681: Trough of Disillusionment

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks – Episode 681: Trough of Disillusionment Release Date: January 25, 2025

In Episode 681 of Grumpy Old Geeks, hosts Jason DeFilippo, Brian Schulmeister, and guest Dave Bittner delve into a myriad of topics spanning from extreme weather phenomena to the evolving landscape of technology and media. This episode, aptly titled "Trough of Disillusionment," captures the hosts' unfiltered perspectives on recent events and trends shaping the tech and entertainment industries.

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I. Weather Extremes and Local Experiences

The episode kicks off with the hosts sharing their personal battles against an unprecedented polar vortex. Brian recounts the severe cold that led to frozen pipes and dysfunctional bathrooms, while Jason humorously attributes the extreme weather to a rift caused by his trip to Canada.

Brian Schulmeister [00:49]: "We had a polar vortex. Now it's cold enough here in regular winter. The polar vortex was insane."

Jason DeFilippo [01:18]: "You have to come back."

The discussion highlights the absurdity of enduring prolonged harsh weather, setting a tone of exasperation that permeates the episode.

II. Gaming Industry's Job Losses and AI Impact

Transitioning to industry news, Brian presents alarming statistics from the GDC 2025 State of the Game Industry Report. The gaming sector faces significant job losses, with potential layoffs estimated at around 14,000 for 2024, attributed largely to industry consolidation and the relentless advancement of AI technologies.

Brian Schulmeister [01:46]: "11% of developers said they were let go from their positions in 2024 and 29% observed direct colleagues being laid off."

Jason DeFilippo [02:29]: "AI. Yeah. Yes."

The hosts discuss the precarious balance between the gaming industry's high revenues and its unsustainable labor practices, exacerbated by automation and AI integration.

III. Elon Musk's Gaming Character Outsourcing Controversy

Elon Musk's recent admission to outsourcing his gaming character activities becomes a focal point of contention. The hosts criticize Musk for hiring others to play his characters, undermining his image as an elite gamer.

Brian Schulmeister [03:05]: "He has hired other people to man his characters and level them up for him so he can step in and do a little video where it seems like he's an awesome dude."

Jason adds a historical perspective, comparing Musk's tactics to long-standing practices in the gaming community.

Jason DeFilippo [04:12]: "Grinding a character to sell has, you know, that's what kept World of Warcraft, you know, financially viable for Chinese gold farmers for decades."

IV. Political Moves: Trump's Executive Orders and Pardon of Ross Ulbricht

The episode shifts to political developments, focusing on President Trump's executive orders aimed at combating perceived anti-conservative biases on social media platforms. The hosts express skepticism about the efficacy and intentions behind these directives.

Brian Schulmeister [05:53]: "He's just saying there's an anti-conservative bias on social media platforms. Multiple studies have actually found that conservative leaning posts tend to outperform liberal leaning posts on social media."

Additionally, the controversial pardon of Ross Ulbricht, founder of the Silk Road, is scrutinized. The hosts debate the implications of releasing a figure convicted of facilitating illegal activities.

Jason DeFilippo [07:21]: "But you know, he's going to level up somebody, have somebody else level up a face to melt off."

V. Social Media Censorship Issues on Instagram

The conversation returns to social media, highlighting a technical glitch on Instagram that temporarily blocked political hashtags. The hosts mock Meta's vague explanations and criticize the company's inconsistent policies.

Brian Schulmeister [11:19]: "If you followed President Biden and Vice President Harris on Instagram, you may now be following P. Donny and the Couch Fucker."

They emphasize the ongoing tension between user expectations and platform governance, underscoring the challenges of enforcing content moderation.

VI. AI and Academic Misinformation

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing a report from the Harvard Kennedy School's Misinformation Review, which reveals that two-thirds of sampled academic papers on Google Scholar show signs of AI-generated text. The hosts express concern over the infiltration of fabricated information into scholarly research, potentially undermining academic integrity.

Brian Schulmeister [13:24]: "They found that two thirds of the papers they studied were at least in part produced through undisclosed use of GPTs."

Jason DeFilippo [14:00]: "GPTs continue to pull information out of nowhere, which is usually false, and then they also manufacture their own research papers to bolster the fake information that they produced."

VII. Amazon and Meta's Recent Developments

The discussion moves to corporate issues, focusing on Amazon's decision to close its Quebec facilities, resulting in over 1,700 job cuts. The hosts speculate on the reasons behind this move, humorously suggesting that even giant companies aren't immune to operational challenges.

Brian Schulmeister [29:27]: "Amazon, the company that is one of the largest companies in the world, primarily based on their logistics that they built in house, is going to outsource deliveries to smaller contractors."

Similarly, Meta faces internal turmoil as renowned Stanford professor and copyright lawyer Mark Lemle departs due to disagreements over company policies and leadership.

Brian Schulmeister [27:59]: "Laemmle cited concerns over Meta's shift towards toxic masculinity and neo Nazi madness."

VIII. Necco Health Startup and Healthcare Innovations

Necco Health, a Stockholm-based startup reviving the iconic Necco Wafers name, emerges as a notable company raising $260 million in Series B funding. The hosts dissect the company's mission to provide high-tech health scans aimed at early detection of diseases like skin cancer and heart disease. However, they express skepticism about the accessibility and practicality of such services.

Brian Schulmeister [32:15]: "There's never going to be trickled down to people who can can't afford it. This is going to be a tool for the rich to help keep them healthier."

IX. Television and Movie Discussions

The hosts review and critique various documentaries and TV series, including Yacht Rock, The Wrecking Crew, and Echo in the Canyon. They appreciate the historical insights these documentaries offer but remain critical of certain narrative choices and execution.

Brian Schulmeister [37:15]: "It is one of the worst things I've ever read in my life."

In discussing Star Trek: Section 31, they express disappointment over missed opportunities for musical integration, lamenting the absence of iconic John Williams motifs that could have enhanced the viewing experience.

Dave Bittner [59:38]: "I wanted like the theme from the Death Star Trench run. Just something suggestive of every time."

X. Amateur Ham Radio Adventures

Guest Dave Bittner shares his recent venture into amateur ham radio, detailing his journey from obtaining a general license to setting up his own radio equipment. The discussion highlights the nostalgic and practical aspects of ham radio as a hobby, contrasting it with modern communication methods.

Dave Bittner [63:07]: "I had decided... I was going to go host end and get me a ham radio, because I'm in a disaster zone perpetually now."

The hosts explore the technical challenges and community aspects of ham radio, underscoring its relevance in emergency situations despite technological advancements.

XI. Conclusion

As the episode winds down, the hosts touch upon various lighter topics, including streaming services, upcoming TV shows, and personal hobbies. They maintain their signature grumpy yet humorous tone, wrapping up the episode with gratitude towards their patrons and listeners.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [00:25]: "This is the longest January ever."
• Brian Schulmeister [03:35]: "He wasn't born when we started this show. God damn it."
• Dave Bittner [63:07]: "I'm making my own antennas."
• Brian Schulmeister [82:29]: "We had all the different stations across the dial."

Timestamp Highlights:

• Polar Vortex Discussion: [00:18] – [01:18]
• Gaming Industry Layoffs: [01:18] – [02:44]
• Elon Musk Gaming Controversy: [03:05] – [04:32]
• Political Executive Orders & Pardon: [04:32] – [08:50]
• Instagram Censorship Glitch: [11:19] – [13:44]
• AI in Academia Report: [13:44] – [15:03]
• Amazon & Meta Corporate News: [27:29] – [29:29]
• Necco Health Startup: [30:10] – [33:19]
• TV & Movie Reviews: [34:26] – [60:57]
• Ham Radio Journey: [61:03] – [70:21]

Conclusion:

Episode 681 of Grumpy Old Geeks offers a comprehensive and candid exploration of the week's tumultuous events in technology, politics, and media. Through sharp wit and critical analysis, Jason, Brian, and Dave provide listeners with insightful commentary on the disillusionments faced by various industries, the impact of AI advancements, and the ever-evolving dynamics of social media and corporate governance. Whether dissecting the fallout from extreme weather events or navigating the complexities of ham radio, the hosts maintain a consistent narrative of skepticism and humor, making the episode both informative and entertaining for those who seek an unvarnished take on current affairs.

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 DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schillmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'd just like to say, Brian, when we do our next show, it will still be fucking January.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is the longest January ever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ever. It is funny now that we are in the the alternate Back to the Future 2 timeline with Biff's Casino that it just, it makes sense that time is just wrong right now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, in good times we complain that time goes too fast. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, human nature.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. That's it. Let's get on that hedonic treadmill.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's been an incredibly long just week over here. We had a polar vortex. Now it's cold enough here in regular winter. The polar vortex was insane. I didn't even want to leave the house. In fact, we discovered that the north side of our house does not have good insulation and the pipes froze. That led to two of our three bathrooms. So that was awesome. But the south side does have good insulation. So luckily our kitchen was fine and our en suite bathroom was fine and everything unfroze yesterday.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So see, here's the deal. When you went to Canada and I stayed here, it created a rift in the weather pattern. So you get the ultimate cold, I get the ultimate hot. It was 80 degrees here yesterday in January with like 30 mile an hour winds. So if we average the two, we have normal weather. So that just means you have to come back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or we just meet in the middle because that's where the wet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, let's get into a little bit of news here. We've been talking about pink slips over the last two years and I guarantee you those will be accelerating this year. But we the gaming industry, which got hit pretty hard and it is a challenging time to be a game developer these days. According to the GDC 2025 State of the Game Industry Report that surveyed over 3,000 game developers and industry professionals, it was one of the worst years last year ever for game industry job losses. 11% of developers said they were let go from their positions in 2024 and 29% observed direct colleagues being laid off. All of that is part of an unfortunate trend caused in part by consolidation that could see around 14,000 layoffs in 2024 when final tall that's a lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That is a lot. That is a lot. Now you know that it Consolidation. Yes. Could they have overhired? Possibly. Perhaps. Is it also that the video game industry is absolutely brutal no matter what? Oh, definitely, definitely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it's also worth pointing out that it is probably the highest revenue of any entertainment industry in the world other than.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So again, you know, you'll see a recurring theme as we work through this episode. Industries that are making a shit ton of money are firing a bunch of people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

AI. Yeah. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And in other video game news, we also had this brouhaha. One of Elon's many brewhahas at the moment, and I'd argue probably the least concerning of them. People have been questioning for quite some time how Elon Musk is an elite gamer when he's supposedly running multiple companies and the country at the moment. But apparently he has finally admitted that he has paid other people to play his characters for him.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. Last week when we talked about this, he was like, no, no, no, I'm, I'm, I'm late. I'm leet. No, you're not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, no, he's not. He has admitted to doing what a lot of other people apparently also do if you get to that level, but not all people. He has hired other people to man his characters and level them up for him so he can step in and do a little video where it seems like he's an awesome dude who's super high up, even though he didn't do all that time to do it. At one point, Grimes the mot three of his children even took to X to defend his personal gaming honor. But basically it's bullshit. And he finally admitted it in DMS to some. This is the whole controversy I don't even give a crap about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There are so many other controversies.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And you know, grinding a character to sell has, you know, that's a tradition as old as time. That's what kept World of Warcraft, you know, financially viable for Chinese gold farmers for decades.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But that was, that was leveling up a character to sell, not leveling up a charact to burnish your own fucking ego.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they sold it to people like him. That's the whole point. You know, I knew a lot of people like him who would come in and buy a level 60 character. Yeah, level 60 was the highest you could go when I quit playing. And then, you know, then they would start to play with the guild and it was just like, you lazy bastard. You know, they never got any Love and Elon also no love in the news. Well, Brian, it turns out the whole axis of surveillance capitalism and douche nozzle were in attendance at the inauguration of who I'm going to call from now on, P. Donnie. And like I said, this is all happening in plain sight, basically, like a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Big old Washington freak off party.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was, it was a big freak.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Off or whatever the hell he called his parties with the baby oil. That was drugs.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The freak offs. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Man, if I could have gotten some of that drug baby oil when I was like a teenager, that would have been awesome.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm so glad that he got in jail before the fires hit, man, it would be one hell of a conflagration.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, I, I, I didn't watch, but of course read the coverage. And yeah, I mean, they're kissing the ring because they have to, because they know there's no rules here. And if they want unfettered, unregulated social media and be able to run their companies up to gazillions of dollars even more, they gotta, they gotta make sure he doesn't want to shut them down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Kiss that little brown ring.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that little tiny one. Well, in addition, Trump has ordered the government to stop trampling conservative social media. I'm not entirely sure what this order means. It's not a law by any means whatsoever. But he has ordered his attorney General to investigate how the previous administration trampled free speech rights. Because nobody has had free speech for the past four years, certainly none of these conservatives. So this directive, which came amid the flurry of executive orders that he initially he signed on his first day in office for bids government agencies and employees from abridging freedom of speech, which is already prohibited by the First Amendment, but never mind that. And says the federal government should identify and take appropriate action to correct past mixed conduct by the federal government related to censorship of protected speech. So basically he's just saying there's an anti conservative bias on social media and you guys need to knock it off. Except for the fact that as we've covered in year after year after exhaustive year on this program, there is no anti conservative bias on social media platforms. Multiple studies have actually found that conservative leaning posts tend to outperform liberal leaning posts on social media.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's because liberals are morons. The point. Yeah, that's the point. The point here is it's, it's like they're going to just yell as loud as they possibly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the outrage machine. It gets what we talked about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, it does. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What does matter is that on that same day, with all of the. The executive orders being signed, P. Donney has granted a full and unconditional pardon to Ross Ulbricht, AKA Dread Pirate Roberts, the founder of the Silk Road. Now, if you forgot, the Silk Road, launched in 2011, was a site on the Dark Web that facilitated anonymous transactions from drugs to violence for hire.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's just a platform, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just a platform. Yes, but it was, Brian, the breakout success story for Bitcoin. And it generated over $200 million in revenue before being shut down by the FBI in October 2013.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because once again, Jason, what is the case use for Bitcoin?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, crime, of course.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Crime.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That is the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So in 2015, he received two life sentences, plus 40 years without the possibility of parole. Now, a lot of people did think that was excessive. I, for one, thought it was excessive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's excessive.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But you know what's excessive? The other way.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Letting him go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Fucking pardon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Fucking pardon after 11 years. Ulbricht's attorney expressed profound gratitude for the clemency, stating that it offers Ulbricht the opportunity to begin anew, to rebuild his life and to contribute. And by.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Contribute.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Next time we see Ross Ulbricht will be at his Senate confirmation hearings to be the next head of the dea, I predict.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Might as well monetize that branch as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Why not put a drug dealer in. Head of the. In the. You know, the head of the dea.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. If you need your drugs and your. Your. Your firearms, come to me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Even crazy motherfucker Scott Adams couldn't get behind this one. You know why? You know why?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Why?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because he had a stepson that OD'd and died on fentanyl. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, so it affects him personally.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It actually affected him. So. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So as opposed to actually having empathy without it needing to initially affect you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But he did leave a loophole, so. Because he. He always does need to be. Right. Saying that. Well, if there was, you know, problems with the trial, then that would be okay, then, to be set free, but, you know, killed my stepson. We'll just wash over that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, we'll wash over all those. All those police officers that were maimed and killed during January 6th as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stick to the tech. Stick to the tech.

[Dave Bittner]

Sorry.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sorry. Sorry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stick to the tech. P. Donny has also signed an executive order creating the President's Department of Government Efficiency, or doge. That's right. It's. Finally.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm preferring to I'm going to pronounce that French style and just. I'll call it Duche.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, Dujay was initially pitched as an external body, but Elon Musk successfully maneuvered to embed directly into the federal government by rebranding the US Digital service as the US Dujay Service, which really is, I mean, as a chess move, hats off.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All of this is pretty incredible what's happening. It's, you know, it's horrible, it's terrifying. Makes me want to just puke constantly. But man, they're working it that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's basically what he did was it was kind of like a spac, you know. So without getting his company through the normal vetting to get on the stock market, he got his little internal agency or his little shit bag agency that wasn't going to have any power whatsoever piggybacked onto an existing service that already has an existing mandate and has existing power. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And budget.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, and a budget. So, yep. Now DJ report directly to Trump's chief of staff. And yeah, I like this. The end run by Musk not only reshapes the USDs, but raises questions about the agency's long term survival and whether Doge's temporary experiment will leave behind lasting reform or chaos. Me personally, I vote chaos.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, doesn't matter if you voted for it or not. We're getting it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You're getting it. You're getting it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, getting back to social media and it's a conservative, anti conservative bias perceived. Anyways, Instagram blocked searches related to a number of political hashtags, including Democrats, hashtag Democrat, hashtag January 6, hashtag Republicans. Not that there are any of those anymore. It's all MAGA and a number of other terms. On Tuesday, users who search for these hashtags were instead greeted with notice that we've hidden these results because they may contain sensitive content as opposed to clicking through to get the sensitive content like everybody else does. But that's okay. Well, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone blamed an unspecified issue in a post on threads, and that was about all we're ever going to hear about that. So there you go. But apparently it has fixed. It's been fixed now, I. E. They pressed the button that undid it. And though the company hasn't explained what was the issue other than the button that blocked all that stuff.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I like how hashtag John Oliver got in there. Yep, that's a good one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Can't get any of that information.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nope. Well, if you did follow President Biden and Vice President Harris on Instagram. You. You may now be following P. Donny and the Couch Fucker. The official POTUS and VP accounts transfer to new administrations, keeping followers but wiping the content. So I actually didn't know about this until a friend of mine, we were on a zoom call and she was just like, somebody just told me I'm following JD V. Advance. And she's like, I've never followed that couch. Her words.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It also works for the first lady and the. All that sort of stuff. So if you followed any of them previously, the accounts have now been switched over. People lost their minds about this. And I was just like, look, this is pretty simple. Yeah, here's what happened. It's a reasonable explanation. So can we stop with the outrage right now? It makes perfect sense. Go in and unfollow. Done. And then, of course, now there are people claiming I can't unfollow. It's not working.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, why don't you just try searching for hashtag Republican and hashtag Democrat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, wait, that didn't work either.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. If you, if you, if you want credibility, Brian, you have to have a little credibility to start with. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. That is true. And speaking of credible AI generated scientific research is polluting the online academic information ecosystem, according to a worrying report published in the Harvard Kennedy School's Misinformation Review. So we now actually have a study proving what we all said was going to happen, which is the snake is now eating its own tail.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just want to point out that there's a publication called Harvard Kennedy School's Misinformation Review. I want to subscribe to that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think I'm in on that too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think we watch every day in our RSS feed when we do research for this show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We should be employed by them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. We should be. Editors. Call us. Call us.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A team of researchers investigated the prevalence of research articles with evidence of artificially generated text on Google Scholar, an academic search engine that makes it easy to search for research published historically or in a wealth of academic journals. They analyzed a sample of scientific papers found on Google Scholar for signs of GPT use and basically use some phrases, some other things. They know what they're doing. They're researchers, and basically found that two thirds of the papers they studied were at least in part produced through undisclosed use of GPTs. So obviously this can be problematic because as we know, GPTs continue to pull information out of nowhere, which is usually false, and then they also manufacture their own research papers to bolster the fake information that they produced. And now this is leaking its way into real studies. And if you go through and try to do meta studies and things of that nature, you're now getting a lot of misinformation. So great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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[Brian Schulmeister]

On threads or somewhere else.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, no, it wasn't on threads. No. If I was looking for last week's.

[Brian Schulmeister]

News, I would go to Threads, had weight loss tips.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This was a thread. It was on one of those kind of like Glassdoor, one of those websites where you can sign up as an employee of a company and you get a little tag for which company you work for. And this was one. This was a thread started by somebody at Meta saying how they're shitting bricks over at the Gen AI division, because there's that new model that came out of China that only cost five and a half million dollars to train, and it's outperforming Meta's Llama model. Like, it's kicking it in the ass. And so they're like, everybody here in the upper level of the C suite in that division, the Gen AI division is shit and bricks because they all make more money than it costs to train that model. So they're all trying to figure that out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But then we could use some DOGE over there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. So the thread keeps going, and there's some people from Google on the thread and they're talking about, yeah, this thing's really cool. And how it's updating the benchmark. You know, it's like doing really cool stuff. And somebody posted like, yeah, yeah, you should read the paper on that because the paper is really good. And the guy from Google goes, hey, link. Link to paper. And then somebody else from Google said, it really shows how shitty we are at Google. If you have to ask somebody for a link to a paper, you can just Google.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just Google it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, in context, it was pretty fucking funny. I'll see if I can dig it up and put it in the show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Notes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man. Okay, here's the big one of the week. Pete Donney has announced the $500 billion Stargate project. So this is a groundbreaking effort to enhance artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US and it's backed by major tech players including OpenAI, Microsoft, Oracle, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Now, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi San joined Trump at the launch alongside Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Now, Larry Ellison is starting to look to me like McAfee.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I thought the exact same thing. I was like, next thing you know, he's going to be in a cowboy hat with women's underwear over his face.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly, Exactly. A couple AK47 on the beach. So what this basically is because nobody could really. They didn't really say what it was. It was just like, okay, we've got Trump in our back pocket to push legislation through so we can open up a shit ton of data centers next to energy plants or build more energy plants. It's a whole thing. This is, you know, who needs rivers? Who needs rivers? That's right. When we have the Gulf of America to take all our water from. So this, I mean, that's the thing. It's just. This has been in the works for a long time already.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's. That's the real thing is Trump is claiming credit for it. This, this started a long time ago. This started pre Trump. So we can actually blame Biden for this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, Biden passed on it and said, I know I'm going to put in safeguards for AI. I'm going to put humanities, I'm going to go the other direction. So as soon as that was done, P. Donney got rid of that, that initiative, the, you know, the AI guardrails initiative, and said, screw you guys, screw you guys, I'm going to blow up the planet. And then said, okay guys, come on in. And got Sam and Masayoshi san and Larry Ellison to come in and say, here, we're giving all this money. Now here's the thing, here's where it starts to get tricky. A Stargate was a, was a mediocre movie in a terrible series that killed Farscape. So I have a problem with the name Stargate to begin with. But anyway, since it doesn't really have kind of a cohesive plan, it's like we're going to build a bunch of stuff and we're going to put in $500 billion and up to a trillion. Sure. Where's all the money coming from? Well, turns out, turns out a lot of it ain't coming from really nice places.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What are you telling me the people with access to billions and billions of excess capital aren't nice people?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Color me shocked.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's coming. Some of this is coming from Abu Dhabi based firm MGX through soft, you know, through SoftBank's initiative. And by the way, when SoftBank is involved, that's already. It's bad news. It's just bad news. Go back and watch anything that had to do with WeWork and you'll understand how dumb Machiyoshi san is when it comes to investing in general. Not very good at it. So he's getting money from basically that part of the world which is, you know, they have human rights abuses and torture and things like that going on under the, under the table financial scandals too, but they oversee $1.5 trillion. So they've got money to burn.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Literally. So we're going to see how that plays out. Where the money's coming from, the other side of this whole thing about where the money's going to come from. Elon got butthurt over the whole thing because he was not invited to the meeting. And apparently it was a very big, it was a very big logistical thing to keep him out of that meeting and so he didn't even know about it. So, yes, he is butthurt. So he goes on X and says, oh, they don't even have the blah, blah, blah. And Satya Nadella throws his dick on the table and says, hey, I got 80 billion right here, Elon. Suck it. So. And it's not really good for Elon at this point to already be upsetting the Emperor because he's just, he doesn't. He hasn't even gotten the keys to his new office yet, you know?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So he hasn't frog. Stomped his way into the White House yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, he hasn't. He hasn't. So apparently the Trump staff is very upset with Musk over shitting on. On P. Donney already. But here's where it's really interesting. They say this comes from an insider in the P. Donney campaign. It's clear he has abused the proximity to the President. The problem is the President doesn't have any leverage over him. And Elon gives zero fucks. Now, what could possibly go wrong there?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Remember how when Elon took over Twitter, he came in with a sink?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's going to walk into the White House with the lost ark.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Perfect. Perfect.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So maybe his face will melt off then.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Maybe, maybe his face will melt off. He's just. No, he's going to level up somebody, have somebody else level up a face to melt off. And at the same time, all of this is happening, all of these moon rocket projects to go to the Stargate with AI. Gartner is reporting that global IT spending is projected to hit 5.5 trillion in 2025, a nearly 10% jump. 2024. But the surge comes largely from generative AI hardware upgrades. And analysts are warning the technology isn't yet delivering practical functionality. Unless you want six fingers. So John David Lovelock, Gartner's VP of Research, says generative AI is sliding toward the trough of disillusionment, where market expectations.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Live most of my life these days. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Dude, we've been in the trough of disillusionment since the fucking 80s. Come on. So, yes, market expectations are dropping. The spending continues, and he predicts the downward trend will accelerate into 2026. I'm going to say it's going to accelerate for four years, but we'll see how that goes. Yeah, for now, it seems AI's promise is outpacing its payoff. But, you know, let them build the stuff. Let them. Let them destroy the planet. Why not?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Why not? Okay, so, you know, we. I've been harping about this for quite some time. What is the value? What is the value that we are getting from generative AI and it's basically next to nothing but it's getting billions upon billions of dollars and we're charging head forward anyways because why not? These guys have their shiny little toys. The bros toys are there and they're getting paid well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did you, did you check out the, the press conference? They said it's going to cure cancer, Brian. Yeah, they literally said at the press conference it's going to cure cancer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's okay. That car that, that guy down the street bot it says self driving. Ah, yeah, see there's that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The self driving car guy wasn't in the meeting though. They wouldn't let him be there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, okay, so self driving also not a thing. Doesn't cancer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We're gonna get fully self driving cancer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great. That's what we all need. You know, another technology that's really not working out the way that we all thought it would and it's been around for quite some time and you know, if done in fairly responsibly and limited use, it's, it's actually pretty good. Drones. Well, Amazon can't get drone delivery to work either. Oh, the company has paused all commercial drone deliveries in Texas and Arizona. And you know something's up if they got a pause it in Texas because usually they don't give a fuck.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, they usually just shot down in Texas. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. After a previously undisclosed event. Shocking. Is there any other type except for undisclosed events coming out of these companies in which two of Amazon's MK30 drones had crashed. Crashed at the Pendleton, Oregon airport it was using for testing. This took place in December with one of the drones catching fire after it fell. So let's maybe not have that in our neighborhood. Amazon reportedly determined that its drones crashed due to a software issue that's linked to the light rain drizzling at the time of the tests being conducted. Self driving cars can't handle people wearing red T shirts. Drones can't handle light rain.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. You know, I think they, I think they were doomed to failure when they named it the MK30. Anything with MK in front of it never works. See MK Ultra for reference.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And if you want to see the kind of corporate doublespeak we're going to be getting a lot of over the next few years as regulations go away. The company said, however, that crashes weren't the primary reason why it's putting its drone deliveries on hold. But they didn't Give a primary reason. Just did not that. And that is currently in the process of making software changes to the drone. And that the operational pause is 100% volunteer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And there are guys outside taping little tiny cocktail umbrellas over the motor, so if it rains, it won't get wet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now, I would like to also point out that, you know, Pete, Donnie has. Has put in these executive orders for Ross Ulbricht, Department of Doge and Stargate. He promised on day one that he was going to tell us what the fuck was up with the drones in New Jersey. What happened?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's day three.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Come on. We are solidly in year two of this presidency, so I need to know what's up with the drones. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we're probably never going to hear about that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't think so. Well, here's some other news. Stanford professor and top copyright lawyer Mark Lemle, revered in tech circles, has parted ways with Meta. Laemmle, once representing the tech giant in a case where authors accuse Meta of using their books to train AI without permission, announced he's stepping back, but not due to the case itself, but over Meta's recent policies and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's leadership.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And perhaps a case of late catching ethics.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's going to say late stage ethics. Laemmle cited concerns over Meta's shift towards toxic masculinity and neo Nazi madness, referencing policy changes that roll back LGBTQ protections and DEI programs. Laemmle, one of the most cited legal scholars, explained his decision as a personal stand against growing extremism in Silicon Valley, comparing Zuckerberg's direction to Elon Musk's controversial moves. So, yeah, he still believes Meta is legally in the right on the copyright issues. He just doesn't like the Nazi shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, you know the other thing he did before he made that big announcement and had his late catching ethics? He checked his bank account.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he got paid. Speaking of getting paid, Apple must face a potential class action lawsuit alleging the company wide policy of paying female employees less than their male counterparts.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, don't worry about it. Trump's in office.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey, girls, just go buy a dongle.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're fine. Apple's gonna be fine. This is gonna get tossed. There's no dei, there's no whatever. We could pay the chicks whatever we want.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they are in California, so they're still stuck for a little bit. California judge did rule this week that the case impacting up thousand current and former female workers can proceed until the next executive Order. Plaintiffs argue that Apple's salary setting practices and performance evaluations perpetuate gender pay disparities. So there you go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, dancing back to Amazon. Amazon just announced it will be closing its Quebec facilities in the coming weeks. According to reporting by the CBC, this move will cut more than 1,700 jobs. It will begin outsourcing deliveries to smaller contractors instead of relying on its own in house team. Yes, Amazon, the company that is one of the largest companies in the world, primarily based on their logistics that they built in house, is going to outsource deliveries to smaller contractors instead of using their own infrastructure. Why might they be doing that? Surely not, because that warehouse just unionized, just like that Starbucks that mysteriously got shut down as soon as they unionized.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And it's not. It's not hardware. It's not the crashes that put our drones down. It's something else. Something else? Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The drones were unionizing, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The drone reunionizing. That's it. They became sentient and we're starting a union.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So we want more days off and we want paid parental leave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We will not fly in the rain, God damn it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Give us little tiny umbrellas. Oh, fuck it. How does Rachel Maddow do her show without fucking cussing?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I can't. I can't watch her. I just can't. I can't, I can't. Well, here's another one. Stockholm startup Necco Health. Do you remember Necco Wafers?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I do. There was a. You could use them for a while. I remember it was like part of the whole freaking and hacking thing. You could use Necco wafers in the New York City transit system.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, actually the big one was Illinois tollways. You could, you could throw a Necco wafer into the. The baskets on the, on the tollways and it would let you through it. Basically size and thickness of actual quarters back then. So that was the thing. But anyway. Necco health has raised $260 million in Series B funding, valuing the body scanning company at $1.8 billion. Co founded by Spotify's Daniel Necco offers hour long high tech health scans for around 300 pounds, analyzing millions of data points to detect risks like skin cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Soon to be put out of work by AI. With a waitlist exceeding 100,000 people, Necco has served 10,000 patients at clinics in Stockholm and London and is now targeting U.S. expansion, its largest market outside of Europe. CEO Hamler Nielsen says the funding will help open more clinics, improve its proprietary hardware and software, and advance preventative healthcare globally. Sounds great, sounds great. But I don't know if you noticed the co founder at the top, Daniel Ek already destroyed the music industry with Spotify, leaving musicians with royalty checks so small they can't afford health care. So now he's coming for healthcare itself. So what could possibly go wrong, Brian? What could possibly go wrong?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nothing's going to go wrong except it's never going to be, there's never going to be trickled down to people who can can't afford it. This is going to be a tool for the rich to help keep them healthier. I, I remember about 15 years ago this, the first body scanning company started to come out and, and they were trying to. Well first off they didn't really work that great. Nobody really understood a lot of these data points. I'm assuming that technology has gotten a lot better. I love the concept of it but this is always, it's expensive and it's not going to trickle down and there's no healthcare system. So you and I will not be getting body scanned anytime soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, £300 isn't that much for a full, for an hour long consultation and a scan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, that's actually not bad but I'm sure there are considerable amounts of upsell.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's the thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, you want to actually see that data? The 300 was for the scan.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The scan, yeah, the data cost extra.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That is $10,000.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Per stream.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, you want us to interpret the data? Oh you want a pillow on this flight? You want some food, you want some air?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. The other thing is when testing technology got, got better over the past couple decades everybody started to get every single disease and we're getting treated for it preemptively even though there were things that we've like we've all got cancer in us at all at any given time, you know and it's usually just the body takes care of itself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But when you start to get these scans that are like super high definition and then now you've got you know, all the women cutting their boobs off when they're 15 and it's just that's it kind of the needle can go too far the other direction. So we'll see how intro, you know, we'll see how intricate these scans are and what comes out of it. But if it was here in the US I would go get check it out for 300.

[Brian Schulmeister]

As Matt Gates would say, don't touch 15 year old girls boobies.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What position does he have in the government now? I'm Curious.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Chief gynecologist.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. Jesus Christ. Stuff over ahead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Stop.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stop. Media candy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, to try to escape the hellhole that we find ourselves in these days, I went on a big movie watching binge first. Starting with my, with my kid. We. We've been working through a lot of the Disney stuff and it was finally time to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was gonna say, I looked at this list and I'm like, did, did your kid get a hold of your keyboard? Because this is a lot of kid stuff.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just three. We tend to be a little bit obsessive when we watch a Disney movie and then we watch. Watch the follow up. So it was time to watch Lilo and Stitch, which came out during that period of time where I was not paying attention to any Disney movies, even though I'm a big, huge Disney fan anyways, so it was actually my first time watching it. Delightful movie, very funny, set in Hawaii, a lot of good cultural stuff going on, great music and a very clever story. A highly enjoyable movie. So definitely worth watching. Not as great the follow ups, because this was in the, I think 90s and when, when the follow ups were basically cast offs that went direct to VHS or DVD. So we also watched Lilo and Stitch 2. Stitch has a glitch. It was okay. My kid loved it. And then the third one, Leroy and Stitch, which also, you know, stick with the original, but eight year olds are all in on all three of them and same kind of charm throughout. It was fine. It's good. But the first one, great eight year.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Old, he wasn't born when we started this show. God damn it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know, Stop it. I know. And then at night, after the kid went to bed, I stumbled. Well, I'd heard about Yacht Rock, a documentary. You'll see how it's spelled in the show notes. Clever. And I heard it was like not that great. But I watched it and I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Like I don't like any of this music, but it was fun. It was interesting the fact that the whole yacht rock phenomenon phenomena started so much later and was started by an early 90s web comedy who just kind of made fun of the genre and then gave it a name. They're the ones that named it Yacht Rock. It's. It was clever. It's well worth the watch. And that put me down the rabbit hole of music industry or music documentaries. So next I watched the Wrecking Crew, which was phenomenal. And this is a group of musicians from the early 50s and 60s that basically played on every record known to man. They were the go to guys in Los Angeles that just played for everybody. They were the backing band for the Beach Boys, Elvis, Simon and Garfunkel, the Righteous Brothers, Phil Spector, the Birds, the Mamas and Papas, Sonny and Cher, Dean Martin, the Monkeys, Glenn Campbell, everybody. And it was just a small group of people. And it's great. It is absolutely great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Awesome. I'll check that out. I'm gonna. I'm gonna pass on yacht rock. I dated a girl who religiously listened to yacht rock when it was first coming out. She went to yacht rock rock bands and unironically is the problem. So that didn't last very long.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You might enjoy it, Jason, because it actually is mostly about the actual real bands that they based this on later who weren't they. They didn't consider themselves yacht rock and they weren't doing any of that. And nobody wore a hat. It's the real bands. Like, it's the real people, like, you know. And it was just. It was pretty interesting. Anyways, you don't have to watch.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Triggers, triggers, triggers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Next one, Echo in the Canyon, which was another great documentary and this is all about the Laurel Canyon music scene. Unfortunately, it is driven by what's his face, Jacob Dylan from the the Wildflowers. I think that was the name of the band. So he wanted to put together this whole like documentary and concert. But all the interviews and stuff with the original bands and everything, absolutely phenomenal. So this is definitely worth the watch as well. It's got Eric Clapton in it, Tom Petty, Brian Wilson, Michelle Phillips, a lot of the same people in a lot of the other documentari, but really good, really well done. The Wrecking Crew was the best by far. This is the second best. Both were worth watching. And then finally I rolled into something more appropriate to my music taste. There is a three part documentary series, Lala, the Story of Lalapalooza. And it was pretty well done. I mean, I have issues with Perry Farrell these days, especially since he crashed out and destroyed the band right before they were about to play Toronto and I didn't get to see them in 11 rockets. And when he's interviewed in this, he does a big long interview that strings through all of them. He's literally sitting there with and just necking from a full bottle of wine the whole time, which lets you know this guy couldn't even sit and be interviewed without chugging down an entire bottle of wine.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So that's what he's at.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But it's really interesting. The first episode spends the entire time talking about the very first Lollapalooza, which I attended, which was great. The second episode then does the second year, which I also attended, and I think they did two more years after that before they basically became victims of their own success. And alternative music, longer alternative, and it was mainstream. And then you've got Metallica playing and they're like, what the is this? Then they took time off, obviously. And then the third episode is about the resurgence that takes place in Chicago. No longer the traveling music festival, but the once a year festival there. And what a big success it's been. So great documentary, very good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And none of them were on Netflix, which is okay, because now getting back to what I was talking about earlier. Netflix has really released its earnings figures for the fourth quarter of 2024, and they've got operating income of more than $10 billion and a 16% revenue increase. So they're doing great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Awesome.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But guess what they're going to do now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They got a taste of what it feels like to make money. So I'm guessing they are raising their.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Prices because they're doing so well and have so much money. They're going to pass that down to us by lower. The trickle down is at work here, Jason. They're lowering. Oh, wait, no, that's not. It's trickling up again. Y Y Standard plan with ads is going from $7 to $8 a month, while the ad free version of standard will rise from 15 to $18 a month. The monthly rates for Premium, which offers 4K, Ultra HD and HDR, as in, you know, the quality that all of our TVs can handle, will increase from 23% to 25 or 23%. $23 to $25. And adding an extra member from outside your household, which they've also screwed us with, is also getting more expensive, going from $8 a month to $9 a month. So there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Yay. Yay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If it weren't for the kids programming that's on Netflix that my kid likes, I would just be ditching it because there's not much on there for me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The thing is, it's like every week I find a couple things on there that are worth watching. So so far, it's. It's definitely still worth it. I'm. I can't get rid of it. That's the last one that's going to go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think if you paid for all the big ones now, your. Your bill would be higher than cable was back in the day.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, absolutely, absolutely. But that's the nice thing about, you know, the rolling cancels, just, there's a show, cancel it after it's done. Speaking of new shows, we talked about severance a couple times, and I watched the first season, and I was just not a fan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I couldn't get past the first episode.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. Now, I went back and I. I did a little research, and I watched the premiere of season two last night. Night. And the previously on from Season one made it look really exciting. And I'm like, I don't remember this show being that exciting.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I guess we needed the show to be on Quibi.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Because I'm like, man, I remember some of that stuff. And there was a lot I didn't remember that was remembering. Wait, that show came out February 18, 2022. Yeah, I was. I was kind of out of my gourd after my stroke from when that show came out, so my brain wasn't working that well. And by the time it was done, I think I was drinking again. So I think. I think I might go back and try season one before I dig any more into season two. But season two, the premiere, wasn't that great either, so. I don't know. I'm confused, Brian. The show just is confusing to me. I don't get it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we don't have to watch everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no. But we do have to watch Star Trek Section 31, which does premiere on Paramount plus today. I put a couple links here. What is everything to remember before star trek section 31? This has a lot of screen caps of some of the characters in it, and it makes me not. It looks like a Hot Topic version of Mad Max. That's what the characters look like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or Guardians of the Galaxy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. Like a TEMU version of Guardians of the Galaxy, though.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, so you're supposed to be this ultra black Op organization, but yet you're dressed so fucking flamboyantly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. So. And then there's a Gizmodo review on it, says Section 31 is a mediocre action movie and an even worse Star Trek one. So I. You know Gizmodo's Hit or miss with me on the reviews. I didn't bother reading it because I'm gonna make up my own mind, but I. I don't know. I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I am gonna watch it because I. I have to. And, yeah, it's just a movie, but one of the. One of the parts of the reviews that I read that gives me a lot of pause is that they kind of did a. They did what they did with Moana 2 here. And I have not seen Moana 2 yet because I, I. My wife and kid went to see it. I am looking forward to seeing it because I liked it. But my wife said that it felt disjointed and not like a full story because they were trying to do a series and then basically edited that down into a movie. That's the same thing they did with section 31. It was supposed to be a series that has then been cut down into movie form, which means you don't get the character development and things don't make a lot of sense because they just happen as opposed to a build up that explains why it happened.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right? Character development.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Crazy thought. Yeah, Crazy thought.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Because it was supposed to be a full series and it got knocked down to a miniseries and it got knocked down to a. A movie.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, I'm sure I'll watch it. Better than Severance probably, but what are you gonna do? I, you know, when I, when I mentioned Severance on, On our Discord, no one has come to its rescue.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And said, no, no, you really should watch it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know anybody that champions the show. I, I know a couple people that watch it and they say it's okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I think that stunt they did at Grand Central Station in New York was pretty cool.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that was cool.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You see that? Yeah, yeah. They had all the, the actual actors and stuff there. That was pretty good. But beyond that, and the opening scene is a, you know, it's a beautifully shot piece of filmmaking, but. Okay, I want story. I want story. Yeah. I've got a podcast in here that I think that you might be interested in. It's called Fail Better with David Duchovny in General. David Duchovny, Take him or leave him. Don't really care that much. But he did an episode with Gillian Anderson where they get together and talk about some of the. Some of their stuff from the old X Files days. I thought it was pretty good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm thrilled to go back and listen to that. I find Gillian Anderson captivating in anything that she does. I think she's a very interesting person. Obviously, I'm a huge X Files fan, so going back and revisiting that and hearing what they have to say about it will be of interest to me. David Duchovny, for me, is one of those people that becomes less interesting the more I know about him.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yes, absolutely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I thought he was amazing in the X Files novel. I was like, who is this Guy, this guy is so intriguing. And the more I hear him and the more I see him talk and the more I learn about him, the less interested I am. So listening to a podcast that he does will probably kill any lingering fascination for David Duchovny with me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it probably will. It probably will. Yeah. She's the star of the show for sure. And it sucks too, because he's got a great list of guests on the show that I want to go listen to. But then after I listen to this one, I'm like, yeah, I can kind of pass on him. Him. I'm sure, I'm sure he's gotten like, this is probably a 20 million dollar podcast deal or some shit like that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Of course he's famous, you know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, fail up, fail up. But the X Files stuff is worth, worth listening to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I will be listening to it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, Brian. Finally I have a note from the father of the Terminator, James Cameron. He did a special video message for the special competitive studies project, AI Robotics Summit. It and it's all about AI, which is great. AI and robotics. And at the very end he starts to really kind of get into what he likes and doesn't like about AI. He does say that he is going to double down as far as the storytelling and filmmaking side of things goes, which is absolutely 180 degrees from the entirety of Hollywood. But that's kind of what he does. I mean, he pushes technology to, to tell a story. Yeah, you know this, this can almost make me forgive him for Avatar.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, he forgot the story bit there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, well, he'd know. He totally had the story, but he stole it from. It was the, the Geronimo one from Disney. I will find you. Whatever that one was. I'm blanking right now, but yeah, I am totally blanking. The Indian one with the Native American. Pocahontas. Yeah, it's basically Pocahontas, which is Avatar. So if you go watch Avatar and think, oh, this looks familiar. Yeah, it's Pocahontas and any other basic story that you can find. Anyway, tangent. So he starts talking about AI and AGI and how morality plays into how the AGI will be trained and how basically we're fucked. So. But he does end it with one of our favorite sayings. What could possibly go wrong? Which makes me love him even more. So he gets it. I highly recommend watching the whole thing. It's like 17 minutes. Well worth it. He nails it on every front and says it far better than we ever could. Apps and doodads. OpenAI has introduced operator Brian. It's a research preview right now of an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you. And it's available to pro users in the US to get started, you simply describe the task you'd like done. An operator can handle the rest. Users can choose to take control over the remote browser at any point. An operator is trained to proactively ask the user to take over for tasks that require login payment details or when solving captchas. Now if it could solve a fucking captcha, then you'd have a use case for me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just to be clear, the tech bros have invented a technology that frees us from the tyranny of. Of clicking.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Clicking. Yes, exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thank God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

God, thank God. We have to destroy the Amazon river so we no longer have to click.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Everything that we've always wanted to do as humans. It's freeing us up so we don't have to use Expedia. The thing about it too is if you look at all of the use cases that all these agentic agents are coming to the table with, it's all commerce, it's all E commerce because they're trying to figure out a way to pay for themselves. So they want to cut, yeah, they want to cut from all of these companies who they're going to partner with to say, hey, make your website agent friendly. And then we'll point our agent, you'll get a sweetheart deal and we'll make you a premier partner. Then you get a cut of everything that our agent sells through your website. Right, Good, let's do it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now that we're clear on that. But a developer has created an infinite maze that traps AI training bots.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, it's not. Brian, we just talked about killing the Amazon for AI. All this is going to do is going to require more resources for the AI to train on garbage data that they're going to have to keep cleaning to get out. Basically. I love the idea. It's a great idea to stop AI from stealing your shit since a robots txt obviously is not going to work. But. But I think that there's a slippery slope here by creating shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, the problem is this is how they're going to become self aware and then they're going to be pissed they were stuck in an infinite maze and then they're going to kill us all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's it. That's it. Good intent, poor execution, that's all I'm saying. How about just show them a blank page when you get the user agent of any of the AI slurpers. How about that? There's an idea. Zero resources used. Even better. I saw this one, and this just made me kind of shake my head for the future. This is from Wired. Best cooking equipment for meal kits 20, 25. Tested and reviewed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One microwave. End of article.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no, no. They try. They try, Brian. They try. They've got their pan, they've got their cutting board, they've got their knife. That's it. They show a pan, a cutting board and a knife.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Also, by the way, expensive versions of everything. Like, not cheap. So if you need a. If you want your $170 cutting board.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, my God. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Meal kits.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, this is a meal kit. Is. It's designed to use shit you should have in your kitchen. The basics. The absolute fucking basics.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. You can do this with stuff you can go buy at ikea. Thank you very much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, I would say Bed, Bath and Beyond, but they're gone.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Step up. Yeah. Oh, they're gone. That's right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they're totally gone.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But all those 10 off coupons, I tell you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I miss those. I miss. I miss Bed, Bath and Beyond. I used to go there all the time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Me too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But now I've moved into Hexclad, so they didn't have those. I gotta say, by far, the best pans I've ever owned. I know, I know. It's like, you know, some Gordon Ramsay that they're selling. But I don't know. If you watch Chopped, they've. They moved all the Hexclad on Chopped. That should tell you something. They're good. They're really good. And since we've been mocking P. Donny's executive orders, somebody put this in our Discord show notes. I'm sorry, I didn't catch the name, but is the Trump executive order generator. Well played.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Very clever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

At the library.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I was needing a new book, so I decided to go. I would go back to my shitter sci fi trial. And I didn't want to do. I didn't want. Want to do Caudron again because I've just read so many of his books. I'm taking a little bit of a break. I remember there was this. There was this guy, Douglas E. Richards, who had some really good books when he first started off. And it was just good, quick sci fi, very easy, good idea, whatever. Kind of written to be a movie, but, you know, not good enough to ever get optioned. That's kind of who he was so I downloaded one of his new ones, the Breakthrough Effect by Douglas E. Richards. I've never wanted to return a book. More.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh man, that's good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is one of the worst things I've ever read in my life. I thought it was a joke at first. I thought maybe this is some kind of clever black mirror thing where 20 pages in, it's some somebody will break the fourth wall and prove that he was reading a really bad sci fi book. But maybe it tipped him off to some cool idea and then the real book would start. But it didn't, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It didn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I gave up after about five chapters. It is the worst pile of crap I've ever read in my life. And it's too bad because I remember he wrote some pretty engaging, fun little books. And this, this, oh boy, I'm not reading him anymore. He's off the list.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

At that point I was scrambling around to try to find something to read and I discovered not till we are lost. Babiverse Book 5 by Dennis E. Taylor was finally out. A non audible format with words. With words that I read on a page. Well, on a mock monitor. But you know what?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I downloaded that and I've started it. I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Although I do have to admit that I have lost complete track of all the characters. I, I don't know who's who when they're talking anymore and how they're related to Bob and how they've all separated and all that sort of stuff because there are so many. But that's okay. You just kind of roll with it and you figure it out as you go along, you know? So it is what it is. And, and I just think it's funny because we just finished talking about putting into AI in an infinite loop and one of the main, main, main plot points in this is an AI gets the out and it's pissed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's, I, I, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been a lot of fun so far. I'm less than halfway through, so I'm kind of savoring it. It's, it's nice to read a book that I want to savor as opposed to. Let's just burn through this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's nice. I'm, I'm looking forward to Baba Verse book six in three years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. On Audible and then out for me in seven years.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seven years for you. The Dark side with Dave. Welcome to the Dark side with Dave, podcast super host Dave Bittner can also be heard on the Cyberwire Daily hacking humans, caveat, control loop, and even only malware in the building. Everywhere but Discord. Hi, Dave.

[Dave Bittner]

Hello. You know, and Twitter, and I am off Twitter. That is true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And threads and Instagram.

[Dave Bittner]

And I did cook up a new Discord account over the winter break.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are you sure you want to make that public?

[Dave Bittner]

Well, but I haven't used it for anything, so it's just there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Dave has a Discord account and he doesn't use it. Does it actually diss any chord?

[Dave Bittner]

That's right. I did it just to kind of prove to myself that I could.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right. Does the Discord in the woods?

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, we'll see. So far, I haven't been drawn back to it, but it does exist.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, speaking of Instagram, though, I made a post yesterday because I've been doing this photo a day project again. I posted a picture of my original box of jarts. No jarts. But I still had the box, so check it out if you want to see that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What are you, my wife? We keep the box, but nothing else.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was so pissed off when we pulled it out of the, when we pulled it out of the crawl space and I'm like, the jarts. It was an empty box. I'm like, what sick bastard kid kept the box?

[Dave Bittner]

Well, all of the other jarts. All of the other jarts went to the victims, to the emergency room.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right, Right.

[Dave Bittner]

They didn't come back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're being held for evidence by the court.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, they're blood. Blood soaked, so. Wow.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, God. Star Wars. Take it. Take it away, guys.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. Oh, yeah. The skeleton crew ended. But you were not, you're not available last week to discuss it. Right. It is now. So many elements of it have faded from my memory. It being a full week and one that lasted about 40 months. Yeah, already. But. Which tells me it wasn't insanely memorable of a show, but I do remember enjoying it, thinking they stuck the landing and thinking that most of the articles talking about a season two are so wildly off base because they completely wrapped up the story. Yeah, that, that felt very much like a finale to me.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, I, I agree. It felt like a finale to me. Although, you know, they left the bad guy alive and, and free, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, they're not going to behead the bad guy at the very end of a series that's mostly for kids.

[Dave Bittner]

Well, that's true, but. So we'll see. But I, I, I won't. I will be satisfied if this turns out to be just A Single Shot series. I agree. They stuck the landing. It was just. It was just great fun from start to finish. Not a whole lot of stakes or pressure or anything. It was just some time in the Star wars universe with some kids playing out. Probably a lot of my own childhood fantasies about being a kid in the Star wars universe.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I mean, it truly was a Goonies meets Star wars experience. So it was a lot of fun. I had a great ride with it. I think a lot of the negative articles were out there were, were complaining about just what you and I see as a plus, which is no stakes, not part of the larger universe really. You know, some stuff like obviously there's these planets hidden that make all the money. That's pretty hilarious. Yeah, it was, it was good stuff. I, I enjoyed it. I think Jude Law nailed it. As a character, you never quite got a beat on what he was going to be until the end when you realized he's just, you know, a slightly meaner, more desperate Han Solo. So. Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

Right. Yeah. I also think, I guess similar to the Harry Potter movies, they just got really lucky with the kids that they got. They were all good. Yeah. None of them drew attention to themselves in any kind of negative way. So that was fun. One thing I did notice that was kind of conspicuous in its absence were any John Williams musical motifs. And, and I get it that this series evidently have moved away from that largely. But in the finale, there was a moment when a bunch of X wings come flying in like the cavalry. And oh boy, did I want a John Williams musical motif at that moment.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm with you.

[Dave Bittner]

I wanted like the theme from the Death Star Trench run. Just something suggestive of every time or not X wings come flying in to save the day. You know, I, I just, just the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Main theme, when you first see them streak across the sky, you know, just.

[Dave Bittner]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because we are still in Star Wars. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The rights, they should be able to pay for it. You know, it's not like they gotta go deep in their pocket.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I do think that they're intentionally doing such a push away from that. Right. Like that. That's for the movies. We are, we are weird TV shows and we will have our own music.

[Dave Bittner]

So I think you're right. But I wish they would bend the rules a little bit from time to time. Just in pure fan service.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Just to remind you where you're at.

[Dave Bittner]

Right. I mean, it was already a very exciting moment that gave me all the feels. But I did notice, boy, would it have been even Better if it had had that musical tie in. So it's a nitpick, but yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the second time recently that we've kind of talked about that there was that fan service, kind of a Star Trek thing that showed Kirk's final moments. And. And we were talking again about that about, like, if you actually use the movie, the actual music from Star Trek, this would have been so much better. But you didn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thank you. Yeah. And thank you to the fan who did that for us, because it did make it so much better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Make it so much better. So, yes, I. I'm with you. It's like, why. Why shy away from something that's one of your greatest strengths, One of your greatest universe built strength constraints is John Williams music. Use it.

[Dave Bittner]

Right. Yeah, absolutely.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So after we've been talking about the ham radio journey that you're on, Dave.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I started to get ham radio prep course ads on Instagram. What? Yeah, I got a lot of them now, really. Which I figure it's because I'm doing the show notes and, you know, they're seeing everything I do in my browser anyway.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, no, no, no. The phones are listening to us, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

God damn it. Damn it, Brian. Stop it. So, yeah, whatever vector they got me, they got me. So I started to get the one for ham radio prep. And what was interesting is that during the fires the past couple weeks, the topic of ham radios keep popping up by people who know nothing about ham radios saying, we should go buy a ham radio so we can keep in touch with each other. When the power goes up out, and my cell phones are dead, like, well, there's a little snag there. You kind of got to go to school. You just go buy one. It's like a cb. You just go buy one.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not really. Yeah, I've been tempted now to go actually take the basic license and get me a ham radio, because I'm in a disaster zone perpetually now. So I might come in handy next.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Scrumpy old geeks coming to you on ham.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right.

[Dave Bittner]

Not only will it come in handy, it'll come in handy. Brian saw that one coming a mile.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great. Dads think alike.

[Dave Bittner]

Well, it's true, Jason and I put a link to the system that I used, which is called hamstudy.org the free version is on the web, but there's, I would say, like 2 or $3 app that you can put on your phone as well. And it's basically a flashcard kind of thing. And I would just take you know, if I had some downtime instead of doom scrolling, I would just get on ham study. And when I got myself to 95% proficiency, that's when I went and took the test and passed the test. And I did pass my most recent test, by the way. So I am now a general.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Congrats.

[Dave Bittner]

Got my general license, which means that opens up the world to me rather than just my, you know, sort of the hundred miles surrounding me with point of sight frequencies I had access to before. Now I have access to the HF frequencies, which means it's open to the world and it's been kind of fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, how tough was that test?

[Dave Bittner]

I'd put it on par with the first test I took. I mean, here's the thing. The testing groups, the folks who make the app, they have access to all of the questions in the exam. So that's what they do. It's just flashcards. So let's say there are 400 possible questions in the exam and when you go to take the exam, you randomly get, I think, 36 of those questions. That's it. And it's. And it's multiple choice. Right. Oh, so it's not that hard.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

Right now there are people who will turn their noses up and poo poo it and say that if you're just using the flashcard method, you're not really learning the stuff and you're a bad, bad ham person. And I get that. And they're not wrong, but this is how I did it. And, you know, it ended up being kind of a mix between really learning the stuff and then there was some of the stuff I was just like, all right, well, that one I'm memorizing because I'm never going to use that before or I'm never going to use that again. There are some odd relics in there. Like we talked about, you know, things about vacuum tubes and stuff that you're never going to use in the modern amateur radio era. But I suppose it's good to know the history. So anyway, yeah, a few hours of studying and you could certainly get the technician license, which is what you need for kind of the emergency stuff that connects you to all the repeaters in your area. I did see with the fires, a couple of repeaters did go down. Basically burned down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not surprising. Yeah. Yep.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The technician is the basic, the general. And then what's the.

[Dave Bittner]

There's an extra. It's called amateur extra.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Amateur extra. Why isn't it amateur plus these days? That's the one where you have to learn Morse code, right?

[Dave Bittner]

No, no, you don't have to learn.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Morse code for that.

[Dave Bittner]

No more Morse code at all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, that's what. I was so scared. I'm like, I really don't ever want to learn Morse code.

[Dave Bittner]

No, I'm with you. That was one of the things that kept me from getting. When I was in college, that was the thing that kept me from getting my ham radio license, is I had no time to learn Morse code, and I wasn't interested. And then Sometime in the mid-90s, they did away with the requirement for it. There's still lots of people out there using it. In fact, I have a link in the show Notes to a little app for your iPhone that listens and decodes Morse code. And it's really kind of fun. I also put a link to a YouTube video that has some Morse code. So you can put this on your phone, play the YouTube video, and see it decoded in real time as the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like Shazam for dorks.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. It's much slower. Much slower. But as. Yeah, as I'm out and about tuning around on these new frequencies that are available to me, there's a lot of Morse code out there. So. And I ain't learning it. So I'm going to be using this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

App to be able to listen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Use the app. Because a lot of that stuff are, like spies who still use those frequencies for getting information to embedded agents.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's still actually a thing.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. Numbers stations, they call them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's it. Totally.

[Dave Bittner]

No, they're still out there. It's funny.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Speaking of Morse code, the Capitol Records building, the light at the top blinks in Morse code. And a friend of mine, who. He's dead now, he used to be in the band 311. He actually figured it out. This was. It was before it was. I mean, this, like in the early 90s or mid-90s. And he had a place that overlooked the Capitol Records building, and he. He saw that it was blinking at a weird, weird rate, and he actually figured it out.

[Dave Bittner]

Huh.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Before. Before the Internet. But he. He was. He went crazy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So it says Hollywood, by the way, for those people that are waiting for.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That shoe to drop. I didn't want to. I didn't want to spoil it. I was gonna let people go look.

[Dave Bittner]

At up, but, yeah, I know someone who spoiled his group's adventure inside an escape room because he knew Morse code. And, like, there was sound inside the escape room that was. That was beeping Morse code. And he knew it, so he just wrote it out, and it was basically the solution to the puzzle. Here's how to get out of here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Don't get mad.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, that's true. That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So when we were originally talking, you said you had to go in person to go actually take the test. Yes, I found a place that lets me do it online. Yes, this is the Greater Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group, or better known as Glar.

[Brian Schulmeister]

See, when you put that in the show notes, it was right under Star Wars Skeleton Crew. And I thought I'd missed a character's name.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, that's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Who the fuck was Glarg?

[Dave Bittner]

I don't remember. Who was Glarg? He sounds like a bounty hunter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Or a beverage in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. But so I found that, and that kind of put me on the path. I think I'm going to go get it done.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, but to your point about basically preppers saying that you don't need a license, what you hear most from those folks is that that there is a rule that says in an emergency, you don't need a license to use the frequencies. And so that's what I think a lot of preppers are counting on and indeed living for is the day that the emergency.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can't wait until I can use this.

[Dave Bittner]

Right, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because preppers all follow the rules.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. But I think there's the whole practice, like you play kind of thing. You don't want the day of emergency being the day when you have to figure out how to use your radio.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ye. And I was also not talking about preppers. I was talking to housewives saying that we should. We should get one of these.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, well, but if you do, don't be surprised when a group of amateur radio fox hunters show up knocking on your door, saying, please stop.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I'm going to take the test and get my license. I'm going.

[Dave Bittner]

I think. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Yeah. Doesn't sound that hard.

[Dave Bittner]

So it's really not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not. It's really not. And you said ham study is free. So the one that I was checking out, which was ham radio prep, it's $79 for the all access pass or 35 for technician and 55 for technician plus general license. I like free. Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

I went with free also. Then the folks near me who were giving the exam, they also gave the exam for free. You have to pay $35 to the FCC, but that's for 10 years. So, you know. Okay, right, great. By the way, when I Went to take my general exam. I actually went to the hamshack of one of the local radio clubs.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In town.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. And. And let me see if I know I have a picture of it here because I shared it with some of my work colleagues. The ham shack is at the location of a former Nike missile site. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to picture in your mind what you would think a ham radio clubhouse would look like. And I'm going to post this into our show notes and tell me if this is a total complete match for what is in your mind's eye.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm guessing it's going to be like a Foreign Legion hall. Yep. There you go.

[Dave Bittner]

All right, so let me just paint the picture here. This is a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like a lively place.

[Dave Bittner]

This is a windowless bunker of a building with a single door. Again, no windows. There is a sign on the side of the building that says it is the Anne Arundel Radio Club. It has a link to their website. It is surrounded by antennas, as you would expect. Kind of looks like a porcupine. So what I found out is this is a former Nike missile site from back in the day. Nike missile tracking site. There weren't actually missiles on this site.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But there was actually Go in the silo because that would be fun.

[Dave Bittner]

No, but this was a radar site for tracking Nike missiles around the nation's capital. And so this building that the Ham radio club is in is RF shielded to protect against things like electromagnetic pulses and so on and so forth. So it is exactly what you would expect a ham shack to be. Just. It is a bunker of a particular time. Time. Let's just say that it has not been updated in a long time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villains.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, that's right. That's right. So great fun. So let me tell you the story about my first international contacts because this was very fun for me, you know. So I had decided, I made a deal with myself that, that I wasn't going to make a major radio purchase until I got my general license so that I would have access to those bands. So I got my general. The next day I went online, I went to ham radio outlet and bought my radio, which for those who are listening who know about such things, is a Yao FT991A. It's about $1,200 for.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That'S a gog show. Donate since Jason wants to.

[Dave Bittner]

Right now, at the other end of the spectrum, Jason, the radios you can get for your technician license are literally $15. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what I'm talking about. Right. That's what I'm talking about.

[Dave Bittner]

So there's a little bit of a jump.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't want to die in a fire, but I don't want to be. Be broke when I die in the fire. There's a reason I want to get out of the fire, but. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a big range.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, it is. Yes. So, but I figured, you know, what's this saying, Buy oneself. Yes. So I bought the radio, got it hooked up, got it programmed, strung up some homemade antennas on my deck out back. There's all kinds of old wire hangers. Yeah. Basically, there are tools you can use to tell you cut some wire that is this length and string it up this way, and you will probably be able to get on the air. And that's what I did. And so I'm tuning around on this radio, and it has this graphical interface called a waterfall, which allows you to see where people are transmitting. And so I'm chasing these. I'm chasing waterfalls. I'm chasing waterfalls.

[Brian Schulmeister]

God damn it. I'm going to have to listen to that later.

[Dave Bittner]

And I hear someone calling cq, which is how you call out to people that you want to talk to them. It's an old. I guess it's a Morse code thing. And I'm hearing this guy say, cq from Italy. CQ from Italy. And I'm thinking to myself, wow, I can hear this guy. It sounds like he's next door and he's in Italy. And I'm thinking, there is no way with this little dinky radio that I have sitting on my nightstand that I'm going to be able to press a button and talk to this guy in Italy. But I do it anyway, and I put out my call sign, and he responds and says, you're coming in loud and clear. Thank you for contacting me. And it was a thrill. It was a real thrill to just think, like, I have this little radio again sitting on my nightstand, hooked up to a couple of wires out on the deck. Deck. And I'm talking to someone across the Atlantic Ocean. It's really, really something.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I'm on their PODA map right now, and I'm zooming in on your part of the world, and I'm looking for your dot now, Dave.

[Dave Bittner]

Oh, okay. Yeah. So POTA is parks on the air, which is this whole thing of some people go out to parks and they set up little portable radio stations. And then other people do what's called hunting those parks as they try to get contacts. And there's all this logging stuff. And like, if you talk to someone in every state in the union, you get an award. And if you talk to someone in every country in the world, you get an award. So there's all these kinds of things you can chase after with ham radio. I'm still.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sounds like geocaching.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, it's very much like that. So I'm still in badges. Right. But anyway, as you can tell, I'm having a good time. It is great fun. The antenna part is fun. I've dusted off my soldering skills, which had gotten much, very, very rusty. And also, soldering is harder than it used to be since they took the lead out of the solder. It's just not, it's not as easy as it used to be. But I'm getting there, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I didn't say soldering was involved. That might be just as bad as Morse code for me.

[Dave Bittner]

No. Well, here's, I mean, you can totally throw money at any of these problems.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Dave Bittner]

Right. I'm making my own antennas.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That in and of itself is a problem with Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Remember, we, we, we popped at $15 here, so.

[Dave Bittner]

Right. No, no. I, I, I am making my own antennas right now. But there is an antenna on its way from a slow boat from China that's pre made that I will soon be experimenting with.

[Brian Schulmeister]

When it gets, it only connects teu.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right.

[Dave Bittner]

That's right. Everything comes through with a strong Chinese accent. I don't know why, but. So anyway, I'm having fun. It's, it's nice to have a hobby that I'm excited about and that just that there's so much to learn, you know, it's nice to feel like a rookie at something and have this whole community who for the most part, are eager to help get you up to speed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Dave Bittner]

So that. It's been a neat journey. Yeah, I'm enjoying it. We'll see how long it stays. Also, before we go, I wanted to. Speaking of radio, I'm curious, Do you guys ever listen to the radio anymore?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Every day when I'm in my car.

[Dave Bittner]

Do you?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, I, I don't. In the car, I, I usually just listen to streaming music. But at home while, while sitting around, I, I start my day, even though I'm now in Toronto. I bring up KCRW on my streaming, streaming, streaming bot of choice, my lady in the tube. So I listen to KCRW's NPR and hear everything that's going on in LA. I listen to 680 News, which is the news here in Toronto, local news and I'll do that on my lady in the tube. For a long time I was listening to KR KROQ HD2 which basically just had all the guys from the 80s and 90s and gals DJs and they played just 80s and 90s music that I grew up listening to. They've since geofence that and I can't seem to get around it which is annoying as. But I found, I found I listen to BBC Radio 6 streaming. So yeah, throughout the day rather than just putting on an album I'll, I'll. I'll listen to different streaming from all over the world when I can.

[Dave Bittner]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just listen to all the channels that Brian said but I do it in my car because I'm in la.

[Dave Bittner]

I noticed I just a few months ago I got a new car and, and I haven't even programmed in any radio stations in the car since I got. It just. It hasn't come up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, when I listen to like the more terrestrial stations around here, it's just, it's all playlisted. It's the same couple songs again and again. So I, I do prefer. I don't know if it's technically radio because I'm listening. Well I guess BBC Radio 6 certainly is but most of the other ones are like either HD or Internet only stations. Right. So it's radio but not.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, I mean I make use of the NPR app which is radio esque.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I listen to a lot of radio esque things. Yes.

[Dave Bittner]

Right, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But we have one of the best classical stations in the world here in la.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yeah, kusc.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. My radio is basically just perma tuned to that. Every now and again I'll flip over to kroq which 9 times out of 10 they'll be playing the Red Hot Chili Pepper. So I have to turn it off and then go back to class. That's about it.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. What strikes me about this is just how important radio was to me growing up and I'm sure to you guys as well. And my kids, they might as well not have radio. They just, you know, it's just not a thing. Yeah, it's never going to be for them. It's never going to be a thing for them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So they can listen to what they want when they want to. The problem is music discovery, which is theoretically I guess what TikTok is for. But all that Stuff is so algorithmically based. It's not, it's not curated. Curated. That's, that's the thing that I missed. And when we grew up listening to radio, for the most part it was, it was pre playlist era. It was DJs literally played what they want. Sure, they had one or two songs that they probably had to play every hour just because that's, that pays the bills. But in general it was, you know, people like Jed the Fish on KROC or Rodney on the Rock and they, they found stuff and exposed a Southern California to it and that was great. It was great music discussion.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, we had WHFS here, which was just a sort of very well known independent station that served that purpose. Yeah, you know, you had the top 40 stations, but then if you really wanted, you know, it was sort of a, I don't know, college radio station on steroids, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But yeah, yeah. And then, you know, we kind of grew up with that. Like there was all the different stations across the dial. You had the heavy metal station, which was knac. You had the classical music station, you had the pop stations, you had the alternative weird station. Like. Yeah, it was, it was good music discovery for all kinds of genres. But Right, yeah, now you just, you put on Spotify, find a playlist or you, yes. Scan through TikTok and you get the stuff that's been paid to play to get on the playlist. So good times, right?

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. I try to maintain the mindset that just because something's different, it doesn't make it better or worse, but it's just interesting. All right, so I'm outvoted. It's worse. All right, gentlemen, well, that's what I have for you here today. It's, it's good to be back to have you. January is just crawling along, isn't it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Next week is still going to be January.

[Jason DeFilippo]

January next week.

[Dave Bittner]

Unbelievable.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. All right, so we'll see, we'll talk to you next year.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing Shout out. Over at Patreon, we've got some new patrons. Sls, Norm and Donuts and Cheer. I love it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I could use some of that. This, this January, this 18 month January.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Definitely use some Donuts and Cheer. Well, you might want to call the angel of Cake who upped their donation. So thank you very much, angel of Cake. And from the archives, the legacy patrons, we've got Grim, John, Nicholas, Jeremy, Alex, Mark, Carts, Ralph, Steve and Martin. So thank you all very much. And just a reminder, if you'd like to join them on Patreon plans started as little as $3 a month and you get the show early ad free and in high definition. And if you pay for the whole year, you get some, you get a little discount, you get some change back. We appreciate it very much and it keeps the show going. Win.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. And over at PayPal we've got Sloan, Joseph, Tom and Jen. Thank you all so much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Over the tip jar, we've got Eric and Ross. And on the merch side we've got Joe R. So everybody go buy some damn merch please. We got to sell two more T shirts or reactor kill the project. It's got to pay for itself. Come on, go buy some. Go. Go buy some Deport elon shirts now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, please go get them. Until next time, I'm Brian Schmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 681. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny Helps keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between. We'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts? Feedback? Cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show Contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG Show Review and we'll read it on the show. Oh, and guess what? We've got GOG Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG Show. Stay grumpy.