699: TACO 2025

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks - Episode 699: TACO 2025

Release Date: May 30, 2025

Hosts: Jason DeFilippo, Brian Schulmeister, with Dave Bittner

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1. Personal Updates and Week in Review

The episode kicks off with Jason and Brian sharing personal challenges from the past week. Jason discusses losing a major client due to relocating his office and highlights his frustration with Spectrum's non-prorated billing policy upon cancellation. Additionally, he touches on personal hardships, including health issues affecting friends and family.

Notable Quote:

• Jason DeFilippo [00:38]: “Lost my biggest client moving out of my old office, which means they want all the monies.”

2. The Overuse and Misinformation of AI

A significant portion of the discussion revolves around the pervasive integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in everyday technology and the resultant misinformation. Both hosts express their frustration with AI's ubiquity, noting that even simple searches now yield AI-generated, often inaccurate responses.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [02:11]: “We’ve killed the entire Internet. We might as well not have it at this point, because the Internet is as reliable as my drunk uncle was when I was 12.”
• Jason DeFilippo [02:56]: “Is it AI taking over the world? No, it ain't.”

3. Political Commentary: Trump and Social Media

The hosts delve into the ongoing "Taco Tuesday" meme targeting former President Donald Trump, discussing its impact and potential repercussions. They express concerns about Trump’s mental state and speculate on possible internal manipulations within his operations.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [03:28]: “They’re definitely entering their around and find out phase.”
• Jason DeFilippo [04:22]: “There’s somebody over. I mean, it could be the…”

4. Social Media Policies and Legislative Actions

Brian introduces a new segment titled "Completely Fucking Intended Consequences," analyzing Meta’s (Facebook) recent policy changes. They criticize Meta for reducing content moderation, which has led to an increase in violent content and harassment on the platform.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [05:17]: “Facebook saw an uptick in violent content, bullying, and harassment…”
• Jason DeFilippo [06:14]: “If you never take down any content, you’re not gonna make any mistakes.”

The discussion extends to legislative measures in Texas aiming to ban social media for individuals under 18, mirroring Florida’s previous restrictions. The hosts debate the effectiveness and potential privacy concerns of these age verification laws.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [11:17]: “A Texas bill that would ban social media use for anyone under 18 recently moved past the Senate committee.”
• Jason DeFilippo [13:08]: “Maybe when you cast your first vote, you can actually make your first tweet…”

5. Cryptocurrency and Legal Troubles

Jason recounts a harrowing crypto-related crime in New York City, where two men kidnapped and tortured an Italian man to extract his Bitcoin password. He connects this incident to broader issues within the cryptocurrency world, including Trump Media’s controversial investment in Bitcoin.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [07:29]: “They used a luxury SoHo townhouse to force him to reveal his bitcoin password.”
• Brian Schulmeister [10:22]: “[Trump Media] is just diving all in on it.”

6. European Regulations and Online Content Control

The hosts shift focus to Europe, discussing Germany's proposal to impose a new 10% tax on major online platforms like Google and Facebook. This move is part of a broader trend where several countries are enacting taxes on digital service revenues to hold tech giants accountable.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [16:42]: “Germany could impose a new 10% tax on major online platforms such as Google and Facebook.”
• Jason DeFilippo [17:47]: “Trump will chicken back out.”

They also touch upon the European Commission’s crackdown on porn sites like Pornhub for failing to implement adequate age-verification measures, despite these platforms only requiring users to confirm their age via a simple button click.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [17:46]: “The EC suspects the porn sites have breached the Digital Services Act.”
• Jason DeFilippo [18:28]: “We cannot help if they’re liars.”

7. AI Developments and Corporate Moves

Jason and Brian discuss recent developments in AI, including Anthropic’s introduction of web search for free Claude users and the addition of Reed Hastings, co-founder of Netflix, to Anthropic’s board. They criticize the reliance on AI for accurate information, highlighting repeated failures in delivering reliable content.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [19:27]: “Anthropic brings web search to free Claude users.”
• Brian Schulmeister [20:27]: “If you can't beat them, destroy them.”

The conversation also covers X's AI Bot Grok, particularly its contentious interactions with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Telegram’s $300 million partnership with XAI to integrate Grok into its platform.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [23:34]: “Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene picked a fight with Grok this week.”
• Brian Schulmeister [25:03]: “Telegram will earn 50% of the revenue from XAI subscriptions…”

8. Entertainment Reviews and Recommendations

The hosts share their thoughts on recent entertainment releases. Brian praises "Lilo and Stitch" for its family appeal, while expressing disappointment over the cancellation of popular series like "Wheel of Time" by Prime Video. They also touch upon Martha Stewart’s documentary, "Martha," critiquing its portrayal of her persona.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [29:04]: “Lilo and Stitch opened last weekend and made the most money out of any movies.”
• Brian Schulmeister [32:26]: “Wheel of Time has been canceled by Prime Video after three seasons.”

9. Business Misreporting and Show Promotions

Jason and Brian address a humorous mishap where Rocket Reach inaccurately reports Grumpy Old Geeks' annual revenue as $3 million and misattributes employee details. They use this to highlight their own business struggles despite producing a popular show.

Notable Quotes:

• Brian Schulmeister [38:11]: “GOG show info on Rocket Reach inaccurately lists our revenue.”
• Jason DeFilippo [40:53]: “We suck at business. We make less than minimum wage.”

They briefly promote their other show, "Schmacters," and lament the lack of new Patreon subscribers, urging listeners to support their endeavors.

10. Graduation Stories and Personal Reflections

Towards the end, the hosts share personal anecdotes about their high school and college graduations. Dave Bittner recounts his son's high school graduation, highlighting a disappointing Kermit the Frog performance by the principal. Jason reminisces about his own tumultuous graduation experience, involving being barred from walking the stage due to a failing grade.

Notable Quotes:

• Dave Bittner [62:41]: “My youngest son, Jack, graduated from high school yesterday.”
• Jason DeFilippo [65:42]: “I was in the principal's office with my dad after I had to take summer school.”

11. Technical Glitches and Outlandish Content

The episode concludes with a humorous segment where the hosts engage with Dave Bittner’s role in another podcast, interspersed with playful banter about Star Wars fursonas and fictional AI features.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason DeFilippo [73:12]: “The perfect fursona for me is a full-body Wampa costume.”
• Brian Schulmeister [75:29]: “Sing me a song, Mr. Piano Man.”

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Conclusion

Episode 699 of Grumpy Old Geeks offers a blend of personal stories, in-depth tech and AI discussions, political commentary, and lighthearted banter. The hosts provide insightful critiques on current technological and social trends while maintaining their signature grumpy humor. Notable issues such as AI misinformation, social media policy changes, and legislative actions are examined with both skepticism and wit, making this episode a comprehensive and engaging listen for tech enthusiasts and casual listeners alike.

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Listen to the episode and join the conversation: Grumpy Old Geeks Episode 699

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Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What a fucking week, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They all are these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I just wanted to say thank you for doing the heavy lifting this week. It has been, it's been one of them. One of them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No worries. If I haven't seen a lot of stories from you by like Tuesday or Wednesday, I know they're not going to come. Or if they do, it'll be very last minute. So I try to fill things out for you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I appreciate it. Yeah. Here's a quick rundown of the week. Lost my biggest client moving out of my old office, which means they want all the monies. Oh, and get this, Spectrum. I canceled my Spectrum Internet yesterday. And this is how great of a company they are. They're like, oh, well, you're halfway through your billing cycle and since California is not a prorated state, we're going to have to charge you the whole, the whole amount. I'm like, well, no, technically you don't have to. You could be a good company and just charge me what I actually use. But no, since they're not legally obligated to. They're going to you. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, and they kind of have a basic monopoly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, you know, and so we, we got the business side of things. Yeah. Just in the shitter. The. That's lovely. Oh, and yeah, some of our advertisers dried up for the show, so. Yep, got that too. Then. 96 year old mother of my best friend, breast cancer. Two people I know in recovery, brain cancer. One other person I know in recovery died of an overdose. And my other best friend is getting a stent in his heart today. So that sums up this week. What do you got, Brian?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Weather's been kind of bad. Sorry, man. Gog show donate.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's just been a fun one. So again, thank you for doing the heavy lifting this week. I did put in, I did put in the news of the week that everybody can't stop talking about AI taking over the world and everybody googling, is it 20, 25? And it's saying, no, it's not. Because we're stuck in a horrible, horrible time loop of whenever the. This is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I, I just, I, I can't with the AI AI stuff anymore. It's been shoved, shoveled into everything. It's being shove throats. You can't even be like, say, my mom and in her, you know, early 80s and fire up the old computer to look something up without getting AI responses. Now there's AI buttons on everything and it's still returning false information.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's the fun part.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That, that, that's. We've killed the entire Internet. We might as well not have it at this point, because the Internet is as reliable as my drunk uncle was when I was 12.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Here's another funny one. When I asked my roommate this morning, hey, do you find any good tech news? She's like, well, just that AI is going to destroy the world. I'm like, no, it ain't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, one can argue it kind of has.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, yeah. In what more than in so many different ways.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But hey, it's Taco Tuesday, right?

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is taco 2025, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. Taco Tuesday 2025.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's everywhere. You can't go anywhere without the whole taco meme. And it's so true. Yes. Trump chickens out for everything.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I don't, I mean, even was it Russia? State media was trolling him this week. They're like, oh, Trump is raising tariffs again until he changes his mind tomorrow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The only problem with all this trolling and I did kind of post something along the lines of there's been a lot of bad news for the MAGA folk this week. You know, Elon has left and all kinds of people are getting into all kinds of scandals, none of which will really matter or affect them because maga. But still, it's, it's. They're definitely entering their around and find out phase. So hopefully we'll find out something. The problem with, in, in my mind with the whole taco thing is this one is obviously really getting under his skin. And I'm worried because there's no adults in the room now. There's nobody to stop him if he just goes on a rampage and decides, you know what? I'm gonna burn it all down.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What do you mean? He's already done that now. He's already done that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He can do worse.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, but who? I want to know who the puppet master is over there pulling the strings and keeping him so uninformed about what's going on. There's somebody over. I mean, it could be the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He doesn't read.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but somebody.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He refuses briefings.

[Jason DeFilippo]

True, true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's doing it to himself. The man. The call is coming from inside the house.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Anyways, should we get on to the normal tech instead of the destroy our lives political.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think I need to start. You know how we had a of the week, which just became Kanye Forever, and so we had to kind of kill it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, Kanye Forever was definitely worse than Wakanda Forever.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, Wakanda fore. Kanye forever. Oh, too bad we already have show titles anyways.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And we talk an awful lot about unintended consequences on this show, but I think we need a new segment called completely fucking Intended consequences.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And that's our first story. Jason. Facebook sees rise in violent content and harassment after policy changes. Shockingly, if you decide to get rid of moderation and remove any. Any. Any policies about not harassing people or engaging in violent content, guess what they do? They engage in violent content and harass people more.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You, sir, are correct.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So that's exactly what's happened. Meta has published the first of its quarterly integrity reports. What a. What a oxymoronic name report. Yeah. Since Mark Zuckerberg walked back the company's hate speech policies and changed its approach to content moderation earlier this year, according to the reports, unsurprisingly, Facebook saw an uptick in violent content, bullying, and harassment, despite an overall decrease in the amount of content taken down by Meta. Yeah, they take down less stuff now. They're basically doing a victory lap saying we've reduced the number of mistakes we made. Let me tell you something. Let's talk baseball here for a second, okay?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

If you never fucking swing, you're never gonna get a hit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So if you never take down any content, you're not gonna make any mistakes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

True. That.

[Brian Schulmeister]

True, dad. Okay, so victory lap. Fuck you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a feature, not a bug.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know, I know. So they're saying that they've reduced their mistakes in half, while the overall prevalence of content breaking its rules large largely remained unchanged for most problem areas. Well, let's get into those problem areas then, shall we? There are two notable exceptions to that. Violent and graphic content increased from 0.06 to 0.07% at the end of 2024 to 0.09% in 2025. They also noted an increase in the prevalence of bullying and harassment on Facebook, which increased from 0.06 to 0.07 at the end of 2024 to 0.07 to 0.08 at the start of 2025. Now, you might go, my God, that's point. Just a point.001% of an uptick. We're talking billions.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Billions.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Billions. Of people and posts made every day. So it ends up being quite a lot.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, quite a bit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And this is a completely separate category from companies hate speech policies which were rewritten to allow posts targeting immigrants and LGBTQ people. I know there's supposed to be more letters on that right now, but honestly, I'm old and I can't keep up.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We're out of letters. So I think you just put a plus on it nowadays. Yeah, LGBTQ plus.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And they're also, of course, using large language models now to aid in their content moderation efforts. But as we understand from this report, there are no fucking efforts.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what they wanted. That's what they wanted.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's what they wanted and that's what they got.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Myanmar 2.0 is what we're going to call that. So it's just. It's just a matter of time. Just a matter of time. Although it might be USA 2.0 for this one. Yep, look them that way now, Brian. A shocking crypto crime in New York City has happened. Two men, John Waltz and William Duplis, are accused of kidnapping and torturing a 28 year old Italian man for nearly three weeks in a luxury Soho townhouse, all to force him to reveal his bitcoin password. New York talked to Paris and said, hold my beer, please, because what have we had in Paris? We just had. We've just had a couple lost fingers. This guy didn't lose any fingers, but he was fairly well tortured, forced to smoke crack, got a gun to. Yeah, yeah, just kidding. Air quotes. It is New York.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's New York. The mayor smokes crack there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, the mayor. The mayor does play into this one though.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Police say the victim was lured from Italy under threats to his family, then beaten, shocked with electricity, forced to take narcotics, and even dangled from a staircase, enduring relentless abuse for 17 days.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What I used to call Saturday in my youth.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Seriously, this is a night after the club. The ordeal ended when the victim escape bloodied and barefoot after finally agreeing to hand over his password. Both suspects now face charges of kidnapping, assault and unlawful imprisonment, and a judge has denied bail. Authorities are also investigating possible ties between the suspects and NYPD detectives who may have provided off duty security at the townhouse.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's right. I'm sorry, was this in New York or was this border patrol?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, this was New York, baby. Yeah. Eric was Eric Adams, the New York Mayor. One of his. One of his personal cops was the guy that picked the guy up from the airport.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like Deadpool come to life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, it's so bad. It's so amazing. In more bitcoin news, though, if you thought crypto was just for shadowy hackers and offshore scammers, Trump Media is here to prove you right. On Tuesday, Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, announced it's raising a whopping 2.5 billion from about 50 institutional investors, all to buy Bitcoin and stash it on its balance sheet. That's right. The same digital currency beloved by ransomware gangs and tax evaders everywhere is now being hailed by Trump's team as an apex instrument of financial freedom and a crown jewel asset. So, as you would expect, the company shares plunged 10% after the news broke because apparently some people who hold Trump Social or Trump Media and Technology Group stock have a brain. So suggesting investors might be a little bit skeptical. Now, Trump Media CEO says this is all about defending the company from harassment and discrimination by financial institutions. So if you can't beat the banks, just use the fakie crime money. But the thing here is it's like, yeah, we've said it from the get go. There's one use for bitcoin crime. And now the president, his company is just diving all in on it. Look, we've got the strategic Bitcoin reserve coming and yeah, it. In the. In the Trump coin. You know, we couldn't, we couldn't have planned this out any better if we'd have been talking about it for 10 years, you know?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly. Y. It's like all it takes is no shame.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's like we saw this coming.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I know. It's. It's amazing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No shame in a. An executive order.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. Yep. Well, nobody is more surprised than me to say this, but I think Texas might actually be getting something right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What? What?

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I don't say this because I necessarily hate Texas. I say this because Texas is very much the get your hands and filthy laws off me state where we can just do whatever the we want. Well, not right now. A Texas bill that would ban social media use for anyone under 18 recently moved past the Senate committee and is due for a vote in front of the Texas State Senate. Now, why is this a good thing? Well, listen to any of our shows about how bad social media is for kids.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's horrible.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's destroying them. So this bill has until the state's legislative session comes to an end on June 2, leaving roughly a week for it to be approved by both the Senate and the governor. So I'm, I'm all for this if made in the law, the bill will force social media platforms to verify the age of anyone setting up such an account, much like how Texas passed legislation requiring websites hosting porn to implement an age verification system. Now, do those actually work? That's a whole different story.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we got a whole other section on age verification systems, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

On top of that, the social media ban proposes to let parents delete their child's social media account, allowing the platform 10 days to comply with request or face a fine from the state's attorney general. Last year, Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis. Somebody else I don't particularly care for signed into law a bill that outright bans anyone under 14 from using social media and requires 14 and 15 year olds to get parental consent to make an account or use an existing account. I guess the moral of the story is here is even a, even a broken clock is right twice a day. So we'll see what happens there. Another thing that Texas is doing, they're trying to adopt an age verification law for app stores. Despite lobbying for big tech, reportedly including a personal call from Apple CEO Tim Cook, Governor Greg Abbott has signed a bill that requires app stores to verify users ages and obtain parental approval for a minor to download software or make in app purchases. Again, I agree with this, but we'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Yeah. This whole age verification thing, and I know, I know, why don't we tie it to voter registration? Because you do have to be 18 on election day to vote. So maybe when you cast your first vote, you can actually make your first tweet or like download your first app or check out your first bukkake. You know, it all comes to pass at the same day. It is like just this cornucopia of goodness when you turn 18.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Be cocky in a vote.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. Well, no beer, but it's Texas, so maybe, maybe they'll roll it back. Yeah, I don't think, I don't think.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't think anybody's 18.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I don't think it's 18 anywhere anymore except everywhere else in the world.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, I always thought, you know, why don't we die it to driver's licenses and do a blanket 16 year old thing? Even though I still think that's too young. But then the privacy advocates come out, and rightfully so, because nobody fucking maintains their databases anymore. Worries about, you know, the implications of all these companies having your driver's license on fil.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, there are technological, technological ways about that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So we'll, you know, but I don't know, there's so many different. So many different ways to get around it and they're going to do it wrong is the problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that's kind of a given.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We seem to be experimenting some technological differences so they'll figure it out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Production elements, people. GRG show. Donate.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously. Help brother out. This episode is brought to you by Deleteme. 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. You ever Google yourself and get creeped out by what shows up? Your old address, phone number? Maybe even the name of that cousin you don't talk to anymore? Just sitting there waiting for some rando with a grudge or an axe to grind? Yeah, that's not just uncomfortable, that's dangerous. As someone who's been online since the 90s and built a career in tech, privacy isn't just a preference. It's a survival strategy. And with the way data brokers operate now, your info is sold and resold like some sketchy baseball card nobody asked for. That's where Deleteme comes in. They remove your personal information from hundreds of data broker websites. So it's a lot harder for trolls, scammers, and the just plain nosy to dig up your dirt. Whether you're trying to avoid doxing, keep your family off the digital grid, or just want to reduce your exposure, DeleteMe helps you actually protect yourself in a world that profits from your details. So here's the deal. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Deleteme now at a special discount for our listeners. Get 20% off your Delete Me plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com Goggle and use promo code GOG at checkout. The only way to get 20% off is to go to JoinDeleteMe.com GoG and make sure you enter the promo code GoG at checkout. That's JoinDeleteMe.com GoG code GoG. Protect your data and be less findable. Trust me, you'll sleep better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, let's move from text. I like money. Let's move from Texas and Florida and hop the pond over to Europe.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

New Chancellor Frederick Mertz. Germany could impose a new 10 tax on major online platforms such as Google and Facebook. Reuters reported that political factions in the country stuck a deal earlier this year to pursue these fees for digital service companies. These corporations do billions in business in Germany with extremely high profit margins and benefit enormously. From the country's media and cultural output, as well as. As well as its infrastructure. But they hardly pay any taxes, invest too little and give far too little back to society. Germany's Culture Minister Wolfram Limer said of the draft rule during an interview with the magazine Stern. I remember Stern magazine when I was a kid. It had boobies in it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oooh, were you 18?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I need to show my license. Yeah. Other nations around the world have also explored and enacted taxes on online revenue generated by the largest Internet tech companies. Britain, France, Italy, Spain, Turkey, India, Austria and Canada have similar legislation to the draft rule Germany's culture Minister is proposing. If the tax has passed, Germany could of course, see retaliation from President Donald Trump's administration. Trump this week.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But then he'll chicken back out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, that's true. Then he'll taco it. Yeah, he'll schnitzel it, as they say in Exactly. And on Monday, the European Commission accused the platform pornhub of not doing enough to block underage access. Duh. Also included in the investigation are strip chat, XN XX and X videos. The EC suspects the porn sites have breached the Digital Services act, which includes child safety measures. Specifically accused platforms of lacking age restriction tools.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But there's a button, Brian, that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's a button.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It says, Are you over 18?

[Brian Schulmeister]

All four sites let EU users watch content after clicking a single button to confirm they're over 18. What more do you want from. From us?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. I mean, it says it right there on the tin. Are you over? We can't. We cannot help if they're liars.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We're not net police. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

If your population is not honorable and truthful, then that's on you. That is on you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. So pornhub added that they believe device level verification rather than on the website, is the real solution. All right, so somebody should probably implement that. Maybe then.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't know who. Who's going to implement that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, not pornhub. They don't want to do it. So we'll see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Are they going to pull out of Europe now? They pulled out of all the states that required age verification here in the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

In the us well, pornhub has a lot of pulling out. That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, let's go over to AI now. Anthropic brings web search to free Claude users see previous rant at beginning of show. Once again, another way to not get correct information from the Internet, which used to at least provide somewhat correct information now and then. If you knew how to Google Search. Thanks. Thanks. Anthropic.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's Search is dead. Search is dead. Answer is dead. It's all dead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm going to bring back Ask Jeeves. I wonder how much that IP is going for. We should bring it back, people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Probably not a lot. And here's the thing. We could just sit there in a room and just answer people's questions in real time and not, not look anything up. And will probably be more successful and accurate than most of these companies are now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And we wouldn't cost billions of dollars. We'll do it for a cool 3 million.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's all we need. $3 million. Now this one, this is just another head scratcher. Reed Hastings, co founder of Netflix, has just joined the board of Anthropic.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sure, why not?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Why not? If you can't beat them, destroy them. So you know this is the guy that took down Blockbuster. So who knows? Who knows? Well, actually I know. It doesn't fucking matter. He's just getting a paycheck. He's just going to get a paycheck.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's another.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is like Johnny, I've, you know, he, this Reed Hastings had a hit. He had one hit. He. And he's done. He's good. Let's let him go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's the old boys club. You're seeing it with the billionaires, with the tech bros now and it's just like, all right, well let's get, we got so much money, let's give this guy a couple bill now. Why not come on board and we'll give you some money for no reason whatsoever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Again, getting back to AI and we've discussed at great length, we've, we've shown, we, we've talked about almost every story that's come across the wires about people, you know, people submitting AI based stuff to in courts and how they all had errors and referenced lawsuits that didn't exist in previous cases. We've talked about students putting in papers in colleges that had, you know, completely made up. Information and reference studies that didn't exist. We know, we all know it is in the news all the time. You don't have to be us reading tech news all day every day. Everybody fucking knows this now. Everybody except for RFK Jr.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Did this news not pierce the tinfoil hat?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, President Donald Trump held an event at the White House last week to announce the release of something called the Maha Report. God, these guys with their fucking branding.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Make America Horny Again. Sponsored by pornhub.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Make America Pull out again. Anyways, A product. I wish. Never mind. I'm not even gonna go there. A product of Robert F. Kennedy Jr's new commission that's supposed to make America healthy again. But if you weren't already skeptical of the report's findings, an article from the non profit news outlet Notice should give you pause. Several of the studies. Why do you guess what happened? If they potentially. Maybe they're not admitting to it, but probably used AI to put together this report? Well, the same thing that has happened every other time and every story we've talked about on this podcast. Several of the studies cited in the report don't even exist. The notice reporters spent five days combing through the 522 citations in the report. They found dozens of broken links and studies with missing or incorrect authors. But the most damning instances were at least seven studies that simply didn't exist. Even the real studies cited have issues. The report references a paper published in the journal Pediatrics that referred to how screen time impacted sleep in children. The report paper was real, but it wasn't in Pediatrics. And it didn't actually study children. It looked at adults. And there are errors like this all through this fucking thing. The White House responded to questions about the fake studies when asked about what Notice had found during a regular press briefing on Thursday. And Press Secretary Carolyn Leavitt referred to any errors as formatting issues. As if they just put it in Microsoft Word, added an image and it fucked the whole thing up like it does for all of us.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I hate that. I hated that so much. Can you just move that image over?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. Yes. And said that those formatting issues were being addressed and the report would be updated. Levitt was asked whether reporters like this are created using artificial intelligence tools. And the press secretary told the journalist she can't speak to that and would defer to you to the Department of Health and Human Services. So as we know they used it. There's no doubt they used it. We've seen this time and time again.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep. Well, you. You want to know one instance where AI was right this week? Well, this is. This is. We're talking about X's AI Bot Grock.

[Brian Schulmeister]

This time it's right anytime you ask it about Elon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Brock hates Elon Musk.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It does. It really does. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene picked a fight with Grok this week after it questioned whether her actions truly align with Christian values. Grok flagged her support of conspiracy theories and Christian nationalism and prompting Green to accuse the AI of spreading fake news and being left leaning. Grok clapped back, saying it doesn't judge, it just analyzes facts. When asked if Green's record reflects the teachings of Jesus, the AI simply replied.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, we don't talk about her much because she doesn't really get involved with tech too often, but she might be absolutely the dumbest person I've ever known of in my entire life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, one of the worst people.

[Brian Schulmeister]

One of the worst, worst and dumbest.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. And in a little bit, there's, there's a ton of Grok news this week. Telegram has announced a 300 million dollar partnership with Xai and Grok. So if you are still a Telegram user, I don't know why you would be. Because of all the troubles that's been going on with Telegram. Well, I guess it's, I mean, Telegram signal, Tomato, tomato, you know. Yeah. So you'll be able to ask Grok questions directly from Telegram.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just what I've always wanted.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know they say that they're not going to be sharing your information unless you want them to, but of course, who knows about that? Yeah, yeah. And there's a, it's a, it's a rev share deal too. So Telegram will earn 50% of the revenue from XAI subscriptions that are sold on the platform. So there's a little bit of, a little bit of you rub my back, I rubbed yours kind of thing. So, yeah, Grok is paying Telegram $300 million to be the sole AI of the platform. Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Having said all that. GOG Show VPN.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Seriously, you can share some revenue too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Please do. Please do. And I was thinking this week, I really don't like giving Elon Musk any money at all.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But now, now when you, when you look at the economics of all the AI stuff that's going on here, every time you use AI, even if you pay for it, the companies lose money because it costs so much for them to actually, you know, respond to the prompt that you give them. And when it comes to X, they're actually using your prompts to train the AI. So here's what I'm thinking. If we all signed up for an Ex XAI account and gave, gave the old tweet, the tweeters, like eight bucks a month or whatever it costs, then we could actually sit there and flood it all day long. We could just write a bot that just puts in gibberish all day long.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You don't have to pay. You don't have to pay to use Grokman.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought to get the unlimited version.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yeah, you don't get unlimited. But if we all just go in and use our freebies.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, definitely. If you've got freebies, use those up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Go in there every single day and just ask it what it thinks of Elon about 19 times.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. And thank it. Thank it profusely, because we know that that really pisses it off. You know, if you say, I think I still have that. My text snippet for when I thank OpenAI every time for a wonderful job. Because we know that, you know, kills a couple wetlands every time you do it. Yeah. We could bankrupt these guys faster than anticipated. But we could also train Grok on what we wanted to train it on. I mean, it's already. It's already been trained on the fact that Elon's a piece of shit. So mission accomplished, everybody.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And Marjorie Taylor Greene is stupid and.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And not a Christian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I'm coming around to Grok. I think it actually might be the best one out there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It might actually be the most. The most accurate. And woke doesn't know what year it is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We'll have to test that. I'll go into and burn a few. Burn a few megawatts. Foreign. Well, I am caught up for me on Murderbot since the episodes come out at midnight last night, and I don't want to stay up until midnight to watch the show because I'm old. But I've watched the first three now, and I am enjoying it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have watched the first four now, and you don't have to stay up that late because these things go by, like, so fast. They're like. They're like. It's like a web series back in the Yahoo days.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm old. I have a kid, and I'm up at 6 in the morning.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Perfect. By 6:15, when you're done with your dump, you could be caught up to Murderbot. It took no time. I mean, episodes went by like that, but it was good. It was very good. I still like it. I'm along with it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I'm not. I'm enjoying it. So it's, as I said, it's completely tonally not what I thought it would be, but I'm okay with that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. It's a different beast altogether, but it's enjoyable. It's an enjoyable beast. Long Way Home is the same beast as all the other shows. It's a little bit slower this time. It's a little bit prettier because they're taking their time going to places that they don't normally go with a much better camera crew and camera System. So they were in Norway this week, out in the middle of nowhere, up on a glacier. And I got to say, it looks pretty on the big old tv. I needed that. Just take me away from everything that was going on this week. So it was really a really nice, relaxing watch last night. So they just finished episode five. I don't know how many episodes are this season, but it's good, it's good. I. I'm thoroughly enjoying it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, well, Disney appears to have broken their live action curse. None of those movies have been doing particularly well. But Lilo and Stitch opened last weekend and I went with the kid to go see it. It's done quite well for itself. It's, It's. It was the number one movie in the. In America, I believe, and made the most money out of any movies, even beating mission imp 7000 or whatever number they're on now. So it's. It's done well. I really enjoyed this movie. Kid obviously loved it. He thought it was great. But I, as an adult thought, yeah, this is, this is quite nice and clever and had some funny bits and definitely was engaging. It's not one of those kids movies that I like. I'm sitting in the back after I had my popcorn going. No, I stayed awake the whole movie and enjoyed it. So it was a lot of fun. I highly recommend it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, not. Not my cup of tea, but I'm glad.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't recommend reading online because of course, you know, everybody out there is pissed off. It's too woke. There's nothing woke about it. Shut the up. It's a movie. Get over it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Go ask Grok about it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Anyways, I also watched Martha on Netflix about Martha Stewart. Now, you would guess, if you had to guess, who in my household put this on, that wasn't me. It would be the wife. Yes, but it was actually quite good. I wouldn't say I came away from it liking Martha Stewart. She's a bitch.

[Jason DeFilippo]

She's a hoe.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But from what I recalled, I bought the mainstream narrative back when this actually happened in real time. I mean, I was like, oh, yeah, she did insider training and all that sort of shit. What a bitch. Turns out, nah, she really fucking didn't. Yeah, she didn't do shit other than just be a bitch. And that's kind of screwed her.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, yeah, I mean, she did cheat on her husband on their. Their honeymoon, basically.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But not illegal.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not illegal. Not illegal. And. And, you know, probably happens more often than not from guys doing it than women.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, a big part of this documentary kind of pushed the whole, like, if, you know, if she were a male CEO doing what she did, nobody would bat an eye and that think that she would be great or he would be great. But because she's a woman, she's a total. And I would argue that, actually we probably shouldn't encourage the behavior in men or women.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's the thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's the thing.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what it comes around to. It's just like, you know, I. Neither gender should act like that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, neither. You know what happens when men act like that? See our show.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Maybe they shouldn't be dicks either. You know, That's. That's all I'm saying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I am watching her new show on NBC. Yes, chef. It's not that very. Not that good of a show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, well, watch the documentary. It was quite good, and it really did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

When it came out. Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it really did make me, like, go, oh, my God, I totally had all of this wrong, because I didn't really care at the time. And I just saw the headlines.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And it's funny. She was pissed off when this first came out, and then she doubled down on it, and she's like, you know what? I'm getting good press off of this. You want to do a part two?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I don't need a part two. One. That was fine. That was fine.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Part one's good enough. Part one's good enough. But I do miss her show with Snoop, though.

[Brian Schulmeister]

What a genius pairing. Talk about revitalizing your brand.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it was so good. I mean, they were just the perfect match together. And the show was actually pretty funny, I got to admit. It got canceled way too soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And speaking of canceled way too soon, news came out this week that the Wheel of Time has been canceled by Prime Video after three seasons. I really enjoyed the show, and it got off to a strong start in 2021 as Prime Video's most watched series premiere of the year, one of the platform's top five series launches of all time. Three seasons in, the series remained a solid performer, but its viewership slipped with the fantasy drama dropping out of Nielsen's top 10 originals chart after the first week of season three while staying on the list for the entire run the previous two seasons. So they basically just said, it's not doing well enough around the world, and it doesn't justify the enormous paycheck that we're paying, which is much, much less than the rings of the r. Rings of power. And it was a much better show. Well, I guess I'll have to go read the books now. And a lot of people were saying it wasn't really following the books and driving them nuts anyways. To which I say foundation bad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I read somewhere this week that Amazon is looking to sell the rights to Lord of the Rings.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, I'm sure they want that off their pay docket. Yeah, they want to try to make as much money as they can off of it because it costs them so much. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like the. That show too, but I like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I finally got into it, but I think it's. Yeah, it's. It was definitely a little. They spent. They. They spent a little too much on that, but hopefully. Hopefully they'll finish it out before they. They sell so well.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I had three big concerts I was going to go to this year. Still Oasis, because. Wife's favorite band.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Mickey Bareni from Lush is touring her new band, the Mickey Bareni 3 MB3, or whatever they're calling. Looking forward to that. And I was going to go see Billy Joel because I've never seen Billy Joel, and that was definitely like a bucket list for me. But unfortunately, Billy Joel has canceled concerts scheduled throughout the next year following a recent diagnosis of the brain disorder normal pressure hydrocephalus, a condition that occurs when brain fluid builds up inside or around the brain, causing it to malfunction. This condition has been exasperated by recent concert performances leading to problems with hearing, vision and balance. A May 23 statement shared to Instagram reads, so I'm thinking I'm never going to see Billy Joel now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's too.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Dude's in his 70s. I think he's just gonna call it after this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I saw him 10 years ago at Wrigley Field. We took my dad for. Because my dad. It was, you know, one of his bucket list items was to see Billy Joel, too. So we got. We got. My brother sprang for the good seats on the. We actually got to sit on the field on Wrigley Field and watch. Watch Billy Joel play. And it. You know, there are. There are shows that I've seen. Not to rub salt in your wound here, but there are. There are shows that I've seen that will stick with me forever. One is the Cure, because that was one of the greatest concerts I've ever seen. Second was Billy Joel, because, God damn, what a show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, I've watched the. I think it's on. Is it Netflix? I'm not sure. They. They recorded one of his Madison Square Garden concerts.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's Right. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And it is phenomenal. So at least I've got that. I've been able to watch that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's good. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But, yeah, I really did want to see him live at some point. And obviously, you know, in my 20s and 30s, I didn't give a shit about Billy Joel. But, you know, you get older and you start to listen to the music and you go, God damn, he was good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, man. I grew up with Billy Joel. He was one of my dad's favorites. So I think, like, my third or fourth album was Glass Houses, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Had him. Had Billy Joel around forever. But, yeah, it was just a great show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wish him and his family the best. I would love it if he recovered and decided to finish off this tour, just because then I'd get to see him. But I totally get it if he does not. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Take care of yourself, Billy. You earned it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep. You sure did.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Mm. So I went back, and I needed something slow this week to just shut my brain off at night. And this. This did the trick. 1981 film called My Dinner with Andre.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Where's Andre? That's all. The name has been ruined for me by Project Runway.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's right. Andre Leon Talley. And it stars Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn as fictionalized versions of themselves sharing a conversation at Cafe de Artistes in Manhattan. It's basically just a. Two guys having a dinner chat, and one guy is like, you know, an artsy, batshit crazy dude, and the other guy's just sitting there going, this guy's artsy and batshit crazy. I enjoyed it just because I needed to listen to other people to turn off my head.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And this is one of those movies that can go either way. Either you love it or you hate it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think I. I watched it in college, and I remember I. I really did enjoy it. And then. It's not a movie you want to watch twice. Let's just put it that way. There's no reason to watch it a second time. And I tried.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I think this kind of is in the same thing. It's like, you know, you read. You. You watch this movie around the same time you're reading Atlas Shrugged.

[Brian Schulmeister]

College.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, exactly. And then, you know, it's like, whoa, mind blown. Then you're like, oh, I just have to go get a job and have my daily schlog like everybody else.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Forget all this shit.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, and Ayn Rand. Maybe. Maybe not. Again, reference all episodes of this podcast.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just saying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. I mean, I'm glad I finally watched it. I'm glad I finally. If you've never seen it, it's well worth watching.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah. Everybody should see it once.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, definitely. So, yeah, check off the list. Now, we got some news in this week, Jason. According to this link, GOG is a $3 million a year business. What do you think gave them such an idea? And this is a link over to Grumpy Old Geeks information on Rocket Reach.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right. Yeah, I was like, a slight. I might be rounding a little bit here, Jason, but I'd say that's about $3 million off.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's $3 million off. Yes. It says with over 500 episodes, Grumpy Old Geek is one. Grumpy Old Geeks is one of the long tech podcasts. We cover tech, news, media, book security and more. It's almost like. I wrote that, Brian. Oh, I did. Never mind. So it says, gives us the website, the Revenue, $3 million. Employees 2 and 1 is on Rocket Reach. Who's that? Is that you or is that me?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's me, apparently, but I don't know why.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I never signed up for Rocket Reach.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And here we go. Address, Woodland Hills, California. Maryland, 91364 US okay, I didn't know California. Maryland was a new state. So.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I gotta check and see if Rocket Reaches on delete me, because if so, they're not doing their job right now. Yeah, because I'm on here with my. I'm in Toronto, places I've worked, my college, everything.

[Jason DeFilippo]

What is the annual revenue of Grumpy Old Geeks? The Grumpy Old Geeks annual revenue was $3 million in 2025. No, it wasn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, it fucking wasn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. How many. How many people are employed at grumpy old geeks? 1 people are employed at Grumpy Old Geeks. Top it says employees two. Went on. And this is. This comes back to. This must have been vibe coded because one people are employed at Grumpy Old Geeks. Now, even back in the day, in the 90s, I would have that to be grammatically correct.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, did you look under. Where is Grumpy Old Geeks based?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That was the next one. Grumpy Old Geeks is based in California. Maryland.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, the old city. The famous city of California in Maryland.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. I don't know what an NAICS code is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, we got one. I'm sure that's wrong.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Several. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. You got seven of those codes and we have sick codes. We have. We got four of those. I don't know What? Those are either. And I'm not about to. About to give a. So. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. This is all just.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I'm just going to tell you. Hey, your phone number's up here too. I just noticed that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, it is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wow. So maybe one of the. Let's go sign in. Yeah. We did not make $3 million this year or last year or any years or cumulatively over the past 13 years, we've not made. We've not made $2 million. We've not made $1 million. If you. In the course of 13 years, we may have brought in $100,000. Maybe that's over 13 years.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So. Yeah. You know why? Because we suck at business. I think we have a great show, but damn if we don't suck at business.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I believe we make less than minimum wage.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, absolutely. I did the math on that. Totally make. Totally make less than minimum wage. Especially after it got boosted. We made less than minimum wage before the boost, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Soon enough.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Well, speaking of another show that doesn't make me any money, I just wanted to tell everybody Schmacters with James Masters, Mark Devine and me is is still going strong for season two, so go check it out. Link will be in the show notes. So I can go make less money on more work, please. I'm like, AI, the more I work, the less money I make.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Croc, Jason, I'm doing it wrong. So are they. So you're in good company.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Apps and doodads. In today's episode of Tech Companies solve problems no one had, Opera resurrects its 2017 browser flop Neon, now rebranded as an agentic AI Marvel. This browser doesn't just browse, Brian, it chats. Does and makes for you. That's right. Want a website, A game, or perhaps a sock order? Just whisper your wish and Neon conjures it up even while you're offline. Because who needs human interaction or skills when your browser can be your overachieving intern? But remember, this digital Genie does come with a subscription fee. So if you've ever dreamed of outsourcing your entire digital life to a browser, Opera's got you covered at a price.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, so I. I watched the video.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

First off, the video is stupid. It's like ridiculously bad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Terrible.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. Second, just on agentic AI for a second, we. We. Have you not listened to the show, people? AI gets everything wrong. Why do you think an agentic AI is going to do something right for you? They're going to order the most expensive socks. You said you wanted black socks. You're going to get paisley socks. This is just what AI does right now. So why do you want agentic AI? I'm sorry, you just don't. It's not ready for prime time. And finally, to the video itself as. So as an example for chat. Because they run through chat does and makes. They say. Think more. It's more like R2D2 under chat. R2D2, a Star wars droid most notably famous for not being able to chat with anyone except for Luke and C3PO. Have you not even seen the fucking movie?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think they got a summary from Grok.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The AI must have written it because R2D2 does not chat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So one thing he doesn't do.

[Brian Schulmeister]

C3PO never stops talking. Maybe that's the one you wanted to use. You idiots.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously? Good point, Brian, good point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just saying.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He doesn't chat. Nobody understands him anyways, okay? God, these people. Somebody got paid a lot of money to make that video. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Brian's gonna have an aneurysm. I shouldn't have put this one in here.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Money to make that fucking video. And somebody got very expensive to write that video.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. No, that wasn't a cheap video by any stretch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, man.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what. That's why they have to charge a subscription price.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I suppose so. I suppose so. Speaking of companies that piss me off, I no longer have access through my old company to Adobe anymore, so I'm officially an affinity photo user now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Screwdobi. Welcome to the club.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's got a learning curve, I'll tell you that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, but you can do it in a weekend.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I just haven't sat down to do it yet. But, yeah, I'm going to. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's funny, I actually, I look at my. My Doc Bar. I've got Photoshop Illustrator. Illustrator needs a new icon because it says AI. Like, it's not AI. No.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, they're trying, I'm sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you can use AI in Illustrator, unfortunately.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're probably thrilled that they have that stupid icon.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. What is it? What do they call that? Firefly. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah. Firefly.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Then I got Premiere, then I got After Effects and Media Encoder all lined up. And then right next to that, I've got Affinity photo and Affinity Designer. Because for a lot of work, I still actually use Affinity Photo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So it seems good. Yeah. Yeah. No, once you get everything set up and you kind of get the workflow going, there's some Things that it actually does really nicely. And now that it has, you know, select subject, boom. That was the big thing that made me go back to Photoshop is like, I. The select subject was really so nice. I mean, as someone who has spent, I don't know, probably five years of his very short life with a path tool in Photoshop trying to outline such a nightmare.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Zoom, zoom, zoom, click, click, click. Zoom, zoom, zoom, click, click, click, click.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, that was no fun.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And I remember Photoshop before he even had Layers. Did you work in Photoshop before there were Layers?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Remember Channel?

[Brian Schulmeister]

It was like one step above Ms. Paint.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. You could do things with channels. That was the only thing they called it Chops Channel Ops. And then Layers came out and it was just like, oh, my God, this is science fiction. And it was back then for sure was get you fire up your copy of Kai's power tools.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I loved Kai.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know. Okay, what else we got?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, Apple reportedly has said screw it, and it's jumping from iOS 19 to iOS 26.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is a fantastic move. I'm so glad they're doing this.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I am, too. The expected iOS 19 will instead be called iOS 26 to line up with the year following now. So it's going on the car model.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Unless you ask Google.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Unless you ask, it's called iOS Taco. I don't know what the fuck this thing is saying. I don't get it. Anyways, all the products from your iPad to your Mac to your Apple Watch will sport the new nomenclature and a blanket redesign. So we'll see. Their big plan is to try and unify user interface across all platforms. We should hear Apple try to explain its reasoning at the Worldwide Developer Conference 2025. They should rebrand that. It should be the WWDC 2026. Right. Set for June 9th. So apparently the UI will sport more circular bubble icons for various apps and desktops across Apple's phones, Macs and more.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Bring back skeuomorphic. I want some wood panels back on my sliders.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That'd be awesome. Yeah. So it's a. It's a. It's a smart move. It just makes sense now. I don't have to remember whatever number we're on right now, but I can't wait for year 26.25.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. What gets me is the Mac OS. I don't. I mean, I just had to look it up. We're on Sequoia right now. I'm like, that was the worst naming decision that they ever made. Okay, we're going to name it after places in California. It's like I live in California. I don't fucking know where half this shit is. And I don't know what order they're supposed to go in. Are we going north to south, east to west, left to right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, you know, would have been a really good Easter egg for lower decks because all the ships there was the California class and they were all named like the Cerritos, the cities after California. They should have named them the same as the, as the OS operating systems.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, that would have been funny.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That would have been great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I think they should have named them after the freeways. The USS 405. The USS.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It never goes anywhere.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it's just stuck.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The joke is the warp drive is constantly broken. Oh, okay. We had a couple people write in. Phil from London said same home networking issue as you. With a nest about to try and buy this. The Starling home hub. Robert wrote in Brian, don't even try Apple's home ecosystem. Too late. I tried, it didn't work. Try out home, try out HomeAssistant IO. It works with almost everything now. Thanks everybody. That's written in about this and all that. But my issue isn't so much with the controllers. There's plenty of options out there. My issue is, you know, Jony, I've has been wild away for $6.5 billion to build AI tools that nobody gives a fuck about while nobody is designing good home stuff. Like all the stuff that you can get out there is butt ass ugly. That's the only thing that nested well. All their stuff looked good, function great. What I need is manufacturers to make cool looking stuff, not the controlling parts. That's the real problem.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I would like to point out that the nest design was done before they were acquired by Google.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, which is why they're good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Because yeah, Google is where good design goes to die.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Google's where everything goes to die. Google sucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

This is true.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They don't make a single fucking good thing anymore. It used to just be search, but they've destroyed that too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, they got Waymo, sort of.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. And then I saw this. There is an official WhatsApp release for Apple iPads. It only took 16 years as WhatsApp first entered the scene. All the way back in 2009 as a matter of fact. The messaging platform predates the iPad itself, which launched in 2010. The app takes advantage of the tablet's multitasking features like split view and slide over so users can view multiple apps at once. This lets folks, for instance, browse the web as they chat with a friend. And now we're looking at you. Instagram.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say it still came out sooner than Instagram. And by the way, this multiple apps at once, it lets you slide over so you can look at your script while you're actually trying to scam the person on WhatsApp of their Bitcoin. So you can look at your script at the same time.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Much more convenient.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Much more at the library.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Dan wrote in, not much to do with tech, but it's a New York Times article about Terry Pratchett. I know you both like him, so here you go. And it's the New York Times, the Essential Terry Pratchett. I scanned through this a little bit. Jason, I see you made some notes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, it was a final note at this. I. I looked at the list. I'm like, I've read every Terry Pratchett book that I care to read and most of them twice. So. Yeah. And I kind of disagree with the list anyway, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Me too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. There was a final note. It said time was I would have included good omens from 1990 on this list. It's an excellent first approach to Pratchett's work and a personal favorite. But considering the sexual assault allegations against Pratchett's co author, Neil Gaiman, I'm not interested in sending new fans down that road. Which you just did by saying it's an excellent first approach to Pratchett's work and a personal favorite.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's one of my personal favorites, too. And yes, I understand the world that we live in now, and I have issues with Orson Scott card, But you know what? Ender's Game is still really fucking good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So it's Good Omens.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Good Omens is really fucking good.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, it was so good that I bought the Good Omens TV companion from Amazon back in the day, which is a very nice coffee table book. Now, I thought that it was a joke that when I opened up the COVID the book was upside down. Now, turns out, I don't think so. I think I got a misprint of the book.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yours is worth extra.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I have a book that's worth more from a, you know, probably soon to be convicted, whatever. Yeah, yeah. Since Neil has been thoroughly canceled, I think this book is probably just going to sit on my shelf forever. But I posted a video of it in the. It'll be in the show notes. Go check it out. And I can't find anybody else who has this book. So it's rare because nobody bought the fucking thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You might be. You might have the only copy.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I have the only copy. And it was done by hand. And the guy was drunk. He's like, you've got it. You want me to make one of these things? And he just put it in upside down. So, yeah, I think. I think I have a misprint, but because I can't find anybody else with a. With anything about it being upside down on the inside. The thing is, the confusion comes when the COVID is Azrafale on the top and Crowley on the bottom, but when you go to the back cover, they're reversed. So I'm like, oh, maybe they just did a funny switcheroo. But it turns out I. Maybe not. Maybe not. And I did. I finished the AI Con. How to Fight Big Tech's Hype and Create the Future We Want by Emily Bender and Alex Hanna. Everybody should go read this book. It is so good. They are funny. They take the piss out of AI like we would just, you know, no punches pulled. It is a. It's not like an academic book by any stretch, and it's pretty up to date. So, I mean, it's a brand new book. I highly recommend checking out this book. If you want ammo to tell your friends why AI is, you know, full of shit, this is the book to get. So highly, highly, highly recommend it. The AI Con. Go get it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. Well, it looks like we're both doing everything possible to not read Christopher Moore's latest, Animal Rising, because I didn't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

We started again last night. I got. I got another two chapters in last night.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I didn't get around to it either. Which, by the way, if I had to pick three books, three books to be stranded on a desert island with, it would be probably Christopher Moore's Lamb, which is one of the best books ever written. Good omens.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And Orson Scott Card. Also a dick Ender's game.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, now if you just throw in a CD of Michael Jackson, you're set, man.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Now that's where I draw the line. I'm not down with the Michael Jackson anymore. Anyways, instead of reading Anima Rising, I. I had started before I bought Anima Rising and before I got the gift of the. The Curepedia book, which I also tore through. I finished reading Love Sex and the Alien Apocalypse from the First Contact series by Peter Cowderon. It's the latest release he's made and it was fun. It was. It wasn't one of my favorites. But. But it got cooking a little bit and it had some really interesting ideas like all of his books do. So now I no longer have any excuse not to start reading Christopher Moore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, get on it. I'll probably have it finished by next week too. Says me Every week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We're not gonna have nat the library section next week. You know it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The Dark side.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With dav.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Podcast super host Dave Buettner 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 chuckle wuckles on only malware in the building. Hello, Dave Bittner.

[C]

Hello. So I just. I mean, found out coming into this segment that Jason spits and doesn't swallow, though.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey. Hey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, they won't know in Texas because pornhub's been banned.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So, you know, it was a cough drop. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's what you call them these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't have anyone here to give me the Heimlich in case I heiny licks.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[C]

Lozenge. Yes. Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Filthy animals. You.

[C]

We all have animals preferences, but you.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I ran across this and this. Since we don't have any new Star wars news this week, the CIA secretly ran a Star wars fan site from over at 404 Media. Have you guys got a chance to get caught up on this one? Is this. Were you caught up in the. In the dragnet?

[C]

Well, I. I assume that I was. We talked about this earlier this week over on Cyberwire and. Yeah, I mean, I. I think it's safe to say that I probably participated. CIA fan site. Why wouldn't I have? At the time when fan sites were. What you did, this story made me think about how don't really go to these sites anymore. Everything's of course, you know, been platformed and all that kind of stuff, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. I actually have like, I do have one folder of bookmarks that are small little sites like that, like Yesterland, which is about Disneyland history and stuff like that. But in general, there's very few sites like this that I would visit anymore. At all.

[C]

Yeah, it used to be a regular thing to make the rounds, you know. Oh, what. What are people saying over on the Star wars site or the Disney site or the. Whatever your favorite band was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But I guess it's all websites mean nothing anymore. It's just social media updates.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Dead Internet theory, man. It's coming true.

[C]

So my understanding with this story is that the CIA was indeed running the Star wars site, among many other sites that ran which were similar sort of fan sites, and they used them as ways to communicate with agents in the field. Allegedly. On this one, if you put some particular term into the search dialogue on the website, that would give you access to something, that is it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Friday.

[C]

There you go, Taco. Try again. And they used it well, I'm going to say successfully. The dark part of this story is that evidently the Iranians caught on to the use of this site and that ended with, I want to say, like a dozen folks in China who were CIA contacts ended up dead.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, now our government just outs them outright.

[C]

Yeah. So I guess it worked great right up until the moment that it didn't.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Until it didn't.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Seriously. Jesus.

[C]

Yeah, but other folks have commented that this is all run of the mill sort of stuff that the CIA does and has always done and probably is still doing and makes sense.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But was it a good fan site? As long as it was a good one.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. Who cares?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Who cares who does it?

[C]

But the other thing too is they're saying that the CIA had bad opsec. Like if you went in and reverse engineered this site, they were kind of sloppy about leaving breadcrumbs back to themselves.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They left a little comment like program by CIA.

[C]

Yeah, that sort of thing. Probably not. Probably not. Advised CIA rules. You know, that's sucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Vibe coded by Eric Snowden.

[C]

Yeah, but this was a while ago, so, you know. But yeah, it's fun. It's interesting to think about. And of course it feeds everyone's paranoia as to what degree are things being monitored and all that good stuff. But turns out the good old days.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Before we thought our phones were listening to us and it was just fan sites. Yes.

[C]

Merely websites. That's true. That's true. That's a really good point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Well, a couple weeks back, we talked about the fact that Kermit the Frog was going to be giving the commencement speech at your alma mater, the University of Maryland. I have included a YouTube link to the full commencement speech. Did you happen to make it down there, Dave?

[C]

I did not make it down there. And honestly, I've been avoiding watching this. You posting this in the show notes. As I was doing my prep for today's segment, I gave in and I watched it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Delightful.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's delightful.

[C]

But I don't like it. That's not entirely true. I love the idea of it. I love Kermit the Frog. I love the idea of Kermit doing the commencement. As I mentioned to you all before, it's not the first time he's done it. I saw him do it along with Elmo probably 20 years ago. A really neat experience for me. I got to meet Kevin Clash, but I watched this and it just leaves me cold. Like I've said many times before, it's like if I was a huge Beatles fan and all that was available was a Beatles tribute band, right? That's how I feel when I watch this. Kermit. It's not Kermit. It doesn't move like him. It doesn't talk like him, it doesn't ad lib like him. It looks like. I mean, it's the shell of him, right? I mean, it is the puppet and I love to see the puppet. And Kermit makes me happy, like few other things in this world do. But watching this, I guess it's the definition of mixed feelings because again, I love the idea of it, but it just leaves me feeling kind of sad.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think the video greatly suffers from not having any of the crowd noise at all. Like, you get no reactions, you get no cheers. You get nothing. Nothing. It's just the speech and that makes it really dry.

[C]

And he does a sing along of Rainbow Connection, which sort of feels flat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because nobody else is singing. You can't hear them.

[C]

You can't hear them. But I noticed also in the crowd shots, you don't really see many people singing, which makes me wonder to what degree do these graduates even know that song?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right? That's true. That is a long time ago now.

[C]

I mean, it certainly got a lot of attention. I guess we can transition into our next topic here. My youngest son, Jack, graduated from high school yesterday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Congratulations.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Congratulations.

[C]

Thank you very much. It was a delightful day, a wonderful event. Our graduations here locally take place at Meriwether Post Pavilion, which is a storied.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Many a band I've worked with is played there.

[C]

Yep, yep, yep. So it's really neat for the kids to be able to be on that stage and all of us to be there. But my son's principal actually did a Kermit the Frog bit where he started off by saying that he was able to pull some strings and have Kermit the Frog speak at the graduation and everybody leaned forward in their chairs, like, really? But it was just a bit. There was no Kermit. There was. You know, what I really wanted was one of the assistant principals to run out, like in a Kermit the Frog, full body costume. Right. Just disgusted that he'd been made to do this by the principal. But, you know, nobody asked me to help contribute to the writing of the bit, so kind of fell flat.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[C]

But it was really nice. I have to say there were a couple times during the ceremony that I actually got chills of sort of parental pride. And also just one of those life moments where you're thinking to yourself, yeah, this is happening and I'm happy to be.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Big, big milestone.

[C]

Yeah, it really is. So our youngest son. So we are officially through with the public school system, which we've had very good experience with, where you're lucky enough to live in a place that has a very good public school system.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You got out before it goes away.

[C]

Well, my wife and I are like, okay, you want to redistrict, go for it. We don't care anymore. But no, we had lovely weather and just nice seeing friends and family and all that sort of thing. I'm curious for you all. Of course, this got me thinking about my own high school graduation. And I'm curious, how much do you remember your own high school graduation?

[Brian Schulmeister]

None. Nothing. Not. Not a single thing. I barely remember my college graduation. I remember my college graduation. I was pissed because the keynote speaker was just a previous president of the fucking college. They couldn't even get anybody. Interesting high school graduation. I don't remember at all. The most memorable part of that entire process was we had what we called grad night. And it wouldn't be this segment if we didn't tie it back to Disneyland. And Grad night was when they shut the Disneyland park at 6pm for normal people and local students would be bussed in for the nighttime there. So I really remember grad night at Disneyland. I don't remember anything about my high school graduation. It was also boring because it was just on our field, on the school field. We didn't go anywhere. They just brought a bunch of chairs up into the baseball diamond, football field or whatever. And.

[C]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about you, Jason?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, my Russian studies teacher gave me a 64 instead of a 65, which meant I failed Russian studies, which was the last course that I needed to take before graduation. So they didn't let me graduate and I had to go to summer school and I had to take typing in summer school. And they wouldn't even let me walk down. The dude wouldn't let me walk with a blank, a blank diploma. So they were. They were just total about it. So my graduation was me in the principal's office with my dad after I had finished my class in summer school with my dad, with the. The principal handing my dad the diploma and trying to shake his hand, and my dad saying, you grabbing the diploma and walking out of there saying, this place.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That was my graduation.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[C]

I mean, you did create a memory.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I do have a memory. That principal did die of a heart attack in his driveway, so karma's a.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, you asked.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I. I don't remember mine at all, so I'm not sure who got off better there.

[C]

My memories are mostly from photos of the event.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I do have photos. I've seen them. I know I was standing with my friends at the time who I'm not friends with anymore, but.

[C]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, it's. Yeah. So I have, like. Yeah, I guess my memory really is a photo. That's about it.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I do have a photo of me in my cap and gown and my grandmother there because she was all excited to be able to see. See me, you know, walk and get my diploma, which then she didn't get to because the principal said, no, he can't go, and she had to go home without seeing it. So me holding a cake and sad grandparents. And this is right after my grandfather died a few months prior. So, yeah. Yeah.

[C]

So it had gotten that far that it was touch and go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. No, I had the cap and gown and the whole nine yards and ready to go. And they said no, because for one point, you spent 13 years in the public school system in one point by one asshole, because the guy just didn't like you. And he wasn't even there for three quarters of the semester because he was out sick. And it was a substitute teacher the whole time. He just rolls back in and says, no, I think you're gonna have to. You can't take it. I'm like, you know what this means, right? That I'm not going to be able to graduate on time? He's like, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, well, Jason, you know what your anger has done? It has actually jogged a memory of my high school graduation now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Your anger has. Has ignited my anger that I've forgotten about for however many years it's now been since I've been outside of high school. I had the highest GPA in my. In my graduating class, and I should have been the valedictorian. Well, they did not let me be the valedictorian because I had dyed my hair purple. I had pierced ears. I was goth, punk rock, industrial kid. They didn't like the way I looked. So they gave the valedictorian to my friend Angel PI, who had the second highest gpa and she gave me a shout out during her speech.

[C]

And her name was Angel Pie. Yeah, that's a great name.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Our graduation stories pretty much sum up everything that is this show. Brian, who's the almost ran valedictorian, who grew up in the happiest place on earth, and the guy who couldn't even walk down the aisle and had to graduate from typing out of a summer school.

[C]

Yeah. Wow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The typing served you well.

[C]

I mean, I did split the middle.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I rode my skateboard the whole time. Yeah, because even they know it's like the. The people that were in typing in summer school were the people that you would expect to be typing in summer school. So it was just kind of like, just show up, sign the book, and do whatever you want and don't tell on us.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I feel like we've definitely established that Dave is the normal one here.

[C]

Here. Well, I. I was going to say more. I'm way more down the middle. I. I was a solid B student, and that's all. I did not care about getting good grade or great grades. I cared about getting good enough grades. And for my parents, that was. If I got A's and B's and an occasional C, fine.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[C]

But the reason I went to school was for all of the performance stuff, for the theater stuff and the. The musical stuff. And that's what kept me going to school. So everything else, it was the girls for me. Well, that's true, too. Yeah, that's true too. Well, and back to pictures of the graduation. Several of the pictures that I have are of me and my girlfriend at the time, who, boy, I was. I wish I could. I wish I could have been a better boyfriend for her than I was.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are you saying you were batting out of your league at that time?

[C]

I was saying I was a teenage boy who thought he had it all figured out and only later in life realized how little he knew and knows and wishes that he had treated her with more respect and less smug superiority.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Ah, fair.

[C]

That's my.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I feel that way about quite a few people in my past.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So that's the one that stings the most in terms of, boy, what a jerk was I. But, you know, time goes on and you learn and you grow and hopefully you become a better person. So here we are. But the other specific memory I have is that I did sing at our graduation, and I put a link to the song that I sang, which is the Billy Joel song called I've Loved these Days, which is a, you know, perfect, perfect graduation song. And I was that guy who, when there was something to be sung at a high. At a high school. High school event, they would wheel me out, I would sing the song, and that would be it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Dave, you and I would have kind of gotten along, but I would have distanced myself from you in those days.

[C]

Yeah, I could.

[Brian Schulmeister]

God, here he comes again. We're gonna get another song.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. You would have shunned me for how clean cut and by the rules I was, but, you know, we probably.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I would have been there. Just try the Bailey's Irish Cream. You'll like it. It's super sweet.

[C]

That's right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a good entry drug.

[C]

We would have secretly been crushing hard on each other, but never been able.

[Jason DeFilippo]

To admit it's like a lady hawk.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I saw him. I saw him across the quad wearing a stormtrooper T shirt. And I knew. I knew.

[C]

We knew. I saw his purple hair, and I knew it could never be. It could never be.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I can't let them know I like Star wars, but the attraction is real. It's like a tractor beam.

[C]

That's right. It's pulling me in. Speaking of Star Wars, I can't believe it's taken this far for me to have. Or this long for me to have this realization about what my true fursona could be. I'm dragging this into the show notes. The perfect fursona for me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There's two real Star wars options that leap to mind.

[C]

All right, let me see if I can get this to work.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think we've established Jason would be the rancor, though.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, yeah. Not what I was expecting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Not what I was expecting either, but.

[C]

Right, Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[C]

I mean, come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, you're a bit more cuddly than that, though, Dave.

[C]

I am, but I could be a cuddly. This is for our listeners who can't see.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was gonna say, please explain.

[C]

So this is a full body wampa costume. So this is someone wearing. It looks like he's got, like, maybe drywall, you know, stilts to make him taller than he otherwise would be, which I would totally need because I'm not that tall, but yeah, I mean, this just combines. I was looking for a fursona wampa, where I. How did we not think about this? It's perfect. Perfect.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, we did not think about it because we generally don't sit around going, I wonder what.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I wonder what Dave is Wearing right now.

[C]

Wow.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, I did it in high school, don't get me wrong.

[C]

That's right. And I would think to myself, God, could I get over the smell of cigarettes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They were cloves back then, so.

[C]

Of course they were. Of course they were. Oh, because you're so mature.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I knew I had it all figured out. Just like you, Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, see, I just assumed you'd be wearing your. Your fox head or your stormtrooper helmet we bought you.

[C]

Well, that's the thing, right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Stormtroopers are not furry.

[C]

This is.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, but that's why they're not. It's not 50. 50. What's Dave wearing today?

[C]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, this. This isn't that far off from the foxhead, really.

[Jason DeFilippo]

True, true. It's not blue, though.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I gotta say, though, I. You know, I had a. I had you more pegged as an ewok.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, you know, I. I think that's offensive, Brian. I do think that's offensive.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, it's gonna be a wookie. You know, Dave doesn't rip people's arms off.

[C]

No, no, but he.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was thinking more tauntaun, but.

[C]

Oh, you know what?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I want to slice him open. Is that what you're saying?

[C]

I love those costumes of the tauntauns where the person's legs go through the tauntaun so it looks like they're riding taunton like that. I love those. Those, I think, are just adorable.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We're missing something obvious.

[C]

What's that?

[Brian Schulmeister]

The singer from Jabba's band.

[C]

The skinny mouth. Yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think that. I think it was kind of furry.

[C]

I mean, I could be size noodles. That's the guy playing the piano. But no.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Sing me a song, Mr. Piano Man.

[C]

Right. I could be a very tall Ewok. You know, the thing is, some of the jawas were quite tall. They're taller than you think.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Unclear if they were furry. We don't really know what's under there.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No.

[C]

And I don't think anybody really wants to know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My son asked me the other day. I'm like, I don't know and I don't want to.

[C]

No, I think they've made it pretty clear some, along the lines that whatever's under those cloaks, you don't want to see.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There was some sort of, I think, early conceptual drawings, and they were frightening. Like, I seem to remember that. I'll see if I can dig it up for the next show. Oh, there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Look at that. I just threw it. I just threw in an image in the. In The. The group chat there with the. The Tauntaun sleeping bag, which I always thought was cute. Yeah.

[C]

The best part of it is that on the inside, it has the intestines.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. You can see the guts.

[C]

That is. I mean, that's attention to detail.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I hope it smells.

[C]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, if you Dutch oven yourself in the middle of the night, it's good. Yeah. Give the kids some beans.

[C]

Absolutely. All right, well, I'm gonna run along and. I don't know what, grab somebody and stuff them in an ice cave and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. We'll try to spend some time with your son because he just graduated high school and you may not be seeing him for a while, at least until he needs laundry done.

[C]

That's true. Or food.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[C]

Yeah. All right, guys, talk to you soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bye.

[Jason DeFilippo]

See you soon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bye.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout out over at Patreon to continue with this week's, you know, death spiral into nothingness. No new Patreon subscribers. Boo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Boo.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Boo. But from the old days, we have Jason, Carl, Brian, Charles, Lisa, Greg, William Patrick Smith, and David. So thank you all for your continued support of grumpy old Geeks. We thank you so much. You have no idea.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, a trickle is still coming in. So over at PayPal, thank you to David, Judge, Charlie, and Jonathan. We really appreciate it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really appreciate it. And over at the Tip Jar, we've got Jennifer, Tony, Adam, and Michael. Thank you all so much. Now, just to reiterate here, if you go to patreon.com gog you can help support the show for as little teeny tiny bit as $3 a month. And if you sign up for the whole year, you can even get a discount. But you give more if you want. Please. Pretty please. Pretty please with the sugar on top. Or you can go to shop GOG show and pick up some merch, which nobody bought this week, so you're having a week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. No reviews either. Yeah. Fuck me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I want to wish a happy birthday to friend of the show, Mike. And until next time, maybe this could be it. I'm Brian schulmeister.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to grumpy old grand geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 699. 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 for it. 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 Content contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG Show Review and we'll read it on the show. Oh, and guess What? We've got gog merch snag your grumpy gear now at shop.gog show. Stay grumpy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I just want to point out really quickly, our Discord has pointed out that if you go to search for search at Google right now and ask if it's Friday, which it is, it says no, today is not Friday. Today is Saturday May 30th. And this is what we're trusting everything in now. These days, people.