Grumpy Old Geeks

Apparently, you can’t keep a good grifter down, as Billy McFarland ’s seven-figure Fyre Fest deal collapsed, so he’s hawking the brand on eBay like a box of junk. Meanwhile, Indeed and Glassdoor are laying off over 1,000 workers, probably to pay for the AI that’s jacking up our electric bills. Speaking of AI, a Tesla robotaxi crashed itself while Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot went full Nazi , which is...

This week, we saddle up for another bumpy ride through the dystopian tech clown show. We kick off with the surveillance state’s greatest hits: ICE raids sweeping L.A., a website literally called FuckLAPD.com that lets you ID cops by their mug shots, and a Norwegian tourist who learned the hard way that having a JD Vance chipmunk meme on your phone is now grounds for deportation. Pro tip: if you’re...

In this week’s episode, Trump delays the TikTok ban for the third time—because procrastination is the new policy—and Twitter’s old sign finds new purpose as desert firewood. Tesla continues its streak of “hold my beer” engineering by blowing past a school bus in FSD tests, then mysteriously dumps Cybertrucks in Jersey parking lots while prepping a July 4th factory nap. Meanwhile, Elon’s xAI is inc...

This week, we light a candle for lost legends and torch a few bad takes. In Follow Up , Molly White reminds us that giving a damn still matters—despite the rising tide of apathy (and flaming robotaxis in downtown L.A.). Protesters across the country chant “No Kings!” while Elon does his best impression of a bootlicker groveling back to Trump. Meanwhile, we take a moment to reflect on 2025’s greate...

On this week’s episode of Grumpy Old Geeks , we kick things off with the glorious meltdown of two of our least favorite Bond villains: Elon Musk and Donald Trump. Not only is their public pissing match tanking Tesla’s market cap, but now Trump’s launching a crypto wallet to… fund freedom? Or at least funnel it straight to his latest shell game. Meanwhile, someone at DOGE admitted the U.S. governme...

In this week’s “we told you so” edition, we kick things off with the latest AI faceplant—go ahead, Google “Is it 2025?” and try not to spit coffee on your keyboard. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Zuckerberg’s brilliant idea to loosen content moderation has, shocker, led to more harassment and violent content. Elsewhere in tech dystopia: Texas is trying to ground all minors off social media, Germany want...

This week, we kick things off with the return of Space Karen’s meltdown tour: Elon Musk got flustered in an interview, sputtered out one-word answers, and called the journalist an “NPC,” which is rich coming from the guy whose only real upgrade since PayPal is yelling “freedom” in meme fonts. Meanwhile, 23andMe sold your DNA to Regeneron at a bankruptcy auction, proving once and for all that your...

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks: FOLLOW UP kicks off with Manus madness, a $2 million ticket to Trump’s crypto cash-grab, and Elon’s Boring Company worming its way into an $8 billion Amtrak boondoggle. Meanwhile, CryptoPunks gets handed off to a nonprofit like an expired Groupon—proof the NFT hype cycle ends with a 501(c)(3) and a shrug. IN THE NEWS, Microsoft trims another 3% of its workforce while...

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, we’re serving up a buffet of dystopia with a side of snark. First, Kuwait has finally realized crypto bros are an energy drain, not a feature. Celsius Network’s founder gets 12 years for running a “safe investment” Ponzi scheme. And in Lopez v. Apple, we find yet another reason to question Cupertino’s moral compass. Then it’s time for a trip through the tech tr...

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks — Mad Hatter edition—we kick things off with a refresher on Staingate and the joys of delamination (spoiler: it’s not a spa treatment). Then we dive into the U.S. government’s latest tech innovation: buying up domains that sound like QAnon Mad Libs in support of Trump’s meme coin. Meanwhile, DOGE decided to hand the steering wheel of housing regulations to a col...

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks , Fyre Festival rises from the ashes yet again—but not as a festival, because even Billy McFarland finally figured out he’s better at selling pipe dreams than tents. Meanwhile, Amazon and Microsoft are tapping the brakes on their AI data center dreams, Google’s AI keeps confidently explaining made-up nonsense like it’s gospel, and Kevin Roose once again tries to convi...

This week, we blast off with a tale as old as grift: Fyre Fest 2 has been postponed—again—proving that you really can fail upward if you squint hard enough and wear enough white linen. Over at Automattic, employees discovered secret watermarks in their internal comms, because what workplace isn’t better with a sprinkle of corporate surveillance cosplay? Meanwhile, Katy Perry took a joyride to the...

This week, the boys kick things off with some serious déjà vu as Fyre Fest’s favorite grifter promises he’s totally throwing another festival — because nothing says “I’ve changed” like doubling down on the same scam. Meanwhile, the IRS decided to become ICE’s BFF by casually sharing migrant tax data, and their commissioner moonwalks out right after. Also: Microsoft’s long game of “let OpenAI set t...

This week, the Geeks wade into a swamp of tech meltdowns, governmental facepalms, and the usual Elon-flavored absurdity. Kicking things off, protesters take their beef with Tesla to the streets while Proud Boys decide this is the hill to vroom and die on. Meanwhile, Elon’s privacy prayers have finally been answered—thanks to new FAA rules, he and Tay-Tay can jet around untracked like it’s 1999. Oh...

The Dunning-Kruger Effect is alive, well, and running the show. Elon’s approval rating is cratering while experts warn he could blow a hole in federal spending; war plans are accidentally texted, and top U.S. officials’ passwords are found online; 23andMe files for bankruptcy; TikTok attempts a patriotic glow-up to stay alive in the U.S.; OpenAI admits trying to make chatbots honest, while researc...

AI influencers with Down syndrome are selling nudes; Tesla’s Autopilot crashes into a cartoon wall while 46,000 Cybertrucks get recalled; ICE ramps up creepy surveillance; OpenAI’s copyright grab faces pushback; California might hand AI to Big Tech on a silver platter; BYD dunks on Tesla with lightning-fast EV charging; White Trash Wins Lotto returns; Max kills the Looney Tunes; Apple gets sued, A...

Pi Day gets its due; Y Combinator marks 20 years of “disruption”; Americans lose $12.5B to scams thanks to AI and social media; Deliveroo posts a profit but still tanks on Wall Street; Twitter’s security remains a joke; Pinterest steals user content for AI; and a rogue developer gets busted for a kill switch scheme. Severance Season 2 costs $20M per episode; Ted Lasso returns despite ending; Waymo...

Techdirt has finally accepted the inevitable and gone full democracy blog—because let’s face it, politics and tech are now the same dumpster fire. Google rolled out AI Mode for Search, proving once again that the internet is just Clippy with better branding. Meanwhile, Billy McFarland insists Fyre Festival 2 is totally happening, despite Mexican officials pointing out that his coordinates literall...

This week, the U.S. government takes another L in court as a judge rules that handing out personal data like free candy to the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is, in fact, a privacy violation. Meanwhile, Elizabeth Holmes and Sunny Balwani’s dreams of walking free are crushed as a judge upholds their fraud convictions and massive fines. Sorry, no Silicon Valley redemption arc for you. Ov...

Jason and Brian dive into a whirlwind of tech chaos, cultural absurdities, and dystopian developments. They kick things off with a nostalgic nod to the internet's past, highlighting the 88x31 GIF collection and quirky single-use websites like "Trump Golf Track" and "Are We Doomed Yet?" The asteroid 2024 YR4 briefly raises existential dread as NASA’s odds of a 2032 Earth impact fluctuate wildly, bu...

In this episode of Grumpy Old Geeks, Jason and Brian dive headfirst into the latest tech absurdities, financial scandals, and Elon Musk's ongoing chaos. We start with the annual frustration of unsubscribing from an email list that just won’t quit before jumping into the latest gem from Musk himself: "Some of the things that I say will be incorrect." Meanwhile, British IT worker James Howells is ba...

This week, Jason and Brian dive into the chaos surrounding Elon Musk’s growing influence in government tech, with young engineers playing key roles in his takeover. DOGE employees are being ordered off Slack, USAID is crumbling, and Musk’s war with U.S. officials rages on. Meanwhile, AI takes center stage with the EU banning high-risk systems, DeepSeek’s security concerns, and Amazon throwing down...

Brian and Jason kick things off with a look at why Gen Z grads are getting fired just months after landing jobs and a curiously viral declassified CIA sabotage guide. Speaking of sabotage, U.S. students are struggling with their lowest reading scores in decades, raising questions about the future workforce. Meanwhile, Google Maps’ controversial renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” f...

In this episode, Brian and Jason kick things off by highlighting the troubling state of the gaming industry, with 11% of developers laid off in 2024, according to a GDC survey. Meanwhile, Elon Musk finds a new way to perplex us all by admitting he pays people to play video games for him. They then unpack a whirlwind of news, including Trump’s controversial pardon of Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht...

This week on Grumpy Old Geeks , Jason and Brian dissect the latest tech and cultural news, starting with a TikTok tempest. The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a law potentially banning the app in the U.S. leaves the ball in Trump’s court, while TikTok’s CEO plans to attend his inauguration. As users flock to alternative Chinese apps and RedNote scrambles to hire English-speaking moderators, it...