Grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show 743. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. 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. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts? Feedbacks? Feedbacks? I've got cool feedbacks. Feedback the meats or cool links? Well then just hit us up at GOG show contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG show review and we'll read it on the air. Guess what? We've got new merch coming. Snag yours today at Shop GOG show and stay grumpy.