TechTime with Nathan Mumm

250: Navigating Digital Dangers: From Russian Hacks to Privacy Concerns. TikTok-Driven Phenomenon of "Grounding Sheets" to Nick Espinosa's Breakdown of WhatsApp's Misleading "Privacy Features" along with a Russian Cyber Attack | Air Date: 4/29 - 5/5/2025

• Nathan Mumm • Season 7 • Episode 250

Share episode

The digital landscape is constantly shifting beneath our feet, and this week's deep dive into technology's most pressing issues reveals just how unprepared many of us are for what's coming next.

Remember when you bought something and actually owned it? Google's decision to end support for Nest thermostats reminds us that in today's connected world, your purchases come with an expiration date you never agreed to. As security expert Nick Espinosa puts it, "We're becoming a quietly feudal society again," where we rent our technology until companies decide otherwise. This planned obsolescence extends beyond smart home devices to our entire digital ecosystem.

Speaking of security, Espinosa's breakdown of WhatsApp's misleading "privacy features" should send shivers down your spine. While Meta promotes end-to-end encryption, they're simultaneously using your messages to train AI systems. "It's all security theater," Espinosa warns, revealing how thousands of contractors and AI systems can access your supposedly private conversations. This revelation comes alongside disturbing news about Russian IP addresses attempting to access U.S. government systems with legitimate credentials, highlighting vulnerabilities at the highest levels.

On a lighter note, we explore the absurdity of modern tech culture, from the job candidate who showed up to a video interview as a breakfast plate (literally, using a filter that turned her face into eggs and toast), to the TikTok-driven phenomenon of "grounding sheets" that promise health benefits with zero scientific backing. These stories showcase how quickly digital trends can shape behavior, regardless of merit.

Our whiskey tasting featured Benchmark Full Proof, a surprisingly excellent value at just $17, proving that sometimes the best things don't require unnecessary technological enhancement. As we reflect on technology's march forward, we're reminded that critical thinking remains our most valuable tool in navigating this complex digital age.

Whether you're concerned about privacy, amused by digital absurdity, or frustrated by the increasingly temporary nature of your tech purchases, this episode provides insights that will change how you interact with the devices that have become essential to modern life.

Support the show

Speaker 1:

Broadcasting across the nation, from the East Coast to the West, keeping you up to date on technology while enjoying a little whiskey on the side, with leading edge topics, along with special guests to navigate technology in a segmented, stylized radio program. The information that will make you go, mmm. Pull up a seat, raise a glass with our hosts as we spend the next hour talking about technology for the common person. Welcome to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm.

Nathan Mumm :

Welcome to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. The show that makes you go hmm. Technology News of the Week the show for the everyday person talking about technology, broadcasting across the nation with insightful segments on weeks ahead of the mainstream media. We welcome our radio audience of 35 million listeners to an hour of insightful technology news. I'm a the mom, your host and technologist with over 30 years of technology expertise. Our co-host, mike or day, is in studio today and is the award-winning author and our human behavior expert. And are not. So most are positive on AI. That's what I'll just say. Mike has not really found an AI that he likes yet, right, is that correct?

Mike Gorday:

I have found uses for AI that I like, but not what we know. Okay, all right.

Nathan Mumm :

Now we're live streaming here on our show on four of the most popular platforms, including YouTube, twitchtv, facebook and LinkedIn and Blue Sky. You need to get a streaming service. Listen to me right now, blue Sky, get a streaming service, so we don't have to be doing anything on X and we can move over and help your platform grow. Now, if you'd like to visit us online, you can do that at techtimeradiocom and you can also become a Patreon supporter at patreoncom. Forward slash techtimeradio. We're friends from different backgrounds, but we bring the best technology so possible weekly for our family, friends and fans to enjoy. We're glad to have ODR producer at the control panel today. Welcome everyone. Let's start today's show.

Speaker 1:

Now on today's show.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, welcome to Tech Time Radio On the show today. Google just made a move that might leave some of your smart thermostats well, not very smart any longer. Meanwhile, nick Espinosa is back unraveling a Russian security hack with a little side of D-O-G-E. That's right. He's got some information about that. Seriously, then, whatsapp is rolling out an advanced chat privacy feature, but let's just say it's not so advanced and it might not be what you think. Netflix is ditching distracting sounds in subtitles, so say goodbye to the anonymous music swell, or the man picks up the phone and hello to just dialogue and we have a job candidate who put on her best face forward. Literally, we're going to be talking about a video interview that may have gone a little awry, and microsoft sends adobe emails into the spam abyss. Was this on purpose? So one of their competitors was being filtered on their email servers and automatically being sent to the delete item? Was that an accident? It was an AI thing, we're going to talk.

Mike Gorday:

Everything is an accident.

Nathan Mumm :

There you go. We're going to talk a little bit more about that later in the show. In addition, of course, we have our standard features, including Mike's mesmerizing moment, our technology fail of the week, a possible Nathan nugget Absolutely, it's a Nathan rant, but there you go. And of course, our pick of the day whiskey tasting. The first selected pick of the day gets zero, one or two thumbs up at the end of the show. And again, I'm trying to be hypercritical, but let me just tell you the whiskey we had last week on the show, the Elijah Craig. I went out and I actually bought bottles of that from Wines and More.

Nathan Mumm :

So let me just tell you my local Wines and More, no more in stock. You cannot get it because I went and I may have bought eight bottles that were in the store.

Mike Gorday:

So much for a discerning palate.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, there you go. Now let's move on to the latest headlines in the world of technology.

Speaker 1:

Here are our top technology stories of the week.

Nathan Mumm :

All right. It's no secret that Gen Z is reshaping the workforce. However, the unusual way one young woman presented herself during a job interview has left some wondering. Let's go to Lisa Walker for more on this story.

Speaker 4:

Aiden Kramer, the CEO and co-founder of AI Apply, a platform leveraging artificial intelligence to assist job seekers in interview preparation, recently discussed one of his candidate interviews in a TikTok video that has gained over a million views. In the video, kramer joins a video call with the candidate, julia, who appears to be using a filter to obscure her face. She selected a filter that turns her face into a breakfast plate Instead of conversing with an eager job seeker. Turns her face into a breakfast plate. Instead of conversing with an eager job seeker, kramer finds himself speaking with a humorous animated plate of eggs and toast. The only visible parts of Julia are her eyes, which peek out from the eggs, and her mouth, which is obscured by the toast. Kramer tells Julia Nice to meet you. I'm not sure if you're aware, but there's a bit of animation on your face. She replies that she's unwell and asks Kramer, is it okay if I don't show my face Back to you guys in the studio?

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, mike. So Julia explains that she's not feeling well, she's in an interview process. Julia's, julia's what she's clout hunting. Okay, alright, so Julia is essentially it's a overlay of breakfast.

Mike Gorday:

It is absolutely not professional yeah, it's not even a cat.

Nathan Mumm :

Thing it's not a cat thing where a poor lawyer has a filter on. He doesn't know how to take care of it. I mean it is just crazy. She asks the interviewer is it okay if I don't show my face? And he responds with I'm not sure if we're going to be able to conduct the interview with this. It's not very professional. Is there a chance you could turn this off, instead of turning off the filter? Julia then offers to change it and within seconds she transforms into a strawberry instead of the plate that's there, and then she says is this better? Now? The tiktok ends there before kramer has a chance to response. Although we're unable to see what julia really looks like, kramer included this in his tiktok hashtag and it's now on all the other social medias with hashtag gen z in his caption hinting at her age.

Nathan Mumm :

Now, in the comment sections underneath this tiktok and underneath all the social media, users weigh in. Some of them say that it was an untraditional video filter, but that they think that she should be able to do that. Other people say that this is not professional. She should be equipped with knowing how to use video conferencing. Some other people even praised her, saying that they should be at my company in management. So a job interviewer has this filter goes through. I know what I would say, but I'm going to ask you just, mike, since we're talking about this isn't that like an immediate disqualification?

Mike Gorday:

That would be for me, unless I'm running some sort of well, he has an ai company but it's not creative, it's not I don't even need to hear that, but unless he's running some sort of creative company that would encourage that kind of behavior. No, no, no you shouldn't, you shouldn't come I I wouldn't have even asked her the question, I would have just said goodbye click.

Marc Gregoire:

Thank you.

Nathan Mumm :

Well. So it's very interesting because, on the feedback that we're getting, a lot of the Gen Z people say that it shouldn't be based upon looks, it shouldn't be based upon anything that's going on, it should be based upon the qualifications and clearly she must have been qualified to get the owner of the company to come in through an interview and that we shouldn't be judging people about a presentation of looks on the interview process.

Mike Gorday:

So I can understand some of that, but the problem is that she's using like a filter of a ham and eggs To try and connect with this person. Okay, so she needs to show her face, because on a video call that's the only way you can see expressions and that's the only way that you can really communicate human to human. Okay, you can't communicate human to ham and eggs or strawberry.

Speaker 1:

Sorry Okay.

Mike Gorday:

So all those people that are praising her for that, you guys are morons. Okay, let's see.

Nathan Mumm :

Odie, I'm going to go to you because you're our younger demographic here. All right, what do you think about this filter for a job interview?

Ody:

Was it specifically for a job interview, or I thought it was I think she was just clout chasing is what I think, so it was a job interview.

Ody:

It was listed as a job interview uh ham and eggs it's not appropriate, but I applaud her for trying for trying. Okay, okay, all right why because it really, at the end of the day, depending on. I have no idea what the job entails it's an ai and neither do us. It's just an ai company she's not coming into work every day, or if it's fully remote, why should? Why would it matter what she looks like? Okay?

Marc Gregoire:

it's not about.

Mike Gorday:

It's not about what she looks like. It's appropriately. It's not about what she looks like, though it's about.

Ody:

It's about if she were going to be doing it in the whole presentation?

Mike Gorday:

yeah, if she were going to do an in-person interview, right? She wouldn't be coming in with a mask on her face yeah, let's, there's some some points. Yes, you're okay I know, I know, I know I'm pretty easy going with a lot of stuff, but there's there's just things that just grind my gears, and this was one of them.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, it has been updated that she did not get the job. There you go.

Mike Gorday:

No way.

Nathan Mumm :

No job for her. Alright story number two. Now you're pretty excited about this and I have some different opinions on this.

Mike Gorday:

Why am I excited? Oh wait, Alright, here we go. We're going to be talking about Netflix and their continued awesomeness.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, okay, what do we got going on here?

Mike Gorday:

Netflix is rolling out new dialogue-only subtitles option, which means when you're watching something with subtitles, I don't know if how do you feel about things like phone buzzing and things that tell you what's going, things that I can't stand subtitles I so I'm an anti-subtitle guy I. I can't stand subtitles because you're not deaf yet all right.

Nathan Mumm :

So I I had to go see the movie dances with wolves and I had to read like half of that and I'm like you know, I'm not going to a movie theater to read a book. That was my take on it. Now I have changed my mind because I did ham and eggs filter I did change my mind when I saw the new godzilla movie where it was all uh subtitles that were in there.

Mike Gorday:

Can you change your mind from it? Because that was actually godzilla and not dance with.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, that was actually a good story plot, and so I don't know. So okay, continue on. What do we got going?

Mike Gorday:

on with this feature Anyway. Okay, so Netflix is taking out these little noise descriptions, such as phone buzzing or dramatic music swells, unless you want to see them. You got easily distracted by reading subtitles of noise descriptions like car engine revs up or crowd shouts. Netflix has a new subtitle option for you, which is just dialogue only. The streaming video company announced the change on thursday. The new format drops subtitles for sound as well as the names of who's speaking. Currently, the new subtitle option is only available in english and only for new netflix. Original titles began last week with season five of you, a popular netflix original thriller. If you need to, if you need or prefer to see the subtitles with speaker names and sound description, select english cc in your netflix settings. If you want the dialogue only option, you'll select english. You can customize the size of your font of your subtitles and choose from other language, but only english will have a new version for now. Play pensive music now.

Nathan Mumm :

So are you excited about this?

Mike Gorday:

You said that you were pretty excited. I don't know. I mean, everything is getting way too complicated. I don't even know when all these little sounds went into dialogue or into the closed captioning. Closed captioning.

Nathan Mumm :

I don't know, because I have old.

Mike Gorday:

I've been watching things in closed captions for years and I know this is not something that they started out doing, but I know that when they do it I really just fun being I.

Speaker 8:

I I, I rip on it all the time, yeah because it's like pensive music and and that's one of my favorites.

Speaker 4:

That's one of my favorite well, I don't think music have emotions.

Mike Gorday:

So you know, if, if I'm, if I'm watching this and I, I think you know I'm, I'm hard of hearing right now, you know I'm old yeah, I partied too much when I was young, okay, and I see pensive music. I'm going like, hmm, what would that actually sound like? And how do I know that it's pensive? How do I know the music is pensive, you know?

Nathan Mumm :

so. So you're saying with your uh, all of your degrees, you're analyzing the actual characteristics of the closed capping.

Mike Gorday:

yeah, I'm ripping on there, I'm ripping on them. I don't need to know that the music is emotional. I don't need to know that there's a thunder in the background when I can see the lightning on the screen.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, For me. I would probably take that you don't want to be in my head period.

Mike Gorday:

Because you'd get lost in a lot of stuff. I would probably take that I want to be in your head for one of these movies. You don't want to be in my head period because you'd get lost in a lot of stuff. Okay, I would probably All right.

Nathan Mumm :

No Nest for you. That's kind of a Seinfeld takeoff.

Mike Gorday:

No Nest for you.

Nathan Mumm :

All right. Google announced it will end software updates and remote control support for the first and second generation Nest learning thermostats, plus the 2014 European models. Starting October 25th, you'll no longer be able to control them remotely from your phone or with Google Assistant. You can adjust the temperature and modify schedules directly on the thermostat, like they have had forever.

Mike Gorday:

So you have to get up.

Speaker 4:

you're out of your chair, you got to get out of your chair.

Nathan Mumm :

In other significant news, google is flatly stating that it has no plans to release additional Nest thermostats in Europe, and the older Nest products will soon be retiring. Why do you need a thermostat for more than five to six years anyway? So that's what Google is kind of saying to you. Don't you just put a thermostat in your house and you expect it to go out in five years, and then you get another thermostat and another?

Mike Gorday:

thermostat and another thermostat. Well, maybe they Googled it, maybe that's what they figured out. So thermostats last forever right.

Nathan Mumm :

My parents had a thermostat in their house. It was the one and only, and it would regulate the heaters and take care of everything. Then they came out with the smart that's supposed to adjust based upon how the room is to keep it climate controlled. But now I guess Google says eh, too much time on that.

Mike Gorday:

We're deciding to get rid of it all right, is it? Is it have anything to do with that, or is it have? Or does google have some problem with europe?

Nathan Mumm :

well, no so here's what it is. This is, this is, this is our, our mike's mesmerizing moment, so I don't want to blow it. So I'm going to ask you a question on this. But we're getting into this obsolete era where we just have stuff when we buy it and we don't ever own it or we just use it for five years and then we throw it away.

Mike Gorday:

We're turning into a Harbor Freight.

Nathan Mumm :

Tools is what I call it, harbor.

Mike Gorday:

Freight Tools Harbor Freight Tools.

Nathan Mumm :

I buy a tool at Harbor Freight and then the last five years you throw it away, you go back to Harbor Freight and you buy another tool for five years. It's kind of the same type of deal.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, we're becoming a quietly feudal society again. Yeah, okay.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, that ends our top technology stories of the week. When we return, Nick Espinosa from Security Fanatics will join us talking about cybercrime that you're going to need to worry about and privacy invasion. And is AI going to take over the world? Nick is going to be the Nostradamus of everything in our tech information world as we have it coming on up. You're listening to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. See you after the commercial break.

Speaker 7:

Looking for custom glass solutions for your next commercial project? Hartung Glass Industries is your trusted partner in custom glass fabrication. For over 100 years, hartung has delivered proven manufacturing expertise, comprehensive product offerings and dependable service and quality. From energy-efficient facades to custom shower doors, we create glass solutions tailored to your project needs. With eight facilities across the US and Canada, we combine national expertise with a local touch-insuring faster service and unparalleled customer care. Hartung Glass Industries where quality meets innovation. Visit hardtongueglasscom to learn more.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, Welcome back to Tech Time with Nathan Mumm. Our weekly show covers the top technology subjects without a political agenda. We verify the facts and we do it with a sense of humor, in less than 60 minutes and, of course, a little whiskey on the side. Today, Mark Gregoire, our whiskey connoisseur, is in studio. Today we had this whiskey and I took my first sip and I was like eh. And then I took my second sip and I'm like eh. So what do we have that we're tasting today, sir?

Marc Gregoire:

Today is benchmark full proof Now. Now this is from Buffalo Trace's website. They say this Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey is bottled at the same proof that it enters the barrel. Bold and robust, this 125-proof whiskey is meant to be sipped and savored. The scent of deep brown sugar and chocolate are followed by the bold taste of caramel and bacon spice. The finish is long and rich. Now this is released from Sazerac Company. It's from the Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, kentucky. It's a straight bourbon. They're usually aged about 4 years old 125 proof. The mash bill is undisclosed. Now the MSRP on this is $23, but you can see from the sticker on the front. I was able to pick this up for $17 $17 this is definitely a Nathan Nathan one.

Mike Gorday:

It has a screw top.

Nathan Mumm :

But it has a screw top instead of a cork top. It doesn't matter.

Mike Gorday:

And what's the proof of this?

Marc Gregoire:

$125. I was going to say I got a shot.

Nathan Mumm :

It was a man. This is like the brown bag. This is the value brown bag guy. Guy goes on in and buys some alcohol and wants it to last forever and get a little bit tipsy on it.

Mike Gorday:

This is your value. Is that your rating scale?

Nathan Mumm :

today it may be Okay. It's not bad though.

Marc Gregoire:

Keep drinking it. It gets better and better. It's not bad, really.

Nathan Mumm :

Really Now. So is this on your shelf at home?

Mike Gorday:

Yes.

Nathan Mumm :

Wow, okay, oh, I'm liking this a lot.

Marc Gregoire:

All right Now. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It means a lot to us. Drink responsibly, especially when you're drinking 125 proof. Yeah, no kidding, Heaven can wait All right.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, Mark, thank you so much. With our first whiskey tasting completed, let's move on to our feature segment. Today, our technology expert, Nick Caspinos, is joining the show. Nick is an expert in cybersecurity, network infrastructure Whiskey's getting to me already. He has consulted with clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 100 level. In 1998, at the age of 19, Nick founded Windy City Networks, which was later acquired in 2015. He then created Security Fanatics, where he's the chief security fanatic.

Speaker 1:

We welcome Nick to the Comcast video stream to start our next segment. Welcome to the segment we call Ask the Experts with our tech time radio expert, Nick Espinoza.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, nick. Where are you coming from? Tell all of our listeners where you're coming from today, hi Nick.

Nick Espinosa:

Hey, I believe my new term is now Nerdstradamus.

Nathan Mumm :

Nerdstradamus. You like that, I like that.

Nick Espinosa:

You can refer to me as that now.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay.

Nick Espinosa:

I am in Chicago and I'm very happy to be here.

Nathan Mumm :

All right in the Windy City. Well, tell us a little bit about yourself for all of our new listeners that may be joining the show today for their first time.

Nick Espinosa:

Sure, other than procrast, I am Nick Espinosa, the chief security fanatic of security fanatics. Prognostication, not procrastination, for the record. And we do all things cybersecurity, cyber warfare, cyber terrorism and, as always, it's fun to hang out with you guys.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, you know we love having you on the show. This is our 250th episode, so as we're going through it. So there you go, we're at 250.

Speaker 4:

We'll get to 300, 500.

Nathan Mumm :

There you go. We're at 250. We'll get to 300, 500. There you go, and so we love having you on the show. Now let's start with a doozy of a story. So I saw this come across my line and I don't know if this is true or not, but I hope I don't know. Let's talk about it. So did someone use a Russian IP address then attempt to access our internal systems at the U S national labor Relations Board using a legitimate account set up by a staff member from the Elon Musk Department of Government Efficiency? Is that true or is that not true? And explain this to us, nick?

Nick Espinosa:

Well, comrade, let's talk about this one, because this is absolutely nuts. Now, these allegations for the record and they are allegations, although we now have a lot of people, meaning cybersecurity researchers that have been looking at this thing. Yeah, this is really looking true, just given the evidence that the whistleblower provided. Basically, it's part of an affidavit that was submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Chair, tom Cotton. He's a Republican of Arkansas, and then the counterpart on the Democrat side, mark Warner, democrat of Virginia and of Arkansas, and then the counterpart on the Democrat side, mark Warner, democrat of Virginia, and essentially what we're talking about is an IT engineer at the National Labor Relations Board known as Daniel Berulis, and essentially, here are the nuts and bolts of this. He is alleging that Doge, the Department of Government Efficiency, entered the Washington DC offices of the NLRB in early March and obviously did it with other high-profile. If you're paying attention to the news, other high-profile agencies Office of Personnel Management, treasury were also entered in this way and, according to the affidavit, essentially they accessed things and this access led to a quote-unquote significant data breach that potentially exposed the NLRB and its data to foreign adversaries. Now, if you recall, during this period, which is like 8 million years ago in news parlance, several news outlets and government employees in those departments had stated that Doge had had quote unquote chaotic and unsupervised access and therefore created conditions that essentially caused greater risk for some type of incident or breach. And so here we are.

Nick Espinosa:

The most concerning allegation made is that those Russian IP addresses were somehow connected to the actions of Doge employees and the access attempts for the record were blocked. They were blocked, but those access attempts provided valid credentials. That happened shortly after the accounts were created by Doge staffers. In other words, they had a valid username and password for a Doge staffer and it was coming from the Russian IP address. So how did the Russians get an actual, legitimate login to the Department of Government Efficiency? So that is going to be the question here, and obviously it's still unraveling. We're going to see what happens if the Senate Intelligence Committee does anything about it. That's absolutely insane and crazy times we're living in.

Nathan Mumm :

All right. Hopefully that whistleblower is still around in the next six months to still be able to be a part of it?

Mike Gorday:

I don't know. I'm just going to drink more bourbon. What's that? I'm just going to drink more bourbon, you're going to drink more bourbon.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, Nick.

Mike Gorday:

That's why you have me on. I'm your excuse to drink after after you know it's. It's weird because I love having you on the show nick, but I hate everything that comes out of your mouth I will say this godzilla minus one to nathan's point. Amazing movie, go see it that's right, that's right, just for the, just for the dialogue, right. Well, no, you can read it. I mean, it's much better than dances with wolves.

Ody:

Let me just tell you that. All right, don't even get me started. All right, okay, just for the dialogue, right? Well, no, you can read it.

Speaker 4:

I mean, it's much better than Dances with.

Nathan Mumm :

Wolves. Let me just tell you that. All right, don't even get me started. All right, okay, nick, explain to our audience why WhatsApp's new advanced chat privacy may not be all that it's cracked up to be.

Nick Espinosa:

Yeah, so WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, aka Meta, is an absolute hot mess. But real quick, here are the features that they're telling us that they're putting into WhatsApp and it's straight out of the Signal playbook, not just for war plans anymore. You can block others from exporting chats, now auto downloading media to their phone. You can block that using messages for AI features, and they said they're working on adding more features. But here's why the whole thing is pointless, because there are still a zillion ways one to extract sensitive data out of WhatsApp. You know you can take pictures of stuff, but the biggest sin is that, basically, this is all security and privacy theater. It's all fake for the most part, and here's why Because Meta, aka Facebook, owns WhatsApp and they have been basically using WhatsApp to train artificial intelligence and they've been doing it for years, meaning they're reading all of your messages, they're claiming end-to-end encryption and all of that. Mike, get your booze out. It's not really private.

Nick Espinosa:

Now, in 2019, facebook began incorporating AI algorithms within WhatsApp to improve content moderation, so they can see everything. Basically, that you're doing. I actually did a video and podcast back in 2019 and got thousands of views on WhatsApp, because people don't know this stuff. In 2021,. Propublica did an article on this as well and essentially they showed that, and I quote the complaint which ProPublica obtained details WhatsApp's extensive use of outside contractors, artificial intelligence and account information to examine user messages, images and videos. So they're giving you all this stuff with your users when, like thousands of people and an AI, can see everything you're doing in their secure messaging app. It's an absolute joke.

Nathan Mumm :

And then Meta ends up selling the information to the government anyway. So it's just all.

Mike Gorday:

Or trying to peddle it off to Was it the Russians or was it China?

Nick Espinosa:

It was Chinese Chinese, chinese Chinese Bending over backwards, that was an amazing expose, by the way, in that book Great read.

Nathan Mumm :

All right. Well, we're going to continue on with AI, good old AI. You know what. Open AI is being leveraged now for spam and also bypassing things like the capture filters. Now, I like some capture filters, other ones they just bug the hell out of me. You know you got the crossword E, that's kind of through a T, and you have to type it in like eight times and it still doesn't get it done right, I like the picture ones where you like the picture I hate those where you have.

Mike Gorday:

Oh, look, find the, find the, the crosswalk signs. Oh, you don't like the crosswalk signs. Oh, you don't like the cross.

Nathan Mumm :

They got some new ones that are coming on out but okay, so everybody knows what captchas are. If you've done anything, you've had to do one of those and you've had to at least put in the password three times. What's going on with open ai leveraging this?

Nick Espinosa:

yeah, so it's not open ai. Open ai is being leveraged by some jerk or jerks that, uh, basically created something they're calling akira bot, and this Akira bot has successfully bypassed spam filter detection. It's basically delivering AI generated messages to the tune of over 80,000 websites in just four months. So it's 20,000 websites, basically, a month that this thing is hitting and it's prolific and it's bypassing all this stuff Thanks, in part, to open AI. So Akira bot, just for the record, is a framework that exploits contact forms on a website, live chat, widgets, all this kind of stuff, and it's targeting small to mid-sized businesses.

Nick Espinosa:

But, unlike traditional spam tools that rely on things like repetitive templates, akirabot uses OpenAI's basically chat API, things like chat GPT that you you can connect to to generate unique messages tailored to the targeted website. So, in other words, you're not spamming 20,000 sites with the same message. You're saying oh, it's Bob's Widgets, okay, well, I'm going to talk about Bob's Widgets and OpenAI's ChatGPT will create that content for me. So I look more natural, thus tripping up all of the filters, and so it's crafting this personalized content using that site-specific detail. Like our wonderful sponsor, hard Tongue Glass, it would start talking about glass that it potentially needed or wanted to sell or whatever.

Nick Espinosa:

It can even simulate legitimate browsing behavior as well, along with scripts to manipulate attributes, so it can start changing things like a human would change things in the browser, and that trips up those intelligent systems that are looking for those bots and that spam and then it gets past basically the captures, like hcapture recapture, because it can mimic user behavior. So here we are, and they also are proxying this thing around the world. So it's not coming from like one IP address and God knows where they're doing this thing. It's really sophisticated and it's just reinventing how we are looking at essentially identity as people are hitting websites. It's absolutely crazy and it is.

Nathan Mumm :

You know, I love the open ai because for my farmville a game I play on my pc it created a script for me yeah have you ever played that game?

Nick Espinosa:

like in like 15 years ago. Yeah like in 2002?

Nathan Mumm :

okay, still exists, yes, but what it can do is you can actually have open ai, create a script for you so you can keep on mining everything while you're I feel like that's right up your alley.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, I think that's what are you like?

Nick Espinosa:

are you like big agri now in farmville? That's right, you've been playing it for that long that you own like 8 000 farms, yeah, that little evany, do you remember the old Ebony game?

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, you probably own the whole world.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, there you go, all right. Nick's like wow, you guys are really old. And speaking of old, wait till you do our flashback of the day when we go back to something old. I actually have an actual show and tell event. All right For perplexity AI. We talked about them a couple times on our show already, because they're the ones that actually have made a bid to purchase TikTok. They want to be worse than Google and Facebook combining with all that has been uncovered. What is this story breaking here? Nick about this?

Nick Espinosa:

Yeah, yeah. So just in a nutshell, real quick, is essentially their CEO said this past week in a podcast that essentially, what they want to do is build their own web browser to compete with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox and all of that. And the reason why they want to do that is to collect data on absolutely everything that you do outside of their app as well, because we're all using web browsers to go wherever we're going. And so their CEO, aravind Srinivas, basically says and believes that Perplexity's browser would be basically fine. The users would be fine using this because the ads would be that relevant.

Nathan Mumm :

Because it would have everything from me, everything that I'd ever do search on the web. Knows about chase bank that I have. It knows about this. It doesn't about this, since I'm in the browser using it, since it knows everything.

Mike Gorday:

It'll be a tailored ai ad for me, so I'll be so happy to spend more money. That's awesome. Yeah, I, I can't wait, you can't wait. It's gonna follow me into the bathroom like find out what kind of toilet paper I have and throw it at me.

Nick Espinosa:

I mean, think about it. It's not just turning data mining up to like 11. We're going to 12 here on this one and if you think about it like, if you like underwater basket weaving at a furry convention, they're going to find that for you.

Nathan Mumm :

They're going to find the furry to come on out and sell you a brand new I thought I was safe.

Mike Gorday:

Uh-oh, mike's in trouble now I I excel at under butter basket weaving, are you sure? Are you more?

Nathan Mumm :

into the furry stuff. I don't okay all right. So perplexity ai is going to do that. So now you have brave browser and you have perplexity ai, are they going to actually maybe pay you or give you some uh, strange token or something like that, so that they make you then jump on and want to use their browser? Do you know anything about that nick? How are they going to incentivize me to to not give all my information to google anymore, but now to give it to them?

Nick Espinosa:

right. So I'm not 100 sure on that, but I do know the browser is comet. Um, they're're calling it Comet. It's supposed to launch in May and, like Brave, they may have a crypto incentive to do something along those lines. I think the interesting thing is going to be really what happens with Google, in the sense that Google right now is going you know anti-monopoly stuff against the smallest violin there for Larry and Sergey.

Nick Espinosa:

But if they have to spin off Chrome per a court order, perplexity, openai and even Yahoo, they're still around. Everybody basically said we'll buy Chrome, we want Chrome, we'll buy Chrome, we'll take Chrome, and so Perplexity may ditch the product if they can successfully purchase Chrome, which is probably doing all of that anyway. And Google just came out also and said oh yeah, we're not getting rid of all these traditional tracking cookies, so Chrome continues to be a privacy nightmare. You know that was supposed to be getting better. And Google said no, we're not going to make it better.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, and now you're having all these anti-lawsuits where I screw it. We're going to get as much information as we can. Yeah, that doesn't make you feel good.

Mike Gorday:

Do you remember the old days with Netscape and Microsoft?

Nathan Mumm :

Do you remember the old days, when we didn't have the internet and we had lives, yeah.

Mike Gorday:

I'm not even talking about dial-up.

Speaker 4:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

I mean, there was a peace of mind that we're just now figuring out that we had back then. Yeah, you know what?

Nathan Mumm :

They made computers Before social media. Yeah, they made social media. You're right, it wasn't the computers that were the problem.

Mike Gorday:

It was the social media that really killed it. Let's go with that guy that started MySpace.

Nathan Mumm :

MySpace. You're going to go back to MySpace.

Mike Gorday:

I still have a MySpace account.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I still have a.

Nathan Mumm :

MySpace account those were the days or your geosites. You remember geosites? Oh, I remember geosites. All right, nick, so how do we wrap all this up? What is a good thing in cybersecurity? Is there any positive news you can share with our people before we get all about how they can contact you? Any positive news here?

Nick Espinosa:

We might have a nationwide power outage that'll stop hacking for 24 hours.

Nathan Mumm :

So next positive thing is that sounds good to me.

Mike Gorday:

I need some sleep Relax.

Nathan Mumm :

Have you seen the Netflix show zero day?

Nick Espinosa:

No, no, I've not Okay, so it's not to be fair. I haven't seen Mr Robot either.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay. So zero day it's okay, but as a computer guy you're going to be like but as a computer guy you're going to be like, oh, that can't really happen, and that can't really happen. But you should watch it, cause essentially, uh, all of the world shuts down for like 30 seconds to a minute and somebody in the United States captures this and it's kind of. Robert De Niro does an okay job. He's getting a little older in the tooth, but, um, it's a pretty decent story. A former president. So Netflix Zero Day not as good as.

Mike Gorday:

Did you use the dialogue only stuff? Did you use the dialogue only? No, I didn't read any of that I'll check it out.

Nick Espinosa:

I am watching a show called Upload, though that is beyond amusing.

Mike Gorday:

That's a good one. I like that one.

Nathan Mumm :

Alright, Nick, how can people get in touch with you after the show? Maybe they need a cyber security analysis that you guys and your company provides that, or they want to have you as a guest speaker, or maybe they just want to liquor recommendations or liquor. Yeah, okay. Where can they find out more information in contact with you?

Nick Espinosa:

Yeah, yeah, and for the record, I may be a Debbie Downer in business, but I am fun at parties, just letting everybody know. Okay, feel free to invite me. Don't ask me about my job, yeah, but you can follow me at Nick AESP on Twitter, aka XBlueSky. All that. Linkedin slash, nick Espinoza. Youtube slash, nick Espinoza. Please come say hi, I love hanging out.

Nathan Mumm :

Perfect. All right, see you. So, nick, thank you so much for being a part of the show. It's always a pleasure to talk with you Now. It's always a pleasure to talk with you. Um, now we want to thank him very much and we're going to move right on to our.

Nick Espinosa:

We love you, nick mesmerizing.

Nathan Mumm :

Thanks guys. Yeah moments. Welcome to mike's mesmerizing moment. What does mike have to say today? All right, mike, here's my question.

Mike Gorday:

A lot of crap is what Mike has to say. All right.

Nathan Mumm :

so let's talk about buying hardware devices, buying computers. I think companies just decide to stop supporting them. Is this going to be a continuous trend? Yes, why wouldn't it be? Should this be for home devices now, and computers and iPhones? Should there be a way where a company makes their product obsolete by no longer supporting it?

Mike Gorday:

Should there be.

Nathan Mumm :

Should there be.

Mike Gorday:

Well, they do it because they're going to force you into the next iteration of whatever they're trying to put out.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay.

Mike Gorday:

It's all like arm twist. Marketing is what it shapes up to be Okay. Okay, I mean, I'm just starting to be Okay, okay, I mean.

Nathan Mumm :

I'm just starting to you know, I must be getting older. I'm starting to get a little bit more curmudgeon-y in this, where I just I am not okay when I buy something and then five years later you're telling me you're no longer going to support it. I either have to buy the newest version or I'm just out of luck.

Mike Gorday:

Well, I just you know anytime I buy. I had to buy a brand new cell phone yesterday.

Nathan Mumm :

Oh, okay.

Mike Gorday:

Yep, because mine died after. Actually it's been about six years seven years so it hung on for quite a bit. Okay, I buy it and I know I'm going to have to replace this thing in two or three years. What did you buy? Did you buy an Apple device?

Nathan Mumm :

No.

Ody:

It's an Android.

Mike Gorday:

It's a Galaxy.

Nathan Mumm :

S25.

Mike Gorday:

Oh, that's good.

Nathan Mumm :

So you know you're going to have to replace it.

Mike Gorday:

I'm not happy about it, but I know that's what's going to happen Every time I buy a new laptop, or every time I buy any. It even comes down to when I buy movies, Because I know If you buy them digitally.

Nathan Mumm :

You don't even own them.

Mike Gorday:

I don't own that movie, but I own the right to look at it until they take it away.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, because I know we live in a modern age where we are basically sheep. We're going around getting all this stuff thrown at us and we can't deal with it because it's too much information. So we we just go okay, we'll do it because I have to. I mean, you have to have these. Nowadays, you know thousand dollar phones, you have to have them and you have to upgrade them because you know they're going to. Sure. It's like when video gaming systems came out I was. When I heard this, I was thinking that's you have to upgrade them because you know they're going to. It's like when video gaming systems came out. When I heard this, I was thinking that's the first thing that popped in my head. First video game system came out Atari 2600.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, Atari 2600.

Mike Gorday:

Two controllers, two games. It had the whole package, yeah, and then what happened?

Nathan Mumm :

We wanted more games.

Mike Gorday:

You started getting just the console and the game and one controller. Okay, oh yeah.

Nathan Mumm :

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Then now you get a console that doesn't even have a CD player anymore. Yeah, you get a console.

Mike Gorday:

you get a controller and then you have to digitally download the games that you're going to purchase.

Ody:

Yeah, Did you already bring up the fact that Apple came clean about downgrade their battery?

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, their battery life they absolutely make it so that there's certain updates even though the phone or the computers can actually handle that, because there's actually tools to do that.

Mike Gorday:

This actually happened back in the 30s when we went from. We went into a consumerist society where they were pushing these sort of crappy things that they would put out, so you would have to replace them. This isn't something new. This is like when they were building microwaves, that's right, what are you doing over there?

Nathan Mumm :

Mark Mark's over there. Uh-oh, mark's over there. Okay, well, he says let's move on. I guess I mean.

Mike Gorday:

This is consumerism at its modern stuff. Make something that's not going to last, because people will have to come back and get more.

Nathan Mumm :

And this week, in technology, I'm going to talk about something of a company that actually wanted to develop something that would be the last that they ever developed.

Mike Gorday:

Oh, look at that Well now we're going to go out to a commercial break.

Nathan Mumm :

You're listening to Tech Time Radio with Nathan Mumm. See you in a few minutes. Hey, Mike. Yeah, what's up? Hey, so you know what. We need people to start liking our social media page.

Mike Gorday:

If you like our show, if you really like us, we could use your support on Patreoncom, or is it Patreon? I think it's Patreon. Okay, patreon, if you really like us, you can like us in Patreoncom.

Nathan Mumm :

I butcher the English language you know, you butcher the English language all the time. It's Patreoncom, patreoncom.

Mike Gorday:

If you really like our show, you can subscribe to Patreoncom and help us out and you can visit us on that Facebook platform.

Nathan Mumm :

You know, the one that Zuckerberg owns, the one that we always bag on. Yeah, we're on Facebook too. Yeah, Like us on Facebook. Do you know what our Facebook page is? Techtimeradio At TechTimeRadio. You know what? There's a trend here.

Mike Gorday:

It seems to be that there's a trend and that's TechTimeRadio, or you can even.

Nathan Mumm :

Instagram with us, and that's at TechTimeRadio. That's at TechTimeRadio. Or you can find us on TikTok, and it's TechTimeRadio. It's at TechTimeRadio.

Mike Gorday:

Like and subscribe to our social media Like us today. We need you to like us. Like us and subscribe.

Nathan Mumm :

That's it. That's it. It's that simple.

Speaker 1:

And now let's look back at this week in technology.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, we're going all the way back to May 4th 1995. All right, we're going all the way back to May 4th 1995. Commodore assets were purchased out of bankruptcy. Now the German company EASCOM AG purchases the right to the name, patents and intellectual property of the Commodore Electronics, which was declared bankruptcy in 1994. Now, commodore was a pioneer in the personal computer industry, holding some impressive records, such as having the best-selling computer in history with the Commodore 64, which the Guinness Book of Records estimated about 30 million units were sold over the course of 10 years. Now they built a machine from 1982 to 1992, over 10 years, the Commodores that were all compatible with each other. You didn't have to go and get something new. All of them worked together. Yeah, commodore had the strategy that they were going to be the first computer company to take over the home PC market and be the last Dun dun dun. Well, the company did make over $1 billion in sales. They also created some of the most innovative computers in the early pc markets, such as the first multimedia computer the amiga.

Nathan Mumm :

You remember the amiga? Yeah, that was like the hybrid video game machine, because the amiga could play almost all the games were in the arcade at the time, so that came on out. Unfortunately, though, commodore, like many other pc companies, didn't have the proper management at the top of the company and, all of a sudden, a juggernaut by the name of IBM Compatible PCs took over the industry and had the Commodore 64 go bankrupt.

Mike Gorday:

Now you know, I have a collect Was that I had a Commodore 128. You had a 128.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, they had the 128 to 64. Now I traded a Commodore 128. You had a 128?

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, they had the 128 to 64. Now I traded a car for a 128. Did I ever tell you that?

Ody:

story. Did you really? You traded a car, I traded a car for a computer.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah, a Commodore 128. Well, you always say that I have stuff in my library. You always have stuff, so I just want to let everybody know that I have, of course, a Commodore 64. You're just bragging and I also have the commodore 64c now. This was the look at this. This is 3d graphics in the back. The world's best-selling personal computer just got better with geos and quantum link.

Mike Gorday:

This had a floppy drive, a mouse keyboards, floppy disk and look at that one and a quarter and a one and a half inch I know and look and look at that dot matrix printer. Yeah, that's all. Isn't that fantastic? I miss those days.

Nathan Mumm :

Remember the printer head going across.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, yeah, remember.

Nathan Mumm :

PrintSmart, any of those type of applications you're like huge banners. Maybe you do like huge banners I think you might.

Mike Gorday:

You might be experiencing some out of phase thing right now. What's that? Print smart, you remember print? Smart, I remember all that stuff, but I'm not getting all happy about it that was a great time, all right.

Nathan Mumm :

Well, that was this week in technology. If you ever wanted to talk some tech time history with over now, 250 weekly broadcasts, show 250. Today you can go to our website at techtimeradiocom to watch our video, podcast and blog information. We're going to head out to a commercial break. When we return, we have the Mark Mumble Whiskey Review. See you after this.

Speaker 8:

Attention. All geeks and pop culture enthusiasts, get ready for the ultimate celebration of everything geek at GeekFest West Game Expo. July 18th through the 20th in downtown Everett Washington. Join us for three thrilling days packed with cosmic cosplay, gaming, tournaments, retro movies and a street fair brimming with unique vendors. From the innovative Geektopia Vendor Hall to the Galactic Time Warp showcasing beloved film classics, including Ghostbusters, the Wrath of Khan and our special 40th anniversary showing of Goonies, there's something for everyone. Plus, participate in interactive events from keynote speakers each day to special guest artists. Tickets are on sale now. Secure your spot for this epic celebration at geekfestcom. Get your badges from one-day passes to VIP options and don't be left out. Get your badges from one-day passes to VIP options and don't be left out. Visit geekfestcom.

Nathan Mumm :

GeekFest West, the biggest gathering of geek fandom in Snohomish County. And now for Mark's ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-ma, oh wow, we're going into the way back machine there. Yeah, I haven't heard that one in a while. Visit storycoffeecom.

Marc Gregoire:

All right, okay, there you go, mark Retro day. It is Too bad, it didn't match what today is.

Nathan Mumm :

Uh-oh, what's today?

Marc Gregoire:

April 29. Today is poem in your pocket day. Poem in your pocket. So where's your poem in your pocket?

Nathan Mumm :

I don't really have a poem in my pocket you don't.

Mike Gorday:

I do not P-O-E-M or P-O-M-E, p-o-e-m.

Marc Gregoire:

Okay, now we celebrate today to encourage people across the United States to express themselves through poetry. Individuals are encouraged to write their own poetry, perform their own work or create their own art inspired by poetry.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, what's your favorite poem?

Marc Gregoire:

Well, I happen to have a poem in my pocket?

Nathan Mumm :

Oh, because of course I celebrate today. Oh, all right.

Mike Gorday:

I don't know, what we need to do with that. Well, I walked into that one man. I gotta scrape the stuff off my shoe now.

Marc Gregoire:

So this is called Benchmark Full Proof, a Real Man's Board, oh boy.

Mike Gorday:

Is this a real poem or is this an AI? I was thinking something like from Thomas or something like that, but you're going to whip out some kind of weird.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, let's listen to the poem.

Mike Gorday:

What do we have for the poem Ready?

Marc Gregoire:

Yep, nathan Mom talks tech with flair. It spills his dram clumsily through the air. Mike Gorday, the tech shrink guy, still cannot diagnose why his glass runs dry, while Benchmark stands up, foolproof strong. These two just babble all day long. They swirl, they sniff, they talk real tough. Yet one small pour's already enough. So here's to real bourbon, bold and neat, while Nathan and Mike emit defeat.

Mike Gorday:

He just bagged us out, man, he bagged us both out, there's the shot.

Nathan Mumm :

Alright, this is pretty good, and death shall have.

Mike Gorday:

What is that? And death has no dominion.

Nathan Mumm :

So did you chat GPT that?

Marc Gregoire:

It was a combination between me and chat GPT.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, so that's how I did some poems to my wife once, and I did exactly the same thing. I came up with the words and then I put them there.

Mike Gorday:

Does your start with something like there? Once was a man from Nantucket.

Nathan Mumm :

No, but I wrote the actual thing and then I actually changed it.

Marc Gregoire:

Alright. Well, benchmark Full Proof Bourbon is the strongest release in the Benchmark lineup, bottled at 125 proof. It's labeled foolproof because it matches the strength at which the whiskey originally entered the barrel. After aging, water is added to bring it back to this original proof. This differs from barrel-proof bourbons which are bottled at the natural proof the whiskey reaches after aging in the bottle. Okay Now, regardless of water being added, this is a delicious brown sugar bomb with bold bacon spices. To round it out, the proof amps up all the classic bourbon flavors over the rest of the benchmark line. Now for $17,. This is one of the better values on the market today.

Nathan Mumm :

Oh, this is decent, this is really decent. I mean, I could put this in with a mixed drink and have something. Yeah, this is yeah.

Marc Gregoire:

I love this bottle. You come over, I am serving you this all day long. I don't feel bad. I don't have to go to my top shelf. Yeah, and you're happy.

Mike Gorday:

And it's actually good. Yeah, and I resent the fact that you don't know why I can't diagnose why my glass goes dry.

Nathan Mumm :

I know, exactly why it goes dry, all right. Well, so whiskey chris. What does he think about this bottle?

Marc Gregoire:

uh, we actually cracked this bottle together. Okay, we both gave it a thumbs up, both gave it a thumbs up, we both enjoyed it, and I actually had a few other benchmark of the line that we tried it against, and this shines above all the other bit.

Speaker 4:

Well, you know you've given the other benchmarks all thumbs up.

Marc Gregoire:

And they're all good, but this one shines of the whole lot.

Nathan Mumm :

It is All right, Whiskey and Technology a great pairing, Just like Apogee and id, two great software companies in the early 90s. Oh my God, there we go. What are you guys talking about. We're going a little retro. Today we did the Commodore 64. Hey, I got to balance some positive excitement, old school stuff after Nick's been on for the show and just hammered through everything. So I'm trying to rebuild the audience so that they're not jumping off the cliffs of everything that's going on Use cheese and burger, buddy.

Mike Gorday:

What's that? Cheese and burger? That's right. Coffee and donut.

Nathan Mumm :

It's the sandwich effect. Right, you put stuff in there, All right now let's move on to our technology fail of the week. Congratulations, you're a failure.

Speaker 7:

Oh, I failed. Did I, yes, did.

Nathan Mumm :

I? Yes, all right, our technology fail comes to us from Microsoft. Microsoft has announced that it has a problem with its machine learning models. Well, there's an error with Adobe emails in the Exchange Online profiles and many users were having difficulty accessing Adobe's URLs and receiving warnings about potential malicious URL links. Now Microsoft stated we found that our machine learning model, designed to protect Exchange Online from risky email messages, was mistakenly flagging valid emails as spam, to the resemblance of the messages commonly associated with spam attacks. The results, of course, moved all of that into your spam folder. Some companies even automatically deleted those emails, never to come back from the ether again Now. Microsoft did not disclose further details about the regions and number of users impacted this incident. It's been categorized as a service issue, usually limited to a scale or an impact cover. It is somewhat amusing that the company would choose to classify emails from a competitor as spam, leading one to ponder the implications of such a decision.

Marc Gregoire:

So what's Nathan's take on this? Was this done on purpose they got caught and they fixed it or was it an honest mistake?

Nathan Mumm :

No, somebody had to have done this on purpose. Somebody had to have done this on purpose.

Mike Gorday:

I thought it was their machine learning that did it. No, somebody had to do this, so they had to have some machine learning.

Nathan Mumm :

There was some low-level employee that said this is going to be really funny to do. And boom, that's what happened.

Marc Gregoire:

Wow, Nathan rips on Microsoft, just trying to put this in the books.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, okay, now you know what, let's immediately go. Can we go immediately into my Nathan nugget? This is your nugget of the week All right, this is going to be the way that we have to end our show.

Mike Gorday:

Are you going to rip on something? What are you ripping on today?

Nathan Mumm :

All right, gr on something. What are you ripping on today? Grounding sheets have surged in popularity on TikTok. Oh yeah, those are all over Touted for the potential of enhancing sleep, alleviating pain and improving the overall wellness of your sleep itself.

Mike Gorday:

What the hell is a grounding sheet?

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, a grounding sheet is a sheet that you can purchase.

Mike Gorday:

A sheet sheet, a bed sheet, A bed sheet yes.

Nathan Mumm :

And then what it does is it has an electrical cord and instead of you plugging it in and getting warmth from it, all it has is the ground of it, so that when you plug in the sheet, it's now grounded so that you can be safe and that there's this medicinal purposes of you planting it?

Mike Gorday:

What medicinal purposes satisfy?

Nathan Mumm :

Well, the idea of grounding is valid if you're in the electrical context of offering a safe pathway to have a current release, the information and energy built up. Now, insufficient research indicates that grounding sheets provide very little health advantages. You get a sheet that has a plug on the end of it and the sheet has to be grounded to connect it to the plug. So you use a plug in your bedroom to plug this into. You don't get anything out of it.

Mike Gorday:

It doesn't heat up, it goes into the little third hole on the bottom.

Nathan Mumm :

Most electrical outlets the ground doesn't. Even for most houses that you have isn't always grounded correctly, so the chances of you actually plugging it in and having the grounding work in your house- is 50-50.

Mike Gorday:

Let's just take that off the table. I see a huge issue. What?

Marc Gregoire:

So I have carpet in the bedroom.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah.

Marc Gregoire:

I drag my feet, I get in bed, I'm full of static electricity. I lean over, I kiss my wife and there's a big spark. Okay, from the static electricity, not just because.

Nathan Mumm :

Okay, the spark.

Marc Gregoire:

But this would get rid of it right.

Mike Gorday:

No yeah because it gets rid of the static electricity when. I get on my sheets?

Marc Gregoire:

No, it doesn't. It grounds you. No, it doesn't ground you.

Mike Gorday:

No, no, what it does is ground your wallet.

Nathan Mumm :

That's right. The trend explains again how pseudoscience can gain popularity online, with reports overshadowing the absence of actual scientific backing. Before purchasing grounding sheets, it's advised to evaluate whether the claim benefits that have been sold in the research are merely a viral wellness trend or if they actually work. Think of this as the great tide pod challenge, or or that or just do like Mike does what is that?

Mike Gorday:

And don't buy anything off the internet from a TikTok video. You don't buy anything off.

Marc Gregoire:

TikTok Odie. Have you ever bought anything off TikTok? Do you go there for your science?

Ody:

No, my science no, and I've never bought anything off TikTok. But I am coming close.

Marc Gregoire:

What are you going?

Ody:

to buy Nintendo Joy-Con controllers.

Nathan Mumm :

Yeah.

Ody:

Yeah, because they're like $20.

Nathan Mumm :

So you saw an ad on that. We're talking about all this, you can just go to Teemu and buy the knockoff ones for like $6.

Ody:

Yeah, is that what you're going to do? But you have to pay for shipping. You have to pay for shipping. I feel like I need a grounding sheet right now.

Mike Gorday:

Yes, oh, I know, I know.

Ody:

So I'm running on that.

Mike Gorday:

This is like YouTube ads. What's that? Youtube ads are completely just out there.

Nathan Mumm :

No, this guy tries to sell me gold every single time I go on a YouTube video. He's got a secret way of buying gold. Yeah, I believe him, his secret way yeah oh we got a secret way it's like that 99% pure.

Mike Gorday:

I love those ads.

Ody:

He talks about olive oil, yeah because I wish I was on the other side of the screen, of watching people be like oh my God, I need to jump on this opportunity right now, you know.

Mike Gorday:

Do you love those? It's like the modern day door-to-door nice salesman, it's the Shamwell guy.

Nathan Mumm :

Do you ever just turn on late at night, like the home shopping network or any type of? You know I used to do that. Those are so funny.

Mike Gorday:

I used to get so mad when I was at late night tv and watching these things. These infomercials come on, yeah, and it took me a while to realize that these at work, these things work what do you mean?

Ody:

The channels itself.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, those big infomercials, oh yeah, and these stupid 90-minute YouTube videos about olive oil and all this other crap.

Marc Gregoire:

So, mike, do you have a MyPillow too? No, I don't have a MyPillow, actually I do have a MyPillow.

Mike Gorday:

I knew you probably did.

Nathan Mumm :

I got one given to me from a relative.

Marc Gregoire:

And you're going to have the sheets soon too, I'm going to have to get a mind pillow to ground my sheets.

Nathan Mumm :

You're going to ground your sheets.

Marc Gregoire:

I'm going to ground corn. What have?

Nathan Mumm :

you put on this show that you have not bought. I got a lot of stuff. Actually, now I have a shelf over here.

Marc Gregoire:

There's been so many things that you've bought and you still haven't received. He's going to have the sheets. We can test them out.

Nathan Mumm :

The sheets are sold out. Right now you cannot find these grounding sheets.

Marc Gregoire:

I see you look, are you serious?

Nathan Mumm :

I'm dead serious. You cannot find them anywhere on social media or on Amazon.

Mike Gorday:

I'm going to go home and invent something right now that's going to sell.

Nathan Mumm :

You know what you should say, dip your thumb in water or your fingers in water and put them into an electrical socket, and then that charge that you get from that is actually helping your. No, I'm going to do smart hats. That's what I'm going to do, smart hats.

Mike Gorday:

Okay, what's that? It's going to be tinfoil.

Nathan Mumm :

You just put it on your head.

Mike Gorday:

That's right. I'm going to sell tinfoil smart hats.

Marc Gregoire:

It protects your brains from all the.

Mike Gorday:

Yeah, from 5E. 5g rather Not 5E 5G 5G 5G Protection.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, let's go to our pick of the day whiskey tastings here.

Speaker 1:

And now our pick of the day for our whiskey tastings. Let's see what bubbles to the top.

Marc Gregoire:

Do we really want to talk about Benchmark Foolproof, or do we want to read my poem again?

Nathan Mumm :

I did not want to hear your poem again.

Marc Gregoire:

Let's talk about the pick of the day. All right, so this is from.

Mike Gorday:

Buffalo Trace.

Marc Gregoire:

Straight bourbon four years 125 proof and MSRP is $23, but you can find it like myself out there for $17.

Nathan Mumm :

All right, thumbs up for Nathan Mike. What?

Mike Gorday:

are you going to do? I'm going to give it a thumbs up. It was tasty.

Nathan Mumm :

It was really good. Can you just buy this at Wines and More or anywhere? Is this going to be a concern that more people are now listening to Tech Time?

Mike Gorday:

Radio. You get one free when you buy a grounding sheet.

Marc Gregoire:

It depends on the state that you're in Washington. Where you're at has had a problem with it, but it just came flooding into the market now.

Nathan Mumm :

So you can find it.

Marc Gregoire:

I mean, I got this at QFC, which is our local grocery store.

Mike Gorday:

It's medication. That's what it is.

Marc Gregoire:

This is good, though All right. Well, you know what? So a first twist top for Nathan. I think I'd like a couple other twists tops.

Mike Gorday:

Nathan's got a bunch of twists tops.

Nathan Mumm :

Let's not, we start For the value and for what it is. I think it's a great time. Now we want to thank all of our listeners that join us on our show weekly. Make sure you put a nice comment, just say you know what. I really enjoy it.

Marc Gregoire:

Or put any comment. We're open for anything.

Nathan Mumm :

Enjoy, mike, I enjoy Mark. Nathan is just along for the ride. That would be fantastic or anything else that you would like to say Now we want to thank everybody. Remember the science of tomorrow starts with the technology of today. We're going to see you guys next week Later. Bye-bye.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for joining us on Tech Time Radio. We hope that you had a chance to have that hmmm moment today in technology. The fun doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom. And doesn't stop there. We recommend that you go to techtimeradiocom and join our fan list for the most important aspect of staying connected and winning some really great monthly prizes. We also have a few other ways to stay connected, including subscribing to our podcast on any podcast service, from Apple to Google and everything in between. We're also on YouTube, so check us out on youtubecom. Slash techtimeradio. All one word. We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did. Making it for you From all of us at Tech Time Radio. Remember mom's the word. Have a safe and fantastic week.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Nathan Mumm

Host
Head Shot

Mike Gorday

Co-host
Head Shot

Nick Espinosa

Guest