425: Climbing Up the Walls

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. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Brian, I have to start the show off with an apology to the world. I'm sorry for killing TP. You're the person that has caused the you can only buy one pack ban. I see Brian. I know we do have a great deal of power on the show and I may have mentioned TP on the show that people should go and buy it.

And, you know, now it's just gone. It's gone from the world kind of like David Bowie, sadly. So I have gotten a lot of shit for quote unquote hoarding TP, but I would like to point out to everyone. I bought my TP responsibly before it was all gone slowly one pack at a time when the world was normal.

I can attest to that. I have been in Jason's studio pre-coronavirus, even before we brought coronavirus upon the world by talking about it before anybody else. And he always had a bunch of TP stacked in the corner there. So, yep. So, you know, we live in earthquake country, man.

We live in earthquake country. And remember, the first rule of prepping is to over prep, not under prep, because sometimes your neighbors might need to borrow a roll or, you know, just something. So it's good to always have extra because you want to be good to the community when things like this happen.

Right. Yeah. And I just can't believe everybody here in L.A. We live in earthquake country. Why isn't everybody stocked up already? Come on, people. Well, you know, it always depends on timing, at least for some people, people like me, because what I would normally do is like once a month, I would stop at the Target that's down by my mom's house when visiting my mom.

And that's when we do our big stock up. Now, luckily for us, that timed out perfectly. We bought our normal amount of toilet paper, which would typically last us for a month. And we have that still. So we're good. There you go. There you go. Yeah. So my kid has had a cold for an abnormally long time for him now, which is like well over a week.

He usually clears out of these pretty quickly. But according to a lot of the reports that we've seen from China and Italy and people ahead of us on the curve, that tends to be how coronavirus exhibits in young kids. Oh, great. Yeah. That's had a lot of fun around the house recently.

And then I started to get kind of vaguely flu-like symptoms about two days ago. So I was, as the phrase goes, shitting bricks, except you don't want to do that because, you know, toilet paper shortage. Exactly. Well, as long as they're good hard bricks, then you don't have a problem. Well, that's true.

One ply will do, right? Exactly. So I was a little worried for a couple of days, but I basically just have a cold. Not that I could get a test because, you know, I'm not an NBA player or Harvey Weinstein. Well, I did see this over at TechCrunch. The CDC launches a coronavirus self-checker bot called Clara for people in the U.S.

Okay. And this is with Microsoft. They got together and built this little thing. It's based on a Microsoft Azure's healthcare bot service. So it's basically a decision tree. Yep. That's exactly it. That's what I thought. Yeah. So there'll be a link to the show for that.

It's called Testing for COVID-19. It's on the CDC.gov site. So, you know, it's legit. Right. And you can go basically just click the self-check and it'll pop up a little window and it'll ask you a bunch of questions and you can go from there. I think that's great.

I think it's extremely useful because even though this news is everywhere, people seem to be somewhat confused about what symptoms are to be and rightly so because there's a lot of different reports coming out. It's a, it's very much an eggs are good, eggs are bad situation. So to have an official version of this out there that you can just kind of click through step by step and soothe yourself because you probably don't have it yet.

And the thing about it is, um, cause yeah, it's, it's, it's great for people who are like hypochondriacs who wake up every day going, do I have, do I got, do I got the Rona? Do I got the Rona yet? Right now I feel we're all hypochondriacs together. That's true.

That's true. Cause uh, yeah. And the other thing is, it's like, you know, everybody's under so much stress, your immune system goes down and you can get a cold and feel vaguely crappy like you do right now. And I actually did earlier this week too. I'm like that motherfucker brought it to my house.

It does not seem to be the case, Jason. I did not infect you. Yeah, that's good. That is very, very good. And I found this over at USA Today. It was an opinion piece called, we need an immediate five week national lockdown to defeat Kona Corona. But I can't say it today. I keep saying Kona virus cause maybe I just want to Kona beer, uh, to defeat Corona virus in America.

And this is by Yanir Baryam, an MIT trained physicist and complexity scientist who studies pandemics. So it's a good read. And, uh, when people say, Hey, why are we doing this? Point them to this article. That'll be why. And you know, if we follow this, we would be done.

It would be over. At least, well, I don't want to get all doom and gloom because I've gone down that rabbit hole of it this week, but at least until it comes back in November. Yep. Exactly. Exactly. But maybe we'll have herd immunity by then or maybe we'll see. And there is a page for, uh, the, if you live in the LA County area, there's a page on, uh, publichealth.lacounty.gov that I'll link to in the show notes as well that you can look up every morning and see how many infections are in your neighborhood.

Currently, I have seven in my neighborhood. Uh, I was at three a couple days ago. I'm not sure what's that anymore. And honestly, I don't care cause I'm not leaving my house. I'm not going to come into contact with any of these people. So it's fine. Yeah.

You're at 12 now. Okay. That's, that's actually not too bad. All things considered. We've only had seven deaths here in LA County. Right. Five hundred and thirty six cases. And I mean, this is the case numbers are going to go up because testing is starting to roll out for people that aren't uber rich.

Although my favorite meme of all time, I have to say is currently in the United States, the best way to find, find out if you have Corona virus is to go cough on a rich person's face. And, uh, we did our big working from home, uh, segment in the last show and we've received a ton of positive feedback and thanks for it.

So thank you for all of the feedback and glad that it was helpful and, uh, that you guys all appreciated it. Uh, but I did find a follow-up article that said, uh, and we were a little bit hedging our bets because this is extraordinary circumstances, but, uh, uh, that blows everything out of the water because basically this is, uh, working from home can, can make people more productive, just not during a pandemic.

So the article is basically like, yeah, working from home actually can be a very good way to work if you follow certain structures and you keep everything scheduled and all of that sort of stuff. But, uh, in the middle of a pandemic, when you're worried and the whole world is falling apart, it doesn't mean shit.

I don't know, man. I've gotten a lot done this last week. I mean, a lot done, but then again, also this is my wheelhouse. It's like that today is Tuesday. This is just like Tuesday last week. Well, I think that's kind of the point of the article. Well, first off the article is saying, you know, uh, you don't have a choice.

You're being forced into it and people just psychologically don't like that. Um, people aren't used to it and they find it lonely and isolating and they don't have the structures in place that you and I were talking about. Uh, but for you, it is kind of business as usual. For me, it's a whole different ball game because I'm not just stuck at home by myself working.

That would be fine. I would be okay with that. I also have a wife trying to work from home and I have a three-year-old that doesn't have any school to go to who is currently screaming for me and banging on the door. This is a completely different ball game. You know what I mean? Exactly. Yes. And, and my roommate and I went, and this is another tip when you can definitely practice social distancing from the people you live with.

If you have the space, because the murder rate is going to go up soon. I guarantee that. That's why we, we've started to bake that in. We made the mistake of not doing that the first week. So my son has learned the phrase, uh, daddy and mommy need alone time. Here's some Robitussin, have a nap and I'm going to put some links in the show notes here because Seth Miranda, a friend of the show has been doing some really cool videos on how

to juice up your live streaming setup from home because a lot of people want to do live streaming from home because they got nothing else to do. So he's given some really good tips on, uh, how to use the stuff that you have and, uh, get some free software to do it and, uh, walks you through like how to get it set up.

It's they're, they're really good videos. He's doing a whole series on them. So that's great because, uh, you know, a lot of people that are actually professionals at this sort of thing could probably use a hand and, uh, some help right now. Cause I've been listening to some of, uh, um, some of our, my regular podcasts and they've all like a move to, they were recording in studios, had excellent sound quality, et cetera.

And now they've all moved to, well, we're just going to do it from our homes and all that sort of stuff. And a lot of people do not have this figured out. The pros sound horrible. Yeah, that's the thing. It's like, I, they should, I need, should probably do a series on that just for the basic audio setup. Cause, uh, Seth's is mainly video.

So, uh, and I also want to talk about the independent podcast virtual conference 2020, which is on March 28th, which is on Saturday. I will be virtually not attending. I will virtually be speaking at that conference. So if you're interested in that, um, I think I'm going on at 1230 Pacific standard time.

Uh, I've got a link to the show notes where you can sign up for it. Uh, it's all free. You can just come and hang out. I believe it's free. Uh, if it's not free, it'd be weird if they charged. No, it is going to be free. It's, uh, it's basically going to be on Facebook video. So if you don't have a Facebook account, glad I kept mine, I guess.

Um, but, uh, yeah, we're going to, I don't know who I'm talking with yet, but I'm going to have a panel with somebody. They're still trying to put that together cause I'm not doing a full talk, but, uh, yeah, I know I'm getting requests for more things like this to do it from home. So I'm going to be working on my, you know, virtual streaming setup this week as well.

So maybe I'll, maybe once I get it set up, I'll do some tips on audio for people to go check that out. Yes. Since my roommate doesn't really have a job right now because they shut down the real estate market here in Los Angeles, she's been going out and finding stories for me.

And she found this one for me this morning. Cause this just happened. New Corona virus stimulus bill in Congress creates us digital dollar boy. Here we go. Here we go. It was always, it was only a matter of time, uh, at some point the, the feds and the government were going to come up with their own cryptocurrency to, uh, basically cock blockchain, uh, all these other people that are doing it.

And I, by the way, I just termed that one. That's mine. Cock blockchain. That's mine. Uh, so not surprising. Um, you know, I, I, I've, I've read through this a little bit, as you said, it just came out this morning. Uh, it is backed by the bank.

It is a real currency in theory as real. Any currency can be that exists in nobody nowhere except somebody's mind. So, yeah. Okay. Now here's, here's where I have a little issue with this. This is being pulled directly out of somebody's ass because I do not believe that there's any technology behind this that the, they've been working on that or if they have, they've haven't told anybody about it.

So, well, maybe this is a, uh, Trump Google situation. Maybe, you know, Google's been building this thing for any, they're about to roll it out. I'm, I'm sure somebody is about to say, Hey, we're going to use Microsoft's, uh, system to do this. And Microsoft is going to go, Oh, what? Yeah.

Say, say, say, little, little, huh? It'll be interesting. Yeah. It'll be interesting. I mean, look, it's bound to happen eventually. Uh, and you know, now probably not the best time to try to roll something like this out, but, uh, to, to put, I don't think that the intent is to have it in place immediately.

Um, maybe they think that's what's going to happen. It's, it's nice to build in the idea so we can prepare for it and hopefully do it correctly. Um, and take our time with it. But, uh, for now, instead of getting us digital dollars, how about you just get the normal people, you know, some real dollars because they need it right now.

That's the whole thing about this is what they're trying to do is they're trying to do this and give everybody the digital dollars that they can spend instead of sending out those thousand dollar checks that mysteriously everybody stopped talking about in the news. If you notice that, and, uh, this is, that's what they're trying to do with this. This is going to be part of the stimulus package that gets people money to keep them going.

So we're going to give them a brand new technology that, you know, half the country probably can't even figure out. They're like, what's a digital dollar? Well, it's a, what's a digital wallet. I don't know. And, um, they're also going to have the U S postal service work with, you know, the unbanked or those without any proper ID to get them online and get their digital dollars.

So it's going to be, I think healthcare.gov 2.0 that's just, that's my gut. That's my, I don't see this rolling out in time to have it be meaningful during this crisis. But again, like I said, I don't mind the, I, this is how all government ideas start, um, pie in the sky and then it doesn't happen right away.

And then we can slowly work our way towards it, which I'm okay with. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. Well, if you do get those digital dollars and you wanted to use them on Amazon to get something, uh, you're, you're S O L. Yeah. Uh, I started, uh, as, as with most trends these days, I started to notice this on Facebook.

All of a sudden I started to see friends of mine posting WTF. I'm just trying to get some banana clips to do this or that in my house. And now I'm not getting, uh, my, my delivery date is not, uh, today or tomorrow. It's April 21st, which is nearly a month away.

And, uh, yeah. So that is, uh, uh, an unintended consequence of the prioritizing the most in demand, essential items in the warehouse. So the e-commerce giant is struggling to keep up with customer demand during the pandemic. I mean, tons and tons and tons of people are ordering things. I know that, you know, we went on, I wouldn't call it a panic spree buy on Amazon, but it basically was for, uh, kids toys and activity kits.

Because as soon as we realized, Oh no, this is not going to be two weeks. This is going to be two months. If not longer, uh, we bought a lot of stuff on Amazon and it was right before, uh, the prime stuff kind of stopped because we got them within two days, which is thank God we have these things now.

Uh, but, uh, yeah, if, if this isn't some of the priority items, um, you are not getting them for a while now, my thought and impulse is most people will get their stuff before April 21st. Uh, Amazon is just throwing that out there to, uh, you know, basically they're erring on the side of caution.

They're not going to say you're going to get these things right away. They're going to tell you they're, they're doing the Scotty maneuver. You remember from Star Trek, always tell them it's going to take eight hours. And then, so when you do it in two, you look like a hero. That is my theory about what Amazon prime is doing right now. Regardless, I do believe since Amazon prime is basically useless now, except for the video part, I think some sort of remuneration for our Amazon prime freeze, maybe not right now,

but after this is all is over, uh, is warranted. Oh, absolutely. We are not getting the service that we paid for. No, we're not. No, we are not. Although I do hope that they prioritize dog food as an essential item because they were out of it at my local. I still have 60 pounds left, but, uh, you know, with the dogs I have that it's need a little more.

So I set up a recurring delivery and they said it would be here April 1st. Are pet stores still open? How were they considered essential services? Oh, absolutely. Essential services. Yeah. I mean, if the weed stores are considered essential services, one would think pet stores would be. Well, at least in California, weed stores are essential.

And as far as I'm concerned, BevMo is still open, which is essential. Yeah. The, um, the problem is you can't change a dog's food like in one day. Otherwise you have serious issues. You know, um, same for children. Uh, Lucas is starting to realize the disappointments of not being able to get his preferred favorite snacks and he's getting whatever we can get.

Uh, yes, but that doesn't, that comes with a tantrum. That does not come with explosive diarrhea. I might take the explosive diarrhea at this point. Well, you can plop him down in front of the TV because Amazon is making dozens of kids shows, including Arthur, completely free.

Well, because I pay for Amazon Prime, this means nothing to me because I got these shows through Amazon Prime anyways. They are not unlocking things that you didn't get with Amazon Prime, which would be nice because there are a lot of shows that you only get the first two seasons with on Amazon Prime and then they want you to pay.

Gotcha. Okay. I thought they were opening up more stuff for, for Prime members too. These are just Prime shows already that they are now opening up if you do not have Prime. Okay. Okay. At least that's my understanding of it. And I looked at the page, uh, that they put up for it.

So, I mean, I didn't take an in-depth look, but it seemed to me that I was like, oh, well, I already have all that stuff. Oh, okay. Well, sorry about that. Well, no, it's good for people that don't have Prime and you should check it out because there's quite a lot of good stuff in there. So it's just, uh, you know, I wish they would offer up more stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially to make up for the fact that they're not delivering our stuff. Yes. Uh, but they'll probably, and if they do that, they're probably going to have to knock down the bandwidth just like Disney plus and Facebook have done. So they are reducing their streaming quality in Europe as well. Right. As the aforementioned Netflix before that.

So that's going down. And, uh, I've got a wired story here about why kids are with kids stuck at home. Authors bring stories to Instagram. I have not read it. So it'll be in the show notes. If you have kids, go read it. Uh, I did mention that in our, uh, segment last week. Um, and if, if it's story time, uh, it's phenomenal.

I hadn't used it until a couple of days ago, but this is, um, celebrities and authors, uh, reading children's books and it is wonderful. It is a treasure. So I'm so glad that that exists, uh, Betty White reading a children's book, uh, by far one of my favorite things I've ever seen.

Well, that's cool. That's very cool. Yeah. And I mean, so many talented people are stuck at home and just giving away stuff for free. Did you see Sir Patrick Stewart reading a sonnet today from Shakespeare on Instagram? Yes. Yes. That was amazing. It was very fun. Very fun. And Andrew Lloyd Webber is doing songs of the day.

It's pretty, it's pretty interesting to see all the, the really cool, talented people that you never get access to really doing fun stuff. Yep. Very cool. Uh, and I found this little article, just a bit of news that, uh, doesn't have anything to do with the coronavirus right now. But, uh, Samantha Mosley, a 17 year old presented at hacker convention, schmoo con about she and how her friends were trying to mess with the, uh, Instagram algorithms.

And, uh, they decided to share a single Instagram account and peruse at their leisure. They combined various interests. Uh, so Instagram would know less about who and where they are and serve up a variety of different types of content. The TLDR on this is, uh, it was fun for a little bit because of the different interests that they would, uh, you know, anytime any one of them logged in, they would see things that they wouldn't necessarily normally see and were able to explore around a bit more.

Uh, but it basically just started to hone in on the three interests, disparate interests of them. And as soon as, uh, two other people stopped using it, it was right back to just the one person stuff. So the algorithm is good. You cannot defeat the algorithm. You cannot defeat the algorithm.

Yes. And the final story that I saw this week, which I thought was kind of interesting. Smart thermometers could be the key to tracking the coronavirus for better or for worse. Uh, I never understood why anybody bought any of these smart thermometers. We just have a regular one because the smart thermometers send the information back to the company and in their privacy, uh, agreements, which you probably don't read for a thermometer or anything else at this point, it says that they can basically do whatever they want with

this information, which usually is selling to healthcare companies or companies like Clorox to kind of figure out where, where there's public health things going on, flu, et cetera. So they can up their advertising. Uh, but the theory here is that if these smart thermometers are being popped into a database, we will see areas of outbreak, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, blah, blah, blah, whatever.

I got to say, I got my nest for free from the city of Los Angeles and I have to say that it is fantastic. I love that thing that I can sit in bed and warm the house up. I finally got my schedule thing working now that everybody told me I was an idiot and showed me where to find it. Yes.

And the one thing it didn't do though, is it didn't adjust for daylight saving time. So I had to actually go in and redo the schedule. I'm like, seriously, how does it not know that? I, I, well, the clock changed, but the schedule didn't change. It should have shifted everything by an hour and it did.

Maybe you've got one meant for Arizona, which doesn't have. Could be, yes. It's like the Arizona version.

Media candy. Brian, I think we're both up to speed on Picard at the moment. Yes, sir. All right. What did you think of this almost penultimate episode of the season? Well, you know, they confirmed, well, let's not do spoilers, I suppose. They confirmed some things we expected.

They threw in some interesting twists. There's a lot of chatter online about what people think the big twist will be in the ultimate episode. Although I'm not entirely sure there will be a big twist. I think the story works as is. I'm loving the show.

I'm going to be very, very sad when the last episode airs and we're going to have to wait a long time. I'm just going to go back and start at the beginning again, but I thought that I thought the twist was a little, a little odd, a little odd, but the cameos were pretty cool. I got to say, yeah, that worked out for me.

Yeah, I loved it. I thought it was really good. Have you kept up to speed with Westworld? I watched it last night so I could be ready for today and it wasn't as good as the first episode, I thought. This one plotted a bit. It took a lot longer time to get to where it went than it needed to go, but I still enjoyed it.

I enjoyed it. Yeah, but it just wasn't as good as the first one for sure. No, no, definitely not. And I've been working my way through Altered Carbon. I think I'm about halfway through the season right now. Good, not great. Yeah, it's, it's good. It gets better. I'm, I'm like it, uh, I just started episode seven, so I got two to go.

Um, I was going to watch it last night, but I'm just like, I'm tired. I'm going to go to bed. Yeah. Well, I think we're all getting a bit of that cooped up, uh, depression that's starting to hit us this wave. So at this time I, I did the same thing. I was going to watch one more episode of Altered Carbon last night at like, and I looked at, it was like 10 30 and I'm like, nah, I'll just go to bed.

And, uh, the wife and I are working our way through succession. We're on the second season right now, almost done. It's a really great, but really depressing show. Um, we were, I was talking about with my wife like last night and I'm just trying to figure out why as much as I enjoy the show, I'm not, I'm not like chomping at the bit to see it.

And I realized there's not a single character to root for. They're all horrible people. Oh yeah, that's the best part in times like these, Jason, I, I need one shining beacon of hope, one good character to show. And, uh, there are none.

So, uh, but yeah, it's, it's a very well done and very funny. And the lines that they give Roman are just unbelievable. It's the best. Yeah, definitely. No, I, I, I seriously love that show. Yeah, it's good. And since I have been trying to watch more funny stuff and my favorite comedian in the world, Burt Kreischer has a new special called Hey Big Boy.

Soon as it dropped, we, uh, we closed the, closed the blinds, put the dogs to sleep and kicked it on. And I haven't laughed that hard in a damn long time. It is definitely bro humor, but it is damn funny. It's all I got to say.

Right. I could just leave that on loop till the end of the world and I'll be fine. Okay. And, uh, we don't have apps and doodads right now, but I found this, it's called Endel. It's a, uh, it's an app for your phone or your computer that basically takes different, uh, inputs to do generative music for you for different moods.

It's pretty damn neat. Well, that looks kind of cool. I might have to download this and add this to my little app collection that I have. I have like all the Brian Eno ones and all that sort of stuff that just kind of generate ambient music. So very cool. This is heavily based on Brian, you know, stuff. And the, I listened to a, an upcoming interview.

I had to edit an upcoming interview with the CEO of this company. And like the whole team is really into that generative music stuff. And, you know, huge fans of Brian, you know, and, uh, they even had got, uh, I can't even fucking remember the flow guy.

Chick sent me high. I can, I can, I can remember, I can say chick sent me high, but I can't remember his first name. Uh, but they got him as an actual person to come in and like give them research on how to get people into a flow state. Right. By using music and stuff and all the tests that they have. It's pretty cool.

I mean, I got to say it's, uh, I think free for the first seven days or first month. And then it's 25 bucks a year after that. Right. And it opens up more stuff, but it uses your age, your sex, your, uh, location, weather, time of day, takes all of that stuff in.

And it has access to your health kit info. If you give it to it and it uses all of that stuff to generate the music based on your personal fingerprint, which is pretty cool. Yeah. Pseudoscience, but pretty cool. Well, I mean, it's something, something, it doesn't matter.

I have it on in during the day and it's just nice. It's really good in the background. Yeah. Actually, you know, something I should do for next show is get together a list of all the different, um, musicians that have put out just like some of my favorite ambient electronica albums of all time.

I'll do that. Oh, that would be good. Yeah. Yeah. Cause from work, when you're working from home, it's good to have that stuff on in the background. If you can't do the, I'll do a little research and, uh, put it in Saturday show. So that'll be coming. I think you, you, you misspoke. You said you'll do a little research. I think you'll do very little research because we are grumpy old geeks and we never do research.

Well, I don't have to do research per se. I just have to pull together a list from my regular playlists. Oh, awesome. Awesome. At the library. I don't really have a book right now because I just haven't finished anything.

I've got like six books that in the queue, but a friend of the show, Eric Hundley sent me a tip, uh, which was very cool. Uh, it's the audible daily deal, which I never knew existed. You can sign up on your, in your settings and your notification settings, and it'll send you a book a day, which costs a lot less than what a credit would cost.

So I got, uh, Stephen Fry's new book, mythos read by Stephen Fry for $3 where it's usually like, uh, it's usually a lot more than that or a full credit. And it's 15 hours long. So 15 hours of Stephen Fry for $3.

You can't go wrong with that. That's a good deal. If you like your audible, I wish they did Kindle versions of that. Yeah. And, uh, speaking of that, I finished the last day, a novel by Andrew Hunter Murray, which you had read. And Andrew Hunter Murray, of course, is one of the hosts of, uh, no such thing as a fish.

One of our, both of our favorite podcasts. Um, yeah. So I started this book before all this shit happened. And, uh, this has taken me quite a long time to read because, uh, like I just mentioned, I started it before our world changed. And as much as I love dystopian near world science fiction, it's a bit hard to read when you're fucking living in one.

So it was, it was rough, but it was a great book and worth the read. And I finally finished it. I might recommend waiting until we're on the other side of what we're in now before picking it up, but do pick it up and, you know, I'm going to go read something light and happy next.

All right. Yeah. I really enjoyed the book. Um, and it did set it up for, you know, possible sequels. They didn't just set it up for possible sequels. As long as it's sold well enough, we're getting a sequel. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, I could, I could go without a sequel.

I mean, I thought it was pretty well standalone. Yeah, I think so as well. I mean, what's it going to be called the day after the last day? Moron of the week. My first moron of the week is the CEO of Uber. I saw this over at the Verge.

Uber wants Congress to include protections for drivers in coronavirus stimulus package. Again, with the Uber, not wanting to pay their bills and shuck it off to somebody else. Yeah. Oh my God. Can you believe this one?

Uh, yeah, of course I can believe this. Uh, Uber, as I've been stating for, for all of Uber's existence, that Uber is a horrible, shitty company. And they're doing horrible, shitty things. And they're continuing to do horrible, shitty things. Yep. Yep. Uh, the Uber CEO wrote a letter to Donald Trump and said, protections and benefits for independent workers, not just employees is what he was looking for.

And he literally says, my goal in writing to you is not to ask for a bailout for Uber, but rather for support for the independent workers on our platform. Once we move past the immediate crisis, the opportunity to legally provide them with a real safety net going forward. You know how you can legally provide them with a real safety net?

You can make them employees, which they are. And it is a bailout for Uber because Uber's existence depends on the independent workers that you refuse to give any rights to. Yep. Yep. Yep. So, uh, yeah. Hey man, if, if, if we lose Uber in this, I'll be okay with that.

That would be fine, but you know, that's not going to happen. So, nope. So we've all had our own difficult journeys in these last two weeks, struggling to come to terms with the coronavirus and what it means and how we're going to deal with it. But, uh, none so much publicly and from such a notable person as Elon Musk.

He's had quite the journey this last week. Um, and as this article points out, it is less than surprising that Elon Musk is going to be himself during a pandemic, even when it's not really helping his or the public's cause. And it's noteworthy because what he says and does matter because that's true.

People respect him and follow his advice. And of course he did not take the coronavirus seriously at first. Um, let's see, here's the timeline. So he first made waves in the coronavirus discourse with a single tweet declaring the coronavirus panic is dumb. It was the most liked tweet of the week on Twitter.

Now that's not necessarily wrong because the panic was dumb. What we needed was not panic. We needed action, but he didn't exactly provide any leadership there. Two days later on March 8th, he doubled down on his stance that the reaction to the virus is dumb, saying the fatality rate from the disease is greatly overstated because there are a few tests.

That's where the cruise ships. He noted ships with a lot of people and limited medical facilities are a serious issue. Yes. When stocks began to falter on March 9th, he declared the market was a bit high anyway and due for a correction. I meant to do that. And on March 10th, when the Coachella Music Festival was postponed, he suggested it should remain that way until it stops sucking.

Burning Man, on the other hand, he agreed was still worth the experience for now. The same day he put out a Twitter poll about whether Tesla should have a mega rave cave. All right. He's lost all respect for me forever now. Well, he does swing it back around here a little bit. This week, it began to seem like he was maybe getting the message on the coronavirus and begun to accept that it was a big deal after all.

As cities and states began to mandate shutdowns, the stock market plunged, everything that we've been, the whole dystopia we've been dealing with in the space of five or six days. So, earlier this week, he replied to some tweets about handling stress and potential treatments for the disease.

He also wrote pretty candidly about his own experience with the chloroquine, whatever that is, the anti-malarial drug that has been discussed as a potential treatment for coronavirus, which, by the way, some people have died trying. So, don't do that. They've died trying it using their aquarium version, not actual, you know, not the actual pharmaceutical version.

They use fish version. Yes. Idiots. So, but he's still downplaying how dire the pandemic is. On Monday, he followed up a tweet of a paper outlining potential drug therapy options with a tweet insisting that the danger of panic still far exceeds the danger of the coronavirus, which may be true for him because he's rich and young and relatively healthy.

So, good for him. He may not fully buy into it, so, but here's where he turns it around a little bit. He finally said he will try to help respond to the pandemic. On Wednesday, he announced that Tesla would join General Motors and Ford in offering to make hospital ventilators, which is good because one thing, say what you will about Musk, when he decides to do something, he generally gets it done.

So, I'm happy about that. So, you know, started off moron, kind of ended up, I wouldn't call him a hero, maybe reluctant. Speaking of, yes, I have another reluctant hero of the week, billionaire Richard Branson. Right. So, billionaire Branson dips deep to save incredible employees with $250 million joint package to fight coronavirus shock.

Now, here's what happened. So, Virgin came out and said, yeah, you guys are not getting paid for a couple months. Stop. Period. And he comes back and says, after a huge backlash, and I mean, he's got 70,000 employees here.

So, now he's like, here's what we're going to do. We're going to, I'm going to dip into my savings account, which is $690 million. And he's going to spend $250 million to help out his employees get through this. Now, he does come back and say that, you know, our employees were united behind the plan to not get paid.

He said it was virtually unanimous about the unpaid leave. I'm sure. Yeah, because that's what every, I mean, Richard Branson is such a great boss that I would just go home and wait for him to call me back to work for nothing. No, no money. No, nothing.

Can I steal some crackers from the first class cabin to get me through? Because I don't have any money for food, Richard. So, yes, he's finally doing the right thing. But he is my reluctant hero of the week. There's quite a few of those these days. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. Marriott's still the devil.

But, and we have a dancing hero of the week, which is the Melbourne zookeeper who danced on the live stream. Have you watched the video of this? No, I haven't seen this one yet. Oh, my God. It's very funny. It's very short. It's very funny. It'll put a smile on your face. I could use one. I will take a look at that.

Yep. And I have one more. The, yeah, that was nice, hero of the week. And that's Masterclass. David Rogier sent out, I think, to all of the Masterclass people who paid for the service and said, here, during these times of strife and being stuck at homitude, that's my TM, stuck at homitude.

Okay. Not as good as Koch blockchain. But, yeah, so basically gave everybody a free pass to give to somebody else. We don't know how long they're going to last, but I sent you mine. So, maybe you can tell me if you signed up if it says how long it's going to last for. I have not. It's a year.

Oh, good. You have until April 30th to sign up because, so, I know that because I decided I'm going to wait because I have zero time to do a Masterclass with the kid and wife at home. That is not possible. So, thank you for making it such a late sign-up date.

I will wait until the last moment to sign up and then I get a year and hopefully our life will return to something resembling normal and I'll have time to take some of these classes. It's funny, I sent you, when I sent that to you, I'm like, ooh, check out the Gordon Ramsay ones. And then I was thinking about it, I'm like, why do I really want to watch a class to go, you know, get smart about ingredients I can't go buy right now?

That's just kind of mean. What we need is a Chopped Masterclass. Here are five random items. Make something out of it. Over on Patreon, we've got a bunch of new subscribers. Matthew, Jason, Masato, who says, just wanted to say thank you for putting out informative, entertaining, thought-provoking, grumpy content every week, even when the going gets tough.

I was especially thankful for the last episode you guys did on working from home and wanted to show my appreciation. You guys are awesome. Well, thank you. You are awesome, too. And David, and David says, hey, I've seen you guys Sprook, carbon copy cloner, and I had to go look up Sprook, it is an intransitive verb, austral slang to make or give a speech, especially extensively or elaboratively, spiel or orate.

We have been spieling about carbon copy cloner. It says, I'm using it, but it consistently fails because as a developer, I have millions of small cache files from things like CocoaPods or NPM in my user account. I'd ideally like it to back up the whole system, but even after leaving it 12 hours, it rarely finishes a backup.

Time Machine didn't have this trouble, but had other issues reliably reaching my NAS via SMB. What do you guys and other devs do for this? Basically, I've always used carbon copy cloner and haven't had that issue. And I had, you know, millions and millions of files, too, because I was, I mean, like, I still even have all of my old repositories running on my things.

I run Git and all that stuff, still have that. I think maybe what you can do is just shut down all of the extra processes that are running. Like if you're running web servers and things like that, that might be constantly writing to those cache files and just let it run overnight and give that a shot.

Just shut everything down, like not have anything running. And that should be able to give you a good clone that you can then just update from there. But or you can also on different folders with just cache files, just remove those from the backup. I know that's a pain in the ass.

But yeah, I haven't had that problem with carbon copy cloner at all. I think it's been rock solid for me. Excellent. Over at PayPal, we've got Ryan, Andrew, Julian, Tom, Joseph, Mark, Joe, Eric, Stephen. Stephen says, stiff upper lip, guys. Best wishes. And then we've got Ruben.

Oh, God, I could go for a Ruben sandwich right now. He says, for the anti-coronavirus toilet paper fortress fund. Thank you very much. Thank you. Over at Twitter, writefilmsleeprepeat writes in, I feel bad I've paused my Patreon to the Grumpy Old Geeks while trying to help help out other with canceled gigs and shows.

If you listen, would appreciate you stepping in for a bit. Thanks. And actually, just a quick note. That's what people have been doing. I've been, you know, I'm the one that kind of goes through these things and crawls through them throughout the week. We've had a lot of people pause their subscriptions or pause their PayPal. We don't we don't judge.

We understand. We totally get it. But a lot of people have stepped in with very generous donations. And that has been amazing. So thank you so much to those of you that can. We totally get what's going on right now. Yep. Yep. And I meant to mention this last time. Our advertisers have been pausing to ButcherBox has paused all their ads for a couple months because they don't advertise.

They ran out of their road. They're running out of stock. So if you still want to get some ButcherBox, use use our code GOG. And you can get, I believe, I think it's a free ground beef for the life of the subscription. But get on it now because, yeah, supplies are limited.

And my God, that stuff's so good. I should go get one now before it's all gone too. I've got what's coming this week. Theoretically. Theoretically. Theoretically, yeah. And Fry to Before Diamonds writes in, I was playing the latest episode then got this message. Wait for it. Is this the most recent episode of Happy Young Nerds?

What? Yeah. Don't quite get that, but okay. That's funny. That's funny. And Spankaniac writes in, regarding your 40-20 work slash relax rhythm, do you actually set alarms for the whole day to strictly follow it? Great. An incredibly helpful episode.

Thanks so much. I don't because I've been doing it for so long. I basically start at the top of the hour. And then I was about to say, like, never before in the entire history of humanity has it been so easy to know what time it is. There's time on your computer, there's time on your watch, there's time on your phone, there's time on your iPads.

Unless you still have a VHS blinking 12, it's hard not to know what time it is. And if you start on the hour, keeping the 40-20 is very simple. Yeah. Yeah. Just always start on the hour. And it just makes life super easy. Yep. Quantum Leap writes, I now understand the term misery porn I learned on GOG podcast years ago.

I wonder how many people will get paranoid by just listening or watching the news. Everybody. Yep. Answer for that, everybody. One of the most important tips for working from home is do not have the news playing. Yep. Just don't do it. Turn that shit off. Uh, Moss 6502, who is in Puerto Rico, writes, some supermarkets are close to rioting.

Some priests said Puerto Rico was going to martial law and total closure. The audio spread like wildfire over WhatsApp and people went nuts. Priest is now saying he made it up, but the damage is done. Not the only thing that priests make up, but that's just this atheist point of view. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Uh, that's not good. And, uh, you know, I've seen the rumors about martial law floating here as well. Uh, luckily nobody of note has really said it yet. Hey, it may come. We don't know, but, uh, it ain't coming yet. And wait until officials actually say something. And even then do not panic because even if there is martial law, you will be able to go to the damn grocery store.

Right. Right. We do have the national guard on the way here now, but that's to generally help sanitize and clean things up and provide support. So, yes. And radio teacher writes in California shelter in place is now a thing. If you have a moment, watch this and be less grumpy in times like these GOG podcasts and videos like these.

Keep me grounded. And this is a video called Rat Attack, the Yodel of Justice. Did you watch this, Brian? Uh, I watched a little bit of it. Yes. What just happened? I'm not entirely sure. Uh, it has to be seen. I'm not either. I don't believe it can actually be described.

It can't be described. It must be, it must be experienced for yourself. The link will be in the show notes. Rat Attack, the Yodel of Justice. Michael writes in, fine show on episode 423. Hearing at the end about tips for online teaching, maybe take a look at at NVLearningAcad, which is on Twitter, the only online 6 to 12 school in the 5th largest school district.

The principal is always open to helping teachers around the country become familiar with online teaching. And there's a link in the show notes. This is the Nevada Learning Academy. We'll check it out. Yep. And Jackal writes in, love your show. Also, your reading list is pretty good. I'm enjoying the Expanse books and TV series now on Prime.

I thought you should know about this. And this is a link to Inverse.com. Coronavirus could mean an early return for TV's best sci-fi show. Uh, thanks for sending the link. I appreciate it. But unfortunately, it's clickbaity and nothing. It just basically says that, uh, they finished actual filming in the third week of February.

But, uh, because it's such a VFX-heavy show and employs several different companies to do all the settings and all that stuff, there's a ton of work still to be done on the episodes. Um, if I don't know how well VFX people work from home, um, basically Inverse has no idea if the show is coming back or not.

There's throwing out this theoretical, there's throwing out this theoretical, filming is done, so maybe we'll get it. Well, the thing about VFX is it takes massive workstations and massive render farms to get all that stuff done. And I'm pretty sure a lot of people aren't going to have that kind of hardware in their own home. They may have something smaller, but they're not going to have all the VFX libraries that are required to build that show.

Cause I'm guessing people aren't allowed to take that stuff home. So it's going to be done when it's done. That'll overload the corporate VPNs for sure. Oh yeah, definitely. And it's just, I mean, cause those files are just, I mean, it's, they're massive. I mean, that shows terabytes and terabytes of data. Yeah.

And, uh, we have a Twitter slash, uh, GOG.show feedback crossover. I'll start with the Twitter one. Gadlaw writes in, track by your phone and then sent to quarantine magic. And this is from the Times of Israel. Israel starts surveilling virus carriers since 400 who were nearby to isolation.

So the health ministry announced on Wednesday is begun using mass surveillance tools to retrace the movements of coronavirus carriers and has already informed 400 people in contact with them that they must enter quarantine. So this is being conducted by the Shin Bet security service for the ministry.

It's facing harsh criticism, obviously, including by members of the government and its legality is currently being challenged in the high court of justice. So the tracking thought here is an aims to alert and order into quarantine people who in the previous two weeks were within two meters for 10 minutes or more of someone, it turns out to have the virus.

So they find somebody who has the virus. They get the location data from that phone. They see what other phones were nearby long enough. If so, guess what? Knock on your door. You know, draconian, but not sure I have too much of a problem with it. And then over at GOG.show, Chris sent us a link from theguardian.com, which is basically the UK is planning to do the same thing.

They're thinking about it. You know, the ability to create movement maps of anonymized data, meaning how is this in any way, shape or form anonymized? That is not. That makes no sense because it's not. You're finding specific people. They're using it for a different response.

This is just to shape the track of the virus itself as it grows and moves. So they say now. So they say now. Well, here we go, Jason. This is the thing, which is I'm on the fence with this as well. It is draconian. It may be necessary. I'm worried about both the slippery slope, which is obviously going to happen, and the rescinding of said tracking once this is done.

Bingo! Which may or may not ever happen. Bingo! Yes. Yep. Once somebody gets power, it's hard to get it back from them. We still have almost everything from the Patriot Act, in effect, even though most of it doesn't do anything for us anymore. Yep. And we are toying with doing this here in the States, too.

So it's going to be a thing. So Jacob writes in, I noticed you're sharing a wiki resource on Tor and Onion sites. I thought you might be interested in this resource as well. And it's over at vpnmentor.com. What are the best .onion sites and how to access them safely in 2020? And he goes on to say, I feel it's well written, easy to understand, and more in-depth than the one you're using.

I thought you would find value in sharing it to your page to help readers with no technical background. First, I thought this was spam. Me, too. And then I went and looked at it. It's a pretty good resource. It's actually a pretty good resource. So even if it's spam, thanks, Jacob. It actually worked out. And Brian wrote us regarding the uninstalled apps thing that was happening with iPhones, et cetera, et cetera, to a link at payitforward.com.

Uninstalled apps are using data on my iPhone. No, they're not. I briefly scanned this this morning. The gist of this article is all that data that you see there is since you last refreshed it from any apps you may have deleted from your phone that was data downloaded while you still had those apps.

Right. I'm not sure I buy that. Actually, no. He tested it. I read the whole thing. And it's – I mean, all of that data is since the last time you refreshed the statistics of your cellular data, which nobody does. So it's basically since you turned the damn phone on because I went and tested this right after we finished the show.

And I'm like, hey, let me go check this. And I checked my data usage on my AT&T account. And I used 0.2 gig, you know, in the past, like, 60 days. I used almost no data. So it correlates with that. And it makes total sense.

And he proves it in the actual article. So. Perfect. Well, there you go. Problem solved. Problem solved. Well, the problem was – there was no problem, actually. They just set something's visibility to on. Yeah, visibility to on. Danny C over in the UK writes, I loved episode 424 and really appreciate the sensible, level-headed information you're passing out.

I have another co-op game recommendation for Jason and Jordan, Dead Space 3. It's a great survival horror game, a bit old but backwards compatible with Xbox One. Cheers and deliveroo! So I have a link to Dead Space 3 in the show notes. And I'm going to pick it up because it's only like 20 bucks.

Brian writes in, hey, Grumps. Many thanks for the familiar voice during what I'm hearing a lot of people call interesting times. Personally, I will call it a fucking sad and disastrous time, but that's just me. Thanks for work-from-home tips. I work in a school in a spectacular Aussie form. Schools are still open, even with knowing the numbers in your country and us on a similar trajectory.

W-T-F. Anyways, if I survive the term, I'm hoping I will be able to use those tips soon. I remember Brian talking about an app where his wife and he could share a shopping list, literally six days, and we still can't get TP, mincemeat, hand sanitizer, eggs, etc. Hoping we can share a wish list that if any of us find said items, we can cross it off and it will sink.

Y'all stay safe and healthy. My wife and I both have iPhones and the latest update to notes, actually not even latest anymore. It's been in there for a while. It allows you to share notes, and it's super easy to keep a grocery list that both people can access at any time.

It updates in real time. It's great. That's what we use. Yeah, I'm using reminders, and you can also do, I believe you can do, yeah, you can add people. So you can just do a shopping list and reminders, which is actually much easier. And then you can just check things off as you go instead of having to, like, delete the line and things like that and notes.

So reminders is actually also really good for shared shopping lists. There you go. If anybody has any Android tips, send those over. But, yeah, no Android here. Mike writes in, hey, guys, thanks for the latest episode, 424, first good laugh I've had in a while, at least since 423.

Stay safe and healthy, and thanks again for helping us get through this. Took your advice about putting familiar noise on in the background, so I'm working my way back through recent episodes of GOG. Panic attack level reduced to yellow. Thanks. Well, you're welcome, Mike. And Joe writes in, hey, Brian, Jason, and Dave.

I started listening around the time of episode 100, but I went back and began with episode 1. And, yes, even though those early episodes don't have the polish of your newer ones, they were fantastically entertaining and informative. Lots more stuff. That was very nice of you to say, but we cut it for brevity. Your most recent episode, 424, finally gave me an undeniable excuse to throw some cash your way, despite having less now than ever.

My wife and I are professional musicians and teachers in Los Angeles, and let's just say we don't have much to do for the next couple months. Your tips on working from home were incredibly helpful, sanity-saving, one might say, and I'm appreciating your voices and ideas more than ever before. Keep up the great work, guys.

You're really helping people keep their shit together these days. Grumpily and geekily yours, Joe. Thank you. Well, thanks, Joe. I apparently have a very hard time reading things that are complimentary towards us. I stumble over them because I'm not very used to it. Not used to it. Not used to it. Well, then you can read the iTunes review.

Oh, perfect. Okay. Evan writes in, I know Brian is missing his sports ball. It reminded me of the Monty Python Philosopher's Football and Olympic sketches. This is furloughed sports commentator starts covering scenes from everyday life. Oh, my God. This is so funny. It was amazing.

This is Nick Heath of London, England. He is, I believe, what was it, rugby? Rugby commentator. And he basically just walks around and comments on everyday life. And it is hilarious. I loved it. Thank you. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of, I don't know if you ever watched these videos. It was the movie commentator guy or like the movie trailer guy who would walk around behind people and start doing the movie trailer voice.

Yes. Yes. I remember that. In a world where she buys a Slurpee. Things like that. That guy was awesome. Oh, just dig him up and he'll help pass the time. Nick writes us, sent us an interesting article from Sweden where every pack of toilet paper you buy, you have to pay a $10 surcharge on top of the cost of the toilet paper.

Also, a grocery store in Denmark is taking action where the bunkering of hand sanitizers became too big. The first bottle of hand sanitizer is sold as usual for 40 Danish kroner. The second bottle for 1,000 Danish kroner. Well, that's one way to deal with it. Stores here have basically just been limiting people to two items of anything max, which seems to be working pretty well, too.

Yep. Yep. We got two more teepees and two more napkins at the 99 cent store yesterday. Yep. One of the places you can go that actually does not have lines, believe it or not. I do have the link to the original article that Nick sent in. It is in Swedish, but if you're a Swedish listener and you want to go do it, go for it.

Jason the doctor writes in, I'm in the ED near Philadelphia. While the volume of COVID cases has not yet arrived, and by the time you see this, that might have changed, its coming intentions feel to be growing. It feels like we're all standing under a piano wondering how strong that rope is.

That said, my immediate worry is the fear of seeking treatment for normal and serious medical problems. If you need care, get it. Don't die from appendicitis because you're afraid of COVID. Heart attacks and strokes are time sensitive. Please, we're here for you. We'll keep you safe.

Well, thank you very much, Jason the doctor. Yes, thank you. Not Ryan writes us, hey guys, French listener here, and I was having a good laugh during the last episode while you were talking about bitcoins and how useless they still are. I would agree with you if it wasn't for the fact that like everyone in Paris, I'm stuck at home in quarantine and I ran out of pot fairly quickly.

And all my usual guys won't come to me anymore. So I went back to my cold wallet I created when I was in IT school and now I use my bitcoins to order weed off the deep web and have it delivered directly to me by mail. It works great and I honestly have no idea what I would do without this. By the way, I was impressed by all the improvements some of the dealers 2.0 have made on their website since I last went there a few years ago.

It's easier, it has a cleaner interface than Amazon, and it actually arrives in my mailbox. Whereas I'm still waiting on my prime order that was supposed to be here since last week. So yeah, bitcoins aren't useful to most people, but there will always be a parallel economy relying on them. Anyways, thumbs up from France, keep your hands clean and stay grumpy.

You know, I think what's going to come out of this is everybody's going to realize that I'm not a user myself, but weed is not all that destructive. Just legalize it already. I mean, California considers it an essential resource. Weed stores are staying open. Well, I mean, if you have cancer and do chemo, it is an essential resource.

Amelia writes in, my partner and I are digital nomads, which is a completely different beast, but we used to work from home for nearly 10 years. It's definitely not for everyone and probably most people will struggle with it. Here are my tips about how we did it. First and most important, discipline. At home, you always have a lot of distractions and more freedom to do whatever you want.

So often, work is the very last thing on your list. Ain't that the truth? We converted our living room that we hardly used before anyway into an office. We moved our desks and computers there. We set our working hours and that was the time of the day we did not want to be interrupted by anyone.

It was time to work only. Since we're night owls, we set up our working hours very late, 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. That worked perfectly for us and we still work remotely and wouldn't change that to anything else. Well, awesome! Cool! Mark writes in, "I am a printer technician working from home," in air quotes.

I am an authorized technician for a printer company that has an on-site service contract with another large company. I am currently directed to remain at home to monitor the printers under my responsibility. When one breaks, I then have to go to the printer and fix it. Well, the upside is no one's probably printing anything right now, so you get to stay home for a while.

Yes. Cameron writes in, "I wanted to know what you all thought about this. It seems like it would be a good idea to move manufacturing of essentials back to the U.S., but is it feasible? While it may add jobs, it may also make some medication even more expensive than it already is. Also, I was wondering if Jason has seen Night on Earth on Netflix.

It just popped into my head when he was talking to Seth about cameras in Panic at the Costco, and Seth mentioned how much low-light technology has improved. I have not seen that yet, but it is on my list." And Cameron sent us a link at the New York Times, "Coronavirus spurs U.S. efforts to end China's chokehold on drugs."

Yeah. So, the global spread of the coronavirus is reigniting efforts by the Trump administration to encourage more American manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and reduce dependency on China for the drugs and medical products that fuel the federal healthcare system. This includes a push by White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro to tighten Buy America's American laws, so federal agencies are required to purchase American-made pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

It's a nice thought. I'd love it. Good luck. Drugs are just too expensive here. Our healthcare system would need to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. We, before this happened, had insurance companies paying to fly people to Mexico to get drugs because it would be cheaper. But the one thing about all this is we're starting to see a lot of bullshit rules and a lot of craziness and a lot of artifice that may go away.

We'll see. And Shauna writes in, "So, here is how my side of the healthcare industry is dealing with working from home and not overloading the system. We are split into two groups. Group one is the part that deals directly with customers, so they do their work between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Group two is more behind the scenes, so they work from between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.

They did a load test before and it was pretty good, generally speaking, and the guinea pig. How am I dealing? Lots of black tea and Girl Scout cookies." Don't eat them all at once. Yeah. Don't eat them all at once. You can't eat just one. Move that office out of the kitchen. Seriously. And NoSec writes in, "I'm really starting to think that I probably should hold down the beer.

Funny to listen to your podcast and suddenly hear my nick being said in the feedback loop as I have zero recollection of posting anything, like with the last show." Hey, we barely have any recollection of recording the shows. That's true. That's true. And Serial Killer writes in, "Looks like someone is capitalizing on your title and there are Panic at the Costco t-shirts."

Well, you know, this is one of those things where a lot of people have the idea at the same time. It's funny. Yeah. And CDC.gov is using the hashtag of our previous show, "All Alone Together." Really? They are? It's on a TV commercial. Holy shit. It's called "Hashtag Alone Together" is on a TV commercial.

I'm like, "You bastards." Always ahead of the curve. Always ahead of the curve. It's the CDC. Hmm. What are you going to do? Always ahead of the curve. Over at iTunes, we've got from Biggest Dickus from the U.S. They're grumpy. I'm grumpy. I'm old.

I'm a geek. And I'm in good company. I look forward to each new show that pops up in my feed. Since I often work alone, I enjoy listening to you guys talk shop. Keep up the good work and stay grumpy. Well, we shall, Biggest Dickus. And we have a one-star rating again. This is from OldRedHen3131 from Australia.

"Off political jokes by two sarcastic old trolls. Not a fan since the increase in mind-numbingly imbecilic political jokes and jeers. This podcast is just the same dose of flogging the dead horse with doom and negativity. The advice and views are those of two bitter old trolls rehashing the same doom over and over.

Don't bother." I believe Australia is about a week and a half behind us, so how's that treating you now? Yeah. Yeah. But I just wanted to know what they thought, OldRedHen here, when they saw the title of our show and expected something that wasn't on the tin.

I know. It is grumpy old geeks. He just called us two sarcastic old trolls. I'm like, no, that would be the rip-off show that somebody else did. Yeah, maybe he was the one that saw the title Happy Young Geeks or whatever that was earlier.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. He may have gotten the wrong one in his player. If you want your question or comment right on the show, head over to gog.show/contact and send us your feedback or questions that we can read on the air. And if you're so inclined, please head over to gog.show/iTunes and toss us a five-star and snarky review.

And don't forget to click those stars on overcast, please. Pretty please with sugar on top. Thank you. Closing shout outs. My closing shout out is to everybody that's listening. I want you all to stay safe out there. And, you know, try not to be too bored or too depressed staying at home because we know this is new for a lot of you.

And we're going to try and have as many tips as we can to help get you through it as the shows progress. And hopefully we won't have to do that for far too long, but it's going to be a bit. So just, you know, if you need something to do, go listen to back episodes or, yeah, just go listen to back episodes.

Screw it. That's all I got to say. We give you enough other stuff to listen to. Until next time, I'm Jason DeFillippo. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks. To support the show and keep us on the air, go to gog.show/donate. Toss us a few bucks and we'll love you forever.

Your support really keeps us going and we really appreciate it. Show notes for this episode are at gog.show/425. From there, you can find links to old episodes, leave feedback, ask questions, donate to the show, and get links to stuff we like. Stay grumpy and please stay home.

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