697: Office of Defects

697: Office of Defects

Author: Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner May 17, 2025 Duration: 1:17:16
This week on Grumpy Old Geeks: Trump hawks crypto for $2 million a plate; Elon tunnels into taxpayer wallets; NFTs get nonprofit’d into irrelevance; Microsoft axes more staff while Metaverse washouts DoorDash from trailers; Klarna backpedals on AI; the Pope targets robots; Elon’s Copyright coup crashes; YouTube bans fake trailers; Jamie Lee Curtis slashes at Zuck; Tesla implodes again; the universe might peace out early; Murderbot lands May 16; NIN spawns a new fest; Star franchises get nostalgic; Jessica Jones and Nobody return; Dave’s customer support tales go full Kafka; and yes, there’s a haunted Mickey, cat toilets, and birthday botched florals—because reality is optional now.

There’s a certain flavor of chaos that defines the technology industry each week, and Grumpy Old Geeks serves as your brutally honest guide through the wreckage. Hosted by Jason DeFillippo, Brian Schulmeister, and Dave Bittner, this isn't a polite roundtable discussion. Instead, it feels like grabbing a drink with friends who have seen it all and have absolutely no patience left for corporate spin or broken promises. They pick apart the biggest tech news stories with a seasoned, cynical eye, always asking the messy questions about what actually went wrong and who should be held accountable. Listening to this podcast is like getting the unfiltered post-mortem from veterans who remember when the internet felt different. The tone is sharp, often funny, and deliberately irreverent-picture a conversation that’s equal parts informed critique and cathartic venting about the state of digital life. You’ll hear them dissect the moves of figures like Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg not as distant celebrities, but as players in a ongoing saga of power and missteps. It’s a weekly ritual for anyone who loves technology but is deeply frustrated by the direction it often takes, offering analysis that’s as informed as it is impatient. If you’re tired of sanitized tech commentary and want a take that pulls no punches, this is the place.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Grumpy Old Geeks
Podcast Episodes
692: Confabulation and Frivolity [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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691: Cry Me A River (to Cool Off My AI) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Protests erupt across the U.S. in a “Tesla Takedown” while Elon merges his AI and social media empires and dodges jet trackers alongside Taylor Swift; meanwhile, Signal faces government heat over military chat mishaps as…
690: An Insult to Life Itself [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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689: What Would Dave Do? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:26
🤖 AI-generated Down syndrome influencers selling NSFW content, Cybertruck crashes into fake tunnel wall, Tesla recalls 46k trucks. Meanwhile, ICE watches 200+ locations & OpenAI keeps eating books. Tech dystopia's here—a…
688: Why, Combinator? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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687: Uncanny Spaceballs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:05:12
Techdirt has embraced politics as tech’s twin dumpster fire; Google’s AI Mode proves the internet is just Clippy with better PR; Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival 2 is literally lost at sea; Tesla sales plummet as Elon’s a…
686: Not All Heroes Vibe Code [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:07
The U.S. government gets slapped for violating privacy laws; Holmes and Balwani stay locked up; Bitcoin and Trump Coin take a dive; Warner Bros. kills game studios; Google cuts jobs while AI spending skyrockets; HUD offi…
685: Bezos, Jeff Bezos [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:53
Jason and Brian tackle Elon Musk’s surreal CPAC appearance, Tesla’s anti-theft dye measures for Supercharger cables, and protests against Musk’s growing political influence; they explore NASA’s fluctuating asteroid impac…
684: Don’t Be a Dick [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:47
Jason and Brian tackle tech absurdities, financial scandals, and Elon Musk’s latest chaos, covering everything from the never-ending email unsubscribe struggle to a British IT worker’s desperate plan to reclaim lost Bitc…
683: There IS a Spoon! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:38
Elon Musk’s growing control over government tech sparks chaos, with DOGE employees facing restrictions, USAID crumbling, and U.S. officials warning of legal issues, while AI developments surge—Amazon bets $100 billion on…