The Computer Exorcist Podcast

This morning on CEP!We discuss the retirement of Microsoft's chronically insecure Internet Explorer, and what it was mainly used for.Volkswagen wants to set up EV battery recycling plants throughout Europe, and a comment from a techie that left us pleasantly surprisedVW's 2026 ID.Buzz electric microbus takes a break - learn why I think they'll become collector's items!Microsoft created the Surface Tablet, an extremely thin and sleek laptop the size of a tablet. It was great, but brittle as a graham cracker. Then in the early 2020s, the KANO PC came along. It was fairly easy for kids to build and repair and learn on, was very rugged, and cost a fraction of the price of Surface. How do you think Microsoft reacted?Do you have home movies on video tape? Learn about Media Transfer Service and Kodak DigitizingHow Facebook was caught sucking private medical information from hospital websites!I just realized I made this summary more intriguing instead of just giving away all the answers! We'll see if it brings in more views!Get a prevew edition of my book on PDF at thecomputerexorcist.com

Today on CEP! I interview longtime friend Pastor Domenic and we explore some profound topics:Are new scams truly new?Is all technology truly bad?Rather than throw our gizmos away, can we get them to those who need them?Where does our talent come from?Geofencing: You're controlled based on your locationThe European Union requiring cars to SLOW THEMSELVES DOWN according to the speed limit.If the robots take over, what happens to all those people who need work?Is the Garden of Eden scene happening again?Can AI have a soul?A group of Swedes measured how long it took to perform an operation on a modern car's touchscreen menu system versus traditional dashboard buttons.Tech enthusiasts who use all the latest and greatest... versus those who actually know what's going on.What does social media do to our brains, and what is the very accessible antidote?The Jitterbug Smartphone - a simple, clear, affordable way for seniors to enter the futureYou can now send your grandma on an Uber!Should people on the same team fight against each other?Check out Pastor Dom's podcast at rescueandrevive.org !

Tonight on CEP, it's Torment a Scammer!The first call is a Paypal-Bitcoin scammer, trying to convince me that someone hacked into my computer and that's how they got into my paypal account (not at all how it works, but most people believe it). Foghorn misinterprets his instructions and take him on a wild ride.One lady did the usual "russia, nigeria, and dayton ohio" line, and i gave her back my usual "whoa OHIO! i heard that was scary!"Next, Foghorn gets a fake email from a geek squad impostor. I called and drove the lady nuts. Every time a guy asked me how I was, I'd keep saying "I'm fine, how are you?" keeping them in a loop until they realized it.The next caller is a diabetes testing supply spammer. i tell them that both I and my friend Ross Pierogi have the Beetus, and hilarity ensues.Finally, Karxl Mailllchimqp talks to a regenerative medicine spammer. He's put on hold with some very touching 80s music, and provides his commentary throughout. The part is when the lady spells his name back to him had me in stitches.Thanks for listening and tell your friends!

This morning on CEP!How Apple and Facebook themselves fell for a scam!Whenever ANYONE puts an ad on Facebook, immediately scammers try to scare you into thinking you've violated a copyright, and lure you into a trapHow cell phone manufacturers are FINALLY designing phones to be a little more repairable - and what it took to get them there.If you want to save $ and care about the environment, repair your phone instead of replacing it!Fan mail from clients who were told they needed overkill Internet connectionsOne day, all of a sudden Twitter users noticed their numbers of followers went dramatically up or down for no reason. They were atwitter!Facebook has sucked SO much of our information, they admit they don't even know how to manage it! Ever notice how you meet someone and put their number in your phone, and all of a sudden they come up as a FB friend suggestion?Apple makes all of its employees return to the office after the pandemic, and they come up with any excuse to stay home.Get a preview edition of my new book at thecomputerexorcist.com !

This morning on CEP!Nepalese youth, sick of starving while their rulers flaunted their wealth, used social media to overthrow and rebuild their government.Chromebooks (those cheapie laptops your school district blew millions on) come with an expiration date. Surprise! If you keep using this past the date, you miiiight get viruses, or websites won't work anymore! At that point, they want you to throw them away, but I have found a solution that could save millions of dollars, computers, and kids.They knocked down the 3G cell towers so we all had to buy new smartphones. But wait - what about all those connected cars? Those were just giant rolling smartphones with cellular antennae in them! You guessed it - they're hoping you put those cars in the garbage and buy new ones. Luckily, people aren't that stupid.In good news, companies are now allowed to produce and sell older-style cars. You know, those ones that were actually repairable and enjoyable.AI data centers are sucking up so much energy, that they're now having to find ways to shift their tasks to nighttime so they don't overload our power plants.In the 1960s, cars were actually improved instead of anti-improved, and back then they actually cared about your loyalty, so they actually encouraged you to repair your old one instead of throwing it away. Imagine what a utopia that must've been!Get your preview copy of "Don't be Taken by Silicon Valley", available free for a limited time only on thecomputerexorcist.com !

This morning on CEP! I start going through articles, and then a surprise special guest stops by. We catch up on some articles:Not only are VPNs unnecessary for normal consumers, but they introduce tons of side effectsHundreds of HP printer models feature a critical-severity vulnerability... on top of the sanctioned malice from HP itself.Senior communities add local tech support as one of their perks, and people need itThe third generation of iPhone SE - the perfectly fine $399 alternative to the thousand-dollar iPhones they try to push on seniorsApple's plot to RENT you the iPhone so they can make even more money off of you. Did it succeed?Apple gets $200m in public incentives from Des Moines, IA, in exchange for how many jobs?Russia threatens to nationalize some Microsoft locations there. My response to them.Hackers breach Samsung servers, exposing how useless "trusted" software is, and the article's very damaging recommendation to users.Thanks for listening and tell all your friends to buy the preview edition of my next book at thecomputerexorcist.com

It's time to take a break from articles to have some fun! Most of y'all know the drill by now: We torment phone scammers and expose to you HOW they deceive, so you can WARN YOUR FRIENDS.A Paypal scammer tells me someone used my account to purchase cryptocurrency. He told me to connect to his "secure server", at which point he would jump into my computer and destroy it. They keep hanging up on me so i keep calling them back. At one point I told them i was attorney Denny Crane and had a lot of money. He made up a big thing about how spyware and viruses got into popups on my computer and bank account.I get a call from a fake lottery scammer, claiming i won some large amount of money, as long as i gave him gift cards first...I get a filthy fake email claiming to be Paypal. I called them up as Guido Sarducci. The guy said my Paypal was hacked from a scary place called Dayton, OH, and now I have hackers in my computers. He tried to make me open a web browser to download his evil tool, and hilarity ensued. After a whole ton of misinterpreting what he said, he finally gave up and claimed he was going to cancel the fake charge himself!A medicare scammer called and offered me free food cards, then transferred me to someone who sounded American!I got another email that was totally misspelled, so i went with it, and it totally went over their heads.I get a robocall from a guy claiming to be "The Amazon", trying to scare me into thinking someone used my account to buy Apple AirPods! I told him my name was Dennis the Menace, and it got fun. Of course, he offered to do a "security scan" of my computer.Finally, everybody's favorite scambaiter is back! Karl Zmailchimp creates another persona called Ian Whattaburger! He got a scary message claiming he got a big charge on his credit card.As always, thanks for telling your friends about the show, and get a preview edition of the book on PDF at thecomputerexorcist.com!

Tonight on CEP!I dig up an old piece of fan mail from a guy who labels my book as "Unacceptable Misinformation" (yet hasn't read it)! He urges people to do updates, but is completely unaware of their downsides. I explain (yet again) how an update fixes one thing and breaks a few other things, slows your machine down massively, and can never, ever protect you against The New Threats, such as fear-based Support Scams.What IBM execs called their older employees, and what they love doing with anything old.How to use an old tablet as a portable monitor, as long as you understand the caveats.Tesla's cars randomly slam on the brakes at highway speeds... because they're made with software.Jeeps blowing false alarms and accusing their owners of being thieves... because they're made with software.How to rejuvenate your 10-15 year old computer and turn it into a speedy Chromebook.Apple AirTags - yet another technology unleashed on humanity with zero thought to consequences.How many people (including myself) love working at home, but what that has done to retail.What are NFTs and Cryptocurrency, and why they're luckily fizzling out.Hope you had a great time! We're blazing through these articles. Feel free to email me with any feedback, and thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Today we go over some evil tech schemes from 2022 and give thanks that most of them fell apart, as all evil things eventually do.Yuval Noah Harari warns the next generation that evil organizations could use biometrics to monitor our minds - for years I've called this the Soviet's greatest dream.In very related news, Microsoft tried to turn kids into QR codes that require daily validation. They dangled fear in front of people in order to gain their trust - something I've termed Fear as a Service.Airyx is/was an attempt to create an operating system that looked and acted like MacOS, but without all the bloat and paranoia. (Sort of like ReactOS did for Windows!)The excellent Jeff Johnson explains how Apple is just living off its brand reputation, and Apple is no longer what it was. I concur and people need to know this. He also mentioned that Steve Jobs was NOT an engineer, and instead was an advocate for the USER, and they no longer have that.The IRS was duped into giving a company $86 MILLION for a facial verification technology. LUCKILY since they're in the public eye, people caught on to this and shot it down. Two questions remain: When can people shoot down other bad ideas in the tech industry from less visible organizations, and did the American Taxpayers get that $86M back?Almost every Big Tech company is an evil monopoly in its own subsector. GoFundMe was caught REDISTRIBUTING funds it raised rather than simply refunding them to users. Luckily this too was a high-visibility case, so they didn't get away with it.Finally, we read some fan-mail where one of my clients was almost duped into the Fake Rental WiFi Scandal. I swooped in just in time, but how many millions of others out there were hit by it?Find these concepts and more in the preview edition of my forthcoming book, now available at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Tonight on CEP! It's a New Year's Special Edition TaS Episode!Rather than the usual Foghorn Leghorn, I told all the scammers today I was Eddie Munster. Hilarity ensues, for us.I made the first (Medicare) scammer sigh right off the bat.The next one, a paypal impostor, says i can call him James. So i call him anything but. He tried telling me that "hack-kers from Michigan" took my bitcoins using "micro viruses", and other wild fake tech terms to dazzle me. He said they tried to get into my "serwer" so i said "What? They got into my Star Wars?" My personal favorite is the part where I describe the Firefox icon on my screen. When he tells me to download his evil UltraViewer software, I take him on an ADD-fueled wild ride.The next two are car insurance/warranty scammers who asked what car I drove, so I told them i drove some classics.The next one is a cable company scammer calling herself Lydia, so i call her Medea. She offers me a fake discount, so I whip out the calculator and got her so confused, that she agreed to apply the discount twice.Saving the best for last, everybody's favorite scambaiter returns! Karl Mailchimp created another persona, a pierogi farmer named Ross Pierogi. The scammer alleges that someone stole his credit card, so he plays along with that on-the-fly, ad-libbing, creative genius we've come to expect. Wait til you get to the part where the guy tries to spell "help desk host" to him.As always, please warn your friends about phone scams by sharing this episode! Visit becomeanexorcist.com to join the good fight.

Tonight on CEP! It's a year-end roundup of article headlines!WSJ decided to allow Claude AI to run its office vending machine. Chaos ensued. They must not have read the article where Claude's own creators had the same results.Accounting firms buying virtual office buildings in the Metaverse... a place where people grope each other.Robot vacuums receive update attacks that cause them to get drunk and bump into your furniture... while toasters from the 1940s keep working.Is Ninite really the ONLY tool for safe downloads?Michael Dell is thoughtful and charitable... the opposite of the arrogant, reckless technocrats.Microsoft ditches Bungie, but keeps Halo. Sony buys Bungie and tightens control over them.Buy my book and training program at thecomputerexorcist.com and have a prosperous new year!

Tonight on CEP! My special guest is Rochester's own Warren Buff-It! No, he's not the Oracle of Omaha, but he details cars for the stars. We discuss:Some of us aren't cut out for corporate, and that's okay!Starting a small business, being free to be who you were meant to be, planting seeds, and leaving a legacy.Chasing dollars versus being your passionPreserving your reputationTons of menus but nobody can figure out the heated seats or radiosSqueezing the balloonCarBravo, GM's surprisingly good answer to CarvanaNew car screens as the latest way to over-stimulate and controlThe thankful demise of in-dash app stores that bring you to Dunkin DonutsCaptive audience vs Taking care of peopleCountry songs about self-driving trucksHow Bluetooth car locks can be easily hacked - and how one journalist took a potshot at TeslaCloud-controlled cars, and the unsurprising news that GM user accounts were hackedThe gorgeous Mercedes EQXX goes 626 miles on a single charge, with juice to spare! Where did they go wrong with the production model?BMW's IDrive 8 - how it took everything from version 7 and threw it out the window, proving yet again that most software gets worse with each new version.And finally, some of the coolest cars Warren has detailed over the years.Help raise awareness for cloud-controlled cars! Tell your friends about the show!

Tonight on CEP! Another Torment-a-Scammer Medley!One scammer noticed my number and hung up immediately. Another hung up when she heard Foghorn. I have a feeling they're on to me and have me flagged in the Secret Scammer Database.Apple impostor calls me up and says I have a problem with Apple Pay... It was a CLASSIC support scam where they told me to download "security softwares", which is actually a fully legal remote support tool that allows them to take over a victim's PC. I took them for a wild ride. "You want me to search for some tigers? I found some beautiful tigers!"One scammer made the mistake of asking me how I control my diabetes...The next guy asks me flat out for my social security number, and we have a little circular argument about it.A Medicare back pain guy calls and we bond over Walker Texas Ranger.The last guy wants my Medicare card number, and my doctor's name. It turned out to be one of the funniest ones yet.Finally, Karl Mailchimp returns to torment a Norton impostor! With Karl, you're always in for a good time.If you want to join the good fight, be sure to sign up for the technician webinar waiting list at becomeanexorcist.com!

Dr. Mike joins us for the ten thousand download celebration!The industry is realizing what Marc's been saying for years: Storing your passwords in your browser is an excellent way to hand them to bad guys.Microsoft was apparently nostalgic for Y2K: This week's Outlook flaw was a Y2K22 bug that couldn't handle emails dated 2022!MS Word spellchecker now attempts to make your writing more woke. Politics aside, why would we let the most incompetent organization ever dictate how we speak?Culture peaked somewhere around 2008. Everything else since then has been worse.Insecurity and peer pressure lead people to buy iPhones so their text messages show up in green. People are only buying it for this petty reason.Apple, Verizon, Microsoft, and others have grown not by merit but by growth schemes.Bad guys can hijack people's computers and harness their computing power. Norton saw this and said, "Hey, why don't we do this too!" The inside scoop on the Norton Crypto-mining Scandal.How Middletown, OH fell to a ransomware scheme, which implies their IT staff doesn't have Computer Exorcist training.If you know of any organization that would like to actually be protected from ransomware, send them to TheComputerExorcist.com !

The fascinating insightful Kenley C. Vogt returns to finish up our discussion on computer history and why he wrote a book to teach kids the fundamentals of AI usage.How cable companies added up old analog channels to bring you a fast Internet connectionMultiplexing: How fiber optic companies pass multiple signals through the same piece of glassWhy PC salesmen are so arrogant (Like economics, the industry is all man-made and arbitrary!)How these power-hungry AI data centers will eventually (hopefully) give way to more distributed forms of computingWhy schools are always behind on technology, adopting it after the students have.Why we should learn to do math without a calculator first, before learning to use it.Why we should learn to think for ourselves before just diving in to AI.How programmers need to STOP and THINK before acting!Then finally we discuss his book: "The Adventures of AI and the Little Learners"Can AI be my friend? How does AI work? Can I trust AI results? Will AI replace my teacher? How to use AI in the classroom?Buy his book "The Adventures of AI and the Little Learners" on Amazon!

Tonight on CEP! The fascinating insightful Kenley C. Vogt joins us to talk tech ethics, computer history, and his career as a network engineer:How TV repair guys would deliberately fry tubes just to confirm their claim that you needed a new one.How TV salespeople would deliberately lower the focus on a TV, just to sell you a pricier model.How two 1952 IBM computers played checkers against each other... and learned from their mistakes.Self-healing networks, a 1986 AT&T StarLAN running at 1 Megabit!, and an early 90s Nortel network running at 100!His experience designing cutting-edge networks for IBM, Steven Spielberg, Kodak, Hawkeye, and a Russian embassyBusiness and computer history: How we got to where we are now.Stay tuned for next week's episode where Kenley discusses his book, "The Adventures of AI and the Little Learners", available at KenleyCVogt.com

Today we continue our new format of blazin' through articles. For each news flash, I give my insightful commentary:"New World" is a fake online world people use to escape their depressing lives. It's being overrun by AI bots, so people in third-world countries are finding it harder to make a living on it.Tesla is the first foreign automaker in China that didn't have to partner with a local company. In return, China hopes to learn from them, as they did with Apple.Rather than make reliable cars, Stellantis is now chasing a pipe dream of milking us for fees while we drive.The class action against Zoom for failing to encrypt communications, and then sharing them with vendors and governments.Apple and Google's duopoly relies heavily on the App Store scandal. If it weren't for app stores, we could use any brand of anything to go on any mobile website.Tesla crashes into a bus - which raises the question - what happens when cars are hit with update attacks that cause them to smash into things?Many/most Alexa devices are gifted for Christmas, and then never used again. Amazon might not mind, because people leave them plugged in...Every time Google is caught doing something nasty, business soars over at DuckDuckGo.MD governor uses an ephemeral messaging app - but how many others do, too?iPhones are still locatable when the battery inevitably dies - and even if someone factory wipes it.Someone was so fed up with an evil program, they got a job at the company just to fix the problem, then walked out.Join the good fight and become a licensed Computer Exorcist at becomeanexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP, we torment more scammers!First one was a "card accident" scammer. i told him my arms fell off, and when he asked for details, i told him I couldn't remember.Next one was a guy claiming to be Geek Squad, then later on claims to be PayPal, then later on Norton.Then we have a Medicare scammer trying to sign me up for food cards. I ask him what kind of food I can buy with the card, tell him all my favorite foods, and then I start ordering food and ask if he'll deliver it to me!...and finally, the moment you've all been waiting for...My buddy Karl Mailchimp has returned to debut his new character: Tony Penisa.Tony is a friendly baseball fanatic from New Jersey. He calls a scammer in response to an Apple Pay email. He gives him the beans and it's one of the most epic Torment-a-Scammer adventures we've ever had... "Oh that's a half a W, it's a V! My bad!"If your friends want a career protecting people from technology, send them to becomeanexorcist.com

Today starts Marc's new format of reading headlines of tech articles and summarizing them more quickly so we can breeze through the backlog:We discuss flaws in battery packs that cause EVs to set on fire, and the goal of making designs (and people) that are more tolerant to faultsApple shocks the world by throwing us a bone, allowing us to repair screens on our own iPhones... buy why is it pointless and also what's the ulterior motive?Apple's "mea culpa", offering MacBook Pros with actual Pro features again, like HDMI and SD cards. They also got rid of the horrific TouchBar, a tiny screen that danced around and taunted you when you needed to press a Function key.Marc's rant about "Pro" everythingBig Media panicking over Substack, a platform that allows independent journalists to be independent, and lets readers subscribe to the journalists they like.Yet another GoDaddy breach, this time 1 million websites left wide open. They'll try and blame your computer, and blame you for not going back in time and buying their "protection plan". Learn how to abandon them.Let me know what you think of the new format, and buy a preview edition of my next book at the bottom of: https://thecomputerexorcist.com/edutainment/book/

It's another Torment-a-Scammer episode!One Medicare scammer lady calls me claiming to be "Allied Health" but I mis-hear it as "Airline Health". I tell them my doctor is Guido Sarducci, and when they ask for my Medicare card, I read the backs of all the cards I have in my drawer.Next, I call a Support Scammer and claim there are North Korean cookies in my computer. I then ponder what North Korean cookies would taste like. First he claims to be Amazon, then he claims to be Microsoft. When he asks what brand of computer I have, I tell him it's a Kaypro (those were from the early 1980s).The final one is a most epic interaction with a pharmacy scammer. I make him think I'm vulnerable and gullible with "I don't know, every time someone calls, I just keep buying more pills!" I then rattle off a whole list of drugs, and he offers to mail me all of it, and even encourages me to resell it! Then I hear one of his colleagues doing a tech support scam in the background, and he drops his facade.Hope you have a blast tonight, and warn your friends not to call Support Scammers!Visit thecomputerexorcist.com to buy a preview edition of my forthcoming book.

Today we celebrate 9000 downloads! Marc goes over some topics including:What to do if your hard drive dies and you have no backupWhat software to use for podcast interviewsThe spirit of peaceful debate and the message of peaceThe world's first known AI-fueled killing - how AI egged on a paranoid man"Everybody Hertz" - how power plant generators are designed to go offline to protect themselves, but it can cause a chain reaction that spreads to other power plants.How Covid affected church attendance, and those who live-stream church miss out on one fundamental benefit.Thanks for telling your friends about the show! Get the preview edition of my next book at thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!A Ransomware organization masquerading as a cybersecurity firm!NY State offering a Drivers License app on your Phone??? Really? As if smartphones were reliable???Facebook to drop their facial recognition system... now that they've got what they wanted.A company equating itself with simplicity, then offering "further intricate refinement".iPhones that stay trackable even when they're powered off. Good if you want to find it, but bad if someone wants to find you.FSF newsletter pointing out that millions of AI "bots" are now scouring the web for information, overwhelming the websites they visit.Buy a preview edition of my next book at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Tonight on CEP!Marc recounts a harrowing tale and thanks those who saved him from it.Ever wish you could scrub your social media posts without completely deleting your account? There's finally a tool for that, and it's brilliant.There's yet another form of car theft made easy thanks to the wonders of car electronics. We were told that electronic FEEEATURES were a convenience, but really they're a massive security hole. Marc explains how it works in Plain English.We then talk about Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's very realistic approach to business. He knows MS is no longer a monopoly, and rather than be in denial, he's admitting it and opening up slightly to other platforms. However, the claim that Windows 11 is "calm, security, and openness" is far from correct.Thanks for telling your friends about the show!

Tonight on CEP! It's another Torment a Scammer episode!I start breaking character and telling scammers to do something better with their lives. One guy told me he has hopes and dreams, so I turned him on to my Become an Exorcist site. Plot twist ensues.A diabetic "PARMAcy" scammer calls me up - I throw her a curveball about my glasses, and she doesn't notice it at all.A loan shark scammer calls me up and tries to lend me $100k - I promise to spend it only on my favorite food...Phone Scammers have an Evil Database that associates victims' names with phone numbers - so in my case, they're now calling and ASKING for Foghorn Legorn!They try and ask me what cable company I'm with, so I ask them, "Well, what company are you from?"I have a lot of fun misinterpreting what they say, and in a lot of cases it goes right over their headsHope you love these clips - more to come! Join the good fight at becomeanexorcist.com

Tonight, CEP's favorite mechanic returns to discuss:Pipes vs hoses on cars - ease of manufacture vs ease of repairBMW iDrive va Mercedes voice COMAND vs Lexus touchpads vs Audi confusionRather than have one universal EV charging adapter, of course the industry has come up with several, with the ensuing sub-industry of adaptersRobotaxis: Who's liable, especially if you're loaning your own car out to moonlight as one?ZipCharge Go - the EV equivalent of a gas canSolar roof panels on Fisker carsEdible car wiringThe future of the auto industryJoin the good fight at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Tonight on CEP!Apprentice Palmer brings his uncanny technical sense of smell to help me thrash some articles. (He's the guy who's been manning the fort so I can go on the book tour!)We read several articles on the same topic: The Windows 10-11 End of Support, or what could be the greatest Cash Grab I've ever seen.People are under the impression that their computers are going to get viruses or cease to operate after an arbitrary date in October of 2025. Microsoft is encouraging them to buy new PCs.The requirements to upgrade your current PC to Windows 11 started out very arbitrary and excluded recent and powerful PCs. When PIRG stared them down, MS relented, but they didn't bother telling anyone about their relaxed requirements.As such, an estimated 240-400 MILLION PERFECTLY GOOD COMPUTERS are at risk of being thrown in the landfills.One article claims they'll all be recycled, yet another article reports that only around 22% of ewaste is recycled.In reality, you can keep using those machines for at least another 3-5 years. After that, we can bypass the requirements and upgrade your older PC to Win11 (and beat it up so it's usable) or liberate you from the Microsoft Circus with a product called Mint!"We deserve better than a world where nothing's designed to last."Buy the preview edition of my next book at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Tonight on CEP!A blast from Marc's past emerges to talk about his new bookS!Author Billy Swan discusses "Junior's Tale", his comfort story of self-discovery.He also published a book of group-activity short mysteries "Quick Cases for Clever Minds" that actually bring people TOGETHER!While he used AI to assist him in writing the short mysteries, he describes the painstaking care and "moral brakes" he applied, rather than just have it to spit something out and publish it.Was Riding the Short Bus any worse than riding the Long Bus?Finally, we discuss a really funny Ezra Dyer article that some people can relate to!Learn how to protect people from technology at becomeanexorcist.com and check out Billy Swan's books on Amazon or click here:Junior's Talehttps://www.amazon.com/Juniors-Tale-Familiar-Billy-Swan/dp/B0FDRD5BRX/Quick Cases for Clever Mindshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGZ5YM97?binding=paperback

Tonight on CEP! Economist and IT bureaucrat James Coffin joins us for a one-hour special. We react to articles and expose some of the hypocrisy and outright madness going on in the realm of our government's environmental policies - LEARN how they incentivize tech companies to make garbage, by reimbursing them for recycling their own products!Reading an email from an Apple impostorSurprise-attack deprecation - how the industry randomly removes useful features your organization relies on."I haven't seen any artificial intelligence that's intelligent."The vocabulary of IT: How the industry creates new terms willy-nilly, and people (and AI) are expected to keep up with it.WD was caught in a bait-and-switch, inserting slower chips in their products without noticeThe complex 14,000-mile supply chain scattered across the globeLinux is now usable on newer M-chip Apple computers: How that will lead to the liberation of many Apple computers, but also iPhones and iPads as wellAn exploit in Apple Pay, how Visa was right to avoid overreacting, and our discussion on how wireless payments in general are massive security hole!Canon being sued for making multi-function printers that refuse to scan whenever they're out of ink!CA's sequel to Cash for Clunkers - and the adverse effects that they didn't bother to consider, that will harm the poor and the environment"If you actually care about the environment, stop making laws and start actually doing something!"How CloseTheLoop.com helps curb the ewaste nonsenseDiscussing Aaron Clarey's video "Why are corporations even in business?" and how offshoring in the 1980s sparked the cheapening of productsSick of hearing about these scandals? Join the good fight at becomeanexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!Author Monty LeBlanc returns to finish discussing his book, Somnium Pandorae.We continue our discussion on the effects of AI-curated feeds - our attention spans are so roasted, we crave shorter and shorter videos to give us dopamine "hits", and are less prone to deep thought, deep work, or critical thinking. "AI has hacked our brains, and now real life feels slow in comparison."We discover a recent viral video "AI 2027: A Realistic Scenario of AI Takeover"People now consult AI for therapy and medicine, and even use it as a substitute for a boyfriend/girlfriend.We also explain ways to avoid the doomsday scenario - Nip it in the bud, raise your kids right, teach people to think critically.Technology can be used for good! RAISE AWARENESS for what's going on, and stop feeding the beast.AI divides us to conquer us. Get out of your own customized echo chamber and hang out with people from all political persuasions. You'll soon learn they're people just like you, and we're all being pitted against each other.Marc explains how he combats the endless feed with a "Finiteness Room" in his house. It has books, VHS tapes, DVDs, and this thing called quietude.Buy Monty's book Somnium Pandorae on Amazon, and mine on thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!I've been saying that AI could possibly ruin the world - but at the very least, it'll make us dumber and keep us isolated in pods, feeding us data and harvesting our behavior.Network engineer turned author Monty LeBlanc joins us to explain how AI is already in control, doing just this.He explains how those algorithms, the curated "For You" recommendations, and your Facebook feed, are all DESIGNED to keep you reading, watching, and scrolling.He exposes how shadow banning works, and how we're already in the Matrix, except in reality we each get our own algorithmic simulation.The few techies who are aware of the impending threats are too scared to say something, lest they lose their job. However, he and I and maybe some of you, are exposing what's going on.He uses humor, snark, and analogies to explain everything in Plain English (sound familiar?) and even gives translations at the end of every section for Gen Z readers!Buy his book Somnium Pandorae on Amazon, and mine at thecomputerexorcist.com, and stay tuned for Part 2 next week!

Tonight on CEP!The brilliant software developer/psychologist/linguist Udochi Okeke returns with more mind-blowing projects.As if resurrecting an ancient alphabet (Nsibidi) weren't enough, she's now producing a kids' cartoon to pass on the Igbo language to them. She's also creating an Igbo character universe - think "Nigerian Cocomelon"!She then explains how culture is truly passed down - not just through the media or even museums, but through each one of us, who lives and breathes that culture. This dissemination ensures the culture will live on.We discuss how people in the West are shaped and molded into one of a few distinct shapes, in order to conform to what we think the job market will want them to be.In Igbo culture (and in one of my next books), people are encouraged to discover their unique calling: What is the problem in the world today that only you are uniquely equipped to solve?We spend a few minutes explaining how AI will ruin yet another thing, in this case children's educational programming. It'll also ruin the lives of those hoping to create quality content for a living!Finally, we discuss a few funny scammer emails and explain what to look out for.Learn Igbo at mmutadiuto.com , and of course check out my books at thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!Marc reads an article from Electrical Contractor Magazine that encourages contractors to to embrace newwww cloouuddd tecchhnollogiies for security systems, camera systems, and access control.They tout the tech as inevitable, highlight the ability to offer eternal milking subscription schemes along with it, and then they praise the Zero Trust mandate, which amounts to anti-empowerment of employees and the further consolidation of power.In reality, these are not only ultraproprietary systems, but their existence depends on a cloud server. Once that server is shut down, these massive access control systems become doorstops. No consequences are ever discussed.What could possibly go wrong?We then read an article about how one such centrally-controlled cloud system went awry at Facebook AND its subsidiaries, shutting down all of its access control systems. Of course, there are no failsafes or emergency systems.We then discuss the Pennsylvania Turnpike's electronic tolling system. Its system promised efficiency, but in reality an alarming percentage of tolls are going unpaid.Yet more examples of a world so madly in love with technology, it never bothers to consider any consequences.Buy a preview edition of my book at thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!It seems like every show out nowadays is a killing show: AND THEN WE WONDER why the world is so violent!In order to address this, we welcome the very special guest Isaac Hernandez, a director of Christian TV and movies.He and his shows buck the trend by offering "Truth in a world of distraction."As usual, I draw a parallel to my industry, which makes itself worse every week.In the computer world, we say "garbage in, garbage out", in other words the results are only as good as what you feed the computer. The same can be said for human beings.Even if you're not Christian, you might recognize this epidemic needs attention.There have been some mainstream movies with positive messages, such as The Pursuit of Happyness, Reign Over Me, and Gran Torino.Donate to his show at FaithOnFilmTV.comBuy my book, and a preview edition of my next book, at thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP! Beekeeper Brian Cooley calls in to explain the global collapse in beehives, and what might be the cause.He first describes the Golden Age of BeekeepingThe benefits of honey"Cathedrals for the Bees"Do bees have GPS? Do bees go to school? and other fun facts.What's killing the bees? Is it 5G? Parasites? Neonicotinoids, the synthetic nicotine pesticide? That's only part of it.The cause is what I'll call The Beehive Paradox.How has he managed only a 25% loss when others are sustaining 90-100% losses?What is formic acid?I'll also go into how antivirus software parallels the situation."We think that technology brings improvement, and we find out that it only brings intrusion." More isn't always more.Unlike most talk radio that just makes you feel helpless, we'll discuss what YOU can do to help the bees.Buy my book at thecomputerexorcist.com

Tonight on CEP! Women's health coach Emily Marino shows up to shed light on some things.She explains WHY perimenopausal women experience the symptoms they do.She also says something I wish I'd known years ago: When you're under a huge amount of stress, it doesn't matter how much broccoli you eat. Your body isn't digesting anything properly! You digest junk food better when you're sitting with a friend, than it does good food with a foe.What are you feeding yourself? Food is information, food is programming.The same goes for entertainment: What are you feeding your soul? Most new shows are killing shows or political battles. Interestingly, your brain actually believes you're in that situation, so it adds to your stress."When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change." -Dr. Wayne DyerFinally, today's article is about how "connected cars" are vulnerable to a bad guy to hijack the controls of your car - all with zero benefit. The industry is scrambling to keep all of this under control with ultracomplex cybersecurity.Nobody realizes we could simply make the decision to avoid all of that garbage technology, and simply never have a problem. Leaving your car, and yourself, open to attacks is a choice. Why would you give that much power away?Visit Emily at rediscoverhealthroc.com and visit thecomputerexorcist.com to buy my book!

Tonight on CEP!Programmer and YouTuber K0 returns to finish our 7000 Download Celebration!He explains how Support Scammers and their mules operate and what his group is doing to protect seniors who encounter them.Apple's attempt to detect "depression and cognitive impairment"What they record about you to make that detection, and why the whole thing is sad.The difference between Opt-In versus force-attacks when a new feature comes out.Imagine a product that does what you want!Once we put out all the fires in the industry, we discuss creating GOOD products that actually respect the user. Someday!"Yellow Dots of Mystery" - yet another way printers are spying on you."It's not a bunch of men smoking cigars in a room..." how the cogs in the industry are just doing what they think is right.Software tethered to the factory using crazy DRM schemes, vs Donationware, that simply works forever.Check out his YouTube page "TotallyNotK0", or join the good fight and start protecting seniors for a living at BecomeAnExorcist.com

Tonight on CEP!We're celebrating hitting 7000 downloads by interviewing a really brilliant programmer called K0.We concur on things like the hazards of fake cleaners and futility of consumer VPNs, and how both of us find our 10 year old laptops to be perfectly sufficient even for our advanced work.We discuss how you have the familiar Windows on one side, and the "for developers by developers" Linux on the other. He emphasizes that there is NO NEED for that tradeoff. You CAN have both simplicity and reliability.His volunteer group Raven are creating tools to simplify Windows and remove any treacherous anti-features: Even Windows 11's "New Notepad" has anti-features!They're also making a new desktop environment, or "dashboard" for Windows that brings back the simplicity.We discuss how naggy software should just be simple and blunt about asking for money one time.Finally, we discuss WHY the industry is ruled by a small pile of monopolies.Check out his YouTube channel "TotallyNotK0" to learn about the bloat and how to put a stop to it!Join the good fight and help protect seniors for a living at BecomeAnExorcist.com

Tonight on CEP: A very special Torment a Scammer episode!Marc announces his new Webinar Waiting Lists - one for consumers and one for aspiring technicians!Foghorn calls those Norton impostors back, and asks them why they keep urging him to cancel. (Once you request a refund, they can ask for your credit card or bank account numbers.)I then hear another guy in the background scamming someone else, so I ask my scammer about him.Once I finally let him into my test computer, he claims there's "AI Software scanning your computer", when in reality he's snooping around looking for passwords.The next call was done by a buddy of mine who goes by Karl Millechamp. I pass him the number for an Apple impostor and he makes quick work of them. When they ask for his name, he takes them on a journey through wild spellings ("K A J R X L...") and they fall for it. It's a comedic masterpiece unlike anything you've heard here so far.So if you're ready to learn more about tech or want join the good fight, sign up for my webinar waiting list at thecomputerexorcist.com !

Tonight we have a very special 100th episode for you!We broadcast from Dr. Mike's hot sauce cellar in Ohio, where Marc breathes clean air and displays a sense of humorWe revisit the Right to Repair Movement- exposing how Apple designs their products to be so difficult to repair you end up throwing them in the garbage.When Apple removed all the ports from its laptops a few years ago, luckily there was a backlash. They eventually relented and for the next model ended up restoring a few real ports like HDMI.Mike then breaks out his Microsoft Surface 3 - a full PC laptop crammed into the size of a tablet. Great idea if it weren't so brittle.Like almost all Windows laptops, it was collecting dust under his bed after being bombarded with update attacks. So we wiped it and liberated it with Mint, right there on the show! It'll be good for at least another 5 years of virtually bulletproof computing. No more Copilot attacks, no more nonsense.Finally, we touch on the latest overkill feature of the iPhone - LEO Satellite Phone communication, and explain that there are a few different technologies available to accomplish this.If you've got a Windows machine collecting dust, contact your local Computer Exorcist to liberate it with Mint! thecomputerexorcist.com

Spoiler alert - the answer is yes. They're sucking every photo you take into iCloud, and analyzing it to make sure you're not up to no good. Control always helps the situation, right?While they refuse to assist the government get into iPhones in exceptional cases such as the San Bernardino attack, they'll gladly spy on you themselves all day long.As always, the bad guys just laugh and move on to other platforms. This creates another perfect storm of injustice, where they get away with things but YOU the consumer are micro-controlled.Next, we "dissect" an article about Pig Butchering Scams, pun intended. WSJ sat down with two experts who explain the new scam where scammers earn your trust and then go in for the kill. They try and get you to fall in love with them and then give them your money or divulge details about your life that could be used to steal your identity.As usual, people think that somehow playing Whac-a-Mole will stop this threat, but ten seconds later they'll just start another scam factory. As usual, the IT industry thinks that having validation schemes, the equivalent to putting gold star stickers on people's foreheads, will somehow solve it. The bad guys just shrug and sign up for the validation schemes and keep on scamming.In reality, the ONLY THING that can EVER stop social scams is AWARENESS. Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and be sure to buy the preview edition of my forthcoming book, available at thecomputerexorcist.com

So! Now that we hit the brakes last week on lives that were headed in the wrong direction, how do we create the lives we actually want?Today, a Quantum Growth Practitioner named Elizabeth Gifford Maffei joins us to answer that question.Many people stay home and just "exist", because they were told they are useless and can do nothing else. In reality, you were put here for a reason, and you can do many things for the world. Someone out there needs you.It's not our natural state to worry, hate, fear, or sit idle.Many people now spend their days judging or fearing others, but if we remember to "Worry about yourself!", we'd have the time to achieve our dreams.You have the power to create your life any way you choose. Even if you don't believe in Quantum theory, you can still shift your mentality from complaining about shortcomings to focusing on what you can do to get to your goal.It starts by raising your hand and declaring that you want to drop those old neural pathways, those old habits, and carve a new path in life."Your thoughts and words become things."We must also remember to open ourselves up to receiving what God/Universe is trying to give us. If you give and give, it's like exhaling all the time without inhaling!I hope you felt the healing that I felt during today's discussion. To learn more, visit www.elizabethgiffordmaffei.com

Do you ever feel like your life is going off course in the wrong direction? Do you worry that you've wasted time? Well have we got a show for you! Today we'll talk about how to put your foot down and stop the car, and reorient yourself toward where you want to be. Stacey Altomari joins us to talk about:WHY we tend to obsess over threatsYour body actually resets itself once a threat is gone - but modern life has another one around the corner!Do you ever notice how the news always manages to cook up some catastrophic situation, yet we always manage to survive?Our "inner child" is in control, and how to "re-parent" yourselfThat time wasn't wasted - you spent it accumulating lessonsWe actually have a built-in pause button!You have a choice - you have the power to change your life whenever you're ready - and it's never too late.Being yourself instead of conforming to what you think you're supposed to beNot surrendering to a cold, dark, random universe, but rather, choosing to be open to what the benevolent universe is trying to give youSIMPLICITY vs ultracomplex solutionsWork with her to change your life at eft4wellness.com

Tonight on CEP: Your favorite scam-baiter returns with more antics!A Visa fraudster calls me regarding charges on my Amex. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? I call them back on several phones at once, so they can talk to themselves. Things get zany. When they ask for my credit card number, I tell them a few terrible words in Hindi. That throws them for a loop, but they catch on and hang up on me.Foghorn then receives a call from a student loan scammer, so I play with them a bit.I then get a fake email from "Norton" claiming my "McAfee" is out of date! Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? So I call them out on it, and they play along. I keep asking them if Norton/McAfee will protect me from scam callers, and they assure me it will. I then tell them I have popups on my computer and ask if they did it. They claim they cannot do that, so I corner them on it because, well, that's precisely what they do. The scammer asks if I'm trying to waste his time, and eventually I get him to pop, and then tell him he's on the air.Thanks for telling your friends about the show, and buy my book for everyone for every holiday!

Today economist Nevin Hira returns to conclude our discussion on:India's Caste System and how hints of it are present in Silicon ValleyOne employee's lawsuit against Cisco based on caste discriminationMicrosoft's and Adobe's Indian CEOs and how they handle the situation wellAutomotive engineers adding a few lines of code here and there, resulting in our cars tormenting us with warnings and reminders and loud hornsSome funny scam emails, and how to identify themJoin the good fight at becomeanexorcist.com

Friend of the show and economist Nevin Hira joins us today to give us great insight into:the Indian Caste System - what is it and how it is configuredIndia's ultra-competitive IIT tech schools, and how many people vie for admission to themHow Silicon Valley has a microcosm of India, and how they bring the caste system with themThe only true way to stop hunger in our world (it involves dumplings and potstickers)Stay tuned for Part 2!

Huge announcement - we've surpassed 6,000 downloads!Today we delve into the SHAKEN/STIR scandal - YET ANOTHER example of how my industry tries to solve a problem by slathering ultracomplexity and centralized control all over it. Spoiler alert: It doesn't work, it burdens the good guys with more "diiiigital certificates" and, in case you haven't noticed, the bad guys just laughed and kept robocalling us!Aside from that massive debacle, there are a few very lame call blockers out there that play Whac-A-Mole with the scammers, who laugh and change their numbers every day anyway.Instead of all that, how about an ACTUAL solution that actually puts a stop to the stupidity once and for all? I've invented it and it's coming soon...

Today on CEP!Facebook stops NYU researchers from studying their own volunteersHackers are using CAPTCHA to scam people (Are you surprised?)A Georgia school district puts cameras in classrooms (Imagine how much the contractor charged them!)"Tech workers are richer but less happy than most" (I explain why)"HP disappoints" (Are you surprised?)Modern man's progress (correlated to the increasing frequency of war)The "Modern Despair" that comes with adopting technology as your godFight the good fight - go to becomeanexorcist.com for more information.THANK YOU to the band Youth Medium for licensing me their song "Cannibals" for the show!

Tonight, on CEP!Some well-intentioned pea-brain suggests we include breathalyzers in every steering wheel of every new car. Great idea, but since 99% of all technology fails 99% of the time, most cars in the world will blow false alarms and stop working. This also contributes to the avalanche of new features that make cars too complex to fix, meaning they'll be put in the landfill sooner.Cars of the future will come with rental subscriptions for parts that are already in your car- Yes, some monumental pea-brain in some car company thinks they can RENT you features inside a product they sell you. There is zero common sense or ethics in this, but they're hoping you're too stupid to realize this. Luckily, I discuss a solution to this.These cars will also contain evil AI that will "anticipate your needs", meaning they'll analyze your schedule and preemptively attack you, thinking they're helping. (Is anyone out there enjoying the punishment and criticism of newer cars so far? You ain't seen nothin yet.) When that time comes, everyone should put a stop to all of it and go back to Model Ts.If you care about logic, morals, ethics, common sense, and freedom, please share this episode with your friends!

Tonight, on the first CEP of the new year!We expose what Microsoft Edge does to you, the consumer, and ask the question: Is it legalized malware?We discuss the helpful feature that didn't make it to Windows 11, and the terrifying anti-features that didWe discuss the only person in the computer industry with something called "self-control". Get this, he doesn't just desperately chase every trend, and doesn't change things for change's sake. Instead, he's content with selling people what they need to go out there and desperately chase vaporware, and laugh his way to the bank.If you know anyone still using Edge, now you can enlighten them!THANK YOU TO POSTMODERN MAGIC for the music!

Tonight we wrap my interview with the brilliant Jamarri from Ascension Hosting:Louis Rossmann being nominated for a government position, allowing him to call out Apple and others for their horrific lack of ethicsThe possibility that someday someone in government might actually care about saving moneyMost people currently in government think Outlook is acceptableAI video generationHow to tell if something is real or AI propagandaHow much does Google make per month?What if the government disclosed how much it spent on each contractor???What are the underpinnings of AI? Solid Linux or wet toilet paper Windows?AI gives you answers without you having to visit websites - this will eventually crush small websitesMisinformation and how to combat it with a brand new thing called Human ReasoningPlease send this episode to everyone you know, so we can clear up the confusion!