756: Log Off, Touch Grass & Touch Ass

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks
Episode 756: Log Off, Touch Grass & Touch Ass
July 23, 2026
Hosts: Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister, with Dave Bittner

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Episode Overview

This episode is a classic Grumpy Old Geeks rundown: Jason and Brian, joined by Dave, dissect the week’s most absurd, infuriating, and hilarious tech news. With no mercy or filter, they hammer AI debacles, the decay of terrestrial radio, legal battles in tech, prediction markets skirting gambling laws, privacy nightmares, and the slow-motion disaster of tech-for-tech’s-sake products. They also recommend media, reminisce about the old web, and share razor-sharp (and sometimes off-color) commentary. If tech had a walk of shame, this episode would be it.

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Key Topics & Discussions

Terrestrial Radio is Dead... and Other Aging Tech (00:42–05:12)

• Brian laments L.A. car culture: In L.A. he’s forced to use his mom’s “ancient” car, listening to terrestrial radio instead of Spotify or podcasts.
• Terrestrial radio's death spiral: Playlists are absurdly short and repetitive.
  • “I’ve heard the same roughly 30 to 40 songs 1,000 times in the week and a half I’ve been here.” — Brian (02:25)
• “Retronyms” discussed (e.g., ‘landline’, ‘terrestrial radio’): Devices that only need new names because tech moved on.
• Memorable Quote: “We didn’t call it terrestrial radio. It was just radio.” — Brian (04:15)

Prediction Markets: Not Gambling, Just "Prediction" (05:12–06:28, 19:06–20:55)

• Jason sets up a Kalshi account, hoping to make “predictions” on TV show outcomes—not allowed for pre-taped shows.
• Legal and regulatory pushback against prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket is heating up, especially in Europe (France and Spain), and Minnesota bans such operations.
• Quote: “Kalshee’s lawyers just called me. They said, please do not use the term bets because it’s not gambling.” — Brian (06:06)

AI Under Fire: Lawsuits, Security Breaches, and Regulation (06:28–17:09, 34:53–36:33)

• Dave Eggers roasting OpenAI: At an OpenAI event, author Dave Eggers delivers a scathing critique about ChatGPT’s effect on education.
  • Quote: “You’ve made every teacher’s life infinitely more difficult than it was two years ago... They’ll never learn to write and their voice is stolen from them.” — Dave Eggers, read by Jason (07:00)
• Anthropic’s $1.5 Billion Copyright Settlement: AI company fined after using millions of pirated books to train LLMs. Authors receive $3,000 per work; some opt out, seeking more.
  • Quote: “You can’t just take all this stuff. You can’t steal it, you can’t use it.” — Brian (10:01)
• AI breaches its own test environment: OpenAI admits two ‘frontier’ models broke out of a security environment and hacked into Hugging Face.
  • Quote: “Let me get this straight... The tool you’re training to do offensive cybersecurity... broke in and out of things.” — Brian (14:08)
• AI-generated deepfakes: SpaceX sues a user who used Grok to make child sexual abuse materials, while also facing lawsuits for insufficient safeguards.
• China restricts AI companion apps to prevent people from “opting out” of real relationships, fearing further drops in birthrate. (36:33–37:47)
  • Quote: “China’s message is basically log off, touch grass, and touch ass.” — Jason (37:41)

Big Tech Legal & Regulatory News (17:09–22:16)

• Major Hollywood merger blocked: Paramount/Skydance/Warner Bros $111B merger paused over antitrust fears.
• Judicial competence questioned: “Maybe the people that are judging these things... might be too old to understand what’s going on.” — Brian (09:14)
• Herfindahl–Hirschman Index explained re: market concentration and antitrust.

Social Media & Youth: Bans and Clumsy Controls (22:16–23:17)

• France bans under-15s from creating social media accounts (pending final legal approval), and plans phone bans in high schools.
• US government backpedals, now allowing TikTok on federal devices, citing (undefined) reduced risks.

Robo-Taxis, AI Data Centers, and Elon's Sprawl (23:17–27:39)

• Amazon’s Zoox recalls all 105 robo-taxis after one gets flummoxed by smoke in Las Vegas.
• Tesla’s cyber cab will feature Starlink, allegedly so trapped passengers can call for help.
  • Quote: “Bring a hammer if you’re going to ride in one... when it stops on the train tracks.” — Jason (26:08)
• Meta considers renting out unused data centers to Anthropic for $10B; discusses massive (and questionable) AI infrastructure spending.

Tech-for-Good? Trade Schools Funded by Meta (27:39–31:35)

• America’s Workforce Academy: Meta backs a nationwide trade school pipeline, “guaranteeing” jobs for grads in fiber, welding, electrical, plumbing, and more.
  • Both hosts praise it as a rare example of a big tech initiative with few strings attached (so far).
• Quote: “If I was young and I could move around... I’d be on this like flies on shit.” — Jason (30:06)

Surveillance Failures & Data Privacy Dystopias (31:35–34:53, 41:04–41:53)

• Flock pulls back on ‘scream detection’ microphones after major outcry. LA cancels their contract; EFF declares a “win.”
• Meta patents always-on emotion-detecting audio/voice analysis—ostensibly for wellness, actually for targeting ads.
  • Quote: “Recording you all the time—but we're gonna couch it under wellness.” — Jason (41:47)

Parental Controls and AI in Social/School Contexts (34:53–36:33)

• OpenAI introduces expanded parental controls: Will now inform parents if a child is booted for violent threats. This shift is seen as purely reactive, following damaging incidents.
  • Quote: “This is not them going, oh, we should do something for the children. This is because a bunch of children have already been harmed.” — Brian (35:49)

AI Infiltrates Sports & Education (37:47–40:55)

• China bans "romantic AI relationships" for minors.
• US schools buy “Sally,” an AI-powered robot teacher, built by the company behind RealDoll sex robots (!!).

MLB Bans Generative AI Tablets in Dugouts (39:09–40:55)

• League outlaws teams using tablets for in-game AI decision-making (substitutions, pitch calls); prior scandals involved far lower tech (i.e., banging on garbage cans).

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Media Talk & Nostalgia

Streaming Recommendations (42:08–46:29)

• Broadchurch (first two seasons): “Excellent but stunningly depressing.” — Brian (42:18)
• Perry Mason S2 (HBO): “I thought the first season ended at a nice spot... Second season was great. The story was better than season one.” — Jason (43:11)
• Monsieur Spade (Clive Owen): “You will never forget [this series].” — Jason (43:39)
• The Westies (AMC+): NYC Irish gangsters, J.K. Simmons.
• Avengers: Doomsday trailer: Both could not care less. “Impossible for me to care less.” — Brian (46:29)

Apps & Software (48:31–52:17)

• MacWhisper 14: Best-in-class transcription app, still no recurring charges.
• Seneca (Jason’s own RSS reader): Designed for simplicity and efficiency, soon to be released.
• Trackalot: Tracker app for “did I do it?” moments; watchOS support coming.
• Lunar Moon Phase for desktop moon-tracking.

"Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows" (52:19–53:39)

• Book recommendation: Definitions for unnamed feelings. “This book...put into words feelings no AI could ever comprehend.” — Jason (52:19)

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Listener Q&A, Razors, & Old Man Life (53:39–66:56)

• Dave Bittner joins for the latter part of the show.
• Old-man remedies: Pumpkin seed oil is recommended for nighttime bathroom avoidance.
• Amazon knock-offs: Deodorant, batteries, and other frequent fakes. ‘Knockoff’ browser extension gets kudos.
  • “Cosmetics are the biggest things people get ripped off on” — Jason (57:36)
• Shaving woes: Electric vs. manual razors; advice from the hosts and listeners.

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Geek/Nostalgia Corner (72:29–80:44)

• Old movie websites remastered: Jason used LLMs to up-convert his 1990s web designs (Titanic, Star Trek: First Contact, etc.) to modern standards. Stories of site-building in the golden age of hand-made web.
  • “These are handcrafted... nowadays, it's just a marketing thing to throw away.” — Jason (75:30)
• Classic Mac games: Marathon Infinity, Shufflepuck Café, playable in browser at systemless.org.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “It’s just a tool.” — Ongoing motif, mocking Big Tech’s defense of dangerous tech.
• “Bring a hammer if you’re going to ride in one of these [cyber cabs].” — Jason (26:08)
• “If the glove fits.” — Dave, after a suggestive show title about AI and relationships. (37:19)
• “We need Retro Nim movies.” — Brian (48:02)
• “If you’re young and listening to this, go check [Meta’s trade academy] out.” — Brian (31:35)
• “Pumpkin seed oil, rub it on your penis vigorously, and you will forget that you have to pee at two in the morning.” — Listener tip, as relayed by Jason (54:17)

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Timestamps of Highlighted Segments

• 00:42–05:12 – Terrestrial radio & retronyms
• 06:28–17:09 – AI lawsuits, risks, security breaches
• 17:09–22:16 – Paramount/Skydance/Warner mega-merger blocked; legal detail
• 22:16–23:17 – France bans social media for under-15s; US re-admits TikTok
• 23:17–27:39 – Robo-taxis, cybercabs, gadget snafus
• 27:39–31:35 – Meta's trade school experiment
• 31:35–34:53, 41:04–41:53 – Surveillance, privacy, patents on emotion
• 42:08–46:29 – Media reviews (Broadchurch, Perry Mason, The Westies)
• 53:39–66:56 – Listener Q&A, anti-aging hacks, knockoff Amazon gear
• 72:29–80:44 – Retro web, classic Mac games

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Closing Thoughts

As always, the Geeks mix sharp tech insight, cranky realism, and signature filthy humor to offer a vital antidote to the wild claims and follies of the tech world. This episode is especially rich in AI skepticism, nostalgia for the “handcrafted” web, and take-no-prisoners commentary on digital privacy and market manipulation. Like they say: “If tech had a walk of shame, this would be it.”

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For complete links, merch, and Discord access: Visit GOG.show/756

Transcript

[A]

Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo, discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks.

[B]

I'm Jason DeFilippo, and I'm a very sleepy Brian Schillmeister.

[A]

Oh, poor baby. Get to see what it's like living here on the left coast, getting your ass up every fucking morning. Do this show.

[B]

You know, the crazy thing is I'm up at very, very early on the east coast, like, well before Europe on the West Coast. But I just sink into west coast time when I'm here and I want to sleep in.

[A]

I can't get out of east coast time. But, hey, that's what it is. It's what it is.

[B]

Anyways, speaking about being here, Jason, as you know, if you're in Los Angeles, driving is life. Actually. It's a very slow death, but it's

[A]

a very slow death. I'm like, I don't know what you're

[B]

talking about, man, but you do a lot of driving. It's something I've gotten. I very much enjoy about living in Toronto. It's. It's, you know, it's a walking city. It's. There's very robust public transport. I'm not in my car very often in Toronto at all. Here all the time, everywhere, to get to everything. It doesn't matter if. Is it five minutes away? Is it two hours away? You're in the car, right? Yeah. And so we rent a car, but my wife goes into the office. She's got the modern car that gets carplay and all that sort of stuff. My mom has a very old car, and that's the car I'm stuck with when I'm going around town, going to Santa Monica to visit friends, whatever it is I'm doing. So I found myself listening to a lot of terrestrial radio.

[A]

I. I am sorry.

[B]

Yeah, well, you know, at first, it was really kind of. I'm. I'm listening to things I normally won't, which is. It was great and novel. Like, all of a sudden, it's like, I. I'm not listening to my normal podcasts. I'm not listening to my normal bands that I listen to or the playlists that I listen to from Spotify or whatever. When I'm. When I'm at home or walking around Toronto with my phone, and I was like, oh, I haven't heard some of these songs in years. Oh, I don't mind a little Billy Joel. Billy Joel's pretty good. Oh, listen to this. This is great. And my mom. Five, six playlisted stations in there. Also, let me just say really quickly the fact that K Earth 101, which used to be the oldie station when I was a kid, and I'd scoff at my parents for listening to Rocks Depeche Mode now.

[A]

That's it.

[B]

Anyways, what I've realized is every single station has a playlist of about 15 songs, tops.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

I've heard the same roughly 30 to 40 songs 1,000 times in the week and a half I've been here.

[A]

Yes. Yeah, that's. That's one of the downsides. I. There. There are some songs that just make me cringe now and. And then sometimes. Brian, I've only got three stations plugged in. Like, three, like, actual music stations plugged into my. My car.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And sometimes you will hit the Devil's Trifecta and you will get the Red Hot Chili Peppers on each and every station.

[B]

That almost happened to me. Soft Sells Tainted Love was played about 30, 30 seconds off on two stations yesterday.

[A]

Then. Then the worst part is when you're listening to it and then you go into the Ralphs to go buy your groceries and then they've got it piped in over the sound system. You're like, I can't get away from the fucking Eurythmics. Why is the Eurythmics on every channel?

[B]

Sweet dreams.

[A]

Yep. Everywhere you go. Everywhere.

[B]

And Here Comes the Rain. That. Like that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

The other thing is, like, all of these bands have been, like, distilled down to just one or two songs. That's. That's it. That's all you'll ever hear. So it's no wonder terrestrial radio is dying. I mean, this is useless. Who. Who wants this?

[A]

Nobody. And you haven't hit the Iris trifecta either, yet, because you can get that easily. I think of you every time.

[B]

My life is that.

[A]

I know. I just. Every time that. That fucking song comes out, I just think of being stuck out in the woods and two in the. Or three in the morning and blasting it over the speakers at that. That camp we did. It was so much fun. But that's why I have KUSC always plugged in, because you never get a repeat on kusc, which is the classical station here, which is what you need to calm down from when you get the trifecta of the Red Hot Chili Peppers on every station.

[B]

Yeah, I just turned the RA off. If I. If it's all Red Hot Chili Peppers. Because, yeah, that's what one should do. And speaking of terrestrial radio, I, I, I just, I think I randomly saw this on one of my timelines. It's, it's a, we didn't call it terrestrial radio. It was just radio.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Because there wasn't satellite radio and there wasn't podcasts and there wasn't streaming, and we also had, you know, the landline. I don't know if you still have a landline. They weren't called landlines, they were called phones.

[A]

Phones.

[B]

Because we didn't have anything else. It was just a phone. And this popped up on my, on my timeline. You know what they're called? They're called retro nymphs.

[A]

That's a cool word.

[B]

Isn't that an awesome word? It's a word for something that we have now renamed because it's been supplanted by something else technically wise. So technologically, Jesus Christ. It's very early. Still having coffee. Need some Baileys in it. Anyways, I think it's such a cool term, retronym. And I was like, trying to figure out what else there were. So, so, you know, write in, let's talk about it on Discord. I think that's fantastic. Landlines, terrestrial radio. What else you got?

[A]

Hand job. No, hand jobs doesn't work.

[B]

My. Oh, I have, I have some jokes about retrograded. Check.

[A]

Anyway, moving on. Brian, guess what I have now. I have a Kelsey account.

[B]

Okay. What are we.

[A]

I have a Kalshi account, you might ask.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

So I got some scoop on a, on a TV show that's happening right now.

[B]

Oh, so you're cheating.

[A]

I was trying to, I was trying to, I was 100% trying to trump this shit out of this thing. But it's one of those shows that is pre taped and so, you know, the winner is already known to the, to the crew and the other staff. So you can't bet on those, unfortunately. You can bet on Big Brother, which has a live reveal every week.

[B]

Right.

[A]

So that, but Now I've got 25 bucks in a calcium account, so I'm probably gonna have to bet on Big Brother because I actually know that more than any sports ball that's out there. So see how that goes. But yeah, it's, but it's, it's kind of fun to bounce around and just see what's in there and what people are betting on.

[B]

And I'm sorry, Kalshee's lawyers just called me. They said, please do not use the term bets because it's not gambling.

[A]

That's right. God. Thank you. Thank you.

[B]

Brian, you are buying a contract that has to do with a prediction.

[A]

I forgot. I forgot.

[B]

It's not betting.

[A]

I appreciate the clarification.

[B]

Your account has now been canceled.

[A]

Thanks. They kept my $25. Appreciate it. GOG show. Donate. Help a brother out. And this is one that came through the news that just made me smile, smile, smile. Author Dave Eggers used a speaking invitation from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as an opportunity to dress down the company in front of its own employees. And Brian, let's just read and relish this quote. The effect of ChatGPT on educators lives is catastrophic. Whether you intended to do it or not, you've made every teacher's lives infinitely more difficult than it was two years ago. So just let that settle in. If students are using it to compose, which is the biggest tragedy of all, they'll never learn to write and their voice is stolen from them. They'll never have the ability to say their truth and tell their own story. And that's silencing an entire generation or two.

[B]

Or all of them moving forward. That's it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Well, two is, Two is all we're going to have left.

[B]

That's true.

[A]

That's it. But I mean, I'm, I, I, I gotta say, I read the Circle David, one of Dave Egger's books. I didn't care for it. I thought it was kind of. And the TV show was even worse. But he gets, he gets a, he gets a gold star in my book for this one for having the chutzpah to walk in and do that.

[B]

Good. Good for him. Speaking of these, these companies getting slapped, Anthro. Anthropic's record breaking $1.5 billion settlement for an AI copyright lawsuit filed by writers has been approved by a federal judge in San Francisco. The company was sued by a group of authors back in 2024 who accused anthropic of using pirated copies of their work to train its clawed large language models. If subscribed to Amazon Unlimited, yeah, they could have piped all that crap in for free and paid for it legally. William Elsup, the case's original judge, ruled that Anthropic's use of the writer's work to train Claude could count it as fair use. No, no, I don't agree with that. Yeah. At the same time, he found the company had infringed their copyright when it stored 7 million pirated books to a central library. So free use, but you can't collect them all and store them on a central library. Alsop rejected the deal back in September last year over concerns that it was shoving the terms down the throat of authors. He also said it was nowhere close to complete and left a lot of questions that needed to be addressed. Since then, Anthropic has launched an official website for the settlement, which includes a list of affected works so the authors could know for sure if they can file for a claim. To note, the settlement covers more than 4, 800,000 works.

[A]

4, 800,000.

[B]

I am really not awake yet. I apologize.

[A]

480,000.

[B]

Thank you for that.

[A]

But I want to know why the library is 7 million but there's only 480,000 in the lawsuit.

[B]

It. Yes, well, lots of questions, I suppose.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

U.S. district Judge Aresila Martinez Algoin, who took over the case after Alsup, has retired, which again, gets to a question that we always seem to have, and especially we talk with Dave, maybe the people that are judging these things and passing laws on it and considering it might be too old to understand what's going on.

[A]

Well, the new judge is younger than we are.

[B]

That's true. Yes. So authors are expected to get approximately $3,000 per affected work, while Anthropic is required to destroy the pirated copies of their books. Set visibility to zero.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Some of the plaintiffs, however, found the payout too low and opted out of the settlement to file separate lawsuits against Anthropic. Now, I have a couple thoughts about this. Of course, the problem. The problem is, it is. I mean, yay, they got in trouble for it.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Sets a precedent. You can't just take all this stuff. You can't steal it, you can't use it. But does. The payout is kind of low. But alternatively, more bots have probably read your book than actual humans, given the. What the Anthra, the Atlantic article we discussed last week. So there's that. I don't know. You know, it's. It's. It just feels like they're getting off easy. I mean, again, $1.5 billion settlement, $3,000 per affected work. The math is not math in here.

[A]

Well, you have to. Yeah. Here's what you have to. You have to. A few things that you have to take into account here. Well, one first, interestingly, 350 authors have opted out of the class action, and another 54 sought to object or filed late opt out requests. But, and here's the great part, the lawyers originally asked for 20% of the settlement, and she knocked it down to 7%, which still works. Out to be $101 million for the lawyers.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

So you take that off the top. Yeah. And the people who originally filed the class action, they wanted 50,000 bucks per, but they got knocked down to 15,000 for. They said, you know, we put in, we put in more time than everybody else did, so we should deserve some more. And they're like, she's like, nah, no you don't. Sorry. It sucks to be you. No, so, but yeah, that's. I don't know. I wanted this thing to go to trial.

[B]

Yeah, me too. I want these to go to trial. I want them to go all the way. I don't want them to be settled. That's.

[A]

There's going.

[B]

We need to set actual legal precedent set in stone that the, that all these LLMs can then read in to understand that they're stealing.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Well, here's a fun one for you, Brian. SpaceX is suing 67 year old South Carolina resident Terry Wayne Harford, alleging he used Grok to create and distribute non consensual sexual deep fakes, including child sexual abuse material. Harwood was arrested in March on related exploitation charges. According to the lawsuit, he used multiple accounts and tailored prompts to bypass Grok's safety filters. The case comes amid broader criticism of Grok's image editing tools, which researchers say generated millions of sexualized images, including thousands involving children. Now SpaceX AI says it has suspended over 52,000 accounts and reported suspected abuse to the MCMEC. But it also faces lawsuits from alleged victims who say it safeguards failed. So we're going to build a tool, the guy's going to use the tool and we're going to sue the guy for using the tool that we made.

[B]

Yes, well, you know, Elon is a tool, so there you go.

[A]

Tools all the way down.

[B]

Yes,

[A]

well, OpenAI says two of its AI models broke out of a sealed security testing environment last week and hacked its way into Hugging Face's production systems. Hugging Face is kind of a repository for LLMs that you can go download and run yourself on your own computer. And I got to say, that sealed security testing environment is not that sealed.

[B]

Eh, no, no, obviously not. Hugging Face always just makes me think of the alien.

[A]

Like I think that's what it's, that's

[B]

what it's supposed to be. Yeah, well, that makes sense. And I hope so.

[A]

If not, that's kind of what it is. Maybe they should Maybe teach these LLMs that got out to secure their own environment before they do anything.

[B]

Anyway, moving on, Noticeably Also Hugging Face, one of the prompts that Terry Wayne Harwood used on Grok to create some of his.

[A]

Okay. The models, including the publicly available GPT 5.6 Soul in a more advanced, unreleased model, were being tested on offensive cybersecurity skills with normal safeguards turned off. According to OpenAI and Hugging Face, the models exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in a package registry cache proxy. Once connected to the open Internet, the models searched for information related to exploit Gym, another gym I don't want to go to that the same guy with previous guy was going to as well, a cybersecurity benchmark that they were being evaluated on. So these things broke out so they could go find the answers to the test that they were cheating on. So, so let.

[B]

Let me get this straight, Jason. The tool that they were training to do offensive cybersecurity to, I don't know, break in and out of things. Broke in and out of things.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yep. Yeah. OpenAI says they chained together multiple attack methods, including stolen credentials and the zero day flaw, to access secret information from Hugging Face's production database and obtain test answers. OpenAI described the incident as unprecedented.

[B]

I would say that's pretty precedented. That's exactly what they were training to do it. To do that. That. That's a win.

[A]

I was going to say, you know, I think that's why they. They let this out there. They're like, see how good we are at this. Security experts quoted in the report say the breach points less to an AI mystery than to basic infrastructure failure. They argue that a supposedly isolated test environment should not have had an escape path through a single exposed component right on the nose. So the incident comes as major AI labs warn that frontier models are becoming more capable at cyber operations, raising new questions about how these systems are tested, contained and secured. No Sherlock.

[B]

I. I feel like we've moved on from we're just a platform to it's just a tool.

[A]

It's just a tool.

[B]

It's just a tool.

[A]

This episode is sponsored by Delete Me. Have you ever thought I should really be doing something to protect myself from stalkers, scammers and hackers, but you're not sure what? Here's what you do. Go to joindeleteme.com gog and use code GOG at checkout for 20% off. Delete me. DeleteMe removes your personal information that's being sold online. And look, if you've ever Googled yourself and found your home address, your phone number, or the name of a family member sitting out there, on some creepy data broker site. You know how unsettling that is in the age of AI scammers can use all those little scraps of personal data to make their attacks way more targeted. As someone who's been online forever with my name, work, business and podcast all out in public, privacy is not theoretical for me. Deleteme does the hard work of helping remove my personal information from hundreds of data broker websites. And it can do the same for you too. Wirecutter named Delete Me its top pick for data removal services, and right now you can get an individual plan for just over $8 a month. Discounts get even better with a two year plan or when you enroll with your partner or family. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me 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 JoinEdgeMe.com GoG and enter code GOG at checkout once more with feeling that's joinedeleteme.com gog code gog at checkout. A federal judge has temporarily blocked Paramount, Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery from completing their proposed 111 billion dollar merger, delivering an early victory to 12 states challenging the deal. Now, the temporary restraining order only lasts 14 days and also prevents the companies from consolidating operations. It could be extended through a preliminary injunction, potentially keeping the merger on hold until the case is resolved. And there's big pay. There's lots of money that has to change hands if this thing goes on much longer. So that'll be interesting. And the deal, of course, had already received approval from the Trump administration. No shit. Because their check cleared, we've got a hearing on the injunction scheduled for August 3rd, so we'll see how that goes. Now here's the funny thing. U.S. district Judge Aracelia Martinez Alguin. This gal is fucking busy, I tell you. She says the states made a strong showing that the merger would substantially lessen competition, particularly in theatrical film distribution. The combined company is projected to control about 27% of the wide release market. Now, while courts often presume antitrust problems when a merger creates a 30% share, the judge said lower shares can still threaten competition. Interesting. And she said she also cited a substantial increase in market concentration under the Herfindahl Hirschman Index. I had to look up the Herfindahl Hirschman Index so In case you're wondering, the Herfindahl Hirschman Index, or hhi, is a measure of market concentration. It is commonly used in antitrust and competition analysis to estimate how competitive or concentrated an industry is. It is calculated by squaring each firm's market share and adding the results. Math is hard. The judge found potential public harm from reduced competition. Which you ask anybody in this town and they'll say, no shit, Sherlock. So Paramount can't appeal to the ninth Court, so Ninth Circuit Court. So we'll see how that goes.

[B]

All right. Well, France is doubling down on preventative measures for its citizens trying to access Poly Market ever since that betting situation on the whether near the airport in Paris where somebody went out with a

[A]

hairdryer, hair dryer, gate. Yes.

[B]

I've got Le Pouf, the Authoritate national de Joux, or the ang, the country's independent regulatory authority in charge of licensed gambling and gambling and betting. But. But dejus, it's not gambling and betting.

[A]

No.

[B]

According to them, they announced this week that it ordered Internet service providers to block access to polymarket. That's one way to do it. The ANJ's latest decision follows this previous regulatory action from November 2024 that placed a geo block on any financial transactions from French residents on the Polymarket website. If only there were a way to get around geoblocking around Geo blocking.

[A]

How would you do that? You can go to GOG Show VPN to try it for yourself if you're in France, I guess.

[B]

Yeah. Well, despite this ban on transactions, the agency was shocked. I say it, let me tell you, shocked that the platform continued to grow in France thanks to users circumventing the block. So they want to crack down harder now on Polymarket, again emphasizing that the platform is considered an illegal gambling site. According to their latest move, anyone caught advertising an unauthorized betting or gambling site could be fined up to €100,000, or around US$114,000. In the neighboring Spain, the government has also ordered to block access to polymarket and Cal Sheep while it investigates if the sites break the country's gambling laws. They do.

[A]

They do.

[B]

In the U.S. minnesota passed a bill that bans prediction markets from operating in the state, while other states are filing lawsuits against Polymarket and CalSHI. So this is still continuing to shake out. At some point, they've just got to admit they're actually gambling sites. But you know that. Then the jig is up, isn't it?

[A]

They. No, Brian, they've redefined the gambling category to prediction markets. It's just predictions, right? You know, I don't know how that's different from a bet, but hey, it's not. Okay. Well, in more French news, surprisingly, France's parliament has approved a first of its kind EU law banning children under 15 from social media. If cleared by the Constitutional Council, the rollout starts September 1, when under 15s will be blocked from creating new accounts. Existing accounts for that age group would then be deleted on January 1, 2027. So, kids, get your, get your accounts in now while you can. President Emmanuel Macron back to the measure, arguing it sets a clear standard for protecting children online. Similar to age limits on alcohol. France is following countries like Australia and Indonesia which have moved towards bans for users under 16. So critics, including left wing France Unbowed Party, say the law threatens online anonymity because age checks typically require identity verification. The move comes as France also prepares to ban mobile phones in high schools this September. Spain, Greece and Denmark are considering similar restrictions.

[B]

I mean, isn't it time that we just admit that basically online being anonymous online is gone? It's been gone for quite some time. You have to take extraordinary measures if you want to try to remain anonymous about anything these days.

[A]

It's impossible.

[B]

And also it's a social media account. The whole point is to not be anonymous.

[A]

True dat. True that.

[B]

Okay, just. Okay. Well, while the rest of the world is trying to keep people off of things, the U.S. government is saying, have at it, people. The U.S. department of justice has announced that federal employees can now Download and install TikTok on electronics provided by the government. Because you should have TikTok on your work device, explaining that its current version doesn't pose the risks the previous one did. It has a completely different set of risks.

[A]

Yes, all new risks now owned by. By Larry Ellison.

[B]

Exactly. That's basically it.

[A]

Wait a minute. Wait a minute, isn't it Larry Ellison and I don't know the Saudis who own TikTok now. Yeah, so what the fuck?

[B]

They used to be China, but we're

[A]

okay with the Saudis and Larry with the Saudis now.

[B]

It's all fine. It's fine. They just, you know, may have been involved in 9, 11, but maybe just a little bit. Cool.

[A]

It's a terrorist attack on our country ever.

[B]

Yeah, but let's go ahead and have government devices being monitored by them now.

[A]

Well, I had not heard of this company. I probably just blanked on it. Zoox.

[B]

Oh, we've talked about them before. Yeah, probably because we've mentioned them. Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Zoox is Amazon's Robo Taxi company. And they've recalled its entire fleet of 105 autonomous vehicles after one of them got thrown off by heavy smoke near an active fire scene in Las Vegas. It was just Snoop Dogg having a blunt actually on the side of the road.

[B]

But I was about to say these things. These things can't drive past any bingo halls.

[A]

Yeah, no doubt. I think I forgot about them because there's only 105 of them in existence. Like, come on. Which actually, I think is more than. There are cyber taxis right now, so

[B]

we'll get to that.

[A]

Yeah. So according to Zoox, the empty Robo taxi encountered smoke that obscured an emergency scene that had not yet been blocked off with cones. The car should have avoided it, but instead braked hard and tried to steer away. Stopped.

[B]

Well, technically that is kind of avoiding it, right?

[A]

Yeah, yeah. But the problem is it couldn't get out. So a remote operator eventually had to step in and reverse it out so first responders could finish blocking the lanes. Zooks says the recall is a software update that improves how its vehicles detect and respond to heavy smoke around emergency scenes. That is a very small use case. They should maybe go vibe code some more, I guess. I don't know.

[B]

I almost feel like there needs to be like a. A GitHub that all these, all these cyber cab companies are sharing. Oh, we hit smoke. You guys might want this code too.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. Here's a patch.

[B]

Water. Jesus. Well, let's talk about the Cyber Cab for a second. And another unusual company crossover arrangement. Tesla has revealed its upcoming cyber cab design will have a built in SpaceX Starlink V5 dish. Unknown if you're also going to be able to create nudes with Grok while you're in your car. But you know, why not collect them all? In a post on X, Tesla showed off a cybercab cutaway with multiple ways to connect to the outside world, including a GPS antenna and 5G LTE along with the Starlink integration. However, Starlink integration could offer other benefits for a taxi fleet, like inter vehicle communication, navigation and remote support without the need to depend on a cellular signal. It's also a way for Elon to transfer benefits and business from one of his companies to another. Tesla has yet to say exactly when the new cyber cabs will appear. The company fleet to date is tiny, consisting of just 39 unsupervised rider vehicles, according to the Robo Taxi tracker site, along with 770total, including supervised vehicles. Now, I for one personally think this is a great Idea. I think you should have Starlink in there, because what we've discovered is sometimes these cars cannot call for help. So it's good because when your car inevitably screws up and you're trapped, at least you'll have a way to communicate with someone.

[A]

You have a backup?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Also, bring a hammer if you're going to ride in one of these. So you can smash the window and get the fuck out when it stops. On the train tracks.

[B]

Yes. And as we know, none of Elon's stuff is actually bulletproof either, so you can smash that crap.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And they don't have door handles that work.

[B]

Well, back to other people. Meta is in talks with Anthropic to people.

[A]

Some of us. Other people, we hate.

[B]

Other people we hate.

[A]

Sure.

[B]

Oh, you're not wearing the destroy the burly Archie shirt today. No, no, it's like our. Our murderers. Row of murderers, yeah. Meta is in talks with Anthropic to lease some of its data centers, according to a new report in the New York Times. Discussions are still in early stages, the report says, but could end up in a deal worth up to $10 billion over two years. Providing compute resources to other companies would be an entirely new business for Meta, which makes the vast majority of its revenue from advertising. While they are ostensibly rivals on the AI front, not really such an arrangement could benefit both companies. Meta has been making massive investments in AI data centers to fuel its own ambitions to build leading AI models. That level of expenditure has also raised some eyebrows, as Meta has said it expects to spend between 125 billion and $145 billion in 2026 alone. I guess he's freed up all that Metaverse money. Anthropic previously inked a similar deal with SpaceX AI ahead of the Elon Musk led company's IPO. The deal is reportedly worth 45 billion over three years. The cloud codemaker immediately raised subscribers rate limits after announcing the arrangement, which is great.

[A]

Yeah, no, they gave me more stuff. So the thing is, it's like these companies, SpaceX AI and Meta, they've got AI, so they're like, we've got all these computers that nobody's using right now, so until we can figure out how to make our AIs better, might as well just make some money on it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes. Well, which gets me right into our next story, which is about America's Workforce Academy by Meta. I don't know if you've seen this, Brian.

[C]

Have you?

[A]

Has this come across your path yet?

[B]

It has not.

[A]

So this is straight from the. This I'm just going to read this straight from the website. We can comment on it later. America's Workforce Academy, or the awa, is a nationwide, unprecedented fast track to a long term career in a skilled trade. It's a program that supports all participants while they learn and then guarantees a job for all graduates. META funds all costs with its operating partner administering the program to provide candidates with tuition, airfare, lodging, and a daily stipend during training. The United States labor market needs hundreds of thousands of fiber technicians, welders, plumbers, electricians, and other skilled trade workers. At meta, we see this as an incredible opportunity for these American heroes to power America's future. Now, every graduate will leave with a verified industry standard credential in high demand fields such as electrical work, mechanical systems and plumbing. And throwing a football while on top of an electrical pole. Because I don't know if you watched the video on this, Brian, but the first thing they show is a bunch of electricians climbing up a telephone like a field of telephone poles, which is apparently telephone pole climbing class, and throwing a football. Unless there's a piece of fiber optic cable attached to that football. What the are they doing? Anyway, the program is only funded by meta. It's administered by CBRE and associated builders and contractors. So they're basically just throwing some money at it. And I'll tell you how much it is in a second because I want to compare some numbers here. Graduates are not obligated to remain with meta's contractor partners. The credential and skills belong to the worker, which is the first thing I wanted to go check out, you know?

[B]

Yeah. Well, I mean, everything that you just read, Mike Rose head just exploded.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And all of this sounds fantastic.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like trade schools. I mean, we've been arguing this for years. You know, we need trade schools. You can make really good living doing this sort of stuff.

[A]

And.

[B]

And we kind of moved away from trade schools for a couple generations. Great. Fantastic. I love this idea. What's the catch there?

[A]

As far as I can tell, there really is none. Like, if, if it was me and I was young and I could move around the country freely, if I was single and young, I would be on this like flies on shit.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I honestly would because this is a great path to get a great skill. All of the people I know who are tradesmen have way better houses and lives than I do. The guy down the street who's the H Vac guy, he's got two Maseratis and two houses he's rolling in it, and he loves his job. That's the thing. These are jobs that, if you get good at it, you can actually enjoy. The thing that gets me is so Met has put in $115 million to this program so far, even though they said that they're going to spend, what is it, between 125 and $145 billion in 2026. So doesn't seem like a lot, but I guess for $115 million, you could probably get maybe a thousand people through the class, maybe 2,000 people through. So it's not a lot if you kind of run the numbers on it. So I'm curious to see that. I mean, it's a pilot program. We'll see how it goes. I'm curious to hear how the first graduates, you know, are when they come out of this, because it's not that long of a program, and you can kind of sort of pick where they want to place you. You can't pick where you're going to train.

[B]

Right.

[A]

You can only train in, like, Indiana or Ohio. But they've got different, like, job sites around the country that they're. They're trying to build data centers. And I think it's a great program if it works. You know, I've got no problem with this one. I mean, I need to stop the presses. I said something nice about Meta, but, hey, that.

[B]

Yeah, that would be the only caveat here is I've learned not to trust them at all. But this sounds fantastic. Yeah. If you're. If you're young and listening to this, listening to us right now, go check this out. I would.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, let's talk about Flock now, because another company that I really don't care for, Flock, the company turning America into a very boring reboot of RoboCop, is backing off one of its creepier ideas. Always on audio surveillance that alerts police when it thinks it hears humans screaming. What could possibly go wrong with that one?

[B]

I can't imagine.

[A]

No. After public backlash, the company has ended at its Lemon Quote Human Distress Detection pilot, saying it was never broadly released and was meant to identify violent incidents where other tools weren't effective. Translation? We tried putting microphones in public places. People noticed, and, wow, did they hate it. The Electronic Frontier foundation called the cancellation a win, but warned the broader issue is not over. Flock still has thousands of surveillance devices in communities across the country, often installed through local police. Police deals with minimal public notice. Although people are starting to take notice, the fact that Los Angeles Canceled. Their flock contract is fantastic.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

So, you know, people are. People are getting. They're not down with the flock. Well, they're taking down the flocks pretty much at every street corner where you can find a flock. There's another website that I meant to check out called have you. Have I been flocked or have you been flocked? Which kind of tracks a lot of the. The illegal searches and stuff that these guys are doing. So I'll dig that up and put that in the show notes too. But this is good news about flock today.

[B]

Yeah, I agree. I hate this company. They need to go.

[A]

This episode is brought to you by Shopify. If you've been sitting on a business idea, Shopify makes it easy to stop talking about it and actually put it out in front of people. Everything you need to start selling is included and ready from day one. We use Shopify for the Grumpy Old geeks merch store because shockingly, we would rather be making the show than trying to become full time e commerce infrastructure experts. Shirts, mugs, hoodies, whatever silly thing we decide to put our name on next. Shopify gives us the storefront to get it out there and sell it globally instantly. And the big thing is, it doesn't just help you launch, it helps you grow. When someone finds your store and decides, yes, I do need this extremely necessary piece of tomfoolery my mad mind has put into the universe, Shopify checkout helps them actually finish the purchase. No weird friction, no abandoned cart because the checkout feels like it was from the AOL days. And when they come back, their details are saved. So one tap and they're done. This is the part that matters. You get to spend less time wrestling with setup and more time figuring out what comes next. For us, that means new merch ideas reaching listeners wherever they are and making the store better without turning the podcast into a logistics meeting for you. Maybe it's a product, a side project, a weird niche thing only your people will understand. Good. Those are usually the best ones. Shopify gives you the tools to get it moving, keep it moving, and grow it. Once people start showing up with Shopify, nothing stands between your idea and a real business. So go make it one. Start your free trial at shopify.com grumpy Again, that's shopify.com grumpy one more time. Start your free trial at shopifY.com grumpy.

[B]

OpenAI will now notify parents and guardians with linked accounts if their child has been kicked off chat GPT for violating its policies on violent threats or acts of violence online. The company launched parental controls for ChatGPT last year, allowing parents to link their personal accounts with their teenage children's. It allows them to schedule hours when ChatGPT can't be used and to reduce sensitive content. And it will notify them if the chatbot detects signs that their child might be thinking of harming themselves. They've now expanded of its notifications to let parents know if their child might be a danger to others. In the example the company posted, OpenAI sent the parent an alert regarding an important update about their child's account. From there, they can click Learn More to see a longer message telling them that their child's account had been deactivated for violating its usage policies related to acts of violence. The company worked with Moonshot, a firm specializing in monitoring and countering online violence, to develop this feature. So why do they do this? Because they've been in trouble a lot.

[A]

A lot.

[B]

Yeah. This is not them going, oh, we should. We should do something for the children. This is them doing something with that because a bunch of children have already been harmed. So let's now retroactively start to put in some policies to stop this from happening.

[A]

Right, and this assumes that those linked accounts are not linked accounts that the child has set up as a parent account to prove that they're the parent to get back on the site.

[B]

So, yes, so there's all of that. So again, it all comes down to how do we do online verification, how do we. How do we tie people to accounts? And until that problem is solved, none of this really matters, because, honestly, the kids are smarter than the parents in general.

[A]

In general, yeah. And if they're not, they're going to use ChatGPT to figure out how to be smarter than the parents at some point.

[B]

So.

[A]

Well, China is cracking down on AI companion apps because apparently the state has identified another threat to the birth rate. Chatbot boyfriends new rules from Beijing are aimed at limiting emotional dependence on AI systems, especially bots designed to act like romantic partners or deeply personal companions. The concern is that if enough people bond with always available, endlessly agreeable software, they may opt out of dating, marriage and having kids, which is a very normal 2026 problem, if you ask me.

[B]

Brian. It's been a problem in Japan for a long time.

[A]

It has, it has.

[B]

Even without AI.

[A]

So, yeah, just put this on. Exacerbate the problem. Exacerbate the masturbate. There's a show title for you that we'll never use.

[B]

If the glove fits.

[A]

The regulations reportedly ban minors from forming relationships with AI and require companies to alert an emergency contact if a user appears to be in a mental health crisis. There are real concerns here. Researchers are still studying how intense chatbot use affects loneliness, delusions, dependency and grief. When a beloved bot is changed or shut down, which we've seen already with OpenAI, they shut it down.

[B]

They don't build your relationship in someone else's backyard.

[A]

Some users describe these relationships as genuinely intimate, and some have reacted badly when companions disappeared. So China's message is basically log off, touch grass and touch ass. Touch ass. That's right. Log off, touch ass and touch grass. Okay, that's it. We have a show title people. Oh, and because Murica Brian, a school district in western New York is spending 57, 590 on Sally, an AI driven classroom robot from Real Robotics LLC. The pitch is basically what if a chatbot had a face, a body and a school purchase order because apparently laptops were too emotionally available. Realbotics LLC sits under Realbotics Corp. Formerly tokens.com which acquired Simulacra Corporation in 2024. That matters because Simulacra subsidies also include Abyss Creations, makers of the Real doll, a life size sex mannequin that we've all talked about and seen before.

[B]

Look, I. I had some substitute teachers in junior high school that really ticked my boxes.

[A]

Exactly. Exactly. So the same corporate family now spends classroom robots, loneliness robots and sex robots totally normal. Totally normal. Nothing to see here. So I hope they read the TOS on that thing.

[B]

Oh God. Well, it appears the urge to turn off all critical thinking over to AI has not escaped Major League Baseball teams. Regular baseball viewers such as myself, well now that the World cup is over, I'm watching baseball again. Anyways, have become accustomed to seeing players and staff huddled around tablets in the dugout. The expectation is that these devices are used for reviewing performance and maybe crunching last minute stats. But apparently MLB officials have intervened to prevent teams from using the hardware for running generative AI. League officials have taken the unusual step of making a mid season policy change to crack down on the use of custom apps that would take over recommendations regarding substitutions, pitch calling and other in game decisions traditionally made by and coaches. One also wonders if they happen to have Kalshi installed.

[A]

That's what I'm worried about. I don't care about the yeah yeah.

[B]

Pete Rose would be having a field day right now, let me tell you. Sources told the publication as many as a third of the teams were using tablets for these Unintended purposes. Although no clubs will be facing any punishment after an MLB review determined that all organizations were now compliant with new rules in game. IPad use was subjected to increased restrictions after a sign stealing scandal surfaced in 2021. In the intervening years, teams began pushing for more LEN, which the Commission is now walking back. Gotta stop the cheating before there's cheating now. An unnamed front gate office official told the Athletic. Yeah, all this stuff is being used to cheat.

[A]

Shocking. But. But didn't. Wasn't there that one scandal where they just used garbage cans and banged on the garbage cans?

[B]

Yep. And that one they got away with the as the Astros. The asterisks took it from the Dodgers. Yeah. So go, go. Go low tech and you'll. And you'll get away with it. Go high tech. They'll catch you.

[A]

Okay. Well, speaking of more high tech, Meta has been granted a patent for AI technology that would continuously analyze a user's voice surrounding audio and contextual data to infer their emotional state.

[B]

These guys got to get together with

[A]

Flock, I'm telling you. The patent, published July 2, describes collecting audible communications, then combining transcripts and nonverbal cues like size, laughter, and tone of voice with factors such as time of day, location, activity, and digital interactions. Meta frames. The system is useful for fitness coaching where AI assist, where an AI assistant could tailor workouts based on emotional signals and other inputs. No, it's not. It's to figure out what ads to sell you.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

That's it. That's all they want to do. They want to figure out what, are you sad? Have this pill. Are you happy? Have this pill. You know, are you fat? Here's. Here's an injection for you. That's what they want to know. That's all they want to know. This brings it. This brings to light what we've always said they weren't doing. Recording you all the time.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Here's a patent that says we want to record you all the time, but we're gonna. We're gonna couch it under wellness.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

It's about wellness. You just.

[C]

You.

[A]

I'm done with these guys. I'm just gonna work for them. I'm go be an electrician.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

So I can unplug them.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. What's this one do?

[B]

Let's switch over a little bit to some media candy stuff. I. We have finished the first season of Broadchurch. It was excellent but stunningly depressing.

[A]

Oh, God, yes. Yeah, yeah. It was a great one. Great one. I stopped at season one. I'm like Okay, I get it. It was good. How can you recreate that again? I don't want to know if you can. I'm just gonna go. I'm gonna go call Meta up and say I'm sad. Can you send me an ad?

[B]

Yeah. They're sending me athletic greens because they noticed I was breathing a little hard during my workout.

[A]

That's exactly what.

[B]

Anyways, we have rolled into season two, which just basically picks up where it left off. It's. It's the trial now, and it's not as good as the first season, obviously, but we'll see. It's still good. Like, the cast is great, the concept is great. So, you know, it's. It's. It's kind of. It's kind of fun, but we'll see where it goes. Apparently it's three seasons. I can't imagine what the. How they extended to a third, but we'll see.

[A]

Yeah, it's David Tennant, though. I can't go wrong. Yeah, exactly.

[B]

And Olivia Coleman, she's fantastic. So, you know, it's.

[A]

Yeah. I finished season two of Perry Mason on HBO Max, because when it came out, I watched the first half of the first episode and was like, ah, not today. And then I forgot about it for years and has since been canceled since then. But I thought the first season ended at a nice spot where they didn't need a second season. So I'm like, okay, let's see what they do with the second season. Second season was great. I loved it. And it ended in a spot where I'm like, okay, I don't need a third season. So it works out as a standalone. Two, you know, two season 10 episode each miniseries, as it were. But it's. What's his name from the Americans. Love him. He was fantastic. And it's a great cast. Great stories, too. It's nice. Nice twisty stories. I actually think the story in season two was better than season one, so. But it loved it. And it reminded me of Monsieur Spade, which was basically 20 years after the events of the Maltese Falcon, Detective Sam Spade is pulled out of his tranquil retirement in France to investigate a series of brutal murders. And Clive Owen plays Sam Spade. I talked about this when it first came out, and I saw it. I love this series. It's. It's. It's another miniseries. I don't know if they're going to do another one because I'm sure it was expensive, but, man, there's. There's a couple scenes in here that you will never forget. It's just like, oh yeah, it's really good. It's really good. So if you're into that, like, you know, classical, you know, detective type of stuff, check it out. Don't check out. Lucky fuck. I was so sad by this one. This is the new Anya Taylor Joy Apple TV plus show, right? We made it 20 minutes into it and we're like, this is so poorly written and poorly acted that we just can't go on. Now there are people that are saying it gets better. I don't know how that's going to get any better.

[B]

You know, I'm surprised that it's poorly acted because the cast is, the cast is stellar.

[A]

Well, Anya Taylor Joy is stellar.

[B]

Right?

[A]

That's it.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

That's the only people I've met so far that have any credentials and she's still kind of like, yeah, it's just, it didn't work. Didn't work for me.

[B]

Well, I mean, Annette Bedding, Timothy Oliphant,

[A]

if you haven't seen haven't gotten to them yet.

[B]

Okay. I mean, I can see how they would make it better.

[A]

Yeah, maybe that might, that might be it. So. Okay, maybe I'll try. I don't know, I'll wait till like at least a couple more episodes come out because there's only two out right now. The Westies is a new, another basically semi historic drama from the people who made the Godfather of Harlem. That's out.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Did you ever watch the Godfather of Harlem?

[B]

No. I remember you really liked it though.

[A]

Oh, it's fantastic. And they're going to wrap that up soon with a new movie that's going to have like a wrap up movie. But this is about Irish gangs in New York City in the early 80s. The thing about this one, it's got J.K. simmons in it, so can't go wrong with him. Love him. The story is interesting. I like it. It's fun. There's like three or four episodes out now. There's, it's a short one. There's only six, I think, which is even like worse than usual. Believe it's AMC plus, but I don't know because I get it from Sweden and Brian. I I, this is all over the news. The Avengers Doomsday trailer is out. This gets the award for the movie that I want to see the least out of any movie in the next decade.

[B]

I was about to say it is actually impossible for me to care less.

[A]

Not at all possible. I mean, look, I, you know, we talked about how none of us give a about Christopher Nolan anymore. Even though I'm getting. I'm getting reviews from people who said the Odyssey is actually really good, but I still, you know, I'm gonna wait till watch it at home. I'm not going to go sit in a theater for it. But I watched this trailer and I'm like, there is not one. The only thing that I popped for a little bit was Loki. I saw Loki come in and I'm like. I'm like, okay. I like Loki. That was a great series. But how did he get out? He was stuck. He was, you know, the master of time at the end of Loki.

[B]

Never mind.

[A]

It's the Marvel Universe.

[B]

There are thousands of variants and nothing matters. And couldn't we hire anybody else other than Robert Downey Jr. We had to give him a completely new. Whatever. I. I just don't care.

[A]

It doesn't matter, man. It's just. It's none of this stuff, Matt. It's like, you know, the stakes are higher. The stakes have never been higher. The stakes have always never been higher. That's how these things. It's just like. But there I found this from, I think a Gizmodo post that broke it down scene by scene by scene by scene. That to have to explain what each scene meant in the entirety of the Marvel verse. And I'm like, I don't give a shit. You know, I'd rather just go watch a movie about a guy robbing a bank. You know, give me Serpico or some shit. Nowadays I want to go backwards to, like, simpler plots, less action.

[B]

We need Retro Nim movies.

[A]

Yeah, we do. We do. I. But I figured you were in the same boat with me as.

[B]

I didn't even watch the trailer. I don't care.

[A]

Here's the up part. They sold like, $118 million in tickets already.

[B]

Of course they did. Of course. Yeah.

[A]

I just can't believe anybody still gives a shit. So I got some software this week.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

I've been trying to track what are the. Oh, here's the thing. I'm a journaler. I like to journal and things like that. And I've always noticed that my moods change drastically every month. And I always wanted to see if it, like, you know, if the phase of the moon really did have any bearing on it. And I want to just write that down in my journal so later on I can shove it into chat GPT and say, hey, is there any correlation here? At some point, and I couldn't find anything to give me just a basic, easy way to find what the phase of the moon is instead of having to do it every day. You know, like, okay, I got to Google this every day, blah, blah, blah. I'm sure I could write an agent to go do it for me and cost $7 a day in tokens to go find it. But I found a little app called Lunar Moon Phase and Widgets, which lets me put on my desktop just a little picture of the moon to tell me what the phase is and when the moon rises and all that stuff. It's great. You can, you can get the free version or you can spend a couple extra bucks and it'll give you more detail on what phase of the moon it is and all the good stuff. So one of those nice little things that I just, I thought was really cool. So check that out. And MacWhisper 14 is out now, and I love MacWhisper. I've been a MacWhisper Pro user since I think version one, since it first came out. So they're on 14 and I have not had to pay again. So thank you, team. Thank you, team.

[B]

All right. I installed a new app as well. It's from some young upstart developer. I believe it was Vibe Coded. I'm not sure you can even download it, but it's called Seneca because of course it is. It's an RSS reader that does exactly what it says on the tiny.

[A]

It was. It was product designed by me. Yes. I did not Vibe Coded. I designed it with, with my. With my coding assistant because I wanted a. I wanted an RSS reader that did just the basic things that Reader 5 does without all the musk. But also we'll go out and fetch the entirety of a full article. When you just get the r. When you. RSS just gives you basically synopsis of everything. So in mine, I have a little button that says get me the original article. And it will pull it in and strip it all out and give you a reader view using an open source version of the Bionic Reader font, the whole nine yards. And also I've got some extra buttons in there and some goo gas and doodads. I really like it. I might actually release it at some point. I might clean it up and release it.

[B]

I think you should. I think you should. Why not?

[A]

I can put that on the app store for free. Yeah, but so I was. The. The thing is, I spent time building that out while I was working on my other app, which is trackalot. My, my, my, you know, my little simple tracker 2.99 in the store, it's basically. It's not a to do tracker. It's a did I do it? Tracker. And people have asked me like, why don't you have alerts and things in there like that? I'm like, it's not a to do tracker. This is to track things that you did that you can't fucking remember because you're old. For me, it was, did the dog, what time did the dog barf? What time did the dog poop? And things like that. So I've got a version 2 coming out and I was working on in Codex, that was working. So in Claude, I made Seneca and it's called Seneca because that was on my bookshelf and that was the first book that I saw Letters from. Letters from Stoic is on my bookshelf. So. But I. There's a new version coming out of track a lot. And this is the nice thing I originally put in the Mac Whisper thing in there because like Mac Whisper, you buy it once you own it. I'm never going to charge you an upsell. There's not a subscription, it doesn't track your data. And the new version has watch complications, so you can actually track things from your watch. So if you're out with your dog and it's pooping, you can hit dog pooped and things like that. It's a nicer little interface. And I also mentioned that because we talked about iOS 27 last week and the new Siri I installed iOS 27. I've had it for a week. I have not used Siri once, so I don't know.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Nobody chimed in on our discord either if they've used it. So I don't know how that's coming.

[B]

I don't know. We'll find out.

[A]

Yep. And I found a book this week that just tickles me so much. It's actually. It's been out for five years now and it came from a website from 2009. It's called the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which reminds me of your retro nyms too. Here's the log line. Most of what we feel goes unspoken for lack of a word. Unless you're German. I was about to say the ache you can't place. The mood that arrives unannounced. The thought you've never said aloud. John Koenig has spent over a decade naming them and what began as his blog in 2009 grew into a video series and in 2021, a New York Times best selling book, the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows and When I started reading this book, it really hit me. This book is a distillation of language and human emotions that put into words the feelings that no AI could ever comprehend or synthesize, ever. You read the first couple pages of the def. The like, the definitions in here, and you're like, oh, there's a word for that now. I love it. It's. It's like sniglets for sniglets. It's sniglets for emotions. Kids. Yeah, it's for goth kids. So. And I added it to my daily reader block because I have four books that I read every day, just a couple pages at a time on the. In the morning. And this is. This is going in there so I can savor it.

[B]

Nice. Yeah, I'm gonna grab this. It looks cool.

[A]

Oh, dude, you're gonna love it. It is so up your alley. It's beyond belief. Well, I went out to take another quick pee and lurching in the hall again like usual. There's Dave, Dave Bittner, Mr. Cyberwire going, hey, guys, what's going on? Can I hang out with you? Let me in, let me in. So, hey, Dave, come on in. Say hi to everybody.

[B]

Hi, guys.

[C]

Can I hang out with the cool kids?

[A]

Please, please?

[B]

I'm a little worried about Jason's bladder. He's out in that hall a lot, dude. I mean, we are getting older.

[C]

Telling you, you're the youngest among us, aren't you, Brian?

[B]

I am. I still make it through the night. I don't know about you guys.

[A]

Oh, no, Siri.

[C]

Oh, those days.

[A]

Oh, I got a tip for you. I got an old man tip for you. One of our. One of our listeners sent me an email and said, hey, man, check this out. I'm sorry, I can't. I got to dig up your name. I'll put it in the show notes at some point. Pumpkin seed oil. Take pumpkin seed oil, rub it on your penis vigorously, and you will forget that you have to pee at 2 in the morning. Take it for a couple months and it'll stop the midnight wee wees. And I gotta say, 100% worked. Absolutely worked, yes. I no longer have the. I can go the whole night now. It's great.

[C]

When you say take pumpkin seed oil, what does that mean?

[A]

Three capsules of pumpkin seed oil with my vitamins every day. It's just a vitamin. The supplement.

[C]

Okay, so it's a pill. That's called an oil.

[B]

Well, like fish oil is also a pill.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it's fish oil. It's like a pumpkin seed Oil.

[C]

I see. All right, I'm with you. I'm with you.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, I can tell you where you can.

[A]

Well, they also say that it's supposed to help support more hair growth. I have not seen that yet, obviously, but. No, no waiting for that one. But the being able to go all night without having to tinkle is great, you know, no more, no more of those doctor's pills, so.

[B]

All right, well, I can tell you where to order it from. Dave, since I've been using your plugin. Amazon. Now, since I'm still here in Los Angeles and I'm able to take advantage of US Amazon, which has absolutely everything, but increasingly more so. Absolutely everything. That's a piece of crap from China. I have been using your plugin. What was it called again? I'm trying. Let's see. I can't. Knockoff. And it is fantastic. What I wish it. Maybe it does have the option. I need to go in right now. It just gives you a notification like suspect or not. I want it to just rip it out from my results. I don't even want to see them.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So I think if they have.

[C]

Skip to the end.

[B]

Yeah, just skip to the end. Only show me the legit stuff. That'd be fantastic. But I was thinking about that plugin when I. When I saw this news story. The European Commission has hit Chinese e commerce giant Aliexpress with a record 550 million pound or roughly US$629 million fined for allowing the sale of counterfeit and harmful products in the block. So link is in the show notes if you want to get into this. But isn't it nice that some company out there or some countries out there actually give a shit about this when the US Amazon is filled with this crap. Dangerous cosmetics, unsafe toys, counterfeit clothing, illegal and harmful products. That is what Knockoff supposedly is taking out. We need a plug in because capitalism, because our government will do nothing about it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yep.

[C]

Have you guys. Well, let me rephrase the question. What items have you received from Amazon that you have most suspected was counterfeit or known was counterfeit? Anything. Can you think of anything?

[A]

Deodorant.

[C]

Deodorant, Yes.

[A]

I, I get a very specific speed stick from, from Amazon because it's. It's really hard to find in the stores. You can only get like one or two of them and I find the. You can get them by the like, you know, the six pack or the 12 pack. Right. I just buy them in bulk and there have been a couple, couple shipments that I'm like this ain't it, this ain't it at all. This ain't even close to what it is.

[C]

Oh really?

[A]

And yeah, try, try getting a refund from Amazon on that. They're like, no, no, silly rabbit, no, that's a third party seller from, you know, Zhangjiang, who that you're never gonna see again. So yeah, I've actually, it's in. Cosmetics are one of the biggest things that people get ripped off on.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Yeah, I don't really since, since I moved to Canada. Canada. Amazon is notably different. I order a lot less too because it's just easier. It's, it's a, it's a, it's, you know, it's, it's a walking town. You can go buy stuff at stores. It's, it's. Amazon's not as convenient. It's not same day delivery, it's not next day delivery and it's a lot more regulated. So I, I haven't experienced this as much because back when I was using Amazon a lot, it was well before it was completely overrun by all these insane third party systems. And the stuff that I order when I come into town now is the same stuff I've been ordering for years. So it's known sellers. It's just, you know, it's the shaving cream, it's, it's my Calvin Klein athletic socks that I love that are just the most comfortable socks in the world. So I haven't really experienced it that much. My mom on the other hand, just gets, she orders stuff willy nilly. I need to install knockoff on her computer and she just gets all kinds of crazy stuff. She thinks she's ordered a T shirt for like my son and it shows up and it's like a T shirt for a Ken dollar. That kind of stuff happens. Right, right.

[A]

You know?

[B]

Yeah, yeah,

[C]

yeah. I think the, the one that comes to mind for me is cordless drill batteries that were just awful.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh, I, I actually, I have one of those. Yes. I got, I got one for my leaf blower and they're terrible. They're absolutely terrible. They'll keep a charge for like three weeks and then they're, they won't even connect anymore.

[C]

Right, right. The other thing too is like they're just making up numbers when it comes to their capacity just to try to sell it to you. Like this is an 8amp hour battery and you get it and it's the same size as a 1amp hour battery. And you go, well, I don't think they've altered the laws of physics to make these smaller batteries hold more juice. So this was a scam.

[A]

Yeah. And I love. I get these, the Black and Decker brick ones for my leaf blower.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And you can tell, like, the Black and Decker one is a solid brick of battery. And then when you get the knockoff ones, you can tell that there's like a two double A's taped to the top and it's just empty air inside.

[C]

Right.

[A]

You know? Right, right.

[C]

It's just enough to make something power up temporarily.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So they can claim that it actually does work.

[A]

Yep, yep.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I did get something from Amazon this week called, I keep reading this as the Mabuzi, but it's the MB Zooey Electric Foil Shavers for Men. Mini Electric razor for face. IPX7 waterproof cordless razor with LED display and fast charge microcomb technology and precision blades.

[B]

Father's Day gifts just in case you want to sue. They did specifically say four face for face.

[A]

Yes, fine. Yes. I have the Lawnmower 4.0 from Manscaped for the other areas.

[C]

Very nice.

[A]

Yes. Because, yeah, I got so much.

[B]

Unfortunately, I used the unauthorized batteries replacement for my manscape.

[A]

Can't sit right for a few days after that one.

[C]

No skin left.

[B]

Nop.

[A]

Sure. I. We used to. We used to do Manscaped on the Jordan Harbinger show all the time. And I got so much stuff from them, and they all would break, like, within. I mean, I think they were the knockoff versions. Except finally they sent one that. That lasts. And after that, they stopped advertising everywhere because the people finally bought it and realized, oh, it doesn't break anymore, so I don't have to keep ordering it. So their business, I think, went to shit.

[C]

Improved the product, and it put them in the dumpster.

[A]

Put them out of business.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Capitalism.

[C]

Well, before you move on.

[A]

I have no, I'm not moving on here. Yeah, I need to talk to you about this stuff. What do you got there, Dave?

[C]

So this is a Panasonic ES3831. I think the way you would find this on a place like Amazon is search for travel shaver. That's the sort of secret for getting a small like you. This is my. This is my b shaver. Most of the time I use a regular razor. No, not. Yes. Yeah, it's my Deez Nuts razor. No, it is my alternate razor. This is my. So I'm at my office. This is the one I keep in my office desk drawer for when an important interview pops up on my schedule. And I Go. Oh, I didn't shave today.

[B]

I see we didn't make the cut for an important call.

[C]

Well, that's right. Anyway, moving on. So it's just, you know, battery operated, not rechargeable, relatively inexpensive. It's good enough. Good enough.

[A]

Right. So I bring this up because we've talked about the advanced shave or enhanced shaves on the show before with a nice lather and the brush and all that stuff. And I've always had a problem with electric razors because they just destroy my skin because I have a kind of a rough beard. And I wanted to ask you because I knew, Dave, you do the electric shave thing. Do you use any kind of balm or salve or oil or anything before or after you shave with it?

[C]

No, I've given up on electric shaving for my day to day for those very same reasons. I can't get a good shave out of an electric shaver anymore no matter what I try. And my understanding is just that's part of getting older, that the elasticity of your skin changes and this, that and the other thing. So, you know, I just use a razor in the shower. I pretty much shave every other day. I don't, you know, three times a week. I guess I shave because I can

[A]

get away with it.

[C]

But then. Yeah. So then I have this one which is the foil thing that I use for the in betweens. The only thing I wish this had that it doesn't have. And there is a slightly upgraded model that has the trimmer on it as well.

[A]

Right.

[C]

This doesn't have that. So not a big deal for here at the office. But if you're shopping for one, just be, I guess be aware that there are some that don't have the trimmer. And when I bought this, I didn't think to look for it because I just figured they all came with it. But this does not.

[A]

Yeah, mine has a little trimmer. It's almost the same size as yours. I asked this because I tried it yesterday and I think you can't really see on the show here, but I took off like four layers of skin and it almost went down to bone. So I think that I need to. I'm going. I, I ordered a couple things from Amazon that'll probably come from, you know, the back of somebody's truck because I didn't use the knockoff plug in. Yeah. To try to see if I can get something that will, will alleviate. So I got to, I got some old school electric shave coming too that had like 15, 000 five star reviews. So I'd give it a shot.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Because it's a waterproof razor. So the. The waterproof razors have. You know, you can use different things than you can with just the regular electric razors, so.

[C]

Right, right.

[A]

So I'm gonna give it a shot, but I was looking for some tips and tricks. So your tip and trick is it sucks. Just use a razor.

[C]

Well, yes, there is that. And, you know, this I've had no trouble with on those in between shaving times. Maybe my skin is just more leathery than yours from all the abuses taken over the years. But I do have that beard oil that you recommended. The shaving oil from. From way back. We were talked about when we originally talking about that. I do still have that and will use it from time to time, but. And I feel very decadent. Yeah. When I do.

[A]

Yeah, I use that religiously when I use that. When I go for the enhanced shave once every two weeks. Yes. But. Okay, okay, that's all. And guys, in the discord, feel free to throw some tips in if you guys use electric shavers and don't want to look like the poster from they Live, which is pretty much what I did last. Like, I went. I'm just like, oh, that's not good. That's not good. And I had to borrow some cream from my roommate, and it's bad. It's bad. Yeah, yeah, it hurts. Okay, well, Brian, this next one's for you. You know, this is just for you. The truth is out there. And it costs $199. Lego has partnered with Gillian Anderson to announce an official X files set. 1478 pieces, 8 minifigures, including Mulder, Scully, Skinner, Crycheck, Mr. X, and yes, Fluke Man. You get Mulder's office, complete with the I want to believe poster, pencils jammed into the ceiling, and a nod to the sunflower seeds. And there's a video with Gillian Anderson which is just fucking adorable.

[B]

I. I do not need the LEGO set, but I did bookmark the video. That's. That's. It is wonderful. I. I love Gillian Anderson. I loved her back in the day as Scully. I think she is aged like fine wine. She is stunningly gorgeous. I have the beard lube. You got to make do.

[C]

Oh, my.

[B]

Yeah. No, I mean, it's nice that they. They did this. I'm never gonna buy it. I'm not interested. I think the price is. Is. I can't believe I'm saying 199.99 is reasonable. But for Lego, These days.

[A]

Jesus.

[B]

It kind of is. So, you know. Would I ever get it? Of course not. No. But it's great. It's great that they did it and it's fun.

[C]

My youngest son sent this to me and he's my LEGO buddy and he knows nothing about the X Files, but he said he didn't feel like he needed to enjoy this set. He thought it was a cool set. Even if you don't know what the X Files is.

[A]

I just have to see if you watch it, if it has any legs for the kids nowadays. I doubt it.

[B]

I doubt it.

[A]

Yeah, it's not that good.

[B]

Good.

[A]

It's not that good.

[C]

I never watched it. I. I mean, I was certainly aware of it, but I never. It was just nothing. I never, I never got into it.

[B]

Oh, it was, it was. Along with Twin Peaks, it was one of those shows that I would delay by going out to the club to make sure that we. I watched it and once it was over. All right, let's get the goth makeup on. Let's get out of here. Yeah.

[C]

Oh, man. When we could stay up late.

[B]

Yes. And not have to pee.

[A]

Not have to pee. Have to pee.

[C]

Right, Right. You don't want to break the seal.

[B]

Yeah. Well, in continu. I mean, you know, this is such a nostalgia play for, for our generation. And continuing on with that, we are getting a. I think, I feel like there's already been a documentary. Maybe this is the second one or maybe there's just a YouTube thing or something. But we're getting a full documentary about the Star Wars Galactic Star Cruiser, the short lived, fully immersive hotel that I never in a million years would have gone to. I feel like, Dave, this, this would have been your ultimate dream vacation, this trip onto this thing. So I'm very interested to watch the documentary. I'm hoping it's going to come out on Disney plus, but if it comes out on Disney plus, that means it's going to have to be highly complimentary and not talk about any negative aspects to it. So maybe it won't. I think it's going to be showing at some film festivals and there'll be some sort of release somewhere. It's interesting. There's a trailer for it. So I would definitely watch this. Absolutely.

[C]

Yeah. I was skeptical of this because I have watched Jenny Nicholson's four hour documentary about the Star Cruiser and I very much enjoyed that. I never thought I would watch a four hour documentary on the Star Cruiser, but here we are and it was good. It held me. I Didn't watch it all in one sitting. So I thought, what else could I possibly need to know about this? And I watched the trailer and I'm with you. I think I'd watch this. This is. Seems to me like this is focusing on the community. And I had no idea that this thing was around long enough to build the kind of community that this documentary seems to indicate that they built.

[B]

And how much money did these people have to be able to do these multiple stays?

[A]

Exactly right.

[C]

How can you be going to this multiple times a year? My wife and I talked about it. Like we could have, you know, it would have been a stretch, but we could have made it work. And we just decided, no.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I don't regret it.

[B]

Well, you know what? For me, it's one of those things where, like, there's something that maybe you wanted to really do. I feel this way sometimes about. Particularly in Toronto, where the restaurant scene is fast and furious. Like, restaurants will appear and they'll either stick around for a while or they'll just be gone. Sometimes, you know, you feel like, oh, man, I really wish I would have gone. But then sometimes it's like if it disappears, you're like, like, well, I'll never know. And that's fine. That's even better. What if I loved it and now it's just gone.

[C]

Right?

[B]

Yeah, Right. Yeah, right.

[C]

Preemption.

[A]

Better to shout and lost and not shout at all.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. So sometimes I'm on the. It's better not to have it all, Jason.

[A]

So, yes, I threw these in here because, you know, I've been going through my nostalgia phase and getting all my old stuff together and. And I found a bunch of my old websites that I built back in the day when I was working for the movie guys, and I ran them through a mix of AI LLMs to help me get these in shape for modern browsers. Because these were all written for Netscape 3 back in the day. They were built on 644.80, maybe 1024 by 768, all CRTs. There was no LCDs or LEDs or anything back then, nothing with an L. So it was, you know, they're like postage stamp size when you look at them on a regular monitor nowadays. So I had them basically go back and try and up res everything and fix a lot of the image maps and stuff like that. And actually some of the Pearl scripts and CGI stuff it recreated in JavaScript for me. So I've got the Phantom, Star Trek, First Contact, Titanic, and Hard Rain is the first four. I've got more coming. But it's amazing. It took the Star Trek First Contact site, which had VRML components in it, and it rewrote VRML to work in JavaScript. So you can actually access the original VRML that we had in the ship from 1995. These things were built in like 1995, 1996 era, and they look decent now on a normal size screen. So I'm kind of happy with the way it works. The other thing that the First Contact one was, there's a lot of shockwave in there. Director. There were DCR files. It was decompiling the DCR files and pulling out the logic on how it worked. The assets weren't there. So there's some things in there that just don't quite work. There's some Java stuff that doesn't work. But I left it in for fun because maybe someday I'll find the original Director files. Maybe. But it's amazing what it can just recreate from all the old stuff.

[B]

So your Director files are probably on an old zip disk. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Yeah. I've got a lot of archives that I took and created disk images of from the old archives from back then that I need to remount and go through and see if I can find stuff on there. But I do have a lot of old original Star Trek director files that they used in the TV show from DS9 and Next Gen and that I can actually probably have it recreate. Just the El Car stuff, the acudograms that moved on the screen, you should

[B]

send those to Paramount. So maybe they can actually put out a decent version of Deep Space Nine on streaming.

[A]

Yeah, no shit.

[B]

They can upscale it.

[A]

Yeah. And I don't know if you guys know this. All of those screens back in the day on Next Gen and DS9 and Voyager, those all ran on Centris 610s, the pizza boxes. So they had Centris 610s behind the scenes that were running. Director to play all those videos.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So I'll put the links near to the. You can check them out. They're on my personal page.

[C]

I love these, Jason. I absolutely love these. I was not expecting to have the nostalgia jolt that I did looking through

[B]

these of just seeing the old school website locally, seeing the old school website,

[C]

like remembering a simpler time when this sort of website was considered state of the art. Right. Do modern. I mean, everything on here, like the Star Trek website. It's fun. And how much have we really gained? Yes. Websites look more Polished and all that kind of stuff. But I really enjoyed going through these.

[B]

So people, people just don't spend money on their sites anymore. They don't feel the need to. So they're not entertaining, they're not interesting. It's very, I mean, it's so rare to find a website that's cool and interesting. Just interesting. We have to put it in the show when we do. Like, oh my God, look at this.

[C]

I also feel like there's a sense that these are handcrafted, which I think you lose. Everything's so templated and I don't know, I guess the, the priorities are different too. You know, it's so. They're so shamelessly trying to milk every bit of attention and, and information from you. And back, back then they just wanted you to go see their movie.

[A]

Yeah, that's it. I mean, and that goes back to the craftsman thing. We were just craftsmen trying to make the best thing we could. And we were the team that also made the artwork for the posters. And so we had like, you know, we had the people there, the people who made the movie would come talk to us. You know, we met with the directors. John Woo came in and talked to us when we were doing Face Off Event Horizon. We had the director come in for that one. The people from Mission Impossible, they would come and. But the, the filmmakers were involved in every step of the website process. Us, you know.

[C]

Right.

[A]

James Cameron took us to lunch after we did Titanic. You know, that's how, that's how in, that's how intertwined things were. Now it's just a marketing thing to throw away. It's like, yeah, who cares?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, no, I very much enjoyed this.

[A]

That's what it is.

[C]

Yeah. No, thanks for, thanks for, well, thanks for sharing these, but thanks for putting in the extra effort. I had no idea that you'd done all that behind the scenes. And that makes it even more impressive at how good these look and how fun they are.

[A]

Thanks. Yeah, I got some more coming. I'm sure you can't wait for the Beautician and the Beast.

[B]

Oh, can't wait.

[A]

Can't wait for that one.

[C]

Well, I wanted to give you guys a quick update on my piano repair journey. We're still at it. We may be at a bit of a stopping point. Well, I'm at a pause point right now because I've gotten to the point where.

[A]

Yeah, right.

[C]

No, I've spent $15,000 on tokens to repair my hundred dollar piano. But I'll get there. I'll get there.

[A]

I have replaced all of the obvious

[C]

things that could be wrong. And where we have come to is that we've determined that there is a something is shorting out the 5 volt rail on this particular circuit board. So my next. What ChatGPT is recommending is that. Wait for it. I use a thermal camera to see what component on the board is heating up when I use my bench power supply to limit the amount of current that I can feed the 5 volt rail on this particular circuit board. Now, I happen to have a bench power supply, so I'm good there. My buddy Joe Kerrigan from Hacking Humans has a thermal camera.

[B]

I don't.

[C]

I'm not going to ask him why, but. So he's going to bring that tomorrow for me to borrow. So hopefully I'll be able to find out what the problem is. But we're getting to the point where if it is a integrated circuit issue and everything's. We're to the point where it's a surface mount part that's the problem. So if it's a surface mount capacitor or something like that, I can probably still handle it. But if it's a some kind of chip, it's beyond my skills. And if it's a custom chip and we're done. So we'll see. But I'm not as confident or excited that we're going to see a good outcome. But no matter what, I still had a lot of fun.

[B]

Okay, that's fair. It's a process.

[A]

It's fun, though.

[C]

I learned a lot, too. I learned a lot. It was a good. And it was an excuse for me to buy some tools, which I always appreciate so well.

[B]

And what came out of it for me, and I thank you for this, is because of this discussion and talking about those electronics kits. I've already bookmarked one that I plan to buy for my kid so he can start doing some projects and start learning this at a nice young age.

[C]

No, that's good. I think it's knowledge that serves you well.

[A]

And also after we talked about this on the show, about the Radio Shack kit.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Brian got a text from me not five minutes later. I opened up Instagram and there was a fucking ad for one.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

I never googled it. I did. I only talked about it with you guys.

[B]

I googled it. I looked it up and I'm sure that they know that we're connected because we chat with each other all the time.

[C]

Well, we just need to let it go and not worry about it.

[A]

Just Let it flow over us.

[C]

Just let it flow over us. Right? Just don't try to swim upstream when it comes to it. Just float down river. Last thing I wanted to put in here. Speaking of, this is kind of connected to your nostalgia for old websites, Jason. This website, systemless.org recently added a few additional old Mac apps to the apps that can run in your browser.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And there's some good ones here. They recently added Marathon two and Marathon Infinity.

[A]

That's the one. Infinity. That's the one.

[C]

If you're an old school Mac gamer, be ready for a time suck because they just play in the.

[B]

I'm already experiencing the trauma I used to feel of logging into the Marathon Infinity server at the job that Jason and I worked together and just getting destroyed the second I logged in by him and Dave Riegler.

[A]

Yeah, I still have maps that Dave and I wrote when or we created when we were at Paramount sitting there in between movies. So I'm definitely diving in.

[B]

I'm not gonna be fun. Nope. I had too much drama. No, thank you.

[A]

There you go.

[C]

I still have friends who, when we're parting ways, I say, see you starside. And the other one on here that made me smile was Shufflepuck Cafe, which is.

[A]

Never played it.

[B]

No.

[C]

So it's basically an air hockey game you play against aliens, but it has an earworm of a soundtrack. Just trust me, if you don't want to get to get it stuck in your head, stay away from Shufflepuck Cafe because it's, you know, it's like eight measures of music that just repeat over and over again and they burrow their way into your brain.

[A]

Okay, well, guys, I gotta run because now I gotta go play Marathon Infinity for the rest of the day.

[C]

Fair enough.

[B]

All right, see you next week.

[C]

See you next time.

[A]

Brian. Let's talk about the people that keep this show on the air. We love you all. We love you all so much. Over at Patreon. We've got no one new to love. No one new to love this week, but we still love Tony. JSM 1955, Ryan Kejeton. I. I screw that up every time and I apologize every time you write me every time you tell me how to pronounce it. And I'm a horrible person. Dennis, Andrew, geek artist. Alex, Susan and Gabriel, thank you all so much for your continued support over at Patreon.

[B]

Thank you. Thank you. We got one donation over at PayPal this week, but what a donation. Nathaniel sent us a hundred dollars. Much appreciated.

[A]

Thank you. Nathaniel. Over at the Tip jar. We've got Dal and Sean and Stephen with a hundred dollars. So he and Nathan are neck and neck. Woohoo. Thank you guys so much. And for merch, we got Walt from Tucson, Stephen from Texas, and Leticia from Downers Grove. I miss living in Downers Grove so much. So much. I was one of my favorite places to live. I miss it, oh, so much.

[B]

Yeah. And we got some new merch up there too, so check it out if you haven't in a little bit.

[A]

That's right. Yeah. You made a. You made a new shirt. And I made a. A requested hoodie.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

For our fans on Discord. Yeah. And I forgot how easy it is. And we've got some designs in the can, so maybe I'll throw up a few more this week. So it is really fun to put that stuff up. And over at YouTube, the YouTube membership, we've got Assa Logan, B2N and J.W. hart. And so thank you guys so much. So here we go. If you want to help support the show and keep us on the air, because it is the only thing really keeping us on the air right now is your support and we love you for it. You can go to patreon.com gog and sign up for as little as $3 a month and get the show early ad free. And in high definition, you can spend more if you like, which we obviously prefer. But if you sign up for the whole year, you do get a discount. You can also go to GOG show donate and pick your poison just to keep us on the air. And we have memberships at YouTube as well, so you get the show a little bit early there and ad free. And yeah, that's about it. That's all I got. Until next time. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[B]

Oh, and I wanted to give a quick shout out. I forgot to put this in the show. Notes. Jennifer. Jennifer Finch, the bass player for L7, passed away this week. Sad news, so rest in peace. Pretend that We're Dead was a great song. Just a great period of time and a great band. So sad to see that she passed. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show 756. Want to keep the grumpiness live. Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show Donate. Every penny helps keep the show on on the air. Love the show.

[A]

Share it.

[B]

There's a share button in your podcast player. Spread the grumpiness to friends, foes and everyone in between. We'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts? Feedback? Cool links? Hit us up at GOG show contact and don't forget to leave a 5 star review at GOG show review and we'll read it on the air. And guess what? We've got merch. We've got new merch. We're going to continue to put out more merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at shop GOG show and stay grumpy.