This week's episode includes news, retro gaming ports, and a discussion of fake products and the hazards of buying them.

Hosts: William Sikkens, Bill Snodgrass, and Gretchen Winkler

Welcome to

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User Friendly 2.0 with host Bill Sikkens,

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technology architect.

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And this is User Friendly 2.0.

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Welcome to this week's show.

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Weclome Gretchen. Welcome.

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Bill. Hello there.

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So, you know, it's weird

how fast the year is going by.

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We're just talking about it.

It's our 10th week already, and.

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But a lot of interesting things to cover.

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This week

we are going to be talking about face.

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A lot of listener

questions have come in about this.

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And it seems to be a problem

that's getting worse.

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And what this is referring to

is hardware devices that look just like

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and are sometimes sold for a price,

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just like the real thing,

but aren't the real thing.

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I ran into this myself,

and we'll talk about that a little bit

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and some of the problems

that this is creating.

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We're also going to be

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talking about something else,

a little bit of retro tech today.

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At the end of this segment,

listener questions have come in again.

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What are all the plugs on the bottom

of different video game console spawn?

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A lot of these haven't been used,

so they're kind of there.

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But, you know, it's a good question

and one that we are going to explore

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just a little bit.

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So that will be

what we are going to cover this week.

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And before we do all of that, let's go

ahead and see what's in this week's news.

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All right.

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Can friction maxing fix your focus.

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And what is that or I don't know Gretchen

what is picture focus

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I don't know about mine

because I needed to figure out

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what this even was

talking about. Like, I'm not.

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See what this is.

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BBC reporting on this and what they are

talking about is the fact that technology

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is creating a situation

where we don't have the attention.

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Oh, I'm sorry, I was looking at something

else, the attention span that we used to.

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So, that being said, yeah,

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it is actually causing some problems

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and attention span is getting shorter.

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Critical thinking capabilities, weakening

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emotional intelligence,

fading, beetle memory getting worse.

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These are all sound like bad things,

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and there is still high levels

of stress and loneliness.

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And what's going on

here is the fact that we have

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modern technology,

especially with the onset of AI.

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We don't do a lot of our own

research anymore.

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Everything is done through electronics

and that kind of thing

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when it comes to this stuff.

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And what friction maxing is, is

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the idea of rebuilding tolerance

or inconveniences

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and then doing things that might be

a little bit old school, like reading,

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that kind

of a thing using analog solutions

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in my case, where I really ran into this

playing a cassette tape, somebody,

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it sent me.

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I really didn't have the patience

for trying to figure out where the time,

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or that was really something

I, I didn't even realize it until later

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because it's like,

this is really kind of annoying.

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I, I know,

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and it's something that was very much

the normal and nobody cared about,

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but that's just an example

of this type of thing.

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And some research has been done to this.

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And one of the best ways to handle

this is taking technology breaks again,

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going old school maybe on some things or,

doing an analog kit.

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You're going to go for a picnic,

bring a sketchpad, bring a book to read.

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Don't bring your phone, don't

bring your laptop, tablet.

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You know, that kind of thing.

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So it is another part of this.

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It's kind of a footnote.

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A study just came out that

in a lot of schools,

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high schools, middle

schools, that type of thing,

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instead of books,

they're giving the students Chromebooks,

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you know, which is a type of a laptop

computer or iPads or whatever.

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And they're finding that

that is affecting things, too,

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with critical thinking

and all that in schools.

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It's just not where it once was.

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So we don't want society to get,

you know, stupider,

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which could very easily happen

for lack of a better term.

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Right.

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But it could happen

with these type of things,

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is there are a lot of people

that are finding that really don't know

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how you would go to a library

and look something up

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in an encyclopedia, you know,

that's made out of paper or whatever.

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How do you find the phone number?

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Isn't this is not a new problem.

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When I was originally going

to become a school teacher.

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So I did a small stint with a middle

school teacher when I was in college.

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And she said that the children

are having a difficult time.

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Their attention span has been shortened.

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And she felt that

it was about the same amount of time

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between a television show, commercial

break, television show, commercial break.

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It was like

the kids needed the commercial break.

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They weren't able to concentrate

more than that amount of space.

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So and this was,

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80s when this lady was telling me this.

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So this has been building

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and building and building.

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Yeah. It's an ongoing problem.

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We're really seeing the end of the other

end of it.

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Now, one of the things is

you look at schools, schools have a budget

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and it actually costs less to use

electronics than to buy books every year.

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And the other things

that would be related to that.

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So, you know, from that standpoint,

it does solve some problems.

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But like what you're talking about

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with the commercial break

and timing yourself, that

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it's turning into these type of things

where there's a lot of distractions.

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Now, I know here in Oregon

and a lot of other places,

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the schools are requiring that students

have their phones off during the day.

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The idea of having a portable phone

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when I was in high school

would have been really weird, but,

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most do,

and there's a lot of good reasons for it.

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Safety, if you're stuck somewhere,

that type of a thing.

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And I think that having access to help

when you need it and access to

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communication when you need it outweighs

some of the disadvantages of this.

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But certainly turning the phone off

during the day while you're at school.

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And one thing they can do with school

electronics is be able to,

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you know, go through

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and figure out what is available

and what's not on these devices

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so that the students are

are not being distracted by social media

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and other things that would distract them

with their phones.

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But even so, it's still creating

a very different way.

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And critical thinking and other things,

and is creating a situation

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where there just isn't the focus

there used to be.

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So, you know, technology

solves a lot of problems,

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but this is one

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that I think

that we're going to have to work for

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is to make sure

it doesn't become a new problem.

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And unfortunately, a lot won't.

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Ram prices have skyrocketed

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by 200 to 300% in early 2026.

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Yeah, so if you needed to buy memory for

anything, you've probably noticed this.

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If you haven't, you will soon

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because the price of most technology

is going to go up.

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You do this pretty much anything

that is computerized electronics,

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not just your laptop, desktop

or phone, require memory.

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Even my 1986 pinball machine

I'm still restoring requires memory.

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It's just part of anything

that uses a microprocessor

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or microcontrollers

or even TTL logic, that kind of thing.

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And we saw a spike in memory prices

back in the late 90s.

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I remember that there were break

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ins at computer labs and stuff,

people stealing the Ram out of computers.

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And I have a funny feeling

we're going to see this again

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because what's happening here,

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5th July of last year, 32 gigabyte Ddr5,

which is, format of memory

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that's used in a lot of computers,

would be about 95 bucks.

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You could even get it for 80

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if you didn't care if the memory lit up,

which I don't, like.

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There's physical RGB

lights and stuff in this stuff, which,

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you know, it's kind of cool, I guess,

but it saves money not to do that today.

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That same hit is on and I found it.

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The cheapest was $350 for refurbished

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and retail prices were between 5 and $600

for the same thing.

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Not faster, not a different brand,

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same apples to apples comparison.

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In Europe, prices peaked in February

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of between 430 to €490.

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It is just really, really expensive.

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And then the other part of it too is even

finding it sometimes what's happening

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is memory allocations are limited

on what can be manufactured,

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and AI data center builds are getting this

where they're actually sending people

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to the manufacturers to buy everything up

before it even hits the market.

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Crucial, which is a brand that makes

a lot of memory, isn't even selling

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to the consumer market anymore.

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Just the data centers.

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And this type of thing is causing a huge,

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huge lack of supply,

which is what's running the prices up.

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And, you know, I was thinking I,

if my desktop I 128 gigs of Ram,

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for the purpose I run

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virtualization and, you know, do editing

stuff and I wait a little bit longer here.

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I could just sell the memory

and pay off my house.

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They're going to shoot themselves

in the foot, because if we don't

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have computers and electronic equipment

that we can use

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to access the AI type stuff,

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well, who's going to use it?

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Yeah, yeah.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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AI is a bubble. It's going to pop in.

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Yeah.

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I don't think it's a nail on the head here

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a little bit too,

because that's the reason.

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You know common question is well why don't

they add varsity because of that reason.

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There will be eventually a point

that the sales of memory two

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AI data centers will stop

or at least slow down.

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And at that point,

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they don't want to have so much production

that there's a glut on the market,

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you know?

So that's that's where that's going.

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But it's creating this problem.

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All right.

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Meta workers say they're seeing disturbing

things through users smart closets.

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Yeah.

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This follows right

under the topic of creepy a little bit.

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Yeah.

When you think about what's going on here.

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So what this is referring to

is meta glasses, which is a product

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that Facebook has had out for a while

now, and it's basically a pair of glasses

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we've talked about on on the show

before that have a video camera on it,

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and you can take photographs

and you can take video with them,

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obviously with a video camera.

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Now I have a set of these,

we won't tell meta, but I,

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did a jailbreak on my

and redid the firmware a while back

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because I use them

for a different purpose now.

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But the idea of having that convenient

is something that is kind of cool.

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You just have the thing on the side

of the glasses and you're recording.

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But what a lot of people don't know about

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is these videos aren't

necessarily private, especially if you're

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sending them up to the meta

I for search or whatever reason.

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This is not done on your glasses

or your phone.

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It's sent out to a data center somewhere,

and that video is now accessible by,

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in this case, anybody that works for meta,

that has rights to that

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and what they're doing

is it's not necessarily nefarious.

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They do content review.

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So if you had things like,

you know, child pornography

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or something that someone was recording,

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the idea is just to be able to catch it

and shut it down.

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I think that is a very good thing.

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But what happens is, is

you have to have people that review

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this content

and these people are reviewing things.

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That is not something that I or hopefully

most of our audience

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would want to just look out

and as part of their job.

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And if they refuse to do it,

they don't keep the job.

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On top of that,

a lot of this is being sent overseas,

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so it's not even contained within

the United States, but things like people

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using the restroom or, you know, adult

activities, let's just leave it at that.

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That type of thing are getting

caught on video and having to be reviewed.

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And it goes a step further

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where things like dead bodies and abuse

and all that kind of stuff.

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And yeah, they find it, they filter it

and they are catching some people

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because they're doing this.

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But still, that kind of a position I think

would be a very difficult job to do.

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The other side of it is

I think most people don't realize

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that these videos

are even accessible outside of their own,

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you know, private phone.

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Yeah, that's got to be weird.

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Yeah.

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Major retail operator files bankruptcy.

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Customers have less than a month

to use their gift cards.

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So the retailer

that they're talking about here

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is, Eddie Bauer, which is kind of sad

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because this was a long and a nice story.

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It was, you know, one of the places

you went that was a little bit,

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you know, a little bit of a step

above a lot of different other things.

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So you have until March 12th.

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If you have a gift card for any of our,

make sure you use it

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because that's like a week

or give or take you go.

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And what it is is

the stores are in a shutdown point.

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All sales made in stores are final

and cannot be exchanged returned.

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And what this is, is in the United States.

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In Canada, the retailer has filed

for chapter 11 bankruptcy,

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and they are shutting down and auctioning

off their brick and mortar operations.

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I had about 180 retail outlet stores

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in the US and Canada, and those are

the ones that are shutting down.

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So it looks like the gift cards

won't be usable online either.

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It's just at the end of that. That's it.

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So if you have an Eddie Bauer card,

dig it out from wherever it's sitting.

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Find something to buy.

There's plenty of stuff.

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With the closing sales, you're

probably going to get a better deal.

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But if you don't do it here, by the time

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it shuts down and closes,

they just aren't worth anything anymore.

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And that's March 12th.

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And this is one of the problems

with gift cards,

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because you're paying for something.

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And depending on the credit

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of the retailer or whoever

is going to honor that card to do it.

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And if they don't, you're

kind of just not your money.

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Yeah, that's really sad.

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All right.

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Dramatic changes have been observed

in one of the universe's

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biggest stars.

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And this is not Hollywood

now, one in space.

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All right, religious reporting.

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Will Durham wrote the article.

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And what we are looking at here is a store

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called w o g 64.

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And they're saying it's

the stellar equivalent of Jimi Hendrix.

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So we do have the Hollywood

equivalent here just a little bit on this.

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What's happening is, is

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it is progressing

a lot faster than most stars do.

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It went from red to yellow

and these type of a thing and something

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that, yellow hypergiant,

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usually takes billions of years

in time to accomplish.

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And this is happening very, very quickly.

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Now, I don't know about that. Gretchen.

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You can speak to this.

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I looked it up.

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The Death

Star only took 19 years to build,

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and the second Death Star was, like,

three years.

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So that's not billions of years, right?

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And it didn't take them very long to blow

it up, either, when they finally decided.

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And I have a funny feeling that, you know,

stars that go like this do live hard

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and quickly and, that will be the case

here, most likely with this.

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But it is, again, a just a you know,

we really don't know a lot about space.

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And I think the more we learn

the more we figure out what we don't know.

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Even things like the Voyager,

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being outside of the solar system

now, that kind of a thing

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and finding all kinds of things

that they didn't think would be the case.

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And, you know, so,

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kind of cool

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this a

little footnote on that, by the way,

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they think they're going to be able to

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So I don't know if somehow

they got recharged remotely.

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Maybe we got maybe,

maybe some little gray alien stuff here.

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We'll fix that for. Yeah.

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You know, talk about a, battery charging

service that's not at a gas station.

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You know, that's really remote.

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Yeah.

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Dear HBO Max, Paramount+

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streaming services will merge

after Warner Brothers discovery deal.

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So we talked about this

a little bit in Netflix,

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wanting to buy, Warner Brothers discovery

that has not happened.

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Paramount is now in

the bidder's seat on that.

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And if it's approved, because somehow

this isn't a monopoly, but with Netflix,

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it was

somebody I'll need to explain that, to me.

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But in any of it,

maybe less of a monopoly is,

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a situation here

where if that happens to save money

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and I can understand this,

they would put the apps together.

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So there's pushback on this happening

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because HBO has always been

a very specific brand,

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usually with, quality programing

and even back

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in the ancient days of cable, where

you had a converter box to receive it,

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if you subscribed to HBO,

it was a very specific thing,

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and you would kind of get

what you paid for.

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And some of these other streaming services

are not like that so much.

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Now, I won't say, you know, here

that, Paramount is bad.

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It's not at least in my opinion,

I have that.

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And, I get their

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app is a freebie through one of my credit

cards, so, you know, I use it,

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but putting them together does seem like

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they're putting two different things

together.

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Along the same reasons

why discovery did not merge their app

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as it is now, with Warner Brothers.

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Because one is like home repair and stuff

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like that, and the other one

is a completely different idea.

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So it'll be movies.

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Yeah, movies. Exactly. Right.

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And other content. But,

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it's going to be

interesting to see where this will happen.

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It will bring other things

like sport offerings,

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TNT, CBS sports, that kind of thing.

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So, you know, at the end of the day,

it's going to make for a streaming app

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that does a lot.

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And there is a lot of streaming fatigue

right now with having to get

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a lot of different things for, you know,

you want this and you have to go to that.

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And then the other one's a different one.

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So I think it'll help

a little bit with that.

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But we don't want to see

the whole monopoly thing here either,

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because that's going to run up prices

even more than they have in.

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So, you know, I can kind of understand

both sides of the coin.

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But here from a situation of what's going

on, if the merger is approved,

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then that is what's going to happen.

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And I would imagine that one out

probably would cost a little more.

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Maybe not.

We'll have to see how they do that.

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Yeah.

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All right MIT creates injectable

gel capable of repairing nerves.

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Yeah, that'd be nice. One.

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Yeah.

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Would you know

the only the only problem with this

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is that, MIT

doesn't seem to know anything about it.

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Oh. And, you know that that's a

that's a thing.

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Right?

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So I am.

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The reason I included

this is because we talk a lot about what

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you see online and the fact that you can't

take everything at face value.

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Yeah.

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This is something that that is based on

something that MIT is doing,

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which is actually quite amazing,

but has been taken to this idea of,

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you know, being injectable

and just kind of fixes you like Star Trek.

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We're not quite there yet.

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But what they are looking at doing

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is having a hydrogel

that will help nerves heal.

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They're designed to mimic the

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body's natural tissue, provide a scaffold

where nerve fibers can grow

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and release healing molecules that reduce

inflammation and guide nerve growth.

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And yes, I did read that off the press

release. Now,

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in studies, to an extent,

this type of thing is working.

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It has not been demonstrated

on humans yet.

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It's still lab and animal testing where

they're looking at this kind of thing and

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so it's more like a back to tank idea

where you, you dip

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your, your arm or your hand into a

like a healing solution

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instead of having it

injected into your body.

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Or what am I misunderstanding?

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The description of this

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is more like surgeons reconnect nerves

and use this technique to get it to heal.

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So I don't even think we're there,

I think.

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But the thing of it

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is, is being able to reconnect

nerves in of itself is a big deal.

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Oh yeah.

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You know,

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but yeah, it's not a gel

where you inject it

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and all of a sudden,

you know, everything's happy, you know.

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So better back to the do you know,

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do you understand what I'm talking about

when I say back to tank.

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Yes. Yeah. And okay.

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But again no, this looks like this

requires a surgical procedure.

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They're also looking for a real roll out

of anything like this for 10 to 20 years.

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Beyond,

where they're at now in the testing phase.

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But, you know, I like

I like to see stuff like this,

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despite the hype on Instagram, with it

being able to reconnect

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nerves in of itself is a big deal

and a huge thing for quality of life

398

for people that, have had damage,

you know, so it's a good thing to see

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it happening, but it's not quite to the,

400

extent that, it was pushing.

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So anyway.

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All right, so another question that comes

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in, we've been talking retro tech,

404

and I'm going to just cover this

very briefly

405

because we don't have a lot of time

here left in the segment.

406

But a lot of people are asking questions

about the different gaming consoles.

407

So like Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox,

that kind of thing.

408

And over the years, a lot of these

consoles have had ports on them.

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And the original Nintendo had one

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on the bottom, and a lot of the others

have followed suit.

411

And these type of things were put out

for the idea of future proof

412

and to some extent, these consoles.

413

But in a lot of cases

they were never used.

414

Now, from a technical perspective,

what we're dealing with here is something

415

where it's an expansion port that can

access usually the system bus in some way

416

be able to interact with the hardware

or the computer that's inside the console.

417

So that's kind of cool.

418

You know, if you could do it, Nintendo

offers plenty to offer some things.

419

The original one was going to be a modem.

420

Yeah, some of the other ones,

they were going to make a disc drive.

421

I believe that was a game

where that was going to go

422

for being able to save stuff,

and that kept getting delayed.

423

Delayed. It did finally come out in Japan.

424

We never had it here,

but that would have been a use for this.

425

And you see this, you know, I'm

picking on Nintendo a little bit here,

426

but there's some other things too.

427

Sega Genesis, had a port

originally planned for modems

428

and now working to access

external peripherals,

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diagnosis of which is what

it actually ended up being used for.

430

And the only thing

431

you know.

432

So you see this across the board.

433

The Super Nintendo had one

for a CD-Rom drive

434

they were going to put together

in partnership with Sony,

435

which won a different direction

when Nintendo decided to,

436

do some other things

437

that Sony was unhappy about,

which is how we got the PlayStation

438

that was originally going to be the

the Nintendo PlayStation.

439

Yeah.

So these things go a different direction.

440

Some parts of this are research

and development, that kind of thing.

441

One of the biggest ones,

I think literally was

442

the still, what they called the fat model.

443

And it had this giant compartment

on the back and,

444

it was meant for a hard drive upgrade.

445

There was one game that they did

come out with that in one game did use

446

it, Final Fantasy,

I think it was 11 or 1 of them.

447

Ten, 11, something like that.

448

Yeah, the $100 upgrade.

449

But most people used it to hide

the sandwich.

450

Extra TV remotes, you know, as gold bars.

451

I hope not one

of the first or someday, but,

452

you know,

453

but again, and then after the fact,

what happens with a lot of these

454

things is in most console lifespans,

they will reissue.

455

So you had a PlayStation two then, or

whatever it was called that removed this.

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And now all of a sudden,

if you have people that have bought

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whatever peripheral

it is, it won't work anymore.

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We saw that on the Atari 7800.

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They had an expansion port

460

that was never used

and then just kind of done away with.

461

So the one thing about it is, is we're

seeing these things used in homebrew.

462

So a lot of developers

now, it's a lot easier to build things

463

where you will connect

464

a Raspberry Pi or a domino

or something to these expansion ports,

465

which is a lot more powerful than

the original console ever would have been,

466

adding all kinds of features

and different things like that.

467

I have one on my Atari eight computer

that allows it to go online.

468

The component that allows that to happen

469

is something like 10,000 times

more powerful than the actual computer.

470

But hey, it works and it works well.

471

All right.

472

Next segment we're going to be

talking about faces is user friendly.

473

2.0 we'll be back after the break.

474

Series from the future.

475

He's got a really big computer

476

and he uses it every day.

477

And he usually uses it in every way.

478

I see you before, you know.

479

I'm not that sure

because he's eager to welcome back.

480

This is user friendly 2.0.

481

Check out our website user friendly

dot show.

482

That is your one stop for all things user

friendly.

483

Send us your questions, your comments.

484

We do our programing

based on what you want us to cover

485

and that's how we find out

and on that line.

486

We've had a lot of questions

coming in about FAQs

487

and this is nothing new,

but it is getting a lot worse.

488

And what we're talking about here

is the things that are manufactured

489

that look just like a real brand,

that maybe even say

490

the name of the real brand,

but are not made by that manufacturer

491

and therefore are usually inferior

and don't work as well.

492

And I talked about this

when it happened to me a while back.

493

I was working on my home

network and I had to get your, your neck,

494

your switches, Ethernet switches

and everybody that doesn't know

495

these are just devices

that are part of your network

496

where you kind of plug everything

in, it concentrates it, puts it together,

497

and then figures out

what goes where from the internet.

498

So it's a device

that's been around for a very long time.

499

But as things have been upgraded,

I had originally gotten a set

500

that were 2.5 gigabit, and I had used them

501

for about a year

and a half was no problem.

502

Well, recently I had to make some changes

to my network for my backups,

503

and all of a sudden we started

having all kinds of just weird problems

504

that wouldn't work

for doing the backups properly,

505

but you couldn't even see the

the backup storage device on the network

506

and then start digging into it

507

and figuring out, well, my woman

that's on Wi-Fi, I can get right to it.

508

But the stuff that's on the wired network

doesn't work. Well.

509

It turns out after wasting about six hours

trying to figure out what's going on

510

because it did not occur to me

to check this.

511

The switches are fake.

512

So they did. You pop it open?

513

Yeah.

514

Oh, geez.

515

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Well, of course I did.

516

I wanted to see

what was actually going inside.

517

And now they're branded Netgear.

518

I got them off eBay, which is always.

519

Yeah, you know,

520

you're not guaranteed anything there,

but I usually buy and I've had pretty

521

good luck with it.

522

You know, all the express, it's like if

you get the real item, you're doing well.

523

But, this was something that was.

524

And they were very well made.

525

Metal case, all the stuff that you would

expect from the original thing.

526

So I pulled the inside out of it.

527

And what was very interesting

is the largest component

528

in there was where all the plugs were.

529

And then there was a ribbon cable

530

that went back to this little tiny

PC board with a blob on it,

531

and the other end went to the power

supply.

532

Pick a blob. What? It was a blob.

533

A lot of times

when they manufacture processors or chips

534

and want to either do it

cheaply or do something where

535

you can't figure out what it is,

instead of putting it in a plastic package

536

like what we all think of as a chip

looking like it'll have the silicon

537

sprayed on the board

with just some kind of gunk put over it,

538

glue or whatever the case may be,

so that you can't get into it.

539

It's cheaper to manufacture it that way.

540

And that is not how Netgear

makes the request. But

541

so and I can I can really speak to that

542

because when I finally did

get my real Netgear switches from Netgear,

543

I took them apart

and there's a lot more going on inside

544

just because, you know,

it works properly and magically.

545

When I put these on my network,

it automatically cleared everything up.

546

It's like, sorry, are you

are you saying that we need

547

to open our equipment to see if it's real?

548

I'm not advising that.

549

Especially if you don't know what you're,

you know, doing with that.

550

You can have mains voltages and

other things and certainly mess stuff up.

551

And if it's working

okay, you're probably fine.

552

But you want to make sure that number one,

if you get something used.

553

So this would be eBay

and Facebook Marketplace or even new

554

through some of these platforms,

certainly AliExpress and some of those

555

to be a little bit skeptical and maybe

check it out if the thing comes in

556

and it's really lightweight or there's

something it feels like it's off,

557

it might not be the real thing.

558

And this is actually something

that, in addition to being annoying,

559

can be dangerous.

560

And we're going to get to that here

in a little bit.

561

So what we've done is a little research,

with the help of ChatGPT,

562

to put together

a list of different devices,

563

different pieces of hardware

that are coming up.

564

More and more is fake. So don't worry,

we didn't hallucinate here.

565

I actually did check each one of them

and they are correct.

566

So, yeah,

567

we're not going to talk about a technical

device here that doesn't exist.

568

At least I hope not.

569

And anyway, but that being the case,

570

the list

that kind of finally got put together,

571

you start to think the first one

is counterfeit USB drives and SD cards.

572

Now, we actually did talk about this

on the show once before.

573

And what this basically is, is you

574

get, something

that's an unbelievable deal, by the way.

575

That's the other thing to take a second

look at,

576

flash drives, two terabytes

577

USB for $9 is the example given here.

578

Now, if you go on and price

something like that,

579

in a lot of cases, the capacity

that's claimed doesn't even exist.

580

And if it does, it's going to be a lot

more than $9 for something like that.

581

Right.

582

And what they're doing in a lot of cases

583

here is the device itself is actually real

584

and it's been purchased, used or,

you know, from something that's old tech

585

or whatever the case may be,

and they've changed the capacity on it.

586

So they've gone in and hacked the device.

587

So that will report that it's two terabyte

when it's really maybe only 32 gigabyte.

588

And so when you start using it, it works.

589

That's the other thing too.

590

But what generally happens in these things

is, is you're going through

591

when you hit the real limit

on whatever it is,

592

it doesn't know

to tell you that it's full.

593

So it just starts overwriting from

the beginning again, so you lose data.

594

Lovely.

595

You know, especially if you're using them

for backups or that type of a thing.

596

And you won't realize that usually until

after the return period is gone.

597

So you know, that's, that's a big concern.

598

Next one on the list is fake

power supplies, fake chargers.

599

And this is one of the ones

where things can get dangerous.

600

And I've actually seen this where it's

claimed to be made by a company, you know,

601

a valid vendor like Apple for a phone

charger or Samsung or something.

602

And I ran into this once where it

the one I got was a fake.

603

I figured it out when the plug broke

before I plugged it into the phone.

604

Which was a good sign.

605

But what's happening here is that you

606

miss a lot of the safety components.

607

So voltage regulation being one.

608

And what that's talking about is

if you have your expensive

609

iPhone or Samsung

phone, it's a grand or more

610

and you want to recharge it

and the phone's expecting a five volt

611

charge line or whatever

it is, I'm just using that as an example,

612

and you plug it in and the voltage

coming to it says it's five volts,

613

but is fluctuating around

and is much higher or lower.

614

That can damage your

device or even destroy it.

615

And that's

616

bad if you spend a lot of money

on one of those iPhones.

617

Yeah, and frankly,

that's not even if you don't because,

618

you don't want that to happen.

619

And the thing of it is,

is that type of thing, in addition

620

to being able to screw up your device,

there are examples out there of it

621

causing fires.

622

You know, one of the examples

we're giving here is electrocution,

623

risk of damage to devices,

which we just talked about.

624

But the thing of it is, is, yeah,

you have a charger.

625

And if it doesn't have heat protection

or voltage protection and something

626

short circuits

where instead of it turning off, it's

627

going to start on fire

and it's not worth saving the few bucks.

628

And again,

629

look at it.

630

If the price is something completely

unusual or something feels wrong about it

631

when you get it,

have a little suspicion, you know.

632

Yeah.

633

And then the thing is,

634

is, okay, you're you're assuming

that you're talking to adults.

635

What if your kids are also using

this stuff?

636

Yeah.

And they're not going to know any better.

637

And simply overheating could burn them.

638

I mean, you know,

there's all kinds of things

639

that could happen

that it doesn't go things.

640

And, you know, fake Apple

chargers are one of the most counterfeited

641

electronics in the world just because

they're expensive for the real thing.

642

But you see this everywhere else.

643

And on that train of thought

is counterfeit lithium batteries.

644

This gets really dangerous.

What could go wrong here?

645

Hey, Bill, I'm going to throw that to you.

646

What would happen if you had a counterfeit

647

lithium battery with no, protection on it

at all?

648

Well, they explode.

649

Yeah. And little, you know, minor cabinet.

650

Yeah.

651

To put it mildly.

652

And obviously,

653

you know, I make a little bit light of it,

but we shouldn't because that is very,

654

very dangerous.

And batteries are expensive.

655

Another reason they get away with this

kind of a thing.

656

Camera batteries, power tool batteries,

cells, different things like that.

657

Some of the things are the capacity on

it will be a lot more than it is now.

658

I ran into this once with a DeWalt

659

and what makes a lot of power tools,

and they use, in my case,

660

I think it was 18 volt batteries

that go on these to run them.

661

And I needed a second battery

and I ordered one.

662

And this was through Amazon.

663

And I got the battery and didn't

think about it too much.

664

I charged it and used it a little bit,

665

and then came back a couple of weeks later

and it wouldn't charge anymore.

666

So it went that way.

667

And I look at it's

the same color, same plastic, same molds.

668

It doesn't say DeWalt anywhere on it did

on the packaging, but not on the battery.

669

Now, fortunately,

I was still within my return

670

window on it,

so I was able to send it back.

671

But, and it wasn't even cheaper.

672

It was about the same price

as the real one.

673

I ended up buying the batteries

plus later. Wow.

674

So I didn't save a lot on that, you know?

675

So that was completely a scam.

676

I know there was a story recently

that I came across to,

677

somebody had a charge pack,

you know, like you used for recharging

678

your cell phone on the go.

679

And it was barely doing anything,

680

and they opened it up, and it was three

regular lithium batteries and 12

681

fake batteries every.

682

Yeah.

683

And then I kind of.

684

You're talking like a power bank,

probably.

685

And, Yeah.

686

And, you know, and again,

that type of a thing, it's one thing

687

when it's annoying and just doesn't do

what it's supposed to do.

688

But the other side of it, again,

no thermal protection that can cause

689

overheating of fires, as you say,

of explosions, which has happened.

690

This is one of the reasons

they have to regulate lithium batteries

691

when you get on the planes,

because this has actually happened.

692

It's not a theoretical thing.

693

And, sometimes even with the real stuff

when it's effective.

694

But you definitely see this among the,

the fake things and are definitely,

695

something, again, that can screw up

your device

696

certainly won't hold a charge

for very long.

697

I like what you're talking about

and can burn down your house.

698

Yeah, you're good. Stories about kids

toys.

699

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How big?

What is that?

700

There is a chip that goes on

most lithium things.

701

Cell phones, a lot of it

where it will stop

702

the charging at a certain stage,

usually about

703

99, 98% of acts charge

704

so that it doesn't go over

and cause an explosion.

705

Right.

706

And a lot of these big ones, they,

707

they don't include that.

708

And the reason why I know about these is

that they don't include those on a lot of,

709

RC cars,

which my stepson is very much into.

710

So you have to get what's called

they have a chip that it plugs into that

711

allows it to charge correctly.

712

You know, it's and the other thing of it

too, is it's just a great thing really,

713

because one of the devices

714

that does regulation like

this is a component called a thermistor.

715

And there's a lot of other ways to do it,

716

but it's one

that's been around for a long time.

717

And being into repairing the old arcade

718

cabinets,

these were used long line protection and,

719

costing about a buck 68 to replace

the one that goes on the line voltage.

720

So something that would into a low voltage

battery pack would of course

721

be a lot cheaper.

722

That's not a lot of money really,

when you think about it.

723

And again, some places,

if you went to AliExpress

724

and you know it's $0.10 for this,

okay, it's going to be fake.

725

But when you're getting some of

these devices off reputable retailers,

726

which even in some cases include BestBuy

and Amazon like we talked about,

727

that's pretty bad.

728

And again, it's

something that is becoming a lot worse

729

and moving on to the next one here.

730

This one is interesting

and speak computer processors.

731

And this one would be really bad

732

because you're looking at a situation

where this stuff's expensive.

733

So if you're doing

building your own computer

734

or if you're a company that, you know,

like Dell or something that buys

735

an Intel processor,

that type of thing ended up with fakes.

736

It could really screw things up.

737

And at your best,

it might be a relabeling of a lesser CPU.

738

But you know, some of what

this talks about here is, seller

739

sending a CPU shaped piece of metal.

740

And, I think you would realize that one,

I would hope, but

741

if what they're banking on is there's

going to be a certain amount of people

742

that would get the box in the mail

that it's somewhere

743

until they get around to their project,

which is after the return window,

744

and then they can't

do much about it. You know,

745

it's,

746

it's it's a crazy thing,

but we're seeing it all around.

747

Next item on the list,

748

which we kind of already talked about,

is fake network equipment.

749

Oh, boy.

750

And that's exactly what,

what happened here?

751

Some of the other things

that came up with this is,

752

name brand Cisco being one of them.

753

That is faked a lot is two things

you want to be careful of.

754

Number one is these type of devices

usually have firmware,

755

which is software that runs the device

that's built into it.

756

Most electronics of that nature a routers

certainly does that type of thing.

757

But this can be very compromised

on the fake one

758

and also have backdoors

that other people can get into it.

759

If someone can get into a backdoor

on your network router, they can get there

760

behind your firewall usually,

and they can get to,

761

you know, anything in your network

that's even real.

762

Yeah,

763

some of the cases are really bad

764

where they can turn on the camera

on your computer

765

and watch what you're doing

without you knowing about it.

766

Those type of things,

767

certainly getting financial information

and all that kind of stuff.

768

And the other thing of it

is, too, is you don't know what's in it.

769

Like my switches.

770

Same type of thing.

771

I have no idea who made them,

772

you know, and now a dumb

773

switch doesn't have firmware,

so I didn't have the back door problem.

774

But a lot of, networks,

most networks actually use smart switches

775

where you can configure them

and everything, and those do,

776

I don't need it for what I'm doing, but

777

certainly most commercial networks

would have that.

778

And I think a lot of home ones do as well,

you know. So,

779

it definitely creates a problem.

780

And one other note on this,

this is not a new thing, but on a lot

781

this came up really in

the 90s is a big problem.

782

Is cache memory was a new thing or 86,

microprocessors

783

in that era started having cache 386,

some of the higher end ones too.

784

And you would get a motherboard which had

what looked like cache memory on it.

785

But if you looked at it,

the prices weren't hooked up to anything

786

and force

it didn't work and it wasn't real,

787

but they could charge a lot more money

for that, you know?

788

And again,

the consumer may not know what's going on.

789

And even,

790

you know, hobbyists who builds their own

computer might put this thing together.

791

And unless they start benchmarking

or going in to try to enable this stuff,

792

they may never actually see it,

that it's not really there.

793

You know. So

794

I don't know.

795

And again, I'm not trying to give

everybody a downer, but this is something

796

that we need to be aware of

because it can cause very bad things.

797

Break HDMI and display cables

is the next one on the list.

798

And if you go

if you've ever gone to certainly

799

to a retailer like BestBuy and bought,

say, a monster eight K

800

HDMI cable, you need to have one

won the lottery, probably.

801

But to that point is

these are generally very expensive.

802

And if you look on an O or,

you know, on Amazon, I can get that exact

803

same able to that

brand or eBay for something for,

804

you know, a 10th of the price.

805

And it might look just like it

when you get it, but it will not work

806

very well.

807

And, you know,

and the other thing of it is too is, HDMI,

808

Bluetooth, all of these type of things

have versions in of himself.

809

So if you need the latest version of HDMI

because you're run in, let's say,

810

a 4K television with Dolby Vision

and all the other,

811

you know, goodies

that you would have on that,

812

and you get an HDMI cable

that's branded that,

813

but an older version,

it's not going to work. Right.

814

And you're not going to know what's wrong.

815

At least at first.

816

It'll feel like the television

isn't working quite right or,

817

you know, something else.

818

And it, definitely is a problem.

819

I have not run into this personally,

but I know that there are those that have.

820

And again, and this one's

a little bit harder to deal with because

821

Best Buy and I will pick a one on them

for this

822

does really mark up their cables.

823

Yeah.

824

They are a lot more expensive

than they should be.

825

And in some cases

you can really find a better deal.

826

If you look online and you know

other retailers and that type of a thing,

827

but then it's hard to know.

828

Is it just a better deal

because they've marked it up

829

versus is it fake

or is it an older version?

830

So exactly how do you know

that you've gotten a bad cable?

831

Well, I did a little

research and got an old pagan ritual

832

from the old gods,

and I asked them, oh, okay.

833

Well,

I'm like a little intense for some people.

834

You know, it might it might not be the way

some people want to go.

835

And I'm kidding about that, of course.

836

But, some of the things

is, is the fact that it won't work.

837

Right.

838

That is your first clue.

839

Flickering different things like that.

840

The device is going back

to a lower resolution,

841

not doing

what they're actually supposed to do.

842

The other thing of it is, if you look

at it in the build, quality is really bad.

843

Commercially produced high end cables

aren't going to look like that.

844

You do when you spend more money,

you get a better product.

845

In that sense.

846

And you know, a situation

is where with this, it's really just the

847

you have to run it and

use it and see if it doesn't work right

848

or if it looks off,

or if it's really just too good of a deal.

849

Yeah.

850

You know, I was looking at that, hairdryer

cable that,

851

that went south on me

and I was looking at it thinking,

852

should that have really done that?

853

Because it yeah, it looked bad.

854

And I was kind of surprised

when I saw that big flash come out of it.

855

You know, I was looking at,

for some reason, the, brushes on this.

856

A real quick aside, Gretchen

had a hairdryer that blew up on her.

857

Was made.

858

The, brushes on the motor were plastic

with a little tiny piece of metal

859

in the middle, and it's a slippery motor,

and that's why it failed like that.

860

Shorted out just because,

like I said, that's that was a con air.

861

That should have done that.

862

And it did.

863

It broke from the heat and, you know, wow.

864

I mean,

I think if I'm going to double check that

865

because none of the internal components

said Con Air, come to think of that.

866

So you think that was a con air?

All right.

867

I look at it. I still have it.

868

I'll look at it.

869

So all right,

let's get into the scary stuff okay.

870

This is the stuff that really can cause

problems.

871

Counterfeit

automotive parts are becoming a problem.

872

Oh, things like

873

brake pads, putting fake brakes,

874

anti bad air bags being filled with cloth

or paper instead of the actual inflators.

875

Oh boy.

876

Yeah,

I think about putting that in your car.

877

Get an axle.

I mean, you know, that could kill you.

878

I mean, it's not funny that really good.

879

Oh, I'd be better off without the airbag.

880

Exactly, exactly.

881

And, you know, in these type of things,

882

another area was in the white,

883

aviation had a problem with this,

that the company was sending

884

the companies that were doing

the repair work on commercial planes

885

like Southwest Airlines

and United and stuff like parts,

886

and they were not charging

less for them either.

887

And the airlines

got them thinking they were reputable.

888

And when this came out,

they had to ground a lot of aircraft

889

and go through and check and see if

the repair components they used were real.

890

Yeah.

891

You know, anything like the one where the

panel went flying off the off the plane?

892

I don't

know if that was directly related to that.

893

I think that that one from my

if I remember

894

remembering correctly, Boeing,

which was the manufacturer

895

that simply didn't

put the clamps in the door or something,

896

but I would need to look that up

to be sure it wasn't fake.

897

It was just simply not there.

898

Which would also be a problem right?

899

Yeah,

but when you think about that in Bill,

900

I know you've done

a lot of mechanical work over the years.

901

Can you imagine getting a fake oil filter

and what that could do to your engine?

902

Well, you know, the oil filter quality

alone matters a lot.

903

Not to plug anything,

but I use Napa filters because

904

just actually seeing them

cross-section is significantly better

905

than any other filter

I've seen out there. The Napa gold.

906

Yeah.

907

Yeah.

908

I mean, there are better filters,

don't get me wrong.

909

Just you, you know, it's nice

and and their ratings are good.

910

I don't think they're, you know,

911

they're not a sponsor or anything,

but it is a good brand.

912

I've had good luck with them, too.

913

And it's not bad to talk about things

that do work.

914

But again, if let's say that you went to,

915

you know, your auto parts store

and bought your Napa filter

916

and the auto parts store buys

from usually a reseller

917

or some kind of a wholesale company,

and let's say they didn't know it was fake

918

and somehow it got into the stream

somewhere.

919

Backup channel, you know, that's

where these things can get really scary

920

because, you know,

you're a business that changes oil filters

921

and you didn't notice

or you didn't see what it was.

922

Is it obvious?

923

Not really.

924

Oh no. Really.

925

An oil filter is a sealed thing.

926

It's just painted on.

927

And if it says Napa, you expect

that says Napa or whatever.

928

Yeah, exactly.

929

But like one of the biggest risks

in mechanics, and this comes

930

from everywhere, even building bridges

and other things is bolt quality.

931

Oh, yeah. You can get some really.

932

There's also come in grades

for those who don't know.

933

And let's say you have a grade eight,

which is a very high quality

934

bolt.

935

It's been happened

936

where the bolt quality has been junk

937

or they've been knock off bolts.

938

This has caused things

like wheels to come off of vehicles.

939

I mean, it can be catastrophically

damaging.

940

Yeah, yeah.

941

Very easily.

942

I mean, you know, when you think about it,

I just at the end of the day

943

and then when you think back to some of

the other things like fake brake pads,

944

you would have no idea

what the quality of these would be.

945

They probably work initially, but,

946

you know, something goes

wrong with that system and you can't stop.

947

It can kill you.

948

It's not, you know, something

just to screw around with.

949

Saving money

and taking it to the next topic goes in

950

with most one that I would consider

the scariest is fake medication.

951

Yeah,

and this very much is a global problem.

952

Medication costs a lot of money

and they're finding thousands of examples

953

with, hey, you're a fake insulin, fake

Covid test, which has been a big deal.

954

Fake blood glucose strips.

955

This goes on to a lot of other things

where your medication will look

956

just like what it's supposed to do,

but the dosage might be off.

957

It might not even be the medication.

958

So if you're taking something like,

let's say you have heart trouble

959

and you're taking a medication to regulate

that, you get a fake

960

one that could easily kill you

or the wrong dosage of that line.

961

Do you remember our friend Peter,

when he was still alive

962

and he ended up with a, a pill

that had rice, powder in it,

963

and he was allergic to rice powder,

and he wasn't supposed to have that.

964

Yeah.

965

And these these type of things happen.

966

And, you know, again,

you're looking at the distributor

967

and where is all this coming from?

968

And there have been shortages

during the pandemic.

969

There was a time

970

where you simply couldn't get medication,

even the ones that you absolutely needed

971

for a while.

972

And, you know, the supply lines are

something that you can't always verify.

973

Another one where this is, is flu shots.

974

And they've had a couple of instances

975

over the years

where if both on the good side be saline,

976

because that won't do anything bad to you

if you inject that,

977

or other stuff that might.

978

And of course,

979

you know, if it's one

thing, you've got to get a flu shot

980

because you don't want to get the flu

and then you get sick.

981

But you got to consider

982

that a lot of these type of medications

are used in vulnerable people

983

that if they get the flu,

they're going to die

984

or have some really bad problem with it.

985

It isn't just being in bed

with chicken soup for a week or two.

986

And when that happens,

987

we saw a couple of children

dying from that type of a thing,

988

and they did track that down

and figure out where it was coming from.

989

But it was a situation

where, you know, it's just downright

990

you can't trust your medication.

991

You know, and that type of a thing.

992

And then that coupled with the fact

that a lot of people,

993

because of the cost of these things,

will buy from international pharmacies

994

and all of that.

995

And again, that takes it to another level.

996

But if you some of these injectable

997

So it's like you either have a choice

of doing that or you don't get it at all.

998

But now, you know, it's hard to be able

to track down and know what's real.

999

I don't know, I just think

this is all really scary and send this.

00:48:50,861 --> 00:48:52,529

If you've ever seen an example of this,

00:48:52,529 --> 00:48:55,198

hopefully it hasn't happened to you,

but send us your examples.

00:48:55,198 --> 00:48:57,000

I'd love to see this

and see what's actually happened.

00:48:57,000 --> 00:48:59,236

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