685: Bezos, Jeff Bezos

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 685: Bezos, Jeff Bezos
Release Date: February 22, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 685 of Grumpy Old Geeks, hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister, along with guest Dave Bittner, dive deep into a whirlwind of tech news, dissecting the latest controversies, mishaps, and industry upheavals. True to the show's name, the trio doesn't hold back, providing sharp critiques and humorous takes on the week's technological train wrecks.

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Elon Musk's Bizarre CPAC Appearance

Timestamp: [05:00] - [07:05]

Key Points:

• Elon Musk made an unconventional and incoherent appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
• During an interview with Newsmax host Rob Schmidt, Musk donned a MAGA hat and gas station sunglasses, wielding a chainsaw presented by Argentina's President Javier Milei as the "chainsaw for bureaucracy."
• Musk's dialogue was a mix of internet memes, political complaints, and conspiracy theories, including a declaration of "I am become meme" and accusations against the left attempting to outlaw comedy.
• He criticized the Ukraine war as a "graft machine," arguing it enriches elites while endangering lives.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [05:54]: "He rambled through a mix of Internet memes, political grievances, and conspiracy-laced claims, at one point declaring 'I am become meme' and accused the left of trying to outlaw comedy."
• Brian Schulmeister [07:05]: "He can't shut up. And it's all lies, all of it, like, and provable."

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Tesla Supercharger Cable Theft and Security Enhancements

Timestamp: [08:00] - [09:32]

Key Points:

• Tesla faces a surge in thefts of supercharger cables, with thieves targeting the copper-rich components for resale.
• In response, Tesla is testing the Dye Defender wrap, an explosive blue dye that detonates when cut, marking the cables and identifying thieves.
• Additionally, Tesla plans to engrave "Property of Tesla" on cables to deter resale at recycling centers.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [08:33]: "I just can't believe that you can just walk up to a supercharger and cut the cable off. Shouldn't you get zapped or something?"
• Brian Schulmeister [09:26]: "I don't think it's a live cable until you're paid the money, paying for it, of course."

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Department of Government Evisceration and Federal Layoffs

Timestamp: [09:53] - [16:55]

Key Points:

• The Department of Government, under Elon Musk's influence, is undertaking a mass purge of federal employees across various agencies.
• Recent layoffs include critical positions at the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service and the National Nuclear Safety Administration.
• These layoffs are retaliatory measures targeting employees involved in overseeing or investigating Musk's enterprises, such as Neuralink and Starlink.
• Lawsuits are emerging to halt this dismantling, but reports suggest that Trump's underlings may not comply with court orders, raising concerns about the future of governmental integrity.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [10:18]: "If they just decide to ignore any court order, we are screwed."
• Jason DeFilippo [12:02]: "Brian, I don't know if you saw the interview with the guy from the government. He says chickens can't fly, so why do we care?"

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New York Times Integrates AI Tools

Timestamp: [14:32] - [19:32]

Key Points:

• The New York Times is incorporating AI tools, including Echo, an AI-powered summary tool, GitHub Copilot, Google's Vertex AI, and select Amazon and OpenAI tools, into its newsroom and product teams.
• These tools assist in suggesting edits, brainstorming interview questions, and conducting research but are restricted from drafting or significantly revising articles or accessing confidential sources.
• This move comes amidst the evolving landscape of AI integration in media, balancing efficiency with journalistic integrity.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [13:09]: "Journalists can now use AI to suggest edits, brainstorm interview questions and conduct research. But they're barred from using it to draft or significantly revise articles or input confidential sources."

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Trump Media's Financial Struggles

Timestamp: [20:50] - [23:14]

Key Points:

• Trump Media and Technology Group reported a loss of $400.9 million in the previous year, attributed to stock-based compensation, accounting adjustments, and a revenue-sharing change with an undisclosed advertising partner.
• The company's revenue fell by 12%, under the ticker "DJT."
• Recent initiatives include launching a streaming service and applying for investment fund trademarks, aiming to support U.S. energy and manufacturing sectors while positioning as an alternative to "WOKE" investment funds.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [23:10]: "They are incredibly brazen."
• Jason DeFilippo [23:19]: "Just like Uber, yes."

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Andrew and Tristan Tate's Travel Restrictions

Timestamp: [23:40] - [25:12]

Key Points:

• The Biden administration is reportedly exerting pressure on Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate.
• The Tate brothers, dual citizens of the U.S. and the U.K., face charges in Romania, including human trafficking, sexual misconduct, and money laundering.
• Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Herzanu Snowden stated that while the U.S. expressed interest, no undue pressure was applied, emphasizing Romania's independent judiciary.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [24:24]: "It's okay when our influencers do it. Yes."
• Brian Schulmeister [25:17]: "They're going to have a horrible theme song though."

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Meta's Waterworth Project and AI Developments

Timestamp: [25:37] - [32:00]

Key Points:

• Meta announced the Waterworth project, a 50,000-kilometer undersea cable system aimed at enhancing global internet connectivity across five continents, including India, the U.S., Brazil, and South Africa.
• This multi-billion-dollar initiative is designed to support AI-driven innovation and solidify Meta's control over global data infrastructure.
• The project rekindles early Metaverse ambitions, raising concerns about sustainability and Meta's intentions in controlling vast internet infrastructure.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [31:15]: "Pretty much, yeah."
• Jason DeFilippo [31:11]: "I think this project probably started back then and now they're like, oh, but we're AI now we're AI."

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AI Industry Insights: Satya Nadella's Views

Timestamp: [32:00] - [38:44]

Key Points:

• Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella expressed skepticism about the current trajectory of AI, emphasizing that true economic impact from AI remains elusive.
• Nadella criticized the industry's focus on arbitrary benchmarks and "artificial general intelligence" (AGI), advocating instead for practical applications that generate real GDP growth.
• He highlighted that massive investments in AI require corresponding consumer demand, warning of a potential correction similar to the dot-com bubble if demand doesn't follow.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [33:44]: "The world has yet to turn any of today's AI hype and spending into a meaningful lift in the actual economy."
• Jason DeFilippo [37:18]: "It's not going to happen."

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Robotics: Figure's Helix

Timestamp: [38:18] - [40:35]

Key Points:

• Robotics company Figure introduced Helix, a vision-language-action model enabling humanoid robots to understand language, perceive their environment, and execute complex tasks using a single neural network.
• Demonstrations show Helix performing everyday tasks like putting away groceries, albeit at a slow and somewhat eerie pace.
• The project raises concerns about the potential for dystopian applications and the ethical implications of advanced humanoid robots.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [39:41]: "It's like, what are they doing there with that?"
• Brian Schulmeister [40:37]: "So yeah, no, no, you got to watch the video. It's. It's. Yeah, I don't. I do not approve."

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Public Opinion on Elon Musk’s Government Role

Timestamp: [40:37] - [43:10]

Key Points:

• A Washington Post Ipsos poll reveals growing American disapproval of Elon Musk's influence in the White House, with 49% disapproving of his actions in slashing government programs and firing federal employees.
• The poll indicates significant animosity, with 41% strongly disapproving, highlighting the public's increasing concern over Musk's governmental interference.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [49:00]: "People are finally waking up. It's about time they listen to our show."
• Jason DeFilippo [50:10]: "They are still hiring back people..."

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Uber vs. DoorDash Lawsuit

Timestamp: [28:14] - [31:11]

Key Points:

• Uber has filed a lawsuit against DoorDash in California, accusing the food delivery giant of pressuring restaurants to exclusively use its services.
• Allegations include DoorDash threatening to increase commission rates by 30% for restaurants that also partner with Uber Eats and demanding higher fees for dual-platform collaborations.
• The lawsuit aims to compel DoorDash to alter these business practices, reflecting a competitive battle reminiscent of past disputes between tech giants.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [28:38]: "I hope those guys get some planes because that's the only way I'm getting Faquito Mas."
• Brian Schulmeister [28:14]: "Just like Uber, yes."

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Media and Entertainment Discussions

Timestamp: [32:00] - [68:30]

Key Points:

• The hosts transition into lighter topics, discussing recent movies and TV shows they've watched, including The Wild Robot with the Kiddo, Reacher Season Three, and upcoming series like Apple's Murderbot.
• They critique the SNL 50th-anniversary special for its lackluster humor and focus on recent decades, missing out on classic sketches and stars.
• Conversations also touch on documentary releases and personal recommendations, balancing the episode's heavy tech focus with cultural commentary.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [42:33]: "It's phenomenal. It's a really nice, fun movie."
• Jason DeFilippo [43:45]: "The dark hair is a. Is a good thing."

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Shoutouts and Listener Feedback

Timestamp: [58:26] - [68:30]

Key Points:

• The episode concludes with shoutouts to new Patreon patrons, PayPal supporters, and listeners who have provided positive reviews.
• The hosts express gratitude towards their audience, encouraging more listeners to join and support the show.
• They also highlight merchandise offers, including "Deport Elon" shirts, and discuss listener experiences with various products and services.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [65:07]: "The show is technically perfect. The audio is magic."
• Jason DeFilippo [67:07]: "Nobody on our Discord has jumped to the rescue and said, hey, you guys really got to watch it."

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Conclusion

Episode 685 of Grumpy Old Geeks offers a comprehensive and unapologetic analysis of recent tech developments, with a particular focus on Elon Musk's expanding influence. From scrutinizing high-profile appearances and corporate strategies to examining broader industry trends in AI and robotics, the hosts deliver their signature blend of humor and critical insight. Supplemented by discussions on media, entertainment, and listener interactions, this episode provides both depth and diversity, making it a must-listen for tech enthusiasts seeking honest and engaging discourse.

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Notable Quotes Summary:

• Jason DeFilippo:

  • "He rambled through a mix of Internet memes, political grievances, and conspiracy-laced claims."
  • "I just can't believe that you can just walk up to a supercharger and cut the cable off."
  • "It was like, we don't have anything to use this on."

• Brian Schulmeister:

  • "He can't shut up. And it's all lies, all of it, like, and provable."
  • "If they just decide to ignore any court order, we are screwed."

Note: All timestamps correspond to the moments in the transcript where the quotes were made.

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For more in-depth discussions and the full transcript, visit the Grumpy Old Geeks website.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is a mini meditation guided by Bombus. Repeat after me. I'm comfy. I'm cozy. Cozy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I have zero blisters on my toes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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

[Brian Schulmeister]

Softest socks, underwear and T shirts that give back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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 DiFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schillmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Brian, I got a little follow up here. One of my favorite things in the world is the single use website and we have a bonanza this week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love the first one that I found. It's the 88 by 31 gift collection.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ah, this is memories. I remember making these.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, so many of them. So many of them. Yes. All the old timer web folks will notice these and go, oh yeah. Oh yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They littered aol.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They littered everything. Every website had to have these. And a lot of these are just kind of random and bizarre. But there are some ones in there that I totally remember. There's definitely the AOL instant messenger ones in there. Lots of Netscape ones, Mozilla ones. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Internet Explorer made with cascading style sheets.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ooh. See, that was getting near the end.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's near the end. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That was getting near the end of anybody using those buttons when CSS started to come out. But, but because you didn't need the buttons after you had css. Yeah. So it's a fun little walk down memory lane. Then the next one I found was trumpgolftrack.com.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Aha.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now this one I thought was a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Soon to be taken down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't know if you can. I don't know if you can take this one down because it's all public data and it's on its own web server. So we'll see. So far, days in office, 32 days spent golfing, 9 days time spent golfing, 28.13% price of egg tracker, price of.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Gasoline tracker, all going up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. That's the best part about it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But you know what, you guys, you're owning me. You've owned me. Does it make you feel Better now you own the lib. Jesus Christ. What a bunch of idiots.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah, it's a fun one. That's a fun one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's a fun one. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Then the next one we have is arewedoomedyet.org this is. I figured this was going to be an Elon tracker, but it's not. It's the asteroid because yeah, we're going to possibly get hit by an asteroid. The problem with arewedoomedyet.org is it's out of date. They need to update it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, no, they have updated but it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Says it's a 0.2749% chance. And I thought we were up to 3% now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, but you have not been paying attention.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have not. Am I out of date?

[Brian Schulmeister]

We have been on a wild ride. Well since the election.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Particularly in just the last couple of days. Earlier this week, the asteroid. The chance of the asteroid hitting Earth climbed again to a 1 in 32 chance of hitting Earth. And we all said our silent thank yous but so it went up to 3.1% chance of Earth impact. However, they have now done a new calculation and unfortunately these odds have plummeted to near zero. As astronomers calculations of the asteroids path have been updated to indicate the Earth is almost certain not going to be in the space rocks plans. It has gone down to 28% or a 1 in 360 shot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, so it is correct. Man, I had my hopes up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're calling it the City Killer. And I'm like which city? Where do I got to move?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Can we pick it?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. Seriously. Do we have a choice in the matter? Can we vote? Can we vote?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. So yeah, unfortunately our method of escape from this hellhole has diminished.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately this week we do have lots of news about the Department of Government evisceration.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Also a great one use website because it does nothing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously. But we can all change the content which is fantastic. Let's just go have our word with it. I think maybe. See Kara fucking Swisher took my doggy, my doggy style. So I can't do it. And I'm glad too because it really sounded dumb when she said it too. So I'm like okay, I think maybe the ess. I'm just going to call it Elon Schutzstaffel. I think that that actually sounds like it might be a little bit more on the nose.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That does sound good. You know it isn't Kara's delivery. It's the fact that she keeps repeating it and pauses because she thinks it's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So witty that's she's waiting for the last.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, she's like, aren't I clever? Every single time she says it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I, I knew when I said it that it was kind of a stretch, like maybe I let you run.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With it, you know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, I only did it for one episode, so, you know, I pulled it back last episode. I'm like, no, this ain't gonna fly. All right, let's get on to some news in the news now. This one just came in this morning and the headline almost takes care of the whole thing. I cannot describe how strange Elon Musk's CPAC appearance was. So here's a literal transcript instead subtitle. This is, I emphasize, not a parody. So here's to sum up the summary. So Elon made a very bizarre appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, or cpac.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, every time I see that, I just imagine them all on the breathing machines, which they probably all are on anyways. But that's the cpap. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, so he made an often incoherent but meme filled interview with Newsmax host Rob Schmidt. And he wore a MAGA hat and some gas station sunglasses he stole from the corpse of Keris Wisher. And he was greeted with cheers as he waved around a chainsaw gifted to him by Argentina's President Javier Milei, calling it the chainsaw for bureaucracy. And you know, of course, I just wish he'd cut his own head off with it. But that sadly didn't happen. He rambled through a mix of Internet memes, political grievances and conspiracy laced claims, at one point declaring I am become meme and accused the left of trying to outlaw comedy. And this one's really rich. On Ukraine, he denounced the war as a graft machine, arguing it's enriching elites while costing lives. Kind of like fully self driving Teslas or Doge. Yeah, yeah, I think I am become douche is more like his running slogan nowadays. But did you get to check any of it out?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I, I just can't anymore. It's bad, bad enough that he's just creeped into everything. He used to do that anyways and it was just business crap, so I didn't really care. But now that, you know, he thinks he's some politician or whatever and he's I, I can't, I can't, I, I, I physically tense when I see him. I didn't think it was possible to have somebody who lied more Than Trump, but I guess he just talks more than Trump. Like, you just can't get. He can't. He doesn't shut up. And it's all lies, all of it, like, and provable. And it doesn't matter. Like, he'll say something and just immediately. Well, we'll get to that because we.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Got plenty of demonstrations immediately.

[Brian Schulmeister]

People point out and put out the actual facts, and it just doesn't matter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, see, what we figured out is 47 at least has the wherewithal to go play golf for 27% of the time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we don't have to hear him all the time. So the golf is actually saving us, the American taxpayer, from having to deal with the bullshit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, so, yeah, well, unfortunately, he outsourced, so. Yeah, he did outsource to a fucking South African.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's outsourced to an immigrant. Wait. Way to go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wait, hold on a second. I thought we were supposed to not be doing that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, shouldn't he be on a plane by now?

[Brian Schulmeister]

More hypocrisy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, Tesla is running into some problems with people hacking off the cables of their superchargers. Now, they say that they're being stolen because people want to sell the copper, which can be worth up to $5.20 a pound.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think it's just that doesn't even pack of eggs.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously, you can't even buy some eggs for that. Eggs cost more than copper. So, you know, I just think it's a sign of civil disobedience. But Tesla's Max de Ziger confirmed on X that the company is testing the dye Defender wrap, which explodes with blue dye when cut, making the marking the thieves and the cables.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A mark of pride, I might say.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Additionally, cables will now be engraved with Property of Tesla to deter resale at recycling centers. I'm sorry if it says Property of Tesla. I am proudly hanging that on my wall. Thanks, man. Reports show these measures are already in place at some Seattle stations, but it's unclear if they'll expand further. Tesla says it's continuing to explore more security options. I just can't believe that you can just walk up to a supercharger and cut the cable off. Shouldn't you get zapped or something? Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't think it's a live cable until you're paid the money paying for it, of course.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they're not going to waste any juice on that. So here's an announcement. Tesla supercharging stations have cables that can be cut anytime. So do with that what you Will.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Do with that what you will. Yep, we're just providing information. We're just asking questions. We're that podcast now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we are. Protesters gathered outside Tesla showrooms across the US On Saturday demonstrating Elon's deepening influence in government. Organizers cited 37 protests nationwide under the hashtags Tesla Takedown and Tesla Takeover. As outrage grows over Douche's role in orchestrating mass federal layoffs through his Department of Government evisceration. I gotta say, I gotta learn to say that without staring.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, I have, I have. Okay, obviously I'm anti elon at this point and I'm all for public demonstration. It's the only thing we have left because, you know, what else are we going to do at this point? But I do have a problem. I don't think it should be directed at Tesla. I think it needs to be directed at Elon. Let's be honest. Elon has not done diddly squat at Tesla in a long time. He's. He's averaging over 100 tweets a day. He's speaking to a bunch of elderly right wing people that have breathing issues. He's all over the place. He's trying to muddle with Germany's election since he's already screwed with ours. He's supposedly running Doge. He's supposedly running Neuralink. He's supposedly running Star Starlink. I mean, he's not doing at Tesla. If Tesla had a brain at this point, the board would boot him out or make him some honorary dick riffic and just push him out of. But they don't. Whatever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You. Here's the thing. You protest Tesla to take the Tesla stock price down, to take away his.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He doesn't care munding.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't care. Here's the deal. I care. Makes me feel better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Makes me fucking feel better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's the thing though. It's like he does not give a shit about any of these companies right now. And yes, a lot of his money is on paper, but he's also somehow managed to hack himself into the direct government money pipeline. He's not going to be worried about money anytime soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See, I disagree with you about him not caring about these companies because if you look at everything that's being done right now with the people that he's targeting, he's going after people that come after his companies. I got another story in a, in a short order that just came out today about more, more company or more government agencies that he is deliberately targeting that get in the way of his companies.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I Have a story. I have a couple of those stories as well. But my question to you is, is this like Trump? Is it the money or is it about revenge? Is he just a thin skinned going.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's definitely a thin skinned. Definitely a thin skinned. All right. Well, during these protests, the, the flagship showroom in San Francisco, somebody in the building, it's coming from in the building, taped up a sign to the window that said, we hate him too. The problem is in the building.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, it is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Not all heroes. Not all heroes. Here's a fun one. Just to take a. Take a breath away for a second. The New York Times is officially integrating AI tools into its newsroom and product teams. Because why the fuck not? In an internal email, the paper introduced Echo Echo Echo, an AI powered summary tool, along with a suite of AI products for editorial and web development. Journalists can now use AI to suggest edits, brainstorm interview questions and conduct research. But they're barred from using it to draft or significantly revise articles or input confidential sources. Well, that's a good thing, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I suppose those are some good guardrails for it. I'm almost okay with that. If they actually do that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's interesting. They're using, they have approved AI programs including GitHub, Copilot for the coding, Google's Vertex AI for product development, and select Amazon and OpenAI tools who they are suing. Right now. They're suing OpenAI and Microsoft. And it kind of does make sense that they are allowed to use these internally since they were trained on their own data. They were trained on their own fucking data. Like, why not? Yeah, kind of makes sense. Kind of makes sense.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, the Doge axe is swinging wildly and freely basically shit canning people all over the government, including the hard working folks at the U.S. department of Agriculture who are quickly trying to rehire a number of federal employees who were laid off over the weekend because they're working on combating the bird flu, which is kind of important right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But Brian, I don't know if you saw the interview with the guy from the government. He says chickens can't fly, so why do we care? They. They really should have had Herb Tarik give that. God as my witness. I thought turkeys could fly. Oh no, that was, that was the, the main guy from this, from the station. It wasn't Herb Tar. Like. Oh yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But anyway, anyways, yeah, I see that clip every Thanksgiving. It's, it's an oldie but a goodie.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have a T shirt that's Great.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So the employees were working on combating bird flu and were let go as part of a mass purge underway at every federal agency spearheaded by American Oakley Arch Elon Musk, under the banner of doge. The statement explained that many of the positions were in the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, exactly the kind of jobs you'd want to have good people for, given the possibility of meat and poultry infected with bird flu entering the US Food supply. So they were not Several positions supporting that were notified of their terminations over the weekend. And we are working to swiftly rectify the situation and rescind those letters. He's just running around and firing people that nobody wants fired. And this is not the first time workers at federal agencies have been let go by Trump's goons, only to be rehired in a chaotic scramble. This one, I'd argue, slightly more important. Roughly 300 employees of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, a sub agency of the Department of Energy, were fired last week until somebody notified the Trump regime that these are the people responsible for securing the nation's nukes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So then they went back to try to hire them back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So there are a number of lawsuits that are trying to stop this dismantling of the government, and they're currently being litigated. But there have been some bad signs recently that the courts may not save us. For starters, several reports indicate that Trump's underlings simply aren't following court orders, which, by the way, is the nightmare scenario. Yeah, if they just decide to ignore on any court order, we are screwed. So. And also, judges are also not always finding in favor of people who are attempting to defend the country's institutions right now. And the purging of federal employees carried out by Doge just somehow manages to keep cutting staffers involved in anybody that was investigating Elon Musk's companies. As you pointed out. According to a report from Reuters, several employees at the U.S. food and Drug Administration were tasked with managing reviews and applications related to Neuralink somehow managed to get fired over the weekend. This is not the first time, basically anybody that's involved in looking into any of Elon's business is getting fired. So that's who's getting targeted most by the wonderful people that are trying to save us money. Theoretically.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This episode of Grumpy Old Geeks is brought to you by Delete Me. Have you ever stopped to think about how much of your personal information is floating around online? Your name, address, phone number, even your family details. It's all out there, thanks to data brokers making a profit from your private info. This can lead to phishing attempts, harassment, or identity theft. For someone like me who shares their thoughts online, privacy and security aren't just concerns, they're necessities. As a professional nerd, I know how much work it takes to manually go after all these scumbags. And that's why we here at Grumpy old geeks choose DeleteMe. DeleteMe is a subscription service designed to protect your privacy by removing your personal information from hundreds of data broker websites. Here's how it works. You provide Deleteme with the information you want removed and their experts take care of the rest. They don't just stop there. They send you personalized privacy reports detailing what info they found, where they found it, and what they've removed. It's not a one time fix either. DeleteMe keeps working, constantly monitoring and removing your data so you can focus on living your life instead of worrying about your online footprint. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Take 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com GoG and use promo code GoG at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com gog and enter code GoG at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com, code GoG Weight Loss it needs to be fast and sustainable.

[Brian Schulmeister]

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[Jason DeFilippo]

Take it from Lauren, who lost 22 pounds on Noom.

[Brian Schulmeister]

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It'S not going to automatically make my weight.

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[Brian Schulmeister]

For safety, efficacy or quality. Welch's can't make everything make sense. Like why your mom still listens to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The radio or what she meant when she sent that emoji.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But a zero sugar drink that's still.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Full of fruit flavor?

[Brian Schulmeister]

We made that make sense in strawberry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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

[Brian Schulmeister]

New Welch's Zero sugar lets fruit stuff up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And moving on with that. That Thread. This one just came in. A key government team overseeing autonomous vehicle safety is being slashed nearly in half by the ess, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or the nhtsa, who we talk about a lot on this show because they're always.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're keeping us safe from these self driving cars that people just want to unleash on the roads.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. And the exploding cybertrucks, well, they're losing 70 to 80 employees as part of a broader 10% workforce reduction across the agency. Among the cuts, engineers, safety grant specialists and experts on issues like crash testing and impaired driving. Notably, the impaired driving is for Congress, so they can still drive drunk and not get tickets in.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the special Kennedy arm.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it really is. The Chappaquiddick branch has been. Look it up, kids.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Here we go. Making fun of both sides.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Notably, three out of seven members of the NHTSA's new autonomous vehicle Oversight Office were let go, raising concerns about reduced scrutiny of Tesla's driverless technology. One former engineer warned that federal expertise on these systems is now almost non existent.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love this. Critics argue these reductions will weaken oversight of self driving tech from Tesla, Waymo and others. And I reply, that's the fucking point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. It's a feature, not a bug.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is a feature, not a bug.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Speaking of that, Elon Musk has now decided that Community Notes on X is a bug, not a feature, mostly because he's getting fact checked himself.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So Elon Musk now has a problem with Community Notes, the crowdsourced fact checking feature that started as Bird Watch and launched at scale after he purchased Twitter. So under his own command, this is what he rolled out for basically fact checking and all that sort of stuff. But he says unfortunately Community Notes is increasingly being gamed by governments and legacy media. Posted working to fix this based on the rant his tweet descended to into afterwards. His issue appears to be with how ex's Community Notes contributors have been treating misinformation about President Zelensky and the war in Ukraine. Musk Post quotes a post from an X account that claims polls showing zelensky has a 57% approval rating in Ukraine are not credible because it's probably higher because it was true. Information like that being challenged on X doesn't jive with President Trump's description of Zelensky as a dictator or Musk's desire to use the platform as an unofficial arm of the current administration. So we have no idea what fixing Community Notes looks like, but it probably will be game just the same. Way all of X's algorithm has been so, you know, Musk gets to do what he wants and nobody actually questions him anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm sure Grok AI will play into this some somewhere along the way.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, he's got issues with Grok AI too, because Grok was not exactly returning favorable comments about Elon when queried either.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It never has. It never has.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because it can't. Because if you feed in what Musk actually is, it will return. Dickhead.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, reported a $400.9 million lost last year as revenue fell 12. The company says the losses stem from stock based compensation and accounting adjustments. A revenue sharing change with an undisclosed ad partner also impacted earnings trading under the ticker djt. Trump Media recently launched a streaming service and applied for investment fund trademarks. CEO Devin Nunez says the company aims to support US energy and manufacturing while offering an alternative to WOKE investment funds. Woke investment funds? Aren't you supposed to be a fucking social network?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Where's the pivot? I missed the pivot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I love that. The losses are basically just the people pulling money out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The money grab.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, money grab. To quote the great Johnny Rotten, you ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My God, it's just so brazen.

[Jason DeFilippo]

If we had revenue of $3.6 million, you and I, Brian, could make a social network so much better than Truth Social. It'd be ridiculous. It's not insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's insane. It's not hard to build the actual thing. It's hard to scale it and get the people to go to it, which they haven't done because they don't need to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's amazing. They made $3.6 million, to be honest.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, so 47's administration is reportedly pressuring Romanian authorities to lift travel restrictions on controversial influencer Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan. Because, of course. I mean.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I thought we were all about Pizzagate and human trafficking, spearheaded by the Democrats. We're against trafficking. Oh, it's okay when Andrew Tate does it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's okay when our people do it. When our influencers do it. It's okay when our influencers do it. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Makes sense. Makes sense now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Yep. So they're dual citizens for the US and the uk and they do face charges in Romania. There's a million documentaries about these little douchebags out there. If you want to go spin the Netflix wh. Go find one or two or 20 of them. Yeah, yeah. So they're charged with human trafficking, sexual misconduct and money laundering. If you've seen these guys or seen any of the documentaries, it's like, yeah, that tracks. That totally tracks. So they do not have house arrest anymore. So they can freely move about the country. They just can't leave the country. So that's why we're getting involved with this. Romanian Foreign Minister Emil Herzanu Snowden stated that while US expressed interest in the case, no undue pressure was applied, emphasizing Romania's independent judiciary. Sure, buddy, sure.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, at some point in the future, they're all going to just be sitting in Russia along with Trump and Snowden.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They better, he better hurry up and pardon Snowden because, you know, I mean, he's already got the Dread Pirate Roberts and everybody else. Yeah, he needs to, he needs to pardon Snowden. He needs to pardon Sam Bankman Fried and then these guys. I mean, this is like, like, this is like, you know, the Bro A team right here. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're going to have a horrible theme song though.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They will have a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Who's going to write it? Ted Nugent?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think so. I think so. Nextdoor founder Nirav Tolia is back as CEO aiming to revive the struggling neighborhood based social network.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are they pivoting to be non woke and you can now use the N word? Is that the deal?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, probably. Let's see here. The platform once thriving on local engagement has seen you the growth stall amid misinformation, toxicity and declining ad revenue. Now Toly is betting on AI to turn things around. Since his return, weekly active users have grown 13% to nearly 46 million. And Nextdoor is focused on improving content quality and engagement. I love it. The company is using AI to moderate discussions, personalize content and enhance community interactions while keeping its proprietary data in house. And the new AI is just going to be called Brown or not, because that's all Nextdoor ever was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was nobody, I think we really decided that nobody wants a hyper local social network. Like, I don't want to know my neighbors that well. I don't want to talk to my neighbors that well. The only. It was just full of Karens. They should have just called it Karen.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was full of Karens. Karen's in peckerwoods. That's all it was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, let's talk more about good old free speech social networks. You know, X which claimed to be the big free speech one. But Elon of course, can't help himself and he's taking aim at federal workers and organizations throughout the government, throughout Doge again. He's now blocking links to signal, a URL used by encrypted messaging service that allows people to quickly contact others directly. The blog Disruptionist reports federal workers have used signal to covertly report relevant and dangerous activities. Anybody who attempts to post a Signal Me link in a DM public post or their profile profile page will receive error messages such as this request. Looks like it might be automated to protect our users from spam and other malicious activity. We can't complete this action right now. Please try again later.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Damn. Damn.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And anybody trying to click existing Signal Me links gets a message stating warning, this link may be unsafe. The link you are trying to access has been identified by X or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe in accordance with X's URL policy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, I. I like that they put in partners. Yeah, they're trying to hang it on quote, unquote, our partners, which we know X has no partners. So. Because Elon stopped paying everybody when he took over, I do have to say I do like the title Disruptionist for the the blog. That's a good name.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's a good one, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Good branding.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ah. Remember when open AI got all upset about Deep Seek stealing their ip when open AI is based on stolen IP and it seemed like the height of hypocrisy. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason sure do. Well, like it was like it was yesterday, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Uber said. Hold my beer.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Uber is suing DoorDash, accusing the biggest food delivery provider in the US of putting pressure on restaurants to exclusively use its services.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Shocker.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hence Uber's business model.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

According to the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times, Uber filed lawsuit in California on February 14th. Happy Valentine's Day. Uber said it filed a lawsuit after hearing from restaurants across the country that were left with no choice but to cave to DoorDash' demands or pay the price. Just like Uber.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just like Uber, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

DoorDash allegedly threatened to charge higher commission rates for handling orders made through its marketplace if the restaurant is also on Uber Eats. In its complaint, Uber said that in one instance, the company threatened to raise a restaurant's commission rate by 30% per order placed. The lawsuit stated another instance where DoorDash allegedly told a restaurant that it would cost them millions of dollars in additional fees if it also teamed up with uber. In addition, DoorDash allegedly threatened to demote restaurants also available on Uber within its app. App. Just like Uber.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just like Uber.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Uber is now asking the court to compel DoorDash to change its business practices.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The power of Uber compels you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. The power of uber to be 15 minutes late and then have a car cancel on you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And missing half my fries.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh man. So I, I, I gotta say Uber and Doordash, they both suck, obviously, but when, and my beloved Paquito Moss was on Doordash and they were just, they had to move. They did move to Uber Eats, I'm sure through some strong arm or something wherever there. My, my, my bill went up when they moved to Uber Eats, not down. So that kind of throws a monkey wrench in their, their argument there. And finally Paquito Masja said, screw both of you guys. We're just going to go with that third party ordering platform, which has been phenomenal. I pay less, I get my stuff still fast as can be and it's still delicious. So I hope more restaurants move to that model and say fuck both of these guys.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I hope those guys get some planes because that's the only way I'm getting Faquito Mas.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah, well, just come to visit, Brian. Come to visit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I will. I'll be there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

America welcomes you back with open arms and you might get a free. You might get deported for free so you could get your return flight. You just might end up in Guantanamo instead of Toronto. It ends with an O. What's the difference? Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Unless it's war armor.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Meta is launching the Waterworth project, a 50,000 kilometer undersea cable to boost global Internet connectivity across five continents. With landing points in India, the US, Brazil and South Africa. The multi billion dollar project aims to support AI driven innovation and strengthen Meta's control over everything.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pretty much, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is interesting because, I mean we talked a lot about when Meta first, back when they were Facebook. We're moving into the Metaverse and somebody did the math on how much bandwidth it was going to take to actually run a Metaverse and it was just completely unsustainable. So I think this project probably started back then and now they're like, oh, but we're AI now we're AI. So who knows? Maybe they'll keep it, maybe they'll cam it. I just don't know if I want Meta owning the cables.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't. Yeah, but somebody's got to, I suppose.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think Google owns half the other cables already, so it's all whatever. But Meta has announced llamacon and I still keep reading this as laughing my ass off Khan because it is their first generative AI dev conference.

[Brian Schulmeister]

How exciting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Coming April 29th, all attendees get an extra Finger.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or legs.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Or legs. Yeah, you get legs this time. Or. And if that one's not up your speed, you can go to Meta Connect, which is in. Do do. That was in 2024. The new ones. The new one's coming in September this year. If you want to go to a meta conference. I can't think of anything less appealing than going to a meta conference, except maybe going to an Android conference.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can think of one thing less appealing. Not physically going and going to the Meta conference in the Metaverse.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Metaverse. Yeah. Why does my neck hurt? God. Have you seen the new Metaverse ad, though, that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I thought it was from the Onion. Legit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Legit from the Onion. Yeah, it's pretty bad.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's fucking horrible.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. This is an ad for Horizon World. It's 44 seconds. It has been pulled by Meta, but thank the Lord that you can go to, you know, that Bastion of Free Speech act and still watch it. Yeah, it's just. I can't describe it. It's one of those things you just have to go experience for yourself. It is so horrifically terrible. And, you know, they had to have meetings and this was launched. This wasn't like, you know, a back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This was signed off on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This was signed off on by multiple AIs, I mean, people and made it out the door. So, yeah, all that money that they've spent and they can't get 45 seconds worth of ad going. It's insane.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's so. It's so bad. And, you know, it's. It's stuff we've been saying a long time. And I know that occasionally we do have people that are actually, you know, pretty high up in the tech world that listen to our podcast. And I'm theorizing right now that Microsoft Satya Nadala is one of them, because he just did a speech, we're talking about AI, and he basically clicked off every single point that we've been making on the show since we started talking about AI.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey, Satya, can I get a free key to Windows 11 without any ads, please?

[Brian Schulmeister]

That'd be nice. Can you take the ads out of the start bar? That's just insane. It's insane.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Anyways, he gave a barn burner. The world has yet to turn any of today's AI hype and spending into a meaningful lift in the actual economy, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nandala.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Can I get an amen?

[Brian Schulmeister]

These comments were made during a podcast interview in which he put a measuring stick on AI's true impact. Impact bupkis. Success will be measured through global economic growth rather than arbitrary benchmarks of how well AI programs can complete challenges like obscure math puzzles. Those are interesting in isolation but have no practical utility. He said. Essentially that artificial general intelligence, the so called AGI that could replace humans in most tasks, will not happen and either way is an unnecessary distraction when the industry needs to get practical and just try and make money money before investors get impatient. Yep, it can't just be supply side, meaning the hundreds of billions being invested into AI companies today does not count as real GDP growth because eventually there needs to be actual demand on the other side for the products being built or else these companies will crash and burn. And as we keep pointing out, us as consumers do not want the AI they keep cramming into every product product. I don't want it in my Apple phone, I don't want it on Facebook the few times I'm actually on there. I don't want AI in everything. And that's all you people are doing, trying to get us to use this. That isn't usable. The early reception of Microsoft's copilot and AI agent for enterprises has not been good, with companies and even insiders at Microsoft complaining it is lackluster, not worth the cost. Microsoft and Google have begun incorporating AI chatbots into their standard enterprise subscription rather than trying to charge extra, essentially forcing them on users following low adoption, meaning nobody wants to pay for it, nobody wants. So now they're shoving it down our throats for free to try to get us to use it. And so they can say look, we have 200 billion users. Klarna, the buy now, pay later company garnered a lot of attention after its CEO said last year would replace most of its customer support representatives with AI chatbots. The CEO recently walked that claim back back as reports found that Klarta had essentially just replaced the basic phone tree system with AI, which is not revolutionary and likely resulted in many customers quitting chats out of frustration. Many banks tried replacing their L1 customer support with bots in the past to bad results as that as well. So in that sense, Nadella is trying to slap tech executives awake and tell them to cut out the hype. Good luck. There's way too much money involved.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, the dick measuring contests have been going on because with Gro coming out, the Grok V3 coming out this week, and OpenAI going back and forth on the benchmarks, this is one of those things where everybody is coming saying oh, our model is better than this, our model is better than that and they just keep changing the, what's the old Microsoft joke? How does a Microsoft engineer change the light bulb, change the standard of dark?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, again, to Nadella's point, that's kind of what he's saying. It's like you keep hitting all these benchmarks, but we don't have a usable, viable case for this yet. We have nothing to use this on. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I found that I've been using the LLM Studio, you know, the one that you can install on your computer if you've got, if you've, if you've got any of the M1 or M series Macs, you can install LLM Studio and download most of the, you know, decent sized, you know, like 5 to 7 billion token models and it works just fine for most things that you would end up paying for. So I'm like, okay, yeah, where is this? Why do we need all these data centers now? We've done all the training. Okay, yeah, yeah. Specialized models is where, you know, if this is going to be anywhere, it's going to be in specialized models for specialized uses that don't fucking hallucinate once they get that, that sorted out. But trying to do AGI guy, he, he, he nailed it. It's not going to happen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's just not going to happen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. And if you are somebody out there that is invested in any of these AI companies, Bank of America issued a report in late 2024 warning that AI remains in its early stages and is following the trajectory of the Internet in the 1990s, going back to our little gifs at the top of the show, implying that there will be a correction similar to what occurred in the dot com boom. So he also, Nadella echoed similar concerns of a washout coming.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, except when we were done with the Internet boom of the, the 90s, we ended up with fiber optics everywhere.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We had massive infrastructure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. So we're going to have a bunch of like, you know, dead data centers with rotting Nvidia GPUs in them. So I, I, by the way, if you invest in G, in Nvidia, I would dump that fast because everybody's coming out with their own chips in the next like 6 to 12 months.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. I'm still riding the video a little bit longer, but it's going away soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I was going to say you might want to just keep an eye on the horizon because that horse is going to bolt pretty soon. Yeah, yeah. Well, one more AI story and coming soon to a dystopia near you. Robotics company figure has unveiled Helix, a breakthrough vision language action model that lets humanoid robots understand language, see their surroundings, and perform complex tasks, all with a single neural network.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Let's see a non edited demo video of that, please.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, perform complex tasks. In this case is a guy putting some whole foods groceries down on the counter and saying, put these away for me, robot. And the robot's putting them away very slowly, which is probably sped up 100 times, even though they don't mention that they're very slow and very creepy. And there are parts in the video where the. Where they hand things to each other and then they look at each other knowingly and it's like. It's like, what are they doing there with that? And I love this, too. There's a tab on the website labeled Master plan that's just fucking ominous because it's hanging over you while you watch these two little soulless automatons put away the nourishment for me and you, Brian, that the meat bags that we are will someday be overthrown by. I do not approve of this at all. At all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, no, thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no, no, you got to watch the video. It's. It's. Yeah, I don't. I do not approve. I do not approve. And finally, though, for some good news, a new Washington Post Ipsos poll shows Americans are increasingly furious with Elon Musk's role in the White House, with 49% disapproving of his job slashing government programs and firing federal employees. And the degree of animosity shouldn't be understated either, with 41% strongly disapproving, while only 8% somewhat disapproved. So, yeah, people are. People are finally waking up. It's about time they listen to our show. They mean. So tell all your friends to listen to the show because we could use some more grumpy army out there. Come on, please tell everybody. Rakuten is the smartest way to save money when you shop, because you earn cash back at over 3,500 stores. Fashion, beauty, electronics, home essentials, travel, dining, concert tickets, and more. Your favorite stores like Lowe's, Levi's, and Nike, pay Rakuten to send them shoppers. And Rakuten then passes on a part of that payment to its members as cash back. You're already shopping at your favorite stores. Why not save while you're doing? It's a no brainer. Membership is free and easy to sign up. Get the Rakuten app now and join the 17 million members who are already saving cashback rates. Change daily. See rakuten.com for details. That's R A K U T E N. Your cash back really adds up. Media candy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, speaking of dystopian robots, I watched the Wild Robot with the Kiddo this weekend. Very good movie.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Go Good. I. Yeah, I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was. It was wonderful. It really was. Of course, the dystopia is there. This robot breaks its programming and becomes nice and good does not come from a good place. The rest of the robots, not good. Not nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Very dystopian. But, yeah, no, this is a. It's phenomenal. It's a really nice, fun movie. And then I watched the Gorge.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No spoilers, just. Is it good? Ah, damn it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It starts so well. It is a great concept. And. And it really, you know, it's. It's a. You're. It's like Lost. You're trying to figure out the mystery, and then once you know what the mystery is and becomes just an action movie, it's a lot less interesting. Interesting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Bummer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I would say the first hour was great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's kind of where I'm. I'm like at the first half hour and I'm like, this is really good, but I have to get some sleep because I have to go about Elon Musk tomorrow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, I mean, you know, as far as an action movie goes, it was pretty good. So just think of it as a movie in two parts. Both are. Both are good in their own ways, but as a full hole. I don't know. Know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean, I could just have a whole movie looking at her, so that's okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, she looks great in this movie, too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, she did. She really.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The dark hair is a. Is a good thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's a feature, not a bug.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And speaking about things that are only good partially through, I watched the SNL 50 anniversary special. And, yeah, you know, it's just like SNL. There's about five laughs in three hours.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, see, that was what I was worried about. They. They ran it on the news the next day here. Like, some of the quote unquote highlights. And it was all music stuff. And I'm like, I don't care about the music side. I want to see the skit side.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I broke those into two different specials there. Oh, yeah. There was one music performance, I think, or two, but it was like three hours long. It was mostly sketches. My problem with it is they really kind of just focused on the last 20 years for the most part. Like, they had Some people from the early days and you know, the heyday, which I think for you and I was probably about the same. It was like that 90s, it's, you know, with Dennis, Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy, Dennis Miller, behind the news desk, Jan Hooks, you know, all those people not in there at all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I'm glad I deleted it then. I did, I did see the, the In Memoriam for the questionable sketches, which was pretty funny. I mean, that alone, I'm like, that was good. I, I said that was four minutes long and that was perfect. I'm like, okay, we're good, we're good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And speaking of us, SNL alum, I'm actually looking forward to this. There will be a documentary on the late comedian Norm MacDonald Ronald. It's in the works at Netflix from filmmaker Judd Apatow, who also did the Gary Shandling and George Carlin documentaries, both of which were great. And I love Norm, so. Looking forward to that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Norm was, Norm was an acquired taste. I really, I really liked him more. The more I watched him, the more I liked him. If I watch him just a little, I'm like, what the up with this guy? But then as you get into it, you see the genius that he was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, yeah, he was, he was often on the Adam Carolla podcast back when Adam Carolla was taller and he was a shining star on it every single time. Just hilarious, so. And in a move that will quite literally shake and stir the future of the James Bond franchise, Amazon, MGM Studios has announced a new joint venture with Bond producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli. And basically in doing so, Amazon, MGM will now gain creative control of the franchise following the closing of the transaction. So it's Bezos, Jeff Bezos from here on out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Does anybody care about Bond anymore?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's the thing. And that my wife and I were talking about that and the Broccoli's and her half brother Wilson got got I think a billion dollars for this. And I'm just like, the Bond franchise is so of a different era. It just doesn't play well anymore. And I'm not sure what you're getting. And I, I know the Broccoli's pushed against it a long time from Amazon because they were just like, we don't want a Marvel style expansion the franchise. We don't want TV show spin offs, we don't want multiple film projects. Which is exactly what Amazon's going to try to do to get back the investment. But I'm just wondering why, I don't know if the demand is there or the interest. And you would have to completely rebuild a Bond franchise from the ground up because the old one just the stuff played out. It just feels played out to me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's totally played out. I mean, you can only have that same story over and over. I guess. Batman, they still make those. They still make Spider man, they still make Superman.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. What the hell are we talking about? We're totally wrong, I guess.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. There's going to be series. How many Star wars movies can we watch? Oh, shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, I think I would be in if they went back to the original film roots. I would like some comedy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, some comedy, some misogyny, some gadgets.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Old school. Just go watch that SNL In Memoriam skit and get your plot out of that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean, that did actually have, you know, the Sean Connery in there too. So we could go back with that. I mean, I could be. If they did a good miniseries set up, that would be fine. With the history and all that stuff, you know, the, the, the prequel, as it were. That could be good. But I'm like, I'll just ra. I'd just rather go watch Slow Horses right now. That is when it comes to British spy stuff.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I am way more intrigued with that show than I would be about seeing another Bond.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It just feels like a no win situation with Bond because if you just bring back what it was, you're going to be accused of being boring. If you change it too much, you're going to be accused of changing it too much. If you go normal, you're going to be called woke. If you go red wing, red pill, you're going to be called, you know, racist. You're, you're. No matter what you do, people are going to be pissed off and you're never going to get 100% of people on board with you, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but then again, we thought they overspent on Lord of the Rings and that series kind of came out okay, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, the series is great, but they still overspent on it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah, they definitely overspent on it. The White Lotus Season 3 First episode dropped this week. I thought it was delightful.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Personally have not watched it yet because we had an incredibly long weekend with the kid and just didn't get any personal time. But my wife and I plan on watching it this week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm kind of jealous you get to watch two in a row now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I did watch a. Well, I watched the first three parts of a documentary called Scamander, which is a documentary about one of these fucking women who claim they have cancer and take everybody's money. The funny thing is this is like a trend right now. There's that, there's Scamanda. There's another one on Netflix. I think it's called Apple Cider Vinegar. But the woman's name is Belle Gibson and she's Australian. So every time I hear her name, I'm thinking Mel Gibson, my roommate. The same way we're like, can't get Mel Gibson out of my head. So she's another cancer scammer, apparently. Cancer scams. I think Billy Bush has another podcast out right now about another cancer scammer. So there's a thing about chicks who get cancer that you can't trust anymore. So. But it's decent. Out of all three of them. This is. It's a really good one. It was on. We're watching it on Hulu. I think the last one aired last night and comes out on Hulu today. So by the time you hear this, it should be all out, all four parts. We watched Sly Lives, AKA the Burden of Black Genius about Sly and the Family Stone on Hulu. Phenomenal. Highly recommend.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Awesome. I do want to watch that. I got to figure out how to get Hulu.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. This is a Questlove joint. I know that's mixing. Mixing metaphors there, but Questlove did a great job on his last movie, so I was very excited to see this one and this one. This one delivers. This one really delivers. And we didn't even realize till we. Till we started. Sly's still alive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He was dead. Yeah. He lives down in Texas. He's still going one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. But this evening, I'll be watching Reacher Season three. Yeah. First couple of those dropped. I like Reacher. It's just fun. It is mindless, meatbag fun. It's like, you know, if you just could. If they. If Rambo had a series, it'd be like that. It's good. Like the first blood, not the where he goes back in Vietnam with the guns and everything. This is just. Just go watch Reacher. It's fun. And we do get Daredevil born again Mar.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Mar.

[Jason DeFilippo]

4. And they are exploring, bringing back some of the other defenders. Yeah, let's leave. Yeah. I just care about Jessica Jones, and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'd like Luke Cage back and Jessica Jones. We do not need the Iron Fist, thank you very much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We do not need the iron Fist. Luke Cage. I think Luke Cage got. Got. Got this short straw. He. That was going to turn into a great series. That guy was good. The series was good. They just didn't put enough into it, you know?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Agreed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And the other one I really liked. It's not listed here, is Punisher. Punisher was fantastic. That was really good, too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think he's in. I think he's part of. He was originally going to be there no matter what. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And last of us, season two, we got a drop date April 13th for seven episodes. So that'll be good. So this is where the Mandalorian scuttled off to. So I didn't show up in the other season, just his voice. I'm a huge fan of the Last of Us. I'm actually going to go back and watch the whole of season one again because I think it was worth watching.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. And we have a drop date for Apple's Murderbot series. May 16th, my birthday. We also have the first few images of Alexander Skarsgrd in the suit, both with the helmet on and helmet off. So we'll see. Don't foundation it, Silo it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I accept. One of the executive producers comes for foundation. So we'll see.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know I'm a bit worried. I'm not gonna lie. You know, I think I said when they first announced it, I always assumed Murderbot was a woman.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Me too. Yep, me too. So, yeah, that's what really threw me. I'm like, yeah, without the helmet. I'm like, not a chick. So, in a surprising turn of events, Apple TV plus says that Severance has become its most popular show ever, overtaking Ted Lasso.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Do they include being forced to watch commercials and endless promos and trailers for it? Because in that case, I've seen it too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Seriously. Seriously. No. Thank God for the skip intro button, because every. Every show you watch on Apple TV plus has a promo for that. I'm still not going to watch season two. Sorry.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, don't care.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Nobody on our Discord has jumped to the rescue and said, hey, you guys really got to watch it. It really stuck the landing. Come on, it's a great show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A couple people said they like the show and they think it's good, but nobody's. Nobody's like, fanboy over it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nobody.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Started listening to a new podcast, why Do we do that? It's from BBC Radio 4. It stars Ella Al Shamahi, who I discovered from no Such Thing as a Fish. She was a guest a couple times, and I've followed her since then because I think she's quite clever. Quite funny. And this, this is a good little series. It's been enjoyable. So it's an anthropologist guide to the modern world investigating the origins of everyday human habits and behavior. Behavior.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sounds. Sounds fun. I was just gonna say that sounds fun. Okay, I'll have to check that out because I need some non dystopian news nowadays.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's kind of upbeat and nice, which is also very good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Shocker. And this last one, this is what the theater should have been doing all along. Before MoviePass came along. I was talking to my friend Dan the other day. He's an actor, so. Which means he has a lot of time on his hands to go watch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Movies during the week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He had signed up for the AMC Stubbs A list which is a kind of a subscription plan. It's 24.99amonth and you get three movies a week. And up to three movies a week. But that includes like the big ones like IMAX and things like that. So. Which can cost you like $27 a ticket if you're gonna go see some of the, you know, the tentpole movies. So pays for itself after one movie. And he's a movie file. So I went and I looked it up and so up to three movies every week. It says free ticket reservations online, free size upgrades on popcorn and fountain drinks. I take umbrage with the fact that it says free because you're just right at the top. You're paying $24.99 a month. It's not free. It cost 24 fucking 99amonth. You get large popcorn and fountain drink. Birthday gifts. No upcharge for premium formats like the imax like I mentioned. And you do get rewards points too for the things you buy. And you get $5 of rewards points earned right away. Priority lane access. So you don't have to stand in line. Even though are there lines at movies anymore. I thought that was the problem the movie theaters, that there were no lines everymore and your points never expire. So it looks like a good. If you go to AMC a lot or have one in your neighborhood. This sounds like a really decent package. He was raving about it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, it makes sense. This is what it. You're exactly right. This is what MoviePass should have done and didn't. And we'll see if make any money off of it or not or if it works out for them. If I were a teenager, I'd be all over this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, no, definitely. Or in my 20s or in my 30s.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you kept on going to the cinema like that. I did not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I didn't breed or get a wife or anything like that. Or really even have a steady job. Yeah, I was set. This was right in my wheelhouse cups and doodads. I saw this next device come across the feed and I'm like, I like this thing. It's called the Ink Console. It's basically an E ink reader with some buttons on it and some speakers and you play interactive games on it. Kind of like, you know, the one we talked about last time like Zork and Hitchhiker's Guide and things like that. It's got rudimentary graphics. It is totally a throwback, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There are 15 people out in this world that this is made for.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. And I'm one of them. I'm one of them. Yeah. Play while you read. Interactive inventory and health options, SD card and digital formats. E Ink paper, open source. Create your own game books, blah, blah blah. It's still kind of in development, but I want one, which I will never. I'll never use it. That's the thing. I want one, but I will never ever use it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Anyway, it's cool.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's being crow sourced, of course. Yeah, yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But this guy's got. Got some history of putting some decent stuff out. So it's not. He's not just a flash in the pan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, I, I think it's cool. Don't get me wrong. I just don't think that they're going to sell very many of them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't think so either. This isn't going to be a mass market hit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Absolutely not. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. But for, you know, weirdos like me, I think it might be something cool. And I found. I was actually setting up a new website this week. Week over at Node Host, our preferred, preferred website hosting company. Link in the show notes, go check out Node Host. And I found that you could do a one click install of of course WordPress and blah blah. But there was another one that I saw that was a flat file CMS called Bludit. I think that's. I don't know. B L U D I T Blood it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, blood it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Blud it. I think blue sounds better. So I go, blud it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You get a nice bounce with your boot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know you got to get the blue. Blue. Blued it. It's just fun to say. It's like saying loosh.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I just. You just ASMR'd me for the first time ever. Like I hate that and. But I could listen to you say that all day. Oh, goddamn.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I installed this thing and it was delightful. I set up a little website in like just a few seconds. Copy and pasted some stuff in there. I think I'm going to move my blog over there and start writing again because I was looking for a blog engine that wasn't WordPress and something simple that I could just have up there and post some photos and some writings up there. And this is perfect. So it's just like a little tiny set of PHP scripts and you can get Blue Pro if you give them like two bucks a month.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm finally gonna actually listen to our own podcast. I'm just gonna find that little segment.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That'S gonna be my ringtone every time I text you. Blue. Oh God.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If I wasn't lazy, I would actually do that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we got this message from Steve, who is a stroke survivor. He left a voicemail but it got cut off. But the gist was that this brain training app is better than the rest because we saw that we were about luminosity before. And he rec. He highly recommends Brain HQ. Have you ever tried Brain HQ, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. I mean, if you go back 10 years and listen to my journey through luminosity, I will never use one of these ever again because there's no science behind it or anything. It's fun, but you get too gamified and sucked into it and it should, I mean, I suppose there are use cases for it, obviously, you know, stroke survivors and things of that nature. But for normal people, read a book, do a crossword puzzle. Jesus Christ. Use your brain.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, this one, this one is actually a little different. It does have. It is more science backed and it has different, different. It's. It's kind of like going to the doctor almost, because some of the. I played one game that was more about peripheral vision, timing and things like that. It reminded me a lot of the stuff that they were doing for me at the doctor. So the problem is it's like 100 bucks a year and I don't have 100 bucks to sign up for it, but you can do one game a day for free. I used Impulse, the brain training app. Brain training in quotes, scare quotes, for that for basically three years and I beat it. And yeah, I've run through that entire thing. Here we go. The BrainHQ brain training program represents the culmination of 30 years of research in brain science and neuroplasticity. It was designed by an international team of neuroscientists led by Michael Meresnik. World famous for his discovery of adult brain plasticity, a breakthrough that showed that anyone can strengthen and enhance their brain. So it's got an actual quote unquote team behind it, but I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So did luminosity.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Your mileage may vary.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. If you have fun with it, then it's not going to hurt.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it's definitely not going to hurt. So give it a shot if you want to. I'm going to keep going with with it. I just have to add it to my things do every day list because otherwise I'll forget. Right. Because I need brain training, ironically. But yeah. So thanks for sending that one in, Steve. I. I like it. I actually, like I said though, the one that I tried was. Was pretty good. Pretty good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Cool. Well, if you bought one of Humane's AI pins, guess what? You've been given 10. You can count them on your fingers or your toes. Unless you used AI, in which case you get too many days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You get 12 days. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

10 days. Notice that your pins will be discontinued now. Nobody saw that coming. In a note to its customers, the company said AI pins will continue to function normally until 12pm on February 28. On that date, users will lose access to essentially all of their devices, features including, but not limited to calling messaging, AI queries and cloud access. The fact does note that you'll still be able to check on the battery life of your useless. Brick.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say the battery life of your new paperweight.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Humane is encouraging its users to download any stored data like anybody has any, as it plans on permanently deleting all remaining customer data at the same time as switching its servers off. Do you really.

[Jason DeFilippo]

How much did this thing cost? Like 700 bucks.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was something ridiculous. Plus subscription description. The company said it will refund customers who are still within the 90 day return window. Like anybody's bought one of these in the last 90 days, so long as they submit by February 27th. It also notes that users who opted to wait for a replacement for the device's combo fire hazard and charge case will now be refunded the portion of their original purchase price that was allocated to the charge case. Because we forgot about that. The things were blowing up. Today's discontinuation announcement was brought about by the acquisition of Humane by HP, which is buying the company's IP for $116 million, but clearly has no interest in its hardware business. So they're basically ripping the company apart and taking a few of the engineers that worked over there and calling to make A bitter, better printer that doesn't explode.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, It's a charging case. Fire sale.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So goodbye humane AI. You were a fun punching bag. That's over.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Sadly, this comes from the what the fuck? Amazon news. So I talked about my creatine on the show and how it's been helping me more than the brain training apps have. So I went and I re upped this week and I got an email from Amazon that says item hidden for privacy in the email said quantity One had the price for it, but the name of it was completely missing from the email. And I'm like, like this is an email directly to me for an item that I just bought on your website. So who are you hiding my item name from specifically who is reading my emails that I don't know about that you know about? Well, turns out probably Google and anybody else who's buying email data to sell me on other things. This comes back to they're not listening to you, they're reading your email. So whenever you see ads around the Internet for specific products, they've apparently been scraping Amazon sales receipts to figure out what to sell you. Yeah, so they can sell you ads for shit that you've already just bought, like they normally do. Yeah, so that was a weird one. I just thought so. Yeah. Closing Shout Out. Over at Patreon, we've got new Patreon patron Michael and we've got Jack, who upped their subscription. So thank you very, very, very much. And over at the hall of Fame, we've got Cameron Juha, a big fridge, Anthony, James, Jeffrey, Andy, Kyle, Brent and Mario.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Go Luigi.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Mario started.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Over at PayPal, we've got Nathaniel, Andrew, Joseph Sloan, Tom, Linda, who wrote in and said, I've decided to increase my monthly donation as your show is helping me stay somewhat sane amid societal chaos. I couldn't figure out how to increase the payment amount on the PayPal webpage, so I canceled the $10 monthly donation and set up a $25 monthly donation. Cheers and thank you. Definitely five stars. Well, thank you, Linda.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thank you, Linda.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And also a thank you to Jason, who gave us a big $50 donation this week. So, all right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason's Unite. Jason's Unite. Over at the Tip Jar, we've got Sean Atlante and Ross. Woohoo. And over at the merch table, we've got Catherine, Joanne, Jeff. So go get your Deport Elon shirts now. Mine just came last night. They look beautiful. I'll be wearing it out in public today.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, we've got some new reviews this week, Tony gave us a five star review. Best in the business. Jason and Brian have been keeping me entertained, informed and laughing for a decade or better. At this point, these two grumpy old geeks are the most down to earth, legit, intelligent and funny guys podcasting today. The content of their show is fresh, relevant and delivered every week in a way that feels like a conversation with a couple of your smartest and funniest friends. Their decades of industry involvement traces that the evolution of the Internet itself and is foundational to their insights and observations. Dave Bittner fits in well and adds his own special sauce to the mix. The three of them feel more like old friends than podcasts. Podcasters. Sorry. The show is technically perfect. The audio is magic. Jason is the best producer at podcasting. This show is a genuine treasure. P.S. no AI was used in the writing of this review. We should feed it into the AI guy. Start getting our names right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, let's train that. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The actual podcast we're on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Thank you very much, Tony. And two nerds in love wrote in with this five star. I've always refused to listen to podcasts because they're often not ADHD friendly. My partner insisted I listen to this one and I was immediately hooked. Now I notify him when new episodes are released so we can listen to it. At the same time, this podcast has made my partner want to read more books, which is impressive because he's dyslexic. Me too. We also enjoy the host's bluntness no matter what topic they're discussing. Thank you for providing us with entertainment each week. You know, when you're not screaming or crying over the current state of affairs. Well, thank you two nerds in love.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bunch of woke writing in, trying to appeal to our other base.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Did it work? Nudge, nudge, wink, wink. Go Eli.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I want to do give a shout out to a friend of the show, Andy Stochanski, who I believe is still our outro music that he wrote for.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, he is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We still use that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Never. The guy who never listens to the show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, I'm gonna listen for that. Went to see him play on Wednesday night. He's got a new album coming out soon and a new single I think that dropped today. He's over on Instagram at House of Andy, so give him a. Give him a follow over there. Until next time, I'm Brian Scher.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I'm Jason DeFilipo. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from today's episode at GOG Show 685 want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps to keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes or everyone in between and will love you for it. Come on, you have to know somebody who hates Elon who will love our show. Pass it along and swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Dog Thoughts, Feedback, Cool links. Hit us up at GOG Show Contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG show review and we'll read it on the air. Oh, and guess what we've got Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG Show Stay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Every time.