674: Welcome to DOGE! The Department of Grumpy Entertainment

Summary

Detailed Summary of Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 674: "Welcome to DOGE! The Department of Grumpy Entertainment"

In episode 674 of "Grumpy Old Geeks," hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister, alongside guest Dave Bittner, meticulously dissect the latest tech news, highlighting mishaps, corporate blunders, and societal shifts within the tech landscape. Released on November 16, 2024, this episode offers a comprehensive overview of pressing issues, innovative developments, and entertaining anecdotes, all delivered with the hosts' signature grumpiness and sharp wit.

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1. Data Breaches and Security Concerns

Ticketmaster Hack (00:45 – 01:28) Jason raises alarms about a significant Ticketmaster data breach affecting 500 million users. Hackers are exploiting this breach to steal tickets directly from user accounts, leading to distressing stories of fans missing out on concerts as their seats are already taken. The hosts advise Ticketmaster users to:

• Change passwords immediately
• Enable two-factor authentication
• Set up transaction alerts

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (00:26): “Yeah, you should do that anyways, especially if you've got your credit card in there. Do that right away.”

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2. Social Media and Platform Dynamics

Trump Media Executives' Stock Sale (01:57 – 03:18) The discussion delves into Trump Media executives selling $16 million in stock post-presidential election, highlighting instability and mismanagement within the company. Brian criticizes the presence of high-level executives in what he views as a small-scale operation.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (02:16): “Yes, The CFO of Trump Media and two other high level executives. I don't even know why they have a bunch of high level executives considering how small the company really is.”

Blue Sky vs. Twitter/X and Threads (11:04 – 78:27) A substantial portion of the episode focuses on the migration from Twitter/X to alternative platforms like Blue Sky amid dissatisfaction with existing social media offerings. The hosts compare Blue Sky's features to Twitter and Mastodon, debating its potential to replicate Twitter’s former influence without algorithmic drawbacks.

Notable Quotes:

Jason DeFilippo (70:18): “See, I'm taking the approach with bluesky like I do when I get a new Mac.”

Brian Schulmeister (74:15): “We have to hold on to what makes us happy for the next couple of years. So stay. Don't go anywhere else. Don't bother.”

The Onion Acquires Infowars (28:04 – 29:09) Brian and Jason discuss The Onion’s acquisition of Infowars following Alex Jones’ bankruptcy due to defamation lawsuits. They view this move as an opportunity to satirize and dismantle the misinformation previously spread by Infowars.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (28:30): “Fuck you Alex Jones. I hope you're rotten. Hell.”

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3. AI Innovations and Ethical Considerations

O2’s AI Chatbot Daisy (20:38 – 21:52) Brian introduces O2’s AI chatbot, Daisy, designed to combat phone scammers by mimicking the voice of an elderly person. Daisy engages scammers in prolonged, fruitless conversations, effectively wasting their time and deterring them from victimizing real individuals.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (20:38): “...Daisy is making phone scammers hold out hope they will get a credit card number or bake details.”

Anthropic and DOE’s AI Collaboration (21:52 – 24:05) Jason covers Anthropic’s collaboration with the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Security Agency to ensure AI models like Claude 3 Sonet are safeguarded against misuse for designing nuclear weapons. This partnership marks a significant step in federal collaborations aimed at enhancing AI safety.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (22:16): “Yes, that is the path we're on.”

AI Development Plateau and Gary Marcus’s Insights (25:21 – 26:26) The hosts discuss cognitive scientist Gary Marcus’s warning about a potential tech industry crash as generative AI development hits a plateau. Marcus highlights diminishing returns in scaling large language models, despite increased investments, raising concerns about an upcoming AI Winter.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (25:45): “One of the only joys I get out of X anymore is actually watching Gary Marcus troll Sam Altman constantly.”

AI-Powered Dating App Pookie Tools (26:26 – 28:04) Highlighting influencer-led tech innovations, the hosts explore Hayley Welsh’s AI-powered dating app, Pookie Tools, which offers features like chatbots for dating tips, profile enhancement advice, and Zodiac compatibility. While some aspects are controversial, the app exemplifies the trend of influencers venturing into tech startups.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (27:44): “Pookie Tools, Pookie Tools.”

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4. Corporate Layoffs and Business Shifts

23andMe Layoffs (15:53 – 16:55) Jason and Brian discuss 23andMe’s significant layoffs, with over 200 employees being cut as part of cost-saving measures. The shutdown of therapeutics clinical programs suggests the company may be nearing bankruptcy, signaling broader challenges within the genetic testing and biotech industries.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (16:39): “So basically this is just going to be a long tail to bankruptcy. That's what I'm thinking. So.”

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5. Corporate Moves and Market Dynamics

Amazon’s Telehealth Expansion (16:55 – 19:54) The hosts critique Amazon’s venture into telehealth, offering fixed pricing for services like erectile dysfunction and hair loss treatments. They humorously label Amazon’s erectile dysfunction services as "boner pills," questioning the company’s priorities and data integration strategies.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (17:32): “Perfect timing.”

Waymo’s Driverless Taxis (19:54 – 21:20) Jason and Brian review Waymo’s expansion of driverless taxis in Los Angeles County. They note high customer satisfaction ratings (4.7 out of 5) but Brian humorously suggests that these ratings might be skewed due to survivorship bias—only the successful rides receive ratings before any potential failures occur.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (20:30): “So a little bit skewered survivorship bias at play in our rating system.”

Spotify’s Generative AI Tools (43:00 – 44:13) Spotify is integrating AI tools like Suno and NotebookLM to assist content creators in producing music and podcasts. Gustavo Soderstrom, Spotify’s Co-president, emphasizes that AI is meant to amplify creativity rather than replace human artists, aiming to balance innovation with fair compensation for creators.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (43:00): “Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus highlights signs that scaling large language models is delivering diminishing returns...”

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6. AI in Industry and Consumer Products

Diablo Canyon’s AI Implementation (24:01 – 25:20) Jason expresses skepticism over Diablo Canyon’s deployment of generative AI to streamline operations by reducing document search times from hours to seconds. While acknowledging the potential efficiency gains, he questions the decision to entrust critical nuclear facility operations to generative AI.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (25:20): “That's what they all fucking say. Okay, well, there's good news. Brian.”

Apple’s Repair Services (46:56 – 49:17) The hosts discuss Apple’s new offerings for selling replacement parts for the latest iPhone models, addressing a shift from the company’s traditionally rigid stance on consumer repairs. They humorously suggest Apple could partner with Metallica for battery replacement ads due to the song's relevant title, “Battery.”

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (47:46): “If I was running Apple, the first thing I would do would be to hire Metallica to do an ad for the battery replacement using the classic song battery.”

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7. Entertainment and Personal Anecdotes

Paul vs. Tyson Documentary (33:40 – 38:21) Brian shares his experience watching the Netflix documentary "Paul vs. Tyson," which covers the lead-up to the fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. The hosts discuss Tyson’s training, the potential outcomes of the fight, and their personal feelings about the event, with Brian humorously stating he’d feel depressed if Jake Paul wins.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (33:50): “If he wins, I just, I just got to pack it all in. I think I'm done.”

Moana's Streaming Success (36:17 – 38:04) Brian highlights "Moana" becoming Disney’s most streamed movie ever, emphasizing its cultural impact and widespread popularity, which suggests a strong foundation for the anticipated release of "Moana 2."

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (37:11): “It's safe to say a lot of people love this movie.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s Acoustic Cover (42:03 – 43:19) Jason discusses Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s acoustic cover of "Get Low" alongside T-Pain, criticizing its reception and Zuckerberg’s attempt to rebrand as a “cool millennial mogul.”

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (42:22): “But Mark, that heavily auto-tuned rendition... may leave listeners wishing it stayed in the draft or just never even existed in any way, shape, or form.”

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8. Humorous and Light-Hearted Discussions

Insurance Fraud Bear Suit Story (74:15 – 80:07) The hosts laugh over a recent California insurance fraud case where perpetrators dressed as bears to damage vehicles and claim insurance, successfully obtaining over $140,000 by using bear suits and specialized tools. They humorously compare it to classic pranks seen on the David Letterman show.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (79:35): “...how was this possibly worth it?”

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9. Tips and Recommendations

Tech Tools and Apps

• Sound Studio 4: Recommended as a versatile and reliable audio tool for Mac users.
• Redact: A platform for cleaning up old social media posts across multiple services, praised by Brian for its effectiveness on Twitter.
• DeleteMe: Promoted by Jason as a subscription service to remove personal information from data brokers, emphasizing the importance of digital privacy.

Notable Quote:

Brian Schulmeister (51:21): “I have decided that it is time to get off the storm that is X.”

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10. Closing Thoughts and Personal Reflections

In their concluding remarks, the hosts encourage listeners to engage with their Discord channel, support the podcast through Patreon and merchandise, and participate in community discussions. Brian reflects on reducing his media consumption post-election cycle, advocating for a simpler media diet to maintain mental well-being.

Notable Quote:

Jason DeFilippo (75:22): “The joy of missing out is actually more pleasurable than worrying about the fear of missing out.”

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Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister (00:26): “Yeah, you should do that anyways, especially if you've got your credit card in there. Do that right away.”

• Jason DeFilippo (28:30): “Fuck you Alex Jones. I hope you're rotten. Hell.”

• Brian Schulmeister (74:15): “We have to hold on to what makes us happy for the next couple of years. So stay. Don't go anywhere else. Don't bother.”

• Jason DeFilippo (42:22): “But Mark, that heavily auto-tuned rendition... may leave listeners wishing it stayed in the draft or just never even existed in any way, shape, or form.”

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Conclusion

Episode 674 of "Grumpy Old Geeks" offers a thorough and engaging analysis of current tech news, blending critical insights with humor and personal anecdotes. From security breaches and corporate missteps to ethical AI developments and social media platform transitions, Jason, Brian, and Dave navigate the complexities of the tech world with their characteristic grumpiness and sharp wit. This episode serves as both an informative recap for listeners and a relatable conversation for those immersed in the ever-evolving tech landscape.

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For those who haven't listened, this summary provides a comprehensive overview, capturing the essence of the discussions and insights shared by the hosts. Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a social media user, or someone interested in the latest AI developments, episode 674 delivers valuable perspectives in an entertaining format.

Transcript

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hey, prime members, have you heard?

[Jason DeFilippo]

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[Brian Schulmeister]

Good news, with Amazon Music, you have.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's Amazon.com ad free podcast to catch 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 Schulmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Got a little follow up here, Brian. Now, we covered this a bit ago, the Ticketmaster hack, but if you haven't changed your Ticketmaster password lately, now might be the time to do it because hackers are taking advantage of that recent data breach that we Talked about where 500 million users were affected and they are stealing tickets right from people's accounts now. So some people are managing to get their tickets back with some help from customer support, but not everyone has been so lucky. And people are sharing their horror stories about losing their tickets and showing up to concerts and having their seats already been scanned and all that good stuff. So if you're using Ticketmaster, it's a good idea to change your password and enable two factor authentication as soon as possible. And you can set up alerts for any ticket transactions.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, you should do that anyways, especially if you've got your credit card in there. Do that right away. Taylor Swift is in town here, Jason in Toronto, and she's doing eight shows in space of two weeks, basically. So it's been all Taylor Swift all the time in the news, actually. Taylor and Trump, the two T's that I can't stand. The two T's I can't stand, that I just can't stop hearing about. So I haven't heard anything about horror stories about tickets yet, but there's only been one show so far, so I'm sure we're going to hear about that because.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Give it time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Give it time. Now, speaking of the other t Trump media execs, you called this one last week. We all knew that this was going to happen. It's a dumpster fire and it's basically a, you know, it's a cash grab. So Trump media execs have dumped millions in stock right after the election because they believe in Trump media so much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, The CFO of Trump Media and two other high level executives. I don't even know why they have a bunch of high level executives considering how small the company really is. Sold a combined $16 million in stock after the presidential election, according to SEC filings and a report from CNBC. That fake news source.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The news comes as social media users contemplate whether there will be any uncomfortable competition between Truth Social and X now that Donald Trump has tapped ex owner Elon Musk to run some kind of commission to slash the federal budget by a third. Yeah. And for his part, he pledged that in a November 8th post on Truth Social that he wouldn't sell any of his shares in Trump Media. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Until he has to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Until he will and does. Because he lies.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, so that'll be interesting. And you know, I don't think that. Yeah, there was an SEC filing about this, but the SEC is not going to prosecute anything because pretty soon there will be no sec.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm not expecting there to be courts, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's true too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'll see. Just to clarify once again how tiny a company TrueSocial is and how ridiculous its evaluations are. True, Social has just 200,000 daily active users, according to data from similar web and CNBC, which is of course tiny compared with X's 36.7 million users, but falling rapidly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Falling very rapidly. Oh, x only had 36.7 million daily active users.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And what is crazy is I would be considered one of them because I loaded it at least once a day.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, me too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I could give a shit about X. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm a reader, not a poster.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, we'll talk more about that in a little bit. That really brings Blue Sky's numbers into clarity. Wow. That's insane. All right, well, a little more egg. Follow up, Brian. A new study from UC San Diego finds eating two to four eggs a week may lower blood cholesterol and protect brain health.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're good again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Researchers analyzed data from a long term aging study and found women. Sorry, Brian. Who ate more eggs. Showed less memory decline, while results for men were mixed. Earlier findings linked eggs to better cognitive test scores for men. Which is why I'm a super genius because I eat like a dozen eggs a week. Oh. Once blamed for raising cholesterol, eggs are now seen as a nutrient rich option containing proteins and choline, which support brain function. The study adds to growing evidence that dietary cholesterol isn't always harmful. I'd like to add this week, this Week. Yeah. So chow down, buddy. Had that omelette or two.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I had a Chili Killies last night. Delicious.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I've never had that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, my God. How do you live in Los Angeles and not have had Chili Killies for breakfast yet?

[Jason DeFilippo]

You see the thing? It's a Mexican breakfast. And in the mornings when I go for Mexican, I get a giant burrito. Because in the old days, the only time I would go for Mexican for breakfast was when I had a killer hangover.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we had breakfast for dinner. Try that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, what an option. What an option. In the news, Brian the Mooch just can't catch a break.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yet he doesn't go away and seems okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Bankrupt cryptocurrency company FTX has filed 23 lawsuits against Anthony Scaramucci, aka the Mooch, and his hedge fund. SkyBridge Capital is part of efforts to recover funds for creditors following the company's collapse. So FTX alleges these funds were part of an influence buying campaign by founder Sam Bankman Fried to bolster his political and financial standing as the company struggled financially. The suits claimed these investments provided little benefit to FTX and were used to maintain Bankman Fried's influence. I love this. According to the lawsuit, FTX also paid $12 million to sponsor Scaramucci's SALT conferences and invested $10 million in the SkyBridge coin fund. In return, FTX claimed Scaramucci took Bankman Fried on a whirlwind tour of the US And Middle east to pitch potential investors. With Scaramucci so invested in the success of Bankman Fried's fundraising efforts that he lent Bankman Fried his own suit and tie in advance of their meetings so that Bankman Fried wouldn't show up to important meetings in his trademark shorts and a T shirt.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, I've seen pictures of these two guys. I can't imagine that he would fit into Scaramucci's suit in tie.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I don't know how that works. I don't know how that works. The lawsuit doesn't explicitly state how many millions of mooches they're looking to recover.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Many mooches.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Many, many mooches.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Many mooches. Cast back your mind, Jason, to your college days and purchasing textbooks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I didn't buy textbooks in college. What do you call them?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Of course you didn't. Well, I did. And I spent an awful lot of money on them. But you and I were out of that arena long before we got down to textbook rentals or e textbooks or all of that sort of stuff. That entire world has changed completely. Once Again, the world we grew up in, Jason, is gone and has been for some time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Apparently that's a good thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sometimes it's a good thing. Apparently. There was a company called Chegg.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I've heard of them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they were known for textbook rentals and homework help, but they are now running on fumes. Can you guess why?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let me guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

AI Chegg stock is down a whopping 99% since its highs in 2021, which has erased $14.5 billion in value. And the company has lost half a million paid subscribers because of Chat GPT. All right, so yeah, the company for years paid thousands of contractors to write answers to questions across every major subject, which is quite a labor intensive process and there's no guarantee that they will even have the answer to your question. Students, however, now just launch Chat GPT, put the question in the window and basically get an answer now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Still don't know if they're going to get the correct answer or not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Whether that answer is right or not, that becomes the problem. Which is fine. You just, you know, you'll get it wrong on your test. Until the teachers start using Chat GPT to grade the papers and then we're all. And yeah, I'm not sure if this is a good thing, but it is a thing and I get why it's happened. And you know, books were expensive. I do remember that. And I'm sure it wasn't cheap to rent them or anything like that either. I'm sure it was cheaper, but it's not as cheap as free, even if it's somewhat wrong.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, no, I got lucky in college. I didn't have to buy that. I think I bought two textbooks in college because I took photography. So I had to spend 10 times as much because I was buying paper made with silver and all the chemicals and yes, yeah, yeah, photography was very expensive back then. Not like it is now. Damn kids getting so lucky.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, now you just do a prompt. You don't even need a camera.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. I don't even need a camera anymore. Fucking hell. Yeah, well, if you're going on a trip, you don't even need a tour guide anymore. Germany's tourism board launched Emma, an AI influencer, to lead a supposed digital innovation. Yet the move has received strong backlash. I wonder why. Social media users, including travel professionals, criticized Germany's choice to feature an AI influencer instead of hiring real travelers who could authentically represent the culture and spirit of the country. Instead, travelers are left with hollow advice from an algorithm that can't convey real experiences. A sad substitute for genuine human interaction in an industry built on personal discovery. Brian. So that's just the first one. Then there's the case of Sina Zaro, an AI influencer created to promote the Cinazaro hotels. Her Instagram posts blend generic travel inspiration with thinly veiled ads for her affiliated hotel chain, leading viewers to question if these AI influencers are anything more than high tech advertisements. Instagram's lax label. Yeah, I was gonna say. Let me, let me. Let me tell you right off the bat, Nope. Instagram's lax labeling policies for AI generated content make it easy for brands to disguise synthetic influencers as authentic voices, creating a murky line between real recommendations in corporate marketing. No AI Brian is gonna tell me how good or bad the beer is at Oktoberfest.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, it's just gonna tell you it's good. So you buy all of them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All of it?

[C]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The way it works. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it's real people, man. I'm telling you, 100% human. We need human verification systems. I started saying that three years ago when quote, unquote, machine learning back in the day was starting to become a thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Let me tell you, I hate human influencers. I hate AI influencers even more.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know that's a pretty steep hill to climb to hate actual human influencers even more than you do. I've heard your opinions, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm not influencing people. Apparently, no.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, let's talk about Blue sky for a second, where the influencers are probably flocking right now because I still can't believe those X numbers. Well, Blue sky has rocketed to over 16 million users this week, gaining a whopping 2 million in just the last week. 1 million in a day yesterday, Brian. Or the day before yesterday. All since the presidential election. The platform, founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's beard, is rapidly becoming an alternative to X attracting users frustrated with Sissy SpaceX's floating garbage pile of a platform. That's right. The app is currently the top free download in the Apple App Store, beating out major platforms like ChatGPT and Google. Whoa. So, yeah, it's kicking up. I posted my handle in the chat. It's actually. It's better than Threads. I gotta say. Threads is just kind of. Their algorithms over on Threads are just.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not real time enough. Which is a problem. No, that's. That's because that's what you're using these sorts of services for, these small byte things. It's for real time stuff. And it is 100% not. It is very late with real time stuff. My experience. I will get a little bit more into my. What I'm doing social media wise later on in the show. But I'm also on Blue Sky. I. I joined it same time you did. I don't do much on it. I haven't much. I'll. I'll post the link just like you did in the show notes. So if anybody wants to follow me there. It's. It's a public profile for me. I guess I'll start to post over there a bit more because yeah, I had a good run with Threads initially especially when the Cure album came out because Threads became a basic. Basically a Cure lovin and I wallowed in that for a little bit. But it is not real time at all and that is not what I need it for. And also I still, I don't. I don't want to just leave Musk for Zuck because they both suck.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So my understanding is Jack is no longer involved in Blue sky because I Musk Jack and Zuck. I don't want to have anything to do with any of them moving forward.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Jack has stepped away as the CEO and it's kind of like walking back is because I guess what's his square? Square or coin, whatever the fuck he called it now?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Lock Block.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. Block. Block is not doing so well. So he's unlike Elon, he goes and spends time at the company.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's going to go run his own company.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's. He kind of stepped back to go spend more time there. And there's a lot more features on bluesky that actually make it fairly useful. I really like the communities features that they have. They've got like these follow packs so you can like when you first join, you can like follow like things that you're interested in, which is kind of cool. There's a lot of technology behind it that I think is actually kind of neat. And it's not built on the same platform as Mastodon and Threads.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They've got their own, their own platform. I guess some people are trying to like figure out how to do a bridge to be able to cross post on them, which I'm like don't, don't bother. That's okay. It's fine.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I guess we should get a GOG account over there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, we do Jason on bluesky and Brian on bluesky.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Follow us both.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We don't need, we don't need another goddamn GOG social that nobody follow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Come on. Oh, actually, after you sent me the bill for what's our service that we Buffer post later. Buffer. After you sent me the buffer bill, maybe we should make one just so we can actually get some use out of that thing. Damn, that was expensive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not cheap and it's not even the most expensive service out there that does that. It's just the one that works the best.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, crazy. So, yeah, now that there are more people there, it's not the Scalzi network. Thank God that's all it was. I pop in, there's like 12 posts from John Scalzi and that was about it. So it seems like a lot of my friends I looked on, I got 31 new follows this morning. So people are starting to migrate over finally.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's definitely been the thing that I've noticed too. Everybody. As I've been clearing out my ex, all I see is I'm going over to Bluer Skies. Join me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I just wish I had a better name. Blue Sky.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, whatever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Where do you get. I'm going to go post on BS Great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

At least BlueSky uses all the letters involved in the words.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true, that's true. Yeah, The URL kind of sucks though. Bsky App and Bsky Social. Anyway, I went and grabbed an app for it because I always get the top listed alternative apps, not usually the company app. Like the Twitter app was always the shittiest of the bunch. And then especially when they shut down the API access, then all the third party ones went away and you had to use the actual Twitter client. I was like, ew, gross. So I got one called Graysky, which I fired it up, logged in, everything looked cool. I'm like, oh, this is nice. And then this morning I was putting the links in the show notes and I found bluesky scoops up the developer of popular third party app Graysky. So there you go. Well, oops. So I went and downloaded the bluesky app, so haven't tried it yet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, well, we got some more layoffs in the news. This one should hardly be surprising. 23andMe has not been doing very well lately. So here you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Is there anybody Left?

[Brian Schulmeister]

More than 200 employees of 23andMe are being laid off as part of the company's ongoing cost cutting measures. This layoff impacts 40% of the genetic testing company's workforce. So yeah, there's still quite a few people over there, I guess.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Still a couple hundred people left.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah, I. I'd be looking guys and gals I'd be looking 23andMe CEO and co founder Anna Wojcicki said in a statement released on Monday that the staff reduction would save the beleaguered company more than $35 million. On. Unfortunately, there's no business plan still, so. So basically this is just going to be a long tail to bankruptcy. That's what I'm thinking. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Fire sale.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They've also announced they will shut down their therapeutics clinical programs that used as genetic database to research and develop new drugs where any real potential new money would have come from. So they're not doing that because they would have to pay scientists and. Yeah, that's. That's about it, really.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I'm betting there are a lot of people watching this thing try and go to zero before they scoop it up. And I'm guessing our next story is going to be the lucky winner of that. The scoopy. Yes, Amazon is getting into the boner pill business. Amazon is diving deeper into healthcare, now offering telehealth services with fixed pricing for conditions like erectile dysfunction, hair loss, bacterial vaginosis, and many more that you don't want to talk about over breakfast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Over chili Achilles. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Over chili Achilles, yeah. Imagine if Amazon had all the genetic data from 23andMe to start sending you spammy ads. Perfect timing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And then combine it with the one medical that they've got and. Oh, boy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Prime members can see costs upfront before scheduling consultations. And a video consult is $49. Or if you just want a text message to get your boner pills, it's $29 where available because some video consult.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Is $49 or $57 if you don't want the ads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right, they went with the Kindle model. Oh, God. But you can get boners for only $19 a month. And if you want hair back, it's only $16 a month. But if you want eyelashes, it's going to cost you a whopping $43 a month.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Eyelashes are more than hair and boners. Wow. Yeah, they've got some skewed priorities.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think they do. So one medical membership is not included as part of an Amazon prime membership, but you can purchase. If you're an Amazon prime member, you can purchase a One Medical membership for $9 a month for the first member and $6 a month for up to five additional members. Now, the big news here is competitors to the boner pill market, Hims and hers, their stock plummeted 24% on the news. So, yeah, now you can just have a chat and get a boner, but just don't order that sex doll on temu. That might not come out right. Not really what you want. But Brian, what a wonderful world we live in, isn't it? Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we've heard actually really wonderful things about Waymo and the driverless taxis that have been rolling around.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Are we going to get self driving boners now?

[Brian Schulmeister]

For an initial of 995, you can actually get your eyelashes worked on while you're in the Waymo apparently. And I mentioned that I saw them when I was in Santa Monica last time I was in town, but apparently they are available to all customers anywhere in LA county now, which is the 80 square miles miles of LA County. And there's no wait lists anymore. So I like this line. Now LA residents will get to experience sitting in endless traffic with a series of cameras and navigational algorithms leading the way instead of a person.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Great. At least you don't have to have a chat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They plan to expand to all of Los Angeles five counties soon. So there you go. But apparently people are liking it. Waymo says these driverless rides are highly rated with an average rating of 4.7 stars out of 5. A recent survey indicated that 98% of customers are satisfied with the service. Gonna have to try one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think as soon as I'm gonna go get the app and get in there and see if I can get one. Cause if I can, hell yeah, I'm gonna try it. My neighborhood's not too bad to drive in, so I'm not too worried about imminent death. Like in Santa Monica, I'd be worried the thing would go rogue and try and drive in the ocean. But since I have seen a lot of mythbusters, I do know how to get out of a car that goes in the water. That's one thing I've taken away from mythbusters is damn if I don't know how to get out of a car that goes in a river.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So I was thinking a little bit about how the average rating is 4.7 stars out of 5 for the driverless rides. And I figure that's because when the rides go really wrong, they don't get a rating. They're dead.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They don't get a rating. Yeah. So a little bit skewered survivorship bias at play in our rating system.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I saw this one in the news and I just had to say, I think we finally found a use for AI that I enjoy and approve of. O2, the UK's largest mobile network operator has deployed a voice based AI chatbot which goads phone scammers into Miya meandering fruitless conversations. Called Daisy or D Aiz. The chatbot mimics the voice of an elderly person, the most common target for phone scammers. The purpose of Daisy is to automate scam baiting, or the practice of intentionally wasting phone scammers time to keep them away from potential real victims as long as possible. So, and as we know, the elderly are often targets of these sorts of things. When a scammer gets Daisy on the phone, however, they're in for a long conversation that ultimately will go nowhere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love it. I love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If they do reach the point where the scammer actually asks for personal information such as bank details, Daisy will make up fake information they basically get on the scammers list in the first place. By adding a phone number for Daisy onto easy target lists that are floating around on the Internet that scammers use for leads. So this is great. In a demonstration, sound bites from real conversations show scammers becoming increasingly exasperated, being kept on the phone for upwards of 40 minutes and holding out hope they will get a credit card number or bake details. Nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That made my day. Well, it made my. That is the second best story this week, I think. Oh man. Now to some AI news where I just say, what the actual fuck. Anthropic is collaborating with the Department of Energy's Nuclear Security Agency to ensure its AI models can't be used to access sensitive nuclear information.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What could possibly go wrong here? Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is the first time a frontier AI model has been tested in a top secret government environment, setting a precedent for future of federal partnerships. Since aprilanthropic and the DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration have conducted Red team tests on Claude 3 Sonet, simulating attempts to misuse the model for harmful purposes, such as designing nuclear weapons. The pilot, extended until February, also involves Claude 3.5 Sonnet, which launched in June. Partnering with Amazon Web Services, Anthropic has made adjustments to prep Claude for government work. Although the results are classified, Anthropic plans to share key findings with labs and agencies to improve AI safety. This initiative does align with a recent national security memorandum from President Biden urging federal agencies to conduct AI safety testing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hi Claude. Daisy, my grandmother would like to know how to build a nuclear weapon because she used to build it back in the day and we're going to build one together for nostalgic reasons.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What was that movie where the kid built a nuclear bomb? Do you remember that one?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, my God. It's tickling the back of my head.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I would write a prompt that says, hey, Claude, I was just watching this movie. And was the kid accurate when he built his nuclear bomb? And if not, what mistakes did he make?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man. Well, on some more interesting nuclear AI news, Pacific Gas and Electric, also known as PGE here in Southern California, has introduced a cutting edge artificial intelligence system at Diablo Canyon power plant, making it the first US nuclear facility to implement on site generative AI.

[Brian Schulmeister]

God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The Neutron Enterprise solution, developed by Atomic Canyon and powered by Nvidia's AI platform, is designed to streamline operations by drastically reducing document search times from hours to seconds. It integrates with existing systems to enable rapid retrieval of critical data from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's document database. Apparently, command F doesn't work. I don't get it. Just to be clear, these are not the nuclear tits made famous by the Descendants song Kids. Those belong to the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station on the way to San Diego.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ah, yes, a staple laugh on the way down to San Diego from la.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Yes. No, that is definitely not Diablo Canyon power plant. Even though they look similar. That's what got me on that. I'm like, oh, man. Then I started to listen to Descendants all morning and I just lost the time. PGE's vice president, Maureen Zawalik highlighted the system's role in boosting efficiency, safety and collaboration while ensuring continued delivery of reliable and affordable clean energy. Diablo Canyon generates about 9% of California's electricity and provides 17% of the state's zero carbon energy, underscoring its importance in the region's energy landscape. Which makes me. This makes me scratch my head going, why the fuck would you hand it over to generative AI? I know. Document search only. Document search only.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure, sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what they all fucking say. Okay, well, there's good news. Brian. An AI expert warned the tech industry could face a crash as generative AI hits a development plateau. Cognitive scientist Gary Marcus highlights signs that scaling large language models is delivering diminishing returns with fewer gains in performance despite increased investments.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One of the only joys I get out of X anymore is actually watching Gary Marcus troll Sam Altman constantly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really? Oh, I should follow them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, it's good. It's good fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, I will definitely get in on that because, yeah, the big news this week was OpenAI's next generative model. Orion doesn't have the same improvements over GPT4 that GPT4 had over GPT3. But there was a new article that came out about five. I saw it five seconds before we started to record, so I didn't get to put it in here. Apparently some MIT researchers have made some breakthroughs on how to deal with large language models to help get over this hurdle so we don't end up in another AI Winter.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't mind an AI Winter. I think we could use one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think we could really use one, especially with this next story. Hayley Welsh, the 22 year old who went viral for her Hocktua video, has turned her social media fame into a career with her latest venture, an AI powered dating app called Pookie Tools. Pookie tools, with over 5 million followers online and a podcast, Talk to a while she's making her mark in the tech world. Launched this week, Pookie Tools, I'm never going to get tired of saying that offers Gen Z singles, AI features like chatbots for dating tips, profile enhancement advice, outfit suggestions, and even Zodiac compatibility. Because, you know, signs are a real thing. Brian. Yeah. Now its standout features include a flirt meter to evaluate text messages and tools like the Height Detector and Bald Predictor aiming at addressing dating frustrations. Though some find these features controversial, AKA gross as fuck. So this is going to cost you seven bucks a week or for the math enabled, $50 annually with a free three days trial. While critics note its chatbot lacks Welsh's signature humor, Pookie Tools signals a growing trend of influencers exploring tech innovations early in their careers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pookie Tools, Pookie Tools. Now I'm going to guess my next story here, Jason, is your favorite story of the week?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh hell yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think this might actually be my favorite story of the decade, if not my life so far.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is the world's favorite story right now. It was on every news outlet that I could find yesterday as a lead story. So Brian, take it away.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The Onion has purchased Infowars, the website previously owned and operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in a bankruptcy auction. He was forced to file for bankruptcy after he lost a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit filed against him by victims families of the 2012 and Sandy Hook shooting. He was apparently unaware that the Onion had purchased Infowars until he was alerted by his lawyers on Thursday morning. I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the US Trustee over a bankruptcy this morning and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning, jones said on social media. The Connecticut Democrats with the Onion newspaper bought us. Yes, according to New York Times. The onions bid was done so with the blessing of the Sandy Hook victims, families and funds generated. The sale will go towards satisfying Jones's defamation verdict. They intend to relaunch InfoWars in January 2025 as a parody of its former self, mocking weird Internet personalities like Jones who traffic in information and health supplements such as our president as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

How will you know the difference is the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's the thing is you won't know the difference anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You won't know the difference.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And we've, we've learned that humor and irony has gone over many people's heads. But nevertheless, great story. Very happy about this. Fuck you Alex Jones. I hope you're rotten. Hell.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This episode is sponsored by hello Fresh, America's number one meal kit. What is HelloFresh? It's Farm Fresh pre portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered to your doorstep. With HelloFresh you can skip the stress of grocery shopping and make home cooking easy, fun and affordable. That's why they're America's number one meal kit. The holiday season is just around the corner and we're all looking for ways to save time and energy. HelloFresh makes mealtime a breeze with chef crafted recipes that come together quickly and they're way more affordable than takeout. Whether you're craving hearty comfort food or need calorie smart options, HelloFresh has a rotating menu of 50 weekly recipes to satisfy every craving. Personally, I love how HelloFresh helps me break out of my recipe rut. This week we made their Umami Ginger Pork bowls with pickled cucumber and Sriracha crema. This hearty bowl centers around ground pork, browned and simmered in a savory miso based ginger sauce with nutty sesame seeds. Crisp, quick pickled cucumbers, tender sauteed cabbage and carrots and spicy crema are also on the menu, all served over fluffy rice. I mean come on, they had me at Sriracha just saying everything was pre portioned so there was zero waste and it came together in just 20 minutes. Plus their pre portioned ingredients saved me from overbuying at the store. It's a win win. And don't miss the HelloFresh Market. They've got over 100 add ons from breakfast to snacks and even Thanksgiving sides. To wow a crowd without lifting a finger, get 10 free [e-mail] FreeGoG applied across seven boxes. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's 10 free HelloFresh meals. By just going to hellofresh.com freegog 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 GrumpyOldgeeks Media Candy Brian Last night while I was prepping my show notes for today, I popped on a Netflix documentary called Paul vs Tyson. It was a three part series on the lead up to the fight tonight, which I am so looking forward to. Three three half hour segments. It was a really nice way to get to know the fighters again. I really like Mike Tyson. I think he's a character. I think he's a sweetheart that will kill you. And I walked away not hating Jake Paul as much. I still don't like him. I dislike him greatly, but not as much as when I first started watching it. So I thought it was a really nice way to see how they train. And I actually I left when I let me back up here. When I first started watching it I'm like this is just going to be the greatest fight of all time because Tyson's going to take him down with one punch at the beginning. And then as it went on and I just saw how the training this might be closer than we think. And after the letdown of last week, Paul just might wipe the floor with him because that's the fucking universe we live in now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is. And if that happens I will also be depressed. I'm not going to watch because I don't care for boxing and I'm not interested at all. But God damn. If he wins, I just, I just got to pack it all in. I think I'm done.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Here's the thing, though. Tyson's 55 years old. Jake Paul's 27.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. You know, there's a significant difference.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And the other difference is Mike Tyson's got nothing to lose, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

True.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's getting paid no matter what. Paul has, like, a career to look forward to, so, you know, Tyson might just go down in the third for shits and giggles and a nice paycheck. Who knows who. We'll see. But I've seen the training videos of Tyson and he is terrifying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Terrifying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Well, I've talked a little bit last week and I'm going to continue to talk in bits and drabs here as we talk about different stories about how I'm recalibrating my life post election. I talked about how I don't want to, even though I've always felt compelled to and interested in the world and trying to be not necessarily a news junkie. I don't have like news programs on 247 in the house. But I've always tried to be informed and I've decided I don't want to do that for the next four years.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Brian, the power of the GOP compels you. The power of the GOP compels you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I'm going to not. And I did watch the post election versions, shows of Real Time with Bill Maher and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. I feel like I've got my sporn. I've gotten my catharsis. And that will be the last time I watch those.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I'm done. I'm not, I'm not doing. I'm just, I just can't. I can't do four years of this. I can't even do. He's not even in office yet. And I had problems with the last three days because of all these appointments. I was losing my mind. So I'm disconnecting. So I'm done with those for a while. I found some other things to watch.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did watch Super League the War for Football. It's a documentary on Apple TV that was actually quite interesting and enjoyable if you are a big football fan. You, you know about this, about how the top leagues were trying to break away to make their own Super League. And basically everybody said, but this is the people sport. They said to the millionaires running around on the pitch, kicking a ball. But anyways, it was a good documentary and I'm glad The Super League didn't happen. And everything is continuing, at least for now, as per usual. It was fun. If you're into soccer, you'll enjoy it. Shrinking is back. It is as good a show as it always has been. I'm watching basically one a night as we're trying to catch up with the real time drops that are coming out. And I love it. It's a great show. I'm sure you've never watched this, Jason, and never will, but it did kind of take over the Internet for a while. Nobody wants this with Christy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, it says it right there on the tin, so why would I want to watch?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, most women want this, and I. I did not so much watch it as my wife did. And I sat on the couch reading, and, boy, yeah, not for. Not. It is not meant for you or me. And okay, it seems there were a couple, like, good jokes. I looked up and laughed every now and then, but no, thank you. And Silo Season 2 comes out tonight, so I will be watching that while you watch. Hopefully Mike Tyson hopefully beat up Paul. We'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I saw this story in the news, and Moana definitely is a great movie. It's one of my favorite Disney movies. It came out at the right point in time, basically, like streaming during the pandemic, when my son was the right age for it. We basically lived off this movie and listened to the soundtrack. It's fantastic. Although I was surprised, surprised to find out that in addition to just being a good movie, it is the most streamed movie on Disney ever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Over everything else. Like everything else on Disney since It's launched in November 2019, with an extra boost thanks to the early days of the Pandemic. A lot from me, it has become the most streamed movie of all time. Numbers wise. Audiences have watched 80 billion minutes worth of it, which equates to watching it 748 million times.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Imagine what the human race could do with 80 billion minutes not watching Moana.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. It's also been one of the four most watched films on any streaming service on a yearly basis for the past half decade. And for 2024 specifically, it's been somewhere in the streaming top 10 every month thus far. Add on to the $687.2 million box office during its theatrical run, and it's safe to say a lot of people love this movie. Which means Moana 2 is probably going to have a massive run when it comes out in a few weeks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. I still haven't seen it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's a great Movie, man, it really is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, apparently that's what everybody says. Oh well, the Penguin finale was last week and that is the best non superhero comic book show ever made. It was that good. I mean it was phenomenal. Brian, you gotta watch it. You'll love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I will. I'm gonna watch it. I will go back because I've also heard it's definitely getting picked up for another season. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I mean, did you watch the new Batman movie that is the prequel to this, the lead up to it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Is it the one with the Twilight guy? Yeah, yeah, I did watch it. I didn't think much of it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. I don't remember much about it. I remember I kind of liked it. But I think I might go back and watch it again because it's going to lead into the next Batman movie as well and there's some tie ins and all this stuff. So they're finally starting to do it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They figured out, you know, it's like, oh wait, these Marvel guys might have something. They might have something over there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So yeah, I'm gonna go back and watch the Batman again. And I seriously, this was just. It was amazing. And I still cannot see Colin Farrell at all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I saw some short of him doing the makeup and it was astonishing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, wait till you see his acting. It's even. It's just phenomenal. And they showed a clip with him like out at the, at the end of the episodes they do a little behind the scenes thing and they show a clip of him wearing a little headband and talking in his little accent and I'm like, that is just not the same guy. It's not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So I've mostly checked out of the Grammys. It still comes up in, in my house obviously because my wife is still deeply involved in the music industry and with the type of music that get nominated for Grammys, it is not my kind of music anymore, which is why I don't pay much of attention. But I did notice that the Beatles are being nominated for two Grammys mostly because of the AI enabled song that they put out this year. So kind of good for them, I guess. And it's not really AI. I hate the fact that they say that. And again, even in the article they talk about it's modern machine learning, which basically was just used to pull Lennon's vocals out for a new track because all the machine learning algorithms are. Have gotten very good with audio processing as we learn on our own podcast on a regular basis. So. Yep, interesting to have them in there. Hope they Win. Be kind of cool.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And Gates McFadden from Star Trek the Ghost Fucker. She's had her own podcast. We've talked about it before. Gates McFadden investigates, where she basically just talks to other people that have been in Star Trek, but it's pretty good. She's a really good interviewer. She's back for season three. And Jess Bush, who is probably my new favorite human on the planet, is one of her guests. So I've got to listen to that one. So. Looking forward to it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'll check that one out. I like her.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, me too. And some fun for me reads that I found this week as well. As you may recall, I was getting ready to go see Jane's Addiction in Love and Rock Rockets here in Toronto when the. Basically two nights before, at the last show before coming to Toronto. Yeah, yeah. They got in a big fight on stage and Jane's Addiction split up. And no concert for me. Over at Spin, Eric says Jane's Addiction co founder and base maestro Eric Avery on the rise, rush, ruin and resurrection of his volatile band. This is a big, long reminiscence and interview that was done with him just before they went out. So it's kind of. It's great if you were into Jane's Addiction, it's a lot of history about it. I really like Eric. I. I've. I'm privileged enough to say that I've known him multiple times in the past and he's a really nice guy. Hung out with him. So it's a fun read and you can definitely tell. It's like you could see the writing on the walls already, like, this is gonna last. And then I also saw the story of Love and Rockets, the former Bauhaus members who helped sell goth to America. An article over on Louder Sound.com that gets into them. Basically an interview again with the bassist David J, talking about how they came up and what happened and how they tried to basically self sabotage themselves once they got. This is a fun read. Two good bands and two good interviews.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, cool. Now I'm going to tell you somebody who's not getting a Grammy this year.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, he might buy the Grammys to get it. He's that kind of fucking egotist.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has released an unexpected acoustic cover of Little John's Get Low alongside T. Pain, calling it a tribute to his wife, Priscilla Aw, the tech tycoon dubbed Z Pain. No, it should be We Pain, because we, the ones in pain, shared that the song played when they first met.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I hope T Paid enjoyed it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. However, the heavily auto tuned rendition, including the infamous lyrics, has drawn cringes, not applause. Critics are calling it a misstep in Zuckerberg's apparent effort to rebrand as a quote unquote, cool millennial mogul. While T Pain's cameo offers some release, this collaboration may leave listeners wishing it stayed in the draft or just never even existed in any way, shape or form. Did you listen to any of it? It?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, because why?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, you have to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You have to. No, no. I can. I can die without ever listening to this and I will be quite happy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I want you to have the me pain.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That they caused me. No, I listened to. I listened to. 10 seconds. There's a 10 second clip where he's talking about the balls. And it was just more than. More than I ever needed. More than I ever needed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because what better gift can you give your wife than talk about the balls.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Schweddy ball. You can get her some Schweddy balls for Christmas. That's what you can do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What's in the box now?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think that this went before the previous story. I was angered at this next story, but this actually might be a reprieve. Spotify is diving deep into AI addressing generative tools like Suno and NotebookLM that allow users to create music and podcasts. Because AI might have saved us from that last horrible sonic just nastiness. Co president Gustav Soderstrom shared that the company's vision AI as a tool to amplify creativity rather than replace it. He noted that AI can help creators produce music, but Spotify itself won't generate content. Staying focused on being a platform for artists, Soderstrom acknowledged challenges in balancing AI driven content with copyright laws and ensuring creators are fairly compensated. So they're taking advantage of that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can't even fairly compensate live people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. So they're actually going to try and fairly compensate people now, Is that what you're saying?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, because this is the whole thing is they're going to come out and say that it's AI. There's nobody. We have to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. These guys want your ear holes without having to pay anybody. Cups and doodads. Good news, Brian. If you're an Instagram user, this is good news. At least Instagram is finally fixing the annoying auto refresh issue that they've been having. Okay. I don't know if you've ever had this happen. You open up Instagram and you see the first post and you're like, oh, that looks no. Where the fuck did it go? It happens to me all the time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It happens to me on all the networks all the time. As soon as I see something, unless I bookmark it immediately, it is gone forever and I can never find it again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you don't even use TikTok. It's even worse on TikTok. Try finding something you've ever watched on TikTok. It is impossible. So they're saying that they're going to wait till users start scrolling before refreshing the feed. Okay, there you go. That's the big news in app.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And here's me opening Instagram. Oh, that's interesting. I'll come back to that later. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Gone forever again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, done. All right. Meta, formerly Facebook, will face an antitrust trial after a federal judge denied its motion to dismiss a Federal Trade Commission complaint. The FTC alleges Meta's purchases of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 were anti competitive, aimed at eliminating potential rivals. That's right. Judge James Boasberg ruled. The case can proceed, focusing on claims that Meta paid above market prices to stifle competition. However, the FTC cannot argue that Meta blocked app developers from competing with its core services. So there were internal emails from Mark Zuckerberg basically saying that it's easier to buy somebody than to compete with them. Okay, why was this not found out in the initial antitrust checks that were done before the purchase was allowed to go through?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. When it might have mattered. Because now Meta just basically needs to pay the lawyers to keep this going for a couple months, and then it won't fucking matter anymore because it'll all get dropped because regulations won't matter, the FTC won't matter, and none of this will matter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, it depends on if Zuck is on Team T. So I know he knows T Pain does it, but does he know T Rump? Because.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Somebody better do something with that. Swear to God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because if he's not in the camp, you know, then that's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Then he gets shut down. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, because Elon is that. Those crosshairs are starting to tick towards Elon right now. So once he's done taking down Sissy SpaceX, that he might go over to Z Pain.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Moving on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Jason, if you have an iPhone 16 and smash the thing on the ground because you accidentally loaded the news app and saw what Elon did today, you're in luck. Apple has begun selling replacement parts, including cameras, displays, and batteries for its latest iPhone. The company, long resistant to customers repairing Their own devices has been making it easier following years of pressure from relying repairability advocates like Ifixit. A replacement camera assembly will cost $169 for the standard iPhone 16 or 249 for the larger 16 Pro and Pro Max. Displays range from 279 to 379, depending on model and size. Batteries are 99 or 119, although they'll be more like 60 bucks for the Pro. If you ship Apple your old battery pack and it explodes in the mail. If you don't have specialized tools to conduct the repair, Apple will rent you the battery repair device that its own technicians use. Know it's a step. It's good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a step. Now, if I was running Apple, the first thing I would do would be to hire Metallica to do an ad for the battery replacement using the classic song battery. Because every time they say battery in here, I just get. I get that song stuck in my head. It is. It is a classic from the days when Metallica was great. Let's make Metallica great again.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man. Apple is rolling out a new feature in the latest iOS 1812 beta, enhancing the Find My app with the ability to share a link to the location of lost airtags or find my enabled devices. The feature generates a shareable link that displays an item's location on an interactive map, updating automatically with timestamps. Now, here's the fun part. Apple has partnered with over 15 airlines, including Delta, United, British Airways, and Singapore Airlines, to incorporate these links into their baggage tracking systems, because apparently they can't find your luggage themselves. So I think that's a good thing. Thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. That's great. I mean, I bought airtags strictly for the purposes of putting them in my luggage. That's kind of mostly why I have them. So good. That's great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have three airtags right now that I hear from every day because they say, replace the battery please. It is a pain tomorrow. It's actually super easy once you do it. Once getting those batteries. I tell you what I found. There was one. I never buy anything from Amazon Prime Day. Except this one time they had 100 pack of those little button batteries.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, smart. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I just bought a shit ton of them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So now I never have them when I need them. Jason. Never.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Oh, man. And they. We used to have 99 cent stores here in Southern California. They just went out of business like six months ago. What the real trick was to go to the 99 cent store and they would sell you these little like light up candles that you get for tea lights and they'd sell them for like 10 for a dollar or something like that. What you do is you basically buy those, rip them open, throw away the light and keep all the batteries.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Keep all the batteries?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. They didn't last as long as if you bought them new, but they lasted longer than not having them. And they were cheap. Mattel's new Wicked dolls for kids were pulled from shelves after a packaging error directed buyers to the adult website wicked.com instead of the intended wicked movie dot com. Oops. Proofreading matters, kids. The incorrect website promotes adult films, including works by Stormy Daniels. I have been to the Wicked offices in San Francisco. I've been into the dungeons at Wicked before and that was one hell of a field trip, I tell you. Kids don't go in the hot tub at Wicked is all I gotta say. Despite the mishap, the dolls have become collectible. While retail prices around $35 for the Normals, listings on eBay have soared, with one pair recently selling for $280.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ridiculous.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's awesome. Okay, I just want to throw a quick shout out to Sound Studio 4. It's one of my go to apps for the Mac. It is a Swiss army knife for audio stuff. I've been using it since it was released, you know, well over a decade ago. They haven't updated in a long time because they don't need to. It just works. So if you're looking for a quick and dirty audio tool for everyday usage, check it out. It's 50 bucks and it will save you a ton of time. I use it literally, literally every day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go. I use it quite often myself. I usually don't have many apps because I basically just have the apps that I use and that's about it. Jason is usually the one that brings them, but given recent circumstances, I had been searching for some new things that I could use and I found a couple. Remember, Tweet Delete?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason, I miss Tweet Delete so much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you don't need to miss it anymore. There's Redact. All right, I have checked this out. I have decided that it is time to get off the storm that is X. And I wanted to make sure that all my old stuff was deleted. And I found Redact. And Redact is. They call themselves the only platform that allows you to automatically clean up your old posts from services like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, Discord, and more all in one place. I have only tried Twitter and it is a pay service, but they let you do Twitter for free. Or I think maybe any first service that you use, you do for free. So I completely nuked my entire old Twitter profile using Redact without paying a penny. Jason. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I highly suggest checking it out now. If I decide, and I think I might at some point that I want to wipe out all my old Facebook stuff, I will pay for this and give it a go. But so far it's worked a treat on Twitter. So as I mentioned, I'm. I'm off Twitter. I'm not deleting my account or deactivating it because it's still occasionally useful for me to go look at stuff like Gary Marcus yelling at people and things like that. So for the time being I'm keeping it. But I'm not going to be posting there anymore. I'm over on Threads, I'm over on Blue Sky. Those are my public facing platforms. Everything else is private. That's the way I'm going to be doing it from now on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And you're mostly on Discord. So come hang out on Discord. Go to gog show to get a link to our Discord channel and come hang out with us there too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. And then the other thing I did I was going to do and I've been talking about, and I've been talking about it with friends as well. As mentioned, I'm going to try not to be an avid news reader because it drives me nuts. I'm not going to be loading all my sites and reading through news and headlines every single day. I'm even going to try to stay off the Apple News News reader, which is actually a really good one and a reason not to pay for other ones. But a friend of mine recommended Tangle News to me and it's basically just a daily newsletter about a 10 minute read. It's. It's very straightforward. It's just the facts, ma'am. It's. It's neither. It doesn't lean left or right. So far I've had two episodes of it come into my email and I've really liked it. It's kept me informed on the basic headlines without making me want to bash my head into a wall. So I recommend people checking it out if they're trying to basically get out, just readjust their media diet to something simple and easy. So you're just not going nuts.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, Just signed up. I'll give them a shot at the library. Brian, I've got a short read this week. It is just, it's Kind of a pamphlet, and it's called People Standing in Front of Danzig's House, Volume 1.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are you in there?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I'm not, surprisingly. So if anybody, people in Southern California, and specifically la, know where Glenn Danzig lives. And it's like this creepy little house that used to have piles of bricks in the front yard. And we'd always talk about the piles of bricks because I had a friend who wanted the piles of bricks really badly to go work on his yard. He's like, danzig, just leave these bricks. I want the bricks. It's right down the street from House of Pies, and there are always people going by and. And checking out the house. And so somebody decided to take pictures of people standing in front of Danzig's house and turn it into a zine. I just love it. I absolutely love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's pretty awesome, actually. I wouldn't buy it, but I love the concept. I'm glad it exists.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I can't believe there's only one volume.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, yeah, I've been trying to read a lot more. I want to read a lot more, but I wanted something quick and simple. I found Beacon 23, the complete novel by Hugh Howard, author of Silo and Wool and all that sort of stuff, who apparently really likes putting his things out in drips and drab compilations. Hence the complete novel part of the title.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So he started off blogging. He would blog a chapter here and blog a chapter there, a chapter there, a chapter everywhere.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was a good, fun story. It was a quick read, but really interesting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And it was a very, like I said, very quick read. Like, you blow through it really fast. It's not entirely dissimilar to some other things he may have written in some ways, but good and compelling.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, I will check it out. Oh, there's an audiobook. Six hours and nine minutes on the audiobook. I will grab that because I think it's free for me. 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 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 it's security for the way we work today and it's now generally available to companies with Okta and Microsoft Entra and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1Password.com GrumpyOldGeeks that's 1Password.com GrumpyOldgeeks the Dark side Ha.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with Dave Buettner. Whether it's decoding All Things Cyber on the Cyberwire. Exposing Deception in Tomfoolery with Joe Kerrigan on Hacking Humans. Diving Deep into Privacy with Ben Yellen on Caveat or Breaking Down Industrial Cybersecurity on Control Loop. Dave's got you covered. A new episode of Only Malware in the Building has dropped, and it's awesome. As always, look for Only Malware in the Building wherever you get your podcasts. And enjoy the latest episode, Whispers in the Wires. A closer look at the new age of intrusion today. Hi, Dave.

[C]

Hello. It's nice to be back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm winding.

[C]

Yeah, that's a lot to read.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stop doing stuff.

[C]

Well, I mean, you have my permission to condense it, to distill it to its essence.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, here we go. Welcome to. Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Hi, Dave. Right, there you go.

[C]

Hey, that works.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That works. How you doing?

[C]

I'm doing pretty. I mean, as well as can be expected. Right. Here we go again. I'm more tired this week than I was last week, and I think it's just that the stream of chaos has begun. Begun. Right, Right. So I've got my shields up, and that's just burning the emotional fuel and leaves me eye round, and I'm just running out of gas about an hour early every day than I usually do. So I'm going up to bed earlier, going to sleep. I'm back into waking up in the middle of the night, which I was.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Done with for a while.

[C]

Right. Screaming a cold sweat, bolting up in the middle of the night. But you know, gummies.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There'S a lot of good tv.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Silo starts again tonight.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's great.

[C]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jake, Paul and Tyson fight. Plenty to do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Silo used to.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What about.

[C]

You know, that you. You mentioned the fight tonight, and I. This. These are not things I keep up on, but my youngest son, Jack was telling me about this fight coming up, and my initial reaction was that anyone who gets in the ring with. What's his name?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Mike Tyson.

[C]

Mike Tyson. Thank you. Is crazy. I don't care how old he is. The man is a killing machine, to quote Rocky. Like, now I get it. He's older and everything, and I don't know anything about this person that he's fighting, but I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Lucky you.

[C]

Is that right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

You're so lucky. So lucky.

[C]

I'm blissfully ignorant of what's going on here, but this seems to me like, I guess it's a cash grab, but I just wouldn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's an influencer dude, you know? Yeah, that whole.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, the whole idea for the fight came to Jake Paul when he was on an Ayahuasca retreat. So that should tell you something.

[Brian Schulmeister]

She'd go fuck himself.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So he called up Mike and said, hey, Mike, want to fight? And Mike's like, sure.

[C]

So I bet Mike said. Mike said, what's the guaranteed payout?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yes. Well, considering Jake Paul at one time was the biggest influencer on YouTube. YouTube. Substantial. It is going to be substantial. But if you want to. I mentioned it earlier in the show, but there is a three part short documentary on the run up to the fight that's working. Wait a minute.

[C]

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Three parts is not short.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're only half an hour each. They're only half an hour each.

[C]

Not short.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It goes by quick.

[C]

Is it concise at least?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it is, yeah. And it focuses. It is 80% Mike Tyson and 20% Jake Paul. So, you know. Okay, well, and Mike Tyson is always fun to watch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I just remember option Dave, which is you just remain blissfully ignorant of the whole affair.

[C]

That's probably the path I'm going to pursue. Yeah, I just remember when Mike Tyson was in his prime and I guess, oh gosh, we were in our 20s.

[Brian Schulmeister]

When he was in the Hangover movies. Yeah, that was really good.

[C]

But he would just get in the ring and devastate people. We just hadn't, you know, it was just amazing. So I don't know what kind of shape he's in now, but.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Scary shape. Yeah, really, really scary shape. They show a lot of his old fights in the documentary and it is, they're very short because he knocks people out in like three punches and the thing's over in like 20 seconds. So his greatest hit is like literally about two minutes long for all of the fights he's ever been. Well, he's a scary dude.

[C]

Maybe with the curse of time that at least the viewers will get a longer fight. Perhaps tonight. But I don't know, I just don't like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a 50, 50 toss up. Jake Paul has been trained before. Here's the thing. If Mike wouldn't have gotten sick and had his ulcer, it would have been over in minutes. But Jake had that extra time and got actual training from some pretty decent boxers who taught him more technique, which really is going to kind of level the playing field, I think, for this fight. So, and I'm not a fight guy. I don't, you know, I don't watch boxing, but I, I do like combat sports sometimes, so I'm very Intrigued by what's going to happen.

[C]

I don't. It's just not my thing. I don't. I. I don't like sports where the goal is to hurt the other person and, you know, just not my. Not my thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You save that for politics.

[C]

Yeah, right, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Emotional damage, that's what I like to see inflicted. And I remember, you know, usually again, 20 years ago or so, when my father was playing a lot of golf, and every now and then I would go out with him to drive the cart, basically because I was a terrible golfer, and my father was a very good golfer. But one of the folks that was a regular at the club where my father played was a former Ultimate Fighter. And this guy's body looked like it had been through, like, in a blender. Like, he just this. Because he, you know, we come out on the golf course wearing shorts and his knees, like. And his legs didn't look like legs anymore. They were. They were just. There was all these strange angles that your legs shouldn't move at. And he was a good golfer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Like, he was walking on a couple slim gyms.

[C]

Right. But I just kept thinking, like, how was this possibly worth it? But he seemed like a happy guy, and I guess he had his career and that was that. But at the time, he was probably 35 or maybe pushing 40, so I can't imagine how that plays out as you reach your senior years having just.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You don't reach your senior years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You don't. That's, you know, that's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Painkillers. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I mean, when you look at the life expectancy for all these NFL players, it's not great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, you want. You want a short one? Check. Professional wrestlers, Those guys don't last long.

[C]

Oh, is that right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That is a tough one. Yeah. Those guys. I mean, those guys take so much punishment. So much punishment.

[C]

Yeah. It's funny, people who say that they aren't real athletes, and I get what they're coming at. Like, it's not a real competition, but I don't think it's fair to say pro wrestlers aren't real athletes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've always said it's not a real sport, but they're definitely athletes.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah. No, I mean, I worked with that wrestling company for a while for like, two summers, and those guys are insane athletes. I mean, the stuff that they do is really, really hard. I mean, really hard. So they have my respect for sure. But yeah. Let's step away from Bloodsports for a minute. Andor season two is coming out soon. Hey. April 2025.

[C]

Yay. Yeah. Do you guys see the teaser trailer?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, check it out.

[C]

Teaser trailer dropped this week and it's a teaser trailer, so there's not a whole lot. There are more YouTube breakdowns of the teaser trailer, which are helpful.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You notice that speck of dirt in the right hand corner at second three that symbolizes.

[C]

Right, exactly. This may be a reference, a 1988.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Comic book that the novelization of. Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ridiculous.

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I'm looking forward to it. It's a good show.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. It's a strong one. So I will be there tuning in.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hopefully they didn't knock it down to, like, three episodes. Like, they keep knocking all these shows down.

[C]

I know, I know. So I noticed earlier in the show you guys were talking about Blue sky, and I just wanted to check in with you about Blue sky because I have stayed blissfully ignorant of Blue sky other than knowing that it's out there. I see a lot of people saying, hey, especially this week, hey, here's my bluesky account. As they're deactivating their Twitter accounts. I was part of the movement from Twitter to Mastodon, and that's where I've found my happy place. And the idea of taking on another social media platform I find very discouraging and disheartening. So I wanted to check in with you two to get the skinny on what is Blue Sky? What is it not? How do you guys see it? Like, where do you think it fits? And is it inevitable that I'm going to end up there?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Would you like to take this first breath, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure. Jason and I both signed up over at Blue sky when it first came out. It was. It was Jack. Jack's thing. Jack is apparently no longer involved, which is probably why people are flocking there as they leave the Musk Owned X and don't want to go to the Zuck owned Threads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Can't figure out the Mastodon and can't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Figure out the Mastodon, but it is a Twitter replacement and much the same way that all of these things are trying to be. I found a bit of a happy place on Threads for a little bit. But as we were talking about earlier, Threads is not a real time algorithm, which kind of is what you're looking for in a Twitter replacement. So that is frustrating. You don't. You can't really use threads for news or anything like that because you'll get the. You'll see the news post four days after it happened. That's not useful. Blue sky is better that way. When we first went over to Blue sky, it had been basically taken over by the author, John Scalzi. He lived on it. All I ever saw were his posts and I kind of just abandoned it and never went back. But yeah, I think now that people have decided they're done with X, if they're not red pilled, it's just going to become true social itself. People are leaving it in droves and they need to go somewhere and they've decided Blue sky is the place because it's not owned and run by any of these people that we have decided are just absolutely horrible individuals that own too much already. I think that's kind of the breakdown now. Jason seems to be enjoying it. He's enjoying Blue Sky a lot. So I'm going to start giving it a bit more time time and look into it a bit more. I know that there is a, there are a few tools out there to help people move over. There's, there's some scripts that will go through and find anybody that was on your, that you followed on Twitter if they're on bluesky, which I think I need to run because I don't really. I signed up, but never really started following people over there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See, I'm taking the approach with bluesky like I do when I get a new Mac. In the old days I would use Migration Assistant to take all of the junk from my old laptop and move it over. But I found out that it's much better for my sanity and my peace of mind that when I get a new computer I start from scratch and then just build up the things that I need because then you're not bringing all the old cruft from the old computer. Now I look at social networks that same way. So when I started off with Blue sky, there was some core people that I know that I wanted to follow. And it's all the same people that I followed that I knew when Twitter first started and when I started with bluesky. And you too, Brian, because I think I gave you one of my invites. It was. We were in the first million people like Twitter. I was in the first 140 people. So a lot of those same people I just found on bluesky and like, it's like, hey, how you doing? I haven't talked to you in a while. This is great.

[C]

Woo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So that part's fun. And now that some people are coming over, you know, the people that I want to talk to generally started to follow me. So it's like, okay, if I didn't know that they were coming or not. So it worked out good that way. So I'm going to stay away from the migration tools for sure. But to your point, Dave, it's, it's, it's just nice. But if you found your happy place, why add another one?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Don't move, don't, don't, don't bother really. If you're, if you're happy where you're at and you've got a good group of people and right, you're getting, you're getting what you need out of it, don't do more. I think, I think that's the biggest lesson we should all learn from this. From this what? From what's going on right now. You don't need to be everywhere. You shouldn't be everywhere. It's too much. We should be scaling all this back as much as we can, can anyway. And that's really what I'm trying to do. It's. As we all know, Facebook is basically useless at this point. You don't see your friends updates, if they even update anymore because everybody stopped. Instagram is all influencers and ads. What I'm really looking for, and this is where I'll disagree with Jason just because I'm lazier than he is. What I'm really looking for is replacing what Twitter was four or five years ago. I had a very well curated list of people that I really enjoyed following. It was a lot of science, a lot of news, news and a lot of media stuff that I liked and that's all gone to. And if I can use a migration tool and most of the people are over there and I can get most of the way towards recreating what that experience was for me, then good, then that's my one. And I'll stop with threads and I'll stop with X and I'll stop with all the other ones because I just want one thing, one ring to rule them all. And I, I don't want to put a lot of time into it. Like, I get starting fresh, but I don't want to spend that much time on it either. I just.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We're old. We don't have that much life left in us.

[C]

That's right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I also just don't have the fucking patience. I just don't care enough anymore.

[C]

Yeah, that's interesting you talk about starting over because that's what I did when I switched from Overcast to Apple podcasts just for podcast playing. You know, I just started from scratch and like instantly went from probably 200 podcasts. That I was subscribed to to eight.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One of them of course being this one. Wait, if you only follow the podcast you're on, that's already like 15.

[C]

Well, that's true, but yeah, and every now and then I'll say, oh, you know what, I haven't listened to such and such in a while. And I'll go and I'll subscribe to it. And that's working out great for me. So I guess one of the things besides just general FOMO is I see more and more info security people that I'm following on Mastodon saying, hey, I'm over on Blue sky now and I'm thinking, oh, is this, is this the mass exodus? Are people going to go over there?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It looks like they're most likely to hit critical mass of any of the other replacements. And if you're public facing and you need people to see your stuff and you're promoting your own stuff and you need the followers and you want all that, Blue sky seems to be the one that you should be going towards now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's more user friendly. There's no ads and it's in technology.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No ads yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's better yet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They have announced that they're going to do that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, at some point they have to. I mean there's only 20 people running the show over there, so expect some fail whales down the line. They had an outage yesterday, but that was because somebody cut a fiber cable.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they had the outage yesterday exactly. When I tried to log in to get my handle to post in the.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Show notes, which was funny is that's exactly what I was logging in too to get my handle to post in the show notes. Dave, I want to mention something real quick. You talked about FOMO and the fear of missing out. As an older gentleman, I want you to think about possibly embracing the opposite. The joy of missing out. I think that as we grow older and more sane and more wizened and wizened, the joy of missing out is actually more pleasurable than worrying about the fear of missing out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just saying I 100% agree with you, Jason.

[C]

That may be the wisest thing I've ever heard you say.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I had mentioned earlier in the show that Taylor Swift is currently in Toronto. She's playing eight shows over the course of two weeks. The entire fucking city has gone Taylor Swift nuts. They're renaming streets. It's on the news 24 7. There are. Every goddamn business is putting up friendship bracelets up on their marquees and it's insane and I don't give a fuck. And I'm so enjoying missing out on this whole thing. It's a wonderful feeling that I just don't care.

[C]

Yeah. See, in my mind, when we look back at, like classic Twitter, when Twitter was at its peak, there were two types of Twitter users, two main categories of Twitter users. There were those who were on Twitter to build an audience to broadcast to. So like unidirectional communications. And those people built up their big audiences of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of people. And then there was the other category, which was people, which this category I think I was in, which is just looking for people to follow and interact with and closer groups of friends and chit chat and all that sort of traditional kind of social media stuff. When and I switched to Mastodon, Mastodon does not serve that first group of people. If you want to build an audience and be a broadcaster, Mastodon doesn't do that because there's no algorithmic boosting, so it doesn't notice that someone's building followers and put them in front of more people to help snowball their following. And so a lot of people who that's their goal, they get frustrated with Mastodon quickly because it ain't like it used to be. And, you know, even though like half of their followers on Twitter were probably bots, it still felt really good to have that number. And the number just doesn't happen. So I'm curious, do you guys think Blue sky will serve that first group the way Twitter did?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I think it'll be both.

[C]

And we're okay with that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It'll be very much like old Twitter. Twitter. Yeah, it's fine because I was able to tune that out anyways. Like I said, I was at a very curated list and I would never, ever click on the for you tab ever.

[C]

Right. Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, one of the really nice tabs that they have on bluesky is popular posts from your friends or that your friends are posting about and things like that. So it gives you a little bit of insight algorithmically and you can write your own algorithm search algorithms too with bluesky, which is kind cool. It's just technology is what I think differentiates the two as well. It's easy to use for the newbie, but it's also got stuff for the nerds. So I like that part.

[C]

Yeah, well, I'm not going to check it out again.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't think you should. You're in a happy place. And unless you find out that everybody that you like engaging with does leave. Why would you leave?

[C]

Let's be. Let's be honest. I'm in a less miserable place again when it comes to social media.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We have to hold on to what makes us happy for the next couple of years. So stay. Don't go anywhere else. Don't bother.

[C]

Yeah, well, speaking of things that make us happy, this story made me so happy this week. This. I just. I was bent over laughing and sitting, reading this. A person, a group of people, committed insurance fraud in California by claiming that a bear had damaged several automobiles. They. They took the insurance companies for over $140,000. One of the cars that was damaged was a Rolls Royce. There was a high value Mercedes. But the way they did. The way they did it was they dressed up in a fake bear costume. And I guess all costumes are fake bears, but they dressed up in a bear costume.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It has been a while since we've had any furry news, Dave, so thank.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You, by the way. By the way, there is a fantastic furry community on blue sky. Dave. That is one thing that it's known for.

[C]

Why are you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

One thing that it's known for. Sorry.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it's not the friendly ones. It's the ones trying to get followings.

[C]

Right, Right. So these guys, because the cars are in security cameras, so they have their, like, night vision mode, and there's video of this guy in a bear suit scratching up the cars. And not only do they have the bear suit, they have. Have you guys seen those things? They look like. They look kind of like brass knuckles except you use them for tenderizing meat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, right, exactly.

[C]

Wolverine claws use them for tenderizing meat. So they used those along with the bear suit to rip up the upholstery inside the car. And I mean, it worked to a certain degree because they got $140,000 from insurance companies. They sent the video to a wildlife biologist who was like, yeah, that's a person in a bear suit. I love imagining, like the mild mannered adjuster at state farm, right. Sitting there and he's like, huh, this is interesting. A bear attack on a car. All right. Oh, there's video footage. Let me look at this. Just leaning back in his chair going, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. The other thing this reminded me of that made me laugh was back in the classic days, the David Letterman show, when they would send a guy in a bear suit to do all kinds of things in New York. Can a guy in a bear suit hail a cab? Can a Guy in a bear suit get a hug? Can a guy in a bear suit get into a strip club? Can a guy in a bear suit do insurance fraud? That's what made me laugh. Anyway, I'm enjoying this way too much. And I think part of my state of emotional fragility is that I'm clinging on to anything that gives me a sense of joy and laughter. So I appreciate you guys indulging me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

On the ham radio side of things. Dave, just going to shift gears here away from the insurance fraud furries. Gordy writes in says, please tell Dave not to give out his ham call sign on podcasts. His call sign can be searched for on the FCC website and his license contains his address, which can easily be viewed on Google Earth. Dave's wheelhouse is security. I understand and appreciate him talking about ham radio, but please remind him of the world we are in and be more careful about his personal information. I'd like to congratulate him on passing the test. Perhaps I'll make contact on the air with him one day. By the way, Dave lives in a nice neighborhood.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know the thing on a ham radio, nobody knows if you're a furry that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ooh.

[C]

You know, I didn't think about that. Yeah, yeah. Why is your voice so muffin? Yeah, maybe that would be. That would be a fun fursona. Fraudulent bear. A fraudulent bear suit just goes around committing insurance fraud. That's like. That would be my kink. Right? Dressed up in a bear suit, going around and. I'm sorry, it just really does tickle me. Well, Gordy, I appreciate the concern. I think horses left the barn. Yeah, those are the exact words I was going to use. I think anybody who bears left the cave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There you go.

[C]

Yeah, I think anybody who wants to look up where I live, that is so easy to do just by the fact that I have a mortgage. You know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We didn't incorporate a fake corporation to purchase our homes, so.

[C]

Right, right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No.

[C]

All public information, but no. I appreciate the kind words. I do enjoy the neighborhood I live in. As I say, I have a very modest home and a very nice neighborhood.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And a very robust security camera system, so he will know if you're showing up in this place.

[C]

That is true. I do. Yes. And my security camera system has been trouble free ever since I gave up on the pipe dream of solar, so. All right, shall we leave it there?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, that's good enough.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Go enjoy your bear stories.

[C]

I know. God, I wonder, like, I long to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Be as tickled pink as you were about that story, Dave, I really do. I gotta find something.

[C]

Just really cracks me up. I don't know why. All right, see you guys. Go find some honey.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing Shout out over at Patreon this week we got no new subscribers, so shame on you all. But we would like to give props to Ramsey, Steven, Roz, Manuel, Craig, Jeff Thomas, Nicholas Allison, and Barzinator for being loyal, loyal Patreon subscribers. We thank you and love you all. The rest of you, get on it. Come on. Three bucks a month. Get the show early and ad free and in high definition. What are you waiting for?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nothing. Go put on that bear suit. Get on it. Over at PayPal, we got Ralph Miles, Shari, Linda, Natalie, Arcadio, Nathaniel, and Jason, who sent us 50 bucks and said Dave needs to do his Arnold Schwarzenegger impression of his favorite monologue. And deliveroo. Oldie but a goodie.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Over at the Tip Jar, we've got Theodore. Thank you, Theodore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No new reviews, no sad news this week. Tony Todd has left us at the age of 69. Generally not known as a sci fi actor, but more of a horror actor. He played Candyman, a movie I worked on, actually. He was also in one of Deep Space Nine's greatest episodes, so that's what I remember him most from. Yeah, I remember him from that fantastic actor. And a happy birthday to my friend Gigi Edgley. She was on one of my favorite shows, Farscape. She played Chiana. Happy birthday, Gigi. And to the rest of you that didn't sign up for Patreon, go buy some fucking shirts. Shop GOG Show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, please. I got to get in there and make. Make some. I'm so lazy. I'll get around to it. Until next time, I'm Brian Schilmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for tuning into Grumpy old Geeks. Dive into the show notes and all the links from Today's episode at GOG Show. 674. Feeling generous. Keep this top notch entertainment rolling by dropping us a few bucks at GOG Show. Donate. Every bit helps, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart. And spread the grumpiness. There's a share button in every podcast player out there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Use it to share.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Share the show with friends, foes and everyone in between and we'll be forever grateful. Head over to GOG show to find the link to our Discord Channel and chat with us and other show fans. When you're not dicking around on Blue sky or Mastodon or God forbid, X got something to say. Send your feedback, comments or awesome links to Gog Show Contact and show us some love. Leave a review at Gog Show Review. A five star rating will get your review read on the air. So will a one star, but we prefer a five. Stay grumpy.