The US Postal Service has reversed its brief
suspension
of shipments from China and Hong Kong.
After initially halting them in response to a
new tariff policy
under the press under president Trump,
Decision followed changes eliminating
the the minimums
exception,
which previously allowed low value packages to enter
The US duty free.
Retailers like Sheen and Tumu, which have benefited
from the exemption,
now
face increased
tariffs
and duties
as both The US and China and Pu's
retaliatory
tariffs, trade disruptions remain a concern.
Welcome. To episode 1,797
coming to you this Thursday, February 6. I'm
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team. Thank you for keeping us online
and going strong. Hey, everyone. How are you
doing? Welcome to the show. I had a,
just
I I will call this week probably
the most intense
planning
and
orchestrating
week I've had in a long, long time.
Keeping everyone busy, keeping everyone focused, keeping
their nose to the grindstone.
It's it's been a it's just been a
week.
It has. I'm,
I'm quite ready, to be honest with you.
I'm quite ready
for the
weekend,
in in a in a big, big way.
I delayed going to the VA on Tuesday,
so so I'm going tomorrow morning. I gotta
get some blood taken. They're gonna check my,
my sugar level
and, cholesterol and all that stuff that's going
on. So we'll see we'll see where I
am at,
and, I'm sure, you know, it's gonna be
lecture time, but that's kinda
the way it is at time. Hey,
those on YouTube, thanks for saying hello, and
it says,
Garth Roselle, welcome to the Club America.
Funny how nowhere mentioned
AliExpress.
It's a marketing that still has ability
to take VAT during checkout. UK used to
have a $15
exemption.
And then hi, hi,
Brian here from Tampa. Yeah. We'll talk just
a second about USPS
and what's going on there.
But for those of you that are bourbon
lovers,
do you see what's right there?
I don't know if I talked about it
on the last show.
I've had
two or three
bottles of bourbon on my
wish list for a more than a year.
Eagle Rare,
which that is, is from the Buffalo Trace
family,
has been on my list for a while,
and, and I I scored. I scored one
last weekend. You know, I'm a big I
like the Buffalo Trace.
Again, this is this is not an ad.
And I and and, again, drink alcohol, be
be safe on how much you consume,
but I am a big Buffalo Trace fan.
And,
you know, it's got all the big names,
Stagg,
E. H. Taylor.
It's got Pappy Van Winkle.
It's got Eagle Rare. It's got, you know,
just all
these different,
mixtures. Weller, of course, another bottle that's on
my list.
But,
finally, I scored me an Eagle Rare,
and, oh my goodness. It is it even
delicious. Now I paid about $20
above retail, which I was happy to do.
And,
the bourbon thing, you know, there's certain bourbons
I don't really care for too much. They
end up going into mixers,
but the Buffalo Trace family, I don't know
what it is. I really do like
that,
that particular bourbon. Any other Buffalo Trace fans
out there? And, you know, if anyone's got
a Weller,
it's got,
you know, any of these
Thomas r Handys, any of these type of
really super rare bourbons that, you know, are
on allocations.
Hey. I'll
gladly pay shipping
if you find one. If you are someplace
and find a stag,
and it's not insane,
of course, you you have to know if
it's insane or not. If you if you
get a bourbon lover, you know what's insane
from a price.
Yeah. Always feel free to text me.
I'll Cash App you.
Yes. I know you can buy online on
secondary, but I'm not paying secondary prices. Okay?
Don't need it that bad.
But, yeah, I am going to partake on
this tomorrow,
considering the week that I've had. It's been
it's been insane. One thing I will also
mention, and and and I don't know if
any of you else have been following, but,
my evenings when I just get in, I
get a little time to kick back and
just been crushed with all the madness going
out of DC.
And, I'm
had to, like, this week, take a little
little bit of break and go find some
other stuff to watch.
One thing I also seen and it's even
evident tonight,
there's a whole bunch, I mean, of super,
super, super, super biased tech news that's out
there of everything that's going on in DC,
and everyone has lost their damn mind about
Elon Musk
and Doge.
I mean, it's just,
just crazy. Hey, Leland. How are you?
Thanks for checking in on Facebook. You can
send a few pictures over. Oh, you you've
got a little bit of a bourbon collection,
do you?
But,
anyway, it's just that the tech news is
super biased, and I don't care what side
of
the politics you're on. Anytime
we can get rid of frivolous spending,
even if it's a dollar, I'm all good
for it. You know? We can still do
what we need to do with the world,
but let's, you know, let's get rid of
the frivolous stuff. And I've talked long and
hard about over the years on this show
on how
government contracts work and the waste and the
insanity that goes into that. So there is
room
for efficiencies
just to save you can save money just
on efficiencies.
So,
we'll see if any of that actually gets
done. I I'm be honest with you. I
continue to be skeptical that they'll make any
negligible impact, but it's it's definitely
interesting to watch for sure. Alright. Let's go
ahead and get into,
the stack of stuff today.
We'll start right off with this,
situation that happened with USPS
and how they,
have reversed course. It sent shock waves
through the and a matter of fact, this
is written by our own,
Jen Thorpe for she put this together on
the website.
You know, the US Postal Service on Wednesday
halted,
an order that was gonna suspend incoming shipments
from
China and Hong Kong
to threaten severely disrupt trade,
between two major economies. Now how many of
you have ordered anything?
Maybe you've had a a wife or girlfriend
order stuff from Sheen.
The that company is real super popular with
the ladies.
Tmoo is another
popular,
site, Alibaba,
any of these places where you can get
stuff from China. And you've always wondered, how's
this stuff come in so cheap? Right?
It just comes in, they can ship it
in and,
I've ordered stuff from Alibaba in the past,
you know, to have and say that I
haven't,
but what's happening now
is they've suspended
the minimum.
So, basically, stuff that was under $800
didn't have to pay duty.
And now that stuff is above
anything, and I don't know if there's a
$10, 15 dollar, or any limit, but they
ended the policy that allowed small packages
worth 800 less to be sent to America
without paying taxes and fees.
And that is not the case now.
So these online giants
use the exemption
really to
benefit
their own companies.
And, you know, there's
similar rules in The UK and European Union
as well to reach millions of customers
with this exception. Now
the explosion of parcels being shipped under the
loophole has prompted increased scrutiny in recent years.
This I mean, we've talked about this in
the past.
So this trade loophole,
really drove this
this explosive
growth
for those bargain sites.
But now that really is going to change.
And, essentially, everything is gonna go to, I
think, at least 35%
duty.
So what cost a hundred dollars before is
now a hundred and 45 or a hundred
and 35.
And,
so it's gonna be a big impact. Very,
very, very, very big,
impact.
And
one of the commenters on YouTube, and I'm
sorry I'm having to squint, trouble is some
of the parts
I can only buy from China. Some have
such a low demand
that no local store could afford to keep
those stocked.
Cables
alone are a, compatible
lottery for eGPUs
as tires were coming and then delayed.
Currency
exchange rate drastically changed.
I saved £15 by watching the currency exchange
rates on a mini PC, so it's probably
true.
Now,
Leland says Dodge is a kicker is a
kicking.
Yes. It
is.
So we knew there was going to be
pain. This is not a surprise,
and,
getting your electronics are going to cost more.
It it just it just will.
I've decided when I go back to The
Philippines, I'm gonna take a Mac mini with
me. And, I've got an extra one here,
so I'm gonna take that with me. And
it's I'm not, you know, I don't have
to buy one. I've got one that's perfectly
well,
to go, but I needed a little I
wanted to have
a extension for basically a hub.
So I went online today thinking, oh, man,
I'm gonna get hammered.
But they had hubs still in stock
that are already here.
So if you've got things that you think
that you
want to buy, you you need to buy
right now.
You need to go before the price increase,
before the stock runs out, and they have
to ship stuff in from China. So if
you've been sitting on
something that you've been thinking about getting,
go go go go go
immediately.
And in order,
because
all this stuff is gonna see
a dramatic increase here.
And I and, you know, I got to
thinking about it today, and I'm thinking, do
I need any do I have any cables?
Do I need you know? So I was
really kinda doing, like, a bit of an
accounting around here. Do I need any dongles?
Do I need and do you know, I
was just thinking,
even so far as to thinking about memory.
And, of course, memory luckily comes a lot
well, comes mostly out of Taiwan,
some out of Korea.
So what's gonna happen is is you're gonna
start to see
huge
price disparity
on Amazon or wherever else you shop,
where depends on where stuff originates.
So if it comes out of Taiwan, no
effect.
Comes out of Hong Kong or China, big
effect.
So, again, it's because of this minimum shipping
change.
It it's it's gonna have a huge effect.
So,
just be aware,
Until this thing
kinda washes through,
we're we're gonna we're gonna see.
So Leland says, how much do you think
most of the equipment will go up? I
I think
they're gonna lower price. Now this this is
the key too.
The China manufacturers are making so much money
on this stuff.
They have such a markup because it costs
them nothing.
Their labor is essentially slave labor.
So they so material costs and a minimal
amount of so they're already got a margin.
So they may
lower their price, get a smaller margin
just to offset
the
the duty.
Leland, I think it could be 25%.
Can can a manufacturer take a 35%
cut?
Now they were already
paying 20 here's the difference.
How they got around
this previous duty was let's say they sent,
stuff to an Amazon warehouse.
As long as the shipping on that was
under $800,
no duty.
But that's
gone. So now anything they ship is gonna
be 35%.
There'll be a 35%
tariff on it.
So
so this is where the delta is. And
all of us that have bought anything
that comes from China
that has been delivered in a flat that's
had one or two pieces of product in
it,
35%.
So but they're gonna lower the price as
much as they can, but it's gonna hurt
them. It's gonna hurt their profit margins, which,
you know, I you know, cry me a
cry me a river.
This is why American companies have not been
able
to compete.
I've said this for for a long, long
time.
And now the economics is gonna start impacting.
Yeah. It's gonna cost us more,
You know? And with what happened with Canada
and Mexico and that being waived for thirty
days,
we'll see.
Again, this is a big bargaining chip, you
know, and
I I saw something where
even in our own country, you know, people
are freaking out, but I think what it
is is, you know, someone's paying chess and
and the other people are playing checkers here.
Will it pan out and work out for
everything?
Who knows?
But, this is why I had to kinda
just shut
the make sure I wasn't watching it because
it was just bam bam bam bam bam.
And and x if any of you been
on x, good lord.
I mean, it's just nonstop.
Nonstop.
And,
it's
entertaining
to say the least. I know it, Eric.
I'm sure there's many of you, at least
50% of you, this aggravates
the piss out of you.
I'm sure. I'm sure it does.
But
this this thing on the on the shipping
so we'll see what USPS does with this.
But
Garth says when UK UK changed,
okay, changed from 15 minimum
to an exception, we had about a two
months notice.
Why didn't America give such a reasonable notice
period?
Well, during the
run up to the election,
that was we he was saying exactly what
he was this is not news
to anyone here in The United States. He
said he was going to do this,
you know, October, November.
We knew this was coming.
So it's not a surprise.
But again,
going back to and again, this I don't
wanna get in the politics of this, but
again, he said from a Canada and Mexico
standpoint,
this is not a trade war. This is
a drug war. They just want to stop
the people drug and people coming across the
border trying to get the fentanyl to stop.
So
we'll see. We'll see what happens.
But,
this has been wild,
and we'll see what happens within the tech
sector.
Of course, the almighty Super Bowl is coming,
and I'm not a big
you know? I I will watch the Super
Bowl.
My mom texted me a little earlier that
my
brother in law's cooking wings and, you know,
there's people coming over and
you know? To be honest with you, I
I might rather sleep on Sunday than watch
the Super Bowl. But
the commercials this year, there are gonna be
regional
ads and
national ads.
So what some of you may see in
New York will not be what I see
in here in Michigan, but there'll be some
that'll be national. One of them is a
Google Gemini Super Bowl ad that they've already
released.
It's two minutes, and it's just some dude
basically doing a mock interview with Google Gemini
for two minutes as his kids are running
around.
It's a well done
ad.
And, essentially,
he practices a job interview with
Google Gemini
and then directly then sits down and does
a real world interview.
Do you think that's where we're at? So
watch the video. I'd love to hear your
feedback. Geeknews@gmail.com.
In a very interesting move,
CISA, and we know who
CISA is. Right? The
Department of Homeland Security, cybersecurity, and frustration security
agency
was initially
excluded from the broader US government offer to
take the deferred resignation offer
in part due to the role of national
security and defending critical infrastructure.
Apparently,
yesterday, because only 60,000
people have
accepted
the,
basically, the eight month severance,
and it wasn't enough.
Some c I s a staffers were given
offer in just hours to decide whether accept
it or not.
So
it's being
thought that they were trying to get they
weren't getting enough people.
So
the offer did not go to everyone. There
was exceptions. And so
it's interesting that
they select, and I'd be interesting to know
who those select people were.
What roles did they have
that they offered? Were they administrative
types or were they techie types?
So go government cybersecurity employees are panicking over
the level unfettered access given to
the Doge team.
You know,
I've talked about this before,
and
I I did the federal thing,
so I understand
how it works.
We could if you we could never
get
into people I worked with before. I'm sorry.
But
programmers
and IT administrators
that have
government,
a k a government jobs, a federal employee
job,
very easily could have went out in the
public sector and made a lot more money,
a lot more money because
of the of the caps.
You go look at the general service
scale,
and most of those
CISA
folks are probably GS twelves.
Not because it what it does is GS
12, GS 13.
The the higher you go in the GS
scale, the narrower number of people that are
actually getting those pay rates.
So probably the majority of those CISA and
other
IT officials
are twelves. Administrators
are thirteens.
The top bosses are fourteens.
You just don't go to 14.
12 and 13 is a relatively
easy jump. If you have the time, there's
a job position.
You know? So but, again, you go look
at that GS scale, and let's just look
at it. Let's go and look at the
GS pay scale,
and you guys will understand what I'm talking
about.
Government
government service yeah. I got it. I I
typed it wrong. GS scale. So here's the
general schedule.
Salary
tables.
So let's look for 2025,
and let's look at the GS.
Come on. Of course, I
it's not bringing it right up.
It's usually very simple. Okay. Twenty twenty five
GS pay table. Alright.
So
Alright. If you are a g s twelve
and it's based on steps
so
example, if you get hired as a g
s twelve step four,
there's a a amount of a period of
time you have to wait before you go
from a step four to a step five.
It might be two years.
Sometimes, it takes three years to make the
step up. So a g s twelve in
a regional area that basically has no cost
of living
extras. In other words, you're in Washington, DC,
you're gonna get a you're gonna get some
more money. It's a cola or something to
that effect. But if you're a GS 12
step four or step five, that's like $85,000
a year. Now let me take that up
to a step 10, and I think it
takes someone
to get to step 10, like, twenty years.
That's $98,000.
That's as high as you can go, $98.
A g s 13 is a 17,
a g s 14, a hundred and 38.
Now you get up in the g s
15 level, that's a hundred and $62,000
a year at step 10. But in step
one is a hundred and 25. But if
you are g s 12,
step five,
make an 85
no. If you are g s 12,
a step 10,
making
$98,000
and you get promoted
to g s thirteen,
there is some you can't make less money.
They don't allow you when you get promoted
to make less money. So you were at
$98,422,
and you would jump as a g s
thirteen to a step four at 99,000
o '28 or actually probably $98.04 $2.02. You
do your couple years time or whatever to
get the $99.00 $2.08. So even at 13,
you're still under a hundred thousand dollars.
Now we take into COLA
and those types of considerations,
locality pay.
And if you are a government employee,
not a contractor, let's just be clear about
that,
that's that's your salary, hundred and 20, hundred
and 20 5 thousand dollars at the, you
know, very kinda high ends of some of
those steps that most these people are at.
How much can you make as a IT
or a cybersecurity
person on the outside?
You make a hell of a lot more
money.
A lot more money.
So the programmers
that I had to deal with that were
government
on the GS scale,
they weren't that good.
Sorry.
They weren't that good. Now exception,
when I worked with National Labs,
they're on a whole different pay scale.
They're not on the GS
level. It's a whole different pay scale, and
they get paid accordingly.
We're not talking about SES. We're not talking
about senior executive
service, which is the next level up beyond
GS fifteen.
And, again, that number of people in those
positions are rare, and they're usually government people.
They are not and they're they're money and
oversight people. They're not programmers.
So when they talk about allowing
a 20 year old
genius
to come in
and work on an IT system in the
US government,
an individual might be making $250,000
on the outside
and may have equivalent or more education
on
modern systems
than the people working the systems today.
I know I'm gonna get pissed people off
here.
And I understand.
I get it.
But
why
could we never really
why are so many contracts made to have
stuff go out and be programmed?
Why does stuff go to John Hopkins where
there's really smart people?
Some of the stuff I used to work
on
was
was was managed and coded by John Hopkins.
Very, very smart people. Very.
Making big money.
Big, big, big, big money.
PhDs.
Super smart people.
So there's a segment of the government work
that goes out to the big brains.
But when you're talking about internal in the
office
and you're a staffer
I don't know.
Don't know.
But you have different levels of stuff. You
have technical representatives.
You know, the job descriptions across the federal
government are wide.
You know? You have
Natick. You have
you have government reps that sit in the
seats,
right in
embedded in military units that are there as
a technical expertise.
And they're a GS 12, GS 13.
They're making $80.90, hundred thousand a year.
You know, very smart people getting paid an
appropriate salary for their knowledge level.
But I've always said on the IT side,
you know, it is what it is. I
and, sure, I'm gonna get some feedback here.
But to say they don't know what they're
doing and they're letting these young people in.
Okay.
They have read only access, by the way.
So
the CISA thing is just one one part
of this.
What say you?
Geeknews@gmail.com.
What say you?
What say you? I wanna hear from you.
Leland says, I'm okay with loss of profits
versus banning access to goods. Oh, so we're
talking about the tariffs still.
So thanks, Leland, for for weighing in tonight.
Appreciate it.
Alright. Let's move on here.
Work from home,
don't clean the home office tax deduction
unless you have a sidekick in job.
So
I
work from home, and I get a regular
w two from my company, from Rawboys.
I sit at a desk. I work at
that desk all day long.
But when I come here and do this
show in my little cubby
and using up
a 50
square feet of space, I got storage that's,
you know, this claim for the business. This
is my separate business.
So, technically,
I could
deduct a portion
of the rent I pay
in my taxes, but here's what I do.
The IRS
loves
to nitpick when they audit you.
They love to nitpick.
So what I like to do is always
leave a little on the bone.
I don't claim
any of my
space that I'm using here in my home
as a tax deduction. I don't and it
wouldn't be that much,
you know, based on the percentage of floor
space I'm using in my rent. So you
pay your rent your rent times 12, your
insurance,
whatever that total is, you take all that
up, heat, electricity, blah blah blah, that grand
total of a year for what it costs
you to live somewhere. And if you're using
10% or 15 or 20% of your space,
and let's say that's $20,000,
let's use a number,
and you're using 20% of the space, well,
20%
by point two o times 20,000,
4 thousand bucks. I could potentially
claim
I think that's right. Normally, 20,000.
I could yeah.
Did I say 10? Well, anyway, you guys
got it.
And I could write that off.
I could. But
if I've made a $4,000
accounting error down the road,
and Sugar wants to come after me to
penalize me for a mistake in my taxes
for the amount of $4,000,
I could have an abridged
tax
submission
to claim that,
to offset
a mistake I pretend. Now I don't try
to make any mistakes on my taxes. I've
been through too many audits.
It's not fun
and not fun at all
because they look at
everything.
They look at your credit card receipts. They
look at everything.
So
separation of church and state.
I have a business card. I put business
expenses on.
Personal card, I buy personal stuff, cat food,
towels,
beans.
That all goes on personal.
New computer,
lights,
all that goes on the business card,
keeps them separate. And if I mistakenly
buy something on my business card
that was supposed to be personal, I have
to reimburse
through my
personal checking account back to the company, and
I have to make a notation
that I reimbursed.
You can get hit on an audit for
doing that.
You do that too many times,
you can get in trouble.
So I have that annotation in my taxes
said, hey. I had to pay back $262,
put it on the wrong account,
and make sure that
transaction shows. And I write a check,
deposit it in my bank accounts because I
want a piece of paper. I just don't
wanna trans I could probably transfer it.
But work from home?
Don't claim the home office due tax deduction
before you read the article I linked to.
So you guys are getting some super value
out of the show tonight.
Leland says, the day we say no to
income tax is the day we actually become
free citizens. I you know?
Lina, so as far as I'm concerned, the
IRS can take a flying leap. You know,
as much as I
send them every year,
I coulda retired.
I could've retired already on the amount of
money I send the IRS every year.
I'd had no problem. I could've I could've
punched out.
They take so much. If you really look
how much they take.
Kwikset launches two new smart locks with Z
Wave support.
And as end up as a
private doing a private business on my own,
the taxes I pay, oh my god.
Quick sit and manufacturer, both traditional and smart
locks, officially released the Home Connect nine eighteen
and the Home Connect
six twenty.
So,
this is using
a Z Wave,
so,
you don't have to be close to the
hub.
So Kwikset, I like their products and services.
The lock I have in my door downstairs,
my steel door downstairs,
has got a,
a Kwikset lock on it.
So here's here is a,
hit piece,
Trump's EPA to prioritize
AI, lobbyists, and staff cuts and mission to
traumatize.
That's that's the title of the article.
I'm not even gonna go into it because
you can already see by the by the
header of it
what the tone is gonna
be. Here's another one.
Elon Musk, DOGE, storm's federal weather forecast headquarters.
DOGE's hostile corporate takeover and proposals to privatize
a key science agency could make it harder
to get weather forecast. There's no proof to
that.
What is wrong
with this country
in wanting to lower the amount of money
the government is spending?
What is wrong?
What is there to hide?
I can get audited.
You can get audited.
I don't know about those of you in
The UK or anywhere else, but if the
IRS sends you a letter to audit you,
that puts the fear of God into you.
They have the power to put you in
jail and take your stuff away, seal your
bank accounts,
enjoin you from doing anything,
prevent you from leaving the country.
Yet we get upset
when six
or seven
Doge team members goes in and says, let
us look at the books. Let us look
at your IT systems.
A current no employee was granted enmity because
of the risk of retaliation
tells the verge that having ex that ahead
of an external audit, staff have been instructed
to fully delete or take down any material
related to DEI, whether it's public available online,
on internal sites, or in physical office spaces,
government web pages,
for other federal agencies have already removed content.
The employee tells The Verge that posters with
information
has also been taken down from their chat
rooms and websites or employee resource groups
have also gone down.
Well, I think they've learned that there has
been a bunch of attempts to avoid
actions in the past,
so
they're just gonna have to get together face
to face and talk about it.
QWERTYKES halts keyboard shipments to the yes over
tariff costs and confusion.
A keyboard company, QWERTYKES, has temporarily halted all
shipments to The United States.
The company says it's working on ways to
mitigate shipping costs, and the tariffs have made
it so that all keyboards from China to
The US now are subjected to 45%
tariffs at full value.
We are closely watching the progress situation. Really
hope there's something else we can do other
than bumping the price up.
Quirky says partner DHL now requires prepayment
of 50% of the declared product value
as a tariff deposit
plus a $21
processing fee per package that would drastically raise
the price for customers
in The US. Why don't we start making
some stuff here? That's the question I have.
Leland says the only people complaining are the
ones spending it.
You know,
I I've been involved in the game.
I held
two pots of money when I was my
last couple of years in the military.
Fuel money for airplanes
and, basically,
gear, like weather gear,
coats, jackets, boots,
stuff that's essentially consumable
that can go away, cleaning supplies, that type
of stuff.
And
I was given a budget every year, and
we would allocate
to the squadrons based upon
the
their needs if they're deploying or not.
And
I got really good
at making sure people got what they needed,
And my predecessor before me,
it was basically made it hard on people.
But I said, listen. If you're going on
deployment and you're going to a cold weather
zone in or let's say you're going to
Afghanistan in the winter and you only have
summer
where,
then put in the requisition,
write it up, give me the numbers, give
me the total cost, and I'll send it
up to chain of command and get you
money.
And and and
and 95%
of the time, the stuff that came through
me asking for more
money was based on a need that was
justified. I knew all the people I was
working for
or working for they you know, I was
working for them. I was basically their money
man, and they and I would send that
up to
the,
to the wing.
And, really, probably in four or five days,
I I would get an approval. I'd get
their money, and I would distribute it into
their accounts.
And,
but when it got down to the end
of the quarter,
if a certain squadron had not used all
their fuel money, let's say they had $25,000
left in fuel money,
and they weren't gonna be able to fly
it off. They weren't have didn't have, you
know, they'd done all their training, done all
their required flights, but another another group was
short.
I I would pull that money out, put
it in the other squadron, and we would
we'd burn the fuel.
And,
there's a saying, use it or lose it.
So we were trained, use it or lose
it. Because if you spend a half a
million dollars in
jet fuel,
or let's say a million dollars a year
actually, I think we're spending a million 6
a year in jet fuel fuel,
And you you only use a million 5
1 year
because maybe things just the way things worked
out, but you knew we're gonna need a
million 6 the next year because I forecasted
out three years.
The
I I would we'd have to burn it
because if you use a million 5, the
budget people would say, oh, they need a
million 5. We give them a million 5
the next year, and then I'd have to
be begging, borrowing, stealing to try to get
more fuel money the following year. So the
idea of use it or lose it is
is ingrained throughout the federal government. It doesn't
have to be that way.
Why couldn't everybody said, hey. We only need
a million 5 this year. We'll give the
extra hundred thousand back to the US government,
and then next year, give me my million
6 again because I know I'm getting million
6 next year, but they don't work that
way. The whole system doesn't work that way.
But it's all about the comptroller.
I was a comptroller for two budget lines
of 13.
And no one likes spending money. I had
some request come in one time for some
Ray Bans, and I'm like, you you don't
you're not getting Ray Bans.
Why do you need Ray Bans? Why why
do these guys need Ray Bans?
They've already got government issued glasses if they
need to wear glasses,
and they can get government issued sunglasses, which
are a lot cheaper than, you know, the
birth control glasses, a lot cheaper than
a lot cheaper than,
Ray Bans. You don't need to be styling
on the flight line. No. You're not getting
Ray Bans.
So it wasn't like I was given everything
to for what they wanted. No.
But if it was justified
if you're going to a summer location let's
say you're going to Diego Garcia and you
and you're gonna be there for six months
and you're asking me for winter wear.
Okay.
How many
detachments
are going to somewhere where it's cold from
Diego Garcia? Well, only two.
A crew of 40. Okay. That's different. I
can authorize
cold weather gear for 40 people
instead of 240.
And, oh, by the way,
two years from now, don't ask me for
that winter weather again year again because I
bought it once. It needs to be turned
in
and reissued.
So,
you know, there is it is possible
to manage the money good and not allow
stupidity to go on.
So I would have no problem if Doge
walked into my office and says, show me
your books.
Open up the computer. Here it is. Go
ahead.
Audit me. Fine. I can justify every penny.
So Leland says, sound justified to me. Also,
what they're finding is just how the government
has comp
aspired and to spend as little as possible
on actual services riding and pocketing the rest
of your shell companies. That's a whole another
show, Leland, right there.
Alright. You guys bored with me already? Google
magic editor will watermark its AI tweak photos.
And, again, I've been away from government for
a long time, so
things could have changed. I just know what
I know from
a while ago. So, again, Google magic editor
will watermark its AI tweaked photos.
Some security updates make Google Chrome so much
better, aka
password sharing. Group sharing of passwords.
If you're part of a family group, you
can send credentials through Google password manager share
feature.
But you can do so on PC too.
Yeah. Nothing bad is gonna happen there.
Sharing with only a sharing with only a
group
is a free feature,
but Google's seeming logic makes sense. Arguably, you'd
rely and share passwords with family members at
least anyone close enough to be considered family.
Yeah. You know? That's why my mom has
a master password to my
my, my password,
app because
if I stroke out,
the only way you're getting into any of
my stuff is to if you don't have
that password,
you're screwed.
You don't have the password to my phone,
you're screwed.
You know, that's just the way it is.
Apple's m five chip is rumored to be
in mass production, but we're still waiting on
m four MacBook Airs.
So Apple's believe stepping up the Brexiom m
five
is currently slated for later this year or
early twenty twenty six, is reported to stick
with the TSMC
three nanometer process,
With the Apple, yet to make a move
to the two nanometer,
which offers even greater power
and efficiency. And I I will say one
thing about Apple, they will move when they're
ready.
Ransomware payments declined in 2024 despite massive well
known hacks.
So
how much did we send?
Extortion payments totaled 814,000,000
in 2024,
'8 hundred and '14 million,
almost
a billion dollars.
20 20 3, it was 1,250,000,000.00.
Just insane
how much money is who's getting that money?
NASA's unveiled a new space telescope more powerful
than James Webb aimed at providing a clear
understanding of the universe beginnings. I'm like, what?
Where did this come from?
SPHERE? Remember us talking about SPHERE? I don't
remember talking about this, but I'm sure we
have. We know the James Webb Telescope cost
$10,000,000,000
when it launched in 2021, took, what, ten
or twenty years to build.
With exciting new piece of kit, it only
cost 488,000,000.
Here's what happened. Technology is getting better.
Stuff is able to be done smaller.
They started using when they started building the
James Webb Telescope probably twenty years ago,
components were this big. Now they're that big,
so core stuff is cheaper.
So the spectrophotometer.
Mirrors will help uncover new points of interest.
So
when's this scheduled to launch?
February 27.
Who's gonna launch that? SpaceX?
Probably.
IPhone seven owners are getting $200 in class
action lawsuit. If you acted on this before,
yes. You will score,
you will score
your $200.
You were gonna get three, but it was
reduced.
Hey. I do wanna thank those who've been,
using a new podcast app and streaming sats.
Pestmark, thank you so much. On the last
show for, streaming sats 20 sats per minute.
That's a healthy, healthy donation for the whole
show.
Greatly appreciated,
that you did that. Thank you. Thank you
so much. We've had no boost no new
boost come in,
so that's a couple shows in a row
on that. As we talked about on our
last
show,
we've got this new sponsor here,
the and I I really,
am impressed with their lineup.
Again,
Valentine's Day is just eight days away. In
the next show, I have stuff for the
ladies,
for you guys to buy for the ladies.
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Bill Gates has got got it right. Intel
what what has happened with Intel? They have
lost their way.
He's stunned how far behind Intel has fallen
compared to Nvidia. And you guys know I've
talked about it before. I have some Intel
stock.
Jeez. Come on. I wanna I wanna retire
someday.
Probably not because of Intel.
Global tablet shipments grew 9% in 2024. According
to latest data from Canalys,
worldwide tablet shipments grew 5.6 year on year,
reaching 39,900,000
units.
Warner Brothers is doing something interesting. They're stringing
full movies for free on YouTube.
It's a strange assortment of
obscure oddities.
One's, an Eddie Murph Eddie Murphle.
Oh my god. Eddie Murphle.
Eddie
Murphy's dreadful Pluto Nash movie.
So there's, like, 40 of these that they
have released.
So for free.
No DMCA
oh, 30 of them. No DMCA.
So Michael Collins, Waiting for the Guf Man,
the the Mission,
Death Trap. These are, like, 8696.
Dungeons and Dragon movie, Hot to Trot, 1988.
The Eddie Murphy's Adventure of Pluto and Ash
02/2002.
So, again, these are all been very curiously
released by Warner Brothers on
YouTube. Maybe if they decide we're not making
no money on these things, we're going to,
we're going to just do that.
Hacker target NATO US army arrested in Spain.
Spanish authorities arrested an individual, allegedly hacked several
high profile organizations.
They described him as a dangerous hacker who
was arrested in the town of Calipi
in Spain's Alicante province,
and, he has identified
they identified him having more than 50 cryptocurrency
accounts.
And, oh,
this this dangerous hacker,
eighteen years old, ladies and gentlemen,
he hacked NATO,
and he hacked the US army.
So let let's let that sink in.
An 18 year old who is a dangerous
hacker
hacked NATO and hacked the US army, yet
we have six or seven individuals from Doge
that are in their twenties.
Okay.
Android 16 to feature major health updates starting
with Fitbit.
So if you're an Android user
and, of course, Android 15 was just launched
a few months ago, and they're already looking
in Android 16.
So this edition could improve how user interact
with their health data. I just want to
be able to take my blood glucose
without
having to prick my finger.
I can't afford the patch. That thing costs,
like, $1,200
a month or some ridiculous number. My insurance
won't cover it.
I just don't wanna have to poke my
finger to check blood glucose.
Amazon drops unsubtle hints that Alexis oh my
god. Alexa AI
did my
it didn't respond. I have an Alexa in
here that's listening. Is landing soon. Three things
expect from the new voice agent. It might
cost you more, 5 to $10 a month.
No. Could be an autonomous AI agent. No.
Amazon literally spelled Alexa teasing at this major
update. Oh, those are the three things.
Will it be worth it? No.
How many of you using DeepSeek even I
talked about it?
Anybody willing to fess up?
More Windows 11 patch woes, this time with
mouse pointers acting up, so, you know, don't
do the,
the optional
update, the KB five zero five zero zero
nine four patch. Don't don't don't go there.
You know, I I
oh,
this next article is from you. Guess who?
Political. You got $8,000,000
from USAID.
A bill banning social media for youngsters advance.
The senate commerce committee approved legislation Wednesday to
ban children 13 from social media by limiting
access. The bill hopes to address youth anxiety,
depression,
and link social media. You know something, ladies
and gentlemen?
How come the rest of us were too
stupid to get some of this free money?
I should I should have applied for some
USAID money. How about you? Don't you think
Geek News Central could have, you know couldn't
couldn't we have,
couldn't the show have gotten, like,
you know, I had to take 500,000.
That that'd run me that'd run the show
for five years.
Been fat. We could've hired someone else.
I don't need 8,000,000. Just give me cool
500,000.
Why not? Giving everyone else money. Right?
At least I'll tell you the truth
with my angle on it.
Don't you think?
I I I'm just
how come, you know, how come I didn't
form an NGO?
We're we're just dumb.
You know, those that are smart have been
the one that's been on the lam, that's
been on the take.
You know, those of us that that work
an honest nine to five that pay our
taxes,
you know, go sit on jury pools,
you know, do all the things you do
as a good citizen.
You know?
How do I get some of that money?
Nah. I would have never have done that,
but, you know,
it makes you go, doesn't it?
So the Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation Wednesday
to ban children on 13 from social media.
Well, that'll work.
The panel approved by the Kids of Social
Media Act sponsored by the panel's chair, Texas
Republican Ted Cruz, and Democrat on the panel,
Hawaii's Brian Schatz. Oh, there's a piece of
work.
I I I liked Brian before. By voice
point clearing the way for consideration of the
full senate, only Ed Markey, Democrat, Massachusetts asked
to be recorded as a no on the
bill.
So it's true. When you get Ted Cruz
and Ed and and senator Ed Schwartz
agreeing on something,
that's saying something.
Now the question is, will it will it
get voted on in the house?
The Commerce Committee will likely take up more
online safety legislation.
So what do you think about
banning
your 13 year old and younger from using
social media? Isn't that a parent thing to
do?
Isn't that parents' responsibility?
Crazy,
Robot dogs learn to bomb disposal tricks and
trials. Yeah. If you have a robot, you
can blow the the robot up.
You can teach a robotic dog new tricks.
The trial is led by Ministry of Defense
Scientists and carried out at the Defense Scientific
Technology Lab, this was in The UK, by
the way,
involved a number of robotic systems. It's hoped
that this early experiment could eventually revolutionize bomb
disposal
and, secondly, reduce risk to personnel, both in
Britain and overseas.
So they worked alongside both British and international
com companies like l three Harris.
I'm familiar with l three Harris. Marble Communications
and AeroVironment,
Tomahawk
Robotics.
And, the pilot study involved a number of
scenarios where a robot was required to perform
tasks such as opening and closing doors, navigating
stairs, and inspecting IEDs.
And it was also equipped with carbon fiber
disruptors. So in other words, fire.
So, very, very cool.
Workday has laid off I don't know who
Workday is. Workday laid off 1,750
employees citing demand for AI. In other words,
they replaced the employees with AI.
Anybody know who Workday is? What do they
cover?
The Veterans Affairs has reboots Oracle health records,
project for $330,000,000.
Concerns around unfixed problems remain after system result
in a harm to some 150
patients. Wow.
The new payments relate to a 300,000,000 agreement
for optimization of the electronic health record management
system and 29,000,000
for identity access management support enhancements.
The deal means Oracle will also be used
to support medical
facilities already using software in Spokane,
Walla Walla, Washington, Columbus, Ohio, Rosenberg, and White
City, Oregon.
Nothing to say about the one I go
to in Battle Creek, Michigan.
So,
we'll see if this continues to be a
bad investment.
Volkswagen is unveiling a 20 thou $21,000
entry in the EV in March.
The small EV will make it proper debut
in 2027,
and it's gonna be available in Europe First,
not in America, of course.
And Amazon announced their fourth quarter results.
Net sales increased 10% to a hundred and
80 7 point 8 billion,
And,
excluding the 900,000,000.0
unfavorable impact from year over year charges,
north so how much money do they make?
Operating income increased to 21,200,000,000.0
in the fourth quarter compared to 13,200,000,000.0
in the '4.
Okay.
Oh, prior 2023.
So net income increased to $20,000,000,000.
So
alright. I'm I know. The the it goes
through all the details. If you're interested, they
they made money. Don't worry. They didn't lose
money.
And ChatGPT
has dropped its sign in requirements for search.
OpenAI is making its AI search engine
more
accessible.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I was definitely on
a rant today, but, you know,
if if you want to,
I love Buffalo Trace Bourbon.
You definitely,
you know, a donation in kind of,
a Stagg or Blanton's would, you know, would
be would be wonderful.
An antique one zero seven? Sure.
Why not?
Yeah. Okay.
So,
I'm pushing the wrong button here. The email,
geeknews@gmail.com,
geek news at g mail dot com, at
geek news
on x,
and, of course, I'm on Facebook.
Did you enjoy today's show? Been on a
bit of rant.
I kind of enjoyed it, actually. Reminds me
of the old days.
We're not gonna be able to keep up
the news.
It it you know, I think it's just
too much information overload at this point.
We'll see how it affects the tech sphere.
Don't forget.
If you had something techie you're gonna buy,
get her done.
Get her done before
the prices go up, before stock runs out.
And remember,
places don't keep too much stock.
That's why they have those big ships coming
across the ocean with containerfuls
of all those electronic goods that we all
love to buy.
So,
the hammer
is coming.
45%
increase. My kitty cat's down here. I'm not
gonna lift him up. He's clogged me twice
already.
Here's something wrong with him.
He's gotten real big in the middle, and
he's skinny front and back.
I don't under I don't I don't get
it. Last year, he was all
he was plump all the way through during
the winter.
He's just getting old. His his new food
hasn't arrived yet, so supposed to be, I
think, here tomorrow. So keep an eye out
for it.
I'll be back here with you on Monday.
I thank everyone for being here. Thank you
for tuning in. Don't forget about me and
be being an insider. You can always make
a donation,
although I can't use the donation to buy
liquor. That's not a legal write off. So
I can't use money that you donate
to buy
the juice.
You can send me
a bottle,
and
that can be a donation. I think, actually,
from tax standpoint, I have to claim that.
So but it's I'd rather claim it as
a gift than
pay for the juice.
Alright, everyone. We'll see you back here on
Monday.
We're on the March to eight 1800.
Not that far away.
So,
be good out there. We'll see you next
time. Thanks. Take care. Bye bye.