670: Just Buy the Thing!

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 670: Just Buy the Thing!

Release Date: October 19, 2024

In Episode 670 of "Grumpy Old Geeks," hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister, joined by special guest Dave Bittner, navigate through a whirlwind of tech news, personal anecdotes, and spirited debates. This detailed summary captures the essence of their impassioned discussions, sprinkled with humor and sharp insights.

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1. Shop GOG Store: Hiccups and New Designs [00:43 - 03:06]

The episode kicks off with Jason addressing recent issues with their Shop GOG store. A mix-up led to shirts being sourced from Latvia unintentionally. Jason quips, "You won't be getting shirts from Latvia unless you live in Latvia now, which was a screw up on my side." He updates listeners on new designs, including a "Cybertruck Enthusiast Shirt," and reassures that operations are back on track.

2. Personal Anecdotes: Health and Healing [03:06 - 04:30]

Sharing lighter moments, Jason recounts accidentally biting his tongue, resulting in prolonged healing—a humorous nod to aging. He says, "I bit my tongue like I was chewing into a Kobe steak." Brian empathizes, adding, "As we are getting older, everything takes a lot longer to heal." These exchanges set a relatable and engaging tone for the episode.

3. WordPress vs. Automattic: A Brewing Conflict [04:30 - 08:49]

A significant portion of the episode delves into the friction between WordPress's parent company, Automattic, led by Matt Mullenweg, and WP Engine. Jason highlights a contentious move where Automattic forked a WP Engine plugin, removing it from the repository. "They can take over your plugin and basically fork it and then take your old one out of rotation," Jason explains at [05:12].

Brian adds, "This was a total retaliatory move." The hosts discuss leaked internal communications from Automattic, revealing attempts to enforce WordPress trademarks aggressively and offer increased severance to dissenting employees. They predict escalating tensions and potential leadership changes within Automattic.

4. Receiving Hate Mail: Listener Feedback [08:49 - 10:38]

Jason shares his unexpected receipt of hate mail, including demeaning messages telling him to harm himself. "They even told me to kill myself. It's awesome," he sarcastically remarks at [09:21]. Brian encourages viewing such feedback as validation of their impact, adding, "You know you're doing something right when you get that stuff."

5. Tech News Roundup: A Mix of Innovations and Controversies [10:38 - 30:45]

a. EU's Stance on Tesla's Cybertruck [14:26 - 16:45]

Brian reports on European road safety organizations condemning Tesla's Cybertruck for its size and design flaws. "Approval and registration of cybertrucks in the EU poses illegal risks to all other road users," he states at [15:28]. The hosts agree that the Cybertruck's bulky nature isn't suited for Europe's narrower roads, predicting regulatory pushback.

b. EU's Potential Fines on Elon Musk's Companies [17:13 - 18:17]

The discussion shifts to the European Union contemplating hefty fines on Elon Musk's ventures, including SpaceX and Neuralink, over content moderation violations. Jason criticizes the EU's broad approach, saying, "They should just be based on the platform that you are having trouble with at the moment." Brian concurs, emphasizing the need for targeted penalties.

c. US Commission Report on Facial Recognition Technology ("FART") [18:17 - 19:43]

In a satirical twist, the hosts discuss the US Commission's report on federal use of facial recognition technology, humorously acronymizing it as "FART." Jason jokes, "How have we never noticed that face recognition Technology's acronym is FART?" highlighting concerns over privacy and ethical implications.

d. FCC's Investigation into Broadband Data Caps [19:43 - 21:21]

Brian critiques the FCC's ongoing investigation into data caps and net neutrality. He expresses frustration over the agency's inaction despite evident consumer and small business hardships. "We have dug deep enough. We kind of know what we need to do here," he laments.

e. New York Times vs. Perplexity AI Startup [21:21 - 23:00]

The hosts examine a legal tussle where The New York Times sent a cease and desist to Perplexity, an AI startup, over unauthorized use of content. Jason highlights the inefficacies of Perplexity's citations, noting, "Almost none of the links actually go to the exact story I'm looking for." Brian underscores the importance of proper attribution and compensation in AI applications.

f. AI in Law Enforcement: Able Startup [23:00 - 24:53]

Discussing ethical AI applications, Jason and Brian explore Able, a startup automating police report generation using AI. Jason raises concerns about reliability, saying, "If we lose that, then we have nothing." Brian echoes similar sentiments, emphasizing the risks of AI errors in critical documentation.

g. Instagram's New Profile Cards [14:08 - 17:02]

Brian shares Instagram's introduction of profile cards, allowing users to create customizable profiles with links, music, and QR codes. The hosts nostalgically liken it to MySpace pages but jest about potential clutter, with Jason stating, "When can I start buying these profile cards in packs of eight with some bubble gum in them?"

h. TikTok's Awareness of Negative Effects [26:02 - 28:38]

Brian discusses leaked documents revealing TikTok's acknowledgment of its app fostering compulsive use and linked mental health issues. He notes, "TikTok's own research found that compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects." The hosts criticize TikTok's inadequate measures to mitigate these problems.

i. Microsoft and Amazon's Investments in Nuclear Power [28:38 - 29:44]

Jason and Brian humorously critique Microsoft's and Amazon's investments in small modular nuclear reactors to power their AI initiatives. Jason remarks, "They're going to be doing the SMR route too, with these small, small modular reactors. No word on asmr." highlighting the irony and potential risks of such energy sources.

j. NASA's Europa Clipper Mission [29:31 - 31:01]

The discussion shifts to NASA's Europa Clipper mission, the largest spacecraft ever built for a mission to another planet. Brian details, "The spacecraft has started its 1.8 billion million journey to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons and one of the most promising habit." The hosts express excitement over the potential discovery of life beneath Europa's icy crust.

6. Streaming Shows and Entertainment [31:01 - 34:06]

Shifting gears, the hosts talk about various TV shows:

• "The Diplomat" and "Lincoln Lawyer": Both shows have new seasons out or upcoming, with the hosts expressing enthusiasm for binge-watching.

• "Slow Horses": Apple TV+'s sixth season announcement excites the hosts, anticipating more captivating content.

They also joke about integrating their favorite shows into their viewing habits, blending their tech talk with entertainment preferences.

7. Smart Appliances and Refrigerator Woes [38:39 - 43:35]

Jason and Brian share their experiences with refrigerators, discussing the transition to smart appliances. Jason recounts the challenges of purchasing a new fridge, stating, "We lost a bunch of stuff because we couldn't get one." Brian reflects on the practicality of smart features, opting for simplicity over advanced (and often unnecessary) functionalities. They debate the merits of traditional versus smart fridges, emphasizing reliability and ease of use.

8. Ham Radio License Journey [55:09 - 63:06]

Brian updates listeners on his quest to obtain a ham radio license. He discusses the different license levels—Technician, General, and Extra—and the study process using resources like hamstudy.org. Brian shares, "My experience in broadcasting means I know a lot about signals and cables and connectors, and that pays off for this." The hosts contemplate the relevance of traditional skills in modern technology landscapes.

9. Nostalgia, Decluttering, and Modern Living [63:06 - 73:59]

Exploring the theme of decluttering versus "recluttering," the hosts reflect on how nostalgia influences their lifestyles. Mason’s experience with a Street Fighter 2 arcade machine parallels Jason's possession of classic gaming consoles. They debate the balance between keeping cherished items and maintaining an organized living space. Brian muses, "You can tell by noises that [refrigerators] make," emphasizing practical aspects of home maintenance influenced by sentimental values.

10. Closing Shout-Outs and Community Engagement [73:59 - 77:31]

In their wrap-up, Jason and Brian extend gratitude to Patreon supporters and encourage listeners to engage with their online store, Shop GOG, for exclusive merchandise. They humorously encourage listeners to leave reviews and participate in their Discord community, fostering a sense of camaraderie among fans.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [00:43]: "You won't be getting shirts from Latvia unless you live in Latvia now, which was a screw up on my side."

• Jason DeFilippo [05:12]: "We can take over your plugin and basically fork it and then take your old one out of rotation."

• Jason DeFilippo [09:21]: "They even told

me to kill myself. It's awesome."

• Brian Schulmeister [15:28]: "Approval and registration of cybertrucks in the EU poses illegal risks to all other road users."

• Brian Schulmeister [18:17]: "Face recognition Technology's acronym is FART."

• Jason DeFilippo [21:21]: "Almost none of the links actually go to the exact story I'm looking for."

• Jason DeFilippo [23:00]: "If we lose that, then we have nothing."

• Jason DeFilippo [28:38]: "They're going to be doing the SMR route too, with these small, small modular reactors. No word on asmr."

• Brian Schulmeister [29:31]: "The spacecraft has started its 1.8 billion million journey to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons and one of the most promising habit."

• Brian Schulmeister [63:03]: "Temperature sensor and I have an alert set up so that if the refrigerator goes above a certain temperature, I'll get alerted to let me know that something's wrong."

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This episode of "Grumpy Old Geeks" seamlessly weaves together a tapestry of tech debates, personal stories, and cultural reflections, all delivered with the hosts' characteristic wit and candidness. Whether dissecting corporate power struggles, exploring the implications of emerging technologies, or reminiscing about nostalgic pastimes, Jason and Brian provide an engaging and insightful commentary for tech enthusiasts and casual listeners alike.

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 ad free podcast to catch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Up on the latest episodes without the ads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schilmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Brian, the shop is alive again. We had a little hiccup at the beginning, but I would like everybody to know that things are back on track. You won't be getting shirts from Latvia unless you live in Latvia now, which was a screw up on my side. I forgot to look at where they sourced the different shirts from. But that's all fixed. I put up a couple new designs last night. One being my favorite, my cybertruck enthusiast shirt. And if you've got a chance to check that one out yet, Brian, I.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Did see that one this morning. I've got to get in there and start making some as well. And yeah, I also. I probably should have paid attention at the beginning when you were setting all this up, because we had. In my previous job, we had used Printful as well. And I do remember it's very important to check where they source things from.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, that would have been helpful, Brian. That really was helpful. Maybe that's why you don't work there anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Could be, could be. No, it wasn't my job, that part of it. But I do remember it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. And we also have the hashtag deport elon shirt up. That's available now. Some mugs if you want. We'll keep adding to them as the. As the muse presents itself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. And as the orders don't roll in.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. You guys got two months to buy some shit or shutting it down. This shit's expensive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And if I sound a little funny today, Brian, I apologize. I bit my tongue on Saturday. So it's been almost a week now. And I didn't bite it like that little nip. He's like, oh, oh, oh, ow, ow. No, I bit it like I was chewing into like, you know, a Kobe steak. I took a nice big old chunk out of my tongue and I don't know if You've ever had this happen, Brad, but it takes a long time for that to heal. So if I sound like I've never.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Quite done that, but I do think I've noticed that as we are getting older, everything takes a lot longer to heal. Yeah, we had Canadian Thanksgiving over last week. It was actually on Monday. And as you do, I was. I was peeling some potatoes for the mashed potato, of course, and took a little chunk out of my finger. Nothing I hadn't done before, usually. Fine, in a week or a couple days, actually. And here we are almost a week later and it still hurts like a motherfucker. And I'm. Yeah, got the band aid on because it's just not fucking healing like it used to. Isn't getting old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it's fantastic. No, I ran into a footstool in the dark about a month and a half ago and I still have the scab on my leg. It still hasn't healed up yet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, and don't get me started on accidentally having a little bit too much wine and how the next day feels.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, thank God I don't have to worry about that one anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's. That's one you don't deal with anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I. And I thank God for that every day those hangovers were getting. I mean, when it. When it passes four days, then. Then it's time to stop. Really?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay. I haven't experienced that yet. I've had. I've had some rough mornings, but that's about it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. No, I was a professional, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. You were a professional. I was just a dabbling amateur.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. No, no, I had coaches, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You could have taught a class.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I really could have. I really could have. Yeah. So in the schoolyard fight over the future of WordPress, we had the latest episode titled Pot Kettle Black, where we see Maddie Matt going toe to toe with David Hanemeyer Hansen. So. So Maddie Matt wrote a response to the article that I mentioned how WordPress is doing open source dirty. Well, he wrote back a scathing response to David Hahnemeyer Hansen, where he thought better of it eventually. So maybe he fell victim to the too many bottles of wine that night, because I do know that he likes the grape. And then he pulled it down and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Then he put HR and made him come in and said, you really need to rethink this one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, considering he owns the company, I think he is hr.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They still come talk to you. Or maybe he's got a crisis team now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think he has venture capital. Is what he's got. So he put it down and put up a more measured response. But then they did something that was just mind boggling. So there's a plugin that WP engine, basically they developed. So in the dickiest dick move I've ever seen, Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, basically took the plugin that these guys developed, took it out of the plugin tracker store. It's not really a store, it's, you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Know, just a depository.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Depository. That's it. Repository, not a depository. Sounds like a suppository. Which is WordPress turning into. Yeah, that is true. That is true. So they took that and they created a new plugin called Secure Custom Fields and basically said, oh, we patched a security hole. And if you look at clause 18 and subsection B of the thing that you signed up for when you put your thing in the plugin repository, we can do this. We can take over your plugin and basically fork it and then take your old one out of rotation, which they did. So yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now, okay, so I'm thinking about this on a company wide level and security and all the various issues involved. So you know, to give them the benefit of the doubt, perhaps they found some issues with some plugins so they went in and kind of patched them up for people and kind of took over the ownership and said, okay, well these are the fixed ones, ones that are official from us, WordPress, the people that you have come to trust. That would imply that they would do more than one and not just from the place that they're pissed off at right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, but they didn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, this was, this was a total retaliatory.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So targeting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Interesting.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Uh huh. So yes, they forked it and then they put it up on GitHub and created a new quote unquote team to work on it. But it was, it is just a, that is a phenomenal dick move that just shows you that you should not trust anything that is run through WordPress at this point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's, it's a, it's a head scratcher. What he's doing right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah, he's, he's just off the, off the leash. Off the leash, which is sad because, you know, like I remember him being a nice guy, but right, you know, he, I guess he holds a grudge worse than I do apparently. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wow. Yeah, that's, that's saying something.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's really saying something. So there's an internal blog post that got leaked that reveals automatic's plan to enforce the WordPress trademark using nice and not nice lawyers, which is then followed up by a new post that came out where he actually came back and said that, you know what, some people feel that they got left out of that last alignment offer, quote unquote, that let people leave if they were just not aligned with Matty Matt's vision of the world. So 150 some odd employees said, fuck, yeah, I'll take that, I'm in. Well, apparently some people felt that they missed out. So he did another one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, he did another one. And it's nine months severance now instead of six. So if I was one of the six month people, I'd be really pissed that now they're offering nine months.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I want three more months, please. Thank you. My lawyer will be contacting you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, and there's also a thing that came out that said there's a threat in the email that says employees speaking to the press should, quote, exit gracefully or be fired tomorrow with no severance. Yeah. Anybody that's been snitching to the press, I'm sure that they know who's who.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's not hard to find that out these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I haven't seen any numbers yet on how many people took this one up, but apparently how many people work at WordPress number was ticking down on their website yesterday. So yeah, some people are going to be taking them up that. So 159 people took the first one. So I can't wait to see how many people take the second one. So, yeah, that's where things stand with WordPress.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not going well over there?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, not at all. Not at all. Like I said, it's just the beginning of the end. It's not the end. It's just the beginning of the end.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, it's going to be a long time. And oh yeah, I'm not sure that there will be an end. I think at some point Matty Matt might find himself being pushed out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's going to be tough since he owns it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He owns it. But there's a lot of venture capital involved and there might be a check written at some point to say thank you so much for your services.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, can we do that with Zuckerberg too?

[Brian Schulmeister]

God, I wish.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I got hate mail this week, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's been a while since the old podcast has generated any hate mail.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's been a hot second. And this one, they spread it out over three emails. They went to my Jason FYI account and used the form Even to fill it out. So it's great. They even told me to kill myself. It's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, that's pretty good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know you're doing something right when you get that stuff.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I actually was excited when I got it. I'm telling you, I was just like, okay, it's the weak ass bitches that actually send you in hate mail and don't put a, you know, actual return address so you can, you know, start a dialogue. No, the hit it and quit it pussy ones I just laugh at because I'm just like, you don't even have the courage of your conviction to even stand up and say your name. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do wonder and this may not be the podcast generated hate mail. This. I'm thinking this might have to do with your increased threads activity.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Recently I made one post that got people's feathers ruffled. That's it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't even think I'll take in this world, Jason. That's all it takes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. So I don't know, let me know if you get some and then we can compare notes. But otherwise, yeah, maybe it's just for my other activities outside of the podcast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Jason, over a half a dozen NGOs including the European Road Safety Council, the International Federation of Pedestrians over in Europe, have recently co signed an open letter arguing that Elon Musk's bulky monstrosity, the Cybertruck, poses numerous threats to European road safety. We might have to edit that shirt a little bit and add some context.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Shop GOG show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So apparently someone in the Czech Republic recently tried to register one of Tesla's cyber trucks as a passenger vehicle, thus allowing it to be allowing an entry into the continent. But according to the safety organizations, the owner of the car in question may have illegally misreported the vehicle's weight as a means of getting it certified as a legit, legitimate import to the country. So the road safety advocates seem to feel that Tesla's electric Hummer like he could spell big trouble for Europeans. And having driven in Europe, I would agree with that assessment. Yeah, roads are a bit smaller.

[Jason DeFilippo]

A little bit, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And the vehicles need to be kicked out of Europe with extreme prejudice. It is our assessment that the approval and registration of cybertrucks in the EU poses illegal risks to all other road users. If this analysis is accepted, it follows that a small number of cybertrucks registered so far need to be deregistered, with the relevant member states confirming their removal from public roads. Why are they so worried about this? As the article states, I guess it's because it seems so obviously dangerous.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, they're fucking. They're monstrous, they're huge and they do not fit on the roads over there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not just that. As they point out, the cybertruck fails to meet a range of basic European road safety norms that apply to passenger cars as outlined below. These range from cybertruck's inadequate or non existent crumple zones for crash absorption to its sharp edges. They're basically also saying that frankly these things shouldn't. These things aren't even legal by American reduced safety standards. So America might want to look at these things.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm just. I am intrigued by the International Federation of Pedestrians. Must have missed that Star Trek episode.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They've got that. We've got. They've got that. We've got Mall Walkers of America.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. That's it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Although not many malls around anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, there's not. Lots of room for walkers though. Have you been to a mall in the morning? I've actually gone to walk in a mall over here, the Topanga Mall. It's more frustrating than you'd think because think of the beach. Walk along Santa Monica there, whatever they call that. You know how annoying it is when you're trying to ride your bike and there's just pedestrians everywhere, just wandering. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's why there's a bike lane that they are supposed to not be on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But they generally are anyway, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, they are.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Imagine that with a bunch of old people like totally blocking the aisles and half of them on those Rascal scooters. They're not even malwalking, they're mal scooting.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what it's like now. It's bad. It's bad. So, okay, that's the future we're looking for.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's the mul walking report from Jason at Grumpy Old Geeks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. But that's just. Our roads are going to Be like malls if we don't stop this cybertruck menace, is what the EU is trying to say. I love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Elon is having more trouble in Europe as well. The European Union is considering imposing significantly larger fines on X than initially anticipated. They are weighing whether to include revenue from Musk's other companies such as SpaceX and Neuralink, when calculating potential penalties for violating content moderation rules. Now, I'm all for Elon getting smacked left, right and center. However, I think that's kind of bullshit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it's definitely bullshit. Yeah, okay. No, it's like, definitely a little bit of overreach there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I think so. By all means, find him. But it should just be based on the platform that you are having trouble with at the moment. Find them all separately if you have trouble with the other ones.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. No, they're just like, okay, slow your robot, slow your roll, buddy. Seriously? Yes. The final decision on penalties and their calculation will rest with Magreth vestiger, the EU's competition and digital affairs commissioner. So it's really fucked up that this comes down to one person's judgment. I thought they had federations for things like this.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, even the federation has a president.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. All right. The U.S. commission on Civil Rights recently released a report highlighting significant concerns regarding the federal government's use of face recognition technology, or fart. How have we never noticed that face recognition Technology's acronym is FART?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's 670 fucking episodes and it took us this long. Oh, well, the investigation focused on the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, revealing that DOJ employees fart primarily through the FBI and U.S. marshals Service to assist in criminal investigations. DHS utilizes. It utilizes their FART for cross border criminal cases and traveler identification. And the HUD implements farting in surveillance systems with some federally funded public housing. So that is your fart report for October 18th. Okay. Glad somebody's diving into the fart problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's good. Well, let's keep with the acronyms. The FCC has announced it will open a renewed investigation into broadband data caps and how they impact both consumer experience and customers. Company competition. I feel like this has been going on since we've started the show, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yes, they open it up, they.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They take comments and then they do absolutely nothing again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Restricting consumers data can cut off small businesses from their customers, slap fees on low income families, and prevent people with disabilities from using the tools they rely on to Communicate. Fcc Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworsel said, as the the nation's leading agency on communications, it's our duty to dig deeper into these practices and make sure that the consumers are put first. I would say we have dug deep enough. We kind of know what we need to do here. And how about action?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So far, I mean, you know, they haven't done nothing. As we talked about back in April, they successfully required that ISPs offer clear information labels on their service plans detailing additional fees, discounts, and upload and download speeds of which I. I've never checked to see if they're actually doing it. One hopes they are. So, yeah, they're also attempting to restore net neutrality rules, which we support, which would classify broadband as an essential service. This has not been a simple journey, however, as the agency faces legal challenges from broadband providers who have a shit ton of money.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, that's the problem, because they've had four years to reverse net neutrality and they haven't done it yet, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But they've opened up forums for comments, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. So the dead people can comment. Yes, the dead must rise and give us back our broadband.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And the Wall Street Journal is reporting that the New York Times sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity, which is the AI startup founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saying, please stop using our goddamn content. We didn't give you the rights and you haven't paid us for it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which sucks, because I've been using Perplexity a lot lately. It's pretty good because it's got all the citations, which shows you exactly what stories it's pulling from, including the New York Times.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It does citations, which is great. I fully support that. There's no putting this back in the bag, so this is here to stay. This kind of stuff, citations, good, so let's support them. But yeah, again, don't take people's content without paying them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, definitely. And it's not like Bezos doesn't have the coin for it. The thing about citations is, yeah, citation's good, but it does citations poorly for the most part. From what I've been able to tell, almost none of the links actually go to the exact story I'm looking for that it was sourced from. There's always something wrong. Either the story is not there anymore or it goes to the homepage. It's very rare that I actually get to the exact story that I'm looking for that was from the citation.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know what's interesting about that? I Think I know maybe a lot of people out there are actually using Perplexity because I've noticed recently this week that I've been directed to not the right story many, many times from like Twitter posts or threads or whatever. I'm wondering. That's probably the cause.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Trust but verify people. Click the link before you post it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Check your own link before you post it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But for the most part, I'm really enjoying Perplexity. I can't even say it this morning. No tongue.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's perplexing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is perplexing. But yeah, I think it's actually really nice because it's got much more up to date data, so. But for other things, ChatGPT still kind of reigns supreme, at least for, you know, the summarizing capability. But if you want something that's newer, definitely go to Perplexity. But you know, they're all, they're all getting better every single day. It's scary. It's really scary how good they're getting.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, that's what we've been saying all along. This is as bad as this technology will ever be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But let's talk about bad technology for a second. A new AI startup, Able, founded by Daniel Francis, is streamlining police work by automating time consuming reports. The software uses body cam footage and dispatch data to fill out detailed reports, saving officers hours of paperwork. Francis spent months riding along with the police to research how AI could help. One key insight came from realizing that officers spend nearly a third of their time on reports. Able, backed by a $5 million seed round, is already in use in Richmond, California. Nope.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Here's our special plugin. Please include that we pulled over three white people before the black person.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously?

[C]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Francis, who previously worked at Twitter under Elon, says reducing paperwork will help police focus on what matters serving their communities. Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know. Doing the paperwork is part of the job.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. You know, that's the stick, you know, to do your job right. Well, see, they're not the only one that's doing it too, because I think we reported last week on Axon, whose they make the actual body cameras. They have a new product called Draft One. Well up in Washington state, the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office in Seattle has instructed local police not to use AI to write police reports. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Daniel J. Clark said AI based tools that create police narratives from body camera audio are not reliable enough. Yet. Yet, Right. While police reports are essential for prosecutors, defense attorneys and court cases, Clark emphasized that AI errors Even small ones could go unnoticed and pose risks. Yeah, so I think that that's fine. It is not ready for prime time yet. Hear that? Richmond, California. Yeah, they were going on beta software. Do you want beta software writing police report? Absolutely not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Absolutely not. Especially because they are used in court cases and if we lose that, then we have nothing. Anyways, got a little social media news. This week Instagram announced that it will let users set up profile cards, a new way to help standard users and creators alike to make new friends on Instagram. They will have two sides and may include objects like your profile pictures, links to your sites, music, or a QR code for others to scan. The card background can also be an image you like. In unrelated news, you can also have your top eight friends now. And Tom will be populated first.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Tom's back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The more things change, Jason, it all comes right back around. I mean, this is basically a MySpace page.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, yep. But when can I start buying these profile cards in packs of eight with some bubble gum in them? That's what I want.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go. There you go. And I change them all to Pokemon because I live in a Pokemon world right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Magic gathering.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. You can add songs to your profiles and next thing you know you can add snowflakes and glittering lights and it's all back, man. Flashing text. It's going to be great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Instacities coming soon. Coming soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And TikTok got a little bit of bad news. TikTok's executives and employees were well aware that its features foster compulsive use of the app as well as its corresponding negative mental health effects, according to npr. So they've been kind of denying it and saying we don't know the science yet? Well, no. The broadcasting organization reviewed the unredacted documents from the lawsuit filed by the Kentucky Attorney General's office, as published by Kentucky Public Radio. Most of the documents submitted for the lawsuits had redacted information, but Kentucky's had faulty redactions. Oops. Apparently TikTok's own research found that compulsive usage correlates with a slew of negative mental health effects like loss of analytical skills, memory formation, contextual thinking, conversational depth, empathy, and increased anxiety. It's starting to explain an awful lot about the world today.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Indeed it is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So they knew. They knew what was going on. They knew the app's time management tool barely helps in keeping young users away from the app. The some of the mathematics that comes in there is. They basically. They basically only took it only saved 1.5 minutes when you, when they put these things on teens accounts. So that's, that's not doing fuck all, basically. And yeah, and another document reportedly said that across most engagement metrics, the younger the user, the better the performance. TikTok is also struggling with moderation as well. According to the documents, an internal investigation found that underage girls on the app were getting gifts and coins in exchange for live stripping. They knew all this. They know all this. And higher ups in the company reportedly instructed their moderators not to remove users reported to be under 13 years old unless their accounts explicitly state that they are indeed under 13. TikTok also acknowledged that a substantial number of content violating its rules gets through its moderation techniques, including videos that normalize pedophilia, glorify minor sexual assault and physical abuse. TikTok spokesman Alex Horeck defended the company and said that the Kentucky AG's complaint cherry picks misleading quotes and takes outdated documents out of context to misrepresent our commitment to community safety.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sure they are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or as I like to say, got it in one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, there you go. We talked a little bit back about Microsoft turning towards nuclear power to help drive its AI. Google is also joining. Joining that on Monday, the company said it will partner with the startup Karyos power to build seven small nuclear reactors in the U.S. this deal targets adding 500 megawatts of nuclear power from the small modular reactors by the decade's end. The first is expected to be up and running by 2030, with the remainder arriving around 2035, right about when the AI becomes sentient and uses it to kill us all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Perfect. I'm down. So is Amazon. Oh, great, because they're doing the same thing. They're investing over $500 million in nuclear energy, unveiling projects in Virginia and Washington State because it needs more juice. They're saying this is part of their net zero emissions goals. Good luck with that one. So they're going to be doing the SMR route too, with these small, small modular reactors. No word on asmr. If that's going to be a thing going forward, just gross, you boom. Yuck. Got it. Just triggered myself. Nasty.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, and as you tried to do last week, I want to try to start ending our horrible new segments with some some good signs, some happy science. NASA has launched its Europe Europa Clipper spacecraft, the biggest one is ever built for a mission heading to another planet. On top of SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from the Kennedy Space center in Florida, the spacecraft has started its 1.8 billion million journey to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons and one of the most promising habit. I'm having the same problems you are today, Jason. Habitable worlds outside of our own planet, which will take it five and a half years to reach, which is pretty cool. We've always kind of thought that. Scientists have always kind of thought that if there's any life, it's somewhere under that thick icy shell in the water around Europa. So we're going to send something there. It's got all kinds of sensors and ice penetrating radar and all sorts of stuff. Stuff. So in five and a half years, who knows what we're going to discover? Pretty cool.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think that there is definitely a typo in the Engadget story because the 1.8 billion.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I just read right through that and I went, that's not right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. I was thinking, somebody's using Perplexity today.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. And the link is incorrect, of course.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no. Yeah. I went and looked up like, no, that was the article. It wasn't you. It's okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's the article itself. Sorry, my bad. I should have actually read it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Media candy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My wife and I finished the Diplomat season one the other day.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just in time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great. Just in time. Because season two is out as of, I believe, yesterday or something like that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, that was the Lincoln Lawyer. Oh, the Diplomat is the end of the month.

[Brian Schulmeister]

End of the month. Okay, good. I got to go tell my wife immediately because she got mad at me because I was like, we can't watch. The Dodgers are in the semifinals right now. So we got to watch that. Anyways, it was a great show. I really enjoyed it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I know. And Kerry Russell. I'm in.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, Anything she does, I'm up for watching.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You called it last week. I'm in. Yeah, the Lincoln Lawyer season three started yesterday, so that was the one that came out. I love seasons one and two. Looking forward to season three. 10 episodes. Count me in. Anything to kill time till I'm dead. Apple TV plus has announced a sixth season for Slow Horses, which I'm very excited about. Season 4 just ended. Season 5 is already in the can because they had trailer, a trailer for season five at the end of season four. Like, well, just show us season five now, please, because I'm ready. These things are too short. They're only six episodes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I got to go back and finish season one. I really do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's good stuff. Good stuff. Shrinking has already got a third season before season two is out, which I think it came out yesterday, didn't it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think it's also a little bit later in the month, I thought I.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Got an alert on my watch that said it was out, but could be something else.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because you know what I'm excited about?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That. This AI shit, that's the new Apple intelligence, ain't? It's basically word salad when it takes all my emails and tries to give me a two line response summary. Yeah, yeah. And the one that freaked me out was I sent somebody, I changed ownership on a document in Google Drive to a client, which I do every time I deliver a show, but it came back with somebody else accepted the document change, and it was not the person I sent it to. And it was just because the Apple intelligence just gummed everything into one thing. I'm like, he shouldn't have access to that. Did I screw up? Nope, I didn't screw up. Apple did. But anyway. Yep, shrinking. I finished it, though. I finished season one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What'd you think?

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's okay. I thought it was okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. Yeah, I liked it. I liked it a lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. And Silo season two has an official trailer, which I had to stop watching halfway through because it's one of those giveaway the whole show things, or at least for me, reminding me of everything that I've read before because I read the novels. But. But it looks good. I'm in.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It does look good. I'm a little worried. I thought season one did a very good job of staying true to the books. There's a couple things in this trailer that make me think they're maybe veering off a bit, but we'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they can't be foundationing it too bad.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, no, no. It shouldn't be too bad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Me too. I really enjoyed that show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There's another trailer out that came out last night that I didn't get a chance to watch yet, but the Dune prequel has a new trailer from Comic Con in New York, so we definitely have to get caught up on that. Did you check out the new trailer?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did watch the trailer. It's very good. It seems very moody, so I'm liking what they. What it looks like they're going to be doing with it. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Yeah, it definitely looks very goth from what I've seen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So even though, again, I say the source material it's based on sucks, the books suck, anything by Frank Herbert's son sucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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 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 Entra and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1Password.com grumpyoldgeeks that's 1Password.com grumpyoldgeeeks ups and doodads well, Apple.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Is reportedly going to add digital car key support in the Wallet app for some Volvo Polestar and Audi vehicles. Currently, Apple's digital key car support list includes vehicles from Kia, BMW, Lotus and several other manufacturers. I guess I could see if I actually have that or not. I don't know. So I have a BMW. I should check into this. I like my plan of being able to walk out of the house without any keys ever. That would be great. The digital car key function allows iPhone and Apple Watch owners to access, lock or start vehicles just by holding the device near the vehicle's NFC reader. The wallet app must also run in the background or in the foreground, but it's not necessary to push any buttons, of course. Having said that, I'd like to try this out. I do remember California DMV getting getting your driver's license into your wallet is not exactly working correctly right now either, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Maybe I'll wait until I know this stuff is kind of sorted out. And a bit of feedback we got. Michael wrote in on a recent podcast. You said you didn't said don't unlock your phone and give it to the police. You can just make sure you have guided access on first, which is an iOS settings accessibility. Turn everything off except touch. It will keep them on the app you are showing them. Not sure about what to do if you have an Android.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Famous last words. Not sure what to do about an Android. Yeah, yeah, I think. I think that we kind of covered it where we don't actually have to hand them the phone anymore, so that should be okay. But yeah, you should never give the cops your phone anyway, ever. So Google is phasing out popular ad blocker Ublock Origin from its Chrome web store.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm glad that I'm not using one of those anymore. I think Ublock was the one that they started to charge for, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I stopped using it as soon as I started charging for it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I think they should have kind of figured out that we don't want to watch ads because we don't want to pay for shit. So we're probably not going to pay for your ad blocker either. This comes with a change in what they call the manifest and it's how they put plugins together with the different permission schemes. So we've been working on manifest V2 for a very, very long time now, which has let these ad blockers kind of flourish. But V3 has much tighter security and privacy rules to it, which are going to kind of kick all these ad blockers to the wind, which probably means that you're going to have to use whatever Google says that you can use, which is probably not much. So I'm going to stick with Brave for now because Brave's built in ad blocking seems to work fantastically well. So I'm going to keep that on and I like. It's such an easy toggle to turn it off and on. It's right there in the address bar. Love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I don't even remember what I'm using. So let me check really quick. I am using Trend Micro ad blocker and that's very good. So works great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. Well, Adobe has had generative AI in their Photoshop suite for quite some time now. They are now rolling out the Firefly video model, which is powering a number of features across the company's wide array of apps, including Adobe Premiere Pro, which is kind of the general the basically video standard these days. It enables editors to add generated footage and audio to the start or end of a clip. This can help cover a transition or edit if the required shot isn't available. Dobie says the tool can also correct eye lines and actions that change unexpectedly in the middle of a shoot. Doby said it worked with professional video editors over the last year to better understand how this could help resolve some issues in their workflow low. What they didn't talk to was every other creative. It means reshoots are no longer required, taking days of work and income away from cast and crew.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And they're saying right now it's only intended for small tweaks. But of course that's the right now bit. And the. This is the worst this, this technology will ever be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So good luck with that. And right now it's only at 1080p.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Well, that's good at least. Yeah. In about a year you basically put in your shot list and it just gives you back a movement.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I want these actors in it and I wanted to kind of do this. Okay, thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Preferably keep it to five fingers unless it's a Sci Fi and then you can go up to Seven.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The guys that are making foundation must have the beta.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They do. Just saying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm checking for fingers next time that I see a trailer for that damn show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man. They did release another thing for Illustrator which I saw the demo of and was completely floored by. It basically lets you take a piece of vector art and select it and rotate it in three dimensions, which I don't. Have you seen the demo for that one?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. No. That's pretty crazy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's insane. It's insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Combine that with a 3D printer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it was so cool. They had a dragon that was in profile. Then they selected the dragon and they rotated it like 30 degrees so you could see it in a three quarter shot and it was just like, how the hell do they do that? Because it was just from a two dimensional drawing. It just infers the volumetrics based on it and it was very cool. I guarantee it does not work like that in production.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I'm sure it does.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But man, it was cool to watch. I was like, oh, so many years. It would have been so great if we had that. Amazon is refreshing its entire ereader lineup and they launched four new devices, which doesn't really matter except for the new one. Yeah, it's. It's got color, Brian. That's the big thing. It's called the Kindle Color Soft.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

With weeks of battery life. Pre order now ships on October 30th. It's $279. This is. I've got two Kindle paper whites sitting in a drawer that I never ever use. They're in mint condition and almost never used with a nice leather cases on them and everything. I cannot see myself ever buying another Kindle.

[Brian Schulmeister]

As long as I think I'll buy one of those off you, Jason. Actually.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You want one?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I'll take it. I'll be coming down for Christmas.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hook you up. I have an orange cover and I have a. Was it Tiffany blue cover. So have your choice. The orange is actually pretty cool. I like it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Matches my Jeep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I don't. I don't understand the plus of having a color screen other than not reading, which the whole point of the Kindle is it's just for reading and stops you from doing other things.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Well, they also have the Kindle Scribe, which I think is kind of going after the remarkable 2 tablet. So you can read and then you can write with this one. If I'm going to get one of these things, I'm just going to get a Remarkable because everybody I Know that has one, loves it and uses it constantly. I have an iPad with a pencil, so I'm kind of covered. I got a $1,400 iPad. I'm not going to go buy a $500 note taking thing. I'd rather just go buy a notebook for two dol if I need to actually sketch. But yeah. Is the age of the Kindle still really a thing? I mean, granted, you just said you want one of mine, so you must have some desire for it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I mean, you know, it's. I like the idea of having something that I could. I do get distracted on the iPad when I'm reading. I find myself flicking over to like social media or if somebody texts me, yes, I could turn all that off. But then that's the whole thing with iPad and we never do. So I do like the idea of having a separate device that I would just at night I would pick up and just go read and it would force me to just read.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's why I bought it. And that was the original intent, but never came to fruition. Right. Maybe I should try that. Maybe I should just try that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you got two, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I do. I just got to charge them up. Good to go. All right, all right. Hat tip to quibble on this one. Robot vacuums are making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Ecovacs Deebot X2 owners across the US have reported their smart cleaners going rogue, spewing racial slurs and chasing pets. I think that's a feature, not a bug.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's actually quite funny. I'd be thrilled if mine did that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Hackers have managed to hijack these vacuums, gaining control of the cameras, microphones and movement. So I love it. I love it. Yeah, they don't have a patch for it yet. They're saying that there will be a firmware, an over the air firmware update scheduled for the second week of November 2024. So we'll see.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What do you do in the meantime? If they can actually just turn it on, I guess you pull the battery out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. You're gonna have to just put it in a closet and it's like your Jeep. The Jeep that could catch fire at.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Any given moment where they park it in a field.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Park it in a field and put your vacuum cleaner in the. In the driver's seat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's funny. Well, I talked a little bit ago about how I finished the Lord of the Rings IP content infringing a walking tracker app. And then I used the. I was trying to find another One. So I found the one called Walk the Distance, which frankly, was boring. And it was so boring that I actually deleted it, so. Oh, wow, that says something I've got. It just didn't catch my imagination. It wasn't, you know, I could walk cities and that's all very exciting. And I just found myself never opening it up. And it was just Google Maps, basically with an overlay of Wikipedia of things that you walked past. I'm like, I don't need this. I don't care. So, yeah, deleted that one. And just one other note on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hang on before we. Before we move on to the next thing. Thanks to you, I started to do some Google searches to find out if I could find anything that would really kind of fit that bill.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now that's all I get are ads for this conqueror virtual challenge where you have to spend like a million dollars to get these little medals that you can put your ring in and all that crap.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they've got. They spent more money on IP licensing than any other company out there because there's all kinds of them from the same.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they've got everything in there, but it's so expensive. And I'm like, I'm already tracking my steps on like, multiple apps. I don't need to pay money for this even.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But even if there's only like five bucks, I'd pay it, you know, if it was maybe interesting. But they want you to spend like 20 bucks per medal. And it's like, it's a long way to Mount Doom. There's a lot of medals.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, exactly. If they opened that up and just said, okay, if you want to walk to Mount Doom, that's five bucks. Now you want to do Star wars, that's another five bucks. I would totally pay that. That, but I'm not doing the stupid. And I also, I don't want more in my house. Don't send me medals.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. That's the thing. We're trying to declutter. These are not Marie Kondo approved medals.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Anyways, just as a side note on the fitness tip, ever since we got the iOS upgrades. My God, Apple fitness app is slow.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is so slow. It's pulling data so slowly. And I don't know why. Every time I launch it, it takes it like five seconds before the rings get populated. Then it has to load step counts and step distance, and then it pulls in their different workouts and it all loads so slowly. It's unbelievable. What the hell?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Apple, they must have hired some of those Sonos Programmers that got let go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Must have, because I use it every day.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I'm going to quit it and reopen it because I just tried it and it came up. Yeah, it goes super fast on mine. Huh.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Weird.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What's wrong with you?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because I have the new superphone and could be. And I don't exercise as much as you do. Doesn't have that many steps to load.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The Dark side.

[C]

Ha.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with dastardly, dynamic, and delightfully devious Dave Bittner. Whether it's decoding all things cyber on the cyber Wire, Exposing Deception and Tomfoolery. With Joe Kerrigan on Hacking Human Diving Deep into Privacy with Ben Yellen on Caveat, or Breaking down Industrial Cybersecurity on Control Loop. Dave's got you covered. Now. Don't miss his latest venture. Only malware in the building. This monthly show, hosted by Selena Larson with Rick Howard and Dave himself, unpacks the most impactful malware stories into bite sized, actionable insights perfect for tech pros and security execs with a dash of charm and wit. Hello, Dave.

[C]

Hey. I get you to write all my intros.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's a pretty good one, particularly since Jason and I have both been tripping over our own tongues the whole show today. We just nailed that perfectly.

[C]

I know, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know.

[C]

Oh, my gosh.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I got one right. Okay, before we get started, I got to break in with a little bit of breaking news. WP Engine has filed for a preliminary injunction to stop Automatic CEO Matty Matt Mullenweg. His public campaign against the company. The hosting platform is asking the court to restore its access to WordPress resources and regain control of its plugin. WP Engine claims Mullenweg's actions have caused irreparable harm, including customer loss and cancellations following his remarks calling the company a cancer to the WordPress community. WP Engine accuses Mullenweg and Automattic of extortion and abuse of power and seeks a return to the status quo. And Automatic has yet to comment. So they're. They're. They're firing back. They're not taking it lying down.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So they're getting along and coming to a resolution.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I can see, apparently, yes.

[C]

My only connection not far away, my only connection to this story is for many years, my wife was a WordPress developer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I'm sorry.

[C]

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, she. She enjoyed it and she's since wound down most of that stuff, but I think she still has a handful of clients who are kind of you know, in maintenance mode, she's. But my point is she used WP engine. That was her platform of choice and many do. Yeah. And she chose it, I think a big part because of the security benefits of having something like that. They kept things up to date. They had your back when it came to a lot of the security issues that come with using something open sourced like WordPress. So for her it was money well spent. When she was doing WordPress development for paying clients, it worked out great for her. So she's been keeping a casual eye on this as well to see if anything that she still has running out there could break because of this. But.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, probably.

[C]

It just seems like a ridiculous pissing match to me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it is. That's why we're covering it because it is so ridiculous. Yep, yep. Matt, he does not like private equity and he likes his standard VC people because I know he's taken a shit ton of VC money. I mean, he used to be in the True Ventures building. They gave him an office. They loved him so much. So this isn't all. Let's just say he was born on third base.

[C]

Did you guys. I can't remember if it was in the show notes that I saw this, that he was doing funny things with employees emails. Did you guys cover that?

[Jason DeFilippo]

We didn't really cover that, but there was some talk about that. I didn't have too much corroboration with it, so I didn't really follow up with it.

[C]

But yeah, yeah, I saw it in passing that there was an allegation, I guess that he was having employees emails that went to certain places automatically redirected or forwarded or something so that people wouldn't be able to. Or I guess a better way to say it, if people were using an online platform like Glassdoor. I don't think it was actually Glassdoor, but you know, one of those rate your company kind of things. He would be notified when they are, even if they were trying to do it anonymously. Again, allegations. Who knows if it's true or not. But if it were not the way to build trust in your organization.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, but not illegal. If using company email. Email.

[C]

True, true. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So don't use your own company email if you're going to slag off the company.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I think you need to when you're signing up for like Glassdoor and things like that to prove that you actually work at the company.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, well that's dumb.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Super dumb. Super dumb.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah. We got a little bit of feedback. Mason wrote in after our Discussion last week about, you know, buying things from our youth and nostalgia. I bought a Street Fighter 2 arcade machine for nostalgia. And 360 days a year it collects dust. But I love looking at it and it gives me great pleasure to just know it's there and I could play it if I wanted to. You work hard and small pleasures are what make life worth living. Yes, but think of those five days. It's not collecting dust.

[C]

I know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. That's the thing. I mean, I had a. I had a Mortal Kombat 2 in my. Or Mortal Kombat 3 in my house for years for the exact same reason I'm with Mason. But yeah, when you move more than, you know, the average person schlepping around, you try moving a couple times, Mason. And schlep that Street Fighter 2 around. Especially if you have stairs, your nostalgia is going to go out the window.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And it's funny, we've had a pretty lively discussion over on our GOG show Slash Discord. Not Slash Discord, but that's how you can get to it. So go for it. But on our Discord channels about junk and decluttering your life and getting rid of stuff. Yet here we are talking about maybe we should just get this because it would be fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. There's a new thing called recluttering instead of decluttering. Have you guys heard about that? That.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. Yeah. For people who have. They over they.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's called having a child.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'll tell you that. Right? Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now I just heard it from people who over indexed on the Marie Kondo lifestyle. They're like, you know, some things just. I liked. I liked having around some schmutz around the house. Some. Some tchotchkes. So I'm going to re. Clutter my home.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now to fair to Marie Kondo, who has gotten hit with a pretty broad stick about this whole thing. She did say if it. If it sparks joy, you keep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

She did not say get rid of everything.

[C]

Yeah, tis true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Tis true.

[C]

I'm with Mason here. I think this is great. I similarly, I have a pinball machine in my house that gets very little use, but knowing it's there if I want to use it makes me happy. And similarly, people with your arcade games.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And stuff in your house, you're so silver spoons. I thought that was like the height of like luxury, that show as a kid.

[C]

Right. Well, it was house. It was. And now I have some money, so I'm living out my silver spoon fantasies.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I would 100. Buy a Spy Hunter. I love that game.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh God, I would.

[C]

If I could get a sit down Spy Hunter, I would get that in a second. Oh my gosh.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I'll find a link for you and it'll be in the show notes, Dave, and well, let me know how you enjoy it.

[C]

No, there are sit down Spy Hunters to be had, but they're all about $10,000. My understanding is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Spin up a few more podcasts, Dave. We'll get there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[C]

My understanding is that the price of classic arcade games has really gone through the roof in the past couple years as our generation has more disposable income to spend on the gathering of the things that we covet from our childhood.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nowadays it doesn't make any sense to buy a. A single use standup arcade game. You buy a mame cabinet and fill it with 10,000 games. It has every controller in it. Yeah. It doesn't have the sticker that you wanted on the side, but you can get those made.

[C]

Yeah, I agree with that on most things except for a game like Spy Hunter where I think the steering wheel is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The steering wheel makes it. Same with Star Wars Sit down, the original Star wars game.

[C]

Yeah, right, right. See. So I do think that you could have a double up sit down game that was Spy Hunter and Star wars.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because they both similar controls.

[C]

Similar controls. Like I think it would cross over and that would be something that would be worth having.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Agreed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Spy Wars. I'm in.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Friend of the show MXV has a sit down sinistar in his basement which is like.

[C]

Oh really?

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is? Yeah. That thing about killed everybody trying to get it down there. I don't think it's. I think it's going to be buried in it when it comes time. So I think it was a beast.

[C]

Yeah. Well, I am totally with Mason's bigger point, that there is nothing wrong with having things in your home that bring you pleasure just by having them there and looking at them. I think that's what art does for us as well. And these objects, I think can be considered art. It's just that your home is only so big and so there has to be some kind of discipline because it's so easy to just keep collecting these things and especially like, you know, I've been in my house now for almost 20 years and so it starts to fill up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It does. It does.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. My dad's been retired for about three or four years now and he's still cleaning out the basement. Right. What are you doing this weekend again? Cleaning the basement. I'm like, you still got that much stuff? He's like, not even halfway done yet. Like, okay, right? Yeah. It's a lifetime of collecting crap and.

[C]

You find boxes that are left from when you moved in that never got unpacked. You know, like in the far corner 10 years later, you're like, well, you know what? I don't think we need that. That could just be thrown away. Yeah. Well, I want to update us on my ham radio license journey. I have jumped in. I have been studying in earnest. I'm using a website called hamstudy.org and it's going well. Yep. It's like a flashcard kind of studying. And I was correct in my guess that my previous associations with all things geeky have paid off in this endeavor. My having 150 in one kit when I was a kid means that I know how to read schematics. I know what most of the things are on a schematic. That's part of this. My experience in broadcasting means I know a lot about signals and cables and connectors and that pays off for this. It is interesting studying for this about how much of the stuff in this test are old timey kind of things that I don't really think apply anymore. Like how many ham radio operators are building their own radios like from a heath kit. You know, it seems like some of the certification is around that sort of thing. But I understand you need to do a little bit of gatekeeping before you just turn somebody loose on the radio frequencies of this great nation of ours.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But no, it's funny because I'm taking a course right now for like Microsoft and technology and IT stuff and all of that. And it starts off with all this old technology and then it says, and we of course don't use any of this anymore. It's all been replaced. And I'm like, well then why did we just spend a week on that?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right, Right.

[C]

Yeah. At the same time, I'm glad to have all of that old knowledge because I feel as though, and I'm sure you guys feel the same way without all the stuff, all the development stuff that you guys did over the years. Like you may not use it every day, but it totally informs the work that you do today. Having that experience, I look back on it as time well spent even though I will never use it again. I'm glad I did.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[C]

So I'm currently at 85% proficiency for the license according to this quiz site. I think when I get to 90%, I will go ahead and take the test. You have to score 75% to pass. So I'm probably a couple days away from hitting 90% with the flashcard quizzes. And then I will proceed and I'll keep you guys posted.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What kind of licenses are there?

[C]

There are three licenses right now. There's the technician license, which is the entry level one, there's the general license, and then there's which I think the general license adds things like Morse code. And then there's the extra license, which is the highest level. And my college roommate was an extra licensed. I think you get a shorter, fancier call sign with an extra license, so you get the bragging rights to that. And I think it also gives you access to. With each level, I think you get access to more frequencies and more privileges of things you can do. So I don't know. We'll see. I mean, I'm going for the technician license. We'll see how much that scratches my itch. And if I decide to go any further from there, I have not even dipped my toe into the community aspects of this yet. So that could either turn out to be very attractive or repulsive. No idea. So we'll see. But I'm having fun right now, I have to say. I am having fun. The quiz thing is fun and I am learning stuff. And so. So I'm enjoying it. So there you go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm looking forward to your next set of podcasts being out only on ham radio.

[C]

Oh, man. Could you talk about getting hammy with Dave? Right, exactly. Cq, cq. Talk about a place to not grow your audience. I wouldn't think that local ham radio.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Is not very, very specific set of sponsorships you'll be going after there.

[C]

Right? Right. Oh, my gosh.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Do you actually have to go someplace to get licensed or can you do it from home?

[C]

My understanding is that these days you can take the test online and I suspect that's the result of COVID but I'm not sure. Traditionally, yeah, you had to go somewhere and you had to take the test. I was talking yesterday to one of my co hosts, Maria Vermazzis, who hosts the T minus Space Daily podcast with us, and she's also now a co host on hacking humans. She went and to take her license one day and had a very bad experience and walked out in the middle of it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[C]

And you know. Yeah. And it was an in person kind of thing and they were, you know, so if I can, I'm going to take it online because why not? But I'm curious because I've never taken an online test that has any kind of consequences. These are light consequences, but still, I guess what I'm saying is I've never done any sort of proctored test online. So I'm curious like how are they going to keep an eye on me to make sure that my, the, the, you know, the browser window next to it me has chat GPT open to answer every question?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, they, they absolutely cannot. There's no way. So you know, it's usually just a timed thing and that's that.

[C]

So yeah, so we'll see. Like I say, hopefully in the next couple weeks we'll be there and I'll let you know. But I'm enjoying it so I'm glad I glad I did it. It's been fun. In other news, my lovely bride called me this morning to. So this is always good when someone calls you. And my wife calls me and she says, did you see the note on the kitchen counter from Jack this morning? No, I didn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's gonna be which way is this going?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, right, right.

[C]

This could be anything. Right? It could be, you know, fare thee well, I'm leaving go. But no, but turns out he, Jack went into the freezer last night to get himself some ice cream and the ice cream was all melted. So we are now shopping for a new refrigerator because the refrigerator that came with the house and as longtime listeners will remember, I bought my parents house. So I remember when my mom bought this refrigerator which was probably 10 years before we bought the house. So it's a 30 year old. It's nice. It's a GE side by side, water in the door, ice maker refrigerator. And it served us perfectly well the whole time we've been here. But now we're in the market for a new refrigerator. And it's an odd thing because you're also like you're in a time constraint here because who wants to go very long without a refrigerator?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right?

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You want it pretty quick.

[C]

Yeah. Have either of you guys been through this recently?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, ours died. We lost a bunch of stuff because we couldn't get one. It was like it died like on a Saturday night. So we have a wholesaler guy we got ours from. But the guy gave me the best piece of advice. He's like, if you want to save the food that's in your refrigerator, go to Best Buy. That's the only place you're going to get it fast. That's left.

[C]

Oh, is that right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

We ended up saving a few bucks to get the refrigerator and lost probably well over $1,000 worth of meat from the freezer. So it didn't turn out to be a very good deal. We should have gone to Best Buy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right? Now, see, we have moved before ever having to get a new fridge, but the one that we inherited with this house that we've now been in for four years, we can tell is on its last legs. And we're going to be proactive about it. And maybe we're monitoring the situation. And yet if one more thing goes wrong, we will be out shopping.

[C]

Right? Right. I mean, refrigerators are kind of a binary thing. They're either cold or they're not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can tell by noises that they make. Right.

[C]

It starts shaking back and forth like it's in a ghostbusters movie. Yeah, exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, they could just be the ghosts. I don't know. You know?

[C]

Yeah, that's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Yeah. We don't want to get caught out, but I'm sure we will.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So the question is, are you guys going to go smart or not?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Absolutely.

[C]

Oh, no. Oh, no.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's no need for that.

[C]

No, no, I'm not falling for that. Yeah, no, no. What I will do here is how I make my refrigerators smart. Because I do have a. A second refrigerator downstairs, Like a little small refrigerator that has some beers in it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The college beer fridge.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. We have a little home theater down there. And so. And that's where the pinball machine is. So I put. We have smartthings. Home automation is our kind of the system we have. So inside the refrigerator, I have a temperature sensor and I have an alert set up so that if the refrigerator goes above a certain temperature, I'll get alerted to let me know that something's wrong.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Smart. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

But that's as smart as I want to go. I don't want the smartness built into the fridge itself.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think you don't want taking pictures of your leftovers telling you when to go buy butter.

[C]

No, I don't need that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But that was the promise.

[C]

Yeah. Look at how good your mold colony is doing. No, I don't need that. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to talk about that I was thinking about this week, us being of the same ish generation. And I understand I'm the oldest of the three of us, but I was wondering if. When you guys were kids and you were driving around in the car, did your family sing songs?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hell, no.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, no. But we definitely. There was like, some specific things that were eight tracks that were constantly Played. Yeah, okay. Three Dog Night was a. Was a big one and.

[C]

Yeah, right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That sort of stuff. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Elvis and the Statler Brothers on my side.

[C]

Okay. We did a lot of singing in the car when we'd be doing road trips or, you know, any really anywhere, which is strange. It's funny for me to think back on, because I wouldn't label either of my parents singers, but it was my father who led these songs. And so I learned all of these classic folk songs like She'll Be Coming around the Mountain, oh, Susanna, I've Been Working on the Railroad, you know, all these like. And I don't know how my father learned them all. Maybe he just learned them in school when he was, you know, coming up in the 40s and 50s. But it was what got me thinking about this. Was this the nostalgia trip we were on last week. I was thinking back about long road trips. I remember driving back from Orioles games or those kinds of things to kill the time. We would sing some of these old songs. But we haven't passed these on to my kids. And I think because there's so much more specific things now, like if we're singing. When my kids were toddlers and we were driving them around, you know, we'd be singing things like Baby Beluga or, you know, all the specific songs. There's a whole market for this now, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[C]

It's not that you're going into the old American songbook, like. No, they have figured out these are what your kids want to listen to. And so we shout all that sort of stuff.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, there's been a ton of those that I went through with my kids. So. Yeah, we never went into old Americana classics. It's just whatever they were playing at at the school that then came home and became something that I wanted to throw the radio out of the window with because I'd heard.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how I felt about Baby Beluga, I guess. What was his name? Raffi. That was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You remember Raffy. Oh, we did, yeah. We listened to a lot of Raffy. He's Canadian, by the way. He plays concerts here all the frickin time.

[C]

Okay. Yeah. Raffy and the Wiggles were big too. Around.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[C]

Our house. But I. I just. I wonder, I suppose that the kids, these kids today have no idea what these songs are. And, you know, I don't. That's just the way it goes. I don't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That could be, you know, for some of these songs, that could be a blessing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I. I wouldn't say that's not that's necessarily true, though, because I'm looking at the list of songs that you put in here. And of course, because many of them are old and out of copyright. These have been recorded for children a gazillion times by people like Rafi or, you know, all of that sort of thing. Like this land is your land I've been working on the railroad. Oh, Susanna. I think those came on. On, like, one of those little radios that you buy for kids when my. When my dad was three. So he's heard them. They just don't have the impact that they.

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Did.

[C]

Right, right. So they're in their brains because. Because they're in the public domain. They're in their brains. Isn't that interesting?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nowadays, you know, you're watching the boys with your son, so, you know, you figure if you're driving home from the game, you guys could be listening to, like, Wet Ass Pussy or some shit like that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, the oldies, how it goes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Once that's in public domain, it's going to be on every kid's radio.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, drop it like it's hot, baby.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[C]

Good talk.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, then we get into the whole, like, the music that was so edgy when we were teenagers is now playing in the grocery store thing, so.

[C]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Like, you know, I mean, the Cure and all that sort of start, like, gothy stuff I was listening to. And, like, I was labeled a weirdo when I was in, like, high school is now just, you know, I'm walking down Albertsons and they're, you know, they're playing it. So I'm like, okay. So was really that threatening and weird? I think not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. I mean, even. Even a few years ago, I remember Cadillac commercial where they were playing Sunny side of the street by the Pogues in the background. And, like, they cut it off right by the part where he's like, you know, waking up naked and hung over on a roof and just all this stuff. It's like, see, that's the. That's the good part of the song. You're getting rid of the flavor.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you know, the thing is, of course, that the people that are at the top of the marketing companies right now that do the commercials, they're our age, they're us. So, you know, they're picking the songs that they liked. So.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Expedia against Holiday in Cambodia. Licensed.

[C]

Yeah, it works. It absolutely works.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It does. I really enjoy the Durex commercial that has. I want to you like an animal from Nine inches.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Perfect.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Perfect.

[C]

On that note, I put a. I did put.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You put all the links to the old classics in here for the show notes, David. I put in a few that I think were just a slight improvements. Clementine by Tom Lehrer, I think was. Oh, anything by Tom Lair is a definite improvement. That is what my dad and I would listen to on road trips. We'd listen to Tom Lehrer. Right, I forgot about that. Yeah, that was kind of the music we'd listen too. And there's a version of this Land Is yous Land by Pete Seeger where he was singing with the Clancy Brothers that I think is one of the better versions of that song. So I threw that in there too.

[C]

All right, terrific. Well, in my research for this, I learned that O Susannah, the original version is. Shocker. Horribly racist. Horribly racist.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you go back to a certain generation. Most of them are, Dave.

[C]

Yeah, like it was. So the whole second verse of oh, Susanna has been scrubbed from the. From. From that song.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm sure we can find it on Google somewhere.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now that the sing along. Now that the sing along's over, let's go watch Song of the South.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right?

[C]

Exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Definitely.

[C]

Exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's so funny. You can find the horrible racist lyrics for oh, Susannah, but that damn Hulk Hogan sex tape. Nowhere to be found.

[Brian Schulmeister]

To be fair, I don't think anybody's looking that hard for it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just us.

[C]

No, no, no.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason, prove that it exists. Well, it's like the Berenstain Bears. I just want to prove that it existed at one point. Okay, well, that's fair, you know, because there are generations that are gonna be like, this thing never existed, though. They're gonna think it's like the Holocaust, you know? It never existed. No, it existed. I saw it once. Once.

[C]

Yeah. When the day comes that they hermetically seal off your home, Jason, and turn it into a museum, your collection will become infamous throughout the land.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, the things you will see.

[C]

Right, The Jason Collection. Yeah, yeah. Like a sideshow attraction. Can't wait. It's good to have a legacy, I think.

[Brian Schulmeister]

As long as they sell churros.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout outs. Over at Patreon, we've got David and Pedro. Welcome.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank you. Over at PayPal, we've got Shari, Natalie, Linda Ocadio, Nathaniel Sloan, Andrew, and Patrick, who gave us a big 50 bucks. Woo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thanks, everybody. Over at the Tip Jar, we've got Sean, Theodore, and Eugene. And just a quick shout out here to our Patreon folks and anybody who's thinking of becoming a Patreon folk. When you sign up for Patreon you do get the shows a little bit early and ad free and in high definition. Woo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Woo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Starting at just $3 a month. And if you want if pay for the whole year up front, you get 5% off. How about that? How about that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

5% off. Are you kidding me? I'm signing myself up now to pay myself half my money.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, let's do it. Let's do it. And don't forget to head over to Shop Gog show and pick up some of those fine new T shirts and mugs and other stuff we'll be putting up there there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Especially if you're in Latvia.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Especially you get there like a hot pancake in Latvia. That's right. Looks like nobody died this week and we got no reviews. What the hell Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ah well. What are you gonna do? Until next time. I'm Brian Schilleister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I'm Jason Filippo. Thanks for tuning in to grumpy old geeks. Dive into the show notes and all the links from today's Episode at GOG Show 670 God that's a lot. Feeling generous. Keep this top notch entertainment rolling by dropping us a few bucks at GOG Show. Donate every bit helps and spread the grumpiness. There's a share button in every podcast player out there. Use it to share the show with friends, foes and everyone in between. And will be forever grateful. And head over to GOG show to find the link to 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 and send us some love. Leave a review at GOG Show Review. A five star rating might just get your review right on the air. No, it definitely will. And if you need some need some fresh apparel, Head over to Shop Gog show and pick up a T shirt or some other stuff for friends and Christmas presents and something for your dog maybe. I don't know. We're going to put a bunch of up there but go get something and stay grumpy.