221: Regarding the CueCat Guy

Brett

[00:00:00] Brett: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Brett Terpstra. We’re w w we’re on over tired. This is me with Christina Warren. I cannot do these intros. How are you, Christina?

[00:00:08] Christina: [00:00:08] I’m good. I’m good. How are you, Brett?

[00:00:10] Brett: [00:00:10] don’t I just write this down and read it?

[00:00:13] Christina: [00:00:13] I’m not sure, but you should.

[00:00:15] Brett: [00:00:15] it’s three things. It’s me. It’s you it’s over tired. It shouldn’t be so complicated.

[00:00:20] Christina: [00:00:20] It’s like, hi, welcome to overtired. I’m Brett Terpstra. She’s Christina Warren.

[00:00:24] Brett: [00:00:24] That’s yeah, I don’t. I should just w I should stop even trying and you should just permanently do the intro.

[00:00:31] Christina: [00:00:31] I actually think that’s probably the correct idea.

[00:00:33] Brett: [00:00:33] probably best.

[00:00:38] I just, I just, my mind freezes. Right? As soon as the, as soon as the intro music and my mind just goes like into a blank slash panic mode. Anyway, how have you been this week?

[00:00:53] Christina: [00:00:53] okay. Um, I’m, I’ve been good. I have, I have a yarn to tell, uh, what’s what’s becoming kind of a. [00:01:00] A typical thing for us where, you know, like it’s becoming a segment, which is who is Christina pissed off to speak on the internet, but it’s a good one. Um, but before I get into that and it involves the creator of the QCAT

[00:01:14] Brett: [00:01:14] Oh, my.

[00:01:15] Christina: [00:01:15] yeah.

[00:01:16] Uh, which, uh, we found out what, what, what he’s doing and, um,

[00:01:21] Brett: [00:01:21] I can’t wait to hear.

[00:01:23] Christina: [00:01:23] Wow. Wow. But yeah, but, but let’s, uh, before that let’s hit up, um, uh, mental health corner first.

[00:01:30] Brett: [00:01:30] Yeah. So, uh, can I go first?

[00:01:33] Christina: [00:01:33] I obviously

[00:01:35] Brett: [00:01:35] I think I went manic this morning. All right. And we’ve talked about how much I kind of. Missed yet. Yeah, I was scared. Like, I don’t want to be manic, but I’ve gotten so much done today. Uh, but what’s happening. Like I had a psychiatrist appointment yesterday and I mentioned that I didn’t think my Vyvanse was working anymore.

[00:01:58] And we [00:02:00] settled on trying a new stimulant. Uh, we’re going to try the XR version of Focalin. And Focalin has worked really well for me in the past. But last time I tried it, it sent me into a manic episode. So I assumed that it was the focal in’s fault. Turns out. Like I, I didn’t pick up my new prescription until noon today and I won’t start taking it until tomorrow morning, but I’m already manic.

[00:02:27] It has nothing to do with Focalin. It has to do with the excitement of thinking. I’m going to be able to get back to work every time I like have a rough time working. And then, uh, the, uh, there’s a solution on the horizon. I get excited. And then my brain just takes that all the way to fucking manic. Um, so that’s where I’m at right now.

[00:02:54] Oh, how are you doing.

[00:02:56] Christina: [00:02:56] I’m doing pretty good. I don’t know. I just. [00:03:00] I I’ve struggled as my mental health definitely struggled a lot in 2020, and I’m hoping that it’ll be better in 2021, but this is my first week back at work today, as we’re recording is actually my first day back and that’s been interesting and it was difficult to be totally honest.

[00:03:17] It was one of those things where I had to take an extra day yesterday because I was just like, I can’t mentally come back to work and I don’t have any problems at my job. Right. Like I don’t, it’s not like I’m. You know, want to quit my job or, or hate that, or anything is just kinda my general malaise and hating everything that kind of made, you know, there’s like anxiety and other stuff involved.

[00:03:44] That just makes even the process of just being like, okay, I got to go back to the grind after two weeks ish off, you know, like struggle with that. So. Um, but I’m, I’m, I’m sad to hear that you’re [00:04:00] manic, but at the same time, I know that you kind of were like, feeling like you needed that again. Um, I’m also glad that, cause we talked about this last week that you’re at least getting your meds.

[00:04:11] Cause I know you were worried about that. So.

[00:04:13] Brett: [00:04:13] I actually got these meds like four, four or five days after. I got my Vyvanse refilled. So I turned in my Vyvanse and got these meds. So flawless transition there,

[00:04:26] Christina: [00:04:26] Very cool. They make you turn them in.

[00:04:29] Brett: [00:04:29] Yo yeah. Yeah. If they switch your meds or you get a new prescription, you have to turn in whatever’s right. Oh yeah. Don’t you.

[00:04:39] Christina: [00:04:39] I, I guess it’s been so long since I switched. Um, Something like my deck stream, although, no, when, I mean, again though, this was, this was a long time ago, but last time I tried Vyvanse, it certainly was not one of those things where I was asked to surrender my Dexedrine. And when I went back, I was certainly not asked to [00:05:00] surrender my Vyvanse.

[00:05:01] Brett: [00:05:01] Oh, wow. That absolutely is required. And my. Uh, psychiatrist or the clinic has a policy that they can ask their patients at any time to bring in their remaining meds for account, just to make sure no one’s abusing anything.

[00:05:20] Christina: [00:05:20] Oh, that makes sense. Now, is this like a legal, like requirement from the state? Is this something that like your doctor does? I mean, well, listen, well, I mean, regardless I’m, it could be one of those things that. Like insurance, the pharmacy, or whoever could, could get mad about. But I guess in my case, especially since my doctor is out of state, he just mails me my scripts.

[00:05:39] Um, he would definitely not ask me to give mine back, I think, unless there was a concern about something like.

[00:05:49] Brett: [00:05:49] in my case, they put a note on the new prescription that says. Uh, that I have to turn in my meds at the pharmacy in order to get the refill,

[00:06:00] [00:05:59] Christina: [00:05:59] Interesting. Okay.

[00:06:01] Brett: [00:06:01] could totally do. But if he’s not required to, it never hurts to have extras on hand. I’ve learned from it. If those times, when my doctor fails to come through for me, if I had a stash to like, keep like to make it through a

[00:06:17] Christina: [00:06:17] Uh huh.

[00:06:18] Brett: [00:06:18] period, that would, that could make the difference between going mannequin, not.

[00:06:23] Christina: [00:06:23] Yeah, no, I was going to say I have a stash and I, yup. Yup.

[00:06:33] Brett: [00:06:33] lucky you that’s not going to happen for me.

[00:06:38] Christina: [00:06:38] Um, I, well, I mean, when my shrink inevitably retires and I bet that’ll be sooner rather than later, uh, I will, I will join the really like difficult.

[00:06:51] Brett: [00:06:51] Yeah, man. That’s that’s when everything went wrong for me is when my shrink of like nine years retired. And then I [00:07:00] had that couple of years without meds because everything went to hell. When I lost the guy who knew me and understood me and had like been hands-on with my medications for almost a decade, just took off and yeah, everything went very poorly after that.

[00:07:16] Christina: [00:07:16] No. I mean, and, and I mean, that’s the worst, honestly, because. Like people don’t understand. Actually, it’s interesting. I was part of a Twitter conversation. Earlier today because people were talking about like, if you have a primary care physician, people like who has that, and a lot of us were kind of chime in and being like, yeah, we have insurance, we have these other things.

[00:07:35] It’s like, what the hell is a primary care physician? Um, the closest I have to that is my shrink. But the reality is, is even when you have specialists, even when you have like consistent insurance or whatever, and you’re not switching jobs a lot or whatever, it’s difficult as we’ve talked about for years on this podcast to find people who are good and who know you and who understand.

[00:07:55] And, um, yeah, so.

[00:08:00] [00:08:00] Brett: [00:08:00] I have a primary care physician that I’ve seen. I see him about once a year, I get like a physical or in my cholesterol and blood pressure checked. Uh, but I, first time I saw him, I said, can I put you down as my primary care physician? And he said, yes. And he’s been mine ever since, even though I never go see him,

[00:08:21] Christina: [00:08:21] Yeah, that was kind of a, the case with somebody who I had, um, Uh, for, for a while. And then they left the place that I was going. And so I may, I need to find another one now, but yeah.

[00:08:34] Brett: [00:08:34] can I tell you about my kitten? Oh, my God ma so bod is unfathomably cute. And she just started growing into her face. Have you ever seen a long haired kitten? They, they have this main and then taking up about a quarter of their main is their tiny little face with big eyes and their pink nose [00:09:00] and the rest of it.

[00:09:01] It’s just like, it’s like, I’m the monster from monster zinc. The actually

[00:09:07] Christina: [00:09:07] Oh, yeah. I’m I’m looking I’m I’m uh, I’m I’m looking at this now. Oh my gosh.

[00:09:11] Brett: [00:09:11] what’s the, the phone company that has monsters for their commercials. Uh, a mobile carrier, like not mint mobile. Um, I forget anyway, there’s a character on there that reminds me a lot of bod. Um, but she’s finally like over the last couple of weeks, it started growing into her face. And she, it, I, I will miss her being a kitten, but she’s so unfathomably cute.

[00:09:40] Now. I have every reason to believe she’s going to make the best looking adult care.

[00:09:46] Christina: [00:09:46] That’s awesome. I love that. You need to send me photos. Okay. That went,

[00:09:52] Brett: [00:09:52] young.

[00:09:53] Christina: [00:09:53] that went dark super quick,

[00:09:55] Brett: [00:09:55] so I’m still in a place where I have this level of

[00:09:58] Christina: [00:09:58] I’ve been again.

[00:09:59] Brett: [00:09:59] Yeah. [00:10:00] Like, I feel like I should still be mourning Finnegan, and yet I have this new kitten that I love to death and there’s this conflict that happens for me, where I feel guilty for not still being completely in mourning.

[00:10:16] And I it’s, I wrestle with it like I do mourn for Finnegan, and that is, uh, a tragedy in my life. But also I love bod. I’m glad bod showed up.

[00:10:31] Christina: [00:10:31] Well, I mean, that’s the thing, right? I mean, I think that, I think that’s normal. I think most people, when they lose someone, if, when you feel any sense of moving on, you feel like, Oh, I should still be upset, but it’s like, At the same time. What good does that do? It’s not like being happy about something else in the Gates, the fact that you were in pain or are in pain about something, it just means that you’ve been able to emotionally get to a place where that’s not all consuming you and that’s a good thing.

[00:10:58] Brett: [00:10:58] Yeah, I guess so [00:11:00] that’s what my therapist says.

[00:11:04] Christina: [00:11:04] Yeah. I mean, I think, I think it’s a good thing. So, um, I I’m, I’m happy to hear that that bod is, uh, Continuing to be cute. How is, uh, how, how are, uh, is a she and the other cat? How is that going?

[00:11:18] Brett: [00:11:18] Um, we’re still isolating them. Uh, today I will get a package from Amazon that will have pheromones, uh, like a plugin thing that, uh, emits the pheromones, that cats, Mark things with when they’re comfortable, that’s supposed to help ease transitions for households with multiple cats. So once we have that up, then I have to rig up.

[00:11:44] Some kind of screen, uh, so that they can eat their meals and see each other without actually going into each other’s territory. The problem being bod can climb just about anything. So I either need a [00:12:00] floor to ceiling screen, I need to come up with some cool contraption with paper and cardboard that she can’t, uh, climb over the top of.

[00:12:12] I have to make like a, a border wall for her.

[00:12:15] Christina: [00:12:15] I was going to say this, this is seeming at which actually is, is a good segue into, uh, uh, Christina pisses people off on the internet. But yeah, you need to, you need to come up with some sort of border wall situation, some sort of prison wall situation for bod.

[00:12:34] Brett: [00:12:34] Yeah. Um, so speaking of, um, grieving over kittens and mental health and all of these things we’ve just been talking about, and I even mentioned therapy just now. I would like to introduce, uh, one of our sponsors for this week. We’ve talked about them before. I’ve been talking for a while about how therapy has been really good for [00:13:00] me and, uh, working with my ADHD and just for life in general and the way I’ve been getting my therapy is through better help.

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[00:14:07] I, you I’m bizarrely open and honest on my podcast and my blog. Uh, so I’ve never thought that I had that much, that I couldn’t talk about, but it’s turned out that I have a lot of things that I don’t bring up to. Just anyone. Uh, things that have come out that I’ve been able to get off my chest and it’s been great to have the outlet.

[00:14:28] So start living a happier life today as an overtired listener, you’ll get 10% off your first month by visiting our [email protected] slash overtired. Join over 1 million people who have taken charge of their mental health. Again, that’s better help. H E L p.com/overtired. Thanks. Better help. It’s been great.

[00:14:53] Christina: [00:14:53] Thank you better help.

[00:14:55] Brett: [00:14:55] So yeah, let’s move on to, um, uh, QCAT [00:15:00] discussion.

[00:15:00] Christina: [00:15:00] Yeah. Okay. So last week there was this insane hearing in the Georgia state Senate about the election. And people testified about whether the vote was, you know, uh, once again, trying to offer proof that the vote was. Uh, stolen, which you know, is bullshit and, and which the three state audits have proven is completely inaccurate.

[00:15:26] And as the, the phone call that I think we might talk about, uh, that leaks, which was kind of stunning an hour long phone call between the secretary of state. And, um, the president and his, uh, soon to be, you know, former president, but, uh, still as of today, uh, president of the United States and his chief of staff where he was basically all, but kind of quasi threatening them to just find a way to make the votes count and to just, you know, restate who won the election.

[00:15:56] Um, so they had this insane hearing and, and this guy in [00:16:00] this hearing. Was brought up as this tech expert and his name is Joe Bon Hutton, Hewlett, sir, it was not his, his real name. He changed his name, but, but that’s what he goes by now. And he was talking about how he can use some sort of kinetic, um, or kinematic, uh, you know, like, um, uh, Uh, method of ascertaining, whether the ballots were real or fake and where they were printed and whether humans filled them out or, or, um, you know, computers and, and all this other stuff.

[00:16:28] And he talked about how he has all these patents that are used on billions of devices all over the world. And he’s this expert in all these different areas. And then he also claimed during the hearing that he successfully hacked into one of the, um, voting machines in Fulton County. So I’m watching this and, and, and, and this guy just, you know, all of my red flags go off, I’m like, who the hell is this guy?

[00:16:54] And it was like, I don’t know, two o’clock in the morning, one 30 in the morning. And so I [00:17:00] started doing some Googling. And, uh, I’m just going to read you my Twitter thread, a brief thread on Joe van Hutton. Culet sir, the crazy con man who is now claiming to have hacked into the Georgia voting machines in Fulton County.

[00:17:15] Nineties kids in tech aficionados might remember Giovan as the inventor of the QCAT the dumbest gadget of all time. You remember the QCAT Brett.

[00:17:24] Brett: [00:17:24] I still have one.

[00:17:26] Christina: [00:17:26] Yeah. Yeah. Um, also for anyone who wants to claim the Giovan Hutton, Pulitzer, um, not his given name, but one, he changed legally at the QCAT debacle invented QR codes.

[00:17:37] He did not like that other right wing crazy man who claimed to have invented email Giovan did not invent QR codes because this was a big thing that he’s been claiming. He’s like I had done it. QR codes. No, you invented the QCAT. Uh, QP QR codes were invented by the Japanese about six years before the QCAT came out.

[00:17:56] Um, and you have a patent that they’re [00:18:00] from other research I’ve done. There was some actually validity, even at the time, some, some claims that it might’ve been fringed upon something about scanning a certain proprietary code and going to a website. But you didn’t invent QR codes. Uh, I’ll continue my thread.

[00:18:14] He did invent the QCAT a product that somehow raised $185 million freight tethered, barcode scanner for magazines and newspapers. So you could get ads from your ads. As I said, the dumbest product of all time. Good backup barcode scanners after they were hacked. However, Oh, that’s another thing. When QCAT was a thing, it systems were hacked.

[00:18:36] I guess that’s what makes Giovanna security expert. His bankrupt company from 20 years ago was hacked and wildly mocked. He’s a genius in recent years, Giovan pivoted to being a treasure Hunter who was featured on and widely mocked on cursive Oak Island, because the man is insane. This is true. He actually pivoted to becoming a treasure Hunter who claimed to have found a Roman sword [00:19:00] in Nova Scotia and that he was on the verge of finding the Ark of the covenant.

[00:19:05] I wish I was making this up. Um, anyway, this is the man will finish up my thread that, that, uh, Rudy and the gang are claiming as a tech and security expert. Uh, these at these Russia hearings, someone at Gizmodo or at Berge needs to block this because this is hilarious. Um, his LinkedIn wants you to know that he’s taken free online classes at Harvard and Stanford.

[00:19:27] Yeah. Also, I found an interview with him where he blames Mark Cuban being mean about QCAT for his wife, divorcing him. He also amazed them insane claims about Walt Mossberg that I won’t dignify. Um, but he seriously, this is the guy who is Rudy’s tech expert. This is how efficient this is. Um, uh, now officially hilarious someone please block this.

[00:19:47] Well, the verse did blog it. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. The verge as did Gizmodo. Thank you guys, Modo. And, um, it, it went, uh, more viral than I assumed that it would, um, uh, [00:20:00] 1,400 likes 496, retweets, 205 quote tweets, and a whole bunch of activity from both people who are saying, and, and remember the QCAT and thought this whole thing was hilarious as well as people who were, you know, flat out crazy and believe all the nonsense that this guy.

[00:20:16] Has sprouted who were calling me every name in the book and, and sending me gross emails and with their real phone numbers, which smart, um, and, uh, you know, just, just claiming that, that I’ll never be as successful as this guy. So to which I think I glibly responded to one, well, at least I have a Wikipedia page.

[00:20:34] Um, the joke there being that, not that I have a Wikipedia page because who cares? That’s irrelevant, but. This guy so badly wanted a Wikipedia page that he created like three or four different sock puppet accounts to try to get himself one. And when that didn’t work, he created like, I’m not even joking, like five different websites, um, like just like Blogspot or WordPress blogs, where he tries to maintain his own [00:21:00] hagiography of, of why he’s relevant.

[00:21:04] Brett: [00:21:04] This is amazing.

[00:21:05] Christina: [00:21:05] Yeah. Yeah. The QCAT guy, the QCAT guy, like this was the thing that was just stunning me. I was like, why? I mean, how is anyone taking anything that he’s saying seriously? Also people kept pointing out well, he has all these patents. That means he’s successful. And I’m like that beans, nothing. It just means the guy has a ton of free time on his hands because he’s never worked another job as far as I can tell.

[00:21:30] And, um, Files patents all day that somehow get approved, even though most of them are idea patents and don’t actually have a mechanism for anything. Like he claims he invented responsive design because he has a patent that for that doesn’t have any mechanism involved. But, but that basically says a website will look the same on multiple different types of devices.

[00:21:52] It’s like, yeah. Yeah, genius. Um, I didn’t even get into the thing is that people were like [00:22:00] accusing me of, of, uh, you know, uh, well, the funny thing isn’t, they’re accusing me of Slater and I was like, no, if anything is libel slander spoken, um, what I’m doing right now w would, would, would potentially be slander except that in both libel and slander truth, uh, trumps all of it.

[00:22:17] So I’m completely fine. Uh, but they were like saying, Oh, you know, you’re, you’re, you know, taking cheap shots and dah, dah, dah. And I’m like, I didn’t even get into, and I didn’t get into it, these people because who cares, but I’ll, I’ll, I’ll just share. I didn’t even get into all the insane stuff that this guy has done.

[00:22:34] Like his, um, life before the QCAT he was an infomercial producer and he, again, then like got into it. Huge fights with people who laughed at him in the whole treasure hunting community. I mean, just let’s just think about this for a minute. This guy is so bad shit that the treasure hunting community, which is [00:23:00] not a community that I’m going to be honest, I think is really all there.

[00:23:04] Um, that, that the people who, uh, participate in and watch a show on history channel about people who think that they can find buried treasure. Even, they were like, yeah, this guy’s nuts.

[00:23:18] Brett: [00:23:18] Yeah, there’s like three different topics here. At least. Like first, we could talk about the QCAT second. We could talk about like the, the political side of the responses. And third, we will, obviously, we’re gonna talk about, uh, uh, impeaching Trump again, but first I, I really do what was the original purpose of the QCAT?

[00:23:45] Well, let’s, let’s say what a QCAT is for anyone who’s who’s young enough to not know.

[00:23:50] Christina: [00:23:50] Sure. So it was a barcode scanner that, um, was actually then I guess, modified. So it couldn’t scan general barcodes, but what [00:24:00] it would do is if you had a magazine or newspaper or, uh, or whatever that had the special type of code. When you’re on an ad or accessing an article, and the idea would be rather than typing in a URL, you would take this thing that was connected to your computer, using a USB or a PSU cable.

[00:24:19] You would scan the code, you would have their special software installed, and it would then take you to a website associated with that code. Usually, you know, it’s going to be associate with an ad. Sometimes, maybe it would be a specific article or something else, but rather than typing in a URL, you would go through this convoluted process of having to scan something into your computer.

[00:24:43] Um, it was what, with a special device and it was widely mocked, like Walt Mossberg, who this guy has a major hangup on to this day basically called it, you know, uh, you know, um, A solution searching for a problem and talked about [00:25:00] how it was an elegant and that it assumed that you were going to have to be wanting to read whatever you were doing in front of your computer, which made sense.

[00:25:07] And, um, people figured out that it was tracking all of your web browsing behavior. Like you had to give them your address and your name and stuff like that. When you got thing, right. And it would then kind of track what you were doing. They were hacked. And so databases of people’s activity was leaked and you know, it was a mess, but the, the, the reason they ran out of money, they raised all this money, like $200 million, which is insane, but then they blew it because they sent these devices out to people for free.

[00:25:36] So you could go to radio shack and get one. You could get, like, they came with wired magazine. I think Forbes had them, or you could just like request one and they would just mail them out to people. Uh, they were just assuming that people would just. Love these things and would absolutely want to scan all of their ads and, and interact with things that way.

[00:25:54] And, and that, uh, you know, the, the profits would just soar in that didn’t happen. People were [00:26:00] just like, why did I get this thing? What am I going to do with it? Why do I need this thing connected to my computer? This is dumb. And quickly people figured out how to kind of reverse engineer things to maybe, you know, clip, um, certain.

[00:26:15] Wires or whatever, and to get it to work with Linux or to make it just a general barcode scanner. And when people did that, like the company threatened to Sue them and all kinds of other stuff, it didn’t work with Mac, like had all these issues. Um, and so when the company went bankrupt and they like went bankrupt makes up like chapter seven bankrupt, uh, library thing bought, I think like.

[00:26:37] A lot of them, cause they still had like over a million of them that were unsent out, uh, for like, like one or 2 cents a piece and has been selling them for the last decade, plus for, you know, $10 a pop. And then you could use it with software that you would use to maybe organize your books or your DVDs or whatever.

[00:26:59] Um, [00:27:00] But the, the general purpose was genuinely stupid. It was like, it’s so hard to type in a URL that you have to scan this, this link to do it, which to me like misses the, the next major technical advancement. Right. Because on the one hand you can say, yeah, it is hard to type in these really long URLs, you know, from a magazine that’s really awkward.

[00:27:23] Well, Rather than coming up with a solution to type in that URL. Maybe you should think about what the real solution to that is, which is I’m going to be reading this article on a website and use a hyperlink that will take me to that, that destination and that the print magazine or newspaper that I’m reading is going to go away.

[00:27:45] Like. I don’t know, maybe just, maybe it’s just me, but to me, that seems like if you’re really going to be like forward thinking, that’s the real thing you should think about, which is yeah. URL type. Having to type in a long URL is not going to be a [00:28:00] problem in the future because people will just click the hyperlink.

[00:28:04] Brett: [00:28:04] can I tell you a secret?

[00:28:05] Christina: [00:28:05] You can

[00:28:06] Brett: [00:28:06] I still read wired on paper.

[00:28:09] Christina: [00:28:09] get a subscription from them on paper. Cause it’s cheaper than doing it online, but I, um,

[00:28:14] Brett: [00:28:14] bathroom reading.

[00:28:16] Christina: [00:28:16] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I get that and I get vanity fair in print. Um, but I think I usually read them like even in PDF form or whatever, like on an iPad.

[00:28:28] Brett: [00:28:28] Yeah. I mean, I, I, I referenced a lot of weird articles on my computer. But I do still read the print version.

[00:28:37] Christina: [00:28:37] Yeah. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

[00:28:39] Brett: [00:28:39] ever see an ad that I think, you know what I want to follow up on this. I need to type in a URL. If, uh, if, if a company has branded at all, well, has any kind of reasonable URL? Uh, it has never been something where I thought I wish I had a device that could get me from this page to their [00:29:00] website.

[00:29:00] Christina: [00:29:00] Exactly or, you know, even in the case of, okay, you like to, you still like the, the, the print experience, which is fine. If there was something that was like LinkedIn, that, that you wanted to check out when you’re opening up your web browser, what makes more sense to having to like track down that URL, which may or may not be that long or, um, I don’t know, just going to the website for that article and clicking the link.

[00:29:25] Brett: [00:29:25] I can’t remember what the app was called, but there was a really good like library app for Mac

[00:29:34] Christina: [00:29:34] Delicious library. Yeah. Yeah, that was great. And that was actually, I think I bought one of those cute cats that had been declawed and that’s what I used it for.

[00:29:45] Brett: [00:29:45] Yep. That is exactly why I own one. I’m just thinking if there’s still a web page because the app’s gone, isn’t it?

[00:29:53] Christina: [00:29:53] I mean, I think it’s technically still around, but I think it’s on like life support.

[00:29:56] Brett: [00:29:56] It’s on the, on the Mac app store. Huh? [00:30:00] I thought it died years ago.

[00:30:02] Christina: [00:30:02] Well, I mean, I think it basically did. I think that it’s basic, I don’t think it’s basically been updated. Um, like if you went to delicious monsters website, it still looks like it’s. 2009. Um, I mean, I, I did kind of like feel bad for them a little bit because Apple completely ripped off the design with the first eye books.

[00:30:25] You remember that?

[00:30:26] Brett: [00:30:26] Yup, totally.

[00:30:27] Christina: [00:30:27] Um, but.

[00:30:29] Brett: [00:30:29] like the, one of the major breakthroughs of delicious library was there, um, scanning, uh, kind of technology. Like it could read a barcode so fast. You wouldn’t even have time to hold it up. Like it would just be done. And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Apple has gotten that down.

[00:30:49] Like if you go to scan in the back of your, uh, like iTunes gift card you even get it up to the screen, it’s already done, like

[00:30:57] Christina: [00:30:57] Yeah, no, it’s good. Yeah.

[00:30:58] Brett: [00:30:58] solved it. And [00:31:00] like, when they first started doing that, there was talk that they had sherlocked, uh, some of delicious libraries capabilities there.

[00:31:08] Christina: [00:31:08] No, without a doubt. And I think the big thing for them was at one point they had some sort of partnership with, with Amazon or something where you could, you know, like search for things within Amazon, or they’d try to get affiliate links or whatever. Amazon shut that down. I don’t remember all the, all the, um, Ram now, but yeah.

[00:31:25] It’s been awhile, but yeah, the app, the app was, was a thing, I guess it’s apparently still updated for big Sur, which, you know, that’s, that’s cool.

[00:31:33] Brett: [00:31:33] has a four star rating.

[00:31:34] Christina: [00:31:34] Um, but yeah, I mean, it’s one of those things that I, I mean, I haven’t used it in years. Um, and I think, you know, it’s such a niche thing. Um,

[00:31:45] Brett: [00:31:45] was great for cataloging all your hard copy books that, that are becoming a rarity themselves.

[00:31:51] Christina: [00:31:51] Yeah, no, exactly. Right. I mean, it was, it was great design. Like I think the design actually kind of helped inform a certain era of, of Mac development, which I really appreciate, [00:32:00] but yeah. But, but regardless, like I said, my threat I’m like, yeah. So there’s the secondary market for this device, but the original purpose.

[00:32:07] Was a colossal failure and the company went out of business hard. Like I, you know, the guy obviously must be a good bullshit artist because he was able to convince all these companies, um, most of which are now extinct like radio shack to, to give him lots and lots of money. But I mean, it’s just the dumbest freaking idea.

[00:32:28] In fact, I think I will. And, and the reason I stand by saying it’s the dumbest. I think the device has cost them like six 50 a piece to make. And they made like, you know, a couple million of them and mailed them out to people. Uh, and yeah, it’s like, okay, that, yeah, you’re going to blow through all of your funding that way.

[00:32:48] Um, especially if you don’t have anything else to kind of, you know, pick up with it and it’s it’s um, the only device I would say might have been dumber. But I’ll give this one slight benefit of the doubt because Sony did actually mail me a [00:33:00] check with my money back. Um, was there was the stupid Sony device.

[00:33:04] I, I’m going to try to think of the name of it, um, to add to the show notes, um, after the episode, but I’m not going to able to think of it right now, but it was this stupid device. Where they had this web server, that monitored radio stations all over the country. And so the, the problem that we’re trying to solve is what song is playing on the radio right now.

[00:33:23] And this is before radio stations were digital. And before like in-car systems would have, you know, like a scrolling marquee of what song was playing. And so you click on this device and it was basically a timestamp. And the other end was a USB and he’d plug it into the USB and it would take the timestamp and it would compare it with the Arbitron stuff or whatever was on Sony’s website.

[00:33:43] And it would tell you on this station, this was the song that was playing, but you, but there were a couple of problems. Like there were only a couple of stations that you could have dedicated as your favorites and, you know, could only store a certain order of these time codes, but it was a really kind of simplistic thing, but it was like 20 bucks.

[00:34:00] [00:34:00] And I bought one because a friend had one, this was, this was 2000 and I use it a few times. Cause at first I thought it was maybe more impressive than it was. I think when my friend showed me, I’d assumed that it was maybe like a Shizam type of thing. It was not a Shizam type of thing. It was literally a timestamp that was then just querying, you know, logs of radio station playlists, and coming back with results.

[00:34:24] Um, Sony very quickly realized that this was dumb. And sent emails, uh, or, you know, and I wound up getting something in the mail to everybody who bought it and was like, we’re discontinuing this, here’s a $20 check for your money back. Like they act. But, so the reason I will say, cause like in theory, I will actually say that’s a dumber thing than the QCAT.

[00:34:50] But the reason I say that it’s not was because Sony actually refunded my money. And as I recall, like, I didn’t have to do anything other than after I’d [00:35:00] registered it. The first time I got a check in the mail, like it was one of those things and it, and it was actual cash. It wasn’t like a certificate or anything like that.

[00:35:08] Like they actually like sent me a check in the mail. Cause I remember this cause I wasn’t 11. Great. And I was like, okay, um, thanks. So. Yeah. Um, so anyway, yeah, the QCAT really, really dumb. I wound up like, just doing hard research on how dumb this guy is, but yeah, we should talk about the political side of this because the fact that th these are the people that they can get to show proof, um, of, of, you know, um,

[00:35:41] Brett: [00:35:41] that these are the experts that they hinge everything on. So, About this call. Um, I watched, uh, a link. There was a legal Eagle. Um, you ever watched that guy?

[00:35:55] Christina: [00:35:55] I love him.

[00:35:56] Brett: [00:35:56] He’s awesome. Um, but he did a thing [00:36:00] on the Georgia call and whether or not it was criminal and B, whether it could be impeachable and, uh, it was yes to both.

[00:36:08] Uh, he does really good research and was able to list all of the statutes that that call potentially broke. Um, but, uh, In the slate article about this, uh, this infamous already infamous after a couple of days. Yeah. Georgia call. They did mention quote in the unlikely event that Congress were to make him the first president ever to be impeached twice and impeachments can happen.

[00:36:38] Even after elected officials leave office, then he could be disqualified from running for high office again in the future. And that’s why I think we should impeach the fucker again. Right quick.

[00:36:50] Christina: [00:36:50] Yeah, no, I agree if that actually is like, if, if that would actually stand with the president of the United States, that they would say, okay, if the president United [00:37:00] States is impeached again, then he will, um, not be able to run again. Like if it’s out of office I’m, I’m in favor of that. I think that. Part of me, I think my general kind of Malays against any of that is that I worry that it’ll just be yet another distraction that still focuses attention on him when I would actually rather us just get to a place as quickly as possible, where we don’t even talk about him, where he’s not part of the conversation where his every move is not part of the new cycle, because I think that the

[00:37:33] Brett: [00:37:33] until 2024 when he comes back again.

[00:37:36] Christina: [00:37:36] well, and again, I’m.

[00:37:37] Brett: [00:37:37] if we could dedicate just enough, more mind space to make sure he can’t run again, I’d be way

[00:37:44] Christina: [00:37:44] it, I mean, I would too. I just, I think it’s going to depend on like the Senate makeup. Cause right now we wouldn