681: Trough of Disillusionment

681: Trough of Disillusionment

In this episode, Brian and Jason kick things off by highlighting the troubling state of the gaming industry, with 11% of developers laid off in 2024, according to a GDC survey. Meanwhile, Elon Musk finds a new way to perplex us all by admitting he pays people to play video games for him.

They then unpack a whirlwind of news, including Trump’s controversial pardon of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht and his ongoing crusade against perceived social media bias. Elon Musk’s antics take center stage as he mocks America’s tech elite, clashes with Trump over the flashy “Stargate” AI project, and battles AI cost concerns as hype begins to wane. On the corporate front, Amazon halts drone deliveries after crashes, Instagram blocks political hashtags, and Neko, a body-scanning startup co-founded by Daniel Ek, secures a whopping $260M at a $1.8B valuation.

In media candy, the hosts revisit the charming chaos of the Lilo & Stitch franchise and dive into music documentaries like Yacht Rock and Echo in the Canyon. And let’s not forget Netflix’s price hikes and yet another mediocre Star Trek installment with Section 31. Dave wraps things up with The Dark Side, covering Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, ham radio tools, and even a shoutout to Morse code. Packed with biting commentary, this episode is a mix of tech absurdity, media nostalgia, and the trademark Grumpy Old Geeks snark!


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Show notes at https://gog.show/681


FOLLOW UP

Eleven percent of game developers were laid off in 2024, according to GDC survey

Elon Musk Admits to Paying People to Play Video Games for Him


IN THE NEWS

Joe Rogan, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos: Tech Titans, Celebs at Inauguration

Trump Orders Government to Stop ‘Trampling’ Conservatives on Social Media

Silk Road Mastermind Ross Ulbricht Seen Leaving Prison Holding a Small Plant

President Trump Pardons Silk Road Creator Ross Ulbricht After 11 Years in Prison

Elon Musk Plays DOGE Ball—and Hits America’s Geek Squad

Instagram blocked searches for #democrats and other political hashtags

Why You May Automatically Be Following Trump and Vance Now

AI-Generated Junk Science Is a Big Problem on Google Scholar, Research Suggests

What is the ‘Stargate’ AI project?

Trump's $500 Billion AI Deal Includes Funding by UAE Royal Family Linked to Astonishing Number of Scandals, Including Human Torture

Trump Showing Love to Sam Altman Is Clearly Driving Elon Musk Into a Jealous Fury

Satya Nadella says he’s ’good for $80 billion’ after Elon Musk claims Stargate Project doesn’t have the cash

Trump staff ‘furious’ after Musk trashes AI project

AI Hype Is Dropping Off a Cliff While Costs Soar, Experts Warn

Amazon puts its drone deliveries on hold following two crash incidents

‘Neo-Nazi Madness’: Meta’s Top AI Lawyer on Why He Fired the Company

Apple must face suit over alleged policy of underpaying female workers

Amazon to close Quebec facilities, but says it's not because of that new union

Neko, the body-scanning startup co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, snaps up $260M at a $1.8B valuation


MEDIA CANDY

Lilo & Stitch

Lilo & Stitch 2 - Stitch Has a Glitch

Leroy & Stitch

Yacht Rock: A DOCKumentary

The Wrecking Crew!

Echo in the Canyon

Lolla: The Story of Lollapalloza

Netflix plans now cost between $8 and $25 after yet another subscription price hike

Everything to Remember Before Star Trek: Section 31

Section 31 Is a Mediocre Action Movie, and an Even Worse Star Trek One

Fail Better with David Duchovny - Catching Up with Gillian Anderson

James Cameron: Special Video Message at the SCSP AI+Robotics Summit


APPS & DOODADS

Introducing Operator

Developer Creates Infinite Maze That Traps AI Training Bots

Best Cooking Equipment for Meal Kits (2025), Tested and Reviewed

Trump Executive Order Generator


AT THE LIBRARY

The Breakthrough Effect by Douglas E. Richards

Not Till We Are Lost (Bobiverse Book 5) by Dennis E. Taylor


THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew

Ham Radio Prep

Ham Study

GLAARG

GGMorse

Morse Code - I Love You

Parks on the Air ® (POTA)

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

Jaksot(730)

10: Who checks the lady boys?

10: Who checks the lady boys?

Joey Rabier a.k.a. Joey the Intern from TechTV/G4/Revision3 joins Jason and Brian this week for some serious inappropriateness that's guaranteed to offend the entire family. I'm just going to leave this episode here and you do with it what you will. We'll be returning to our regularly scheduled programming next week unless Jason dies in a ball of flames from his cross country air travels. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks on iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to! Shownotes: Our guest this week is Joey the Intern Revision3 TechTV Kent's Tshirt The Newsroom Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip And Not a Single Fuck Was Given That Day Pigeon, handling life like a boss Crypteks on Kickstarter People complaining about not getting their Crypteks stuff Why Kickstarter 'can't' and won't protect backers once a project is funded Bitcoin Mining Has An Absurd Environmental Impact Cannes: Zach Braff's Kickstarter Film Lands Full Financing   Amy's Baking Company - This Is The Most Epic Brand Meltdown On Facebook Ever Amy's Baking Company on Yelp Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Backlash Sees Greg Karber Hand Out Clothes To The Homeless The Jenna Marbles Paradox: Why Are YouTube Videos So Terrible? It's Getting Harder to Make Money on YouTube The Purge Movie Smitten teen girls stir up #FreeJahar mania for Boston Marathon bombings suspect Suicide Club Meet an Inmate GoDaddy.com CEO Bob Parsons' Elephant Hunt Sparks Outrage PETA Kills Animals Penn and Teller - P.E.T.A. (Full Episode) Sea Shepherd's Idiotic Antics Cost Australian Taxpayers "Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars" Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Founder, Vows To Continue Work While On The Run Paul Watson: out of jail, but still in trouble Japanese whalers run over Sea Shepherd boat Alternate view of crash Scrimshaw Pilsner - North Coast Brewing Co. US government: zero-day vulnerabilities wanted - we pay bitcoins Bang With Friends Isn't Actually That Anonymous Writer Evan Ratliff Tried to Vanish: Here’s What Happened Secret photos KYMS Free: Hide and lock photos, videos, documents See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

27 Touko 201343min

09: Tend your own garden

09: Tend your own garden

Jason realizes he's a whiny brat and starts to eat his own dogfood. A conversation ensues about the dangers of giving up your content to so many sites that you don't own and Brian tries to make his brain grow. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks on iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to! Shownotes: Oh shit, him again? Melissa Joan Hart's Kickstarter Campaign Canceled After Project Falls Extremely Short Of Goal Lefsetz Letter Asahi Super Dry No More Sharecropping! After Instagram controversy, a watchdog site tracks shifting Terms of Service Rocket Arena Quake Live Lumosity See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

21 Touko 201341min

08: I'll bet you think this podcast is about you. Don't you?

08: I'll bet you think this podcast is about you. Don't you?

Brian returns from Hawaii, Snapchat is busted hardcore, and Kickstarter is kicked in the nuts. Again. Jason reveals his tips on interviewing for tech jobs, his addiction for hardcore gaming, and love for quality television. Brian talks about his love of trivia and his unjustified hatred for Farscape. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks on iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to! Shownotes: I won't give Zach Braff one dime by Ken Levine Zane Lamprey OMG, "Deleted" Snapchat Sexts Can Actually Be Recovered For $300, a Utah Company Can Recover Vanished Snapchats Newcastle Brown Ale: "Ocean" Dots Trivie Sci-Fi Becomes Syfy: Why? Defiance Friday the 13th: The Series See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Touko 201355min

07: Must learn balance Daniel-san!

07: Must learn balance Daniel-san!

In this episode the geeks talk about how they've gotten screwed by bad business practices and dish out some serious wisdom on how you can avoid the same fate. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks in iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to...' Shownotes: Rackspace Derek Powazek Pegging Jason Schupp Irish Music Cruise iPhone waterproofing LoseIt Fuck You. Pay Me Coachella Muji Moleskine Pattern Recognition Markus Pierson Fab.com Brian's Bottle Opener See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

6 Touko 201355min

06: Yeah, that sounds expensive.

06: Yeah, that sounds expensive.

We have our first guest! Rudy Jahchan of Timey Wimey TV and Galacticast fame kindly joined us this week for an awesome conversation about coding, getting old, and how Hollywood works. There is a bit of problem with the audio on this episode and we apologize and hope you still dig it. Just pretend we're dropping the bass. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks in iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to...' Shownotes: Squarespace Rudy Jahchan Galacticast A Comicbook Orange Timey Wimey TV Wordpress Update WP Super Cache and W3TC Immediately – Remote Code Execution Vulnerability Disclosed Yahoo snags exclusive rights to Saturday Night Live's archives WISH I WAS HERE by Zach Braff Are Hollywood Millionaires Ruining Kickstarter? Let's Ask the Internet Carbon Five 35 in Hex The Social Network Work-life Balance Entropy Java Ray Tracing Quake Ruby Python Grok Coffee Script Node.js Liz Shannon Miller Liz tells Frank... Casey McKinnon Star Wars: Machete Order ( Fuck it, go 4, 5, 3, 6 ) Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series) J. J. Abrams Simon Pegg Quantum of Solace Casino Royale See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

29 Huhti 20131h 7min

05: We're all screwed...

05: We're all screwed...

How Facebook is screwing up their privacy initiative, what you need to get started with security and some awesome sci-fi books! Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks in iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to...' Sponsors: Burner - Download the app and use the code GRUMPY to get 3 free credits. Open to the first 50 listeners who download the app. Shownotes:: Short Circuit App.net Don't call it San Fran Apple Spaceship Apple iBook Coldplay Ebook Penetration Test Sexting Firestone Union Jack Antivirus No, You Can't Have My Social Security Number Visual Basic Hotmail URL Redirection Phishing Botnet master gets 30-month prison term for renting out infected PCs Denial of Service Attacks Little Snitch LastPass 1Password XKCD Password Strength Rainbow Tables Social Engineering and Pretexting Metasploit Social Engineering Toolkit Facebook: What's secure browsing (https)? How do I turn it on? Please Rob Me Twitter: Keeping your account secure What to do with $175,000 in weed found in your back yard Mammoth Kindle App Cyberstorm Daemon Freedom(tm) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

22 Huhti 201358min

04: How we got our groove

04: How we got our groove

This week the guys talk about free online education, how free software can bite you in the ass, and wonky design. Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks in iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to... Sponsors: Burner - Download the app and use the code GRUMPY to get 3 free credits. Open to the first 50 listeners who download the app. Shownotes:: Grumpy Old Geeks on Twitter Grumpy Old Geeks on Facebook Russ Meyer Goo Goo Dolls LiveJournal FitBit Radiohead Appcelerator Amazon Web Services Stella Artois Blink Tag IBM XT Pascal Autodidacticism Concurrent Versions System FutureSplash Animator Codeacademy ExpressionEngine Drupal Lynda Stack Overflow Graceful Degradation PHP Scalability Load balancing MySQL Facebook At 13 Million Queries Per Second Recommends: Minimize Request Variance Technorati Google Shipping Container Data Centers Explore a Google data center with Street View College of DuPage Photography Program History of Photography Podcast UCLA Extension udemy MOOCs: Top 10 Sites for Free Education With Elite Universities Downcast Instacast 3 Endgame by Rise Against Tumblr Wordpress See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

16 Huhti 201356min

03: You just gotta hump it!

03: You just gotta hump it!

In this episode the guys talk about how modern mobile computing has taken the romance out of the music and the yellow pages, more tips on how to make money doing something you dig, Brian gushes both good and bad about Arianna Huffington, and Jason expounds on his anti-love for Bill Maher. ​ Subscribe to the Grumpy Old Geeks in iTunes and give us a five star rating. You know you want to...   See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

9 Huhti 20131h

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