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Grumpy Old Geeks

678: Stop Doing That!

Grumpy Old Geeks

Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner

News, Security, Web, Internet, Tech News, Tech, Comedy, Scams, Entertainment, Music, Lifestyle, Social, Code, Business, Society & Culture, Technology, Engineering

4.8 • 6.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2024

⏱️ 85 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

WordPress has officially jumped the pineapple, forcing users to agree that pineapple belongs on pizza to log in. Critics call it a kindergarten move, especially when serious feature requests are ignored. Meanwhile, the crypto world is celebrating its new political allies, but experts warn we’re inching toward a financial apocalypse that taxpayers will be stuck cleaning up. On the East Coast, people are mistaking stars for drones while pilots dodge lasers in what’s shaping up to be the plot of a bad sci-fi movie. Oh, and crop circles? Yeah, they’re back because why the hell not?

Elsewhere, TikTok’s battle for survival heads to the Supreme Court, and Character.ai faces backlash for hosting chatbots based on school shooters. Meta’s EU drama escalates over its failure to tackle terrorist content, and Arizona is ditching teachers for AI because who needs humans when you’ve got algorithms?

On the media front, we break down the Star Trek: Lower Decks finale, geek out over Silo’s two-season endgame, and get hyped for Dune: Prophecy and a fresh Superman teaser. Tech talk includes Temu dominating app downloads, Microsoft killing passwords in favor of passkeys, and Spotify pulling a fast one with “ghost artists” to dodge royalties.

On the Dark Side with Dave, we explore the cooler corners of ham radio, AI’s chokehold on creativity, and how surveillance turns your brain into mush. Meanwhile, Amazon’s return-to-office disaster has employees ready to riot, and sci-fi fans can gear up for Peter Cawdron’s Minotaur, the next big hit in his First Contact series.


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Show notes at https://gog.show/678


FOLLOW UP

To Log Into WordPress, You Now Have To Agree Pineapple on Pizza Is Good

Crypto Got What It Wanted in November’s Election. Now What?

Dimwit Americans Are Looking at the Night Sky and Mistaking Stars and Airplanes for "Drones"

“We Are Getting Lasered”: Nearly a Dozen Planes Lasered Last Night During New Jersey Drone Panic


IN THE NEWS

US Supreme Court agrees to hear TikTok’s ban appeal

Character.ai Lets Users Role Play With Chatbots Based on School Shooters

People Are Making AI Versions of Luigi Mangione That Call for Slaying of More CEOs

Google says customers can use its AI in 'high-risk' domains, so long as there's human supervision

Exclusive: Google's Gemini is forcing contractors to rate AI responses outside their expertise

Instagram’s head says social media needs more context because of AI

More than 140 Kenya Facebook moderators diagnosed with severe PTSD

Arizona School’s Curriculum Will Be Taught by AI, No Teachers

Meta put on watch over terrorism content in the EU

Microsoft Confirms Password Deletion For 1 Billion Users—Attacks Up 200%

EU privacy regulator fines Meta 251 million euros for 2018 breach

Cambridge Analytica scandal still lingering on as Meta settles with Australian users

FTC bans hidden junk fees in short-term lodging, live-event ticket prices

Grubhub settles with the FTC over adding restaurants without their consent

Elon Musk, SpaceX reportedly under federal review for undisclosed meetings with foreign leaders

Amazon’s RTO delays exemplify why workers get so mad about mandates


MEDIA CANDY

Star Trek: Lower Decks finale

Dune: Prophecy

Super/Man

Superman Teaser Trailer

Silo Was Just Renewed for Two Final Seasons

Bad Monkey season 2 is coming to Apple TV+

Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was...

New Report Alleges Spotify Is Filling Playlists with Ghost Artists to Minimize Royalty Costs

Hysterical Podcast

Our Fake History Podcast


APPS & DOODADS

Temu is the most-downloaded app on the U.S. App Store in 2024

Surprise, Surprise: No One Is Buying an iPhone for Apple Intelligence


AT THE LIBRARY

3zekiel by Peter Cawdron

Feedback by Peter Cawdron


THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Online Amateur Radio Community

Hamfurs

Men In The US Are Peeing Incorrectly According To Urologist

The psychological implications of Big Brother’s gaze

The Algorithm Has Been Hiding Something From You | NYT Opinion

Helpful products for the voice from Ana Gasteyer.

biotène Dry Mouth Lozenges for Dry Mouth and Fresh Breath

Voice37 - Singers Voice Remedy

Lubricity Dry Mouth Oral Spray

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey podcast listeners, have you heard, you can listen to your favorite podcasts ad-free?

0:06.0

Good news. With Amazon music, you have access to the largest catalog of ad-free top podcasts included with your prime membership.

0:14.4

To start listening, download the Amazon music app for free or go to amazon.co.com.uk slash ad-free podcasts. That's amazon.com.

0:24.5

dot UK slash ad-free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads.

0:33.2

Grumpy old geeks, a weekly talk show hosted by Brian Schulmeister and Jason DeFilippo discussing the finer points of what went wrong on the internet and who's to blame.

0:47.0

Welcome to Grumpy Old Geeks. I'm Jason DeFilippo.

0:49.6

And I'm Brian Schillmeister. Last show of the year, Jason.

0:52.2

It is? Oh, Jesus, it is. Yes, it is.

0:56.0

I have to make a new spreadsheet. Oh, shit. That's what I always hate about the end of the year.

1:01.5

I have to roll everything over for what we do with the show. And I'm like, oh, man, I hate putting in all those dates.

1:07.8

Because I can never remember the key command in Google Sheets.

1:11.3

There's a really simple key command where you can create like three dates and then just do the command thing and drag it.

1:17.2

Yes.

1:17.8

What?

1:18.2

Yeah, just drag it down.

1:19.3

It fills in the rest of the year.

1:20.3

Like I can never remember.

1:22.1

It's faster to just fill them all in for all 52 shows or 50 shows, however fuck many we do.

1:28.0

It's early, Brian. I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Let's get on to some follow-up.

1:31.6

Okay.

1:32.3

We've been following the Matt Mullenweg WordPress story for a while now, and it is, it is, it is turned absurd.

1:37.5

Yes.

...

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