A mass executive exit is tearing through Apple’s leadership ranks. The biggest shake-up since Steve Jobs is unfolding in real time, and we think we know why now.
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[00:00:05]
Unknown:
This is The Launch episode 45 for 12/09/2025. Streaming from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast, we greet you all Good morning, good evening, or whenever your timeline may fall. Time appropriate greetings indeed, one and all. This is the launch. My name is Chris. And I'm Angela. Hello, Angela. Well, we've got a few things to let everybody know before we kick off. We'd love it if you called us. You can do it while you listen live or while you listen to the podcast. After the fact, sure. Right now, sure. I don't care. Just dial (774) 462-5667.
That's (774) 462-5667. You can also join us live on a Tuesday, 11:30AM Pacific, 02:30PM Eastern, 07:30AM UTC, thirty seven thirty seven thirty PM. Nope. Yeah. I was just gonna say, you could do, like, the fine print of any medication. Go get your Microsoft toys. Go get your toys. I could do, like, maybe an announcer guy. No. It's 07:30PM UTC at j b live dot tv podcasting two dot o I v app. Very. Auctioneer. And I invite all of you, of course, to check out our show notes at weeklylaunch.rocks where you'll find our chat room. We have a mumble room going. Hello, everybody. Put in the quiet listening. Nice to have you joining us today.
Kinda like our live vibe crew in there. Appreciate that. And that's all, of course, weeklylaunch.rocks. And this is episode 45 if you're looking for today's links. Well, Andrews, it's been a little bit of migraine madness, I hear. It has. Yes. Good news. Just what you want on the holidays. Right? It is exactly what I want on the holidays. Actually, so the good news is it's predictable. Right? Oh, what do you mean? When you say predictable, like, you can tell it's coming?
[00:01:54] Unknown:
Or, like, you know it's, like, gonna be able to stay? Comes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I get so okay. What I'd like to do is just crowdsource a solution for my migraine. It is, seemingly hormonal because it is around, you know, my Cycle? My cycle. But, but it seems to be getting, like, longer and longer. It it used to be maybe six six to ten hours. It would it would onset around 1PM in the afternoon and then just get, like, really bad and peak, right as I was going to bed and then make going to bed really difficult. Mhmm. But then I would wake up and I'd be fine. Well, this one started Sunday night. I thought maybe it was the Fireball that I drink, but it was a normal amount that I drink every Sunday. So, I don't know I don't know, but it just seemingly made it worse. It did not, leave until or start to leave until this morning. And now Oh. It's actually doing okay. But Sunday, and today's Tuesday.
Yeah. Right? It was yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. So I don't know why it's getting longer and longer. It kinda sucks, but I don't know like, Ibuprofen typically doesn't do anything. I end up, like, wanting sugar, caffeine, chocolate. Those are all things that could potentially help a headache, but not necessarily a migraine. Do they don't even make dent? Eating? No. Mm-mm. Nothing makes a dent. And it's it's, it's just it's really frustrating. But it does come every single, you know, approximately twenty six to twenty eight days. I am always so glad to have it over with because it's just so hard to be productive or do anything. Jeez. It must be kind of dreadful knowing it's coming, though. It's like you know it's coming. Yeah. Ugh. This one came so early. That's why I was like, this must be because of alcohol, not because of, my cycle. But, no. I guess my cycle is coming early. I mean, people must have experience with migraines out there. I was gonna say, yeah, no auras. I don't I don't have, like, the lights light aura thing? But I do have a light sound and smell sensitivity Yeah. That comes with this. And it's just yeah. It just sucks. I am a very productive person. I like to be efficient and get things done. You get knocked out. And I yeah. Yeah. I'm and it and now it's just getting longer and longer. Like No.
Can't no. This far, no further. So I will I will put throw it out there that it it might be related to endometriosis. So, if if anybody does have, like, insight when it comes to that connection, it it could be that, but I've never been treated for endometriosis. And I canceled that exploratory surgery when, when Bella stopped breastfeeding because that solved that issue. But then I that's when I that's when the migraine started. The migraine one's hard. I bet there's there's gotta be somebody out there. If you could boost in or call and leave us a voice mail, give us some tips, like, things you've done, things how you tracked it down, treatments. There's Yeah. Because I've done is. I've gone to two different naturopaths. I have tried I I got up to, like, thirty five pills a day trying to clean out my cardiovascular system, my liver, my spleen, digestive enzymes. Like, I did the whole natural route to try to resolve this. I got my iron up, also ferritin stores. Like, there's so many things that I have tried to to
[00:05:03] Unknown:
even just reduce the scope of it, and it's just getting worse. Yeah. I could even just dial it down. Yeah. Yeah. Just less less hours. Yeah. Yeah. Boy. That'd be great. That is that would be that that that's something too that if you have any insights on that, I think there's other people listening too that would probably also really appreciate that. So boost in, give us a call. And I also have a question for you. A little bit on the wild side, what's something you do that you don't recommend any well anyone else do? So, you know, like, your your ultimate don't do as I do. We got one called Completely unrelated to migraines. Right? Right. Like just Just another. Just I'm just curious because everybody has one of these double standards where if you were giving advice, you tell somebody do it this way. But then when you do it yourself, you cut a corner or you don't follow that advice.
[00:05:50] Unknown:
Everybody has these things. Oh, man. It's really hard though to think about. I know. So think about it. Do you have one? I mean Are you gonna share it when we get to voice mails? No. It's,
[00:05:58] Unknown:
I have to think about it. Is it your whole life? It's a lot of my life. Yeah. I mean, really, let's look at my life. Yeah. Don't do as I do. Yeah. Alright. So let us know. Migraine, any any info you have on the fixes, causes, things you've done to mitigate it, boost them with that. Give us a call or what's your ultimate don't do as I do. Alright, Andrews. I wanna talk about Apple for a moment. Okay. Well, Have you heard about the massive reckoning that's happening over at Apple recently? Mm-mm. Yeah. So a sudden wave of executive departures has been ripping through Apple in just the last couple of weeks. And I've never said something like this before, but I think it's fair to say this is probably the biggest change up at Apple in leadership since Steve Jobs died in 2011. I mean, it's massive. Mhmm. So, AI chief, out. Interface of, interface design head, out. Who's Alan Dye? He's been around forever. General counsel, out. Environmental and policy VP, out.
And then also a few other rumors that we're gonna get on. And there and some of these some of these positions, mind you, are massive massive, paid positions that got poached by Meta. Oh, I was just gonna say they're starting their their own competing Well, they kinda are in a way. Yeah. So there's but some of them are getting fired. Some there's a lot going on here. And I think maybe what's actually happening isn't super obvious, but I'm gonna play this quick Yahoo finance clip because he just rattles off, the names here. And I think it's kinda useful just so we have this for for the record here. Oh, Jeff Williams, who was supposed to be the front runner to be CEO,
[00:07:34] Unknown:
he's retiring. Head of governmental affairs, Lisa Jackson, she's leaving general counsel Kate Adams. She's leaving Alan Dye, one of the, heads of design. He's going to Meta getting poached, and then their AI chief is also,
[00:07:49] Unknown:
retiring. I think there's there's a number factors here. Some of the people who are are We'll pause there. So I wanted him to get through kinda quickly who's all going. This because it's not like a small thing. This isn't just like a a little change. I have in the show notes, if you're interested, a a visual that Bloomberg posted that really demonstrates the scale. Look at that. I mean, Fran, she's here in studio with me. She can see this. I mean Yeah. And you could see how many of them are going to Meta. Wow. Yeah. Meta has soaking up quite a few people from Apple, especially people that worked on AI.
So there's that whole thing going on here. And then the really, really big news was it sounded like the guy behind the m one chips and Apple's probably most successful thing they've done during Tim Cook's era had informed Tim Cook that he's also considering leaving Apple. Another report now saying a key Apple hardware
[00:08:43] Unknown:
executive is considering leaving, the company. Steve Kovac joins us now with more, hey, Steve. Steve. Yeah. It just keeps piling on. Right? You have all these big shots out there in Cupertino. They're getting new careers for the holidays, and there have been several changes in the last seven days on top of several departures over the last few months. Now the latest after last week's exodus is Chip Boss Johnny Srouji. He wants to leave according to Bloomberg. He's been instrumental in ditching Intel chips at Apple. You can kind of think of him as the Jony Ive of chip design. It would be a huge loss for the company. He's one of those sort of singular talents over there. And, look, these shake ups that we keep hearing No. I'd say this was the one that really spooked everybody. Oh, no. The M chip guy, he might be leaving.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
That I thought okay. That is really, really bad. But that happened on Friday. And then by Monday,
[00:09:33] Unknown:
first thing, Monday, they were trying to squash the chip guy leaving rumors, trying to Apple is trying to tighten up the narrative a little bit after it ran wild over Saturday and Sunday. Another new report on what's happening in the top levels at Apple. Steve Kovac has that story for us. Hey, Steve. Yeah. Mike, lots of changes there. And by the way, this is all after lots of big shots in Cupertino. I've been getting those new careers for the holidays. Several changes have been happening in just the last seven days on top of several departures over the last few months. Now someone not leaving, that would be chip boss Johnny Sruge. Now let me give you a little drama that happened over the weekend. Bloomberg reported that he had told Tim Cook he wants to step down from his role. But this morning, he told staff in a memo he's not leaving anytime soon. That's according to the full email that I saw, that just got sent out moments ago. That would have been a big loss because Sruthi has been instrumental in ditching Intel chips over at Mac over at Apple. You can kind of think of him as the Jony Ive of chip design. But, look, some of these shakeups that have been happening over the last several days, it's really to meet the AI moment. The world has been changing around Apple over the last few years as it kept things mostly the same. Now next year is gonna be a monumental one for Apple after it failed to deliver on AI this year with that Siri update that was supposed to happen in the spring, and they have to get that one right. Now AI boss, John Giandrea, he was stepping down last week, and those AI teams that he was once overseeing have been reorganized to make all of that happen. And that needs to work before they can launch AI powered products like those rumored glasses and a smart home product next year. On top of all that, you have Apple's fiftieth anniversary coming up in April, a looming antitrust trial, and so much more. Now there's different It is really it is fascinating. And a a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that, well, this is sort of a response of this is the response
[00:11:29] Unknown:
to not really getting any traction with any AI product. And I don't know if I 100% I think that is partially true. But in a weird way, Apple missing this hype train on AI means that they didn't really foot gun themselves too bad. I mean, they have Apple intelligence, but you don't really have to use it. It doesn't really get in your way. And they didn't really embarrass themselves with some really super well, they kind of embarrassed themselves, but they didn't embarrass themselves financially by investing, you know, $40,000,000,000 just in into something that just went nowhere like they did with their car product for a while. But it does seem like this is probably some fallout around all of the AI stuff. But I I have a different theory, Andrews.
My theory is Tim Cook is cleaning house. I think you've got a few of these folks that are retiring. They're rich as hell. They don't need any more money, and it's time for some fresh blood. These guys have been rich for so long at Apple that they've kind of lost touch, and I've been making this complaint for a while. Now some of them legitimately got pushed by Meta. Others, I think, are also being shown the door. Mhmm. They're being fired in kind of a nice way. And now we have a new head of AI coming in who comes from Microsoft.
And this is all after Tim Cook has been CEO for fourteen years. It's been fourteen years since Steve Jobs died, a little over fourteen years. And during Cook's reign, Apple became one of the most valuable companies in the world exceeding $3,000,000,000,000. But he's 65 years old, and it's probably time for him to think about when he'll move on. Now he's kind of dodged this question. Here he was talking to Wired a year ago, and, the question of when he'll retire comes up. And it was already brewing in the background a year ago when this question came up. And Tim's answer, not supercommittal.
[00:13:30] Unknown:
You're the CEO. You've been here for a while. How long do you see yourself continuing this role? Oh, I don't know. I get asked that question now more than I used to Why is that? As I age, as my hair turns gray. I love Yeah. That's why. Place. Mhmm. I love it. And I love the people I work with. It's a privilege of a lifetime to to be here. And I I I'll do it until the voice in my head says it's time.
[00:13:58] Unknown:
And then I'll go and and focus on what the next chapter looks like. I'm not so sure it's actually the voice in his head that'll be telling him when it's time or maybe if it's just when the board tells him, hey. You need to start a transition plan because we need to change things up. A little bit before all these layoffs happened, the Financial Times carried a story that the board was intensifying their search for a replacement for Tim Cook.
[00:14:26] Unknown:
Apple is stepping up its succession plans as it prepares for CEO Tim Cook to step down as soon as next year. That's according to a report in the Financial Times, which cited several people familiar with discussions. The report said that John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, is widely seen as Cook's most likely successor. Apple insiders were quoted as saying the company's board and senior executives had recently intensified plans for Cook to hand over the reins after more than fourteen years at the helm. The report also said that Apple is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, which covers the critical holiday period.
Cook became CEO in 2011 after Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs resigned, ending his reign at the tech giant he cofounded in 1976 in his parents' garage. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Shares of Apple were down as much as 2% in Monday morning trading. And, actually, interesting, after Apple announced the layoffs,
[00:15:37] Unknown:
shares price started going back up. Mhmm. So share price, when that rumor came out, started to go down. And I think, perhaps, that tells us that the market likes to see Apple cleaning up a little bit and making preparation changes. Now this takes us with a grain of salt, but the, clashy or cachey market prediction for when Tim Cook leaves Apple is 45 betting odds before 2027, 20% betting odds before July 2026. And I'm not saying it's gonna be that soon, but this is my theory, is that it is time for Tim Cook to wind things down, to get a new CEO in there. But like Apple does all things, they're gonna try to manage and control this and plan this the best they can. An Apple product rollout takes multiple years of development, and this, they're gonna treat like a product rollout. And they've already begun working on it, and part of it is to get some distance and get this stuff in place to get these new leaders a chance to start building while Tim's still there. And then when he transitions out, they're already running. They've already got everything up and going that they need. I mean, a 48% odds that he leaves Apple before 2027, that's that's nothing to sneeze at.
And he did tell AppleTrack or, I mean, he did tell, AppleTrack noted this. He did tell one agency, I think a year ago or so that he plans to retire in at least ten years. I I think it's gonna be a lot sooner than that. I don't know. What's is as somebody who's been a long time Apple user, but not necessarily like, you know, a fan or somebody who's like, I don't know, like, you know, you have people that are just they buy everything Apple makes. Right? Mhmm. That's not you. I mean, you'll buy you'll got you'll buy a good iPhone. You'll buy a good occasional Apple Watch. Maybe once a decade, you get yourself a laptop.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
Only once the battery is trying to break out of
[00:17:23] Unknown:
the the show. What is your impression of Apple over the last couple of years? Do you feel like they're stagnant and boring? Is that exactly what you want from them?
[00:17:32] Unknown:
I feel no. I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot of innovation. You know, they're they are improving upon each of their products, but not not in an amazing way. And they it feels like they're software glitches. Yeah. Like, way too many software glitches. Yeah.
[00:17:47] Unknown:
That is true. I think in a way it's As a user. Like, they're gonna people are but you're gonna buy an iPhone either way. Yeah. Like, they're in this interesting position where maybe they don't make a trillion dollars a year, but they're always gonna sell millions of iPhones. So they just almost can't lose if they just get the business right. Mhmm. But I do agree, like, they're slipping on software quality, especially on macOS, in my opinion. That's really where it's gotten bad. And Yeah. I wait so long to do the OS updates on my Macs. And it's a real shame. Right? Because they've they've nailed some of the hardware. Mhmm. And while their hardware is kind of at the peak of its game, the software is really been slacking. And then they really have not come up with anything interesting and meaningful with AI.
They've done a lot of interesting infrastructure stuff. Like, they have this private cloud compute where you can send off AI jobs, and, supposedly, they can't associate it with you in any way. And even if the FBI came knocking and stole all of the server racks, they couldn't put together who submitted the AI job. That kind of stuff is interesting, and it's a good idea for the industry. But and then also essentially making local inference and local AI processing available on device via an API. So as a developer, you can just say, hey, system, go generate me an image, and then the system comes back with an image, and you don't have to write any of the image generation code. It's AI, you know, LLM crap and just stable diffusion stuff on demand. And Apple handles if it's an on device thing. Apple handles if it gets punted to private cloud. Apple handles if it gets punted to OpenAI.
You just make a call for the image and you get your image. Or you just make a call for tech summary and you get your tech summary as a developer. And then they so they build these things in in a way that actually makes them fairly straightforward for developers to implement in a way that's actually usable by end users. So it would be interesting to see Apple have their game together on this. I just I don't I don't know if we get there with the current crop of leadership, and I don't think this house cleaning was enough because these are the same people that brought us the butterfly keyboard. These are the same people that just really blew the Mac for years.
I think they're kind of out of touch. And, you know, I I got a lot of respect for Tim Cook, but I think I just like you say, they haven't innovated a lot. The Apple Vision Pro was an absolute obvious flop before they even announced it. A $3,000 VR headset right as inflation was exploding. Are you joking? Yeah. Are you serious right now? Apparently, they were. Oh, pro tip though for VR.
[00:20:12] Unknown:
If you have a membership
[00:20:13] Unknown:
to, like, the YMCA Yeah. Rent out their racquetball room. Oh, yeah. Make yourself a VR room. Yeah. That is a good pro tip right there. That is a good pro tip. So I think Apple is probably just fine. Everybody's freaking out. Apple's falling apart. Oh, it's a rotten to the core situation. This is the beginning of a routine succession, and they're gonna have to make some internal adjustments. So that way, when the new boss comes in, all the lieutenants are all sorted out. That's what we're doing right now. We're sorting out the lieutenants. So that way, when we get a new boss, everybody's on the same page.
And, maybe we'll see something interesting next year from Apple on this. I don't know, but I'd like to know what you think. So boost in, tell me if you think we're gonna see Apple actually do anything in the AI space next year. That, I think, is left to be seen, but I'd like to know your thoughts.
[00:21:04] Unknown:
Well, I'm just gonna make a quick call to my launch. I haven't checked in since yesterday. (774) 462-5667. That's it. Alright. (774) 462-5667. Call now.
[00:21:22] Unknown:
Alright. We'll be playing your voice mails. We have a lot of we have 11 voice mails. That's crazy. So we have plenty of voicemails, but we'll that means we're gonna need a whole new batch next week. So as you're listening to our song of the week, you can call in and, leave a voicemail. Or if you're listening live, say hi in the chat room, jump in the mumble room. And, of course, I do have something very special for you. You know, I'm not gonna do this very often, not gonna get carried away. But how neat is it that there is actually brand new fresh value for value Christmas music? I know. Hold on. Don't freak out. Stick with me for a second. Excited. It's not that bad, actually. Oh. I know. Well, some people hear that, especially if you don't celebrate Christmas, you probably think. Oh, okay. Right? But how neat is this? Right? These are people that are creating music. They're putting it out there for free. And if you like it, you can boost in. And, 95%
[00:22:06] Unknown:
of your sats will go to the artist. Now's the time. It's the song of the week. Remember, you can boost the track.
[00:22:13] Unknown:
They sure like that. Alright. This week, it's Man, It's Christmas by Jamie Bratcher.
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Snow is flying. Man, it's cold. It's in the air everywhere I go. It's a crazy time of New Year. Man, it's Christmas. Family's coming from out of town. Mama's cooking, so look out now. It's the best time of New Year. Man, it's Christmas. Presents, mangers, and mistletoe. Stocking trees and lights that glow. Turkey dressing and all that stuff. I know for sure I'm gonna eat too much. Mary Jesus and three wise men, Joseph angels at Bethlehem. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas. It only happens once a year. Give in your blues for some Christmas cheer. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas.
I can't wait to see my kids' face around the tree on Christmas day, tearing paper and ribbons flying. I hope they did what I've been buying. My card is maxed, but I don't care. I'll pay the bills sometime next year. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas. I said, man, it's Christmas. I said, it's Christmas, daddy o. Man, it's Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody.
[00:24:42] Unknown:
Alright. Now we do have some voice mails this week, Andrews. You know, we got a good batch, actually.
[00:24:48] Unknown:
That was a long jingle. It's festive. It is very festive.
[00:24:52] Unknown:
Hey. I don't control how fast the reindeers fly by. You're not Santa's sleigh. You can't be in charge of these kinds of things. Right? There's what? How many reindeer? 12? Yeah. Something like that. And Rudolph? Or I don't know. I mean, doesn't anybody I don't remember anymore. Six comma salt. We almost have enough voice mails as reindeer. That's true. We have some great voice mails.
[00:25:09] Unknown:
Let's play our first one from adversary 17. Hey, guys. It's adversary 17. Once again, long time no talk too. I have been listening, though, so Mhmm. Don't don't forget about me. I'm listening to episode 42 when you guys were asking about how do you solve the email spam problem. And one thing that I do pay for that helps is called DeleteMe. What you do is you give them all your information Mhmm. And then they will go around and delete you from all of the data brokers out there that have that information that matches. I've actually seen a significant decrease in the amount of spam calls, texts, and emails that I get. And there's family plans too, so you could have your spouse or your children or other family members that you want to help out.
Also, I own a domain, so I use specific email addresses at that domain for specific websites so that I don't have a one email that every website gets. That way I can tell what service is selling my information. That is nice. Yep. So if I have an email that says, like, [email protected], then I know and I get a bunch of spam from that, then I know that, well, mister Chris, you've sold pulled me off to those damn brokers because we can't be friends anymore. But having a domain is kind of essential for that. If you use Gmail, the best thing you can do is create Gmail aliases, or you could use the plus aliasing Mhmm. Method where you add a plus after your email address and then the website name. So if your email is [email protected], you could do angela plus and then the website name Uh-oh. Cut off.
[00:27:07] Unknown:
Did he did he Yeah. He does. He cut back. But I first, before we continue, I agree with, Magnolia Mayhem in the live chat. I have been inherently biased against DeleteMe just because they advertise with so many YouTubers. And, like, that's my first threshold is is this a scam is when a company goes all in on YouTube. As somebody who knows how the ad business works, they can buy that with these massive blanket purchases where there's been really no vetting by the YouTuber, and so it's just ripe for scammy or types of services. So it makes me feel a lot better to hear a positive coverage of it. So that's good. I'm gonna look into a little more seriously. But, yeah, adversaries called back and, continued because he needed more than two minutes.
[00:27:54] Unknown:
Continuing where you cut me off at two minutes. If you have an email [email protected], you could do angela plus and then the website name. So Angela+[email protected], and Gmail will automatically create an alias for you that uses that. Or it might be the other way around where you add the website name plus and then your email. I don't quite remember. We got really use that feature, but it is an option. So you can create aliases with Gmail, and that way you can kinda see what companies are selling your information and where that spam is actually coming from. That way you can find what lists you're on or maybe not do business with that company anymore since they seem to be more than happy to sell all of your email. Or let them know they were compromised. Anyway, just sum it up, plus aliasing with your email address or
[00:28:51] Unknown:
delete me. So Both great options. Yeah. Those are good options. These companies that are selling the data, though, if I verbally provide them my email address with that plus, they're gonna know. That is very true. I've also had when you're just filling out on the on the web, I've had forms that reject the plus or the dot. Yeah. And I'm like, fuck. A lot of emails have the dot. That's weird. It's horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I I do like the strategies, though. And you can kinda stack some of these. You can do multiple. You know, the domain stuff, the plus stuff, the delete me, you have to be a strategy there. Alright. I think we got next is I believe it was Dom called in from Southern Michigan. Hey. It's your buddy, Dom, from Southern Michigan. Yep. Calling in to shout out to
[00:29:30] Unknown:
all the other Michigan listeners. Hey, Michigan listeners. And I had a question for you guys. Alright. Am I the only one who hates
[00:29:37] Unknown:
making phone calls? Nope. I don't know. I guess I'm like a all or nothing guy.
[00:29:42] Unknown:
I'd rather either text or see a face to face. This whole I can hear your voice, but I can't see your face. Say, let me get all the the the body language or none of it. Am I the only one? I don't know. But either way, enjoy the show. Appreciate y'all. Hope you all have a a blessed feast of Saint Nicholas coming up, and I hope you find something in your your boot. Hopefully, it's not any full. It'll stay in orange, something like that. But I love it. Yeah. Well, take care. Peace.
[00:30:13] Unknown:
So, you know, it was COVID that made me rethink phone calls. It's made me rethink the voice mail. Yeah. Because during COVID, all the normies got on video chat. Yeah. And it was so back because, like, if you went to a family event and you couldn't make it to the other family event, you went from just like you only had to deal with one family to now you had to video call all the other families. Right. And everybody's wants every every every single meeting I have. I I I have not had a meeting that was just a phone call with the exception of two probably in the last three years. Mhmm. It's crazy. Yeah. And I just started missing the simplicity of just picking up a phone, dialing a number, and then somebody just answers.
And you don't it doesn't matter if I'm wearing, you know, a tank top and underwear. It just you know? Like, so I started liking that, and it's also just a little more efficient than texting. I don't do it much. But then that is sort of what led me into doing the voice mail thing. Yeah. So It's retro again.
[00:31:07] Unknown:
Work was already pretty good about remote, you know, Zoom meetings and stuff Yeah. And etiquette. But then when the kids started distance learning, it was chaos. Like, it was total chaos. So much noises, so much management. Yeah. I ended up helping with, you know, muting and stuff for some of the kids. But and then the other thing what was the other thing?
[00:31:28] Unknown:
Dom, thank you for the call. It's, you know, apparently, you've made a big impact on Andrew. Oh, stop it. No. No. I had the migraine. I feel like I was awake all night. We're together between me with the no sleep and you and the migraine. Oh, you probably yeah. Neither one of us. Yeah. We this episode made possible by caffeine. Faraday Fedora is catching up with us. Hey, launch crew. It's Faraday Fedora calling.
[00:31:51] Unknown:
Playing catch up on your guys' episode. Yeah. I Few things behind on passing along messages. First off, happy bladed birthday, Angela. Whoo. And Chris, there's no Sasquatch from Vancouver Island. There's multiple reasons. If you ever wanna go into it, give me a call. Call me. And then lastly, it's, for the members. This next year, I'm canceling my membership with, JV, but the only reason I'm doing that is because I'm gonna get my note back up and running. I'm gonna send in more boost. So invite everyone to either pick up a membership. Now is a great time of year to do it. If not, get some more boost in before the end of the year. We'll talk to you guys all later. Take care. Bye.
[00:32:25] Unknown:
What a good guy, He's a great guy. He's a good guy. He's a real good guy. I agree. You remember? Oh, okay. I do remember. Okay. Well, what's Okay. So and this is it's it's funny, really. Alright. Alright. Alright. I I'm good with texting or phone calls. Right? Yeah. I don't like leaving voice mails. Oh, yeah. I hate leaving voice mails. No. I hate it. I would much rather just talk to somebody or text it. But usually, in most situations, like, especially professional, you have to leave a voice mail. So Do you know how many years I didn't even bother showing up my voice mail? Yeah. I can. I mean, it might have been a decade. I don't know. Yeah. I finally kind of have, like, the most basic Mhmm. Setup, and I I hate it. Mhmm. Yeah. And and by the way, my least favorite voice mail is, hey. It's so and so. Call me back.
Well, I already have a missed call. Let me prepare. Let me prepare for whatever it is. Yeah. What you're calling for? Why did this escalate to a call over a text? Yeah. Just tell me that. Yeah. And then, you know, just common decency. Yep. Thank you, Farideh. Mark from Northern Michigan calls in. Hey, Chris and Angela. Mark from Northern Michigan
[00:33:27] Unknown:
calling at 08:00 on a Thursday evening. I just did something cool today. I listened to my very first bootleg version of a launch. Oh. Yay. Awesome. I became a member over Thanksgiving. That's what I did, Thanksgiving. We're thankful. You were talking about turkey and such. And I just wanna thank you, Chris, for your recommendation the last week. Alright. I made turkey for us on Saturday because everyone canceled the last because we get snow dumped on us, but I made it. I watched the Alton Brown episode. Nice. I brined my turkey on Friday. I put it in about 9AM. Took it about 8AM and but it did just like he said, open cover, covered it with a foil, basically did it the exact way he did it. Mindy used some different spices.
And my wife, my wonderful, amazing wife who never eats white meat turkey because it's dry, gross, and disgusting. Oh my goodness. Not only did she eat the turkey that I made, she had it had it for leftovers the next day and the next day. And the next What a score. Dessert. Thank you. Thank you. That's extra incredible because it dries you know, it does naturally just dry out over the days, but, yeah, she kept at it awesome. That bird. Good to hear it. Brian that bird. Another Brian Bird success story. Thank you, Mark. Alright. Totally Not a Spook is calling in.
[00:34:53] Unknown:
Hi, Chris and Angela. I don't wanna say my name online, but I just wanna let you know I'm a a a long time listener since last with Brian and a long time contributor Mhmm. And currently a Jupyter party member. Alright. Anyways, I was catching up on the show and listened to the flock, though, and realize that, you know, we're we're kinda missing an opportunity with these. We should we should make them
[00:35:19] Unknown:
make the flock cameras available to us to monitor our public servants so we can tell how our make sure our, you know, our officers and fire people and representatives aren't wasting our tax dollars. Interesting. Anyway, that's all I wanna say. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It can only be used for, you know, these purposes. Yeah. Well, alright. Let's While while we're at it, let's start feeding some of those police body cameras in, you know, you know, I also I believe a lot of government offices that I call are recording my phone calls. Let's hear those two. Let's put it all out there. Everything. Yep. And, you know what? Maybe. After all, the federal government tells me AI is so important. Maybe we let a big AI look at it and tell us who's getting what done and who's what who's what not getting nothing done. You know what I mean? Like, maybe somebody's just sitting around eating donuts. I'm not saying, but I'm saying, maybe.
I like that idea. And thank you for calling in. Even though you didn't wanna give out your name, we still like hearing from you. Sean, I think this was from North Carolina called in. I know Sean called. I think he's from North Carolina, I think. Right, Sean? Tell tell us. Tell maybe. Sean, you got this in? Hey, guys. This is Sean from North Carolina. There it is. I just wanted to give a little bit of a perspective on
[00:36:22] Unknown:
the Okay. Going away thing. Interestingly, in military, I happen to be stationed overseas. And, actually, for the Penny. The penny. Fifteen to twenty years overseas, they haven't been losing pennies at military bases. They've been either rounding up or down to the nearest 5¢ Okay. If you're using cash. So just a little bit of a perspective there. It it all sums out equal in the end. So, anyway, great show, guys. Thank you for your time. It it makes sense. That's both. Yeah. Right after we
[00:36:54] Unknown:
episode and talked about it, I I had gone to, I think, Burger King the next day, and they had a sign printed. Oh, no. It was Bartel. So I was picking up a prescription. Penny shortage. And it's yeah. Yeah. I saw one of those too. Like Yeah. That's what they're calling it? A penny shortage? No. Because we stopped printing it two days ago? You know, like, the buttocks.
[00:37:10] Unknown:
I know. I know. In fact, it's like something like how many pennies or some how many pennies
[00:37:14] Unknown:
are Oh, it's because people keep gluing them to their floors. There is that or throwing them in so there's there's about
[00:37:21] Unknown:
roughly, on the high side, 300,000,000,000 still in circulation, and on the low side, 240,000,000,000 pennies in circulation. Okay. I was gonna say, how many actually move? Right? You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is according to data from the US Mint. But they do note, as you just said Mhmm. Many are stranded in jars or forgotten in various places.
[00:37:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. How many couches have gone to the dump with pennies in them? How many dryers? A fortune. Right? Small fortune.
[00:37:51] Unknown:
Alright. Well, Magnolia Mayhem went on a tear and called in.
[00:37:56] Unknown:
Hey. Magnolia Mayhem. I so to the thing about not letting people order unless they use the apps, I didn't have that, but I had a really similar, extremely annoying thing happen where our our our I say our local Domino's, but, you know, Domino's in general is pushing people towards their app. At least I think that's what's going on. But if they change from people in the store picking up the phone to a foreign call center. And, it it happened a couple of times, but I I call, and it's somebody with a very, very thick accent, mispronounced the name of my hometown Yeah. And then refuses to like, can I can I call the store?
And she says, no. That this isn't the store or or the this is the store. I'm like, no. Can you just put me through to the store, please? And and she she thought my address wasn't in their delivery center. I I I ended up that I had to just drive to the Domino's and order in person, and they told me they're yeah. They're using these call centers, and they'll just send in the order over the Internet. Do not like And and then we'll deliver out to that. Wow. But they they gave me a certain number where I could call in, but it's still it's just, like, it was extremely frustrating. And, really, the part was they expect you to be so dumb that they go, no. We are actually your local Domino's in inner mispronunciation of the the city name. Mhmm. And and you're just supposed to be like, oh, okay, and and not realize that anything's different.
I've I've quit using Domino's since then for a very similar reason. So not quite order only on the app, but it's still still pretty infuriating.
[00:39:41] Unknown:
So if companies are always gonna cut, you assume they're always gonna cut costs, would you rather have, another country data center, you know, outsource call center thing like you were just talking about? Mhmm. Would you rather have an AI voice assistant at the ordering thing? Or would you rather be forced to use the app? Out of your three options here I would I would use the app. I think the app I would absolutely use the app. Yeah. I know. And I don't like having all these apps. No. But I think I'd out of all of those options, I think You know you know the OG,
[00:40:08] Unknown:
that did this is post offices. What? What? What do you mean? You can't call post offices. Oh. Yeah. And part of it is because they would have to answer so many stupid questions all day or day. I don't get no amount of time or money for that. So difficult to you just have to go you the you just have to go in and do it. Yep.
[00:40:27] Unknown:
Alright. Like I said, the mayhem tear continues. He calls back.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
I think, this was the call that was answering the don't do as I would do question because he heard me, tease it earlier. Hey, it's Magnolia. I figured I'd call in since it's my day off. Just kidding. Oh, no. I didn't call in again on my day off. Anyway, one thing that I would that I wouldn't recommend other people do, but I do, and this is probably a really easy one, but run Linux phones. Mhmm. Like, I I I want everyone in the world to be on something that's that's free and open source and and freedom respecting and isn't negative in the freedom dimension or whatever. But the the fact of the matter is that they're not ready. And so I guess to answer that question, running Linux phones is the thing that I do that I would recommend other people don't do. Yeah. I know. That's fair. You're just making that better and different one day.
I don't know. How do you end a phone call?
[00:41:27] Unknown:
Negative in the freedom dimension.
[00:41:30] Unknown:
I agree with you on that one. I agree with you. Although, I don't recommend people do it either, though. But yeah. Alright. So Mayhem attempted to boost. I forgot to boost.
[00:41:40] Unknown:
Boosty boosty boosty boost. I just don't I don't You got a clip that I don't know if that's how it works. Boosty boosty that's how you should introduce boost now. Magnolias.
[00:41:49] Unknown:
Nailed it. We should. Yeah. You're right. Boosty boosty boosty boost. Boost. And then our last call this week is from friendly editor Drew. Wow. Hey, guys. This is friendly editor Drew.
[00:41:59] Unknown:
So this one time, my dad made my mom and I some chicken. And I was in, like, the second grade, and he put the chicken back on the platter. Like, he forgot to wash it in between. And so my mom and I both got salmonella. Oh. And, yeah, I nearly died. Woah. Like Woah. Bad died. Oh. Crawling to the bathroom weak. That's Yeah. So
[00:42:27] Unknown:
lucky that I'm still here. Alright. Thanks, guys. Bye.
[00:42:30] Unknown:
Oh, boy. Yeah. That happened to Diya a couple Couple years ago? Yeah. The test turkey. The test turkey got her. Yeah. It was really bad. It was. It was so bad. And so then when Thanksgiving Day came, she's like, do you have soap? Do you have soap that kills things? Yeah. She's still very careful since then.
[00:42:47] Unknown:
That changed her whole game. Yeah. Wow. Whoo. Well, I'm glad you're still here, Drew. And I'm glad we had all those voice mails. Thank you, everybody. We really appreciate that. And it is time for some boost. Boosty boosty boosty boost. And we that's pretty good. I like that. Score on seven boost to go. And we're gonna start with our baller booster this week, and it's mister r podcast with 600,000
[00:43:20] Unknown:
Wow. Sounds. Hey, what did you like to
[00:43:24] Unknown:
Can you even believe it? It's a Christmas baller miracle. 600000¢.
[00:43:32] Unknown:
Oh my gosh. That's perfect.
[00:43:43] Unknown:
Okay. I love that. I love that. So I hope we get more Volaroos just so that we can hear that because that was the perfect volume, the perfect, like, hard rock guitar. Our podcast inspires. Hello, Chris and Angela, my little guy, was too shy to leave a voice mail. But one of these days, I'll convince him. Would you consider making some fun swag for the show next year? If you do, you must put a tux a penguin on there somewhere. Otherwise, my kid will hate me. The show has brought so much knowledge, laughs, and great music to my commutes. I hope the show keeps going in 2026.
[00:44:13] Unknown:
Why do we have to wait till next year? No. Just kidding. We have been talking swag. Yeah. Well, I was thinking, because I I previewed this, and I looked and I can't find on the service that we use, I cannot find a plate. Because wouldn't that be cool to have or, like, the launch platter? Mhmm. Right? You know? Mhmm. Brent?
[00:44:31] Unknown:
That'd be so awesome.
[00:44:33] Unknown:
Get your launch plate. Yeah. But I'm looking at some other options that are, you know, eating related.
[00:44:39] Unknown:
Yeah. But we will totally accept suggestions. Yeah. What kind of swag do you want? Mhmm. Mhmm. Let us know. We'd love some ideas. We're all we're we're, like, we're very interested. We just we wanna do something that's worth doing too at the same time. Definitely. Our podcast makes so much. Right? We're always about not just something that you're gonna throw away or not use. Mhmm. Yeah. Appreciate that, our podcast. Making it the holidays here for the launch. Picking up the slack. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Very generous. Doma comes in with 2,000 sats, and I'm gonna say that's a pew pew. Coming in hard with the blue. Pew pew pew. Forgot to ask who made these light timers with the tiny plastic pins you push in. It's 10 degrees outside. I'm having to fiddle with this thing because I can't find my wise timer that refuses to stay connected to the network. Oh, man. Maybe it's just time to go Z Wave. Could be.
Could be. You know, every holiday light I deploy is attached to a smart plug. Mhmm. Smart plug for the Christmas tree, smart plug for the outdoor lights, smart plug for the lights we hang around, anything. Smart plug. Smart plug. Smart plug. And then I just run it all through home assistant, and then you can have a Christmas dashboard, which you can turn on and off. Chef's kiss. Mhmm. I recommend that, Doma, and thank you for the boost. Richard
[00:45:54] Unknown:
j r l comes in. Right? You think I got that right? Well, okay. So the previous one, I would have said Deoma. Deoma? Okay. I mean, that's what I would say. That's what I was expecting you. I was anticipating
[00:46:04] Unknown:
that you would say Richard Junior. Richard IRL. Oh, I was I almost said Richard Junior, but, he came in with 10,000 sats. Greetings from The UK. Loving the launch for all the random car and RV updates that don't make it into self hosted anymore. However, I just caught up on my massive lop my lop back log, and to the point where I'm at Brent's purchasing of the Bang Bus. Okay. Previously heard about it live on the launch when it actually happened. I have to ask, what's happened to it since? Is it gone very quiet? If it's a is it parked outside Brent's cabin and suffering in the Canadian winters bill with its dodgy windowsills that's stored in that cow shed at your farm? Where in the world is Brent Brent's bang bus now? And he said, for by the way, for the longest time, I thought traders love the vol was traders love vol, which I found very confusing. No. It is the day traders, and they love themselves some volatility. The traders love the vol. And they call it vol. That's what they call it. I talked to Brent about this and I suggested maybe he join us. Are you interested in the van update at all? Yeah. Yeah. I am curious too. Alright. So I'll I'll invite him on the show and, he did give us an update on Linux unplugged bootleg recently. But there's been some very interesting and funny developments in the last couple of weeks with the van. And it is out in the Canadian winter. I'll leave it at that. Okay.
So, he's gonna be on the launch or the or I'll invite him on. Yeah. I'm gonna invite him on the launch. Okay. Cool. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate that boost, and thanks for boosting from The UK. We don't get a ton of those these days. Turd Ferguson's back with 10,000 sats. Turd Ferguson. Now that the kids oh, we asked about Christmas traditions. Now that the kids have moved out, our Christmas tradition has changed quite a bit. We sleep in. We have brunch. It's nice. Mhmm. We watch a bad Christmas movie and have some very jolly sex and sometimes gifts. Sometimes gifts, Right. Right. So always the sex. Okay. That's good. Thank you, Turd.
Appreciate that. And, have a merry Christmas. Alright. Thank you everybody who boosted in. We had two of you stream Sats. We don't have a lot of Sats streamers, streaming Sats as they listen. So if you wanna get involved with that, you can. The two of you stacked 5,370 Sats for the show. Pershore at that better much. And then when you combine that, of course, our podcast really brought up the the lift here. Yeah. Jeez. Woo doggy. We stacked a grand tour maybe, you know, close to a record for the show, 627,370 sets.
[00:48:34] Unknown:
Can you play this much of it? No.
[00:48:37] Unknown:
No. I can't. I'll get a letter. Alright. It's funny. I just yesterday, I got half a dozen letters for five year old episodes of Linux Unplugged. So they always come around and find me. Goodness gracious. I can do nothing right, and I can do absolutely nothing right, except except maybe pick one hell of a winner.
[00:48:58] Unknown:
Chris found a gem, an easy flip. Let's cash it in. It's barely standing, kinda
[00:49:23] Unknown:
The value on this one, it's really off the charts. I've always had a dream of a podcast called Compound, and this one's ready to go. Out of the box, $350,000 nestled in the mountains of Retrino Valley. Renfro. Renfro. Thank you. Renfro. Not only am I bad with pronunciations, but now my eyesight's getting bad too. It's in it's in Kentucky. It's on, just over 25 acres of land. It all sounds good so far. Features 10 cabins. I mean, I don't think you read Colt Compound Ready to Go when you No. I don't think you read that part. But okay. Keep going. Features 10 cabins, so you get cabins with them. There's a general store among them with a commercial kitchen and bathrooms. There's a trapper's cabin that was built in the seventeen hundreds. There's a church built in the eighteen hundreds with beautiful stained glass windows. Has a blacksmith shop, a post office, a corn crib, don't know what that is, a salt house, a schoolhouse, and a cowboy bunkhouse. Okay. This is to recreate colonial times and wars. Apparently. Yeah. Like Or, you know, a cult could live there. But it's I actually that's my whole question actually is who is the customer? But it's kind of amazing. There's these standing log buildings.
Yeah. I want it. They look amazing, and it's $350,000. This is great. It's crazy. You could have you know, you'd never have to If it was this Mount Vernon, I would go for it. Yeah. Isn't that something? This is so cool. I know it's in Kentucky. That schoolhouse is something else, isn't it? Or the church. I'm not sure. It's a yeah. Yeah. I mean, they look they look like they were built in the Old West. Yeah. It's selling as a one bedroom, one bath. Yeah. Isn't that funny? You know? But there's 10 cabins. Yeah. First come, first serve when it comes to the cabins. You know, we when we when we announce compound days They're selling each cabin? No. No. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Batch. Yeah. Okay. I'm saying as Yeah. As we build the compound and we let the crew come pick their cabins, like, they better come quick because the good ones are gonna go. Have you been to the launch cabin? Right.
Right. Each show can have its own. Yeah. Why not? I mean or, you know, maybe you convert the church into a giant podcast studio. Yes. It'd be pretty cool. With a live audience. Right? There's already benches. Blacksmith shop could be used for repairs when things break. And Oh, yeah. All the electronics. Like, it's an electronic shop. Yep. I don't know what you use a corn crib for, but Why does it have to be a different Mount Vernon? That sucks. Which state is this? Kentucky. That's why. Kentucky. Yeah. Because if it was here, it'd be $2,000,000. That's why that's why. So but this maybe a little bit, so if we're gonna move, maybe we should go far. Right? Yeah. Go even further. Yeah. This next one k. It's a fortress, really. Now check this one. Brutalism isn't just for government buildings anymore. This one's a little more expensive, but you get a lot. Okay?
$5,900,000. Alright? Yeah. For him, super affordable. Three bedrooms, four bath, 5,300 square feet with a thousand foot square foot finished basement. It sits on 555 acres in New York. Was that half of you New York? No. I'm just kidding. It's quite a bit North of New York City, closer to Albany. It's in the Catskills Mountains. Oh. And so it's a mountaintop estate. Yeah. It is. It has a private airstrip with two hangars. It also has a guest house of sorts, a stone cottage reminiscent of a Hobbit house. Oh. And here's what they say, quote, allows a large variety of both permitted and special uses that would allow a fabulous palette of options for either private compounds or commercial endeavors. That's that sounds like us, Ange. Right? I mean, so if you want a compound, why not get one that's a giant cement structure? Because this entire thing Wow. Is a brutalist cement structure.
And it is nestled in the trees of these roly poly mountains that they have over there. The downside because I do like a good airstrip and a Hobbit house, but the interior of this $6,000,000
[00:53:04] Unknown:
mansion Bare bones.
[00:53:06] Unknown:
It's gotta be $2,000,000 in repairs. I mean, it's really bad. Yeah. It's super Uggo. How do you how do you have a $6,000,000
[00:53:14] Unknown:
mansion? Well, how do you keep people off the property? 550
[00:53:18] Unknown:
acres Well, it's so large. Or the airstrip? Five Five hundred and fifty acres is so large, they're gonna die before they make it to your house. It's got, like, its own private it's got its own private frontage road too. I mean, this it's people buy this stuff. It's you get in and out. The easiest way is by airplane. Yeah. You can drive. I wanna see more of the Hobbit house. I know.
[00:53:37] Unknown:
There's only one picture that I could tell.
[00:53:40] Unknown:
Hunter Valley, Catskill region. It's so interesting to have a beautiful property with all these buildings and this giant cement Yeah. 5,300 square foot mansion, but then the inside is just totally garbage. Mhmm. How does that even happen? And it looks like it was the inside looks like the kitchen was maybe refurbished in 1967 Mhmm. Just as seventies orange was coming into popularity. But I picture the type of person who's either buying this compound with the cabins or this compound here with an airstrip and 555 acres of mountain land. They're just living in a whole other world. Mhmm. That's a whole other world. Yep. This is like rich people family experience. Worry in life. Get away from it all. Right? Things go down. You fly into your you fly to your brutalist, about $6,000,000 mansion, I guess.
I wanna know who buys these things. That the one with all the, cabins? Because actually under they're they're negotiating with us. Somebody might be buying it right now. Nice. Yeah. This one, the the brutalist mansion for $6,000,000, for some reason, still for sale because you gotta fly there to even go see it. Right. But, if any of you out there living that life, just, email in so we can get a little bit of honest, just so we get a little little a little taste of it, you know? Nothing nothing too serious. But there you go. Two options. Mhmm. Almost one was you see that? I almost had a winner with that one that was it's just on the wrong Mount Vernon. Yes.
Almost got there. Links in the show notes for those. In fact, all our links are over at weeklylaunch.rocks, and this was episode 45 of your weekly show. You know, you can join us on a Tuesday because we do like to do the show live over at jblive.tv or in your podcasting2.o app of choice over at newpodcastapps.com. In those, you also not only get the live stream, you get a transcription and you get chapters. Plus, when the episode comes out, you get it within ninety seconds and you can boost the show as well depending on the app. Lot of great features in those 2.o apps. Some of the older apps are starting to adopt them, not all of them. Alright. That's it from us from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you right back here next week.
This is The Launch episode 45 for 12/09/2025. Streaming from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast, we greet you all Good morning, good evening, or whenever your timeline may fall. Time appropriate greetings indeed, one and all. This is the launch. My name is Chris. And I'm Angela. Hello, Angela. Well, we've got a few things to let everybody know before we kick off. We'd love it if you called us. You can do it while you listen live or while you listen to the podcast. After the fact, sure. Right now, sure. I don't care. Just dial (774) 462-5667.
That's (774) 462-5667. You can also join us live on a Tuesday, 11:30AM Pacific, 02:30PM Eastern, 07:30AM UTC, thirty seven thirty seven thirty PM. Nope. Yeah. I was just gonna say, you could do, like, the fine print of any medication. Go get your Microsoft toys. Go get your toys. I could do, like, maybe an announcer guy. No. It's 07:30PM UTC at j b live dot tv podcasting two dot o I v app. Very. Auctioneer. And I invite all of you, of course, to check out our show notes at weeklylaunch.rocks where you'll find our chat room. We have a mumble room going. Hello, everybody. Put in the quiet listening. Nice to have you joining us today.
Kinda like our live vibe crew in there. Appreciate that. And that's all, of course, weeklylaunch.rocks. And this is episode 45 if you're looking for today's links. Well, Andrews, it's been a little bit of migraine madness, I hear. It has. Yes. Good news. Just what you want on the holidays. Right? It is exactly what I want on the holidays. Actually, so the good news is it's predictable. Right? Oh, what do you mean? When you say predictable, like, you can tell it's coming?
[00:01:54] Unknown:
Or, like, you know it's, like, gonna be able to stay? Comes. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I get so okay. What I'd like to do is just crowdsource a solution for my migraine. It is, seemingly hormonal because it is around, you know, my Cycle? My cycle. But, but it seems to be getting, like, longer and longer. It it used to be maybe six six to ten hours. It would it would onset around 1PM in the afternoon and then just get, like, really bad and peak, right as I was going to bed and then make going to bed really difficult. Mhmm. But then I would wake up and I'd be fine. Well, this one started Sunday night. I thought maybe it was the Fireball that I drink, but it was a normal amount that I drink every Sunday. So, I don't know I don't know, but it just seemingly made it worse. It did not, leave until or start to leave until this morning. And now Oh. It's actually doing okay. But Sunday, and today's Tuesday.
Yeah. Right? It was yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. So I don't know why it's getting longer and longer. It kinda sucks, but I don't know like, Ibuprofen typically doesn't do anything. I end up, like, wanting sugar, caffeine, chocolate. Those are all things that could potentially help a headache, but not necessarily a migraine. Do they don't even make dent? Eating? No. Mm-mm. Nothing makes a dent. And it's it's, it's just it's really frustrating. But it does come every single, you know, approximately twenty six to twenty eight days. I am always so glad to have it over with because it's just so hard to be productive or do anything. Jeez. It must be kind of dreadful knowing it's coming, though. It's like you know it's coming. Yeah. Ugh. This one came so early. That's why I was like, this must be because of alcohol, not because of, my cycle. But, no. I guess my cycle is coming early. I mean, people must have experience with migraines out there. I was gonna say, yeah, no auras. I don't I don't have, like, the lights light aura thing? But I do have a light sound and smell sensitivity Yeah. That comes with this. And it's just yeah. It just sucks. I am a very productive person. I like to be efficient and get things done. You get knocked out. And I yeah. Yeah. I'm and it and now it's just getting longer and longer. Like No.
Can't no. This far, no further. So I will I will put throw it out there that it it might be related to endometriosis. So, if if anybody does have, like, insight when it comes to that connection, it it could be that, but I've never been treated for endometriosis. And I canceled that exploratory surgery when, when Bella stopped breastfeeding because that solved that issue. But then I that's when I that's when the migraine started. The migraine one's hard. I bet there's there's gotta be somebody out there. If you could boost in or call and leave us a voice mail, give us some tips, like, things you've done, things how you tracked it down, treatments. There's Yeah. Because I've done is. I've gone to two different naturopaths. I have tried I I got up to, like, thirty five pills a day trying to clean out my cardiovascular system, my liver, my spleen, digestive enzymes. Like, I did the whole natural route to try to resolve this. I got my iron up, also ferritin stores. Like, there's so many things that I have tried to to
[00:05:03] Unknown:
even just reduce the scope of it, and it's just getting worse. Yeah. I could even just dial it down. Yeah. Yeah. Just less less hours. Yeah. Yeah. Boy. That'd be great. That is that would be that that that's something too that if you have any insights on that, I think there's other people listening too that would probably also really appreciate that. So boost in, give us a call. And I also have a question for you. A little bit on the wild side, what's something you do that you don't recommend any well anyone else do? So, you know, like, your your ultimate don't do as I do. We got one called Completely unrelated to migraines. Right? Right. Like just Just another. Just I'm just curious because everybody has one of these double standards where if you were giving advice, you tell somebody do it this way. But then when you do it yourself, you cut a corner or you don't follow that advice.
[00:05:50] Unknown:
Everybody has these things. Oh, man. It's really hard though to think about. I know. So think about it. Do you have one? I mean Are you gonna share it when we get to voice mails? No. It's,
[00:05:58] Unknown:
I have to think about it. Is it your whole life? It's a lot of my life. Yeah. I mean, really, let's look at my life. Yeah. Don't do as I do. Yeah. Alright. So let us know. Migraine, any any info you have on the fixes, causes, things you've done to mitigate it, boost them with that. Give us a call or what's your ultimate don't do as I do. Alright, Andrews. I wanna talk about Apple for a moment. Okay. Well, Have you heard about the massive reckoning that's happening over at Apple recently? Mm-mm. Yeah. So a sudden wave of executive departures has been ripping through Apple in just the last couple of weeks. And I've never said something like this before, but I think it's fair to say this is probably the biggest change up at Apple in leadership since Steve Jobs died in 2011. I mean, it's massive. Mhmm. So, AI chief, out. Interface of, interface design head, out. Who's Alan Dye? He's been around forever. General counsel, out. Environmental and policy VP, out.
And then also a few other rumors that we're gonna get on. And there and some of these some of these positions, mind you, are massive massive, paid positions that got poached by Meta. Oh, I was just gonna say they're starting their their own competing Well, they kinda are in a way. Yeah. So there's but some of them are getting fired. Some there's a lot going on here. And I think maybe what's actually happening isn't super obvious, but I'm gonna play this quick Yahoo finance clip because he just rattles off, the names here. And I think it's kinda useful just so we have this for for the record here. Oh, Jeff Williams, who was supposed to be the front runner to be CEO,
[00:07:34] Unknown:
he's retiring. Head of governmental affairs, Lisa Jackson, she's leaving general counsel Kate Adams. She's leaving Alan Dye, one of the, heads of design. He's going to Meta getting poached, and then their AI chief is also,
[00:07:49] Unknown:
retiring. I think there's there's a number factors here. Some of the people who are are We'll pause there. So I wanted him to get through kinda quickly who's all going. This because it's not like a small thing. This isn't just like a a little change. I have in the show notes, if you're interested, a a visual that Bloomberg posted that really demonstrates the scale. Look at that. I mean, Fran, she's here in studio with me. She can see this. I mean Yeah. And you could see how many of them are going to Meta. Wow. Yeah. Meta has soaking up quite a few people from Apple, especially people that worked on AI.
So there's that whole thing going on here. And then the really, really big news was it sounded like the guy behind the m one chips and Apple's probably most successful thing they've done during Tim Cook's era had informed Tim Cook that he's also considering leaving Apple. Another report now saying a key Apple hardware
[00:08:43] Unknown:
executive is considering leaving, the company. Steve Kovac joins us now with more, hey, Steve. Steve. Yeah. It just keeps piling on. Right? You have all these big shots out there in Cupertino. They're getting new careers for the holidays, and there have been several changes in the last seven days on top of several departures over the last few months. Now the latest after last week's exodus is Chip Boss Johnny Srouji. He wants to leave according to Bloomberg. He's been instrumental in ditching Intel chips at Apple. You can kind of think of him as the Jony Ive of chip design. It would be a huge loss for the company. He's one of those sort of singular talents over there. And, look, these shake ups that we keep hearing No. I'd say this was the one that really spooked everybody. Oh, no. The M chip guy, he might be leaving.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
That I thought okay. That is really, really bad. But that happened on Friday. And then by Monday,
[00:09:33] Unknown:
first thing, Monday, they were trying to squash the chip guy leaving rumors, trying to Apple is trying to tighten up the narrative a little bit after it ran wild over Saturday and Sunday. Another new report on what's happening in the top levels at Apple. Steve Kovac has that story for us. Hey, Steve. Yeah. Mike, lots of changes there. And by the way, this is all after lots of big shots in Cupertino. I've been getting those new careers for the holidays. Several changes have been happening in just the last seven days on top of several departures over the last few months. Now someone not leaving, that would be chip boss Johnny Sruge. Now let me give you a little drama that happened over the weekend. Bloomberg reported that he had told Tim Cook he wants to step down from his role. But this morning, he told staff in a memo he's not leaving anytime soon. That's according to the full email that I saw, that just got sent out moments ago. That would have been a big loss because Sruthi has been instrumental in ditching Intel chips over at Mac over at Apple. You can kind of think of him as the Jony Ive of chip design. But, look, some of these shakeups that have been happening over the last several days, it's really to meet the AI moment. The world has been changing around Apple over the last few years as it kept things mostly the same. Now next year is gonna be a monumental one for Apple after it failed to deliver on AI this year with that Siri update that was supposed to happen in the spring, and they have to get that one right. Now AI boss, John Giandrea, he was stepping down last week, and those AI teams that he was once overseeing have been reorganized to make all of that happen. And that needs to work before they can launch AI powered products like those rumored glasses and a smart home product next year. On top of all that, you have Apple's fiftieth anniversary coming up in April, a looming antitrust trial, and so much more. Now there's different It is really it is fascinating. And a a lot of people are coming to the conclusion that, well, this is sort of a response of this is the response
[00:11:29] Unknown:
to not really getting any traction with any AI product. And I don't know if I 100% I think that is partially true. But in a weird way, Apple missing this hype train on AI means that they didn't really foot gun themselves too bad. I mean, they have Apple intelligence, but you don't really have to use it. It doesn't really get in your way. And they didn't really embarrass themselves with some really super well, they kind of embarrassed themselves, but they didn't embarrass themselves financially by investing, you know, $40,000,000,000 just in into something that just went nowhere like they did with their car product for a while. But it does seem like this is probably some fallout around all of the AI stuff. But I I have a different theory, Andrews.
My theory is Tim Cook is cleaning house. I think you've got a few of these folks that are retiring. They're rich as hell. They don't need any more money, and it's time for some fresh blood. These guys have been rich for so long at Apple that they've kind of lost touch, and I've been making this complaint for a while. Now some of them legitimately got pushed by Meta. Others, I think, are also being shown the door. Mhmm. They're being fired in kind of a nice way. And now we have a new head of AI coming in who comes from Microsoft.
And this is all after Tim Cook has been CEO for fourteen years. It's been fourteen years since Steve Jobs died, a little over fourteen years. And during Cook's reign, Apple became one of the most valuable companies in the world exceeding $3,000,000,000,000. But he's 65 years old, and it's probably time for him to think about when he'll move on. Now he's kind of dodged this question. Here he was talking to Wired a year ago, and, the question of when he'll retire comes up. And it was already brewing in the background a year ago when this question came up. And Tim's answer, not supercommittal.
[00:13:30] Unknown:
You're the CEO. You've been here for a while. How long do you see yourself continuing this role? Oh, I don't know. I get asked that question now more than I used to Why is that? As I age, as my hair turns gray. I love Yeah. That's why. Place. Mhmm. I love it. And I love the people I work with. It's a privilege of a lifetime to to be here. And I I I'll do it until the voice in my head says it's time.
[00:13:58] Unknown:
And then I'll go and and focus on what the next chapter looks like. I'm not so sure it's actually the voice in his head that'll be telling him when it's time or maybe if it's just when the board tells him, hey. You need to start a transition plan because we need to change things up. A little bit before all these layoffs happened, the Financial Times carried a story that the board was intensifying their search for a replacement for Tim Cook.
[00:14:26] Unknown:
Apple is stepping up its succession plans as it prepares for CEO Tim Cook to step down as soon as next year. That's according to a report in the Financial Times, which cited several people familiar with discussions. The report said that John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, is widely seen as Cook's most likely successor. Apple insiders were quoted as saying the company's board and senior executives had recently intensified plans for Cook to hand over the reins after more than fourteen years at the helm. The report also said that Apple is unlikely to name a new CEO before its next earnings report in late January, which covers the critical holiday period.
Cook became CEO in 2011 after Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs resigned, ending his reign at the tech giant he cofounded in 1976 in his parents' garage. Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Shares of Apple were down as much as 2% in Monday morning trading. And, actually, interesting, after Apple announced the layoffs,
[00:15:37] Unknown:
shares price started going back up. Mhmm. So share price, when that rumor came out, started to go down. And I think, perhaps, that tells us that the market likes to see Apple cleaning up a little bit and making preparation changes. Now this takes us with a grain of salt, but the, clashy or cachey market prediction for when Tim Cook leaves Apple is 45 betting odds before 2027, 20% betting odds before July 2026. And I'm not saying it's gonna be that soon, but this is my theory, is that it is time for Tim Cook to wind things down, to get a new CEO in there. But like Apple does all things, they're gonna try to manage and control this and plan this the best they can. An Apple product rollout takes multiple years of development, and this, they're gonna treat like a product rollout. And they've already begun working on it, and part of it is to get some distance and get this stuff in place to get these new leaders a chance to start building while Tim's still there. And then when he transitions out, they're already running. They've already got everything up and going that they need. I mean, a 48% odds that he leaves Apple before 2027, that's that's nothing to sneeze at.
And he did tell AppleTrack or, I mean, he did tell, AppleTrack noted this. He did tell one agency, I think a year ago or so that he plans to retire in at least ten years. I I think it's gonna be a lot sooner than that. I don't know. What's is as somebody who's been a long time Apple user, but not necessarily like, you know, a fan or somebody who's like, I don't know, like, you know, you have people that are just they buy everything Apple makes. Right? Mhmm. That's not you. I mean, you'll buy you'll got you'll buy a good iPhone. You'll buy a good occasional Apple Watch. Maybe once a decade, you get yourself a laptop.
[00:17:20] Unknown:
Only once the battery is trying to break out of
[00:17:23] Unknown:
the the show. What is your impression of Apple over the last couple of years? Do you feel like they're stagnant and boring? Is that exactly what you want from them?
[00:17:32] Unknown:
I feel no. I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot of innovation. You know, they're they are improving upon each of their products, but not not in an amazing way. And they it feels like they're software glitches. Yeah. Like, way too many software glitches. Yeah.
[00:17:47] Unknown:
That is true. I think in a way it's As a user. Like, they're gonna people are but you're gonna buy an iPhone either way. Yeah. Like, they're in this interesting position where maybe they don't make a trillion dollars a year, but they're always gonna sell millions of iPhones. So they just almost can't lose if they just get the business right. Mhmm. But I do agree, like, they're slipping on software quality, especially on macOS, in my opinion. That's really where it's gotten bad. And Yeah. I wait so long to do the OS updates on my Macs. And it's a real shame. Right? Because they've they've nailed some of the hardware. Mhmm. And while their hardware is kind of at the peak of its game, the software is really been slacking. And then they really have not come up with anything interesting and meaningful with AI.
They've done a lot of interesting infrastructure stuff. Like, they have this private cloud compute where you can send off AI jobs, and, supposedly, they can't associate it with you in any way. And even if the FBI came knocking and stole all of the server racks, they couldn't put together who submitted the AI job. That kind of stuff is interesting, and it's a good idea for the industry. But and then also essentially making local inference and local AI processing available on device via an API. So as a developer, you can just say, hey, system, go generate me an image, and then the system comes back with an image, and you don't have to write any of the image generation code. It's AI, you know, LLM crap and just stable diffusion stuff on demand. And Apple handles if it's an on device thing. Apple handles if it gets punted to private cloud. Apple handles if it gets punted to OpenAI.
You just make a call for the image and you get your image. Or you just make a call for tech summary and you get your tech summary as a developer. And then they so they build these things in in a way that actually makes them fairly straightforward for developers to implement in a way that's actually usable by end users. So it would be interesting to see Apple have their game together on this. I just I don't I don't know if we get there with the current crop of leadership, and I don't think this house cleaning was enough because these are the same people that brought us the butterfly keyboard. These are the same people that just really blew the Mac for years.
I think they're kind of out of touch. And, you know, I I got a lot of respect for Tim Cook, but I think I just like you say, they haven't innovated a lot. The Apple Vision Pro was an absolute obvious flop before they even announced it. A $3,000 VR headset right as inflation was exploding. Are you joking? Yeah. Are you serious right now? Apparently, they were. Oh, pro tip though for VR.
[00:20:12] Unknown:
If you have a membership
[00:20:13] Unknown:
to, like, the YMCA Yeah. Rent out their racquetball room. Oh, yeah. Make yourself a VR room. Yeah. That is a good pro tip right there. That is a good pro tip. So I think Apple is probably just fine. Everybody's freaking out. Apple's falling apart. Oh, it's a rotten to the core situation. This is the beginning of a routine succession, and they're gonna have to make some internal adjustments. So that way, when the new boss comes in, all the lieutenants are all sorted out. That's what we're doing right now. We're sorting out the lieutenants. So that way, when we get a new boss, everybody's on the same page.
And, maybe we'll see something interesting next year from Apple on this. I don't know, but I'd like to know what you think. So boost in, tell me if you think we're gonna see Apple actually do anything in the AI space next year. That, I think, is left to be seen, but I'd like to know your thoughts.
[00:21:04] Unknown:
Well, I'm just gonna make a quick call to my launch. I haven't checked in since yesterday. (774) 462-5667. That's it. Alright. (774) 462-5667. Call now.
[00:21:22] Unknown:
Alright. We'll be playing your voice mails. We have a lot of we have 11 voice mails. That's crazy. So we have plenty of voicemails, but we'll that means we're gonna need a whole new batch next week. So as you're listening to our song of the week, you can call in and, leave a voicemail. Or if you're listening live, say hi in the chat room, jump in the mumble room. And, of course, I do have something very special for you. You know, I'm not gonna do this very often, not gonna get carried away. But how neat is it that there is actually brand new fresh value for value Christmas music? I know. Hold on. Don't freak out. Stick with me for a second. Excited. It's not that bad, actually. Oh. I know. Well, some people hear that, especially if you don't celebrate Christmas, you probably think. Oh, okay. Right? But how neat is this? Right? These are people that are creating music. They're putting it out there for free. And if you like it, you can boost in. And, 95%
[00:22:06] Unknown:
of your sats will go to the artist. Now's the time. It's the song of the week. Remember, you can boost the track.
[00:22:13] Unknown:
They sure like that. Alright. This week, it's Man, It's Christmas by Jamie Bratcher.
[00:22:21] Unknown:
Snow is flying. Man, it's cold. It's in the air everywhere I go. It's a crazy time of New Year. Man, it's Christmas. Family's coming from out of town. Mama's cooking, so look out now. It's the best time of New Year. Man, it's Christmas. Presents, mangers, and mistletoe. Stocking trees and lights that glow. Turkey dressing and all that stuff. I know for sure I'm gonna eat too much. Mary Jesus and three wise men, Joseph angels at Bethlehem. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas. It only happens once a year. Give in your blues for some Christmas cheer. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas.
I can't wait to see my kids' face around the tree on Christmas day, tearing paper and ribbons flying. I hope they did what I've been buying. My card is maxed, but I don't care. I'll pay the bills sometime next year. Come on. Let's celebrate. Man, it's Christmas. I said, man, it's Christmas. I said, it's Christmas, daddy o. Man, it's Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody.
[00:24:42] Unknown:
Alright. Now we do have some voice mails this week, Andrews. You know, we got a good batch, actually.
[00:24:48] Unknown:
That was a long jingle. It's festive. It is very festive.
[00:24:52] Unknown:
Hey. I don't control how fast the reindeers fly by. You're not Santa's sleigh. You can't be in charge of these kinds of things. Right? There's what? How many reindeer? 12? Yeah. Something like that. And Rudolph? Or I don't know. I mean, doesn't anybody I don't remember anymore. Six comma salt. We almost have enough voice mails as reindeer. That's true. We have some great voice mails.
[00:25:09] Unknown:
Let's play our first one from adversary 17. Hey, guys. It's adversary 17. Once again, long time no talk too. I have been listening, though, so Mhmm. Don't don't forget about me. I'm listening to episode 42 when you guys were asking about how do you solve the email spam problem. And one thing that I do pay for that helps is called DeleteMe. What you do is you give them all your information Mhmm. And then they will go around and delete you from all of the data brokers out there that have that information that matches. I've actually seen a significant decrease in the amount of spam calls, texts, and emails that I get. And there's family plans too, so you could have your spouse or your children or other family members that you want to help out.
Also, I own a domain, so I use specific email addresses at that domain for specific websites so that I don't have a one email that every website gets. That way I can tell what service is selling my information. That is nice. Yep. So if I have an email that says, like, [email protected], then I know and I get a bunch of spam from that, then I know that, well, mister Chris, you've sold pulled me off to those damn brokers because we can't be friends anymore. But having a domain is kind of essential for that. If you use Gmail, the best thing you can do is create Gmail aliases, or you could use the plus aliasing Mhmm. Method where you add a plus after your email address and then the website name. So if your email is [email protected], you could do angela plus and then the website name Uh-oh. Cut off.
[00:27:07] Unknown:
Did he did he Yeah. He does. He cut back. But I first, before we continue, I agree with, Magnolia Mayhem in the live chat. I have been inherently biased against DeleteMe just because they advertise with so many YouTubers. And, like, that's my first threshold is is this a scam is when a company goes all in on YouTube. As somebody who knows how the ad business works, they can buy that with these massive blanket purchases where there's been really no vetting by the YouTuber, and so it's just ripe for scammy or types of services. So it makes me feel a lot better to hear a positive coverage of it. So that's good. I'm gonna look into a little more seriously. But, yeah, adversaries called back and, continued because he needed more than two minutes.
[00:27:54] Unknown:
Continuing where you cut me off at two minutes. If you have an email [email protected], you could do angela plus and then the website name. So Angela+[email protected], and Gmail will automatically create an alias for you that uses that. Or it might be the other way around where you add the website name plus and then your email. I don't quite remember. We got really use that feature, but it is an option. So you can create aliases with Gmail, and that way you can kinda see what companies are selling your information and where that spam is actually coming from. That way you can find what lists you're on or maybe not do business with that company anymore since they seem to be more than happy to sell all of your email. Or let them know they were compromised. Anyway, just sum it up, plus aliasing with your email address or
[00:28:51] Unknown:
delete me. So Both great options. Yeah. Those are good options. These companies that are selling the data, though, if I verbally provide them my email address with that plus, they're gonna know. That is very true. I've also had when you're just filling out on the on the web, I've had forms that reject the plus or the dot. Yeah. And I'm like, fuck. A lot of emails have the dot. That's weird. It's horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I I do like the strategies, though. And you can kinda stack some of these. You can do multiple. You know, the domain stuff, the plus stuff, the delete me, you have to be a strategy there. Alright. I think we got next is I believe it was Dom called in from Southern Michigan. Hey. It's your buddy, Dom, from Southern Michigan. Yep. Calling in to shout out to
[00:29:30] Unknown:
all the other Michigan listeners. Hey, Michigan listeners. And I had a question for you guys. Alright. Am I the only one who hates
[00:29:37] Unknown:
making phone calls? Nope. I don't know. I guess I'm like a all or nothing guy.
[00:29:42] Unknown:
I'd rather either text or see a face to face. This whole I can hear your voice, but I can't see your face. Say, let me get all the the the body language or none of it. Am I the only one? I don't know. But either way, enjoy the show. Appreciate y'all. Hope you all have a a blessed feast of Saint Nicholas coming up, and I hope you find something in your your boot. Hopefully, it's not any full. It'll stay in orange, something like that. But I love it. Yeah. Well, take care. Peace.
[00:30:13] Unknown:
So, you know, it was COVID that made me rethink phone calls. It's made me rethink the voice mail. Yeah. Because during COVID, all the normies got on video chat. Yeah. And it was so back because, like, if you went to a family event and you couldn't make it to the other family event, you went from just like you only had to deal with one family to now you had to video call all the other families. Right. And everybody's wants every every every single meeting I have. I I I have not had a meeting that was just a phone call with the exception of two probably in the last three years. Mhmm. It's crazy. Yeah. And I just started missing the simplicity of just picking up a phone, dialing a number, and then somebody just answers.
And you don't it doesn't matter if I'm wearing, you know, a tank top and underwear. It just you know? Like, so I started liking that, and it's also just a little more efficient than texting. I don't do it much. But then that is sort of what led me into doing the voice mail thing. Yeah. So It's retro again.
[00:31:07] Unknown:
Work was already pretty good about remote, you know, Zoom meetings and stuff Yeah. And etiquette. But then when the kids started distance learning, it was chaos. Like, it was total chaos. So much noises, so much management. Yeah. I ended up helping with, you know, muting and stuff for some of the kids. But and then the other thing what was the other thing?
[00:31:28] Unknown:
Dom, thank you for the call. It's, you know, apparently, you've made a big impact on Andrew. Oh, stop it. No. No. I had the migraine. I feel like I was awake all night. We're together between me with the no sleep and you and the migraine. Oh, you probably yeah. Neither one of us. Yeah. We this episode made possible by caffeine. Faraday Fedora is catching up with us. Hey, launch crew. It's Faraday Fedora calling.
[00:31:51] Unknown:
Playing catch up on your guys' episode. Yeah. I Few things behind on passing along messages. First off, happy bladed birthday, Angela. Whoo. And Chris, there's no Sasquatch from Vancouver Island. There's multiple reasons. If you ever wanna go into it, give me a call. Call me. And then lastly, it's, for the members. This next year, I'm canceling my membership with, JV, but the only reason I'm doing that is because I'm gonna get my note back up and running. I'm gonna send in more boost. So invite everyone to either pick up a membership. Now is a great time of year to do it. If not, get some more boost in before the end of the year. We'll talk to you guys all later. Take care. Bye.
[00:32:25] Unknown:
What a good guy, He's a great guy. He's a good guy. He's a real good guy. I agree. You remember? Oh, okay. I do remember. Okay. Well, what's Okay. So and this is it's it's funny, really. Alright. Alright. Alright. I I'm good with texting or phone calls. Right? Yeah. I don't like leaving voice mails. Oh, yeah. I hate leaving voice mails. No. I hate it. I would much rather just talk to somebody or text it. But usually, in most situations, like, especially professional, you have to leave a voice mail. So Do you know how many years I didn't even bother showing up my voice mail? Yeah. I can. I mean, it might have been a decade. I don't know. Yeah. I finally kind of have, like, the most basic Mhmm. Setup, and I I hate it. Mhmm. Yeah. And and by the way, my least favorite voice mail is, hey. It's so and so. Call me back.
Well, I already have a missed call. Let me prepare. Let me prepare for whatever it is. Yeah. What you're calling for? Why did this escalate to a call over a text? Yeah. Just tell me that. Yeah. And then, you know, just common decency. Yep. Thank you, Farideh. Mark from Northern Michigan calls in. Hey, Chris and Angela. Mark from Northern Michigan
[00:33:27] Unknown:
calling at 08:00 on a Thursday evening. I just did something cool today. I listened to my very first bootleg version of a launch. Oh. Yay. Awesome. I became a member over Thanksgiving. That's what I did, Thanksgiving. We're thankful. You were talking about turkey and such. And I just wanna thank you, Chris, for your recommendation the last week. Alright. I made turkey for us on Saturday because everyone canceled the last because we get snow dumped on us, but I made it. I watched the Alton Brown episode. Nice. I brined my turkey on Friday. I put it in about 9AM. Took it about 8AM and but it did just like he said, open cover, covered it with a foil, basically did it the exact way he did it. Mindy used some different spices.
And my wife, my wonderful, amazing wife who never eats white meat turkey because it's dry, gross, and disgusting. Oh my goodness. Not only did she eat the turkey that I made, she had it had it for leftovers the next day and the next day. And the next What a score. Dessert. Thank you. Thank you. That's extra incredible because it dries you know, it does naturally just dry out over the days, but, yeah, she kept at it awesome. That bird. Good to hear it. Brian that bird. Another Brian Bird success story. Thank you, Mark. Alright. Totally Not a Spook is calling in.
[00:34:53] Unknown:
Hi, Chris and Angela. I don't wanna say my name online, but I just wanna let you know I'm a a a long time listener since last with Brian and a long time contributor Mhmm. And currently a Jupyter party member. Alright. Anyways, I was catching up on the show and listened to the flock, though, and realize that, you know, we're we're kinda missing an opportunity with these. We should we should make them
[00:35:19] Unknown:
make the flock cameras available to us to monitor our public servants so we can tell how our make sure our, you know, our officers and fire people and representatives aren't wasting our tax dollars. Interesting. Anyway, that's all I wanna say. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It can only be used for, you know, these purposes. Yeah. Well, alright. Let's While while we're at it, let's start feeding some of those police body cameras in, you know, you know, I also I believe a lot of government offices that I call are recording my phone calls. Let's hear those two. Let's put it all out there. Everything. Yep. And, you know what? Maybe. After all, the federal government tells me AI is so important. Maybe we let a big AI look at it and tell us who's getting what done and who's what who's what not getting nothing done. You know what I mean? Like, maybe somebody's just sitting around eating donuts. I'm not saying, but I'm saying, maybe.
I like that idea. And thank you for calling in. Even though you didn't wanna give out your name, we still like hearing from you. Sean, I think this was from North Carolina called in. I know Sean called. I think he's from North Carolina, I think. Right, Sean? Tell tell us. Tell maybe. Sean, you got this in? Hey, guys. This is Sean from North Carolina. There it is. I just wanted to give a little bit of a perspective on
[00:36:22] Unknown:
the Okay. Going away thing. Interestingly, in military, I happen to be stationed overseas. And, actually, for the Penny. The penny. Fifteen to twenty years overseas, they haven't been losing pennies at military bases. They've been either rounding up or down to the nearest 5¢ Okay. If you're using cash. So just a little bit of a perspective there. It it all sums out equal in the end. So, anyway, great show, guys. Thank you for your time. It it makes sense. That's both. Yeah. Right after we
[00:36:54] Unknown:
episode and talked about it, I I had gone to, I think, Burger King the next day, and they had a sign printed. Oh, no. It was Bartel. So I was picking up a prescription. Penny shortage. And it's yeah. Yeah. I saw one of those too. Like Yeah. That's what they're calling it? A penny shortage? No. Because we stopped printing it two days ago? You know, like, the buttocks.
[00:37:10] Unknown:
I know. I know. In fact, it's like something like how many pennies or some how many pennies
[00:37:14] Unknown:
are Oh, it's because people keep gluing them to their floors. There is that or throwing them in so there's there's about
[00:37:21] Unknown:
roughly, on the high side, 300,000,000,000 still in circulation, and on the low side, 240,000,000,000 pennies in circulation. Okay. I was gonna say, how many actually move? Right? You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. This is according to data from the US Mint. But they do note, as you just said Mhmm. Many are stranded in jars or forgotten in various places.
[00:37:44] Unknown:
Yeah. Yeah. How many couches have gone to the dump with pennies in them? How many dryers? A fortune. Right? Small fortune.
[00:37:51] Unknown:
Alright. Well, Magnolia Mayhem went on a tear and called in.
[00:37:56] Unknown:
Hey. Magnolia Mayhem. I so to the thing about not letting people order unless they use the apps, I didn't have that, but I had a really similar, extremely annoying thing happen where our our our I say our local Domino's, but, you know, Domino's in general is pushing people towards their app. At least I think that's what's going on. But if they change from people in the store picking up the phone to a foreign call center. And, it it happened a couple of times, but I I call, and it's somebody with a very, very thick accent, mispronounced the name of my hometown Yeah. And then refuses to like, can I can I call the store?
And she says, no. That this isn't the store or or the this is the store. I'm like, no. Can you just put me through to the store, please? And and she she thought my address wasn't in their delivery center. I I I ended up that I had to just drive to the Domino's and order in person, and they told me they're yeah. They're using these call centers, and they'll just send in the order over the Internet. Do not like And and then we'll deliver out to that. Wow. But they they gave me a certain number where I could call in, but it's still it's just, like, it was extremely frustrating. And, really, the part was they expect you to be so dumb that they go, no. We are actually your local Domino's in inner mispronunciation of the the city name. Mhmm. And and you're just supposed to be like, oh, okay, and and not realize that anything's different.
I've I've quit using Domino's since then for a very similar reason. So not quite order only on the app, but it's still still pretty infuriating.
[00:39:41] Unknown:
So if companies are always gonna cut, you assume they're always gonna cut costs, would you rather have, another country data center, you know, outsource call center thing like you were just talking about? Mhmm. Would you rather have an AI voice assistant at the ordering thing? Or would you rather be forced to use the app? Out of your three options here I would I would use the app. I think the app I would absolutely use the app. Yeah. I know. And I don't like having all these apps. No. But I think I'd out of all of those options, I think You know you know the OG,
[00:40:08] Unknown:
that did this is post offices. What? What? What do you mean? You can't call post offices. Oh. Yeah. And part of it is because they would have to answer so many stupid questions all day or day. I don't get no amount of time or money for that. So difficult to you just have to go you the you just have to go in and do it. Yep.
[00:40:27] Unknown:
Alright. Like I said, the mayhem tear continues. He calls back.
[00:40:30] Unknown:
I think, this was the call that was answering the don't do as I would do question because he heard me, tease it earlier. Hey, it's Magnolia. I figured I'd call in since it's my day off. Just kidding. Oh, no. I didn't call in again on my day off. Anyway, one thing that I would that I wouldn't recommend other people do, but I do, and this is probably a really easy one, but run Linux phones. Mhmm. Like, I I I want everyone in the world to be on something that's that's free and open source and and freedom respecting and isn't negative in the freedom dimension or whatever. But the the fact of the matter is that they're not ready. And so I guess to answer that question, running Linux phones is the thing that I do that I would recommend other people don't do. Yeah. I know. That's fair. You're just making that better and different one day.
I don't know. How do you end a phone call?
[00:41:27] Unknown:
Negative in the freedom dimension.
[00:41:30] Unknown:
I agree with you on that one. I agree with you. Although, I don't recommend people do it either, though. But yeah. Alright. So Mayhem attempted to boost. I forgot to boost.
[00:41:40] Unknown:
Boosty boosty boosty boost. I just don't I don't You got a clip that I don't know if that's how it works. Boosty boosty that's how you should introduce boost now. Magnolias.
[00:41:49] Unknown:
Nailed it. We should. Yeah. You're right. Boosty boosty boosty boost. Boost. And then our last call this week is from friendly editor Drew. Wow. Hey, guys. This is friendly editor Drew.
[00:41:59] Unknown:
So this one time, my dad made my mom and I some chicken. And I was in, like, the second grade, and he put the chicken back on the platter. Like, he forgot to wash it in between. And so my mom and I both got salmonella. Oh. And, yeah, I nearly died. Woah. Like Woah. Bad died. Oh. Crawling to the bathroom weak. That's Yeah. So
[00:42:27] Unknown:
lucky that I'm still here. Alright. Thanks, guys. Bye.
[00:42:30] Unknown:
Oh, boy. Yeah. That happened to Diya a couple Couple years ago? Yeah. The test turkey. The test turkey got her. Yeah. It was really bad. It was. It was so bad. And so then when Thanksgiving Day came, she's like, do you have soap? Do you have soap that kills things? Yeah. She's still very careful since then.
[00:42:47] Unknown:
That changed her whole game. Yeah. Wow. Whoo. Well, I'm glad you're still here, Drew. And I'm glad we had all those voice mails. Thank you, everybody. We really appreciate that. And it is time for some boost. Boosty boosty boosty boost. And we that's pretty good. I like that. Score on seven boost to go. And we're gonna start with our baller booster this week, and it's mister r podcast with 600,000
[00:43:20] Unknown:
Wow. Sounds. Hey, what did you like to
[00:43:24] Unknown:
Can you even believe it? It's a Christmas baller miracle. 600000¢.
[00:43:32] Unknown:
Oh my gosh. That's perfect.
[00:43:43] Unknown:
Okay. I love that. I love that. So I hope we get more Volaroos just so that we can hear that because that was the perfect volume, the perfect, like, hard rock guitar. Our podcast inspires. Hello, Chris and Angela, my little guy, was too shy to leave a voice mail. But one of these days, I'll convince him. Would you consider making some fun swag for the show next year? If you do, you must put a tux a penguin on there somewhere. Otherwise, my kid will hate me. The show has brought so much knowledge, laughs, and great music to my commutes. I hope the show keeps going in 2026.
[00:44:13] Unknown:
Why do we have to wait till next year? No. Just kidding. We have been talking swag. Yeah. Well, I was thinking, because I I previewed this, and I looked and I can't find on the service that we use, I cannot find a plate. Because wouldn't that be cool to have or, like, the launch platter? Mhmm. Right? You know? Mhmm. Brent?
[00:44:31] Unknown:
That'd be so awesome.
[00:44:33] Unknown:
Get your launch plate. Yeah. But I'm looking at some other options that are, you know, eating related.
[00:44:39] Unknown:
Yeah. But we will totally accept suggestions. Yeah. What kind of swag do you want? Mhmm. Mhmm. Let us know. We'd love some ideas. We're all we're we're, like, we're very interested. We just we wanna do something that's worth doing too at the same time. Definitely. Our podcast makes so much. Right? We're always about not just something that you're gonna throw away or not use. Mhmm. Yeah. Appreciate that, our podcast. Making it the holidays here for the launch. Picking up the slack. Thank you very much. Appreciate that. Very generous. Doma comes in with 2,000 sats, and I'm gonna say that's a pew pew. Coming in hard with the blue. Pew pew pew. Forgot to ask who made these light timers with the tiny plastic pins you push in. It's 10 degrees outside. I'm having to fiddle with this thing because I can't find my wise timer that refuses to stay connected to the network. Oh, man. Maybe it's just time to go Z Wave. Could be.
Could be. You know, every holiday light I deploy is attached to a smart plug. Mhmm. Smart plug for the Christmas tree, smart plug for the outdoor lights, smart plug for the lights we hang around, anything. Smart plug. Smart plug. Smart plug. And then I just run it all through home assistant, and then you can have a Christmas dashboard, which you can turn on and off. Chef's kiss. Mhmm. I recommend that, Doma, and thank you for the boost. Richard
[00:45:54] Unknown:
j r l comes in. Right? You think I got that right? Well, okay. So the previous one, I would have said Deoma. Deoma? Okay. I mean, that's what I would say. That's what I was expecting you. I was anticipating
[00:46:04] Unknown:
that you would say Richard Junior. Richard IRL. Oh, I was I almost said Richard Junior, but, he came in with 10,000 sats. Greetings from The UK. Loving the launch for all the random car and RV updates that don't make it into self hosted anymore. However, I just caught up on my massive lop my lop back log, and to the point where I'm at Brent's purchasing of the Bang Bus. Okay. Previously heard about it live on the launch when it actually happened. I have to ask, what's happened to it since? Is it gone very quiet? If it's a is it parked outside Brent's cabin and suffering in the Canadian winters bill with its dodgy windowsills that's stored in that cow shed at your farm? Where in the world is Brent Brent's bang bus now? And he said, for by the way, for the longest time, I thought traders love the vol was traders love vol, which I found very confusing. No. It is the day traders, and they love themselves some volatility. The traders love the vol. And they call it vol. That's what they call it. I talked to Brent about this and I suggested maybe he join us. Are you interested in the van update at all? Yeah. Yeah. I am curious too. Alright. So I'll I'll invite him on the show and, he did give us an update on Linux unplugged bootleg recently. But there's been some very interesting and funny developments in the last couple of weeks with the van. And it is out in the Canadian winter. I'll leave it at that. Okay.
So, he's gonna be on the launch or the or I'll invite him on. Yeah. I'm gonna invite him on the launch. Okay. Cool. Thank you, Richard. Appreciate that boost, and thanks for boosting from The UK. We don't get a ton of those these days. Turd Ferguson's back with 10,000 sats. Turd Ferguson. Now that the kids oh, we asked about Christmas traditions. Now that the kids have moved out, our Christmas tradition has changed quite a bit. We sleep in. We have brunch. It's nice. Mhmm. We watch a bad Christmas movie and have some very jolly sex and sometimes gifts. Sometimes gifts, Right. Right. So always the sex. Okay. That's good. Thank you, Turd.
Appreciate that. And, have a merry Christmas. Alright. Thank you everybody who boosted in. We had two of you stream Sats. We don't have a lot of Sats streamers, streaming Sats as they listen. So if you wanna get involved with that, you can. The two of you stacked 5,370 Sats for the show. Pershore at that better much. And then when you combine that, of course, our podcast really brought up the the lift here. Yeah. Jeez. Woo doggy. We stacked a grand tour maybe, you know, close to a record for the show, 627,370 sets.
[00:48:34] Unknown:
Can you play this much of it? No.
[00:48:37] Unknown:
No. I can't. I'll get a letter. Alright. It's funny. I just yesterday, I got half a dozen letters for five year old episodes of Linux Unplugged. So they always come around and find me. Goodness gracious. I can do nothing right, and I can do absolutely nothing right, except except maybe pick one hell of a winner.
[00:48:58] Unknown:
Chris found a gem, an easy flip. Let's cash it in. It's barely standing, kinda
[00:49:23] Unknown:
The value on this one, it's really off the charts. I've always had a dream of a podcast called Compound, and this one's ready to go. Out of the box, $350,000 nestled in the mountains of Retrino Valley. Renfro. Renfro. Thank you. Renfro. Not only am I bad with pronunciations, but now my eyesight's getting bad too. It's in it's in Kentucky. It's on, just over 25 acres of land. It all sounds good so far. Features 10 cabins. I mean, I don't think you read Colt Compound Ready to Go when you No. I don't think you read that part. But okay. Keep going. Features 10 cabins, so you get cabins with them. There's a general store among them with a commercial kitchen and bathrooms. There's a trapper's cabin that was built in the seventeen hundreds. There's a church built in the eighteen hundreds with beautiful stained glass windows. Has a blacksmith shop, a post office, a corn crib, don't know what that is, a salt house, a schoolhouse, and a cowboy bunkhouse. Okay. This is to recreate colonial times and wars. Apparently. Yeah. Like Or, you know, a cult could live there. But it's I actually that's my whole question actually is who is the customer? But it's kind of amazing. There's these standing log buildings.
Yeah. I want it. They look amazing, and it's $350,000. This is great. It's crazy. You could have you know, you'd never have to If it was this Mount Vernon, I would go for it. Yeah. Isn't that something? This is so cool. I know it's in Kentucky. That schoolhouse is something else, isn't it? Or the church. I'm not sure. It's a yeah. Yeah. I mean, they look they look like they were built in the Old West. Yeah. It's selling as a one bedroom, one bath. Yeah. Isn't that funny? You know? But there's 10 cabins. Yeah. First come, first serve when it comes to the cabins. You know, we when we when we announce compound days They're selling each cabin? No. No. Oh, okay. Gotcha. Batch. Yeah. Okay. I'm saying as Yeah. As we build the compound and we let the crew come pick their cabins, like, they better come quick because the good ones are gonna go. Have you been to the launch cabin? Right.
Right. Each show can have its own. Yeah. Why not? I mean or, you know, maybe you convert the church into a giant podcast studio. Yes. It'd be pretty cool. With a live audience. Right? There's already benches. Blacksmith shop could be used for repairs when things break. And Oh, yeah. All the electronics. Like, it's an electronic shop. Yep. I don't know what you use a corn crib for, but Why does it have to be a different Mount Vernon? That sucks. Which state is this? Kentucky. That's why. Kentucky. Yeah. Because if it was here, it'd be $2,000,000. That's why that's why. So but this maybe a little bit, so if we're gonna move, maybe we should go far. Right? Yeah. Go even further. Yeah. This next one k. It's a fortress, really. Now check this one. Brutalism isn't just for government buildings anymore. This one's a little more expensive, but you get a lot. Okay?
$5,900,000. Alright? Yeah. For him, super affordable. Three bedrooms, four bath, 5,300 square feet with a thousand foot square foot finished basement. It sits on 555 acres in New York. Was that half of you New York? No. I'm just kidding. It's quite a bit North of New York City, closer to Albany. It's in the Catskills Mountains. Oh. And so it's a mountaintop estate. Yeah. It is. It has a private airstrip with two hangars. It also has a guest house of sorts, a stone cottage reminiscent of a Hobbit house. Oh. And here's what they say, quote, allows a large variety of both permitted and special uses that would allow a fabulous palette of options for either private compounds or commercial endeavors. That's that sounds like us, Ange. Right? I mean, so if you want a compound, why not get one that's a giant cement structure? Because this entire thing Wow. Is a brutalist cement structure.
And it is nestled in the trees of these roly poly mountains that they have over there. The downside because I do like a good airstrip and a Hobbit house, but the interior of this $6,000,000
[00:53:04] Unknown:
mansion Bare bones.
[00:53:06] Unknown:
It's gotta be $2,000,000 in repairs. I mean, it's really bad. Yeah. It's super Uggo. How do you how do you have a $6,000,000
[00:53:14] Unknown:
mansion? Well, how do you keep people off the property? 550
[00:53:18] Unknown:
acres Well, it's so large. Or the airstrip? Five Five hundred and fifty acres is so large, they're gonna die before they make it to your house. It's got, like, its own private it's got its own private frontage road too. I mean, this it's people buy this stuff. It's you get in and out. The easiest way is by airplane. Yeah. You can drive. I wanna see more of the Hobbit house. I know.
[00:53:37] Unknown:
There's only one picture that I could tell.
[00:53:40] Unknown:
Hunter Valley, Catskill region. It's so interesting to have a beautiful property with all these buildings and this giant cement Yeah. 5,300 square foot mansion, but then the inside is just totally garbage. Mhmm. How does that even happen? And it looks like it was the inside looks like the kitchen was maybe refurbished in 1967 Mhmm. Just as seventies orange was coming into popularity. But I picture the type of person who's either buying this compound with the cabins or this compound here with an airstrip and 555 acres of mountain land. They're just living in a whole other world. Mhmm. That's a whole other world. Yep. This is like rich people family experience. Worry in life. Get away from it all. Right? Things go down. You fly into your you fly to your brutalist, about $6,000,000 mansion, I guess.
I wanna know who buys these things. That the one with all the, cabins? Because actually under they're they're negotiating with us. Somebody might be buying it right now. Nice. Yeah. This one, the the brutalist mansion for $6,000,000, for some reason, still for sale because you gotta fly there to even go see it. Right. But, if any of you out there living that life, just, email in so we can get a little bit of honest, just so we get a little little a little taste of it, you know? Nothing nothing too serious. But there you go. Two options. Mhmm. Almost one was you see that? I almost had a winner with that one that was it's just on the wrong Mount Vernon. Yes.
Almost got there. Links in the show notes for those. In fact, all our links are over at weeklylaunch.rocks, and this was episode 45 of your weekly show. You know, you can join us on a Tuesday because we do like to do the show live over at jblive.tv or in your podcasting2.o app of choice over at newpodcastapps.com. In those, you also not only get the live stream, you get a transcription and you get chapters. Plus, when the episode comes out, you get it within ninety seconds and you can boost the show as well depending on the app. Lot of great features in those 2.o apps. Some of the older apps are starting to adopt them, not all of them. Alright. That's it from us from the beautiful Pacific Northwest and the mighty American West Coast. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you right back here next week.
