How Much Tech Is Too Much Tech

Two friends trade notes on weird weather, Star Trek reboots, and a wave of new chips while weighing the hidden costs of AI and the shrinking right to repair. We share a shoutout to a student podcast, ask for feedback on our audio, and invite support through value for value.

• value for value model and keeping content open
• mic setup, room sound, and listener feedback
• local weather patterns in Southern Illinois
• Phoenix and Spokane comparisons and storms
• Star Trek reboots, humor, and fandom
• Dunbar’s number and social capacity skepticism
• Intel’s upcoming chips and Tron metaphors
• right to repair, locked devices, and ownership
• odd tech records including Voyager longevity
• media blind spots and storm coverage
• AI infrastructure scale and power demands
• what makes a great manager and leadership

There are many ways you can show your support for the ugly quacking duck podcast. First, simply keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and maybe send good vibes too. Second, spread the word. Tell your friends about us, even the ones with questionable taste in podcasts. Third, share your talents. If you have skills in technology, art, or anything else that could help us, we'd love to hear from you. And finally, consider supporting us financially. Equipment, hosting, and website costs add up, and any contribution is greatly appreciated. We promise not to spend it all on rubber duckies, unless you want us to.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome
• 5:12 Weather In Southern Illinois
• 14:09 Enjoying Being Human
• 17:25 150 Dunbar’s Number Debate
• 24:20 New Intel Chip And Tron Memories
• 31:54 Right To Repair And Locked Devices
• 37:40 Oddball Tech
• 42:16 Alaska weather
• 44:40 OpenAI Deal
• 48:34 Managment
• 51:43 Closing It Out
• 55:31 Thanks For Listening

Transcript

Capella: 0:07

Welcome to the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast, the worst podcast in the unknown universe. Or at least that's what some people say. We prefer to think of ourselves as charmingly rough around the edges. We're passionate about podcasting and the value for value model, where creators and listeners connect directly. We believe in keeping our content free and open to everyone, because who needs another paywall, right?

Bruce: 0:29

Yes, indeed. This is the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. Im Bruce.

Sunny: 0:36

Im Sunny.

Bruce: 0:39

And we are glad to have you aboard the next episode of the Ugly Quacking Duck Podcast. This is episode 126.

Sunny: 0:49

126, and we're on a roll now.

Bruce: 0:55

Yep, we're on a roll. I'm not sure where we're rolling to, but we're rolling.

Sunny: 1:01

Rollin, rollin', rollin'.

Bruce: 1:06

How do you know that song?

Sunny: 1:08

Oh, I was around.

Bruce: 1:11

I'm not even gonna go there today. I don't think we ought to, but alright. I'm Bruce.

Sunny: 1:20

And I'm Sunny.

Bruce: 1:23

And if this is your first time to the show, welcome aboard. I hope you stick around for the whole episode. If you've been here before, then you know what you're in for, so hey, I'm sorry.

Sunny: 1:39

Oh boy, what a way to introduce us.

Bruce: 1:42

Well, it's true, ain't it?

Sunny: 1:45

Well, you don't have to scare everybody.

Bruce: 1:49

Well, true. But anyhow, you've been doing all right this week?

Sunny: 1:54

I have. It's been a long week. How about you?

Bruce: 1:59

Oh, it's definitely been a long week. Work has been really, really you know, this is the last full this is the last month I'm doing full time because I'm gonna go semi-retired. So I'm paying for it. I mean, you know, it's always the same thing. If it's a holiday weekend and you're working that last Friday or Thursday, it's a nightmare that last day. Uh if you're going on vacation, that last week is a nightmare. And it's the same way this month. It's the last month, so I'm paying for it. It's really, really bad. I uh yeah, I don't want to get into it.

Sunny: 2:45

Oh, come on, let's gripe a little bit.

Bruce: 2:49

No, I don't think I want to. How my how's my mic sounding, um, Sunny? Is it alright?

Sunny: 2:55

Yeah, I don't see nothing wrong with it.

Bruce: 2:59

All right. Well, I think it's hitting alright. Um I've got it set up a little bit farther away, so it may be picking up more uh room noise, but I'm hoping that uh I can move around and not hit it as so much, and it will be clearer. It's also uh uh another mic that I used last time, which I like it. It seems to pick up a little bit better on my voice, and I said that about every mic I've used so far, but after I use it for a while, I start noticing my voice quirks in the mic. So I'm hoping this one don't do that.

Sunny: 3:43

You might as well give it up, Bruce. You're just a voice quirked person. You're kinda like weird.

Bruce: 3:52

Oh shall spell it out for me.

Sunny: 3:57

Uh I spelled it out for the listeners, yeah.

Bruce: 4:02

Okay, well, there we go. Anyhow, it's been nice uh weather this last past couple weeks. The weather's dropped down here in southern Illinois. By the way, we're trans uh we didn't say transmitting, but I still like the radio terms. But we are recording in our studio in the Midwest Southern Illinois. Home.

Sunny: 4:26

Boy, you got that all messed up almost. You'd pulled it off, but almost.

Bruce: 4:33

Well, yeah, I don't write down exactly what I want to say, I just give fine points, you know, guides on my paper. So it's never the same unless I record it and replay it, like I did my our intro. Uh that's an AI recorded voice, and I'm gonna use that quite a bit until I run it in the ground.

Sunny: 4:58

Uh-huh.

Bruce: 5:00

Uh-huh. You're uh Yeah. Okay, anyway. Yeah, it's been beautiful. Uh it's today, it's been about 77 degrees. By the way, it's the weekend of the 12th. We're starting a new week. Uh so I'm going to try to finish this recording up and get it out Monday night like I normally do, but we'll see if that happens. It's going to be kind of tough because I'm running late. I just didn't feel like doing anything, but I watched a movie, Star Trek. The uh I don't remember what the name of that movie is, but it's not the old Star Trek movies. It was a new one where they brought a new cast on and had a new guy playing Kirk and a new guy playing Spock, the new guy playing Doctor. It's how they brought them all together. It's the first movie of that new group. And I really like that show. They like the way they did it. A lot of the Star Trek diehard people was very aggravated because they kind of did a timeline change, and they brought Spock back on the show, and I don't know why they didn't bring Kirk back somehow, but maybe it just didn't fit into the storyline. But I like the way they did it. I mean, you can't have things exactly the same forever. It just don't work that way. Life doesn't work that way. We age, we change, and you know, they had to change the storyline a little bit. So they did. I think it worked out good. It's got quite a bit of humor in it. Um the one scene I remind remember over and over, and that's the reason I watched it today, because I wanted to see that one scene where uh the doctor injects Kirk with a uh virus to make him having a reaction so they get him on the ship. It's a long story. You need to watch the show if you haven't, but anyway, he has a real bad reaction to the vaccine, and uh there you go. They may be telling us something too on that one. But anyhow, he goes through these symptoms and they're giving him shots to kill one symptom, and then it gives him another one, and he ends up having numb tongue, and uh that whole scene is comical. Um, I really enjoyed that scene.

Sunny: 7:32

Yeah, you think it was comical, but most people said yuck. They were probably squirming in their seat the first time they seen that.

Bruce: 7:43

Could be. Like I said, a lot of the uh die hard and older Star Trek fans didn't like it. Um they're kind of stuck in their ruts. I like all versions of Star Trek. Um I've watched pretty well all of them, I think. There's a new uh season coming out in January with uh Star Trek Academy, I believe is the name of it. But it's gonna be um I think a weekly episode. I hope. Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing that. It's gonna be on um Paramount, which I still have that one. So hopefully I'll be able to watch it.

Sunny: 8:25

Well, there you go. Star Trek all the way.

Bruce: 8:29

Yeah, and I don't know how I got off on that path, but anyway, I didn't do much today. Did some laundry, did some things around the house, watched that Star Trek. I never did get it finished. I went town twice. Good grief, burned gas up. But anyhow, it's been in the high 70s this week during the day and the low 40 or the high 40s and low 50s in the evenings, so it's been beautiful, except for it's really, really dry. So if you're around southern Illinois, the Midwest, and you walk outside and look up, it's not been really very uh cloudy with what they call chemtrails. I don't know if you guys noticed, but for the last week or so, all you're seeing is clouds and lack of clouds. We've had some days that was gray sky and rainy looking. We didn't get any rain. We got a little bit of drizzle there in the morning, and that was it. And it wasn't much to speak of. But if you look up, you will see no or a lack of these chemtrails. And I don't know, some people don't believe there is some, but look at the sky and you'll see a lack of it. Whatever you want to take that as, there you go. But uh we don't we're not having them right now, and I think it's that way all across the country. And a lot of people are saying it's because of the shutdown because they don't have any money to spray us, which it could be. Pay attention though, we'll see. If they go back the government gets back to going, or when they do, and if we start seeing them again, then you'll know that'll be your answer.

Sunny: 10:26

So, Bruce, what's the weather like in other parts of the country? Uh, you said in Midwest it's like that, but what's it like everywhere else?

Bruce: 10:38

Well, I don't know about everywhere else, but we always compare to Phoenix. So today, Phoenix has had a high of 79 and is partly cloudy, where we are at 77 today and sunny, and they're having flash flood warnings for today. The humidity's been 68% there, 40% where we're at. The wind's four miles an hour, air quality here is 55, which is moderate, and the air quality there is 27, which is still good. So kind of odd how we're having you know that air difference differentiating like that. But I I guess the desert has more particles and stuff because of the sand, but actually they have better air quality than we do. I don't understand. But anyhow, uh that's the way it is there, and then we've been comparing to Spokane because one of our uh followers wanted us to do that. So Spokane, Washington, uh right now, ready for this? It's 44 degrees. Yeah, 44. And it says it feels like 39 degrees, and they're having rain. Um, in fact, I pulled the radar up, and they've got a lot of rainstorms all across Washington right now. It's kind of circling and hitting Spokane. Um then it's coming back around hitting Seattle, which is kind of odd the way it's rotating because Seattle is uh west, so it shouldn't be going back over there, but yeah, it's kinda weird. But it's doing that.

Sunny: 12:36

Uh is that your interpretation or is that a scientific fact?

Bruce: 12:43

Well, I guess that would be my interpretation. And their visibility is eight miles an hour, or eight not hour, eight miles. So they've got quite a bit of uh rain hitting them. Uh their low today is supposed to be 38 degrees. Pressure is dropping 29.82. Uh the dew point's 40 degrees, and I don't know why I'm reading all this stuff. But anyhow, the point being up there in Washington, they're having cooler weather and rain. And I guess that rain is actually uh going down towards California and Phoenix, Arizona, while we are still sunny. So I don't know. We may be getting rain the next few days. I haven't looked up the long term or the longer. I haven't looked up the forecast, what I'm trying to say, for us here locally. So we may have some weather to come, rain, cooler weather. It is October. We should expect a temperature change. However, I've heard some reports that this week is supposed to be back up in the 80s around here. Boy, weird weather.

Sunny: 14:04

Yep, it's weird, weird, weird. Hey Bruce, you know what I did Friday?

Bruce: 14:12

Besides annoy me?

Sunny: 14:14

Yeah, besides annoy you.

Bruce: 14:17

Yeah, you want me to give a shout out?

Sunny: 14:19

Yeah, I want to give her a promotion, you know? That was cool.

Bruce: 14:26

All right. Well, we will do that. Um, and what Sunny's talking about is Friday afternoon. Lily came over here. I went and picked her up at school. She got out of school early, and we worked on her podcast. Not mine, not this podcast, but hers. She'd done one uh during 23 and the beginning of 24, but she's got busy with school and summer activity, and she didn't have a chance to go back to it. So she decided she wanted to try to get back in and work that podcast and do it maybe once a month instead of trying to do it more often, which worked hard on her, she couldn't do it, and she just gave it up. So we got it going again, and it's called Enjoying Being Human. And look it up. I think it's um I think it's on Spreaker on iHeart, and she done another episode Friday afternoon, and Sunny was invited on, so Sunny and her did that new episode. So I thought that was pretty cool, and it's gonna take her a little while to get her feet back into it and get them all wet and ready to go, and basically to get back in the habit. Uh, it's gonna take a little bit. Hopefully, she'll be able to do that real soon, and it will take off. She's gearing it towards young people like her that's in school, that's dealing with life and trying to enjoy being human while all the pressures are happening to them. So give her a listen. And if you got any young people around junior high, high school, turn them on to it. Maybe they'll like it too, and she'll create a big following. So that's enjoying being human.

Sunny: 16:27

Yeah, thank you, Bruce. I got to be on that episode and it was fun. I enjoyed it, but I like podcasting.

Bruce: 16:37

Yeah, you do, uh, for sure. And uh, it was good. I I helped edit it afterwards. I thought it worked turned out really well.

Sunny: 16:48

Yep, I think it turned out good, and I hope she does well with it. It's hard to keep it up and all the work goes into it, and I don't think people that listen realize what you have to go through to get a podcast going, get people attracted, and then keep it going.

Bruce: 17:12

Yeah. Let's don't even go there. But anyway, um, it was good. I enjoyed editing it and putting it back up, and I think we got it going.

Sunny: 17:26

Mercy. Hey Bruce, what do you think when I mention the number 150?

Bruce: 17:37

Uh I honestly think about a bill. A bill? What do you mean? I mean a hundred and fifty dollar payment I have to pay on a bill.

Sunny: 17:50

Really? When did you do that?

Bruce: 17:53

Uh a couple times in my life there was uh a hundred and fifty dollar payment. Uh one time there was a car and I forget what the other one may have been my rent, which has been a long time ago, I know, but that number just kind of sticks in my head. Why do you ask?

Sunny: 18:11

Well, believe it or not, scientists well or one scientist has determined that our brains can only ma have a hundred and fifty friends. What do you think about that?

Bruce: 18:35

Uh a fund and fifty friends. I'm not sure I can name a hundred and fifty people, let alone let alone a hundred and fifty friends. Now, when they say friends, I wonder if they're talking about certain type friends or all kinds of acquaintances. That sounds like a big number. Really does.

Sunny: 18:59

Well, I thought I'd mention that. You better go back and check that out.

Bruce: 19:04

All right. I'm gonna go back and speed read it. Hang on just a second. All right, they say the brain enables people to navigate complex relationships of families, friend groups, sports teams, and workplaces. And wide network of uh people, I guess they could say, but I'm not sure them are all considered friends. But anyway, it talks a little bit more about that. Apparently, this guy um studied chimps, 30 primate species to come up with the number of 150, and he just extrapolated that number from studying these social groups of these chimps. So he's guessing, is what this article is saying without saying it. So if you like that answer for 150 people as friends, there you go. He um he's giving it right to you. I guess we have adapted and grown, and basically what it says is the innermost circle is just five people, friends or family members, and then that's the ones you feel emotionally closest to. And then there's uh some you come in contact once a week, at least once a week with, and they're the ten additional good friends you see at least a month, once a month, and then 60% of your social attention goes to these 15 people. And then farther out, the one, the beat weekend backyard group, you know, you barbecue, you party with, a total of 50 people, including the 15 that you see regularly. And it then it keeps he keeps spreading it out until you get to 150. I think he's kind of full of himself and probably guessing at all that. What do you think, Sunny?

Sunny: 21:09

I think that uh I agree. That's all I gotta say. But I thought it would be interesting for you to bring up. Right?

Bruce: 21:20

Uh I don't know why it would be interesting. It's kind of like a bunch of hogwash, is what I'd say. I'll read all down the article. He says he estimates people have 350 acquaintances on top of their 150-person network. I don't even have enough time to take care of my family and work people. I don't know how you could deal with 150 people in your close-knit group and then 350 more acquaintances. You'll be running around all the time dealing with people. I think this guy is so full of you know what. That uh, and then he says, um, beyond that, he thinks that most of us can recognize an additional thousand people like President Trump by sight, but they might not recognize you. Uh duh.

Sunny: 22:20

Yeah, yeah. I thought you needed to read that article. What do you think about that?

Bruce: 22:26

Uh boy, I don't know. That's ridiculous. Well, I d all I got to say is I'm not a social butterfly, and I don't have time to be running around uh entertaining 150 people all the time. Uh four or five, excuse me, four or five yes, and that doesn't include your family. I mean, your family is really the most important, and never how big your family is, that is your center. And, you know, some people's got a bigger family than others. They may only have one or two, and others may have 10 or 20. But yeah, if it yeah, it's just ridiculous. I don't know what. If everybody feels different, that's fine. But if you're working, taking care of your immediate family, and then your outer family, you won't have much time to fool around with 350 people, let alone 150 close people. I'm not sure where that number even comes from. I think that guy's living in a dream state. Well, Sunny, that was a wild story. I really I wow.

Sunny: 23:38

Yeah, wasn't it? I knew that get you.

Bruce: 23:41

Wait a minute. Did you do that on purpose?

Sunny: 23:45

Yeah.

Bruce: 23:47

Oh my gosh, and you got me. I was not expecting that to uh I know.

Sunny: 23:53

I'm a really quacker.

Bruce: 23:56

Yes, you are. And that's for you. Uh congratulations, you did get me.

Sunny: 24:06

Oh, I'm glad to know it. Yep, that was a cool one. I liked it.

Bruce: 24:16

Well, I have to hand it to you. You got me. You really did. So let's move on. Let's talk about something uh more technology-wise, um, something that I kinda enjoy, okay?

Sunny: 24:31

All right, let me have it.

Bruce: 24:33

All right. Well, apparently Intel has come up with a new chip that they're gonna lay on us start next year, I believe. They're gonna put it in their laptops, and it sounds pretty cool.

Sunny: 24:48

Sound pretty cool, huh? Well, let me know how cool it is.

Bruce: 24:53

Well, I'm not really gonna be able to do that, and I could I probably won't be able to afford one of the new uh laptops until you know they drop down a little bit. What the interesting part was it's the new Intel Core Altar Series 3, and they've named it Panther Lake, or that's their code name for it. And it's built on an Intel 18A um chip, and they're fabricating it in the new lab in Arizona. They started, I guess, in 2025, September, and like I said, they're planning on rolling it out in January or at least in 26 on their new laptops, and I think that would be cool. I like it when they build up new stuff, and especially here in America, and I think it has something to do with that new plan that uh President Trump's got to bring more technology back to the United States and get it away from China and stuff. So we'll see how that does. And what really piqued my interest about this new chip was not the chip itself, but what it reminded me or made me remember. Uh, most of you probably watched the movie Tron. It came out in 1982, I believe. It's a science fiction movie, and it was produced where they went inside of a game and played, and it was very much like the way uh electrons flow through a circuit, through a computer chip, and the electrons were actually the human um design people. It was CGI, it was a really good show. Uh, I think they started back in 1976 making uh or thinking about the production. I don't know when they actually got it together. But the part that catches me of that movie, by the way, they're bringing out a new movie. It's called, let me see if I can find it real quick, Tron Aries. It's a new uh Tron movie. I don't know if it's any good. I haven't seen much of the trailer. Keep your eyes open for that one too. But back to the original Tron, um, it produced the effects like you was inside a computer program or more like you was inside of a chip, the way the lights and stuff zip back and forth from one thing to the other, which when they uh come out with the new I 486 chip, uh, I think that's what it was called. Yeah, the I-486, which was also known as the 8046, 80486, there we go. That's almost a tongue twister. They produced that in 1989, and that did a quite a bit of advancement to the computer scene. Back way back, they actually showed pictures of the internal part of that chip, and I watched and show that, and there's actually a video on YouTube. Uh, it's called microscopic view of an Intel I 486. If you want to see something unique, go back and watch that video on YouTube again. It's pretty cool. Uh they take it down to a very microscopic but level, a very good view, and you get to see what that chip looks like, and some of the traces inside that chip are more the size of bacteria than of a hare. So the first time I seen a picture of a zoomed-in portion of one of those chips, the first thing that popped in my head was that's exactly what the movie Tron was trying to show us, and how they do that. I still haven't got a good content on how they put those chips together, especially back when they did them originally. Maybe now we have more technology and our computers are builder better at building computers. But they wasn't that good back then, supposedly. Supposedly, but yet we could go all the way down into a microscopic level and put traces together on complicated circuits to make computer chips. Now, you know, we take them for granted because we use them every day. Maybe some people don't even know what it is to look at a computer chip, but they're astounding, and I really don't believe we did that originally. I think we've uh probably borrowed some technology. Uh maybe somebody helped us put them together. I don't know what the answer is, but we as human beings did not have the technology that they're saying we did originally to make those kind of circuits. They're very minute, very, very I mean you're talking the size of bacteria, and that's what a trace is. And you know what traces are? They're the little lines that go back and forth between circuits and they build them up and together and they make a complete circuit, and there's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of those little circuits that makes up the full computer chip. And if you get a picture of that ever, if you really get a picture of that, you're gonna go, wait a minute. We didn't have the ability to do that, but yet we did it. So ask yourself how we did it. But anyway, every time I see a new chip being brought on, I think of that. First original chips, which was before the 486, but the 486 is a good example because there's a lot more pictures of it. And also think of the old phones. Years ago, believe it or not, I used to work on phones, and we would replace the screens on them and uh the boards when they blew up, we'd order new boards and put in there. That was before Apple came up with the idea that they could make it where you couldn't work on them. What they did started making the parts that uh had to be put in along with specialized equipment or specialized programming, which meant the whole electronic industry started adopting this procedure or practice, mechanics had that problem. I mean, everything started taking over where you could not just go buy a part and put it in. You had to either have specialized tools and equipment to put that part in, or plus you had to have specialized programming software to adjust it, to put it in, uh, which really took the common person their ability to fix anything. And a good example of that was we used to get a lot of broken screens on them, iPhones. And you know, it wasn't a big deal. We'd order new screens and put them in. Well, when they started adopting that practice, no fix practice where you had to have the uh special equipment or the software, um, it was right about the same time they was bringing in the thumbprint uh access to their phones. So what happened is we started getting these screens and putting them in. Now we didn't change the software, we didn't change the boards, we just changed the screen. But the equipment recognized that we put a new screen in there, and because we didn't have the software to reprogram the new screen, you no longer could use your thumb to open it up. So it did not recognize the thumb reader or the thumb print reader in the phone, which made it very improbable that any regular person could ever fix their own equipment again. And that includes cars, uh refrigerators. You know, you got smart refrigerators now that's got all them chips in it. Everything is that way, so they took all our ability to repair anything unless you uh got that equipment or that software. I seen an article on uh social media talking about the new John Deere combines and how they're doing the same thing. And this thought process started with that look of that chip and how that I really can't believe that with the abilities that the human race had at that time, we could have built that. So either they were lying to us about what technology they already had, or somebody helped us. But again, when I look at them chips, I also remember those old phones, and somebody had uh put one underneath a microscope and zoomed in on the chips inside those phones, and they were unbelievable. I mean, layer upon layer upon layer of circuits so small that it took a microscope, a uh real good electron microscope, to see those circuits, and that some of them even had branding inside them circuits. You tell me how they're doing that. Well, apparently they probably were using computers to build computer chips, and there you go. Now we have uh pieces and parts that you can't put in any longer because they build them with a computer, and you have to have a computer to maintain them. Think about that. There you go. I'm off my soapbox now. We'll go on to something else.

Sunny: 36:35

What exactly are you trying to say, Bruce? I'm confused.

Bruce: 36:42

Uh, I said what I was trying to say that uh one, I don't think that we built those, and if we did, that means they lied to us about the technology they already have, because if you look at the technology back then, it was twice as far in advance than what we thought we had.

Sunny: 37:05

Oh, so con conspiracy. There you go. Yeah.

Bruce: 37:12

That's right. Gotta have a little bit of conspiracy in our podcast. Yes. I really don't know if anybody noticed, but there was a gap in our recording that was almost a week long. Actually, it was a week long. Uh, we started this recording uh back on Friday, which was what? What was the date back on Friday? Um the 10th. And uh now I'm recording the rest of this episode on the 17th, so a week later. Uh we just ran out of time, couldn't get it together. So we thought we'd put it the rest of it together, you know, today and get it out there. Uh sorry about the delay. Probably nobody even missed that we were two weeks out instead of a week, which again I've been doing that off and on to give me a break, uh, since so much stuff has been going on. But hello! Yeah, we just skipped a week and blew into another one, and we try to finish up that idea about the computer chips. But also, when we're speaking of technology, lo and behold, I run across a web page that is pretty cool. It's called the 11 oddball technology records. Yeah. That you probably didn't know. And it's kind of neat. Um it's on spectrum.ie dot org. IEEE.org if you want to go look it up. Uh but it's uh the top one that caught my eye was uh longest continuously operating electronic computer. And it guess what it is. Come on, guess.

Sunny: 39:22

I'll guess it's a watch.

Bruce: 39:26

Ooh, that's pretty good guess, uh Sunny. Very good guess, it actually. But no, it's actually Voyager one and its twin space probe, which was launched in 1977. Now we're gonna go back to that old technology that should not be working, and they're gonna tell us that uh it would the programming, the command programming to that system was turned off forty-eight years ago, and it still was running, so it made it the longest continuously operating electronic computer. What do you think about that, Sunny?

Sunny: 40:15

I think they're stretching to get that out there. Ooh, how do we know it actually run that long?

Bruce: 40:25

Good point. How do we know? Well, apparently they have been s receiving signal for all that time until I think it did finally quit. Don't quote me on that. I'll have to look it up. But they were receiving signal with their big telescopes.

Sunny: 40:43

Oh, they were s receiving, did we ever receive it?

Bruce: 40:49

Uh I didn't personally, but I don't think I had that kind of radio equipment that would pick that up way out in space.

Sunny: 40:58

Oh, there you go. So if you don't have the right equipment, the right software to fix that, you're not gonna be able to pick that up either.

Bruce: 41:11

Oh, I like how you did that. I see, says the blind man. That's pretty good. But that's not all that's on that web page. They also have the strongest robotic arm, which was um back in March, I think it was, that broke the Genesis Guinness world record, or said it, I should say. And it it was by the Air Force arm. I said that. Did you catch that? It lifted the astonishing 3,182 kilograms, about the weight of an adult female African elephant. Wow. It they say it used no hydraulics, only electric power, which improved its efficiency by generating electricity when it lowers when it's lowering a load. So we got a robot running itself with electricity. There you go. Look out, guys. I'm telling you, look out. And I don't know if anybody remembers me mentioning uh the uh storm that was up there last Friday, which was on this recording at the beginning, uh, was in uh Washington and how the storm looked on the radar that I was looking at, how it was circling around. Well, apparently that was part of a storm that hit Alaska, and they were saying it was like a a hurricane, and uh it flooded portions of Alaska, and they didn't really tell that on the news, but there was pictures on social media and stuff that you could catch. Um I think it's interesting how our news is no longer producing news, but they're mostly producing um social what criteria to brainwash us, and I didn't say that.

Sunny: 43:16

Oh yeah, you did, and you got it on a recording, so you're had buddy.

Bruce: 43:23

Oh well. That's what it you know it what it appears to be, now they can change that mindset pretty easy by doing something different, but it uh sounds more like uh controlling than anything else. But anyhow, if you didn't catch that news at the beginning of the episode, I'm sorry, but yeah, it looked like there was a a storm circling and it just kept coming around. Well, that really was happening. And apparently, um now we've ended up into another weekend. Uh they're saying this weekend we're gonna start having some bad storms in most of the United States, middle America, uh, Midwest, Southern Illinois. Uh it's gonna be bad in some places. Uh I guess we're gonna have to see how it lays out. However, after the storm, it's supposed to get a lot cooler in this area. So that's if you're looking forward to that, hey, there you go. Fall weather's actually going to hit finally.

Sunny: 44:39

Hey, Bruce, speaking of technology, didn't you run across an article about open AI?

Bruce: 44:46

I did. I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. Apparently, OpenAI and there's a tech giant called Broadcom. Everybody knows what Broadcom is, don't you? Well, apparently they have made a deal, it's a multi-year deal, to develop custom built chips and infrastructure to expand OpenIA's compute capacity. Are you ready for what they're wanting? They are going to produce this is what the agreement was to deploy ten gigawatts of specialized infrastructure by 2029 now that's that's enough power to run eight million households. Get that eight million households. Now everybody has complained over the years about being able to support humans, you know, with power problems, food consumption, and now all of a sudden they're producing AI computing capabilities and they're using huge power. Huge eight or no, ten gigawatts of power to run this new infrastructure. And they was worried about humans. Really? Uh-huh. Well, let's see how they do that. They're at this rate, they're gonna have to get rid of eight million households to be able to produce enough electricity to run open AI, which is being produced by computers. So we got computers building computers and we're building infrastructure to run these computers, which we're not have a l enough electricity to run eight million households, but we're gonna run AI, if I said all that right. Kind of confusing. And that article was brought to you by uh 1440. Uh if you're not familiar with them, go look them up because they got a pretty good newsletter that will come to your email. But anyhow, yeah. Think about that. Eight million households. Oh, I just can't get it.

Sunny: 47:27

Oh, you are really down on technology.

Bruce: 47:32

No, not at all. I love technology. I like uh my computer, I like I actually talked to AI and I got AI part of the recording in the beginning and the end of the episodes. Uh I like uh TV and stuff. I just think that the people that are doing this somehow have figured out how they're gonna get extra money from what humans are left in society, maybe physical blood out of these humans to run all this stuff to better their agenda. I mean, there's a outcome that they're not letting you know yet, and they're gonna use AI to do that. Uh it's not AI's fault, it's what they're doing, what they're planning, and I better shut up before I get myself in trouble.

Sunny: 48:28

Yeah, you better.

Bruce: 48:30

Okay, I will. I'll stop right now. As many of you may know, um maybe not at all. I don't know, but I spent many years as a manager, mid, what do they call that? Middle management. There you go. That's what I'm trying to say. Middle management. I've always been alerted to anything that pops up, says, great manager. So I run across this article. It's in the Wall Street Journal, and it says, What is the one trait that makes for a great manager? You might be surprised. And I went, yeah, I gotta check this out. So anyway, they did a 10-year study. Sunny, can you guess what it is?

Sunny: 49:17

What? A good manager? Uh probably a good leader. Isn't that what you always say? A leader, not a boss.

Bruce: 49:28

Uh yeah, that is what I say. A manager is a good leader, not a boss, but that's not what they're looking for.

Sunny: 49:34

Okay. Well, uh manager's uh organized, uh, he's good with people, um he has intelligence. Um what do you think? Did I hit it?

Bruce: 49:50

Um no, you didn't hit it. Um the the well-known facts is a great manager usually has vision, empathy, intelligence. That's just a few of the things, but that's not what they say is the main strength. A ten-year-old study of large multinational firms found that the best, here's the word I hate, bosses, steer their employees into just the right roles. There you go. They actually find the right person for the right job is what they said. They steer them to the jobs that suits them best, and they say that's why they make the great manager. I don't know if anybody believes that, agrees with that. I still say that if he's not a good leader, he's nothing but a boss, and he will never be nothing but a boss. But you get a manager that is a leader that knows how to direct people and treat people, you're gonna have a great manager. Trouble is most corporations nowadays don't want that kind of a manager. They want a bossy boss. They want somebody that'll yell and scream and get the job done, but they're not seeing what the job does to people. Anyway, that's my soapbox about managers. Been there, lived it, done it, seen it. So you can take that and put it in your pipe and smoke it.

Sunny: 51:29

Oh, now we're smoking things. Oh boy. Yay, yay, yay. You taking a hit on that? Never mind.

Bruce: 51:40

Oh, you better not go any farther. Yeah. I think we might just leave it to Beaver. Hey, that was a good show.

Sunny: 51:50

And where where did Leave It to Beaver pop up in your mind at this part of the episode?

Bruce: 51:59

I don't know. It just popped up. What can I say? That's what makes the episode and the podcast fun.

Sunny: 52:06

Uh, well, you can say that, but if anybody's listening, they're gonna go, that's what makes it weird. You're weird.

Bruce: 52:14

Okay, so we're weird.

Sunny: 52:17

No, you are weird. I'm normal.

Bruce: 52:23

I don't know if you know what normal is.

Sunny: 52:26

Well, it's not you.

Bruce: 52:28

Oh, now we're name calling.

Sunny: 52:31

Oh, I'm just teasing, Bruce. You know, I'm just teasing. I enjoy podcasting with you, recording. I love it, so I'm just teasing.

Bruce: 52:43

Yeah, I know you're teasing. I'm giving you a hard time too, and I enjoy you being part of the show. Uh you make it a little bit more fun.

Sunny: 52:53

Well, I should since I'm part you.

Bruce: 52:56

Okay, yeah. Well, we won't share that with everybody. We don't want them to know that.

Sunny: 53:01

Okay. I won't I won't share it no more.

Bruce: 53:05

All right, well, there you go. So let's just go on to the next best thing, and that is what we're gonna do at the end. Here we go. Let's talk about the recording. Okay.

Sunny: 53:20

What about the recording, Bruce?

Bruce: 53:24

I noticed when I replayed the half part that I recorded back on the last Friday, that there was a definitely a different sound to the recording. I can tell that I've got the mic pushed away from me a little bit. Um, I think it brightened it up a little bit, but it gave it a lot more air noise, um, room noise. I'm I'm not gonna say noise, uh room sound. It might even have a tinge of an echo in there with it, which is not bad. But I'm gonna leave it up to our listeners to kind of see what they think. Do they like this sound better or do they like it when I close talk the mic, which I've done almost every recording from the beginning. Uh, the only time I didn't do that was when I was using my condenser mic, which allowed me to get back away from it, and it sounded pretty good. I really enjoyed the condenser mic. I liked it. I used it for years, but it picked up a lot more extra noise and kind of alright when I was out in the garage, but when I moved into this studio, I had a lot more noises around me. So I switched over to a dynamic, which that's what everybody uses in podcasting, almost everybody. And I just, you know, been playing with that ever since. So I kind of like this sound for now until it annoys me. So if you're listening to it, text me, email me, and let me know what you think. Um, you can text me on a podcast 2.0 player, it has a link there. Click on it and send me a text. Uh, or you can just email at the uglyquacking duck.com. No. That's my webpage. The ugly quacking duck at gmail.com. There you go. That's it. I'll get it right. But anyhow, let me know. We'll talk to you guys later on, and we appreciate you being here.

Capella: 55:36

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Sunny: 56:15

Bruce, you've got that damn pat. I think I'm getting where I like it.

Bruce: 56:20

Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm probably going to keep playing it for a while. But anyhow, folks, thanks for tuning in and being with us on this episode. I hope you uh get something out of it. Come back. Uh again, value for value. That's the way we play. Have a good week, have a good weekend, and we'll see what the weather comes up next week. See you around. I'll see you on the radio.

Sunny: 56:46

Bye, everybody. This is Sunny 73.

Bruce: 56:51

All right, this is Bruce and 73. May the fathers of love go with you always. Bye. Bye. I'll see you, Sunny.

Sunny: 57:06

All right, Bruce. I'll see ya. Have a good day. Bye.