B (2:12)

And yeah, I take it that's facetious.

A (2:16)

So, yeah, we're just sliding into Christmas now. The music is a pleasure. And we put up our decorations. I, I think you did too as well, right?

B (2:24)

I started to put up the interior decorations. The exterior decorations go up tomorrow. Okay. Including our eight foot dreidel that goes in the front yard. And yeah, it's, we have a very, a culturally diverse house when it comes to our decorations. All are welcome.

A (2:42)

You're woke.

B (2:43)

I am, I am. We couldn't find any good Kwanzaa blowies yet though. We've got blowies for everything. We've. I mean, we've got black Santas. Like I said, we've got blow. It's more fun if you call them blowies.

A (2:57)

I didn't get a good Kwanzaa blowy yet.

B (3:00)

I haven't had a good blowy in a very long time. So that's okay.

A (3:03)

All right. All right. Got a little follow up here. Malaysia's latest country with plans to limit social media use by age. As of last Sunday, the country's cabinet approved a ban on social media accounts for anyone under the age of 16. This will reportedly go into effect next year. 2026 country already requires social media and messaging platforms than 8 million local users to have a license. These companies must take steps like age verification and safety measures. They are looking at countries like Australia to see the success of electronic ID verification checks as I think we all are. That'll be interesting. Starting what is today the 28th. As of December 10th, Australia will enact the world's first blanket social media ban for anyone under 16 years old. All social media companies will have to ensure compliance or face a fine of up to US$32 million. Platforms infected include X Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, Snapchat, Reddit, YouTube and Twitch. And in case you don't remember or haven't been listening to the show, earlier this month, Denmark also announced it was taking steps towards a social media ban for anyone under 15. And in the US some states have tried to enact their own restrictions, including Utah which requires parental consent to make a social media account. And in Texas, there's a bill that would have banned social media for anyone under 18 years old, but it failed to pass because Texas, while a Florida law to require consent for under 16s and banning under 14s passed but is held up in court because of Florida. So the tide seems to be turning, Jason.

B (4:35)

It does, it does. The funny thing is speaking of Florida, I saw a meme that came, came through my, my grams yesterday because I, I too was not taking the day off and decompressing. If you take Florida and turn it upside down, it's the Grinch.

A (4:50)

Oh yeah, yeah. That's been running around for A while. It's good.

B (4:53)

I've never seen that one. That was a good one. That was a good one.

A (4:55)

That was a pretty good one. And I also was just kind of scrolling about on my phone the other day, because why not? And my kid's home and he's watching tv and I rarely. I had to go into Apple Photos for something and we're doing home improvement stuff. So, like, you know, you snap pictures when you're at Home Depot of the lights you think you like, so you have to go through and find the light. And is that still the one that we want for the bathroom, or should we move that to the master bath? Who knows? Gotta find the goddamn light, bring it up, and Apple Photos AI pops up and, you know, they have their suggested stuff. One caught my eye because it was. It was me holding my son. My son was probably 2 or 3 years old. And if you're a longtime listener to the show, cast back your mind. I've lived in California almost my entire life. My son was born in California. We didn't move to Toronto until my son was like 4 years old. And so it's a picture of me and my son. My son's 1 or 2 years old and it says, first time in California.

B (5:50)

What?

A (5:51)

What.

B (5:53)

Now?

A (5:54)

Okay, you could maybe get away with that if it was a picture of, like, at my son's birth. That was his first time in California. He'd never been there before. But shouldn't the AI be smart enough to know that, like, for four years there's pictures of that kid and me in California?

B (6:10)

Well, context, windows, Brian. It did the. It was outside the tokens. You did not have enough tokens to have your son actually born in California. That costs X. If you want to have your son born where he was born, you have to pay for the plus plus package and get all those extra tokens so then it can go through all of your photos and give you accurate. It's just hallucinating, Brian. It was just hallucinating again.

A (6:32)

AI not ready for prime time, Jason. That's all I'm saying.

B (6:38)

In the news, Brian, mark your calendars. Doge is officially dead.

A (6:48)

I don't believe it.

B (6:49)

I don't either, but no. Well, in its doji ness, it's also like, Twitter is dead now. It's just X.

A (6:56)

This is like, there haven't been Sith. There haven't been Sith in years. And you know, then you find out one's running the fucking show.

B (7:03)

Oh, there you go. That's it. That's it. Do we have to talk about midi chlorians then?

A (7:07)

No, no.

B (7:08)

Okay. Okay. So it's saying DOGE is officially shut down eight months early. The Office of Personnel Management confirmed the Department of Government Efficiency doesn't exist in quotes as an entity with its remaining functions absorbed by the opm. Several former staff have moved into other agencies or the National Design Studio. That sounds fancy. Reuters reports the program has now formally ceased operations.

A (7:34)

We talked about the National Design Studio that was. They were going to kind of bring all government websites into check and all that sort of stuff, and it was ran by somebody who has never run a design company in his entire life. We talked about that a while back. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, I mean, apparently DOGE realized that it wasn't efficient to exist and has wiped themselves out. Went back to the opm, which is where all this stuff should have been to begin with. Where's Big Balls? That's all I want to know.

B (8:01)

Where's big Balls? I said I want to do a quick breakdown of the damages that DOGE has caused since we started this. All right. The Department of Government Efficiency caused significant reputational and humanitarian shockwaves before its quiet disbandment in November 2025 by targeting. Targeting foreign aid and federal agencies with aggressive funding removal, specifically the effective shutdown of US aid. Researchers estimated that DOGE driven cuts contributed to approximately 300,000 to 600,000 immediate deaths globally, with projections suggesting a toll of up to 14 million by 2030 due to the cessation of critical vaccine and malaria prevention programs.

A (8:44)

Look, one can argue that the world is more efficient when it has less people in it.

B (8:48)

You could. Unless you're one of the 14 million people.

A (8:51)

Well, it just sucks, you know. Sometimes the dice doesn't roll the way you want it to, Jason.

B (8:56)

That's true. That's true. So domestically, the initiative slash the federal workforce and contractor pooled by an estimated 290,000 jobs, creating administrative chaos and sparking lawsuits the critics describe as a reign of terror which severely undermined the stability and functional reputation of the United States civil service. Financially, the initiative's results were highly contentious and ultimately fell short of its trillion dollar goals. While Doge officially claimed to have saved taxpayers approximately $214 billion through contract cancellations and fraud reduction, independent analysis painted a starkly different picture. Reports from nonpartisan groups indicated that the initiative may have actually cost taxpayers an estimated $135 billion in the short term due to the expenses associated with paid leave, severance, rehiring, wrongfully terminated staff, lost Productivity and legal defenses. Consequently, critics argued that the savings were largely illusory, driven by political theater rather than fiscal prudence. So let's just put it this way, Brian. Who ran Doge? Elon Musk.

A (10:04)

Yes.

B (10:05)

Okay, now let's just. Let's cast your mind back to, I don't know, this guy Hitler, who, you know, that Elon did the fancy wave for.

A (10:14)

Yeah.

B (10:14)

How many people, how many Jews did he kill? Six million.

A (10:17)

A lot.

B (10:18)

Elon is now up to 14. Well, I mean, he's amortized the 14 over time, so he'll be able to claim them on his tax returns next.

A (10:26)

Year on a cost basis. Analysis. Look, we haven't even talked about the costs involved in starting a war with the Trade Federation and raising the clone army.

B (10:37)

Like I know. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And how many and how many starships have explored how many. How much was that cost to taxpayers, too? So we gotta factor all of that in, Brian. So I'm just saying, every time I see a Tesla with New Dealer plates, fuck you.

A (10:55)

Agreed. I mean, this was such a clusterfuck. What a fucking waste of time. What a fucking waste of money and setting back human rights and the human condition generations. Unbelievable. Yeah. Yep.

B (11:08)

One fucking asshole. One fucking asshole did that.

A (11:11)

What did, what did Bush. What did Bush say to that poor guy that couldn't run FEMA during the hurricane? Good job, Brownie. Job.

B (11:19)

Oh, and just to just. Just a. Let's just hammer this one home just a little bit more. According to a new Politico report, current and former Doge staff are worried that their work under Elon Musk could boomerang back at them in the form of criminal prosecution. Their anxiety spiked once Musk and Trump had their spectacular breakup, leaving Doge employees feeling like the safety net just got yanked out from under them.

A (11:43)

Just like everybody else felt when Doge.

B (11:45)

Came into existence and took their jobs and their lives. Yes, some of the so called tech bros even moved out of the GSA building they were living in, no longer betting their futures on Musk's hotline to the Oval Office or the fantasy of a presidential pardon. If things turn sour, I'm going to guarantee you that Trump is not signing a pardon for big balls. No. Not going to happen.

A (12:07)

No.

B (12:08)

Insiders now describe dread, splintering loyalty and a final word of wisdom from one senior voice. Get your own lawyer. Because billionaire guardianship has an expiration date. With Musk gone, the shield is gone. And they're left with a sinking realization that revolution is fun only until the blowback arrives. Which makes Me say, hmm, yeah. To everybody else who, you know, hits their horse to that wagon.

A (12:31)

It.

B (12:32)

This shit, this shit ends. Your little, your little party comes to a fucking end. Yeah.

A (12:37)

And by the way, you have. It's been proven time and time again in court that we have agency and we are expected to use it. Following orders if you're in the military or if you're in. In civilian jobs does not get you off the hook. You can say, I was just following Musk's orders or I was just following Trump's orders. It doesn't fucking matter. If you broke the law and you did bad shit, you're going to be held accountable for it. We are coming for you.

B (13:04)

Yeah, eventually. We're not right now, but someday there are a lot of unemployed people with notepads taking a lot of notes and writing a lot of people's names down. And eventually it will boomerang back and somebody will just say, hey, remember that guy that took all the Social Security data and put it on a thumb drive and then put it in his pocket and took it home so he could just check it out and run it through Grok to see who everybody is and then Grok trained on all that data? Yeah. That person might be in trouble someday. So, yeah, sleep tight, asswipe.

A (13:35)

That's right. Well, as we alluded to earlier, it is tis the season we're starting to put up our Christmas decorations. And again, longtime listeners to the show know this is also pink slip season and they're starting to roll in.

B (13:47)

Jason, I got mine. Did you get yours?

A (13:50)

Well, I got mine a couple years ago, I think, at this point.

B (13:53)

So I got fresh ones this year. So.

A (13:56)

Hey, yeah, I'm sorry to hear that. Apple has laid off dozens of employees across its sales teams to streamline the organization and eliminate overlapping roles, according to Bloomberg, to connect with even more customers. We're making some changes in our sales team that affect a small number of roles, the company told Gurman, although they didn't say how many people were affected. Apple also said it's hiring for new sales roles and that laid off employees can apply for them instead of just transferring them because they're salespeople and you know how they work already. Anyways, they have until January 20th to secure a new position within the company or they will be let go with a severance package. So they said the internal reason was to streamline its organization. The layoffs were primarily driven by its plan to shift more sales towards third party resellers. In other words, let's get rid of people and hire outside by relying on third party channels. Further, Apple could lower costs like spending for people salaries, especially since it's eliminated longtime employees with those higher salaries. Sounds like something a company should do when they're the second biggest company in the entire fucking world.

B (14:58)

Because they're broke, Brian. They need the money.

A (15:01)

Yep. They reportedly fired managers and other staff members who've been with the company for 20 to 30 years. So again, if you're around our age and you have a job, be fucking.

B (15:12)

Hold on to it for dear fucking life.

A (15:14)

Yep. They don't. This world does not like to keep people around with big salaries who've been around a long time. They do not.

B (15:22)

Yeah, even though we all have. We. We have all the institutional knowledge. We know how everything works and we keep the fucking trains going. We keep the trains mo. But no, let's just get the. Yeah, let's not do that again.

A (15:33)

As noted in the article, the layoffs have taken place in the middle of a record breaking period. After posting $102.5 billion revenue for the quarter ending in September, it's now on Track to make 140 billion in sales for the quarter ending in December. $140 billion in sales and we're going to fire salespeople?

B (15:51)

Makes sense. This episode is brought to you by Gusto. Let's be real. No one starts a business because they love calculating payroll taxes or chasing down compliance rules. You do it because you actually care about what you're building, not because you dreamed of filling out 1099s at 2am that's where Gusto comes in. Gusto is online payroll and benefit software built for small businesses. It's all in one remote, friendly, and incredibly easy to use, so you can pay, hire onboard, and support your team from anywhere. I've been using Gusto for years to pay my contractors, and it's one of those rare tools that actually saves time instead of wasting it. Automatic payroll tax filing, simple direct deposits, and unlimited payroll runs for one monthly price. No hidden fees and no gotchas. It even gives you direct access to certified HR experts when weird questions come up. Because let's face it, HR can be a minefield. And getting started is stupid. Easy. You just move your data over and don't pay a cent until you run your first payroll. So, yeah, let Gusto handle the boring stuff so you can focus on the work that matters. Try gusto today@gusto.com Grumpy and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months of free payroll@gusto.com Grumpy One more time Gusto.com Grumpy this episode is brought to you by Masterclass. You know what's worse than your existential dread? Cooking a sad meal you're ashamed to serve. Which is why Masterclass just saved your bacon. One of my all time favorite classes is Roy Choi teaches intuitive cooking. He's a food truck legend, the flavor Whisperer. One of his standout lessons is making salsa verde. There are tons of amazing lessons in there, but his salsa verde is one I keep going back to again and again because it's incredible, incredibly easy, and the best salsa verde you'll ever have. Roy doesn't just hand you a recipe, he shows you how to feel your way through the ingredients, how to tweak acidity, adjust heat, transform something simple into something you brag about. That's the point of Masterclass. You're not just watching experts talk. You're being taught by the masters. Chefs, writers, thinkers, people who have used their craft to change how we see the world. And then they hand you the tools to do something meaningful. All in bite sized classes so you're not stuck watching 90 minutes of fluff with lessons you can use immediately. Want to cook better? Write better? Lead better? There's a class for that. Plus you can download lessons to watch offline. Masterclass always has great offers during the holidays, sometimes up to as much as 50% off. Head over to masterclass.com grumpy old geeks for the current offer. That's up to 50 off at masterclass.com grumpy old Geeks masterclass.com Grumpy Old Geeks.

A (18:59)

And computer maker Hewlett Packard is joining the growing list of companies that are conveniently announcing company wide AI initiatives and job cuts at the same time. HP shared on Tuesday that it expects to scale artificial intelligence within the company and lay off about 4,000 to 6,000 employees by the end of 2028. With roughly 56,000 employees and still the complete inability to make a printer that works, that comes up to a 10% workforce reduction. Looking forward to it.

B (19:26)

I was going to say, Brian, when was the last time you bought anything from hp?

A (19:30)

I'm in an HP printer right now.

B (19:33)

Oh, I'm all Epson. I'm still Epson. But God.

A (19:39)

Per the Guardian, cuts will be centered around product development, internal operations and customer support teams for those printers that you need the support for because they don't fucking work.

B (19:48)

Is AI going to lower your ink costs?

A (19:50)

Absolutely not. It's going to Increase them now.

B (19:53)

Yeah. So what are you going to do?

A (19:55)

You're out of ink. Oh, sorry, our bad.

B (19:57)

The AI is going to figure out how to use more ink to print that report. That TPS report that you really need.

A (20:02)

Yeah, yeah. Anyways, let's. Let's pivot on over to social media. I kind of alluded earlier that the tide seems to be turning, and it does seem to be that way. Social media is an overwhelming part of our lives these days, but the Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew, Pew.

B (20:16)

There goes.

A (20:17)

Alderaan Research center provided an in depth look at just how much we rely on these platforms. In a 2025 report that looked at social media usage with American adults, the think tank revealed some details like year to year changes, age gaps, and most importantly, frequency of youth. Youth use youth at the number one spot. YouTube holds a dominant position with 84% of the 5,022 adults surveyed saying they use Alphabet's video sharing platform. And probably why we're on camera right now. Yeah, Meta gets the silver and bronze since 71% of adults say they use Facebook, while 50% responded when it came to Instagram use. However, not all of Meta's social media outlets are doing well. Threads may have hit 400 million active users this summer, but only 8% of adults surveyed say they use it. Rounding out the bottom of the list, only 21% of adults say they use X, while 4% of adults say they're on Blue sky, and that's mostly Scalzi. And 3% are on true social. Besides popularity, the Pew Research center also explored frequency, which they use platforms. In a separate survey with 5,000, 123 adults. The report covered that 52% of adults go on Facebook daily, with 37% of them logging on several times a day.

B (21:28)

Wait, wait, wait. So did they get all these people from the retirement home? How many people do you know that go on Facebook daily anymore? Only old, like Boomers. This is a boomer range?

A (21:40)

Yeah.

B (21:41)

No Gen X Men. No I Boomers. Well, you're all boomers.

A (21:44)

You're off of it completely. You and you and Dave are. I'm still on it. A bunch of my friends still are, but yeah, it's mostly my. My mom probably updates like 50 times a day.

B (21:53)

Yeah.

A (21:53)

48% of adults use YouTube daily, including 33% of the demographic watching videos on the platform several times a day. Age gaps. The starkest difference is found was 47% of adults between 18 and 29 using TikTok at least once a day, while only 5% of those age 65 or older use TikTok every day. And YouTube and Facebook have largely maintained stable usage and even some growth since 2021. So, to your point, even though it feels like Facebook has begun to stagnate, the report shows it has a loyal user base that's still growing at a consistent rate.

B (22:26)

Yeah, people are getting older and they go back to it. They're aging into Facebook.

A (22:30)

That's true.

B (22:31)

We aged out of the tech market, and now people are aging into Facebook.

A (22:35)

Yes, and it's great that Meta's products are doing so well because Meta allegedly suspended internal research into the mental health effects of its products after showed that people who stopped using Facebook experienced less depression, anxiety, and loneliness. These are unredacted court filings in a lawsuit filed by multiple US School districts. The suit alleges that the companies had knowledge of the health risks posed by these platforms, but intentionally hid this from this user. From. From this user. Well, and all the other users from you, Brian.

B (23:05)

They specifically hit it.

A (23:07)

Damn it.

B (23:07)

Damn it. They know that you were going to bitch about it. And they just said, don't give that guy the. No, no, Not. Not that guy. Not that guy.

A (23:14)

I opened up Meta AI and I said, is using this making me depressed? And they fucking hid it from me. Jason.

B (23:22)

Zuckerberg.

A (23:23)

They started this research project, which they dubbed Project Mercury, back in 2020. They worked with survey firm Nielsen to investigate what effect, if any, deactivating Facebook had on its users. And basically it found out that people were a lot happier. And then they stopped funding this project and said, well, never mind that.

B (23:41)

You're fired.

A (23:42)

Yeah, we don't like what you're coming back with, so we're not going to do any more research on this. And a British youth charity called Onside surveyed 5,035 young people between the ages of 11 to 18 for the generation Isolation Report, which sounds like a really fucking banging song by an industrial band in 1990 that you and I would have been dancing on blocks to in the club.

B (24:07)

I know, I know.

A (24:09)

The results paint a rather bleak picture. The Survey found that two in five teams turned to AI for advice, company or support, with 20% of those dues saying that talking to AI is easier than talking to a real person. Shock.

B (24:22)

Yeah, real shocker there.

A (24:24)

AI support is instant, but no substitute for the trust, empathy, and understanding of a human conversation on site, Chief executive Jamie Masriff said in the report. Over half of the young respondents say that they turned into AI specifically for advice on things like clothes, friendship, mental health. Or to have AI help them through emotions like sadness and stress. That's what we use the cure for people, Depeche Mode. Depeche Mode. One in ten said that they were choosing AI because they just wanted someone to talk to. That's what we use the phone for. The study and its findings show a generation that is lonely and one that has unrestricted access to technology that is addictive in nature. According to the study, 76% of young people spend their free time on screens and that 34% feeling report feeling high or very high feelings of loneliness. So yeah, all this shit is bad and we got to start fucking, we got to start doing something about it. This is not good for us people. I'm going to keep my kid off this shit as long as I can.

B (25:25)

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if you've noticed that now that OpenAI has moved the voice interface for Chat GPT into the same interface as the regular ChatGPT. It's actually very easy to have a conversation with Chat GPT now. And it's disturbing how you can like doom Chat now. Doom Chatting is definitely going to overtake doom scrolling. And I, I was, I was having a research conversation with it and then I'm just like, I looked at my clock and I'm like, I just spent 20 minutes talking to Chat GPT. What the is wrong with me? This is bad. This is very, very bad. And here's you know why I spent 20 minutes doing it. It could have been a five minute Google session, but it kept getting everything wrong. And I have to kept going back to it and saying that doesn't sound right. Can you please do a little bit more research? Well, you're correct. I was wrong. That's what most of a Chat GPT chat is, is you telling it it's fucking wrong. So if you don't know that it's wrong, it's just going to sit there and spew bullshit at you the entire fucking time.

A (26:24)

Yeah.

B (26:25)

Here's some good news, Brian.

A (26:26)

Okay.

B (26:26)

Sam Altman's allies are discovering that friendship isn't a hedge fund. SoftBank has tanked 40% since October and Oracle erased its AI halo gains completely. SoftBank dumped Nvidia and T Mobile just to cough up the $30 billion for its OpenAI stake. Thank you, Microsoft for capitulating and giving them the fucking Runway to do that. Which now makes up 36% of SoftBank's portfolio. And investors aren't impressed because the stock is trading at a 32% discount. So that's not good for them. Oracle somehow is in deeper. It pledged $300 billion in compute capacity starting in 2027 while sitting on $105 billion. And wait for it, Brian. Not cash debt.

A (27:13)

Wow.

B (27:14)

And OpenAI is projected to make only $60 billion by then if everything goes perfectly, which it never does, so. And meanwhile, Alphabet just rolled out Gemini 3 with rave reviews and $150 billion in yearly cash flow to fuel it. The takeaway is SoftBank and Oracle are betting on magic while Google is buying chips with pocket change. Google is going to eat OpenAI's lunch.

A (27:39)

Yep.

B (27:39)

Hands down.

A (27:40)

They've just got the pockets. They've got it.

B (27:42)

So, yeah, you know, and I think we said that a while ago when Google was like, falling behind and ChatGPT was running.

A (27:49)

I'm like, just you wait.

B (27:51)

Just you wait. Just you wait. Fucking hamilton. Okay, well, OpenAI has apparently penciled in more than $1.4 trillion for data cent over the next eight years. One small problem, Brian, they don't have $1.4 trillion or even revenue close to that.

A (28:09)

I also penciled in $1.4 trillion for me, Jason, in the next couple years. So, you know.

B (28:15)

Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it. Donate. Yeah. So HSBC ran the numbers and says that if OpenAI wants to keep the lights on and continue losing money at scale, all it needs is a casual $207 billion more of investment by 2030.

A (28:39)

Wow.

B (28:40)

They need. So it was a Herculean effort to get that $30 billion from SoftBank. Remember everything that they had to do to do that? Microsoft had to let them go for profit. And now Microsoft owned most of them. And, well, Microsoft owns a huge chunk. SoftBank owns a huge chunk. Nvidia now owns a huge chunk. I don't think Sam's going to be left on a little tiny life raft with like a popsicle pretty soon because there's not going to be anything left to divvy up. So it's getting ridiculous.

A (29:10)

Getting.

B (29:12)

Well, yes, it has been ridiculous. What am I saying?

A (29:15)

We're adding zeros on the end at this point. Like it was ridiculous if you chopped off a zero. And now we've got more zeros on the end.

B (29:23)

Yeah, and here's the funny thing. HSBC thinks OpenAI could rake in about $215 billion a year by 2030, which is, I don't know, by long ways away. OpenAI's own estimates were only $200 billion. And that's. That's there. It's OpenAI's estimates. The people who just make shit up whole cloth and they're saying, well, we might make 200 billion. HSBC was being extraordinarily generous.

A (29:48)

Yeah.

B (29:48)

So, yeah, Emperor Altman's clothes are really starting to fray. They're really starting to fray. One more win for OpenAI. OpenAI has been temporarily barred from using the word Cameo to describe a feature in its Sora app following a restraining order issued by a federal judge after Cameo, the celebrity video marketplace, filed a trademark lawsuit. The order lasts until December 22nd. In Sora, Cameos are AI generated videos built from likenesses users upload. Well, Cameos. Cameos say that 10 times fast are paid recordings from celebrities delivered through its platform. I used to buy cameos for people all the time. They were some of the greatest. Yeah, they were some of the greatest Christmas gifts.

A (30:26)

I'm actually surprised that I haven't been seeing ads for them. They must not be doing great because this is the time of year that I remember we would always see ads for Cameo.

B (30:34)

Here's the problem with Cameo. They're not doing great because piss poor leadership. Piss poor leadership. I know some people who are on Cameo. Some celebrities that are on Cameo and they used to spend a ton of time there and the tech support that they needed, what they originally had great tech support. They were sending like celebrities laptops and stuff to be able to do all their. Their stuff themselves.

A (30:57)

A celebrity can't afford a fucking laptop?

B (30:59)

Well, some of them don't know how to use a laptop, Brian.

A (31:02)

Well, sending them a laptop isn't going.

B (31:04)

To help pre configured with like, you know, the login software and remote desktop and stuff like that. But yeah, Cameo argues that OpenAI's terminology creates confusion, especially since some personalities like Mark Cuban and Jake Paul exist on both services. Yeah, and separately what overdrive? I don't know who overdrive is, but they filed a trademark suit over similarities in Sora's app icon, adding another legal challenge for OpenAI. You can sue somebody because they're trademark challenge over their icon now.

A (31:33)

So look, you only get 128 by 128 pixels here, people.

B (31:38)

This isn't Windows 3 one, dude. They get a few more than that.

A (31:42)

I still, I still optimize mine down to 16 by 16. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about.

B (31:47)

32 colors. You know, if you can't do it at Ms. Paint, it ain't an icon.

A (31:53)

I'm right. Well, following its licensing deal with Udio, the Warner Music Group has also reached an agreement with Suno that will let the platform license its artist music and likenesses and end the company's ongoing litigation. I'm a little sad by this because I feel like all the music companies are giving in, but I also kind of understand, what else are you gonna do here? WMG was previously one of several record labels suing Udio and Suno for allegedly infringing on copyrighted works on a massive scale. As part of the agreement, artists and songwriters will have full control over whether and how their names, images, likenesses, voices and compositions are now used in AI generated music. WMG explains in a press release for the announcement. Now that is going to be a big division at most of these record label companies now. Unless of course, they decide AI can handle all this. See, they don't spell out exactly how this is going to work for musicians impacted by the deal, but it does appear that participation will be opt in rather than anything being shared by default. Which is good. And we'll see how the finances work on this. But in a weird part of this partnership, because this is the Suno and Udio deals are happening with everybody. But Suno is also acquiring WMG Songkick concert discovery platform. The company plans to continue running it and WMG plans that the claims that the combination of Suno and Songkick will create new potential to deepen the artist fan connection. Which is a load of horseshit, but.

B (33:17)

Okay, that is totally a load of horseshit. It's just creating new AI driven middlemen.

A (33:22)

Yeah, it's an app for finding nearby concerts if you're not aware of what Songkick is. And I don't really understand how it's going to roll into suno, but whatever. I think probably it was losing money and Warner didn't want to fucking fund it or staff it anymore. Yeah, they just will make the deal, but you take care of this shit.

B (33:41)

Exactly. Yeah. That was just taking out the garbage. They're just like, oh, can, can you guys take this and just help us out and then we'll help you out. It's just a, you know, little quid pro quo going on there.

A (33:51)

Yeah, that's. That's about all I can figure as well. So, yeah, and Pro AI Super PAC is investing millions into creating an AI friendly regulatory environment in the United States called Leading the Future. The Super PAC is backed by venture capital firm, of course, Andreessen Horowitz, OpenAI President Greg Brockman, Palantir co founder Joe Lunsdon, and the AI supervillains company Perplexity. Yes, a Rogues Gallery of assholes it.

B (34:19)

Is Supervillains all the Way down.

A (34:21)

It launched in August, reportedly armed with more than $100 million, which they could turn over to OpenAI, but I guess that's just a splash in the proverbial bucket that they need over there. So instead, let's try to get pro AI wins across the country in the midterm election. According to the Wall Street Journal, the super PAC is emboldened by the success of crypto super PAC Fair Shake, which counted significant pro crypto WINS in the 2024 presidential and local elections. Obviously not paying too much attention to what's happened since then, which is most of these people going to jail. Sure, they got pardoned, but the companies are fucking dead. Okay?

B (34:54)

Yeah.

A (34:56)

Anyways, so watch out for these assholes. And if they're donating to your favorite congressman, write them a letter.

B (35:02)

Well, X has rolled out a feature called about this profile, giving users a clearer look at account histories, including username changes, join dates, and most notably, real account locations.

A (35:13)

This was the best thing that happened on the Internet this week.

B (35:17)

Oh my God. This was just. I could. This was my Thanksgiving. I just picked this up more than my turkey.

A (35:23)

It was awesome. I mean, it was awesome.

B (35:28)

The tool is already revealing that many accounts presenting themselves as American political voices aren't based in the United States at all. Examples include large MAGA branded profiles located in Eastern Europe, Turkey, Bangladesh and Nigeria, as well as family fan accounts for Trump relatives operating from abroad. Maybe it's just everybody in the family that got deported and they're just logging on from wherever the they got sent. The issue isn't limited to conservative tagged accounts either, with at least one high follower pro Democrat account traced to Kenya before being deleted. X says the goal is to help users evaluate authenticity, and the platform can flag VPN masked accounts when location data may be inaccurate. GOG Show VPN for all of your VPN needs. Still, the feature gives users a way to spot clusters of accounts posting similar content from the same region, which could signal bot farms or organized influence operations. Analysts warn that misrepresented locations may indicate coordinated foreign interference designed to sway opinion or fuel political polarization.

A (36:34)

You think? You think Again, if you want to disrupt democracy, and if you're in a foreign national country, GOG Show VPN get at it. No, I can't believe that this rolled out on X of all places, because the one platform that it actually would harm is X. Like, I want this on every platform. I I'm sure people were banging on the door and musk was in a ketamine fueled haze going, oh, it's great, it's great.

B (37:03)

Transparency, transparency.

A (37:06)

We'll turn it off later.

B (37:09)

Oh, yeah. This was just. They had to have had meetings, Brian. Somebody had to beta test this. Somebody had to have a beta test of this.

A (37:18)

It boggles the mind. It boggles the mind that this fucking happened. I love it. It's a fucking win. But I don't understand how it happened.

B (37:41)

Media candy.

A (37:44)

Steven wrote in after last week when he had sent the episode of the Rest Is History, which was basically just the Bob Iger blowing smoke up Disney's asses thing, and said that he didn't mean the Bob Iger episode on the Rest Is History. He meant the two programs before episode 614, Walt Disney, the Great American Storyteller, and episode 615, Disneyland, the Modern American Utopia. So I did go and listen to both of those as well. Fun. Definitely fun. Much more interesting than Bob Iger talking CEO bullshit. So, yeah, if you're, if you're unfamiliar with the Disney story and Disneyland itself and how it came to be, these are, these are great ways to discover it. So very interesting stuff. And actually I got to check out some more of the rest of history's back catalog because those guys kind of get into it. So interesting.

B (38:30)

Cool.

A (38:31)

Things have gotten so bad, Jason, so bad in US Politics that Dan Carlin has emerged like the groundhog on February 2nd to present us with a new common sense. Who's the boss?

B (38:45)

Somebody has exhumed the corpse of Dan Carlin, reanimated it, and said, make another podcast.

A (38:50)

Now, we're not sure it's not an AI Dan Carlin, but actually we're pretty sure because he's pretty angry and it was pretty good.

B (38:55)

Yeah, he's pretty angry. Yeah.

A (38:57)

And he should be so highly worth a listen.

B (39:01)

Yeah, I was just, I was so amazed. I'm like, really? Dan. Dan's back.

A (39:05)

Yeah.

B (39:06)

Okay. Yeah. I haven't listened to a hardcore history in like half a decade, but he's.

A (39:12)

Been working on one for like eight years now, apparently, which is why he was like, he was pissed. He was like, can you guys stop fucking around? I'm trying to waste my life doing another hardcore history and now I have to come out here and call you guys idiots.

B (39:24)

I can't believe that, that, that, that supports him anymore. Hardcore history is just. It's like two years between episod and.

A (39:32)

They'Re so long now that I literally can't even do it. I can't. Like, I try, but, like, I can't look. Yeah, I'm somehow making it through like the whole American Revolution thing, which is like fucking 16 hours, but a 45 hours set on like fucking Iwo Jima. I can't do it, Dan.

B (39:50)

I can't do it, man. Can't do it. I did find a new podcast this week. Once We Were Spacemen with Nathan Fillion and Alan Tudyko, which two of my favorite people and they basically just talk about. So far I'm two episodes in and it's fun. It's just two friends who used to be on the same show shooting the shit. And they are funny. They are very funny. And the second episode I think had Jewel stayed on, who was from Firefly as well. And it was great. It's kind of the show I need right now. It just has no. No political whatsoever. And they're both just gems of humans, you know. I got to meet Alan pretty recently and hung out with him for a bit and he is just as cool and nice as you think he would be, period. He is the same guy that you see everywhere else. So I'm very happy for them. And yeah, I highly recommend it. If you need something light for the holidays, that's not the. That's going on on regular news or even this show. Check it out.

A (40:55)

Right, Cool. Well, unless you're dead, you're probably aware of the fact that the final season of Stranger Things has dropped on Netflix because it's unavoidable anywhere. There's just article after article and story after story and press release and conferences and interviews and blah, blah, blah. And it's just everywhere. And. And I really like. I'm two seasons behind and I think I've pretty much decided to call it on Stranger Things. I'm just. Just not that interested in going back and. But then I was starting to question it because there was so much brouhaha about the last season being out right now until I read this article that's over on Slate called How Stranger Things Lost the Plot. And there's a paragraph in there. I'm just going to read the one sentence from the paragraph that sealed the deal for me. That it. I'm not going back and watching any of this. The duffers have never had either a master plan or may fatally the skill to write themselves out of the corners in which their ad hoc storytelling leaves them stranded. Nope. Been there. That's lost. That's the end of Battlestar Galactica. Fuck that shit. You're not getting me again. You didn't have a plan when you started, you only did five seasons. You did them over 50 fucking years, as far as I can tell. And you couldn't figure out a plan.

B (42:10)

I'm enjoying it. I finished the last of the first four episodes last night because I was just. I was in a. I don't know what kind of haze. I was in a stuffing. Induced dementia. And I couldn't sleep after, like, two Benadryl. I couldn't even fall asleep. So I finished watching it. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Cause I was like, you know, just out of my gourd on antihistamines. I enjoyed season four, and I'm enjoying season five. You know, is it the greatest storytelling? No, it's not. But is it fun? Sure, it's good. I enjoy it. That's all I'm. That's. That's all I'm there for. You know, I'm not there for War and Peace or, you know, anything phenomenal that's going to blow my mind. It's popcorn that is going to kill a couple hours of my life until my inevitable death. And it's perfect for that. Absolutely perfect for that.

A (42:56)

That is a cheery review.

B (42:59)

Happy holidays, Brian. I did watch Being Eddie this week, the Eddie Murphy documentary on Netflix. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. It is a puff piece because it is all just basically produced by Eddie Murphy. Talking about. Exactly. Produced by Eddie Murphy. I was okay with that. I'm like, okay, they're not going to talk about the trans people on Santa Monica that he got busted trying to pick up. Nope. That was completely washed over. None of that stuff. But as far as a talented human being and all of the crap that he's done, it was great. It was absolutely great to watch that. And it culminated with him going back on Saturday Night Live.

A (43:37)

Well, look, I mean, Eddie Murphy's Raw is a defining document for my life. That stand up was unbelievable. Gumby. Damn it. Hot tub. Like, there's the list of things that Eddie Murphy has done that are legendary that I'm still quoting 40 years later. You know what I mean?

B (43:55)

Like insane. Yeah. All of the. All of the old Saturday Night Live bits that. That, you know, they played. I saw those all live, and I was like 10 years old when those were playing. And I remember where I was when I saw them. You know, that's how impactful they were. I remember where I was when Buckwheat got shot. It was so good. So good. But it's a nice walk down memory lane. It really is. And I did find out that he's going to be the new Inspector Clouseau. So that should be kind of fun.

A (44:24)

That's cool.

B (44:25)

Did watch another show, six part or eight part miniseries called the Beast in me now. This has Claire Danes being Claire Danes.

A (44:35)

So angry, pained face. Yeah.

B (44:38)

It's produced by the same people that did Homeland. So they're like, do that Homeland face that you did in Homeland. Do that a lot and it'll be good. And it had. What's his name from the Americans? Jerry Russell's husband.

A (44:50)

Jerry Russell's husband. He's great. I love him.

B (44:52)

Yeah, he was so good in this. I mean, he, he was phenomenal in this. He was definitely worth watching. It was a great story. Kind of should have been six, but they, they pulled it to eight. I had no, no notes besides that. It was great. It was a great, just, you know, psychological thriller murder thing.

A (45:12)

All right.

B (45:12)

That's what it was.

A (45:15)

Well, my wife wanted to watch the Roses, so I watched the Roses. Jason, what the is the Roses? This has got Olivia Coleman and Benedict Cumber, John Jingleheimer Smith, His Name Is My Name Too, in it. It is a modern take on the War of the Roses. So it's a dark comedy and I, it was, it was really good. It was really funny and dark. And I would say that, I mean, Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Coleman are note perfect. The only downside to this movie is the supporting cast, which includes Adam, Andy Samberg and some other people. They are horribly written and horribly acting and anytime the supporting cast is on it, they suck. But Benedict and Olivia and most of the movie is just them are phenomenal. And this laugh out loud dark comedy.

B (46:11)

Okay, I might check it out. I like Mr. Cumberbatch and you know we have him to thank for Deliveroo because remember it was when he jumped out of the cab to go rescue the Deliveroo driver.

A (46:23)

That's right.

B (46:24)

I'm like, that's that. That was the genesis of Deliveroo. Cumberbatching is Cumber bitches.

A (46:32)

It's good. It's worth watching. I think you'll enjoy it. Jason and I was reading the local news and I'm not a big ASMR guy. I really don't know if you are or not, but I did see this article. Toronto's most unusual new spa has opened up where you can enjoy an hour of having your hair, face and back touch gently with various implements from wooden forks to rubbery bongos for $139 an hour. For $50 more, you can book in for a soft spoken roleplay. Session that simulates a soothing scenario such as a doctor's visit. It's called Tingles Bar and it's a brick and mortar space that offers clients the chance to experience AMSR stuff. And I can't believe this thing fucking exists.

B (47:15)

Yeah, I don't know if you can see the video, but my back is actually very tight right now because anytime anybody mentions asmr, I have problems. I have misophonia and. Which can cause a violent reaction to things like asmr and. Yeah, so I, I put in a link, since you put in a link to this. I put in a link to the documentary called Quiet Please that explores the emotional and psychological ramifications of a neurologically based disorder called misophonia. One of, one of my tenants, as a professional podcast editor is that I have misophonia protection built into all of my edits to get rid of all mouth noise. And you know, it is a selling point. And so if you need somebody to get rid of your mouth noise in your podcast, give me a call because I got. I need some work, please. But go check out the documentary and stay the fuck away from that. That bar in Toronto, that's just evil, evil, evil place.

A (48:14)

No, no, I'm not going to do any role playing or have my hair combed with a fork. I wonder if they do it as like the Little Mermaid.

B (48:34)

Apps and doodads. So, Brian, a couple weeks ago I talked about the open dialogue problem I was having on the new version of macOS where I couldn't actually open anything. Then I had to spend a day creating a new account to move everything over. All of that work that I did, turns out was for not because it was a system level bug that they eventually fixed. There was nothing I could do no matter what, except for create the new user account. And when I found out that it was fixed, I'm like, okay, well, I just threw away the old. It was just. It was, it was a shit show. And that all just comes back to the fact that I was using the beta version of the new Mac os and yeah, I have reverted all my machines back to stable versions now.

A (49:19)

It's a good idea.

B (49:21)

I'm too old for this shit. I am just too old for this shit. So, yeah, everything is running on stock now.

A (49:27)

I don't need to be on bleeding edge anymore. I'm tired of being people's beta testers. Screw that. Give me shit that works. That's all I want anymore.

B (49:35)

Yeah, and what's funny is it's like all of My current machines that I actually do work on, like this one right here that I'm talking to you on. I'm staying on Sequoia. Fuck the new one. I'm staying on this as long as humanly possible. So I'm a Windows 10 guy. No, I'm going to be a Windows Bob guy. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm going back to Bob, Mac os.

A (49:54)

Bob, Mississippi, dos, podcasting live from Clippy. I don't know how that's going to work, but we'll see. Well, Spotify has been making some moves. They've unveiled an upcoming interactive feature called Song DNA designed to show you samples, collaborators and covers included in the given track. The company announced and lawyers started salivating as part of that update. Spotify also revealed that it has acquired who Sampled the company behind the Song DNA technology. So let's see. The Song DNA feature will feature in. Will show up in the now playing view. It's described as a way to see connections between songs showing collaborators, samples and covers all in one place. Which is kind of cool. I actually like it. Not that I ever look at the Spotify interface while I'm playing music because I like to just listen to music, you know, you really want to make me happy, Give me large artwork and fold out sleeves. That would be great. Thank you.

B (50:43)

That would be fantastic. You know, I would actually wouldn't mind checking out Smack My Bitch up for that. Who sampled?

A (50:51)

Right?

B (50:52)

Did you ever see the YouTube video of the guy that recreated the intro to Smack My Bitch Up?

A (50:57)

Yeah, yeah.

B (50:58)

There were like 35 samples in like 10 seconds of music in there. It was insane.

A (51:03)

Oh, if you want to blow your mind, you can load this up with this feature and go listen to Beastie Boys Pulse Boutique. It's entirely built out of samples. Entirely. You could not make that album today. You couldn't, you wouldn't, you'd owe money. You'd be like, OpenAI.

B (51:20)

Sam Altman's Boutique.

A (51:25)

Oh, show title.

B (51:30)

Oh, it's so funny. And I can't even check it out. I killed my Spotify account because when they were running the ads for Ice, I said that no more, I'm not going to do it. So I canceled. But, and, and Spotify also has new AI powered audiobook recaps that will remind you where you left off. Oh, now this is actually a pretty good feature I think because, you know, I wish Audible had this because, you know, I've got like 10 audiobooks that I'm listening to at any given Time and I'll forget where I'm at in the book. So if I could just pop it up and say, you know, give me 20 seconds of where the I am, that would be helpful. But, yeah, no, that's the only.

A (52:08)

You know what I would actually use this for? I wouldn't even use this for a book that I forgot about and left behind and then came back to. Although I would use it for that as well. I would use this for the gazillions of books that I've already read and don't remember what they were about anymore. It's like the Cliff Notes version. I was just like, instead of going back and rereading it yet again, I could just listen to the recap.

B (52:30)

Yeah, because there's. We've done. I mean, this show is almost 14 years old.

A (52:34)

Told.

B (52:35)

We have done hundreds and hundreds of books on this show and I've. I've re. Went back to series that I forgot we read. What's the Long Earth series? Remember that one? I've read that entire series twice because I forgot I read it the first time because it was so long ago.

A (52:49)

Great series, though. If you're gonna read series. I know people write in every now and then, are like, I'll give us some suggestions. There's one. Go read it.

B (52:57)

Yeah, go read the Long Earth series. That was fantastic. Fantastic stick. Well, Amazon's getting in on the game too. They're going to launch AI powered series recap videos. I have a problem with this one though.

A (53:09)

Okay.

B (53:10)

Because the thing about Spotify, it's like, it will give you a recap of where you left off. It's like, oh, up until this point, it will do something. Now what Amazon's trying to do is they're just replacing the people that did the previously on Videos.

A (53:22)

Right.

B (53:23)

That's it. You know, it's like, how much money do you need, you greedy fucks? Pay somebody to do a proper previously on Video. Because AI is not going to hit all the nuance. They're not going to hit the nuance, period. I mean, of course they're trying. They're starting with, you know, shows like Reacher or Shot somebody on the previous episode. Okay, great. I mean, I'm not bagging on Reacher. I love that series. But come on, it's just. Pay somebody to do the fucking work. It's going to be better.

A (53:54)

The recaps for Frasier, there was a misunderstanding.

B (53:59)

Same with Three's company.

A (54:03)

That's not. That's not. That's not his boyfriend. Yeah, okay, thanks. Amazon. Is speaking of. Amazon has revealed that its Devices and Services event back in September was Alexa Home Theater is coming a surround mode for select Echo speakers. They've now confirmed Dan Gadget that it's rolling out Alexa Home Theater broadly starting this week, which can make your Echo speakers a more budget friendly, shittier alternative to a Sonos setup in some consumers eyes or a soundbar. So you'll be able to connect up to 5 of the company's new Echo Studio or Echo Dot Max speakers plus a subwoofer to a Fire TV stick, 4K or 4K max, which means for me I never listen to or watch TV off the Fire TV stick. So it's useless unless it works with other things. And also Echo Studio, pretty good sound. Echo Max. Throw those things in the trash.

B (54:53)

Yeah, yeah. And it's not even going to come anywhere close to a Sonos. Sonos are just beautiful for a reason because they cost a fortune and they weigh a ton.

A (55:02)

Shame about operating system.

B (55:05)

Oh God, it's still terrible. I don't know if you've tried it recently, it's horrible.

A (55:10)

No, I don't have any Sonos at home. I used to have it at the office but you know, since I got pink slipped. Bye bye Sonos.

B (55:16)

Yeah, yeah, no, I've got, I've got seven Sonos around the house plus a ray that's hooked up to my Fire tv, which surprisingly, because the Fire TV is the only thing that can actually control the volume on the ray, otherwise you have to use the app to control the volume. And I'm like, I'm not going to go to the Sonos app to try and control the volume on my fucking tv. The show's going to be over by the time it loads anyway. I've got a couple gear recommendations here. So I'm talking to you now on my ancient, ancient Nikon Z6. Now I had this camera in the studio, when I had my studio and this dancer came in, we were doing Desean no Shade that show and this guy came in and thought he could dance and he tried to do a spin and a dip and he knocked the camera off the tripod, broke it, broke the HDMI connector. Didn't even apologize, dickhead. But then the camera's been sitting there for years unused. I finally, since I'm poor and I have to go back to old technology, I figured out how to make it work again with tweezers and a lot of patience. I fixed the HDMI port so now I'm using it to talk to you. But I'm like, okay, well I also sold all of my video gear. I used to have an ATEM Mini Pro that was beautiful for, you know, bringing in the video from the camera and converting it to digital and doing all this other switching and stuff like that. Had to sell that for gas and food. So I'm like, what do kids use these days? So I went and I found the Guillermok video capture card. 4K USB 3.0 HDMI to USB C capture card for streaming 1080p 60fps compatible with iPad, macOS, Windows, Quest 3 Quest love OBS PS5 and 4 Switch 2 One Xbox camera, perenn Silver. So it's a dongle that I just plugged the HDMI into from the camera straight into my computer. And guess how much it cost?

A (57:13)

Brian, how much?

B (57:16)

$19.99.

A (57:18)

Ah, but a Black Friday deal. 15.79.

B (57:21)

Jason okay, so the thing is, it's like back in the day to get a video capture card from hdmi you had to remember, I mean, dude, back in the old days it was expensive. You had to get the PCI card to go into your PC and then you had to get the, the audio card to go with it and do all that stuff. It was a, it was like, so it's 20 bucks now, but Black Friday cheaper. Yeah, it's amazing. It's an amazing little dongle and it works. I'm talking to you on it right now. I did have to use obs and some crazy crazy to make it sync up properly. But that's what OBS is for and obs is free. I'm going to be talking more on the show lately, coming, coming up in the coming weeks about how to use old tech to get, get the same fucking result as the new shit on a budget. So. But the problem was I also sold all my lenses for gas and food. So I had to go find something that would work. And you know, everybody's buying all the fancy new lenses for their Sony Alphas and their Nikons and their Canons. I found a Mikey 35 millimeter F2 autofocus, full frame STM stepping motor lens compatible with Nikon Z mount cameras. Beautiful lens, as you can see, razor sharp, crystal clear, 179 bucks. So for, you know, under what it would cost for the cheapest atem, I got this thing back on track and I'm just happy as a, as a pig in shit. That's all I gotta say. Oh, also the other thing that I had to use was Rogue Amoeba's Loopback which is very important. So if you have a Mac, you know, Brian, that is a critical piece of software.

A (58:50)

Sure is.

B (58:51)

Well, since it is Black Friday, I had to throw this stuff in because, you know, shopping on a budget is all that most of us can do anymore. I'm gonna, I put a link in the show. Notes about scientists Reveal what Black Friday is doing to your brain. Let's just say a lot. Go check it out. But I am going to give you Jason's holiday gift guide and stocking stuffers gifts for under $20 for the nerd that you love. So Brian, I think most. I think we agree on a lot of this stuff because I think we bought. Bought most of this stuff together at some point or another. So. And yes, I will put pictures in the video for the people who are just like, why don't you put pictures of the stuff you're talking about in the video? I will put pictures in the video if you go to YouTube.com and check out grumpy old geeks. And because we're not doing this for fun. Although we're also not doing it for affiliate links because Amazon killed all of our pennies.

A (59:48)

Pennies now.

B (59:49)

Yeah. If you don't just get canceled and they just take all the money. So now here's the first thing that every nerd needs to have. Velco brand 150 pack cable ties value pack 8 inch stocking stuffer gifts for tech lovers. For wire management and cord organization. Replace zip ties with reusable straps and reduce waste. Because I just love Amazon titles. This is $12.96. Your price may vary depending on when you listen to this, but it's 150 pack of Velcro zip ties for cables.

A (60:16)

Got that?

B (60:16)

You got to have these.

A (60:17)

Yep.

B (60:17)

Get them for everybody. Like seriously, put these in every person, you know, stocking and they will love you for it.

A (60:22)

It unfortunately, because you're the tech guy, you're the one that's going to actually have to do all the wiring for them and use them. So.

B (60:27)

Yeah, yeah. But then you just save yourself having to buy an actual gift that they're never going to use. So you get to use it and it makes your life easier. See what I did there, Brian?

A (60:35)

Yep.

B (60:37)

And this is just. I have an iPad mini and the case always. It doesn't fit right. And there's. I don't like the cases that have the back strap on it because it's always in the wrong position and whatnot. So I just found literally a hand strap that you just Stick to the back of the iPad wherever you want to stick it so it's more comfortable. This is the handholder strap for iPad Tablet handholder strap, universal handle grip for iPad, Kindle mini tablets and cases. Perenne Black this is $8.99 and it's literally a piece of like a. Yeah, just a piece of elastic band with a sticky on it that you stick to the back of. It has made my iPad mini experience a million times better.

A (61:15)

Do not have adding to cart.

B (61:16)

And after I got the Mac G4 or was the MacBook G4 Air that we both have, I just realized that, oh wait, I was coming from a MacBook Pro which had all the ports. Now I have none of the ports. So I went out and bought the Anker USB C Hub 7 in 1 multi port USB adapter for laptops 4k at 60hz USB C the HDMI splitter 85 watt max power delivery 3x USB A&C 3.0 data ports South Dakota card for type C devices whopping cost $19.99 Unbelievable.

A (61:54)

I've had multiples of these. They've never been this cheap. It's ridiculous how cheap they are and how useful these things are.

B (61:59)

Yep, get a couple of them and just put them everywhere. They're just handy as hell. And I think when I first bought this it was like $80.

A (62:08)

Yeah.

B (62:08)

And now it's 20 bucks. Okay. And in my favorite travel mug which I use every day, I. I've got a cheap, cheap ass one here. This is one that I got from Bulletproof Coffee back in the day when I worked on Jordan Harbinger show.

A (62:22)

Right.

B (62:22)

But it's a Contigo. Contigo this. Oh, by the way, if you bought this back then, this is a $70 mug. Now you can get the Contigo Auto seal West loop vacuum insulated stainless steel travel mug with Easy Clean Lid 20 ounce version 4, $19.99. Again, get them cheap. It lasts forever.

A (62:42)

It looks an awful lot like something from would have been in your gift guide about 12 years ago. The Auto Blow 2.

B (62:49)

It very much looks like the Auto Bloat 2. Oh, if you want to hear the story of that one, go back a couple episodes. And also for the nerds of your life and anybody who has a home that has stickers or children that you want to take things off of. The Scotty Peeler label and sticker remover single pack metal peeler SP2 $8.99. Everybody should have a Scotty Peeler. I've. I've you know, championed them on the show many times. Do you have any, Brian?

A (63:15)

I do. I do. And it's very useful extraordinarily, especially this time of year, as you're getting your Christmas gifts all wrapped up.

B (63:22)

Yep. And you need to take the price tag off from, you know, and you don't want to do the old El Marco, like, rub it out in black, because it's still. You can still see the price behind it. Yeah.

A (63:32)

You want that.

B (63:33)

That the last two things I have here. Well, almost the last two Slip drives. Slip drive, portable hard drive sleeve for laptops. These are little stickers with a little elastic pouch on it that you can stick on the back of your laptop and stick your, you know, your thumb drives in. I actually have one a bit. I put a big one on mine for my glasses. So I have my reading glasses on the back of my laptop. So wherever I go, I can just pull out my reading glasses and it's like, oh, why didn't I think of that before? So there's two different sizes.

A (64:01)

Is.

B (64:02)

Yeah, it's. You know, that's why it's a gift guide, Brian. I'm not selling them. That sucks. Come on. So go check these out. The. The big one is $13.42, and the small one is $12.63. I got the small one on the side next to the HDMI or the USB C ports. So I just plug in my four terabyte drive because you don't want to spend, like, real money on a big hard drive on an Apple laptop because they just. Just kill you on prices for those. So that's that. Now, Brian, I do have one final fun one that I just love. Now, this one comes in at 29.99, but for the. For the. The person in your life that has a. A whimsical sense of humor. These are the car lashes 1001ub classic black. They're basically eyelashes for your car. I bought these for my roommate and put them on her Bronco, and they're hilarious. This It. They're just. They're literally eyelashes for your car. Just go look at the. Go look at the page and you'll go, I. Huh? And then you get them and you just laugh.

A (65:04)

I have. I have ptsd, though. It just makes me think of when. The early days of. Of Uber and Lyft, when they had the mustaches on the cars.

B (65:12)

Oh, the mustaches. No. Yeah. This is not. These are subtle, though, and you can find your car easier. They're subtle.

A (65:22)

Okay.

B (65:25)

Trust me. In, in, in, in real world, use you, you, you, you notice them, but you don't. So. But you can find your car really easy in the parking lot during the holiday shopping.

A (65:34)

All right.

B (65:39)

At the library. Now, Brian, I've talked about my friend Fab Moravon from Milli Vanilli a couple times on the show. I used to do his website and he's beautiful guy, just so much fun, so sweet. And he's got a new book out called, you know, It's True, the Real Story of Milli Vanilli. Now the irony here is he narrated this book and he's got nominated for a Grammy for his. No, for his reading of the book about the story of Milli Vanilli who had to give back. They didn't have to give back. They gave back voluntarily. Their Grammy, it wasn't stripped from them. That's a common, common misconception. They gave it back.

A (66:17)

Yes.

B (66:18)

Before anybody said anything. But yeah, and very funny when they gave. Yeah. He was in town not too long ago and I saw him on, on ktla and they were talking about it and then the next day he posted on Instagram. He's like, it is like 26 years to the day that we gave back our, our Grammy to the, you know, the Grammy board. And it's like such full circle, such full circle. So I'm really happy for him. I don't need to read the book because I've heard the story from the horse's mouth many times, so. But I'm sure it's phenomenal. It's an amazing story because if you hear the real story, it's like, oh my God, these people were just. The people that took advantage of them were just horrible, horrible people. But that's the music industry for you.

A (66:58)

I guess that's the music industry.

B (66:59)

Yep. I found one for you, Brian. This is the Time Travelers Passport. Six short stories. Infinite possibilities. Embark on a mind bending journey through time with six of today's most visionary authors. Brimming with humor and heartache, this collection of short stories maps the roads we took to get here and the past that lie ahead. The present may be a gift, but the future and the past both come with a price. Curated by John Joseph Adams, New York Times Best Selling Anthologists. So I found this because I got. I follow John Scalzi and every now and again Amazon will tell me when somebody that I follow writes something new. It's very random. It doesn't happen all the time, but every now and again it will tell me when Somebody that I follow writes a book. And this is a short story. It's called 3 Days, 9 Months and 27 Years by John Scalzi. It's the first book in the anthology. Oh my God, it's so good. It's so good. And this is not audible, so you can't yell at me. It's all Kindle. I get this free with my Kindle. Unlimited subscription.

A (68:00)

Yeah, no, this is great. This is great because I've been having a really hard time getting into a couple books recently. So some short stories might just be what I need and I'll read them over the holiday break. That looks awesome. Thank you.

B (68:12)

Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah, I can't wait to hear what you think of this one. The Scalzi story is one of the most inventive time travel stories that I've heard in a very, very long time. I really enjoyed it. And finally I read the book. The courage to be how to free yourself, change your life and achieve real happiness by Ichiro Kashimi and Fumataki Koga.

A (68:35)

This is a book you do not need, Jason. You need no more Courage to be disliked. You have no issues with this whatsoever?

B (68:42)

None.

A (68:43)

You can write this book.

B (68:45)

I could have probably written this book. Actually, I couldn't have written this book because this book was just pop psi bullshit. This has sold 13 million copies and it is a TikTok favorite to be quoted and you know, for a long time, for many years. I love to debunk personal self help bullshit like Tony Robbins and all those guys. You know, that was just. I, I love doing that. It was just one of my. One of. It's like. No, no, no, you didn't write that. Seneca wrote that a couple thousand years ago. That's epic tea. You're just stealing and repurposing it. You know how it goes, Brian. Well, this one deals with Alfred Adler in a bastardization of all of his teachings. And you were, you were a psych major. So what do you think of this, Brian?

A (69:36)

You know, I, I feel like Alfred Adler has not aged well. Well, I, I think it was a very popular teachings at the time and I, I just don't think that it's there anymore. So. But you know, whatever. Hey, you know, they sold a bunch of books. Good for them.

B (69:52)

They sold a bunch of books. Yeah. And it's funny, when I was, when I was originally, it splits in the middle, but a lot of it is. Feels very Ayn Randian at the beginning, you know, very much about self determination. But then where she goes off into, you know, it's all about being the individual. And everybody else, they're more like, oh, well, you can be an individual. But it's still, you still want to do more about community and it's about, you know, community relationships and interpersonal relationships while still being a dick and only caring about yourself and being completely selfish. So basically, yes. Yeah, don't put that one in the stocking. Closing shout out. Over at Patreon, we've got some new Patreon subscribers. Rick, Hank and John. Thank you all so much. And with the continuing Patreon subscribers, we've got Cody, Gordy, Daniel, Andrea, Stephen, Christopher, Robert, Mike, Brett and Nikki. Thank you all so very much for continuing to support our show.

A (70:51)

Thank you. Thank you. Over at PayPal, we've got Jens and Charlie. Thank you guys.

B (70:55)

Over at the Tip Jar, we've got Bennett, Sean and Adam. And if you do want to help support the show, and why wouldn't you? It's the holiday season, it is the giving and we really need it. Please go to gog show donate or go to patreon.com gog as little as $3 a month can get you all the shows early ad free and in high definition. And yeah, and if you sign up for the year, you get a discount, but in the $3 is the minimum. But you can give as much as you want. We even have the golden monkey package with which one person actually signed up for. So we appreciate you very much and thank you for keeping the show going.

A (71:31)

Well, no, no merch, no reviews, no nothing. Happy Thanksgiving. Until next time.

B (71:36)

I'm Brian Schulmeister, everybody. Enjoy your Black Friday. Thanks. Thanks for listening to grumpy old geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show 724. 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 place 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 contact and hey, don't forget to leave a five star review at GOG show review and we'll read it on the show. And guess what we've got. Merch. Snag your grumpy gear now@shop.gog show and stay grumpy.

A (72:24)

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