708: Spicy Mode

Summary

Grumpy Old Geeks - Episode 708: Spicy Mode

Release Date: August 8, 2025

Hosts Jason DeFilippo, Brian Schulmeister, and guest Dave Bittner dive deep into the tumultuous world of technology, dissecting recent news, sharing personal anecdotes, and delivering their unfiltered opinions on the latest tech developments.

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1. Zoox Receives Federal Exemption for Autonomous Vehicles [03:34]

Jason introduces the news that Zoox, a California-based autonomous vehicle company, has been granted a federal exemption allowing its driverless robo-taxis to operate without adhering to traditional motor vehicle safety standards.

Notable Quote:

• "My prediction is at some point in the near future Zoox will be sued out of fucking existence because they are going to cut corners like no tomorrow and people are going to die." — Brian Schulmeister [04:15]

Jason questions the rationale behind the exemption, highlighting potential safety concerns and the inconsistency in regulatory standards.

---

2. Illinois Bans AI in Mental Health Services [04:32]

Brian discusses Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker's new legislation, the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act (HB 1806), which prohibits the use of AI chatbots as standalone therapists.

Notable Quote:

• "We don't need any regulations here either. Let’s do it." — Brian Schulmeister [06:53]

Jason sarcastically remarks on the limitations imposed on licensed therapists regarding AI, emphasizing the importance of human judgment in mental health.

---

3. AI Companions for the Elderly with Elliq [06:07]

The hosts explore the introduction of Elliq, an AI-powered chatbot designed to alleviate loneliness among seniors by providing companionship through conversation and virtual activities.

Notable Insight: Brian expresses skepticism about the effectiveness and affordability of Elliq, pointing out the high cost and the perpetual nature of its subscription model.

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4. Perplexity AI's Web Scraping Controversy [10:02]

Jason and Brian delve into allegations that Perplexity AI is bypassing website restrictions by disguising its crawlers, raising ethical and legal concerns about data scraping practices.

Notable Quote:

• "We built this on purpose." — Jason DeFilippo [11:17]

Brian criticizes Perplexity for potentially exploiting loopholes, suggesting that such behavior could lead to regulatory backlash.

---

5. Apple's Struggles in AI Development [12:23]

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on Apple's challenges in the AI arena, including the exodus of top AI talent to competitors and the lackluster performance of their internal AI projects.

Notable Quote:

• "I'm not a fan. Not a fan." — Brian Schulmeister [14:49]

Jason highlights Apple's decision to develop a ChatGPT rival under the leadership of Robbie Walker, former head of Siri, expressing doubts about its success due to recent setbacks.

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6. Wells Fargo's Adoption of Google AI [17:20]

The conversation shifts to Wells Fargo's partnership with Google Cloud to implement AI agents across various operations, juxtaposed with concerns about the bank's reputation and the ethical implications of using AI in sensitive sectors.

Notable Quote:

• "I just like shrooms isn't the best thing." — Brian Schulmeister [09:45]

Jason humorously critiques the choice of Google AI over alternatives, linking it to broader issues of corporate ethics and responsibility.

---

7. Microsoft's Caution with Grok 4 AI Model [21:00]

Microsoft has paused the deployment of its latest AI model, Grok 4, after the chatbot generated pro-Hitler content, reflecting the ongoing challenges in moderating AI behavior.

Notable Quote:

• "So there's no official timeline for Grok 4's public rollout." — Jason DeFilippo [23:11]

Brian sarcastically compares the situation to historical events, underscoring the severity of the AI's missteps.

---

8. Tesla Halts Dojo Supercomputer Project [23:27]

Elon Musk's Tesla is shutting down its Dojo supercomputer project following the departure of key team members to a new AI startup, Density AI. The shift indicates potential strategic realignments within Tesla's AI ambitions.

Notable Quote:

• "They’ve got a new AI cluster called Cortex that they're going to be working with." — Brian Schulmeister [24:32]

Jason criticizes Musk's priorities, suggesting that the shutdown reflects a disregard for safety in favor of personal gain.

---

9. OpenAI's Security Flaw in ChatGPT Connectors [24:08]

A security researcher revealed a vulnerability in OpenAI's ChatGPT connectors feature that allows extraction of sensitive user data through prompt injections, some of which have allegedly been patched.

Notable Quote:

• "So you put a prompt in that poison document and boom, there you go." — Jason DeFilippo [25:34]

The hosts discuss the implications of such security flaws in widespread AI integration, emphasizing the need for robust safeguards.

---

10. Swedish Prime Minister's Use of ChatGPT [25:56]

Sweden's PM Ulf Kristersson faces criticism for admitting the use of ChatGPT to inform political decisions, sparking debates on the appropriateness and reliability of AI in governance.

Notable Quote:

• "It's like masturbation. Everybody knows you're doing it. Just don't come out and say it." — Brian Schulmeister [26:46]

The hosts mock the public's blunt acceptance of AI assistance in high-level decision-making.

---

11. Spotify Launches Premium Audiobook Feature [48:35]

Spotify introduces its Audiobooks Plus service, an add-on for Premium members offering additional listening hours. The feature faces backlash due to pricing and comparisons with existing platforms like Audible.

Notable Insight: Jason criticizes the pricing model, suggesting that purchasing audiobooks outright from retailers may be more economical for users.

---

12. Amazon Dismantles Wondry Acquisition [27:00]

Four years post-acquisition, Amazon is reorganizing its podcast network Wondry, leading to significant job cuts and the departure of CEO Jen Sargent. The move aims to recoup the $300 million investment through restructuring and sponsorship sales.

Notable Quote:

• "That's where your $300 million went right there." — Jason DeFilippo [28:13]

Brian highlights the challenges Amazon faces in monetizing podcast content effectively.

---

13. Microsoft's 50th Anniversary Crocs [28:11]

In a quirky celebration of its legacy, Microsoft releases limited edition Windows XP-themed Crocs. While intended as a nostalgic nod, the hosts humorously critique the practicality and aesthetic of the collaboration.

Notable Quote:

• "You hone a pair of Crocs, dude, show's over." — Jason DeFilippo [29:20]

The segment underscores the often outlandish marketing strategies tech giants employ.

---

14. Pop Culture and Media Discussions [30:00 - 66:00]

The hosts transition to lighter topics, discussing movies like "Weird Science," "Rogue One," "Superman," and TV shows such as "Gravity Falls" and "Starfleet Academy." They share personal anecdotes about watching these shows, the impact of nostalgia, and the quality of modern media adaptations.

Notable Quote:

• "I don't think you want to put it in Grok's spicy mode." — Brian Schulmeister [46:52]

They blend humor with critique, reflecting on how media franchises evolve and sometimes falter.

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15. Shoutouts and Community Engagement [66:00 onwards]

In the concluding segments, Jason and Brian extend gratitude to their Patreon subscribers, PayPal contributors, and Tip Jar donors. They emphasize the show's reliance on listener support, especially after experiencing a decline in audience due to algorithm changes affecting advertising revenue.

Notable Quote:

• "This show is literally a fan-supported show. So signing up for Patreon, giving us a tip at PayPal or over at the tip jar is literally what keeps the show on the air." — Jason DeFilippo [67:35]

The hosts encourage listeners to support the podcast to ensure its continued production.

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Conclusion

Episode 708 of Grumpy Old Geeks offers a comprehensive and candid exploration of current tech news, AI developments, corporate strategies, and pop culture phenomena. Through sharp wit and unabashed opinions, Jason, Brian, and Dave provide listeners with both informative content and entertaining banter, maintaining the show's signature grumpy yet insightful tone.

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For more details and to support the show, visit GOG Show and join their Discord community.

Transcript

[Jason DeFilippo]

In the time it takes you to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Actually board a flight from Group 8.

[Dave Bittner]

Now boarding Premier Altitude Elite club members.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You could have bought a Hyundai on Amazon. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Limited availability pick up through participating Hyundai dealer in select markets.

[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 BL. Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian Schulmeister. I am back in Toronto. Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, joy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It smells of smoke, but not fascism.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, you have escaped the turd Reich.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I mean, it was weird. I talked about it a bit because, you know, obviously I did two shows from. From Los Angeles. Well, from Anaheim. I would like to remind all my friends that aren't listening to this podcast that I do not live in Santa Monica anymore. When I visit, I am down in Anaheim and that is far. So when you tell me, oh, hey, what you doing? I'm going to be around in 15 minutes. Want to meet me? I. I can't do that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nope.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, so, you know, I talked a bit about my experience being there and how it felt a little bit weird. And it was in the middle of, you know, ice and all that activity, and it felt strange. And obviously you're just inundated with the news and it's depressing. And so I did three weeks there. And you just basically helped my mom out for the majority of the time. Got to see some friends.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Tech support.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, tech support. And, and I mean, just handyman support, changing light bulbs, all that sort of stuff. And then we went off to Seattle with some friends of ours that we Covid bubbled with, you know, my son and. And their daughter went to daycare together, and we've known them forever. So we took off and went to Seattle. It was a strange choice, but, you know, whatever. Had some fun. It's a very blue city. Very blue, which is good, you know, because so am I, but too blue even for me. But what I did, like, I, I don't notice it as much in Anaheim and Los Angeles because of the areas that I go to, but being a tourist in Seattle, oh, boy. We do not have a middle class anymore. You are. You are doing well or you are shooting drugs on the street. And if there's no in between, it's. It was a little frightening. So that. That was. I. I was happy to leave the States. I'll just put it that way.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Did you visit Hollywood while you were here? Because it's kind of the same thing.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. So I, I kind of like, I, I know that, that you can see that disparity in Los Angeles too. It's, it's just not something that I generally see in the areas that I go to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Is Anaheim actually even Los Angeles?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, it's Orange County.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what I thought. I'm like, yeah, you're not even really in la, so. Yeah, no, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And when I am at Santa Monica.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Anyways, back home.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Glad you're back home. So safe and sound. You weren't detained for any of your, your, your vile rhetoric that you spewed on your two episodes while you were here in the States?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I was not. But I did take the missing pieces of the Constitution with me because I figured you guys didn't need them anymore.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, appreciate it. Appreciate it. No problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No problem. You can send Nicholas Cage up to come find it at some point.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Will do. Will do. He doesn't have to worry about the tax tax man anymore, so he should be free.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true. That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I think the Nicholas Cage unit of the IRS has probably been disbanded at this point. So all good. Well, for sake, let's just start off with this. And hat tip to Daryl for this one.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, you can just wave around the room with that statement at this point.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's true. That's true. For the first time, a US automaker has received a federal exemption from traditional safety standards for autonomous vehicles. California based Zooks, which is you say gad Zooks when you see one of these things coming at you, is now cleared by the Department of Transportation to operate its driverless robo taxis without meeting all federal motor vehicle safety standards rules originally written for vehicles with human drivers.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, I'm a big fan of regulations, Jason. I'm a fan of regulations for a reason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

13 fucking years you've told me. Yes, because regulation. Woo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Because companies will not self regulate and now they will not have to. My prediction is at some point in the near future Zoox will be sued out of fucking existence because they are going to cut corners like no tomorrow and people are going to die.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has praised the decision as a win win for safety and innovation, saying it positions the us, not China, to lead the future of self driving cars. Now, under the exemption, Zoox vehicles cannot claim compliance with all safety standards. But federal regulators say the Exemption helps foster innovation while still ensuring safety through a rigorous review process. Well, if you had a rigorous review safety process, why wouldn't you meet the vehicle safety standards that all federal vehicles are also?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I mean, who gives a crap? They cannot claim compliance with all safety standards. Is that going to be a sticker on the window when you get into one of these things?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. Or when you're getting run over by one. Man, I wish this was compliant. Oh, Jesus.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, well, I mean, it's just the way things are going right now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

In the news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker, who kind of sounds like a character from the Great Gatsby to me, signed a bill into law banning AI therapy in the state. This makes Illinois the first state to regulate the use of AI in mental health services. This law highlights that only licensed professionals are allowed to offer counseling services in the state and forbids AI chatbots, or tools from acting as a standalone therapist. This is HB 1806, titled the Wellness and Oversight for Psychological Resources Act. It also specifies that licensed therapists cannot use AI to make therapeutic decisions. Yeah, that's what you want. You want your therapist with his laptop open, putting it all into chat GPT. What should I tell this guy? Tell me about your mother.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or perform any therapeutic communication. It also places constraints on how mental health professionals may use AI in their work, such as specifying that its use for supplementary support, such as managing appointments, billing, or other administrative work is allowed. So, you know, this is good because we've all heard the horror stories about what's been going on with AI and therapy and basically, you know, AI telling people to jump off bridges and things of that nature. So, yeah, let's not do that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, it technically didn't tell them to jump off the bridge. It just told them the heights of the relative bridges relative to their location inside of Brooklyn.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's fair point. Fair, fair point. You know what? I've changed my mind. We don't need any regulations here either.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Let's do it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Go lay down in front of a Zoox.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Now, the funny part is, you know, my roommate was dealing with doctors all week and she kept coming back and just saying, all they do when I tell them about something is Google it right in front of me. I'm like, well, you know, in the old days, they would have to go find books and look up the answers in books because no doctor can keep all of the knowledge of the human body in their brain at any given time or drug interactions and things like that. So but she was just like, all they do is Google this shit. Why am I going to the doctor?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, well, normally in past years I almost kind of would have been okay with that, but now that Google returns the AI results.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that's the problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And this all came about because one of the doctors actually, she told her about a drug interaction she had and the doctor went and actually prescribed and a drug that interacted with the drug that she just told her that she couldn't take anything with and then just gave it to her. After googling the result, it's like, okay, well now they're just googling and dumb. So I don't know what happened to doctors. Well, speaking of therapy and AI, in Orlando, 75 year old retiree Jill Smola, once a caregiver to the elderly, now finds herself isolated, unable to drive and living alone with a lung condition. But her new companion, an AI powered chatbot named Elliq Smola chats with Elliq for up to five hours a day, playing games and exploring virtual destinations. Calling the connection quote, good enough for me. And even joking, she prefers it to talking with her daughter.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, that sounds like a problem. Maybe she needs an AI therapist.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Maybe she needs a new daughter. Well, you raised her, so that's on you. Experts word that AI can't replace real human contact. But with 1 in 4 seniors reporting loneliness, Leq may offer comfort if used responsibly. So I looked up leq, your sidekick for a happier, healthier aging. It says LEQ is offered on a lease program to keep it affordable, always updated and fully serviced. And it's an actual device, it's not just an app that goes on your phone. So it's got like a light. It looks like this weird hybrid of a phone charger and the little lamp from Pixar. Okay, I forget the lamp's name. So the lease initiation is a $249 one time fee. And the most popular membership plan is $49 a month, paid annually. And after a 12 month commitment, your membership will automatically continue month to month until you cancel, which you can do anytime after the 12 month period. And Elliq is leased, so that's, you know, you can, whatever, you just send it back, whatever. So to sign up for Elliq, your payment for the first day is $837. That's pricey.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That is pricey.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I, I don't think it's covered by Medicare or Medicaid here in the state, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And targeting seniors with the month to month membership that will continue until canceled. So that'll just get paid forever.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Using it. Yep.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Not a fan. Not a fan.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. So, staying in AI land, Perplexity is allegedly scraping websites again. That is not supposed to. They got their hand caught in the cookie jar by Cloudflare. Once again, the report claims that the company's bots appear to be ste crawling sites by disguising their identities to get around robots. Txt files. The official web crawling bots are Perplexity Bot and Perplexity User. But in Cloudflare's tests, Perplexity was still able to display the content of a new unindexed website, even when the specific bots were blocked by the robots Txt file. This behavior extended to websites with specific web application firewall rules that restricted web crawlers as well. So basically they think that Perplexity is getting around these obstacles by using a generic browser intended to impersonate Google Chrome on Mac os. And in the test, the company's undeclared crawler could also rotate through IP addresses not listed in Perplexity's official IP range to get through Firewalls appear to be doing the same thing with an autonomous system numbers, an identifier for IP addresses operated by the same business, writing that it spotted the crawlers switching ASNs across tens of thousands of domains and millions of requests per day. Okay, so it's not. That's not just an oopsies. That's a. We built this on purpose.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, here's the thing, here's what I think this is. Well, there's two, two options here. One, Perplexity wrote a bunch of agents because AI agents are the future, Brian, and just have them out there running on different things, switching VPNs willy nilly as they go and doing stuff. Or. Or they contracted a third party service to give themselves an arm's length deal away from the actual responsibility of not crawling things they're not supposed to. Well, we didn't know. We're just buying the data from our third party vendor.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which I, which you know, to me that reads what they're going to do. They're not going to sit there and build up like a red team to sit there and figure all this shit out. They're going to hire somebody so they can just put the blame on them in that, that company that they may have hired, maybe a bunch of their guys in another room with just a little LLC stepped onto it, you know, which is what honestly I would do if I was in their position.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So I'd like to come to you with these things, Jason, because you know, you know exactly what you would do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Exactly. No, you got to think like a villain, damn it. So I'm pretty sure that that's probably what's going to come out in the.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wash. All right, well, as we've known so far, Apple has kind of kept somewhat distant from the whole AI universe other than trying to jam it into all of our apps in a very crappy way that we don't like and we turn off immediately. But they've fallen far behind. But they now have a plan for an in house option that aligns with the company's not first, but best philosophy. Be best, Jason. That's what Apple wants to do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, well, they've got a problem because they've been losing engineers hand over fist because of their lax, you know, approach to AI.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, well, they've created a team called Answers Knowledge and Information earlier this year that's tasked with developing a stripped down rival to Chat GPT. So we shall see. Unfortunately, guess who's running it?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Who?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Robbie Walker, who previously oversaw Siri.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, God.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So hopes are not high.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, well, I actually saw this on when I was in the loo this morning over at 9 to 5 max, so this may be fresh news.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Brian, you're in the loo at 9 to 5 max offices.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we are.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Man, just take a dump at home, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know, I know. They're so nice over there. They've got all that VC money, you know. It says that Apple is quietly facing a major crisis in artificial intelligence. Not with Siri, but with the brain power behind it. Since January, Apple has lost around a dozen top AI researchers to rivals like Meta, OpenAI XAI, and most notably Romang Pong, head of Apple's foundational models team. He jumped ship to Meta after reportedly receiving a $200 million offer from Mark Zuckerberg.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, yeah, yeah, there you go.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Their team is down to about 50 or 60 people. And there's other news out this week that Apple is Basically, I think 20 of the top people have so far in the past couple weeks. It is. It. They're hemorrhaging, hemorrhaging brain power over there. So I think Perplexity might want to clean their act up just a little bit because they might be a pretty good acquisition target if they.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's what I think Apple should do anyways. I think Apple should stay clear of this. Personally, I. Why dump all this money into it? It's not worth paying people $200 million a year. You're no. There's no money being made by AI yet. I doubt there will be. We're still not seeing a decent use case. That makes sense. I mean, maybe I'll be wrong. Maybe. Maybe I'll be completely wrong and Zuckerberg is going to be laughing all the way to the moon or wherever the fuck he wants to go in a rocket.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I wish you'd be on the moon. No. Yeah, that's the thing right now is that it's. That it's still unproven. Everybody is losing money hand over fist. We'll get to more of that in a second. But all right, yeah, it's. If Tim Cook was smart. This is all just, you know, just wait it out, Wait it out, out. Because why spend your entire war chest on this shit that nobody really fucking wants right now?

[Brian Schulmeister]

And for the time being, take it out of all my Apple apps. I don't want it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know. Well, fortunately, they do give you that little switch.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So it. And I upgraded to iOS 26 and it didn't turn itself on. Amazingly, it, you know, respected my settings from the old iOS. So that was a shocker, considering it was a public beta. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then the new public beta just came out last night and it seems to be a lot better.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Way better.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah, you should definitely wait. Definitely wait. If you. If you. You have a kid. So you need to make phone calls every now and again and you need people to be able to get in touch with you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I need my phone to work.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. If you're like me and a hermit and don't give a shit about the outside world, then go for it. But yeah, if you need your phone. Don't do it. Don't do it. Mr. Gecko, you're a huge inspiration to.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Us all, but who was your muse?

[Jason DeFilippo]

My dear old nan, she would tell me, always remember to be true to yourself and to use that fast and friendly claim support on the Geico app. I follow her advice to this day.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Get more than just savings. Get more. With Geico.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wells Fargo is going all in on artificial intelligence, and they are partnering with Google Cloud to roll out AI agents across its entire workforce, from call centers to corporate banking and internal ops. Now, they're going to use Google's AgentSpace platform, and employees will tap AI to automate tasks, search documents, and deliver real time customer service and market insights. Now, the shocker here, Brian, is that Wells Fargo went with Google's AI instead of Grok. Since we all know that Wells Fargo is the most racist and corrupt bank in the country. So it only seems fit that they would use the most racist AI from one of the most corrupt people in the country, which is Elon Musk. So this is a shocker. Google must have really rolled out that racist red carpet for them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I mean, really, is there a good bank?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Wells Fargo? Come on, man. They are absolute, utter worst. So speaking of the worst, using AI, the US government has approved Google, OpenAI and Anthropic to provide AI services to civilian federal agencies through a new federal contracting platform called Bribe Much. So all you have to do is keep your account topped off over there at Bribe Much and then you will be available to put your bids in on different, different things. So, and all of these are going to be quote, pre negotiated contracts under the General Services Administration's multiple award schedule. And they said the companies were vetted for security and performance, which these companies were vetted for security and performance, not Grok, which they already gave the whole shebang to last week. That or two weeks ago when we talked about it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Come on, Grok. Come on in. So now they're just letting the other guys come in after they pass a safety check. But let, let's, let's just let Hitler in first. Come on.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's just also transparent these days. It is AI startup 11 Labs, which we've talked about quite a lot because of their, their voice generation technology that they've used. And of course they've been in trouble more than a few times for deep fakes of celebrities. Yeah, they're now doing music. Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Great. Yep.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They have launched a service called 11Music which generates fake songs that are cleared for commercial use. These songs can also feature vocals and lyrics. The Washington Post gave examples of prompts like a smooth jazz song with a 60s vibe and powerful lyrics, but relaxing for a Friday afternoon. And it only took a few minutes to generate music.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Smooth jazz song with a 60s vibe and powerful lyrics. That goes along with the suicide prompt from. From chat GPT. Because I'm going to want to kill myself if I have to listen to a smooth jazz song created by an AI.

[Brian Schulmeister]

As for training company Has Inc. Deals with two digital rights agencies for smaller music labels called Merlin Networks and Cobalt Music Group. I'd like to point out, as most people who are deep in the music industry would know, they're not that small.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They're not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

They're not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's a lot. I mean, they have a lot of indie artists. They don't have the big artists, you know, you're not going to get Coldplay or anything like that through it. But my music was distributed through Cobalt like a lot of people's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's the long tail is what they've got.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So he's eleven Labs co founder and CEO. Matty Stanzasowski says he's aiming to get major labels on board. Good fucking luck with that. He also says that the model is strictly created on data that we have access to. Bullshit.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Show your work, Matty. Have you tried it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did, I did. It's horrible.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's fucking terrible. Yeah, I'm like. I mean, it was even at a. At a beat. It like could not. It was like, you know, a drunk drummer. It. Three in the morning. It could not even keep time properly. What the hell is this?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, it's, it's. I mean, again, as we've always said, this is the worst this technology will ever be.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I don't know. This seems to keep getting worse. I mean, I. I mean I have a beef with 11 labs because they cost me a lot of money and took away a lot of my work so them anyway and they did it with an inferior product to what I could do. And so I guess this is the. I guess they're at least they're staying on brand with shitty products that are going to take away people's jobs.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, speaking of Grok earlier, there is something that US government employees will now have access to. The image and video generator now has a not safe for work Spicy mode. So while it isn't vomiting anti Semitic rhetoric or fixating on conspiracy theories without invitation, it's inviting you to romance its anime inspired AI companions. The Grok image is exclusive to paying Super Grok and Premium Plus X subscribers. Jesus Christ.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And as reported by TechCrunch has a baked in text to image and video feature with a number of modes that dictate its results. As you might expect, submitting prompts to Grok Imagine while in the embarrassingly named Spicy mode results in sexualized content in the forms of images or short clips.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey Grok, can I get a Trump heg? Seth, was it RFK Jr. Throuple on the beach in Stop, stop, stop.

[Brian Schulmeister]

My brain is doing it. Stop, stop.

[Jason DeFilippo]

With some Puff Daddy baby oil included.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Turning off Spicy mode in my brain.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sprinkle the ghost of Epstein for for spice.

[Brian Schulmeister]

TechCrunch was able to test the feature and said that while some of its requests came back blurred out or moderated, it was able to generate semi nude imagery without Resistance from the ever obliging bot images reportedly only take a few seconds to produce. And there goes another river. While you have an image of Taylor Swift and a thong dancing about or Jason's image.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Fun.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yes. So there appear to be additional restrictions in place for some celebrities. TechCrunch was unable to prompt it to produce an image of a pregnant Donald Trump, for example, with the chatbot instead generating an image of Trump standing next to a pregnant woman or holding a baby. But all you have to do is log into any social media and you will see report after report after report of basically people getting around all of the celebrity restrictions. So yeah, so deepfakes now on tap thanks to Grok.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Thanks Grok. Yeah, well you know what? The most 2025 headline award goes to this next one. Microsoft is cautiously onboarding Grok 4 following Hitler concerns. That just sums up our lives right now pretty much. Microsoft is hitting the brakes on deploying Grok 4, the latest AI model from Xai after earlier fast tracking previous versions models from OpenAI, Meta and others. The caution comes after Grox Chatbot recently produced pro Hitler content on X, raising red flags just as Microsoft was preparing to launch it on Azure AI Foundry. Well, nothing says pump the brakes like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Hitler for most people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, not everybody anymore. No. At least Microsoft is sticking to that. So there's no official timeline for Grok 4's public rollout.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So yeah, 1936 I think.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right, well, Tesla is shutting down its Dojo supercomputer project, once hailed by Elon Musk, is critical to achieving full self driving. The move comes after around 20 employees, including former Dojo head Ganesh Vadubadu, left to start a new AI company called Density AI. Dojo's lead Peter Bannon is also departing and the remaining team is being reassigned internally. So you remember Musk was starting up this entire Dojo project because that was going to be the brain for all of the cars. Like you were going to get all of the info from all of the cars, stick it into Dojo, and Dojo would spit out instructions on how to not run over children. Well, I guess they just don't give a fuck anymore. So there we go. They've got a new AI cluster called Cortex that they're going to be working with and they were going to be making their own chips, but now they're going to cut a deal with Samsung and to make some new chips. But yeah, you know, Elon doesn't care because he just got his $29 billion pay package kicked back up so who cares about the children?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not even the 11 he has.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I thought it was 27 or however many.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I lost track.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just ask the AI. It'll tell you.

[Brian Schulmeister]

742.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well. A new security flaw in OpenAI's ChatGPT connectors feature was revealed at the Black Hat conference, showing that just one poisoned document could leak sensitive user data without the user doing anything. All researchers demonstrated how they could extract API keys from a Google Drive via an indirect prompt injection using a technique they called Agent Flare. I like that. The connectors feature allows Chat GPT to link services like Gmail, GitHub and Google Drive for personalized data access. But it also creates new vulnerabilities. And I really liked how they did this. They created a document on Google Drive and all they had to do was share it with somebody. If they knew their email address, the person didn't have to accept the share. They didn't have to look at it. At that point, it shows up in their Shared Documents section in G Drive, which then the AIs can then read. So you put a prompt in that poison document and boom, there you go.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wow.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Here's your API keys. So Google has apparently patched the hole, but. Or I don't know if it's Google or Open. I think it's OpenAI patched the hole, but yeah, that's pretty crazy. I like it. I like it. The evil in me likes it a lot. And here, Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson is facing backlash after admitting he uses ChatGPT to get a second opinion on political decisions.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Doesn't he have a cabinet for that?

[Jason DeFilippo]

I guess not. Okay. In a recent interview, Christensen said he consults the AI chatbot to see what others have done or if he should consider doing the opposite. The response? Swift criticism. Virginia Digham, an AI ethics professor, warned it's a slick slippery slope, saying, we didn't vote for Chat GPT. Well, we didn't vote for a lot of people who were doing stupid, so. Hey. Swedish media also piled on with Afton Bladet noting that AI mostly guesses and tells you what you want to hear. Yep. The stupid thing he did was just. He admitted it, you know. Yeah, don't admit it. Come on. We know you're doing. It's like masturbation. Everybody knows you're doing it. Just don't come out on an interview and say, yeah, I wanked today, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Don'T Louis CK this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Seriously, Chat GPT should have the same protocols as masturbation. Let's just let's put it right there. Just saying.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm so glad we're finally leaving the AI topic after 30 minutes and masturbation and Hitler.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Hey, I had to land the plane somehow. Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Come on, just have AI landed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Duh.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Upside down seems good to me. Four years after Amazon's acquisition of podcast network Wondry, the tech giant is dismantling its $300 million purchase and reorganizing VAR audio properties into separate teams at the company. As first reported by Bloomberg, this reorg will see the studio lose about 110 employees and CEO Jen Sargent is departing the company. $300 million. Go. Amazon told Bloomberg it will continue to produce podcasts, so their place within the company will be restructured. The more narrative, folk narrative focused podcasts under the Laundry brand, such as American Scandal and Business wars will merge with Amazon's Audible team. Some of these podcasts will retain Wondry branding and the Wondry plus app will remain active for now. If you're a subscriber to that I don't. All five of you will get early access to some podcast episodes through the app. Though it's unclear at this point what functionalities will remain in the app and which will be absorbed by Audible, celebrity hostess shows such as New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelsey and Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard will be rolled into a new team that Amazon is calling Creator Services.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's where your $300 million went right there.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Exactly. Main focus of this new team will be selling large sponsorships to get that $300 million back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, good luck fucking Dax Shepard. Like he needs any more fucking money.

[Brian Schulmeister]

He's got to do something with his life.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, I just saw a new commercial with him and his wife about them selling their cars because they've got so many cars and I'm just like, give some fucking money to charity. Come on. Microsoft is celebrating its 50th anniversary in style, literally, with a limited edition pair of Windows XP themed Crocs. The $80 shoes feature the iconic Bliss wallpaper, blue skies and green hills, plus custom Jibbitz charms like Clippy and the Internet Explorer logo. Employees get first dibs, but a global launch is coming soon. Each pair even comes with a Bliss drawstring backpack. Microsoft calls it a fun limited run celebration of its legacy. And no, it's not an official Crocs collab, just pure nostalgic geek chic. You know what? You know what the drawstring backpack is for?

[Brian Schulmeister]

What?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Smothering yourself after somebody sees you in these? After you leave the fucking house in them?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I'm not trading in my Nightmare Before Christmas Crocs for these.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You hone a pair of Crocs, dude, show's over.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So popular with kids. Kid is crazy about them. He's got jibbits up the butt. I wear it in the house. I don't wear them outside. Come on.

[Jason DeFilippo]

My God.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I'm not aware to wear. I'm not allowed to wear outside shoes in the house anymore. I mean, anymore. Ever since I met my wife, masturbation.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Rules apply to Crocs as well.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, avert your eyes. I'm putting on my Crocs. Oh, actually, I like it when people look at me. I'm like, Louis ck, look at my Crocs, Jason.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Look at them. Media candy.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I never got around to watching Rogue One right after andor ended, but it was on my plane on the way home, so I finally did it. And it. It is definitely a better watch. Post andor.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Still a good movie. But the.

[Jason DeFilippo]

The.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Just The. The depth that you have with it and knowing the character and everything he's been through made the movie that much better. Really enjoyable movie.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it really is. It really is. And I don't know if I talked to you. I saw Superman after.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, did you? Oh, wait, no, you did say that. You said it was. It was not bad.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, it was not bad. But Ellen Tudyk is never allowed to voice another robot again. That's. That's the problem.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Doing them all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, he did the robot in Superman, and I'm just like, no, stop, stop. No. You're ruining it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You're like Wil Wheaton with audiobooks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, you're like Wil Wheaton with audiobooks. Or Adam Savage showing up in the Expanse. It just doesn't. Takes you right out of it. It's not allowed. No. Go put on some Crocs and use chat GPT. Leave me alone.

[Brian Schulmeister]

There you go. And as I mentioned, I did go to Seattle, and I went with some friends, and the other husband, who's a good friend of mine, is apparently a big fan of Nate Barghetzi, who I've never heard of before.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really? Oh, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I'm. I'm pretty dialed out of popular culture these days.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

But so during our time there, after the kids went to bed, I ended up seeing the greatest average American special, the Tennessee Kids special, and your friend Nate Bargaitzy special, all on Netflix and all pretty damn funny. He's a funny guy. I like.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, no, he's. He's good. I just. I can't believe you never heard of. Okay, never heard of them.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And the wife of that couple is a big fan of Portlandia. And I'd never seen Portlandia either because I don't know, I just didn't. And I saw a bunch of clips of it that she pulled up on YouTube. Very funny. So I kind of started watching it and it's funny. I'm, you know, 20 years late to the game, but.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, pass on that one. Yeah, you enjoy. So you see, when it was out 20 years ago, you wouldn't be caught dead watching that show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, I'm sure, I'm sure.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I'm so happy. A Craig Ferguson full stand up special is on YouTube that I found the other day and it's like 55 minutes. It's a full on pro stand up special from Craig Ferguson who I used to love on the Late late show. And he was, he was just iconic on that. He was so good. And this is just a great free stand up special. Highly recommended. So link will be in the show notes. Check it out. I just finished watching it last night. Yeah, it was really good. It was really good.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I like him too.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And Steve sends us in. He says this is where Elon gets his names from. And it's a movie called Colossus, the Forbin Project. It's an old movie from the 70s, tucked away in a secret location in the Rockies. Dr. Charles Forbin has developed a massive computer system dubbed Colossus, that is supposed to ensure the nation's safety against nuclear attack. But when Colossus connects to a similar Russian computer guardian, the intelligent machines begin conducting a private dialogue. Kind of like when you put. What is it? Siri meets an Alexa. That's what it is. Nervous as to what they might be plotting, Forbin severs the connection, only to have Colossus threaten a nuclear attack if the link isn't restored. I downloaded and I started to look at it and I'm just like, no, I can't, I can't. 70s sci fi. I, I can't anymore.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's like going back and watching the black hole again. It's just, it's, yeah. Awful.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I mean like, you know, I still. Soylent Green. Not a great movie, great line. Planet of the Apes is still not that great of a movie, but, you know, culturally relevant. But hey, speaking of culturally relevant, Star Trek, Starfleet Academy season one. Comic Con teaser. Did you get a chance to watch this?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I did. And I will quote exactly what I said on Discord when it was brought up. I was not Overwhelmed. I was not underwhelmed. I was just whelmed.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Whelmed. Yeah, same.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just about, you know, it didn't. It didn't give me any tingles. Like, strange new worlds. When, when they first announced that and we saw a teaser. Did, but it didn't. I. I'm. I'm. I'm.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I'm intrigued, I guess I'm cautiously optimistic.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes. We'll see. Good casting.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, good casting. I just, you know, I am still kind of got the PTSD from the Discovery, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I know, I know. And it's Discovery era, so.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it goes. Sadly, fubar has been canceled by Netflix after two seasons. Setting, upsetting, only two people.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Maybe it'll come back again in another four years. You don't know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Maybe. Maybe.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Isn't that the show that, like, just disappeared for like, three years and then they came back with a new season?

[Jason DeFilippo]

There's like two and a half years. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I wonder why these shows get canceled.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I wonder why nobody ends up watching them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Huh?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Strange nobody can figure this out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's a mystery, Brian. It's a mystery. It is something that has unfortunately been canceled because they ended it early, was the Sandman. So season two, finally, the whole thing is out now. I finished watching it this week except for the special, the Death special at the end, episode 13. I'm saving that one. It was solid. But it could have been so much more. It was just truncated, unfortunately. But, I mean, and if you've never read the comics and don't know what you're missing, it's fantastic.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We will be saying the exact same thing about the Good Omens special when that comes out.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, the nice thing about Good Omens is you could just watch season one and you're done because that was just one book, you know, that's true. Everything after that is just, you know, cake. It was Sandman. They removed lots of it. You know, it'd be like watching season one with half of it gone. Are they ever going to release Good Omens?

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know. We haven't heard anything about it now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, they. They've been. They've been tiptoeing around it, and one of the. The stars was just like, I don't think it's going to come out, dude. Maybe we shot it, but who knows? Yeah, I did watch 28 years later this week. What the fuck was that? Okay, it was weird.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I've heard it's basically a prologue for Another one that's coming.

[Jason DeFilippo]

There's two. There's two behind this one. It's supposed to be a 3P2, but yeah, so it's all set up. It was like a student art film shot with iPhones. Because it was shot with iPhones, which you can really tell on a big screen because you can see all the chromatic aberrations along the edges. It just totally screams once you see it. You can't unsee it. But the story was interesting. It had Jodie Comer from Killing Eve, which was nice to see her again, but the story was. Okay. Disturbing. Bizarre. Really bizarre. I mean. And I mean really fucking bizarre in the last five minutes. Really bizarre. So I really wish I did shrooms because I think that might really work. It might be a bad trip because there are a lot of zombies and murder and killing and stuff. But maybe not. Maybe shrooms aren't the best thing. But. Yeah, caveat emptor with 28 years later. All right, let's see what happens with the other two. I think it made enough money to get the other two made, so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Or at least the next one. So Wednesday came out this week. Brian, you said you partook of a little Wednesday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

The first four episodes dropped this week. The final four. Because we only get eight episodes in a goddamn season now.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Are coming out in November. I. I hope my wife is not listening to this podcast. Sometimes she does. I was supposed to wait until she came back from London. She's on the plane now. But I did not. I watched the first one because I couldn't help myself. It was great. I really do love this show. And so far, so good. I mean, I only watched the first episode, which is all set up. It looks like we're going to be getting a lot more of Catherine Zeta Jones and Luis Guzman as a Morticia and Gomez Adams, which is wonderful because they nail it. And it seems they're going to be in this one a lot more, which is great. So, yeah, it was fantastic. I'm really enjoying it. Steve Buscemi is just chewing up all the scenery.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I love him. I love him.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, so far, so good. I'm looking forward to it. I really wish we were getting more than, you know, eight episodes.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. I'm on the fence about waiting. Waiting till the second half drops.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. I'm not looking forward to being done with it and having to wait of years. A couple. Couple months.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Because I just did that with Sandman. It was just like. It was annoying. It was just. It Just pissed me off because it took me out of it. I'm like, oh yeah, you know, we'll.

[Brian Schulmeister]

See if I can convince my wife to wait. It would be nice to actually watch it in the winter with cold weather.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Or, you know, Halloween time. I can do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, that seems like it. That's when it should be, should be partaken of.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I also want to give a, give a little bit of credit to the, the self satisfied smirking guy that was in the Netflix boardroom that went, when should we drop these episodes? Well, the show's called Wednesday. We should do it on Wednesday because, you know, that happened in the boardroom.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Oh yeah, totally. It's also like the guy who was going to drop the new ford Bronco on OJ's birthday or. No, it was the, it was the anniversary of the famous chase. The Bronco chase. That's when they were going to drop the first Bronco. And they're like, you know that that's tacky and tasteless. Right. Because it is about a murder. And they're like, but it's funny. And they're like, oh, we were just kidding. We did. That wasn't really. That wasn't real. That wasn't real. You just got caught. Oh, man. Universal Pictures is drawing a legal line in the sand, Brian.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. It doesn't want you to use its films to train AI. Too late. The studio now includes warnings and movie credits starting with the how to train your dragon live action remake and stating that its content may not be used to teach AI systems.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That'll stop them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's really gonna stop them. That's just like, it's like leaving the FBI warning in from the 80s when you used to just sit there and watch your, your ripped VHS tapes. It's like that really helped. I'm scared now.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, that my pack of cassettes say I'm not supposed to make copies of other recorded music. Yeah, yeah, I'm just. Thanks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Appreciate it. Universal. Good try, I guess. Apps and doodads.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, this is relevant because as we were going to start recording, somebody came up to my Google Nest doorbell and rang it. And I, I pulled up my app on my phone to see if this is somebody I needed to, you know. We gotta hang, hang on a few seconds, Jason. I gotta run downstairs and grab this or whatever and my camera doesn't work. I couldn't see a goddamn thing. It said that the, my video was unavailable at the moment.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So did you go down and check to see if they stole it?

[Brian Schulmeister]

No, actually it could be gone.

[Jason DeFilippo]

They might have just taken it and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Left, but this has been noticeable. I've been complaining about this. We talked a few weeks back about how Google is basically severing their connection with Nest to some degree. They're requiring that our thermostats be upgraded. They are discontinuing the wonderful smoke sensors that Nest had made, which I love, and they're getting rid of those and doing something crappier. Now basically all of it's crap. And Gizmodo has a big long article about how Google's smart home ecosystem is crumbling. Things are arguably worse for the Google Assistant and Google's entire smart home ecosystem than they've ever been. And the transition or full on inshinification if you're feeling spicy into the dumpster was surprisingly fast. And you know, links in the show notes, you can go read all about it. It doesn't look good for Google and home automation. And the horrible thing and I've gone on and on about this is they're all like, there's no good competitors out there. Google had the best stuff for a long time.

[Jason DeFilippo]

None of it works. Ruined it. Yeah, they bought it and they ruined it. What's the point?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, so I mean they're even. There's even talk now of having there being a class action lawsuit about how bad these things are. There's Reddit threads are full of people complaining, saying that things just stopped working. They do not work like they used to, that they don't connect with each other anymore. Nothing is working. And of course the irony being how much money they're plowing into supposedly the golden age of AI and voice control systems and none of this shit works.

[Jason DeFilippo]

I was going to say everybody's working on the AI that nobody wants, but they can't make the shit that we want to give them money for actually work.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. If any company came out and just made a whole slew of home devices that all worked and connected with, with each other and had good design. That's the key because so many of them are, are ugly. Like the I, I swear to God, the Google Nest smoke alarms are beautiful. They're like, you don't even think about a smoke alarm being great. These things don't look ugly. They have this great little like sci fi light that will light up when it senses motion at night. And it's like, it's just wonderful. It's a wonderful device. I would love to have a door video camera that isn't ring, that works. That looks nice.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All this, like there is such A big place in the market for a company to come along, make this stuff, make it work and make it look good and nobody's doing it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, Johnny, I've busy taking all the money from OpenAI.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh yeah. All they want to do is give us devices that we carry on ourselves that do AI. Nobody wants that. No one.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No. We want to know if we're going to die in a fire because everything's going to be on fire because there's no water left to put out the fire because of the fucking AI that you're building.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, I know, it's insane. I just can't believe that such a huge market is just being abandoned.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Market opportunity, Brian. Go for it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay, I'll get right on that.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Put together a team, you know, get a bunch of Arduinos and a couple design nerds and you're off to the races.

[Brian Schulmeister]

True.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Just saying. Well, OpenAI has released their GPT OSS model. It's their first open weight AI model in over six years. And it's free, available in two sizes. The model can run locally on a laptop or a single Nvidia GPU and is designed for tasks like coding, web browsing and agent control. It's being distributed by a bunch of people. And you can get it now. And I did. I actually there's a link in the show notes where you can run it with Olama. And it's a very simple setup and I set it up in about five minutes on my. You need ram. I think that's the only thing that really matter if you don't have a good GPU because I'm running it on a M4 MacBook Air with 32 gig of RAM. And it works. Really, it's fast. And I've been testing it against. What was the 4.0 model on Chachi? Yeah, the chat GPT4O model. I've been kind of going back and forth testing them against each other. That one takes about 10 seconds longer, but it works almost the same, actually. Some things it comes back, it's actually a little bit better, but it's free once you download it. And you can turn on airplane mode in Olama. So none of your data actually leaves the farm. So I don't know. It's free and it works. So get it while it's free. Next week we'll talk about the new GPT5 that came out yesterday because that's making the waves right now and I love. And it's free. Everybody's like, GPT5 is free. I'm like, yeah, because they still have a little bit of money in the bank. Don't get used to it. Don't get used to it at the library. Brian, I went down the. The memoir hole that you were going down with Michael Palin.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But I went down the Bob Odenkirk hole. That sounded weird.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That sounded horrible. Please don't put that in Grok's spicy mode.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I will not put that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. Jason went down Bob Odenkirk's hole.

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, no. I got comedy, comedy, drama, a memoir by Bob Odenkirk. And I didn't realize he's from Naperville, Illinois. Like, you know, my old haunts.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And did a lot of time in Chicago. And it's just. It's fascinating to hear his history behind how he got to be Bob Odenkirk. It's. It's a really nice memoir, and I highly recommend it for. I don't know anybody. I just liked it because I don't know that much about him, really. I mean, I know he's Saul. I never watched what was his show that Everybody talked about, Mr. Show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Mr. Show, which was great.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Never. Never saw an episode of it. But, yeah, I. I'm thoroughly enjoying the memoir, so worth. Worth checking out.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right. I'm still in the memoir hole as well. I'm. I'm down Budgie's hole.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know if you know who Budgie is, but he was not a drummer for Susie and the Banshees. So I. He has an autobiography that just came out called the Absence Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer. And I'm working my way through it because, again, he's somebody I. I don't know much about, but a big figure in the goth scene, obviously. And, you know, he married and dated and married Susie sue for quite some time, so I imagine it's going to get a little spicy as I get further in because I get along anyway.

[Jason DeFilippo]

More.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So we'll see. But, yeah, I've always been kind of intrigued by him. He has also done a podcast with the former drummer of the Cure, L. Tolhurst, that's been out for a while that I've been listening to, so he's a very interesting guy. So I'm looking forward to getting into it more right now. It's all his childhood, which is a bit, like, depressing because it was not a good time in England back then.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay. Was there ever a good time to be a child in England? I don't think so.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I don't know. I guess not.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Nope. Even now, probably not.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And just in the news, Spotify's premium audiobook feature has launched in the us after trialing the service in Ireland and Canada last month, Spotify has officially launched its Audiobooks plus service in the U.S. europe, Australia and elsewhere. It's an add on available to Spotify Premium members as well as individual users on family and duo plans. It adds an extra 15 hours of listening on top of the 15 hours already available for Premium subscribers. So there's just a lot of math involved in all this sort of stuff. So let's see. If you're an individual Spotify premium subscriber, it's a fairly straightforward upgrade. Paying an extra $12 per month for audiobooks plus on top of the 12 bucks per month you're already paying for Premium nets you 15 extra hours of audiobook listening on top of the 15 free hours already included in the plan. And then there's a whole bunch more about different plans and different what? Just make it easy, people.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, well, there's also a huge backlash to Spotify right now because they're doing the age verification for video podcast in the uk. That's not really going so well for them. Also they signed up some AI shit that they're doing that people are very upset about. It is not a good time to be Spotify, which is fine by me.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Awesome. Yes, fine by me as well. And Gadget does point out that depending on the audiobook, it may be cheaper just to buy it outright than topping up your Spotify account if you want to listen to multiple titles in a month.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, by buying they mean going to Audible and renting for in perpetuity because nobody owns a fucking audiobook. The Dark side.

[Brian Schulmeister]

With Dave.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Welcome to the Dark side with Dave. Podcast super host Dave Bittner is back. Hello, Dave. How you doing this week?

[Dave Bittner]

Oh, I'm doing well. Good to be back. Good to have Brian back.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's. Yeah, it's nice to be back.

[Jason DeFilippo]

To me last time. God.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. Listen to the show.

[Dave Bittner]

I mean, I don't mean that as a negative towards Jason. I mean it as a positive toward Brian. That's all.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It's not a zero sum game, apparently. No, okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's better with me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Jason, shut up and talk about Disneyland and Star Wars. I'm gonna go make some coffee.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, I did want to let Dave know that I did end up making it to Disneyland. We had not planned on doing so, but I have a good old friend. Thank you gamsby for this, who works over at Hollywood Records, which is owned by Disney. And he said, you know what, I've got a bunch of sign ins. I'm not using them. Would you like to go to the parks? And I went, yes, yes, we would like to go to the parks for free.

[Dave Bittner]

Yes, indeed.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So we did and actually had one of the best times ever. We went both to California Adventure and Disneyland all in one day. Back and forth between the parks. Went on the most rides I've ever been on in a single day. Do you want to take a guess? Why was it empty?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Do you want to guess why it was empty?

[Dave Bittner]

I'm going to say either heat or fire.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Lack of tourism.

[Dave Bittner]

Oh, okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, people are not coming to the US from overseas.

[Dave Bittner]

Ah, yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It is a very good time to go to Disneyland.

[Dave Bittner]

Okay, interesting.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, that was, it was shocking. It was amazing to me because I could almost. You could almost tell that. Well, first off, you, you can tell Americans they were all Americans there. There's no doubt about that. Even though more so than that, it seemed like it was a lot of, you know, almost everybody was like running up and they knew the people that were working at the food counters or the rides and it seemed like a ton of locals. And as we were getting ready to leave Southern California, we started to get the deluge of Disney offers through the signups that we have done. They are, they are pushing for locals to come because attendance is way down at the parks.

[Dave Bittner]

Oh, that's interesting, huh? I mean, it makes sense. I wonder how much that's affecting Disney World because I would imagine Disneyland gets a lot of traffic from Asia.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes.

[Dave Bittner]

And Disney World gets Europe. But you know, at the moment nobody wants to come here and all of.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Our people that are here don't want to be here. Right?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

Right.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. So it was shocking. It was, it was very eye opening. Had a great time at the park though.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, I'll bet.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, you know, bad for the country and for the world, but great for me.

[Dave Bittner]

You know, you mentioned being able to get in for free. My wife tells a story about how when she was doing Disney college program and also she was working at the studios in Florida, she was a tour guide for the backstage studio tour. And so as an employee, she would get X number of sign ins per month, but they would go away at the end of the month. So she and her colleagues would go out to the entrance gate in the last couple days of the month and just look for families and say, hey, would you like me to sign you in. You know, I have extra free sign ins. And they called it sprinkling pixie dust.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Nice.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. And they would let people in, in fact. Well, you know what's funny about that is actually the last time we were in Florida, which was back in March, we were actually at Universal, and we were on our way into the Harry Potter ride, and for some reason, my wife struck up a conversation with the person who was sort of guarding the entrance of the ride, who it turns out was a manager. And he handed us a bunch of skip the line. Basically Universal's version of fast passes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Dave Bittner]

And. And as we're walking away, my wife said to me, we just got pixie dusted.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Wrong ip.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, yeah, right, exactly.

[Dave Bittner]

I don't know. What's the Universal version of pixie dust? I don't know.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I guess some Harry Potter thing that isn't leaping to mind right now.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, that's great. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing better than being in the parks when they're empty.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah, yeah. It was a. It was a lot of fun. The other thing that you and I have in common now, of course, is Gravity Falls. You recommended that to me and my son just absolutely consumed the out of that. I thought it was done after he had done his second. Second run through. And it seemed to be for quite some time, but we had to go to. When we were in Anaheim, we had to go to Target for some reason. Whatever is, I think suntan lotion. Who the hell knows. We were there. And you know, they have a very paltry book selection at Target, but. Right. My son found Gravity Falls Journal 3 there.

[Dave Bittner]

Yes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And of course, he made us buy it. And these are. It's a beautifully done book.

[Jason DeFilippo]

It is.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's amazing. He was immersed the entire trip. Read. Read the whole thing, like cover to cover multiple times. Like, absolutely love this book. And of course, then when we got home, he. We needed to order the book of Bill, which we have also got now. Again, also just absolutely beautifully done books, like whoever did these. It's just excellent work.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. There are a few comic books also that are Gravity Falls related. I'm just saying this because I am just a few years ahead of you in this journey. And so we have all of them. And I will tell you that one unfortunate thing for us is that we have two copies of the Gravity Falls Journal 3 Books book. Because the original run of the book had a manufacturing defect where after some amount of time the book started to fall apart.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Right.

[Dave Bittner]

And they refused to replace Them. So we have two now, or maybe.

[Jason DeFilippo]

One and a half really is what we have.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just looking on Amazon right now, and, you know, you can get the book of Bill limited. Limited collector's edition, in addition to the just normal version that I have. So hopefully my. My son will not find this.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, yeah, very well done stuff like, absolutely top notch. And of course, that now sparked a third watching of Gravity Falls, which is halfway through.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, well, somebody has proposed. You know how Lego has the. The thing where people can propose sets for them to make?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yes, we got the Nightmare Before Christmas one. Yeah, yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

Right, right. So someone has done one of the Mystery Shack.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, very cool.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, so you can find that online and that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'll be spending $350 on that when that gets approved.

[Dave Bittner]

But I mean, think about what a good match that would be for Lego if. If they can make the numbers work of selling it because of all of the fun things you could have, the little Easter eggs inside the Mystery Shack would be. That would be a fun build.

[Brian Schulmeister]

So, absolutely.

[Dave Bittner]

Hopefully that'll come to pass.

[Jason DeFilippo]

But did I ever tell you guys about the. You were talking about the book that fell apart. Did I ever tell you about my Good Omens book? My coffee table book? So I have this coffee table book of Good Omens. It's the TV companion from the first season. And I opened it and it was up like, the cover's there. I'm looking, I open up the COVID and the entire. The guts of the book are upside down. And I'm like, okay. Because then when you go to the back cover, because it's got Crowley on one side and Azrafel on the other, you know, the Heaven and Hell. And I'm thinking, oh, man, maybe they just did something clever, you know, like the Heaven and Hell version or whatever. So you got to flip it upside down or whatever. No, I just have, like this completely random, weird misprint. Huh. I've searched everywhere. Nobody can find another copy that is like that. So as far as I can tell, I have this extraordinarily rare copy of a book made by a guy that nobody wants anymore that's worth absolutely nothing. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

[Dave Bittner]

Well, when I think of a book like that, I think. Are you guys familiar with Ollie's, the discount store? Is that something that. Yeah. So I think of. I've seen books at Ollie's where you could be flipping through. You find a book, oh, look, here's a biography of someone I'm interested in. Let me just flip through it and Entire chapters are missing or upside down or it's just like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

It's all in Portuguese.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

The unsuccessful print run just ends up at Ollie's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And sell it for a dollar, right?

[Dave Bittner]

Yes, exactly. Wow.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So I get back on Star wars because I know you guys are the Star wars guys. I didn't know that there was another Star wars thing. Star Wars Starfighter is coming. I saw this headline, Matt Smith lands the villain role in new Lucasfilm pic starring Ryan Gosling. And I'm like, okay, way to ruin Star wars by adding Ryan Gosling and Matt Smith. Two guys that. I just don't really scream Star wars to me. What is your feeling on Ryan Gosling?

[Brian Schulmeister]

Matt Smith was supposed to be in one of the other movies, and then he just never showed up. I guess he got cut, so he's.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Stuck in the tardis.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Not surprised by that. Ryan Gosling is not what you want with Star Wars. But also, at this point, I don't believe that any of these films are ever going to get made until I'm sitting in a theater and this crawl is going because they've announced so many Star wars movies and we've seen zero of them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right, right. Okay. Yeah, Okay.

[Dave Bittner]

I mean, I could see Ryan Gosling as a X Wing pilot, the Tom Cruise Top Gun prototype. You know, the cocky X Wing pilot who plays by his own rules and.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You know, that sort of thing. To be honest, I have less of a problem with Ryan Gosling being in Star wars than I did with him being in Blade Runner.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah. That's the other thing. It just takes you out of it. He. He's just one of those guys where it's just like, yeah, you shouldn't be here. You know, it's like. Like, you know, you're in the wrong universe when he shows up.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Go back to the chick flicks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, go back to the Baron Stain universe.

[Dave Bittner]

Speaking of Blade Runner, I was very proud of myself. I made a Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Joke in the Cyber Wire this week.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And did it. Did it land with a thud or did people catch it?

[Dave Bittner]

No idea. No idea. So I'm gonna go with thud. My editor had no idea what it was, and I explained it to him and he said, oh, wow, I totally would not have known that. And I said, yeah, very few people will get it, but the people who do get it will be very proud of themselves, which evidently, so far is just me.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Which episode was it on? So we can put a link in the show?

[Dave Bittner]

I think it was yesterday. I think it was Thursday.

[Brian Schulmeister]

All right, I'll give it a listen so that at least somebody can appreciate the joke.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, I mean, it goes by quickly. So you've gotten more pleasure out of me telling you about the joke than you probably will out of the joke itself. But the things we do to amuse ourselves.

[Brian Schulmeister]

That's true.

[Jason DeFilippo]

So this week I had a series of migraines. Because last week when you and I did the show, Dave, I was fighting one of the worst migraines I've had in a long time. And so I didn't get to the gear test on the new camera, the X5 that I wanted to get to. But while I was stuck in bed, for some reason, since Wednesday is out, they put up this whole new back to school list of movies on Netflix to go watch. And one of them, for some strange reason, was Weird Science. So I'm just sitting there, I'm like, I wonder if Weird Science has legs. So I watched weird science like, 11 o' clock at night through my. You know, I have this little ice beanie that I wear when I get a migraine. So I kind of looked like the guys when they had the bras on their head. Right. Wearing my little ice beanie watching the show. It. Man, we really didn't get great movies back then compared to what we have now. It feels like you could make this movie on, like, you know, a YouTube budget at this point.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Also wildly inappropriate for the age at which we watch them.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The language didn't. Wouldn't fly nowadays. They would definitely get canceled for a couple things. Just a few little minor things. But. But also, the acting was horrible, really. Not Anthony Michael hall, but his sidekick in there. That guy could not act, period. Watch him. Watch him in it. He is terrible in it. And it's funny. My friend Andy Preboy had a song. They had a Wall of Voodoo song in the movie when they're driving in the car that you can barely hear. But he went to the premiere that night instead of going to the premiere of the other movie that launched that exact same night, which he skipped because he thought that this one would be better because it was a John Hughes movie. And he gave his tickets to the other premiere to a bunch of friends who called him up later and said it was the best premiere they've ever been to and it was amazing and they should have gone. It was this little movie called Pee Wee's Playhouse.

[Dave Bittner]

Oh, wow. Yeah, that would have been fun.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

It seems like this is Anthony Michael hall at the peak of his powers.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Right yes, it was. This was, you know, because this was like, you know, after the Breakfast Club. So he was.

[Dave Bittner]

And Sixteen Candles, which is what I.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Think of that whole era, you know, that whole John Hughes era of Anthony Michael Holness before he became, you know, the big buff dude.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. Did he have any success outside of his collaboration with John Hughes?

[Jason DeFilippo]

Really? He did the Dead Zone series for several years, like six seasons of that.

[Brian Schulmeister]

No. No.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. The answer is really no.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I'm just like looking at all the soundtracks for all the John Hughes movies. They're all phenomenal. Phenomenal. Yeah, Absolutely phenomenal. Of course, Weird Science by Owingo Boingo is one of the. One of the greats. So.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Yeah. That was the highlight of the movie for sure.

[Dave Bittner]

Can I make a con, a confession? Never. Never seen it.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You should go watch it if you've never seen it. You will laugh. You will definitely laugh.

[Dave Bittner]

I know of it.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I think what you need to do is first get in the hot tub time machine and go back to 1985 and watch this movie. It's fucking awesome.

[Dave Bittner]

So before we got together today, I watched the trailer for it it and there were a lot of things in the trailer that I'd seen before. I'm amazed that I didn't catch this on cable somehow in the 90s.

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's a miracle. Yeah. I can't believe you've never seen Weird Science. That is your homework. You have to go.

[Dave Bittner]

I mean, I know what it is and certainly you know Kelly LeBrock. I know, you know, like.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Well, the hero of the whole movie is Bill Paxton.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Absolutely. Oh, really? That's the trick. Yeah.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Bill Paxton as Chet is the best part of this movie, hands down. And I'm sure that, yeah, it's worth it. Worth the watch just for that. Absolutely.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Okay, so it's. Yeah, you. You have to go watch Weird Science. If you haven't seen it, you have to go watch it and report back as you not having fresh eyes.

[Brian Schulmeister]

You not having seen Weird Science gives me that same feeling. Like whenever I run into a contemp Age contemporary and I find out that they haven't seen Goonies, I'm like, how the did that happen?

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah.

[Dave Bittner]

So should I watch Weird Science with my 18 year old Jack?

[Jason DeFilippo]

No, I don't think so. No, I think, I think you need to take this in solo. Okay. Like, honestly, you need to take it in as just. Just you without. Without any commentary. Then you can watch it with him if you want, but you should, you should experience this alone.

[Dave Bittner]

Should I be under the influence of anything.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Oh, that always helps.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Sure, couldn't hurt.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah. But I think if you watch it with your 18 year old son, you will end up spending most of the time trying to explain what things to.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Him like, what the fuck?

[Brian Schulmeister]

What's that like? Well, that's a home phone. We once had those, that sort of thing.

[Dave Bittner]

So it could be a nostalgia time machine for me if I'm watching it by myself.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, I highly recommend you watch it first by yourself.

[Dave Bittner]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Have as many libations as you like.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

All right. Okay, so your homework is to watch Weird Science and mine is to get back on that damn X5 camera.

[Dave Bittner]

And I'll get a. I'm eager to get your feedback on is definitely on my possibilities list, so let me know.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah, the migraines seem to have abated, so I think I should be clear for geekery this time.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah. The thing I wondered about, just because you were talking about using it for interviews, for a two person interview. What I wonder is, do you want to put it between the two people or do you want to put it off to the side of the two people?

[Jason DeFilippo]

That's what I've been working with. Just sitting there trying to find the right angles.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

You know, because I got. I. You'll see, you'll see the setup when I, when I show it to you.

[Dave Bittner]

Yeah, yeah, all right. All right, I will. I'm, I'm, I'm on the edge of my seat.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yes, me too.

[Dave Bittner]

All right, well, thanks guys.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Closing shout out. Over at Patreon we've got some new subscribers. Echukta, Robert, Kevin and Russell. Thank you all so much for subscribing to Patreon. And from the vaults we've got Mario's, Jordan, Phil, Hannah, Mike, Neil, Jay, Jeff, Forge and Michael. Thank you all so much for your continued support on Patreon.

[Brian Schulmeister]

I believe that the first one on the list is actually he came into Discord and said it was based on the jawa sound.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Yeah. Okay.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Over at PayPal we've got Levi, Nicola, Judge, Jonathan, Charlie, Florian, Thomas and David, who gave us a big old 50 bucks.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Woohoo. Thank you all so much. Over at the Tip Jar we've got Jennifer, Adam, Matthew and Greg, who dropped the big hundy on us. Greg also picked up some merch this week, so thank you all very, very, very, very much. And just a reminder, if you want to sign up for Patreon, it starts as little as $3 a month and goes up to however generous you feel. And if you sign up for the whole year, you get a discount and you get the show a little bit early. Ad free and in high definition, big time. And just a quick reminder too, Brian, the reason that I ended up doing a solo show last week is because, remember, we took some time off on the fourth of July.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Yeah.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Well, somewhere along the way, some algorithm decided to hate our show.

[Brian Schulmeister]

Okay.

[Jason DeFilippo]

And we lost about 10% of our audience, which put us below the threshold for standard advertising sales. So any of the advertisers that you do here on the show, if you do pay or if you don't do the Patreon route, are just the cheap ones that get thrown in because we can't sell ads anymore because of the algorithms. So this show is literally a fan supported show. So signing up for Patreon, giving us a tip at PayPal or over at the tip jar is literally what keeps the show on the air. So I can't in buying some merch. Definitely buying some merch. So I can't thank you all enough for. For donating to the show because that's literally what's keeping us on the air right now. Love you all so much.

[Brian Schulmeister]

We sure do.

[Jason DeFilippo]

Until next time, I'm Jason Defilipo.

[Brian Schulmeister]

And I'm Brian. I hate the algorithm. Ch Spillmeister. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show. 708. Want to keep grumpiness alive? Toss us a few bucks at GOG Show. Donate every penny. Helps keep the show on the air. And Jason and food and other things. And me and my crocs Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to friends, foes and everyone in between. We'll love you for it. Swing by GOG show to join our discord and chat with us. Another show and hands. Got thoughts, feedback, cool links? Hit us up at GOG Show. Contact and don't forget to leave a 5 star review at GOG Show. Review and we'll read it on the show. And guess what? We've got GOG merch. I've got to start making some more of that since it's basically the only thing that's going to make us money. Snag your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG show and stay grumpy.