665: Human Referees

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Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Interesting week for me, Brian. It might bring back some feels for you. I've been dealing with the music industry this week. Oh God, I'm sorry. No, it's been amazing. It's been amazing.

Well, because mainly we're on the periphery for this one. One of the artists we work with, Deshaun Wesley, has done a mixed track with this super duper K-pop group called Le Seraphim, who, I don't know if you watched the VMAs, they opened and closed the pre-show of the VMAs this week.

I know nobody watches the VMAs anymore. You'll be shocked to hear that I did not. Yeah, yeah. Trust me, the only reason we watched it is because they were on it. But I got to, we had a piece that we filmed with Deshaun and the girls in New York City, and their social media team is like SEAL Team 6.

It is incredible to deal with them. They've got, they've got a, like a, you know, I'm sure you, you, you were probably on this team for your artists. The ones that followed them around, take the photos, the videos that are following them 24-7, right? Yep. Yeah, I did that a couple of times. Yeah. I think, weren't you on that for Coldplay?

I did the, not so much for Coldplay. I did that a lot for Atlantis and the Goo Goo Dolls. Ah, got it. So we were just dealing with them with scheduling and things like that. And these guys knew to the minute, which video, like, you know, like almost a week ahead, they had, they had scheduled videos that they hadn't shot that were already in the queue to get published just because they knew they were going to get it.

I tried to get people to do that for years. I'm like, just have it, organize people. How wonderful that must be. Oh, these kids are on it, man. They are on it. And then, so last night, like, like literally to the second, because I'm sure it was all scheduled in the system, but you know, some of the videos that we shot went out and woke up this morning, 4 million views by this morning.

Pretty good. On just this little dance video, just like, Jesus. Yeah, we're doing the wrong things. Well, here's the problem, Brian. We're not, we're not five really cute Korean girls with talent. Oh, yeah. It's not us. There's that. Yeah. Yeah. With, with a banger of a song that I cannot get out of my head.

It's, it's insane. All week. Then here, the beginning of the song. Jason, listening to K-pop was not on my bingo card for this year. Trust me, man. It was not on my bingo card either. It was not on my bingo card either. But it just got me, it got me nostalgic for being on teams like that, that just really got shit done.

You know, back in the day. Yeah. Because I didn't, didn't do that with music. You were the music guy, but I was the movie guy. And when, you know, when we were running up to the launch of a movie, any like, you know, that Friday premiere, it was just go, go, go, go, go. All hands on deck. Everything was like, you know, just a well-oiled machine.

And then as soon as, as soon as the movie was done, five o'clock on a Friday, we were at the bar and had the whole team celebrating cigars and whiskey. And it was a blast. So much fun. Yeah. We're too old for that now. Now I hit publish and I text you and you're like, okay, I'll get to it when I can.

Kids got to poop or something. That's our lives now. Pretty much. Yeah. Oh man. Okay. That's my walk down memory lane. All right. Well, I, I, I actually agree with you. I do miss working with teams that actually knew what they were doing and were dedicated and into it.

Uh, hard to find. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, let's do a little follow-up here. Uh, we had talked a little bit about, uh, well, you know, Neil Gaiman's troubles and how that might be affecting some of his shows, including some things that were already being pushed back and God knows what. And as we were talking about, as long as we get a good omens season three.

And Sandman season two and three. Sandman season two and three. Who cares? Not looking like that's going to be happening. Well, we'll see. Uh, basically the first story that came out, the one that I saw, and I think you have some follow-up on this is that they've decided to pause season three of good omens for a bit with possible production changes being considered.

Right. Yes. They, and, and right on the heels of that, Neil came out and said, Hey guys, Hey guys, go ahead. I'll step out and nobody's made any decisions on what's going to happen yet, but he's at least willing to take the step to say, look, I don't want to be, I don't want to stop the production of the show.

Just go on without me. So now, so here's my question. Has he already written it? Because it's done. Okay. Then. All right. All right. As long as he's written it, because if he's stepping out and somebody else is taking over the writing, remember we are off script. We have left behind the book.

So this is uncharted territory and Neil Gaiman being the only person who is still alive that was involved in the writing of said book. I would want him to be writing this. I don't want anybody else to do it. No, I am pretty sure that the script is, I'm sure there would, you know, normally be like onset rewrites and things like that for stuff that didn't quite work or whatnot.

So there might be some, you know, some wonkitude built into it, but at least he's willing to let it kind of, you know, kick off and keep going. So, you know, season two was off, off script too. So it's like, whatever we get, we get. True. And it's not like he's not getting paid for the writing of it.

So, you know, we're fine. Exactly. Exactly. And I think Sandman season two, there was some news coming out about that this week. Just a few little spoilers, but they're supposed to be dropping a trailer for that soon. Because I think that's been in the can for a while. It's all been post-production. Right. Because that is a very effect heavy show.

So I'm really looking forward to that one because season one was just absolute perfection. Chef's kiss. So, yeah, at least Neil's willing to step back, you know, because apparently he doesn't love it when a ding dong comes together. Oh, man.

So I saw this one as a little more follow up on the Waymo story that we talked about and how Waymos are actually apparently kind of scary, but not so bad in San Francisco. And I love this. What do Uber drivers make of Waymo?

We're cooked. Well, yeah, eventually. For sure. We're looking at next year. People are thinking that Waymo will probably be able to undercut Uber drivers, at least for rates in San Francisco. So. And don't forget, Uber drivers, that Uber has basically said that that is their mission statement, is to get rid of you eventually as well.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. That was, you know. Yeah. Waymo just took the long game and just had been playing it out because, you know, they got the Google money. And Uber spent all their money undercutting taxis and every other competitor by subsidizing rides. So that's where all their investment went to, was all the, you know, making rides cheaper by just eating them, eating the cost of it.

Yep. It's interesting. Now, this next story, the title does not really reflect what this story is about. Human drivers keep rear-ending Waymos. Okay. Which makes it sound like there's a problem with the Waymos, but the problem is there's a problem with the humans. So Waymo has actually started to release some data on their cars and how safe they are compared to human drivers.

And it turns out they're actually quite a bit safer. So they actually put up a new website called the Waymo Safety Impact website, which has graphs and charts and things like that. But getting back to the first story, the guy who said that we're cooked, but he also followed up saying we're done for.

In the age of artificial intelligence and automation, we're the first to be impacted in a major way. No, no, you're not. Because the cars aren't driven by AI to begin with. They're driven by standard good old machine learning and LiDAR and things like that. But yeah, yeah, yeah.

Otherwise, you are 100% cooked, I think, in the long run. But the Waymo's safety side of things, look, yeah, the cars are going to be safer than humans. We've always thought that. We thought that there needs to be a 100% switchover. So we're in this weird in-between time, especially in San Francisco.

But the crash ratings are better. But they do have a 100% no sexual assault rating at this point so far. So they're beating Uber on that by a long shot. Yeah, definitely. Look, again, it comes down to the way people drive nowadays.

And I mean, not to be an old man yelling at clouds, but we didn't have all these things when we were younger and we were driving. So we kind of paid attention to the road. Like, I'm not in a car very often anymore. I'm living in Toronto. There's an awful lot of public transport available.

I'm walking a lot more. I can get around most places without ever being in a car. Some places I do have to get in a car. Every time I'm in a car, I look over. They're on their phones. Everybody's on their phones while driving. So no wonder, of course, a robot that is a phone is not going to hurt us as much anymore.

But I mean, also COVID, I think, made people forget how to drive completely. That really screwed up everything. Nobody, people have come back with a lot of anger issues while they're driving. Oh, Jesus Christ. Dude, come back down here. Stay here for longer than you did.

It's bad. But you have to remember, though, Brian, when we were driving around in our heyday, we had binders of CDs that we would have on our lap trying to find that one CD and try to eject the other one. And God forbid you had one of the multiple CD track players in your car.

You're trying to find the one, the slot that has the empty one so you can eject it. Yep. And do all that while driving, too. You know, we had our bits and bits. Plus, I was drinking a Budweiser. Yeah, that too, probably. Oh, I remember in Texas, we used to go to drive, drive through liquor stores in our pickup trucks.

Yeah. I wasn't driving back then. I was with the people who were, who were driving through. But yes, yeah, my stepdad would, would all the time, you know, pick up, pick up a six pack on the way home and crack one in his pickup truck. Yep. So, ah, yes. Ah, Gen X, the way we did it.

Yes. Most of us are still here. Well. Less every day. Our numbers are dwindling, my friend. Our numbers are dwindling. So this one came in from Stephen a bit ago, and I tried to get it in last week, but we just ran out of time. Stephen writes in, sorry if this has been answered recently.

British schools are moving away from using cash or cards to pay for lunches. Yes, we know. We talked about the thumbprints. And the phone, we actually talked about the facial recognition. And then the thumbprints came into it. He says, my son's school doesn't allow cash, cards, or phones on the premises. Two reasons. First, it means children whom are on free, free school meals are not identified as only a fingerprint is required, which is nice.

So they don't get, you know, don't get shit for it. That's cool. Yeah. Because, yeah, growing up Jet X, you're on the free lunch plan, everybody knew it. Two, local muggers know that a kid from this school has absolutely nothing of any value on them. Not even smartwatches are allowed.

Nothing other than school equipment, nothing to rob them for. Hence, safer kids. That's how we do it in the UK. Two very fine jobs. I would point out, Stephen, if that's how you do it in the UK, I'm a little worried about these roving bands of muggers you have everywhere. Well, it is the UK.

Come on. There's always been roving bands of muggers. There's a strong Robin Hood tradition. Yeah. There really is. The principle of Nottingham, I tell you. In the news. Well, Jason, we've talked an awful lot about the price of coffee.

Coffee fines that all these big tech companies have been getting. I'm starting to think the EU is not fucking around anymore, Jason. You think? Yeah. So Europe's highest court has ruled that Apple must pay back its 13 billion pound, roughly 14.4 billion Irish tax break deemed illegal by the EU Commission way back in 2016.

That's a lot of money. Yeah. Well, for most companies, it's a lot of money. It's still Apple. So maybe not that much. Yeah. Okay. It's the espresso budget. It's not the cheap coffee budget. Yes. The decision by the European Court of Justice overturns an early 2020 decision by a lower court, which was in Apple's favor.

This confirms their decision. Ireland granted Apple unlawful aid, which Ireland is required to recover, the judges wrote. So even basically the EU is making Ireland get this money back for the tax breaks that they've been giving tech companies. So tech companies would come into Ireland. Yeah. Ireland's like, we don't want it.

We don't want it. Yeah. We don't want it. We want these people coming here because we have rules that require them to hire people and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So, yeah. Yeah. But the EU is saying, uh-uh. Nope. You got to actually pay the taxes that we say we're taking. So. Yeah. We'll see. Slightly less of a fine, but Google has lost its seven-year fight against $2.7 billion EU antitrust fine.

So, uh, they've got to pay that back. Antitrust regulators originally levied the penalty against Google in 2017 for favoring its own shopping service against local rivals. Now, Google says, of course, that this isn't true. We're obviously pushing people to other places and we link to them as well.

I don't know. Pull up anything you want to shop in Google right now. I see the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, the Google store, and the Google store. So maybe they have a point. I think they have a point. Yes. An unnamed Google spokesperson has already responded to the decision saying the company is disappointed with the judgment.

So, they're saying, of course, we've been doing this. Our approach has worked successfully for more than seven years, generating billions of clicks for the more than 800 comparison shopping services. Didn't mention how many went to them, of course. Yeah. Okay.

The EU commission found primarily that since Google is unlikely to change its behavior, only the mandatory divestment of part of its services would address competition. So, they're looking into that now because they don't trust Google to do a damn thing about it. Correct. And guess what? So, are we.

Yes. The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust trial against Google has begun. And they are focusing on the company's dominance in the ad tech industry. Yep. That's where it is. DOJ lawyer Julia Tarver Wood accused Google of holding a trifecta of monopolies, claiming the tech giant's control over digital advertising tools stifles competition and inflates costs for advertisers while lowering earnings for publishers.

The DOJ argues that Google manipulates ad auctions to its advantage, of course, negatively impacting both advertisers and website creators. They are the middle – the 800-pound middleman, you know? Yeah. Middlemen used to take a pittance. Now they take most of it.

They take the – yeah, the lion's share. Witnesses from major publishers like USA Today and News Corp are expected to testify. Testify, my brother. This trial anticipated to last four to six weeks might be more damaging to Google than previous cases, potentially leading to a divestment of Google's ad services or even splitting the company.

Okay. Yeah, nothing wrong with that. Just another company under the alphabet umbrella. At this point, at this point, they can make it up with Waymo rides. Yeah. Now, see, but then Google turns around and does something very interesting. Google has partnered with the Internet Archive to bring back the ability to view past versions of web pages, a feature it removed earlier this year.

The Google cache was amazing when it was there, wasn't it? Yeah. Because the great part was – yeah. It was awesome because back in the day when, you know, you show up on the first page of Google, it actually meant something. It wasn't just an ad and it could take down your website. So the Google cache was there just as a backup in case your website went down, which happened – I don't know if it happened to you, Brian, with the music stuff, but it happened to me all the time.

Yeah, of course. Of course it happened. It was a really valuable service. Yeah. So now if you click the three dots next to the URL, you can get a link to the Wayback Machine and see what the page was like before. Now, this is cool that they're, you know, getting with the Internet Archive to do this, even though the Internet Archive has been having issues lately with their book scanning kerfuffles, which, you know, has been kind of riding that line just a little bit.

Now, the thing is, I really hope Google is going to help out the Internet Archive with some infrastructure for this because the Internet Archive isn't – I don't know if you've seen the videos or been there. It's not huge, you know, it's not – and if they're going to be putting that on every Google search, I'm really hoping they're going to throw a few servers their way.

But I thought that was pretty cool. Yeah. Good on you, Google. Shame on the rest of it, but good on that part. Good on that side. Yeah. I think they're just trying to get – garner some goodwill wherever they can at this point. Yeah. So next up we hear, we have some genetic testing companies in hot water.

Sort of. Sort of. The FTC has – Jason. They're genetic testing companies in primordial soup. Okay. You win. You win. The FTC has mandated that onehealth.io, previously known as Vitagene – I don't know which name is worse.

They're both pretty – one sounds like a really bad supplement company and one sounds like they really wanted a different URL and they couldn't afford it. Or it's a greens drink. Yeah. Did you have your Vitagene this morning? I need some new Vitagene because I squirted my old genes. Preach. So they have been ordered by the FTC to refund nearly – wait for it – $50,000 to nearly 2,432 customers after a major data breach.

All right. I guess it depends on how many customers they had, if it's major or not, because 2,400 customers isn't major in most companies that the FTC would go after. Neither is $50,000. But, hey, what are you going to do? They're sending a message, Jason.

Yes. Despite promises of strong data protection, Vitagene's site did not adhere to its own privacy claims, including proper data and destruction protocols. Additionally, the company retroactively altered its privacy policy to share data with third parties without customer consent, which is the real crux of the matter.

I would go ahead and basically call that almost industry standard. That's true. On the internet. I think if you did a survey, I would say 90% of websites don't follow their own privacy policies because they just lifted it from some other site. And they always go back and go, oh, shit, we didn't have this in our privacy policy.

We should just update it and don't tell anybody right now. Yes, yes. And they can't do that anymore thanks to the FTC Act. So Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, said back in 2023, companies that try to change the rules of the game by rewriting their privacy policy are on notice.

The FTC Act prohibits companies from unilaterally applying material privacy policy changes to previously collected data. So you can't go back and you can't use the Wayback Machine to go back and fix it because now everybody knows what it used to say. So stop it.

Yeah. Well, we've got some news from Australia. Meta scraped every Australian user's account to train its AI. This came out of a government inquiry about AI adoption in Australia. And Meta's global privacy director, Melinda Claybaugh, was asked whether her company had been collecting Australia's data to train its generative AI technology.

To which she replied, crikey! According to ABC News, she denied the claim. But after being asked a second time, she admitted that Meta scrapes all the photos and texts in all Facebook and Instagram posts from as far back as 2007, unless the user had set their posts to private. So, no, we don't do that.

Oh, you're asking me again? Yeah, we do that. Yeah, somebody tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a Post-it and said, yeah, we actually can do that. She also admitted that the company isn't offering Australians an opt-out option like it does to users in the European Union because no GDPR. Right.

This is why GDPR is good. Claybaugh said that Meta doesn't scrape the accounts of users under 18 years old, but she admitted that the company still collects their photos and other information if they post it on their parents' or guardians' accounts. Yeah. She also couldn't answer if the company collects data from previous years once a user does turn 18.

Oh, I didn't even think about that. It's fair game now, right? Yep. Again, this is why you absolutely should have your Facebook account set to private unless there's a particular reason you wouldn't, i.e. you're a celebrity, and then you don't really give a shit.

So, but keeping on with social media in Australia, the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has promised to introduce legislation that would prevent children under a certain age from using social media altogether. The Australian government would start a social media initiative by testing age verification technology sometime this year.

Let me save you some time. Nobody's found anything that's worked. Yep. Yeah. He also didn't state a specific age limit, but estimated he'd like the ban to be for children younger than 14 to 16 because we know that social media is causing social harm. Meta issued a statement in response to the PM's proposal, noting that Facebook and Instagram already have a minimum age requirement of 13 years for users.

That they don't enforce. That they don't enforce and is basically a fucking checkbox. Yeah. So, the social media company also noted it wants to empower young people to benefit from social media with parental controls and monitoring instead of just cutting off access.

You cannot benefit from social media with parental monitoring. That takes the fun out of it. Yeah. That totally takes the fun out of it. Yeah. They're teenagers. They want to do shit that their parents don't know about. That's the whole point. Come on.

I think they're talking about people much younger than that. Yeah. Which I'm just thinking, what the hell are you even doing with having a kid on there? It just doesn't make any sense. So. Well. Yeah. Anyways, go for it, Australia. Good luck with that. Good luck, Australia.

Oh, good luck, Nevada, too. Nevada is partnering with Google to launch a first-of-its-kind AI system to help decide unemployment benefits. Oh, this is going to go real well. What could possibly go wrong? The AI will analyze transcripts from appeals hearings and make recommendations to human referees.

We have referees now. It's what we've been devolved to. Aiming to speed up the decision-making process and clear a backlog of claims dating back to the pandemic. While the system is expected to reduce processing time significantly, concerns have been raised, as they well should, about potential automation bias and errors.

Critics, including legal experts, worry that the emphasis on speed could lead to rushed decisions, risking fairness. State officials assure that all AI recommendations will be reviewed by humans before final decisions are made. Get that rubber stamp out. Now, obviously, I am not on board with this.

I think this is a pretty crappy idea. I mean, it depends on how many human referees there are and are you making them wear the footlocker outfit? Did you give them a whistle? I have concerns about all these sorts of things. But I do, the one point on the side for perhaps trying to figure out some sort of solution that maybe uses AI or at least machine learning or something like that.

The worry that the emphasis on speed could lead to rushed decisions. Man, you've got a backlog going back before the pandemic. We need to have some emphasis on speed here. Hire the unemployed people that are on the list to go through the list because then they'll have jobs and you'll get your backlog done faster because there'll be less people on the backlog.

There. Solved it. Done. You're welcome, Nevada. Nobody listens to our show, though. That's true. I saw the numbers. It's bad. Yeah, there you go. Getting back to potential blocks on social media for youth. Yeah, it's not going to happen here either.

On Tuesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby granted a preliminary injunction to block Utah from limiting the social media usage of minors. Republican Governor Spencer Cox had signed the Utah Minor Protection or the UMP Act in social media earlier in March. Umpires and referees.

That's what we've got now. That's all we've got. People blowing whistles at each other everywhere. Mostly dog whistles on the internet if you really think about it. True that. True that. A lot of whistles. Yeah. It was supposed to take effect on October 1st, but the court's decision to block the law is a victory for young social media users in Utah. That's one way to look at it.

This isn't the first time that Utah's governor has attempted to limit social media use among the youths in the state. Last year, he signed two bills that required parents to grant permission for teens to create social media accounts. Again, who's monitoring that? What number do I fax my form to? Utah.

Yeah. And these accounts had limitations like curfews and age verification. Curfews. Okay. Oh, my God. This is why this shit's impossible. So, good luck. But anyways. It is Utah, though, by the way. It is Utah. Utah's a different country all into itself. Yep.

All right. Well, good luck with that, Utah and Australia. And Nevada. And Nevada. And everybody.

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Media candy. Well, in good news and bad news, Star Trek's Lower Decks is returning to Paramount Plus with two episodes on October 24th. But, as we all know, it is the final season, sadly, I think far too soon. But, there's a little clip out.

It's pretty damn funny. It is pretty funny. I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to miss that show. Yeah, me too. It's really good. So, we'll see. We've got to start a writing campaign or something. Good luck. It's Paramount Plus. There's a new documentary that came out.

It's actually a documentary series about sports called Untold with a bunch of different episodes. But, the episode that I watched was Hope Solo versus U.S. Soccer. I'm a big fan of Hope Solo. She's obviously had a lot of trouble. But, I would say, hands down, she is the best U.S. goalkeeper ever, men or women.

It doesn't matter. She's the best we've ever had. Pretty sad story. Pretty sad documentary. Pretty sad that all our teammates basically just left her for dead. Dumped her under the bus. Didn't care. She actually started a lawsuit for equal pay before anybody else did.

But, then they all banded together and did their own and left her hanging out in the wind. She seems to have pulled her life together. Good for her. It was a really good documentary. Again, what a life she's had. What a shitty life she came from. She actually made quite a bit out of herself.

Had problems, as all people do. And, as pointed out many times in the documentary, had she been a male athlete, nobody would have gave a fuck what she did. Right. But, then you gotta, you gotta admit the name is just ironic. Come on.

So, the funny part about it was, though, as soon as I, I just, I only read the beginning of the headline. I'm like, ooh, there's a new solo spinoff. On solo? On solo? Yeah. Yeah, like, hope solo. Is this the unknown daughter that he had? Yeah. I was like, oh, great.

And, it was really weird, I have to say, watching this documentary, the same week that Alex Morgan, another great U.S. soccer great, decided to retire. And, the fanfare that she got, because she towed the line versus Hope Solo, who did not, and got unceremoniously dumped completely, and tried to, the Saga Federation basically, treats her like she's dead.

So, there you go. Good luck, Hope Solo. Wish you well. Wish you well. On Sunday night, during the ceremony for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Alan Cumming took home the golden statue for the outstanding host for a reality or competition program category for one of my favorite shows, The Traitors.

Yes. Been talking about that show for a year and a half now. Love that damn show. On all continents, we just finished New Zealand season two. Hard to find, but well worth it. Hopefully, you guys up in Canada will be doing a season two as well. Your first, your season one of The Traitors was epically good, so.

Okay. Well, I mean, Canadians being mean is a tough sell, so. There were some good mean people on there, but even the villains were still nice. That's the fucked up thing about it. So, the interesting thing here is that he finally dethroned RuPaul, who had been, who had just been on an eight-year tear.

So, he's done. Bye, RuPaul. Okay. Give it to Alan Cumming. Alan Cumming has been defrocked. Sashay away, RuPaul. I love it when you talk about these shows that I have just never, ever watched and never will. That's great. Yeah. So, you don't get my deep cuts. That's sad.

No, I don't. I just don't get my deep cuts. You probably say really funny things, and I'm just like, huh? What? Yeah, I know. Nicole Kidman had a new series along with Liev Schreiber on Netflix this week called The Perfect Couple. Did they use AI to make her forehead move? No, they didn't.

The funny thing is, the one thing we noticed, what they did was they froze her hair, which they must have found a stash of Aquanet somewhere, because her hair didn't move, I think, to offset the fact that her face doesn't move anymore. So, her face looked actually normal compared to her hair.

But it was a fantastic murder mystery series. Highly recommended. It was fun. And if you read the book, it does not end like the book did. So, it's a good show. Cool. She's actually in town right now, or in Toronto, because we have TIFF, which is the International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and everybody's in town right now.

Hmm. Yeah. No, I mean, I stood behind, or I stood, yeah, behind Nicole Kidman at the Arclight while we were getting movie tickets one day. And this was the old Nicole Kidman, the proper, un-augmented Nicole Kidman. She turned around to look at somebody, and I made eye contact with her, and I swear to God, my knees almost buckled.

She's one of those people, she's like, otherworldly beautiful in person. It's just like, oh, that's why you get paid so much money. She was with some musician who I didn't care about, but you probably know who that is. She's been married to one for a long time. That guy, whoever he is. Yeah. Yeah, he just looked at me like, stop looking at my wife.

But anyway, I watched the first episode of Chaos last night, the Jeff Goldblum vehicle where he plays Zeus. Yeah. Did you watch it yet? No. It's interesting. Okay. It's different. The trailer looked amazing. And I went in thinking it was going to be one show, but it turns out it's a different show than I was expecting.

But I thoroughly enjoyed it. Okay. It's very good. I'm looking forward to watching more of them. I really am. I mean, it's intriguing as a concept. Yeah. It really is. All right. And they're playing it off fairly well, too.

Yeah. Five episodes ago, I think it's an only six-parter. And they're long, too. They're not short. They're like 50 minutes. Okay. One question, though, about Goldblum. And this is the only issue I have. I love Jeff Goldblum. I think Jeff Goldblum is a national treasure. Jeff Goldblum is just Jeff Goldblum now.

Is he just Jeff Goldblum in this, or is he actually acting? He's acting like Jeff Goldblum playing Zeus. Okay. But it fits. It really fits in this. All right. All right. Fair. Yeah. So basically, Zeus is an asshole. And Jeff Goldblum, basically, if you don't love Jeff Goldblum, is an asshole.

So he's kind of playing himself playing an asshole. But it comes off really well. Okay. I'll give it a shot. Why not? Yeah. No, I recommend it so far. After one episode, I recommend it. So if you want to wait till next week, I'll give you the full rundown. But the Penguin dropped a new trailer for a new series on Max, which looks unbelievably good.

I checked it out. It looked interesting. It did remind me that I need to go back and finish Teen Titans, which I was enjoying on Max. Looks good. I mean, it looks beautiful. So we'll see how it goes. Yeah, we'll see how it goes. And you're a Stephen King fan. So you might enjoy this one. The new Salem's Lot trailer dropped yesterday.

Yeah. Did you get a chance to check that one out? I did. It looks pretty good. I am a big fan of Stephen King. And I'm, you know, I feel like Salem's Lot has been made like 19 times. But this one looks like one of the better ones. It's definitely been one of the adaptations that has been more missed than hit. Well, I've only seen the original one, the original adaptation.

And that one scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. I still remember that one. Yeah. And I think, unfortunately, this trailer, they give you way too much in the trailer. But it hits all the creepy notes from the original. The original. So it's like, oh, yeah, I remember why I was so fucking scared.

Yeah. And it's good, though. They don't do a reveal on Mr. Barlow. So I'm very curious how they play that. Because Mr. Barlow in the original Salem's Lot was fucking terrifying. So at least when I was a kid, I don't want to go back and find out if it has legs. Because I like the feels that I have from that one, you know?

That's how I feel about, like, the early 90s adaptation of It. Like, I liked it. Oh. But I'm sure if I went back and watched it, it'd be horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't even like it. I remember watching the first one. And then the second one just was, I'm like, there's a big bug. I don't care. There's a big bug.

But Tim Curry was great in it. Come on. Yeah. It was Tim Curry. I mean, you know, it's also Stephen King. You're working with some prime source material. So. Well, you know. Mostly. Mostly. We're both hit and miss on Stephen King. I am a huge fan of Thinner and Salem's Lot. So those are the ones that I enjoy.

But The Penguin dropped September 19th, Salem's Lot, October 3rd. All right. Very cool. Tears for Fears have announced their first live album ever. Hard to Believe Songs for a Nervous Planet. And this includes four new songs that they've recorded in the studio, which will be the first four tracks on the record when it comes out.

There is also going to be a concert film, which I'm actually kind of excited about. Tears for Fears is one of those bands that, you know, if you grew up in Southern California listening to K-Rock, you got mighty fucking sick of shout and everybody wants to rule the world. But if you delve into their catalog a bit, my God, they're such a great band.

And having seen them live, I never saw them live back in the day. But they did headline that Darker Waves Festival that I went to last year. Oh, yeah. Holy shit, they're good live. Really? Unbelievably good live.

So if you're a fan at all, I think this is going to be worth checking out. Certainly listening to the live album and definitely maybe even checking out the live film because I do remember they had some really good visuals. However, if you have not seen the band or a photo of the band since the 80s, you might want to skip the live bit.

Okay. Yeah. Boy, are they old. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I have that. I just I remember them from the videos. That's about it. So, yeah, I kind of had that reaction to when I saw Flock of Seagulls live. I was just like, oh, don't have that hairdo anymore, do you, bud?

Don't have hair anymore. Getting old sucks. Yeah, it's a drag. Cops and doodads. Brian, last episode I mentioned, well, I tried to mention an app called Fruit Juice about battery health.

I couldn't remember what it was at the time. So I went and I looked and it has been running on my computers for ever, like well over a decade. The thing about Fruit Juice is it was discontinued two years ago. Yep. And it's still been running on my computers just fine. But I'm like, okay, you know what, though?

I don't really need it that much anymore. So I uninstalled it. But, yeah, it's still out there. Yeah, and it may not make it through the next OS update. Actually, it did just fine. Because on my air, I've been running the new OS for a month now.

And it was going just fine. And the new OS, by the way, is awesome. I don't know if it's released to everybody yet. But you can just go get the public beta now and you'll get the final Golden Master release if you want. Okay. Maybe I'll do it. It's great.

Actually, no, Brian, you're not allowed to do it. Oh, that's right. I can't do it. Yeah. No, you're not allowed to do it because you do audio stuff now. And I'd like to have a show next week. So, damn it. Yeah. The guys who did Fruit Juice moved on to a new company, which basically allows you to download videos from all the major social players.

I think it's called 4K Tucket. 4K Download is the main company. But you can download TikTok videos with their 4K Tucket app, which I've never actually seen one that could download TikTok videos. So, that actually is not bad if you need to get that in a pinch.

I haven't been on TikTok in ages, though. Thank God. Yeah. Crack. Crack. Yep. So, I was up at the ass crack of dawn this morning. See what I did there? At 5 a.m. for me because I got my iPhone 16 preorder in. Of course you did.

What do you mean, of course I did? This is my first phone in three years. Dude, I'm running old school. I'm on a three-year update cycle. Only because my dad's phone, because he gets my old phone, and his phone is aging out, and he needs a new one. So, I couldn't. If it was up to me, I would have skipped this one altogether.

Yeah. But I'm just like, but he needed a phone. And I'm like, okay, well, I'll give him my 13, because my 13 Pro's got several more years left in it. Because it's like in mint condition. It's got a terabyte of storage on it, and it works great. Yeah. Fast as hell. The only difference is it uses the old lightning connector, and everything is USB-C now.

Yep. But they do this very smart thing now. They may have done this for a while, but like I said, it's been three years since I did it. They let you just put in all of your everything, basically, into your cart, and just save it till 5 a.m. Pacific on launch day.

So, my alarm went off, and they're like, hey, go get it. And I'm like, okay, open up the Apple Store app on my phone. And it's like, just hang tight. We're not ready yet. And I just kept falling back asleep, and I'd open my eyes a little bit, see the little dancing Apple. And then I finally opened my eyes, and it's like, hey, press the button and get your pre-order.

I'm like, okay, press the button, done. So, like the old days, I remember you had to go through and do the whole cart spiel as it opened up. And then- Yeah, to build it in real time. Yeah. Yeah, and then, you know, if you weren't fast enough, then, you know, you were three weeks out, four weeks out.

So, I get mine on Friday. So, a week from today, I get my new phone. So, we'll see how it is. I did the old guy thing, though, this time, Brian. It sucks. I went the Max. I got the big one. Oh, yeah. So, I like it. I've gotten really used to the Max. I don't have the Pro.

I just have the Max. And I've just gotten used to the size. And especially, you know, we're old. But also, like, with my work and with everything I do now, I don't have to get my laptop out half the time. So, I can just work off the phone. And with the Max, it's so much easier. That's the thing.

It's like, you know, I've got my iPad mini sitting around, which I use for a lot of stuff during the day. And I used to have a Max phone. And I ended up putting my mini in the closet because it was like, it's so close to the mini size because it's so fucking big. Yeah. But I just don't like it in my pocket.

That was always the thing. It's just too fucking big for my pocket. But I'm going blind. So, I need a bigger phone. I just can't handle the small one anymore. But the size of the standard Pro is so nice. Yeah. So, yeah. Well, you're old. Old shit. Yeah. Speaking of old shit.

Yeah. Apple just got authorized for AirPods 2 hearing aid features from the FDA. That's amazing. Yeah. It's been all over the news that they were going to put the features in. But they were announcing it before the FDA approval. But the FDA approval just came in right on time. So, the downside is I don't have AirPods Pro 2s.

So, I'm still running my ones. I'm not quite ready to needing it. But I love the fact that this is there. I mean, it's so much cheaper. And it's less, it just looks cooler. You know, again, like just, you know, we're all just little kids at heart.

We don't want people to know that our lunch is being subsidized. We don't want people to know we're wearing hearing aids. But if I can just have my AirPods in, nobody's going to really know. Because everybody's a dick now and wears them 24-7 anyways. Exactly. We've been having a fight with my roommate's 96-year-old mom for years now.

And she won't do hearing aids. She won't do hearing aids. And I'm like, she might wear AirPods. So, we're going to check it out. She sent her the articles. So, we'll see if we can get her some AirPods Pros. She's already got an iPhone. And she loves her iPhone. So, this might be the thing. We'll see.

I don't know. I could use them in very many situations. I have reverted to closed captions on TV now for a lot of things. I end up doing that just because the sound editing is so shit on most TV shows now. Isn't it, though? It is.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It is not just being old. It is dialogue is so low. And then the explosion shakes your fucking house. And there's those switches you can put on your TV, like, you know, the dialogue enhance or, like, prioritize dialogue that don't fucking work.

Yeah. And the whole thing is low, you know? And I'm trying to watch TV and my kid is asleep and my wife is asleep upstairs. Like, if there's going to be an explosion, the entire house is going to wake up because I've had it cranked to hear the damn dialogue. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, the thing that I do now is just I watch everything on the Apple TV and I just pump it through my AirPods.

Yeah. And that's that's the only way to really kind of get around it because I've got a fire TV and the fire TV sucks for any kind of volume adjustment because half the shows with the shitty fucking audio are on Amazon Prime. Yeah. Those guys really they spend all this money on talent acquisition.

Hire a fucking sound editor, you know, somebody who's worth a shit. Yeah. It's just gotten really bad. So I'm not surprised. Like, I put on captioning, too. Yeah. We definitely had to do it with the perfect couple. There was they were mumbling. That's the other thing. People mumble more. Right.

Oh, fucking mumblers. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Well, this is interesting. I had I bought a Flipper Zero a while back that's been sitting in a drawer because I'm not a hacker anymore. And I was I don't know why I bought the damn thing. Oh, wait, I was probably drunk before I quit drinking. I actually I think that was.

Yeah, it was before I got sober. I bought this damn thing. But they finally released the first firmware version, version 1.0. The major, major release. We've introduced dynamic app loading support. Now you can install hundreds of community developed apps from the apps catalog.

And they've got a new NFC subsystem, which is completely rewritten from scratch, resulting in significant increase in card reading speeds, new NFC card type support and a new plugin system for user card parsers, new JavaScript support and better battery life.

And the great part is you can do all this stuff from the app on your phone instead of having to plug it into a computer. So, OK, I want to check out some of these apps. Since I've got the thing, I might as well see if I can break into someplace without. Yeah, I'm curious what these apps are, what their app store is. Exactly that.

Well, that's what because I got the thing and I'm like, I really don't. I'm not a security professional, so I don't know. I don't have any ideas on where to start. So maybe looking at the apps will give me some ideas of what kind of, you know, Tom foolery I can get up to with the damn thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

The thing I the thing I eyeball in the most is the parking mechanism at the office that I pay $70 a month for. I'm like, can I just walk by somebody in the hallway and scan their cards so I can get in and out for free? Probably nice. Yeah, because I know that I know that the maintenance lady has a master card because with the card we pay for, you can only do one in and one out.

You can't do multiple ins and multiple outs because what you used to, but we obviously abuse the abuse the privilege. They took it away from us. So, yeah, hopefully I can scan her card with it and then just be able to slide in and out. But, you know, I'm not going to do that.

So don't try and sue me if it happens. This is all theoretical. This is theoretical. This is this is a show for entertainment purposes only. This is a thought experiment. Thought experiment. Oh, now here's one that pisses me off. Audible narrators to create voice replicas using A.I.

Yeah. Shocking. To lower publication costs and speed up the release of audiobooks, Amazon's Audible will begin inviting a small group of narrators to create replicas of their own voice using A.I. generated speech technology. I wasn't invited.

So fuck you on all the levels. So invite me or stop letting everybody do it. Come on. Did you bring enough gum for everybody, Joey? I don't like this unless I'm involved. Exactly. Can I make some money off of it? Nobody's hiring me to do audiobooks anymore. So I might as well see if anybody wants to hire my my disembodied A.I.

voice. Well, speaking of A.I. voice, I found this one really interesting. Google's A.I. powered research tool notebook LM can now turn your materials you want to pour over into a podcast like audio discussion. Great. It's a new feature called audio overview, which takes information from documents you've uploaded and then generates a deep dive discussion between two A.I.

hosts. Jason, we have a task for next week. We are going to upload our notes into audio overview and see what it comes back with. And we will put out both shows, both shows side by side. And if the other one's better, we're fucking done.

We're done. Yeah. So based on the example the company posted with its announcement, the A.I. host sounded human enough to listen to, though you could still determine that the voices were A.I. generated from inflections and odd pronunciations of certain words. And Google does admit that it still has limitations.

This is an experimental stage release. The host can only speak English at this time. And they sometimes say inaccurate information, which means you will have to double check your material and ensure that you didn't learn something that's not factual. Just like our show is just like our show.

Yes. But also somewhat self-defeating of the purpose in that the whole idea behind this is some people learn better by listening rather than reading. So if you upload all your material, this thing might generate fucking bullshit. And then you're not learning. Welcome to A.I.

Yep. Pretty much. So I was looking at the articles on Engadget about this thing. They link to an old one and the subtitle is a death note of your very own, except without all the cool supernatural assassin bits. Then it's not a fucking death note. Sorry, Engadget.

Gizmodo eats your lunch when it comes to articles nowadays. Pretty much. Okay. Well, we got it. Is this out yet? Can we try it now? Yeah, it's out. We can try it. All right. We're doing this. We're going to dump all of our notes. We'll take our notes from this week and dump them in and see how it how it fares. Okay, we will put that like, let's put if we can download the file, we'll put it up on Patreon as an exclusive.

Okay, sounds good. Sounds good. In Japan, a 31 year old man faces up to two years in prison for secretly filming over 1000 women. That is more than one binder full of women at a hot springs using a homemade camera disguised as a rock. Now, I don't know if you've seen a picture of this thing.

It doesn't look like a rock. It looks like a giant cow turd. But the man from Fukushima, there's a there's a title for you. The man from Fukushima was caught after a woman noticed a reflection from the rock camera at a hot spring in Yamagata. He had been disguising himself as a hiker and used camouflage to avoid detection.

Okay. The man admitted to his crimes, revealing he used a telephoto lens to capture images of women both bathing and changing. The prosecution is pushing for over a two year sentence, citing the premeditated and extensive nature of his offenses. Yep. We'll find out how he fares on September 17th.

Perv's going to perv. But it wasn't a rock. And finally, music industry's 1990s hard drives, like all hard drives, are dying. Yes. In a stark warning for the media industry, enterprise storage company Iron Mountain reports that around 20% of hard drives from the 1990s are now completely unreadable.

The music industry, which relies heavily on digital archives, is particularly vulnerable. According to Iron Mountain's Robert Kozela, this isn't just a sales pitch. It's a call to action. While hard drives replaced older magnetic tape formats due to issues like deterioration, they bring their own risks, like not fucking working.

Yeah. No, you're going to have to do this over and over again as storage mediums evolve, you know? We moved away from floppies. Well, some people did. Most governments still have them somewhere. But yeah, you got to... I mean, at least they didn't store it on CDRs.

Or did they, Brian? You tell me. They probably did. That's the thing. And there's just no upside and there's no budget for doing all this sort of stuff, for doing the maintenance and for doing the archiving. You know, fuck, man. People don't care until they care.

When all of a sudden the masters are completely gone and you can't go back and do your remastered version and whatever bullshit new spatial audio format has come out next, that's when they all of a sudden care. Then the engineers are on Napster trying to find an old version that somebody stole in the 90s.

We'll rip the instrumental from the karaoke CD that we bought off Amazon and go from there. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide.

Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God Romero. Plus, the Bare Knuckle Middleweight Championship of the World is on the line when the reigning champ Dave the Redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger Jack the Meek Pleaver Colon.

BKFC 94. Till vs. Bermiro. Watch it live only on DAZN. Sign up now at DAZN.com. The Dark Side. Ha! With Dave. Welcome to The Dark Side with Dave with podcast superhost Dave Bittner.

Dave is the host of the Cyber Wire podcast for all your cybersecurity news. The co-host of Hacking Humans with Joe Kerrigan discussing how humans are mean. The co-host of Caveat with Ben Yellen because people are nosy. And the host of Control Loop because industrial machines have feelings too. As well as the, what was the, sidekick co-host?

Buddy in residence for only malware in the building. Participant. Participant, okay. Participant just doesn't have that ring to it. No. No. That's the trophy that I got all through, you know, elementary, middle, and high school. I've got a participation trophy. My athletic career.

You're Gen X. How did you get, we were pre-participation trophy. You guys must have been on the cutting edge. I don't know. Maybe that was an East Coast thing. I don't know. Pilot program. Yeah. Yeah. I just, I, yeah. I will tell you, any of the trophies I got, they were not championship trophies.

Ditto, brother. Ditto. The trophy case of shame. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we, uh, we lost somebody pretty big this week. James Earl Jones, distinguished actor and voice of Darth Vader has died at 93. And as I mean, I spawned a thousand memes, um, and obviously very sad, but 93 is pretty good.

Um, I, of note, of course, is the fact that everybody immediately posted out that we have lost all of the original Darth Vader, the actor that actually was in the suit, the voice and, uh, the Sebastian Shaw, whose face was, uh, unmasked in Return of the Jedi. Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. I mean, boy, the, the term legend really does apply to James Earl Jones. Mm-hmm. Obviously the stuff, I mean, like most of us, I guess I, he first came to my attention as the voice of Darth Vader. And only later did I learn about his career on Broadway and movies and, you know, all of those kinds of things that he was the real deal and legit.

And, and of course, Mufasa. Yep. Um. Which is my, how my son first heard him. So it was very confused when Darth Vader had the same voice. Oh, that's interesting. Um, I had the good fortune, uh, one time back in my video career, um, we did, uh, there was a show about the renovation of the Washington Monument and we had been hired to do all of the 3d animation and graphics for this particular show.

It was a show that ran on discovery channel and the show was narrated by James Earl Jones. So needless to say that clip went on my reel, right? To have, to have, to have his voice on your demo reel was just, just amazing.

So it really was one of the thrills and highlights of that part of my career to have some, to have your work with his voice on it was just, uh, you know, it doesn't get any better than that. So he'll be missed. And, uh, I did, uh, I, I, you know, spared a, spared a thought for him.

It was, uh, it was sad to hear he was gone. Yeah. I, I felt the same way, uh, that you did about having him on your reel as when I had him on my Garmin, uh, GPS and driving around in the early days. Yes. Right. Right. Although I don't believe it was actually him, but, uh, yes, somebody who tried to sound remarkably like him, uh, was giving me directions.

Yeah. So that was awesome. Yeah. He will be missed. And he did sign the rights over to Disney to use his voice. So we'll still be hearing him in the future. Yeah. It was, well, actually that's a little unclear. Uh, I need to delve into that a little bit more. I know he signed the rights over for, uh, Rogue.

Um, he did, he, he allowed that. I don't know if it was carte blanche for all future projects across all of eternity, et cetera. Um, much like a story that you actually just pulled Jason from the show notes. Uh, it is a little unclear. We don't know the exact legalities on that yet.

So, uh, but why wouldn't he have just signed it over? Just like, do, you know, use me for Darth Vader, whatever. Have fun. Right. Right. Right. How many, how many years could I possibly have left? Here's another little nest egg for my loved ones. Yeah. Why not? Why not? Yeah.

And, uh, speaking of, uh, Disney news, cause star Wars is owned by Disney. I saw this article and I thought that, uh, you might get a, get a kick out of this, Dave, um, and you too, Jason. It's over from the Hollywood reporter. It's a cult and Walt's the Messiah. Meet the couple who sued Disney over secretive club 33.

Now, mostly this is, uh, angry white people complaining. Uh, but there are a lot of like nuggets into club, into, uh, some Disney lore and what club 33 actually is and all the perks that you get. And, uh, this is all well known to me having grown up, uh, in Southern California by Disneyland itself where, you know, news about club 33 and, and conjecture and talking about it and finding out little bits of pieces of it was, uh, was, you know, primetime entertainment for us hanging out there.

So we, we knew an awful lot of this stuff, but if you didn't know anything about what club 33 is, this is a fun read. Did you guys ever have any like planned capers for how to secretly sneak into club 33? Oh, we were always trying to figure it out. Supposedly there was a, there was an elevator that you could get to near the bathrooms in the blue bayou.

If you could get in there, that might take you up there and you didn't need it. You know, this is back in the early day where you didn't need like a car key, a key card or anything like that, but, uh, never made it no matter how hard we tried. So yeah. Yeah. Wait, did you say key card? Yeah. I can take my flipper zero. We have found, we have found the answer for the use for the flipper zero.

We were going to break into club 33. Yes. This story was all over the news here this week. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah. It was everywhere. And everybody's like, these people are suing so they can get back in. What the hell's wrong with these people? Yeah. Right.

Who's going to want them? Well, that's the point. Yeah. They ended up getting kicked out because the dude got drunk and was like passed out at somewhere else in the park from all the drinking he did in club 33. And then I guess the wife dropped the F bomb a couple million times when they tried to cut them off from the booze because, you know, you're going out to Disneyland.

Yeah. You're not supposed to get fucking wasted here, people. That's how I got kicked out of Disney World. So it tracks. Well, yeah. Me too, as well. I had been kicked out of Disneyland in my youth for being noticeably. Well, we were all having a very, very good time.

Let's just say. I think I was 35. Well, I was 17. So, you know, I mean, it's all relative. That's a relative youth now. Yeah. True. I'd kill to be 35 again. Right? Yeah. Well, my wife pointed out that particularly at Disneyland, which doesn't serve alcohol.

Yeah. The fact that Club 33 does made it even that more elite and also means that the security at Disneyland is even more tuned in to people being inebriated. Yeah. A little less so these days because you can get all the booze you want over California Adventure.

And if you've got a park hopper, you load up a California Adventure, then head over to the main park. Right. Stumble your way across the plaza. Kids these days don't know how good they have it. That's right. I had to hide my vodka in the plants. That's great.

Yeah. Yeah. I say my wife was all over the story as well. I don't, it's a funny thing to aspire to. I suppose I can understand for certain folks who are, who are into this kind of status, this particular flavor of status, having an elite status and to rub elbows with famous people.

This story points out that, uh, I guess Tom Hanks would book the place for Thanksgiving, which now that tracks. I mean, why not? Yeah. Why wouldn't you? Right. Right. I mean, you're Woody for God's sake. I'm sure they're not charging you the premium for it. So. Right. Right.

The other thing that I'd never considered with a club 33 membership was this article talks about all the stuff that they get, like, like a hundred tickets to the park and exclusive merchandise. And that a lot of folks will use, they'll sell that stuff off to help finance the club membership, which is very expensive.

Yeah. So that makes sense. I suppose it's the kind of place to me, it seems like kind of like having a friend who has an expensive boat. It's better to have a friend with an expensive boat than to have an expensive boat. Agreed. And I would feel the same about this, where I would love to be a guest at club 33 for the experience and to find out what it was like.

And, um, but I wouldn't actually want a membership. Yeah. I'm with you. I feel the same way about the magic castle. I was going to say the same thing. You beat me to it. You bastard. I was actually, I was thrilled that I have friends that are members, so I'm able to go on the very rare, once a, every other decade chance that I would like to go to the magic castle.

But if I had to membership myself, I'd probably shoot myself in the head. So, yeah. You know, when my wife and I were on our honeymoon, which included a stop at Disneyland, we did a, like a West coast drive, started in San Francisco, drove down the coast. Um, one of our stops along the way was to a relative who lived in LA and we had lunch together at the friars club.

Oh yeah. I've been there as well. Yeah. Yeah. So that was neat. And the friars club was kind of like looking around and going, is that someone from vaudeville? Was that like, is that, was that, you know, and again, it is stepping back in time going in there. It's insane. Yeah.

Right. Right. But yeah. Neat experience. Um, I wanted to touch, I know you guys have talked about this earlier in the show, but I thought I would chime in here because I, uh, ordered my iPhone today. Um, once again, I am the cheese stands alone.

I did not. Okay. Well, I had my phone standing by and the app store app was open and it would say any minute now, aren't you getting excited any minute now? Did, did you go through any of that Jason or? Oh yeah. No, same thing. I just kept falling back asleep when what it opened one eye a little bit and see if it was.

Oh, that's right. It was really early in the morning for you. Yeah. It was five in the morning. Right. Right. It was a little more reasonable eight o'clock in the morning for us here. So, uh, you know, I pressed the button and I guess a week from now I'll be the proud owner of a new, uh, uh, iPhone pro max.

Uh, yeah, that's so there you go. I'm on it every other year. What's up? How big did you go on the hard drive? How big? Uh, two 56, two 56. Oh God. Which is plenty for me. I mean, I, well, Jason scoffs at you.

I scoff. I only use about half that. So, uh, and I think a big, I think a big part of that is that I have my system set up to automatically offload my photos to Google photos.

And so that keeps the photos from, you know, clogging up the system and all that kind of thing. But yeah, yeah, yeah. I looked at it and I thought, should this be the year that I go with a bigger storage thing, but I looked and I'm, I'm only using about half of the two 56 I have on the phone that I have.

So if it were closer than that, I'd probably go bigger, but that's what I'm, that's what I'm going with. So, um, yeah, got the big phone with the cool stuff. Um, yeah. So I'm looking forward to the slightly longer telephoto on the zoom lens.

It's like I say, I'm on a two, I'm on an every other year upgrade cycle. So I have the three X lens on the phone that I have now. So the five X will be better. Uh, I do a lot of wildlife photography is, you know, my home's right near a park. So there's all kinds of critters that I like to take pictures.

So lots of, yeah, exactly. So having that extra reach is a nice thing to have on the phone. But other than that, uh, you know, it'll just be a little nicer, a little bigger, a little faster, a little, little more of everything. And that's fine. You know, and you guys will be able to use all the Apple AI when it comes out.

Right. Yeah. Soon, soon. Yeah. Yeah. Now I got, yeah, I got the 16 pro max, but I got the terabyte because. Oh, wow. Use it for stuff. Oh, my 13. I have a 13 pro with a terabyte and I've, I use 800 gig of that already. So on what photos, videos, and music.

I don't do the streaming shit. I have my music library on my phone, which is about 300 gigabytes right there. My photo, my photo library is another 300 gig. Uh, just for our iPhoto stuff, not including video stuff.

Um, and cause I don't, I don't off. I make sure to keep originals on the phone and, and upload to a iPhoto as well, because I don't trust one. I need both of them. I need some kind of backup and I don't trust Google photos. I used Google photos for a while and I just, I did not like it.

Okay. Just their, their system. I just did not like, I like the search feature on it, but the, uh, their, the syncing I always thought was janky because I've got so many devices. So I trust everything to the device and the backups. Yeah, that's fair enough. I mean, I will say one time, uh, not long ago, I was messing around with some of the recently added video recording features, like being able to record basically what raw video and, you know, super high data rate and, and color and all that kind of stuff.

It goes fast. Well, that's the thing. I opened up the window and I was like, Oh, Hey, let's record maximum resolution, maximum data rate. And let's just see what this is like. And it was like, congratulations. You can record for three minutes. That's it. Okay. Wow. So that was a consideration when I was thinking whether or not to go with more memory, but, uh, uh, you know, those days are behind me.

Yeah. And the thing about the new ones is if you really care, you can just plug in a USB-C drive and stick to the back of it. Right. Yeah. Which is amazing. Yeah. I've got, I've got a little cage, a small rig cage for mine that allows you to clip that on, but on the, the 13 pro that I've got, it wasn't really that much of an issue, but I'm looking forward to actually trying that with the new one.

So, and I'm looking forward to the, the high res, uh, wide angle is what I use. You use mostly telephoto, but I use mostly wide angle. So it'd be nice to have the, you know, the full res wide angle camera. Okay. That's what I'm looking forward to. Yeah. So yeah. Incremental. Yep.

Uh, definitely. Going from a 13 to that, I think I'm going to see a decent, decent upgrade. So. Oh yeah. Yeah. Looking forward to that. And then my next phone will be the iPhone 19 because I'd do the three, but you do three years. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So a little overcast follow-up since we have taken overcast to task so many times, uh, I have switched back to it for now because they've made enough changes to make it usable enough for me.

Okay. And I put in some screenshots for you guys of my settings on how I set things up because I basically run everything through a single playlist, which puts everything in chronological order as it should be easy to get to. I still hate that there's a podcast list on the homepage, which really sucks because it shouldn't be there.

In my opinion, there is a way to turn off the actual list of, uh, podcasts at the top. So I turned that off. Um, and then just under the, the playlist settings, it's pretty easy. You can just sort newest to oldest include all matching episodes, which is everything and exclude from one podcast that won't, as for some reason, overcast won't let me delete.

It's like some bug in, uh, in there, but you can also set priority. If you want like a new show that comes in that dude, make sure that it's always bounced to the top. It, it works pretty well. I think at this point, the interface is still janky, but it's like, it gets me back to kind of enough to where I need to be and lets me upload files.

So yeah, it's good enough. It still sucks compared to what it was, but I'm with you, Jason. It's, uh, I tried a couple other podcast players. I was going to settle and just stick with Apple podcasts because nothing else was really working.

And, uh, then I saw that there was another update to overcast. I switched back to it. I figured out how to do the basic things that I want to do. And it's fine. It's I still wish it was the older version. I wish we hadn't gone through all of this, but it's fine. Yeah. I canceled my subscription and deleted the app.

All right. Hard. Yeah. I can't, I canceled my subscription, had the app deleted, then I reinstalled the app and my, my, my account was still there. So it re-synced back up and then I didn't put the subscription back up because I do need to upload files to it every now and again. So that's, that's the only thing. That's the only reason I have the subscriptions because I need to upload files.

So, yeah, but it gets the job done. What are you, what are you sticking with Apple podcasts for the moment? And I'm, I'm just not thinking about it very much. You know, it's, I know what I want to listen to. There's only a handful of podcasts that I listened to religiously.

So it's not hard for me to manage that. Um, what it's sort of taken away from me are the deeper cuts of when I was just scrolling through and going, Oh, let me check that out. I haven't listened to that in a while. Those sorts of things. But, um, for now, uh, it's fine.

I'm, I'm not, again, I'm, I'm just not focused on it. So I'm going to let some time pass and reevaluate how I want to approach it. Um, I don't think I'm going to go back to overcast just because the, the, the bad taste in my mouth for the way that this was all right.

It was just the way it was handled and the, that, that this app was released the way it was, the, the degree to which it was broken and yet announced with such fanfare. Uh, just leaves almost reminds you of Sonos, I think some real parallels there.

Yeah. So, um, you know, yeah, that's, that's where I am right now, but you know, I reserve the right to change my mind and we'll see if truly there is nothing better out there when I decide that I'm going to dig in and really discover what a good option for me is, then, you know, I'll check it out.

There's, I know lots of people have recommended pocket casts. I haven't really looked at that yet. Um, I tried it, didn't like it, did not like it. Yeah. Yeah. It seems to be one that real people either really like, or they are not so much. So, uh, I think, you know, maybe it has a, a getting used to a period of time, but we'll see.

He said, it's, it's just not a priority right now, but I did, I, I left the app on my phone for a while and I was monitoring the upgrades and seeing what people were saying. There, there is an overcast Reddit group and I was reading things in there and I was just sitting on my couch one day and I was like, screw this.

I'm, I'm moving on. It takes way too much time for something that should be a little app that, that works. Right. You know, how much time did we dedicate to this shit? Right, right, right. Give me a list of the podcasts that have new episodes and put it on my homepage and that's it.

Let me get on with my life. That's all. That's all I need this app for. That's it. Yeah. No, it's too bad. It's a cautionary tale. Because podcast players are just MP3 players. It's not that difficult. Just don't. Ugh, whatever. Yeah. Anyway, I got a little follow-up on it.

A little poo follow-up. Oh, goody. A new health campaign from Australia's Queensland Department of Health is titled, It's Okay to Poo at Work. How would you feel that one day when you're sitting in your office in the Department of Health going, yeah, we're here to solve the next great health emergencies and your boss comes in and is like, here you go, Joe.

This is what you're working on today. Good news, gentlemen. Yeah. Right, right. Yeah. You get the poo campaign. So this is a new campaign that is addressing the anxiety many feel about using public bathrooms.

The initiative highlights a condition known as parkopresis or shy bowel, where individuals experience significant stress about using public restrooms due to fear of judgment or scrutiny. So just thought. My fear of using public toilets is not based on shy bowel.

It's based on cleanliness and user experience. And doors. And doors. And I don't know, clean the fucking things every now and then. And those of you that have no problems pooping in public bathrooms, stop being a fucking animal.

True. Right. That's really what it comes down to. Yeah. Well, having the courtesy to clean up after yourself. It's the, you know, leave a place better than the way that you found it. And I think lots of people, particularly when it comes to this part of their lives, think that this is not my job and someone else is being paid to clean up after me.

And that's unfortunate. I don't feel that way. I mean, at the very least, treat it like your own toilet at home. You would not leave a mess everywhere. I would prefer to, they leave it better than their own toilet at home because I've been to some people's homes that are just disgusting. Well, some people are just animals.

You know that old saying, leave only footprints? Not in the bowl. Not if they're in pee. Not if they're made of pee. Yeah. I remember this whole thing about Parco Prices. I remember anybody who attended the University of Maryland back in the late 80s and early 90s, which is when I was there, there was an ad every single day in the campus newspaper that said, pee shy?

We're conducting a study. And it was all about people who clench up when they're trying to pee in a public restroom. And I guess somebody was doing some research at the university that went on for years because that ad was, it was a running gag about that ad, but it was there every day.

So I guess I never really thought about it extending to number two. I have a couple of thoughts about this. So there's the basic issue of privacy, which I think I'm hoping that we're shifting to this idea of unisex single person use restrooms rather than, yeah, it seems like we're heading in that direction, which I think is great.

You know, not this men's room and women's room and, and a big trough. I was in the trough for all the men to be in the trough of the stadium. Yeah. It's, it's individual men, men or woman doesn't matter. Go in. It's an individual unit and do in and of itself.

I see those more and more everywhere I go now, which is nice. Yeah. And why doors that don't go to the floor, like the amount of privacy you have in a, in a public restroom, even an office environment restroom is just silly. But how's the Senator going to get a hand job?

Well, that's true. I hadn't considered that, but listen, they can do whatever they want to do in the walls of Congress, but in my restroom, I would like to have a little more privacy to do my business. I, as I have described before here, this is an issue in my office building here.

We have a, we are a four floor office building and it seems like everybody up on the third floor comes down to my floor, which is the second floor to do their business. Now, I think this would be fine if we all agreed on a plan.

So if everybody just shifts a floor away from their floor, everybody goes down a floor, the people on the first floor go up to the fourth floor, right? So we all just shift a floor. We agree. We're not going to shit where we eat. You know, we're going to, we're going to put some distance.

And if we all did this, it's all good, but that's not, doesn't seem to be the way it works for whatever reason. It's a mad house. I know. Where's, I mean, come on. Can we have a little, a little dignity and a little privacy? The other thing I wonder about is to what degree is this a dude thing?

Like, do women also seek out places far away to do their business? Or is this, is there a difference because the vast majority of time, no matter what they're doing, women have to sit down. And so they have to go through a longer procedure.

They're going in the stall, whereas we can do more passing thing with the urinals. And I'm generalizing here and I'll take the hit for that. But I wonder, is there a difference because of that? There may not be. So I'm curious if any of our female listeners, both of you, if there's, if this is also a thing for women, because it clearly is for men.

I don't, do you guys have any sense of that? You're asking the wrong dude. Well, I would say, no, from what my wife has told me and from my observations and the limited experiences I've had working in larger office buildings, women go to the closest restroom.

They will not go up a flight to take a dump. Right. Right. So, yeah. So what's, yeah. So what's up with that? Like, what is, what is hiding in the corner of our psyche? Hunting versus gathering behavior. Right. Our fragile male psyche. Like, what is going on that this is a thing?

I don't, I don't know. We're like the cats that have to go hide to die as opposed to the women being the dogs that will just die on the couch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. And, and, yeah. All right. We've talked enough about this. Enough conjecture about the female habits.

Yes, I think so. Once again, white men talking about things of which they know not. That's right. Yep. Indeed. What we do best. Uh-huh. Let me mansplain to you about how you poop. Yeah. You're doing it wrong. You go up a floor on Tuesdays.

You go down a floor on Wednesdays. Right. That's how it works. You go an animal. Unless it's a federal holiday and then we shift a day. Yeah. All right. Yep. I'm going to take a dump. I'll talk to you later. I really have to pee and I have to go down four floors to do it.

Right. Yeah. Who has time for that? Closing shout outs. Over at Patreon, we've got Nicholas, Helene, Panagiotis, Psychagiosis. Close enough. Close enough. And Sergio. And thanks for everybody for booting up to the year plans.

Yeah, we're getting a lot of those. So thank you. Thank you all very much. Thank you so much. Over at PayPal, we've got Ralph, Miles, Shari, Linda, and Natalie. Thank you all so much. Over at the tip chair, we've got Theodore. So just a quick reminder, we now have the yearly option for Patreon subscription and you get 5% off.

So what that means is you get the show a little bit early, ad-free, and in high definition, and maybe a fucked up Google version if we can get around to making that work today. Yeah, we'll see about that. And again, thank you to everybody that is donating. That really is the only thing that keeps us going around here.

The ad revenue is such a trickle. It doesn't even really pay for one Waymo ride. We really make all of the money we need to keep the show going from donations. So thank you all so much. Thank you all so much. And if you feel like it, tell a friend. Yes, please.

That helps too. Until next time, I'm Jason DeFilippo. And I'm Brian Schulmeister. Thanks for tuning in to Grumpy Old Geeks. Dive into the show notes and all the links from today's episode at gog.show.com. Feeling generous? Keep this top-notch entertainment rolling by dropping us a few bucks at gog.show.com.

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Show us some love. Leave a review at gog.show.com. A five-star rating might just get your review read on the air. Stay grumpy. The new Dexcom G715 Day gives you 15.5 days of real-time glucose numbers so you have the knowledge to better control diabetes for healthier tomorrows.

Dexcom data on file. G715 Day is for adults 18+. For full prescribing information on risks, benefits, and compatible smart devices, visit Dexcom.com. Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports' most dangerous strikers collide. Bare Knuckle. Liverpool's own Darren the Gorilla Till goes to war with Cuban powerhouse Yoel Soldier of God Romero.

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