Transcripts Episode 106
Run Straight to the Airport
Peter's Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier and Scott's Great Gourds Pumpkin Ale fuel two Peter rants: an airline that keeps rewriting his trip to the Athens Marathon and a Kia that keeps breaking. Plus asking Claude which EVs phone home in Massachusetts, Peter fixing fnMute mid-episode, and a hardware KVM on Tailscale.
Scott: Friends with Brews Coffee drinker, huh? Coffee
Peter: Not
Scott: drinker
Peter: today.
Scott: or
Peter: [sighs]
Scott: beer? Ah, not today, Santa.
Peter: Not today,
Scott: Okay,
Peter: Santa.
Scott: i- in that case- Hi, Peter … why don’t you tell us what you are drinking if it ain’t coffee? Don’t fix
Peter: Hi,
Scott: it
Peter: Scott.
Scott: or something. Hi, Peter.
Peter: So first off, before I do that, do you use… You use Kagi search engine?
Scott: I use caggy, as some people pronounce it, caggy,
Peter: Kagi.
Scott: which
Peter: Kagi.
Scott: is, as we know, that is exactly how Japanese pronounce the word for key.
Peter: Kagi. So
Scott: Caggy, caggy.
Peter: for whatever reason, so I was recently vacationing in Va- in Virginia, and I open up Kagi, and it’s giving me the weather in Virginia before my search results. I did not
Scott: Okay.
Peter: ask for this. I
Scott: You
Peter: do
Scott: didn’t?
Peter: not know why it’s doing that,
Scott: Because it knows
Peter: but
Scott: that you’re
Peter: I…
Scott: not
Peter: [sighs]
Scott: at home, Peter, and it’s like, we know that Peter is in a strange… I mean, it’s Virginia, in a strange place, and he needs to know the weather so that he can pull on the appropriate jacket. You’re in Virginia.
Peter: Apparently.
Scott: You could be near Langley. What if,
Peter: I’m not.
Scott: what if you…
Peter: I’m not in Virginia.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: I’m back home in Medford, that’s the thing.
Scott: Oh, I thought you meant when you were in Virginia this happened.
Peter: No, right now I just called up, called up Kagi so that I could find my beer because you’re gonna… The first thing you’re gonna say once I tell you what beer I’m drinking is, “I can’t find your beer on the website,” because the website
Scott: No.
Peter: sucks, because they always do.
Scott: No. No, Claude’s
Peter: And,
Scott: gonna tell
Peter: uh…
Scott: you that because I don’t even look them up anymore. I have Claude go look them up.
Peter: Yeah,
Scott: Claude
Peter: that’s
Scott: edits
Peter: awesome.
Scott: the whole
Peter: [clears throat]
Scott: thing. I don’t have to do, I don’t have to do jack s*** anymore. Wait, uh,
Peter: And you-
Scott: it bleeps
Peter: y-
Scott: it
Peter: including
Scott: for me. See, I
Peter: editing
Scott: don’t even have
Peter: out
Scott: to
Peter: that?
Scott: put a bleep in there. I don’t even have to do that.
Peter: That’s,
Scott: It does it for me. It has
Peter: that
Scott: a
Peter: is
Scott: specific
Peter: awesome.
Scott: pass that’s just for the swears.
Peter: That is awesome. Well,
Scott: It is
Peter: I am
Scott: awesome.
Peter: happy since it is October, seems appropriate
Scott: Yep.
Peter: to drink an Oktoberfest,
Scott: Hi.
Peter: and I am drinking Hofbräu Oktoberfestbier,
Scott: Ah.
Peter: which if is not, uh, clearly apparent to you English speakers, it’s an Oktoberfest beer. Uh, Hofbräu München, Munich beer Spezialität.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: Uh, it says, “Original brew of Bavarian kings. The world’s
Scott: Ah.
Peter: biggest festival, the Munich Oktoberfest, attracts over six million visitors in the course of 16 days. Since 1810, this annual event in Munich, Germany promotes the best Bavarian food, entertainment, and brews. Hofbräu München is an official supplier to this event. It uses the experience and knowledge of the brewmasters to create this special seasonal brew for just this event. It is brewed according to the German Purity Law, containing only water, barley, malt, Bavarian hops, and culture yeast. This is the same product that HB serves in its tent at the Munich Oktoberfest and is now available to you.“ 16.9 fluid ounces, half a liter, 6.3% ABV.
Scott: Uh, mm-hmm. I’m pretty sure the German Purity Law also says something about all those drunk German men costing the beer servers at the beer garden.
Peter: I thought you were gonna say something about them being blonde and blue-eyed. Mm-hmm.
Scott: Uh, that was the old German Purity Law. [laughs]
Peter: I think this one supersedes that one actually, but okay. Yeah. So prost.
Scott: Prost, which is funny every time you say that to me because Alain Prost was a French racing driver. He was not German, g*** it.
Peter: This is what beer
Scott: It…
Peter: was meant to be. [drinks]
Scott: Okay, let me ask you this. I believe you, and at the same time, I also know that you’ve had to work for a living for the last couple days, and that might influence the taste of your beer to some degree. [laughs]
Peter: It makes it taste even better.
Scott: I mean, you
Peter: Whoo.
Scott: could be drinking
Peter: [laughs]
Scott: swill right now, and you’d probably be super excited.
Peter: This will taste great. Well, I have some leftover tea that’s been sitting on my hot plate for quite a while now. Let’s try…
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: Hmm. No, nowhere near as good as the dr- as the beer.
Scott: Okay. Well, the beer does
Peter: Oh.
Scott: have alcohol in it.
Peter: Ah. Well, what are you drinking?
Scott: Sir, I am having a repeat, not between you and I, but I’ve had this on one of my solo podcasts. This is a Hopworks Brewery Great Gourds Pumpkin Ale. Great gourd, oh, my lord, oh, my gourd. It’s a Great Gourds Pumpkin Ale. It didn’t say that. I said that. I said the, “Oh, my gourd, oh, my lord.” That’s not their s- slogan, but they can have it, and it’s in cooperation with Hopworks and Bella Farms. Bella Farms is a farm on Sauvie Island near here that we’ve been to, and apparently they’re dumping their pumpkins into Hopworks beer in collaboration with the Hoppity Hopworks. I haven’t always liked Hopworks beer. They have some s*** probably because I drank an IPA of theirs without knowing it or something. But anyway, um, this is a good beer. I’ve had it before. I’ll have it again. In fact, I’ll have it again right now, so I’m gonna… [can cracks] Oh, yeah, right here. I’m gonna glug it. Here we go. Peter, look at this. Stop looking at whatever you’re looking at and look at this.
Peter: That looks…
Scott: There you go.
Peter: Actually, it looks beautiful.
Scott: It is. It’s very good. It’s a surprisingly good pumpkin ale, and not all
Peter: Cheers.
Scott: pumpkin ales are all that good. Cheers, my friend. Well, you made it through. It’s gonna be the weekend now. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, the weekend.
Peter: It’s great. Now, now the, the hardest thing that I have to look forward to is just my three-hour-long run on Sunday [laughs] after I teach a
Scott: Oh.
Peter: 90-minute yin yoga class.
Scott: Well, the 90-minute yin yoga class shouldn’t be too exertional
Peter: No, but, you know, I need to put some thought and some effort into
Scott: Oh, yeah.
Peter: it.
Scott: Absolutely,
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: yes.
Peter: Gotta prepare
Scott: You do.
Peter: and
Scott: Or
Peter: stuff.
Scott: your,
Peter: I’ve gotta
Scott: your
Peter: prepare.
Scott: students
Peter: I’m
Scott: will
Peter: always
Scott: be,
Peter: preparing.
Scott: “You’re
Peter: I gotta
Scott: always
Peter: prepare
Scott: preparing. Why are you always preparing? Just go.“
Peter: [sighs] Cheers, girl.
Scott: Do I have that? Do I have that? I don’t think I have
Peter: I thought
Scott: that.
Peter: you did. [laughs]
Scott: I don’t think I have any Spaceballs. Preparing, preparing. Do I have Spaceballs? Do, do, do, do, do. I have 2001, I have Office Space, I have Hackers, I have Ted Lasso. I don’t see Spaceballs. I do have The Princess Bride. What do I have from The Princess Bride? Inconceivable. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. [laughs] Come on, Peter, you have to laugh. You know you do.
Peter: I love that. Are you kidding? I love it.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: [clears throat]
Scott: All right, Peter, did you get the memo?
Peter: No, apparently
Scott: Oh.
Peter: I didn’t. [sighs]
Scott: I have the memo. What are we gonna talk about today? What is the memo that you wanna talk about?
Peter: Whoa. So I’ve got, uh, three or four things, and it– two out of three are a bit of a rant.
Scott: Oh, my
Peter: It’s
Scott: goodness.
Peter: gonna be a rant fest. Now, I know.
Scott: Wow.
Peter: So first
Scott: You better…
Peter: off, are we allowed to discuss relationships, and more importantly, things like anniversaries on this podcast? [laughs]
Scott: We’re not supposed to discuss our relationship. [laughs] Yes, you’re allowed to discuss whatever relationships you feel comfortable with sharing and whatever anniversaries you feel with comfortable sharing.
Peter: I, I, I am very, um… I am very comfortable congratulating you on your 30th anniversary with
Scott: Thank
Peter: your lovely
Scott: you.
Peter: wife.
Scott: Thank you.
Peter: And so congratulations on that. And I know
Scott: Thank you.
Peter: that you had expressed a desire to take a vacation, but because of circumstances, it just didn’t happen.
Scott: Correct.
Peter: But I’m here to give you some reasons as to why [laughs] maybe you’re better off not vacationing right now. [laughs]
Scott: Oh, my God. Wait a minute. You didn’t go back to New York City, so I know you didn’t stay at the hotel… What was it called? The Hotel
Peter: Oh. Oh, man.
Scott: Satan?
Peter: No, this wasn’t quite that bad, but it’s on par.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: Um, so I booked my flight. So I originally, I booked my flight to
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: Athens, Greece from Boston.
Scott: Thumbs up, by the way,
Peter: Uh,
Scott: as I might have
Peter: mm,
Scott: indicated.
Peter: and indeed, yes,
Scott: Yep.
Peter: same, same here. Cheers again. Prost, round
Scott: Cheers.
Peter: two.
Scott: Prost!
Peter: Sva.
Scott: Prost
Peter: Sva.
Scott: rund two.
Peter: I booked, um, my flights originally, um, three weeks in Greece. So I bought a, uh, Air Portugal trip. So it was gonna go from Boston to Lisbon to Athens.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: And then, um, my girlfriend became my girlfriend, I suppose, entered the picture, and, uh, invited me to take a vacation with her.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And then she said, “Also, if you have any other suggestions, let me know.” And I said, “I would love to go to Aruba with you, and my other suggestion is you come to Athens with me.” And she was very receptive. So I had to change things, however, though, ’cause she– number one, I don’t have enough vacation time to just go for three weeks and a trip to Aruba. That’s like a solid month.
Scott: Hmm. If you
Peter: ’Cause
Scott: were
Peter: I
Scott: European,
Peter: had planned…
Scott: you’d have, you’d have to cut back your vacation
Peter: I’m,
Scott: time in order
Peter: I’m,
Scott: to…
Peter: I’m working on it. I’m working
Scott: Okay.
Peter: on it. She wants to
Scott: Okay.
Peter: stay here in the United States. We’ll get to that.
Scott: No.
Peter: Anyway,
Scott: No.
Peter: um, not on this podcast, not today.
Scott: Just, just, just bring up the vacation hours.
Peter: Right. So so my plan was to go to Greece for three weeks. I was gonna use up my vacation, but also work part-time so as to extend it, so I’d work, like, half days. Uh, instead, I said, “All right. I’ll take a week of vacation in Aruba, week of vacation in, in Athens. Everything will be fine.” long story. I already discussed this on the Blurring The Lines podcast. We did not end up going to Aruba. You can go turn– tune into that for– find out why. But I needed to cancel the trips that I had, or the flights that I had booked for Air Portugal. So I canceled that ’cause I had pulled– purchased a fully refundable ticket, so that was great. Easy peasy. Chase changed it, no problem. And I was using my, uh, credit card points, so I didn’t even have to spend any money. It was just points. It’s like Monopoly money, right? So that was great. So I looked around, and it was a bit of a hassle, but, um, I was able to find fairly cheap, decent flight from Boston to Istanbul to Athens via Turkish Airlines. And it was about a 13-hour flight, right? An hour and a half layover in Turkey, in Istanbul, which I was okay with. And we’re gonna fly out on the 3*** o*** O*** and fly back on N*** 9*** because she
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: needs to be back on, um, that day.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: So we’re planning to leave on a specific day and come back nine days later. And so my plan was to arrive at least seven days before the marathon, so I can adjust to the seven-hour time zone shift and the climate change, ’cause it’s gonna be significantly warmer over there. um, I found trip on Turkish Airlines, and they leave here, you know, like, on a f- a Saturday night and get over there, you know, the next day, and then we would fly back the following Monday. Everything’s gonna be great. Earlier this week, I get this email saying, “You– there’s a change to your itinerary.” And suddenly, that hour or so, hour and 20 minute layover is seven and a half hours. I’m like,
Scott: That
Peter: “No.
Scott: was, that was definitely
Peter: I’m,
Scott: arranged by Bin Salam or whatever his name is.
Peter: I’m
Scott: He was
Peter: not
Scott: gonna
Peter: gonna
Scott: hack you
Peter: sit…
Scott: up in the Turkish Embassy
Peter: I’m not gonna sit in an airport for seven and a half hours, even, you know, counting border
Scott: But it’s
Peter: time,
Scott: Turkey.
Peter: six hours.“
Scott: Figs,
Peter: So yeah, but,
Scott: dates.
Peter: but that’s not enough time to, like, really leave the airport and do anything. You’re sitting in the freaking airport the whole time. And Chase doesn’t have a Sapphire Lounge for me to lounge in and, you know,
Scott: Mm.
Peter: get my foot massage or whatnot while we’re over there,
Scott: I don’t know.
Peter: so.
Scott: I have a story about a layover in Vegas once, and it was less than eight
Peter: We’re
Scott: hours,
Peter: not
Scott: and we still
Peter: talking
Scott: found
Peter: about…
Scott: time to go fall down and hurt ourselves in the streets
Peter: We’re–
Scott: of Vegas. [clears throat]
Peter: I wasn’t gonna talk about you and your lay habits in Vegas, but you wanted to go there, so. So, [smacks lips] so as I called Turkish Airlines, and they’re like, “You already accepted this change.” I was like, “The f*** I did. No, I did not accept the change.” They said, “Well, you booked it through Chase, and they must have, they must have accepted it.”
Scott: [slurping]
Peter: So
Scott: They
Peter: I called
Scott: accepted
Peter: Chase.
Scott: it on your behalf, so clearly that’s the same as you.
Peter: But they didn’t. Here’s the thing. So I log into Chase, and it’s
Scott: Right.
Peter: like, “Hey,
Scott: [laughs]
Peter: there’s, you know, you need to accept itinerary
Scott: First thing you
Peter: changes.“
Scott: see is a message, “We didn’t do it!”
Peter: Pretty much. I got a big r- big red button, and it’s like, “Hey, there’s a change here. You need to accept this change.” So I was like, “I need to speak to a representative.” I, you know, went full Karen. It’s like, [smacks lips] “I need to speak to a manager.” Um, it took me six calls to get this straightened out.
Scott: [clears throat]
Peter: Now,
Scott: Peter,
Peter: I should say, originally,
Scott: did it take
Peter: I had
Scott: you
Peter: a
Scott: seven
Peter: round trip.
Scott: hours? [laughs]
Peter: Kind of. Now, counting the time on hold, it probably did come close to that. So one thing too is originally I had pictured- purchased a round-trip ticket, but with, with, when my girlfriend entered the picture, I had to– I found a better way, significantly cheaper way to buy two one-way tickets. So I did that instead. So now I have a problem ’cause only the departing flight from Boston to Athens is, has a problem. Hi there, Midnight. Good to see you. So we’re strictly dealing with the outbound flight to Athens. Six calls later, they finally are able to change it and move it to the preceding day. So instead of flying out on Saturday night, we now fly out on Friday night, okay? I arranged my Airbnb. I said, “Hey, can you take me a day early?” She said, “Yes.” Wonderful. Great. An extra day in Greece. I’m okay with this. This
Scott: Mm-hmm. Yes.
Peter: is good, right?
Scott: That
Peter: Life
Scott: is better
Peter: is good.
Scott: than an extra seven hours in Turkey.
Peter: Got that all squared away yesterday. Now, remember, the return trip has nothing to do with the outbound trip. It is not a round trip. This is a one-way trip. Today, I get an email saying, “Oh, there’s been a change to your itinerary.” And I’m thinking, “Ah, they finally caught up to the changes we made yesterday. That’s great.” I open it up. No. They want me returning the day of the marathon.
Scott: Oh my God.
Peter: They bumped
Scott: Well…
Peter: the
Scott: [laughs]
Peter: return trip. Now, so they, they– the outbound trip, they extended by six hours as an extra layover, and on the return trip, they’re like, “You’re cool coming back a day early, right?”
Scott: Oh my God.
Peter: No.
Scott: Hey,
Peter: As
Scott: Midnight.
Peter: a matter of fact, I’m not. That’s the day I will literally be running the freaking marathon. So no,
Scott: Listen,
Peter: th- you cannot do that.
Scott: um, that is one way to guarantee that you run a record pace, I suppose. [laughs]
Peter: I don’t think so. I don’t think I could even pa– I don’t know. You know what? I should have looked at the times. It would be hilarious if I could do that and just
Scott: You
Peter: run
Scott: could
Peter: straight
Scott: just–
Peter: to the airport. [chuckles]
Scott: You just keep going. Where
Peter: Run
Scott: are you
Peter: straight
Scott: going,
Peter: to the airport.
Scott: Forrest?
Peter: [chuckles]
Scott: [laughs]
Peter: Exactly. Just tell my girlfriend, “Just pack everything up. I’ll meet you
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: at the airport. Don’t
Scott: I…
Peter: worry about the stadium. I’ll just run straight by.“
Scott: You just
Peter: [chuckles]
Scott: burst through the finish line
Peter: That
Scott: and
Peter: would
Scott: just
Peter: be
Scott: k***
Peter: f***
Scott: g***
Peter: hilarious.
Scott: My
Peter: Right
Scott: God,
Peter: through
Scott: that
Peter: security,
Scott: guy is,
Peter: right through the
Scott: that
Peter: checkpoints.
Scott: guy, that guy’s already started on next year’s marathon.
Peter: That would be hilarious. Um, anyway, so another hour and a half on hold today, and Chase was able to cancel that flight, but this time I had to suck up and pay the cancellation fee. So Turkish Airlines
Scott: Sons
Peter: made
Scott: of bitches.
Peter: six hundred dollars off of me for doing nothing other than
Scott: Come
Peter: being
Scott: on, Midnight.
Peter: pains in the ass.
Scott: Midnight, I don’t
Peter: Um,
Scott: know what you’re
Peter: [smacks lips]
Scott: doing.
Peter: so the– and then I booked on Swiss Air instead.
Scott: Come on.
Peter: And so now
Scott: I love
Peter: we have
Scott: you.
Peter: a round trip to
Scott: Aw.
Peter: f-
Scott: [sniffs]
Peter: Swiss Air flight, and that’s it. I’m not changing it. It’s good. That’s, that’s what we’re staying with. But man, so number one, I have a giant mountain of travel points
Scott: [blows] Yep.
Peter: awarded to myself. I don’t think I’m gonna use them to fly anymore. That’s just too much of a hassle. I think I’ll use them for hotel stays, but I’m not gonna use them for flights ’cause that’s just a pain in the ass. It is
Scott: It
Peter: too
Scott: is sup…
Peter: much pain to change those, whereas hotels are usually a
Scott: Right.
Peter: little easier to deal with.
Scott: Yeah, I remember when Anna was– Anna used tons of points for her Korea trip, because she was paying for some of her mom’s, all of herself,
Peter: Yep.
Scott: and some of Olivia’s, most of Olivia’s. So, she did a lot of points, and she really had to be careful to get those flights exactly right, and then once they were purchased, they were pretty much set in stone. She knew that she wasn’t gonna be changing anything
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: about them.
Peter: Yep. Like I said, I mean, you know, I purchased refundable initially because I wasn’t
Scott: [sniffs]
Peter: sure exactly what my plans were. Was I gonna stay for a week or two weeks or three weeks or whatnot? So I bought refundable, but I figured by the time my girlfriend and I had figured out, no, we’re, we’re set in stone. But also, you know, these are– these dates are pretty hard because, well, number one, I need to be in Athens for the race. That’s kind of an important date, right? And I need to be there a week before so I can acclimate. Also kind of important. She coincidentally has a work trip out to California leading, like, a day or two up before our departure date, so that kind of
Scott: Oh.
Peter: time boxes our departure.
Scott: Oh
Peter: And at her work, she has a giant board meeting the day after we get back, so that time boxes our return. So we really have a very small window in which we could play with. So luckily,
Scott: Her life
Peter: we were
Scott: sucks.
Peter: able to kick it out a day. I don’t know. I wouldn’t say that. I mean,
Scott: Well,
Peter: you know.
Scott: first
Peter: [chuckles]
Scott: of all, she has to travel with you [laughs] and then secondly, uh,
Peter: You know
Scott: [laughs]
Peter: I could hang up right now, right?
Scott: yeah, I do. I do. I appreciate the fact that you don’t. I’m making an assumption here, by the way. yeah, I don’t know. She just… It’s just a big vacation to not get any break, you know, not get any rest whatsoever before and after, but that’s how
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: life goes, I guess, for most people.
Peter: But I did upgrade our flights a little bit so that we’ll, we’ll– we have the slightly more… Oh, no, I took, um, exit– I was able to secure exit rows on all four flights, so we’ll have a little extra leg room. Unfortunately, the
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: seats don’t res- you know, it’d be better if the… I would prefer seats that reclined farther than having extra leg room any day.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: But
Scott: Yep.
Peter: whatever. It is, it is what it is. so that was my, my initial rant for
Scott: Yep.
Peter: the day.
Scott: Yep.
Peter: The next one is even better, if you ask
Scott: Oh,
Peter: me. Are you gonna
Scott: okay.
Peter: ask me?
Scott: Uh, Peter, would you qualify the next rant as better or worse than the previous rant?
Peter: Uh, worse, because I spent a ton more money to dig myself into this hole. Claude, are you on standby? Are you ready to, to bleep me out? Because I f*** hate Kia Motors.
Scott: Oh, yeah, this. Look, Peter, you paid for all-wheel drive, and you got three years of all-wheel drive. Now, technically, I think they could have gone with four years, one for each wheel. But whatever, you got three, and now you’re griping that it’s not enough.
Peter: [sniffs] So earlier this week, I was up in northern New Hampshire on a work visit, and I’m driving back and I had to hit a supercharger ’cause I miscalculated, or as a former president of ours would’ve said, I misunderestimated my range. And, um, I– generally, I keep my car charged to fifty percent, but I had m- and which is around, uh, you know, a hundred-ish miles, depending on the day. It could be anywhere from a hundred to a hundred and fifty miles. But I had
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: to go, like, sixty miles in each direction. So I realized as I was, like, about halfway to my destination, I’m gonna have to stop and charge somewhere. So I stopped and charged somewhere, and as I left that charging station, my dashboard starts flashing, and it’s like, “EV subsystem failure.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s great.” And then that message went away. I’m like, “Oh, that is great.” And then it says, “AWD/4WD error,” or “4WD/AWD,” one or the other.
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: I was like, “Oh, great.” And it persisted in saying that. Now, I was tempted to pull over and power off the car and reboot it and see if the error men- went away, but
Scott: Yes.
Peter: I thought, by my estimations, there’s a chance that there’s three possibilities. One, that would work. Two, nothing would change. Three, the car wouldn’t even restart.
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: Because the last time I had serious problems with this, the car wouldn’t even restart, and it stranded me and died in Chinatown. So
Scott: Midnight.
Peter: I just kept going, and I realized, though, that the car was running really slowly. Like, I’m flooring it, and this car usually has some gumption, some pickup and stuff. It would only hit a top speed of sixty-two miles per hour. And then I looked, and I realized that only the front-wheel drive was engaged. So the problem was the rear-wheel drive was just completely disengaged. So I had over an hour drive. So while I’m driving back home, I called a couple of dealer- Kia dealerships, the closest one to me, who, like last time in March, has no one certified to work on EVs.
Scott: Yep.
Peter: So then I called the second closest one, which did work on my car in March, who used to have one tech certified in EVs. They now have zero, so that’s not an
Scott: What ha-
Peter: option.
Scott: what is happening to all these certified techs? Is somebody kidnapping them?
Peter: I don’t think there are a lot to begin with, and I think they’re getting jobs elsewhere
Scott: Oh,
Peter: that are paying more.
Scott: they were flying through Turkey, and they got stuck. That’s what happened.
Peter: That must be it. They’re on layover. so I called Kia Motors of America, and I was just like, “Make this your problem. You find me…” [clears throat] Excuse
Scott: Hmm. Midnight,
Peter: me. [coughs]
Scott: come on.
Peter: You… By the way, I just hit the cough button. Did you hear me coughing? [coughs]
Scott: Yes?
Peter: Wait.
Scott: Boy, I sure
Peter: Wait.
Scott: heard that.
Peter: You
Scott: [clears throat]
Peter: did?
Scott: Yeah, that was super loud.
Peter: Uh, that tells me that my mute button’s not working. That’s not cool.
Scott: Yeah, I… That is the problem that I had with it was the mute button wasn’t working ’cause something else was
Peter: Yeah,
Scott: intercepting
Peter: but it
Scott: the key press.
Peter: thinks, but it thinks it’s working, and I’m getting a click saying that it’s working. That’s
Scott: It’s not working.
Peter: not cool. Hold on a second.
Scott: You need
Peter: I need
Scott: to
Peter: to
Scott: fix
Peter: file
Scott: your
Peter: a
Scott: app.
Peter: bug report with, uh, with, uh,
Scott: It’s–
Peter: Scratch Itch
Scott: With–
Peter: Software right now.
Scott: Yeah, I’d… Those bastards.
Peter: Hang on. Please hold.
Scott: Dear Scratch Itch, you can’t vibe code your way out of a paper bag [laughs] because I can’t mute myself. Peter’s filing a report. He’s typing.
Peter: I’m filing my
Scott: He’s…
Peter: bug report. It says, “I am pressing Fn and I hear the sound, however my mic is not muted.” What the hell? This is not cool. Okay, moving
Scott: This
Peter: on.
Scott: is not cool, yeah
Peter: So I called Kia Motors and I said, “You find somebody for me.” [chuckles] You know, find. And so the helpful lady called all over the place and then found, like, Lev Kia and a couple of other Kia Motors places farther away from me,
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: significantly far, like an hour away or so. And the soonest they can see me is second or third week of November.
Scott: And…
Peter: Dear listener, at the time we’re recording this, it’s October 16th, and this was three days ago. So they can’t see me for at least a month. So yesterday, when I was on my way to the office, uh, in audio, in interactive mode, I had Claude draft me a demand letter sent to Kia Motors’ legal team informing them that denying me, uh, my car … Because the, also, the certified Kia tech told me, “Don’t drive your car in this time.”
Scott: Oh, seriously?
Peter: So yeah.
Scott: Wait a minute.
Peter: And
Scott: It goes
Peter: wait,
Scott: up to sixty
Peter: but
Scott: miles
Peter: wait.
Scott: an hour?
Peter: Well, or it could just stop working any time. But wait,
Scott: Oh.
Peter: there’s more. Kia will reimburse me up to, I think, $50 per day for a rental once the car is diagnosed, but they can’t see the car until a month from now. So I told them that under Massachusetts consumer protection laws, this is b*** and I am demanding a, a number of things.
Scott: No,
Peter: So
Scott: no, no.
Peter: we’ll see what
Scott: It’s
Peter: h***
Scott: b*** and under Massachusetts consumer laws, it’s also illegal. [chuckles]
Peter: Right. Well, that’s it. [laughs] You know? So yes, under Massachusetts,
Scott: I mean,
Peter: well, under Massachusetts protection laws, it’s
Scott: so
Peter: illegal and b*** too.
Scott: they know that your car is doing this. By the way, these cars have the ability to phone home, I bet you. Can’t they pull logs remotely? Elon Musk is always pulling logs off people’s cars and saying,
Peter: No.
Scott: “Hey, I…”
Peter: Oh, no, no, no, no. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That’s another
Scott: Oh.
Peter: hot button topic you just m- just
Scott: Oh,
Peter: b-bleh.
Scott: because of Boston, because of Massachusetts.
Peter: Because in Massachusetts, we said you have the right to repair, and therefore, you must make all of your telemetry open to anybody. You cannot keep this to yourself, Tesla and all other manufacturers. And Kia and Subaru said, “Well, to do that, we would have to make all of our systems open to everyone, and we cannot do that in a secure manner. Therefore, we will do that for nobody.” And therefore,
Scott: I-
Peter: no cars, no Kia or Subarus sold in Massachusetts have online connectivity because they claim they could not do that securely.
Scott: I’m not gonna stand here and say all politicians are equally bad, but I will say, I will both sides this a little bit. I will say I kinda do see their point because I’m sure there is some telemetry that’s sensitive that they don’t want everybody to see, and
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: that could be considered proprietary. I,
Peter: Yes.
Scott: I get it.
Peter: Yep.
Scott: That doesn’t mean they couldn’t come up with an engineering solution.
Peter: Um, I got news for you. Out of all the other car manufacturers who do business in Massachusetts, they somehow manage to do this. You know, if,
Scott: But
Peter: and,
Scott: who–
Peter: and have online connectivity.
Scott: Well, but how many other car manufacturers are actually sending that much telemetry? The EVs are the ones that are sending all the telemetry.
Peter: There are plenty of e manufact- EV manufacturers today.
Scott: There’s Tesla, there’s Ford. Who– What else are people buying?
Peter: Chevrolet,
Scott: There’s Kia.
Peter: I think, um, h- um, Nissan.
Scott: So far you haven’t listed any EVs that most people want besides
Peter: The
Scott: Kia
Peter: Nissan LEAF,
Scott: and…
Peter: Toyota, Toyota
Scott: Yeah,
Peter: Prius.
Scott: Nissan Leaf is pretty… No, that’s a, that’s a hybrid. That’s not an EV.
Peter: Uh, the Prius is h- okay, the LEAF is full. So, well, you know what? Let’s, let’s, let’s recruit Claude into this one.
Scott: Yeah. Hey, Claude.
Peter: What, what
Scott: Claude.
Peter: EV,
Scott: You have to speak
Peter: not
Scott: to it like a gym, and
Peter: hybrid
Scott: you have to say, “Hey, Claude.”
Peter: … We should do this interactively as an audio so we recor-
Scott: You should.
Peter: record the whole thing.
Scott: You can share your screen with audio, by the way. You can do a screen share with audio for- in this
Peter: Yeah, but
Scott: Riverside.
Peter: if I click the microphone, doesn’t that just dictate? Isn’t that just dictation on the,
Scott: No,
Peter: on
Scott: no,
Peter: macOS?
Scott: no. You could– There’s a speech mode. No, there’s a speech mode in the Mac app
Peter: On Mac up?
Scott: where
Peter: Really?
Scott: it, it will talk back to you. Yes.
Peter: How do you
Scott: So
Peter: enable
Scott: share,
Peter: that?
Scott: sh-share… I don’t– I have no idea. There’s a
Peter: Neither,
Scott: thing
Peter: me
Scott: that
Peter: neither.
Scott: you click.
Peter: Well, hang
Scott: You,
Peter: on
Scott: you,
Peter: a second.
Scott: you have
Peter: I gotta
Scott: to do
Peter: make
Scott: it in
Peter: sure
Scott: the chat.
Peter: …
Scott: You can’t do it on the Claude Code side. You have to do it in the chat side.
Peter: No, I’m in the chat. I’m in the chat. Hold on a second. I’m gonna
Scott: Yeah,
Peter: share
Scott: so share
Peter: my
Scott: your
Peter: …
Scott: sh-
Peter: I’m gonna,
Scott: share your window,
Peter: I’m gonna.
Scott: your…
Peter: You just keep your pants on. Please
Scott: Damn.
Peter: keep your pants on, Scott.
Scott: My pants are on. If I could
Peter: All right.
Scott: show
Peter: Here’s
Scott: you
Peter: my
Scott: my
Peter: Claude. Afternoon,
Scott: panted
Peter: Peter. Hey,
Scott: butt,
Peter: Peter.
Scott: I would. Hi, Peter.
Peter: So what do I do? This? Oh, there it is. Now it show- I
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: see it now. Oh, I’m going to allow access to the microphone. What vehicle manufacturers who create electric vehicles, strictly EVs, not hybrids, in the state of Massachusetts, or at least sell them in the state of Massachusetts, have online telemetry? I can think of Tesla, for example, but I know that Kia and Subaru, for instance, for legal reasons, do not.
Scott: It’s not talking. I can’t hear it. You didn’t share it with sound. You didn’t share it with sound.
Peter: Rivian. Okay. So we got, I’ll re- I’ll, I’m gonna stop here. So what we got is Massachusetts, Rivian, Lucid, Polestar, General Motors, which is Chevy, Cadillac, GMC, uh, Ford, Mustangs, BMW, Mercedes, and possibly Hyundai, but that’s the same as Kia. So there are
Scott: It is.
Peter: a number that do this. It’s not just a one-off.
Scott: Okay.
Peter: [laughs]
Scott: Yeah, I understand that, but what I’m saying is nobody gives a s*** about Ford Mustang. First of all, them calling that thing a Mustang is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. Like, it’s a f***
Peter: I*** it,
Scott: SUV
Peter: is it dumber than the Bronco? Is it dumber than the Bronco? ’Cause that’s also an SUV, and that used to be a pickup truck, and a damn good one.
Scott: No, Broncos have always been. You look at the old Broncos, they’ve always been a ute.
Peter: I take that back. I take that back. You are correct. What was I thinking? There was a Ford pickup truck, though, that looked very much like that.
Scott: I’m not sure.
Peter: No, you are correct. Uh, Bronco was a thing. I think there
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: was a pickup version. Hold on. Hold on. No, there was indeed a pickup version. Yes,
Scott: Oh, okay.
Peter: I am correct. Yep, there was,
Scott: But there was
Peter: there
Scott: always
Peter: was a pickup
Scott: a ute
Peter: version.
Scott: version, too.
Peter: Yep. Apparently
Scott: Uh,
Peter: the 2026 is back to being an off-road pickup again.
Scott: interesting.
Peter: So bizarre. Yeah. So anyway, yes. But yeah, no, the Ford Bronco pickup was the original, and it didn’t have… It just didn’t have the cap at the very back.
Scott: I guess what I’m saying is– Right, yes. Yeah, I remember that. It,
Peter: Yep.
Scott: it basically was a ute. They could technically call it a pickup,
Peter: It was a,
Scott: yeah.
Peter: it was a ute without the, the, the, without the, the roof in the back.
Scott: Yep. Um,
Peter: Isn’t it great? You can watch, I can actually see the podcast devolving as we drink more. [laughs]
Scott: I know. Um, but here’s what I’m trying to say, though, is n- the only ones of those that anybody gives any bit of a s*** about are Kia and maybe Tesla, and only Tesla because of its lead.
Peter: Pause. We have,
Scott: Okay.
Peter: here in Cambridge and Boston, we have a ton
Scott: Uh-huh.
Peter: of Rivians and Lucids.
Scott: That’s true. Yeah, Rivian and Lucid might be interesting as well. I’m
Peter: Yep.
Scott: not saying they couldn’t have come up with a technical solution, Peter. I’m not saying that at all. I am
Peter: I
Scott: saying
Peter: mean, others
Scott: they decided
Peter: did,
Scott: not to–
Peter: right? They decided
Scott: But I’m saying
Peter: not
Scott: that
Peter: to.
Scott: they decided
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: not to spend the money on
Peter: Yeah,
Scott: changing
Peter: exactly.
Scott: their telemetry, which I,
Peter: Which,
Scott: I understand.
Peter: which Kia, that should come as no surprise ’cause they are notoriously cheap.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: So anyway,
Scott: And also,
Peter: that
Scott: I
Peter: said…
Scott: can understand, I can understand why a car company like Kia would not have the foresight to imagine that somebody was gonna say, “By the way, your, your proprietary telemetry has to be open to the universe.”
Peter: Maybe not, but right to repair has been a thing for a while. John Deere has been in the EFF’s targets for, you
Scott: And
Peter: know, sights
Scott: yet
Peter: for
Scott: John
Peter: quite
Scott: Deere
Peter: some time.
Scott: still gets away with what they’re getting away with, so make
Peter: Yes.
Scott: all the noise you want. Right
Peter: What
Scott: to Repair
Peter: I’m saying,
Scott: has
Peter: though, is
Scott: made
Peter: yes, but
Scott: very
Peter: what,
Scott: little
Peter: what
Scott: progress.
Peter: you said was, like, they wouldn’t, you know, it should’ve been on their radar, even if they decided, like, “That’ll never happen.” Yeah.
Scott: Yeah, I guess.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: Yeah. I, I guess, though… So here’s the thing is, like, just because their telemetry is not open to the public,
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: doesn’t that mean, doesn’t– How does that prevent a mechanic from plugging in a computer and seeing everything that’s going on? I don’t understand. Like, you could still make your over-the-air telemetry not public. This is over-the-air telemetry, by the
Peter: Yeah,
Scott: way.
Peter: I s- I can see that.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: I’m gonna, I’m gonna press my mute button.
Scott: Okay, that worked. You’re
Peter: Hey,
Scott: muted.
Peter: bug fix. Perfect. I’m gonna push that, so anybody who’s
Scott: Oh,
Peter: using
Scott: [claps]
Peter: the fnMute.
Scott: let me guess. You had to reboot your Kia.
Peter: No, I just
Scott: Oh.
Peter: pushed in a change, and I’m pushing it up to Scratch Itch Software right now.
Scott: Hmm. Peter’s fixing it. Peter complained to the vendor, and now he’s fixing it for the vendor, of which he is the vendor, and now he’s
Peter: I am.
Scott: pushing the software to the vendor. By the way, I will say I have started converting all of my apps to my business developer account, Peter.
Peter: Good for
Scott: That
Peter: you.
Scott: is going amazingly well, and
Peter: Okay.
Scott: I have,
Peter: I’m amazed
Scott: I have
Peter: at
Scott: implemented
Peter: how well this is going.
Scott: the same– I have imim- I have implemented the same update system that you have, except that my build scripts also push it directly to my website without me having to manually do anything. Ha ha.
Peter: I want to test things before
Scott: Ha ha.
Peter: I push them live.
Scott: Oh, no, I test them.
Peter: But you said
Scott: Oh,
Peter: you’re
Scott: I see
Peter: build,
Scott: what you’re saying.
Peter: you’re building it and pushing it and then testing it. My order
Scott: But I always
Peter: of operations
Scott: test on a,
Peter: is different.
Scott: but I always test on a different branch. If I’m building the main
Peter: Ah.
Scott: branch,
Peter: Mm-hmm.
Scott: it’s, it’s been tested.
Peter: Hmm.
Scott: I don’t let, I don’t let my programming assistant, as it were, my capable hired programmer, I don’t let that programmer make changes on main. I just don’t. I put a stop to that a long time ago.
Peter: Hmm. How responsible of you.
Scott: Well, that’s why God or whatever invented other branches in Git was so that you wouldn’t be f*** up your main branch all the time, making stupid changes to it that you didn’t know if they were gonna work or not.
Peter: So speaking of funny faux pas, while I was
Scott: Uh-huh.
Peter: driving and having that conversation with Kia, [laughs]
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: uh, sorry, with Claude around Kia,
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: I also said, “Hey, Dingus,” meaning not Claude, but the other Dingus built into the iPhone, “Call,” you know, “so and so.” And somehow I had broken… Oh, I think I had reached over, and I used the Siri button to initiate a phone call. And then I tried to do it again by voice saying, “Hey, so and so, call so and so.” And it was like, “I don’t know who that is. I have no idea who this is.”
Scott: Mm-hmm. I don’t
Peter: And
Scott: even
Peter: I
Scott: know
Peter: didn’t
Scott: who you
Peter: r-
Scott: are. In fact,
Peter: I didn’t
Scott: I’m
Peter: even
Scott: shutting
Peter: know he,
Scott: down your car right now. You should be glad
Peter: here’s…
Scott: you don’t have CarPlay Plus or whatever so that it could take over your car, ’cause it would just be like, “I’m not sure you’re supposed to be driving this car, sir. I’m just shutting it down right now.”
Peter: Here’s, here’s the funny part was the second time, though, since I didn’t use the button,
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: I was actually talking to Claude. [laughs] And Claude was like, “I’m sorry, I don’t know who these people are.” I’m like, “You just f*** called them, you miserable piece of s*** And Claude was like,
Scott: You
Peter: “I’m
Scott: called them,
Peter: really,
Scott: you wrote a letter
Peter: I’m really sorry about this, but I don’t really know who these people…“ And I was just like, I was like, “Siri, you’re so-” Useless. I was like, “I think there may have been some crossed wires here. I’m Claude,
Scott: I was gonna
Peter: not Siri,
Scott: say, have
Peter: and
Scott: you
Peter: I
Scott: been
Peter: haven’t
Scott: drinking
Peter: messaged
Scott: with…
Peter: anybody named so-and-so. Our conversation was about the KIA983A demand letter.“ And I said, “Oh, my effing God. Claude, Claude. Hey, yeah, Claude, cancel this conversation. I need to speak with Siri for a while.” [laughs] But
Scott: I thought
Peter: that
Scott: maybe
Peter: doesn’t actually
Scott: Claude had
Peter: do
Scott: been
Peter: anything.
Scott: drinking with the glowing idiot.
Peter: I had apparently been drinking a cup of coffee, so yeah,
Scott: With the
Peter: there
Scott: glowing
Peter: you go.
Scott: idiot.
Peter: Anyway, dear listener, if you are
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: a user of the beta of fnMute, because sometimes
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: you know you just need to effing mute, uh, the latest beta version, which is available for download from scratchitchsoftware.com, now mutes all input devices, not just the default operating system input device. Because what had happened was my AirPods Pro were my default input device, but that’s not what Riverside was using to record. It’s using my Tempest Boom microphone, and that’s
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: why pressing my fn Q was not effing muting me.
Scott: Oh, okay. So there was nothing wrong with it.
Peter: There was nothing…
Scott: So…
Peter: It was… Well, I mean, yeah, it was muting the wrong device, but now it mutes everything. [laughs]
Scott: Oh, okay. I see. I was gonna say, so there was no change. It just made a change to make you happy and in the background it was like, “G*** this guy doesn’t know what he’s doing, [laughs] but I’m
Peter: No,
Scott: just gonna
Peter: it was,
Scott: make a
Peter: it
Scott: change.“
Peter: was set to mute the default, but, but I,
Scott: Yeah,
Peter: but,
Scott: right.
Peter: but right now we’re recording on
Scott: Yes.
Peter: not the default,
Scott: Correct.
Peter: so
Scott: Correct.
Peter: yeah.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: So there
Scott: It
Peter: you go.
Scott: was… So, um, by the way, speaking of betas, I will say that, um, since you are a kind patron of a web server that I’m currently managing with your Scratch Itch software applic- uh, website, [laughs] I noticed as I was
Peter: Like,
Scott: looking
Peter: is
Scott: at some CPU
Peter: Scott about to
Scott: util-
Peter: ask me for money or something? What’s going
Scott: I was
Peter: on?
Scott: about
Peter: [laughs]
Scott: to… [laughs] Oh no, this is far worse. This involves a hot tub and a goat. No, um, [laughs] I mean, the goat’s the good part. The hot tub’s the part I’d be scared of. [laughs] Anyway, let me get back to this. So as I was investigating some CPU utilization spikes, I did notice from the logs that I was analyzing that your site is getting apparently some beta downloads, so that’s good.
Peter: That
Scott: That
Peter: is
Scott: wasn’t
Peter: good.
Scott: causing the, that wasn’t causing the CPU
Peter: Are they…
Scott: utilization
Peter: Are
Scott: spikes.
Peter: they…
Scott: People were hammering
Peter: Is it,
Scott: the hell…
Peter: is it
Scott: No.
Peter: just me constantly pushing new updates?
Scott: Well, unless you’re, unless you’re scanning the entire web server and all the sites on it for xmlrpc.php all the time or whatever it’s called.
Peter: That’s
Scott: No,
Peter: not
Scott: I
Peter: me.
Scott: don’t think it was you. Yeah, that was not you. And that is now blocked, by the way, so that won’t
Peter: Okay,
Scott: happen anymore.
Peter: good. Thanks. Yeah, okay,
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: thanks. [laughs]
Scott: Okay, thanks. [laughs] Anyway, I noticed that people are downloading your betas, so that’s good.
Peter: That is cool.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: That is excellent.
Scott: So apparently
Peter: Anyway,
Scott: people
Peter: uh,
Scott: are scratching their…
Peter: s- scratching
Scott: Go ahead.
Peter: their itches, or my itches,
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: or people… I,
Scott: Don’t
Peter: I, I’ve got
Scott: scratch.
Peter: some itches.
Scott: [laughs] Please,
Peter: Scratch my itches.
Scott: people, stay away from Peter’s itches. First of all, [laughs] don’t try to guess where they’re located and then scratch there. That’s off limits, people. Off limits. Way out of bounds.
Peter: Oh.
Scott: And secondly, just don’t do it anyway. [laughs] Peter’s got his own hands, and unlike mine, they’re fully functional. He hasn’t destroyed any tendons in his fingers. Ah. So what were you gonna say, by the way? I cut you off. [laughs]
Peter: Ah. Um, the… And so the current status of the Kia, uh, debacle is I sent a demand letter to Kia Motors, uh, k- uh, Americas. And I told them that… What did I want? I said, “Immediately…” Um, I sa- well, first off, the other thing too is I haven’t even talked about this yet. This is the third major malfunction of this car in as many years.
Scott: Okay, remind me what the other two were, because I think I only know about one of them maybe,
Peter: The
Scott: or
Peter: first
Scott: remember.
Peter: one, I was driving through the Big Dig, the Ted Williams Tunnel in Boston, and
Scott: And
Peter: it
Scott: it
Peter: lost
Scott: sucked.
Peter: power.
Scott: Oh my
Peter: It
Scott: God.
Peter: lost power in the middle
Scott: Fuu–
Peter: of rush hour,
Scott: Dude, that
Peter: and
Scott: is…
Peter: I was, I was only able to get up to 25 miles an hour. Luckily, traffic was really slow, but I was able to get off the car off, and I took the Chinatown exit, and I looked ahead. I found a corner parking spot and parked it, and it died completely. I couldn’t even… Like, the electrics were dead. I couldn’t just unlock the doors by pushing the button. I had to, like, manually pry the doors open to unlock them.
Scott: Oh. Well, at least you could do that, unlike a Cybertruck, which you’ll just burn to death in. But by the way,
Peter: Bingo. [clears throat]
Scott: so did it, did it slow down gradually, or did it just suddenly drop speed? Oh, God, that is a good way to get killed,
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: or rear-ended, or
Peter: So
Scott: both.
Peter: that was number one. And then the
Scott: Yep.
Peter: second major problem was, uh, earlier this year, I was driving to Vermont in subzero weather and the heat stopped working.
Scott: Hmm. Okay, I actually did know about both of those others then. Yeah,
Peter: Right.
Scott: I remember
Peter: And
Scott: now.
Peter: now the third one, EV, AWD, A- A- AWD F- you know, 4WD issue. I’m like, “Great, thank you so much.”
Scott: WDFU
Peter: So
Scott: too, Kia.
Peter: F you.
Scott: Have you,
Peter: Yeah,
Scott: have you
Peter: F you,
Scott: considered
Peter: WD.
Scott: the fact that your car is actually trying to kill you? First it wants to kill you on the freeway, and when that doesn’t work, it decides to freeze you in the wilderness.
Peter: You know, I could a- amend my demand letter and accuse them of murder. Maybe that’ll get their attention faster.
Scott: Yeah. I mean, y- your
Peter: So…
Scott: demand letter was just, “Hey, here’s my demand. Please try not to be the tremendous a*** that you apparently are.” But now
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: you can amend it to, “Please try not
Peter: S-
Scott: to be the tremendous a*** murderers,
Peter: s- murder- attempted murderers, yeah.
Scott: attempter
Peter: No, so
Scott: murderers.“
Peter: I told them, I said, “Immediately, without waiting for the response period, I want a loaner at their expense. And within 30 days, I want expedited diagnosis of the thing.” And I also demanded a goodwill extension of the warranty, and in the event that they can’t provide that, that they replace the vehicle. They’re not gonna do that, but
Scott: No.
Peter: you gotta overshoot a little bit.
Scott: You gotta overshoot. You have to negotiate to negotiate.
Peter: Yep. So there you go.
Scott: That is wild, Peter. That’s too bad.
Peter: Yep. [exhales] The, the, the thing that ticks me off the most though is that I bought this based on Consumer Reports’ predicted reliability rating.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: When I went to buy the car, they predicted an 89%. When I had committed to buying the car, it had gone up to 90%.
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: And then after I bought the car, it dropped to, like, 65%.
Scott: Peter, Peter’s driving off the lot, and he gets a Consumer Reports notification. Ding. [laughs]
Peter: Do not buy. Avoid like the
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: plague.
Scott: This car will kill you. We’ve determined this car has an eighty-eight percent chance of killing you.
Peter: Ah. Ugh. Anyway,
Scott: That is hilarious
Peter: yeah. So that was,
Scott: and
Peter: that
Scott: sad.
Peter: was, that was great. It was awesome. Yeah, it was absolutely hilarious. [sighs]
Scott: Okay. What else do we have to talk about now?
Peter: I don’t know, but I need to sober up for a little bit because I have company coming over in the next half an hour, and I’m tipsy.
Scott: Oh, oh, well…
Peter: But actually, I have some cool… I have a good story, though, ’cause too, I don’t wanna end on a bad note, so I can end
Scott: Okay.
Peter: on a high note. But
Scott: Okay.
Peter: I’ve… This has sort of been a Peter-dominant episode, so if you wanna chime in, you’re welcome to.
Scott: I probably had things to talk about before I started drinking this Great Gourds Pumpkin Ale, but now that I can’t think of any of them.
Peter: All right. Well, I will end on a high note. A nifty. I have here a, an
Scott: Oh,
Peter: Apple
Scott: I have a nifty
Peter: Find
Scott: tube
Peter: My,
Scott: then.
Peter: Find My compatible credit card-sized AirTag compatible
Scott: Oh.
Peter: device.
Scott: Oh.
Peter: So it’s about the size of a credit card. It
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: costs, right now it’s on sale. At the time of this recording, it’s on sale for, like, $13 on Amazon. I’ll put a link in the show notes.
Scott: Yep.
Peter: But what’s nifty is I bought pretty much the exact same thing a year and a half ago for over $20, and it came with a three-year warranty, and they claimed it had a five-year battery life. And while I was in Virginia last week on vacation, it stopped working.
Scott: Hmm.
Peter: And so I tried to contact the manufacturer, who seemed to be, like, one dude with a WordPress site.
Scott: Wait a minute, but the product had twenty-five names in Amazon, but it was just one guy. There were more names of, on the product. There were more words in the product n- name than there were
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: guys working at the factory.
Peter: That, that’s, that’s cool. Scamming is not an AI-only thing. It’s existed for a long time before AI came along. So you can definitely propagate yourself many times.
Scott: I wish
Peter: So,
Scott: I would’ve known that.
Peter: um,
Scott: [gasps]
Peter: yeah. I mean, yeah, too late now, though. So I c- I tried to contact them, and his, the WordPress contact form doesn’t work. It gives an error. It’s like, “Oh, your message could not be sent.” So I said to myself, “I’m only gonna spend five minutes on this. I’m not gonna spend more than that to try to troubleshoot it.” I went to Amazon Tech, uh, to Customer Service. I complained. They refunded me the full amount. So they gave me back 20 bucks, uh, with which I used to buy this $13 replacement. So I came out ahead on this one because I bought something for thir- for $20, got $20 back, got a year and a half of use out of it, and then paid $12 for its replacement. So I’m okay
Scott: That’s
Peter: with
Scott: not
Peter: that.
Scott: bad. That is okay.
Peter: Yeah.
Scott: By
Peter: [laughs]
Scott: the way, you reminded me of two things. Number one, I was gonna say you should have Claude hack into that guy’s website and make sure he gets the damn message, and two, I was also gonna say I ran an Nmap on two authorized subnets that I was requested to be in, by the way, and now I can’t get my stupid project for my work-related stuff to stay out of Opus four point eight because it keeps triggering itself, and I was like, “What the f*** I was yelling
Peter: That’s a
Scott: at it.
Peter: sca-
Scott: I was like, “Delete your memories of this whole conversation, you f*** idiot.” Anyway, the other thing that you reminded me of was I bought one of these Comet Qs. This is what, um,
Peter: I’ve been
Scott: caselesscaseyliss,
Peter: hearing about that.
Scott: yeah.
Peter: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I’ve been hearing about it on The Accidental Tech podcast. What are these things?
Scott: And it, it is pretty cool. So basically what it does is it lets you, it lets you remotely log on to your device, but it, but unlike, Peter, unlike, you know, screen sharing and so on and so forth, it will let you see like the boot-up screen. It’ll let you see the entire thing the whole time. So you
Peter: Right.
Scott: can see what the device is doing. So if for some reason you wind up at a weird screen, you can see that. it’s pretty cool. I won’t ever use this unless I can’t get to it the other normal ways. You know what I mean? Um, but th- by the way, this supports Tailscale. So this device is instantly available in Tailscale,
Peter: That
Scott: in
Peter: is
Scott: my Tailscale
Peter: pretty cool.
Scott: account. Yeah. Now, one funny thing about this is if I use the webpage, uh, that lets you log into the device on my Mac, it works fine, but if I use it on my iPhone, my Mac Mini is always locked. There’s no way to type in the password. There is no way. On the Mac, of course, you have a keyboard. On the iPhone, it doesn’t bring up the keyboard for you to type in your login because it just thinks it’s a webpage. So it is absolutely hilarious. It, it, [laughs] yeah, it’s dumb. Dumb as hell, I say. But they do have an app that you can run, and that works fine. Uh, but, but overall, no, it’s pretty good. What I figured I would use this for is for those times where for some reason, um, it’s behaving irrationally, and if I’m out of the house and I’m not able to connect to it with its Tailscale address, this thing will get me in because this has its own Tailscale address. So
Peter: That’s
Scott: I can
Peter: pretty
Scott: just connect
Peter: cool.
Scott: to this. Yeah, it is pretty cool.
Peter: Now, but, but would you use that as a standard keyboard/mouse sharing replacement thing like AcrossKM?
Scott: You know,
Peter: Different use case. So when they call
Scott: different
Peter: them
Scott: use
Peter: remote
Scott: case
Peter: KVMs, they’re really hardware remote desktop. Isn’t that what they really are?
Scott: I think so, yeah.
Peter: I mean, the, but they’re re-mo- referred
Scott: Unless
Peter: to
Scott: I
Peter: as
Scott: misunderstand,
Peter: remote KVMs
Scott: unless I misunderstand some use that this has that I haven’t used yet, but…
Peter: Yeah. Yeah. It’s really hardware remote desktop. Now, I was thinking that same exact thing though, because I was thinking that… Wow, I’m, the beer is kicking in.
Scott: I know. [clears throat]
Peter: I was thinking that same thing because I was thinking [laughs] that same thing.
Scott: You were th- yes.
Peter: Therefore, I’m thinking the same thing.
Scott: Peter,
Peter: Um,
Scott: are you thinking the same thing?
Peter: I’m thinking the same
Scott: [laughs]
Peter: thing. [laughs]
Scott: It’s the same,
Peter: Uh,
Scott: exactly
Peter: no,
Scott: the
Peter: I was
Scott: same.
Peter: thinking that I should grab one of those also because,
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: um, I want
Scott: You
Peter: a
Scott: have
Peter: re-
Scott: issues
Peter: a reliable
Scott: with
Peter: way
Scott: your…
Peter: to remote.
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: And, um, and you have first-hand experience with a number of remote desktop tools that have questionable reliability.
Scott: Can’t imagine what those are.
Peter: Yeah, neither can I. Um, should we tell people how to find us and kick us… Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, there’s more,
Scott: Wait.
Peter: other cool things.
Scott: Oh,
Peter: Other… I’m not done. I’m not done.
Scott: oh,
Peter: As you know,
Scott: oh,
Peter: I use an iPhone 17 Pro,
Scott: oh. Yep.
Peter: which has MagSafe,
Scott: He’s not caseless Casey Less.
Peter: and I have a
Scott: He’s,
Peter: case on it which is also MagSafe compatible.
Scott: he, he’s caseful
Peter: But
Scott: Peter Nikolaidis, which does not roll off the tongue nearly as nicely.
Peter: I also have a MagSafe compatible wallet, which
Scott: Ah.
Peter: is usually fairly slim, but I pack a ton of crap into it,
Scott: Mm.
Peter: including
Scott: He, he carries around
Peter: as
Scott: a lot
Peter: a,
Scott: of bills just to
Peter: including
Scott: show off.
Peter: as I mentioned, that AirTag compatible credit card sized form factor scan, uh, tracker, which I can then s- snap onto the back of my thing, right? And it’s bulky, right? But at least I have stuff in one spot, so when I sit down at a restaurant and I just put it down, it’s one pile. I keep my wallet and my phone together. But sometimes my battery runs low, and so I want a MagSafe compatible battery, which is great. But now what do I do with this? Well, since I just upgraded to the Belkin 5,000 milliamp hour battery, it’s MagSafe on both ends.
Scott: Peter,
Peter: And
Scott: I gotta
Peter: s-
Scott: say two things. Number one, loose pants and big pockets, and number two, you may not want to do the saggy pants below the butt look with your underwear hanging out, but you will be if you put that phone in your pocket.
Peter: Last week, when I was walking along the Reflecting Pool in the, the
Scott: Oh,
Peter: National
Scott: no.
Peter: Mall,
Scott: Please don’t reflect this. [laughs]
Peter: which by the way was not reflective at all ’cause it’s drained because
Scott: Because
Peter: reasons.
Scott: the swamp, yes.
Peter: Uh, because the sea had drained just like the swamp. Exactly. Um, I saw a guy who was walking with a pair of running shoes, except he was wearing them like, you know, put on a pair of slippers where your heels,
Scott: Mm-hmm.
Peter: you know, you, with
Scott: Oh,
Peter: the
Scott: yeah,
Peter: back,
Scott: yeah, yeah.
Peter: normally
Scott: Yeah.
Peter: your foot sticks into the back. Instead you
Scott: Right.
Peter: do that.
Scott: Push
Peter: Y-
Scott: it down, yeah.
Peter: he was doing that with a pair of running shoes as he was walking along
Scott: Hey,
Peter: the
Scott: can
Peter: Reflecting
Scott: I ask you a question?
Peter: Pool area.
Scott: Was this guy Japanese by any chance? The reason
Peter: No,
Scott: I ask is ’cause…
Peter: no. He was African American. And my
Scott: Oh.
Peter: contractor for my place in Vermont is calling. I need to take
Scott: Okay.
Peter: this call. Please hold.
Scott: Ladies and gentlemen, as Peter goes to his contractor in Vermont, I will tell you how you can find us. You can find us at friendswithbrews.com. You can find us on the YouTubes. We have the tubes of the you. Uh, and we can, uh, we have video there. We have all sorts of entertainment. You can say things like, “Great Scott” as you watch the videos. You can- Tell your friends … and get us all the, uh, attention that we need, which we do, by the way. By the way, thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Please go to ScratchItch Software and support Peter because he pushes bug fixes even as we record. Please support this podcast. Please tell your friends. Please… Look, we’re not chasers of the algorithm. We’re just real people, and I believe that that should count for something both on YouTube and in real life. So thank you, thank you. Tell your friends. I’ll give Peter a chance to come back to say something, if he can. Depends on what his contractor is saying to him. Tell your friends. Uh, here’s what his contractor is saying right now. Hello, Peter. What’s happening? Uh, we have sort of a problem here. [laughs] Now Peter’s wondering why I’m laughing so hard. Oh my God. Okay, here’s the rest of the re- here’s the rest of the podcast from now until Peter gets back. Peter.
Peter: You’re not gonna believe this.
Scott: Oh, wait.
Peter: Oh,
Scott: I
Peter: wait,
Scott: thought it
Peter: I
Scott: was
Peter: thought
Scott: good
Peter: it was
Scott: news
Peter: good
Scott: ’cause
Peter: news
Scott: you
Peter: ’cause
Scott: didn’t
Peter: you
Scott: seem
Peter: didn’t
Scott: mad.
Peter: seem mad. Oh,
Scott: You seemed
Peter: no.
Scott: happy.
Peter: Thought it was good news. No, I wouldn’t call this good news because-
Scott: Oh, I’m sorry.
Peter: Oh, I’m sorry … nothing about my place in Vermont is good news. that was my contractor in Vermont
Scott: Yep.
Peter: calling to
Scott: Yep.
Peter: tell me that the hot water heater that I have had nothing but problems with was beeping and leaking water, which is the
Scott: Wait,
Peter: same
Scott: didn’t
Peter: exact
Scott: you just
Peter: problem
Scott: replace that
Peter: that
Scott: thing?
Peter: these… They fixed this exact same issue earlier this year. Same
Scott: No,
Peter: exact
Scott: they didn’t.
Peter: issue. The,
Scott: Nope, they
Peter: the…
Scott: did
Peter: No,
Scott: not.
Peter: they didn’t. You’re right. They didn’t. Yes, exactly. No, they didn’t. Oh, my God,
Scott: Okay,
Peter: this is
Scott: apparently
Peter: ridiculous.
Scott: water heaters are the most complicated technology known to mankind and no one can solve this problem, Peter. Nobody has ever successfully managed to get a water heater running. J***
Peter: N*** There, it’s
Scott: What
Peter: not
Scott: is
Peter: possible.
Scott: wrong with these guys? All right, so
Peter: [sighs]
Scott: I already gave the website. I, I pimped for our YouTube channel. I said that we’re not the algorithm chasers but reward us anyway. And then
Peter: Please.
Scott: I said I’m
Peter: Did you
Scott: waiting
Peter: say please?
Scott: for…
Peter: Hope you
Scott: I,
Peter: said please.
Scott: I don’t remember. Probably not. And then I played some cricket sounds and then I said we’re waiting for Peter to come back so Peter can say goodbye. [laughs]
Peter: Goodbye.
Scott: Okay, I’ll say it one more time. Tell your friends