455: McMarmot

Grumpy Old Geeks. A weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFillippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the internet and who's to blame.

Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks. I'm Jason DeFillippo. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Brian, we screwed up. We forgot that we had a nice Zoom account and we haven't done any meetups or drinkups lately. That's true. We have not. Somebody actually asked about that in feedback this week. Okay. Well, we'll discuss it then too. But what do you think? Should we do another one?

Are we paid up through this weekend? Do we have to sacrifice some extra cash to do it this weekend? Nope. If we do it this weekend, we're under the wire. All right. Let's do it this weekend then because I planned on – well, we're in lockdown again, so I planned on being here. All right. What do you say? Six o'clock Saturday?

Sure. Let's do six o'clock Saturday. That works for me. And yeah, we'll do that. And if enough people come to make it justifiable to pay for Zoom again, we will. And if not, then it'll be our last one. All right. So that is 6 p.m. Pacific. I was going to say Pacific Standard Time, but I keep getting slapped down when I say that because we're in daylight saving time.

That's right. Pacific. Yes. That's it. 6 p.m. Pacific. That will be at GOG.show slash live. All right. I guess I need to get some beer ordered in. Yes, you do. Yes, you do. So we kind of screwed up on – well, we didn't screw up. No, we didn't screw up.

We didn't actually screw up, but yeah. Our Amazon TikTok story on the last episode, right after we were done recording and publishing everything, then it came out that Amazon had rolled it back. Yes. So, yeah, we missed that one just because of timing.

I'm glad you actually used that terminology, rolled it back, not denied it, because obviously this email was written, but they rolled it back. Yeah, because it turns out they've got kind of a communication problem inside of Amazon, you know, because one division was actually working with TikTok saying, hey, can people buy stuff from Amazon directly from TikTok?

And the other department said, oh, this is bad. I read some news. We're not allowed to have TikTok anymore, but somebody, you know, right hand, left hand, no communication, all that stuff. Or maybe it was a good ploy because TikTok was all over the place in the news about people potentially banning them. Maybe this was a smart move on Amazon's part to say, hey, hmm, maybe you should give us what we want because we're considering getting rid of you.

Ah, could be. It could be strong arm. Strong arm tactics. Yeah, TikTok has been all over the news. I'm just looking forward to the day when all these TikTok influencers have to go out and get jobs after it gets banned. No, that'd be nice if there were actually any jobs out there for them to have. This is true. This is true because I'm thinking barista is about the only qualified job for them and can't do that right now.

Nope. Okay, so I found this one over at Wired and I love this. I just got because I love the title. Prepare for artificial intelligence to produce less wizardry. I'm still waiting for any wizardry. Well, like wizards, AI doesn't exist, as we know. It's just machine learning and all that good stuff.

Well, the big problem now is we've gotten really, really good at gathering lots and lots and lots of data. Well, it turns out you need computers to sort through that data with their crazy neural nets and all the machine learning that goes into it.

Well, it turns out that it's getting to be really, really expensive because they need that many more computers to run this stuff. And now, you know, they've got special AI chips and specialized GPUs to kind of process all this data. And yeah, they're kind of hitting a wall with what they can do with it.

Remember they had that SETI at home program that basically allowed you would outsource your own computing power to NASA so they could go through all the different, the huge amount of data that they had about the universe. Maybe they need a fuck me program where you can outsource your own computer to let them learn all about you and all the data that they have on you.

Okay. That's what I'm thinking. Okay. Anyway, so yes, less wizardry is coming. And this next one, it's a self-driving car story over at Ars Technica. And I love this. This self-driving startup built a car without wheels for remote driving because when the AI fails, they need, of course, people because AI is still people.

And these cars only go 25 miles an hour. So it's not like you're, you know, a little bit of lag isn't going to kill anybody, hopefully, maybe. Well, I don't know about that. Well, the funny thing is, I guess, because, you know, this company is putting these cars in like massive retirement communities.

And I guess that's 25 miles an hour. What could possibly go wrong? 25 miles an hour to like, you know, you know, somebody who's 90 with a walker, that could be like 110. So they can't really dive out of the way and do like a roll to jump out. They can't Jackie Chan out of the way.

No, they cannot. But these, yeah, these little car analogs, they're actually kind of cool because they don't use like video game crap, which you expect a lot of people to use. They use actual car parts. So the, you know, the force feedback is right. The feel is right. And everything works the way it's supposed to.

And I was always wondering about what they were going to do if they lost connectivity to the cars. Well, it turns out they've got, you know, a 5X redundant cellular system that goes to these cars. So, you know, you've got multiple, multiple connections to them. So if one fails, it's not the end of the world.

Right. So I thought that was pretty cool because I was wondering, how are they going to stay connected to these damn things? Just, you know, I'm like, okay, you can have a single backup. But these guys went, you know, five times. So that's pretty good. Well, let me tell you, if they started out with Spectrum, you'd want about four layers of backup after that.

Ain't that the truth? So that's my segue to my Spectrum customer support story of the week, which unsurprisingly, Spectrum customer support sucks. So this whole odyssey started a little bit over two weeks ago when my cable box that I've had for quite some while and DVR just got stuck on a reboot loop.

And that's all it would do. It would just keep rebooting. And so, of course, I called them and they're like, well, we'll send someone to your house. And I went, no, you will not. No, you will not. You will not be doing that. You will be just sending me a new box in the mail. And I will go ahead and plug that in myself. And they've got all this kind of self-installation thing.

And they've got a website for self. Once you've self-installed, then you can self-activate. They've got a website for self-immolation after you can't get it to work. Well, that's basically what happened. So, of course, at first they sent me a new modem and a new cable box, even though I only needed a new cable box.

Installed both. Went to their little website, which lets you activate them. Does not work. So, of course, now you have to call. So, you call. And, of course, they are able to basically launch them. And my cable, my internet works, which is great.

Of course, they sent me basically just a modem. Well, before I had a modem and a router. But that's no big deal because I have Eero. Yes. No problem at all. And, in fact, actually saves me five bucks a month because now that's what they charged for the router slash modem as opposed to just the modem. That worked out in my favor, even though they sent me the wrong piece.

Unfortunately, the DVR they sent me didn't have a DVR in it. It was just the cable box. And I was like, I need a DVR because kids programming and I like to – of course, I've already lost. Like, I've lost the entire collection of Muppet Babies, Paw Patrol, all the crap that I record for my kid. He has his favorite episode.

Super easy to find. You don't have to go through the 18 different apps because licensing is all over the place. So, all of that's gone. But I need my DVR. So, they're like, okay, well, we'll send you a new one. In the two days in between getting the new one, new cable box with the DVR, the second cable box that they sent me starts going into a reboot loop.

So, then I finally get the next cable box that has the DVR and I plug that in. Reboot loop, of course. Finally, that stops. It's stable. No channels. Use the set it up yourself and activate it yourself website. Doesn't work again. Have to call again.

25 minutes of hold. Finally get a person. And I tell her, I'm like, this is now the third time I've tried to use your website for self-activating these devices. And she goes, yeah, those never work. Don't even try it again. If you ever have to do this again, just call directly. We can reset it from here.

That website thing never works. I'm like, oh, great. Thanks. Thanks for telling me. Oh, my God. So, that's fun. Well, that's good to know. That's really good to know. At least the internet worked out of the gate because I need to get a new box from them, too. Yeah, that was relatively easy. Again, they'll send it to you and they'll say, go to this website and do this.

Don't. Just call. Set your phone to the side. Wait for them to actually finally pick up and they will take care of it, in theory. So. And in other news here, we are back in lockdown. Now, that doesn't make much of a difference to you or I because we've been treating our lives like we've been in lockdown since March.

Well, I have been. You've been treating your life like it's been in lockdown since 2019, if not earlier. I was going to say 1997, about. There you go. So, that's good. I mean, it is good because numbers are going crazy. We need to be in lockdown. I would actually argue we need to be back into the more stricter stay in place orders.

But we'll see what happens. What's been weighing heavily on my mind, obviously, is school because the science does not look good for that. But L.A. and Long Beach school districts have made that decision for me. No school. No school. We're not going back to school, which is the smart and right thing to do.

They are not prepared. They don't have the money. And the numbers are just bad. And kids are going to die. And we know kids are going to die. What boggles my mind, and this is how you know it's a political thing, the response to the Zs. You just have to look at Southern California. You've got L.A. I'm sorry.

I wrote Long Beach in here. I actually meant San Diego. You've got L.A. and San Diego. In between the two, L.A. and San Diego, predominantly liberal, you know, pretty blue areas of the state. Orange County, the Orange Curtain, Republican, red as it comes. What do they do?

They vote open schools. And not only do they say open schools, no masks required for students or faculty. And free mega hats for everybody. That's right. So, that is just insane. I'm expecting there to be quite a bit of uproar about that and that to be turned around.

Maybe even the governor himself will step in. I just, it's insane. Anyways, as if we don't have enough to worry about, we've got the bubonic plague now. A squirrel in Colorado has been found with a bubonic plague. And we've had a 15-year-old boy die in Mongolia.

And reports that I saw this morning, because I like to torture myself in the morning with horrible news, is that we're like full-on outbreak in terms of bubonic plague right now, where they're desperately trying to contain it before it leaps. Well, here's the thing about bubonic plague. You can treat bubonic plague now.

We have the technology for that. Well, are you stepping up to go ahead and get it so you can get treated, Jason? No, I'm not going to be like this idiot kid in Mongolia who ate a marmot, which is why he died. Dude. But I'm not going to eat any squirrels either. Have you not had the new McMarmot? It's delicious.

McMarmot. In the news. Well, this is an interesting one, Brian. Coinbase. You remember Coinbase? Yes, I still have roughly what used to be $60 and is now $20 in there.

Okay. That's about right. I would just hang on to that. Maybe someday you'll pop back up. Yeah, there's no point in like pulling it out. We'll just see. Yeah, yeah. Just hang on to that one. Well, Coinbase has some pretty interesting analytics software for analyzing the blockchain because they're, you know, they're a crypto company.

And, well, they've decided to start selling it off to the U.S. government. Got to make them monies. Yeah. So the Secret Service is now a client of Coinbase for their blockchain analytics software. And they're not stopping there.

They're still, they're trying to get more government agencies like the DEA and the IRS to use their software. Now, I'm assuming that, okay, well, maybe the IRS has stuff on the blockchain, but the Secret Service, the DEA, I think that that would be more for breaking other people's blockchains or analyzing them, not their own.

I think it's, no, it's a follow the money because the Secret Service deals a lot with counterfeiting. That's, you know, counterfeiting is one of their big purviews. DEA, they're trying to follow the drug money so they can figure out who's, you know, selling to who. Right. You know, and I'm fine with the Secret Service and the DEA using it.

Just don't give it to the damn IRS. Please, please, please, pretty please. I thought you were all paid up. Aren't you good? Aren't you square? Okay. Quiet. Never mind. Quiet. You can edit that out later. And we've got some information, some new news about what happened with the WikiLeaks organization that published Blue Leaks, a massive compendium of sensitive documents for more than 200 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in the U.S.

They have had a server seized by the German authorities, which means absolutely nothing because they're just moving it to another server. Okay. Backups. We got backups. We have backups. We have the backups. Yes. You can have a server, but you'll never take up backups.

Yeah. So, you know, it's whack-a-mole, as we've always said with this sort of stuff. So they found one server. There will be others. Yes. And that's all there is to that. Now, we have been talking a little bit recently about cancel culture and words and offensive words that need to be stricken from the language and things of that nature.

We have news this week that the Washington Redskins will no longer be the Redskins. They're changing that to something else, which I applaud. But there are some people up in arms about this, and shockingly, they would be Scrabble players. What? I know. I love this story, and I love what they titled it, D-R-A-M-A.

So in May, the North American Scrabble Players Association, who knew there was such a thing, made a big announcement. They had agreed to add the official tournament lexicon to its new app, Scrabble Go, which is attempting to take over from Words with Friends, since nobody plays that anymore.

And what they basically said is the app didn't allow all the words, all 192,000 words allowed in competitive play in the real game. So they're going to include all of those now, which include Blowjob, Mindfuck, and Yingying, the sort that's only been permitted since tournaments emerged in the 1970s.

So the Scrabble Association, known as NASPA, said it was thrilled. However, of course, after the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter protests around the country, they're caving a bit, and they're fighting to remove now these words that they had just fought to gain access to.

So they've announced that they will delete all slurs from its words list, and the company would rewrite the rules to make clear that slurs are not permissible in any form of the game. This is not surprising, because everything that's going on in the world. However, the Scrabble community is divided and up in arms on both sides.

Of course, of course they are. This is amazing to me. I mean, it's just, it's wonderful to see this play out in such a bizarre place. So the result was a clumsy decision to purge more than 200 words that alienated players both for and against removing words and satisfied almost no one.

At the moment, all the fun is being sucked out of Scrabble, says Nicky Deco, a player from Kent, England, who runs a Scrabble page on Facebook and watched the debate over the words spill overseas. And the divisions are growing deeper by the day, Jason. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. NASPA said its deletions will take effect by September.

In the meantime, the state of the game and the targeted words will be on players' minds. I love this quote. The N-word was played against me by another NASPA player last Sunday. Nicholas Tam of Ottawa said after the announcement came down, Luckily, we were opponents who trusted each other to be adults about the nature of words in the game.

I regret to say I'm compelled to cherish the moment. Oh God. Well, I hope they leave Blowjob and Mindfuck because... I did not know you could play Blowjob. I know you could not play that in Words with Friends. And I have to be honest here. One of the joys of playing Words with Friends at the very end when I was playing it was trying to play only naughty words.

Yeah, that would have been fun. I never tried that. It was fun to do that. It was great. I kind of missed that game. There was a time when it was just like years and years that we were playing that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Then all the cheats came out and then you could never trust anybody. Yeah, that was the real problem. As soon as they came out with the apps that let you find whatever word you wanted.

Yeah. I think we actually had a show about that back in the last century. Yeah, me too. Talked about that. And then I found another really interesting article, Why Older People Really Eschew Technology. So this was pretty cool. There's actually now been research. Somebody has researched this because you just kind of assume as people get older, they're just not that interested in tech.

And it's too difficult for them to pick it up and learn, which has been certainly the case for some people. But according to the Pew Research Center, 73% of people over 65 in the U.S. use the internet, up from 14% in 2000. The older the person, the less likely they are to embrace the internet, social media, or smartphones.

But those who have adopted these technologies use them a lot and learn new skills to do so. But what they're finding out, according to some studies, is that the real barrier to entry isn't tech. It's personal. These people have said, I don't get any value of adding that to my life.

Why would I want to do this? Yes. And they did a bunch of interviews with some older people. And he said, you know, I go to restaurants. And as soon as everybody sat down, people's phones come out. They don't talk anymore. True. He sees as many older adults as younger ones glued to their phones, but he doesn't want to be one of them.

He particularly doesn't want the pressure to reply to someone instantly, multiple times a day. I get that, too. I am definitely becoming old. As I've read every... This is a great article. And as I've read all these old people's thoughts about social media and tech, I'm kind of with them.

Yeah. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. I don't want to add anything that doesn't actually add value or make me money. Yeah. And that's exactly it. Unfortunately, what this is, is adding fuel to the fire and research for these companies to find ways to add value for older people to get on and ensnare them.

Yeah, that's never going to stop, though. Yeah, it's not going to stop. But I thought this was a great article and really worth the read if you're out there and thinking about that or particularly if you have elderly parents and you're trying to deal with them on all that sort of thing. But it's all about value. And a lot of older people are just fine with the basics and obviously have privacy concerns because scammers do target older people.

So, yeah, no, this is a great article. You beat me to it. Actually, I was on the fence about putting it in. But when I finally went back and read it, I was like, this is great. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah. If it doesn't add value, then come on, man. Why bother using it? Now, Ubisoft.

Ubisoft. I have gotten so many emails about Ubisoft's big conference, virtual conference that was coming up. And I'm like, I don't care. I'm not going to. I'll get all the news 17 times for each story that comes out in my RSS feed because everybody steals from everybody else.

Well, turns out right before this massive virtual conference, some of the main people at Ubisoft were ousted and booted, as it were. Now, these are three people whose names I can't pronounce. So I will stay away from that.

What were they ousted and booted for? Oh, sexual misconduct. Hold on a second. They're French, though. There's no such thing as sexual misconduct in France. Oh, have you ever watched Pepe Le Pew? Perfectly acceptable. Okay. Yeah, well, apparently not. So some of them resigned.

But the big thing is the chief creative officer resigned. And he is basically the lead of all of the great titles in the company. So, of course, the stock fell 8% on the news of this. And I haven't checked to see if it's rebounded yet. It probably has because, yeah, Ubisoft is a pretty major company.

And they make some really great games. But I guess chief creative officer got a little creative with his hands is how it goes. Yeah, and a couple other people left, too. And this is like there's another one that already happened a while ago.

So, I mean, they've had a lot of high-level people there getting a little too friendly at work, as it were. I love this, though. I love this idea that, again, you have to understand I don't come from the world of gaming. And I don't understand the gaming culture and the fandom that comes along with this.

But the creative director, Ashraf Ismail, I think is the way you would say it, resigned from his role in the latest Assassin's Creed game, Valhalla. He'd been accused via social media of infidelity. Okay, fine. Whatever. And sexual misconduct with fans? Yep. Fans are willing to bone him because he made this game?

Apparently. Wow. Well, here's the deal. Apparently not willing to bone him. Therein lies the rub. Ah, or the lack of. Yeah, no pun intended. Yeah, man. I guess you never would have seen any video game conferences. Nope.

So, yeah. BlizzCon is one of the biggest in the world it really used to be. Yeah. Video games are pretty big, dude. They're pretty big. Okay. I am aware of that. I'm just happy I'm not aware of the culture. Yep. Okay.

But we do have this great news. Even though everything has, you know, gone to shit over at Ubisoft, they did unveil the Far Cry 6 trailer, which I am so looking forward to. Apparently, there's a secret leisure suit Larry mode. No, there's no leisure suit Larry mode.

Oh, okay. But it's got Giancarlo Esposito as the main bad guy in this. And they do a really, if you'll remember him from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, of course, and The Mandalorian and all those other great shows. They did an amazing job on his character.

It's crazy. And it's all mocap. So, it looks pretty good. But that's coming out February 18th. So, we will have to put the show on hiatus for three weeks while I go beat the game. Because I love Far Cry. Far Cry is an amazing game, an amazing series.

So, I'm looking forward to that. So, sorry. Sorry, you guys lost all your creative talent. But at least as long as you finish Far Cry 6, we're good. We're all good. All right. We have some news coming out of Apple. We all remember that Apple had their iPhone problems with the aging batteries that didn't necessarily need to be.

You know. So, we got stuck with that. But we've got the class action lawsuit now. And now you can register to get your chunk of the settlement that was reached earlier this year. So, there's a website where U.S. consumers who owned an affected iPhone can go to file a claim. To meet the criteria, you must have currently or have previously owned an iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus, SE that ran iOS 10.2.1 or later before December 21st, 2017.

Or a 7 or 7 Plus that ran 11.2 or later before December 21st, 2017. So, as per the settlement terms, Apple has agreed to pay out a maximum of $500 million. So, that will be approximately $25 per eligible device. Although, the number can go down if everybody in the world signs up for this, which they probably will because it's all pretty easy these days.

You can also exclude yourself from the settlement, which you would only do if you wanted to sue Apple directly, which would be stupid. So, take your $25 and move on. And by the way, go ahead and call that your COVID stimulus check because it's probably bigger than the one you're going to get from the government. I've got to go look at this website because I don't have my old phones.

I don't know what the serial numbers are for them. Hopefully, there's a lookup tool somewhere. One would hope because I don't either because we get rid of them when we're done with them. Yeah. Yeah. I know I had a 6 Plus in there somewhere. So, probably.

I had a 7 for sure that was in there. So, yeah. I'll go check it out. Yeah. $25 for us. After everybody signs up, it'll be $0.25. Yeah. The postage to mail you your check is going to be more than the actual check itself. But as we've discussed in the past on this show, it is important that everybody sign up for these class action lawsuits because if the money does not get drained, it stays with the company.

We want to punish them. Yeah. But then you look at Equifax and go, nothing matters. Nothing matters. That's right. Now, I saw this one at the New York Times and, of course, the headline got me. Why is a tech executive installing security cameras around San Francisco?

And I'm like, hmm, okay, let's look at this one. And this is about a guy named Chris Larson. He was one of the founders of Ripple. So, crypto guy. Right. So, right there, you know, it's like, hmm, do we want all our cameras on the blockchain?

Right. Well, turns out this guy is really fed up with all of the petty crime going on in San Francisco right now because they're, you know, of course, trying to defund the police. But also, crime has gone through the roof with, you know, the Rona. So, what he's going to do is he's going to spend $4 million on public-facing, high-resolution, like super high-resolution security cameras.

Okay. And it's going to be voluntary. You can put them in your neighborhood, put them on your business, put them on your home. And what he's doing then is actually having the community. They're called community benefit districts. And they're like little nonprofits.

They get together and the community itself, the neighborhood, is in charge of watching the video and reporting any crimes to the police. And all the video stays in the building. It's not stored on the cloud. It's all in the building and it's erased after 30 days. So, they say.

All right. So, they say. But it sounds actually like a pretty good idea. I mean, just like put the community policing back in the hands of the police. But then I get to the point where, okay, enforcement. Now, are we going to – you've seen the movie Cuffs, right?

With Christian Slater? Hmm. It's Cuffs with a K. Okay. I don't think so. But it's all about community police forces in San Francisco back in the day. It wasn't a great movie, but I believe Mia Jovovich was in it. And I think she was partially naked for most of it.

So, it's worth a watch. It's worth going back and revisiting. Not the greatest movie. Not Christian Slater's best hour. But back to the story here. So, they're going to be running these things. And I think a lot of people are going to sign up for them because I think it's a pretty good little system if they can make it work. It is good.

I don't like the fact that we have tech millionaires, whatever, coming in and swooping in and doing this. I mean, the whole idea behind defund the police is you – sure, you take some funds away from the police. But then you put those funds towards public programs like this rather than a millionaire coming in and doing it.

I don't think it's more about public programs like this. Most of the defund the police work that I'm seeing done is instead of sending police to different types of instances, like if you get a domestic call where people are fighting, you send social workers out, not cops with guns.

You send people who are trained to do the specific job to de-escalate. Get these people help. Mental health calls. Send social workers. Send mental health professionals. Yes. Not put up cameras everywhere. Well, no, not specifically. But, I mean, this could be a use for funds like that as opposed to, again, a private individual starting the program.

Right. But he's just giving the money away. So I see – there's nothing wrong with that in my book. But here's the one thing. They said the side effect of the cameras is when one CBD installs them, it just moves the crime down the street. So what you need to do is start at the top of San Francisco and start installing the cameras at the top and just all the way down and just push the criminals all the way back down.

Well, they're all on Fisherman's Wharf. Yeah. All right. Just push them in the sea. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, let's have some oversight on this and I'm fine with it. I'm fine with the theory, but we'll see. Yeah. Now, this one, Pinterest.

Oh, God. Pinterest. Oh, fucking Pinterest. The world's greatest copyright thieves of all time. Yes. Well, they've got an issue with, you know, people posting inappropriate things on their site. What? What do you, you don't say?

No, you don't say. Welcome to the internet. Entire platform just made for posting things that you've stolen from other places has a problem? Yeah. Go figure. Okay. So now this is what I like about that. They're trying to, you know, keep people away from the bad material.

Now, when you're signed into Pinterest, you get the search box. When you're not signed in, you don't really get like an easy way to search and things like that. Yes. So, but their genius idea, this is, I'm scratching my head right now and trying not to, you know, let my brain explode.

Instead of removing the offensive content as they find it, they remove the search terms from their search engine while you're searching on Pinterest. So, if I want to search for Nazi and I'm on Pinterest, they're like, nope, can't search for Nazi. But the Nazi images are still there.

So, if you go to Google and you type Pinterest Nazi, you can get to the Nazi images. Okay. So, this end around that they're trying to do by just saying, oh, we just removed those terms from our search engine and thus people cannot search on those terms is obviously dumb.

Yes. It doesn't work. Right. Dumb. And what they've actually done is they've created themselves into a great service for you to store your illegal images and material. Yep. Yep. Yep. I mean, it just, if you read this article, your head is going to explode because it's like, what the hell?

It says, this blocking happens at the search query level and doesn't result in the removal of the underlying content since not all the results may violate our policies. Okay. So, if you're blocking the search, but it doesn't violate the policies, pick a fucking side. Yeah. Or hire more people.

Yeah. That's what we always say. If you're going to get into the moderation game, you've got to pony up and spend the cash. Yeah. And, of course, there are algorithms involved that bubble up different things like racist content, which happens on their recommendation algorithm apparently quite a bit. So, I mean, it's a shit show.

It is a full-on shit show. The way that this happens, you have the algorithms go through. They flag things. And that means they get pulled and set into basically a sandbox. And you allow users to flag items. And if they hit a certain threshold of times it's been flagged, it gets put into a sandbox. Then you have humans go through the sandbox and approve or remove things.

That's how this stuff should work. Yeah. I just think the sheer volume of people that post illegal crap on Pinterest, because God knows nobody ever posts their own images, it makes it almost impossible. So we need AI, but we ran out of computers for AI, so we can't do that anymore.

That's right.

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Media Candy. Sirius XM is making their big podcast play now. Less than a month after picking up Simplecast for podcast distribution and analytics, they have picked up Stitcher for $325 million. Now, Stitcher is a podcast pioneer that provides a popular one-stop platform to create, monetize, and distribute podcasts to listen to via its app and on multiple platforms.

So apparently they're a podcast pioneer. I was not aware of that, and I don't know what Sirius XM is going to do with this sort of stuff, but there you go. Well, maybe we can sell our show to Sirius instead of Spotify, since nobody at Spotify is picking up the phone. No. So I'm wondering, I mean, Sirius XM definitely could use some content, and there's some great podcast content, obviously.

But I don't know how many people are still listening to Sirius XM, because nobody's driving, and that's certainly the only time that I ever listen to Sirius XM. Yeah, that's pretty much it. My roommate got a new car, and it came with six months of Sirius, you know, the free package at first. And she's looking at the sheet.

She's like, oh, I got all these great channels. And I'm like, where are you going? She's like, oh. Yeah, there's that. I mean, you can listen on your lady in the tube if you set it all up and you have the right package, which is kind of okay, but I just never think to do it. Yeah, yeah. And with Stitcher, I mean, they also, like, Sirius also has Pandora now.

I love Pandora. I use Pandora in the house all day on my Sonos, so I'm a big fan of the Pandora. But Stitcher, with that thing, they also get mid-roll. And mid-roll's their, you know, the advertising sales arm of it. Right. And Stitcher's been around forever.

And, I mean, they have done a lot of original content and things like that. I knew a lot of people over there over the years. They've all left. But, no, I mean, they make, like, close to $80 million a year, so they're no slouch. Right. There you go. All right. And other podcast news.

Gimlet Media is being sued for not making podcasts accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing. This one I'm going to keep an eye on. Yep, because it's interesting because if this actually goes through, then that means everybody has to start providing – podcast platforms will have to start providing transcriptions.

This is a service. Nope. Not going to happen. I don't think it'll happen either. No. Yeah, it's unaffordable. So, as the suit points out, about 36 million people in the U.S. are deaf or hard of hearing. And, as we know, precisely 99% of Americans are now making podcasts. I love that. The only funny line in the thing.

I know. Very funny. So, this is coming from the same guy who has filed over a dozen suits in the same way on the web in the past few years, including against the owner of the site The Street, the online education site Skillshare, Lowe's, and Peloton. And, of course, we have talked about the Domino's Pizza website.

Is this the same guy? The Domino's Pizza guy? I don't think he did the Domino's one, but he's done a bunch of other ones. Okay. And, you know, again, this is coming down to because we don't really have regulations or rules. There hasn't been a consensus about how the ADA applies to the web. So, something we never thought about when we were just out there doing this stuff.

But, it is something that you have to start thinking about now that the web is the real world in many ways. Yeah, I mean, I take umbrance with this one. I know you do. We're publishing MP3 files. We're publishing audio files. To say that I can't publish an audio file, that for every audio file I publish, I'm going to have to pay to have it transcribed, to transcribe it myself.

Yeah. I can't – that's not – it's untenable. I can't – it's not going to happen because I have deaf friends who I would love to, you know, have, quote-unquote, listen to our show or read our show every week. We just can't afford it. It costs too much money to transcribe the show every week reliably because you have to have it human transcribed.

The machine transcriptions are god-awful. They are. They're actually horrible. We've seen a few of ours. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No. It's – yeah. So, you know, I'm on – I can't say I'm going to say this, but I'm on Team Gimlet. Except for this one. Never before have I said those words.

Yeah. Except for the unionization thing that I was going through. Yeah. Well, it's going to be interesting. We're going to have to follow this and see what comes down because it could basically destroy podcasting as we know it. I don't think so. Independent podcasters will never, never go away. Yeah. They're never going to do this. It's only platforms that will be held accountable.

Yeah. We shall see. And we talked a lot recently about how streaming has fractured over a gazillion things. And this has hit home for me recently as I'm trying to figure out my soccer viewing for this season because soccer rights are being bought out and splintered out left, right, and center. The new service, Peacock, the quote-unquote free service that actually has a paid tier.

So it's not really a free service. It's called Peacock Premium, and that's where they're going to put the good stuff, has gotten the rights to the Premier League. So over 175 Premier League matches will only be on the Peacock Premium tier if you want to watch all those games. So that's going to cost me $4.99 a month or $9.99 for ad-free viewing.

So we shall see. But they are currently offering a year of premium access for only $30. So if you are a Premier League fan, pony up that cash now because you'll save some money for at least the first year. Are you a Premier League fan? I'm not really, but I'm trying to get into it a bit more because all my friends in Toronto are huge in the Premier League, and everybody watches that.

I'm a Bundesliga guy. That's what I thought, yeah. But I'm trying to watch a bit more, and it's, you know, right now sports, not a lot out there, but the Premier League is playing. So I've been trying to watch some of those games. So we'll see what happens. I am, however, a fan of the UEFA Champions League, and that has gone to CBS All Access, which luckily I am happy to be paying for right now.

So this one works out in my favor because I'm paying for CBS All Access anyways because they are home of all things Star Trek, and they're pumping out lots of Star Trek stuff. But so this used to be on Turner, which is where you'd be able to watch most of the games, and it was going to continue streaming matches until 2021.

However, they've got that immediately. So as soon as games resume, I think next month, they will actually be on CBS All Access and not free on Turner on your TV. Well, not free, but if you paid for cable, you used to be able to watch them on Turner. Now you don't get to do that anymore. So it will only be CBS All Access.

So if you want to see any more of those games, you got to pony up that cash. Well, I'm fine with that because that'll help pay for more Picard. Yes, it probably will. And speaking of Star Trek, Star Trek Lower Decks is coming. It will be starting on August 6th, 2020 on CBS All Access as well.

This is the animated humorous show about Star Trek and the people that have to do the crappy jobs like taking out the holodeck trash. So we shall see on top of the scrappy underdog ensign crew, ensign crew. It'll also feature a Riker-like first officer if he was on speed and had less shame, according to reports, voiced by Jerry O'Connell and Don Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman.

I'm actually kind of excited about this. I've always liked the idea of there being a satirical version of Star Trek as long as they honor Star Trek and don't cross too many lines. Some lines are fine. You know, pay homage to what Star Trek is, and I'm sure I will really enjoy this. Yeah, I'm going to check it out for sure since I pay for it.

Might as well watch it. Yep, we're paying for it. And we talked about Carl Reiner dying a few episodes ago. And right before he died, they were doing a kind of a fan film version of The Princess Bride. And the very last scene, he comes in and plays the storytelling grandfather.

And it's a fantastic scene. And fortunately, you don't have to go pay for it anywhere because it's on Quibi. Yeah, I was about to say, I'm glad that this scene has made it out into the wild because I was not going to give Quibi one cent just to watch this. Exactly.

So the Vanity Fair article that we linked to in the show notes has the clip in it, and it's pretty good. You got to admit, as far as a final scene on camera, you can't do better than that. Nope. Nope. Hannah, season two. We just wrapped up that one.

I don't know if you're a fan of Hannah season one, Brian. I have not watched it. It's a fantastic show. Love it. Love the original movie, and I thought they did a really good job with the Amazonification of it. Right. And love season one. Season two was just as good, if not better.

So if you like season one, definitely recommend checking that out. It's got some good, you know, some good kung fu, some good spy stuff. It's a fun show. And I did watch this one, which was very strange. Mucho, mucho amor. The legend of Walter Mercado. Do you ever hear of Walter Mercado?

Nope. Nope. He was a very, very famous astrologist back in the day. But his story is really gut-wrenching because he had a shady business partner that basically stole everything from him and all that. But it's a really good documentary.

It's a really good documentary. And this guy is like just a – turns out to be a really good guy. I'm waiting for always – the entire show, I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. And it never dropped. You know, I'm like, okay, where's the, you know, the MT or the VH1 behind the music moment where everything goes to shit?

There was one of those, but it wasn't the one that I'm used to expecting nowadays, you know? Right. So, it was a really touching documentary, and it did get a little dusty in the room at the end for all of us. So, I would say that. And I watched Greyhound on Apple TV+. Mm-hmm.

I'm going to tell you, man, I think Apple might be doing some good work over there because the one movie I watched with Sam Jackson about the bankers – I can't remember the name of it, it's probably called The Bankers – was fantastic. Loved it. I mean, it was Oscar-worthy. And then they come out with Greyhound with Tom Hanks, which is a World War II naval film, which I'm sure for you, you'd probably fall asleep in the credits.

Maybe. Yeah, for me, I'm a huge fan of A, anything World War II, and B, anything naval in World War II. This is one of the best movies I've ever seen in the genre. It is so technically accurate that it's just – it's like, you know, if you know how things work, it's really cool.

It's really, really cool. You know – Because I grew – go ahead. Oh, I just think Apple's bread and butter with their streaming service might just be movies. I think maybe they should move away from trying to do scripted series, which have not worked and have not really been that great. But they have enough money.

They have more money than God. They have enough money to throw feature full-length budgets at projects for movies. And maybe that's what they should keep doing because they seem to be working. Yeah, definitely. Like, just go the full – you know, go the full feature film studio route because they're – I mean, they've got great talent.

Obviously, Tom Hanks and the other one, same thing, great talent. But this movie was just – it's so different from most films that – and to get into that, if you listen to the latest Dan Carlin Hardcore History Addendum, he has Tom Hanks on it. And they do talk about it quite a bit and, you know, the stuff behind it.

And that episode is really good. I actually listened to the episode – the Dan Carlin episode before I watched the movie, and it actually enhanced watching the movie. So, that would be the order that I would personally recommend going in. But, man, Greyhound, what a good movie.

Cool. And speaking of Apple TV+, I threw this one in here because it was kind of fun. Idris Elba is actually – he's got a first-look deal with Apple TV+, now. Okay. So, I love me some Idris Elba. So, I'm looking forward to this, hopefully.

I so want him to be the next Bond. I know. I know. Unfortunately, I don't think it's going to happen. Nope. No, but he's got a production company. So, he's been making his own shows, which is pretty cool. But I don't care about his own shows. He's just got to be in them. That's all I care about.

Give him more movies. Apple, you hear me? Take those feature film budgets, give it to Idris Elba, and just go make some stuff. That's all I got to say. How about The Gunslinger without Matthew McConaughey? How about just erase The Gunslinger? Just take that money and just – you know what?

They can Hulk Hogan it. If they could Hulk Hogan the Gunslinger movie. So, it never gets seen ever again. It's probably a good thing. I agree. I found this one through Recommendo, the newsletter that I like. Yeah. It's called Window Swap. Yeah. Did you check this one out?

I did. I like it. It's pretty cool. No, thank you. You didn't like it? Nah. It's a bit silly. I mean, I get why people are into it right now. I have a feeling that this is just going to be a flash in the pan. We're not going to hear about this again. No, probably not. Probably not. But it's a quarantine project, as they say.

But basically, you send them 10 minutes of looking out your window, and then they put it in the queue with everybody else's, and you can shuffle through and look out the world in different places. I would prefer it would be live. But I put it as a, you know, how you can take your iPad and make it as a side monitor in the latest OS.

So I just put it on that and let it run. And it was just kind of a nice little thing to have. You know how we talk about how companies need to have moderations and moderators? Uh-huh. I can already imagine that there are about 10,000 videos of just in a window, and then all of a sudden, a fat, naked guy walks across about a minute seven.

I'm pretty sure these are all moderated, so. I doubt it. I very seriously doubt it. Well, no, they say that you have to send it to them, and they'll approve it, and if they approve it, they'll put it up. It's not an automatic system. All right. I'm just saying, I'm just saying, if you have a 10-minute video, and at minutes seven and 28 seconds, you just sidle across completely naked with your Tadger in full view, they're probably not going to catch that.

Well, Brian, I think you should experiment with that. I have my own quarantine project now. There you go. See if you can get a little Schulmeister on Windows swap. This last one, it's a hat tip to a friend of the show, MXV.

Speaking of Dickies. Speaking of Dickies. The Dickies did a quarantine live show, which there was no audience. And I was hesitant to watch this one, because I've seen some other ones, like the, what was it, Dropkick Murphys did one, because they couldn't do their St. Patrick's Day show, and I thought it was terribly lackluster, because there's no audience.

There were a couple stagehands running around trying to mosh, I guess. Yeah. But it was pretty sad, because you just don't have the energy. But I tell you what, the Dickies did. I listened to a bunch of the songs, I didn't watch the whole thing straight through, but I kind of scrubbed through it, and I'll go back through it and watch it later. Pretty damn good little show, I gotta say.

Yeah. They've got, like, really cool stagecraft and everything. They did it right. If you're a Dickies fan, definitely check it out. Moron of the Week. Brian, my Moron of the Week has two prongs to it here. First is Walt Disney World reopening in Florida.

Yes. That right there. Only in Florida. All the rest of the places are shut down. And who has 8% of all the coronavirus cases in the entire world right now? Ah, the happiest place on earth. Florida. Well, the marketing team over at Walt Disney World is actually the one that I'm going to call the Moron of the Week.

So they put out their reopening video, and, of course, it was, you know, basically people in masks cleaning the park and saying how, like, it's going to be safe. Trust us. Trust us. Come on in. Want some candy, little girl? Get in the van.

But, of course, since everybody was wearing a mask, it made it infinitely easy to overdub and create your own mix-ups of it. Yes. There are probably 450 million of these right now. And I haven't seen any bad ones, really. They're all pretty good.

Yeah. Yeah. They're all pretty funny. I mean, this is the dumbest thing in the world. The video is the dumbest thing. I'm focusing on the fact that they're opening. Absolutely stupid. And here's a good guideline to whether you should do something or not. And there was actually a really good article, and I wish I would have remembered it.

I didn't put it in here, about a guy who started calling up bigger companies that, you know, like the Disney-esque thing where you open up Disneyland. And he called and found out, you know, he wanted to speak to an executive. So he was a reporter. So he was able to get access. And this was – he called school boards too.

He's like, okay, how did you make this decision to open? Did you all meet together in person in an office to discuss this? Oh, no, no, no. We did this over video – yeah, video conferencing. Okay, so you didn't get together in person to decide to open up an in-person place for other people to come to.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, would you have met in person? Oh, no, no, no, no, no way. No way would we meet in person. So here's the thing, people. If the company that is trying to get you to come to their place in person will not meet in person to decide to open, don't fucking go.

Do as I say, not as I do, Brian. Exactly. It's a fucking joke. Like, none of the Disney executives are back in their offices, not even in Florida. They're not back at work, but they want you to come to their park. Feedback loop. Over at Patreon, we have new subscriber, Andrew.

And over at PayPal, we have Andrew, Mark, Ralph, Raj, Michael, Adam, Florian, Andrew again, Natalie, and Linda. It is the week of the Andrews. Our pie chart of listeners is heavy on Andrew. It very much is. And over at Twitter, we have a tweet from Ramsey, who says he bumped up my Patreon.

You guys earn every penny. And he did bump it up quite a lot. So thank you, Ramsey. Wanted to give you a shout out for that. Thank you very much. And Jackal writes in the numbers, man, the numbers. And this is a link to a boing boing article. How can a disease with 1% mortality shut down the United States? Yeah, this is doing the rounds well worth the read.

The people that need to read it won't read it. That's the problem. Okay. And he goes on to say, and now here they come. They want your monies. And this one is making me angry. Well, this is what we've been screaming about since day one. You know, it took a lot longer than I thought it would.

But I've been saying, you know, hey, everybody's trying to move you to streaming. So you use more bandwidth. And guess what? Unlimited bandwidth is going to come to an end. And now Spectrum has asked the FCC to allow data caps on broadband plans. This is particularly frustrating because they were given a seven-year ban on imposing data caps or charging user-based pricing for its residential broadband service so they could do their merger.

That was the deal of you being able to consolidate and become even more of a monopoly is you're not allowed to do this for seven years. And now they're saying, well, we want to do it. Yep, they sure do. And you know what's really, really chaps my dazzle on this one? Spectrum runs ads for their internet service day in, day out here in Southern California.

Yep. And what is one of their biggest talking points? Unlimited data. Unlimited data. No data caps. Well, technically that's true right now. Right now it is. And I love it because I have Spectrum and I have no data cap.

And I'm getting ready to up my speed. So I'm going to be really pissed off if the FCC lets this go through, which I'm sure they are because AgitPi is a tool. Yes. And you know what? Their main argument for allowing us to do this is, of course, everybody else's and we need to be competitive.

Exactly. But I particularly love, they say, we need this to be able to have the flexibility it needs to best meet the data usage. Of all of its subscribers and configure its network to deliver data in the most efficient way possible. In other words, we're doing this for you. Blow me.

Yep. Blow me, Spectrum. And Martin writes in, here's all the InfoSec career planning you need. And it's a link to a pretty funny video over on the Twits. All righty. And Stephen writes in, just started Band of Brothers. Thanks for the recommendation.

I wasn't in the 82nd or 101st, but I did attend airborne school and thankfully only served peacetime stateside. But great show. Well, thank you for your service, Stephen. Thank you very much. Alex writes in over at GOG.show. Thought you would find this interesting. USA. USA. And yeah, I did see this article.

It's doing the rounds. Of course, this is a big Reddit thread about it. But there was an actual study that found that lower cognitive ability is linked to noncompliance with social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus. I ain't going to wear no mask. Yeah, yeah. Go check it out.

It's well worth it. Yeah. I mean, I almost spit my tea out onto my computer this morning. Again, it's an article that's being shared by people that don't actually need to read it. And the people that do need to read it won't. Exactly. Gianni writes in, hi, Grumps. So my house was broken into last week while we were away.

And now I'm looking to beef up my house security. I remember Jason mentioning he has a lot of ring cameras, but I can't quite remember if he's still using them after the law enforcement policy. Of them being able to access your feed or something like that. So my question is, should I go with ring cameras or should I look for a different setup?

As always, love the show and keep on grumping. P.S. Will there be a Zoom grump gathering or has that extra month passed us by already? Well, you know, you can't go wrong with a Chinese camera system because they always store it in the cloud in Beijing. Well, here's the thing. Try and find an American camera, an American-made camera.

I know. Yeah, you just can't get them anymore. So you're going to have to go with something made in China. Yeah, I recommend the Logitech Circle 2s. They have the best video quality of anything I've seen. You can get a five-camera system that works for their cloud service.

Yes, cloud service for like $18 a month for all five cameras. If you want to roll your own, there's multiple options. But again, all those cameras are going to come from China. So go with that. Ring cameras are fucking useless. They have the worst video quality. They cut off right when the guy gets into your house.

It's like it'll videotape them walking up, casing the joint. But as soon as they come to like break into something, they shut off because they suck. Yeah, ring cameras are the worst value on the market as far as I'm concerned. So skip those. Like I said, I moved over to the Logitech Circle 2s.

They're pretty decent and they're indoor-outdoor and pretty good. There you go. And we will be doing another Zoom gathering as we discussed at the beginning of the show. That will be this Saturday, July 18th at 6 p.m. Pacific time. Woo-hoo! Woo! And Alejandro writes in, your conversation regarding medical marijuana made me think of this video.

And it's linked over to YouTube from Key & Peel, Season 1, Episode 1, Medical Marijuana. Very funny stuff. It was pretty funny. Barrett writes in, for all those idiots who still claim they can't wear a mask. And this is an image over at Reddit. Should we spoil it for them?

No, it's there and it's not safe for work. It is not safe for work. But it is labeled furries versus masks in the show notes. Yeah. No Sec writes in, I've been listening to your first episodes. And in that intro music you have, there is one simple melody. It was driving me insane because it reminded me of something and I finally got it.

It reminded me of the Finnish Eurodance song from the 90s called Ivaka Lakaku, I believe. That's probably pronounced wrong. We have the link to that song in the show notes. I'm not sure if I really hear it. But in the early episodes, we did use a track from the band Information Society called Think from their album Hack, which is a great album, by the way.

But that came out in 1990. The song that you have came out in 1995. So perhaps Information Society should get their lawyers to look into it. But again, I didn't really hear it. I didn't hear it either. But Brian, let's maybe not tell Information Society to lawyer up because I really don't want to go change those old episodes.

I actually know their manager. I think we'd be fine. Okay. Dodged a bullet on that one. Matt B. writes in, I hope you're enjoying your free dumb fries, fellas. I would rather have Boris than the carrot in chief any day. And this is a link over to E and E and E and E and E and dot co.

Okay. It is how freedom basically became free-dumb in America. Freedom. Yeah. And there's some funny stuff in there. I put some of it. I'm not going to read all of it. This is worth the read. But I love this particular last bit. I don't use the term as an insult, the American idiot.

I mean it in a very precise way as I try to remind people. For the Greeks, idiot carried a precise and special meaning. The person who was only interested in private life, private gain, private advantage. Who had no conception of a public good, common wealth, or shared interests. To the Greeks, the pioneers of democracy, the creators of the demos, such as person, was the most contemptible of all.

Because even the Greeks seemed to understand you can't make a functioning democracy out of idiots. That's us. That's us now. That's us. Yee-haw. Uh-huh. And Aaron writes in, Hello Grumps, I'm really enjoying your podcast for a while and I'd like to pop in and show some love. If I had some kind of money, I would transfer it into your pockets, but I am young and bankrupt.

Lastly, I hope the COVID situation in your country will soon get better and people will come to their senses. Greetings from Cologne, Germany. Spoiler alert, Aaron. It hasn't happened. It's not going to happen. And I don't think it's going to. No, we are the land of Darwinism right now. It's going to be survival of the fittest.

Or the smartest, hopefully. Smartest, not fittest. Because what we're discovering is even professional athletes can get killed by this stuff. Yep, pretty much. Michael writes in, What can I say but child me was smitten with the childlike empress. Probably watched this movie a hundred times when I was a kid. Never thought to look up IMDb, but surprising she didn't appear in other movies.

And he's talking about the never-ending story. And I loved that movie when I was a kid. It was good. You never really got into it. Really? Strangely. Yeah. I don't know why. I saw it. It's just never really been in my childhood pantheon. I mean, I've seen it like three times.

It's not something. I was right on the edge of, you know, aging out of it. Right. But I thought it was pretty good. All right. So here's the thing. The never-ending story. Queen Tammy Stornach. Stronach. Stronach. Okay. It was how I'd go, but. Okay. Yeah.

Stronach. She's going to star in fantasy film with Sean Astin and Christopher Lloyd. So she's back. And the Henson Company, of course, will be making the puppets for it. And cool. All right. And Sherman writes in, hey, geeks, you can probably file this under beating a dead horse. But I thought you would appreciate this article, particularly the headline, stay grumpy.

And this is from The Verge. Quibi is flailing because no one at Quibi understands what Quibi is. Couldn't have said it better myself. Neither does anybody else. So one of my favorite quotes from The Vulture features from a producer who says, simply, if we have a show that's going to be a huge hit, you pitch it to Netflix or HBO.

If it doesn't get traction, you pitch it to Quibi. And it says, Quibi takes projects that no one else seems to want because it needs content. A lot of it and fast. And all of this stems back to the top of this piece. No one at Quibi seems to know what they want Quibi to be. Until they take the time to figure that out, Quibi will continue flailing.

Quibi isn't something people need, and it doesn't appear to be something they want either. So, yeah. Yeah, way to go, guys. Way to go. Thanks for pumping all that money back into the economy, though. Yeah, thanks. That's great. Yes. And over at iTunes, we got a five star from Nevitz95.

Great, great podcast. I stumbled upon GOG about seven months ago, and their new episodes quickly became my most anticipated. They offer a great discussion about how tech is invading our lives, but do so in a fun and lighthearted manner. I didn't know we were fun and lighthearted. Once things stabilize, I will be throwing my money at these guys because they really work hard to deliver for their listeners and deserve way more than they are getting.

Hear, hear. Yeah. Say it from the mountaintops. Great podcast and always worth your time. And apparently, you can review things over at Stitcher, as I've discovered this week when you put this in there, Jason. We have a five star from Wolfmind, one of our favorite tech podcasts. Brian and Jason deliver a great show every time.

Whether you're a grumpy IT nerd or not, you may enjoy their informative, humorous, and entertaining take on current happenings in the world of tech. The show usually features guests such as Dave Bittner for the Security Ha segment. Thank you. Thank you, Wolfmind. If you want your question or comment read on the show, head over to gog.show slash 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 slash iTunes and toss us a five star and snarky review. And also, if you're listening to us in the overcast player, as always, click that little star next to the episodes. We really appreciate it because we're kicking ass there. Good. Closing shout outs.

Happy belated birthday shout out to friend of the show, Robert Fogarty, who does our voiceovers. We missed it. We did our last show right before his birthday. And I'm like, the next day, I'm like, don't. So, happy belated, Bob. And also, a happy birthday to Sir Patrick Stewart, who turned 80, and Harrison Ford, who turned 78.

Now, in a side-by-side comparison here. This blew my mind when you put this in here. Me too. They look 20 years apart. At least. They're only two years apart. In the other direction, though. That's the thing. I always thought Harrison Ford was older than Patrick Stewart, at least on paper.

I don't know. You think the other way around? I thought the completely other way around. Yeah. I always thought Patrick Stewart was considerably older than Harrison Ford. That's amazing. See, I think it's a mentally thing. I think Harrison Ford is mentally much older than Patrick Stewart because Patrick Stewart is nimble and sharp. And Harrison Ford just runs around mumbling and grumbling all the time and trying to land his plane on the wrong runway.

He's a grumpy old actor. Yes, he is. Yes, he is. And this one is crazy. Shout out to my old friend, Leah Culver. She was a tech back in the day. We used to hang out, you know, in the old, you know, Web 2.0 days when everything was happening and there were only like 20 people that were doing anything of importance.

She bought one of the painted ladies in Alamo Square. You know, the very famous Victorian houses. I know you're waiting for some big reaction from me, but I'm not a San Fran guy. So I'm vaguely aware of them, but not. Well, you've seen Full House, right? No. They're on the front of the Full House thing. Why would I have watched Full House?

I don't know. You seem like a Full House kind of guy. I never watch it, but you never know. But yeah, the painted ladies are very famous. And she bought the pink painted lady. So she's fixing it up. I mean, it's nasty as hell inside. But she got it for $3.5 million, which I thought it would go for more.

But when you saw the inside, I'm like, oh, damn. So she's got a Twitter account where she's chronicling the fixer-upper-ness of it. So congratulations, Leah. That's pretty cool. I love the world that we live in where $3.5 million is a fixer-upper. You've been in LA long enough, man.

You should know that. And let's end on a down note because we usually do. Sad, sad news came out last night. Grant Imahara, the host of Mythbusters and the White Rabbit Project, has passed away at 49. Brain aneurysm. So just, you know, there you go.

You never know how long you got. No shit, man. I can't believe he's a year older than me. I always thought he was like 10 years younger. But man, it's sad news. Very sad news. Yeah, you don't know how much time you got. So get going. Yep. Until next time, I'm Jason DeFilippo. If there is a next time.

And I'm Brian Schulmeister. You know, limited time left. Start a podcast. Don't be part of the 1% that doesn't have one yet. Exactly. Don't be a 1%er. Don't be a 1%er. Thanks for listening to Grumpy Old Geeks. To support the show and keep us on the air, go to gog.show slash 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 slash 455. 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. Stay at home. Wear a mask. gog.show slash shop.

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