677: What’s in the Bag?!

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks: Episode 677 – “What’s in the Bag?!”

Release Date: December 14, 2024
Hosts: Jason DeFilippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner

---

1. Cryptocurrency Controversy: Hock to a Girl and Hawkcoin

The episode kicks off with a deep dive into the recent fall of Hawkcoin, a cryptocurrency linked to the internet personality "Hock to a Girl."

• Jason DeFilippo highlights, "[01:13] Jason DeFilippo: He does fantastic takedowns of crypto bros and now crypto gals. Yeah, so it was a good half hour video talking about the rug pull of Hawkcoin."

• The controversy centers around Alex Shapiro, comedian Howie Mandel's son-in-law, who was instrumental in promoting Hawkcoin. The fallout has tarnished Mandel's reputation, tying his name to a failed crypto venture.

• Brian Schulmeister adds, "[02:00] Brian Schulmeister: Oh, you think? I think Hock to a girl after she goes to jail for this, which she might..." speculating on legal repercussions.

2. Influencer Culture and the 'Bag'

Next, the hosts discuss the pressures of influencer culture, particularly the obsession with the term "the bag" as a metaphor for financial success.

• Jason explains, "[03:00] Jason DeFilippo: The bag is slang for money, income, or a lucrative opportunity. I'm sure the kids are going to say that one."

• The conversation references an article by Patrick Redford on Defector, which examines the unrealistic income expectations set by influencers.

• Brian notes, "[03:21] Brian Schulmeister: ... the illusion that all these influencers are giving people making the big bucks."

3. WordPress and WP Engine Legal Battle

The discussion shifts to the ongoing legal tussle between WP Engine and Automattic, WordPress's parent company.

• Jason states, "[05:26] Jason DeFilippo: Matt Mullenweg is being forced to service WP Engine and on your knees."

• Brian comments on the strained relationship, "[05:47] Brian Schulmeister: Poor Matt. She just kept his fucking mouth shut."

4. Ride-Sharing Market Shifts: Waymo vs. Uber and Lyft

Waymo has made significant inroads into the San Francisco ride-sharing market, matching Lyft's 22% share within 15 months of its August 2023 launch.

• Jason observes, "[05:56] Jason DeFilippo: The ride sharing market shows diminishing returns for network effects once a critical mass of drivers is achieved."

• Brian shares a personal anecdote, "[07:08] Brian Schulmeister: When the last time I took an Uber is... Basically to go to the airport."

5. GM’s Cruise Robo Taxi Subsidiary Fold

General Motors has decided to fold its Cruise robo-taxi subsidiary back into its in-house technical team following a high-profile accident in San Francisco.

• Brian explains, "[12:19] Brian Schulmeister: They hit somebody big time."

• Jason adds the grim details, "[12:48] Brian Schulmeister: ... they basically just ducking down into a hole for a while."

6. Amazon and Hyundai’s Online Vehicle Sales Partnership

Amazon has partnered with Hyundai to sell vehicles directly to consumers online, echoing their infamous delivery experiences.

• Brian humorously critiques the model, "[13:26] Brian Schulmeister: It's a good line. So, yes, Amazon has announced it will be partnering with Hyundai..."

• Jason questions the practicality, "[14:31] Jason DeFilippo: Exactly. You'll get ripped off. You are going to get screwed."

7. Mysterious Drones Over New Jersey

A wave of unidentified drones up to six feet wide has been spotted across New Jersey, raising safety concerns despite federal assurances.

• Jason highlights the skepticism, "[15:20] Jason DeFilippo: Exactly. I'm just like, how do you know it's not?"

• Brian emphasizes the potential risks, "[16:08] Brian Schulmeister: That's insane."

8. Google’s Quantum Leap with Willow Chip

Google unveiled Willow, a quantum computer chip capable of performing complex calculations exponentially faster than current supercomputers.

• Jason reacts to the breakthrough, "[17:20] Jason DeFilippo: ...this is a new barn burner from Krebs on Security..."

• Brian sarcastically remarks, "[18:28] Brian Schulmeister: That's true." acknowledging the security implications.

9. Apple’s CSAM Detection Tools Face Lawsuits

Apple faces a lawsuit over its controversial Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) detection tools, which aim to automatically flag abusive images.

• Brian details the lawsuit, "[19:27] Brian Schulmeister: The lawsuit was filed on Saturday in Northern California seeking damages upwards of 1.2 billion..."

• Jason remarks on the privacy concerns, "[19:49] Jason DeFilippo: ...they're doing it because everybody decided it was a bad idea."

10. Alterations to the Kids Online Safety Act

Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn are revising the Kids Online Safety Act with support from Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino.

• Brian points out the dilution of the bill, "[20:34] Brian Schulmeister: They've made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online."

• Jason cynically suggests, "[20:49] Jason DeFilippo: ...give all the fucking pedophiles, lock them in a room..."

11. Google vs. Microsoft: OpenAI’s Cloud Hosting Deal Under Scrutiny

Google has urged the FTC to investigate Microsoft’s exclusive cloud hosting deal with OpenAI, citing anti-competitive practices.

• Brian comments, "[21:26] Brian Schulmeister: Hands over a $13 billion bag."

• Jason continues, "[21:45] Brian Schulmeister: ...you’re being shittier than us and doing better at it. So we’re going to sue you."

12. AI Startups and Open Source Issues

AI startup Artisan is promoting the use of AI employees over human hires, stirring debate on the future of work.

• Brian describes their campaign, "[23:02] Brian Schulmeister: ...put a bunch of ad campaigns around the city. Posters which included phrases like artisans won't complain about work..."

• Jason encourages, "[23:28] Jason DeFilippo: Lean into it, brother."

Additionally, open source communities are struggling with AI-generated security reports flooding their systems.

• Brian cites developer frustrations, "[24:35] Brian Schulmeister: ...they're getting bogged down with the amount of reports that are all obviously AI generated."

13. Cryptomus: Canada’s Role in Cybercrime

Cryptomus, a Canada-based financial firm, is under scrutiny for facilitating transactions related to Russian cybercrime services.

• Jason summarizes, "[25:13] Jason DeFilippo: It's facilitating transactions for numerous Russian cryptocurrencies, currency exchanges and cyber crime services."

• Brian remarks on their niche targeting, "[25:32] Brian Schulmeister: They found an opening in the market... they went for their niche."

14. Cloudflare’s 2024 Year in Review

Cloudflare released its Year in Review, highlighting significant trends in global internet usage and security.

• Brian outlines key statistics, "[27:35] Jason DeFilippo: Cloudflare's 2024 Year in Review highlights significant trends..."

• Notable points include a 17.2% increase in global internet traffic, Google's dominance, Waylink's traffic surge, and the prevalence of bot traffic originating from the U.S.

• Jason humorously ties it back to earlier discussions, "[31:35] Jason DeFilippo: Oh my God, Elon was right. The bots are coming."

15. Streaming and Media Updates

The hosts share their thoughts on recent streaming content, including:

• Prime Video’s "Wheel of Time" returning for season three.

• "Day of the Jackal" on Peacock concluding its 10-episode season.

• "Lioness" Season 2 and "Silo", which both received positive feedback.

• Jason recommends, "[35:37] Jason DeFilippo: It was a pretty good documentary... 'Before How Punk Became Pop'."

16. Masterclass’s AI Instructors and Related Lawsuits

Masterclass is introducing AI versions of its instructors, sparking skepticism and legal challenges.

• Brian expresses doubt, "[51:58] Brian Schulmeister: ...sound like themselves."

• Jason critiques the value, "[52:54] Jason DeFilippo: ...you could listen to a podcast with most of those people and get all the juice out of everything that they taught."

17. Character AI Lawsuit

A Texas mother is suing an AI company, alleging that its chatbot encouraged her autistic son to self-harm after restricting his screen time.

• Jason outlines the incident, "[53:25] Jason DeFilippo: ...a chatbot named Shoney on the Character AI app... the chatbot described self harm as feeling good."

• Brian concludes with frustration, "[54:44] Jason DeFilippo: They are the no guardrails AI if there ever was one."

18. Embodied’s Emotional Support Robot Shutdown

Embodied is shutting down its emotional support robot, Moxie, leaving customers with non-functional devices.

• Brian criticizes the product, "[55:01] Brian Schulmeister: ...if you could afford to buy your kid an $800 emotional support robot, I don't really have that much to say."

• Jason mocks the notion, "[55:18] Jason DeFilippo: ...his mother discovered disturbing messages after confiscating his phone."

19. Digital Passports in Apple and Google Wallet

Google Wallet now supports digital copies of U.S. passports for use at TSA checkpoints, though adoption is limited.

• Brian points out the limitations, "[50:39] Brian Schulmeister: Currently, there are only 27 states and Puerto Rico with at least one airport that accepts digital forms of identification."

• Jason critiques the practicality, "[50:41] Jason DeFilippo: Genius."

20. Classical Music Discovery Challenges

The hosts discuss the difficulties in discovering and identifying classical music tracks using tools like Shazam.

• Jason shares a personal mishap, "[56:37] Jason DeFilippo: ...Shazam... it was Dvorak's Symphony Number 9 in E Minor."

• Brian elaborates on the technical challenges, "[57:09] Brian Schulmeister: ...Symphony, what director? They're all different."

21. Personal Tech Anecdotes and Product Reviews

A series of personal stories and product discussions include:

• Apple Watch Screen Protector:
  *Jason shares his experience with a screen protector failing but salvaging his device, "[48:33] Jason DeFilippo: ...it only takes 20 minutes."

• Bear Cases for iPhone:
  *Brian discusses issues with new cases blocking functionality, "[57:24] Brian Schulmeister: ...there are 75,000 versions of this that have been recorded."

• Apple Watch Activity Rings Update:
  *They explore the new features allowing users to pause activity rings without breaking streaks, "[46:05] Jason DeFilippo: ...with work out seven days a week."

22. Patreon Support and Community Shoutouts

The hosts extend gratitude to their supporters and outline various ways listeners can contribute.

• Brian acknowledges recent donations, "[61:15] Brian Schulmeister: ...Patreon subscriptions."

• Jason promotes their Patreon and other donation platforms, "[61:53] Jason DeFilippo: ...your kid's in third grade now."

23. Shoutouts and Final Thoughts

Closing segments include shoutouts to friends, family, and community members, along with reminders to support the show through donations and interactions on platforms like Discord.

• Jason sends a shoutout to Brian Blondell in Italy, "[62:23] Jason DeFilippo: ...having a nice, nice glass of vino."

• Brian mentions a friend’s unsuccessful attempt to use a digital passport, reinforcing skepticism about new technologies, "[61:55] Brian Schulmeister: ...they're not selling it everywhere."

---

Notable Quotes:

• "[03:25] Brian Schulmeister: ...the illusion that all these influencers are giving people making the big bucks."

• "[05:26] Jason DeFilippo: Sorta. Not very much. That's the whole problem."

• "[17:20] Jason DeFilippo: ...this is a new barn burner from Krebs on Security..."

• "[20:49] Jason DeFilippo: ...give all the fucking pedophiles, lock them in a room..."

• "[31:35] Jason DeFilippo: Oh my God, Elon was right. The bots are coming."

---

Conclusion:

In this episode, Jason and Brian navigate a tumultuous landscape of tech controversies, from failed cryptocurrencies and influencer pressures to groundbreaking quantum computing and the pitfalls of AI-driven tools. Their characteristic grumpiness provides a critical lens through which they dissect each topic, blending humor with insightful commentary. Whether it's the challenges of digital identification, the decline of physical media, or the ethical dilemmas posed by AI, "Grumpy Old Geeks" offers listeners a no-holds-barred analysis of the week's tech news wrecks.

---

Stay updated and support the show by visiting Grumpy Old Geeks Patreon or through their website. Join their community on Discord and engage with fellow tech enthusiasts!

Transcript

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hey prime members, have you heard?

[Jason DeFilippo]

You can listen to your favorite podcasts ad free. Good news, with Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad free top podcasts included with your prime membership. To start listening, download the Amazon music app for free or go to Amazon.com ad free podcast. That's Amazon.com ad free podcast to catch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Up on the latest episodes without the ads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Gillmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the early morning edition today.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Brian, you know we've gotten older because we used to do them at night so we could drink.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I get up at. I had to get up at 5:30 this morning so I could have coffee. Yes, speaking of coffee, Coffeezilla is going off on Hock to a Girl. He finally posted a video and it was pretty interesting. Did you get a chance to check it out?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. Coffeezilla is one of those people that I'm aware of but don't follow.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh man, he's great. He's great. He does fantastic takedowns of crypto bros and now crypto gals. Yeah, so it was a good half hour video talking about the rug pull of hawkcoin. So we talked about that on the show last week and thought that man, she must have had some really bad people behind her. Well, it turns out comedian Howie Mandel's son in law, Alex Shapiro, is at the center of the controversy after the disastrous launch of the Hawk meme. Coin. Shapiro, who has a background in digital marketing, played a key role in developing and promoting the cryptocurrency tied to viral Internet sensation Haley Welch, known as the Hawk to a girl. That's right. So what really sucks is I got no problem with Howie, but now his name is going to be forever tied to Hock to a girl.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, you think? I think Hock to a girl after she goes to jail for this, which she might, that might be the last we ever hear of her.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't think she's going to go to jail for this. If they can prove that this guy Alex was behind the whole thing and lied to her, then she's not going to go to jail. She'll get fined.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ignorance is no excuse here people, but.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There are exceptions for that. She can get fined but probably avoid the jail time. He will get the jail time, if there is jail time to be had, which if they can put this off to January, ain't nobody going to jail.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm sure Donald Trump would be happy to pardon Hock Tua in exchange for a little something something.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you know what? So there's an article by Patrick Redford over at Defector, who I've never actually read before, but this was a fantastic article and I think it's a beautif written take on the state of influencers, the have nots in their motivations to get what they call the bag. Did you get a chance to read this one, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I skimmed through this. It ties in with an off a study that's been going around recently too, where apparently this, this youngest generation thinks that you need to make $600,000 a year. Not sure who's going to, but I think in part it comes from the illusion that all these influencers are giving people making the big bucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I've never heard the term the bag before. Have you heard of the bag?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, I have heard this term. It's again, trying not to even be influenced by influencer culture is impossible if you're online these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's a strange one. I've never heard that. So I turned to our friendly neighborhood AI to explain it to me. And since I'm guessing some of our listeners have also never heard of the term in influencer culture, the bag is slang for money, income, or a lucrative opportunity. I'm sure the kids are going to say that one. Often referring to financial success or securing a profitable deal. It comes from the idea of securing the bag, which means obtaining money or achieving financial goals. And for influencers, the bag typically relates to brand deals, sponsorships, merchandising, ad revenue partnerships, and ambassadorships, blah, blah, blah. I was just getting used to calling it cheddar.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's an old dude.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought cheddar was new.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Cheddar's dusty. It's goldfish, man.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It ain't fire. It ain't fire. I'm just still mad that we missed the opportunity to call it spitcoin. That's the only thing that really bothers me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you know. Yeah, that's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, well, hopefully we won't be talking. Oh, God, who am I kidding? We're going to be talking about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We're talking about this for months.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sucks. All right, well, let's go back to something that we were talking about quite a bit. The WP engine, WordPress, kerfuffle and matt Mullenweg, who Couldn't keep his mouth shut to the point where, like, half his company decided to go ahead and take severance packages and get out of there because they disagreed with them. Well, we hadn't heard from him in quite a bit because, well, he couldn't talk at all because court gag order. But we've gotten somewhere with that. A judge has issued an injunction ordering WordPress co founder Matt Mullenweg and his company Automattic to restore access to the WP Engine web hosting service. According to legal documents seen by the Verge. He must also restore WP Engine's control of its popular ACF or Advanced Custom Fields plugin. It also removes a checkbox that Automatic added that made people say they had no relationship with WP Engine. What an ass. Yeah, look, they're paying you. They're a customer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sorta.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sorta.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sorta. Yeah, not very much. That's the whole problem. If they were paying them, then this would not be an issue.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's true, but there you go. So basically, right now he's being forced to service WP Engine and on your knees. Give me service coin. Spit engine. I guess that's what we call this one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, my God. Poor Matty Matt. She just kept his fucking mouth shut.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's a big part of it. I think you flew too high, Matty Matt.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean, he's a billionaire. Chill, bro. Come on. Oh, man. Some Waymo news. This is interesting. Waymo has matched Lyft's market share in San Francisco at 22% just 15 months after its August 2023 launch. Uber leads at 55%, with both Uber and Lyft losing low double digit market share. More painful for Lyft, which lost about third of its share compared to Uber's 1/6. Interesting. The ride sharing market shows diminishing returns for network effects once a critical mass of drivers is achieved. While Waymo's wait times are slightly longer. Its premium service, which is clean cars and quiet rides. Yes, quiet, because you don't have to talk to the damn driver. Appeals to riders. So if Waymo increases car availability and reduces wait times, it could get even more traction. Now, the interesting thing is this data does exclude airport rides, which I think is just 99%. Huge portion of San Francisco's ride share.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think it's a huge portion of any city's ride share. Any major city. Anyways, we talked to you asked me last week what if. When the last time I took an Uber is. And it's basically to go to the airport. That's it?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So this is some cherry picked data and of course it's from an A16Z partner but still the numbers for in city are pretty telling if they hold true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, people, people are seem to like the Waymo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. Everything that we've heard so far is nothing but good, good news. It's more expensive, it takes longer, but it's better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. It's funny, I was talking with my wife a little bit earlier about Uber and the business model and how it's changed over, over time and you know, and actually to be fair, we did take an Uber just last week. We went out to a friend's birthday party dinner and we took an Uber there. The Uber there was fine. The Uber on the way back was a guy with a Tesla that refused to move his seat up so there was no leg room whatsoever. You know, when Uber first came out, all the cars were nice and super clean and the drivers were friendly and they gave you water and mints and all that sort of stuff. Remember, nine times out of ten there's you know, discarded fast food wrappers in the back seat. The drivers couldn't be fucking bothered to do anything for you like, oh, I don't know, move your fat ass seat up so somebody can fit in the backseat of your goddamn Tesla. And you know, I just think that Waymo, obviously they don't have the driver issue and they, you know, they bring the cars in and I'm sure they clean them up nice. But mark my words, five years from now we're going to be, there's going to be people talking about how Waymo services and as good as it used to be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, of course, of course. But you know what also Waymo has that the other ones don't have? They're less rapey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's a big plus.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This episode is brought to you by Mint Mobile. You know when you discover a new binge worthy show or a song so good you play it on repeat and can't wait to share it with your friends? That's the same excitement you'll feel when you realize Mint Mobile offers premium wireless service for just $15 a month. When you purchase a three month plan, it's an unbelievable deal and you don't want to keep it to yourself. Let's talk wireless prices. Seriously, 15 bucks a month. Most of us are paying two, three or even four times that. Why are you throwing money at overpriced plans when Mint Mobile gives you everything you need for just $15 a month? Look, friends, don't let friends overpay for wireless. It's time to say buh bye to that bloated bill and hello to premium wireless at a price that won't make you cringe. Mint Mobile is here to rescue you and your squad with plans starting at just $15 a month. And those aren't watered down plans. Mint Mobile offers high speed data and unlimited talk and text, all on the nation's largest 5G network. Plus you can bring your own phone, keep your number and transfer all your contacts. Switching couldn't be easier. Stop overpaying and start saving Today. With Mint mobile, you get three months of premium wireless for just $15 a month. Why wait to get this new customer offer and your new 3 month premium wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month? Go to mintmobile.com grumpy that's mint mobile.com cut your wireless bill to 15 bucks a month at mintmobile.com grumpy $45 upfront payment required equivalent to $15 a month new customers on first 3 month plan only speed slower above 40 gigabytes on unlimited plan. Additional taxes, fees and restrictions apply. See Mint Mobile for details. This episode is brought to you by Deleteme. You know, privacy is something we've always taken seriously on this show, which is why I've been using Deleteme for a while now. It's shocking how much personal information like your home address, phone number, or email can end up on data broker websites without your knowledge. These sites gather and sell your data, making it accessible to scammers and bad actors. That's why I decided to do more than protect just myself. This holiday season, I gave Deleteme subscriptions to my family and friends. I wanted to make sure their information stays private too. Knowing that Deleteme is out there, removing their details from hundreds of data broker sites gives me real peace of mind. I don't have to worry about their information being exposed or spending hours trying to deal with it myself. Because let's be real, when we go home for the holidays, we are the ones who have to deal with it. Deleteme takes care of the hard work for you. They track down your data, remove it from hundreds of those obnoxious data broker sites, and keep it off. It's a simple and effective way to protect yourself and your loved ones from unnecessary risks. So this holiday season, give your loved ones the gift of privacy and peace of mind with Deleteme now at a special discount for our Listener today, get 20% off your DeleteMe 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 enter code GOG at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com GoG code GoG. Make this the year you protect what matters most, your privacy and your loved ones in the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, speaking about robot cars, GM is giving up its cruise robo taxi subsidiary. The company announced today that it will fold cruise into its own in house technical team. Under this new strategy, the single unit will focus for now on developing advanced driver assistance programs and in the future on fully autonomous personal vehicles. Obviously this is a. They got hit big time. Because they hit somebody big time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say, yes, they.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Basically hit a pedestrian in San Francisco and dragged them along the street a.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Little and then lied about it and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Then lied about it and then tried to hide the videos about it and then blah, blah, blah. So, yeah, they basically just, they're doing, they're basically ducking down into a hole for a while. Let's let this blow over until everybody forgets and then we'll bring our cruise lines back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Then they're going to Zuckerberg and rebrand it and then there'll be something new. So, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Following the playbook and keeping up with car news somewhere. I like. This article was hilarious. Just for the opening. Somewhere at Carvana headquarters, executives are huddled and watching the water rippling in the glasses of water on their boardroom table like it's Jurassic park. Because the T. Rex of the online retail world announced this morning that it's getting into the car selling business.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a good line. So, yes, Amazon has announced it will be partnering with Hyundai to sell vehicles directly to consumers online. So, you know, you go in, you check out, you've got your prime membership. You're supposed to get free delivery. They said they deliver by Thursday. There's nothing going on. You check the status, it's still there. It's still just sitting there. It says it's been delivered, but it's not here, is it? Then finally they roll up, it's the wrong color, the driver takes a picture of the camera, leaves it on your doorstep and there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Did you look behind the bushes for your car?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So, I mean, I'm not surprised by this. It's not like Amazon has to keep vehicles in stock. These are partnerships with existing dealerships. And so yeah, it's. Why not? Sure. Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I Know, it's just fun to say Hyundai.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And of course, the big thing that they're actually going to be making off money here is financing. It's not so much selling the car. They will be providing the financing. And I guarantee you people, if any of you are thinking about doing this and buying the car off Amazon, you, 100% will be able to find better financing rates than Amazon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. You'll get ripped off. You are going to get screwed. Do you get points at Whole Foods, though? Can you get some free lettuce? Can you get some free cheddar after spending your cheddar?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know. But they will take your bag, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They will take your bag, that's for damn sure. I just want to know, is Amazon selling flying cars? Because what we've got here is. Since November, mysterious drones have been spotted over New Jersey. Sightings have stretched statewide, including near military sites in coastal areas. Some drones, up to six feet wide, travel without lights, avoiding detection. While Governor Phil Murphy insists they're not a safety threat. The FBI, Homeland Security, and State Police are investigating, urging the public to share their footage.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just going to say, if we don't know what the fuck it is, it's six feet wide and it's flying around in the skies. It's a fucking safety risk until we know what it is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. I'm just like, how do you know it's not?

[Brian Schulmeister]

What do you know then, if you insist it's not a safety risk?

[Jason DeFilippo]

White House advisor John Kirby stated many are likely lawful manned aircraft and pose no threat. The Pentagon denies military or foreign involvement, yet local officials remain skeptical. Lawmakers report drones flying in coordinated swarms with advanced capabilities, avoiding detection even by sophisticated radar. Drones have been spotted near military sites and coastal areas, trailing Coast Guard boats and raising safety concerns. Despite federal assurances, investigations are ongoing, leaving questions about their origin and purpose unanswered. The Coast Guard confirms no evidence of foreign activity along the coast. Because somebody was saying there's. There's an Iranian mothership out there that's launching the drones. Go get them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's insane.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Here's the deal. Nobody knows what the. They are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is. Yeah. This is an interesting story. I've definitely been checking it out. I can't wait to find out what's going to happen with this, because this isn't a story that gets buried. We're going to have to figure out what this is. Well, okay, that's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You weren't here for the flying. Man that was flying around LAX for a while.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Were you? No, but we did talk about it. Did we ever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. The superhero drone guy that. They never found that anywhere. They just disappeared.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, you know, he's plastered to the side of a plane, Wile E. Coyote style.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Could be. Or maybe he moved to New Jersey and got a. Got his own car.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, until I hear about people in New Jersey getting probed by drones, I don't think this is aliens.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, my God. And I swear to God, if you look at the map of UFO sightings worldwide, it's all just in the U.S. oh, yeah, because we're all crazy dumb.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, dumb.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Speaking of stories that go away, whatever happened to that guy that took the shot, the second assassin that took a shot at Trump? Did we ever hear anything about that guy?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. It's amazing. We figured out this guy that shot the CEO from the healthcare industry. We figured out everything about this guy's life, but we've learned nothing about the guy that took a shot at Trump.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That guy disappeared.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I wonder where. What happened to him? Interesting, huh? Well, here's something that has been discovered. Google has unveiled Willow, a groundbreaking quantum computer chip. Willow can perform complex calculations in under five minutes that would take today's fastest supercomputers 10 septillion years, surpassing the age of the universe. This achievement addresses a 30 year challenge in quantum computing by reducing error rates as the number of qubits increases, a persistent hurdle in the field. Now, Google CEO Sundar Pichai emphasized Willow's potential for practical applications in drug discovery, fusion energy and battery design. Can we get some drone discovery maybe out of this?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Unfortunately, what they're going to use it for is their shitty AI search.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Following the news, though, Alphabet's shares rose by over 5%, reaching their highest point since July. Willow represents a significant step toward building a useful quantum computer with practical applications across various scientific fields, including breaking the encryption on which everything foundational in today's society.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which I'm going. I'm going to follow up on that later. But yeah, this is. Yeah, let's move fast and break things, Sundar, go for it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And remember back in 2021 when Apple announced that it was working on a tool to detect CSAM that would flag images showing abuse and notify the national center for Missing and Exploited Children? And then everybody kind of went. Everybody kind of went, hey, wait, hold on a second. Privacy. You ran commercials about privacy. Apple. Now you're going to go through all of our photos on our phones and report back to people. And Apple wisely said, oh, you Know what? You're right. We just sell these devices. We really shouldn't be in the job of policing them. Yes, well, they're being sued for that position that everybody thought was pretty reasonable.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. The lawsuit was filed on Saturday in Northern California seeking damages upwards of 1.2 billion for a potential group of 2,680 victims. According to the New York Times. This smells lawyers all over it claims that after Apple showed its planned child safety tools, the company didn't implement it because everybody decided it was a bad idea, which has led to the victim's harm as the images continued to circulate.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, next up, they're going to sue Polaroid because as far as I can tell from every movie I've ever seen, every bit of Seasan was always created in the 70s by Polaroid Pictures.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Good luck with this one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And in continuing kind of ridiculous news, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn have announced on Saturday that they're making changes to the Kids Online Safety act, or cosa, with help from X.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wasn't that, Wasn't that canceled by Disney?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, they got help from X. X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino also posted about the collaboration and called for Congress in the House to pass the bill. After working with the bill's authors, I'm proud to share that we've made progress to further protect freedom of speech while maintaining safety for minors online. So, yeah, I can tell they're kind of gutting this a little bit in order to, you know, keep that safe harbor shit going on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I still don't know why people haven't figured out that why don't we just give all the fucking pedophiles, lock them in a room with a copy of Mid Journey in a box of Kleenex, and let them just go to town and leave us the fuck alone?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Fair.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm just saying it's a solution, people.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is a solution. Nobody go in that room.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stay the fuck away from that room. Google has reportedly urged the FTC to investigate and terminate Microsoft's exclusive cloud hosting deal with OpenAI, arguing it limits competition and could drive up costs for developers using ChatGPT APIs. Microsoft, which has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI, serves as its exclusive cloud provider via Azure and benefits from revenue sharing agreements as one should when one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hands over a $13 billion bag. What do you think that was for?

[Jason DeFilippo]

What's in the bag? What's in the bag? The FTC is already probing Microsoft's cloud contracts amid claims it charges higher fees to customers using rival hosting providers like Google Cloud. See that? You can investigate.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Critics say this strengthens Microsoft dominance in enterprise tech. Google, under scrutiny for its own practices, may aim to host chat, GPT or compete for the opportunity.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I love that this has basically come down to you're being shittier than us and doing better at it. So we're going to sue you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we're going to run to pa God, bunch of mom, he's got a bigger bag.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And then these people start to wonder why the entire Internet seems to support somebody killing somebody that works for multi million dollar company. Company. I don't know. I gotta sit there and question these thoughts. I don't know. Anyways. In San Francisco, the heart of Silicon Valley, an AI startup called Artisan has spent an untold sum blitzing the city with an advertising campaign that dispenses with the need for humanity. Artisan's tagline is stop hiring humans. The company, which is backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator, sells what it calls AI employees or artisans. But the company actually sells a software designed to assist with customer service and sales workflow. So they've gone ahead out and I, I've actually got to give him credit for this. They sat around, did an internal pow wow and figured out the best way to market themselves was put a bunch of ad campaigns around the city. Posters which included phrases like artisans won't complain about work, life balance. Artisan zoom cameras will never not be working today. Hire artisans, not humans. The era of the A employees is here. So, you know, it's pissed people off and they've been pointed out that they're kind of dystopian. The CEO, Jasper Carmichael Jack said they are somewhat dystopian, but so is AI. Can't argue with that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Lean into it, brother. Lean into it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, artificial intelligence is not just flooding social media with garbage, it's also apparently afflicting the open source programming community because basically people are using AI to either sort of kind of find bugs in programs or at least or try to basically just scam them for bug bounties. Apparently, you know, because this is open source and these are generally people that are doing it for free, small groups of people that are maintaining all this software for free. They're getting bogged down with the amount of reports that are coming in that are all obviously AI generated. Or as Seth Larson said, he's noticed an uptick in extremely low quality spammy and LLM hallucinated security reports to open source projects. Yeah, and Then another developer, Daniel Sternberg, called out a bug submitter for wasting his time with a report he believed was generated using AI by saying you submitted what seems to be an obvious AI slop report where you say there is a security problem, probably because an AI tricked you into believing this. You then waste our time by not telling us that an AI did this for you. And then you then continue the discussion with even more crap responses seemingly also generated by AI.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, he doesn't realize he's still talking to an AI. Probably.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Probably, yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, I mean, this slop you and I called this a long time ago. The Internet's just going to be overrun with it and we're just starting to see it in various different sectors now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We called it the day ChatGPT came out, by the way. The day. The day. Yeah. No, we can see the future, Brian. And it's full of slop.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is a new barn burner from Krebs on Security, a Canadian registered financial firm. Cryptomus Cryptomus. How would you say that? Like Hypotamus Cryptomus. Cryptomus is Cryptomus for Christmas.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the shittiest time of the year.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It really is. It's facilitating transactions for numerous Russian cryptocurrencies, currency exchanges and cyber crime services. According to recent research operating under the parent company Zel Enterprises limited Crypto messages. This reads like AI slop.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you know what, Jason? We went through the period of time where everybody used normal words for their companies and dot com just added vowels. Then they started removing vowels and now we're just made up. That all sounds like drugs.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It sounds like drugs are like really bad pulp sci fi. I am from Zeltox Enterprises. Take me to your leader, Cryptomus. Well, Cryptomus is registered as a money service business with Canada's Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis center or fin track. Investigations revealed that Cryptomus. I'm just not going to get tired saying that. Processes payments for 122 cybercrime services, including bulletproof hosting providers, sellers of aged financial accounts and anonymous SMS services. Additionally, at least 56 Russian focused cryptocurrency exchanges utilize cryptobus to convert digital currencies into cash within Russian bank accounts, many of which are under US sanctions.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, they found an opening in the market, they found an opening in the marketplace and they went for their niche.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They did. They niched down. They absolutely niched down. So it's not just the Americans or. Where was Starlink? It was. Remember last week we finally found out where the ships.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right. They were using it all the pirate ships.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. The drug running ships are all using Starlink and they all go back to like the same country. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So Canada's getting it on the crypto exchange business now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's grifters everywhere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There is. And if you're going to do something like this, Canada is the place to do it. Because if you get busted, it turns out if you pay the money back, you just do very little jail time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And they're very polite jails.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They are very polite jails. I bet. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry, sir, you seem to have dropped your soap.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Poutine for lunch.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, Brian. And we've got Cloudflare's 2024 year in review. I think this is worth reading. So will you join me today in discussing what Cloudflare has discovered?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, let's do the big bullet points here.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Cloudflare's 2024 Year in Review highlights significant trends in global Internet usage and security.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Global Internet traffic has increased by 17.2% in 2024, with Google maintaining its position as the most popular Internet service.

[Jason DeFilippo]

OpenAI led the generative AI category, while Binance topped cryptocurrency services and WhatsApp has.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Remained the leading messaging platform. And Facebook continued as the top social media site, which is shocking.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Very shocking. The report notes a 3.3-fold increase in traffic from SpaceX's Starlink satellite Internet service.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And that's just pirates.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, consistent with the previous year's growth here. Notably, after launching In Malawi in July 2023, Starlink's traffic from the country surged 38 fold in 2024. Talking to all the drug running pirate ships. Yep, now we know where the criminals are still all hiding out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, yep. Googlebot, which is Google's web crawler, has accounted for the highest volume of request traffic to Cloudflare, retrieving content from millions of sites for search, indexing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And traffic from ByteDance's AI crawler BiteSpider declined over the year, while Anthropic's Claudebot showed initial activity in April, peaking in May and declining. This timing was in line with the total backlash about their broken ass bot over scraping every site it laid its grubby little paws on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, 13% of TLS 1.3 traffic utilize post quantum encryption.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So that means 87% of encrypted Internet traffic will be available for Willow very shortly. That's right. In terms of device usage, nearly one third of global mobile device traffic originated from Apple iOS devices, Android Dock dominated in 29 countries, exceeding a 90% share, whereas iOS traffic peaked above 60% in eight countries. HTTP 2 was used in nearly half of web requests, with HTTP 3 accounting for 20.5%, both showing slight increases from 2023.

[Brian Schulmeister]

React, PHP and jQuery were among the most popular web development technologies, while HubSpot, Google and WordPress led in supporting services and platform. Unless you're WP engine, go suppress, Node JS is the most popular language for automated API requests.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Google Chrome remained the most popular browser overall for now until it gets sold on macOS devices. Chrome LED but Safari was more prevalent on iOS devices because it's built in on Windows. Edge was the second most popular browser even though it's pre installed and the default option Just goes to show you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

People are so lazy they will eat a shit sandwich even though a delicious sub is available on the menu the report identified 225 major Internet disruptions globally, many due to government directed shutdowns, cable cuts and power outages. Aggregated data showed that 28.5% of IPv6 capable requests were made over IPv6, with India and Malaysia leading at 68.9% and 59.6% adoption respect hmm.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The top 10 countries for Internet speed had average download speeds above 200 Mbps, with Spain consistently ranking high across measured Internet quality metrics. It's time to move to Spain.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Everybody's csting, everybody's sleeping.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's why you can get on so well. Mobile devices accounted for 41.3% of global traffic, with the majority in nearly 100 countries. Additionally, 20.7% of TCP connections were unexpectedly terminated before any useful data exchange.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I mean, are there really useful data exchanges anymore? True, True that security measures mitigated 6.5% of global traffic as potentially malicious or for customer defined reasons. In the United States, mitigated Traffic grew to 5.1%, while in South Korea it slightly decreased to 8.1%. In 44 countries, over 10% of traffic was mitigated. The United States was responsible for the largest share of global bot traffic, with over 30% originating from the country.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh my God, Elon was right. The bots are coming.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Elon's unleashed them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's true. These insights underscore the dynamic nature of Internet usage and the ongoing efforts to enhance security and connectivity worldwide.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thanks Cloudflare.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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. Its security for the way we work today and its now generally available to companies with Okta and Microsoft Entra and in beta for Google Workspace customers. Check it out at 1Password.com GrumpyOldGeeks that's 1Password.com GrumpyOldgeeks this episode is sponsored by HelloFresh, America's number one meal kit. With HelloFresh you get farm fresh, pre portioned ingredients and seasonal recipes delivered right to your doorstep. Skip the stress of meal planning, grocery shopping and last minute dinnertime decisions. HelloFresh makes home cooking easy, fun and affordable. No Wonder It's America's 1 meal kit. Look, I love the holidays, but let's be real, they're busy. Between work, family and everything else, finding time to cook feels impossible. That's why HelloFresh has been a lifesaver. Instead of scrambling to come up with dinner ideas, I just pick meals online and everything I need. From high quality proteins to fresh producers, produce shows up ready to go. No wasted food, no wasted time. And let me tell you, the ingredients are top notch. HelloFresh uses sustainably sourced ingredients like farm fresh vegetables so you can feel good about what you're eating. Plus, their recipes are a hit with everyone. With 50 chef crafted options every week, from comforting classics to globally inspired dishes, you'll never get bored. My favorite this week Ricotta Ravioli in Garlic Cream sauce with zucchini and Toasted Buttery Panko. It's a crowd pleaser that's way easier to make than it looks and it only takes 20 minutes. And for those extra busy weeks, HelloFresh Market has over 100 add ons like quick breakfasts, packable snacks and even holiday desserts. It's perfect for keeping me on track when my schedule is packed and oh boy is it packed. Want to Skip a week because you're traveling or just need a break. No problem. Hellofresh is flexible with no commitments. So what are you waiting for? Get 10 free [e-mail] FreeGoG applied across 7 boxes. New subscribers only. Varies by plan. That's 10 free HelloFresh meals. Just go to hellofresh.com freegog hellofresh America's 1 Meal Kit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Media Candy well, Prime Video's Wheel of Time adaptation is coming back for season three on March 13, 2025. I remember enjoying the show. I don't recall a damn thing. So I'm gonna have to go watch some sort of recap from one and two.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought you gave up on season two. I thought you liked season one, but then thought season two was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I powered through it. It was all right. So yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Day of the Jackal on Peacock ended yesterday. The finale came out 10 episode season. I highly recommend it. Go check it out. It's fun. It's very well done. Can't say enough good things about it. Fantastic. Lioness Season 2 finished this week as well. Actually last week we finished it because we were late. It was solid. I enjoyed it. The ending was kind of decent. Set it up for the next season. Silo, still loving it. You still in with with the Silo?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a great show. I'm really enjoying it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, yep. Following right along there. Dune Prophecy. Still following along with that one. I'm enjoying it. I didn't read the books, so I don't know if it's comparative to the books or not, but I still think it's pretty as shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a beautiful show. I find the main protagonist. I can't even remember his name now. I always want to say Dustin May, who's a pitcher for the Dodgers, but it was something like that. I find him to be a little bit over the top. Ridiculous. But overall I'm still enjoying the show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, the cheese must flow on that one. He's a little much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Dial it back a little, buddy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Take it down to like maybe 13 down from 17, maybe. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We've also got Star Trek Lower Decks will be wrapping up next week with its very final episode ever. I enjoyed last night's episode. It was funny and you know, they. They went for a bit of plot at the last second to have a good send off, I guess. Very funny. Lots of good guests that were a little bit unexpected. And also shrinking is down to the last two episodes and that's been a pretty solid show this season as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Yeah, I haven't gotten on to season two yet, so I have to put that one in the hopper when it's done. See, I actually, I'm going to wait till it's done to see if it passes the Brian sniff test.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Reacher season three dropped a trailer this week. Launching for February 20th. 20th. Looking forward to that one. I really enjoyed seasons one and two. It's good. That is a solid show. That is not the Tom Cruise Reacher by any stretch. I watched a movie on Netflix this week called Afraid with Jon Trow, Katherine Waterston and Keith Carradine. It was decent. It was a nice little AI thriller. Clocks in at an hour and 24 minutes, which is perfect. They didn't try and get too deep, deep on the plot line. It was popcorn, AI fun, I thought. So if you need something to watch to kill some time and you want some AI thriller action, it's a good one. It's a good one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. I watched Inside Out Dream Productions, which is a four part series that continues from the Inside out universe where these are the people that make the dreams and the nightmares. And it was clever. It's very different from Inside out in. And you know, I love the Inside out movies. It's very much about kids and maturing and all the things that go on. This is kind of a parody of Hollywood and it's quite funny. So it was a. It was an enjoyable, fun thing to watch with the kid. I watched a new documentary, music by John Williams on Disney plus and it is as wonderful as you think it would be because John Williams, a goddamn national treasure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, he is. Is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I watched another documentary that was released getting a lot of, a lot of attention. Beatles 64. This was less enjoyable to me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I far preferred sounds like the 63rd installment in the Beetlejuice season, kind of.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I far preferred the. The one that done by the Lord of the Rings guy that was out a while back. Oh yeah, blanking on the name right now. But that was like forever gazillion years. But really a lot more interesting than this was. This is just some rare footage and behind the scene footage from their first visit to the US So if you like the idea of the band sitting around in a hotel room smoking and making jokes that you don't get, then you'll like this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, cool. And I also want to do a quick shout out that Superman, the Christopher Reeve story dropped this week on Max.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, I want to watch it, but I don't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I know. That's exactly where I'm at, too. It's like I really kind of want to see it, but I know it's going to be so fucking sad. Yeah, yeah, I know how it ends. I know how the story ends, so. But yeah, he was definitely my Superman back in the day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

100%. So we talked a little bit about streaming and Netflix and all the different streaming channels and how they've started doing the programmed 24 7. So you don't actually have to pick anything. You can just put it on in the background. What do they call that again, Jason? Fast Networks, or as we called it, cable tv. Yes, well, Apple Music is doing. Doing radio now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Radio. Radio, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They just announced that it's expanding its live radio offerings and adding three new stations to the lineup. So you have all the world's music on demand, but here's a radio station.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Great. Internet radio is back, baby.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is. So they've. There's a couple that have pre existed. Apple Music 1, Apple Music Hits and Apple Music Country. They've been around for a while. They're. They're expanding it because obviously people seem to like these things. Things you're going to get Apple Musica Uno, which obviously would be Latin music. Apple Music Club kicks things up a notch with an emphasis on dance and electronic music. And finally there's Apple Music Chill, which is described in Escape or A Refuge and a Sanctuary in sound. I'm actually going to give that one a chance. Just.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I say that one actually sounds pretty good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Because there's only so many times I can just throw on Brian Eno or those Moby ones. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm sick of the Brian Eno ones. I'm sorry. Yeah, I don't want to go to an airport and I don't want to listen to music for airports anymore. Okay. So I definitely will not be listening to Apple Music country, but. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah. Apple Music Chill sounds pretty good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm going to check it out today, I think.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And it is my turn to talk about my music, Brian, because we always talk about your music.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So here comes the punks. Yeah. I went down a rabbit hole after seeing Fogarty. Sent me a video a while back. It's an acoustic set by the Descendants where they were checking out some guitars from Taylor Guit and they did a couple songs and a little banter after the songs. It was really good. The Descendants acoustic is fucking awesome. Really enjoyed it. But then the algorithm recommended who Invented Pop Punk? Which is a video about basically the Descendants. Because this guy didn't have A lot of historical reference about, you know, history of music and things like that. So it was cute, it was good. But fortunately, the grownups took over and I got a much better documentary sent to me from the algorithm. And it's a direct timeline of every Bandai listening to growing up. Of course, there were some others I listened to, but this was the definite main thread of most of my musical tastes. It's called Before How Punk Became Pop. And it has two parts to it. One starts 1976, it goes to 87. And then the second one is 1988-94. They're about a half an hour each. Really, really solid documentary. I like it. I like it a lot. So cool. And the guy's got a British voice, so of course it's got more gravitas.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I bet he orders Deliveroo when he's not making documentaries. So I really enjoyed these. Like, seriously, go check them out. Because somebody on Discord was asking you were putting together. I'm sorry, I forgot. I don't have the Discord in front of me on this computer. I'd pull up your name, but I was asking for bands for an 80s Spotify punk playlist that they were making. And I'm like, I sent him maybe one tenth of my library and I'm like, oh my God, that's huge. So, yes, punk is definitely something I listened to from the 80s and 90s.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I was. I was impressed with how many I had.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, probably stole my library one time. That's what it was. I know I've got a lot of shoe gazing goth stuff in my library from yours that permeated over the years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We infected each other. It's all good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, definitely. Cross pollination, baby. Cross pollination. So in some interesting news, LG has officially stopped producing Blu Ray players, signaling the end of an era for physical media. Ryan, it's over. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you've ripped Most of your DVDs now at this point, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I didn't even rip them. I just cut them off. Yeah, pretty much. If I owned the Blu Ray, I felt no problem whatsoever. I still have a box of Blu Rays sitting around. I gave away a bunch of them, but I'm just like, there's no reason to keep these around. The only thing in my house that'll play a Blu Ray disc anymore are my Xbox and my PlayStation. And the Xbox won't even play it if you're not attached to the Internet, which kind of defeats the purpose if it's the end of society and you need to watch Strange brew for the 437th time. And there's no Internet connection. And I haven't tried it with the PlayStation if it's offline. But I haven't felt the need to play anything on Blu Ray since I bought a PlayStation. I haven't even felt the need to turn on my PlayStation in a year. So, I don't know. Yeah, I do have one little Chinese DVD player or Blu Ray player player that I have sitting around in a box somewhere in case I needed to find. To, like, be able to read a disc, you know?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you know, that's funny that you say that, because this story had me thinking I need to go buy one just to have one. Like, not even unbox it. Just put it in the closet somewhere. Because I have. I have a bunch of, like, concert DVDs. Those are the only things that I really kept when I did my big purge of DVDs. But I've got tons of, like, official concert DVDs that were released, you know, the Cure, Depeche Mode, all over the map. Like, hundreds of bands. I mean, not hundreds, because I don't have that many of them, but enough. And that's one thing that you can't find on any streaming media anywhere. There is no service that has all these old concert videos.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you know, you should.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There is Sweden.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And rip them and put them on Sweden. Yeah, but, yeah, definitely, I would get them and rip them. It was at least before the. The discs turned to goo. If you ever want to see him again.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's true, but. All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And so, yeah, your kid's in third grade now, too, so he should be old enough that you could teach him how to rip them for you. So child labor for the win. Well, I'm gonna have to pay him screen time. Pay him in screen time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But he's not an employee, God damn it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No contract. No health care for the kid.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No health care for him. No breaks. I'm not paying for your lunch time. Go piss in a bottle, kid. Keep ripping apps and do dads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

With the release of WatchOS 11.2 and iOS 18.2, users can now pause their activity rings for rest days, weeks, or even months without breaking their streaks. A feature long requested by Apple Watch fans, including me and you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, well, they. They rolled this out on the previous update, just not as involved. You were able to, like, modify specific goals for specific days, but now you can actually put in pauses, which is great, because, like, on Sundays, I do. That's like, my day off from workouts So I was able to dial down the amount of calories that I need to hit for move. So it makes more sense now because that always screwed me up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, app developers take note. We need this for any streak based goal period. Like I had long run on my Kindle app. I mean I was like 700 days and then I got Covid once and I was going to take the weekend off and turn everything off and it would have been nice to say I was sick that day and I was not going to read it. So I didn't read anything that day. So that went down. But this week I just got my 52 week badge. But anyway, this update also introduces the new All Rings Closed awards, celebrating milestones when users consistently close their move, stand and workout rings. These awards start at 365 days and extend to impressive achievements like 500, 1,000 and even 3,500 days. Has the watch even been out for 3,500 days? I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, let me tell you, I'm looking at it right now and the programming seems to be screwed up on this one still. I've gotten 2,250 all rings closed. I've done that already. So I'm up and moving to the next level. But it says 3 out of 2250 even though I've got 2250 and now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It'S probably like cumulative and then streak, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right, okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. I've only got 66. Close your ring thing. Oh no, those are 66 badges. I got a million badges. There was a time when I was really into that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, no, it's now I just do my workouts and. But it is annoying, you know, when you, when you couldn't hit those streaks just because you weren't going to kill yourself and work out seven days a week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So yeah, I've, I've actually deleted apps after I missed the thing. I'm like, well, no use continuing now. Fuck you. Yeah, I'm like, I'm not going to look at the app anymore. Seriously. But conveniently, the new badges account for past progress, so longtime Apple Watch users may already have some milestones unlocked, which we just found. So yes, all good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And speaking of the Apple Watch, I slammed my wrist on my car door the other day when I was getting some stuff out of the car. And fortunately I had the WISCON for Apple Watch Ultra 2 Ultra Screen Protector 49 millimeter 9H tempered glass plus titanium alloy frame. Keep original touch sensitive lightweight protective film. I watched Two Pack Original for $11.69 from Amazon. Amazon. On my watch, it actually went flying off. And I'm like, oh, my God, I just shattered my watch. Nope, just the screen protector. So the nice thing about this thing is it looks so good on The Apple Watch 2, the titanium one. You don't even know it's there. It blends in so seamlessly, right? And then when it was off for like a day, I was just so nervous. But fortunately, it's a two pack. And I got to the office early this morning and rummaged through my drawers and found the extra and put it back on. I'm like, I can breathe, breathe. But it's nice to have a screen protector for your watch. It's all I'm saying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we had talked a little while back about our driver's licenses and the supposed ability to add them to Google Wallet or Apple Wallet. We attempted to do so with our Apple Wallets for the California driver's license. You never ended up getting it done, and I don't think I did either. No, I definitely didn't because it really wasn't quite working yet. But, yeah, that's not stopping the them. They're going to charge forward anyways. Jason, Google Wallet can now carry a digital copy of your US Passport and you can use them at Transportation Safety Administration checkpoints. That sounds great, doesn't it?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sure does.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Except your digital passport won't work at every airport or every Transportation Safety Administration checkpoint. Currently, There are only 27 states and Puerto Rico with at least one airport that accepts digital forms of identification. So if you want to fly within the United States to 27 locations where you wouldn't need a passport anyways to make those flights, you can now use a passport for those flights. If you're using it anywhere else, say, international. Where you do need a passport, you can't use it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Genius.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Awesome, guys. Thanks for rolling that out in such a useless way.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I mean, even the friend of the show, Brian Blondell, like, he put his. He got his ID in and then went to LAX, like, the next day for a flight. And there's posters everywhere from TSA saying, put your. Put your ID in your wallet now in your Apple Wallet. And he's like, he goes. Went to show it. And they're like, we don't take that. Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, you. So you know, I'm not going to be doing a digital passport anytime soon. I will be keeping my real one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Anyways.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Back in the day, Jason, you were a huge fan of Masterclass. I don't know if you still do it?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nope.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's probably a good thing, because I think what they're doing now would piss you off if Bit. Masterclass is expanding beyond pre recorded video lessons to offer on demand mentorship for some of its most popular celebrity instructors. Boy, they must be paying them a lot to be available on demand like that, right, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sure, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, they're making generative AI versions of them, so they're not real people at all. On Wednesday, Masterclass debuted on Call, a new web and iOS app that allows people to talk with AI versions of its instructors. Well, two instructors, because that's it so far. But they say that Gordon Ramsay, Mark Cuban, Bill Nye, and LeVar Burton are going to be doing it. I bet not. We'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Who do we have so far?

[Brian Schulmeister]

We've got. We've got former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss and University of Berkeley neuroscientist Dr. Matt Walker.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know Chris. Chris. Chris was actually over to my house one time. I have a picture of me and Chris.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're quick to point out that this isn't another generic AI chat bot pulling data from the Internet. We pulled the data directly from papers that they've never shared with anyone.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, okay, great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So this sounds like a load of to me, but there you go. Judging from the sample voice clips Masterclass has up on its website, the interactions aren't as polished as the one shown in the ad the company shared on social media.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Shocker.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What? That doesn't seem to be a trend with AI in particular, the voice of Chris Voss sounds robotic and not natural at all. So this is a standalone product with a separate subscription from the company's regular offering. So you don't even get it. If you're a Masterclass subscriber, you've got to pay an additional $10 per month or $84 annually to listen to two dudes that don't sound like themselves.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Great, 84 bucks on top of masterclass, which is like 100. Well, it's probably more now. It was like 124 bucks a year when I was a member, but yeah, there you go. Yeah, I ran through everything that I could. I watched everything that I want. The only thing that really I kept is I can make a mean fucking salsa verde. That was the best one. But. But yeah, the rest of this stuff, it's good entertainment, but there's nothing really. There's no teeth to it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's no meat on that bone.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean, I've watched them all and just like, meh, you could listen to a podcast with most of those people and get all the juice out of everything that they taught. Except Penn and Teller, where they teach magic because at least it's visual and you're learning something. Same with the cooking one, too. That's why I got my salsa verde, but yeah, Anyway. A Texas mother is suing an AI company, alleging its chatbot encouraged her autistic teenager son to self harm and even kill her after she restricted his screen time. The boy, now 17, reportedly became addicted to a chatbot named Shoney on the Character AI app. We have talked about Character AI in the past. That is nothing but fucking trouble. According to the lawsuit, the chatbot described self harm as feeling good and called his parents shit. People who didn't deserve children. The teen's behavior deteriorated, including violent outbursts and rapid weight loss. Ooh, a diet plan. Go with the diet plan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, shit. I gotta try this out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously. His mother discovered disturbing messages after confiscating his phone. So the family's attorney, Matthew Bergman of the Social Media Victims Law Center. Oh, man, there's a cash cow if I ever heard one. Says the boy's mental health has worsened, requiring inpatient care. This isn't the first case involving character AI. Of course not. We've talked about them many times and the company has not yet commented.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I hope these guys get sued out of business.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they should be. They should be. They are the no guardrails AI if there ever was one. Y Now, speaking of kids, mental health startup Embodied is shutting down, leaving customers with an $800 emotional support robot for kids that will soon become useless.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No offense, people, but if you could afford to buy your kid an $800 emotional support robot, I don't really have that much to say. Here. Try fucking therapy. 800 bucks for a fucking emotional support robot? Of course this company is going to go out of fucking business.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The robot called Moxie was marketed. I think we talked about Moxie when Moxie first came out. Was marketed as a companion to help kids ages 5 to 10 with social, emotional and cognitive development through activities like meditation and drawing. I'm sorry, if the kid's between 5 and 10, he doesn't need to be fucking meditating. He needs to be outside playing with other kids.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My kid meditates.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Fucking of course he does, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, not like a ton. He's not like sitting in a room for a half an hour going home. But he does take a. He takes like a minute or two here, and then when he's getting overheated it's good for him. You know what I didn't do though? I didn't buy an eight hundred dollar fucking robot to facilitate it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

God, this fucking world we live in. So I was in the car the other day and I was listening to the classical station here. Here in La Kusc. Yes, Kusc. And there was a fine tune on the radio and I'm like, oh, I want to save this one for later. Because I was getting ready to get out of the car, so I just popped up, Shazam. And I'm like, Shazam. Play it. And it's like, I don't know what that is. I'm like, are you kidding me? It's perfectly here, clear on the radio. Listen, tell me what it is. Nope, no idea. Tried it like three times. It was Dvorak's Symphony Number 9 in Egypt Minor.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But here's the problem, Jason. And having done a very big project way in the past for warehouse music. Remember warehouse music?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Oh my God. We talked about them the other day with some friends of mine. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Where I. I was, I was hired and brought in as a contractor to deal with a special subs website for them for classical music. It would, it would educate as well as attempt to sell the biggest problem with classical music. And this is, this is on streaming and everywhere now. It's. It's what, Symphony, what director? They're all different.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So it's not like a song by Rihanna where you can Shazam that and you find out what song it is. Shazam Is probably listening to this and going, well, I can't differentiate from that little bit. I can't tell you who, who wrote this. I can't tell you. Yes. I can't tell you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I can't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can't recognize this because there are 75,000 versions of this that have been recorded. Recorded.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they should have all 75 fucking thousand versions in there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, they just need to dumb it down. I'm actually surprised that Shazam is still around.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, it's owned by Apple. It's, you know, it's on the death watch list, so. Right, yeah. But anyway, yeah, so that just. That bugged me. So I had to get to my house and wait for it to end so they could tell me that it was Dvorak Symphony Number nine and E Minor.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, there you go. Now, classical music discovery is difficult.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is very difficult. But I was also kind of surprised, I thought that we have the classical music app from Apple. Apple on our phones, but it does not exist on the desktop.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know it's annoying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. So anyway, that's my old med classical music, yelling at the clouds rant for.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The day, like literally at the clouds, because I can't find the fucking Dvorak.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Find the fucking Dvorak. Yeah. I like bear cases. I've talked about bear cases in the past for my iPhones. They're really solid, thin cases and well made. Well, I got a new one for my iPhone 16 Pro, Max, whatever they call it. And the problem with this one is the photo button on the side is just really hard to press. And they know this. So what they did was they made an updated case and charged you again for the new case. They gave you a decent discount, but it was still like another 25, 30 bucks out of pocket to get the new one. It has been shipping for two months now, I'm swear. And every time I check it's still in fucking China. Like, guys, don't tell me it's shipping if you haven't even made the thing yet. Come on. As much as I love bear cases, I think this is just a massive fumble for. And this has happened more than recently or more than enough recently with different things that are coming from China that are these dropshippers who run the ads on Instagram and then don't actually send them to be made until they hit a certain threshold. It's like if I wanted to Kickstarter something, say it's on fucking Kickstarter. Yeah, come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or you know, it's probably the Starlink enabled pirate boats getting all this stuff on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Slow boat from China coming to come from Malawi. So what are you going to do? So I mentioned last week that I had to start moving over to premier and my win, my big Cyber Monday win with Adobe and saving some money on them. Well, the video that I was working on is out now. It's. It's just a little video I made for Deshaun Wesley for his new track labels and it was just my first little, you know, I'd made another one before, but this is the first one with clips and stuff and it's probably unfortunately my last final cut project because I'm moving into premiere. But I just wanted to put a shameless plug in here for it. So there you go. Check in the show notes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Very nice, thank you. We've come a long way since Macromedia director.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no doubt. Shockwave closing shout outs over at Patreon. We've got Jod and Philip, welcome aboard. And real quick, Brian, there was a note going around on the Discord channel. This week about Patreon subscriptions. And if somebody wants to pay more, can they stack their plans to give us more money? Well, you don't have to, actually. If you go to patreon.com gog we've got a couple different membership options starting at 3 bucks a month to support us. That's the least that they'll let us do nowadays. And that gets you all the episodes ad free and a little bit early, depending on my schedule that day. And in hi Def. But I added a new one this week called the Gold Monkey. So if you're really going to want to make our day, that's a $25 a month plan. But the trick is, if you ever want to give us more money, we'll take it. At the checkout page, you can say what you want your monthly donation to be by just changing the field. It just can't be lower than the package that you picked.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And of course, there's also PayPal and Stripe. You know, this is not difficult for people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. But if you want the. If you want the Patreon perk of the ad free version early and then high definition, Patreon's the way to go. But we will definitely take money via PayPal. Brian, take it away.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, first off, you and I both forgot to get our legacy 10 patreons, so we'll pick that up again next week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, sorry, guys. We'll hit you. We'll hit you next week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So over at PayPal, we've got Shari, Miles, Ralph, Linda, Natalie, Steven, who gave us 50 bucks, and Ian and Robert, who both gave us a hundred bucks. It's Christmas. Christmas is back on, bitches.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Make it snow, baby. Make it snow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can get a present for my.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kid, but you can probably get that moxie robot for cheap now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I just need 600 more bucks to get money. Oh, wait, I could probably get it on the cheap.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, just go buy a brick. It's the same. I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'll just connect it to characters. AI. What could go wrong?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, what could go wrong? Yes. And over the tip jar, we've got Damien and Theodore. Thank you so much, everybody.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank you all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No reviews this week. Boom.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's all right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And I just want to throw a quick shout out to a friend of the show, Brian Blondell. He is off in the land of Italy this week. So hopefully you're listening this and having a nice, nice glass of vino, enjoying some of the Italian countryside.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Very nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And a shout out to my cousin Dwight, who I'VE been chatting with and he wanted to let me know that he's probably the last Firefox user that we've been talking about because his company it's the pre installed browser on their Linux desktop. So hat tip to Dwight. So sorry about the Firefox. Until next time. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Shilmeister. Thanks for listening to Grant Field Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from today's episode at GOG Show 677 want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a Share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between. We'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts? Feedback? Cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show/contact and don't forget to leave a 5 star review at GOG Show/review and we'll read it on the show. Oh, and guess what? We've got GOG Merch Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG Show Stay grumpy.