Welcome And Life Updates

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Thank you, and welcome to another episode of the Carolina Taco Podcast. I am Afro and I am here with my co-host. Welcome back, you guys. The fuck am I saying? Welcome back, you guys. Thanks for joining us again for another episode. Uh, you know, I feel like I do this intro all the time, and it feels like I'm just repeating myself two or three times. You guys know how we start these off. You know, what we've been up to, what's been going on, uh, what we've been doing since the last time we talked. So, what have you been up to?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

Pretty much nothing besides like it's spring, summer. So I've been like in my garden and growing stuff.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yeah. Nice. What's uh are you doing sunflowers this year or no? Nice, very nice. How those looking?

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Um, so I bought some actually the other day from Blows. Those are looking fine. The one that I have that I planted, it's still in the solo cup. I need to transplant it into a bigger pot, but it looks okay.

Dutch Bros Vs Starbucks Vibes

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Good, good, good. That's what's up. That's what's up. That's what I wanted to bring up to you. What's we gotta talk about Dutch Brothers?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Dutch Bros?

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Whatever. Dutch Brothers, Dutch Bros.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Dutch Bros?

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Is this like better than Starbucks?

SPEAKER_00 1:22

It has more options than Starbucks. So that wasn't my question.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

That wasn't my question. My question was is it?

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Okay, so like let's let's break it down. Like, I don't go to Dutch Bros necessarily for coffee, so I can't compare the two really.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:35

So I go to more Dutch Bros for like their fruity drinks, and like there's one I I like called kicked in the face. It's really good. So I would say like the environment is completely different too. Um, but if we want to pick environment, I'll pick Starbucks. It's more quiet, like your typical coffee house, while Dutch Bros is more like your drive-do coffee. Like, hey, what do you want? What do you want in it? And then like, boom, you go to the drive-thru, or you just walk up and pick it up. So yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Yeah, I'm I'm like, oh my gosh. Seeing what you be posting, I was like, oh my god. Does she go every week?

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Yeah, pretty much. At least once or twice a week. Yeah.

Studying For The AWS Certification

SPEAKER_02 2:16

Shit, I didn't know that. Okay. Well, uh, that's what's up. At least they got some good shit. I was like, what is this place? Okay. What have I been up to? Studying for the AWS certification.

SPEAKER_00 2:26

How's that going?

SPEAKER_02 2:27

It's okay. I'm happy that I paid the$40 for the what is it? Control. Control. But I need to pronounce this shit. His classes because he explains it very well. And after mostly every lesson, he has the demo of how it is in AWS. It's so much shit in AWS is insane. Um, but a lot of it I've seen before, but now like getting and digging into it, it's like, oh shit, okay. Yeah, this makes sense. But what I've been reading and stuff like that is they say don't take notes while you're watching the videos. Don't don't pause and stop it and take notes and all that stuff. No, no, no. Just because I understand that. Because the funny thing is, I was doing that, but I wasn't really getting it. And I stopped doing that and it started to make sense. And then we do the demo and follow in the demo, and I'm like, oh, okay, great. But I guess it it's nice. I will say it's nice. I like how how can I put this? AWS shit just seems very like freeform. It's a lot of shit you can do in it. It just seems more, it just seems more open. I'm like a Azure, which is very, very like enterprise type shit. You know, very just yeah. Oh, I thought you were you were doing that on purpose or what?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

No, that that that's on purpose. It literally is more enterprise shit.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Like Yeah, it's it's it's like it's this. Like, it is this. It is it's this. AWS is like a whole bunch of shit that you can do. Azure is just like, yeah, you know, and it's I think it is only for Windows. Is that right? I think it's only Windows. I don't think, yeah. I don't think it's I don't think you can, it's it's a cloud-based, so I you're pretty sure. I'm pretty sure you can probably use it on like Mac and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

But it's just with with AWS, like learning about this shit, I'm like, shit, this shit is pretty cool. And the biggest thing with this certification is more about how supposedly the test is more about how is it that a company would use these resources at a good cost and how would that help, how would you be able to help them with that and build that? That's kind of the biggest thing with this. So you can pass the test. You can pass that motherfucker with flying colors. But if you don't know what to do inside of the application, if you don't have any projects that you worked on yourself, because that's in the interviews, that's what they look for. Can you explain? All right, yep, you did this project. Can you explain to us what you did, how you did it? And then they usually ask you questions of like, okay, we we want to build this type of infrastructure. How would you do this at this cost? And we still get the same performance and get what we need out of it. That's the whole point of being an architect, you know? So knowing that helps a lot. Um, and then I started like, oh man, well, after this, should I like learn the should I go and see what certs are in like GCP for like Google and stuff like that? And because that's starting to grow and it's kind of within that same kind of realm of AWS. And I mean keeping up with the Spanish stuff too. So that's actually really good. I'm starting to understand more conversation.

SPEAKER_00 5:45

Okay.

Vinyl Records And Collector Finds

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Yeah. Talking, fuck no. Listening, listening and hearing like people speak and understanding and trying and actually able to follow some of the stuff. Yeah, it's getting there. Um, an hour a day. So that's always good. Getting back into like old hobbies, like my records. Like I've been collecting records since college. And I was putting my all my records into discogs and kind of just seeing, like, just getting the collection in there, just to know what I have and what I want to look for. Right now I'm on this realm of like trying to find Brazilian jazz and like shit like that. Because it sounds amazing. It's great. And I know it'll sound great on vinyl coming through speakers. It's gonna sound beautiful. But I don't know. I mean me putting that uh that damn putting those vinyls into that collection and seeing how much value them shits had. I was like, Yeah, I was like, shit, because some of those records that I had were from my uncle who passed away, and he had like like fucking prints and like run DMC, uh, this like hip-hop group called Mantronic that I've never heard of in my life. He had like yeah, right, a whole bunch of just like crazy shit. And I was just like, oh man, this is nice. This is nice. Like, I can tell what records I got from my grandmother's house because it's just a whole bunch of fucking Johnny Mathis, right? I mean, it's uh it's a whole bunch of Johnny Mathis. I mean, when it's Jesus Christ, I have so many Johnny Mathis records, it's not even funny, right? And some of the records that I bought in college, like I have a there was a um production company called Douglas 14. Douglas 14 was known for doing like speeches, like you know, speeches on vinyl. And I have the record Malcolm X by any means necessary, and it's him giving his speeches on this vinyl.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

And I bought that when I was in college and I saw it and I was like, oh shit. Sorry, I'm just I'm just talking. But another record, I know, I know another record that was like really like something that I remember was the record store that I went to in college. The guy that owned it, he knew who I was, so he would save stuff for me when I liked certain things. And there was a record by Stevie Wonder called Music of the Mind. And I walked into the record store and I heard the song Superwoman. And it got to the second, it was at the end, the second part of the song. And it was very melodic. And I would I walked in and I said, Who the fuck is this? He was like, Oh, that's Stevie Wonder. And I was like, Can I buy that? And he was like, Oh, this is alright, this is I swear to God, I was like, Can I buy that? He was like, Oh, that's already, that's already, you know, somebody's already gonna bought it. And I was like, he was like, If I if I find another copy, I'll save it for you. And he did. He saved that motherfucker for me. And he tried, it's like 10 bucks. And I was like, fuck yeah. Yeah, so been collecting records since college, and I have just a collection of just a whole bunch of stuff. Some stuff I don't even like. I have covers, but no record. Like I have a Parliament Funkadelic live. I was like, oh man, let me go in here, check this out. No record. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what a record is. That would be great to have that, but I don't. So that's what I that's what I've been up to. You know, kind of taking pictures of the Funkos and the barcode, seeing how much those are going for too. It's just where I live right now. Finding good Funko's with like the Walmart exclusive sticker on it is tough. It's tough when you live in the country and the Walmart doesn't have exclusive shit. You gotta go into the big cities for that.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

So like an hour drive.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Yeah. I think the last one that I bought that I actually checked the value of it was John Cena, and it was a special edition. And they usually Funko Pops are like usually like 14 bucks. Right? This one was already that like at 34. So I was like, okay, cool. Good. This is gonna pick up value because people love John Cena. People love John Cena. So yeah, that's always good. That's always good. But uh, yeah, in this episode, it's gonna be some random shit, y'all. I'm just gonna, you know, that's that's all.

SPEAKER_00 10:09

It is what it is.

Why Spectrum Internet Feels Terrible

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah. The first thing I want to talk about is why Spectrum sucks so fucking bad. Okay, so I am getting, I know people might say some shit about this, but I don't know, it's all we have. New internet company, not a new internet company, but Bright Speed came through the neighborhood, dropped fiber down. I saw it and I was like, let's give it a try. No contracts, no nothing like that. Cool. Paying 130 a month for one gig internet through Spectrum, and it's fucking and it's it's it's coax. It's coax cable internet. What the fuck? Coax cable internet? So the Bright Speed is fiber,$89.99, two gigs, cool, right? I'm like, let's try it. People I see people say, oh, customer service is this. Well, let me tell you something. Customer service at Spectrum ain't no damn better. I'm not losing, I'm not losing anything here. So Bright Speed comes and pulls the fiber to the house. I see them finishing up, they leave. I come in my house, internet don't work. Fuck, Bright Speed, cut something. Call Spectrum or get on all the spectrum. Spectrum's like, we can't get somebody out. This was last Thursday. We can't get somebody out till Sunday. Fuck. I still work from home. I go to Walmart, buy a hotspot from like like what is that shit called? Simply simply mobile? Yeah, right? Buy like the hundred dollar joint, put it in, put everything together. Nice little, pretty little nifty hotspot. And it worked. You know what I'm saying? It did what it had to do. And Spectrum came out. I looked, the guy came out, and he was like, I was like, did they cut it? He was like, Yeah, they cut it. And the funny thing is, where they cut it was you can see the spectrum line. The spectrum line is this thick ass cable. And you know what color it is?

SPEAKER_00 11:56

What color?

SPEAKER_02 11:56

Orange. I thought it was so you can't miss it. Yeah. You can't miss it. It was already out of the ground. So you can't miss it, right? So I was like, Jesus Christ. So um, yeah. So we'll see how the fuck that goes. I uh I saw the price of it and I was like, you know what? I'll take I'd rather take fiber over this coex shit any day. Because Spectrum, they have the leverage because they know that they're the only internet provider in the area. Unless you want to go with Starlink. And I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. I'm not. I've heard great things about it. I've heard. And I'm more rural than you.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, I get that.

SPEAKER_02 12:35

So, yeah.

Fiber Competition And Backup Internet

SPEAKER_00 12:36

No, because like, yeah, like in the last few years, though, in like your area, my area, there's been more like fiber companies coming along the way. And like you also gotta think about with like the 5G, you know, coming up. Well, that's not coming up, but you get yeah, yeah, developing and and getting more popular, especially like in rural areas. Yeah, and so that leaves open that line now to where like you can use cellular as your home internet. Like, I literally I went through a similar situation that he went through last year when I moved. I have ATT fiber and I have two gigs, and I paid like$125 for it, so not much of a discount or whatever. But um, when I moved, they couldn't get out here until like I moved in like a Saturday, they couldn't get here until Wednesday. I work from home and shit. And so I was like, no, I'm not gonna be without internet that long. Um because literally my whole house runs on internet, so I I have to have it. So I have T-Mobile, so I went over to T-Mobile and they have like these 5G home internet devices. So I got one of those and I plugged it up to my existing like wireless setup that I had. And boom, I'm back online. And I just kept it like now it's my backup internet, especially like a couple months ago when the storm came and like ATT fiber randomly just went out after the storm or whatever. Um, it came in handy. Like, I think now they have more competition. Because like even here we have like WoW, or I think ripple fiber or whatever coming up, T-Mobile fibers here. Um, you got Starlink, you know, you got cell phone companies coming up with their own type of home internet. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:23

It's that and also going through this just made me realize that I need to have a backup myself. Having the backup is honestly, living out in the raw area like this, you should have a backup for every fucking thing. Yeah, every fucking thing. Look, when that snowstorm happened and we got that ice and shit like that, people were going ape shit for generators. Can I tell you something? Right now, we we just hit 90 degree weather in the past two days, right? Maybe even higher than that. This is the time where you go get generators.

SPEAKER_00 14:54

For dirt cheat?

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Yes. This is the time you go get generators during the fucking summer, right? The only thing that you might run into is brownouts when people are running AC and all that shit. But this is the time to go get your generators. Not the time to prepare, not when the storm is about to come. You know what I'm saying? So um, yeah, having a backup. I thought about buying like a hot spot that allows you to put your, you know, if you're traveling or something, getting a SIM card. You can put your SIM card in there wherever you are, and it works. Get your Wi-Fi going and all that shit. Um So yeah, it it's it just made me open my eyes and be like, fuck. I gotta get backup shit for this shit.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 15:40

Yeah. Uh so it was that. Oh, I also started growing uh microgreens. I gotta see your pictures, they're pretty cool. Um it's actually really cool. It's really dope. They actually grow really fast.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

I've heard.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

Yeah, really fucking fast. So that's also that. But yeah, Spectrum, I've had them ever since I had my first place. And they've always been shit. Always been shit. Always. Funny thing is though, we have Spectrum. Spectrum fiber is in the city, is in town. That's like 10 minutes away from me. But they haven't brought it out here yet. And I also think that the spectrum fiber is only business, not residential.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Residential.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

Right? So I'm like, damn, that's crazy. Because they could, you know, in my old place that I was staying at, they just got Google Fiber out there. That's what I want.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

That's what I want.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

Look, I got a Google Fiber shirt when they first came to Raleigh, and I was like, oh yeah, Google Fiber shirt, cool, I'm gonna get one. I was so prepped, I was like getting emails like every six months. Oh, Google Fiber is moving here. I see Google Fiber trucks and shit like that. They're over here, over there, over there. And then as soon as I leave and do the right thing and kind of do the right thing and sell my soul and buy a house. Now they get Google Fiber in the place that I was renting. What the fuck? Because before I left, I was using ATT fiber. And when I say AT ⁇ T fiber isn't bad, better spectrum?

SPEAKER_00 17:02

It's 10 times better than Spectrum.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Oh, yeah, definitely. For sure.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

It has his issues, but uh it's better.

Spicy Bird Seed Versus Squirrels

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Oh yeah, definitely better. So we'll see how it goes. They're gonna be coming out here on Thursday. So uh I gotta kind of figure I have a place where I want them to put the ONT, and I don't want it in here. I kind of want it where my new setup is gonna be. So um we're gonna see that because I say later on in. Huh? You know when you walk into my front door, that little area? Yeah. So I'm gonna have my record player there, my Papa Saun chair, I'm buying, I'm getting a love seat from like my uh father and stepmother. I'm gonna put that in there with a desk that I have like leftover like maple wood from when I made I made a platform to work out on. So when I'm doing my like cleaning jerks and snatches and stuff like that in the garage. So I have like wood left over. So I'm trying to find somebody who can make end tables for the love seat and then find somebody who can take the other big piece and turn that into a desk. Yeah. So I can not throw that away because that shit was expensive. God, that shit was expensive. And I don't have like the right tools to cut maple. I need something stronger to cut through maple, and I don't have that. And I don't want to buy that. So yeah. Um there was something else that happened too. I can't think of it. If you have an electric lawnmower, make sure you check your batteries. I wanted I wanted to cut my grass and my uh electric lawnmower went out on me and had to replace the battery. 160 bucks. It was easy. I like doing it, it was actually kind of fun. But yeah, got to replace that, and we should be back up and running so I can cut my grass so it doesn't look like a damn jungle. What else? Bird feeder getting back into my birds.

SPEAKER_00 18:39

Any more squirrels?

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Hell yeah, those little bastards. So these squirrels out here are insane. It's like five of them. It's the same ones, right? And I can tell because they all have different tails, and and all of them have like kind of like a different color to them. Some of the bird seed that I was using, I would put out like two handfuls into the deck bird feeder. And by the end of the day, the squirrels would just sit there and just eat like they're in a golden corral. They would just eat everything, and then I have to refill it for the birds. So she's gonna listen to this. So my sister, uh, one of her neighbors told her about buying, check this out, spicy bird feed, right? And this is this is the cool shit that made me think, oh shit, what squirrels are. So birds have they don't feel the capskin. Capskin. Cap capskin? I'm saying that wrong. Capsican, basically the spice.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

The spice levels, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Yeah, so they can just, you know, eat it, right? Squirrels can feel that shit, and I guess that's why they're mammals. Because I I think mammals can taste that spice, right? So I put it out there. The first bird that comes is a red carnal who eats it the fuck up, right? I have a video of it. Squirrel comes, right? I had the GoPro out there. Squirrel comes, eats it, and walks away. Doesn't even fuck with it anymore, right? So I put a lot of bird seed out. It's still bird seed in there today, and that was on Saturday.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Yeah, they ain't fucking with that.

SPEAKER_02 20:13

Yeah, they're not fucking with it at all. They try it, but it's just like I can't do it. So I have regular bird seed, and I might just throw that out on the lawn just so they can get to it. Right. But it was crazy. I was like, oh shit, this shit works. Went to Walmart. I was like, spicy bird seed, spicy bird seed. And I saw something that said like fire and heat, and I said, Okay, yeah, let's get to that.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

This might work.

When A Short Clip Explodes

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Yeah, this might work. So I got two bags, and I have to wear gloves when I put it in, just so I don't get any of the shit or rub my face. So yeah, fuck those squirrels though, man. Fuck those squirrels. And then and they're just dirty. They're just dirty, you know. They I try to be a good person, you know what I'm saying? And they just take advantage of it. Take advantage of it. I still gotta get a hummingbird. Yeah, I know, right? I still gotta get a hummingbird feeder. I still wanna get that. But yeah, it was it was oh Jesus Christ. Yeah, fuck Spectrum. For sure, for sure. Fuck those guys. Um, I don't want to talk about it. Here we go. So all I did was just read a title of an article. It was just the title. That was it. Nothing else, nothing more. This shit got over 30,000, 34,000 views on it. All I did was just read a title. That's it. And then people took that and said, these motherfuckers are this ain't this ain't true. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

They were going back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah, it was just a fucking title.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

Like, we didn't even discuss it. We didn't talk about what we thought about it or none of that shit. They literally just took like that little 10 second clip and was like having a fucking field day, like saying we didn't know what we were talking about, the shit was frost, and oh my god, Sony sucks, and like it was all over the freaking place.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

And what she texted me and she said, You need to look at that video. I was like, Yeah, I saw it was high. And she was like, Nah, it's more.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

It's more. It's more. Like every time I went back to check, it was more and more and more and more. And I'm just like, all he did was read a title. And then I read the comments. And I never really read our comments. I don't do our social media. He does.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

And I'm just like, Yeah, I read that shit. I said, Whoa, somebody said, This is what small podcasts do. They usually flip off his face and shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

We didn't, it's like, what? Like, you get that from a 10-second clip. And now I can see like how people with these TikTok clips, yeah. People will draw their own conclusions off of 10 seconds and like not go read or watch the full thing. They're just like, Yep. Killing us in the comments.

SPEAKER_02 23:06

And we're just like, we're just I made a comment on that. I said, uh, I said, thanks for the compliment, man. It's not a compliment. Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Right. Right. With sarcasm? Sarcasm.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Jesus Christ, bro. I said thanks for the fucking compliment. He said it's not a compliment. God damn. Go touch. Oh my god. Damn. All right. Anyway. That was so funny. And some people, and and a lot of people were going back and forth with each other.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Some people were like, some people were just like, yeah, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:34

I don't know if the big deal.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_00 23:37

Most people got internet nowadays.

Xbox Disc To Digital Rumor

SPEAKER_02 23:40

That was crazy. That was crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Because I think Instagram was pretty high too. So that was that was insane to me. I thought that was great. That was great. Speaking of games. Okay, I saw this today. Let me preface this. This is a possible leak. Okay. Let's just go put that out there. Possible leak. Okay. All right. So there is a leak that Xbox might be doing a disc to digital. So a new leak from Xbox Insider builds insider builds suggests Microsoft is working on a feature that converts physical game disc into digital licenses, and nothing is confirmed yet by Microsoft. Nothing is confirmed yet by Microsoft.

SPEAKER_00 24:33

You want to say that again for the people in the bat?

SPEAKER_02 24:35

Fuck no. Listen, so the leak is tied to the rumor to the rumor net next Xbox codenamed Project Helix, which could be fully all digital console with no built-in disk drive, right? So what people are speculating is theory one would be a one-time conversion permanently disables the disc. So the value of that game is basically nothing. So for people that collect or anything, if you allow that to happen, that disc is nothing, right? You you literally just have it's not even a fucking paperweight, you know. Second theory, a monthly disc check-in system to keep the license active.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

If future Xbox consoles have no disk drive, this is a hardware problem. How do players even convert old games? Would you need an older Xbox or an external disk drive or accessory to actually do this? Like that's why I said this is all just, you know, just a hearsay, just a leak. Don't know if this is gonna happen. Highly doubted. Highly doubted. So this kind of goes back to a kind of how Microsoft tried heavy DRM and digital licenses back during their original Xbox One reveal in 2013 and got massive backlash. Would gamers accept this now in 2026? Fuck no. No, they wouldn't. They wouldn't. Why why would a gamer accept this? Why would you do this?

SPEAKER_00 26:13

I'll be on the fence. I'd be a little bit in the middle. Reason being is like a lot of physical games, but I do have some physical media, and it's just easier for me to have, like, over time for me, having shit digitally is is more convenient for me. And so, like, yeah, think about it with physical media, and it means I'm lazy, I don't care, whatever. Like, physical, you gotta get up, press the button, and get the disc and then like swap it out, right? But digital, all I gotta do is close the game, open a new game. That's it. I don't have to like swap the media or whatever the case may be. But also, too, it can help also with like let's say you had a lot of like old 360 games or original Xbox games, and like they're not necessarily in the store, but you still got the physical disc. I mean, you may not have the console, but you still got the disc. And so, if they are gonna allow those older console like generation games to be a part of the program, that'd be really nice for a lot of those people because now you can just all right, I don't have to keep the disc anymore, I can just have it all digitally, and so forth and so forth. So, I mean, it's gonna be different for everybody, like last time it's different for everybody, and it is speculation, anyways. Um, yeah, that that's that's my little tidbits about it.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

What now I I'm not gonna sit here and say that I don't see I I kind of do see this happening in the future. Yes, I do, I do right now though, no, hell no. When we're we're we're at a time where you're always gonna have people that wanna collect and physical have the physical copy of anything, right? My thing is when I think about this, I think about the value of those physical copies now. So somebody, if they were to do this, right, and let's say you wanted to get you have a physical copy of Halo 2, right? And you're like, you know what? I want this to be, you know, I have this copy, I want to put it onto my shit and make it all digital and stuff. The value, I would think if a lot of people do this, the value of like the physical copy game will be insane. And if you never open that motherfucker, you are golden. You are golden. I don't know. Like I said, I can see it in the future for but for right now, where people are like 10 toes down on physical shit right now, and that's from every aspect, like owning your own stuff, not having to go through subscriptions or any of that other bullshit. There are tons of people trying to convert over to even when it comes to music, like owning their music, having their own catalog of music, so they're not using a Spotify or something like that, you know, just because of it is convenient. Yes, that's the biggest thing in this world right now is convenience. You kind of still want your own shit.

SPEAKER_00 29:09

That's true. And I think about it more of a like archival sense as well. So you gotta think about a lot of these games that like if a game's digital and it's no longer in the store, or you didn't get a chance to download that game before it was removed, you don't have access to it anymore. You can't download, you can't play it. And so what happens like say 10, 20, 30 years from now, we're talking about like previous like game generations, like and we could talk about the growing great the game is, but we're not gonna have an option to even like play it, or even like you know, have younger generations try it. So that's my my thing about it too, is like we we do need physical media as an option.

SPEAKER_02 29:57

It's that's why I I still love vinyl, and that's why I I I think I told I I told you, you know, I have a game cube in here, like in my closet that I don't use. I have all the accessories and stuff like that. And with these game cubes now, it's so much shit that you can do with them. It's great. It's the same thing with like the you know, Game Boy Advanced SPs and Game Boy Colors and stuff. You can get like IPS screens on them, customize them any way you want to, really make them the way that you want them, and you can get your physical games and stuff like that. I mean, you should go on Facebook Marketplace and find people that are just like selling bulk games. Will they work? I don't know. But you'll find people just selling bulk games, you know. So it's uh it is interesting. I'll say that. I don't think it's like I said, I don't think it's gonna happen right now. Maybe it will, but I don't know. But I I do think, you know, speaking of Xbox, it looks like Xbox is really going in with the new the new head. She's she's kind of putting her foot down and kind of changing shit. It looks like for the better.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

We'll see. We'll see. Yeah, we'll see.

Apple Innovation And Mac Value

SPEAKER_02 31:03

Right now it looks like it. Right now it looks like it for sure. Definitely. So I I love seeing that for Xbox for sure. What else was I wanted to bring up to you? So also another leak was iPhone making like their photo, going into the foldable photo.

SPEAKER_00 31:20

They've been saying that for like years now, okay. We haven't gotten to that, and I don't think we're gonna get there. Not with Tim Cook still being like the head. I know he is retiring in August, and um he's retiring, so he's leaving, and then we're getting a new guy, and I forgot his name or whatever, but there's a great video about it by Cold Fusion on YouTube. You guys want to look into it? But pretty much the new guy is actually has been in charge of a lot of different products. Um like he was involved with the first iPad and uh worked with some of the uh the popular iMac models and MacBook models. Um, and so I think with him being ahead, like he's an engineer, so like I think with him being in charge, it will bring back some of the innovation that we used to see from Apple, but only time can tell he's not in charge yet.

SPEAKER_02 32:11

So what is it that I'm not like the deep like Apple, you know, iPhone type of person, but when does compare it to like an Android or some shit like that, because there are so many different different types of phones that have Android, so you get a variety of like looks and stuff like that. So it's like with iPhone, what other like what innovations can be can be done with that? You know what I'm saying? Especially if it's been kind of cookie cutter type shit, and it's like you change little things, but nothing, there hasn't been anything that's been like, oh my gosh, this is like crazy.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

I think I think right now a lot of innovations need around the hardware itself, yeah. And also the software can like definitely use some tweaks, but I think the main thing right now that a lot of iPhone users are wanting, or at least I do, is new like changes to the design. This model, like the last like two, three, four models all look like this. They're yay, we got this little flat back now. Oh no, I need something else, like change the the sizing or the design, make it thinner, lighter, or something. I don't know, but there's like there need to be some innovation there. Like if you look at like early iPhone models, like between the three, what's my controller, whatever. Between the three, the four, the five, the six, the seven, pretty much the eight, but like the X, like you see those design changes like that. And then after that, it is really kind of like they've been like gradual changes, nothing like completely different.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Yeah. So it I I think that's Apple kind of all around. But they I I I think they they definitely have they do more with their uh computers and laptops, way more than their phones, right? Now, one thing that I think about is why hasn't this gonna sound crazy? Well, I guess they have the iPad for that, but why haven't like hasn't Apple gone into the realm of having the touchscreen MacBooks and shit like that? Like I like I said, I understand that iPod iPads are a thing.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

I mean they had they tried that. Well, not necessarily the touch screen, but they tried it. The touch bar. The touch bar.

SPEAKER_01 34:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:36

And they obviously they really didn't like that, so they took it away. I liked it. I missed my model that had it, but whatever. But I like that touch bar. I like mine. I think, but you gotta look at like touch screen laptops, right? And two in ones, are they really that popular? No, they're not, right? And so I feel like they're probably like, let's not waste our money adding something like that on to something that you know people really not gonna use. And if they want something like that, hey, you know, there is an iPad that you can get type deal. Like, like them making the the Neo. Yeah, yeah, like I mean, that is innovation for them. Like, they've never had a MacBook that cheap, that cheap.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

With all the color design, like it's kind of like going back to like the uh IMAX of our like childhood, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Yeah, the clear C through transparency.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

Yeah, yeah. So, but for them to now be able to offer that to like college kids, kids in high school, elementary schools, middle schools, things of that nature, that kind of gives them more of a market now. Yeah, okay. Now we can even though education, like yeah, schools do have like iMacs or stuff or whatever, but a lot of them still lose use like Chromebooks. Yeah, and like when you go to work, a job, how many businesses you know are using Chrome OS on a daily, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:00

No, and uh no no enterprise is using anything. It's it's either Mac or it's either Windows, you know, that's sure.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

And depending on what you do, you if you're in like some niche field, you might use some Linux, okay?

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

But it really is either Apple or Windows. So like putting kids to use Mac early kind of gives them some advantage when it comes to like getting a job, you know? Like, oh, I know how to use Mac. I've used Mac for XY Manaus D years, you know.

SPEAKER_02 36:28

The best thing, I will say this. I've had I've had both. I can't stand Windows laptops. I can't. I I don't like them.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

I don't like them out to be there, right?

SPEAKER_02 36:39

Um growing up, I had like Dell Inspirons, had the ones that were like had a one that was like the color one, I had a brown one. It was cool, but it was big, it was bulky. I had an HP laptop, big, bulky, hands loud as hell, like heavy. The the one thing about Macs that I like is I have a M1 MacBook Air. Simple, light, nothing crazy. Bought it open box at Best Buy almost five, six years ago, and I'm still getting updates on that thing today. And I think I paid like almost like 800 bucks for it at the time. So it's you get your money's worth out of these laptops unless you are running that thing to shit. Like you're chucking that bitch out of the car. Like, I don't know what you're doing, but you get they're the best bang for your buck, performance-wise, just everything.

SPEAKER_00 37:33

Yeah, they are like my last MacBook. Well, before the the one I have now, I bought one in February. The one I had before that was like a 2019 late model with the Intel chip. It was the last one with the intel chip. Yeah, and like even using it to the day, like it still runs just as good. It's only reason I upgraded was because it was a 16-inch, and I was like, oh no, that's too big. So I got a 13-inch and like got that. But like if it if it was small, I probably wouldn't have upgraded. Like, like I said, I've had it for like ever.

SPEAKER_02 38:06

So that's also good to see, too, that you know, a lot of these laptops are kind of going in the smaller direction. Back then it was like bigger has gotta be better. You gotta go big. Gotta go big. If you don't go big, what the fuck are you doing? You know what I mean? But now it's like, bro, if I if I'm not getting anything bigger than 15. Like 14 and 13 is perfect. It's perfect. I could put it in any bag and it works. Easy.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

And for me, it really doesn't matter. Like, either I'm using my laptop because I'm like traveling, or like if I'm using it at home, it can be connected to a dock and be could connect it to my ultra wide. So it's it really doesn't matter the screen size of whatever laptop is.

SPEAKER_02 38:50

That's I I was looking at buying another one. I really wouldn't. I also do like the M, I also do like the M the M ones. Like they're actually really good, really clean. Like I said, they're they're great. Um, and I'm an open box guy. Of course. Open box all the way. Of course. Open box all the way. For sure, for sure. That goes for anything. Apple shit. Um what else have I bought? Open box. A lot of shit. A lot of shit. Amazon, the ones that come like, yeah, we gotta use a slightly used pair. These right here.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

We'll use a cheaper buy it.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

Oh, yeah. Cheaper. Just more bang for your buck. For sure, for sure. But yeah, I'm trying to think. Was there anything else? Spectrum sucks. Squirrel suck too. Hopefully, fiber works out well. And get the stuff that you need now for storms that come in the winter. Gonna it, I think it's gonna be a really, really, really hot fucking summer. Don't remind me. I think it's gonna be hot as hell. Also, and that's about it, man. That's it. You know, going through the AWS stuff, trying to get that done. I wanted to ask you, I I think I I told you I was thinking about taking it like the test in person. Because I read so much shit on Reddit about people taking it like online and how like the Proctors, the Proctors.

Taking Cert Exams At Home

SPEAKER_00 40:10

Okay, all right. Let's let's go ahead and talk about this. So I I don't want to go and drive to a center and do all that. Like I've done it before, it's not my cup of tea. But if you can be patient with the proctors, it's best to do it at home. But sometimes they're just annoying and they're a pain in the ass, okay? Yeah, so like all my come to you, Tess, like come to you, yeah, you have to have the clear desk or whatever, and everything has to be like out the freaking way. You can't have a watch on, your phone's gotta be like out of the way, you can't get up, you can't leave the room, like you're literally sitting here or whatever. Like, and for me, like I always have to like show them like 360, and there's always something that like I thought I cleaned my desk off, but they always find something. They're like, Oh, you gotta move that. What? Like, okay, it makes no sense, but okay, whatever. And like, don't have computer issues. I had like one time I had a computer issues when I was taking my comp to A Plus, I was using on like my MacBook at the time because I wasn't home to take it on my PC. So, like, I had updated the beta software, and when I go to take the test, like the software for cut like they use would not load, and so like I'm freaking out or whatever. And like, literally, because of that, like I had to reschedule my exam, and they had to give me another key so I can I can reschedule. So it's just things like that. Like, yes, it is more difficult than taking it into a center. Like, you go into a center, it's literally you handing over all your stuff, your phone and everything. You sit in a room, you sit on their computer, you take your test, you leave.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Yeah, and that's I think that's kind of like I will I would drive to Durham to take that, just so I can not have to deal with like all that bullshit here, right? Because she let's say she walks in. What's that? What you got over there? What do you got? Talking, yeah, right? Sonny walking, what's that? It's my dog. Yeah, get her out. It's her house, like bullshit like that. I don't want to deal with that. I don't want to deal with that. So, yeah, I was that's what I was thinking about, you know, when I actually am ready to take it and yeah, and then I'll think think about it too, like hours, like those testing centers are for certain hours, and like I like to type mine like on Sundays and Saturdays because that's when I'm off.

SPEAKER_00 42:29

And so, like, I just prefer to do it at home. I don't have to like because there's not really a lot of centers that are open on Sundays or whatever. And like, I'm not getting up early on a Saturday morning to take my tests, like my and my network plus. I took it on a Sunday on a two o'clock, yeah. And like I was done at like so, like, you know, like I said, there's pros and cons to everything. Like, you just gotta go what's gonna fit you the best. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

Definitely. So, you know, when I get to that, I don't know when I'm gonna be taking it. I'm thinking probably like in July or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

One in July. Can you go for the end of July?

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Okay, great, because I have surgery in the beginning of July.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

So Oh, for real?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yeah, be out of commission, yes.

Final Thoughts And Wrap Up

SPEAKER_02 43:14

Okay, okay. It's good enough. Good enough. But yeah, you guys, you know, that's all we got for the day. Thank you for joining. Thank you for listening. Like I said before, what we said was a rumor. Not saying it's a real thing. We don't come for it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:33

We just we cover gaming news, gaming topics, or whatever. So if it is an article and we see it, we go we will talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 43:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

We're not writing it, we're not like the ones covering it. We just pass it along to you guys. So stop it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

All right, you guys. See you later. Bye.