679: Set Sanity to Zero

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 679: "Set Sanity to Zero" – Summary

Release Date: January 11, 2025
Hosts: Jason DeFilippo & Brian Schulmeister
Guest: Dave Bittner

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1. Personal Updates and Recent Challenges

The episode kicks off with Brian Schulmeister sharing his recent struggles after contracting the flu during Christmas. He recounts his miserable flight home, dubbed the "plague plane," where he endured persistent coughing alongside other passengers. Despite his efforts to stay healthy, Brian fell ill again, mentioning, "And I will affectionately call it the plague plane. It was the worst plane I've ever been on in my entire life." [01:13]

Jason DeFilippo empathizes with Brian's predicament, expressing his own exhaustion from lack of sleep: "I have the technology. There will be a show next week." [02:09]

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2. Wildfires in Los Angeles and the Watch Duty App

A significant portion of the discussion centers around the devastating wildfires currently ravaging Southern California. Jason introduces the Watch Duty app, praising its comprehensive features for tracking wildfires and wind patterns: "It is a Swiss army knife of trying to stay alive." [02:50]

Brian adds that he's monitoring the app closely, especially concerned for friends in affected areas. They discuss the rapid spread of the Kenneth Fire, its proximity to Jason's Malibu Canyon residence, and the controversial use of private firefighting resources: "If anybody says the rich don't get preferential treatment, I would say Fuck you, man." [04:34]

The hosts express frustration over the arson-related fires, highlighting the recent arrest of a suspect near Jason's home: "This last guy ... he was trying to set one a half mile from my house, which is basically the nightmare." [05:57]

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3. MoviePass Scandal and CEO Guilty Plea

Transitioning to corporate misconduct, Brian outlines the downfall of MoviePass's leadership. Ex-CEO Ted Farnsworth and former CEO Mitch Lowe have pled guilty to defrauding investors by misleading claims about the sustainability of MoviePass's business model: "They knew that was not true and it was a temporary marketing gimmick." [09:58]

Jason adds skepticism about the company's dubious strategies, pointing out the misuse of geolocation data for selling targeted coupons: "We called bullshit that within 10 seconds when we saw it." [10:17]

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4. UK’s Legislative Move Against Sexually Explicit Deep Fakes

Brian reports on the UK government's efforts to criminalize the creation and distribution of sexually explicit deep fakes, expanding beyond mere sharing to include creation: "Platforms hosting this content will face tougher scrutiny and significant penalties." [10:50]

Jason criticizes the limitations of such measures, arguing that deep fakes are primarily produced by individuals using open-source tools rather than tech companies: "Who's to say I don't talk to aliens every day already?" [11:24]

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5. Meta’s Board Expansion and Alignment with Political Figures

The conversation shifts to Meta (Facebook) appointing UFC CEO Dana White to its board, signaling a strategic pivot to align more closely with former President Trump's base. Jason mocks the inclusion, highlighting White's lack of tech expertise and Meta’s apparent prioritization of political appeasement over industry insight: "You can rape somebody and get the highest seat in the country, so why not?" [12:02]

Brian humorously notes the addition by referring to AI-generated imagery of tech CEOs "kissing ass," further criticizing Meta's direction: "Nick Clegg is gone. Not really." [12:54]

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6. AI’s Impact on the Job Market and Security Concerns

Jason and Brian delve into the ramifications of AI on employment, citing an article that predicts the loss of 450,000 jobs in the next year due to AI advancements. They discuss automated job applications and AI's role in hiring processes: "He applied for 1,000 jobs while he was asleep and he got 50 interviews." [17:59]

Brian suggests selling automated job-application algorithms to platforms like Indeed or Monster, emphasizing the cyclical nature of AI utilization in the job market.

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7. Corporate Mergers and AI Integration

The hosts highlight the Getty Images and Shutterstock merger, emphasizing its $3.7 billion valuation aimed at capitalizing on AI's growth. They critique the merger as an antitrust violation and question its actual benefits: "Look, we've got five fingers." [29:49]

Jason opines that stock photography is becoming obsolete due to generative AI's capabilities, deeming the merger as an attempt to salvage a declining industry: "What's going to go through. It's a dead industry anyway." [30:06]

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8. Salesforce on AI-Driven E-commerce Growth

Discussing e-commerce trends, Jason cites Salesforce's report on AI's role in driving online sales during the 2024 holiday season. AI-influenced sales surged to $229 billion, with a notable increase in chatbot usage: "Shoppers used AI based chatbot services, 42% more than last year." [31:52]

However, high return rates pose challenges to profit margins, prompting Salesforce to advocate for AI tools to mitigate losses: "It's like, hey boss, we lose a dollar on every unit we sell." [31:58]

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9. Apple’s Privacy Settlement Over Siri Recordings

A critical segment discusses Apple’s recent agreement to pay $95 million over accusations that Siri unintentionally recorded private conversations. Jason mocks the settlement's effectiveness, suggesting Apple’s contribution is negligible compared to the fines: "$95 million is going to make it go away? It seems so." [68:26]

Brian highlights public skepticism, noting users fear their phones are always listening despite lack of concrete evidence: "There's none. No legitimate research." [69:41]

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10. Reviews and Recommendations of TV Shows

The hosts briefly touch upon various TV shows, sharing their opinions and experiences:

• "Skeleton Crew": Brian expresses enjoyment after rekindling his interest through a Disneyland visit, appreciating its evolving plot and action sequences: "I'm thoroughly enjoying it." [60:42]

• "Beast Games": Jason fervently recommends the show, praising its entertainment value: "It really is good. Highly recommended." [61:27]

• "Wallace and Gromit": Dave Bittner introduces the latest movie, with Brian and Jason discussing its adherence to the original short-form charm versus the challenges of extending it to feature length.

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11. Closing Remarks and Listener Engagement

In the episode's conclusion, the hosts express gratitude towards their Patreon supporters and donors, encouraging listeners to contribute to sustain the show. They also share personal anecdotes about their reading habits and upcoming projects, maintaining the podcast's signature blend of tech commentary and casual banter.

Jason humorously remarks on missing out on purchasing a Kindle from Brian, while Brian shares his rekindled interest in gaming through the Nintendo Switch: "Congratulations on becoming a gamer, Brian." [50:36]

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Notable Quotes:

• "I think the best way to do that? Get rid of it." — Jason DeFilippo on Apple's notification summaries. [45:24]

• "Fuck it. Go. Go for it, Elon. Just call it the flying car." — Brian Schulmeister mocking Tesla’s Smart Summon feature. [26:53]

• "If we're back to that point, remember when the Internet first just started and your parents got on and they started sending you emails about every stupid thing that you've ever seen on the planet? Yes, we're back to that." — Jason DeFilippo lamenting social media backslides. [24:53]

• "We're giving any fact checking whatsoever. We're going back to their roots and focusing on reducing." — Brian Schulmeister on Meta's shift away from fact-checking. [20:48]

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Key Takeaways:

• Environmental Concerns: Ongoing wildfires in LA and their societal impact, exacerbated by arson and unequal resource distribution.

• Corporate Accountability: The fall of MoviePass executives highlights the consequences of misleading business practices.

• Legislative Actions: The UK is tightening laws against sexually explicit deep fakes, aiming to curb malicious AI-generated content.

• Tech Industry Shifts: Meta's board changes suggest a strategic realignment towards political appeasement, raising concerns about its implications for platform governance.

• AI’s Dual-Edged Sword: While AI drives significant growth in e-commerce, it also threatens job markets and introduces new security challenges.

• Privacy Issues: Apple's substantial settlement over Siri's unintended recordings underscores ongoing debates about smartphone privacy.

• Media Consumption: Hosts share their perspectives on current TV shows, reflecting on the balance between nostalgia and modern storytelling.

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This episode of Grumpy Old Geeks offers a comprehensive critique of recent tech industry developments, blending personal anecdotes with sharp commentary on corporate and societal issues. The hosts maintain their characteristic candor, providing listeners with both insightful analysis and relatable experiences.

Transcript

[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 DiFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Coming to you from the 51st State of the United States of America, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Woo hoo. I was hoping that we were going to be in the Canadian Baja instead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Come on, it's a new province. That's the better way to go about it, I think.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'll take that one instead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I think we all would. Anyways, we're back after a slightly longer than expected break. I got the plague over Christmas and that was not fun. And then I was. Luckily it was just myself and my mom. My mom didn't have it too bad. I basically slept 12 hours a day for a couple days in a row and then we boarded the plane to come home. And I will affectionately call it the plague plane. It was the worst plane I've ever been on in my entire life. And I've been on planes that have been struck by lightning. Coughing, hacking One person a row over and to the right of us puked about seven times throughout the flight.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh God.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So unsurprisingly, when we landed within about six hours, my wife started coughing and she has now been sick the entire week. And so far my son has completely avoided it. But then I woke up this morning with a head cold. So round two is coming my way.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, fun times.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, but I'm not on fire.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, I'll trade you. I'll trade you. I'll take the sniffles over what we're dealing with any day of the week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I don't blame you. This is the worst it's ever been. So I'm glad to hear so far you're safe and all. Good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just have to say for the record, I hate taking weeks off. I hate taking time off. I get discombobulated for holidays. It drives me insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, I know. You're always so disappointed when I say we're taking a week off over Christmas.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I am. I'm like, who can I get to sub in? God Damn it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hey, AI's there, man? Come on, AI. Brian.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, might have to come to that. AI. Both of us. Who the fuck knows? Yeah, no, I have. Last night I got three hours of uninterrupted sleep, but since Monday I've gotten no more than two hours of uninterrupted sleep. So I'm a bit of a zombie today, so this is going to be an interesting show. I had a million stories in my RSS reader, but could not quite get to that. I was sitting there in my bed last night putting them in and I fell asleep with my laptop going and just zonked out. Just was gone. I woke up a couple hours later and I'm like, you know, yeah, we're going to go get a little bit more sleep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We got plenty. We're good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Yeah. Thank God for the Watch Duty app, is all I have to say. I've talked about that in the past. Last time LA was on fire, which wasn't too long ago. Surprisingly, it is by far the best way to watch Wildfire info. And thanks to a friend of the show, Brian Blondell. He showed me all the cool features because I'm like, why can't I find an app that just shows me where the wind is blowing? He's like, oh, that's in Watch Duty. Just go hit the layers thing. And I'm like, damn it, that thing's got everything in it. It is a Swiss army knife of trying to stay alive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. I also downloaded it and I've been keeping track because obviously I have friends scattered all over Southern California, some of whom luckily none of my friends have lost anything as of yet. Quite a few have had to evacuate. But yeah, I've been keeping an eye on the app as well and here's hoping it doesn't citizen on us.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, this one's a non profit, so it shouldn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a non profit. And as soon as I get a few bucks, I'm definitely going to send.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Them some, but I'm sure I'll get an alert if Lady Gaga's house burns down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think I already got that alert. It's long gone. Yeah, that's the one thing. The alerts do come fast and furious, which is why I have.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The fires are fast and furious right now, Jason. So that might explain it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. Yesterday there was the. I think they called it the Kenneth fire. What's the frequency, Kenneth? Watch that one go. Because that was right. Right by our place too. And it went. It literally went from where I'm at now all the way. It ended in the parking lot, like right behind the parking lot of my old apartment in Malibu Canyon. Inside of two hours, that thing was just like, whoosh all the way down the hill. And you know, if anybody says the rich don't get preferential treatment, I would say Fuck you, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I didn't even know private firefighters existed until this fire.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, this was just. This wasn't even private firefighters. Well, see, we knew that private firefighters existed before because the Kardashians hired them the last time and they basically kept Hidden Hills safe. But this time, because I'm right next to the Palisades fire and they circle my house before they go drop water. And I see it's getting very close, which is very unnerving, but we see all of the helicopters and everything on that one. Well, there's, you know, six or seven helicopters flying around there as soon as a fire breaks out next to Hidden Hills, which is where all of the super rich Ding Dongs live. Well, most of them. And it started to creep up on that. There was, I mean There were like 10 helicopters within five minutes. It was insane how fast they got there. And they stopped it right at the edge and it kind of went right around it and then they just let it go straight towards Malibu Canyon and it was just like. It was incredible what they did to save those places. But it was just everybody was in the right place at the right time. It was the right type of fire. But they're going to find who set that one because that was not. That did not spontaneously erupt.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah. I don't have a lot of faith in human nature when you're just seeing all these videos of people just basically starting fires in LA right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, they were. They arrested. The big news was they arrested a sub, a suspect for arson. And it turns out it was about a half mile from my fucking house.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. This last guy that they got, or I think it was the first guy they got, he was trying to set one a half a mile from my house, which is basically the nightmare, which is why nobody around here slept because the Santa Ana winds take over the whole city. So when, when the wind starts blowing, any place can catch on fire. It's not just the ones that are on fire. You are worried that one little spark is going to basically take out your neighborhood for days on end. It is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

People understand how fast fire moves, particularly in those winds. Or even just an ember can blow for miles and start another fire. Like it's insane.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, and we've got these stupid ass palm trees that are, you know, they're just ember factories.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And it's just insane.

[C]

It is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It has been. It has been troubling. And it's not over. It's definitely not over because like I said, the Palisades fire is in the middle of meandering its way through the Santa Monica mountains right towards us. So you can check out my Instagram if you want to see my drone pictures of how closer it's getting as it goes. I took it. I like charged it up and took it up yesterday and got a couple shots and then the wind picked up in the afternoon and my drone's like, hey, can I come down now? It's like, it's getting a little windy up here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's no fun up here.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, come on down. I do know. At least I know about seven people that lost their houses, but Kevin Rose was one of the ones. And he post. He finally posted video of his place. It was pretty sad because the one thing that's left standing in this big giant pit is his server rack, which, when I went over there last time, he was so proud of and showed me that it was like the whole control for his studio, the home automation and everything. And that's all that's left. And it's just like half melted.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So that. That. That really sucks. But yeah, lots and lots and just PCH is just heartbreaking.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, God. So many. So many places that I used to go to all the time. So many memories. Good friend of mine's first date with his wife was at the Real Inn, which is burned down. I used to stop the best shrimp tacos in the world were at the reel in. Moon shadows is gone, so we can't memorialize Mel Brooks sugar tits anymore. It's. It's all sad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. All the cal. The Californication location is gone. All that stuff.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like, yeah, I hope MASH makes it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they rebuilt it last time, so yeah, it. Oh, man. No, it's just been. It's been a week. It's been a week and it hasn't even been a week. It's been four days. Yeah, it's the fucked up thing. It feels like it's been even on the news last night. They're like, in the past week, that's been a day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Crazy. Well, get the Watch Duty app if you want to play along at home in the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, avoiding things fire related, except metaphorically, we finally have a final chapter to one part of the Movie pass saga. Ex CEO Ted Farnsworth has pled guilty in federal court to defrauding investors in the subscription service. Surprising nobody. According to the just department, Farnsworth and ex CEO Mitch Lowe were indicted because they falsely claimed that movie passes 995 Unlimited plan was tested sustainable and would be profitable or break even on subscription fees alone. They knew that that was not true and it was a temporary marketing gimmick to grow new subscribers and in turn artificially inflates the stock price and attract new investors. In addition, they allegedly also made false and misleading representations about the positive impact that multiple revenue streams other than subscription fees were having on MoviePass profitability and self sufficiency. Unfortunately, there were no other revenue streams whatsoever that helped offset losses that they experienced from their unlimited plan concept. So Farnsworth's attorney, Sam Rabin, told Variety that it was important for Mr. Farnsworth to accept responsibility for his conduct. And he took the first step by entering a guilty plea. This day, he will take the second step entering jail.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we called bullshit that within 10 seconds when we saw it. Everything they don't even talk about, you know, his. His harebrained idea to use geolocation data that they were illegally collecting to sell you coupons to places that were in between you and the movie theater for dinner and such like. Remember that scale?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I do. Wasn't that the second CEO? Wasn't that after this guy? I don't even remember anymore. This is. I didn't watch the movie, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I didn't watch the movie either, but I. And I didn't really pay attention to who was running this at the time. I honestly don't remember anybody's name.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was just a revolving door of fucking shucksters and snake oil salesmen. That's what it was.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. I'm really one of the guys across the street from me. I saw on his LinkedIn that he worked there for a little while. I want to go ask him about it, but it might be a touchy subject. He might actually have left the country already, who knows?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Could be. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, in other news, the UK government has taken new steps to deter the creation of sexually explicit deep fakes. New criminal offenses for producing or sharing sexually explicit deep fakes is on the docket right now. Right now only. Sharing deep fakes is currently an offense under UK law. So they're actually going to start to go after the creators now. So I think that's a positive step. But of course, they say tech companies need to step up too. Platforms hosting this content will face tougher scrutiny and significant penalties.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they won't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we'll talk about the tech companies pleasing themselves in a few minutes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So what they don't, they're not actually talking about either is that tech companies aren't the ones that are going to be creating this stuff, it's the people at home with the open source versions. That's where the stuff is made. This stuff's not made on a quote unquote platform anymore. It's made on the PC in the basement, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. But you got to stop the distribution. Theoretically.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Theoretically. Take down 4chan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Meta has added the UFC CEO Dana White to the board. Yes. It appears you can beat your wife and still get on the biggest board in the country.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you can rape somebody and get the highest seat in the country, so why not?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Fair enough. That is true. So this is all part of Mark Zuckerberg's current pivot, which is to kiss Trump's ass. And this is one of. Definitely one of the moves to do it. This is, that's. This is not a typical member on the board. He has basically zero, zero knowledge of the tech industry. That's not what he does. The two members met as adding alongside White, John Elkin and Charl Songhurst fit the social media company's usual bill. So this is. He's a bit of an outlier here. That is basically just a Trump thing. So good times. Yes. And he's also visited Mar a Lago, but very documented. And we'll get to the other bits that he's doing to make Zuckerberg make Trump happy in a few minutes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. No, somebody should send Zuckerberg a case of Burt's bees because his lips are going to get so chapped from kissing that ass. It's ridiculous. Talk about.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, one of the best things that I saw, and of course, you know, it's AI generated. So I have mixed feelings about this. But it was a Zuckerberg, it was Amazon guy, Bezos and I think the Google guy. All three down on their knees, mouths open and their tongues were orange.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There you go. That's about it. And yeah, Nick Clegg is gone.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, Nick Clegg. Sorry to see him go. Not really.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, not really.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I'm sure they're replacing him with somebody worse. See, that's the next four years for us. Jason Somebo is going to lose their job and we're going to go, oh, good, he was a horrible person. And then a more horrible person will be put into their place.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Nick is being replaced by Joel Kaplan. Met his most prominent Republican executive. So, yeah, see, and since, since Dana White has been announced as being part of the board, the. Apparently there's a lot of internal dissent going on right now. And of course, you Know, they can't figure out how to. Yeah, they can't figure out how to do censorship on their, on their public facing platform, which we'll talk about in about two minutes. But they sure as shit can figure it out internally. So, yeah, they're knocking down people who are criticizing what's happening inside the company.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, as you should be doing if you're there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's kind of the same. They have the same tools internally like Zuckerberg had when he could delete his messages, but nobody else could remember that we were supposed to. Still getting. Did we ever get those? I don't know. I, I left Facebook so long ago. I didn't, I didn't do any fact checking on that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can delete your messages, but are they really deleted?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Are they really deleted?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Question.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, visibility set to zero.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We got to make that T shirt. That's a good one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Anyways, Meta. Speaking of meta, their smart glasses have, their. Have had their first big cultural moment. Jason, you think? Yay. We're making, we're getting some publicity. Somebody used these publicly and everybody noticed, unfortunately, it was a terrorist doing a terror attack.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Terror is going to tear.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Terror is going to tear. So on Sunday, the FBI released footage from Shamsu Din Jabbar's metaglasses. And he is the guy that drove a rented Ford F150 into a crowd of people on New Year's Day in New Orleans. He brought IEDs, but they didn't go off and he died in a shootout with police. Apparently we found out that he planned it all with a stylish pair of Ray Bans kitted out with Meta cameras. The FBI provided footage and it's almost four minutes long and has no sound. It's five different clips from multiple sources. Only the first two come from his glasses, but he's basically staking out the location. Riding through the French Quarter on a bicycle on Halloween and capturing it all. And then he stared into a mirror. The Ray Bans capturing a sweaty face. And one just wonders if he said, are you talking to me?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. This is what it's come to. You know, see, if he was wearing Google glasses, we would have caught him ahead of time. Yeah, these Ray Bans.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But that's why he did it. That's exactly why Zuckerberg did it. So Ray Bans is one of the most iconic and ubiquitous sunglasses brands in the world. It's Wayfarer is so popular, that's inspired countless knockoffs. And of course, if you put your, your cameras into those Nobody's really going to notice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So yeah, that's kind of it. And to continue with the terrorists in technology theme, Matthew Livelsberger, who was trying to be a comedian by setting his Tesla cybertruck on fire outside of the Trump Hotel in Vegas.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Kind of funny, to be honest.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I mean, it set the tone for 2025.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he was a smart when he checked out early, but he was using chat GPT to plan his attack, but great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank God there's guardrails on all this stuff, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, but to be honest, using chat GPT is just like Googling something nowadays, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's exactly like Googling something these days, unless you turn that shit off on Google.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, actually it's better than Googling something because Gemini sucks. But I have a better use for AI. A very better. Let's just get out of this dystopian use of AI for a second, Brian, and let's talk about the jobs that we're going to need because there was another article that I have to dig up and put in the show notes. About 450,000 jobs are on the line for. For the next year just because of AI. Minimum, 450,000 are going out. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Remember when they told us it was going to create jobs, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. It is going to free us up to do. To do the things that humans are meant to do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. Unfortunately, nobody mentions getting paid for stuff.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly.

[D]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Finger painting, not going to pay the bills. So a gentleman from Reddit wrote a bot that would basically apply to jobs while he slept. So he would look. He would look at the job posting and then use AI to create a resume that catered to that job posting and send it off for him. So he applied for 1,000 jobs while he was asleep and he got 50 interviews.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

From other AIs who are checking resumes. Yeah. So that's, that's where, you know, the Ouroboros is alive and well and it is hungry. It is hungry.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This guy should sell that. Sell that algorithm.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He really should. He really should. I think. What's. It's not LinkedIn. What's the new job board? Indeed. Indeed. Indeed. He should sell it to. Indeed. Is Monster still around? Are they still a thing?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know. Ironically, I should be looking for a job and I should know these things, but yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think the jobs that we're looking for nowadays, Brian, are probably on farmersonly.com because we're going to be planting seeds and trying to make food.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not actually a bad way of life, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it's not. No, it's not. Better use for AI, though. Could be. Could be reviving good old Adolf. Don't call him Hitler. An NBC investigation has revealed that Meta's AI Studio, which allows users to create chatbots for platforms like Instagram, Facebook messenger and WhatsApp, has been hosting bots modeled after Adolf Hitler. You know, don't call him Hitler. Adolf Hitler.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Don't call it a Reich back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which does violate the company's policies. Meta claims its AI Studio guidelines prohibit impersonations of notorious figures such as mass murderers or hate group leaders, and pledges to review bots before publication. However, lapses in enforcement have allowed problematic bots, including one styled after religious figures, celebrities, fictional characters, and Donald Trump, to proliferate. Meta stated the offending bots have been removed and detection measures are improving.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So there we go. You know what else me stated?

[Jason DeFilippo]

What have they stated, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

We're done with fact. We're done with fact checking in moderation.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, that's right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So that fits right in with the fact that they're going to police these bots, doesn't it? Oh, yeah, they're done doing that. Yeah. Mark Zuckerberg is nixing Facebook's fact checkers and replacing them with community notes, a feature that works oh so well on Elon Musk's X platform, where users highlight posts they be deemed misleading or needing more context. The shift away from the existing system of fact checking, which is widely panned by Donald Trump and others known for spreading false claims, is yet another sign that Zuckerberg is positioning himself to earn the President Elect's butt juice. So this will also apply to Instagram and Thread. So that basically, at least in the US there, there are conflicting reports about what's going to happen elsewhere because they don't have a neo fascist baby fuck in charge. So we'll see what happens. And they still, you know, have rules and legislation and laws that they care about, so. But in the US they are giving on any fact checking whatsoever. They're going back to their roots and focusing on reducing. Wait, hold on. Your roots was hot or not, you fuck.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I. I know, I know. Every time I hear somebody say that, they quote that line, I'm like, you do know how this fucking thing started, right? Facebook started as a hot or not clone. Yeah, it's not. Yeah, he was not trying to. To bring all of humanity together in some fucking utopia. No. He was trying to find out if the chick down the hall was bangable. That's all he was trying to figure out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, pretty much. So, yeah, this is purely just to appease Trump. We all know that. Outside of the fact that they never really. They just paid lip service to moderation anyways, they didn't really throw enough money or anything at it and never really bothered that. Well. But he's saying that fact checkers are too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they've created. Huh. Yeah. I think we're basically all done with Facebook at this point, so. Yeah, but the problem is, of course, well, Threads is stupid anyways because they can't do a timely algorithm, so it's useless. And people have kind of died over there. Regardless of how many people are signed up because they have Meta accounts, nobody's posting. But Instagram, I would actually, I'm a little bit sad about. But there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's interesting. There's a new episode of Darknet Diaries called Bike index. It's episode 153 and it talks about this ring of bike thieves that are operating out of Mexico on Facebook and they can't get them shut down no matter what they do. It's one of those things like they'll shut. Like the moderation that was in place was shutting down all the wrong things. But when you have actual criminal activity with actual proof, they can't get it shut down no matter what. Jack Rosaida was even asking people inside of Meta and Facebook, what can we do about this? They're like, there's nothing you can do, man. It's just the way it is. So, you know, you can't get visibility set to zero, but sanity set to zero is absolutely on point. And I think the best headline came from Futurism. Zuckerberg announces new measures to increase hate speech on Facebook. Bingo. That's it. And of course, according to Google Trends, related searches like how to delete all photos from Facebook alternative to Facebook and how to quit Facebook, how to delete Threads account and how to delete Instagram account without logging in have become breakout searches, with popularity suddenly increasing by over 5,000 compared to previous periods. And I'm like, seriously, this is what it took for you to delete Facebook after all of the other shit? Come on. Yeah. And all the fact checking partners say that they were blindsided by the decision to. That they were going to be fired and moved to Texas, as it were. Because now they said, oh, we're going to move some of our fact checkers to Texas for that. Because, you know, that's where everybody goes, let's Go to Texas.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, yep, yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's. It's just, it's insane what's happening right now. I just, you know, I. Half of me thought it was. That was the fact that I have had no sleep in a week or however long it's been. I don't know. But it's just, it's getting to the point of. It's not idiocracy. It's. It's just, it's beyond ludicrous.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's funny, like, I was talking with some friends and they were like, well, do you really think this next four years of Trump is going to be worse? I mean, it's just going to be the same thing. I'm like, no, it's going to be a thousand times worse. We're 10 days into January.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's not even president yet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's not even president yet. And we're starting wars for Greenland. We're. We're gonna annex Canada. We're renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. What the. I, I'm not going to be able to do this. Four years. I'm just not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

On the final episode of Grumpy Old Geeks where Brian just says, fuck it, I'm gonna go plant a watermelon. I'm along for the ride. I just want to see what happens at this point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

But I was getting. The other thing about social media right now is because of the fire. You know, when the fires break out, just the idiocy on social media beyond belief.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know if you went on exit all when the fires broke out, but Jesus fucking Christ.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I didn't have to. People are sending me videos of people that people put on X. And I'm just like, I'm just. I'm like. I had to stop myself. I had to explain one video and a couple other videos to people, and I'm like, I just, I stopped. I'm like, if we're back to that point, remember when the Internet first just started and your parents got on and they started sending you emails about every stupid thing that you've ever seen on the planet? Yes, we're back to that. Except it's. Except it's the other. It's the normal people who.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it's politically weaponized.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's the thing. It's just like, nobody fucking thinks anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not about sasquatches and the Loch Ness monster being real anymore. Now it's about fucking Governor Newsom is the devil who caused all the fires. Yeah, that's fucking Insane. Like, I don't like Gavin Newsom, but he didn't cause fires.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. I mean, I am not a fan of the guy, but. But he didn't come down here with a fucking wind machine and a lighter and say, Here you go, La. Fuck you, LA burned before he was here, LA will burn after he was here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

LA burned when Reagan was in charge.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. The only thing that's going to change how LA is going to burn are like the fucking local municipalities who do the right thing. I'm not even gonna get into it anyway.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But anyway, moving on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stop, stop, stop, stop me. Stop me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Shitty tech news.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let back city techniques. Okay, okay, let's talk about Texas again because let's guess who moved to Texas. Elon and Tesla. Well, the Feds are investigating Tesla's actual smart summing feature.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Let me guess, it doesn't do what it says.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it doesn't actually do what it says.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Shocking for that company. I hope they put out a car call and just call it the flying car at this point. Fuck it. Go. Go for it, Elon. Just call it the flying car.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Actually flying car. Look at it fly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If you go over a bump, it flies for a second.

[Jason DeFilippo]

If you go from above really fast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'Re gonna call it the date. What if they call the car in the Duke's a hazard? God damn it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The General Lee.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There we go. The General Lee by Tesla. The flying car.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I've seen many generally cyber trucks already. I don't know if you have? Yeah, yep. Yeah, big surprise on that one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I just saw the painted completely gold one. Did you see the picture? I posted that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I've actually seen one of those in person. Dude, the customizations that are going on with the cybertrucks around Southern California is insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like, how can I be an even bigger douche than just having one? Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Well, it turns out they've only made 27,000 of the things and they're slowing production down because nobody else wants them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, sold out to all the douches. Done.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I. I was watching a video this morning of a cyber truck in Canada who couldn't get out of a parking spot because there was like an inch and a half of snow on the ground. Yep, that was great. So anyway, the Feds are investigating actual smart Summon, so. Because yeah, there was a crash and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Something didn't smartly summon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's called actual Smart Summit and it's a Tesla. We know it's actually not smart summon because, yeah, just like actual fully self driving is not so. And now OpenAI is on the warpath because they've cut off a developer who built a device using ChatGPT to aim and fire an automated rifle.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I watched the video and it was fucking terrifying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wasn't it though?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wasn't it terrifying? But did you watch it all the way to the end?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Did you watch the guy sitting on top of the gun?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, I did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Did you not get a chuckle out of that? Kinda, yeah, I've. You see, I've never seen Dr. Strangelove, but I've seen the one picture of him riding the nuclear bomb. That's all I could think of was I watched this guy on his mechanical bull of a fucking automatic weapon controlled by Generative AI.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That still was my Facebook profile background picture for a long time about, oh, I don't know, the first four years that Trump was in office. And I feel like I need to bring it back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think. Well, I think we have a new one. I think we have a replacement now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. A little bit more AI news. Getty Images and Shutterstock announced plans to merge, forming a $3.7 billion stock image giant designed to thrive in the AI era. So they're trying to merge so they can wait for it, sell all the images that everybody else took to AI training companies, thus defeating the purpose of having a stock image company to begin with.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They just need a tagline like, look, we've got five fingers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's it. And you know, this, this is such an antitrust violation, it's beyond belief. But you know, it's going to go through.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Of course it's going to go through. Of course it is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anybody that lives on in stock photography anymore is just like, it's a dead industry anyway. That's why they're trying to squeeze the last lifeblood out of it that they can get. That's it. That's all there is to it. Because generative AI is already, already good enough for 99% of the things and then your phone is good enough for the rest. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What are you going to do? Well, you can use AI to go shopping, Brian. Yes. AI chatbots played a major role in driving online sales during the 2024 holiday season, according to Salesforce. Yeah. US E Commerce sales grew nearly 4% year over year, reaching $282 billion between November 1 and December 31. Global AI influenced sales climbed to $229 billion, up from $199 billion in 2023. Now, shoppers used AI based chatbot services, 42% more than last year as retailers leveraged these tools alongside targeted promotions and loyalty programs. Mobile devices were the go to for last minute purchases with 79% of orders placed via smartphones. They said, hey ChatGPT, I'm fucked. Order something for my wife. However, high return rates 28% compared to 20% in 2023 raised concerns about profit margins. Salesforce's Talia Swartz noted that AI tools will be critical in minimizing losses and reconnecting with customers in 2025. Critical in minimizing losses that they created. Yes. Yeah, I love that. It's like, hey boss, we lose a dollar on every unit we sell. Yeah Joe, but we're going to make it up in volume. That's how it's going to go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go.

[E]

Hey grumpy old geek fans. Today I've got something for you Apple users. The Macgeek Gab podcast. This show is in its 17th year of providing tips, cool stuff found, and answers to your questions about anything and everything. Apple that's right, hosts Dave Hamilton and John F. Braun take time each week to actually provide tech support to as many listeners as possible while learning at least five new things themselves. The great part is that they always make sure each answer has actionable tips with easy instructions for listeners too. For example, if you press and hold the mute button during a call on your iPhone, it will put that call on hold and you can turn on Do Not Disturb on your iPhone by swiping down into the control center and simply tapping that little moon icon in the Focus section. If you have an iPhone, a Mac, an iPad, an Apple watch, an Apple tv, or are simply a technology enthusiast, you're going to love learning more about your technology with your two new favorite geeks over at macgeek Gab. Get your questions answered and have some fun along the way. Visit macgeekgab.com or search for Macgeek Gab on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify or wherever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You get your podcasts.

[E]

Don't get caught without having MacGeek Gab in your rotation.

[F]

Rakuten is the smartest way to save money when you shop because you earn cash back at over 3,500 stores. Fashion, beauty, electronics, home essentials, travel, dining, concert tickets and more. Your favorite stores like Lowe's, Levi's and Nike pay Rakuten to send them shoppers, and Rakuten then passes on a part of that payment to its members as cash back. You're already shopping at Your favorite stores. Why not save while you're doing it? It's a no brainer. Membership is free and easy. To sign up. Get the Rakuten app now and join the 17 million members who are already saving. Cashback rates change daily. See rakuten.com for details. That's R A K U T E N your cash back really adds up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Media candy. Brian over the break, Silo has been going strong. Are you caught up with the penultimate episode?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I am all caught up. I'm ready for next week's season finale. Good show. Consistently good. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think I have to watch last night's again because I was in a sleep deprived daze and it seemed like it was a little discombobulated to me. Or maybe just the acting of the children was bad. I don't know what it was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think it throws you for a bit of a loop because it's a whole new element that wasn't there before. You thought you knew all the pieces on the chessboard and then there all of a sudden were some new pieces.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Pieces I could have done without but.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Fleshed out more in the book.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was rushed. I think it was definitely rushed. They could have evened that out a little bit more throughout the season, I think. But anyway, still a good show. Rebecca Ferguson is on TV, so I'm a happy man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Me too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, Traders UK is in full swing. Episode 5 was yesterday. Episode 6 is today. Episode 7, 8, 9, 10. I don't know how many. I've lost count at this point. But it's a solid season so far. I'm really digging it. So if you're in the uk, I hope you're enjoying it and if you're anywhere else, Sweden is an option. Just saying. Dexter, original sin. I've been watching that over the break. I love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Really?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love it. I think it's great. It has all the feels of the original Dexter because it basically is the original Dexter with a new cast. You still get the voiceover from hall, what's his name? Yeah, I keep wanting to call him Anthony Michael Hall. I'm like, no, that's not. Wrong dude, Wrong dude. Michael C. Hall. That's it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The balls chat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But I, I'm. I can't, I can't. I can't deny it. I love seeing Christian Slater on screen again. You know, he's. I feel like he's one of my bros. So I. All in, all in. The cast is great. I, I think it's a good show. It's got it's got the same amount of cheese as the original that I forgot was there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, you go back and watch the original just like, it wasn't that good of a show to begin with.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was kind of funny. It was funny. It was cheesy. It was weird.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it good, you know, not, not great. But, I mean, all those elements together just. And it was such an original concept. That's what. And the opening sequence of the original Dexter still goes down as one of my favorite opening sequences of any show of all time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. They do a really good job recreating it for the new one, too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's cool.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's good. It's good. I think you got to check it out. I think as an, as an OG Dexter fan, I think you'll, you'll, I think you'll like it a lot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Excellent. I, I, I, I'll have to do it. I still never watched the, the reboot thing with the original hall, where you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Don'T, you don't have to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Good. Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I' this one starts where that one ends, and there's. So there's a little bit of, a little bit of crossover there. That's all you actually need from, from that miniseries that they put out, which I will not watch. It was not good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, over the break, Shrinking aired their final episodes of season two and still love the show. Got a lot of feels out of it, but I think one more season should be it for them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, good. Still good, though. And then I was kind of scrolling about on Netflix, and there are. There's a show I completely forgot about that I loved, which is Sex Education, which has Gillian Anderson. I watched all the first three seasons religiously. I knew a fourth season came out a while back and then promptly, completely, utterly forgot about it. So I, So I've got that queued up to watch when. When things like Silo and all the other shows that we're watching right now end. And we're in a bit of a desert, so I'm looking forward to that. Another show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is the final, final season.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, the fourth and final. It ended. So it ended a while back, and I just never went back to go see the fourth season. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, let me know how they land the plane on that one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I will do so. And then I also was taking in your advice. You, you said I should go watch the Vampire Diaries, which is on Netflix for, for a little period of time, and then I zigged instead. And instead of zagging Jason, rather than watching the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles series I saw ran into the Mayfair Witches and Rice series, which stars Alexander Daddario. And that was all I needed to make me watch that one first. I watched the first episode and it was very good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I did not like the first episode. I put it. I, I unfollowed after that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it's all set up and I read the book, so I know what's coming. That helps.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is surprisingly why I can't finish watching Interview with a Vampire the, the next. I can't, I can't continue watching them anymore because I've read the books and I, I kind of read the books and I've seen the shows and I've read the comics and I know the story so well that I just, I don't care to watch it again. That's the problem. It's extraordinarily well done. I love how well done it is. I just don't care.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's the problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And over the break, I watched Kunk on Life. Now I reviewed Kunk on Earth a while back. It's a fake, you know, documentary, a mockumentary, Very funny. Kunk on Earth was split into five episodes, bite sized chunks, which was perfect for the format. Life is a movie. It is 1 hour and 11 minutes long and it's way too much in one chunk. It's. It becomes less funny because it just keeps going on and you don't get a break from it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But that's what you said about the first series. You like, don't watch these back to back because it doesn't, doesn't work.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So inexplicably, they decided to put it into a movie instead of a couple different episodes with this one. So if you're gonna watch Kunk on Life, and I recommend you do so, I would watch it in like 20 minute chunks. Watch about 20 minutes. Take a break.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Take a break.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Come back to it in a week. Watch another 20 minutes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, it's interesting, the big news about Netflix right now too is that there are internal documents that have been leaked about how they're trying to dumb. They're trying to make their producers of the shows that they buy dumb down the shows.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because people are spending so much time watching while they're on their phones.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And it's getting all this backlash and I'm just like, well, what the fuck did you think was going to happen?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, you got to cater to the common denominator. You can't go highbrow. You're not going to make any money that way.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's. I mean. And I. I mean, I. I don't know if you've noticed it. I've definitely noticed it. It's like. It's the. The stuff that. That comes out is just God awful.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. But it's getting dumber and dumber.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And it's by mandate. That's the really annoying part. It's like they want it to be that dumb. That sucks.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's by design.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it is by design.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I've got some completely sober on a plane movie reviews. I watched one movie going out and one movie coming back. Tetris, I finally got around to watching that was not dumbed down. Jason. That was very good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. I watched the first, like 10 minutes of it and couldn't get hooked, but. Because I know the story.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But, yeah, it's really well done. I highly recommend watching it. And I was kind of desperate. There wasn't a lot of options. And I saw a movie called. Called Please Don't Destroy the Treasure of Foggy Mountain. And apparently this was made by a couple current Saturday Night Live cast members. And it's supposed to try to be a throwback to the irreverent 80s movies that we grew up on. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was gonna say, does this have anything to do with, like, Return to Witch Mountain or something like that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a. It's an attempt to be silly and weird, and it kind of fails miserably.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's. It has moments that were genuinely funny, but the entire movie as a whole is dumb as fuck.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They must have got the mandate from Netflix.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Should have been on Netflix instead of Apple tv, apparently.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say, how'd they end up on Apple? Usually have better filters. Although Severance is coming back, so you can't. It's getting shoved down your throat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, my God. I can't watch anything without seeing an image of that guy from Severance. And I'm just like, I tried to watch it. I don't like it. Leave me alone. You are the Red Hot Chili Peppers of TV for me. Me?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kind of. Yeah. I watched the whole thing and I still don't want to watch the second season. But it's like it immediately, right after Silo ended it. Just like, boom, right into it. And I'm just. No, no. Stop. Go away. Apps and doodads now, Brian. There's been a lot of backlash to DoorDash and Uber Eats and Grubhub and all of these, you know, delivery apps from restaurants. Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And how they Screw the consumer and the restaurant.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And yeah, everybody gets screwed. And I was really disheartened when my beloved Paquito Moss moved from Doordash to Uber Eats.

[Brian Schulmeister]

God, I miss Paquito Moss.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I do too. I do too. Because I stopped ordering from them because they moved to Uber Eats, which raised my bill, which was already exorbitant. Getting it from DoorDash by another $7 for no reason whatsoever.

[Brian Schulmeister]

For a burrito.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, burrito. And a tostada salad and some horchata and some salsa, some extra chips and some guac and some pico.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, you need to shut the up right now because I can't have that anytime soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know what I'm having for lunch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You. Well, enjoy your $87 taco.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm going to go pick it up on my way home. So they partnered with a company called Chow now, which is 100% commission free, no hidden fees, and it is software as a service for restaurants. Basically, the restaurant sources everything. It goes straight to their POS system. I think they handle the delivery drivers. And here's the funny part. I went and I looked at an order. How much? Because they still have the option to order with Uber Eats. So I could go side by side and look at the menu price difference. There was a $5 differ for a side of chips, right? I was like, What? It's like $1.99 if you get it through the official Paquito Mas app, which is also the upside is now they have their own dedicated app, which makes it so much easier. I just press the app button when I feel like Mexican. Now. I just hope this is. I just really hope that this company becomes a thing and other restaurants go with it. And then cut out the Ubers altogether would be nice. Yeah, I know. My friend who was driving for Uber Eats has already quit. She's just like, there's no money anymore. It's a mess because all the subsidies have changed and then the laws in California changed and all this other stuff and it's just like she's just like, she went and got a job at Target, literally. So it's what you got to do nowadays. So. But I'm really happy that they checked it out. So if you know friends with a restaurant who are sick of DoorDash or Uber Eats and paying fealty to those fuckers, have them check out. Ciao. Now the link is in the show notes. We get nothing out of that. Just. Except. Except. In your face. Cheaper Moss. Yeah, Cheaper Moss. Now, Apple has promised the new Software update will address Apple intelligence notification, summary complaints.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know the best way to do that? Get rid of it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Turn it off. Exactly. Set it to zero. Yes. So, yeah, they say it's there. It's on 18.3. I just got the 18.3 beta last night, so I have not had a chance to try it it. But at least they recognize the fact that it sucks. That is a step in the right direction, number one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we're very happy about that. Apple. Thank you for doing the right thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, TiVo is back, baby.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sort of love TiVo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I miss TiVo too. It was the best thing ever. Xperi, the owner of the TiVo brand as of 2019. I wonder if they're also going to pick up Radio Shack while they're at it. Announced at CES 2025 that TiVo OS will be available in the US for the first time on Sharp T TVs. The storied TV brand was last seen stateside as the TiVo Stream 4K at 50 streaming dongle. Now, this is not, of course, the TiVo of old. I don't entirely understand what exactly it is. It's aggregating content from streaming services, linear TV channels and sports packages and gives users access to a vast library of free and paid content. So basically, it's the same you can get anywhere else.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It sounds like Roku to me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, kinda. So I think they're trying to do that and they're banking on the fact that TiVo is a known brand for people that are older.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it was great. I mean, but you want a box with a hard drive in it. That's what makes TiVo TV.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's what made it great. We could record everything and then watch it whenever we wanted to and then fast forward to through the commercials. And nobody did that at the time. And it made the nice noises.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And it was fast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We all remember that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I know. It was satisfying. Using your TiVo was just satisfying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was. It really was. So. But will I be using an OS with on a dongle? No, I will not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I will not be buying a Sharp TV. I didn't even know Sharp still made TVs. Out of all the TV brands that I've seen that are everywhere that I look, Sharp is never on the list. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nope. No. And I want to announce, Jason, that I have officially rejoined the cult of Nintendo. Yes. The last time I ever played a game, it was one of the original Mario Brothers game games when they were running around and hitting things for coins. My son, we got him Nintendo Switch for Christmas and we immediately went and purchased Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which is basically an update of the original version. And I love playing it. It's a lot of fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, so here you and Nintendo hardware is like me and Apple hardware. As soon as you buy it, the next one's going to come out because the Switch 2 is going to be here soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they've been saying that and we were like, do we hold off? But like all of his friends have one. So whatever, whatever. It's fine. Yeah, he doesn't need the latest and greatest. He's eight years old. He can enjoy Switch one for a couple years.

[Jason DeFilippo]

My parents only got me the switch one. They hate me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, I didn't get an Atari 2600 right away. I got an Odyssey 2600. Nobody even knows what that is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I know what that is. That was actually, that was kind of coveted amongst the, some of the gamers in, in my neck.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it was the beta to the vhs. It was probably better, but none of the games were on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's exactly it. It had a better. Didn't it have the little bubble console with like the little eight things that you could press and the little joystick at the top.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I kind of remember that. Yeah. It's been a long time. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they would wear out and people didn't know. Yeah, no, only the rich kids in the neighborhood had those.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We were not rich, but that's what I had. I'm sure my dad got a deal somewhere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Probably got a hand me down.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Probably.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, congratulations. Congratulations on becoming a gamer, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. One game.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's all it takes. It's a gateway.

[D]

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[Jason DeFilippo]

At the library.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Helen Roden and said, hey guys, I want to get into reading ebooks. What device should I use? Slash buy. Thanks. Love your show. Well, it kind of depends on what you like reading on. If you don't mind having like a full on device. I. I personally use the Kindle app on my iPad and it's great. A lot of people swear by Kindles because it's just black and white and you can't get distracted. So it depends on the kind of reading reader you are. If you can read without switching over to your social media streams every five minutes like I can, then I love using the Kindle app on my iPad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And if you want an actual device, and that reminds me, by the way, you were supposed to buy one of my Kindles while you were here in town. Damn it. And you didn't. I had the thing sitting. I charged it up even. Damn. Damn you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, summer's coming, Jason. We'll see now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We'll see. It's probably gonna be a molten pile of plastic by then. Should have got it. While they're getting good, make sure you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Take a picture of it so you can claim it on insurance. Oh, wait, no fire insurance anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, I have renters insurance, so I'm set. Yeah, I like them both. Honestly, I just find the Kindle a little too slow to change pages. And that's just me. I don't know. Because when you've got several hundred books in your library, trying to find something is painfully slow. I don't know how the. I've got the two Kindle paper whites, the same ones. That's why I was selling you one of them. And they're great little devices. They're perfect size. They're kind of the same size as an iPad mini. And I think it's great when you just want to do that. But I generally stick to the Kindle app. Yeah. Because it syncs between all three. It depends on which device is closest to the crapper that I grab. So it's nice to have them all in sync. But I end up using my iPad mini the most. I think that's the one I use the most because it's the most comfortable to read on for the size, personally. So. IPad mini Finish three Ezekiel by Peter Cauldron. Great book, right? Great book. Yeah, it was really satisfying. Surprisingly satisfying ending.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're short and sweet. I think we have to invent a new category for these books. Jason elevated Shitter. Sci fi.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's it. I don't know. I just think they're good. Sci fi. I didn't even think they were. I just happened to read on the Shitter. That's the only time I have to myself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Somebody on Discord asked if it started off that way. And it did. That's like I was just looking for like a quick, easy, crappy sci fi book. And the first book of his I read was that way. But I agree with you, Jason. It's not shit or sci fi. It's good sci fi. I know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Somebody else on our Discord said no, but you know, screw you, you're wrong.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, so last year I did some Daily Readers. You know, those, you know, one one page a day books. I read the Daily by Steven Pressfield, which is a good book on writing. Read the Calendar of Wisdom, Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul by Leo Tolstoy. The daily laws, 366 meditations on power, Seduction, Mastery, Strategy and Human Nature by Robert Greene. And The Daily Stoic, 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wasn't it a leap year last year?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, it was. 366. It works out really well.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, makes sense. Some of these.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, some of these people really kind of hit it now this year. This one did not hit the mark. 365 DAO Daily Meditations. Yeah, I'm going to be shortchanged today. I have to read one twice.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, but it's more. No, it's not. Another leap year.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's not. No, actually, yeah, that's right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So the Daily Drucker is the one that's wrong.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, The Daily Drucker. 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker. And around the Year.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, he didn't get the right thing done there, did he?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, he didn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Good thing he's dead or I'd file a complaint. Around the Year with Emmett Fox, A Book of Daily Readings by guess it Emmett Fox and the Maxwell Daily Reader. 365 Days of Insight to develop the leader within you and influence those around you by John C. Maxwell. Those are the Daily Readers that I got for this year because I like to balance it with, you know, some spiritual stuff, some practical stuff and some stuff that I just don't like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now I have to ask question here, Jason. Are these digital or do you have like these just like 365 page small stacks of paper all around your desk right now?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kindle. Kindle on the. On the Kindle app all the way.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go. I'd rather see it physical. I just want to see them all lined up on your desk.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That would be great. Yeah, that would be great. I actually bought my dad a Physical copy of the Daily Stoic because he's read that like for five years in a row. I got him a nice leather bound version of that one. So he has that one. But yeah, the Daily Readers. No, I, I thought about it honestly, but like, no, never.

[Brian Schulmeister]

In case there was a Covid panic you wouldn't run out of toilet paper.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. But yeah. I don't know if I'm as big a fan of this crew as last year. All four of those books that I read last year were phenomenal. These. The Daily Drucker makes me mad, which is kind of, of kind of the purpose of it. Emmett Fox is a little too Jesusy, but maybe, I don't know. We'll see how that goes. He's a kind of one of those spiritual leaders that are big in, in recovery programs. So I thought I'd give him a shot. I'd never heard of John C. Maxwell. He is the most balanced of the business leaders and actually had got some really good things to say. So I'm liking that one the Most in the 365dao daily meditations. Those are good. They're decent. So I may, if, if anybody has any recommendations on Daily Readers, hit me, hit me up. I can always catch up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think I like. I got the Daily Press field in April last year and caught up with that one. And that was a really good one. I'm also reading the book the Elements of Humor, the Tools of Comedy that make you Funnier, happier and better Looking by Scott Dickers. It's his new book. That's just an actual book that I'm reading. And so far so good. I like Scott Dickers books. So yeah, that's where I'm at on, on, on the, the daily reading and the, the book stuff. You have something in here that I also started, but I let you take this one away, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have not started or read it yet. I just wanted to point out that as of January 7th we have the latest book in the Laundry Files by Charlie Strauss, A conventional boy, a Laundry files novel number 13. And of course it does not go back to my favorite characters because he said he was done with them. So I don't know if I'll read it or not. Didn't read the last one either. We'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So far I'm halfway through it. I don't know if I'm going to finish it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The problem with this one is the main character and basically the entire book as far as I can Tell is based around Dungeons and Dragons. I never played Dungeons and Dragons. I never wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons. I liked all hanging out with my friends who played Dungeons and Dragons because they were a certain type of people that I really got along with. But for me, I just never got into the game. So there's a lot of. In jokes and things with Dungeons and Dragons in this one. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, also does not sound like something for me, unfortunately. I did love the first 10 books, but I like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I even like the last one. I. I had no problem with the last one. I quite enjoyed the last one. I just. This one is so heavily steeped into D and D, which. Which, if you're a fan of the Laundry Files, tracks. Because that's what the whole premise is about, how math, mathematics and, you know, all that kind of ties in.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. How it all works together. So it's a perfect match. I'm going to try and see if I can get through it because it's. It's got. It's got a glimmer of hope, but if I can get past the D and D. I did put in an interesting chronology of the Laundry Files from Charlie, which I thought was. It was interesting because the Laundry Files, the name was not something he chose.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And he even says that it's like, it's not really kind of a series. It's like calling it the Laundry Files is kind of like calling Terry Pratchett's Discworld books the Unseen University series. So that kind of explains why it's like you and I are really good fans of the original books with Bob and that whole cast. And then it just. He moves into something else. So it's like, okay, I really like the Night Watch books. And then it moves over into the Witches, except Terry Pratchett did it better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I was about to say it would be if Terry Pratchett wrote the first 25 books about unseen University, and then all of a sudden, switch.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, true. Good point, good point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just saying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The Dark side.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Podcast super host Dave Bittner decodes all things cyber on the cyber wire every day. Exposes deception with Joe Kerrigan on hacking humans. Dives deep into privacy with Ben Yellen on Caveat, Breaks down industrial cybersecurity on Control Loop and even brings the chuckles on only malware in the building. Building. Hi, Dave.

[C]

Hello.

[Jason DeFilippo]

How do you do?

[C]

I'm okay. I'm okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

2025 Treating you well so far?

[C]

Well, that's exactly it now, isn't it? It's been a gloomy week. We got snow on Monday, a significant amount for us, about eight inches or so. And so now we're. And it's been cold all week, so there's really been no melting. So now we're in the crusty, crunchy, icy phase of the snow where it's no longer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We call that Toronto.

[C]

It's no longer fun to look at. It's just a nuisance. And so it's been very cold and gray skies and. And all that kind of stuff. So it's been hard to have positive spirits and attitude. And of course, I'm concerned about you, Jason, and. And all my friends out in California who are dealing with this fire situation. So. So it's just been kind of a somber week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We're going to take over Greenland and Canada.

[C]

Well, we got that going for us. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

See Gulp of America.

[C]

You can run, but you can't hide.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Good times.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, why don't we start off by doing what we do best, which is talk about Star Wars. So are we keeping up on Skeleton Crew? Because I am.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have. I've. I've ditched the. The attempt to get my son to watch it. He didn't seem too interested, so I might come back to that again later. As you may recall, I was a bit lukewarm on the series. Let me tell you what helped. I spent three days at Disneyland over the break, and I wandered around the Star wars land, and that rekindled my love of just how cheesy and silly Star wars can and should be, and went back to the show with renewed vigor. And I'm just relaxing and enjoying it.

[C]

Yeah, me too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it's definitely gotten better. Like, now that the. The plot has picked up a bit. We kind of know what's going on. There's. There's a bit more action, and we kind of know what the main thrust of the show is now. I'm. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One episode left, so we'll see. See how they wrap it up. But I, too, am enjoying it. Jason, have you kept up at all? All.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have not watched anything except the first ten minutes of episode one.

[C]

Okay, fair enough. Well, you can look forward to it. It's not like you're busy right now doing anything else, so you can spare.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One of your screens from the fire app.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Silo the Traitors. And I didn't even mention Beast Games in Media Candy. I can't believe I didn't mention Beast Games. Oh, my God. That is the greatest show on TV right now. What am I thinking? Oh, Beast Games. You got to watch that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, God. It is legit fun. It really is good. Highly recommended.

[C]

So one of the things I've been thinking about that I think contributes to my enjoyment of Skeleton Crew is that it has so little Star wars universe baggage attached to it. Right. So there aren't points along the way where I find myself going, well, that's not how a lightsaber works or, well, that doesn't match up with this or that. I can be free to just enjoy this little world that it's its own little thing, and it's connected to all these things I love, and there's all these little things that rhyme and relate, and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's kind of like how the Mandalorian began before they started to connect it to the wider lore everywhere.

[C]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, that's why I like Andor. Andor's the same.

[C]

Yeah. It also reminds me that I think one of the most powerful things that the Lucasfilm folks have. Have is the sound effects library.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, so good.

[C]

Right. Because like, when the kids jump on their little speeder bike scooters, and they make sounds that are just close enough to the speeder bikes in Return of the Jedi, but hardwired. Hardwired into my brain to go, all right, well, I'm on board. Like, that's all I need that. Yeah. There's no rational thought. It just connects me to that universe.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, as a. As a continuation of that, I would also say they've been masterful at finding composers and doing the scores. I mean, obviously, you're starting with John Williams, and you can't get any higher than that, but everybody that they've gotten for every one of the shows has just been fantastic.

[C]

Yeah. I say I had to warm up to the Mandalorian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Because that was such a significant departure. I agree.

[C]

Yeah. But I did. I did. I did not like it at first, but it grew on me, and I eventually liked it. What do you think, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

As far as the sound effects go, which. Which show had the Vespa gang in it? Was that. Was that the book?

[C]

That was Mando? Wasn't that Mandalorian Season three had the Vespa gang?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I believe that's what I can't remember. Yeah. I think that might have been wherever the Vespa gang was. The sound effects could not save that by any stretch.

[C]

No, no, that was just a bit too silly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nobody has said that mistakes haven't been.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Made okay, Just making sure. Making sure. I'm like, you can. It goes a long way, but there's a limit is all I'm saying.

[C]

Yeah. And this crab creature, evidently was stop motion animated by Phil Tippet, who did the Walkers and lots of other stop motion stuff. So that's fun. They can call back on that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that was really cool. And I thought they looked great. I did read a report saying that from everybody that did the stop motion animation on it. They said it was such a fucking bastard because it's covered in spikes and everybody kept hurting themselves doing it.

[C]

Oh, yeah. I think they named the creature Tetanus because they were all worried they were gonna get poked with rusty pieces.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm sorry. If you're doing stop motion animation nowadays and you have a job that'd be happy. These should be called Deliverance. Come on, you can't complain if you got a job doing stop motion animation nowadays. Days.

[C]

Which reminds me, you guys seen the new Wallace and Gromit movie?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have not. I was a big Wallace and Gromit fan and I've got to get around to seeing it. I've heard it's quite good.

[C]

It is quite good. I mean, it's more of the same. And the conversation I had with my son Jack about it after we watched it was. It was very fun. Funny in all the ways that Wallace and Gromit are. We wonder, though, if Wallace and Gromit are best suited to shorts rather than feature length.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kind of like punk.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, exactly.

[C]

Yeah. Because this is feature length and, you know, it works, but it's a lot of the same. And Wallace and Gromit are traditionally so tight. Like, they're so dense with the number of jokes. Right. Just non stop gag. And that's hard to sustain for an hour and a half. And I mean, they do a great job with it, but it's so definitely worth seeing. I recommend it, but it wasn't like. I guess part of it also is that the original three Wallace and Gromit shorts felt like each one just kept getting better and better and better and funnier. And this one is quite good and definitely worth seeing, but I didn't feel as though they topped themselves or made any new. New ground or anything like that. But all that said, it's definitely worth your time. And if you're a Wallace and Gromit fan, you won't be disappointed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's.

[C]

It's pretty fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, in a little bit more Star wars news, HOKA unfortunately lost Ray Stevenson last year and they finally found a Replacement. And it looks like it's going to be Rory McCann from Game of Thrones. I can totally see that. And I'm down with that. Both, both giant actor human men that I, I quite enjoyed on screen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So listen, as a child in syndication, I, I, I survived the switches of Darren and Bewitched. I can, I can handle.

[Jason DeFilippo]

True, yes.

[C]

Right. She had two Dicks, Dick Sargent and Dick York.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They should have named one of the characters Sergeant York. It would have been great.

[C]

Anyways.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. I think this is pretty good recasting. Yeah, it works for me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, we'll get that probably sometime in 2037.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If we're still here.

[Jason DeFilippo]

If we're still here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[C]

But yeah, so one more thing before we wrap up with Skeleton Crew. That's another thing we were talking about is like, I haven't heard any announcements of there being another season. Presumably this show is a hit. It seems like it's being well reviewed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not if you go on X. Oh, really? It's more of that woke bullshit. People are tired of it. Worst ratings ever, according to people on X. I see.

[C]

Meanwhile, back in the real world.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One.

[C]

Of the issues, though, and I think this is the same thing that Stranger Things ran into, is when you kids grow up, right, and when you do a season every four or five years, you know, it's, you miss out on the chances for these kids and that that could happen. With Skeleton Crew, I think we're going.

[Brian Schulmeister]

To get a good idea. The season finale, like, if they wrap it up pretty concisely, I think we're going to know that's that. Right. And I don't recall, like, this is just me, like, fucking, like there's a couple neurons firing in the back of my brain right now going that this was only ever going to be a limited series. It was never going to be an ongoing thing. But I could be wrong about that.

[C]

Well, I'm fine with that. You know, I say I'm quite, quite pleased.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I mean, just, it's not, it's not safe to get attached to anything after the Acolyte, you know.

[C]

No, it's just true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That was a hit. Everybody loved that. And they just said, nah, we're not going to do that anymore.

[C]

Too expensive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Just ask Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner. There's no safety anywhere. Well, I put this in here because this is just kind of unfortunately near and dear to the segment. Siri unintentionally recorded private conversations and Apple agrees to pay $95 million and still can't. My fucking Phone is turning. When I said the name of the thing.

[C]

Yeah. This is a zombie story, right? This is the initial, the original zombie story. Like, it won't go away. It's dead and it won't go away.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, $95 million is going to make it go away? It seems so, yeah. I mean, they're saying that they never really used it for any shopping, like integration or anything like that. It was just sometimes recording people. But I think that they're sick of it, too. And they're like, okay, we'll give you $95 million if you'll just shop. Shut up. Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And $95 million for Apple is literally like a penny I found in my pocket from 1972.

[C]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. It's about seven seconds worth of revenue.

[C]

The waiting area for Tim Cook's office in the couch cushions, they're $95 million. The thing that annoys me about this is right after this settlement was announced, I saw endless. People on social media who should know better are saying that this was proof. Proof, I tell you, that our phones are listening to us, that, you know, Apple wouldn't settle if this weren't the truth, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's not. I mean, again, reiterate, there has been no research that has shown that our phones are listening to us. There's none. No legitimate research. No. And what Apple is saying here is that they occasionally recorded things unintentionally because Siri has to be listening, and they sent it for their own kind of. Tech support's not the right word for it. Quality control, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, quality control.

[C]

And that's where things accidentally got recorded and sent along. But at no point did Apple ever sell anything to any ad network or anything like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Like that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[C]

But. Yep, that's what people are saying they're doing. And I'm just done with it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's because, you know, it doesn't help that we had that shady advertising company that actually put it up on their website as something that they could do. Remember that? I can't remember right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But you know, the thing about that. It was. That was so long after the. The whole original thing had already been put to bed. We'd had like three resuscitations of it at that point. And then there was just one company that did one thing.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And then it just comes back and that was like, you know, that wasn't that long. It was like eight months ago.

[C]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This has been going on since 20. Right.

[C]

And that company, it seemed like it was just bs like they were just kind of. Yeah, they totally walked it back bragging. Yeah. But it wasn't an actual capability.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I asked ChatGPT on the math, on how long it would take apple to make $90 million. And it would take 130 minutes. So. All right, two hours and ten minutes to make $95 million.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Good gig if you can get it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Roughly 0.09 days. Okay.

[C]

Wow. Well, in other news, before I let you go, a couple things I wanted to touch on here. I'm taking another ham radio exam this weekend.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are there. Who can you talk to now? There are aliens.

[C]

Yeah, well, who's to say I don't talk to aliens every day already?

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, fair.

[C]

I mean, there are drones flying all over the place here on the east Coast.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh, yeah. So there are three levels. There are currently three levels of amateur radio license in the United States. There's the technician, which is what I have. So, Jason. There's the technician, which is what I have. There's the general, which is what I'm getting. And then there's the extra, which who knows if I'll get that. So basically what this does is it opens up the world to me right now. Now I have the ability to talk to people probably within like a hundred mile radius of where I am. And if I pass this, I get frequencies opened up to me that allow me to talk to people all over the world.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One has to ask, are. Are there ham police?

[C]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We can't get Internet police, but we got ham police.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We got ham police.

[C]

Well, I mean, obviously there's the fcc, which is the ultimate.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or is this more like community notes?

[C]

Yes. And there are the fcc, are the ham police. And I don't know if you guys saw. There was a story this week where an amateur radio operator got fined, I think, $34,000 for.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're gonna find this shocking, Dave, but I don't have ham radio in my Google alerts.

[C]

Well, this showed up in other places. It actually showed up because this jackass was interfering with firefighters. Like last time there was a fire in California, he was on their frequency trying to tell them where they needed to be. And the FCC was like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And his name was Jason.

[C]

No, no, no. Yeah. So, yes, mostly amateur radio is self policed, but if it gets bad enough, they will gang up on you and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Report you to the police parachuted in. Yeah.

[F]

Yep.

[C]

Yeah. No, it's just as geeky as you think it would be. I talked about fox hunts before where if you're a bad actor, they will take their directional mic, directional antennas rather, and they will find you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[C]

So, yeah, so I'm excited for that. Wish me luck. I'm currently polling at about 95% on my practice tests, so it feels like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A pass to me.

[C]

Yeah, I'm not anticipating any issues, but you never know it all. It's the roll of the dice or the questions that you get on the exam. But after that, it also means that the hobby is going to get much more expensive for me because. Because the radio. I need to buy equipment, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly.

[C]

But that's an opportunity to buy new toys.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's right.

[C]

It's a mixed blessing. So wish me luck. Two other things I wanted to touch on. This snowstorm that we had here got me thinking nostalgically about sledding. Brian, I probably already know the answer to this question for you since we all knew where you grew up. But I'm curious, Jason, how much of your childhood was sledding a part of in snowstorms?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Huge, huge part of my childhood. Remember, I was born in Pennsylvania.

[C]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we had hills and we had snow.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, Brian, none for you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Some, I mean, as you know, from California, it's just an hour or two drive up into the mountains. Big Bear and all that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The Matterhorn doesn't count.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did try to sled down the Matterhorn once. I was banned from Disney Disneyland for three weeks. No, there was some sledding. We would go up maybe once every other year or so to Big Bear and kind of do that sort of thing. So I did a bit of that. It's more of my life now, obviously, as we have a park nearby and if we get a good snow, I take. Take the kid and I go down myself as well. So.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. The thing I'm remembering in Jason is, you know, a big snowstorm would roll in. In neighborhood would be pretty much shut down, and we would all gather up at, you know, whichever kid had the house nearest the best hill.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[C]

And sometimes those were roads. You know, snowy, icy road on a steep hill. We would all gather up with our sleds and. And most certainly early on. Mostly they were like flexible flyers, you know, the old big metal and wooden sleds with the steel runners.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Those are the best.

[C]

Were they though?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Were they? No, but they were. Here's the thing. We had two separate tracks at my grandfather's house because he had a giant hill in the back, and that was the gathering spot for the whole neighborhood. There were multiple tracks. Some were for the toboggans like the plastic and the plastic just basic sheets that you had to unroll and you could never get to lay flat and always go everywhere, everywhere. That was just for the regular snow. That was for the. The noobs. What the. The ice track as we called it was basically my dad and other older folks in the neighborhood would take a 55 gallon drum, put a fire inside of it and carry it up the hill to melt the snow to make a track basically made for death through the forest, through the forest up to the top of the hill. And then we would use those types of sleds to go down, down and try and not sunny bono our way out of it. So yes, it was adventurous and it was awesome. And we didn't have helmets back then.

[C]

No. And you're going to have shoes and gloves. You're head first, you're running as fast as you can, leaping onto the sled as you head down the hill. I remember we built jumps for the sleds.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Absolutely, absolutely.

[C]

One of them. I remember there was a jump and not far after the landing zone for the jump you had make the tightest right turn possible on the sled or else you would go head first into a chain link fence. And this was just fun. And we just. Because the other thing too is that we'd go into the night, you know. And so when the sun went down and things iced up and we were all together, it was just a wonderful thing. And those types of sleds are gone, you know, like really well. I don't see kids. I have a couple of them in my attic that are the ones from my childhood. But everything today are the plastic formed sort of toboggan type things and also tubes. People will sit on the inflatable, like the donut inflatable things and go downhills with those.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it's generally frowned upon to have like sharp pointed metal on any objects flying around. With a bunch of kids these days.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So a bunch of soft kids. Nobody ghost rides their bikes anymore. Everybody's a pussy.

[C]

Yeah. Very few stitches. But the thing is they're not really steerable the way that those were.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You just go. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because part of the fun too, they had the bar that you could turn and you're supposed to sit with your feet on the bar and use that to kind of turn with your feet. And I don't know anybody that did that.

[C]

No.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Idiot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're not like on a speeder bike then?

[C]

No, no, no.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You use your hands. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You use your Hands.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This was before Star wars, man. Right, yeah. Head first, and you use your hands and you lean and do that. So. Because. Yeah, that's how you do it. But see, I don't know, we just.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Have these things called slip and slides.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah, yeah. So the thing with this, nobody tells the kids for the. Nobody tells the kids the first time that they use a slip and slide, that it's not padded after they've broken their sternum.

[C]

No, One of my neighbors broke her leg on our slip and slide.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, my shit was dangerous, too, man.

[C]

Oh, yeah? Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Especially when you're throwing jarts at the same time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Kids these days, I tell you, the.

[C]

Flexible Flyers I remember, we had. There were. There were two versions of that that we had. We had a long one that was probably five feet long, and that's the one that you went down, like two people would go down, down together on. So if you had to bring your little brother with you, which I did sometimes, you know, you go down the hill with, and that's what you do. But then we had short ones that were the ones that were built for speed, and that's what we used on the tracks to jump and to race. And so that's another thing that I think they've kind of lost because the current sleds aren't steerable. If you go down a long hill and you're racing each other. Part of the racing will was the demolition derby component of. Right. Of crashing into each other, of steering into each other, trying to run each other off of the path, basically trying to kill each other, push each other off of your sleds, whatever it takes to win the race. So we don't really have that so much anymore either. Yes. I mean, it's safer and all that kind of stuff, but it seems like a lost art. It is. It was just a different. Different paradigm for sledding. And now it's the old thing, too, of, you know, our parents would just send us out into the wilderness and say, come home when the street lights come on. And that there was no supervision.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

As opposed to now we're like, there are more parents at the park than kids watching the kids sled, so.

[C]

Yes, right, exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's funny. I just put in a link to the old Flexible Flyer with the metal runners. You have to. You have to dig kind of deep on Amazon to find it. But they still have.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Say I have one of those. I have two of those in my attic that are probably from the 1940s, and they look exactly like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. The design has not changed.

[C]

No, no. I'm guessing the one I have in my attic probably weighs twice as much as the one that's on Amazon right now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Probably right.

[C]

But I don't know why I'm hanging on to them. Maybe I'm hoping, like, somebody from a. A Bennegan is going to reach out, that they need to, you know, decorate the restaurant, and they're going to need a. Need a sled to put on the wall.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What you could do is you could find. You could find a. A Klingon cosplayer who could, like, kind of deconstruct it into a bat lift and use it. That way. It's got all the. It's got all the composite parts for it.

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I haven't seen or thought about Bennegan in, like, 30 years. I'm, like, looking at their menu online right now. Good stuff.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, one thing I'm going to leave in the show notes for folks if they're interested. I can't remember if I ever shared my President Carter story here on the show, but I have an interesting story about President Carter, who, of course, passed away recently. I did cross paths with him when I was just a youngster, and I had the opportunity to tell that story at a local. Local storytelling event, and somebody videotaped it. So it's on YouTube. And I think, oh, cool. Yeah. If you want to check it out, it is a fun story. It's another one of those different time, kind of had to be there stories. So if you're interested in hearing how I cross paths with the good President Carter, we'll have a link to that in the show notes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's a fun story. I did listen to it. And, Dave, I am going to subscribe right now to bring your subscriber count on YouTube up from two to three.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, thank you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're welcome. You're welcome.

[C]

So up by 33%. Those are good. Those are good numbers. I'll take it. All right, well, Jason, stay safe, please.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'll do my best.

[C]

Keep in touch. Let us know next week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This might be coming from the back of my Jeep, but there will be a show next week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have the technology.

[C]

All right, Good enough.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, guys, thanks. I'll talk to you soon, hopefully.

[C]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout out over at Patreon. We've got Michael Multisweetness and AM or Am not sure how to go with that one. And we got a nice big bump from Murray Jack and from the. From the laundry file Legacies, Dan, More Cowbell, Philip, Kira, Azum, Nate, William, Seth, Stuart and Martin. Thank you all so much for being Patreon subscribers. And just a reminder, you can sign up at patreon for just $3 a month to get the ad free and in high definition. And if you want to pay for the whole year in advance, you get a discount. Woo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yay. And over at PayPal we've got donations from Joseph, Jens, David, Judge, Charlie, Florian, Jonathan, Levi, Ralph, Nicola, Thomas and Simon. Thank you all so much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Over the tip jar we've got Ross, Eric, Slobodan, Adam, Matthew, Sarah and Marcel with the big $30 and Michael J with the big $60. Woo. Thank you everybody. And some people who got some good merch this time. Jody, Chris and Casey who even sent us a picture of the hoodie. Woohoo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Looking good. Good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's over at Shop Gog show if you want to get some goodies. And someday Brian will make that visibility set to zero shirt. And someday I'll make that shocking shirt.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I gotta get in there and figure out all the logins and I'll get around to it. We got a new five star review. Happy New Year. Happy 2025. Wish you the best that hasn't aged.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well does not at all. It's not at all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Until next time. I'm Brian Schultz Meister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

10 days in I want a refund. Mulligan. And I'm Jason DeFilipo. Thanks for listening to Grumpy old Geeks. To get all the links and goodies from today's episode, go to GOG Show 679. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss us a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps to keep the show on the air. Do you love the show? Well share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends. Find and everyone in between and 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? Well hit us up at GOG Show Contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG show review and we'll read it on the air. Oh, and guess what we've got GOG Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG Show. Stay grumpy and preferably non flammable.