693: Let Them Eat Space

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks – Episode 693: Let Them Eat Space Release Date: April 18, 2025

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Introduction

In Episode 693 of Grumpy Old Geeks, hosts Jason DeFilippo and Brian Schulmeister, along with guest Dave Bittner, dive deep into the chaotic world of tech news. True to their name, the trio offers no-holds-barred critiques of the latest technological mishaps, corporate blunders, and industry controversies. This episode, aptly titled "Let Them Eat Space," navigates through a spectrum of topics, from science journalism pitfalls to the tumultuous endeavors of tech moguls in space tourism.

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IFL Science and the Exoplanet K2-18b Clickbait

[00:56] Brian Schulmeister kicks off the episode by expressing disappointment in IFL Science (originally "I Love Science") for veering into clickbait territory. The site initially garnered acclaim for its engaging science content but has recently been criticized for sensationalist headlines, particularly concerning the exoplanet K2-18b.

Brian Schulmeister [01:55]: "You cried aliens. Ifl science. You posted the first article saying that there could be aliens... you are clickbait now."

[02:55] Jason DeFilippo emphasizes that while it's possible to "love science," audiences need to discern reliable sources from those exploiting sensationalism for clicks.

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The Direwolves Cloning Controversy

The conversation shifts to the controversial cloning of direwolves, reflecting a trend where scientific endeavors cross into the realm of fantasy:

[03:04] Jason DeFilippo: "There's only 20 out of the roughly 19,000 genes that they edited. So it's not really a direwolf."

Both hosts express frustration over what they perceive as frivolous scientific projects misrepresenting their capabilities.

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Fyre Fest’s Second Attempt Postponed

The infamous organizer Billy McFarland faces yet another setback as his second attempt to stage a music festival, following the disastrous Fyre Fest, has been postponed indefinitely:

[04:26] Jason DeFilippo: "This was never gonna happen."

[04:44] Jason DeFilippo sarcastically advises ticket holders to invest their refunds in cryptocurrency, highlighting the recurring pattern of McFarland's failed ventures.

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Automattic’s Internal Watermark Scandal

A significant tech industry issue is raised when Brian Schulmeister discusses how Automattic (parent company of WordPress) has embedded invisible watermarks in their internal communications to deter leaking:

[05:22] Jason DeFilippo: "I love that movie. This is... concealment tactics."

This move by Automattic, intended to track leaks, has been criticized as a sign of distrust and poor management within the company.

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Elon Musk and the Space Tourism Backlash

A major portion of the episode delves into Elon Musk's controversial ventures into space tourism, particularly focusing on a recent suborbital flight involving celebrities like Katy Perry and Lauren Sanchez. The hosts criticize the superficial nature of these missions, contrasting them with the reduction of genuine female pioneers in NASA:

[07:59] Brian Schulmeister: "They are... not looking good for anybody involved."

Elon Musk's personal controversies, including paternity disputes and allegations of offering hush money, are also scrutinized extensively:

[12:47] Jason DeFilippo: "Elon's trying to make a compound near Austin for all the women that he's been impregnating."

The episode paints a bleak picture of Musk's impact on both the tech industry and personal lives of those around him.

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Cybersecurity Breach at NLRB Involving DOGE

The discussion moves to a whistleblower's revelation about negative activities by the DOGE (likely a placeholder for another organization) involving the theft of sensitive labor data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):

[16:26] Brian Schulmeister: "Look, it was just one of Doge's team that accidentally left their VPN on."

The breach raises alarms about data security, potential intimidation of whistleblowers, and the broader implications for federal trust in protecting sensitive information.

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U.S. Tariffs on Electronics and Semiconductors

[17:47] Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discuss the fluctuating landscape of U.S. tariffs on electronics. Despite temporary exemptions for products like smartphones and computers, looming sectoral tariffs on semiconductors threaten to escalate costs dramatically:

[18:53] Jason DeFilippo: "Yep... the tariffs are off, but we'll soon be on again anyways."

The hosts express concern over the sustainability and economic impact of such tariff policies on consumer electronics.

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Google’s Antitrust Case Against the DOJ

The U.S. Department of Justice scored a significant victory in an antitrust case against Google, ruling that the tech giant unlawfully maintained a monopoly in the online advertising technology market:

[21:00] Brian Schulmeister: "Judge Brinkma found Google liable under sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman act..."

While the case dismisses certain arguments about Google's monopoly in ad networks, the ruling underscores ongoing challenges large tech companies face regarding competition and regulation.

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OpenAI’s Foray into Social Networking

In a surprising development, OpenAI is reportedly developing a social network centered around ChatGPT's image generation capabilities. The proposed platform aims to integrate seamlessly with existing AI tools but raises questions about data privacy and the ethics of AI-driven social interactions:

[26:58] Jason DeFilippo: "It's unclear whether it'll be a standalone app or baked into ChatGPT..."

The initiative highlights OpenAI's expansion beyond traditional AI applications into more community-focused platforms.

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4chan Hack and Its Aftermath

The anonymous message board 4chan recently suffered a major hack that exposed its source code, leading to significant outages and the potential migration of its user base to other platforms:

[28:04] Brian Schulmeister: "Good riddance to 4chan... but the problem remains: where do these users go next?"

Brian reflects on 4chan's notorious history, including its role in events like Gamergate and QAnon, emphasizing the cyclical nature of internet subcultures finding new homes.

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AI Code Generators and Fake Software Packages

A concerning trend in AI development is addressed when the hosts discuss how AI-powered code editors like Cursor are hallucinating software packages, leading to security risks in the software supply chain:

[32:22] Brian Schulmeister: "Stuff's not supposed to be used for certain purposes."

This issue underscores the challenges of deploying AI in critical, user-facing roles without adequate oversight.

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Defense Digital Service’s Resignation Over AI Collaboration

[33:15] Brian Schulmeister reports that the Defense Digital Service (DDS), the Pentagon's elite tech unit, has resigned en masse after clashes with Elon Musk’s DOGE over AI collaboration:

[33:54] Brian Schulmeister: "This is the real problem... we're losing a generation."

The departure leaves critical defense initiatives like drone detection and military aid automation in jeopardy, signaling deeper issues within governmental tech collaborations.

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Tesla’s Retro-Futuristic Diner

Shifting gears to lighter news, Tesla is finalizing plans for a retro-futuristic diner in Hollywood, dubbed the Charge and Dime concept. The establishment promises rooftop EV charging, drive-in movie screens, and themed dining experiences:

[36:27] Brian Schulmeister: "I don't think it's going to happen."

Despite high hopes, the project faces skepticism regarding its reception and viability, especially amidst ongoing protests against Tesla.

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Meta’s Reality Labs and Financial Troubles

A report from Yahoo Finance highlights that Meta’s Reality Labs division has lost nearly $50 billion over five years due to mismanagement and strategic missteps:

[36:27] Brian Schulmeister: "Zuckerberg being an idiot."

The financial hemorrhage emphasizes the struggles tech giants face in pioneering new technologies without sustainable strategies.

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AI Tools Creating Fake Software Packages

Further concerns about AI accuracy emerge as a study reveals that 20% of software packages recommended by various AI models like ChatGPT are entirely fictitious. This error rate poses significant risks, including the potential for malicious actors to exploit these fake packages:

[38:39] Brian Schulmeister: "Yeah... hackers can create malicious packages."

The findings call for improved validation mechanisms in AI-driven development tools to ensure software integrity.

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Sesame Street Action Figures and Nostalgia

In a nostalgic segment, Brian and Jason reminisce about Sesame Street songs and new action figures released by Super 7, sparking reflections on childhood memories and the evolution of educational programming:

[80:05] Jason DeFilippo: "Silent E actually did come out on a Sesame street album."

The discussion highlights the enduring impact of Sesame Street on generations and its ability to convey complex emotions and lessons to children.

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Closing Remarks and Tributes

The episode concludes with heartfelt tributes to Jed the Fishgold, a pioneering DJ at KROQ, who recently passed away. The hosts share personal anecdotes and express their admiration for his influence on the alternative music scene.

[86:14] Jason DeFilippo: "He was awesome. He was nuts. Nobody was quite as crazy as he was and just massively influential."

Additionally, they touch upon the discontinuation of the last Radio Shack in Maryland, lamenting the end of an era for a beloved electronics retailer.

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Notable Quotes

• Brian Schulmeister [01:55]: "You cried aliens. Ifl science. You are clickbait now."
• Jason DeFilippo [03:04]: "Only 20 out of the roughly 19,000 genes that they edited. So it's not really a direwolf."
• Brian Schulmeister [16:26]: "Look, it was just one of Doge's team that accidentally left their VPN on."
• Jason DeFilippo [24:48]: "I’m moving to China. Fuck this shit, man."

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Conclusion

Episode 693 of Grumpy Old Geeks delivers a comprehensive and candid analysis of recent tech events, blending sharp criticism with personal anecdotes and nostalgic musings. From corporate missteps and AI inaccuracies to the fading presence of iconic brands, Jason, Brian, and Dave offer listeners an unfiltered look into the current state of technology and its broader societal implications. Whether you're a tech enthusiast or simply enjoy a good rant, this episode provides both insightful commentary and relatable grumpiness.

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Stay Connected

For more insights and discussions, visit the Grumpy Old Geeks Show and join their Discord community. Support the show on Patreon and explore exclusive merchandise at Shop GOG Show.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

No matter how you travel, it's good to have a plan. Some people plan every minute. No sleep, bus, museum, another museum. While others only plan to take it day by day. When it comes to your finances, a plan is just as important. You can count on Credit Karma to give you the insights you need to understand your options so you can take charge of your financial path and find your way to money. Explore how you can make financial progress with confidence today. Intuit Credit Karma. Karma. You can count on Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Jason, it looks like we both found news stories this week that pissed us off some degree.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, so many. So many. Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean so many. But I mean just, just science based, normal run of the mill articles that we would normally like to discuss. But there were some frustrating things that happened with both. I will go first, please. I'm a big fan of IFL science, or at least I used to be, which stands for I love science. It was one of those rare success stories that really came about because of social media. You know, there were tons of, of of science based news sites out there. But ifl science really rode the social media thing, had a tongue in cheek attitude, you know, did very well posting stories all the time across social medias and getting people interested in science and, and having a unique viewpoint about them. But I, I feel that perhaps they have fallen upon rough times and are now playing the clickbait game. Okay, because there was a story that did come out this week about exoplanet K2 18b. You may have seen exoplanet K2 18b in the news recently, thanks to it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Everywhere.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, it's everywhere. And of course a bunch of these sponsored posts in my feed breathlessly talked about how we had found aliens and all that sort of stuff, which of course we have not. But IFL Science did post a story about it as well and one of the headline was, as you'd expect, kind of bombastic. Something along the lines of best chance yet ever of seeing aliens and all that sort of stuff. But then you know what? They posted within a few hours after that, a second update. Do you know what happened to the boy who cried aliens? You. You cried aliens. Ifl science. You posted the first article saying that there could be aliens that they're baby aliens. This is the best chance ever of there being aliens and proof of aliens. And then you follow it up with a second post. You made a big meal out of that last bit with an update, and then you immediately walked it back with your. Wait just a minute. Update. I am sad. You are clickbait now. But that is the world. Yeah, that's just the way it is now for any site. It doesn't matter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Brian, Just. Just to be. Just to be clear, you can still fucking love science all you want. You just don't have to go to the website to do it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's right. I just can't have it branded.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Correct. Correct. And the same goes for Science Alert. That one has totally jumped the shark for me. Oh, so bad. So bad. You know what also is so bad? The fucking dire wolves. Fuck dire wolves. First I. First I started to see the. The original posts where people are like, this company has spliced in a few genes to start to try and replicate the direwolf, but it's not really direwolf DNA. It is kind of just them copying and pasting what they think the direwolf DNA is. Now, I just want you to be clear here. There's only 20 out of the roughly 19,000 genes that they edited. So it's not really a direwolf, then, as the day progresses. Holy shit. Do you want to go to the mall and buy a direwolf? Well, you can now head on over to Topanga Mall and get yourself a direwolf, because they're everywhere. That was the fucking direwolf story in a nutshell.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pretty much, yeah. Except for the, of course, controversy, because they named one of the direwolves after a character in Game of Thrones that was not from House Stark, who actually, you know, their symbol was the direwolf.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So nerds.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Pretty much, yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And follow up here, Jason, in news that will shock Absolutely no 1, the Fyre Fest 2. Billy McFarlane's second attempt to stage a music festival after the first one landed him in federal prison for four years, has now been postponed indefinitely.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I would like to state for the record, you heard it here first. This was never gonna happen.

[Brian Schulmeister]

According to an email sent to ticket holders on Wednesday. And, yes, there were actually a few people crazy enough to have bought tickets. The festival has been postponed and a new date will be announced. I would not hold one's loins waiting for this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, take that refund money and put it right into crypto, guys.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You seem to be the crowd that would really be into crypto. If you're buying fire fest tickets. Go get on that meme coin. I hear Trump is doing well right now. You can go buy some of that coin for the low, low price of fuck you. And over at Automatic, we haven't had Automatic in the news for a little while now because.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because he's put clamps on everybody's mouths.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Mullenweg has put clamps on everybody's mouths and the judges put clamps on his mouth. So, you know, gags all around.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like Pulp Fiction over there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love that movie. This is. This comes from 404 Media. This week, following layoffs, Automatic employees discovered leak catching watermarks. Well, employees at WordPress parent company Automattic have discovered invisible, individually unique watermarks embedded in their internal communication platform. P2 watermarks designed to catch leakers. The stealthy pattern hidden in white page backgrounds can identify employees who share screenshots with the press. First. How did you guys figure that out is what I want to know. Who's the first person to figure that out? Second. Yeah, kind of figured this would be something that Mullenweg would do because he's been getting his ass handed to him by the leakers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, I guess it is. It's just. It's a sad commentary on the state of the world actually at the moment. And if I were a tech pro, and let's be honest, he's not a multi gazillionaire, but he's. He's still a tech bro.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He's a billionaire. He's got to be.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, well then he is one of the. He's one of the people that we tend to malign a lot on this show. So I'd watch my ass. At the moment. The tide is not going your favor. I mean, it is financially, don't get me wrong. But in terms of the zeitgeist of the times, you might find yourself on a chopping block pretty soon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In the news. All right. In the news. Let's get this party started. Let's light this candle. Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, baby, you're a firework. Let me come into this story with a little bit of a preamble. First, my wife and I were having a discussion yesterday. I have a single use coffee machine. I can't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's environment killer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, yeah, that's okay. So that it doesn't matter what brand it is. We hardly ever use it. Our daily morning coffee is a French press, but it's nice to have in case I want an afternoon espresso. Or for have guests or something like that. So we use it occasionally but not very often. And we were having a discussion as, as comfortable liberals do who want to do the right thing and are concerned about the planet. And we were like, should we just. You, this thing's on its last legs. It's not going to last much further. Do I do, do we get another one or do we just stop because we're killing the environment? And then I had a second where I thought about the biggest news story of the week and I realized that I could have a single use coffee from this machine 17 times a day, walk up and down my, my block, get, make coffee for all my neighbors from now until the day I die. Even going back to the date of my birth and maybe add a few generations after that and I would have done less damage to the environment than these did in 11 minutes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Tell it, tell it like it is, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just saying. And you know, okay, so if you're, if you're living on a hole. Katy Perry, Gayle King and Lauren Sanchez, who's Jeff Bezos fiance took a much hyped all female trip to space aboard a blue origin rocket which basically lasted 11 minutes long. They, they, they kissed the end of the atmosphere and came back down and tried to play it off as if there's some sort of like girl power monument to this or some sort reason to do it, which of course there's not. And this is happening while the current administration is actually removing female pioneers and heroes from NASA's website because we can't learn about what women actually do, but we can learn about three celebrities taking a fucking joyride because they're fucking rich.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which one of them said they put the ass in astronaut?

[Brian Schulmeister]

That would be Katy Perry.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Katy Perry, of course.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And so this is the story that has kept on giving this week. And this might be one of those bellwether things where we see the tide actually turning because let's just say nobody has been supportive of this. Everybody is, is taking pot shots at them, wondering why the hell we did this. And of course they're breaking rule number one, which is when you get criticism on the Internet, you ignore it. They are, they're responding, so it is not going away.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, they're leaning in hard.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're leaning in. And the rest, the Internet is leaning back very hard. So I don't think you're gonna win this one. This is, this is not looking good for anybody involved and nobody's very happy about it. We've got some Links in the show notes for some of the more enjoyable stories that were written about it. I particularly enjoy. We finally have 2025's Imagine video.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Which the. The quote from this one that I liked is. So congratulations are in order to these galactic warriors for their stunning achievement. They have united us once again by finally giving us a worthy successor to the most cringe pop culture video the past five years. Mission accom.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So good. I totally forgot about that Imagine video. I wanted to forget about the Imagine video. But if you have forgotten about the Imagine video, click on the link. It's pretty fun. Follow your way back and yeah, let them eat space is definitely one of the great taglines from this. I put a link to a nice piece of artwork in the show notes as well.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was something. It's been a week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's been a week. But Brian, not all heroes go to space.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know you're not a fan of Seth Rogen, but he was one of the presenters at the Breakthrough prize ceremony which has been dubbed the Oscars of science. And I don't know if it was the pot, the drink, or just some giant balls on this guy, but hey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, I am not a huge fan of his, but I am about this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Yep. Well, he was co presenting with Edward Norton, who not the nicest guy in the world from everybody I know that knows him, says it's amazing that others in this room underwrote electing a man who in the last week single handedly destroyed all of American science. And he went on to add, it's amazing how much good science you can destroy with $320 million in RFK junior very fast. Which was immediately cut out of the live stream from YouTube.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I guess we're not allowed to have opinions about these people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not when you're paid to be on stage and basically fluff them up, I guess.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know if they've seen any of Seth Rogen's work, but you know. Yeah, perhaps it wasn't a good choice on their hand.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Perhaps, perhaps. By the way, I do still like the studio. We watched episode five this week. It's enjoyable.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's cool. It's cool.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Digging it, digging it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Severance.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love how everybody on our Discord channel keeps thinking that they can poke me with severance mentions. I'm like, dude, I've so moved on. I'm so looking for my next one now. This came out in the Wall Street Journal this week and while it's not specifically tech, it's still elon So I have to mention it. It's the, the title of the article is the tactics Elon Musk uses to Manage his Legion of babies and their mothers money. Yeah. Yeah. So there's been some swirlings about, on the Internet about Ashley St. Clair's newborn and her coming out saying, no, it's Elon's baby. It's Elon's baby. And he was like, nope, ain't mine. Ain't mine. Well, after a court ordered paternity test. Yeah, it's who it is. It's his. So. But she was, she's coming out saying that she was offered hush money from Elon to not say anything. He offered her $15 million and $100,000 a month to shut up. She's saying no because then her son might then think that he was an accident and be ashamed of himself. I'm like, well, too late for that one kid. But the things that come out are just kind of mind boggling that Elon has tried to make a compound near Austin for all of the women that he's been impregnating.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Compounds always work out well. Compounds in Texas, always a good sign.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, especially compounds in Texas. And this, he's got this fixer guy that we've learned about now, Jared Burl. And he's the guy that's running around being, being the guy behind the scenes. Reminds me of the guy from billions. He had a fixer too, which was. He was pretty nefarious. Good, good guy. So apparently only one of the women has decided to take him up on the compound offer, which is probably a pretty good, pretty good, you know, deal that you get a whole compound to yourself.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Compound's still a compound.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Siobhan Zillis is the only one that lives there, so good for her. The other thing is this whole pronatalism thing that he's promoting so he can repopulate the earth with his quote unquote high IQ babies. Well, he shouldn't use your sperm if it's going to be a high IQ baby. He's also making them get C sections, which he thinks is going to make their brains bigger because they're not squished when they come out the birthing canal.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, yeah, that's how it works.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah, that's really how it works. Science has proven so far that babies of C sections are actually more immunosuppressed than other babies because there's a whole bunch of goo that they're supposed to get on them as they come out the delivery tube. So there's all sorts of things like nature and evolution and science that may say, baby, go this way, not the other way. Yeah, no, I think he's watched too much Wrath of Khan and I think he thinks he might be creating the next Khan. Right, That's. You know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, Well, I think he created the master race himself, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So you put this article in there, and I'm surprised. I thought it would touch on the. The bigger bomb that dropped this week about Elon and his babies, which I just put it. I googled it really quickly. So apologies for the Daily Mail link that is put in there. And I will just do this from. From memory. There is a right wing influe called Tiffany Fong, and I believe it's like a crypto influencer and just general right wing stuff. And she makes. She has been making an awful lot of money on X because. Right wing echo chamber. And that's what happens. And of course, that would be brought to Elon's attention, apparently. She talks about how Elon actually slides into people's DMS on. Basically hits them up, saying, do you want to have a baby with me? And he did this to her and she said, basically, no, thank you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Ew, gross.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So then he, of course, promptly canceled her account and stopped her from making any money.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He DV definancialed her, not deflatformed her. She's still there. But he basically just killed her account so she couldn't make money anymore. Nice guy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he's a real piece of work. He's a real piece of work. So, yeah, thanks for putting that link in. I meant to find that this morning, but I had brain fog.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's okay. I was gonna put it in, too, but then I was so sick of everything. Everything and just full stop there. Everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know. Well, let's. Let's move on to a little bit more. This is a tangential Elon News. A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board says DOGE may have stolen sensitive labor data and then tried to cover it up. Daniel Baroulis, a former IT specialist at the nlrb, said that DOGE staff demanded unrestricted access to the agency's internal systems, turned off monitoring tools and deleted activity logs, and quietly, not so quietly, transferred nearly 10 gigabytes of confidential data, including details on union organizing and ongoing legal cases. That's pretty bad. That's pretty bad. Well, it gets real worse real fast. Minutes after DOGE gained access, someone using a Russian IP address attempted to log in using valid Credentials tied to the Doge accounts.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, it was just one of Doge's team that accidentally left their VPN on Gog show. Vpn. So, you know, not actually a real Russian.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, see, this isn't. They're taking red teaming and they're turning it to red square teaming. That's what they're doing now. They're testing to see if anybody from Russia can get in. But yet. So the attempts to get in were blocked. Thank God. So there was still some cyber security left over there at the nlrb. Probably not anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Despite internal concerns and forensic evidence, Doge's activities were never fully investigated. And Baroula says that he was later threatened with a note taped to his door. So I love this. Labor experts warn the breach could intimidate whistleblowers, derail union efforts, and undermine trust in the federal government's ability to protect sensitive information. And I would say that the federal government's duty right now is to disseminate all the sensitive information. That's what they're doing. They're just giving it away. Giving it away. Here you go. Putin. Want a thumb drive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, back to tariff on, tariff on, off, and then off, and then on and then off. News. There was a lot of concern because, you know, our iPhones are going to triple, quadruple in cost. And if you really want to see them increase in costs, guess how much they would cost if you made them in the USA completely.

[Jason DeFilippo]

$3,500.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That is a $30,000 iPhone, my friend. Yeah. Anyways, so there was concern about this. And U.S. customs and Border Protection on Friday night published a list of products excluded from Trump's reciprocal tariffs, which includes smartphones, computers, and memory chips, along with other electronic devices and components. Jason, you and I actually just both bought new laptops because we are concerned about prices of, you know, the tariffs increasing the prices on these things moving forward. I guess we don't need to worry about that because apparently they're all being exempted. But wait.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But wait, there's more.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We are not done yet here because the pause does not apply to China, and there's still a 10% tariff on imports from almost all countries. And electronic imports in particular, while being exempted right now, will be hit hard by new rules that are coming in about 90 days. So there's going to be semiconductor sectoral tariffs that are coming, which. I don't know if you realize this or not, people, but guess what's in all your electronic devices.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Semiconductors.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wait for it. Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So the tariffs are off, but we'll soon be on again anyways.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Great. Just what I'm looking forward to, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, it's good times.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we'll see if he lives that long. I don't know, man. He's pissing off everybody now. You know, you can, you can piss off some people, but not all of them all at once. There's literally like nobody left that he hasn't pissed off.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's. I mean, even X is starting to just fill up with people posting, this is not what I voted for. These are his people. They're posting, this is not what we voted for. Here.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This episode is brought to you by Delete Me. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make everyone vulnerable. Look, your data's already out there. Congrats, you didn't win a prize. But some data broker just sold your address, phone number, and Aunt Linda's maiden name to a spammy marketer in Belarus. Or worse, someone with actual bad intentions. Data brokers are like digital cockroaches, collecting and reselling your personal info just because they can. It's legal, it's shady, and it's everywhere. But DeleteMe fights back. They track down your information on hundreds of these bottom feeding sites and get it removed repeatedly, because these sites don't stop sucking. I've been online longer than most of these data brokers have existed, and I know one thing, if you don't actively protect your privacy, no one else will. DeleteMe gives peace of mind in a world where privacy's gone the way of Netscape Navigator. Take control of your data and keep your life private by signing up for Delete Me now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20 off your delete me plan when you go to joinedeleteme.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 joinedeleteme.com goG code gog craving your next action packed adventure, Audible delivers thrills of every kind on your command. Like Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, where a lone astronaut must save humanity from extinction. Narrated with stunning intensity by Ray Porter. From electrifying suspense and daring quests to spine tingling horror and romance in far off realms, unleash your adventure aside with gripping titles that'll keep you guessing. Discover exclusive Audible originals hotly anticipated new releases and must listen bestsellers that hook you from the first minute. Because Audible knows there's no greater thrill than the one that speaks to you. Discover what lies beyond the edge of your seat. Start your free 30 day trial at audible.com wonderyus that's audible.com wonderyus the US Department of Justice just scored a major win in its antitrust case against Google with a federal judge ruling the tech giant illegally maintained a monopoly in the online advertising technology market. Shocking no. 1. Judge Leonie Brinkoma found that for over a decade, Google tied its publisher, ad server and ad exchange systems in a way that unfairly crushed competition, hurting both publishers and users. Judge Brinkma found Google liable under sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman act due to its practices in the ad tech tool and exchange spaces, but dismissed the argument that Google had operated a monopoly in ad networks. So get a little, give a little, you know, take some. So we'll see what happens with this is going to take a while to figure out what the, what the judgment's going to be on it. But coming up soon is the, the other antitrust case where they're talking about maybe having to spin off Chrome. So I don't know. I guess, I guess Google did not suck at the teat of the Trump good enough.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I guess not just should have shown up at all. Those should have gone to Mar a Lago to kiss the ring.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, it didn't work out for Zuckerberg either. Yeah, they probably did. Didn't work out for Zuck either. He's, he's in the hot seat this week. I did, I kind of left the stories out for that because that's still kind of ongoing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it hasn't really settled yet, so we'll see what happens.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's just fun to watch him squirm. Although he's trying to look like he's trying. So he's got a stylist now. You know, his stylist is making, is dialing him up for, for the, for the event.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But yeah, he looks, he looks almost human these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Almost. Almost.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A little less data. Well, say what you will about China, and certainly a lot has been said recently, but they, they're definitely doing one thing right that we seem to be completely incapable of doing. Chinese authorities have banned automakers from using terms such as smart driving and autonomous driving for ads in the country, according to Reuters, because it doesn't exist. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has tightened its rules for advertising, driving assistance features following a fatal crash involving a Xiaomi SUV 7, which raises concerns about the technology safety. Based on the report, the vehicle's driving assistance mode was switched on when the vehicle was approaching a construction zone. But the driver took control right before the SUV collided with a concrete barrier carrier. The electronic vehicle went up in flames, with the accident claiming three lives. Now, back in 2022, the California DMV accused Tesla of falsely portraying its vehicles as fully autonomous based on the language it used on its website back in 2016. So did we.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Although it didn't lead to a ban on advertising terms. So China is actually going to do this. And they're. In addition to that, they've also announced that they're prohibiting automakers from testing and implementing improving their driver assistance systems via remote software upgrades if they're already in the hands of customers. In other words, you get what you bought and you can't roll out something to these people and test it on them. Which also seems sane to me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sane to me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You can still roll out updates over the air, but you will have to get an approval for them after conducting a battery of tests. As it should be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm moving to China. Fuck this shit, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So good for them. I mean, that's. It just makes sense.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know things that actually make sense for the safety of the people. Yeah, go figure. And go, go figure. It's coming from China, of all places.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I mean, they are the. They're like the cutting edge of electronic electric vehicles these days. I mean, it's definitely like Tesla still sells more because we're not allowed to have any of these Chinese cars in our countries, but yeah, they look great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, if we had some BYDs over here, we'd be tooling around in those. But no, just cybertruck. I parked next to a black matte cybertruck yesterday because I had to go to the hospital to get some blood work done. And I parked next to this thing and yes, I have a very vibrant, bright orange, tall Jeep. So the contrast.

[Brian Schulmeister]

A very noticeable vehicle.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Very noticeable. And you park it next to a cybertruck. I'm like, God damn, my Jeep just looks so much better than that thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Absolutely. Those things are so stupid looking.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So stupid. FCC chair Brendan Carr is accusing Comcast's NBC of quote news distortion over coverage of Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation, claiming it downplayed alleged ms.13 ties. Garcia's lawyers say the only evidence was a hoodie in a bull's hat supplied by a now indicted cop. Well, Carr, a Trump ally is invoking a rarely used FCC policy to threaten NBC and cbs, but notably not Fox Fox News. He's also targeting diversity policies, and critics say it's a partisan attack on press freedoms. He's saying that NBC has to change their news because it's fake news when it's actually just news. Yeah. So this is. This is the politicians trying to use the FCC as a tool to blunt the actual news, which, you know, is kind of a big no, no. And what dictators do control the press.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Speaking of the press, OpenAI is building a social network.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, joy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. According to insiders, OpenAI has an early internal prototype featuring a social feed centered around ChatGPT's image generation. Slowest social network ever. Sam Altman has been quietly shopping the concept around for feedback, but no official launch plan yet. It's unclear whether it'll be a standalone app or baked into ChatGPT, which just became the most downloaded app in the world. So I can see why they're doing this. Because they can't get data from X anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And no other social network is going to give them the time of day because threads owned by Meta, they're doing their own AI with a llama and Blue sky is just going to tell them to go fuck off.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So basically just feed the beast.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's what they need. They're just looking for more words to put together and I'm like, I don't think social media is really where you want to train these things.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I don't know if you've been on social media recently.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's a shit show of emotions and not really what you would call the pinnacle of human intelligence. That is happening there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, speaking of a place that was never the pinnacle of human intelligence.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Grok, where Grok is trained, obviously.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Obviously some potentially good news. According to the article 4chan, the anonymous, anonymous message board that's been the breeding ground for some of the worst shit on the Internet could be gone forever. As of Tuesday, the notorious site began experiencing a series of outages following a major hack that purportedly exposed its source code. As reported by Wired, a user on rival forum Soyjack Party sounds like the place to be. Claimed responsibility for the attack, posting screenshots allegedly showing back end structure and a list of alleged moderator email addresses. They then the users started doxing the accounts included in the data leak, which is obviously not fun. TechCrunch spoke to a janitor or junior moderator whose email was listed in the leak, reporting that the person said they were confident that the hack was all real. Although the janitor said they were unhappy about the greater magnitude of the leaked information compared to the past, they expressed greater concern about 4chan's future. So apparently the software that they're using hasn't been properly maintained or patched for years, which indicates that a hack would have definitely been a possibility. And as of right now, everything is still down. And if that's the case, the final words posted on 4chan may be chicken jockey. As the AV Club points out, outside of launching the hacktivist group Anonymous, 4chan's greatest hits include the fappening, the celebrity nude photos leak, gamergate, qanon, and a connection to the racially motivated 2022 mass shootings in buffalo. Good riddance. Now, the problem with all of this is, of course, if you get the rats out of your house, they just go to someone else's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep, soy jacked out party.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So one thing is we knew where they all were and there was a site that was well known that people could go and monitor. Now there will just be another site that's going to take some time for people to find it because they're not going to stop.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm looking at them over at and soyjack party redirects to soyjak st. And I'm looking at it and there's a screenshot of the phpmyadmin backend. And I'm looking at the. They got a bunch of tables up here and one of them, which is the biggest table, which is 8.1 gig, is Del Log, which is probably the delete log of posts that were deleted, which means if they're tracking them, they weren't. So way to go there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Set visibility to zero.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Say it with me, kids. Say it with me. Oh, man. Yeah, good riddance to 4chan. I mean, I spent quite a bit of time on there in my YouTube.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I looked around a few times because how could you not if you grew up on the Internet? But yeah, it is. It became pretty much a dump. I mean, it's all many things to many people. I know that there are a lot of good boards on there that where people really, you know, talked about real shit and all that. But of course, yeah, it did. They did. They did not Moderate.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There were some very fine people on both sides, bro.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, there were fine people on both sides. I can't believe I actually tried to defend 4chan there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Where the are you going with this, dude?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know, man. It's early and I. I haven't had enough of My single use coffees haven't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Destroyed the planet enough yet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I got a blue origin flight in a hour. So let's get moving.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let's go somewhere on Tumblr I have a best of 4chan thing. I. I had. I. I collected memes off of there for years. I gotta find it. I'll put it. I'll drop it in the discord when I find it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was a great meme generator. See, it was defending it again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know. And the funny thing is I actually made a story out of it. I took all the memes, I had like 100 memes, and I put them in order so they all kind of worked off each other. One it is so it is so inappropriate to go back and read that thing now. I'm like, it was, it was. It was totally fine back then. I'm like, oh, I shouldn't have said that. That's. Oh, that's not good. Yeah, so. But it's still there. I'll go find it and put it in the discord. So go to gids, find out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Remember, kids, culture actually moved the right direction for quite some time. And when they say make America great again, it means bring back those 4chan memes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it. That's it. Okay, moving on. A popular AI powered code editor, Cursor, is in hot water after its AI support agent, Sam, invented a fake policy triggering user outrage and subscription cancellations.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Remember, kids, from what I learned from the learned and wise professor of AI of generative AI, this is a feature, not bug, and it's not supposed to be used for certain purposes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

A developer noticed Cursor was logging them out when switching between devices. When they emailed support, Sam replied it was quote, expected behavior and that using multiple machines required separate subscriptions. Something that sounded official but wasn't real. Turns out Sam is a chatbot and the policy never existed. The AI completely hallucinated it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Feature not a bug.

[Jason DeFilippo]

After users believed the bogus claim and shared it on Reddit and hacker news, backlash exploded. Devs called it a quote UX disaster and began canceling accounts en masse, citing broken trust. Cursor has since apologized, but the damage is done, highlighting the real risk of putting AI agents in customer facing roles without human oversight. There you go. Thanks, Sam.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Can I get an amen?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Can I get an AI Men.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, hey, look at you. Your own personal Jesus.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. All right. The Pentagon's elite tech unit, the Defense Digital Service known as the SWAT Team of Nerds. Horrible, horrible, horrible name. Has resigned en masse after clashing with Musk's doge. Yes, the dds, which once built tools for Afghanistan operations, Ukrainian military aid and drone detection, had hoped to collaborate with DOGE on automating defense systems using AI instead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Previous story about cursor.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, seriously, don't give it a gun.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Jesus.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Instead, they were sidelined, and Director Jennifer Hay and 11 team members are taking a deferred resignation package, effective May 1st. Great. With their exit, critical initiatives like fighting adversarial drones and modernizing the Pentagon's tech talent are effectively dead. Well, officials say the chief digital and AI office will absorb the work. There's an AI office?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, God, of course there is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Insiders say the DDS specialized role will not be replaced. And this is just the latest in doa's scorched earth campaign to slash non essential defense. I would say that's a central.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Essential.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, see, this is the real problem, Jason. And even if there are elections, again, which is questionable, and 50, 50, we're 50, 50. And even if they are free and fair, which is even also more questionable if there are ones, and even if a sane party or person, I don't care where. Where they come from, just sane, gets in charge and tries to steer the ship back a little bit, we are. We're losing a generation, easy. It's going to take decades, decades to get back to where we were, to get back to the start line.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, absolutely, absolutely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And that's. That's. I mean, we're just talking about that story there. I. I could spend 45 minutes just talking about how they're destroying the education system and science.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's. Yeah, that's also going to take quite some time to rebuild. Speaking of elections, Brian, I'm going to throw in a link to a newsletter that I read over on substack called the Smart Elections Substack, and it's called what Does a Corrupt Election Look Like?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's what they're trying to get us to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is basically from a watchdog that does track elections and corruption in elections. And there are some pretty interesting numbers in this particular issue, so I highly recommend going to check that out. If you just quantify. Kind of want to follow along at home. I recommend subscribing to that substack as well. It is free. I think you can pay if you want to, but yeah, just this, this particular one. Well worth the read. It's called what Does a Corrupt Election Look Like? And it shows how the numbers change from point A to point B quite a bit. Moving On.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Tesla is putting the final touches on his retro futuristic charge and dime concept in Hollywood.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's going to go great given all the protests recently.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Located at 7001 West Santa Monica Boulevard Meeting Place, the two story diner features rooftop seating, 30 EV charging stalls, car hop service and drive in movie screens. Yay. It's the first of what could become a nationwide chain of Tesla diners.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It won't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it won't. Here's the sad part. LA chef Eric Greenspan, known for his gourmet burgers and grilled cheese sandwiches, was tapped to lead the kitchen, but now seems hesitant to be publicly associated with the project. You go, Greeny.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Smart man.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love, I love Eric. He's awesome. The Hollywood site, formerly a Shakey's Pizza. So you know exactly where that is, right, Brian? I do, yep. We, I've been to that Shakey's a million times. It's been in the works since 2017 and is finally coming online, which is. Just makes it nice because it's another place to go protest Tesla.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Direct address. And you can, you can even get a burger.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. If you want. Yep. They say an opening date has not yet been announced. I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think it's going to open.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's almost done. I want to go over there, but it's in the middle of Hollywood and I hate Hollywood. It's like, I don't know. Yeah. When you come up to town next time, maybe we'll meet there and we'll do our show from there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Live from the empty parking lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Is another great article I saw this week called the inside the 45 billion dollar cash burn at Reality Labs. So Meta's Reality Labs division has lost nearly $50 billion in the last five years. And Yahoo Finance spoke to several former employees about what's happening. And it's basically bad management and Zuckerberg being an idiot. It's a good read. It's a total good read. But yeah, that's what it kind of comes down to. They burned through $50 billion with a B hat tip to Kenneth over on Discord for this one. A new study reveals that code generating AI tools like chat, GPT and open source models are hallucinating software packages, literally making them up. And it's putting the software supply chain at risk. Researchers tested 16 major AI models and found that nearly 20% of all recommended packages didn't actually exist. Love it. And people might be going, oh, what's the risk of that? Well, the risk is Hackers can create malicious packages using the fake names, upload them to public repositories, and trick developers into installing malware.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So there you go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, There you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

20%. I use ChatGPT to just whip up a quick HTML framework for JSON. FYI, the site that I was working on, my personal site last week, it was okay. I ended up rewriting like 80% of it, but, you know, as a starting point, which is what they're good for. Starting points, not final code. Yeah. Which makes me just. I. Somebody sent me a video of Eric Schmidt this week saying that Google is going to be like, getting rid of all programmers in the next couple years. And I'm just like, no, no, they're not. This is marketing. It's marketing bullshit. Because they spent so much money, they have to spin the public to say that this is going to be the greatest thing ever while they know it's not. Hoping against all hope that someday it will be. So the, the, you know, the torches and pitchfork people don't come to the door saying, where's all our money gone? And you just get, well, we burned it on nothing. So I don't know. I digress, I digress. This AI is pissing me off. Pissing me off.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, yep, yep, yep. As it should.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And there's a great article by Max Bolingbroke over at his blog called the Business of the AI Labs. Well, here's the interesting thing. This guy's about to join Anthropic as an employee, but so he wanted to write an article about, you know, how, how these generative AI labs are actually going to make money. Here's the long and the short of it. He doesn't know. And he doesn't know if it's actually going to work either.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So why not join Anthropic just to make a few bucks while you're waiting. It's a long read, but it is a very good read. So I highly recommend it if you're, if you're kind of curious about what, where you see these big companies spending bajillions of dollars on this AI training and AI systems, where they're headed. Because if you run the numbers, Brian, everybody on the planet soon is going to have to describe to these at like 50 bucks a month just to keep the lights on. So something's got to give. And it's going to give soon, I think.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I hope so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

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[Brian Schulmeister]

And with 24.

[Jason DeFilippo]

7 customer service, you'll never feel alone on your path to better health. Get started with Mochi Health today. Take the free quiz at joinmochi.com and use code AUDIO40 at checkout for $40 off your first month of membership. That's join M-O-C-I.com with promo code AUDIO40 Media Candy we got a quick note in from Pedro. He says a friend sent me a link that they were listening to the Cures Killing an Arab on Pandora Now Brian, you and I have talked about Killing an Arab on Apple music quite, quite a few times because it's one of those censorship deals where they just pull it. Even though you have a a local copy on your computer and you sync your Apple music library to it, it still scrubs it and it's really annoying. So he threw in a link to Killing an Arab on Pandora. And the thing is, you can only get it if it randomly plays on a radio station, but it is proof that it's there. So that's cool.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It exists.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It does exist.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a good song.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What doesn't exist anymore is Apple's Mythic Quest. I know you got into that show and season four just wrapped up, but sad note that they did not renew it, but Apple actually pulled a pretty cool, pretty cool move. They let the creators go back and recut the last episode to give it an ending, which I thought was nice.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think that came out this week. I'll have to go back and watch it. You know. Mythic Quest I thought the first season was hilarious, like I was dying, but it was diminishing returns from there. I don't know what happened with the writing or just it was the strength of the concept and not so much, you know, know. Then they just try to do normal sitcom stuff with it and it got a little less interesting. So I'm fine with it ending. There wasn't really anywhere else for them to go with it and I'm glad that they, they could have probably just ended it without a, without an edit. But I'll go back and watch it and report back next week and maybe it's better.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. Okay. Okay. I wish those over at Apple would just give Sunny a decent ending since it ended on a cliffhanger.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I Like, I was really getting into that show. It pisses me off. Damn it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And if you really do Ms. Mythic Quest, they did actually release. It says, go deeper into the Mythic Quest universe in these four standalone stories. They're called Side Quest. I watched all four of them, so you don't have to. Don't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, okay. Like, most side quests are waste of time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. And we had movie night with the kid, and he picked the movie he's been wanting to watch, this Night of the Zoo Pocket Apocalypse. And this is basically inspired by, and I believe Clive Barker actually helped work on it, but it's still for kids.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was really good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, wow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've got to say, it's animated and it's. It's mostly for kids, but it was funny, it was clever. The songs are great, the characters are fun. You might even actually enjoy this. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, it's funny. I was a huge Clive Barker fan back in the 90s.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, me too. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Haven't heard anything from him in the 2000s. But. But.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, you got Night of the Zoo Apocalypse.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, what was it on? What streaming service it is?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it was just in theaters, and I actually had to rent. I think I rented it from Apple because.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sweden.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, you're gonna be going to Sweden. It'll probably be free on a streamer soon, but right now it's. It's not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. I'll just wait for that to. To hit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Look, man, 6.99 to rent a movie versus like 50 to 60 bucks if all three of us go to a theater. I'm with that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Can't beat that. Can't beat that. And waiting two weeks for it to come out on streaming for free also, too, because the ramp from theater to free on streaming is so fast now. I love it. Personally, I'm down Black Mirror season seven. I watched all six episodes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I went back for episode six, the USS Callister story. I went back and watched the original first and then watched the second one into infinity right after it. So it was like a. Almost three hours of story. It was awesome. It was amazing. You have to remember at some point that you are actually watching Black Mirror and there's not going to probably be a happy ending.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They do that thing where, like, halfway through, you're like, this might just be, like, a good. Oh, fuck, it's Black Mirror. I forgot. I forgot. But I think the whole season is solid. The first episode is just a punch in the gut. So good. And the second one, meh. The Paul Giamatti one was unbelievably excellent because it's Paul Giamatti. So he's fantastic. I just thought this entire season was excellent. Like I said, the only one that really it was still good, but I didn't think lived up to it was episode two. But yeah, I am all in. I wish they would just make these every week. I would be down with that because the sadness and dystopia from Black Mirror actually cheers me up when I have to go do work for this show and look at the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

At some point I'll actually have to get in and watch it. I just haven't yet.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's fun. It's fun. There. There's some ones that are actual pick me ups this season. So that's.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's shocking.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean they've been doing that. They've been sprinkling in some that leave you like, you know, with a little bit of. A little bit of joy, but generally sadness. Speaking of sadness, Daredevil season, not Daredevil season whatever. Because it's a whole new show. Yes, the new Daredevil.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Season one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Season one of the. Yes, the new Daredevil ended this week. And did you get a chance to check the finale out?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely teed it up for. He is reborn.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Absolutely. He is absolutely reborn. So I'm, I'm really looking forward to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Season two and hopefully we don't have to wait like five years for this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know because I, I'm glad that they had some more Punisher in there. I'm always a big fan of seeing Frank Castle kick some ass. So that was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They brought Karen back as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. That was good. It was good. I thought all in all it was a good, good wrap up to the. To the season.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now we need them to do a little side quest. Call it, call it weekend at Foggies.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There we go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They could just carry around dead foggy with them. Fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh my God. Not. Not funny. Not funny. Brian. Too soon. Too soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You laughed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I did. I did. I lulled. The last of us is back for season two for no lulls whatsoever, you know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I can't get into that one either. I just too. Too bleak.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love it. I love it. I thought, I thought it was a good start to the, to the season. So happy about that. G20 on Amazon prime this week. Made it 16 minutes in before rage quitting it because it was so poorly written and so cheesy and so bad. There's a helicopter scene where a Helicopter lands and you can tell it's a toy. Somebody is lowering down by like a fishing line. When it hits the thing, it is so bad. It is so bad. And the thing that gets me is like I just, I. Kara Swisher, who just. Yes, yeah. Was raving about it, saying it was so much fun. It's great. You love this. It's. Oh, it's so much fun. It is a piece of garbage.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is how she tries to get hired to do her, her companion podcast for shows. She talks him up and then she gets hired to do a companion podcast.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That and just to suck up to her celebrity friends. Yeah, look, look, the celebrities that she knows that are in this show, they know it's garbage. They just, they just, they know it. They were there. They read the script. They know it's. Don't stop blowing smoke up their ass. Oh man. No, it was just not, it's not good. Just, just, you know, I just saved you an hour and a half of your life. So skip G20. All right. 28 years later, has a new trailer.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Watched it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Pretty good. Pretty good. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, it's amazing. They shot a lot of that on an iPhone. 15 Pro Max looks pretty damn good with $300,000 of add ons tacked.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. A little bit more than an iPhone, I gotta say.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Didn't use a toy helicopter.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, they didn't. No, no. So that's coming out on June 28th. See what they did there 28 years later, June 28th.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Haha. Got it. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. And finally I told you he was a real piece of shit. Brian, my friend Bill Maher, who I've never liked. Yeah. Basically went to, went to go see Trump and blew him. Is the only way that I could really describe what happened with him.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And look, I stopped watching his show a while back. It's a little too ridiculous. Like whatever, whatever, Bill, whatever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now you've lost every last ounce of credibility you had, which wasn't a whole lot.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's okay. Just like Adam Carolla, he's pivoting to the MAGA market.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, that's not going to work out for you. Read the room, dude. Read the room. If even X is turning on him, then yes. Yeah, basically you're a Bill, you're just a pussy. And I watched a show called Bringing Down a Dictator, which is kind of. It's a documentary about the book that I talked about before called Blueprint for Revolution. Talked about that a couple weeks ago with Sergei Popovich about What was happening in Yugoslavia. About Slobodan Milosevic. Narrated by Martin Sheen. It's about an hour long. It's about Aptor and how they kind of work their magic over there. It's really cool. Highly recommend. It's only an hour. It's for free on YouTube. Link is in the show. Notes. All right, apps and doodads.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Brian.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We got our MacBook M4 airs.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We did. I love the bigger screen because I had a 13 before and this is. I got the 15 this time, which is great because I don't really get much time up in the office with the wraparound cool Samsung monitors that we both have. So to have the extra screen real estate when I'm just sitting downstairs and trying to bash some stuff out is fantastic. Other than that, I feel the same way as I felt for most of my Apple upgrades recently. Which is. Huh. Yeah. Works.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It works.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's can't. I haven't noticed much of a difference. My M2 that I had was pretty fast. I upgraded memory and hard drive. They're not really hard drives anymore, are they? Ssd. Ssd. So I have more of both of those. So I have less errors and less concerns about storage. Other than that, it's a beautiful little machine and it's not that much different. And within about, oh, I don't know, two hours, I forgot that I was even working on a new system.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love mine. I love mine.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I loaded it with 32 gig of RAM and a 2 terabyte SSD because I needed the space. But I've noticed everything definitely loads faster than my M1 Pro, which was nice. And going from the 4, even from the 14 to the 15, there's a definite difference. It's nice to have the extra real estate. Absolutely. The only thing that bugs the shit out of me is there's. It's bigger. So there's. The trackpad is just fucking ginormous. So my watch hits the side. I got to take my watch off every time I'm going to use it for more than five minutes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I think that that's the one thing is like my muscle memory. Just because it's a bigger trackpad. Bad. It's like I. It's different. It's just slightly different.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I find myself mistyping a lot more. So I have to get used to that, which I have four different keyboards that I use throughout the day. So it's another one that my muscle memory has to kick into. But I have to say I miss my SD card reader already. It was really nice having that built in.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, just get yourself a nice little deck to plug into and you're good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what I have to do now though. I have to go buy another goo ga doodad just so I can plug in my SD cards. Back to Dongle Life.

[C]

Life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

For us. I found out that when I send back in my. My M1 Pro is part of the trade in program, I get to keep the power supply from that which is. Yeah, it's nice because it's MagSafe too. So I get like basically an extra hundred dollar power supply to work with the. Oh, the Air.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That was actually one of the things I did want to mention about my Air upgrade. The new power supply has, has two USB C ports in it, which is great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, I didn't get that one. I got the Unified because you can.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Plug, you can plug in your. You know, if I just take that with me now, I can plug in my laptop and charge my phone. It's phenomenal.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but your, your phone, your laptop charges slower, so whatever.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, you can't beat physics. I know, I know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, what else we got?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Apple has not abandoned its previously rumored plans to release a less expensive Vision Pro. According to Bloomberg. Mark Gurman reports in the Power on newsletter this weekend that the company has two new models in development. One that's lighter and cheaper than the first gen and one that would tether to a Mac, meaning the ones that the rest of us are going to buy. While Apple had once considered the latter setup for AR glasses, it shifted the idea over to the Vision Pro so it can create an ultra low latency system for streaming a user's Mac display or for connecting to high end enterprise applications. The ultimate goal though is reportedly to create AR glasses that are practical and comfortable enough to be worn like regular glasses. And the next iterations of the Vision Pro are seen as steps towards getting there. Government reports that Tim Cook is hell bent on creating an industry leading product before Medican, which shouldn't be too difficult.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, it shouldn't be because they've got the, they've got the hardware chops and the software chops that Meta doesn't have. Yeah, I'm fine with tethering. That's cool with me because me too. I'm not going to be going out in public wearing that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Like absolutely not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no. I've already got a birth control personality. I don't need a birth control headset too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's still hope. So I logged into X for One of the first times ever just to check and see what was going on with. Especially with our GOG podcast. GOG podcast on X, which we never really look at, but Ilya Bezdelev from Metacast actually found our podcast way back in episode 661 when we were talking about Overcast and they had done their revamp and we were looking at other stuff. Oh yeah, he wrote us and said, we've accidentally discovered your episode 661 where you mentioned our app Metacast. It was funny AF. We had a good laugh. We shared the clip on our podcast too, where we actually take your feedback seriously. It's here, starting from 5 minutes and 59 seconds and it's over on YouTube. So I included that link in the show notes and they actually agree with us. Is like what the is the point in seeing the artwork for the show. Let's just get a list of shows.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now, whether they actually did it or not, I don't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, I have to go check out metacast and find out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, well, that's what they'd like us to do. They want us to look and mention them again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, we just mentioned them again, so we can do that without having to go look at the app. So mission accomplished, Ilya. Mission accomplished. And Spotify was down this week. Did you miss them at all?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, because I mostly switched over to Apple music on the ladies on the tube, so I did not notice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, me either. I don't use. I. I use Spotify like Once in a blue moon when I'm in my car sometimes. But since I edit podcasts all day long, I never get to listen to music anymore. So. Yeah, I, I gotta say though, so far this year, Daniel ek has sold $239 million worth of his stock, which, you know, maybe he could have used that for infrastructure, I don't know, to keep the site up or indie artists. Yeah. Cause that's a lot of merch that indie bands have to go sell to make up for that Spotify has ruined. So. Thanks, Daniel.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Thanks, Dan.

[Jason DeFilippo]

At the library.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The Society of Authors have published an open letter calling for UK Secretary of State Lisa Nandy to hold Meta accountable for possible copyright infringement regarding its LLM llama. Three signatories include successful British authors Richard Osman, Kazu Ishiguro, Val McDermott and Sarah Waters. So this is kind of the same thing that's been going on here with Sarah Silverman and everybody else. So authors are banding together and saying, hey, hold on a second. Come on, we know you used our stuff. You didn't pay us, you didn't ask us. Let's do something about this. Will anything happen? Probably not, but it's good to see them across the pond going after it as well.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What's interesting is I was thinking about this the other day. They have a simple way to fight back against these things. Look, if you say that our work is not worth anything, make your AI without it and tell me how good it is. If it doesn't work without it, then it must have value. So, ergo, pay me, bitch. Yes, that's it. That's how you do it. And you're done.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And Amazon is going to start using AI as well to generate recaps for book series on Kindle. This new feature currently could make it easier to get into the latest release in a series, especially if it's been some time since you've read the previous books. The new recaps feature is part of the latest software update and the company compares it to previously on segments you can watch for TV shows. Short after the feature rolled out, users talked about on social media wondering if Amazon is using generative AI to write the series summaries. And they are.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So good luck with that. You know what? I actually would appreciate even more than that. Amazon. I have signed up for notifications from authors a gazillion times. I never, ever get them. I don't need to remember what was going on in the series. I need to know when a new one comes out. That would be peachy because I used to go to a bookstore and there they would be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, it is. So, you know, you know the ones that I get, I get one every 10 minutes from Brandon Sanderson, who shits out a new book every day. I get one from nobody else on my list and I know that they've released books and it drives me mad. And I can't get rid of the Brandon Sanderson one no matter. No matter how many times I unsubscribe.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My guess is publishers have a back end and they've made it the publisher's responsibility to go in and send these notifications. They're not doing it internally. That's just a guess. I have no idea. But it would certainly explain it because publishers are useless.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. No, no. Bummer. Oh, well.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I got a note from David. Well, I think we got a note from David Schachner over on Blue sky, and he said, I recommend you read the Warehouse by Rob Hart, if you haven't already. And it's about he hears us talking about people working at Amazon and not being able to. To afford anything from it. So I went and picked up the Warehouse by Rob Hart is a great book. It is a fantastic book. It's a near future book about what Amazon could be if run by a psychotic demagogue like it is. It literally is just an extension of what what Amazon could become in the future. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It was good. It was really good. I liked it. Then I picked up Blood in the Machine. The Origins of the Rebellion against Big Tech by Brian Merchant.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm about 10% into it. Love it so far. It is. It's kind of a history of the Luddite movement and like an actual historical telling. It's not right. It no pull. It just tells you the truth about what it was not all the that everybody's come to believe. So I, I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. It's one of the. It's kind of dry, but that's what I'm looking for in a historical book. Sometimes I would just want facts. Just the facts, ma'am. And I was tipped off to another book coming out called the AI how to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily M. Bender and Alex Hanna. It's a smart, incisive look at the technology sold as artificial intelligence. The drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner and why it's crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power hungry actors at work and in the world. So I could just read the news that we talk about every week, but I think I'll just get it all in one go in one book. So I pre ordered that that comes out next month. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And finally it's Easter weekend. So I would be remiss if I did not mention the best Easter book that one person could ever, ever read. And is Lamb the Gospel According to Biff Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. The best book on Jesus ever written. And I'm including all of them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I will. Including the Bible. Yeah, no, I 100% agree with you. I would just say that it doesn't need to be Easter. This book can be read anytime. It is one of my all time favorite books. It is probably the book I have bought the most because I have bought this and just handed this out like Pez to friends like left, right and center. I was like, you got to read this. You got to read this. I. I bought this book at least 35 times.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Me too. One of those ones. Yeah, it's just, it's always the go to gift because it is so fucking good. And I think Christmas also is a good time to read this book because there's some.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And then you can also read his the Stupidest Angel, a short story that goes along with it for Christmas Time. Time. And we should just point out that he has a new book coming out. This one is not a noir book. So I'm, I'm very happy he's returning to his normal thing. It is called Anima Rising and it comes out May 13th.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh no, I didn't get the notification from Amazon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Neither did I. I follow him on, On Blue Sky.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I did too. I don't know how I, I don't know how I missed that. I follow him there too. Oh well, I think I'm pre ordering that right now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep, that was a good time. I also read a book. I read Lollapalooza, the Uncensored story of Alternative Rocks Wildest Festival by Richard Be and Tom Bajour. I, I think if anybody remembers, I watched the Lollapluza documentary that had just come out. I think it's the same people, so it just gets a little deeper into the stories. A lot of fun, a lot of reminiscing. I, I went to all of Lollapaloozas until they, you know, decided to fuck it up by having Metallica headline. And I was like, I'm out at that point.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But I love Metallica.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was good stuff. And I'm working through a book that I got from our from Discord. I asked for a recommendation and some people threw out some titles. And the one that caught my eye was I'm starting to worry about this Black Box of Doom, a novel by Jason Pargen. And about halfway through. So hopefully I'll have that wrapped up by the next time we do at the library, which is starting to become like a once a month segment because life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. How is it so far? Can I get a, can I get a halfway part?

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know what? I think I'm gonna have to find out how it sticks the landing. I'm intrigued. I like the Authority author's premise. I, I, But I do find that it doesn't hold me sometimes. So like I have to force myself to get back into it. But that happens sometimes. So we'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. Well, I look forward to your review. I will get get back to you on. I'm pretty sure that the Blood in the Machine, the Origins of the rebellion against big tech was probably going to stick the landing, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we kind of know how it's going.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, we know how that one. We know how that would end. But I do. I do definitely recommend the Warehouse. That was a good one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's on my list, definitely. The Dark side with Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Podcast super host Dave Bittner decodes all things cyber on the cyber wire every day. Exposes deception with Joe Kerrigan on hacking humans. Dives deep into privacy with Ben Yellen on Caveat. Breaks down industrial cybersecurity on control loop and even brings the laughs on only malware in the building. Hi, Dave. How you doing today?

[C]

I'm doing all right. Happy almost Easter.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Got a ham in the fridge.

[C]

Yeah. For me. Basically means that I've stocked up on Cadbury eggs.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yes.

[C]

Did I ever tell you guys about the time I almost died eating a Cadbury egg?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, you tell. So I was.

[C]

This is years ago. I was sitting in my basement on the couch watching TV by myself, as one does, and I unwrapped a delicious Cadbury cream egg and probably, you know, bit the top off of it, as I do. And I'm enjoying it. And then I put the other half of it in my mouth and immediately started choking on it. Oh, like, you know, eyes bugging out of your head, kind of like, okay, I'm going to die. So fortunately, I didn't lose all of my wits and I got up off of the couch and basically threw myself onto the arm of the couch to self Heimlich and it worked all right. And out came the Cadbury egg. And I'm here today to tell the tale.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But now the question being, of course, did you have a second category, egg, so you could still get your fix, or did you go ahead and re eat that one?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Did you actually just put it back in with a little.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's like an esophagus rule.

[C]

Yeah. Licked the couch clean. Sure. No, I. I think I was. There's plenty of adrenaline in my body at that point, and I wasn't. No. I no longer needed a sugary snack to lift my spirits, so. But I. I wondered, you know, in retrospect, what it would have been like for my obituary to say, choked, died while eating a Cadbury Creme egg.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hilarious.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This is why you need a legal contract with your loved ones that say, if you die in a stupid manner. Here is the official story you will tell.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, I could have forever been on those, like, wacky headstone websites.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right.

[C]

So anyway, that's my story.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we've got some new Disney news. Disney is reimagining the Walt Disney Studios portion of its Disneyland Paris park. I have not made it there yet and someday I would like to.

[C]

I haven't either. My wife and I were talking about this recently that it's definitely on our list, but.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, hold on until they finish this because they are building Disney Adventure World, which will have some new attractions. Two of them will be themed around the 1994 Lion King movie and 2009's up, with both getting their first big theme park attractions to celebrate their 30th and 15th anniversaries respectively. They reveal construction on Lion King's previously announced and unnamed ride, which it will begin in the fall. It's a log flume ride that will take them beneath the caves between Pride Rock, followed by a 52 foot high descent. So it sounds a lot like Splash Mountain.

[C]

It is Splash Mountain.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's going to be their Splash Mountain. It is fine.

[C]

Because as we. We all remember the part in the movie with the caves beneath Pride Rock, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, yes. And the rivers that they all floated down.

[C]

Right, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We all remember.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And up is just going to be a carousel kind of thing. So.

[C]

Yeah, it's one of those swing things that I put a picture of it in the show notes here. It's one of those things where you sit on the chair with the chains that hang down and it swings and it goes up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They've got that at California Adventure R already, so.

[C]

Oh, do they?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, not. It's not up themed. But they have one. Yes.

[C]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They had one of those at Great America in. Outside of Chicago, in Gurney, Illinois too, as a fat kid. I. I've never been on one because I was always terrified I would break the chains.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You didn't notice all the adults that were on it that weighed a lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

More than you didn't know. Well, I was not big kid.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not that big.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was a big kid.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've been to Chicago and seen adults, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. Yeah.

[C]

My recollection of these chain swing things is that they would often have one at our local county fair and our county fairgrounds back up to I70, you know, which is a coast to coast highway. And so they would put this swing thing like right up against the back fence. So when you went up there and you went on the ride and you're swinging around, I knew I was getting tossed into the middle of that highway when the chains failed and so not only would I fall to my death, but then I get run over Multiple times by 18 wheelers and cars. So it added an extra bit of fear to it. I don't, I don't know about these. I mean, on the one hand I'm, I guess I'm rolling my eyes a little bit about rejiggering Splash Mountain to be the Lion King, but on the other hand. Okay, it just, I guess it strikes me as being a little lazy on Disney's part to just, you know, use the same ride mechanism and reskin it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But on the other hand, it's effective these days, Dave.

[C]

Yeah, but it's a great ride mechanism. So, you know, and I just rode the Tiana Reskin, which was thought was great. So, you know, I guess I'm 50, 50 on it. The other thing, the upright, I mean, it's just an off the shelf ride to have something else for people to get on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'll spank some paint on that and call it a day.

[C]

Yeah, right, right. So, yeah, okay, whatever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In Star wars news, if you live in the uk, some good news, they're going to be re screening the original Star wars print.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can see that anytime I want via Sweden.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I've got it on my hard drive. Doesn't matter to me.

[C]

I've got it, thanks to you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. But if you want to go smell some popcorn that smells like feet and do it with a bunch of friends, you can go over to the UK and check it out because they've got a print that has been in storage for years, decades even, that's been stored at a temperature of negative 5 degrees. So it's got to be pristine and chilly and cool and brittle and very brittle. Yeah. Hopefully they bring it up to room temperature before they put it on the grill. It might be the last time it's shown, so go see it quick. But they're gonna crack it out for two screenings and they've got permission to do that, so it should be kind of fun. So link in the show notes if you want to go get the deets on that. But would you guys ever go see that again in the theater?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[C]

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. If they did this, you know, if they did like a 70 millimeter roadshow version of the original Star wars in Technicolor, I'd be there. Yeah, absolutely. I'm pretty sure I saw because like many kids of our generation, I saw Star wars multiple times in its original release and. And pretty sure that one of them I saw was the 70 millimeter version at one of our local movie palaces. But what's interesting about that is that there were multiple versions of the movie. So, like, if you went to see the 70 millimeter version, it wasn't exactly the same as the 35 millimeter print. There were some audio differences and some minor edit differences. So. So even this kind of thing is like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, which is the actual real version?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, God, yeah. What's the canonical version? I actually saw it and the first time I saw it was in Drive in movie theater in Des Plains, Illinois, in the back of my dad's convertible Cadillac. Oh, Cadillac. He had a white Cadillac El Dorado with red interior. Red leather interior was swanky. Oh, man. We had the top down and I sat. Sat on the back in the back, back seat and watch that. That was the first time I saw Star Wars.

[C]

So the surround sound was the people in the car behind you smooching. That's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

Very nice. Yeah. I'd go see this in a second. No, no doubt about it. I'd be first in line, definitely.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, they are having Star Wars. I can't. What's the event called? Star Wars Celebration. Japan is going on right now, so. And speaking of Star wars in theaters, we have news about the next two movies that will actually be in theaters. Take that with a grain of salt because we've had a lot of news about movies that were supposed to be in theaters that have just disappeared. But they've showed, I guess, a little bit of footage from the Mandalorian and Grogu, including shots, some behind the scenes shots of Sigourney Weaver in the orange flight suits, which is pretty cool.

[C]

I didn't know she was signed up for a Star wars project.

[Brian Schulmeister]

She is going to be in the Mandalorian and Grogu as something or other. So it doesn't make me wonder who, if who is the actor and that has been in like the most franchise, like sci fi franchises. Because I'm like, okay, so now she's in Star Wars. We got Alien, we got Ghostbusters, we've got Avatar, we've got Galaxy Quest. She was in Wally. She was. You know what else, man? Who, who's. Who's been in everything else except for her. It's hard to.

[C]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We need her. A real Star Trek.

[C]

I would have guessed Harrison Ford, but she's got way more than he does.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, exactly. And they announced a new movie that will be coming to theaters, I guess in about two years. It's called Star Wars Starfighter and will be starring Ryan Gosling, of all people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. Not an April Fool's joke.

[Jason DeFilippo]

A bridge too far. A bridge too far.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, I heard the news, and initially, like, I got really frustrated, and I was like, Ryan Gosling. Why? Why? Big actors. All the good stuff is like these virtual unknowns, and I was like, oh, yeah, like Natalie portman and Ian McGregor.

[Jason DeFilippo]

A good point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Those unknowns. Yeah.

[C]

Well, like Mark Hamill.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, he was.

[C]

I mean, other than Corvette Summer, of course, which.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that was after the first Wars, I believe.

[C]

Was it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that was. That was his first movie after I thought.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Harrison Ford. That was his. Well, no, he did.

[C]

He did American Graffiti.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he was American Graffiti.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. Well, Ryan Gosling ruined Blade Runner, so I don't want to. You know, he was not good in that, I don't think.

[C]

What's the name of the female lead in Corvette Summer? She was also in Ghostbusters. She was the office manager and.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, God, what was her name?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Annie Potts.

[Jason DeFilippo]

She was smoking in Corvette Summer.

[C]

She really was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

She was also in some of the. Some of the Brat Pack movies. Right. She was a Sixteen Candles. I think she was in that one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Was she?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't remember. She was in one of them. I can't remember which.

[C]

Yeah, well, if you want to see Annie Potts, as you have not seen her before, if you've only seen her in Ghostbusters, it's worth a look.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, there's this thing called the Internet, Dave.

[C]

I know. Well, I'm just saying, go Corvette Summer, Annie Potts. Just. Yeah, just trust me on this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

So I have a couple things I wanted to share. Sad, sad times here in the great state of Maryland. The last Radio Shack in Maryland is closing its doors.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My deepest condolences, Dave.

[C]

Thank you very much. There's an article here from the Baltimore Sun. A couple things caught my eye. They talk about Cindy Henning, who is the store's manager and sole employee.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, it's funny, at the very end of the article, they ask you for your phone number and address.

[C]

That's right. That's right. And they offer to give you a free battery. Yeah. So evidently, the owner of this store passed away in January at the age of 79. His son took over. They started out with a TV repair shop in the 50s, and they started carrying Radio Shack products. So they were a franchise Radio Shack franchise store, which was different from a company store, and they kept the name going until, well, I guess two weeks from now. They're going to close down, and that's that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's kind of amazing. Are you gonna go?

[C]

No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[C]

It's too far away. It's too far away.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Maryland. Maryland's like 10 miles wide. It can't be that far.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Los Angeles is bigger.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Come on.

[C]

You know that's true, but it's still a couple hours away, so I'm. Yeah, I will.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So now we know how far your love for Radio Shack will actually go, physically. And that's outside of it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If I could walk there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Can I Uber? I mean, time was.

[C]

Time was you could walk down Main street and there'd be multiple Radio Shacks. When I worked at Radio Shack, there were more radio shacks than McDonald's. It's the truth, honest to God.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, dear.

[C]

So another thing I wanted to point out that tickled my fancy. There's a group called Super 7 that has been releasing a bunch of Sesame street action figures, which seems kind of like an oxymoron's, because how action packed could your Sesame street action figures be? But as a lover of all things Sesame street, and particularly the Muppets, I keep an eye on this sort of thing. Well, they've released one that just made me smile. Ear to ear, they have released a action figure of the Alligator King. Now, do you guys remember the Alligator King and his seven sons?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Only vaguely.

[C]

All right, well, I've included. I've included a link to the video. It's a bit of a banger, I have to say. It's a good song. I'd say it's kind of a. Kind of a New Orleans jazzy kind of thing. But the animation is full of funny gags. My favorite gag is when the Alligator King takes off his crown to give to his son. The crown has his hair as part of the crown. So, like, he has no hair, but he takes the crown off and he puts it on his son. Anyway, it's funny gag, but I was curious if you got. If there were any other songs from Sesame street that you guys still find yourselves humming from, you know, from time to time. Are there things that get caught in your mind and become.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have two. I have two silent E and Ly.

[C]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Both done by Tom Lehrer.

[C]

Yes. Weren't those Electric Company?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought they were Sesame Street.

[C]

I'm pretty sure they were Electric Company bangers, nonetheless. Yeah, you're in the public library when you fall and scrape your knee but the sign says quietly so how do you cry? Silently, Silently, Silent. Ly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you're right. You're right. It was the Electric Company. Damn.

[C]

No, they're very good and they're very funny and they're Tom Lair. So they're great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I got nothing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So my kid never really got into Sesame street, so I didn't. Didn't go back and watch it a lot when. When I would have had the opportunity, when he was the right age. But there is one song that has always stuck out and I remember it from my youth, and that is, of course, the famous letter B done in the style of the Beatles.

[C]

Yes, right, right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wait, wait, wait. I have something here. I have something. Silent E actually did come out on a Sesame street album. Ha. It first appeared on an Electric Company album, but then it did come out on a Sesame street album.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Album crossover event.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. That was the crossover for Silent E. Silent E was written the year I was born. 1971.

[C]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[C]

I mean, I could be pedantic and say, did it ever actually air on Sesame Street? But I wouldn't do that to you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you would.

[C]

I think I just did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you just did.

[C]

Well, another couple that I thought of.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yip yips.

[C]

Oh, the Yip Yip. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The Yip Yip.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The Al.

[C]

The Martians. Yeah, yeah, those. Those guys are great. I love them very much. But the Ladybug picnic, do you remember that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I do remember that as I. Well, I forgot about it completely until I clicked on the link and then another banger.

[C]

Yeah, trust me, this one gets stuck in your head. They tried jump rope, but the rope, it broke. So they just sat around telling knock knock jokes. The Ladybugs 12. The Ladybug Pick a really good one. Another full of gags. But then the other thing I was thinking about, there's a song called lowercase n and it's actually very sad. It's about this lonely lowercase N who sits by itself on a hill in the middle of nowhere, and it gazes out at the night sky, lonely by itself, in solitude. And it's a very sad song. And I remember when the song would come on on Sesame Street, I would get sad for this N. It ends. The rocket comes down from space and delivers a companion N for the original N. So there is a happy ending.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Happy ending.

[C]

Thank you very much. But what I love about this is that I think it points out something about. About Sesame street, you know, our generation of Sesame street, which was. It was okay to have things on there that were about sadness and anger and loneliness and it wasn't all just, you know, happy horseshit. That that you see on a lot of other channels. Like, they were trying to. They were being deliberate about trying to address the full range of emotions that a child goes through. And I'm not sure how much we have that for kids today in the stuff that they watch and if we're better off or worse off because of it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, they absolutely do not do that anymore. You have to seek it out. And it's usually books if you want to process any deep emotions with kids.

[C]

Right, right. Yeah. I mean, think about, you know, Sesame street handled Mr. Hooper dying head on. So anyway, I. I've definitely gone down a Sesame street song rat hole here. And I love the Alligator King action figure. So that'll be. That'll be in my Christmas stocking this year.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I was. I was scrolling through the. The link that you sent, and it's got some of the other characters that they're doing, and I might. I just. My brain just flooded with memories. I completely forgot about Sherlock Hemlock.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I loved Sherlock Hemlock when I was a kid. Yes, Yes. I might have to buy that one. And of course, Super Grover. Super Grover was the best.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Super Grover.

[C]

Yeah. I have a special affection for Guy Smiley.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah. Guy Smiley.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah. Guy Smiley. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I always felt that if there was a role that Phil Hartman was born to play, it would have been Guy Smiley.

[C]

Oh, live action. Guy Smiley.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Smiley. That would have been Phil Hartman all the way.

[C]

Right. Surprised that never came up on Saturday Night Live. That would have been good. Yeah. All right, well, that's what I have this week, gentlemen, so enjoy your trip down Sesame street memory lane, and we'll see you guys next time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout out over at Patreon, we've got a new patron cat. Welcome, cat. And from the legacy tip, whatever you call it, that Brian puts together for me because I'm not very good at this. Matt, Melissa, Richard, Bobby G, Brian, Hit and Run, Michael James, Mira, and Shanna, thank you all so much for your continued support over on Patreon. And just a quick reminder, if you want to drop us a little bit of money, three bucks a month gets you the show early ad free and in high definition. And you can give us more if you want. We. We take more always. And if you want to pay for the whole year, you get a discount. Even better, you get a discount on the actual money that you said you would give us anyway. So it's everybody wins. Everybody wins. You go to patreon.com gog is what I'm saying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Except for Jason, because he can't budget.

[Jason DeFilippo]

True, true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. He just spends that money like it's going out of style.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Anyways, over at PayPal on health insurance.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Come to Canada, my friend. Over at PayPal we've got Shari, Natalie, Arcadio, Nathaniel, Andrew Sloan and Linda. Thank you all so much.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Over at the Tip Jar we've got Sean and Theodore. And nobody bought any merch this week. Boo. And no reviews.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Boo. Boo. And somebody died. Boo. Boo. Chad would have appreciated this because he was a happy laughing man. This one hit me pretty hard. Jed the Fishgold AKA Jam Fisham. He was one of the pioneering Los Angeles DJs on Kroc. I grew up listening to him. He spent 34 years on the on the influential Los Angeles alternative radio station. He introduced me to so many of the bands that I loved as when I was a teenager and still love to this day. He passed away at 69 from lung cancer which had only recently been diagnosed. He first joined Krock back in 1978 when it was still tiny struggling FM station back in Pasadena, breaking punk rock, alternative and new wave bands before anybody else. And he was there for decades, obviously. He left in 2012 finally. But then he came back and he was doing the HD2 station. So I got to hear him every now and then from here. When I, when I was able to do that before they geo fenced everything because they're and I couldn't listen anymore. I've included a few clips that just kind of reminded me of them. I can't believe we talked a little bit earlier about how things used to fly back in the day that would never fly anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This 1997 Kroc calendar commercial that he made made you absolutely would not be able to make anything like that currently. It is hilarious. He also had a website, DJ J Jed the fish.com and I included the link there where there's some of the audio clips from him on the show back in the day. He was awesome. He was nuts. Nobody was quite as crazy as he was and just massively influential. He will be missed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

He will be missed. Yes. I, I, I, I couldn't believe he was 69. He was older than I thought. I thought he was like our age.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But yeah, I mean he started in 78 at Kroc. That was a long time ago, man.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I would have been seven years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Old, you know, I, I was five.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So there we go. So there you go. Until next time. I'm Brian Schulmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to Grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show 693693 Jesus. Want to keep the grumpiness alive? Toss a few bucks our way at GOG Show. Donate every penny helps keep the show on the air. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes, and everyone in between and we'll love you forever. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us and other show fans. Got thoughts? Feedbacks? Cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show Contact. And hey, don't forget, forget, leave a five star review at GOG Show Review and we'll read it on the air. Oh, and guess what? We've got GOG Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG Show. Stay grumpy.