738: A Sprinkling of Random

738: A Sprinkling of Random

Author: Jason DeFillippo & Brian Schulmeister with Dave Bittner March 21, 2026 Duration: 1:24:05
13 years of podcasting has taught us nothing; companies are lying about AI layoffs while Meta destroys itself from the inside; Andreessen has zero introspection and it shows; Dune 3 looks incredible; Firefly lives again; one idiot executive staked Buffy; Adobe paid $75M for being evil; your AI passwords are garbage; Dave Bittner is here to make you feel worse about all of it. Sponsors: DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout. SquareSpace - go to squarespace.com/GRUMPY for a free trial. And when you’re ready to launch, use code GRUMPY to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Private Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month. SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!! 1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1password Show notes at https://gog.show/738 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pykGjOmMs5c FOLLOW UP GOG Ep 1: How to Make Money on the Internet - March 25th, 2013 The ‘AI-Washing’ of Job Cuts Is Corrosive and Confusing Race on to establish globally recognised 'AI-free' logo Billionaire Marc Andreessen says he has "zero" introspection, and that the idea itself is a modern invention. Gamblers trying to win a bet on Polymarket are vowing to kill me if I don’t rewrite an Iran missile story IN THE NEWS Atlassian to cut roughly 10% jobs in pivot to AI Meta is reportedly planning to cut up to 20 percent of its staff in upcoming layoffs Meta Is Building an Encrypted Chatbot After AI Agents Went Rogue and Exposed Sensitive Data Meta Says It Is Removing End-to-End Encryption From Instagram Direct Messages Meta is testing clickable links in Instagram captions for verified subscribers Encyclopedia Britannica sues OpenAI for copyright and trademark infringement Senators tell ByteDance to shut down Seedance 2.0 AI video app 'immediately' Things Are Suddenly Looking Incredibly Bad for Trump’s Social Media Company Trump administration will reportedly get $10 billion for brokering the TikTok deal The Billionaire Backlash Against a Philanthropic Dream Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post Now Setting Readers’ Subscription Prices With Uber-Style AI APPS & DOODADS Adobe agrees to pay settlement for making its subscriptions hard to cancel Everything you need to know to design with Stitch What is DESIGN.md? Warning: Your AI-Generated Password Is a Major Security Risk. Here’s What to Use Instead MEDIA CANDY Dune: Part Three | Official Teaser Trailer How ‘Dune: Part Three’ Is Changing the Entire ‘Dune’ Franchise "Paradise" has been renewed for Season 3 at Hulu, Variety has learned. Paradise on Hulu Mars Express Nathan Fillion Says ‘Firefly’ Animated Series In Development With Co-Stars Set To Reprise Roles; Concept Art Revealed Sarah Michelle Gellar Says a Single Executive Was Responsible for Killing the ‘Buffy’ Reboot ‘V For Vendetta’ at 20: We Spoke to Its Director About the Increasingly Relevant Comic Adaptation THE DARK SIDE WITH DAVE Dave Bittner The CyberWire Hacking Humans Caveat Control Loop Only Malware in the Building Disney's 100% Rotten Tomatoes Masterpiece Returns This Fall With Brand-New Release Shhh… It’s zombie proof. Kia’s all-electric range The Last Quiet Thing by Terry Godier Evel Knievel Kings Island 1975 - Farthest Successful Jump at 133 feet 70's Evel Knievel Toy Commercial IDEAL Evel Knievel's 14 Greyhound Bus Jump Oct 25th 1975 HD enhanced. Epic WORLD RECORD. Craig Ferguson’s Evel Knievel Story is Wild!! Being Evel Wembley 50th Anniversary Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle Set – Limited Gold Edition Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle - Trail Bike Edition See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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
664: I Love It When a Ding Dong Comes Together [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:54
SEC AI crackdown; Starlink & X vs Brazil; Navy's STINKY Wi-Fi; Microsoft tool for deepfake scrubbing on Bing; Clearview fines for violating GDPR; Bitcoin ATM scams; mobile phones not linked to brain cancer; NaNoWriMo AI…
663: Habsburg AI [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:38
Hey, hey we're all Monkees; Waymo rides; Sober Outfitters; the cruel passage of time; Telegram CEO arrested in France; Zuckerberg's bizarre open letter; Uber slapped with a big Dutch fine; Tesla semi crash; tariffs on Ch…
662: Tempest in an Instant Pot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 58:33
Yes, we have all been p0wned; more Tesla recalls; Waymo honking greetings; Cruise recalls robotaxi fleet; more OpenAI content deals; Cortex delivers both fewer and more errors; just how bad was Musk's Twitter deal; billi…
661: The Nightmare Before Overcast [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:38
AI label turning off consumers; Sonos app mess continues; SAG-AFTRA makes an AI agreement with Narrativ; former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says go ahead and steal content, let the lawyers clean it up after; Grok AI is a dum…
660: The Bendy Piece [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:50
NFTs & crypto, oh my; Google ruled a monopolist in search; you can't run an AI company ethically - with plenty of examples; Grokking without consent; Google's targeting "unknown" minors loophole; MetaAI celebrity voices;…
659: Shark or Not [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 59:20
Well hello, there, LA; State of the AI Union: staggering amounts of money, power & water for what; COPPA 2, electric boogaloo; no phone searches without warrants by border agents; TikTok data collection; DMV on the block…
658: Red Hot Chili Coasters [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:25:15
The yes, dear AI boom; Altman supporting UBI; step counts are the new eggs; Crowdstrike buys partners a coffee for their troubles; search news; video game performers striking over AI; platforms struggling to deal with ch…
657: Dick Detector [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:19:15
Microsoft outage linked to Crowdstrike takes down computers around the world; german floppies; AT&T Snowflake crowd hack; Verizon piracy lawsuit; META won't offer future AI models in EU; EU over-regulation with X, META;…
656: Cyber Winnebago [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:36
Opting out & class actions; school TikTok mob attack; Boeing's troubles; health crisis in a Texas Bitcoin town; unlocking Ticketmaster resales; Trump threatens Zuckerbucks; Humane execs leave to launch AI fact-checking s…
655: GOG’s Influencer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:31
Happy Birthday, America; Amazon investigating Perplexity AI for scraping sites without consent; Texas age-verification law for porn going to the Supreme Court; Greece adopts 6-day working week; Paramount axes Comedy Cent…