667: Nuclear Recall

Summary

Episode Summary: Grumpy Old Geeks - Episode 667: Nuclear Recall

Release Date: September 28, 2024
Hosts: Jason DeFilippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner
Title: Nuclear Recall

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In Episode 667 of Grumpy Old Geeks, titled "Nuclear Recall," hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister delve into a plethora of tech-related controversies, updates, and industry mishaps. True to the show's name, the duo doesn't hold back, providing unfiltered and candid opinions on the latest happenings in the technology landscape. Below is a detailed summary of the key discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn during the episode.

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1. Sam Altman's "Intelligence Age" Thought Piece

Jason and Brian kick off the discussion by dissecting Sam Altman's recent blog post titled "Intelligence Age." Altman envisions a future marked by "massive prosperity" driven by advancements in AI, such as climate fixes, space colonization, and breakthroughs in physics.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo [02:38]: "I believe the future is going to be so bright that no one can do it justice by trying to write about it now. [...] What a load of horseshit."

Key Points:

• Lack of Substance: Brian criticizes the absence of a concrete roadmap in Altman's vision.
• Leadership Exodus: The announcement led to high-ranking officials like the CTO, Chief Research Officer, and VP of Research resigning, signaling internal disagreements.
• For-Profit Shift: OpenAI's transition from nonprofit to for-profit under Altman's leadership caused friction among original mission members.

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2. Current State of Artificial Intelligence

The hosts argue that AI has not yet reached the level of true intelligence, categorizing it instead as a "toy" with limited capabilities.

Notable Quotes:

Brian Schulmeister [05:48]: "We've stopped even bothering. Just like releasing software that works and then putting out a roadmap. Later, we've stopped roadmaps."

Jason DeFilippo [06:19]: "Until it's correct, it's still a toy."

Key Points:

• AGI Stages: They discuss OpenAI's five-stage roadmap towards Artificial General Intelligence, asserting that current AI remains at the conversational "level one."
• Data Limitations: AI has consumed vast amounts of data without achieving genuine understanding or problem-solving abilities.
• Practical Implications: Despite tools like code copilots, overall product quality isn't improving, indicating AI's limited practical utility.

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3. AI in Journalism: The London Newspaper's Experiment

Jason and Brian critique a London newspaper's decision to resurrect deceased art critic Brian Sewell's byline using AI, replacing human writers who were laid off.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister [12:21]: "AI doesn't understand art. AI can't create art, and it certainly can't commentate on human art."

Key Points:

• Authenticity Concerns: There's uncertainty about the methodology—whether it's proprietary AI or a partnership.
• Publicity Stunt: The move appears to be more about generating buzz than delivering quality content.
• Economic Pressures: The newspaper's financial struggles likely drove the decision to reduce human staff in favor of AI-generated content.

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4. Steve Kramer's $6 Million Fine for AI-Driven Robocalls

Political consultant Steve Kramer faced a hefty fine for using AI-generated voices in robocalls aimed at influencing the Democratic primary in New Hampshire.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo [13:10]: "...trying to sabotage the Democratic primary. So, all in all, how's that AI working out there for you, Steve?"

Key Points:

• Regulatory Enforcement: The FCC's action underscores the legal risks associated with unethical AI usage in political campaigns.
• Voter Suppression: Kramer's actions exemplify how AI can be weaponized to manipulate electoral processes.
• Financial Consequences: Beyond fines, Kramer faces voter suppression charges, highlighting the severe repercussions of AI misuse.

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5. OpenAI's ChatGPT Voice Assistant Launch

The episode touches upon OpenAI's rollout of a new voice assistant feature for ChatGPT subscribers, which allows users to interact with the AI using their voice.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister [13:22]: "It takes effort to plead sincere apologies. Just use humanity."

Key Points:

• Feature Skepticism: Both hosts express doubt about the necessity and authenticity of AI-generated apologies.
• Privacy Concerns: The example provided (apologizing to a grandmother in multiple languages) raises questions about the genuineness of AI-mediated communications.
• Utility vs. Authenticity: The feature is seen as a superficial addition that doesn't address real interpersonal communication needs.

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6. Generational Workplace Dynamics: Gen Z vs. Gen X

A significant portion of the discussion centers on a survey revealing that employers are rapidly dismissing Gen Z employees due to perceived issues with work ethic and communication.

Notable Quotes:

Jason DeFilippo [15:19]: "Bring back Gen X. The older Gen X people. We're happy to work. We know how to work. We will actually show up in the office if you tell us to."

Brian Schulmeister [15:17]: "We don't get triggered. We don't care about work-life balance. We aren't going to fucking go."

Key Points:

• Employment Trends: Six out of ten employers have already let go of recent graduates, and many are hesitant to hire more.
• Stereotypes and Reality: The hosts challenge common stereotypes about Gen Z, advocating for the reliability and dedication of older generations.
• Economic Pressures: Citing inflation, they humorously suggest that Gen Xers are willing to work for less, addressing companies' cost-cutting measures.

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7. Elon Musk's Policy Reversal in Brazil

Elon Musk faced backlash for refusing to ban certain users in Brazil on his platform (Twitter/X) but eventually reversed his decision under pressure from the Brazilian Supreme Court.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo [20:04]: "...he's actually going to reverse course after weeks of refusing to comply with conditions set by the Brazilian Supreme Court so he can operate in the country again. Because Elon's a pussy."

Key Points:

• Regulatory Compliance: Musk's initial refusal and subsequent reversal highlight the challenges of balancing platform policies with local laws.
• Public Relations: The hashtag #BlockElon trending reflects public frustration with his inconsistent policies.
• Platform Integrity: Changes in blocking mechanisms (e.g., visibility of blocked users' posts) are critiqued as inadequate solutions.

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8. Carolyn Ellison's Two-Year Prison Sentence

The hosts discuss the sentencing of Carolyn Ellison, who assisted in one of the largest financial crimes in U.S. history related to the FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

Notable Quotes:

Jason DeFilippo [22:18]: "And she knew she was doing it too."

Jason DeFilippo [23:14]: "But they are going to pay though."

Key Points:

• Lenient Sentencing: Carolyn Ellison received a two-year sentence, which Jason criticizes as disproportionately light compared to the crime's magnitude.
• Legal Implications: Ellison's cooperation as a state witness is acknowledged, yet the hosts remain critical of the overall justice served.
• Generational Angle: The discussion briefly ties back to generational work ethics, implying that younger individuals are not held accountable adequately.

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9. FTC Action Against Do Not Pay

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has taken action against Do Not Pay for misleading consumers about its AI-driven legal services, labeling it as the world's first robot lawyer.

Notable Quotes:

Brian Schulmeister [24:43]: "It's all fucking bullshit."

Jason DeFilippo [25:00]: "Now this one has my head scratching a bit."

Key Points:

• Deceptive Practices: Do Not Pay failed to validate its AI's legal capabilities, leading to FTC intervention.
• Financial Penalties: The company is fined $193,000 and must undergo a public comment period to rectify its claims.
• Industry-Wide Issues: The hosts highlight this as symptomatic of broader ethical issues within the AI startup ecosystem.

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10. Microsoft's Revival of Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant

In a surprising move, Microsoft has entered a deal to reopen the decommissioned Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania to supply energy for its AI operations, marking the first such revival in U.S. history.

Notable Quotes:

Brian Schulmeister [26:34]: "But they all get free copilot."

Jason DeFilippo [27:21]: "Nuclear recall."

Key Points:

• Energy Demands: Microsoft's AI development requires significant, reliable energy sources, prompting reliance on nuclear power.
• Financial Implications: The project costs Constellation Energy $1.6 billion and is contingent on federal tax subsidies from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
• Safety and Public Concerns: Reviving a plant notorious for the 1979 accident raises safety and ethical questions, though Brian defends nuclear technology advancements.

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11. Qualcomm's Potential Takeover of Intel

Reports suggest that Qualcomm is eyeing a takeover of Intel, leveraging Intel's struggling business as a strategic opportunity.

Notable Quotes:

Jason DeFilippo [30:21]: "I think intel is a good place to be. [...] Qualcomm, I've never heard a goddamn good thing about."

Key Points:

• Industry Consolidation: A Qualcomm-Intel merger would significantly impact the U.S. chip manufacturing sector.
• Antitrust Concerns: Such a takeover would likely face stringent regulatory scrutiny to prevent monopolistic practices.
• Corporate Health Indicators: Intel's recent financial struggles, including job cuts and operational losses, are driving Qualcomm's interest.

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12. White House's Proposed Ban on Chinese Smart Cars

The White House has proposed a ban on the sale and import of Chinese-manufactured connected vehicles in the U.S., citing national security risks associated with internet-connected car systems.

Notable Quotes:

Jason DeFilippo [31:42]: "The nightmare scenario of it's one thing to have a fitness sensor that's Talking back to TikTok and all that crap."

Key Points:

• National Security: Concerns revolve around data privacy, potential espionage, and control over critical vehicle systems.
• Consumer Impact: The ban would force U.S. automakers to sever ties with Chinese software and hardware components within specified timelines.
• Industry Response: The Commerce Department is currently accepting feedback, with a final ruling expected by the end of the year.

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13. Cloudflare’s AI Bot Scraping Marketplace

Cloudflare has launched a new marketplace feature allowing websites to charge AI bots for scraping their content, addressing concerns over unauthorized data extraction.

Notable Quotes:

Brian Schulmeister [32:47]: "It's not a bad idea except it's three. Day late to dollar short, guys."

Key Points:

• Economic Models: This initiative provides a monetization avenue for content creators against data scraping abuses.
• Implementation Challenges: The hosts express skepticism about the effectiveness and timeliness of this solution, suggesting the market has already moved past it.
• Industry Reception: While innovative, the feature may be viewed as a reactive rather than proactive measure in combating AI misuse.

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14. California's Click-to-Cancel Subscription Law

California has enacted Assembly Bill 286, mandating that companies offering online or in-app subscriptions must provide an easy, one-click method for consumers to cancel said subscriptions.

Notable Quotes:

Brian Schulmeister [34:32]: "If you can sign up in one click, you have to be able to sign out in one click."

Key Points:

• Consumer Protection: The law aims to eliminate "dark patterns" that make it difficult for users to unsubscribe from services.
• Industry Impact: Companies have until mid-2025 to comply, setting a precedent for nationwide regulations.
• FTC Alignment: This move aligns with the FTC's proposed similar regulations, positioning California as a leader in digital consumer rights.

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15. Media and Entertainment Highlights

While primarily focused on tech, the hosts briefly touch upon recent releases in music and television.

Notable Points:

• Music Releases: The Cure's new single "Alone" and Underworld's "Black Poppies" from their upcoming album are highlighted as positive news in the otherwise tumultuous tech discussions.
• Television Content: The hosts mention catching up on shows like Bad Monkey and Culinary Class Wars, reflecting on their personal interests amidst the technical debates.

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Concluding Remarks

Throughout "Nuclear Recall," Jason and Brian maintain their signature blend of sarcasm, cynicism, and insightful critique, dissecting complex tech issues with a no-holds-barred approach. From questioning the validity of AI advancements to scrutinizing corporate strategies and legislative changes, the episode serves as a comprehensive overview of the current tech climate through the lens of seasoned skeptics.

Final Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister [62:00]: "And I wanted to put in something. Maybe I'll start to do this. I probably won't."

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This episode is a must-listen for those seeking a candid and critical perspective on today's technology trends and corporate maneuvers. Jason and Brian's unabashed grumpiness provides both entertainment and valuable insights, making complex topics accessible and engaging.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey, prime members, have you heard? You can listen to your favorite podcasts ad free. Good news, with Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon music app for free or go to Amazon.com ad free podcast. That's Amazon.com adfreepodcast to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. 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, where we're extra grumpy this week. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister. I'm a. I wouldn't exactly say I'm grumpy. I am unintentionally giddy. Okay, well, you know, we, we're recording later on a Thursday night as opposed to our Friday morning usual thing, and my wife and I made a pasta dinner and we had a bottle of wine that had been sitting around and we're like, oh, let's just have a glass with dinner. Bottle's gone.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, good for you. Here we are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Let's go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I'm slamming decaf coffee in my eyes twitching because I'm over caffeinated and my audio interface decided to stop working right before we recorded this. So I can't hear myself except through these headphones that I need on so I can hear you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it is helpful when you hear me. That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I've been doing this for over 11 years. You'd think I could figure this out by now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, technology sucks, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it does. It really does. Speaking of technology, let's get into it. We've got a lot of follow up before we follow up with a lot of news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So let's do it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Sam Altman released a thought piece this week called the Intelligence Age over at his blog. Did you get a chance to read it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did read it. I have taken classes on AI at this point. I feel pretty coached up on this stuff. Not in the user way in which everybody is out there doing it in terms of like, oh, look, I've generated a cover letter. I've generated a response to my friends saying why I'm not going to show up at their wedding and I hate them. I've generated a picture of somebody with 17 eyeballs and 15 fingers. I've actually like tried to understand the basis of AI whatever the fuck he Wrote is a fucking complete load of shit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See, you've taken a class in AI. I have taken a lifetime course in bullshit, and I have a PhD in El Toro Caca. So let me just read this one little blurb for you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I believe the future is going to be so bright that no one can do it justice by trying to write about it now. A defining characteristic of the intelligence age will be massive prosperity. Although it will happen incrementally, astounding triumphs, fixing the climate, establishing a space colony, and the discovery of of all physics will eventually become commonplace. With nearly limitless intelligence and abundant energy, the ability to generate great ideas, and the ability to make them happen, we can do quite a lot. End quote. What a load of horseshit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, there's absolutely nothing in there that has anything to do with AI, any possible roadmap. First off, we've stopped even bothering. Just like releasing software that works and then putting out a roadmap. Later, we've stopped roadmaps.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ah, but we'll get to his roadmap shortly. He has put out a bit of a roadmap, but before we get to the roadmap, he puts out this giant thing on the intelligence age, and then his CTO quits. And after the CTO quits, the Chief Research Officer quits, and a research VP also quit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So guess who didn't sign off on that roadmap?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Them. Yeah, well, you'd think the cto, the woman behind a lot of the breakthroughs here. I don't know, baby. Be on board. I haven't had time to catch up on it because we did decide to start a little early. But apparently a lot of this is coming to the fact that OpenAI is going from their nonprofit status to a for profit status. And guess who is going to be king shit of the for profit company? Sam Altman. So the others took a little bit of umbrage with it. And there's a photograph from the New York Times that is just very funny. And somebody took that photo. And the original photo was. It was Sam Altman with Mira and a couple other people. Greg Brockman, who's already gone, and Ilya Suits Vicker. I. It's been a long time since he left, so I forgot how to pronounce his name. They're all gone. So it's just. Now it's how it started. A picture of them and how it's going is just a picture. Old Sam by himself now. He's. He's. He's the cheese that stands alone.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, he's hardly alone. He does have a lot of Microsoft money. He's got a lot of other money coming in there. He's. He's. Okay. I wouldn't say he's alone, but I would say that anybody that was in on the original OpenAI mission is long gone.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And he's also got that World Coin thing going on, which is going to be a game changer, as we all know. Oh, yeah, the orb. Yeah, that's going.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it worked out well in Lord of the Rings. I'll get to that later.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And Phantasm. So Sam Altman said that the company imagines AGI in five stages with OpenAI's 01 because their naming scheme can't use your fucking intelligence agent to rename your shit, please. And they're saying he's in the second stage. So let's break this down for a minute. Here are the stages of artificial intelligence. Level one, chatbots. AI with conversation language. Level two, reasoners. Human level problem solving. Which is what he's saying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Absolutely not at that stage yet. We're still at level one. 100%.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Have you tried the O1 product?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have. I have. We are still at level one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't care what you're at level one. Yes, absolutely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Level three, agents, Systems that can take actions. Level four, innovators. AI that can aid an invention. Level five, organizations. AI that can do the work of an organization. Now, there's one word that is not on any single line item of the five stages of AGI. And you know what that is, Brian? Correctly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. That's why I say we're still at level one. Where we're at. Until it's correct, it's still just a conversation. I have conversations. Well, I used to. My uncles have all passed now. I've had conversations with my uncles. They were conversations. Were they correct? Absolutely fucking not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We call that Thanksgiving.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Until it's correct, it's still a toy. Everybody wants to say that it's not a toy. It's going to all these breakthroughs, but until it's going to be correct, it's just a toy. It's a toy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is 100% by. Been my position on this since day one, since. Since it's been in the news all the time. I'm like, it's a toy, It's a game, it's fun. It's great. Should people be getting fired over this? Absolutely not. But they are. It's a toy and people are using it horribly. And we're all Being sold on the bullshit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, some of us are not us. But you know, middle management. This is going to come back to bite middle management in the ass so hard.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It will 100% because this is not working. It's not there. It's not going to get there anytime soon. And they've run out of things to feed into it. The thing that we've been sold on is it just needs more data. It's got all the data now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It has got all our data.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It hasn't paid for it. It's taken all the copywritten data. It's got all the data and it has not worked.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All our datas belong to us.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, good callback.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I mean, yeah, it can do some things. It can do some things okay. It can do some things well, but it can't do everything well. We are not even close to AGI. We're just barely at level one, honestly in my book. But hey, now here's a great quote that just wanted to pass along. This is over at News Y Combinator. It's if AI is helping people code better, why aren't products getting better? I have to ask myself that, Brian. We've had two years of these, you know, code copilots and things like that. All the websites to go to are broken half the time and nothing seems to be getting better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can tell you what the answer would be from the people that make those tools. You're not using them correctly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay?

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's their answer. No, the reason that things aren't getting better is, well, first off, the entire Internet is a fucking house of cards built on some open source code that was written about 17 years ago that has never been updated. And if anybody ever does update it, it's all going to fall apart and no AGI is going to fucking fix that ever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Most of the updates are put in Russian back doors.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, so you can't fix all of that. It's too complex. Everything is too complex, all of it. So you know, AI is not going to fix that. You got to rebuild. We have to rebuild the entire Internet from the ground up. Look at the Internet as we look at America. The bridges are fucking collapsing. Are we going to put in the money to fix it or not? Because the bridges are collapsing on the Internet, there's no doubt about that. Well, let me say that the bridges are collapsing on the Internet that we're all interested in, which is not owned by Meta or Google or Snap or TikTok. Those things are working just fine because they put the money into that yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The other thing is the rest of the Internet is being clogged up by bot driven AI generated who are just trying to get over those bridges and just wearing them down even more. So that's. I don't know how to take how long, how much farther. I can take that metaphor.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We haven't even gotten out of our intro yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I know we're still there. I'm just, I. You're fucked up on wine and I've had too much coffee. But hey, the thing is I, I just want websites to get better that exist right now. I want better software, I want groundbreaking software that we couldn't write without this stuff. All it's doing is just, you know, it's autocomplete. It's a really nice autocomplete and that's what everybody says that uses it that I've talked to. They're like, it's really nice for some things, you know, just for kind of basic stuff. But don't trust it with input validation. For fuck's sake. Don't even think about doing that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ye.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I was stuck on this website the other day I was on simplecast and I'm moving data from one website to another so I have to get 600 embeds off of this thing. God forbid that I screw up and click the wrong link and I have to go back through these 600 items. Pagination is all JavaScript. There is no like pick page three and there's also no URL based pagination. There's no query string with what page you're on like the old days. Which by the way, even if you're using JavaScript you can still update the fucking query string and the URL to make it work. So if I wanted to reload and go back to the page I was on instead of speaking, two minutes to flip back through it. Anyway, if they can't fix little basic things like that, I know somebody's going to say it's a design decision, blame the product developer or whatever product manager, but I don't know. I'm fired up, Brian. I just hate, I just hate this shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can help. Well, let's dive a little bit deeper into people that have drank the AI Kool Aid on this. The London newspaper plans to revive a dead art critic with AI and lay off the real writers. Brian Sewell, who died in 2015 at the age of 84, was once described as Britain's most famous and controversial art critic. For years he wrote for London's Evening Standard, publishing His cutting commentary in a weekly column. Now, in a development that, were he alive, it seems safe to assume he would completely and utterly hate the newspaper, has resurrected his byline and will resume publishing articles in his name. There is no detail about how this is happening. They don't. We don't know if they created their own AI. We don't know what the partnership is. It's probably just a publicity ploy. But the newspaper hasn't been doing well, so publicity is good. They fired a bunch of writers and now they're just basically saying, this dead guy who everybody liked and everybody enjoyed reading his articles, we're just going to do an AI and we're going to have him write articles. Commentating on art.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, this makes no sense.

[Brian Schulmeister]

AI doesn't understand art. AI can't create art, and it certainly can't commentate on human art.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it can't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, in some good news, political consultant Steve Kramer just learned that deepfakes and politics don't mix, especially when the FCC is watching, because he's been slapped with a whopping $6 million fine for blasting New Hampshire voters with robocalls with the fake Joe Bide Biden voice trying to sabotage the Democratic primary. This goes back a while back. I remember we thought he was getting a $2 million fine. It was the original reporting, if I remember correctly. But don't quote me on that. I could have used AI and nobody would know the difference. But 6 million bucks is not chump change. And he's facing voter suppression charges from New Hampshire's Attorney general. So, all in all, how's that AI working out there for you, Steve?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Jess, great. Well, OpenAI is also rolling out their chat GPT voice assistant this week to all paying subscribers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Have you played with it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have not, because I've actually started to back away from AI and AI usage. It's called Advanced Voice mode, and it's beginning making its way to users to pay for ChatGPT. Plus. This week, the company tweeted a video of the feature in action, and I can't believe they chose this as it helps someone craft an apology to their grandmother for being late because you can't fucking be bothered to be sincere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's a pretty shitty one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, this. This is my problem with these. With all of these companies is they're in search of a solution to problems that don't exist, except for the fact that you actually have to be human. What does it take for you to actually apologize to a family member yourself that you have to go and use a fucking system to do it for you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think it's all just Gen zers. That's it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It may be because you have a story about that later and we'll get to that. Anyways, the company says the AVM can offer the apology in more than 50 different languages. Chances are your family members speak the same one you do. So yeah, thanks. Thanks a lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, actually this would have worked with my great grandmother because she barely spoke English. She was all Italian, so I could have written something nice to her.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We already have Google Translate.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say I could have just run that through Google Translate. So you write your own words, which would have been better. Was asked my grandmother to be a go between. To talk to my great grandmother and apologize that I'm late for lasagna.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, just use humanity.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, speaking of humanity, this is a great headline. Here's why companies are rapidly firing Gen Z employees. And the TLDR is basically, they're insufferable. Many companies have fired Gen Z workers just months after hiring them. And several business owners said they are hesitant to bring on recent college graduates due to concerns about their work ethic, communication skills and readiness to do the job, according to a new survey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you know what the plus side is for this, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

What, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hire us. Silver Surfers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, exactly. Bring us back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bring back Gen X. The older Gen X people. We're happy to work. We know how to work. We will actually show up in the office if you tell us to. We aren't going to fucking go. I can't do that right now. I have to go to Erewhon and get my coconut juice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we do not eat avocado toast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, we do. It's delicious, but we don't go crazy for it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm taking your Gen X card. You're out. You're out. So six in 10 employers have said they all have already let go recent college graduates this year, while one in seven said they are inclined to refrain from hiring new graduates next year, according to a survey conducted by Intelligent.com it's intelligent, Brian. It has it right there in the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Name, within the name.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. And close to 1,000 business leaders participated in the survey, which is a decent sample size.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It actually is, Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I like this. Business owners say they're not loving the idea of hiring more fresh grads anytime soon. And it's not just the old kids these days gripe. These Gen zers are seen as high maintenance, more prone to getting triggered, and more focused on a good work life balance than getting the job done. Back to what Brian said. We don't get triggered. We don't care about work life balance. We don't care about any of that stuff. Gen X will work for you for pennies on the dollar for the most part too. So give us a call.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nickels on the dollar at least. Jesus. Nickels.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Inflation. Inflation. Yes. Nickels on the dollar. This episode is brought to you by 1Password Extended Access Management Imagine your company's security like the quad of a college campus. There are nice brick paths between the buildings. Those are the company owned devices, IT approved apps and managed employee identities. And then there are the paths people actually use, the shortcuts worn through the grass that are the actual straightest line from point A to point B. Those are unmanaged devices, shadow IT apps and non employee identities like contractors. Most security tools only work on those happy brick paths. But a lot of security problems take place on the shortcuts. 1Password Extended Access Management is the first security solution that brings all these unmanaged devices, apps and identities under your control. It ensures that every user credential is strong and protected, every device is known and healthy, and every App is visible. 1Password Extended Access Management solves the problems traditional IAM and MDM can't. It's security for the way we work today and it's now generally available to companies with Okta and Microsoft Entrance and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1Password.com GrumpyOldGeeks that's 1Password.com GrumpyOldgeeks this episode is sponsored by HelloFresh, America's number one meal kit. What is HelloFresh? It's farm fresh, pre portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered to your doorstep. With HelloFresh, you can skip the stress of grocery shopping and make home cooking easy, fun and affordable. That's why they're America's Number one Meal kit. The holiday season is just around the corner and we're all looking for ways to save time and energy. HelloFresh makes mealtime a breeze with chef crafted recipes that come together quickly and they're way more affordable than takeout. Whether you're craving hearty comfort food or need calorie smart options, HelloFresh has a rotating menu of 50 weekly recipes to satisfy every craving. Personally, I love how HelloFresh helps me break out of my recipe rut. This week we made their Umami Ginger pork bowls with pickled cucumber and Sriracha crema. This hearty bowl centers around ground pork browned and simmered in a savory miso based ginger sauce with nutty sesame seeds. Crisp, quick pickled cucumbers, tender sauteed cabbage and carrots and spicy crema are also on the menu. All served over fluffy rice. I mean come on, they had me at Sriracha just saying everything was pre portioned so there was zero waste and it came together in just 20 minutes. Plus their pre portioned ingredients saved me from overbuying at the store. It's a win win. And don't miss the hellofresh market. They've got over 100 add ons from breakfast to snacks and even Thanksgiving sides to wow a crowd without lifting a finger. Get 10 free [e-mail] FreeGoG applied across seven boxes. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's 10 free HelloFresh meals by just going to hellofresh.com FreeGoG in the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Unsurprisingly, we have news about Elon Musk and ex Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

After all the brouhaha that he said about Brazil, you I'm not going to do what you tell me. And then he also tweeted about why does everybody feel a rage for the machine these days? Just because I have to throw that in again because oh my God, I have to get off X because I'm sick of seeing his updates. Anyways, after all the brouhaha about screw you Brazil, I'm not going to ban the couple people that you asked me to ban because they were breaking the law and all that sort of stuff. Well, he's actually going to reverse course after weeks of refusing to comply with conditions set by the Brazilian Supreme Court so he can operate in the country again. Because Elon's a pussy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Big surprise. Well also because Elon has people who are saying why is this company that I helped you buy not making any money? And why isn't Brazil one of the largest, I think the largest country in South America? Not on your platform anymore. Oh, because you were a douche nozzle. Oh, can you just undo the douche nozzle for a minute, Elon, so we can make some money so we can get paid back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So he turned off the douche nozzle stream for a half second and they're going back. And then he turned it back on again because he's decided that blocked users will now be able to see our post Sonics. So if you block someone, they're not really blocked. They get to see everything that you've posted and you just don't get to see them and they can't comment on your stuff, which isn't really a block, in my opinion.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, it's not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because words have meaning.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But it was. It was nice to see that hashtag block Elon was trending this week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, he can still see all that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. That's what makes it funny.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And a Manhattan federal judge on Tuesday handed down a two year prison sentence to Carolyn Ellison, who assisted one of the largest financial crimes in US History. Let's just read that again. A two year prison sentence to someone who insisted. Who assisted in one of the largest financial crimes in U.S. history while overseeing a trading firm connected to the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, but then served as key government witness in the trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried. So, yes, she did plead, plead, and she did all that sort of stuff. And she definitely turned evidence against Sam Brakeman freed and all that, but she still did all this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And she knew she was doing it too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And she knew she was doing it. And somehow. And this goes back to the Gen Z thing and how people don't want to hire them because she's a very young girl, as. He was a very young guy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But we were dating and he was controlling me and I just didn't know what to do. And that's really kind of what it came down to. And that was her entire defense, was I was being exploited, not just. I was vulnerable. And yeah, he kept buying me toast in the morning and there was a lot of avocado on it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See, in my days, you would get fired from McDonald's for doing like this.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Can you imagine when we were coming up in the Internet industry, if we had done anything like this, we would have been in jail for years.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We'd still be there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'd still be there now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So she gets a two year prison sentence. That's it. Even though she. She willingly and entirely engaged in this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. But she turned state's evidence, so I guess that has something to do with.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, okay, to be fair, she had to turn in the $11 billion she had made.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, if she still had it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Jesus Christ.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, just. Sentencing guidelines called for 110 years. You go from 110 to two. I just. The math isn't math and. Brian, the math isn't math.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And no, nothing matters anymore. It really just doesn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, here's a fun one. Among the first AI companies that the Federal Trade Commission has exposed as deceiving consumers is Do Not Pay, which initially was advertised as the world's first robot lawyer with the ability to sue anyone with a click of a button.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I remember talking about these guys when they came out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We did, we did. We thought it was a great idea. But there was some shenanigans behind the scenes. Brian, I'll get to that in a second here, which is good. So the FTC announced that it took action to stop DoNotPay from making bogus claims after learning that they, the AI startup conducted no testing to determine whether its AI chatbots output was equal to the level of a human lawyer. Donotpay also did not wait for it hire or retain any attorneys to help verify AI outputs or validate Do Not Pay's legal claims. Well if you don't have any lawyers then you can say, well I didn't check the legal claims against it because I didn't have any lawyers I guess. Oh, it just makes my day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean it tracks for the entire AI industry, doesn't it? It's all fucking bullshit. It's all bullshit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, these guys got out, they must have had the same attorney as the other chick. They have to pay $193,000 and accepted no liability. And they have some time. They've got a 30 day public comment period and they get to get their shit together. So they're getting another chance because nobody apparently goes to jail for more than two years nowadays. It's just crazy. It's crazy. But yep, do not pay. I bet they're going to pay though.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I bet they're going to pay at some point. Maybe. We'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well that, that $193,000. I bet they'll pay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, okay, but how much do they actually make? That's not in the story. How much do they make? How many people paid them?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I want to know how many customers they have. How many people have been duped, as it were. How many lawsuits were filed from these guys? That would be nice to know. Now this one has my head scratching a bit. Microsoft deal would reopen a Three Mile island nuclear plant to power AI. If that is not the most dystopian headline we've had in quite some time, I don't know what is. Microsoft has announced a groundbreaking deal to revive Pennsylvania's dormant Three Mile island nuclear plant to meet its massive energy needs for AI development. Under this 20 year agreement, Microso Microsoft will purchase 100% of the plant's power, making it the first time a US nuclear plant will come back online after being decommissioned. The plant infamous for the worst nuclear accident in US history in 1979, was shut down in 2019 due to financial issues. Is now set to reopen by 2028. Providing Microsoft 835 megawatts of power, enough to serve 800,000 homes, which will not get those homes. But they can chat with their AI, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But they all get. Free copilot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, free copilot for everybody.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, I'm kind of okay with this. I think that nuclear power has gotten a bad rap. I think there's been some problems in the past, obviously, but we've kind of dialed in the technology now, and people are just scared of this. It's a NIMBY thing. Nobody wants it in their backyard, which I also totally understand. But this is a pretty safe technology at this point that actually provides an awful lot of power. So if Microsoft. And I trust Microsoft for the most part. Hey, you know, as long as they keep that automatic, like every single backup, every single second thing so we can actually review the data. If something goes wrong, we're good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nuclear recall.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So that's not the problem that I have with this.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The project, expected to cost Constellation Energy $1.6 billion, hinges on federal tax subsidies for nucle power outlined in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. This deal highlights the tech industry's growing demand for reliable zero energy emissions. Zero emissions energy to support the expansion of AI. And despite the innovative nature of the agreement, it faces scrutiny from nuclear safety advocates and questions about the use of public subsidies for a private company's benefit. Microsoft can afford $1.6 billion. They can afford $2.6 billion. They can afford ten billion dollars. They can afford a lot more than that. Instead of taking our tax money to subsidize their nuclear power plant.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If we're going to look into sub. And if we're going to look into the subsidies that public companies get that are worth billions of dollars. Let's start with Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say let's start with Tesla and SpaceX. SpaceX is doing some decent things except ruining the night sky with their Starlink. But. Yeah. No, but that's just the thing. Should we go back and watch the China Syndrome again just to. Because no. Kids these days don't know anything about Three Mile Island. They're like, what's that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Like, oh, yeah, I'm okay with this. If they. Obviously all the stuff has to happen. They have to do all the inquiries. They have to do all that sort of stuff. If that all works out fine, I don't care. Great. Go do It Qualcomm is reportedly eyeing a takeover of Intel. It seems that Qualcomm sees Intel struggling business as a potential opportunity. The San Diego based chipmakers reportedly expressed an interest in taking over intel in recent days, according to an new report in the Wall Street Journal. Though the report cautions that such a deal is far from certain as it's just a rumor. It would be a major upheaval in the US Chip industry. So we'll see. Obviously there would be antitrust issues. That happens. Intel announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs last month as its quarter losses climbed to 1.6 billion. Its foundry business is also struggling with an operating loss of 2.8 billion last quarter. I look, I have a personal story about intel that I will tell here and I can't speak to the company's problems and everything like that, but I've always liked Intel. I think intel is a good place to be. I think it's a good company. My cousin had married somebody and moved up there. He worked for intel for a lot of years. They're a lot older than me. He's just retired. Intel actually pays EX employees to go out into the local area and basically teach kids. Oh, that doesn't. That does not sound like a bad company to me. It sounds like a company that has a good amount of money, that supports EX employees, that supports local communities. I think intel is a good company. Qualcomm, I've never heard a goddamn good thing about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they killed Eudora.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. The only thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I killed you, Dora.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's enough. Fuck those guys.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I like Intel. I think intel is a good company. I think intel does good things. I'm sorry that they're struggling in the marketplace, but you know, yeah, Intel's fine. They're going to be fine.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know who's not going to be fine? Brian? Chinese smart car makers. First TikTok, now smart cars. The White House has proposed a ban on Chinese smart cars.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're welcome, Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Citing national security risks posed by Internet connected vehicles. The ban would prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicles from China and the software and hardware that power these systems in US Cars. US Automakers would have one year to ensure their software has no ties to China and four years to remove certain Chinese affiliated hardware like sensors and antennas. Which means we're going back to the Model A. That's it. You know, the Commerce Department is still accepting feedback before they finalize the ruling by the end of the year. Yeah, this is a tough one. They make damn near everything that We've got. So I don't know. Brian, what do you think?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we put a lot of money theoretically into bringing all this kind of innovation and manufacturing back to the US So step it up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're going to ban it, then we got to make it. So let's do it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. And I can see the security.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We know we want to ban it. We know the security cameras are shit. We know TikTok is fucking leeching our data like no tomorrow. We absolutely do not need to be reliant on Chinese manufacturing. We should not be for anything that's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Important at all, especially cars. Because I just see the nightmare scenario of it's one thing to have a fitness sensor that's Talking back to TikTok and all that crap. Right. To have a car with a big battery in it that could do lots of different things.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I learned about battery exploding last week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. So I can see the point is. All I'm saying is I can see the point in this one. Not to mention just the location data where everybody's driving. But anyway, anyway. And license plate readers. Never mind. Okay, I can keep going down the rabbit hole. I'm going to stop. Cloudflare is back in the news. They have a new marketplace that will let websites charge AI bots for scraping. This is not a bad idea.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not a bad idea except it's three.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Day late to dollar short, guys. They've already got it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they got it already. And what are you going to do about it? Good luck.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kudos for effort, man. A for effort. AI for effort even. But yeah, this is just. It's silly, but it doesn't matter because it's too late. Yeah, yeah, they've already got it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, well, California has a click to cancel subscription bill that has been signed into law. I'm happy about this. This is Assembly Bill 286 and it's been signing the law to make it easier for consumers to opt out of subscriptions. The bill was introduced in April 2024, forces companies that permit online or in app signups to allow for online or in app unsubscribes as well as it should be, as they point out, and we've talked about this on the show, Adobe is one of the more notable examples of this behavior, particularly since subscriptions can cost $60 per month. Earlier this month, the FTC sued the company over early termination fees and roadblocks to unsubscribing, calling the practices illegal. California's new bill is designed to kibosh that sort of behavior though. Companies have until mid-2025 to comply to compline, complain complaints that they will and countersue and actually comply, which is what it says. The FTC has proposed proposed a similar law last year that would apply across the U.S. but the finalized rule is still to come. Once again, California is actually leading the way in a lot of this sort of stuff. We are closer to getting GDPR in California than anywhere else in the United States for sure. So I applaud this. This should be the rule of land. It should immediately happen. If you can sign up in one click, you have to be able to sign out in one click. End of story.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love this. It is illegal. It's going to be illegal to not have an unsubscribe button, but you can steal my car and I can't even file suit anymore. Well, that's the difference. California is a fucking mess. It's just a mess. Just. Yeah, the rule in California is don't go outside. Just seriously, don't go outside. And if you want a little fun thing, I'm just going to end on a little piece of fun video here that you're going to have to go click in the show notes at GOG Show 667 dramatic drone video shows Chinese rocket crash landing in a failed test and this could have been from like an opening Scene from the Three Body Problem Season 2. It was. The music was dramatic, the video was dramatic. It didn't even look real. But it was a fun way to burn up a few minutes. And it definitely does not end well for the rocket. Which makes me also say let's keep your electric cars over there for a while.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Why we shouldn't have their cards over here. Media Candy well, it's been a hell of a week for 25 year old me, Jason. Okay, 16 year old me and 30 year old me. The Cure have announced the release of Alone, their first new single in 16 years. Alone, the first taste of the long awaited Songs of a Lost World album, premiered today because we're recording this on Thursday, September 26th and it is a hell of a track. It is very disintegration. It harkens back to the best album of all time as far as I'm concerned. And South Park. It's absolutely fantastic. One of my second favorite bands of all time, Underworld, has also released a new single called Black Poppies. It's the first single from their upcoming album Strawberry Hotel, which is releasing in 25th October. And as I posted earlier today and said to a few friends, this is A sign of how old I've actually gotten to be. Two of my favorite bands have put out brand new singles with brand new albums coming out, and I'm just kind of mildly pleased about it instead of locked in a room listening to them nonstop crying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we all grow, Brian. We all grow a little bit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, we do. So two of my favorite bands have two new singles and two new albums coming out, and it's going to be a fun. I'm not listening to any podcasts this month. That's all I'm saying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, well, I actually got to. Got to do some work this week on that project I was mentioning before, and I get to listen to music again. And it has been so long since I've actually listened to music because I've been doing podcasting all the time. There were two Rammstein albums I never even knew existed. So I've been rocking out to brand new releases from Rammstein that are at least five years old.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, new to you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. New to me. It was great. Best week ever. Bad Monkey on Apple TV with Vince Vaughn is something we've been getting caught up on. We're actually all caught up on that show. And I. It's adorable. I love it. And I hate Vince Vaughn, but I don't hate him in this show, really. I think he's. I think he's really good in this show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I've kind of burned out on the Vince Vaughn since Swingers are, you know, the early stuff and the first.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thing he ever did.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, what was the other movie? The. The whole thing with the. We're going. We're streaking in the quad with Will Ferrell and all those guys.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I never saw that movie.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that stuff was still funny. But Vince Vaughn has not been funny for a good decade, if not two. But if you think this is good and you hate him, maybe I should check it out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's actually really good. It's a really good show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I. And the nice thing, this is one of those things where they have the same amount of time as most of the other shows I watch, but in that same, like, 50 minutes. There is so much story and plotline moving forward that you just like. It feels like you're watching a movie, but it's only 50 minutes, and then you go watch another show. It's like, you know, two things happen. It's like, you know, it's just. It's a very dense plot, and it's really fun. I just. I thoroughly enjoy it. Thoroughly enjoy it. And just to cleanse my palate. No pun intended. We're watching Culinary Class wars, which is a Korean cooking competition on deep. Yeah, yeah, we're out of all the American stuff. Although as soon as I get done with this, there's a new guy's grocery games that's on the DVR that I gotta go catch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, all the Halloween wars are coming back and my son is very excited.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't bake. I'm not a bacon show guy. Can't do that. But it's a weird one. It's kind of just like a Korean game show with a hundred chefs. And it's just this crazy production value, but it's fun. The chefs are fun. Not learning a lot about cooking, but I don't care. It's just fun to watch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

For the people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I probably put this too late in the show notes for you to have loaded up your technology that you have in front of you for this show. But the BBC sound effects library is now completely free to access and license free. There's a link in the show notes and you can find basically over 100 years of the sounds that they've used for the BBC. And it's all free game.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Unless you're a commercial entity. Then you have to click the buy sound next to the actual sound to go pay for licensing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, if they decide we're a commercial entity, I will send them our receipts.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. We can show you the receipts, my friend. Funny thing is, I've had that library for like 10 years and I'm sure used it. Yeah. The only problem is it's like hundreds of gigs.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's huge.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's like 900 gig and I've been schlepping it around for years. I'm like, I think now that it's out there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, now you don't need to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. Now I can not use it on the website URL that you've kindly put in the show notes instead of not using it on the almost terabyte of drive space it's been taking up. So thank you for that, Brian. Finally, the last of a season two trailer has dropped. I looked at it for a second because it's not coming till 2025, and 2025 is a long way away, so I'd rather not get my hopes up yet. Or dashed against the rocks, as it were.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But for everybody else out there, who's the last of us fans, have at it if you want. This episode is brought to you by one password, Extended Access Management. Imagine your company's security like the quad of a college campus, there are nice brick paths between the buildings. Those are the company owned devices, IT approved apps and managed employee identities. And then there are the paths people actually use, the shortcuts worn through the grass that are the actual straightest line from point A to point B. Those are unmanaged devices, shadow IT apps and non employee identities. Like contractors. Most security tools only work on those happy brick paths, but a lot of security problems take place on the shortcuts. 1Password Extended Access Management is the first security solution that brings all these unmanaged devices, apps and identities under your control. It ensures that every user credential is strong and protected, every device is known and healthy, and every App is visible. 1Password Extended Access Management solves the problems traditional IAM and MDM can't. It's security for the way we work today, and it's now generally available to companies with Okta and Microsoft Entra and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1Password.com GrumpyOldGeeks that's 1Password.com GrumpyOldgeeks this episode is sponsored by Deleteme all right Grumps, let's get real for a second. We live in an age where your personal data is everyone's business. Literally. Data brokers are buying, selling and trading our private details, making us all vulnerable to identity theft, harassment and spam. Now more than ever, privacy isn't just important, it's essential. Data brokers are cashing in on your personal information, treating it like a commodity. Your private details are out there for anyone to buy, which can open the door to identity theft, phishing, harassment, and endless spam calls. But now with Deleteme, you can take control and safeguard your privacy. As someone who speaks rather openly online, you think I know all too well the risks of having personal info floating out there. And that's why I personally use Deleteme. Deleteme is a subscription service that removes your private information from hundreds of data broker websites. It's not just a one time scrub either. They're constantly on guard, monitoring and deleting the info you don't want out there. It's pretty simple. You give Deleteme a list of what you want gone and their experts take it from there. They even send you personalized privacy reports showing what they found, where they found it and what they removed. They do all the heavy lifting. You just get to enjoy the peace of mind, take control of your data, and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme. And now at a special discount for our listeners today, get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com GoG and use promo code GoG at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com gog and please enter code GoG at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com code GoG UPS and doodads Stephen writes in hey Grumps, I usually take your advice in many ways and had been using Brave as my default browser ever since you demanded so I do. So thank you for taking our advice, Stephen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I never went to Brave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, then I discovered arc which has been pretty cool and now I've switched. Any Chinese reasons I should stop using it or just any reason regardless of country? No, no reason.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Regardless of everything that we said earlier about China.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't think arc's Chinese, but I don't actually know. I think I used it for a while. I did know who it was made by for a bit, but it was just wonky for me. It was just a weird browsing experience. It's a non traditional browsing experience, Brian. Right. Which was great when I was dicking around, but when I wanted to get work done, I found myself needing my extensions and all the other crap that I usually use.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I need traditional experience.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, yes, non traditional did not work for the day to day job. But if you're liking it, keep it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Who cares?

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's all good. Brian's a trader. He's still using the, you know, Chinese stuff. I guess so. Hey, whatever.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Still using Vivaldi but I have it. You? Yeah, press set to private which probably doesn't mean.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I think Vivaldi is okay. It was. It was opera that got bought by the Chinese.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've been off opera for years. I've been using Vivaldi forever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, there you go. Yep, Brave so Braves works for me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Duolingo, best known as a language learning app, now makes a piano and I think we talked about this piano before because it's not theirs. They teamed up with Lug for this instrument. So this is basically a reskin of the pre existing Luge piano which is not a bad thing. The Luge X Duolingo piano is a three octave digital keyboard with built in stereo speakers, wood sides and a rechargeable battery for portable use. The keys are one of the biggest selling points because they allow for dynamics piano to forte which does not happen in anything at this price point. So it's pretty cool. I'm actually thinking about getting this now because we're thinking about starting the kit up on piano lessons. So this would be a nice little sort of thing to put in the corner as opposed to, like, my massive keyboards that are still in the garage because, you know, I don't write music anymore. And yeah, this is a pretty cool little thing. I. I don't know if it was the lug that you got into or it was something else at one point that Lumi. Oh, loomy Was the one that you were into, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I got. That was the one. That was the Kickstarter that was a year late and when I got it, it didn't really work all that well. And I got two of them even. Yeah, that was the one. The joke about that one was the earlier you ordered, the later you got it, they started at the wrong end of the queue. Ass wipes. Yeah, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, this one looks actually pretty cool. I don't know if I would do it with Duolingo, but the lug itself seems pretty awesome. So I'm looking into it and this might be a Christmas present for the kiddo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nice. Nice. Got to get them started early.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So there's been a brew, ha ha. Brewing on the Internet, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So Matt Mullenweg, one of the creators of WordPress, got a hair up his butt and decided to call out WP Engine. And who's the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The company that actually provides services that WordPress could have provided to people themselves. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, that you can also get from WordPress.com.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, if you want to pay for them. But they're open source, are they not, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

They are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, are they? Interesting. That would mean that you wouldn't really be bothered by other companies building things off your platform.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you would be surprised how Matt put it. He calls them a cancer on the community.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Interesting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. Here's the thing. I don't know if you use WP Engine, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The company that I worked for most certainly did, and I'm glad I'm not working there right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

WP Engine is a shit stain of a company. I have been using them for years and it is the single worst implementation of WordPress I have ever had the displeasure to use. So I am 100% behind Matt for calling them out on their bullshit and telling people to stop using them. Now here's the problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Having said that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Having said that, Matt is now finding himself in a pickle because the WP Engine people said, you're going to talk to our lawyers because we're going to sue your ass now. And then Matt said, hold my beer. I'm going to sue you back. And what we're also going to do is turn off your access to all of the stuff that you weren't really paying for that Automattic is paying for. And this is going. This is turning into a little bitch fest going on on the Internet right now, which is great because it's not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So much a little bitch fest, Jason, because let's be honest, let's run through the numbers here. WordPress is 75% of the Internet, and I would say probably 50% of that is on WP Engine.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, WP Engine is a $500 million a year company. They are no joke. Yes, but Automattic is over a billion dollar company at this point, I believe. So here's the funny bit. I don't know if you remember, Brian, the first day that I got to San Francisco, the first night of some of my friends, MJ Kim and all the other folks got. They lured me to a bar, you know, to. I know it's me. It's just like beverages this way. They pointed. I showed up, unbeknownst to Matt Mullenweg, who also arrived in San Francisco the same day. They invited him to the same bar because Matt and I had been in a fight for well over two years at that point. And they're like, if you guys are going to stay in town, we need you to be friends. Because we. You guys have to be friends. So we shook hands and left as frenemies, I guess, as it was because all the people that invited us were the really cute girls in tech. And we're like, we're not going to shit Netwell anytime soon. So Matt and I patched it up, but it was only because of the ladies of San Francisco. But Matt has a history of starting shit, is all I got to say, because he started shit with me. And I held onto that grudge for years. And he's doing it again.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You helped me hold on to Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, it's silly, isn't it? So. So we're going to see how this goes. But then for some reason, WP Engine starts going after Matt as a person. And so he decides, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make a blog post to show how awesome a person I am with all of my charitable contributions. And he does a laundry list of his. Of his charitable contributions over the past like 12 years or something. And millions and millions and millions of Dollars that he gives away. Yeah, I didn't get any of those, so fuck you, Matt. Anyway, so Grudge reunited. Yes. There's a great reply to him posting this on threads it says would recommend deleting and hiring a PR person. This isn't going to read how you want it to. So that's it. That one's going to be fun to watch. Fire up some popcorn and. And off you go. Now the next one is even better. Marcus Brownlee, AKA mkbhd. We've talked about him on the show. We actually talked about a YouTube video that he made a couple weeks ago about the new Prius. He's a reviewer, you know, he reviews technology. Am I correct in that assumption, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

You are, yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So he decided to become an operator and make his own app. So he makes an app called Panels, which is a wallpaper app to get wallpaper for your iPhones. It costs $12 a month or $50 a year, so you can get high definition wallpapers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You mean the things that you just download to your phone and set up yourself for free?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or from you build in your AI engine of choice for free. You can get the standard definition downloads if you watch an ad. So the Internet lost its, you know, its shit, as it always does. So everybody reviewed it saying it was a piece of shit. It's garbage. Because the first thing that you get is him wanting your personal data for a wallpaper app. You get the privacy ask app not to track type of thing. He's like, okay, why are you asking for my personal information when I'm going to pay you to download a shitty wallpaper? Okay, so that was the first bite in the ass. The other one was just, just. Why is. It's 2024. Why is anybody trying to monetize wallpapers? It's silly, right? So skewered over and over and over again. So, you know, he's on the other end of the review cycle now. So he, he posts his obligatory mea culpa, we'll try and do better at this point. And then a very nice hacker figured out all the links to all the wallpapers are preloaded right after the app is launched. And all you need are basic man in the middle skills to get them all for free. So because the files with the links aren't authenticated or protected. Oops, oopsies. And there was another thing where he said it took a lot of work to launch this as an iOS and an Android app at the same time. As somebody pointed out, like, no, it's just a shitty react app, you dumb fuck. It's not that hard to make. He just. He got his ass handed to him over and over again this week, which is just nice for a reviewer to see sometimes, because somebody who's never actually made something, I give him balls for stepping into the arena. But if you're going to step into the arena and you've got that big of an audience, like, come on, come with something big. The sad part is he is going to make more from this failed launch than you and I are going to make in our entire lifetimes, probably five times over. So he's got a very big audience and a lot of people are going to give him money.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, well, do it right, people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Do it right. Here's another fun one. Jony I've, who left Apple five years ago, is teaming up with OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman on, wait for it, a new AI startup. Yes, they're going to do a new AI startup and it's probably going to be some AI button with no pins or ports or anything. It's just going to be a cube that you stick to your chest, but it'll be white.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So they're actually trying to fundraise right now and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wait, Steve, fundraise? They're gazillionaires.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, just check on that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ives did put in or. I've. Sorry, Jony. I've did put in some money himself. So did Steve Jobs. The late Steve Jobs wife, Lauren Powell Jobs, from her fund, put in some money, but they are targeting to raise $1 billion by year's end. $1 billion?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. No, thank you, I'll pass.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And they're going to make one of them and it's going to cost $1 billion.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, getting back to AI a little bit, Spotify's beta AI playlist feature is now rolling out for premium users in the US and Canada and Ireland and New Zealand. It lets you create and refine custom playlists using text prompts. Initially arrived in April in the UK and Australia. The company describes it as a tool to effortlessly turn your most creative ideas into playlists, such as Play me a bunch of fucking shitty jam music for my fucking road trip.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not available for me yet. I do want to try it. I'm curious to give it a go and see what it comes up with. If the initial results don't quite hit the mark, you can refine the playlist with further prompts such as Les Peppy or Hold the nickel back, back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hold the nickel back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'll try that. So it leads on personalization, choosing tracks and things you like based on your listening habits. So it doesn't particularly sound very AI to me. It sounds very machine learning. But again, those words have no meaning anymore in this atmosphere. So same.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Correct? Correct. And a public service announcement. I found a great site called Archive today. I usually get to it by Archive is. It's a time capsule for web pages, Brian. It takes a snapshot of a web page that will always be online even if the original page disappears. It saves a text and graphical copy of the page for better accuracy and provides a short and reliable link to an unalterable record of any web page. AKA the only way I get around paywalls nowadays.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Does it have the Hulk Hogan tape?

[Jason DeFilippo]

It does not have the Hulk Hogan tape.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I believe that's not an archive.

[Jason DeFilippo]

At the library, Brian. This week I listened to a short story called the Original by Brandon Sanderson and Mary Robinette Cowell.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, go yourself with you and that in your bobaverse. So sick of these Audible exclusive bullshits.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, this is a four year old one. I get.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nobody reads anymore. I get it. But you guys, it's a fucking book.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it's a. It's. It's a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a fucking book.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's an audio drama, Brian. It's an audio drama and it was fucking amazing. So maybe go listen to it. It was seriously the best sci fi story I've read in years. I'm sorry. Listened to in years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, in five years when it comes out in book format, I guess I will read it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Go try and find a transcript on Archive is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Shut up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See if you can find one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is what AI is for. I'm just going to train my AI to fucking create a PDF copy of.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. But it was free. If you have an Audible plan that gives you the free stuff.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. That's awesome.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's great story I've read and I didn't even have to pay for it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, you didn't even read.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was awesome. It was fantastic.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's great. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I also didn't read. Not till we are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's quite excellent.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I love you. I love books that you can't read. They're the best.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I can't wait for you to use your eyeballs to find it on your. On your little device.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Might be blind at that point. The way my vision's going.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. We'll get you some we'll get you some readers, Brian. We'll get you some readers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I got breeders. God damn it. I hate this trend. I hate it. I get that. I get that Amazon, that started as a bookstore, no longer gives a shit about books.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But come , Brian, it's four years old. It's not a trend for this one. This is old.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, this is a horrible deal. I don't understand it. Just release the goddamn book at the same time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Back then, Brandon Sanderson needed the money to build his secret lair.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But didn't he do a whole thing with Patreon?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, but you know, this started a second deal.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah. How do people that feel that paid for his other thing feel about this? Did they get the earlier release they.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Might have in some fancy little box that they get to unwrap and look inside and say, there's nothing in here. And he's like, put your ear to the box.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can listen to it if you're subscribed to Amazon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh my God. It's good to be the king. It's good to be the king. So I finished the first Echoes of Extinction by D. Ward Cornell book. The book that I found when I made my free sign up for Kindle Unlimited and was didn't have much to go for. It was actually pretty decent. I didn't mind it so much. So since I've got one week left, I downloaded book two. It's a book force. It's a four book series. Reverberations, Echoes of Extinction, Book two. I'm gonna read the out that until my subscription is up and I lose any access to any of these books ever. And depending on how I feel about this one, at the end, I'll either read book three and four or I will not and get an audible subscription to actually read books that I like by authors I like who are. Who don't put out books anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Oh dear. Wine's working, eh?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Also true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout out. Over at Patreon, we've got Hilke man booby, Anna, Christopher, Jared, and Jared says, finally able to support y'all again. Divorce and layoffs suck ass. Now I'm a government lackey and ironically make more than I have before. No complaints here, though. Woohoo. Thank you, Jared.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'd like to also apologize to Anna really quickly for putting her after man booby.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, sorry about that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sorry, Ann.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So Panos. Panos wrote in and said something very funny. He said, gotta hand it to you, Jason. It was the first time someone pronounced my name like a Very, very nasty disease. I almost crashed my car laughing. And to be honest, his name is spelled P A N A G I O T I S. Panagiotis is kind of how I read that, but I looked it up. It's Greek and it is pronounced panis. So sorry, Panos. It's panis. But panegiatis. Yeah, you want to get a powder for that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Somebody also actually wrote us and said we should go to Greece to do a show to be called. And we can call it Grumpy Old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Greeks if they're paying, I'm going.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If you want to pay, we'll do a show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We'll do a show for you. Fly us out there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Over at PayPal, we got Joseph and David this week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Over at the tip jar we got Ross, Josh and Shiloh. Thanks so much from everybody. And just a reminder to everyone, if you go to Patreon and sign up for at least $3 a month, you can get the show early and ad free. And we now have the option to sign up for an entire year and you get 5% off. So have at it, folks.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Woohoo. And we have a new five star review. Those clouds aren't going to yell at themselves. Jason and Brian deliver great, well informed tech insights with effortless sarcastic humor that resonates with my Aussie Gen X self. Dave's touch of the straight man cracks me up. Love the book recs and at the library too. Thanks guys. Canning, Matt from Australia.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, thank you, Canning.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Met and I want to give a big shout out to Andy Such anski who I believe still writes our outro music. Do we still use that?

[Jason DeFilippo]

We still use it every week. Every week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh good. We still do shows.

[Jason DeFilippo]

How much you listen to the show?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I never listened to the outro. Well, okay, I never listened to the show. Let's be fair. He has returned to Toronto. So I'm going to go out and get some pizza and some beer with him next week and it'll be a good time. So love Andy Sochanski. Go check out his music on Spotify or out Apple music or whatever else you want to do as well. So. And I wanted to put in something. Maybe I'll start to do this. I probably won't. I'll forget next week. But the quote of the week because I saw this one. He's listed as day to day. But then again, aren't we all from Finn Scully?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, deep thoughts, deep thoughts. Until next time. I'm Jason Defilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister thanks for tuning in to Grumpy Old Geeks. Dive into the show notes and all the links from today's episode episode at GOG Show 667 feeling generous. Keep this top notch entertainment rolling by dropping us a few bucks at GOG Show. Donate every bit helps spread the grumpiness. There's a share button and every podcast player out there use it to share the show with friends, foes and everyone in between and will be forever grateful. I can hear Jason opening up like a cannon right now. Head over to GOG show to find the link on our Discord Channel and chat with us and other show fans. Got something to say? Send your feedback, comments or awesome links to GOG show contact. Show us some love. Leave us a review at GOG Show Review. A five star rating might just get review right on the air. Also a one star. We're gonna read them all. Let's be honest. Stay grumpy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to Extra Grumpy Old Geek. I'm not gonna say out of the gate. I'm not gonna say out of the gate. Let me try it again.