February 27, 2026 • 40 mins
This is an episode of our weekly tech talk broadcast by Refresh Computers.
Key Takeaways
- AI data centers are eating hardware: Massive demand for hard drives and RAM is causing shortages and price spikes—expect higher costs for upgrades and consumer devices for years.
- The cloud is physical—and thirsty: Data centers consume huge electricity and water, straining grids and even causing water shutoffs in small towns near new facilities.
- Subscriptions are everywhere and rising: Streaming, software, printer ink, car features—everything is monthly now. Cancel trials immediately to avoid surprise charges, and subscribe directly (not through Apple/Roku) to avoid extra fees.
- Public Wi-Fi is riskier than ever: Avoid it if possible; cellular data is much safer. Turn off auto-connect on carriers like T-Mobile to prevent unwanted public network joins. Always use a VPN if you must connect.
- AI tools are powerful but frustrating: ChatGPT lagged on long conversations and gave outdated instructions—David's switching to Grok for better reliability.
- Antivirus tip: Stick with Malwarebytes ($35/year through Refresh Computers)—avoid Norton, which pushes unnecessary add-ons.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_03 (00:08):
Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on
WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando'snews and talk.
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, President and Founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore, andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
You can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200, or of course
you can leave an open mic usingthat WDBO app.
(00:31):
Don't forget to check out thewebsite over at Refresh
Computers.net, or you can alwaysstop in at the Refresh Computer
Superstore in Longwood at 820East State Road 434, just three
and a half miles east of I-4 inLongwood.
Store hours are Monday throughSaturday, 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
And if you're listening to theshow here on Saturday, that
means you still have time tostop by.
They'll be open until 7 p.m.
(00:51):
today.
And now for the men themselves,David Levitt and Adam
Littlefield.
SPEAKER_02 (00:56):
All right.
Thanks, Greg.
And thanks everybody forlistening to yet another edition
of Tech Talk with RefreshComputers.
I'm David Levitt, the owner andfounder of Refreshed Computers.
We're over 26 years old now,Adam, a 26-year-old computer
company.
And uh, you know, we have beenservicing Central Florida that
that entire time.
(01:17):
And I'd like to think that weare Central Florida's computer
source.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Been in the heart of Longwood for that whole 26
years, right?
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
That's right, right.
Very easy to get to, three and ahalf miles east of I-4.
You know, we have people comingin to our store from Tampa, from
Jacksonville, from Dayton, youknow, all over the place.
And for you know, very goodreason, you know, we take care
of our customers.
That's what we do.
And so not only do we sell avast variety of refurbished
(01:49):
desktops and laptops, all namebrand too.
Um, you know, so we do Dell, HP,Lenovo, and not only do we sell
that hardware, we service allthat hardware, you know,
including Apple products aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Yeah, it's something everybody in our in our in the
building does every day.
It's not like we have somebodythat's just at a call desk or
something like that.
Everybody there has thattechnical experience.
SPEAKER_02 (02:14):
You know, and you know what I thought of in
probably in the last year or twois the fact that uh, you know,
I'm like, I wonder we've sold somany computers and laptops, so
many, that I'm wondering, geez,uh who else is left to buy?
I'm not kidding.
(02:35):
I've actually had that thought.
It's like, wow, you know, it'slike maybe the sales are gonna
taper off or something becauseyou know we've already sold them
to everybody, but no, they justkeep keep coming.
SPEAKER_00 (02:45):
So there's been a just a big need for Windows 11
computers lately.
And you know, we've been we'vebeen talking about all these
hardware crunches that we'vebeen seeing over the past couple
of months, AI buying upabsolutely everything.
You know, it's it's down evennow to mechanical hard drives,
something that I know we'vetalked about before is saying
was technology that was gonna goaway because solid states were
(03:06):
invented.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
But but it's making its way back.
We talked, I talked last week,Adam, about how you know even
Western Digital, you know, theythey're they're still making
hard drives, the old-fashionedyou know, spinning disc hard
drives.
But they announced, well,they're uh gonna be out of stock
the entire year this yearbecause guess who's buying up
all the hard drives?
More data centers.
AI data centers.
(03:27):
They can't get their hands onthe solid state drives, so
they're gonna be using the nextbest thing.
They are using the next bestthing, you know, probably for
the you know, the the lower uhtask-centric uh storage
capabilities, right?
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Yeah, a bunch of learning, machine learning that
the the AI models have gonethrough.
I'm sure these large AI models,these old ones, they store for
just archival purposes, sothat's got to take up a ton of
space.
You know, and it's there'sthere's such a big cloud with
AI, everybody thinks, you know,it's it's in the cloud, right?
It's just off somewhere, youdon't have to worry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:01):
But what is the cloud?
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
The the cloud is hardware.
SPEAKER_02 (04:03):
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:04):
It's just it's something that's physically
built now across the wholecountry.
SPEAKER_02 (04:07):
Just think of it as somebody else's computer that
you're connecting to.
SPEAKER_03 (04:11):
Yeah, no, and the biggest point of that is just so
much access via the internetnowadays.
You now have high-speed internetglobally at this point,
especially with the continuationof Starlink.
So you have access to all thisdata, it's got to be stored
somewhere.
Yeah.
And uh they're starting to runout of space for even that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
Yeah, it's it's a very large and very expensive
venture.
You know, I I've looked at allof the data for all these AI
companies, Anthropic, um, I'veseen looked at Google with
Alphabet.
Yeah and all of these AI botsare just not profitable.
They are all majorly in the red.
And I'm not talking, you know,thousand, maybe a couple million
dollars.
We're looking at like billionsof dollars of capital.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Facebook Meta just announced a hundred billion
dollars to spending with AMD.
Yeah.
Right?
Advanced micro devices.
They are you know spending ahundred billion dollars.
They're kind of locking in thatcompany.
Well, okay, well, nobody elselocked you in.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna suck up allyour resources.
SPEAKER_00 (05:05):
Yeah, just the just another one to to pick up really
quick in all of this crunch.
SPEAKER_02 (05:10):
And that's why RAM prices are continuing to spike.
They're still rising.
It's uh very difficult toupgrade your computer.
You can't do it affordably now.
You just can't.
It's just too much money toupgrade.
And um, it's I guess if you justabsolutely have to, those are
the people that are upgrading.
(05:30):
And you know, the question iswhen do we see a downturn?
When do we see the prices goingdown again?
Yeah, we don't.
We just don't, not in the not inthe foreseeable future.
Right.
Maybe two years out, three yearsout, Adam, you think?
SPEAKER_00 (05:45):
That's what I'm hoping for, but you know, I I'm
giving myself some leeway in myhead so I can feel good when it
doesn't happen in 2028.
I'm saying 2020 or 2030.
That's that's my safe bet rightnow in my own head.
SPEAKER_02 (05:56):
Well, and you know, and right now too, it's a very
expensive because it's very hardto get your hands on.
Yeah.
And especially for likeretailers like like us or like
any of the big box stores, youknow, they're they're having a
very difficult time, you know,finding uh RAM at prices that
they can turn around and andresell you know, without giving
(06:19):
them away, which is just aboutwhat we're doing almost.
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Yeah, and these these these big box stores too,
you know.
I've been also seeing a bunch ofmishaps with their shipping
where people are buying just,you know, maybe one kit of RAM
and they're getting a whole boxfull of it.
So we're not just having ashortage because AI is just
buying all of it up, but we'realso having a weird supply chain
issue where wrong shipments arebeing sent to people.
SPEAKER_03 (06:40):
And I guess that turns into an idea of maybe
these were less important itemspreviously for shipping.
I mean, they were affordableitems.
It wasn't one of those highdollar items, and now suddenly
again the price has skyrocketed.
You go from an item that wassixty, seventy dollars for a kit
to now it's over three hundreddollars for that same kit less
than a year later.
(07:00):
And that's where you're gonnastart seeing some of those kind
of shipping issues that Iimagine.
SPEAKER_00 (07:03):
Yeah, and you know, we always talk about the the
hardware shortages that we'reseeing from AI, but we never
talk about the other impacts,you know?
These large data centers that wehave built everywhere now, the
electrical demands, the demandon the grid and liquid demand,
like water, that that's a majorone that a lot I know a lot of
small towns are actually havingtrouble with now because they're
(07:24):
having water shutoffs becausethey have an AI data center that
was built close enough in theirwater system where this the
whole city has to be cut off fora little bit.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Yeah, and you know, a lot of that water is used in
in cooling systems in these AIdata centers.
These are these are hotmachines.
And there's a lot of liquidcooled stuff going on in these
data centers, and um, so notjust the power, right?
It's it's uh could be a watercrunch as well.
SPEAKER_03 (07:50):
Yeah.
So now, how much of that shouldbe a municipality's
responsibility to make sure thatthis new data center that's been
built has electricity and orwater availability?
Or does that does the cost ofthat need to be bucked back to
these companies that are kind ofinvading these small towns that
really weren't built for that inthe first place, right?
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
Well, in in my sort of libertarian leaning mindset,
zero responsibility of themunicipality.
Right.
If you're building that big datacenter, then uh you know you you
foot the bill, you you need topay for stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (08:23):
Yeah, because I'm not cutting off water to Jane
and John Doe down the streetbecause you didn't plan for this
correctly.
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
So that's a major thing that, like I said, a lot
of small towns are seeingbecause these data centers are
buying up massive amounts ofland, which are located near
small towns because it's cheap,and that's the cheapest thing
that they can do in their wholeventure is to buy that land.
SPEAKER_03 (08:44):
Well, you know, the city of Orlando doesn't want to
see that built in the middle ofwhat they try and describe as an
entertainment district andthings like that either.
Right.
So that's yeah, that's the ideais gonna get pushed out further
and further to these areas thatif you look in if you just want
to talk about Central Florida,if you want to use that as an
example, out into those kinds ofareas like out towards a popka
that are starting to see a lotof growth or even even further
(09:04):
out, you'll start seeing maybe alittle bit of a back and forth
on is this gonna be developedfor property for people to live,
is it gonna maintain for cattleor agriculture, or is it gonna
become a data center?
SPEAKER_02 (09:15):
Exactly.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout um yeah, what what you
might need.
So say you might want to getstart getting into AI stuff and
and geez, is my can is mycomputer capable?
And well, let me just start offby saying if you have a Windows
11 computer, it's pretty capableof running probably just about
all the AI stuff the typicaluser would want to run.
(09:37):
Yeah, I think so you don't haveto worry so much about getting
some piece of hardware that isquote unquote AI compatible.
Right.
Because your Windows 11computer, I can tell you right
now, is already AI compatible.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
And that's something Microsoft has made very
apparent, is every install ofWindows 11 has Copilot
installed, and Copilot is one ofthose AIs.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
Big big AI platform.
You know, not not the best onein the world, in my opinion.
But I agree.
But they're all you knowsupposedly you know getting
better.
And Adam, you know, we it'scrazy.
You know, I've been working likecrazy with a particular AI
platform trying to automate sometasks for refreshed computers.
Because uh if you have abusiness, you probably should
(10:19):
look at doing something likethat.
And I want to discuss myfrustrations a little bit with
what I was doing before theshow.
SPEAKER_00 (10:26):
A little bit of the growing pains with working with
using some of these.
SPEAKER_02 (10:30):
So I've been I've used Groc, which is, you know,
in my opinion, a great AI toolfrom uh Elon from X.
And I've used Chat GPT.
Uh uh I've been using Chat GPTextensively this past week or
two, uh giving it a really goodworkout, let's just put it that
way.
(10:50):
And uh there's other Gemini fromGoogle.
I I kind of I haven't been usingthat very much because when I
used it last, which was not toolong ago, yeah, uh, it just
doesn't seem to be as robust asChatGPT or Grok.
In my opinion, those are the twoof the mainstream AI platforms,
the the two most advanced,right?
So they have the latestinformation, they have the you
(11:13):
know the the latest toolsavailable to you.
But my frustration has been withChatGPT when I am trying to get
it to help me program somethingor automate something.
For example, this radio show.
I'm trying to use someautomation tools.
I actually had a comment fromone of our uh better customers
(11:36):
or or more common or customersthat that that uh visit us
frequently, I guess is the wordI'm looking for, uh saying, hey,
geez, I wish there was some wayyou could summarize stuff when
you put out your podcast so Ican read the summary.
At least that way I know if Iwant to listen to the podcast,
right?
So I do kind of summarize italready, but by hand it's just
like a short paragraph.
(11:56):
So I'm using ChatGPT to help melisten to the audio file, which
it does like instantaneouslythrough a tool.
Which is scary to think aboutthrough a separate tool, and you
know, f uh and uh put it all inin words, basically a context
that that's just all words, youknow, and and uh translates, I
guess, the the full transcript,yep.
(12:17):
The transcript.
Thank you.
That's the word I was lookingfor.
Great.
Thanks.
Converts the audio into a fulltranscript, and then it looks at
the transcript and comes outwith all these ideas or or
bullet points and stuff that canactually be inserted when I post
the podcast on the website.
SPEAKER_03 (12:33):
Dave and Adam, very knowledgeable on a subject.
Greg hilarious throughout theshow.
SPEAKER_02 (12:37):
That's right.
So I I so my frustration withChat GPT has been that when I
ask it to to to to help me withthe task and it and it'll refer
to another tool like thisZapier.
I'll just throw that name outthere.
You're maybe you're not familiarwith it or not, and maybe you
are.
(12:57):
So it'll it'll use Zapier tointerface a lot of things, but
then it'll always use anoutdated user interface in Z in
Zapier.
Not just Zapier, but everysingle application I have asked
ChatGPT to look at, it look itwas giving me instructions as if
I was looking at an olderversion of it online.
Because when I go to thatapplication online like Zapier
(13:20):
and I look at it, and I have totell ChatGPT what you're telling
me is not matching what I'mseeing.
And ChatGPT would come back andsay, Oh, that's because I'm not
looking at the latest userinterface.
My bad.
Here's the instructions usingthe latest user interface, so it
would give me that, and then itwould be some I would say 50-50.
(13:41):
Sometimes really is the latestand sometimes not.
But then when I get to the verynext step, Chat GPT has already
forgotten to look at the latestuser interface because it would
still give me the very next stepinstructions and the old user
interface.
Are you with me?
I mean, and that is sofrustrating because it takes
takes a lot of time going backand forth.
(14:02):
So this is what I've beenexperiencing.
So my next step is to go back toGrok because I haven't tried
this extensive uh applicationworkflow with grok yet.
I'm not this deep.
I'm gonna go back and use thesame workflow with grok to see
if if grok will be able to justautomatically come back with the
latest user user interface.
(14:23):
So it's very, very frustrating.
And my point is it's I'm hopingthat we can get this to the
point where we can help you, thelistener, help you navigate
something like Chat GPT here inthe future.
So we'll see how that goes.
So stay tuned for that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:38):
They're really important tools moving forward.
You've got to know the ins andouts, and you've got to know the
limitations, right?
That is definitely one of thoselimitations.
We'll talk a little bit more ona new AI that a burger joint has
introduced.
I'll bring that up on the guest.
And we'll also talk a little bitabout some public Wi-Fi tips
that you should be aware of.
You've been listening to TechTalk right here on WDBO, 1073FM
(14:59):
and AM580.
Hey there, and welcome back toTech Talk here on WDBO 1073 FM
and AM580, Orlando's news andtalk.
(15:21):
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, President and Founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
You can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200.
Or if you have any othercomments during the show, go
ahead and leave an open micusing that WDBO app.
And now, back to David and Adam.
But before we get into thatWi-Fi talk, I wanted to bring up
(15:42):
one more AI uh integrated systemthat we didn't bring up that you
might not have heard of.
This one's called Patty.
And it's being brought to you byBurger King.
Burger King.
So Burger King is going to beusing this as a training tool
inside their stores.
It's going to be built into theheadsets that you see a lot of
the people using, and it's goingto listen in on their
conversations with customers andgive them feedback on about how
(16:03):
courteous they're being tocustomers.
It's also going to give them anability, if they're not sure
about a cleaning or maybe how acertain burger is made, they can
ask Patty, hey, how do I makethis burger?
How do I clean the stove?
And Patty will give them all theinstructions and some of the
food information as well.
So they're piloting that rightnow at about 500 locations, but
I thought you guys might findthat a little bit interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
I hope that works out well for them.
I love the name.
SPEAKER_00 (16:32):
I think Wendy's had at one point.
SPEAKER_02 (16:35):
I can't wait for McDonald's Frenchie.
Oh yeah.
So hey, so let's talk a littlebit about public Wi-Fi.
We've warned about this before.
Yeah.
And so the I guess the gist ofit is, you know, you really need
to stop using public Wi-Fi likeit's 2008, right?
SPEAKER_00 (16:55):
Because it's not a bad thing to have public Wi-Fi,
but the security risk you'reputting yourselves in now
compared to 2008, like youmentioned, is totally different.
You know, I was I was talkingduring the break actually, that
specific carrier I have.
I will go through and I will putin the effort when I'm out to
turn off my Wi-Fi, disconnectfrom everything, because I don't
need it auto-connecting.
SPEAKER_02 (17:15):
Hey, you know, we don't have to apologize.
You can mention them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:18):
Okay, T Mobile.
T-Mobile.
Yeah, T-Mobile's the one I have.
SPEAKER_02 (17:20):
Not a sponsor of the show, so you're fine.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
I'll be out and I'll look at my phone, it says
connected to Wi-Fi.
It's like, well, I thought I'dturn that off.
And I look and it says T-Mobileaccess point or public access.
And I went through the effort toturn that on, and my phone
turned Wi-Fi back on andautomatically connected me to
something I told it to forgetpreviously.
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
Same thing, yeah.
Because I have T-Mobile also.
That's the same thing to me.
I've noticed that's a big gripethat I have with that.
It's it's wait a minute, I toldyou to forget that.
So why are you automaticallyjust coming back and remembering
that?
SPEAKER_00 (17:52):
Yeah, and there's there's ones like um I think
Spectrum's a big one.
SPEAKER_02 (17:55):
There's a technical reason why that happens though.
But but T Mobile needs toaddress it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
They do.
SPEAKER_02 (18:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:01):
So yeah, I mean, as far as like public Wi-Fi goes,
you know, with with theseT-Mobile access points, with
Spectrum, even the airportWi-Fi, they if you have a little
bit of know-how of how to sniffaround on a network, there is so
much that people can figure outabout you.
SPEAKER_02 (18:16):
Oh, you can do it from your iPhone.
Yeah.
If you know what you're doing,there there are apps.
Yeah.
Yes, and Apple allows these appsbecause they're actually used
for other things too.
Legitimate purposes.
But you can they're used forlegitimate purposes.
But there are apps, I'm notgoing to name them, but there
are apps that you can have onyour that you can actually snoop
other people's devices allaround you in an airport.
SPEAKER_00 (18:36):
Yeah, you can see what their their traffic is.
You know, I I've seen ones thatis go can as far as they can
they can intercept information,which is exactly what I mean
myself, I'm worried aboutconnecting to access points.
I don't want somebody getting mymy bank login token because I
decided just to check my balancereally quick and I'm connected
to the MCO's uh internet in thein the terminal.
(18:57):
You know, it's it's those kindsof situations that in this kind
of expanding tech world we stillhave to be conscious of, even
more now than 2008.
SPEAKER_03 (19:04):
Cellular data versus public Wi-Fi, which one do you
guys trust more?
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
Absolutely cellular data, any day of the week.
SPEAKER_02 (19:10):
Oh yeah.
And and and actually we hadmentioned that on I had
mentioned that on our show,gosh, probably a year or so ago
now.
That uh the your your regularcell phone data plan is about as
secure as you can get.
You can't get really get muchmore secure unless you have uh
like a Nord VPN, some kind ofVPN.
If you had a VPN on top, thenyou can get a little bit more
(19:32):
secure.
But cellular data is much safer.
Yeah.
Much, much, much safer.
There's a lot of cybersecurityinto that than connecting to a
public Wi-Fi system.
Uh, you know, I'm talking about,you know, I travel a lot, right?
I'm in uh RV parks here andthere, they always have their
their own Wi-Fi for the publicand you know, your restaurant
(19:53):
Wi-Fi's, you know, all theairport Wi-Fi's, all these
public Wi-Fi spots.
If you can avoid connecting to apublic Wi-Fi, that's the best
advice I can give you about thatsubject, is just don't use it if
you un unless you have to.
SPEAKER_03 (20:07):
If you have to, get a VPN.
Yes, definitely.
Even if just one of those freeVPNs that gives you access, go
ahead and use one of those VPNs.
We'll continue this talk on somegreat tech going on as well as
how it's getting more and moreexpensive.
You've been listening to TechTalk right here on WDBO 1073FM
and AM580.
(20:38):
Welcome to Tech Talk here onWDBO 1073 FM and AM580,
Orlando's News and Talk.
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, president and founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore, andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
And you can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200.
Or if during the show you wantedto leave us an open mic, go
(20:59):
ahead and use that WDBO app.
You can also check out thewebsite over at Refresh
Computers.net or stop it at theRefresh Computer Superstore in
Longwood at 820 East State Road434, just three and a half miles
east of I-4 in Longwood.
Store hours are Monday throughSaturday, 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
And if you're listening to theshow here on Saturday, that
means you still have time tostop by.
They'll be open until 7 p.m.
(21:21):
today.
And now, David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02 (21:24):
All right.
Thanks, Greg, and thankseverybody for listening to Tech
Talk with Refresh Computers.
You know, we had a veryinteresting first couple of
segments, talked a lot about AIagain and you know what the
cloud really is.
And we also uh gave a warningabout public Wi-Fi systems and
and the uh people that aretaking advantage of stealing
your data over public Wi-Fi havegotten very intelligent about
(21:47):
it, very smart.
Uh they probably even use someAI tools to guide them there.
SPEAKER_03 (21:52):
If they aren't, they are now.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:54):
That's right.
And so, you know, just the ifyou can avoid it, just don't
connect the public.
Wi-Fi.
We talked about how cell phonedata as opposed to connecting to
Wi-Fi is much safer, much saferto use your cell phone data plan
than it is to use a public Wi-Fisystem.
So just keep that in mind.
(22:15):
If you missed anything you wantto hear the show, you can just
go to refreshcomputers.net andclick on the podcast link in the
upper right hand corner.
You'll be able to hear the showin its entirety.
And uh, you know, hopefully inthe very near future, if I can
get ChatGPT to work correctly,if not maybe Groc, uh, you'll
see uh a very nice synopsis ofthe show on you know, basically
(22:36):
in post fashion on the websiteand stuff like that.
So we're working on that.
And uh I can't tell you how muchmore time it's gonna take
because I don't know.
Because I keep going down theseroads that chat GPT sending me
and it's like, what?
Anyhow.
SPEAKER_00 (22:50):
AI is one of the most confident liars I think
I've I've right?
That is the gaslighting.
The gaslighting is intense.
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
It is oh, I can complete that in three easy
steps.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
You know, it took seven steps out of it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:05):
No, seven hundred.
SPEAKER_00 (23:06):
Yeah.
That's the thing with AI, is itis so confident in being wrong.
And when you correct it, I Iknow you've had some situations
today where it kind of gets alittle snippy and it's kind of
like.
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
I told it, hey, you what happened to like the last
two hours of conversation I hadwith you on this programming
thing I'm doing.
It was so intense and it wasjust driving me crazy, and we're
going back and forth, and youand You're arguing with the AI.
What happened?
I I just I lost like the lasttwo hours of chat with you, Chat
(23:37):
GPT, and it comes back and says,No, that's impossible.
It must be you.
Yeah, it must be a graph.
Wow.
It's not me, it's you.
No, no, it's not because youdon't you have you know in your
data center somewhere, you know,where you all this is stored,
and and and and and we know wewent back and forth probably a
(23:57):
hundred different times duringthis two-hour period and you
lost all that.
Where is it?
Oh, it's on your end.
You got to clear your cache, youknow, and stuff like that.
I said, no, no, no, it's not.
I went back and forth and loggedinto a different computer, even
found that same chat session,still missing all that two hours
worth of stuff.
And but you know what, Greg?
(24:19):
And Adam, the next day I loggedinto the same computer I was
using when I was initiating thiswith Chat GPT, and there it was.
SPEAKER_03 (24:27):
I imagine it was there.
It's like when it came back.
I have that same argument withmy wife all the time.
It's the mayonnaise was therethe entire time.
That's right.
I don't know what you're doing.
It was there, I swear.
SPEAKER_00 (24:38):
I would love to think of it as it comes down to
something with hardware.
Somebody just unplugged a drivein a data center because they
were changing it out orsomething.
It lost part of yourconversation and the AI
gaslights you into thinking itnever existed.
Oh, and it was they took a pieceof the brain out.
SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
There's no way it could be wrong.
It was telling me, no, it is onyour end.
It is not on my end.
I still don't know what happenedor even how it came back.
All I know is I did more thanjust clear my cash on my
computer.
I logged into a completelydifferent computer that had no
cash buildup of theconversation, and it was still
gone.
So, anyhow.
SPEAKER_03 (25:12):
I just imagine chat GPT saying, it was not me.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
And you know, it's it's really infuriating with
that too, where it just deleteda whole part of your
conversation where a lot ofthese AI bots, you have to pay
for these really advancedversions of them.
SPEAKER_02 (25:26):
I pay for it.
You paid for it.
I'm paying for the pro versionof Chat GPT.
And it's just still, you know,doing that.
And and you know, and then andanother thing I noticed while
we're on this subject before weget to the next topic is the
fact that it once I got reallydeep into a conversation, I mean
really, really deep with ChatGPT, uh, where you can barely
(25:48):
see the little slide bar to theright to go back and forth up
and down on your chat becauseit's so small, because it's so
big, that it lagged.
SPEAKER_00 (25:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
Chat GPT lagged.
Not my not my computer.
My my uh laptop, I I just uhinitiated a new laptop last
night I'm starting to use uhfrom the computer store.
And actually, we have one ofthose left in stock, by the way.
If you're interested in this, isit's a super laptop, it has 128
gig of RAM.
SPEAKER_00 (26:16):
If you if you're trying to do anything, like
you're trying to run four-hourAI chat, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:22):
And guess what?
It even with that super laptop,so I know it's not me because I
have a hundred and twenty-eightgig of RAM is insane.
Yeah, it's it's still lagged.
Still lagged in Chat GPT.
So what does that say?
SPEAKER_00 (26:34):
It's it's a chat GPT problem.
And chat GPT is in denial ofthat.
Remember, it's all it's allDave.
That's right.
Not me.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (26:41):
But that's only after, you know, you know, hours
of conversation back and forthwith ChatGPT.
You know, when you're just whenI'm just using it and like if I
open up a new conversation, itworks, no lag.
Just works just fine.
But anyhow, so the next topic wewant to talk about is why in the
heck is everything getting moreexpensive in tech?
Not just not just the memory andthe solid.
(27:05):
Not just the hardware stuff, butsoftware stuff too is getting
crazy expensive.
And maybe there's a connectionfor some of it, because you
know, let's face it, theseplaces that are providing these
services to you are using nowmore expensive hardware to get
you there.
So that's probably one reasonwhy you know your you know
(27:26):
streaming prices and stuff likethat are starting to go up.
Um, so you know, it's like youknow, when did everything become
like ten dollars a month, right?
You know, everything isswitching to this kind of
subscription-based uh system.
Uh, you know, and it's it's beena migration for the last few
years, actually.
You know, started with Office365.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
I was about to call out Office just right there to
say I'm looking at it, becauseOffice was the first one that
I'm sure 90% of listeners rightnow are like, yep, that's that
was the first subscription Isaw.
SPEAKER_02 (27:58):
And Microsoft has changed the name of that like so
many times in the last three orfour years, I can't even
remember what it's called rightnow.
SPEAKER_03 (28:03):
You probably have three subscriptions to it, you
just don't know it.
SPEAKER_00 (28:06):
See, that's the thing, they they used to go by
the year, right?
And I think 2024 was when theystopped doing the year, and
between 2024 and now they'veprobably changed the name what
four or five times, somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_02 (28:16):
And and and be careful too.
You know, I heard a Clark Howardepisode just recently talking
about uh if you use the Apple,if you have a uh iPhone or an
iPad or any kind of uh Appleapp, right?
That an app that you got onApple, right?
So you so you went got yourNetflix app, you got your you
(28:38):
know, whatever app that you get,you got it through Apple instead
of directly through the companythat's providing the service,
stop getting it through Apple.
Go get it right through thatcompany that's providing the
service because Apple isstarting to charge an up fee for
your subscription and and stuffthat you're getting through the
(28:58):
Apple store.
The Apple store.
Yeah.
So if you can do it, I mean youhave to get the app through the
app store.
Yes, that's true.
But to sign up for thesubscription itself, do it
directly with the serviceinstead of through the app store
because Apple is tagging on afee now for a lot of that stuff.
And so you're if you're doing itthrough the app store, you might
(29:20):
not even realize you're payingmore now.
And because especially since somany people have so many apps
and so many subscriptions now.
It's it's uh you don't even knowwhat you're paying for half the
time.
SPEAKER_03 (29:33):
And that was usually a good way to kind of keep track
of what you were subscribed tobecause it's all in just one
easy to manage tab inside theapp store instead of having to
try and remember how to get toall these different websites and
navigate them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:44):
But now you have to pay for that convenience.
That's a privilege.
SPEAKER_00 (29:47):
And a lot of subscriptions have turned into
that too.
You know, oh, it's only threedollars a month, it's only five
dollars a month.
Oh yeah, that's that's not thatbad.
I couldn't even tell you guyswhat I'm subscribed to anymore.
I could tell you two or threethings, and then after that, I
just you know, it I just let itroll.
And I know I they're not badenough that they're gonna be
like a thousand dollars everymonth.
I don't even want to check.
SPEAKER_02 (30:08):
Yeah, it's just you know, it's hard because not only
you it's hard to remember, youknow, how many apps and how many
things that you're subscribedto, it's hard to remember where
did you subscribe to it from.
You know, you you have uh Roku,for example.
You can subscribe to a lot ofthings through Roku instead of
directly through the servicethat you're getting, you know,
(30:30):
like HBO Max, for example.
You can subscribe to that rightthrough Roku.
Or you can do it through HBO Maxand and pull it up on your Roku.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (30:39):
I mean, so which is what I'm suggesting that you do,
go directly to the source if youcan, and then just match it to
the app that you're using it on.
Yeah.
Same thing with uh your iPhone.
So go to HBO, if you want HBOCinemax right now, HBO Max, I
guess they call it, go to HBOMax website, subscribe to it
(31:00):
there, and then when youdownload the app on your iPhone,
or when you download the app onyour Roku or other streaming
service, you all you do is justconnect it and it's connected.
So, but you're not payingthrough them, you're not paying
through Roku now, you're payingHBO Max directly.
And so this is an example ofwhat I was talking about
earlier.
Instead of subscribing throughone of these services,
(31:22):
especially through Apple throughthe Apple store, don't do that
anymore.
As a matter of fact, you canprobably cancel your
subscription in the Apple storeand go to directly to the source
and resubscribe, and then youstill have the app in the Apple
store and you just you juststill just connect it to Apple.
Save a buck or two.
SPEAKER_03 (31:39):
Yep.
Absolutely.
And uh you brought up HBO Max,and it's interesting because
they've been involved in thisnew big Warner Brothers
Paramount.
The bid or that was going on,yeah.
And uh there's some news thatjust came out here uh just
leading into the weekend thatParamount finally gave a large
enough bid to Warner BrothersDiscovery to bump Netflix off of
this deal.
(31:59):
Netflix said, Nope, we're notgonna match, we're not gonna
continue on.
I think Netflix might get thebetter deal out of that.
They're about to get$2.8 billionricher for not even bidding
anymore because they got bumped.
But it'll be interesting to see,again, we talk about all these
different subscriptions that weall have, and I have Paramount
and I have HBO Max.
I wonder what's gonna happenwith as these companies begin to
(32:21):
merge.
Are they gonna keep separateentities?
Are they gonna make one majormega app?
Or I don't I don't know.
It's gonna be interesting tokeep following on.
SPEAKER_00 (32:28):
And you know, we're seeing a lot of subscriptions
come into spaces that I nevereven imagined.
I know HP, they have their smartink subscription that they'll
every couple months they'll sendyou ink and you're allowed to
print only a certain amount ofpages a month.
If you print over that, you haveto pay extra.
If you cancel, they canelectronically lock that ink
cartridge over the internet soyou can't use it anymore.
(32:49):
Unbelievable.
I I I know I'm payingsubscriptions for my car with
the full self-driving andeverything.
SPEAKER_02 (32:53):
With your Tesla?
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Yeah, we're I'm getting to the point now where
I'm expecting my toaster isgonna need a subscription by the
end of this year.
SPEAKER_03 (32:59):
And if you don't get the right kind of bread, you
cannot make toast anything.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
Exactly.
Sourdough subscription only.
SPEAKER_02 (33:04):
Either that in this AI world, you might get burnt
toast.
SPEAKER_00 (33:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:08):
And you know then they'll tell you it's it's fun.
Yeah, it's fine.
What do you mean to burn yourtoast?
I didn't burn your toast.
Oh, you burnt your toast.
SPEAKER_00 (33:16):
See, all these all these subscriptions are becoming
a big hassle to us now because Iknow we were saying earlier, you
know, I couldn't tell what I'msubscribed to.
Greg, you said you're scared tocheck.
I had a customer a couple monthsago that was just switching off
of Norton.
We're paying monthly for it.
SPEAKER_02 (33:29):
Good move, good move.
SPEAKER_00 (33:30):
Yeah, and once I once I kind of went through and
I did all of the math for himand I canceled all these add-ons
that Norton just kept saying,hey, you need this, your drivers
are out of date, you need this.
Note to listeners.
SPEAKER_02 (33:39):
Note to listeners at this point.
Norton is terrible.
Get rid of it if you have it.
It's nothing more than a it'sactually a spam bot itself.
SPEAKER_00 (33:48):
When I when I came to that total, it was over$400 a
year.
That gentleman was being chargedin add-ons.
Norton itself, I think, was$120for the add-ons for the the
remaining amount, and that'sridiculous.
SPEAKER_02 (34:02):
I tell you the only antivirus you need, which is is
malware bites.
Yeah, malware.
Mauerbytes is the only one.
Is a great, and it's uh throughus anyways,$35 a month.
Or no, I'm sorry, a year.
A year, yeah.
$35 a year.
I mean, that's uh we have aspecial deal with malware bites
that allows us to charge$35 ayear.
And even if you go on themalware bytes website, it's$50.
(34:24):
Yeah.
So we're we're saving you$15.
SPEAKER_00 (34:27):
We're not pulling an apple, we're not charging any
fees on you with it.
You know, it's it's actually agood discount on a really,
really good antivirus.
SPEAKER_02 (34:34):
Yep.
Super, super one.
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
So yeah, I know uh I know everything with streaming
right now is just getting worseand worse, and AI with these
subscriptions are getting worseand worse.
And I've I've been seeing pricesgo up, and it's it's little
price increases you see.
You know, Spotify, I think, justwent up a couple dollars about a
month ago.
Netflix increased theirs by acouple dollars, but if every one
increases by five dollars,you've got 10 subscriptions.
(34:57):
Well, now you're paying$50 moredollars a month.
SPEAKER_03 (34:59):
And they'll multiply that by the millions of
subscribers for all thesedifferent and these companies
are raking in the dough.
SPEAKER_02 (35:05):
Oh, they are, they are, and you know, and then go
back to the AI situation withthe hardware shortages going on.
You know, some of thesecompanies have to be charging a
little bit more right nowbecause, you know, they depend
on that kind of hardware toprovide their services.
SPEAKER_03 (35:19):
We'll put a wrap on today's episode of Tech Talk.
You've been listening right hereon WDBO 1073FM and AM580.net.
(36:03):
And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02 (36:05):
All right, thanks, folks.
Thanks for listening to TechTalk with Refresh Computers.
You know, we left the lastsegment talking about the paid
subscription services and whythey're getting uh more
expensive, and a lot of that hasto do with you know, these
places that provide theseservices have to buy hardware to
run these services.
And guess what?
Hardware's prices are going upeverywhere because AI is sucking
(36:26):
up all the available memory andsolid state drives and
electricity and water.
And so these platforms, youknow, any of these
subscription-based platforms areuh dependent upon that hardware
also.
So, you know, so when as theyare upgrading, well, it costs
them more, so guess what?
They're gonna charge you more.
That's just you know the waythings work.
(36:47):
And one of the things that wewere talking about during the
break, I want to bring upbecause it's it's a very good
tactic, I think, to use, andit's what I do often is when you
subscribe to something, a newservice, and you do a 30-day
trial or a 60-day trial or a90-day trial, whether it's a
$1.99 trial that turns into a$50trial, or maybe it's a free
(37:10):
trial.
When you subscribe to thesetrials, what I've learned to do
myself is to immediately go inand cancel it.
Because when you subscribe toit, it still keeps you active
for that free period.
In most cases, sometimes nowthey're not, but in most cases,
you still you just cancel itthat way.
(37:31):
And the only reason I do it isnot because I'm trying to get
something for nothing.
It's not that at all.
It's just that in three months,if I don't, I I'll if I stop
using it or I don't like it,I'll just forget to cancel it.
And the next thing you know, itcharges me.
SPEAKER_03 (37:44):
And so many of these companies are banking on it.
Oh, yeah.
They are banking on it.
SPEAKER_02 (37:48):
So a good tip is just to go in and cancel it as
soon as right after you startit.
You know, just go ahead andcancel it.
And as long as they're notcharging you a fee to cancel,
which in most cases they don't.
No.
But and your whatever yousubscribe to is still gonna be
good for free for that periodthat you originally signed up
for that you just canceled, butit's still gonna last for that
(38:09):
period of time.
And guess what?
Before that time ends, thatsubscription service is gonna
remind you anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (38:16):
Oh, yeah.
They because they want they wantto remind you, hey, you're set
up to cancel, but if you comeback, and then they'll maybe hit
you with another another gooddiscount for another six months.
SPEAKER_02 (38:26):
That that that's a good possibility too.
So, anyhow, so that's just uhsomething you may or may not
want to try.
Um, so we look we talked aboutuh all kinds of stuff on today's
show, including my in-depthconversation with ChatGPT.
More like argument, arguing, uhyeah, and frustrations, I I will
say, also.
(38:47):
Um disappointment in some insome regards, how it you know
took me down the wrong road forhours, literally hours, uh,
without realizing it did.
And and it's just yeah, I wouldhope that it would be smarter
than that by now.
So it still still needs a lot ofwork, but if you miss any of
(39:09):
that, go torefreshcomputers.net, click on
the podcast link.
And one of the things that I'mworking on that I mentioned
earlier with Chat GPT, now I'mgonna go to GROKA's chat GPT.
I've I'm folks, I've workedliterally days worth of time,
not just hours, I mean days backand forth with ChatGPT to
automate something so that ourshow will come out and in a
(39:31):
format on the website that's uhmakes it more pleasant.
You get a little brief, bettersynopsis of what we're talking
about, and uh you know, and thenyou can choose whether or not
you want to listen to the showbased on what the show notes are
that appear.
You would think that would befairly simple for AI.
There's a lot of integrationthat has to happen, you know,
(39:51):
from where we upload our uh theaudio that Greg sends me every
week, where we upload thataudio, and then that integration
has to happen with Chat GPT anda scheduler and all kinds of
stuff.
But anyhow, uh we're hoping tomake that the show more clear
and you know, and so you can seeexactly what's going on.
So stay stay tuned for thatcoming up in the in the near
(40:13):
future.
And so we're just about out oftime.
I appreciate you listening.
Don't forget, we still have afree tech support hotline.
Yes, we do.
407-478-8200.
Call us about anything technicaland we'll do our best.
We're open Monday throughSaturday from 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
You can use that free techsupport hotline at any during
any of those hours or call afterhours, leave us a message, and
(40:34):
we'll get back to you.
So that's all we have time for,folks.
This is David Levitt signing offfor this week with Tech Talk.
We'll talk to you again nextweek.
Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on
WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando'snews and talk.
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, President and Founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore, andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
You can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200, or of course
you can leave an open mic usingthat WDBO app.
(00:31):
Don't forget to check out thewebsite over at Refresh
Computers.net, or you can alwaysstop in at the Refresh Computer
Superstore in Longwood at 820East State Road 434, just three
and a half miles east of I-4 inLongwood.
Store hours are Monday throughSaturday, 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
And if you're listening to theshow here on Saturday, that
means you still have time tostop by.
They'll be open until 7 p.m.
(00:51):
today.
And now for the men themselves,David Levitt and Adam
Littlefield.
SPEAKER_02 (00:56):
All right.
Thanks, Greg.
And thanks everybody forlistening to yet another edition
of Tech Talk with RefreshComputers.
I'm David Levitt, the owner andfounder of Refreshed Computers.
We're over 26 years old now,Adam, a 26-year-old computer
company.
And uh, you know, we have beenservicing Central Florida that
that entire time.
(01:17):
And I'd like to think that weare Central Florida's computer
source.
SPEAKER_00 (01:21):
Been in the heart of Longwood for that whole 26
years, right?
SPEAKER_02 (01:24):
That's right, right.
Very easy to get to, three and ahalf miles east of I-4.
You know, we have people comingin to our store from Tampa, from
Jacksonville, from Dayton, youknow, all over the place.
And for you know, very goodreason, you know, we take care
of our customers.
That's what we do.
And so not only do we sell avast variety of refurbished
(01:49):
desktops and laptops, all namebrand too.
Um, you know, so we do Dell, HP,Lenovo, and not only do we sell
that hardware, we service allthat hardware, you know,
including Apple products aswell.
SPEAKER_00 (02:04):
Yeah, it's something everybody in our in our in the
building does every day.
It's not like we have somebodythat's just at a call desk or
something like that.
Everybody there has thattechnical experience.
SPEAKER_02 (02:14):
You know, and you know what I thought of in
probably in the last year or twois the fact that uh, you know,
I'm like, I wonder we've sold somany computers and laptops, so
many, that I'm wondering, geez,uh who else is left to buy?
I'm not kidding.
(02:35):
I've actually had that thought.
It's like, wow, you know, it'slike maybe the sales are gonna
taper off or something becauseyou know we've already sold them
to everybody, but no, they justkeep keep coming.
SPEAKER_00 (02:45):
So there's been a just a big need for Windows 11
computers lately.
And you know, we've been we'vebeen talking about all these
hardware crunches that we'vebeen seeing over the past couple
of months, AI buying upabsolutely everything.
You know, it's it's down evennow to mechanical hard drives,
something that I know we'vetalked about before is saying
was technology that was gonna goaway because solid states were
(03:06):
invented.
SPEAKER_02 (03:06):
But but it's making its way back.
We talked, I talked last week,Adam, about how you know even
Western Digital, you know, theythey're they're still making
hard drives, the old-fashionedyou know, spinning disc hard
drives.
But they announced, well,they're uh gonna be out of stock
the entire year this yearbecause guess who's buying up
all the hard drives?
More data centers.
AI data centers.
(03:27):
They can't get their hands onthe solid state drives, so
they're gonna be using the nextbest thing.
They are using the next bestthing, you know, probably for
the you know, the the lower uhtask-centric uh storage
capabilities, right?
SPEAKER_00 (03:42):
Yeah, a bunch of learning, machine learning that
the the AI models have gonethrough.
I'm sure these large AI models,these old ones, they store for
just archival purposes, sothat's got to take up a ton of
space.
You know, and it's there'sthere's such a big cloud with
AI, everybody thinks, you know,it's it's in the cloud, right?
It's just off somewhere, youdon't have to worry about it.
SPEAKER_02 (04:01):
But what is the cloud?
SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
The the cloud is hardware.
SPEAKER_02 (04:03):
That's right.
SPEAKER_00 (04:04):
It's just it's something that's physically
built now across the wholecountry.
SPEAKER_02 (04:07):
Just think of it as somebody else's computer that
you're connecting to.
SPEAKER_03 (04:11):
Yeah, no, and the biggest point of that is just so
much access via the internetnowadays.
You now have high-speed internetglobally at this point,
especially with the continuationof Starlink.
So you have access to all thisdata, it's got to be stored
somewhere.
Yeah.
And uh they're starting to runout of space for even that.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
Yeah, it's it's a very large and very expensive
venture.
You know, I I've looked at allof the data for all these AI
companies, Anthropic, um, I'veseen looked at Google with
Alphabet.
Yeah and all of these AI botsare just not profitable.
They are all majorly in the red.
And I'm not talking, you know,thousand, maybe a couple million
dollars.
We're looking at like billionsof dollars of capital.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Facebook Meta just announced a hundred billion
dollars to spending with AMD.
Yeah.
Right?
Advanced micro devices.
They are you know spending ahundred billion dollars.
They're kind of locking in thatcompany.
Well, okay, well, nobody elselocked you in.
I'm gonna, I'm gonna suck up allyour resources.
SPEAKER_00 (05:05):
Yeah, just the just another one to to pick up really
quick in all of this crunch.
SPEAKER_02 (05:10):
And that's why RAM prices are continuing to spike.
They're still rising.
It's uh very difficult toupgrade your computer.
You can't do it affordably now.
You just can't.
It's just too much money toupgrade.
And um, it's I guess if you justabsolutely have to, those are
the people that are upgrading.
(05:30):
And you know, the question iswhen do we see a downturn?
When do we see the prices goingdown again?
Yeah, we don't.
We just don't, not in the not inthe foreseeable future.
Right.
Maybe two years out, three yearsout, Adam, you think?
SPEAKER_00 (05:45):
That's what I'm hoping for, but you know, I I'm
giving myself some leeway in myhead so I can feel good when it
doesn't happen in 2028.
I'm saying 2020 or 2030.
That's that's my safe bet rightnow in my own head.
SPEAKER_02 (05:56):
Well, and you know, and right now too, it's a very
expensive because it's very hardto get your hands on.
Yeah.
And especially for likeretailers like like us or like
any of the big box stores, youknow, they're they're having a
very difficult time, you know,finding uh RAM at prices that
they can turn around and andresell you know, without giving
(06:19):
them away, which is just aboutwhat we're doing almost.
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Yeah, and these these these big box stores too,
you know.
I've been also seeing a bunch ofmishaps with their shipping
where people are buying just,you know, maybe one kit of RAM
and they're getting a whole boxfull of it.
So we're not just having ashortage because AI is just
buying all of it up, but we'realso having a weird supply chain
issue where wrong shipments arebeing sent to people.
SPEAKER_03 (06:40):
And I guess that turns into an idea of maybe
these were less important itemspreviously for shipping.
I mean, they were affordableitems.
It wasn't one of those highdollar items, and now suddenly
again the price has skyrocketed.
You go from an item that wassixty, seventy dollars for a kit
to now it's over three hundreddollars for that same kit less
than a year later.
(07:00):
And that's where you're gonnastart seeing some of those kind
of shipping issues that Iimagine.
SPEAKER_00 (07:03):
Yeah, and you know, we always talk about the the
hardware shortages that we'reseeing from AI, but we never
talk about the other impacts,you know?
These large data centers that wehave built everywhere now, the
electrical demands, the demandon the grid and liquid demand,
like water, that that's a majorone that a lot I know a lot of
small towns are actually havingtrouble with now because they're
(07:24):
having water shutoffs becausethey have an AI data center that
was built close enough in theirwater system where this the
whole city has to be cut off fora little bit.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Yeah, and you know, a lot of that water is used in
in cooling systems in these AIdata centers.
These are these are hotmachines.
And there's a lot of liquidcooled stuff going on in these
data centers, and um, so notjust the power, right?
It's it's uh could be a watercrunch as well.
SPEAKER_03 (07:50):
Yeah.
So now, how much of that shouldbe a municipality's
responsibility to make sure thatthis new data center that's been
built has electricity and orwater availability?
Or does that does the cost ofthat need to be bucked back to
these companies that are kind ofinvading these small towns that
really weren't built for that inthe first place, right?
SPEAKER_02 (08:09):
Well, in in my sort of libertarian leaning mindset,
zero responsibility of themunicipality.
Right.
If you're building that big datacenter, then uh you know you you
foot the bill, you you need topay for stuff.
SPEAKER_03 (08:23):
Yeah, because I'm not cutting off water to Jane
and John Doe down the streetbecause you didn't plan for this
correctly.
SPEAKER_00 (08:30):
So that's a major thing that, like I said, a lot
of small towns are seeingbecause these data centers are
buying up massive amounts ofland, which are located near
small towns because it's cheap,and that's the cheapest thing
that they can do in their wholeventure is to buy that land.
SPEAKER_03 (08:44):
Well, you know, the city of Orlando doesn't want to
see that built in the middle ofwhat they try and describe as an
entertainment district andthings like that either.
Right.
So that's yeah, that's the ideais gonna get pushed out further
and further to these areas thatif you look in if you just want
to talk about Central Florida,if you want to use that as an
example, out into those kinds ofareas like out towards a popka
that are starting to see a lotof growth or even even further
(09:04):
out, you'll start seeing maybe alittle bit of a back and forth
on is this gonna be developedfor property for people to live,
is it gonna maintain for cattleor agriculture, or is it gonna
become a data center?
SPEAKER_02 (09:15):
Exactly.
Well, let's talk a little bitabout um yeah, what what you
might need.
So say you might want to getstart getting into AI stuff and
and geez, is my can is mycomputer capable?
And well, let me just start offby saying if you have a Windows
11 computer, it's pretty capableof running probably just about
all the AI stuff the typicaluser would want to run.
(09:37):
Yeah, I think so you don't haveto worry so much about getting
some piece of hardware that isquote unquote AI compatible.
Right.
Because your Windows 11computer, I can tell you right
now, is already AI compatible.
SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
And that's something Microsoft has made very
apparent, is every install ofWindows 11 has Copilot
installed, and Copilot is one ofthose AIs.
SPEAKER_02 (09:58):
Big big AI platform.
You know, not not the best onein the world, in my opinion.
But I agree.
But they're all you knowsupposedly you know getting
better.
And Adam, you know, we it'scrazy.
You know, I've been working likecrazy with a particular AI
platform trying to automate sometasks for refreshed computers.
Because uh if you have abusiness, you probably should
(10:19):
look at doing something likethat.
And I want to discuss myfrustrations a little bit with
what I was doing before theshow.
SPEAKER_00 (10:26):
A little bit of the growing pains with working with
using some of these.
SPEAKER_02 (10:30):
So I've been I've used Groc, which is, you know,
in my opinion, a great AI toolfrom uh Elon from X.
And I've used Chat GPT.
Uh uh I've been using Chat GPTextensively this past week or
two, uh giving it a really goodworkout, let's just put it that
way.
(10:50):
And uh there's other Gemini fromGoogle.
I I kind of I haven't been usingthat very much because when I
used it last, which was not toolong ago, yeah, uh, it just
doesn't seem to be as robust asChatGPT or Grok.
In my opinion, those are the twoof the mainstream AI platforms,
the the two most advanced,right?
So they have the latestinformation, they have the you
(11:13):
know the the latest toolsavailable to you.
But my frustration has been withChatGPT when I am trying to get
it to help me program somethingor automate something.
For example, this radio show.
I'm trying to use someautomation tools.
I actually had a comment fromone of our uh better customers
(11:36):
or or more common or customersthat that that uh visit us
frequently, I guess is the wordI'm looking for, uh saying, hey,
geez, I wish there was some wayyou could summarize stuff when
you put out your podcast so Ican read the summary.
At least that way I know if Iwant to listen to the podcast,
right?
So I do kind of summarize italready, but by hand it's just
like a short paragraph.
(11:56):
So I'm using ChatGPT to help melisten to the audio file, which
it does like instantaneouslythrough a tool.
Which is scary to think aboutthrough a separate tool, and you
know, f uh and uh put it all inin words, basically a context
that that's just all words, youknow, and and uh translates, I
guess, the the full transcript,yep.
(12:17):
The transcript.
Thank you.
That's the word I was lookingfor.
Great.
Thanks.
Converts the audio into a fulltranscript, and then it looks at
the transcript and comes outwith all these ideas or or
bullet points and stuff that canactually be inserted when I post
the podcast on the website.
SPEAKER_03 (12:33):
Dave and Adam, very knowledgeable on a subject.
Greg hilarious throughout theshow.
SPEAKER_02 (12:37):
That's right.
So I I so my frustration withChat GPT has been that when I
ask it to to to to help me withthe task and it and it'll refer
to another tool like thisZapier.
I'll just throw that name outthere.
You're maybe you're not familiarwith it or not, and maybe you
are.
(12:57):
So it'll it'll use Zapier tointerface a lot of things, but
then it'll always use anoutdated user interface in Z in
Zapier.
Not just Zapier, but everysingle application I have asked
ChatGPT to look at, it look itwas giving me instructions as if
I was looking at an olderversion of it online.
Because when I go to thatapplication online like Zapier
(13:20):
and I look at it, and I have totell ChatGPT what you're telling
me is not matching what I'mseeing.
And ChatGPT would come back andsay, Oh, that's because I'm not
looking at the latest userinterface.
My bad.
Here's the instructions usingthe latest user interface, so it
would give me that, and then itwould be some I would say 50-50.
(13:41):
Sometimes really is the latestand sometimes not.
But then when I get to the verynext step, Chat GPT has already
forgotten to look at the latestuser interface because it would
still give me the very next stepinstructions and the old user
interface.
Are you with me?
I mean, and that is sofrustrating because it takes
takes a lot of time going backand forth.
(14:02):
So this is what I've beenexperiencing.
So my next step is to go back toGrok because I haven't tried
this extensive uh applicationworkflow with grok yet.
I'm not this deep.
I'm gonna go back and use thesame workflow with grok to see
if if grok will be able to justautomatically come back with the
latest user user interface.
(14:23):
So it's very, very frustrating.
And my point is it's I'm hopingthat we can get this to the
point where we can help you, thelistener, help you navigate
something like Chat GPT here inthe future.
So we'll see how that goes.
So stay tuned for that.
SPEAKER_03 (14:38):
They're really important tools moving forward.
You've got to know the ins andouts, and you've got to know the
limitations, right?
That is definitely one of thoselimitations.
We'll talk a little bit more ona new AI that a burger joint has
introduced.
I'll bring that up on the guest.
And we'll also talk a little bitabout some public Wi-Fi tips
that you should be aware of.
You've been listening to TechTalk right here on WDBO, 1073FM
(14:59):
and AM580.
Hey there, and welcome back toTech Talk here on WDBO 1073 FM
and AM580, Orlando's news andtalk.
(15:21):
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, President and Founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
You can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200.
Or if you have any othercomments during the show, go
ahead and leave an open micusing that WDBO app.
And now, back to David and Adam.
But before we get into thatWi-Fi talk, I wanted to bring up
(15:42):
one more AI uh integrated systemthat we didn't bring up that you
might not have heard of.
This one's called Patty.
And it's being brought to you byBurger King.
Burger King.
So Burger King is going to beusing this as a training tool
inside their stores.
It's going to be built into theheadsets that you see a lot of
the people using, and it's goingto listen in on their
conversations with customers andgive them feedback on about how
(16:03):
courteous they're being tocustomers.
It's also going to give them anability, if they're not sure
about a cleaning or maybe how acertain burger is made, they can
ask Patty, hey, how do I makethis burger?
How do I clean the stove?
And Patty will give them all theinstructions and some of the
food information as well.
So they're piloting that rightnow at about 500 locations, but
I thought you guys might findthat a little bit interesting.
SPEAKER_02 (16:22):
I hope that works out well for them.
I love the name.
SPEAKER_00 (16:32):
I think Wendy's had at one point.
SPEAKER_02 (16:35):
I can't wait for McDonald's Frenchie.
Oh yeah.
So hey, so let's talk a littlebit about public Wi-Fi.
We've warned about this before.
Yeah.
And so the I guess the gist ofit is, you know, you really need
to stop using public Wi-Fi likeit's 2008, right?
SPEAKER_00 (16:55):
Because it's not a bad thing to have public Wi-Fi,
but the security risk you'reputting yourselves in now
compared to 2008, like youmentioned, is totally different.
You know, I was I was talkingduring the break actually, that
specific carrier I have.
I will go through and I will putin the effort when I'm out to
turn off my Wi-Fi, disconnectfrom everything, because I don't
need it auto-connecting.
SPEAKER_02 (17:15):
Hey, you know, we don't have to apologize.
You can mention them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (17:18):
Okay, T Mobile.
T-Mobile.
Yeah, T-Mobile's the one I have.
SPEAKER_02 (17:20):
Not a sponsor of the show, so you're fine.
SPEAKER_00 (17:22):
I'll be out and I'll look at my phone, it says
connected to Wi-Fi.
It's like, well, I thought I'dturn that off.
And I look and it says T-Mobileaccess point or public access.
And I went through the effort toturn that on, and my phone
turned Wi-Fi back on andautomatically connected me to
something I told it to forgetpreviously.
SPEAKER_02 (17:39):
Same thing, yeah.
Because I have T-Mobile also.
That's the same thing to me.
I've noticed that's a big gripethat I have with that.
It's it's wait a minute, I toldyou to forget that.
So why are you automaticallyjust coming back and remembering
that?
SPEAKER_00 (17:52):
Yeah, and there's there's ones like um I think
Spectrum's a big one.
SPEAKER_02 (17:55):
There's a technical reason why that happens though.
But but T Mobile needs toaddress it.
SPEAKER_00 (18:00):
They do.
SPEAKER_02 (18:00):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (18:01):
So yeah, I mean, as far as like public Wi-Fi goes,
you know, with with theseT-Mobile access points, with
Spectrum, even the airportWi-Fi, they if you have a little
bit of know-how of how to sniffaround on a network, there is so
much that people can figure outabout you.
SPEAKER_02 (18:16):
Oh, you can do it from your iPhone.
Yeah.
If you know what you're doing,there there are apps.
Yeah.
Yes, and Apple allows these appsbecause they're actually used
for other things too.
Legitimate purposes.
But you can they're used forlegitimate purposes.
But there are apps, I'm notgoing to name them, but there
are apps that you can have onyour that you can actually snoop
other people's devices allaround you in an airport.
SPEAKER_00 (18:36):
Yeah, you can see what their their traffic is.
You know, I I've seen ones thatis go can as far as they can
they can intercept information,which is exactly what I mean
myself, I'm worried aboutconnecting to access points.
I don't want somebody getting mymy bank login token because I
decided just to check my balancereally quick and I'm connected
to the MCO's uh internet in thein the terminal.
(18:57):
You know, it's it's those kindsof situations that in this kind
of expanding tech world we stillhave to be conscious of, even
more now than 2008.
SPEAKER_03 (19:04):
Cellular data versus public Wi-Fi, which one do you
guys trust more?
SPEAKER_00 (19:08):
Absolutely cellular data, any day of the week.
SPEAKER_02 (19:10):
Oh yeah.
And and and actually we hadmentioned that on I had
mentioned that on our show,gosh, probably a year or so ago
now.
That uh the your your regularcell phone data plan is about as
secure as you can get.
You can't get really get muchmore secure unless you have uh
like a Nord VPN, some kind ofVPN.
If you had a VPN on top, thenyou can get a little bit more
(19:32):
secure.
But cellular data is much safer.
Yeah.
Much, much, much safer.
There's a lot of cybersecurityinto that than connecting to a
public Wi-Fi system.
Uh, you know, I'm talking about,you know, I travel a lot, right?
I'm in uh RV parks here andthere, they always have their
their own Wi-Fi for the publicand you know, your restaurant
(19:53):
Wi-Fi's, you know, all theairport Wi-Fi's, all these
public Wi-Fi spots.
If you can avoid connecting to apublic Wi-Fi, that's the best
advice I can give you about thatsubject, is just don't use it if
you un unless you have to.
SPEAKER_03 (20:07):
If you have to, get a VPN.
Yes, definitely.
Even if just one of those freeVPNs that gives you access, go
ahead and use one of those VPNs.
We'll continue this talk on somegreat tech going on as well as
how it's getting more and moreexpensive.
You've been listening to TechTalk right here on WDBO 1073FM
and AM580.
(20:38):
Welcome to Tech Talk here onWDBO 1073 FM and AM580,
Orlando's News and Talk.
I'm Greg Rhodes here with DavidLevitt, president and founder of
Refresh Computer Superstore, andtechnician Adam Littlefield.
And you can contact the RefreshComputer Superstore by calling
their free tech support hotlineat 407-478-8200.
Or if during the show you wantedto leave us an open mic, go
(20:59):
ahead and use that WDBO app.
You can also check out thewebsite over at Refresh
Computers.net or stop it at theRefresh Computer Superstore in
Longwood at 820 East State Road434, just three and a half miles
east of I-4 in Longwood.
Store hours are Monday throughSaturday, 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
And if you're listening to theshow here on Saturday, that
means you still have time tostop by.
They'll be open until 7 p.m.
(21:21):
today.
And now, David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02 (21:24):
All right.
Thanks, Greg, and thankseverybody for listening to Tech
Talk with Refresh Computers.
You know, we had a veryinteresting first couple of
segments, talked a lot about AIagain and you know what the
cloud really is.
And we also uh gave a warningabout public Wi-Fi systems and
and the uh people that aretaking advantage of stealing
your data over public Wi-Fi havegotten very intelligent about
(21:47):
it, very smart.
Uh they probably even use someAI tools to guide them there.
SPEAKER_03 (21:52):
If they aren't, they are now.
Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (21:54):
That's right.
And so, you know, just the ifyou can avoid it, just don't
connect the public.
Wi-Fi.
We talked about how cell phonedata as opposed to connecting to
Wi-Fi is much safer, much saferto use your cell phone data plan
than it is to use a public Wi-Fisystem.
So just keep that in mind.
(22:15):
If you missed anything you wantto hear the show, you can just
go to refreshcomputers.net andclick on the podcast link in the
upper right hand corner.
You'll be able to hear the showin its entirety.
And uh, you know, hopefully inthe very near future, if I can
get ChatGPT to work correctly,if not maybe Groc, uh, you'll
see uh a very nice synopsis ofthe show on you know, basically
(22:36):
in post fashion on the websiteand stuff like that.
So we're working on that.
And uh I can't tell you how muchmore time it's gonna take
because I don't know.
Because I keep going down theseroads that chat GPT sending me
and it's like, what?
Anyhow.
SPEAKER_00 (22:50):
AI is one of the most confident liars I think
I've I've right?
That is the gaslighting.
The gaslighting is intense.
SPEAKER_02 (22:58):
It is oh, I can complete that in three easy
steps.
SPEAKER_00 (23:02):
You know, it took seven steps out of it, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (23:05):
No, seven hundred.
SPEAKER_00 (23:06):
Yeah.
That's the thing with AI, is itis so confident in being wrong.
And when you correct it, I Iknow you've had some situations
today where it kind of gets alittle snippy and it's kind of
like.
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
I told it, hey, you what happened to like the last
two hours of conversation I hadwith you on this programming
thing I'm doing.
It was so intense and it wasjust driving me crazy, and we're
going back and forth, and youand You're arguing with the AI.
What happened?
I I just I lost like the lasttwo hours of chat with you, Chat
(23:37):
GPT, and it comes back and says,No, that's impossible.
It must be you.
Yeah, it must be a graph.
Wow.
It's not me, it's you.
No, no, it's not because youdon't you have you know in your
data center somewhere, you know,where you all this is stored,
and and and and and we know wewent back and forth probably a
(23:57):
hundred different times duringthis two-hour period and you
lost all that.
Where is it?
Oh, it's on your end.
You got to clear your cache, youknow, and stuff like that.
I said, no, no, no, it's not.
I went back and forth and loggedinto a different computer, even
found that same chat session,still missing all that two hours
worth of stuff.
And but you know what, Greg?
(24:19):
And Adam, the next day I loggedinto the same computer I was
using when I was initiating thiswith Chat GPT, and there it was.
SPEAKER_03 (24:27):
I imagine it was there.
It's like when it came back.
I have that same argument withmy wife all the time.
It's the mayonnaise was therethe entire time.
That's right.
I don't know what you're doing.
It was there, I swear.
SPEAKER_00 (24:38):
I would love to think of it as it comes down to
something with hardware.
Somebody just unplugged a drivein a data center because they
were changing it out orsomething.
It lost part of yourconversation and the AI
gaslights you into thinking itnever existed.
Oh, and it was they took a pieceof the brain out.
SPEAKER_02 (24:51):
There's no way it could be wrong.
It was telling me, no, it is onyour end.
It is not on my end.
I still don't know what happenedor even how it came back.
All I know is I did more thanjust clear my cash on my
computer.
I logged into a completelydifferent computer that had no
cash buildup of theconversation, and it was still
gone.
So, anyhow.
SPEAKER_03 (25:12):
I just imagine chat GPT saying, it was not me.
SPEAKER_00 (25:16):
And you know, it's it's really infuriating with
that too, where it just deleteda whole part of your
conversation where a lot ofthese AI bots, you have to pay
for these really advancedversions of them.
SPEAKER_02 (25:26):
I pay for it.
You paid for it.
I'm paying for the pro versionof Chat GPT.
And it's just still, you know,doing that.
And and you know, and then andanother thing I noticed while
we're on this subject before weget to the next topic is the
fact that it once I got reallydeep into a conversation, I mean
really, really deep with ChatGPT, uh, where you can barely
(25:48):
see the little slide bar to theright to go back and forth up
and down on your chat becauseit's so small, because it's so
big, that it lagged.
SPEAKER_00 (25:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (25:58):
Chat GPT lagged.
Not my not my computer.
My my uh laptop, I I just uhinitiated a new laptop last
night I'm starting to use uhfrom the computer store.
And actually, we have one ofthose left in stock, by the way.
If you're interested in this, isit's a super laptop, it has 128
gig of RAM.
SPEAKER_00 (26:16):
If you if you're trying to do anything, like
you're trying to run four-hourAI chat, yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (26:22):
And guess what?
It even with that super laptop,so I know it's not me because I
have a hundred and twenty-eightgig of RAM is insane.
Yeah, it's it's still lagged.
Still lagged in Chat GPT.
So what does that say?
SPEAKER_00 (26:34):
It's it's a chat GPT problem.
And chat GPT is in denial ofthat.
Remember, it's all it's allDave.
That's right.
Not me.
Yes.
SPEAKER_02 (26:41):
But that's only after, you know, you know, hours
of conversation back and forthwith ChatGPT.
You know, when you're just whenI'm just using it and like if I
open up a new conversation, itworks, no lag.
Just works just fine.
But anyhow, so the next topic wewant to talk about is why in the
heck is everything getting moreexpensive in tech?
Not just not just the memory andthe solid.
(27:05):
Not just the hardware stuff, butsoftware stuff too is getting
crazy expensive.
And maybe there's a connectionfor some of it, because you
know, let's face it, theseplaces that are providing these
services to you are using nowmore expensive hardware to get
you there.
So that's probably one reasonwhy you know your you know
(27:26):
streaming prices and stuff likethat are starting to go up.
Um, so you know, it's like youknow, when did everything become
like ten dollars a month, right?
You know, everything isswitching to this kind of
subscription-based uh system.
Uh, you know, and it's it's beena migration for the last few
years, actually.
You know, started with Office365.
SPEAKER_00 (27:48):
I was about to call out Office just right there to
say I'm looking at it, becauseOffice was the first one that
I'm sure 90% of listeners rightnow are like, yep, that's that
was the first subscription Isaw.
SPEAKER_02 (27:58):
And Microsoft has changed the name of that like so
many times in the last three orfour years, I can't even
remember what it's called rightnow.
SPEAKER_03 (28:03):
You probably have three subscriptions to it, you
just don't know it.
SPEAKER_00 (28:06):
See, that's the thing, they they used to go by
the year, right?
And I think 2024 was when theystopped doing the year, and
between 2024 and now they'veprobably changed the name what
four or five times, somethinglike that.
SPEAKER_02 (28:16):
And and and be careful too.
You know, I heard a Clark Howardepisode just recently talking
about uh if you use the Apple,if you have a uh iPhone or an
iPad or any kind of uh Appleapp, right?
That an app that you got onApple, right?
So you so you went got yourNetflix app, you got your you
(28:38):
know, whatever app that you get,you got it through Apple instead
of directly through the companythat's providing the service,
stop getting it through Apple.
Go get it right through thatcompany that's providing the
service because Apple isstarting to charge an up fee for
your subscription and and stuffthat you're getting through the
(28:58):
Apple store.
The Apple store.
Yeah.
So if you can do it, I mean youhave to get the app through the
app store.
Yes, that's true.
But to sign up for thesubscription itself, do it
directly with the serviceinstead of through the app store
because Apple is tagging on afee now for a lot of that stuff.
And so you're if you're doing itthrough the app store, you might
(29:20):
not even realize you're payingmore now.
And because especially since somany people have so many apps
and so many subscriptions now.
It's it's uh you don't even knowwhat you're paying for half the
time.
SPEAKER_03 (29:33):
And that was usually a good way to kind of keep track
of what you were subscribed tobecause it's all in just one
easy to manage tab inside theapp store instead of having to
try and remember how to get toall these different websites and
navigate them.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (29:44):
But now you have to pay for that convenience.
That's a privilege.
SPEAKER_00 (29:47):
And a lot of subscriptions have turned into
that too.
You know, oh, it's only threedollars a month, it's only five
dollars a month.
Oh yeah, that's that's not thatbad.
I couldn't even tell you guyswhat I'm subscribed to anymore.
I could tell you two or threethings, and then after that, I
just you know, it I just let itroll.
And I know I they're not badenough that they're gonna be
like a thousand dollars everymonth.
I don't even want to check.
SPEAKER_02 (30:08):
Yeah, it's just you know, it's hard because not only
you it's hard to remember, youknow, how many apps and how many
things that you're subscribedto, it's hard to remember where
did you subscribe to it from.
You know, you you have uh Roku,for example.
You can subscribe to a lot ofthings through Roku instead of
directly through the servicethat you're getting, you know,
(30:30):
like HBO Max, for example.
You can subscribe to that rightthrough Roku.
Or you can do it through HBO Maxand and pull it up on your Roku.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (30:39):
I mean, so which is what I'm suggesting that you do,
go directly to the source if youcan, and then just match it to
the app that you're using it on.
Yeah.
Same thing with uh your iPhone.
So go to HBO, if you want HBOCinemax right now, HBO Max, I
guess they call it, go to HBOMax website, subscribe to it
(31:00):
there, and then when youdownload the app on your iPhone,
or when you download the app onyour Roku or other streaming
service, you all you do is justconnect it and it's connected.
So, but you're not payingthrough them, you're not paying
through Roku now, you're payingHBO Max directly.
And so this is an example ofwhat I was talking about
earlier.
Instead of subscribing throughone of these services,
(31:22):
especially through Apple throughthe Apple store, don't do that
anymore.
As a matter of fact, you canprobably cancel your
subscription in the Apple storeand go to directly to the source
and resubscribe, and then youstill have the app in the Apple
store and you just you juststill just connect it to Apple.
Save a buck or two.
SPEAKER_03 (31:39):
Yep.
Absolutely.
And uh you brought up HBO Max,and it's interesting because
they've been involved in thisnew big Warner Brothers
Paramount.
The bid or that was going on,yeah.
And uh there's some news thatjust came out here uh just
leading into the weekend thatParamount finally gave a large
enough bid to Warner BrothersDiscovery to bump Netflix off of
this deal.
(31:59):
Netflix said, Nope, we're notgonna match, we're not gonna
continue on.
I think Netflix might get thebetter deal out of that.
They're about to get$2.8 billionricher for not even bidding
anymore because they got bumped.
But it'll be interesting to see,again, we talk about all these
different subscriptions that weall have, and I have Paramount
and I have HBO Max.
I wonder what's gonna happenwith as these companies begin to
(32:21):
merge.
Are they gonna keep separateentities?
Are they gonna make one majormega app?
Or I don't I don't know.
It's gonna be interesting tokeep following on.
SPEAKER_00 (32:28):
And you know, we're seeing a lot of subscriptions
come into spaces that I nevereven imagined.
I know HP, they have their smartink subscription that they'll
every couple months they'll sendyou ink and you're allowed to
print only a certain amount ofpages a month.
If you print over that, you haveto pay extra.
If you cancel, they canelectronically lock that ink
cartridge over the internet soyou can't use it anymore.
(32:49):
Unbelievable.
I I I know I'm payingsubscriptions for my car with
the full self-driving andeverything.
SPEAKER_02 (32:53):
With your Tesla?
SPEAKER_00 (32:54):
Yeah, we're I'm getting to the point now where
I'm expecting my toaster isgonna need a subscription by the
end of this year.
SPEAKER_03 (32:59):
And if you don't get the right kind of bread, you
cannot make toast anything.
SPEAKER_00 (33:02):
Exactly.
Sourdough subscription only.
SPEAKER_02 (33:04):
Either that in this AI world, you might get burnt
toast.
SPEAKER_00 (33:07):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_03 (33:08):
And you know then they'll tell you it's it's fun.
Yeah, it's fine.
What do you mean to burn yourtoast?
I didn't burn your toast.
Oh, you burnt your toast.
SPEAKER_00 (33:16):
See, all these all these subscriptions are becoming
a big hassle to us now because Iknow we were saying earlier, you
know, I couldn't tell what I'msubscribed to.
Greg, you said you're scared tocheck.
I had a customer a couple monthsago that was just switching off
of Norton.
We're paying monthly for it.
SPEAKER_02 (33:29):
Good move, good move.
SPEAKER_00 (33:30):
Yeah, and once I once I kind of went through and
I did all of the math for himand I canceled all these add-ons
that Norton just kept saying,hey, you need this, your drivers
are out of date, you need this.
Note to listeners.
SPEAKER_02 (33:39):
Note to listeners at this point.
Norton is terrible.
Get rid of it if you have it.
It's nothing more than a it'sactually a spam bot itself.
SPEAKER_00 (33:48):
When I when I came to that total, it was over$400 a
year.
That gentleman was being chargedin add-ons.
Norton itself, I think, was$120for the add-ons for the the
remaining amount, and that'sridiculous.
SPEAKER_02 (34:02):
I tell you the only antivirus you need, which is is
malware bites.
Yeah, malware.
Mauerbytes is the only one.
Is a great, and it's uh throughus anyways,$35 a month.
Or no, I'm sorry, a year.
A year, yeah.
$35 a year.
I mean, that's uh we have aspecial deal with malware bites
that allows us to charge$35 ayear.
And even if you go on themalware bytes website, it's$50.
(34:24):
Yeah.
So we're we're saving you$15.
SPEAKER_00 (34:27):
We're not pulling an apple, we're not charging any
fees on you with it.
You know, it's it's actually agood discount on a really,
really good antivirus.
SPEAKER_02 (34:34):
Yep.
Super, super one.
SPEAKER_00 (34:36):
So yeah, I know uh I know everything with streaming
right now is just getting worseand worse, and AI with these
subscriptions are getting worseand worse.
And I've I've been seeing pricesgo up, and it's it's little
price increases you see.
You know, Spotify, I think, justwent up a couple dollars about a
month ago.
Netflix increased theirs by acouple dollars, but if every one
increases by five dollars,you've got 10 subscriptions.
(34:57):
Well, now you're paying$50 moredollars a month.
SPEAKER_03 (34:59):
And they'll multiply that by the millions of
subscribers for all thesedifferent and these companies
are raking in the dough.
SPEAKER_02 (35:05):
Oh, they are, they are, and you know, and then go
back to the AI situation withthe hardware shortages going on.
You know, some of thesecompanies have to be charging a
little bit more right nowbecause, you know, they depend
on that kind of hardware toprovide their services.
SPEAKER_03 (35:19):
We'll put a wrap on today's episode of Tech Talk.
You've been listening right hereon WDBO 1073FM and AM580.net.
(36:03):
And now back to David and Adam.
SPEAKER_02 (36:05):
All right, thanks, folks.
Thanks for listening to TechTalk with Refresh Computers.
You know, we left the lastsegment talking about the paid
subscription services and whythey're getting uh more
expensive, and a lot of that hasto do with you know, these
places that provide theseservices have to buy hardware to
run these services.
And guess what?
Hardware's prices are going upeverywhere because AI is sucking
(36:26):
up all the available memory andsolid state drives and
electricity and water.
And so these platforms, youknow, any of these
subscription-based platforms areuh dependent upon that hardware
also.
So, you know, so when as theyare upgrading, well, it costs
them more, so guess what?
They're gonna charge you more.
That's just you know the waythings work.
(36:47):
And one of the things that wewere talking about during the
break, I want to bring upbecause it's it's a very good
tactic, I think, to use, andit's what I do often is when you
subscribe to something, a newservice, and you do a 30-day
trial or a 60-day trial or a90-day trial, whether it's a
$1.99 trial that turns into a$50trial, or maybe it's a free
(37:10):
trial.
When you subscribe to thesetrials, what I've learned to do
myself is to immediately go inand cancel it.
Because when you subscribe toit, it still keeps you active
for that free period.
In most cases, sometimes nowthey're not, but in most cases,
you still you just cancel itthat way.
(37:31):
And the only reason I do it isnot because I'm trying to get
something for nothing.
It's not that at all.
It's just that in three months,if I don't, I I'll if I stop
using it or I don't like it,I'll just forget to cancel it.
And the next thing you know, itcharges me.
SPEAKER_03 (37:44):
And so many of these companies are banking on it.
Oh, yeah.
They are banking on it.
SPEAKER_02 (37:48):
So a good tip is just to go in and cancel it as
soon as right after you startit.
You know, just go ahead andcancel it.
And as long as they're notcharging you a fee to cancel,
which in most cases they don't.
No.
But and your whatever yousubscribe to is still gonna be
good for free for that periodthat you originally signed up
for that you just canceled, butit's still gonna last for that
(38:09):
period of time.
And guess what?
Before that time ends, thatsubscription service is gonna
remind you anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (38:16):
Oh, yeah.
They because they want they wantto remind you, hey, you're set
up to cancel, but if you comeback, and then they'll maybe hit
you with another another gooddiscount for another six months.
SPEAKER_02 (38:26):
That that that's a good possibility too.
So, anyhow, so that's just uhsomething you may or may not
want to try.
Um, so we look we talked aboutuh all kinds of stuff on today's
show, including my in-depthconversation with ChatGPT.
More like argument, arguing, uhyeah, and frustrations, I I will
say, also.
(38:47):
Um disappointment in some insome regards, how it you know
took me down the wrong road forhours, literally hours, uh,
without realizing it did.
And and it's just yeah, I wouldhope that it would be smarter
than that by now.
So it still still needs a lot ofwork, but if you miss any of
(39:09):
that, go torefreshcomputers.net, click on
the podcast link.
And one of the things that I'mworking on that I mentioned
earlier with Chat GPT, now I'mgonna go to GROKA's chat GPT.
I've I'm folks, I've workedliterally days worth of time,
not just hours, I mean days backand forth with ChatGPT to
automate something so that ourshow will come out and in a
(39:31):
format on the website that's uhmakes it more pleasant.
You get a little brief, bettersynopsis of what we're talking
about, and uh you know, and thenyou can choose whether or not
you want to listen to the showbased on what the show notes are
that appear.
You would think that would befairly simple for AI.
There's a lot of integrationthat has to happen, you know,
(39:51):
from where we upload our uh theaudio that Greg sends me every
week, where we upload thataudio, and then that integration
has to happen with Chat GPT anda scheduler and all kinds of
stuff.
But anyhow, uh we're hoping tomake that the show more clear
and you know, and so you can seeexactly what's going on.
So stay stay tuned for thatcoming up in the in the near
(40:13):
future.
And so we're just about out oftime.
I appreciate you listening.
Don't forget, we still have afree tech support hotline.
Yes, we do.
407-478-8200.
Call us about anything technicaland we'll do our best.
We're open Monday throughSaturday from 9 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
You can use that free techsupport hotline at any during
any of those hours or call afterhours, leave us a message, and
(40:34):
we'll get back to you.
So that's all we have time for,folks.
This is David Levitt signing offfor this week with Tech Talk.
We'll talk to you again nextweek.
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