Ep. 1,328: Where Ballmer bids bye-bye to developers developers developers

-Hey, everyone. It's Friday, August 23rd, 2013. This is the 404 Show on CNET.com. Thanks for tuning in. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Richard Peterson. -And I'm Bridget Carey. -Yeah. It's the end of misfit week you guys. -Yeah. -Misfit week. -I'm starting to see you go. But you're welcome to come back in any time. Bridget, we had you on schedule normally when Jeff is here to come back every-- -Other Thursday or so. -Thursday, yeah. But, sometimes that doesn't happen 'cause you're a busy girl with CNET Update. -And now I'm making up for all those days. -Yeah, yeah. I'm sure, next week you're gonna be really busy. So, thank you guys very much once again for helping me out this week. Jeff will be back next week, next Monday and then Ariel will be back starting in September, so he's gonna be gone for a little while longer. Big congratulations to him even though I know he's not listening to the show. -Tomorrow he's getting married. -Yeah. He better not be listening because he's got a stuffs to take care like the wedding and then the honeymoon. He'd better be relaxing. -Yeah. -So, congratulations to him-- and congratulations to you Bridget. I know it's kind of early but you're gonna be getting married at the end of this year? -In January. -Okay, yeah. -Yeah. There's a lot of hassle planning an event like this. It's like fun, but then it's like, are you kidding me? There's so much to do-- -Uh-hmm. -I just wanted to be magically done like some Disney movie, poof-- it's done. -Yeah. -But it's gonna be fun. -You're gonna have to integrate some kind of Disney theme in there, right? -Oh, yeah. -Whether it's the DJ playing some songs or what. But-- -I'll figure it out. -Yeah. You'll have like birds flying around your shoulder when you're walking in the aisle. -I want two birds to hold up a banner like a welcome sign. -Yes. Just draw inspiration from Enchanted, that's basically what you need to do in real life. -Enchanted is my life. -Yeah. -No, seriously. -Yeah, they're like helping you put on your dress in the morning, there's like-- -I sing out the window-- and all the New York pigeons come-- -Oh, that's gross. New York pigeons are terrible. Let's talk about an update in yesterday's story about the homeless guy, right? -Uh-hmm. -And, you know, we talked to you about this yesterday, if you didn't hear that story-- it's basically about a New York programmer that wanted to give a homeless guy a chance to make more money than just a hand-out. And so, he was-- this program was offering to teach him how to code. -Do we know why he picked him over anyone sitting on the street? I guess he just saw him every day and maybe have some faith in him based on his interactions? -Well, according to this guy's blog on Medium. He said that, he passes this guy every morning on Hudson Street on his way to work. -Uh-hmm. -And when he looked into his eyes, he could tell that he was sort of down on his luck but knew that he could accomplish more. -Uh-hmm. -You know, I don't know what that really means but apparently, he kind of had this intuition that he wasn't supposed to be homeless. That he had bit down his luck, a series of events that happened and that affected him to where he became homeless. -Uh-hmm. -So he went and gave him a chance. And yesterday, we were gonna find out that whether or not he took the hundred dollars or whether or not he took the laptop and the coding books to learn how to program and maybe become a freelancer. And today we have our answer. What do you guys think it is? -Well-- -Do you think he took McConlogue up on his offer or do you think he just grab that hundred bucks and ran in the opposite direction? -I think he took the hundred bucks. -Yeah? Bridget, what about you? -I kind of might have found out the story and be-- -Yeah, man. Spoiler alert. -'Cause how do we know he even had any interests in programming? -Yeah, so true. -I actually did yesterday though. My bet was on taking the money. -Yeah. -Because that was my bet was but-- -Yeah. -that's not what happened. -That's not what-- yeah, you're right. -And that's what-- that's why it became kind of a headline like, "Are you kidding me? This actually worked out?" -Right. -I think everyone was gonna assume that-- myself included, that he was gonna be taken that hundred dollars. But it turns out he decided to pick the laptop. And here's the picture of the two of them together. This is McConlogue and Leo, the homeless guy that took his-- -Oh, your computer is not showing up. -Oh, really? It's okay. Let me just restart this. So it turns out the Leo was actually a genius and this is in McConlogue's own quotes. I don't know if he's officially genius-- genius necessarily but he said he's particularly concerned with environmental issues and, he said, "As I sat there becoming increasingly stunned, he rattled off import/export prices on food, as well as the importance of solar and green energy and his approval for efficient public transportation initiatives, which is a reference to New York City Bike Program. -Uh-hmm. -So, is this working out now or-- -No. -still not working. It's funny, like before the show it started-- Richard and I were bragging about how great this week was going in terms of shows and the engineering behind it-- -Yeah. Oh, it's great. It hasn't been any problems? Everything's gone smoothly? -Yeah. The studio is fine, it's working out well but I guess still nothing. -Yeah, your computer is not working. -That's not funny. -Well, I'm curious now. I wanna read this story when you post it on the run down later because-- -Uh-hmm. -it's kinda like, "All right, so just 'cause someone's started talking a lot about things doesn't necessarily make them the kinda person who will sit there and be dedicated to learning something because that takes a lot of hard work." -Right. -And but--- I hope the best that he finds that motivation inside to really make the most of this opportunity-- -Right. -like, you know, if you feel this is an opportunity or if he-- he just kinda take the computer and run. I don't know. -Yeah. -It's-- I'm not saying he's not trustworthy, you know, everyone-- when you find faith in others that can bring up some good feelings in someone else. -Yeah. -You can really possibly change, you know, when you lose faith and humanity and someone doesn't lose faith in you-- -Uh-hmm. -that alone could have change his life around. -Yeah. Do you think that, you know, after we talked about the story yesterday, we sort of condemned this guy, McConlogue, the guy who-- the programmer who set up this whole program? -Uh-hmm. -We were a lot like the rest of the people on the internet that were commenting about the story. We were hating on him-- -Right-- -because he doesn't seem really insensitive. -food, shower-- yeah. Like, "Aren't you gonna give him the right to learn Javascripting code-- -Right. -and all, like, I'm sure that's really helpful when you're starving and hungry. -Yeah. -But, you know, maybe it's just the act of like I said, you know, giving faith in someone-- -Right. -you know, and whether or not it works out, he's giving it a shot and doesn't feel like, you know, things are hopeless. -Yeah. You know what though? This skeptical internet guy part of me really wants to say that this is maybe a marketing scheme for Code Academy or something like that. -Oh God, I hope not. -Right? Like it does-- -That is so dirty. -like it does smell like a big story that came out of nowhere, right? I don't know. -Well, it wasn't he trying to promote himself, you know, by doing this stuff like this and doesn't everyone else to also promote themselves? -Yeah. I don't-- maybe I'm just a skeptic and I feel like everything has an ulterior motive here but I'm really afraid and I hope that I'm wrong that eventually one day it's gonna come out that this is maybe just some kind of viral marketing scheme. This is just an actor. -That's because-- -I would hate that to happen. -of him blogging about "Everyone, I'm going to do this thing." -Yeah, right. -Without doing it, that's a red flag to everyone. And that was like-- -Right. I'm always respectful to people that just that do good deeds and then advertise them. -Or advertising before you even do the good deed like, "Come by, I'm gonna do this thing and this is gonna be amazing and you're gonna all love it." And I'm like, you know, if you did a good deed and it worked out, then you could talk about it maybe or tell the press that like, you know, something good came from it but, you know, just bragging that you have a good idea is what you did. -Right. -And that's why I want also felt a little harsh like, "Oh, good idea. You know, why ain't you do something before talking about how, you know, Luisa Gaye has this gag about like, "we have great intentions in our mind and we think we're great people for it." But we actually act on it. -Right. Oh, he talks about how he's gonna give his [unk] up to the army guy in his airplane and he just didn't do it. He's kept on living his life-- -Yeah, but. It felt good that you might-- -Yeah. I don't know. Yesterday we were questioning on how this guy's gonna charge his laptop that he's gonna receive to learn the programming. And today it came out and there's actually a picture of it, I post it in the blog today. But he overnighted this guy a Chromebook. I don't know what address he sent it too because he doesn't technically have a home. But he overnighted him a Chromebook as well as access to Code Academy on that Chromebook. -A Chromebook? -Yeah. So it's like a pretty-- it's a pretty decent Laptop. -I was gonna say that's less useful. -You think so? -Well-- -All he needs to do is access the internet. That's really-- -Well, A. it's not a system that he could probably more likely get a job with, which is Windows or, you know-- -Oh, right. -right? It's a Chrome OS. -Right. -And it needs the internet so-- -Yeah, you have to have the internet. -you have to have internet. I don't know. -I'm not sure where he's picking up that Wi-Fi signal either. -It's better than nothing. -But he's also including a solar charger in it, which I think is a smart way to go about doing it, you know, so this way he can actually keep learning about the code. -Those things take forever-- charge and your battery is gone and-- -Oh, really? Yeah, you know, I think the bigger story here is he didn't even take the time to learn this guy's name before offering him this proposition. -Yeah. -You know, like it's great that he kinda locked out, you know, this guy, McConlogue to set the whole thing up. He really locked out in that, this guy Leo actually agreed to take the books. But about, like the order is wrong? You know, he should have introduced himself first then got on the guy's name and then talk to him. And then through talking to him about this social issues and what he knows, then figure out the best way to help him out from there, right? -And it also sounds like a guy who is living in today's role just magically will give you a computer and thinks, well if he can, you know, get online easily-- -Right. -you must get online easily. -Right. -And yeah, some have more stuffs to it than that. -Yeah. All right, well that's the story and we'll keep you updated on that because he's gonna continue updating on his Facebook page that he created for this campaign. He had another public profile that makes me a little suspect. -Uh-hmm. -But he's also gonna continue blogging about it on Medium. So we'll keep you updated on that story. Next story in the run down is kind of interesting. I know you're working on this a lot Bridget because it's big news. But, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer, has announced plans to retire within the next year. -Yeah, so-- you know, big news today. You know, Microsoft announced that they're gonna be looking for a new CEO. And in the meantime, you know, Steve Ballmer will continue to, you know, lead the company until that new CEO is found within 12 months. It could be sooner than that. -Right. -So, with-- there's a lot of interesting factors about this. Well, he's been running the show since 2000, so about 13 years now. -Wow, yeah. -And just recently, aside from all the ups and downs we can go through. He was really trying to reorganize the company to be more of a hardware and software company-- -Right. -you know, especially with the making for the first time, their own tablet with the Surface, you know-- -Uh-hmm. -in-houses instead of partnering with someone only. So, you gotta wonder as a CEO gonna like, you know scrapped everything or keep pushing in that direction. -Uh-hmm. -But there are so many mistakes that happened along the way. They relate to the smartphone game, you know-- -Uh-hmm. -so already starting behind on Windows phone playing catch-up. And then there were-- I don't know. Are there-- there is good and bad. I don't wanna just bash Steve Ballmer. He's very interesting leader. -Right. -I mean, we had Windows XP-- -Uh-hmm. -Great. Xbox, great. -Uh-hmm. -Kinect, the next level of the Xbox. Windows 7, great. But then there was Windows Vista. -Right. -And the Zune-- -There-- -Poor little Zune. -What was that? -I found a zero in it. I found this and I can't turn it on. It's sticking on me. I just can't turn on 'cause I don't know where the charging cord is-- -Yeah. And that some proprietary charging cord. -but this odd-- proprietary charging cord. -Yeah. -But, you know there-- -Let me see that thing. -Yeah. There were couple of areas where they did not do so well. -Right. -But he was certainly an eccentric CEO. I don't think we ever gonna get to replace him. He's gonna be as animated as him. -Yeah, he gotta go to an asylum to get his level of passion. I remember one of his famous videos is the introduction of Windows 1. And those were one of the first videos that came out of the internet and it looked like a television infomercial. You know, a lot of times when you turn it on late at night, when you turn the TV late at night and you get that guy with all the crazy dollar signs and the glasses on his jacket. -Yes. -It was a lot like that. You know, it's like this very-- -I saw that guy at CES actually. -Really? What was he doing there? -I don't know. He's just walking around. -He's like serving hotdogs and stuffs to people. -Yeah. -I don't know. I can't see that guy actually being that in festival. -Yeah. Did you ask him a question? -I wanted to. -He looks like The Riddler, right? -He does, yeah. -Very strange. But yeah, Steve Ballmer is sort of famous for going crazy at keynote addresses and the introduction of all the different Windows operating systems, right? -Yeah, and gosh-- if you YouTube a couple of great moments-- -Yeah. -like developers, developers, developers. -Oh, yes. -He ran on stage and he just-- and a keynote that's going on forever and he just soaked and sweat just like a man, a person developers, developers, developers. That's just the great one too. -Right. -And then this is the moment he comes on stage and just starts dancing like it's just something that's a little bit more than most people were doing in their enthusiastic like Gloria Stefan playing "Get on Your Feet" -Yes. -And he's like screaming. -Oh, the best. -So I will miss him as a reporter for those glory moments-- -Yeah. -were everyone's so refine now and keeps-- everyone's calm. -Uh-hmm. You know what I really like seeing is-- if you watched his keynotes, they're usually about like an hour or so long. And you can actually see his shirt changing color to a darker hue as he sweats during the keynote address. You know, like he all start off with, you know, light blue shirt but he sweats so much that it slowly becomes Navy. -I feel so bad. -And then who could forget his famous monkey dance too? -That's what I'm thinking of, yeah. -Right? Like he-- I don't even-- I can't even do an impression of it. -Just try. -But if you look up Steve Ballmer insane or Steve Ballmer crazy on YouTube, you'll get this video that has over 5 million views and it's actually a keynote of him at the company's 25th anniversary in September in the year 2000, right? -Uh-hmm. -This is right after Y2K happen, everyone was very excited about computers that there were still gonna be around. -They were on top of their game. -Yeah. -I mean, their value were like 600 billion and now it's like 200 something, you know-- it's not that good, right? -Yeah, so he comes out on stage and starts doing this like monkey dance he calls it like where he just like, I don't know how to even describe this, he starts pumping his fists right in front of them and starts shouting, "Give it up for me" like kind of a crazy dictator almost. -Give it up for me. -For me-- yeah. He's like giving himself props, yeah. He goes crazy and then he goes, "I love this company." It's kind of like a 300-Zack-Snyder-style war chant, right? Really scary stuff. -Awesome. -Yeah. -I've never seen that. -The best are they're all remixes. So Bridget, you brought up earlier that developers chant. And I think that was at the Developers Conference. He's always been a big champion of programmers and software developers. And he gets out on stage and he starts going developers, developers, developers, developers-- -I think I have it here. I don't know if I can pull my audio up. -And everyone starts chanting along with him-- -Developers, developers, developers-- -in this weir scene that ends up looking like the Matrix. Oh, it's awesome. -Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers-- -But what I love about is, is that it then spawn a bunch of remixes, right? -Yeah. -So, look this is one of their-- you know, that's like all kinds of different remixes, there's dubstep remixes and chop and screwed, slow down remixes, you can find all manner of different versions of Steve Ballmer's screaming developers. -I love stuff like this. -Developers, developers, developers-- -Okay. That was a weird prodigy mix. But we'll never forget that kind of stuff and he's actually kinda young, right? I'm surprised that he's retiring so early. -Well, retiring is so-- is a kind word you use. And, you know, maybe it's time to shake things up. I mean, being at the home of something also for 13 years, maybe-- when we say retire, maybe he's just retire from this job, I mean-- -Yeah. -you know, like 13 years, you know, maybe it's time for some fresh blood. -Right, right, right. Yeah, that's true with the Windows 8, with their whole different view, they got rid of the start button right and then with Windows Phone coming out as well. -Uh-hmm. -Got a whole new design, might as well bring in a new CEO, that makes sense. -And it's interesting 'cause, you know, there's a lot of shake up. The guy who was in-charge of Windows right after Windows 8 came out, he's gone. -Uh-hmm. -The guy who is in-charge of Xbox right after Xbox One was announced-- -All right. -he left. There's gonna be a lot of room for a new thought. -Yeah, definitely a big shoes to fill so. Best of luck to whoever the shoes' next. That's gonna be a tough job. All right, so moving right along, I wanna talk about this next story that I think is really funny. This is a controversial app that sort of a dream comes true for psychotically jealous spouses across the world. -Tell me about it. -Are you one of those people Bridget? -No, no. -You were like, "Tell me more." Unfortunately, if you were one of those crazy, jealous spouses, you won't be able to download it because Google just pulled this app from the store and it was originally called the Boyfriend Tracker App. -Uh-hmm. -And it got really, really popular in Brazil, where it was developed and still popular, in fact that it got 50,000 downloads within the first two months of it coming out. -Wow. -So, this is what the Boyfriend Tracker App does, it is insane. This is nothing sort of like, NSA-style privacy breaching. It's a private detective in your partner's pocket. That's the tag line for this app. And basically what you do is, once you install it on someone else's phone, it can forward text messages that, that phone receives. It can also listen to calls in your pocket, right? So you can look on your phone and have it turn on the microphone for your victim's phone, right? And so you can listen in to what they're saying and things that are going on around them. -This is what nowhere does. -Yeah. -But it's you doing it. -That's crazy. -It's giving you the power of what the nowhere-- oh, my gosh. -Yeah. It tracks its location and then it also listens to calls while calls are going on. So say, I install on your phone, right? You received a call from Richard. I get a notification on my phone that says you're engaging a phone call and then I can pick it up and listen as a silent third party. -Oh, my God. -That's messed up. -Yeah. -You have so many more problems in your relationship if you can't-- if you have the housing like this. -It's bad, right? It's definitely a symptom of something much worst in a relationship. -Yeah. -So, this is obviously very controversial 'cause it's huge privacy breach, right? There's a free version. But if you download the free one on your partner's phone then it'll become visible on their home screen. You can just see it there. It says Boyfriend Tracker. -Uh-hmm. -But if you buy the $2 paid version, then it installs it anonymously on their phone and it hides it from the home screen, so they have no idea it's even installed. -That's so awful. -Yeah. That's true. Super sketch. -Was it make you think about how easy it is for that to be accidentally download anything like that. I mean-- -Yeah. -that technology exists, it's very easy if you to download an app that can do all these things. -Right. -I mean, the key thing for you to do is if you're downloading apps. If you see a lot of permissions that are needed to look at things that maybe aren't necessary-- -Yeah. -that's a red flag always for an app that can do something like this. -Yeah, totally. -But, I mean, if your girlfriend or boyfriend is like grabbing your phones installing something for you-- yeah, that's problematic. I mean, there's also things that you can do on the computer too with key-stroke tracking, I mean-- -Oh, really? -No, I'm just saying like it's not like a new concept but it's too another level of listening to phone calls that makes you just say, "What?" -Yeah. Well, there's plenty of versions of this type of app available for parents to monitor their kids movements-- -Right. -and make sure that they're home and not making too many phone calls that go over their charges. -Which I support-- -Yeah, definitely. -I support that you should be involve in what your kids are doing, have a conversation at least so they don't hide anything. -Right. -But-- -The kid usually knows that it's on there probably. -Yeah. -Yeah. And usually the kids are more tech savvy than their parents [unk]-- -Yeah. -Maybe uninstall it or do some kind of block or but, with this, it sort of unsuspecting thing, which makes it a lot more [unk]. In fact, even the Google Play removed it from their store, you can still download it from the website, which is, I guess the problem with the Android platform is that, you could still download third party software and install it whatever you want. So you could still get this Boyfriend Tracker App and will put a link to it in the run down if you want to download it yourself. But here's what I propose. I propose some guy, and I guess they call this a Boyfriend Tracker App but you could technical use it on a girlfriend if you're a psychotic boyfriend. -Yeah. -Right? It sort of gender neutral. -Crazy all around. -Yeah. -Good for all kinds of crazy, yeah. -But I propose somebody make a Boyfriend Tracker tracker app, right? So that you will know if this is installed on your phone and it will alert you if your spouse has done something a little shady, right? It's like the-- it's like an alert system, it will let you know this is installed. -In sense a type of anti-virus software that will let you know that it'll scan for hidden apps-- -Uh-hmm. -of any kind. -Yeah, exactly. -So whether it's a little bit of crazy or you accidentally downloaded something. -Right, right, right. But on the other side, I think there's also a way for a women to-- or men to sort of punish their spouses, you know, if say-- to say if, you know, your boyfriend cheats on you or something, right? And then he comes back, there's like, "Oh, baby. I knew I messed up. I got caught. I'm never gonna do it again. What can I do to make this up for you?" and the girlfriend goes, "Install the Boyfriend Tracker App." -Until I can regain trust. -Exactly. That's a way that you could do it if you're a woman or a man who felt slighted and you still want total transparency. Punish your boyfriend by having them install this on their phone. -Interesting. -Relationship advice, Justin Yu. I'm like that bad advice friend. You know a girl's like? No, that's not me. You wouldn't do this, right Bridget? You're a much more trustworthy girl. -Oh, yeah. If there were issues, you know, you get out but before you have to resort to an app. -Right, yeah. It's kinda scary. -Oh, my God. -Yeah. What about you Richard? Would you do something like this? Are you a crazy guy? -I've already got that app on your phone. -What about just the tracking software like sticking on someone's car and see where they go. I mean, this is like the tenth extreme above that. -Yeah. -But I mean, that technology is also out there too, where-- I mean, there are apps where you can do it in a nice way or where you could just use things like let people know when they're coming home. Actually, Google Now has a new update where you kinda get alerted automatically when your loved one is coming or going from work 'cause Google Now kinda knows your habits and so, when it starts to see you take your typical route home-- -Uh-hmm. -now the person could get notified. It's very new so I haven't even had a chance to see how it works but like that kind of stuff, if people would agree to it, then you could see, "Oh, honey is not coming home." -Right. -You know, and that's a very wholesome way of having a conversation when you get back that night. -Uh-hmm. That's a good way to go about doing anything. That doesn't seem that you're spying on them, right? -Right. It's just another way to use technology to let the people know where they are in the map, you know, kinda like identifying where your friends are-- -Right. -that concept is-- -And you both agreed to have it set up beforehand. -Yeah. -Right. No more-- -It's not like a secret of thing. -Yeah, no sneaking on someone's phone. -Yeah. -That causes problems. -Yeah. That is the best advice we've heard all day. So Whole Foods is back in the news. You guys shop at Whole Foods? It's a big grocery chain in the city. -Yeah. -A lot of people go there. -Yeah, it's expensive. -It's very expensive. -it's kind of a weird place 'cause they don't have normal brands. It's all like weird-- -Well, it's for gluten-free, super healthy. -Yeah. -You can't buy like Cheerios or coke or something. -Yeah. -Uh-hmm, they're like very organic, heavy like health-conscious type of soda. -Yeah. And so it's like an out of your waste stop. You can't get your full grocery list on them. -Uh-hmm. Yeah. Well, it's tough 'cause if you live in New York, there are a couple locations but all of them are jam-packed, the lines there are constantly insane. I live closest to the Union Square one, and forget about it. You know, I went there one day. I went there doing Thanksgiving last year and it was a nightmare. -That's probably bad time to go. -Yeah. -It's the same with the Trader Joe's. -Oh, Trader Joe's is the worst. -Trader Joe's-- I am tired of people going, "I live Trader Joe's." No. -Yeah. -Talk to me when you live in the South and you've been to publics. -Oh, what the heck means is that? -Okay, you can Google it later. It's the best supermarket in the whole entire world. -Uh-huh. Okay. -And Forbes even said so. -Wow. -And they-- shopping is a pleasure there, it's all I have to say. -Okay. -Or so the chat room, is anyone in there who can vouch for me? -That sounds like a huge relief from Trader Joe's. You know, from people that don't live in New York City, the experience of going to a Trader Joe's here is so much different than anywhere else. -Yeah. There are lines to go outside the door and around the corner. -Right. -The Trader Joe's also doesn't have all your groceries that you need, you just-- it's just nice, fun, health-- okay it's good. -It's good prices too. -It's good this happen. -Great prices and the food is good. -Yeah, it's good to stop in but it's not everything. -But Richard is right. So a lot of times the lines go out the door and around the corner of the building. But, in order to combat that, people will go and shop in teams, right? So a big strategy with New Yorker shopping at Trader Joe's is they'll take a friend with them and one person, when they get in will immediately get in line, right? And the other person will go shop. Then, when that person is done shopping, they'll switch. And by the time they're both done shopping, then they'll get up closer enough to the line to pay for their groceries, which is insane for me. And when you go back to California after experiencing this New York type of shopping, it's like the lanes are super wide, right? You could fit, 4 or 5 carts per lane stacked next to each other parallel. It's crazy how much more room there is in other parts of the country. -And they're not all that bad either. There's one on the upper west side on 72nd street. -Yeah. -That's not that crowded. -Yeah, I just have-- I lived closest to the one in Union Square that's always the busiest. -Yeah. -Stay clear of Trader Joe's you guys, it's not worth it. But Whole Foods is back in the news because this yappy destination is sort of they sort of just trying to solidify the reputation as like an organic Disneyland for adults and aging cool kids apparently. Because Whole Foods is kicking up marketing with flash sales, right? They're gonna start-- Wall Street Journal is reporting of a chain has began tweeting and sending Facebook messages to its followers. And they're offering flash sale deals like, if you go within the next five hours to your local Whole Foods, you can get a buy 1 get 1 free ice cream deal, right? -Wow. -Or one day sales on its products. -Well, I support the Bogo. -Is the what? -The Bogo. -What is that? -You ever heard of Bogo? -What the heck is-- -Buy One Get One, the Bogo. Oh, man-- -I never heard of that. -You man don't know anything. -The Bogo. -The Bogo, I will shop there if-- in any place if I know I can get a Buy One Get One. -I love that too. Have you ever Bogo before? -Yeah, they use in advertisements. -Uh-hmm. Okay. Well, I guess we got a ramp up on my advertising terms. So, yeah, I mean that could be kind of lucrative for this company that sort of, trying to focus on like the social media set. But on top of that, in order to appeal to, you know, hip for kids, they're also starting to offer vinyl sales inside the store. So, this is another Wall Street Journal article that came out this morning. Wall Street's trying to appeal to this set of younger, sort of hip people that are shopping for food and they're sort of getting older and getting more health conscious and they know that, you know, young kids are into retro-style stuff-- -Retro thing. -right. So, in the same way that Urban Outfitter's stocking records, Whole Foods is trying to get that same type of demographic by offering records. And they're testing this out in 5 stores in LA around the Ventura and downtown area. So, if you're out there, you can now pick up a record and some organic peanut butter at the same time. -No, no, I think I get it. I think I get it. It's come in kids. Remember the good old days when preservatives weren't turning your food and tend-- and big companies weren't giving you salmonella poisoning-- -Right. -and when music was on physical disc. I'm shopping at Whole Foods. -Yeah, you're right, that this is sort of like that. -It's like, it's that's why we go back to organic because we realized we've gone too far and that means also anti-iTunes. -Right, right. So they want you to sort of go back to-- I thin they're trying to position themselves as like an independent grocery store in the same way, that, you know, independent record stores are going out of business now. It sort of-- more innocent time. -More innocent time with like a terrible like rap disc that has so many bad lyrics on it. -Right. -I don't know what would vinyl, you know, musicians are they selling. -Something tells me that Whole Foods is gonna be stocking rap LPs. -That's what I'm thinking. -Right? It's gonna be like All Pop and Rock and Jazz. -Or like, maybe Gaga or something. I don't know. Or they're gonna be stocking. -Yeah, something tells me that metal rap, any kind of hip-hop and maybe even technos like all definitely out of Whole Foods. There's no way they're gonna sell that stuff. -Dethklok. -Dethklok? What is that? -I just know. -Okay. I've heard Death Lock. Dethklok is like your own metal band? I never heard that before. -Hold on, maybe I got it wrong. -Okay. While you're looking that up, I wanna tell you guys about a hack that you could do at Whole Foods. Did you know you can hack Whole Foods? -No. -Yeah. So a little known fact, you can actually get free items from Whole Foods if you just ask one of the employees. Did you know that? This is a true story and this is something that a story that came out in the Gothamist last year and it was an article that was written by a woman that went to a Whole Foods in her neighborhood to buy mayonnaise, right? And she told the cashier that she was kinda bum that they didn't stocked the Best Food brand because clearly that's her favorite type of mayonnaise. They only had the 365 degree brand, which is Whole Foods' like sort of in-house. -Uh-hmm. -And when she complained about this to the cashier, the cashier said that she would give her the 365 brand for free in order to try it since the preferred brand wasn't available, right? And so this woman was really impressed with that level of customer service and tried to figure out whether or not this was something you could at all Whole Foods. And apparently, it is. That employee, when she was asked about it said that they're allowed to give out one free item per day to a customer. And apparently, this is exactly detailed in the employee handbook, and this is what it says. It says, "At Whole Foods, customer service is extremely important. Including in their efforts to insure customers have an enjoyable experience, a team member is given the authority to open a package of any product and give customers a sample when warranted. In certain cases, a team member may even offer a customer a product to take home with them. So, you can ask any Whole Foods employee to try something that you've never eaten before within reason. Yeah. And if-- it's a particularly nice employee and they haven't give anything out that day, they can send you home with the free item. -Wow. -Whatever it is in the store. -I've heard the Trader Joe's does that same thing. I have a friend who used to work there and he told me that you could just go up and ask someone if you can try-- if you want a sample or something and they'll open it up and give it to you. -Oh, really? -Yeah. -I had no idea. Yeah, so you can do that. All you gotta do is flirt with your neighborhood Whole Foods employee-- -I know. -and pray to God that they gives you that can of beans for free. I mean, it's within reason. You can't ask for like a filet mignon or anything like that, but-- -If you go in like, really concern about one or two products. You don't know what tastes better or you're not sure maybe then they'll be like, "Oh yeah, we'll try it." -Yeah, yeah. -This is very interesting. I support that kind of customer service. -Yeah, I like that. -Just like the old days when we had vinyl records. -Yeah, when people actually cared-- -When people cared and your milk was handed to you on doorstep. -Yeah. So Dethklok-- the chat room is talking about it. Did you find that where it's from? -I think it's a song from-- I'm blushing now 'cause I can't remember names. -The chat room is saying that it's a band from Metalocalypse. -Metalocalypse, yeah. -Yeah, yeah, I think I remember that too. Metalocalypse is pretty awesome. I like how they go to Dimmu Borgir. -It was the first thing that came into my head. -Yeah. -So usually I don't think before I talk. -I forgot about that. I gotta re-watch it. I didn't think, I didn't think you for a Metalocalypse fan, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stereotype you but-- -I have some knowledge of the rock-- -Yeah, I like that. Jacklin of all trades over here. So that's Whole Foods. I wanna know if anyone's actually done that before. And, you know, I really wanna hear about the crazy stuff that people have opened up in the store. I like that. Maybe give me a reason to go to Whole Foods. -Well, you maybe you should go to the South and go to Publics would give you-- -Okay. -You get free cookies without having to beg or scheme. -Yeah. -You know, I was thinking about it when Jeff comes back, you can ask him because he's been to Publics, he knows. -Really? -Yeah. -So it's like a Costco but real products. -No, not some warehouse Costco. It's classy. It's a classy neighborhood joints. -And the prices are good too? -Yeah, they got a lot of Bogos. -Okay, all right. -How's cool in Sam's Club though? If you go there on a Saturday afternoon, you're gonna have a whole meal, just from the free samples. -I agree. -There's a Buzzfeed article that just about Public Subs and how there's no better food on earth. -Really? Wow, you're really pushing this hard. How much are they paying for this-- -I just, I missed it, that's all. -Richard, have you ever had the ice cream bar from Whole Foods? I'm sorry, not from Whole Foods, from Costco? -No, I don't think so. -Oh, my God. Not all of the locations have it. But if you're lucky enough to be around when that does, you should get it. It's basically a vanilla ice cream bar, right? But then they dipped the whole thing in chocolate and they dipped that in almonds after that like crushed up almonds. It's amazing. -Yummy. -And it's huge too. It's like the size of maybe 2 iPhones put together like vertically. It's a gigantic ice cream bar. -Where's that at? -At Costcos. -Oh, okay. -Yeah. So good. That and a chicken baked-- -I'm hungry. -And we're really talking about food on the show. -Is this like something you buy a frozen take home or it's like an eat-there thing that you get from a window. -Oh, okay. -They have like pizza and the chicken baked and then they have the ice cream bar. So good. Okay, before I get too hungry, let's move on to this next story. Sleep-texting is a new epidemic sweeping the country and affecting the young people you guys. Have you heard about teens sleep-texting? -I've heard about it, but I've done some other types of-- I haven't sleep-texting myself. -What have you sleep done Bridget? -But I will try to reenact what usually happens to me. -Okay, do you want me to narrate for our audio listeners? -All right, so-- no, it's okay. I'm sitting in bed, you know, head down on a pillow and I got the phone up on top of me and-- -And turn the lights down. -And I just kinda like, you know, kinda scrolling through Facebook, scrolling through Facebook, scrolling to Facebook until I fall asleep with, it's still on my hand and either the phone hits me in the head-- -Right, and you drop the phone. -and I wake up. Or I realized that like, like I wake up for a second like, "Oh, the lights are still on. I'm still-- and I accidentally like deleted 3 comments that were posted on my-- random, being about to go into sleep. -Right. -Your thumb is still on the screen, chaos can happen. -Yeah. -That's all I'm saying, when you're-- but the whole concept of picking your phone up like sleepwalking, that's crazy. -Yeah. I can understand that like when your phone drops on your face and it's still turned on maybe your nose presses a few buttons supposed a comment or something. -No, I have phantom thumb work. -Really? -Like I'm still going into that twilight of sleep but I'm still on Facebook scroll-mode and my thumb just randomly like-- -Yeah. I've-- that before. I've never like posted anything. But, yeah-- -I never posted. I deleted something once though. -Posted something I didn't want to. Yeah. -I've done that on the keyboard before I went on like my computer and fall asleep and then like my fingers just kinda pressed down randomly and you just-- or something. -I do that at work sometimes. -But this is Different. This is like-- -This is different, yeah. -in the middle of your realm, like getting up and picking up your phone. -Yeah, sleep-texting is a big problem or I'm sorry, slexting as Paula again says in the chat room. I like that. So the problem is, and this is something that CBS uncovered. They interviewed a nursing professor at Villanova University, and I think that's in Philadelphia. She said that she's been noticing more cases of sleep-texting with tends. And the problem there is that a lot of teens have their power outlets right next to their bed. And so a lot of times when they're charging their phone at night. They have their phones in their beds with them. -Uh-hmm. -Right? And so that caused a huge distraction because sometimes if they wake up in the morning to go in the bathroom, they can't resist the urge and just turn on their phones to see if they've got any texts or e-mails. And a lot of times, they'll send e-mails without even knowing it, right? They respond to something sort of in a haze and then they'll wake up and have no recollection of what they sent. They'll oftentimes makes plans and actually respond coherently. Other times, it'll just be mindless ramblings that make no sense or whatsoever. -It just shows you that changing patterns of how the brain is working. -Right. -With people who have like, this is the only way they communicate, you know, like talking in your sleep. Well, this is the equivalent of that then. -Yeah. It's kinda scary. -Yeah. -I used to have phone conversations in my sleep. Do you guys ever do that like when you-- the phone rings? I never texted before in my sleep. But oftentimes, when I was young and the phone ring, I pick up the phone and I actually like make plans with people and then like, you know, they would call me. -The all-corded phones? -Yeah, like, 'cause I had a phone in my room. -Yeah. -And people would end up calling me later on the day and be like, "Dude, where are you? You're supposed to meet at the mall at 5 PM." And I was like, I have no idea what you're talking about. -You suffered from it from the corded version of this. -Yeah. -That's weird. -Yeah, because I had a tendency to sleep talk. And like my whole family is like that, me, my sister, my mom all sleep talk. We don't ever get out of bed. But, since I had a phone right next to it, that would end up happening. -Where they calling you in the middle of the night? -Yeah, or they-- I would like be taking a nap after school is out. You know, we get out at 3PM or something. -Uh-hmm. -And then call me to set up something for that night like a study session or hang out-- whatever. And then I end up making these plans with them and I have no idea that I did it when I woke up. Scary. It's like taken an Ambient and blacking up really scary stuff. Do you guys do weird stuff when you sleep? I mean aside from picking stuff with your nose. -I play game too long and I started seeing it in like real life, not even in sleep like I have a friend who played the Sims too much then she started to see green diamonds on top on people's heads. They're like-- if I play like Candy Crush too much, I started just seeing like the perfect combination, like I'm having a conversation with you, I just wanna connect-- I just want to connect that. You know, and so I have to like, all right. Time to take a step back same with Tetris. -Yeah, yeah. What do you guys think the best solution is for not-- for trying to stop sleep-texting? The doctors have recommended this. This is an official-- -Put the phone not on your bed side table. The end. -There you go. -Put it on your dresser for your-- you'll still hear the alarm, you'll have to get up, you know, to answer it or if anything's going off. But just don't put it right in arm's reach. -Yeah, that's it. Just move the effin' phone. And I get it. Like a lot of people like to have their phone in close vicinity when they're sleeping 'cause just in case there's like an emergency and you need to be contacted. -You're suppose to not-- you're suppose to move your phone with the radiation warnings-- -Yeah. -whatnot, I don't-- -And as we know, 'cause the sleep doctors been on here, Dr. Bruce tells us that the screen lighting up in the middle of the night really disrupts your melatonin, which then prevents you from going into REM sleep that rapid eye movement sleep that's really deep and that's where you start dreaming and getting out all the stresses during the day. So if you wanna get good sleep and feel better during the day time, you kinda move that phone away. -Yeah. They say you're not even supposed to use your phone or computer like right before sleep. -Yeah, like an hour before you sleep, you gotta shut that thing off. -Because of the screen in your eyes, right. It's a lot of nervous energy and strain. -Yeah, it's bad. So guys-- come on teens. There's no teenagers listening to the show, right? I wanna know what they think. Guys, do you wanna hear some e-mail that we got? -Yeah. -Are you sure? I couldn't tell. I got-- -Oh, we gotta wait. -Yeah, I know you can't. Well, it's starting right now. We got the first one from Tal Ha, she says, "Tal Ha here from Toronto. I was listening to Wednesday's episode and Bridget started talking about people's constant notifications going off." This is great Bridget, you're gonna love this. Get ready to blush. -Uh-hmm. -She says, "Little did she know, she provided us with a little gem during that rent. Enjoy the notification that I have attached." Are you ready for this? -Oh, I think I know what this is. -Here it is. This is what she sent in. I love how she isolated this. And now, this is my ringtone too. This is what you said. -That was my interpretation of what a really annoying ringtone. -Can you imagine in the middle of the night if you wake up to this, this is your ringtone? -It's like some Brazilian rainforest bird. -Awesome. -Felt like in the Pixar movie. -Yeah. -That's incredible. I kinda wanna just turn this under reheat. -I think I wanna fake that my own ringtone and support. -Yeah. I'm gonna try to upload this somewhere and then maybe I'll try and post the MP3 of it in the chat room. -Yeah. -So thank you so much to Tal Ha for isolating this for us. -Everyone's gonna have that as their ringtone sooner. -It's amazing. Okay, one more time. Next e-mail we got-- -I love it. -Look at Bridget. -I love it. -You are blushing. -Love it. -Wow, it's possible. -Love it. -Aaron writes in, he says, "Hey, Justin. I just watched the show where you where discussing the mosquito problem. I saw something on Indiegogo that you might be interested in. It's a sticker that supposed to repel mosquitoes and so he sent this link in to an Indiegogo campaign for that Kite patch. And I'll post a link to this Indie blog as well. But this is really cool and it's something that I fully support if this campaign wasn't already over and achieve its goal of $75,000 I would definitely contribute. But they've already made $530,000. -Wow. -So that's quite a bit more. It's more than five times the amount they really wanted. So the idea was sort of protect people from diseases, so this isn't really a product that's directed to Americans necessarily. This is something that supposed to combat Malaria in sub Saharan countries like Africa for example. -Right, right, where there's a big problem. -Or Southeast Asia where they have the problem with, like dengue fever and mosquitoes and things like that. -Uh-hmm. -So it's a patch that disrupts the smell senses of mosquitoes because-- as I was saying the other day, mosquito sort of look for carbon dioxide and they sniff it out. And so this patch sort of shields your body from emitting carbon dioxide smells, and that's what sort of, you know, take some off the scent. -I think I need that. I'm gonna tell you why. After we were kinda laughing at your situation-- -Yeah. -the next day or-- I was just hanging out outside sitting on a park bench at night. I cannot, for all my life, know when a mosquito is biting me. -Yeah. -I can't feel it. -Not until it's too late. -I'm not the kind of person that goes and smack. It takes me 24 hours to see like a bunch of bites on my leg. -Yeah. -You know, and then so, I got beat up and I'm all scratchy and I'm like, "Oh, Justin, you did this to me." -Yeah, I know. -All your fault Justin. -I know. I'm sorry. You should use hydrocortisone that really works. -Or Benadryl cream. -Or if you don't have hydrocort-- yeah or toothpaste even works if you put a little bit on and you don't have it. -That I'm not gonna do that. -And then you smell minty [unk] like that. -Oh, it's okay. I'm gonna buy the things that's meant for. -But whatever you do, don't spread that stuff on you. -I'm also not gonna put like, you know, what's that? Preparation [unk] under my eyes is another trick you people do. -All right, yeah, yeah. [unk] the bags. -I'm not gonna do that. It's okay. -That's gross. -I'm gonna do thing that's meant to do. -So thanks for writing in Aaron. I appreciate that link to Kite patch. Apparently, if you download-- if you donate $35 to this campaign, you can get a couple of patches for yourself and, you can also-- -If it exist. If it ends up being real, right? -Yeah, if it ends up being real. But this sort of stuff that scientifically proven to work and they already have a lot of the trials on its way. That's something that really back not just these 2 random guys trying to create something in their garage. -Yeah. -So I like that. All right. Well, before we take off for the day, you guys wanna hear a couple of calls from the public that we got? -Yes. -Okay, let's started. -Time to show the love. 866-404-CNET. -The 404. -All right. Well, the first one of the day comes from our buddy Adrian in Long Beach. Here's what he has to say. -Hi, guys. This is the Long Beach from Adrian and I just wanted to call 'cause I just, well you said you had no voicemail so I figured, why not call and leave a voicemail, right? I've always wanted to do this and I'm gonna do it right now. Time to show the love. Call me 866-404-CNET. That's it. -Not bad, not bad. -That's [unk] on the public. Well done sir. That was awesome. That was our buddy Adrian in Long Beach-- very close from my home town in Huntington Beach, so give a big hug to Southern California for me Adrian. Unfortunately, we did find that sound bite from Jamie so we played it twice. That's okay. But he did a great impression. The next one is from Larissa, she called in about the talk boy. Remember you were telling us about your talk boy-- -Yeah, from Home Alone 2. -Right. -Talk Boy effects plus. -And she had her own talk boy but it wasn't exactly the one you had. -Hey, guys. Larissa from Houston. I was listening to Thursday's episode, where Bridget was talking about her talk boy and it made me too very excited and I remember all of my adventures with my talk girl and personally when I went to [unk] to buy our talk boy-- -KB Toys. -and we were out of all the talk boys from the movies so they had what was kind of a main girl version, which was like purple and pink, which now I would be insulted but then I was like, Okay so it does the same thing. So I was a heck out of that sucker and I even remember that I was so mad. I even remember, I mean, I was like a pre-teener or something. They weren't really like travel, you know, movie watching 'cause I just-- so I remember we were gonna be traveling over Christmas and I didn't wanna be bored on the road trip. So like a week before, I watched Home Alone The Movie on the TV and I crossed up the talk boy-- -No. -Talk girl [unk] speaker so that I could record the entire movie on a cassette-- -Oh, my God. -with just the sound. But for some reason, I like the sound that's just exciting. So maybe, you know the viable options. So I remember listening to Home Alone on cassette on my talk girl and it was awesome. I think that was like the best Christmas ever. -Wow. That's real dedication. She's a real fan girl. -That's pretty awesome. I remember the talk girl. Yes, there was a talk boy and a talk girl. -Right. -Oh, I love that story. -Oh, my God. That's-- you know, it's funny 'cause Larissa did that when she was a kid but I feel like modern kids nowadays would never stand for audio without the visual with it. -No. -Right? They're so spoiled. They'd be like, "Ma, why don't you buy a laptop that I could bring with me or install one to the back of the seat in front of me?" -'Cause it's so easy now and be creative back then. -That's amazing. -I don't know if I would have wanted that though. I don't think I could listen to a whole movie without the video. -Yeah. -I used to listen to Seinfeld and other TV shows without video because I had to go to piano lessons and they aired it on the radio. It's-- like the NBC Station, you can catch it if you hit the right dial. -Right. -So, that's one way I like to listen to like Fraser and like in Seinfeld as a kid. -Wow. -I'd be like, I wonder what they're laughing at. -Yeah. You're an advanced kid. I remember I used to listen to a lot of comic books on tape, and I like those because they had different voices for their characters and stuff and it really made you have an active imagination with it 'cause you didn't know what was going on. You didn't have the pictures to look at. So Larissa, I wonder if she does something with her imagination now because clearly, she was a pretty creative kid. -Yeah, that's pretty awesome. -Yeah, I like that. Well, you know you guys, I hate to say it but the Misfit Week has come to an end. That's it for voicemails and that's it for the show. Are you guys sad? -No 'cause it's Friday. -Yeah, like hell no, I'm getting out of here. -I'm going home right after this for CNET Update. -Yeah. Forget it. -Just kidding. I'll help you. -Thanks. -Well, if you guys wanna check out CNET Update, tell us where you can do that Bridget. -cnet.com/update Monday through Friday, it's always uploaded at the end of the day around 4:00 Eastern for your knowledge and learning pleasure. Just a few minutes long, all the headlines. Obviously, today we're gonna be talking a little bit more about Ballmer and what it all means to be out of Microsoft. -Yup. And you can also follow CNET Update on Twitter. It's just CNET Update. -Uh-hmm. -And then you can also follow Bridget Carey on Twitter, just C-A-R-E-Y for your last name. Richard, do you have a Twitter account that you wanna pimp? -Yes. Let me see if I can find that little thing. -Oh, you're gonna put a little guy out there for you. -Yeah. -Here you go. -RichLPete. I don't tweet a lot because I forget about it. -Uh-huh. -But-- -But when you do, it counts. -yeah, that's it. -Yeah. -Yeah. Well, I'll try. -Yeah, there you go. You can also follow the 404 on Twitter as well, it's the404 also on Facebook or you can leave us a voicemail over the weekend. It's 1-866-404-CNET, better yet, get on YouTube. Film yourself. Put it on YouTube and then send us the link. It's at the404@cnet.com, that's where you e-mail. -It's so easy now. -Very easy. -Or you can guys get your phone and just put it on the web. -It's so easy. This is the last thing I wanna say. Guys, this weekend is your last chance to get your hands on a Powerocks charger. So if you guys are ever out of batteries, all you gotta do is plug this thing into your USB port, you're good to go for several charges. A lot of these things only will charge your phone once up to maximum capacity. This will do it for multiple devices. So that's really great. We actually have, I think, four of five of these to give away. All you gotta do to enter is go to last Wednesday show. That's Wednesday the 14th. Go to last Wednesday show and leave a comment. That's it. It could be a good comment. It could be a bad comment. It could be just "Hey, what's up Justin? I love you." That's it. And that you're entered and we'll pick winners on Monday and will announce then with Jeff gets back. -It's shiny. I like shiny things. -Yeah. -We got blue ones. We got pink ones, whatever you want. So that's gonna do it for us today guys. Have a great weekend. I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Richard Peterson. -I'm Bridget Carey. -It's the 404. It's high tech. It's low brow. It's the end of Misfit Week. -Oh, Friday. -Well, have a great weekend. We'll see you guys on Monday.