684: Don’t Be a Dick

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, Jason and Brian dive headfirst into the latest tech absurdities, financial scandals, and Elon Musk's ongoing chaos. We start with the annual frustration of unsubscribing from an email list that just won’t quit before jumping into the latest gem from Musk himself: "Some of the things that I say will be incorrect." Meanwhile, British IT worker James Howells is back with his ongoing quest to unearth his lost Bitcoin fortune—this time with a plan to buy the entire landfill where he thinks it’s buried. And despite all the corporate posturing about a return to office, remote work remains steady, much to the chagrin of commercial real estate moguls still waiting for the workforce to return.

The Trump Coin debacle takes center stage, where early traders made a quick $109 million, but over 800,000 investors got wrecked to $2 billion. Adding to the dystopian financial landscape, Microsoft’s latest study finds that AI reliance makes people dumber, leading to cognitive atrophy as workers place too much trust in generative AI. Meanwhile, Thomson Reuters lands a major AI copyright win in the courts, striking a blow against legal AI startups. Over at Meta, the latest round of layoffs blindsided workers supposedly meeting performance expectations, proving that job security in tech is about as stable as Musk’s grasp on reality. A man in Alabama pleaded guilty to hacking the SEC’s X account to falsely announce Bitcoin ETF approvals, sending crypto markets on a rollercoaster ride.

On the media front, Mythic Quest Season 4 is out, and we’re cautiously optimistic despite needing a breather after Season 2. The White Lotus returns, but can it survive without Stifler’s mom? Meanwhile, Karl Urban's role as Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat II is a big win. Walmart’s acquisition of the Dawn of the Dead mall seems hilariously on-brand, while Netflix’s attempt at podcasting smells like another cost-cutting maneuver. Finally, in "good news," the odds of a newly discovered asteroid hitting Earth in 2032 are rising. At least it would mean an end to Jeep’s infuriating full-screen stoplight ads. Tune in for all this and more on Grumpy Old Geeks!

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Show notes at https://gog.show/684

FOLLOW UP

Man in Search of Lost Bitcoin Fortune Wants to Buy the Landfill Where He Swears It’s Buried

There Hasn’t Been Much if Any Reduction in WFH in over Two Years, Despite the Hype about RTO

Early Crypto Traders Had Speedy Profit on Trump Coin as Others Suffered Losses

IN THE NEWS

Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”

The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking: Self-Reported Reductions in Cognitive Effort and Confidence Effects From a Survey of Knowledge Workers

Meta's job cuts surprised some employees who said they weren't low performers

Silicon Valley Software Engineers Horrified as They Can't Easily Find Jobs Anymore

Man from Alabama pleads guilty over SEC's fake bitcoin post on X

Kanye West’s X Account Deactivated After He Declared “IM A NAZI” In Deluge Of Antisemitism

Shopify took down Kanye's swastika t-shirt shop, but another antisemitic storefront still operates

Shopify says risk of fraud, not Nazi swastika, was reason for Kanye West store takedown

Scarlett Johansson Calls for New AI Laws After Fake Video of Her Goes Viral

Google will use machine learning to try and tell if a user is under 18

UK drops 'safety' from its AI body, now called AI Security Institute, inks MOU with Anthropic

Buzzfeed is launching their own social network

Apple Maps plans to show 'Gulf of America,' following Google

Gov. Pritzker Says Lake Michigan Is Now Called Lake Illinois

Court orders the CDC and FDA to restore deleted web pages related to gender identity

EFF sues Elon Musk and DOGE to block their access to federal employee data

14 states sue DOGE, blasting Musk's 'unprecedented' power as unconstitutional

USAID workers sue Musk and DOGE over ‘unconstitutional power grab’ that left agency in chaos

US aid freeze claims first victims as oxygen supplies cut off

Elon Musk's Waste.gov Is Just a WordPress Theme Placeholder Page

Fucking DOGE.gov...

Robert Garcia drops a dick pic

Well, he is a dick

Anderson Cooper Snaps At Trump-Defending Chris Sununu On Live TV: ‘Don’t Be A Dick’

The Odds of a Newly Discovered Asteroid Hitting Earth in 2032 Keep Rising

MEDIA CANDY

Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary

Wall of Chefs

Mythic Quest

The White Lotus

Our First Look at Mortal Kombat II Is Exactly the One You Wanted

Walmart Bought the Mall From Dawn of the Dead, Because Subtext Is for Cowards

YouTube Surprise: CEO Says TV Overtakes Mobile as “Primary Device” for Viewing

APPS & DOODADS

Apple patches iPhone exploit that allowed for ‘extremely sophisticated' attack

Apple ordered to open encrypted user accounts globally to UK spying

Apple finally lets you move your digital purchases to another account

TikTok is back on the App Store and the Play Store in the U.S.

This is the First-Ever AI Image to Be Granted Copyright Protection

Apple Magic Trackpad

Better Touch Tool

Jeep Owners Furious Over Ads That Appear Everytime Their Car Stops

AT THE LIBRARY

Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters: Thirty-Nine Tiny Mistakes That Changed the World Forever (Revised Edition) (Tiny Blunders/Big Disasters Series) by Jared Knott

Barnes & Noble opening 60 bookstores this year

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse Book 1) by Dennis Taylor

THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE

Dave Bittner

The CyberWire

Hacking Humans

Caveat

Control Loop

Only Malware in the Building

Disney Parks’ Most Infamous Earworm Is Getting Its First Extended Cut

End of the penny? Trump tells Treasury to stop minting the coin

Are pennies worth it? Trump's plan to scrap them didn't come out of nowhere

They talked about this twenty years ago on The West Wing.

Getting rid of the penny introduces a new problem: nickels

Boycott Tessla

Deport Elon - Red

#DeportElon Subtle

CLOSING SHOUT-OUTS

Bestselling novelist Tom Robbins dies at 92

Jitterbug Perfume

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