684: Don’t Be a Dick

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 684: "Don't Be a Dick" Summary

Release Date: February 15, 2025
Hosts: Jason DeFilippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister, along with guest Dave Bittner, dive into a whirlwind of tech mishaps, corporate blunders, and societal quirks, all delivered with their signature unfiltered commentary. Here's a detailed breakdown of the key discussions, insights, and conclusions from Episode 684: "Don't Be a Dick."

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1. Cryptocurrency Misadventures: James Howells’ Quest to Reclaim Lost Bitcoins

[02:04 - 05:17]

The episode opens with a discussion about James Howells, a British IT worker who mined 7,500 Bitcoins in 2009, which were worth about $7 million at the time. Unfortunately, Howells accidentally disposed of the hard drive containing the keys to his cryptocurrency fortune. Over the years, as Bitcoin's value skyrocketed, Howells has become increasingly desperate to recover his lost coins. He has proposed an $11 million business plan to the city of Newport, aiming to purchase the landfill where he believes the hard drive is buried. Despite his persistence, the city has repeatedly denied his requests, citing safety and logistical concerns.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [05:17]: "Dude, if I dwelled on the past like you, I would have another stroke every week. Come on, brother, let it go."

2. Declining Office Attendance Post-Pandemic

[05:21 - 07:03]

The hosts delve into the ongoing trends in office attendance, highlighting that despite aggressive return-to-office mandates by companies like Castle Systems, actual office occupancy remains low. According to Castle Systems' "Back to Work Barometer," office usage in major US markets is just 54% of pre-pandemic levels, with hybrid work models dominating the landscape. Peak attendance occurs on Tuesdays (63%), while Fridays see a dip to 37%.

Notable Quote:
Brian Schulmeister [06:07]: "So yeah, yeah, I can also tell that just from parking on my street. Tuesday is the only time that a parking spot opens up."

3. Trump Shitcoin and Massive Investor Losses

[07:03 - 08:50]

A significant portion of the episode focuses on the cryptocurrency dubbed "dronaldrump," launched just three days before Trump's inauguration. The token saw a meteoric rise from $0.18 to $75, allowing early traders to amass millions. However, the surge was short-lived, crashing soon after and leaving over 800,000 investors with more than $2 billion in losses. The hosts criticize the token as a clear example of market manipulation and warn of similar schemes emerging in the future.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [07:57]: "800,000 people that are stupid enough to spend money on the Trump shitcoin."

4. AI’s Impact on Critical Thinking and Corporate Response

[09:02 - 10:52]

The conversation shifts to the impact of AI on human cognition. A study by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University warns that excessive reliance on generative AI tools could erode critical thinking skills among knowledge workers. As confidence in AI grows, independent judgment diminishes, potentially leading to cognitive atrophy over time. The hosts agree, emphasizing that this is a longstanding concern that was evident from the inception of AI technologies.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [09:58]: "Look, we've said it from the beginning when AI first started to come out."

5. AI Copyright Legal Battles

[10:52 - 11:18]

The episode covers a landmark legal case where Thompson Reuters won against Ross Intelligence, a legal AI startup accused of infringing on Westlaw's copyrighted materials. Judge Stefanos Bibas dismissed Ross's fair use defense, emphasizing that Ross intended to compete directly with Westlaw by developing a market substitute.

Notable Quote:
Brian Schulmeister [11:12]: "What about Rachel?"

6. Meta’s Mass Layoffs and the Tech Job Market Bust

[11:18 - 14:16]

Meta's recent announcement of nearly 4,000 layoffs takes center stage. The company claimed it was targeting low performers, but several affected employees reported previously strong performance reviews, leading to widespread confusion and frustration. The hosts discuss how the tech industry's hiring boom has turned into a bust, exacerbated by startups collapsing and major players like Meta shifting their focus to AI developments. This has resulted in a harsh job market where securing a tech position has become increasingly difficult.

Notable Quote:
Ryan Schulmeister [13:28]: "Wow. And the fact that they actually just change the label without having another performance review or discussion about it. I mean, this is obvious."

7. Privacy Concerns & DeleteMe Promotion

[14:16 - 16:32]

In a brief promotional segment, the hosts introduce DeleteMe, a subscription service that removes personal information from data broker websites. They highlight the importance of privacy, especially for individuals who share their thoughts online, and explain how DeleteMe continuously monitors and removes personal data to protect users from phishing attempts, harassment, and identity theft.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [16:32]: "Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now..."

8. SEC’s Bitcoin ETF Hack and Market Manipulation

[16:32 - 21:05]

The hosts recount the incident from early January 2024, where the SEC's official Twitter account was hacked by Eric Council Jr., leading to a false announcement about the approval of Bitcoin ETFs. This misinformation caused Bitcoin prices to spike by $1,000 before crashing by $2,000 once the SEC issued a correction. The hack highlighted vulnerabilities in corporate social media security, as the SEC had disabled multi-factor authentication on the account.

Notable Quote:
Ryan Schulmeister [18:00]: "So, Brian, it's going to be a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Hype has replaced policy and fortunes are being made in the shadows."

9. Kanye West’s Takedown on X

[19:00 - 21:05]

Kanye West's Twitter (X) account was deactivated following a series of anti-Semitic posts. The hosts speculate that the deactivation was primarily due to a controversial tweet targeting Jared Kushner, rather than solely because of Nazi-related content. They also touch on the broader issue of AI-generated fake videos, referencing a fabricated video involving Scarlett Johansson that fueled further AI concerns.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [19:20]: "That had nothing to do with the Nazi shit."

10. First AI Image Granted Copyright

[51:33 - 52:34]

A groundbreaking development is discussed where the U.S. Copyright Office granted copyright protection to "A Single Piece of American Cheese," an artwork entirely generated by the AI platform Invoke, created by Kent Kearson. Initially denied, Kearson provided a comprehensive video documenting his workflow, leading to the eventual approval. However, the protection was later revoked due to flaws in the image, such as unnatural features like six fingers.

Notable Quote:
Ryan Schulmeister [52:22]: "Upon closer inspection of the video, they noticed that Ken had six fingers, and therefore it's an AI video."

11. Apple and Google Privacy & Feature Updates

[22:38 - 52:34]

The hosts examine Apple's new feature allowing users to migrate purchases between Apple accounts, detailing the steps and restrictions involved. They also address Apple's challenges with the UK government, which has ordered the creation of a backdoor for accessing encrypted iCloud backups. This raises significant privacy and security concerns globally, as other governments may follow suit, potentially compromising user data worldwide.

Notable Quote:
Brian Schulmeister [47:37]: "And they advise users to tap the X to dismiss the ads. Oh well fucking thanks guys."

12. Jeep’s Infotainment Ad Overload and Privacy Worries

[54:09 - 56:10]

Discussing customer backlash, the hosts highlight Stellantis' introduction of intrusive full-screen advertisements on Jeep’s infotainment systems. These ads force drivers to manually dismiss them to continue using essential functions like navigation and music. Additionally, the data collection required to serve these ads raises privacy concerns regarding how drivers' habits and preferences are monitored, stored, and utilized.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [56:10]: "What do you think this is? A Tesla?"

13. Disney Updates: New Rides and 'It's a Small World' New Verse

[81:07 - 86:14]

The episode shifts focus to Disney World, where the hosts anticipate the release of a new verse for the classic ride "It's a Small World" scheduled for July 7th. They humorously predict massive crowds and express their excitement for new attractions like the Tron ride and updates to Splash Mountain and Tiana’s Adventure. Additionally, they lament the closure of beloved rides like Big Thunder Mountain for renovation.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [86:14]: "This knock on Wood. Oh, Jesus. You may have done it again."

14. Bookstore Resurgence and AI's Role in Publishing

[57:31 - 58:55]

The hosts express excitement over Barnes and Noble's plan to open 60 new stores in the year, marking a significant turnaround from previous years of closures. They attribute this resurgence to initiatives like Book Talk, which has revitalized interest in reading and community engagement within bookstores. Concurrently, they critique the rise of AI-generated books, noting that such content often lacks quality, prompting readers to swiftly return unsatisfactory AI-written chapters.

Notable Quote:
Jason DeFilippo [58:43]: "She just replies, well, he is a dick."

15. Personal Musings: TV Shows, Books, and Glasses

[58:42 - 87:59]

In a more relaxed segment, the hosts share personal anecdotes about their favorite TV shows like "Mythic Quest" and "Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary." They discuss their reading habits, including praise for the Bobiverse series, and touch upon their experiences with prescription glasses, debating the merits of bifocals versus progressive lenses. Additionally, they talk about upcoming trips to Disney World, sharing tips for solo visits and highlighting new attractions they look forward to experiencing.

Notable Quote:
Brian Schulmeister [78:10]: "It's like imax. Everything's in focus all over the place, which is nice."

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Closing Remarks

The episode wraps up with shout-outs to their Patreon supporters and listeners, celebrating new subscribers and engaging with the community. They reflect on the ongoing chaos in the tech and political landscapes, emphasizing the need for resilience and maintaining a sense of humor amidst the turmoil.

Final Notable Quote:
Ryan Schulmeister [84:33]: "Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans."

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Conclusion

Episode 684 of Grumpy Old Geeks serves as a comprehensive critique of current tech trends, corporate decisions, and societal issues, all while weaving in personal stories and humor. From cryptocurrency pitfalls and AI's influence on cognition to corporate layoffs and privacy concerns, the hosts provide insightful commentary paired with memorable quotes and engaging banter. This episode is a must-listen for tech enthusiasts and individuals keen on understanding the intricacies of today's digital landscape through a candid and grumpy lens.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is a mini meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. I'm cozy. Cozy. I have zero blisters on my toes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Blisters. And that's cause I wear Bombus the.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Softest socks, underwear and T shirts that give back. One purchased equals one donated. Now go to bombas.com wondery and use code WONDERY for 20% off your first purchase. That's B O M B-A-S.com Wondery and use code WONDERY at checkout. 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.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

And I'm Ryan Shulmeister. Happy Valentine's Day, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, whatever.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's that time of year that a flower shop I used Once back in 1998 sends me an email from a list I've unsubscribed to every February for the last 25 years.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Tells you how well those unsubscribes actually work.

[Jason DeFilippo]

How math works too, because 1998 is not 25 years ago.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, just guesstimating, it didn't. It doesn't flow off as well If I said 27 or 28.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know what I mean? No, it doesn't.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, it doesn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I guess I'm just, you know, I'm just stopping the emails before they happen.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, I am much like Elon Musk.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah, some things. Some of the things I say will be incorrect, said the agent of chaos, which is, I think that something we should have. We should have picked as the keystone of our show long, long ago.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think we're incorrect far less.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We are absolutely incorrect. Far less than Elon. Yes. Oh, my goodness, what a week. I just wanted to preface that there will be enough Elon in the show later on, but we can have some fun beforehand.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I do want to point out something really quickly because it made me chuckle. I was like, I think it was maybe in a December show or early January, and we were kind bemoaning the fact the fate of the election and you said something along the lines of, oh, I'm just going to ignore it. What do I care? I'm old and I don't have kids and blah, blah, blah, and who gives a crap? And at that moment, something in me switched and said, this means Jason's going to go all in pretty Soon. And you did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I did. I did.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Because whatever you say, I assume is going to be the exact opposite within a few weeks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm never moving again. Yeah, yeah. What can I say? I didn't. I did not factor in the Elon aspect of things.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, yeah, well. And it's all tech. Like, that's the thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what it's.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, it's all tech now, so it's hard not to. It's in our wheelhouse and it's. It's up our wheelhouse. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I really, really just wanted to get. Get on with making fun of AI but. No.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah. Well, speaking about somebody's wheelhouse, who got up? James Howells, the British IT worker who mined himself a sizable fortune of the cryptocurrency before accidentally throwing away the hard drive he stored the key on. We've talked about him many times because he's gone through this many, many different iterations. He's now mulling buying the entire stretch of land where he suspects the drive to be buried just so he can try to dig it up, according to a report from the Guardian. So, as I mentioned, he's been doing. He's been at this for. For years now, starting back in 2013 when he revealed to the public that he lost his ability to access the 7,500 bitcoins he mined back in 2009. At this point. At that point, it was worth about $7 million. And it's kept going up ever since then. And he's gotten more and more desperate. In 2017, he pleaded with the city of Newport to let him dig for it. The city said no, citing safety concerns because it's a big pile of trash and the risk of encouraging treasure hunters to go on the world's largest dumpster diving expedition. In 2021, he offered the 25% of the proceeds if he found the hard drive in exchange for letting him dig up the dump. And I would argue at that point, it's not enough to find the hard drive. It's enough. The hard drive actually has to work so you can get your key back from it, which it most likely won't. And in 2022, he said if he couldn't go into the dump, he'll send Boston Dynamics robotic dogs to do the digging for him. This was part of a larger $11 million business plan in which he proposed sending three years. Spending three years excavating the landfill to find his hard, while also turning the site into a mining facility. The city did not go for that either. So now he just wants to try to purchase it outright. I do want to point out the fact that he actually put together a business plan about this, which is more than most people in Silicon Valley do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but he used ChatGPT to do it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Probably. Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

James, I would like to sing you a song. Let it go. Let it go. Dude, come on.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I, I hey, you're singing Frozen. I'm impressed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have made so many mistakes in my lifetime and I have just let them all go at this point, because that's all you can do. Dude, if I, if I dwelled on the past like you, I would have another stroke every week. Come on, brother, let it go. Let it go. Just move on. And here's the funny part, he's gonna find it in the couch eventually.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's where all things are.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I've got a little bit more follow up too.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Despite the hype, office attendance hasn't significantly increased over the past two years, as working from home remains a major factor in the job market. Commercial real estate leaders have been hoping that return to office mandates would revive office spaces, but data suggests otherwise.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, so does my, my limited experience. I know that the company that I used to work for, the new CEO, had mandated a return to office this time, the office being further away from everybody and where the office used to be. And from what I understand from the people I've spoken to, that has not happened. Everybody is still working from home. They come in every now and then for a meeting, but that's it. I know two or three other people here in Toronto that got mandated return return to office a couple months back and they're all still working from home too, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Indeed.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Castle Systems back to work Barometer, which tracks office access, shows that office occupancy in major US markets is still just 54% of pre pandemic levels, a slight uptick from early 2023. And yes, hybrid work is dominating. Like you said, people just want to stay at home and come into the meetings. And Tuesdays seeing the highest attendance at 63% while Fridays drop as low as 37%.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So yeah, yeah, I can also tell that just from parking on my street. Tuesday is the only time that a parking spot opens up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, the thing like Fridays here, I if this is la, man, Fridays has always been the greatest day. Shabbat shalom. So it's awesome.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And now you know, well, the government's selling all their buildings, so AI is always going to work from home, I guess.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, they work in a van down by the river until the river goes runs dry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

River runs dry.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Put a couple songs together there like that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Mashup, mashup.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Drive the Chevy down to the levee. But the AI made it dry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hop on over to Suno and get yourself, get yourself a tune to go with that. Except the river ran dry before Suno could make the tune.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, you dried the levee writing the song.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. There's a self fulfilling prophecy. The circle of life. All right. An unidentified Investor made over $109 million in just two days off of the Trump shitcoin.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

His name happens to be dronaldrump.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The token promoted just three days before Trump's inauguration. And it surged from 18 cents to a peak of $75 before CR. Now, a few early traders raked in millions and sadly, over 800,000 investors. I want you to soak that in for a second, Brian. Soak in.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Who's holding the bag?

[Jason DeFilippo]

800,000 investors in Trump Coin. Think about that. Just, just, I want you to chew on that. There are 800,000 people that are stupid enough to spend money on the Trump shitcoin.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

There's more than that many people that were dumb enough to vote for him. How's them prices of eggs? Do you have eggs?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No eggs. I'm telling you, man, tofu scramble is the way to go. So of those 800,000 investors, I scare, quote, the investors, they have suffered more than $2 billion in losses.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. So there's the follow up on that. And you know, the shitcoin was never meant to last. It was, it was a power grab and it's just simply a glimpse of things to come. Brian, it's going to be a lot of this stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Hype has replaced policy and fortunes are being made in the shadows. And sometimes right in public, as we have seen. Right. Sometimes next to the Resolute desk.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I don't think anything's going to be done in the shadows anymore, Jason. It's all happening right in front of us and people are too dumb to care.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, yes. And we are just left holding the bag. But, hey, Brian, did you see? Elizabeth Holmes is back in the news.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, for sake.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Moving on in the news, a new study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University warns that relying too much on generative AI could weaken critical thinking skills. Researchers found that as knowledge workers gain confidence in AI tools, they tend to use less independent judgments, which could lead to cognitive atrophy over time. Duh.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I mean, yeah, I, I remember every single phone number from people that I, I had phone Their numbers for pre. Cell phone. Post Cell phone. Couldn't tell you a single goddamn phone number. We don't. You don't use that part of your brain. So if you're going to outsource thinking, well, and God knows none of you are reading.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I mean this is, this is a tale as old as time. And we have said it at the beginning when AI first started to come out.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Beast since we're doing a Disney episode.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we talked about this because this is just technology moving forward. But the reason I put this in here, not because it's a no shit moment. I put it in here because the fact that Microsoft. Good on them for at least putting out the time to do the study to figure out where they can make their next move. I think that that's very smart. That's what corporations should do. Do the research to find out who you are disrupting and how you can sell them something later in the future to solve that disruption that you just caused. Look, that's what I'm saying.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

We can post a million stories and find them about how Microsoft has done some pretty shady stuff over the years. Ads in my start bar on my OS that I paid for, that could be one of them. But overall, Microsoft has been a pretty solid good company. One that I would say fights for the forces of good more often than evil. And I agree.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, well, we'll just set aside that whole antitrust thing with Internet.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, like I said, there's examples.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Examples. Yes. Yes. So Thompson Reuters has won the first major AI copyright case in the U.S. a federal judge ruled that legal AI startup Ross Intelligence infringed on Westlaw's copyrighted material.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

What about Rachel?

[Jason DeFilippo]

See, I never, I've never seen an episode of that damn show, but even I know the characters.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

You're really not missing much. Yeah, I, I, I never enjoyed the show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Judge Stefanos Bibas rejected Ross's fair use defense, stating the company meant to compete with Westlaw by developing a market substitute. Here's his work. As none of Ross's possible defenses hold water. I reject them all. Said the judge in a summary judgment. Love you. That's it. Gavel drop. Boom.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think we need this judge on some of these Trump and Musk cases.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I reject them all. Now get to me. My deliveroo. Young pluck. That's good. It's good. Sets precedent. Sets a precedent. I don't know if it's going to matter much. We'll see. Yeah. Oh, I don't know. Speaking of AI and copyright, I don't know if you saw, but Adobe launched Firefly this week, okay. With a paid subscription to do video. And I didn't dig into it on the Firefly website. I just watched the news reports on my local LA news and they showed what were supposed to be the cream of the crop demo videos. They were fucking horrible. Horrible. Like they had newscasters and their lips didn't even line up, their teeth were popping through their cheeks. It was just a horror show, actually, that.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's most LA newscasters when they had their botched surgeries.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. All right, moving on to some More fun news. Meta's latest round of layoffs on Monday cut nearly 4,000 employees, targeting what the company described as its lowest performers. However, several affected workers say that they were blindsided quite previously receiving strong performance reviews. A little pat on the head of Lollipop and said, little Georgie, you're doing great. Go. Go forth and break things quickly, please. Business Insider spoke with eight former employees who had been rated at or above expectations. Okay. Yes. But they were later downgraded to meets most without warning then making them eligible for termination. When you're. I'm so glad I never got a job there that I would have to get little labels like that.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Wow. And the fact that they actually just change the label without having another performance review or discussion about it. I mean, this is obvious. This is. They're going to win. If they sue, they're going to win.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't know they're going to win something.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They're not. You don't want your job back at this point, obviously, but Meta's going to. Meta is going to cut off some of its coffee budget and spread it around.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I think they'd want their job back because from the next story, the tech industry's hiring boom has turned into a brutal bust. Once flush with perks, Silicon Valley is now reeling from relentless layoffs as startups collapse and tech giants shift focus to AI. Formerly secure jobs are vanishing, leaving workers like Ex Indeed engineer Dalen Moyer struggling to find work. After 160 failed applications, many are considering leaving the industry altogether.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Can only be so many real estate agents people. Yeah, no doubt that's what everybody goes to do. People that leave the music industry, real estate agents. People that leave tech. Real estate agents, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Meanwhile, Meta and Google are slashing thousands of job even as big tech remains more valuable than the entire global stock markets. With AI taking priority, the layoffs wave shows no signs of slowing. Yeah, and you can't even go get a government job anymore. Which was also your your second fallback.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Because those are going away left, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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[Brian Schulmeister]

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[Ryan Shulmeister]

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[Ryan Shulmeister]

FDA for safety, efficacy or quality. Well, remember back in early January 2024, which it's only a little Bit over a year ago, but it feels like a decade at this point. Doesn't has been a decade.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm sorry.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, okay. Well, in early January 2024, a scant 10 years ago, SEC's official X account twitted, tweeted that Bitcoin ETFs had been approved for listing on all registered national security exchanges. But the SEC chair, Gary Gensler quickly announced that they had been hacked and compromised. And that is not true. The commission later revealed as a victim of a sim swapping attack, although it admitted that his account was not protected by Multi Factor Authentication. It was Eric Council Jr. From Alabama, who is now pleaded guilty to being a co conspirator in the unauthorized takeover of the U.S. securities and Exchange Commission's Twitter account last year. He was really only ahead of the game by about a year because I'm expecting that announcement at any point in time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now if he had just. If he'd have just put it in buffer and waited a little bit.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

There you go. Yeah. His co conspirators who paid counsel in Bitcoin, then changed the SEC's account password to control it before posting the false news along with a fake quote from Gensler. So. And obviously, you know, people game that to make a bunch of money because bitcoin rose by $1,000 after the fake announcement went up and then fell by $2,000 when the SEC issued the correction. As for why the SEC's account wasn't protected by Multi Factor Authentication, the agency previously said that it asked ex support staff disable it last July because it was having issues with account access. Now, if you've ever worked in an office where multiple people need to be able to access a singular account, you know exactly what they're talking about.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Where's John? He's the one with the phone that it's set up on. He's in the. I gotta get in right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been there, done that.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

There absolutely has to be a better solution to that. And yeah, anyways.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, speaking of the better solution, Kanye West's final solution. Oh, wait, did I say that out loud? Oh, just like Kanye said a lot of things out loud last week. Well, Kanye's account on X has been deactivated after a series of anti Semitic posts sparked outrage. It's unclear whether west deleted the account himself or if X removed it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Musk called him and said, dude, yeah, come on. Like, yeah, I threw the salute, but what are you doing? That's too much. Reel it in a bit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it was. It was bad. It was bad. But here's the thing. You know, they're saying that, oh, it was because of all the Nazi shit. It wasn't the Nazi shit. I'm going to tell you the truth about why his account was deleted. Very simply, he tweeted George Farmer, I did not fuck your wife. Rest easy. Jared Kushner, on the other hand. So you're going to say that you fucked the President's daughter. That's a fuck around and find out moment. Sorry. That's. That's why his account was deleted. It had nothing to do with the Nazi shit.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, period. But he has merch, so, you know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, he had merch. He had merch since Shopify saw the merch go up. I actually went and looked at it too, and it just did not seem real to me either. Shopify took down his T shirt shop. But it wasn't also for the reasons that you think it was. They did not take it down because it was anti Semitic hate content. They took it down because they thought it was going to be fraud. Because he didn't think that he could fulfill on the T shirt orders. Yeah, that's why they took the shot.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Why even provide a reason? Just take it down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think we're all behind you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Except for Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they should have just taken it down and shut the fuck up. Then they would have been heroes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes, but now there's zeros.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Europe in Canada. Go have a chat with them. Go. Go have a chat with them, Brian.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

No, thanks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, after that happened, I don't know if you saw the video of the. The middle finger, Kanye star David T shirt thing.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I did and first thought was, oh, God, celebrities again. Here comes the COVID song from a bunch of celebrities. And then I was like, hold on a second. Flipping people the middle finger. This is no fucking way. Is this real.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. Nope. And it wasn't. It was an AI video that was created by an Israeli ad worker, Ori Bejerano. I'm sure I butchered that name, but, yeah, that caused a string of events to exhume the corpse of Scarlett Johansson to come out and bitch and moan about AI some more. So she's calling for new laws after the fake video went viral and she was the at the top of the video.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, she's not wrong and she's using her platform, but, you know, just make sure it's not it. Don't make the law crafted. So it's just celebrities. Everybody should have the right not to be replicated by AI.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Exactly. Come on, be an equal opportunity activist, please, if that's what you're going to do. But moving. All right, well, video though, by the way. I don't know.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, I mean, it took me a second.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no, it was. It was a pretty well done video. Yeah, we should have put those shirts on our shop, too. Damn it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

We might get shut down for fraud. We got to be careful.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, we do.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Google is going to start testing a feature this year to help weed out children trying to access adult content on YouTube. I put this in the news purely because the entire article just says machine learning and never once says AI. And I'm very impressed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

The machine learning based age estimation model will try to predict whether a user is under 18 and if so, apply appropriate, appropriate age filter settings to their account. Now, this is coming not because of the goodness of their heart. This is coming because of a flurry of Google child safety announcements that they have announced because the US Senate is considering a bill that would ban pre teens from social media. Don't take away our cash cow. We will put some things in to pacify you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just. I would like to point out Mr. Will Shanklin, who wrote this for Engadget. If you'd like, send us your address. We'll send you some stickers for actually getting it right for the first time in a long time.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I'm very impressed. Not a single AI mention, even. Even the shortened ML is used rather than AI. Very well done.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thank you, Will.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Warm the cockles of my dead heart.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You're doing the God's work. You're doing the God's work. Now let's talk about AI. The UK government is shifting its AI strategy, rebranding the AI Safety Institute as the AI Security Institute because they didn't want to screw up the acronym. They had stickers made, Brian. They had stickers made. They couldn't. Couldn't get rid of them. To focus on cybersecurity and national security risks. This marks a pivot from concerns about AI bias and existential threats to prioritizing economic growth and tech development, AKA fuck it, is what they're saying. That's it? Pretty much, yeah. This shift aligns with the labor government's AI heavy plan for change, which promotes AI integration into government services, including a new AI Assistant for civil servants called Humphrey.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I mean, I'll give him points for the naming Humphrey. They should have done Jeeves. I know, but they probably would have had to buy out a copy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. They would have had to. They'd had to license that one. But Humphrey, Oh, Humphrey, what are the statistics on a national food bank?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Please. Cup of tea. Oh, God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Despite the rebrand, officials insist AI safety remains a priority, but not at the cost of progress.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Wow, that's. They said the quiet part out loud.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I think I just nailed it at the beginning. It. Bucket it. Speaking of people who are saying it, Jonah Peretti, the founder of buzzfeed, who destroyed buzzfeed by having it create just buckets and buckets of AI generated slop, is now deciding that it's just too much of it. We can't take it anymore. We're done. We're done. So what are they going to do? They're going to create their own social network.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They're pivoting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're pivoting, Brian. They're pivoting. I'm trying to wrap my head around how to say this. Yeah, it's just fucking dumb.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

No, all you gotta. Here's what you say. Jason. Hello.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hello.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

But they're in the lab developing it now, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. There's no code to show. There's no code to show.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

This is no code to show. We'll just put it out. You know, how can we do this as cheap as we can. Oh, there's this mastodon code laying around. We can just slap our logo on top of that. Call it a day.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That works. Here we go. And just a little bit of follow up here. And Apple, you fucking pussies. Apple map plans to show Gulf of America following Google. But not all heroes use Apple maps. Brian. Governor Pritzker from Illinois says he is going to change Lake Michigan to Lake Illinois in a public. In a public press conference.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

We are in the dumbest possible timeline.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know this timeline does suck, but it is funny. I mean, yeah, my dad, my dad still lives in Chicago and he's like, yeah, Pritzker hates Trump. He's just always saying he's going to push back. We're going to be the. We're going to be the bellwether of change. Like. Well, you're the bellwether of snark at this point. So.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, snark coming out of this. But nothing real.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. You can't wipe your tears away with snark. Unfortunately.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

No, but what you do do is you file lawsuits and they do take some time. So I'm happy to report that even though it's not much much, some, some of these lawsuits have gotten to the courts and the courts are starting to finally push back A little bit. If you recall, the CDC and FDA were ordered by Trump and Musk to remove entire sections of their websites and anything related to gender identity and data sets that the entire world is using to do actual, oh, I don't know, science. And U.S. district Judge John D. Bates insert jokes here.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Nope. Okay. Has ordered the center for Disease Control and FDA to restore the web pages and resources that they had removed to complet comply with President Trump's executive order. So he gave them until February 11th at 11:59pm Eastern Time to comply. And apparently the CDC website on transgender and gender diverse persons is already back online with the note up top saying that the CDC's website is being modified to comply with President Trump's executive orders, which are now being reversed. So finally, we're getting a bit of pushback. This is a temporary restraining order that has been granted as requested by the Doctors for America. They are also suing the Office of Personal Management, or opm, which issued the memo for the pages removal. As the Washington Post notes, the memo ordered agency heads to end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology. They're bringing everything back. And the lawsuits will come back. Don't call it a comeback because the lawsuits will continue on and this is just going to be whack. A mole that will last for the rest of our fucking natural lives. And the eff, the Electronic Frontier foundation, along with multiple federal employee unions, have filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk and his DOJI team to block their access to sensitive and identifying information on millions of Americans. So we can expect to see big balls in court.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Woo.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

We'll see what happens. But the pushback has started and so far, almost all the court cases are coming up, of course, saying, yeah, you don't have any legal right to do any of the things that you're doing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, I got a few more on that. One to 14 states have sued President Trump and Elon Musk, challenging Musk's role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency. The lawsuit, led by New Mexico Shocker there, argues Musk's unchecked power to eliminate federal jobs and agencies violates the Constitution's appointments clause, requiring Senate confirmation for such authority. There's one. Next up, a group of 26 current and former USAID employees is suing Musk and the department in an effort to stop him from dismantling the agency without Senate confirmation. The lawsuit, filed in Baltimore federal court, argues that Musk's sweeping actions, enabled by his appointment from Dickhead, are Unconstitutional and have put both U.S. aID's foreign aid programs and employee safety at risk. So we have a safety issue here. Now the lawsuit seeks to halt Musk's actions, declaring them unconstitutional yet again, and demands legal accountability for what it calls an unlawful power grab. So I went to AI this morning, Brian, and said, how many lawsuits currently are outstanding against Elon Musk and Doge? And I said as of February 13, 2025, at least 26 lawsuits have been filed against Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. So that's good. And we do have a name for the first person that was killed from the USAID dismantling. Peka Lau, 71 years old, died after being sent home from a hospital that relied on U.S. foreign aid. So she couldn't get her oxygen. And so she basically suffocated thanks to Elon Musk. So thank you. There's the face of that right there. And yeah, if you think Elon is upset that people are dying because of this, in any of his actions, you got to remember, Brian, he's got a body count. He's got a body count. His cars kill people all the fucking time. But he just calls it fully self driving. And yeah, now he's firing all the investigators that were coming after Tesla. So what are you going to do?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, it's amazing how all that happens. All these things that are getting shut down by Elon Musk, every single one of them was looking into some aspect of his life. Interesting how that works.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, or they were in his way to more government contracts.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

But remember he said he's being completely transparent about this process, right, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's being completely transparent. And they even made a website called waste.gov.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, that's where he said he was gonna. You could go to. Because that's where the transparency will be, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, that's right. That's where the transparent transparency will be posted. Well, unless you're just a WordPress themed holder page. And that would be. That would be what it was. Yes. It was basically a fucking blank theme page when you went to waste.gov, nothing else but a blank theme page. So the government now runs on WordPress, which is scary enough. They have changed it, they have updated now. Now if you go to waste.gov it says this content is password protected. To view it, please enter your password below.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Now that's what I call transparency, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That is transparency. Yes. I viewed source on this page and what does it point to, Brian? The WordPress login. But it doesn't even point to a proper WordPress login, because there's obviously no username that goes with it. And then if you click on it, it says you get a 403 error that says, access to waste.gov was denied. You do not have authorization to view this page.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah. Do you know why it's that way? I think you missed the story in the middle here is somebody hacked into it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They figured out it was WordPress and somehow they hacked into it and they. I can't remember exactly what they replaced it with, but yeah. So it's just going great. The best possible people running this. And very transparent.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But you can also go to doge.gov, which was just a blank page for a couple days, but now they just have their Twitter feed up there. So you get it. And sometimes it says latest work. And showing what it does there, there are some. Some tabs at the top so you can click on savings. And it says, receipts coming soon. No later than Valentine's Day with a fucking emoji. I am sorry, Brian, but I do not like my government programs. Oh, wait, it's not a government program.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's not a government program. It hasn't been approved by the government. It hasn't been given any authority by the government. It is nothing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And if you look at the top, it says an official website of the United States government. And they didn't even capitalize the G. They did not.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

And where are the privacy policies? Where are the countless things that you're supposed to have if you are a government agency? There's no terms of service. There is nothing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, but there is a job application form that you can find, that you can fill out.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I'm going to call myself Bigger Balls and submit my application.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. And if you click on the about tab, it goes to the dumb fucking thing. I can't even speak anymore. It goes to the dumb fucking thing. Yes. But we do have one hero this week. Robert Garcia, Congressman, former mayor of Long beach, educator, comic, nerd, urbanist, progressive, and proud American. Well, did you watch the videos that Robert Garcia dropped this week, Brian?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I did. It was very clever and I'm very proud of him.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. Robert Garcia in. In the middle of Congress, went up against Marjorie Taylor Green, the human slug, and said, well, she put a dick pic into the public record. I am going to put a dick pic in the public record. And pulled out a giant picture of Elon Musk, which was just beautiful.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I'm down with lbc.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I am down with lbc. And then he went on Brianna Keller's show on cnn. And she gives this whole like, do you really think that we should be going down this rabbit hole of publicly calling Elon Musk a dick? And he just replies, well, he is a dick.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I'm like, yes, if the condom fits.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He'S a fucking dick. And then of course, Anderson Cooper, not to be outdone later on on Tuesday, went after former New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu and basically just said don't be a dick. When they were getting in a fight live on the air on. I watched it, I was just like, he did just say that. That's fucking awesome. Kind of rolled with it. So that was kind of cool.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But yeah, all right.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Public decorum is just totally breaking down. It's awesome.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Done. It's done. Dude, we are just out the window now after grabbing by the pussy days. So what are you going to do, Brian? Just, let's just roll with it. We need, we need the Democrats to really fucking step up and, and just call a spade a spade or a dick a dick.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I would prefer they actually go to work and change things.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That would be good. That would be. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Can you just. I'm going to go grab a bronto back. What else you got?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, after all of that, I do have a bit of good news, actually, like legit good news. The odds of a newly discovered asteroid 2024 yr4 impacting Earth in 2032 has risen from 1.3% to 2.2% according to NASA's center for Near Earth Object Studies. So pretty soon it may not fucking matter anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, we've had all these, these programs and movies about averting the, the catastrophe of the asteroid. Can we just have one that just tries to go and aim it at.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Us at this point? I welcome our asteroid obliterator.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I saw the news yesterday that they said that there's a.03% chance that it would hit the moon. And then I'm like, oh, seven that much. Then I was thinking of seven Eves. Yep, Neal Stephenson might get that sequel after all. Welch's can't make everything make sense. Like why your mom still listens to the radio or what she meant when she sent that emoji. But a zero sugar drink that's still full of fruit flavor.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

We made that make sense in strawberry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Passion fruit, Concord grape and more. You gotta sip it to get.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Get it New Welch's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Zero sugar. Let's fruit stuff up. Media candy. I watched a documentary this week, Brian, called Never Surrender A Galaxy Quest documentary.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Phenomenal. Phenomenal. I found out that one of my friends actually worked on the movie. He was one of the art directors. And I'm like, oh, I found that out by watching the documentary. I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? So Galaxy Quest, known as one of the most perfect films ever made. This is one of the best documentaries ever made about one of the greatest movies ever made. So I highly recommend it. It is on prime, so if you have prime, go check it out. I'm back to those needing those shows now, Brian, that calm me at night and take away the pain of the day. So I have. I found that I completely missed season two of Wall of Chefs, which is a Canadian cooking competition on the Food Network in Canada. It is so fucking Canadian, it shits maple. These are the nicest people going, competing against each other, and they are so subdued, and it's just. I don't know what it is about it that I just love the show. I've got one episode left, and then I'm going to be forever sad that Wall of Chefs is no more because they canceled it. And, yeah, it just.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's very Canadian. They should keep it going, you know? You're doing all right, eh? It's. Sure. Maybe not a lot of people are watching, but we really like what you're doing. Very nice people. And frankly, you only cost a few bucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The. The. The. The main. The main competition centers around the. The second. The second challenge, which is a chef's fridge. And it shows this. All this crazy graphics, and then they go in the middle of the stage, this old refrigerator. They open it up, and there are three ingredients that one of these chefs, like, always keeps in their fridge. And that's like the big reveal. What's in the chef's fridge?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's Canada. It's gonna be a beer and some cheese.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's. No, no, no, That's Wisconsin, man. That's Wisconsin.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's pretty close. Same, same.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a fun show. I'm going to miss it. I'm going to miss it. So if anybody's got any more lowkey cooking shows like that that can keep me sane, shoot them my way, please.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Watch the Harry Potter one, man. It was good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, no. I tried. I just couldn't. I don't know why.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay. Well, I've continued to watch a mythic quest it. It. That is doing the trick for me in terms of keeping me sane, because it's. It's just kind of silly and funny and. And and ironic and just the right kernel of truth about what those people are actually like. So it's good. But actually what I discovered is I, when I talked about it last week, I was like, oh, yeah, I think it's just season two that just dropped. No, it's season four that drops.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We were both wrong.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So this is like gone past my, my three season rule. So I'm working my way through season two right now. It's, it's still pretty solid, but I've been binging like two seasons in a row and. And you know when you do that, the joke starts to run a little bit thin. You need some time away from it. So I break after finishing season two, and then I will probably get back to it as well. I'm also going to be taking a break because the White Lotus season three drops this weekend. And my wife and I always watch that show together, or at least the first two seasons. So I will be starting that. But the question is, can it be good without Stifler's mom? She really was the main reason the first two seasons were awesome.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I didn't even like her that much. That's the funny part. So. So we'll see. We'll see how it turns out. Yeah, but you know, it's one a week, so.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we actually have something to talk about. Like the, like the old water cooler days. It'll be so good.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And we see the first look this week at the new Mortal Kombat 2 poster with Johnny Cage. And I saw it and I'm like, fuck, yes. Carl Urban is Johnny Cage.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I'm not sure how Carl Urban became like the go to Sci Fi guy, but he did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he did for sure. Do you remember he did one season of a show. There was a sci fi show where he had one leg and he had a sidekick Android. And it was really good. It got canceled because I think it was just too expensive.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I don't remember that. But man, this dude has been in Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek. I mean, there's nothing this guy does. The boys. There's nothing this guy doesn't do well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just because he's great.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, I got no problem with him.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I enjoy him. I don't have a problem either. It's just amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It really is. It really is. Yeah. Just looking at his, I mean, seriously, looking at all of his movies that he's done in the past fucking 20 years is ridiculous.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They need to go back and AI him into Battlestar Galactica and the Expanse. Yeah, we need him in everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Almost Human was the name of the TV series. 13 episodes. Yeah, it was pretty good. Oh, you know what I think it really started with when I really started to note some. I mean, yeah, Star Trek was 2009 when he hopped into that, but dread was 2012.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, my God. I thought he was in that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He was. That he was Dread.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He was phenomenal as Dread, and I was really bummed that they didn't make any more of those, but that movie is a good standalone movie. If you want something to watch this week, it's. That is phenomenal. Phenomenal. But Jesus. I mean, he started. He was in Xena. He was in 12 episodes of Xena back in the day. And Hercules, two episodes. This guy's been around forever, right? Wow. Okay. So that's how he got there, to answer that short question. But I can't wait to see him as Johnny Cage. He's getting a little long in the tooth to play Johnny Cage, but, yeah, we'll see. We'll see. In other movie news, the Monroeville Mall, famous as the filming location for George Romero's 1978 horror classic dawn of the Dead, has a new owner, and it's Walmart.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which is just, you know, the title of the article really just kind of puts it to bed. Walmart bought the mall from dawn of the Dead because subtext is for cowards.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Fair enough.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So if you've never seen dawn of the Dead, you probably don't get the joke, but go watch it. It's a. A. It's a good movie, and I've been to that mall because I used to live in Pittsburgh, so that's fun and just shit news. Next, Netflix is exploring video podcasts to boost engagement, according to Business Insider.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The company has been in talks with talent agents about bringing popular podcasters to the platform. Despite past skepticism, the appeal. It's cheap. That's why they want it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Of course. Of course. Unless you sign Joe Rogan, you can get Hawk to a girl pretty cheap this point.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man, I'm sure she would. She'd probably pay you to get on the network. Damn. Yeah, so they're just gonna try and find, you know, probably YouTubers is what it is. I. I wouldn't call them podcasters. I just call them YouTubers. There is a difference. You know, There's a difference. But I think the YouTubers might say screw you, because YouTube CEO Neil Mohan says that TV screens have officially surpassed mobile is the top way people watch YouTube in the US I don't know.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

If I'd be touting that because that just means that your. Your. Your demographic has gotten old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Could be. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. But. Well, we are. I need to break it to you, Brian, but we are. Everybody else is watching on Tick Tock.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I know, Exactly. That's. That's my point.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But here's the funny thing. Even the kids that I talk to nowadays are like, we don't even do Tick Tock anymore. Too many old people are on TikTok. Like, TikTok. Even TikTok is starting to age out, which is crazy. But, Yeah, I watch YouTube on my TV half the time, so I guess they're right. Apps and doodads. Brian. I want to do a quick PSA about apps with quizzes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

If you're ever on social media and you click on an ad for an app and then they start to run you through a quiz or take a test or anything like that, Close the window and run away.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just close the window and run away. Because it's bullshit.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yep. You will not finish the quiz. You will not finish the test. They will ask for the credit card and the money first.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That. Or what you do is. Well, you will finish the quiz, and then they will send you a thing saying, would you like the results for your quiz? Send us your credit card.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or download the app for your customized package. I love the weight loss ones. The weight loss ones with the. The chair workouts, you know, for old guys. They're like, how old are you? How much weight do you want to lose? You want to do this, that. The other thing. Thing. It's all the same. It doesn't matter. Those. Those. Those. Those forms mean no. Mean nothing. And what I really love is the fake progress bar at the end saying, please wait a moment while we. While we build your customized workout plan. That does not exist. No, it doesn't exist.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They're emailing you the same workout plan when you pay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Everybody gets the same shit. They just want your credit card. It's all.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

You can also get off Google for free.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. Or YouTube on your TV.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So just don't. Don't fall for that. It is. It is like a psychological trick to make you invested in the process. And I've seen too many friends fall down the rabbit hole and then they just sign up. It's like. But it's only three months for $99. I'm like, you spent 30 bucks a month on a free. So there's my PSA for the day. Brian.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

All right. A new iPhone update patches A flaw that could allow an attacker to turn off a nearly 7 year old's USB security feature feature. The Apple's Release notes for iOS 3.1.18 and iPadOS 3.1.18 say the bug which allowed the deactivation of USB restricted mode may have been exploited. An extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals. Now, to actually have this work, they need your phone physically. So unless you plan on getting hijacked or somebody stealing your phone anytime near the near future, you don't have too much to worry about. But as per usual, do the damn update anyway.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm guessing law enforcement were probably the ones that were exploiting this attack.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, I assume.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. So. And the Israelis, of course, with always all their tools. Yes, Apple has reportedly been ordered by the UK government to create a back door allowing security officials access to users encrypted icloud backups. We're back to this.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Here we go again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Again.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Come on, Tim Cook, be the man.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The secret order issued under UK's Investigatory Powers act would grant access to all encrypted files worldwide, not just British users, without notifying them.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

No, thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. If Apple complies, other governments, including the us, China and others, may demand similar access. Blah, blah, blah. We know the story. Backwards, forward, sideways. Governments keep trying to do this. The UK just needs to knock it the fuck off. But they won't. They won't. For some reason they think that it's a good idea. So there it is. And the thing is like nobody else is going to tell you if they've gotten the letters to do it or not. Google's not going to do it. Meta's not going to do it. Because part of the process of this is that you're not supposed to know it's happening. So somebody leaked this. That shouldn't have.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

For sure.

[Brian Schulmeister]

For sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Keep leaking.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Keep leaking, people. Keep on leaking.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, keeping with Apple and surprising news, Apple has actually done something that could save you money. The company is now allowing users to migrate purchases from one Apple account to another. Transfers can include items such as movies, books, music, apps and more. Sounds good, doesn't it, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sure, Brian.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Sounds great. Like I've been waiting for that ability, especially now that I have like my son's account and I would like to move some of the games that he plays over to his instead of being on mine. But you know, and this is great. Now let's run through the easy Steps involved in doing this. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hit me. Brian.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

You can only move purchases from your secondary account, the one you use for media and purchases, to your primary account, the one signed into iCloud and most other features. Before starting a migration, check that you are signed into both accounts on your device and that the secondary account isn't part of a family sharing or purchase sharing account. Then make sure you have two factor authentication on for both accounts so that they are both linked to the same country and region. You'll also need to spend any remaining balance and not have any rentals or pre orders. Then transfer your things by going to the median purchases tab and scrolling to migrate purchases. Follow the steps on your screen and then once the migration is complete, log out of your secondary account on all devices. Heads up though. You'll no longer be able to use that other account for purchases anymore. Sounds convenient, easy and useful.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The corpse of Steve Jobs is catching fire. Rolling in its grave so hard right now.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That does not exactly sound like you could transfer things between accounts. It sounds like you can move things out of one account. Account that you can now never use again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. If you, if you want to burn that account to the ground, that's all you can do. Okay, well, TikTok's back on the Apple store. Yay. After more than 25 days, Apple and Google restored TikTok to US app stores Thursday evening.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, thank God I'm old and TikTok is now for old people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. So you can also go get your. Your Lemon 8 download and Capcom cut if you had deleted it. So President Trump gave ByteDance a 75 day deadline to sell TikTok to a US entity or face a ban. And he also proposed a 50% US stake in the company. Despite the uncertainty, TikTok's traffic is recovering while rivals like X Bluesky and Meta are launching competing video features. Yeah, we knew all that stuff. But the only way that this got back in is the new Department of Justice got in touch with Apple and Google and said, we are not going to prosecute you if you put it back in. Because Apple and Google were like, like, no, we know this game. We know this game. You guys are not going to fool us. You know. Okay, you said that the ban is not going to be enforced. We leave it in there, then you come after us and then you have leverage on us. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We want it in writing that you will not with us. They finally got it and that's why they put it back in at least the lawyers at Apple and Google are smart enough to know that. Yeah, fool me once you don't buy.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It without it in writing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And Brian, the first ever AI image has been granted copyright protection. Okay, well, not the first ever AI image, but the first ever AI image is. Has. You know what I'm saying?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I got it. Finally.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Finally. It's fucking early, Brian. It's fucking early. I've been eland all week. For the first time, the U.S. copyright Office has granted copyright protection to an artwork entirely generated with AI, but with a catch. The image titled A Single Piece of American Cheese was created using invoke, a generative AI platform by the CEO Kent Kearson. Now, he made 35 significant edits selecting, coordinating, and arranging AI generated elements to form a composite artwork. And the copyright office had actually denied him the copyright previously. But he went and sent them a video. He had to show his work. Basically, he showed his entire workflow. And then they're like, okay, fine.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Upon closer inspection of the video, they noticed that Ken had six fingers, and therefore it's an AI video. And now they've taken it away again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, they've taken it away. Just like Milli Vanilli's Grammy. You're Whatever.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay, I mean, this is what we talked about is, is you actually have to go in and make X amount of changes by hand.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, it's not even that good of an image. That's the thing that pisses me off.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's all being done for press and stupidity.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, I did. But you know what? It worked because I went and I checked out the tool that they made it on. It's actually a pretty good tool, and it's not that expensive. So, yeah, I. This week, I've been using I. I use Premiere a lot. Now I'm stuck in Premiere Pro seven hours a day. And I found that I can actually edit faster on my laptop because of the trackpad placement and the keyboard placement. I'm pretty good with the. With everything with that, but when I'm working at my desktop, I'm like, I missed the trackpad right by my thing. So I grabbed my Apple Magic trackpad from the office, brought it home. Problem with the trackpad is the back end of it's too tall, so I wanted to flip it around and run it upside down. That's harder than it looks.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Turns out I needed to go find. There are lots of. I did lots of Googling. I found lots of terminal commands that I could run to flip it around. None of them worked anymore. So that was a bust. But then I found Better Touch Tool, which is a piece of software that you can buy but they have like a 45 day free trial and there's a checkbox that you just select and says flip it upside down, flip it up, rub it down.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

There you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Worked like a charm. I used the magic TrackPad for about 6 seconds before I decided that ain't gonna work and scrap the whole thing. The upside is I found BetterTouchTool and it does a whole bunch of stuff but and I'm really glad it had a 45 day trial because I'm never probably going to use it again. But if you need touch tools that are better, go get BetterTouchTool.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

All right, the hat tip to figure 15 over at our discord. Who sent who shared this link now? Jason, I I once had a Jeep. I loved my Jeep. I know you currently have a Jeep. I know you love your Jeep. I will never be buying a future Jeep until unless this changes. So yes, Stellantis, the parent company of Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler and Ram, has recently introduced full screen. I was going to say full self driving, but we know that's full screen pop up advertisements on its vehicle's infotainment systems. So for new Jeep owners, anytime you come to a stop, be it at a red light or in traffic, and if you're in Los Angeles driving on the 405, this would be every five seconds, your inf entertainment screen is now being overtaken by a full screen advertisement. To return to your navigation or music, you must manually dismiss the ad by clicking it with your finger. Oh my God. Obviously the response response from drivers has been swift and overwhelmingly negative. Online forums are filled with complaints about these intrusive ads disrupting the driving experience. One Jeep owner shared their frustration. He highlighted how these pop ups hijacked the screen at every stop, forcing them to constantly close ads to access access essential functions. Since we need to use those screens for everything now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

In response to the backlash through their Jeep Cares representative, they acknowledge that these ads are part of a contractual agreement with Sirius xm. So now what I couldn't find out was does this happen if you don't have a subscription with SiriusXM or not? That's yeah, curious for me. I want to know that. So they advise users to tap the X to dismiss the ads. Oh well fucking thanks guys. Guys thought about that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jesus.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So yeah, people are pissed off and obviously there's, there's privacy concerns here because for ads to be effective, vehicles must collect and transmit Data about drivers, habits, locations and preferences. So there's concern about that. How's this data used, stored and shared? And also what the are you doing making us have to click away pop up ads on our screens while we're driving?

[Jason DeFilippo]

What do you think this is? A Tesla?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, fortunately I. My Jeep is one of the very old Jeeps that does not have serious or just about any feature whatsoever. So I'm very happy that it is. I have a, you know, a Luddite Jeep. I'm going to keep my Luddite Jeep until the wheels fall off. Knock on wood. That is going to be a long time. But this is total at the library.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So I wanted to take a break from sci fi after having finished the the Wonderful Bob Everest book and then a bunch of sci fi books before that and wanted to go back to kind of more, you know, non non fiction because I do like my history books, but my fun ones like that James Fell's books that I read on this day in history went down where he picked a, you know, something that occurred every single day and wrote fabulously funny stories about it. And so I started to get served up some of that stuff because I've read a few of them and I saw one that looked interesting called Tiny Blunders slash big disasters. 39 tiny mistakes that changed the World Forever. Revised Edition. Tiny Blunders Slash Big Disaster Series by Jared Knott. And not being an idiot, I downloaded the free trial or not free trial, but you get the free chapter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Free chapter. Yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So I read the free chapter and I'm like, oh, this is actually this is was pretty interesting. It was like one event and that was pretty good. Okay, I will buy this book and I will start to read it. I think he wrote one chapter and then I think he went to chat GPT and he shat out the rest of these because they were awful and they were so obviously AI written. Or he had a ghost writer write their one chapter and he's just a shitty writer. One or the other, I'm not sure which. I've never returned a book so fast. And it's too bad because it's an interesting concept. And the free chapter that he wrote was actually really good and compelling. But then I like read another one and I was like, this is horrible. This is like State premise. Do the little wrap up. I'm like, and then the second, the next one was like that too. And then I read one more and I was like, no, no, I'm not going to torture myself by reading through this AI slop. So I returned it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's a good business model, if you can get it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, it was done very well. Just totally suckered me into thinking this is going to be a great book and purchasing it. But luckily I realize it quick enough to return it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, don't do that. In other book news, back to the way we used to shop for books, and I'm kind of excited about this. Barnes and Noble will be opening up 60 bookstores this year. Year.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Excellent.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's shocking, right? So not only that, they opened 57 stores last year. They plan to open at least 60 this year, thanks in part to a boost from Book Talk. According to Axios. It's a significant improvement from back in 2020 when only three new Barnes and Nobles locations were planned, according to Axios. And obviously they've been shutting them down for a long time. So they spent a decade closing 150 stores and just started ramping up again back in 2023. So, again, this is a lot about. About Book Talk and people are. Some people are actually starting to read again and sharing it and book planning. So they're. And they're obviously doing the things that, you know, becoming relevant by being more social. Coffee shop, you can sit and read, all that sort of stuff. But I'm very excited. I love bookstores. There's a few around us still, and we go as often as we can. And I just love being in a real bookstore, even though I only really read books on my Kindle now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we got a Barnes and Noble a couple miles away, and it's still nice to go in there every now and again. Again, we covered the. The resurgence of Barnes and Noble a couple months ago, and it's fascinating. They, like, listen to their customers. Yeah, amazing. Yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Create a compelling environment for the people that actually like reading and.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And listen to what they want to buy instead of what the booksellers are trying to shove down your throat. What a concept. Oh, my God. And we did talk last time, I think, about. About revisiting the Babiverse series after you finished the last book. And I did just that. I started reading Bobaverse book one again. And I had forgotten a lot about Bobaverse Book 1, mainly that the reason that he became the Bob was that the United States was basically where we're at this week. I was like, oh, no. The dystopian sci fi of the Babiverse has come to pass. I had totally forgotten about the breakdown of the United States in the Bob Averse books. But you know what I love about the book is that it's succinct, it gets to the point there's no fluff, and it's just so well written. It is so well written. If you have not listened to us for the past however many years drone on about the Babiverse book series, you have to go get it. If you like sci fi, it is seriously one of the best sci fi book series out there.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

There. It's a great series.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And like, I'm only a little bit into book one again and I just, I've fallen back in love with it. So I think I might just have to go back through the whole series. So Bob has legs. The Dark side with Dave. Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Podcast super host Dave Bittner decodes all things cyber on the cyber wire every single day. Exposes deception with Joe Kerrigan on hacking humans. Dives deep into privacy with Ben Yellen on caveat. I keep saying caveat for some reason. I gotta fix that. Breaks down industrial cybersecurity on Control Loop and even brings the laughs on only malware in the building. I don't know why I say caveat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Caveat, caveat, caveat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I try and make you sound more.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

At least you're gonna say cravats, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. Stick your pinky out when you say caveat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You're in Maryland having all your crab and all those little things. How's it going, Dave?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's not bad, you know, I mean, I'm hanging in there. I'm hanging in there.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

The thread is getting thinner and it's only February. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right. So I've been checking in with a lot of friends because obviously there's a lot of chaos, particularly near us here in Washington D.C. and so I'm checking in with a lot of friends, folks who work in the government, who work in national security and things like that. And for some of them, I ask them how they're doing and they say, oh, I'm just trying to tune it all out. And I think, okay, that's be nice to be able to do that. As someone whose day job is delivering the bad news news, I don't have that option. So I have to go through it all and analyze it and, and it, you know, I don't look woe is me, right? I mean, I have a great job, which I very much enjoy, so I shouldn't complain. But the type of news that we're experiencing today does take, for me, anyway, an emotional toll which I try to counter by doing fun Things, but it's. It's hard sometimes. Copious drugs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. You know, I did. I did Dry January.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Me too. Congratulations.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And February and March. But I did Dry January just on a whim. But what motivated me to do Dry January is that I've been gaining weight.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And so I figured dry this would be an easy way to cut out a bunch of empty calories if I just don't drink for a month. And I'll see if that makes a difference. And it has helped.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I just. I'm thinking of that scene in Airplane. I picked a bad day to quit drinking.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, precisely. Precisely. It has. I would say it has slowed down the rate at which I'm gaining weight.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So it's like bumping the brakes slightly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean. Yeah, I was raised with comfort food, so it's. That's a hard. That's hardwired into me. So that's a struggle that I'm facing right now. And I'm trying to do my best to, you know, not. I. It's nice to be able to still fit into all of your clothes. And so that's where I am.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's the little victories, Dave. That's all I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, right, right. But, you know, hopefully things will settle down here. You wonder how, how quickly, how or how long can the chaos continue? I guess we had the answer from the previous run through with this. The answer is four years and beyond, I guess, at least.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's just on the clock. We're not talking about psychological years. Psychological years. It's never going to end, but.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah, right. Death wears thy sting. Try to stay optimistic, but it's a struggle some days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, there is another thing that does expand time as we know it and makes things seem interminable. And that would be the song It's a Small World, as we've all been through.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. One of our favorite little bits of family archival footage is Hi8 footage of my father taking a nap on while going through Small World. Just, you know, head back, just completely mouth open, drooling down his chin, just, you know, while Small World is going all around him and blissfully unaware that of what. And. And boy, if we. If we could all just do that during that ride, that'd be wonderful.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, you know, some of us do these days as we've become dads going on the ride.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I took a really good nap one time in the Tiki Room.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, Tiki Room is great. You get your dole whip, you sit there. It's Cool, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Just took a. Just took a 20 minute nap. It was great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, there's going to be more of it soon, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

More of Small World.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Apparently, Richard Sherman, the person who wrote it, left a new verse for It's a Small World to Bob Iger in 2023 as a parting gift to the studio that changed his life as of the Sherman Brothers, which he was one of the. The old.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah. Wrote many of the great songs.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

This. This not being one of them. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, not at all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, I don't know about that. I mean, if. If it's.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think this is a familiarity breeds contempt sort of thing for me, Dave. It's. It's. I've heard it more times than I ever need to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, that's true. And it does just dig in there and get stuck in your brain.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Which. So. But is it fair to call that bad? I mean, it's a. It's a sign of good songwriting, I suppose.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Maybe. Evil.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Notorious. I don't know how many people ride Small World under with. Under with their own will. Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or is it just like. Okay, there's a short line. It's air conditioned.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's air conditioned. That's the big one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's really it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's air conditioned. It's reasonably long. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I'll put these earplugs in and the kids will love it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But also, you can sneak a drink in there if you have to, as well. As someone who used to do that.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Kind of thing, they have cameras these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Like the little. I think my favorites are the little hula dolls. The little from, I guess from Hawaii.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're very cute. Very cute.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

All right, well, getting a new verse. Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. That's it. That's all I got for you. Well, Disney, guys, I put it in here. I thought maybe you'd run with it, but hey, it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

No, you know, I appreciate all things Disney and I'll have to hear the verse. I don't. Did they release it? Is it in the story? I haven't listened.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Comes out July 7th. It drops July 7th.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, it's dropping. Dropping like it's hot. Okay, well, dropping like it's hot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So the lines for Small World will be around the block. So people waiting to keep in to check out the new verse. People will be at rope drop. They'll be sprinting to Small World to be able to check out the new verse for sure.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes, definitely. Well, I did put in the Story. Initially, it was because, Jason, you had a story in here about something awful that Trump had did which, you know, wave around the room and you can hit 20 of them, but you pulled that. But I left this in anyway because I was going to, you know, do a counterpoint and say, look, he's not always wrong. And his new thing is he basically, you know, he doesn't go through any proper channels. He just, you know, signs executive orders and tells people to do things, which is not how government generally works. He told the treasury to stop minting the penny, which he's not wrong about that. We don't need the penny. It's not 1942, and Canada got rid of their penny about 20 years ago. They haven't missed it. Don't need it. So good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. It's just one of those things that he says it's his idea and it's not.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Of course, it's been around. It's been kicking around forever. Ever. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. I included a link in the show notes here. They were Talking about this 20 years ago on the West Wing about getting rid of the penny, and basically the Illinois contingent wouldn't allow it to happen because that's where President Lincoln was from, and he's on the penny. So my wife tells me that one of the last places that pennies were taken in an automated way was Illinois toll plazas. You know, you toss your money in, Right. That was one of the last ones to take pennies. I mean, the. Look, people have been talking about getting rid of pennies forever. The whole thing is that it costs more than a penny to make a penny and that all people do with pennies is hoard them. Because the days of. I remember. I don't know about you guys, but I remember, you know, my dad had a dish on his bureau in the bedroom where at the end of the day, he'd come home and he'd stick his hand in his pocket and empty out his change, put it in the dish, and then the next day, he'd put his hand in the dish and scoop it all up and put it in his pocket. Because when you were paying for things in cash, you wanted to have change.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, nobody does that anymore. So all that happens with pennies is they get hoarded. There's a penny shortage. What, the past couple years.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

During COVID there was. I remember.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right, right. But the problem, and I have a link to this story, is that if you get rid of pennies, then your problem just basically bumps up to nickels.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I will Point out that this Link is on AOL.com so this story could be 75 years old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, the problem is the farthing. What are we going to do with the farthing?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

These shillings are costing us too much money.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's right. Me thinketh. But nickels cost even more. Nickels are even more wasteful than pennies. Evidently nickels get rid of those too.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

What the fuck is usually. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right, well, look, we know that as Americans, we are unwilling to adopt dollar coins, as much money as that would save us, because every time we try, people, it just doesn't go anywhere. So I don't know.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Look, the way this administration is going, we're only going to be able to use Bitcoin anyway. Anyways.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's a good point.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Trump coins and shit coins.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. No, I've heard good cases made to just say drop the last decimal point and move on. Yeah, go to the dimes. That's it. That's all we need.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, go to the dimes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Dimes, quarters. Yep. Move on from there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah. Huh. The question is, do you round up or do you round down? So does the consumer benefit or the shop?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think we know the answer to that one, don't we?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. Yeah, I think history.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that was a naive question.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But you brought. You bring up an interesting point, Brian. The quarter kind of throws the gum in the works on that because.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

True, that's true. Because then you. You've still got the five. Yeah. Then you need to keep the nickel around. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because you know, nobody's getting rid of.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Quarters because this is a conundrum. Although I can't tell you the last time I used real physical money.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I, I use it every single day, but I still have change in my pockets. I'm just an old man, I guess. God damn it. Yeah, keep them tracking. This is just going to get stuck in Congress right next to can we get rid of daylight saving time?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, yes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Right. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's true. Can we just get rid of Elon first before we get rid of the penny?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Priorities, people, priorities.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let's bump, let's bump something up the ladder here.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

At least the penny has been approved by Congress as opposed to Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, zing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go. There you go.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That is one of the most frustrating things in, in my daily Cyberwire reporting is just having to deal with the, the irrationality of what's going on because of Mr. Musk going in like a bull in a china shop and Just, just farting around everywhere left, right and center.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Here's another thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't. Here's another part of this. I don't understand what is going on with the board of directors and the shareholders at both Tesla and SpaceX that their CEO can just go. Just do something else. I mean on the one hand, maybe.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They'Re thinking this forever.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I'm thinking maybe they're thinking this is. Yeah, but maybe they're thinking this is actually a good thing because he's not here. The bull in the china shop is not here right now creating the cyber truck. He's over there doing something else. And so we can actually get our work done. That's a real possibility, I think.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, the problem though is the ill will that is being engendered around the world and we've reported on that last week's show. You know, maybe in America there's a certainly a large fraction of people that. That love Elon and everything that he does and by all means sir, destroy our. You're great. But the rest of the world. Tesla sales are dropping left, right and center. Starlink is being looked upon frown poorly and contracts are being cancelled and then reinstated when he strong arms them because America. But in general he is still hurting the brand. Even if he's out and about and not. Not physically there making another cyber truck, he's still killing the brand.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Killing it. Killing it.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Y.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Winning.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

So. But yeah, I mean, you know, the problem is that the boards at these companies have been handpicked by Elon to leave him the f alone. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What a world.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What a world. I did put a couple links into the the my. My new Deport Elon and boycott Tesla shirts. If you are so inclined to go pick one of those up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are these your own design?

[Jason DeFilippo]

They are indeed. Oh, very nice. As you can tell, I am not so much of a designer as I was a programmer. But I was fairly proud of the boycott Tesla one because you can take a Tesla logo and turn it into a Swastika in under 15 seconds with a little Photoshop foo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yeah, look at that.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, that's a feature, not a bug according to Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That is true.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was in the original design parameters. Well, before we run along I wanted to give you guys an update on my glasses situation. So remember last year we were talking about.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes, Mr. Franklin, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know what's funny is I was thinking about because we're heading to Disney World in the next couple weeks.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It's a World of laughter.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A world of laughter.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And one of the places we'll be, of course.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And for copyright infringement, we'll be at Epcot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And one of my favorite things at Epcot is the American experience. But one of the old stage no one will notice. Yeah, not that old. But Ben Franklin has one of those lines that the Simpsons has made fun of because of how, I don't know, what do you call it? Exposition esque. It is where he says, I may have invented these bifocals that I'm wearing, but I assure you they are not rose colored. That sort of thing. Just such a dizzy presentation line. Anyway, I'm wearing bifocals now. As we said last week, I am switching from progressives to bifocals. And I have to say, overall, big thumbs up on the bifocals.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really? Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, yes, surprisingly so. The things that I've noticed are it is great to have your full range of vision in focus. So my peripheral vision is in focus because as we talked about last week, progressives tend to have this little alleyway down the middle of the lenses that are where the. That's the business end of the lenses. And on the sides, it kind of fades out for some reason. These are clear edge to edge. So that's one of the things I noticed right away was like, whoa. It's like being. It's like imax. Everything's in focus all over the place, which is nice.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Nice.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And then having the close up vision down low has been great. As I said, my prescription did change. So part of what I'm experiencing is the benefits of that, that I am wearing the correct prescription now, which helps quite a bit. I am a week into this, so I am just about not noticing the line anymore. It is slowly but surely disappearing from my consciousness, which is interesting.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Brain adapts.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it does. And I will say that there, all I've noticed so far is there is an odd middle distance, which I'll say is at arm's length. So the distance that you reach out to to change the radio station in your car or the H Vac setting in your car, that's the strange little no man's land where either lens is almost right to have that resolve, but not quite. Either of them is perfect, but it's a trade off I'll take. So I don't know, Jason. Might be worth looking into. I'm digging it so far.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. I might give it a shot because I'm due. I'm due.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And the whole line and the Lenses thing. It's hardly noticeable anymore. And like we said last week, who cares? We're all old.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Seriously, that's. That's the least of my worries right now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, you know, whatever. I see. Yeah. It is better to see good than to look good. All right, well, that's what I have, actually. Guy. I'm going to be gone for a few weeks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

All right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So next week, I'm traveling for work. I'm actually going to a conference in Orlando for a few days, and then I come home, and then I turn right around and go back to Orlando for a family vacation, which is like a week and a half, but it covers the next two Fridays. So I'll talk to you guys in a month. Unless, Brian, I get to see you at Disney. You guys are going, right?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Not. Not in the next month, though, unfortunately. Okay. Unfortunately. And we do the California one, not Florida, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, I thought you. I thought. I guess we were talking a while back.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah, we were thinking about it, but now that. Now that all this insanity has happened and the tariffs and everything in the Canadian dollar is tanked, it is unwise for us to do it at this moment. Florida trip, unfortunately. Although I will. I will be jealous. And I'm looking forward to hearing about it because I. I do want to get out there. Just Epcot and all that sort of stuff has always stuck with me, and I want to see it all again, so it would be nice.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Yeah. The new things that are there since last time I was there is the Tron ride and the update to Splash Mount Mountain.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The new Tiana thing. So I'm looking forward to those.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

If the Tiana thing is anything like the one in. In Southern California, it's. They're still working out the Kinks. That thing is down more often than it's up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, really?

[Ryan Shulmeister]

The Tron ride's been going for a while, so the Kinks are all out of that and by all accounts, like, it looks phenomenal, so I'm very jealous.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Yeah. The only bummer is Big Thunder Mountain is closed for renovation all year. Year.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And actually, I'm. I'm wondering if the rivers of America is good. Is drained.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's right. They're getting rid of that to design.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The rest of the park.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

The Disney AI in the app has drained the river.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

They're taking that out for Cars Land. That's right. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right, right. So we'll see.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

But anyway.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, and Bear Jambury, New Country Bear Jamboree. So that's cool. Yeah, whatever.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Just have a good time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Time away.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's right. Look, since you're going by yourself first, and I cannot recommend this enough because you are enough of a Disney file that you will understand the, the joy that could come of this, I would tell the family that you actually have an extra day at the conference and run over to the park by yourself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, believe me, that has crossed my mind.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

It is a joy and a pleasure to wander through that park solo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Are you guys familiar with that? You can get either shopping or restaurant passes to get in the parks. Yeah. So the, the thing here is if you just want to go in the park, like to hit one ride or. Because I think they give you two hours, you can go. Basically you pay for a ticket, a shopping ticket. You go in. If you come out within like two hours, they refund the price of the ticket. So if you just want to go in and do something real quick, it's a way to get into the park without having to pay a full day ticket to get in the park. So life hack there. Yeah, it is a life hack. But like Brian's saying, if you're on a trip and you're traveling by yourself and you don't have a whole lot of time and you're thinking to yourself, I can't pay a hundred and whatever dollars just to spend a couple hours.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah. And you really want to see that Ben Frank Franklin Hall a president speech.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, of course. Right. Actually, you know what, that reminds me that one of the things I will be avoiding this time is the hall of Presidents, because last time we were ptsd. Well, kind of the last time we were there, we went in the hall of Presidents and during the show people were cheering and booing their favorite presidents.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

That's America now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Couldn't believe it. Yeah, it was awful.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Well, you know when you have a sitting president threatening to kill his vice president? This is where we're at now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a bloodstream.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's not who they were booing.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Didn't think so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it is. Florida.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Florida, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, so we'll be skipping that, but oh well. What a world. All right, guys.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See you in a month. Take care. Closing shout out. Over at Patreon, we've got some new subscribers. Andrea and Tony with the gold monkey level. Woohoo. And Tony writes in. I appreciate you guys and you've genuinely contributed to my happiness for many years. I feel like a slacker for not kicking in sooner. Thanks so much much for all the great Quality work you do. And for sharing the coolness that is you with all of us. Thank you.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And thanks for Nicholas, for upping your patronage. And from the hall of fame, we've got Chris, Kevin, Leslie, Phil, Flash, Chris Manchu, Lucas, Jordan, Ray, and Paul. And I know I butchered Chris Manchu, I'm sure.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

I think he probably did better with that than Andre.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Andre. Andre.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Andre.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Andre. Guys, as Brian said, we love your money, but man, your names are killing us sometimes.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Do you remember the first season of Project Runway?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Barely.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Andre.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Andre Leontelli.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, God, the things that stick in your mind. Anyways, over at PayPal, we've got Ralph Miles, Shari, Natalie, Linda, and Arcadio.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, and over the tip jar, we've got Theodore, Joseph, Antonia, Gadda, Tony. Tony actually hit us up with merch. The tip jar and the Patreon. That's how you do it. That's a three peat winner.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Damn right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And on the merch side this week we've got Tony Gallo, Bill and Jason, thank you so much for buying our goodies.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

And in sad news, best selling novelist Tom Robbins has died. I guess it's not that Sad. He was 92, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

92, quite. I look at the picture from this NPR article that you link in here, and it says, Tom Robbins, a 2014 reading. And this guy, so he's 92, this is, he's in his 80s in this.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Look how good he looks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He looks fantastic. I'm like, there's no way this Guy's in his 80s. He looks, he looks phenomenal.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

A little Tim Curry esque in that photo. Yeah, yeah. One of my favorite writers of all time. Certainly somebody that, you know, when you're a certain age, like in your early 20s. This is, this is the guy. And I was actually just thinking about that a little bit recently, like my teens and early twenties. Two of the formative people we've lost in a short space of time. For me, like if you, if you talk about like film and, and tv, you know, it was certainly David lynch, you know, Twin Peaks was, was everything books, it was 100. Tom Robbins, you know, Jitterbug Perfume, Skinny Legs and all. Even Cowgirls get the Blues, all those books, the, the magical realism, just phenomenal stuff. Jitterbug Perfume is legitimately probably in my top five books of all time still. And that is, I'm definitely do a reread for that. So, you know, and film, tv, books. If Robert Smith kicks the bucket from the Cure, I'm gonna lose my mind.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This knock on Wood. Oh, Jesus. You may have done it again. Yep, may have done it again. Still say we didn't kill kill Bowie.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

But we killed Bowie. And up the entire timeline, everything went to after he died.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It pretty much was it. Yeah, sorry about that. I've never actually read a Tom Robbins book, so maybe I'll.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Oh, dude, you would actually love it. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We got a note from Dan. Dan says let us know when the larger Elon shirts are available. I'm wearing my first gen right now. Well, Dan, you're in luck. Head over to shop.gogshow and get your big Deport Elon shirts. Now. I made them big and red so they stand out. There's also some Boycott Tesla shirts over there now too. And Jody writes in Just a thought, some subtle hashtag to Port Elon steel tumblers would make great gifts for some of my friends and probably sell nicely at my boutique. Well, Jody, hit me up offline and maybe we can find a way to send you some at cost.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

Wow, we're sending into B2B now?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. That's right, baby. Until next time, I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Ryan Shulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schoellmeister. Thanks for listening to grumpy old Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 684. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few books a few books our way. I guess we've been talking about books a lot. Hell, that too. Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate Every penny helps keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. Use the share button, 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. The thoughts, feedback, cool links, hit us up at GOG show contact. And hey, don't forget to leave a 5 star review GOG show review and we'll read it on the show. And guess what we've got. Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop Gog Show. Stay grumpy and where's Andre?