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- [00:00]
A
Grumpy Old Geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the Internet and who's to blame. Welcome to Grumpy Old geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.
- [00:12]
B
And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Jason, what in the Sam hell is going on down there?
- [00:17]
A
2025 said hold my beer, apparently. Or 2026 said hold my beer. One of the two. Because somebody needs a beer. At this point, everybody except for Hegseth.
- [00:28]
B
He doesn't need anymore.
- [00:29]
A
No, no more for him. No, no more for him. Yeah. You know, it's. It's been a year since the LA fires. That was yesterday. Yesterday or Wednesday was the. The anniversary of the starting of it. Right about now is when I would look out the window and it was like Mordor. Here the skies are red, like helicopters and planes are flying over the house. Go back and look at my Instagram from last year. You can see all the. The pictures that I took of all of the. The insanity. And I didn't really realize how much PTSD the entire city has over this.
- [01:00]
B
There was a lot saying, but yeah, LA is. It's generally not a city that looks back. And everybody was posting about it and talking about it. Yeah. And even when I was there, I took a drive up because I hadn't really seen any of the stuff. Right. So I took a drive up. Malibu. Yeah. Pch. Holy crap. It's just gone. Gone.
- [01:19]
A
Yeah. You were like 10 minutes from my house and you didn't even pop in to say hi.
- [01:23]
B
It's still another 20 plus.
- [01:25]
A
Lazy fucker. I haven't even taken it yet. I haven't taken that drive. I don't want to.
- [01:31]
B
Yeah, it's depressing. Super depressing.
- [01:33]
A
Although everybody does say it's about the first time in, you know, 50 years that you can actually see the beach from PCH. So that must have been nice.
- [01:40]
B
Silver lining.
- [01:41]
A
Yeah. Over the burned out hulks of, you know, gazillion dollar homes. But hey, what are you going to do? But speaking of holding my beer. Three years sober, buddy. Three years.
- [01:50]
B
So.
- [01:51]
A
So made it.
- [01:52]
B
Congratulations, man.
- [01:54]
A
Yeah, last weekend was my three years, believe it or not. So. Trucking on. Trucking on.
- [01:59]
B
Hey man, if you can stay sober through the coming civil war, you're gold.
- [02:03]
A
I got it. I'm going to have to. I'm not going to be able to afford the beer that's going to be taken up by everybody else that's getting drunk, going what the hell's going on? And I need to save my money for ammo.
- [02:13]
B
That's true. I don't even know what to say. Like at this point, like why, why bother? Like, magas have stopped listening to us. But I guess you need to fight back at this point, like, I don't fuck even know what to say. The American Gestapo, the unregulated proud boys that have been given uniforms and called themselves ICE have shot three American citizens, one of them in the face. Who's dead? What the fuck?
- [02:37]
A
Stay in Canada, Brian. Stay in Canada.
- [02:39]
B
I'm going to. Now there's no turning back at this point, unless you know the. The United States of California secedes from the union. I'm not coming back. Like, no way. I don't even know what. I don't even know what tomorrow's going to look like at this point.
- [02:56]
A
I don't know what this afternoon's going to look like, Brian.
- [02:58]
B
It's insane. Oh well, let's talk about other stupid shit.
- [03:04]
A
In the news. Well wired, they did a journalism and they wrote a post called how to protest safely in the Age of Surveillance. And they did remove the paywall restrictions from this post so everyone can read it.
- [03:22]
B
Tldr you, you can't because you'll just be driving your suv, get caught in traffic and then get shot in the face.
- [03:29]
A
Yeah. Or I don't know if you saw the videos from Chicago where the ICE agents were just pepper spraying people with their windows down as they were driving through the intersection. That's a new one. That's a new fun and exciting one.
- [03:38]
B
That's great. That's great. It's just awesome you fuckers voted for this. That aren't listening to us anymore.
- [03:45]
A
Yeah, I think they're long gone, Brian. They're long gone. It's just us. It's just us. Well, the article explains how protesting today carries new privacy risks and bodily harm risks because of expanded surveillance. It warns that phones, facial recognition, license plate readers and social media can all be used to identify. Oh God. Identify who attends a protest.
- [04:08]
B
So assuming you survive, they'll be able to identify you. Right. Teeth records. Otherwise.
- [04:13]
A
Yeah. Your body. That's about it.
- [04:15]
B
Yeah.
- [04:15]
A
Yeah. It outlines steps to reduce exposure, like disabling biometric phone locks, avoiding distinctive clothing, limiting online posts, and understanding personal risks before showing up. As in all of them, your body and phone are tracking beacons. Facial recognition, biometrics, tattoos, clothing and unlocked phones all make it easier to identify and follow you. So transportation and surroundings. Yeah, yeah.
- [04:40]
B
Ice.
- [04:42]
A
You know, I'VE got one here. Oh, wrong arm. I can even forget which arm I'm on. I got, I got one here that says free the media. Good luck there.
- [04:49]
B
That's, that's clever.
- [04:50]
A
It is.
- [04:50]
B
Oh, what a bygone time, Jason.
- [04:53]
A
What a bygone era. Yes, indeed. So transportation and surroundings matter. Cars can be tracked with license plate readers and cameras can read signs, bumper stickers, and even text on clothing. Your online history can be used against you. Social media posts, photos, and even old jokes or comments can be surfaced by law enforcement to identify or scrutinize protesters. We are fucked, Brian. If anybody goes back and listens to our history, they're going to be knocking on the door this afternoon. That's it.
- [05:20]
B
Well, they are going door to door now. Just like the Gestapo.
- [05:25]
A
Yeah, Kristalnacht.
- [05:27]
B
By the way, we did follow up and I just said happy holidays, Jason. I hope you had a really good time.
- [05:32]
A
I figure we'll, we'll, we'll do some more holiday wrap up when Dave gets here because he lightens the mood. Let's just get the dystopian future over with first.
- [05:40]
B
You know, the craziest thing is I think Dave actually feels this more than either of us. Like there's just this heaviness to him these days.
- [05:47]
A
Yeah, I mean, we have a release valve. We get to do this. He doesn't have that.
- [05:50]
B
I left the country.
- [05:52]
A
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Oh my God.
- [05:56]
B
Okay, let's keep going.
- [05:58]
A
Yeah, sure. The EFF has a lovely rundown on what hackers and activists are doing to thwart the fucking Nazis invading our streets.
- [06:06]
B
More than our fucking congressmen?
- [06:08]
A
Oh, way more than them. So people are pushing back against ICE and expanding use of surveillance technology. As federal immigration enforcement increasingly relies on license plate readers, drones, cell phone tracking and shared police databases, communities are responding with counter surveillance tools. Stay inside is the only thing you can do and hope they don't knock on your door. These range from open source hardware and crowdsourced maps to mobile apps and low tech warning systems, all aimed at exposing where surveillance exists in helping people protect themselves and their neighbors. So stay inside. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of stuff in there. I recommend going to read it because the EFF does a really good job of putting it all together and just giving you a landscape of what people are doing. And all that said, be really fucking careful because these goons might just shoot you in the fucking face.
- [06:57]
B
Okay, I'm gonna take a second here. Shake it out.
- [07:00]
A
Okay, yeah. Deep breaths, deep Breaths, Brian. Deep breaths.
- [07:04]
B
Okay, let's transition back to just tech.
- [07:07]
A
Stupidity now, Please, please.
- [07:10]
B
You might be noticing that ads on Instagram and Facebook are getting more personal, and that's because they probably are. That is, assuming you're alive and haven't been shot in the face. Meta updated its privacy policy last month, adding that the data it collects from user interactions with its AI services will now be used for targeted ads across the company's social media platforms. Previously, the social media giant's privacy policy set it across already said it collected information from interactions with its AI technology, including conversations and related metadata. But the updated policy, they clarify the statement and say that it includes prompts that can include questions, messages, media, and other information you or others share with or send to AI. Meta AI @meta is the umbrella term the company uses for its AI products, including the Meta AI chatbot integrated into Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as other AI tools like Vibes and AI features on Ray Ban Smart Glasses. Now, I would normally say, who gives a because who's using this? But according to Meta, more than 1 billion people use Meta AI every month alone, which could explain why we're in this situation. We're in.
- [08:20]
A
Do you get the things from Instagram when you log in? Say, would you like to turn on Meta AI? Would you like to turn on Meta AI? All of your friends have turned on Meta AI. Would you like to be like your friends, too?
- [08:30]
B
Yeah, I do. And I go, boy, that's a dumb friend. Check.
- [08:33]
A
Make me make a mental note of that one. Okay, go ahead.
- [08:36]
B
Disney has agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties to settle allegations that had violated federal data collection laws designed to protect children. I'm sorry, I don't give a fuck that Disney has to pay $10 million for screwing this up when fucking ICE is shooting civilians in the goddamn face.
- [08:52]
A
Come back to us, Brian. Come back to us.
- [08:54]
B
In a complaint filed in the California district court, the doj, which has better things to do, alleged that Disney failed to properly of its videos on YouTube as being targeted towards children. By not doing so, Disney and its partners were allegedly able to target ads towards children on YouTube and unlawfully collect children's personal information without notifying parents or obtaining their consent, obviously screwing up the COPPA act. After a $170 million settlement with the FTC in 2019 over similar COPPA violations, YouTube began requiring creators to designate whether videos they upload are made for kids or not made for Kids. Videos labeled as made for kids have certain features disabled to comply with coppa, including personalized advertising, collection of personal information and comments. This case is amongst the first in which a content creator has settled with the DOJ since YouTube's own settlement. Disney did not immediately respond to comment, but a spokesperson said supporting the well being and safety of kids and families is at the heart of what we do. This settlement does not involve Disney owned and operated digital platforms, but rather is limited to the distribution of some of our content on YouTube's platform. Beyond the financial penalty, the court orders prohibits Disney from violating Copa on YouTube. Again. Don't do it again. And requires the company to set up an ongoing content review program to ensure its videos on the site comply with the law. Okay, fine. Great.
- [10:16]
A
Okay, I'm going to break this down. For anybody who doesn't know when you upload a video to YouTube, there's literally a checkbox that says, is this made for kids? Yes or no? Now, I don't know about you, Brian, but I'm pretty sure that when you go into your channel setup, you can set defaults. So it just automatically would say, yes, this is going to be made for kids. So they should just have that turned on. So basically they got to find $10 million because some intern that was uploading the videos to YouTube didn't figure out how to check the right box. That's literally what this is about. It is about exactly what somebody forgot to check.
- [10:48]
B
Yeah.
- [10:49]
C
Yes.
- [10:49]
B
Yeah. You and I have both been there early in our career when we were doing batch processing and stuff like that and went, oh crap, we forgot the checkbox for the thing.
- [10:57]
A
Yeah, yeah. And you know, the interns are getting paid like eight bucks an hour, so. Do they give a shit? No. They should have spent that $10 million on the salaries for the people who upload their videos to the platforms where kids are going to watch it instead of, I don't know, anything else.
- [11:14]
B
Yeah, well, you know, Grok has their. Is. Is an AI. That is Elon's AI. And boy, oh boy, was it in the news over the holidays. And rather than just kind of reading some of the stories like I usually do about AI because I, I just don't want to engage, I decided, okay, I'm going to go check this out. I'm not going to do the things that have been in the news, but I'm, I'm going to upload some photos of myself and, and, and some friends and family and see what it is that Grok can do with limits. Just how realistic does this look?
- [11:49]
A
How do you look at a bikini, Brian?
- [11:51]
B
Holy man. This should be so illegal. I can't even stress how illegal this should be. Screw what we're going to about to talk about just with kids. This should be illegal for everyone. There are no fucking guidelines on this. No railways, no nothing. And it's really, really good. Scary.
- [12:15]
A
Yeah. Yeah, scary fucking good. Yeah. Yeah.
- [12:18]
B
I had to back away because I creeped myself out and I didn't even do anything weird. Like I was just okay, like, have them take a drink, have them sit down on the bed. Have them do this, have. Holy shit. This stuff is good. And not in a good way. I don't know how we ended up here, Jason. I don't know how people decided that this was a good idea and we should pursue this and this is what we should be doing with our time and collective money and energies and brains and smarts and technology. Technology. Why this?
- [12:49]
A
Because nerds can't get laid, that's why. Yeah, a bunch of these fucking red pill kids out there and they're like, oh, let's just make some AI so I can have a girlfriend. Yay.
- [12:59]
C
Yeah.
- [12:59]
A
This is just Elon's side, you know, side loaded brain that's taking all this over. I, I. If you want to actually see some of the, the other stuff that people are doing, just literally go to Twitter, I'm sorry, X and search for Grok. That's just search for the word grok and it will, you'll just be an ever going list of just how fucked up people are and what they're doing. Technology and it's, it's a mess. It is absolutely a mess. And other countries are coming for them now big time. They are pissed off. Not like it matters because there's nothing that's going to happen.
- [13:30]
B
We'll see. I, I mean, hopefully next week we talk about this. There's a push in England to actually ban X and Grok completely. We'll see. But I don't know if you're wondering if you've somehow managed to avoid all this. I'll, I'll just do one story here. This is from Gizmodo. Did you spend the holidays engaging in quality time with your loved ones and catching up with friends or family or like a disturbing number of X users. Did you spend it asking Grok to manipulate images of children and depict them in bikinis? Yeah, and, and less, by the way, because people figured out ways around a lot of the limited guardrails that were kind of not there to begin with.
- [14:07]
A
Yep. The transparent tape one is the one that I Saw that people are using. Yeah. Turn this outfit into transparent tape.
- [14:15]
B
So, you know, the deep fake. The deep fake stuff has been out there for a while. Just the thing is, it wasn't this available. You. You had to like. You had to like deep web this shit before.
- [14:26]
A
Yeah. You had to have skills and, you know, processing power and things like that. This is just for everybody. Well, this is.
- [14:33]
B
This is the AOL of fucking AI porn. Like you got a CD in the mail and you're fucking on. You're on the information super bikini highway, baby. Jesus Christ. I can't tell you how wrong this is. The article is in there and basically they haven't said anything about it. Grok doesn't care. X doesn't care. Fucking Trump reposted some of the things. Or Trump. I mean, sorry, I get these two confused. Elon reposted a bunch of these things that were happening. Yeah. People are pissed. This is insane what people are doing on Grok. There's no guardrails at all. It is. And it's non consensual adults, which is bad enough. It's children. People are all over the place with kids, putting kids, making videos. It's so fucking creepy.
- [15:26]
A
That about sums it up.
- [15:28]
B
If this would have happened 20 years ago, ICE agents would have been breaking down Elon Musk's store. They would have been shutting server. They would have been carting servers out of the server farm. This whole thing would have been shut down. But no. Now we just shoot civilians and we let this run amok. This is the world we've created now.
- [15:51]
A
This episode is brought to you by CleanMyMac. The holidays are supposed to be cozy. Cookies in the oven, drinks on the table. A little downtime before the year wraps up. Meanwhile, your Mac is hoarding cookies like it's prepping for winter. Not the good kind, the digital kind. Cached files, system junk, duplicate downloads. Months of invisible clutter quietly slowing everything down. Right when you need your computer to behave. That's where CleanMyMac comes in. CleanMyMac is notarized by Apple and built by MacPaw and is basically a reset button for your Mac. With one click, it clears out system cache development junk and unnecessary files that block updates and waste space. It helps you spot what's clogging up. Your downloads folder removes duplicates and keeps everything running smoothly through a clean, easy dashboard. It also includes Moonlock, a built in anti malware engine that scans and removes threats. Because yes, Macs get malware too. There's a menu app that lives right in Your menu bar for quick insights, plus an assistant that helps with things like battery drain and overheating. And now there's cloud cleanup, which scans icloud, Google Drive and OneDrive to find massive space wasters, all locally on your Mac so your data stays private. The wrong cookies slow down your Mac. The right ones sweeten your holidays. So eat the cookies, but don't let your Mac hoard them. Get tidy today. Try seven days free by using my code. Oldgeeks for 20% off@clnmy.com Oldgeeks that's clnmy.com Oldgeeks all caps on the old geeks link will be in the show notes. Try it now for seven days free. Well, see, Elon doesn't have to do anything right now because there's. There is no regulation that. That has anything to do with anything. There's a bipartisan takedown. It's called the. The Take It down act, which criminalizes non consensual sexually explicit material and requires platforms to remove it within 48 hours at a victim's request. Unfortunately, Brian, it doesn't take effect until May 19th of this year. So until then, okay, you.
- [17:54]
B
You report one image, they take it down. It takes what, 10 seconds to make another one?
- [18:00]
A
And they're supposed to ban the accounts of people that do that, but, you know, until then, X has no legal obligation to act at all. And there's another case that involves Ashley St. Clair. Do you know who Ashley St. Clair is, Brian?
- [18:13]
B
I'm going to guess a porn star.
- [18:15]
A
No. One of Musk's children's mamas. Babies.
- [18:18]
B
Mamas. Oh, okay. Well, you say tomato?
- [18:22]
A
Yeah. People on X were taking pictures of her and sexualizing them when she was even a kid, and she couldn't get it taken down. She. She fucked Elon and she can't even get those pictures taken down. And then when they finally. When there was media coverage that finally, you know, put enough pressure on X to take it down, guess what they did, Brian?
- [18:43]
B
What?
- [18:44]
A
They kicked her off of X and took away her premium account. Yeah, that's exactly. That's exactly what we're dealing with nowadays. So what the fuck are you going to do?
- [18:55]
B
Instagram's top executive, Adam Massari, has an idea what we're going to do about all this. Jason. He's made it clear that he expects AI content to overtake non AI imagery and the significant implications that shift has for its creators and photographers. He shared his thoughts in a lengthy post about the broader trends. He expects to shape Instagram in 2026. Everything that made creators matter. The ability to be real, to connect, to have a voice that couldn't be faked, is now suddenly accessible to anyone with the right tools. The feeds are starting to fill up with synthetic everything. There's a lot of amazing AI content. Is there?
- [19:31]
A
Let's define amazing. Let's start with that.
- [19:34]
B
And our platform may need to rethink its approach to labeling such imagery by fingerprinting real media, not just chasing fakes. So basically his big idea now is we can't stop any of this. There's a torrent of it. We've told you that we were doing moder moderation, we hired moderators, we told you that we'd have machine learning moderation.
- [19:50]
A
Now we have AI.
- [19:51]
B
We can use AI to moderate the AI. None of that works. So what we should do is basically let's put it on the cameras. And cameras need to put some sort of stamp on everything that says this is real. And we just have to assume that absolutely everything else isn't. That's the world.
- [20:08]
A
That's about it.
- [20:09]
B
Yep.
- [20:09]
A
Yeah. And I mean, when, when this whole AI bullshittery started, I cast your mind back, Brian, you know, like two, three years ago, I said, I said, you want to make the next trillion dollar company, you need to figure out how to become human. Verified, human, verifiable information is going to be a thing. And this, this twat comes out and says, you know what, it's on you now to prove that you're you instead of the other way around. That it's, you know, oh, it's just, it's mindboggling. And this guy, this, this guy needs a. I, I've had about had it with him, about had it with him. And he thinks it's a good thing. He thinks that this is amazing. Everybody can make shit now and let's just, let's just make, make the world just full of this crap.
- [20:55]
B
No, well, of course it is. Their, their product is you. Their product is content, Their product is eyeballs. And now we don't even need people to make content anymore. This is fantastic for them.
- [21:06]
A
Well, it's going to be bots making the content and bots watching the content and then selling ads to the actual people that aren't, aren't even there. And, and you know, then they're going to say, oh, well, you know, we have, we have tools in place to make sure that your ad dollars are being spent wisely when nobody is watching any of the ads. That's it. They've so much yeah, the.
- [21:26]
B
The house of cards has to fall eventually because of that. Because at some point, who's going to keep paying for ads? You're not getting any engagement, nobody's coming into your silo. So ridiculous. But let's just keep going, right? Jason OpenAI is launching a new facet for its AI chatbot called ChatGPT Health. That sounds like a smart thing to use.
- [21:51]
C
Yeah.
- [21:51]
A
Oh, great. Yeah.
- [21:55]
B
You can connect your personal private medical records and wellness apps to ChatGPT in order to get more tailored responses to queries about your health. Jason, There will be privacy safeguards. Sure there will.
- [22:09]
A
For an extra 20 bucks a month, you get a rectal exam too. Elon comes around and sticks a finger up your ass. It's a sorry.
- [22:16]
B
The announcement from OpenAI acknowledges that this new development is not intended for diagnosis or treatment. Yet that's what they want you to use it for. But it's not intended.
- [22:26]
A
They want you to use it for.
- [22:28]
B
It's not intended for it. Jason, we're telling you so you can't sue us.
- [22:32]
A
Yes. Terms of Service says so. If you use it for something that's not in the terms of service, then it's your fault. Just like all the kids that killed themselves because they didn't read the Terms of Service before they used Chat GPT to figure out how to make a noose or try and go kill their parents. It's all in the terms of service, Brian.
- [22:48]
B
Speaking of that, Character AI and Google have reportedly agreed to settle multiple lawsuits regarding teen suicide and self harm. The families of several teens sued the companies in Florida, Colorado, Texas and New York. The Orlando lawsuit was filed by the mother of 14 year old Ser III, who used a character AI chatbot tailored after Game of Thrones Scenarius. The teen reportedly exchanged sexualized messages with the chatbot, probably with a gro side window, creating her in a bikini, jumping up and down and spreading her butt cheeks, and occasionally referred to it as his baby sister. He eventually talked about joining Daenerys in a deeper way before taking his own life. The Texas suit accused a character AI model of encouraging a teen to cut his arms. It also allegedly suggested that murdering his parents was a reasonable option. After the lawsuits were filed, the startup changed its policies and banned users under 18 with a little scroll down. What year were you born in? Clicker. That's about it.
- [23:44]
A
That's how they do it.
- [23:45]
C
Yeah.
- [23:46]
B
Yes. Character AI is a role playing chatbot platform that allows you to create custom characters and share them with other users. They were founded in 2021 by two, Google Engine. In 2024, Google rehired the co founders and struck a $2.7 billion deal to license the startup's technology.
- [24:04]
A
So, yes, 2026 is just shaping up to be a great year. Brian.
- [24:11]
B
It's January 9th, Jason.
- [24:13]
A
Just saying. I know, I know. We are nine days in, nine times.
- [24:19]
B
We didn't even talk about Venezuela.
- [24:21]
A
Oh, here we go. Over on polymarket, the decentralized casino for degenerates, we have a situation that perfectly sums up the crypto ecosystem. First, a mystery trader turned a turned 30 grand into $400,000 by betting Maduro would be ousted. Wonder how that happened? I wonder who knew? Well, placed the bet just hours before the Navy Seals landed, and I'm sure that's just a lucky guess. And not someone with a cousin at the Pentagon or the White House or any of the oil companies that were briefed beforehand, but certainly not someone in Congress because they were kept in the dark. But the real comedy is the bet on whether the US would invade Venezuela. Polymarket ruled it a no, and the people who bet yes lost everything to the tune of about $10 million. This was decided by something they called the UMA, or Universal Market Access. Think of the UMA as the Supreme Court for these bets, but instead of judges, it's just a bunch of random token holders voting on what reality is, the UMA holders vote. Voters ruled that flying into a sovereign nation to kidnap its leader is technically a raid, not an invasion, because we didn't hold the territory. So the the probable insider traitor gets paid and everyone else gets fisted by a jury of anonymous crypto bros arguing over dictionary definitions. Welcome to the future, Brian. Welcome to the fucking future. It's a day, It's a day.
- [25:46]
B
It's a day that ends in why, why, why, why, why?
- [25:51]
A
Why did you fucking people vote for Trump? Moving on, what do we got now?
- [25:55]
B
Well, Waymo's getting a good look at the competition as Uber has revealed the design of its Robo taxi that's due to launch in San Francisco later this year. The culmination of Uber's evil plans and dreams for the past 20 years of putting everybody else out of business and basically never hiring anybody and ensuring through government kickbacks and pay more forwards that they would never have to pay taxes or anybody's health insurance or anything like that, because eventually they knew they would get rid of the drivers and just have their stupid fucking app and all the monies.
- [26:23]
A
Travis Kalanick's evil vision is finally coming to fruition. Brian, that's it true?
- [26:28]
B
The upcoming Robo taxi is a result of a partnership announced in July between Uber, Lucid and Nuro. The plan is to Deploy at least 20,000 Lucid EVs that will use the Neuro driver autonomous driving tech and be available through the Uber platform. They've started on road testing last month in San Francisco Bay Area with Nuro using more than 100 robotaxi prototypes supervised by autonomous vehicle operators. Robotaxi, which is a modified lucid gravity, will feature a multi pronged sensor system including high res cameras, lidar and radar. Elon.
- [27:00]
A
Yeah, take note, Elon.
- [27:02]
B
Proper way to do that. The design also incorporates a halo mounted on the EV's roof which will increase sensor visibility and double as a display that uses LED to display helpful info to passengers until they decide that they can stick ads on that too.
- [27:16]
A
Yeah, exactly. Oh, it's funny. So they announced this at ces. Have you noticed or have you heard anything about CES this year? Because from everything I've heard, it's pretty much a ghost town. Like a lot of big players are not even showing up. Because I wonder why.
- [27:31]
B
I wonder.
- [27:32]
A
I wonder why nobody wants to come to the United States to talk about products that they can't sell here because of all the tariffs. And maybe that's it. I don't know. I'm just. I'm just thinking.
- [27:42]
B
It's a fucking mystery, Jason. It's a fucking mystery.
- [27:44]
A
It's a.
- [27:44]
B
It really is.
- [27:44]
A
It's a mystery. That's right. Yeah.
- [27:47]
B
But as we talk about all these autonomous vehicles and robo taxis and things like that Gizmodo points out, maybe we should pump the brakes on the idea that robo taxis are safer. The TLDR on this one is most of the studies came from guess who, Jason?
- [28:03]
A
The companies themselves.
- [28:05]
B
The companies that make the robo taxis.
- [28:08]
A
Yeah, sure.
- [28:09]
B
This is a bit like Marlboro. Marlboro says that smoking is safe.
- [28:15]
A
That's right.
- [28:17]
B
I can't fucking believe this. Because we have been pushing back on this and then it's just study after study and we've reported on them on the shows saying that. Okay, well, in these cases it does appear that autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers. Actually. Fucking no. Well, it's pretty limited, the data. As a recent report from Bloomberg points out, there is certain data to suggest that autonomous vehicles can cut back on the number of accidents on the road. Waymo in particular has made this information central to its pitch, claiming to have achieved 84% fewer crashes that result in airbag deployment 73% fewer crash related injuries and 48% fewer police reported crashes compared to human drivers during its first 22 million miles on the road. That sounds pretty impressive. The data that provides the foundation of these claims, however, comes from the company itself. And as Bloomberg notes, much of the research that Waymo highlights on its website has been co authored by Waymo employees. And much of that safer driving was also done in safer driving conditions than most human drivers face. It wasn't until November 2025 that Waymo got the green light to drive on freeways around the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Up until that point, the vast majority of miles were city driving. By comparison, about 25% of all human driving takes place on highways and freeways, according to the Federal Highway Administration, where speeds are much higher and accidents are often more deadly. There is also little information about how frequently a tele operator takes control of a vehicle because companies don't provide information as to when interventions happen or what it means when it does. The data that we do have shows that autonomous vehicles in their limited capacity have been safer than human drivers in ideal conditions. However, the researchers have found that while driving at dawn and dusk, accident rates for Autonomous vehicles were 5.25% higher. Oh, no. 5.25%. 5.25 times higher. Oh, in turning scenarios, it was 1.98 times higher. There's also the fact that while autonomous vehicles can avoid some human errors, like distracted driving, they also tend to make mistakes that people wouldn't make, like driving directly into a body of water or driving through an active fire scene. At this point, it's not actually clear, as the industry would like to suggest, that autonomous vehicles will achieve either of those goals. So, you know, all that is PR bullshit.
- [30:46]
A
Oh, man. See, and it's funny that the. When the Waymo drove through the active crime scene here in la, that somebody didn't shoot it in the face. Give it time.
- [30:55]
B
No face to shoot.
- [30:56]
A
There's no face to shoot. God damn it. That's how they got around it. Yeah. So, okay, they fudged the numbers. Shocking. So, yep, I'm still not getting in one.
- [31:05]
B
No, I'm not either after reading that.
- [31:08]
A
Yeah, especially after reading that. Especially not at dawn or dusk or when there's a turning incident involved. Because God forbid, if I'm going in a straight line and then if I had to go in a straight line at noon. Yeah, then I'm in. I'll try it then. But if we got a turn. That noise, man. No way. Well, I just saw this last one, and it just. It kind of. It just, it sums up how I feel about the world. How much does Tim Cook and other Apple execs make per year? And some. Some numbers came out. In total, Apple says Tim Cook's compensation totaled $74,294,811 in 2025. Now, Cook revealed back in 2015 that he plans to give away all of his wealth during his lifetime. After providing for the college education of his nephew, he plans to develop a systematic approach to philanthropy rather than simply writing checks. Tim, I got. Hold, hold the phone. Tim, I got an idea for you. I have just a small idea. So put that little bucket of money away for your nephew, take a smaller salary and distribute the wealth to the people who work for your fucking company. Like, you know, I don't know, all the people with suicide nets in China because they're getting. They're going crazy.
- [32:20]
B
Are you a fucking communist?
- [32:22]
A
What is this communist? I'm sorry, Brian. I'm sorry.
- [32:25]
B
Yeah, Fucking commie.
- [32:26]
A
I'm just saying. I'm just saying. It's an idea. It's an idea. Run it through Grok and see how it. See how it tracks. Okay.
- [32:33]
B
See how it looks in a bikini.
- [32:35]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Some of the other greatest hits. The CFO got $22,467,309. General counsel got $27 million. The lawyer got $27 million. That's a lot of money. COO got $27 million. The former CFO walked away with 15 and a half million dollars. Maybe that's why they quit, because they weren't getting the whole 27 and the retail and people. SVP got $27 million. Brian, I don't know how hard you have to work day in, day out to get $27 million a year, but that's, you know, they must have extra hours in the day that us mortals don't have because, you know, you have to be working at least 400 hours a day, I'd think, to make $27 million a year. But I guess that's just tech.
- [33:26]
B
I guess so. Unbelievable.
- [33:40]
A
Media candy. Well, Brian, over the break, Stranger things wrapped up. If you haven't read every news article, everywhere people are complaining about it, people are loving it. Some people are thinking that it was all a fake out and there's going to be another secret episode that was supposed to drop yesterday. Spoiler alert. It didn't. It's done. It was fine. I ended up fast forwarding half of it. Like most of the season. I Ended up fast forwarding half of it because I didn't really care about a lot of the. The emotional story lines. I'm like, just get to the bad guy, kill him, and let's just. Just let's go home. It was. It was good. I liked it. You know, I didn't. I didn't complain about it. So would I. Would I recommend you going back to watching it since you've been, you know, away since season three? No, don't. Don't. Take your time.
- [34:27]
B
Yeah.
- [34:28]
A
Do something else.
- [34:28]
B
That was kind of my impression as well. I kind of monitored the feedback that was going on online about. About everything. And my thought was, like, if people say they stuck the landing and hit a home run, then I'll. Then I'll go back and start watching it all. But it kind of seems to be a collective meh. And for a collective meh, I'm not going to go back and watch the 19,000 hours of Stranger Things that would be in front of me still, having only missed two seasons.
- [34:55]
A
Yeah. You can actually go watch the extended editions of all the Lord of the Rings again and still have a couple hours to spare.
- [35:01]
B
Yeah. So I'm glad that the people that liked it, liked it. I'm not sure what anybody who hated it was expecting, but. But it is what it is, and it's. It's over now.
- [35:11]
A
Yay. Man. I did have a John McTiernan holiday movie marathon, though, which was kind of fun. I watched the Hunt for Red October classic movie in my top 10. You can't go wrong with that one. Die Hard 3, also fantastic movie. Can't go wrong with that one. And the the sleeper hit that I really, really Enjoy is the 13th warrior. I really like that movie for some reason. It's. I think it's a fine movie. So sadly, John McTiernan has been kind of run out of Hollywood. I don't know if it was Rollerball, which I. I didn't know he did Rollerball, which is funny because I actually worked on Rollerball for a little bit. Remember our good old friend Dave riggs? Oh, yeah, Mr. Wreigler. Yeah. Yeah. We worked on that together for a while. And yeah, it was apparently such a bad movie that I completely forgot that he did it. But all three of those, I think they all have legs and hold water. So just a, you know, something to do. Traders UK and US are back. You know, I'm a super fan of the Traders. So far, the UK has got five episodes out and the US just dropped the first three yesterday. Traders UK has been amazing. It's been so much fun. I'm enjoying every second of it. I can't wait. I'm going to watch the US one tonight. But that's on Peacock. Lots of them are on Peacock. The uk you have to go to Sweden to get right now. Unless you live in the UK and then you can just. Just watch it on tv. But yeah, as a trader super fan, I just. I'm tickled pink because that's how. That's how it is.
- [36:37]
B
All right, well, something else has returned. The pit is back for season two on HBO Max and the first episode has dropped. It is a weekly drop. They do not drop them all at once. Which I like especially for this show because it's pretty intense. More of the same. Just as good as last season was. First episode was. Was riveting and gross and all the things that you would expect if you watch the first season. So good times. Looking forward to that.
- [37:02]
A
By the way, it was. It was renewed already for season three, so.
- [37:05]
B
Oh yeah, I saw that as well. Yeah. I mean it's great acting. It's. It's really well done. I recommend it as long as you're not squeamish because. Okay, they go in. So I also flew to LA and back. So I have some not really drunk on the plane movie reviews because early morning flights. I finally got around to seeing Downton Abbey. The grand finale. Did not need it. The previous one was fine. Didn't care. Who cares? Who gives a shit? Like just wrap this shit up already. Everybody's married and happy and you have to give happy endings to everybody. And oh my God, she got a divorce. How scandalous. And she survives. Okay, great.
- [37:43]
A
Okay, great.
- [37:44]
B
She got a divorce.
- [37:45]
A
Save me two hours.
- [37:46]
B
Come back to do the show anyways. Yeah, it's. Don't bother.
- [37:52]
A
Okay, I won't. Thanks.
- [37:53]
B
Yeah, the last one where. Where Maggie Smith's character dies is. Is that perfect ending to the whole thing. So let it go with that selection was limited so I decided to give a movie that I normally wouldn't watch a tried Jurassic World Rebirth. This is the attempted reboot again with Scarlett Johansson to bring some heat. I don't know how you take a movie with Scarlett Johansson and dinosaurs and make it boring as. But they did it.
- [38:22]
A
Maybe they needed some AI could not.
- [38:24]
B
Have cared less about. About anything that happened in this entire movie. It was so boring. There was like three dinosaurs tops. And I did not care about a single character, a single dinosaur. The point, the plot, nothing. The soundtrack was boring. The fucking Title sequence was boring. The font they used was boring. Everything was boring.
- [38:44]
A
Even the font. Even the font is boring. That's bad. That's bad.
- [38:50]
B
They had the Desjardin Limited was available, so I decided to watch that. It was a Wes Anderson movie that I had not caught. Now, my history with Wes Anderson. I loved some of his first movies. Bottle Rocket is excellent. Rushmore is one of my favorite movies. I loved the Royal Tenenbaums. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Really good. After that, everything's been crap. And this is crap. This is so bad.
- [39:17]
A
He's become a parody of himself. I can't even watch him anymore.
- [39:21]
B
It was unwatchable. So I stopped watching it and I instead went watched a movie that is actually quirky, weird, funny and brilliant. Oh, brother. Where Art Thou?
- [39:29]
A
Fantastic movie.
- [39:31]
B
Haven't watched it in years. Boy, does it have legs. Boy, is it awesome. And boy, did it clean. Clear that stanky Darjeeling taste out of my mouth. And I normally like Darjeeling.
- [39:42]
A
I want to watch that again. That was a great movie.
- [39:45]
B
Oh, brother. Work. That was fantastic. It really cheered me up and I. I really enjoyed watching it again. I watched Honey don't, which is a newish movie that's got. What's her name? Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza. This is also a quirky, weird movie, kind of noirish, very sexy lesbian scenes. So I felt a little awkward watching it on the plane. So I had to stop watching it on the plane because I'm not an ex and grok AI user and, you know, I don't like to expose children to pornography. So I stopped.
- [40:16]
A
Can I have a. Can I have a blanket, stewardess, please? Yeah.
- [40:20]
B
I felt really creepy, so stopped watching it on the plane and I finished it when I got home. It's a fun.
- [40:25]
A
Of course you did.
- [40:26]
B
I finished one particular part 19 times.
- [40:29]
A
There we go. Nine times.
- [40:33]
B
It was actually a pretty fun movie. Well acted and interesting. I think you dig it. Jason, this is up your alley, regardless of the lesbian scenes.
- [40:41]
A
Okay? I like Aubrey Plaza. I like her.
- [40:43]
B
I like her, too. She's. She's great.
- [40:45]
A
I forgot that she was in Scott. Scott Pilgrim versus the World. We watched that. I totally forgot she was in that. It was great.
- [40:52]
B
Yeah. And I watched the documentary about John Candy. John Candy. I like me good. Not great. I think they're very limited by the fact that they believe it or not, even though he's one of the biggest stars in the world. It was like 1994 when he died. So not a lot of footage. And so many years later, like people's reminisces aren't as cutting or interesting or vibrant as they may have been. It's all very kind of washed away with time. Like, my God, he was such a great guy, what a great actor. Blah, blah, blah. And that was kind of it.
- [41:25]
A
Yeah.
- [41:26]
B
I didn't get a lot of the feels from it.
- [41:28]
A
Yeah, that's because, you know, I look at it, I'm like, that's probably sad, but like at this point it's like it was so long ago, you know, it's so long ago.
- [41:38]
B
Yeah, yeah, it was a bit like 20 years too late on bringing this thing out. So.
- [41:43]
A
Yeah, sounds like it still great.
- [41:44]
B
And it was a good reminder of all the different roles he played because there's a lot of clips from movies and things like that. So it was enjoyable for that. MTV has shut down its remaining 24,7 music channels in several countries, including the UK and Australia at the end of 2025. However, a developer who goes by the name of Flexosaurus Rex has paid tribute to the MTV of old with a web app that has several channels of non stop streaming music. MTV Rewind has 11 channels at this time of writing, including one that features videos from the original channel's first day of existence in 1981. There's a channel dedicated to MTV unplugged performances, a rap focused stream, one for each decade from the 70s to the 20s and 120 minutes and headbanger Ball options. And I'm so loading up 120 minutes tonight and watching this.
- [42:31]
A
So get it quick because somebody's gonna, somebody's got some lawyer somewhere is gonna say take this shit off, you know?
- [42:36]
B
Absolutely. So he said that he felt a wave of sadness when the announcement hit that they were all shutting down. Nothing felt like I could fill that void, YouTube. So I started coding, built it in 48 hours, MTV Rewind. And they've even put in era appropriate ads in some of the feeds, which is great. Like, I gotta check this out. This is awesome. So it's certainly gonna get shut down as soon as possible, but I'm very. Gotta, gotta take a look at this. That's. This is a good use of technology, you fucks. And finally, Star Tree. Star Trek Starfleet Academy begins streaming on Paramount plus January 15th. So time to renew that subscription with.
- [43:17]
A
Ads because he wants to pay for it.
- [43:21]
B
I'm jumping on this bullet for you, Jason. Don't you worry.
- [43:24]
A
Okay, well I'm going to watch it. I'm just going to go to Sweden Academy to download this one. I'm not giving Ellison any of my cash. No. No, thank you.
- [43:35]
B
Fair enough.
- [43:37]
A
Apps and doodads. So, Brian, I got a Christmas present this year. I got the DJI Osmo Mobile 8. My roommate gave that to me and I love it because my. This is one of the new gimbals that use the camera kit in the iPhone. So you don't actually have to use an app if you don't want to. Which is really nice because using the Osmo Mobile, I have a six. And using the. The app that comes with it's just a pain in the butt. It doesn't. It does half the shit right? I don't know. But the new one has cool, like, face detection things so you can make hand gestures to turn it on and turn it off so you don't have to like, go around the back and try and find your face to lock on to track you and stuff like that.
- [44:16]
B
That.
- [44:16]
A
So I like that part. I like it. It was. I don't know. I don't know how much it was. It was free. It was Christmas. Yay. Yeah. I did pick up a DJI Mic 2 to go with it though, so I can have a lavalier with it instead of having to use the phone mic. So if it's farther away. And I. I put this on my Christmas list because, you know, we're gonna. Since we're doing this stupid YouTube thing now, I want to be able to make some shorts easier and not standing here in my. In my place so I can do them when out and about and stuff like that because I got some cool product reviews coming up up that are. Aren't here in my garage. So it's cool. I. I like it. I played with it for a little bit and kind of got the hang of it. It works pretty much the same as the other ones. The nice part about this new one is it'll spin 360. The old other ones wouldn't go all the way around. And yeah, as far as an upgrade goes from the mobile 6, it's definitely a big upgrade. And it's not that much money. I think it's. It's like under 150 bucks for what it is. It's like magic and even. Oh, and the handle now has a tripod built in so you don't have to carry a fucking tripod with you and a longer selfie stick, so. So it's pretty cool. You'll see some videos with that fairly shortly.
- [45:19]
B
All right, well, Netflix rolled out Netflix Games in mid to late December. And I did not know about this until I went over to some friends house for New Year's Eve and they brought it all out and the kids grabbed their iPads and the parents grabbed their phones and we all started playing Boggle and Pictionary together as we were waiting for the New Year to ring in. Well, the east coast New Year. So everybody could they go to bed with their kids as soon as possible. These are actually a lot of fun. We're playing Boggle and Pictionary pretty regularly, even back at our house now they've got Lego Party Boggle Party Crashers, Pictionary Game Night and Tetris Time Warp. There's also some other stuff like Red Dead Redemption and they're rolling out more games and obviously branded games to their shows as well as all that is coming soon. But yeah, this was kind of a blast. Like we had a lot of fun playing it.
- [46:10]
A
So is the Boggle multiplayer. So everybody has to play on their phones. Okay. Yeah, it just says playing Boggle with the thing and you just take a piece of paper and write it down. You don't know apps required, but no.
- [46:20]
B
No paper required now. So yeah, it's just up on the screen. It gives you timers. You just go through it and yeah, it's a blast. It's fun.
- [46:28]
A
Okay, cool. Because Netflix games have been around for a while. I had the Mahjong version of Stranger Things that they had and there were like 1500 boards in it or something like that. And I finished it and they never. I finished all 1500 mahjong boards. Yes, I'm crazy like that. But they, they never updated it again, so. And I guess they're probably not going to update it now, now that the show's over, so. But this sounds cool. I'll check it out.
- [46:50]
B
It's a lot of fun. We talked a little bit about CES earlier and how we didn't really see or hear about anything. I did see this in the news and I had to question. Now, technology may have moved on a bit, but Victrola, the old timey company that put out radios and turntables back in the day, is still out there doing turntables. They put out a speaker that sits underneath the turntable and streams audio via Bluetooth. Now correct me if I'm wrong, I only took audio engineering as a double major at college, but speakers create vibrations. That is how they make sounds. Yes, vibrations. So you know, they tend to vibrate if you put your hand on a speaker. It's Moving because that's how it makes the sound. Needles on record players read vibrations, basically waveforms that are put into the record. If you have a vibrating item underneath your record player, it will bounce that needle ever so slightly, thus killing your audio fidelity. That is the reason when you see DJs with turntables, they're in these big road cases that have all kinds of foam underneath them to isolate them from any vibrations caused by the sound from these speakers. So you put a speaker underneath your turntable.
- [48:10]
A
Okay, Kermit the Frog.
- [48:11]
B
I am sure that you have worked very hard on the technology, but still, this seems very stupid to me.
- [48:19]
A
Well, I. You know, Victrol is still working on 1800s technology, so who knows? I didn't know they were still alive.
- [48:26]
B
Comes with optional leeches for your health. Yeah.
- [48:30]
A
After the bloodletting, you play the turntable.
- [48:33]
C
Yes.
- [48:35]
B
But they do say they have a vibr vibration isolated design, to which I say, you better.
- [48:40]
A
You better is right. It's just silent. That's the whole point. It's just a brick. You put it under there, it doesn't. It doesn't make any vibrations at all. You have to use your imagination. Oh, well, this. I just saw this one. This came in. California's Privacy Protection Agency has launched Drop the Delete Request and Opt out platform, which is a free tool that lets residents of California submit deletion requests to more than 500 registered data brokers in a single submission. According to the California Privacy Protection Agency, the service went live on January 1st with data brokers required to delete your information within 90 days and continue deleting it every 45 days going forward. The process is straightforward. Verify California residency through the state's identity gateway. Create a profile with as much or as little personal information as you choose and submit it. That's it. One form. 500 plus brokers, no charge. Now we. One of our advertisers is Delete me. Do not get confused with Delete me. Delete me does a lot more than this. And this is only the registered brokers that California is following. So you still maybe want to back up up plan like, I don't know, delete Me slash Gog or Grumpy old Geeks or however the code goes. It'll be. It'll be around somewhere, but this is pretty cool for Californians. I recommend giving it a shot.
- [49:58]
B
Yeah, might as well. You should sign up with as many as possible. That and say delete me.
- [50:09]
A
The Dark side with Dave. It's a new year and it's a new Dark side with Dave with super podcast guest host Dave Bittner. Welcome back to the show. Dave, how you doing?
- [50:23]
C
I'm missed you. I missed you, too. Both of you. And I just want to, at the outset, say congratulations, Jason, on three years.
- [50:33]
A
Oh, thank you very much, sir. Thank you very much.
- [50:36]
C
I am proud of you and admire you at the same time. Three years is nothing to sneeze about.
- [50:42]
B
Absolutely. I mean, I look at the news and I'm happy to make it three minutes.
- [50:46]
A
Yeah, I can. Really, right now. But, hey, what are you going to do?
- [50:51]
B
It's been at least three minutes since my last sip of whiskey, and I'm really white knuckling it right now.
- [51:00]
C
Yeah. So this is an interesting question, Jason. To what degree is it annoying or bothersome at all that folks like us who do not have the disease of alcoholism when we joke about it the way we just did? Is that at all bother you, or are you just along for the ride?
- [51:22]
A
Just along for the ride. Doesn't bother me at all. Okay. No, I'm not, I'm not gonna. What is it? Yuck on your yum? Because I just can't have any. It's, you know. You know, you can make fun of cancer patients, too. If I had cancer, I wouldn't be yelling at you. It doesn't matter.
- [51:37]
C
Okay, fair enough.
- [51:39]
A
Yeah. No, it's just a thing. I was born with it. I got it. C' est la vie. So, yeah, no, you guys have the chuckles at my expense. That's okay. I'm used to it. I've been on this show long enough.
- [51:53]
C
It's not like that's what triggered us having chuckles at your expense or anything.
- [51:58]
A
I know. Waking up in the morning is just good enough.
- [52:01]
B
Who needs a reason?
- [52:03]
A
That's right. Exactly. No, but seriously, no, it doesn't bother me at all. I don't think it bothers most people in recovery because, you know, you get used to it. So, I mean, my, my, My roommate has a bottle of wine every day, and it's like, I, I, I think of it as training. Like the Olympics, like the Olympic. The Olympians go up to Colorado because the air is thinner, because that way they're, you know, they're stronger when they come back down. So, you know, I, I just hangs out at bars, watch people. Exactly. That's all I do just to, you know, straighten up, you know.
- [52:31]
B
Yeah.
- [52:33]
A
Play the Rocky theme, go in there and, you know, have a Diet Coke, and.
- [52:40]
C
Well, hats off to you.
- [52:42]
B
Excellent. Well, I hope everybody had a holiday break. I thought we'd get the Disneyland thing out of the way quickly because I did go. My wife was able to get free park Hopper tickets through her work because we had said, we are absolutely not going to Disneyland this winter. And of course we got free tickets. So we went. And it was very nice. We went on the 30th of January. So in between Christmas and New Year's.
- [53:07]
A
30Th of January hasn't happened yet.
- [53:10]
B
Oh, I'm sorry. 30th of December.
- [53:13]
A
Look, we're trying to get through this month as fast as possible. I know.
- [53:17]
B
I don't know what day it is. I don't know what year it is. I just know I don't like it. That's where I'm at. So that's. That's about it. So, yeah, we had. We had a good time. It was very busy. But of course, they roll out all their hollow. Our holiday decorations and the special treats and drinks and all that sort of stuff. So we were able to enjoy all that. That and walk around. I have to say, though, that as much as I enjoy the Christmas decorations and whatnot at Disneyland over the past few years, it appears to me that the Imagineers much more enjoy Halloween. And as if they've started to make it a much bigger deal. Halloween is. Is. They go above and beyond compared to Christmas. Christmas is very nice, and it has been that way forever. But ever since they've really kind of adopted we're gonna do Halloween, they have gone all in. And I would much rather go during the Halloween decorating season time than Christmas at this point.
- [54:12]
C
Interesting. Yeah. I have been at Disneyland at Halloween. Cause I remember the pumpkins outside the gate where you get in, there were all these pumpkin heads and things. But it was nice. And I've seen the Nightmare Before Christmas. Halloween Haunted Mansion there, which was great, but. Yeah, that's interesting. So the crowds weren't too overwhelming.
- [54:40]
B
It was busy, but we were able to get on most of the rides that we wanted to go on. We've definitely had better trips, but it was still. It's still Disneyland. It still does what it's. What it says on the tin. It's a. It's a blast. So.
- [54:52]
A
And it was free.
- [54:54]
B
And it was free. I mean, yeah, it was free, so can't complain about that.
- [54:58]
C
That's true. That's true. We were pretty quiet over the holidays. Just stayed close to home and had family and visited with family and just kind of vegged out over the break. So much so that I was kind of ready to come back to Work. By the time it was over, I was getting a little bit of cabin fever. But overall, nice to step away and recharge and, and do a lot of napping and eating and all that holiday stuff.
- [55:27]
A
Yeah, very nice, Very nice. Yeah, we did the same. I actually took Brian's advice and took time off. I started, I'm like, I got all these ideas, I'm gonna do all this stuff and then like a day or so into it, I'm like, nap. I can take a nap right now. Holy shit. I don't have to do anything. All my work's done for my clients. They're gone. Brian's gone on. I don't have to open my RSS reader. Oh shit. I can get used to this. So it turned out I took two weeks, I literally took two weeks off and enjoyed every second of it. It was amazing.
- [56:00]
B
Good for you. I'm glad you finally did it. Amazing.
- [56:03]
A
Yeah, yeah, No, I came back, I came back on July or January 2nd just like ready to rock. I'm like, let's go. And now I'm like, let's go somewhere else.
- [56:15]
B
Anywhere.
- [56:16]
A
Yeah, yeah. Did get retro tech support requests this, this year. I had to set up an HP printer on a Windows 10 machine. That, that was challenging. That was challenging for me. I haven't used Windows in quite some time and I haven't used an HP printer in quite some time. And most of it was trying to get around them making you set up an account on the HP site so they can send you, you ink notifications over and over the dark patterns that they use. I'm setting this printer up for a 97 year old woman. You know, there is no way in hell that she could ever do this. I'm, I'm trying to disable stuff and I'm like, okay, if it asks you this, don't do this. If it asks you this, don't do this.
- [57:04]
B
And it's like, at 97, there's probably going to be little need for an ink replacement cartridge.
- [57:10]
C
That's right.
- [57:11]
A
This is true. This is true. We don't need a subscription. We don't need a subscription.
- [57:15]
C
A couple years ago I took my father to buy a new TV at the local Best Buy. And the guy said like, do you want the extended warranty? I said, my father is 90 years old. He doesn't buy green bananas. And the guy shook his head, he said, understood. Understood.
- [57:34]
A
Yeah.
- [57:34]
C
So that's funny.
- [57:37]
A
So, yeah, it was, it was a good, good tech support experience. And you know, like, it's not like the old days. The old days. I'd be like, I'd walk into a room and everybody be like, can you help me fix this? Can you help me fix this? Can you help me fix this? And this and this and this. But this time it was like, yeah. Oh, you got that? Okay.
- [57:52]
B
That's what I had over the break. I. My nephew got a PS5 that I had to set up. And you know, nothing is just plugging it in and figuring out cables anymore.
- [58:01]
A
Now it's account.
- [58:02]
B
Where do you have to set up accounts? How are the accounts connected? How do you do the parental account? How do you. Oh, so what's your email as? What? Who's. Which email do you want me to use for that? And then of course, you know, somebody else is streaming the streaming media social. Stop working on the TV in there. Go fix that. Oh, the WI fi is down again. Which part of the WI fi is down? Which? There's two different WI fi's here. Which ones? Okay, I'll do that. Oh, my mom got a new computer, so I had to set that up. Not only do I have to set up the new computer, I have to figure out it's Dell. Dell used to have a software package that would transfer from one Dell to the other Dell. That software package has been depreciated. You can't use that one anymore. So you have to buy this software package, but go through Dell to buy it so we can get our beacon. Nope. Well, the. That, it's not taking my credit card. Screw this. I'm going to their site directly. I'm just going to buy the software package from them. Okay, fine. Let's start that process. Let's transfer everything from one Dell to the other Dell. Let's do it over Wi Fi because I don't want to buy the goddamn cable 35 hours later after having it crapped out five times. Oh, it's finally all over there now. Great. Awesome. That's done. What's next?
- [59:01]
A
Okay, I'm getting PTSD just listening to that.
- [59:03]
C
So I think, well, we've all lived it, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The other thing I think that happens so much these days is the excitement of a new gadget is tempered by the fact that the first time you power it up, it has to do two hours worth of downloads and software.
- [59:24]
B
Updates before it'll do anything or charging. Even if it doesn't need that, it's got to charge up.
- [59:30]
C
Right.
- [59:30]
A
As soon as I got my OSMO mobile, the first thing it did was. It's like okay. Got to charge it a bit. And then you had to do the firmware updates and all that crap just so you could even turn it on. I'm like, can I just play with my new toy, please?
- [59:45]
C
Dare I ask, did you put the 360 camera on the OSMO Mobile?
- [59:50]
A
Kind of defeats the purpose. You don't really need to put a 360 camera on a gimbal.
- [59:54]
C
I'm just giving you crap about the 360 camera.
- [59:57]
A
Yeah, it's sitting right next to the DJ Osmo mobile right now.
- [59:59]
B
Yeah, it's got a 360 degree view of the OSMO Mobile because I can.
- [60:04]
A
Tell it from any angle I can see. See that?
- [60:07]
C
All right, fair enough. We had a surprisingly tech free Christmas this year. Especially for me. I. There really wasn't much. My son got a. My oldest son got a Flipper Zero. So he was playing with that all day, you know, copying remotes and everything. So he's looking to use that for doing lighting control, like for special events and things. He's a lighting technician or programs the lighting boards and evidently a lot of the lights have like IR receivers on them. So he can use the Flipper Zero to program lights and things like that.
- [60:49]
A
My Flipper Zero is sitting right next to the 360 camera on my shelf.
- [60:56]
C
Yeah, I think, I mean he's going to use it for that, but he's also going to find ways to get in trouble with it. I know, know. He was already talking, he was like, I, you know, up here people can get out of free for parking garages. And I'm going, yeah, you can.
- [61:10]
A
I. That's the, the one time I've actually used it is for that.
- [61:13]
C
Is that right?
- [61:14]
A
It works great. Yeah, yeah. You just walk by somebody that has a pass and you can clone the pass and then just use that to get in and out of the park.
- [61:22]
B
Yeah, I was, I was going through the airport and I don't know if you guys have flown recently, but do you, if you go through the airport and especially in the US Obviously you will get a lovely Kristi Gnome video.
- [61:34]
C
Oh.
- [61:36]
B
And that was playing on one of the TVs. And I'm pretty sure somebody in the area had a flipper because all of a sudden that TV went off and it did not come back on.
- [61:46]
A
So what was the remote, the gadget that you could have that would turn off all the TVs? What the hell is the name of that thing?
- [61:53]
C
I have one of those. Yeah, yeah, I have one of those here that I purchased For a very specific purpose, namely when the monitor in the lobby of our office building was stuck on Fox News all the time, I would just walk by and click my keys and off it would go.
- [62:18]
A
Okay.
- [62:19]
B
Yep.
- [62:20]
A
Well, since it is the new year now, I would just. I got a little question for both of you guys. Well, actually more for Dave than Brian, because Brian's in Canada and you have free health care. But are you getting gouged on your health insurance now? Because everybody's has gone up. Mine went up. Mine. I got hit fairly lightly compared to most of my friends. Mine only went up to. Went up to 740 bucks a month, which is $120 increase. So how you doing, Dave? How did you get?
- [62:49]
C
Well, I had a mixed. No. So my experience this year is a little odd because my oldest son turned 26, so he rolled off of the family insurance. So I saved some money from that. So because of that savings, my bill was pretty flat this year. I got hit hard last year. Mine doubled for my family. It went from about $600 a month to about $1,200 a month for the family. So now I. And I have. I admit I have very good insurance for twelve hundred dollars a month.
- [63:27]
A
There's not a whole lot.
- [63:29]
C
Yeah. And. And you know, that's even. I mean, that's a company policy. So that's, you know, the company's pitching in on it probably that much themselves.
- [63:37]
B
Yeah.
- [63:39]
C
So. Yeah, it's. It's so madding. Madding. Maddingly frustrating. Maddening. Thank you. Maddening is the word I was looking for.
- [63:47]
B
No problem. Yeah. Wouldn't know anything about it anymore.
- [63:51]
A
Yeah. It says the fucking Canadian.
- [63:55]
C
Well, I know, but. But Brian, I mean, you can't get any services, right? You can't go to the doctor. You have to wait forever for everything. That's what everyone here tells me.
- [64:05]
B
I mean, last week got a doctor appointment two weeks from now.
- [64:09]
C
Yeah.
- [64:09]
B
Yeah. When I had my cancer issues. Not a problem. Scheduled. Everything was scheduled, taken care of. I think I got charged $35 once.
- [64:19]
A
And it's 35 Canadian. Right. So it's like a quarter.
- [64:22]
C
Right. What's that in real money? Right.
- [64:25]
B
It's not that hard, people. All the rest of the countries in the world have it.
- [64:29]
C
That's right.
- [64:30]
A
Yeah. And I bet if you get shot in the face in Canada, they'll pat you right up.
- [64:34]
B
They don't shoot you in the face here, conveniently.
- [64:36]
A
Oh, saves on the insurance costs, I guess.
- [64:39]
B
Sure does. That's how we keep the cost down.
- [64:42]
A
Okay.
- [64:43]
B
We don't have government thugs shooting people in the face.
- [64:45]
A
Yeah, excellent.
- [64:47]
C
It's all rolled together. Just real quick, back to Christmas stuff. I resigned that I am not getting my Home Depot Art 2D2 this year. Oh, they are down. It saddens me, too. They're down to $75 on clearance. So if you can find one, you can get them super cheap.
- [65:08]
B
Okay, listeners, you have your assignment.
- [65:11]
C
That's right.
- [65:12]
B
Dave will give you the $75 and cover the shipping.
- [65:16]
C
That is true. I will absolutely do that. If you. If you have a Home depot with a R2D2 nearby, hit me up and I will see you later.
- [65:26]
A
We're going to tune in next week, and this is going to be a wall of R2D2s.
- [65:30]
B
There's like 20 of them.
- [65:31]
C
Okay, I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I'll find.
- [65:34]
B
Just to clarify, reach out to Dave first on Mastodon.
- [65:38]
C
Yeah, I'll find. Oh, yeah, believe me, I'll find places to put them. Don't worry about it.
- [65:43]
B
Yeah.
- [65:44]
C
At 75 bucks a pop, no problem.
- [65:47]
B
Resale value on this mountain is.
- [65:52]
C
Yeah. So I don't know if they're going to come. There's a lot of scuttlebutt over whether or not they'll be back next year because they had a high number of returns because they weren't packaged very well. So they came, they got delivered cracked and broken and all that stuff. So hopefully, I don't know, they'll be back next year. Or I may just end up buying a more robust one somewhere else. I don't know.
- [66:14]
B
Okay.
- [66:16]
C
Speaking of R2D2, one of my favorite gifts that I got for Christmas, which actually was just delivered yesterday, was this book.
- [66:28]
A
Ooh, look at that.
- [66:29]
B
Yeah.
- [66:30]
C
So this is the newest coffee table book about ILM and it's called Industrial Light and 50 Years of Innovation. We've talked about the ILM coffee table books here before. The first one is still the best one because it has the big gate folds of matte paintings and things like that. This book is excellent. If you love movies and special effects and all that stuff, you're going to want it for your bookshelf. It's lovely. I haven't had time to read it yet, but I've just flipped through it and it's everything you want a book like this to be. Lots of old pictures, lots of new pictures. This picture book covers up through the modern era, including things like the Mandalorian and the newer technology that they're using. So that was a lovely Christmas gift. Very much enjoyed that. I also put a link in here. The rumors are flying that Dave Filoni is going to be the next one to run Lucasfilm. I guess Star Wars.
- [67:31]
B
I heard that there have been multiple rumors about Kathleen Kennedy stepping down over the years, so I'll believe it when they've removed her name from the sliding door over the Millennium Falcon. But right now, right now, nothing's confirmed. I. I would love to see it. I. I don't think there's anybody better to. To do it, so.
- [67:51]
C
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I agree. He seems like the perfect fit of that would the person who would most make. Who would make the most people happy.
- [68:00]
B
Yeah, he's obviously a fanboy, but he has his own ideas and I. I've liked the majority of what he's done. Book of Boba Fett excepted small, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [68:11]
A
Hey, man, they were two of the greatest Mandalorian episodes in the book of Boba Fett, so that's true, you know.
- [68:17]
C
Yeah. I have a link in here to a story from the Financial Times where the Financial Times is not holding back. I know you. You guys talked about the stuff going on at X, Twitter with all the deep fakes and undressing young girls and all that kind of stuff. The Financial Times did a rundown of the people who work at X, but used AI used Grok to put clown costumes on all of them.
- [68:47]
B
Should have put them all in bikinis.
- [68:49]
A
Yeah.
- [68:52]
C
Right. Interestingly, it did not put a costume on Elon. I wonder if Grok is somehow prohibited from making adjustments to him in ways we all know.
- [69:05]
B
He's a clown. No costume needed.
- [69:06]
C
Yeah.
- [69:07]
A
Yeah, exactly. I love the title of this article, though. Who's who at X, the deep fake porn site formerly known as Twitter. It's beautiful.
- [69:16]
B
Yeah.
- [69:16]
A
Yeah, that's good. That's Gizmodo level writing right there.
- [69:21]
C
Yeah. I mean, I hope the EU really comes at them. They're. They're. They're saying they're going to. So.
- [69:29]
B
Yeah, we'll see. Hopefully next week.
- [69:32]
C
Right, Right. I wanted to ask you guys coming into the new year if you had any iOS games recommendations. I'm itching for a new game.
- [69:43]
B
I am so boring.
- [69:44]
A
Go for it, Brian, because you're the gamer.
- [69:46]
B
I am so boring, Dave. I do not. I have solitaire and I enjoy that. That's. That's it. That is the one game on my phone.
- [69:54]
C
Oh, wow. That is boring.
- [69:56]
A
Jason, did you ever play Tiny Wings?
- [70:00]
C
No.
- [70:02]
A
Tiny Wings. I think you can get it? Do you belong to Apple Arcade? I do, yeah. I think there's a version on Apple Arcade that they put out.
- [70:09]
B
Okay, look, Dave is writing a note by hand.
- [70:12]
C
I am.
- [70:13]
A
Ooh, old school.
- [70:16]
B
Wow.
- [70:17]
C
Oh, man.
- [70:18]
B
How do you spell tiny again?
- [70:20]
C
Tiny wings.
- [70:21]
A
There you go.
- [70:22]
C
Tiny wings.
- [70:23]
A
Okay. Yeah, it's really fun. It's an older. It's like, you know, 10 years old at least, but I think one of those ones that has legs.
- [70:30]
B
Yeah.
- [70:30]
A
Yeah, it has legs. I, I, I beat it. That was one of those games it took me like three months to beat because the last level will drive you mad, but it was. I tell you what, it is one of my, my most proud accomplishments, definitely. If you have, if you have. I know. I, I don't have much to live for. Brian. It's okay.
- [70:50]
B
Dude's been sober three years, and his private is his biggest accomplishment is he beat Tiny Wink.
- [70:56]
C
Yeah.
- [70:57]
A
Funnily enough, I beat that when I was drunk. No, beyond his tombstone beat.
- [71:03]
C
Tiny wings.
- [71:05]
A
Yeah. I've had this John Mellencamp song stuck in my head for a while. And there's a refrain in there. Life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone. That's pretty much what sums up my life right now. So. Yeah, Super Monster ate my condo is a fun one. Check that one out. That's on Apple Arcade too.
- [71:22]
C
I gotta write quickly. Hold on. Super monster ate my condom.
- [71:25]
A
Super Monster ate my condo.
- [71:28]
C
Okay.
- [71:28]
A
Fantastic game. It's very fun. They just revamped it with new graphics and it's on Apple Arcade. So check those two out.
- [71:35]
C
That's good.
- [71:35]
A
Come back to me next week.
- [71:37]
B
You can't go wrong with any of the Angry Birds variants. There was a Star wars one for a while.
- [71:41]
C
That was a lot of fun. So I was revisit.
- [71:43]
A
You gotta pay for all those now.
- [71:45]
C
Oh, do you? Sucks.
- [71:46]
A
Yeah, I was free Angry Birds.
- [71:49]
C
I was thinking about revisiting. Remember Where's My Water with the Little alligator? It was an iPad game, and water would flow and you had to create different ways for the water to flow and things. That's the kind of thing. I guess what I'm looking for most in games these days is occupation, like occupying my time. I don't want it to be too hard. I don't want it to be too easy. I want it to be pleasurable. I want it to be distracting. So that's what I'm looking for.
- [72:22]
A
Yeah, you can go back to the old standbys. Plants versus zombies. That was a fantastic one. Play that again and cut the Rope Cut the Rope's another old classic.
- [72:31]
C
That's fun. Yeah, maybe that's what I'll do. Just revisit all the classics. Angry Birds is a great one too.
- [72:37]
A
Yeah. I think the Golden Age of iOS games is long gone. And when they were really making a big deal about apps and games, games, you know, back then, seven, eight, ten years ago, those were some great games that still have legs if they still work because some of them don't get updated. You know, like, was it flight controller or whatever, that one where you land the planes? And I'm desperate for Apple Arcade to buy and revamp because I love that game so much. Okay, yeah, that one was great. But yeah, the old stuff. The old stuff totally has legs. Totally has legs.
- [73:11]
C
That's a good idea. All right, well, before we wind up today, as we're recording here today, I just want to point out it is David Bowie's birthday, also Elvis's birthday. But David Bowie, were he alive today, would be 79, which I don't want to think about. But there's a. Who was, was an actor who posted a thing about how nothing's been right since Bowie died.
- [73:39]
B
That's been a long standing theory that David Bowie dying has sent our planet off on the wrong axis and everything is wrong. Yep.
- [73:47]
C
Yeah. It's harder and harder to deny that that may indeed be the case.
- [73:52]
A
So, yeah. Sound incorrect.
- [73:55]
C
Yeah. Happy birthday, Mr. Bowie, and thanks for all the. All the good music and entertainment over the years.
- [74:01]
B
Agreed.
- [74:02]
C
Wherever you are, be well.
- [74:06]
A
Closing shout out. Over at Patreon, we've got some new subscribers. Jason, Phil and Jeff. And Peter upped their donation. So thank you very much and from the legacy files of people who are still supporting the show that we love. Brent, Don, Corey, Stephen, Dave, Paul, Mark, Jesse, Kira, and Rude or Rudd. Rude. I think Rude. I'm gonna go with Rude. It's our show. Rude.
- [74:34]
B
Thank you all. Over at PayPal, we've got Joseph, Tom, Jens, Charlie, Levy, Florian, Nicola, Ralph, Judge, cedric with a $10 donation, Jonathan with a $20 donation. Thomas with a 25 donation. Going up another five bucks is Marcel at 30, leaping 20 ahead, Leslie with 50 bucks and Robert matches at 50. Thank you all so much.
- [74:55]
A
Thank you all so much for those year end donations. It really helps. It brings a smile to my heart and keeps the show on the air because you guys are what's keeping us on the air. And over at the Tip Jar, we've also got Adam, Jennifer, Sarah, and Matthew. And Michael M with the big $160 t tip. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you. And we've even got some merch. Brian, Leonid and Dror both bought some merch. So thank you guys very much. You actually kept the store going with your purchases this year. So. Yeah, that's it. No reviews though, sadly.
- [75:31]
B
Yeah, well, that's okay. It's 2026. We got a long way to go. Obviously.
- [75:37]
A
We got 10 more years to go before 2027. What are you talking about?
- [75:40]
B
Until February. Sorry. Until next time. I'm Brian Schulmeister.
- [75:45]
A
And I'm Jason DeFilippo. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks. Get all the links and goodies from Today's episode at GOG Show 728. That's a lot of episodes. 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. And that is not an exaggeration. Love the show. Share it. There's a share button in your podcast player. Use it to spread the grumpiness to of 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 air. And guess what? We've got. Merch. I was going to make some new merch over the break, but I took a vacation instead. So new stuff coming soon. Yeah, new stuff coming soon. Snag your your grumpy gear now at Shop GOG show and stay grumpy. Where's the off button?