Better Offline

In part one of this week’s series, Ed Zitron explains how the AI bubble could be so much worse than the dot com bubble - and how people are too flippant about the carnage caused by the 2000s telecommunications bubble bursting.

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To kick off this week’s Better Offline Dot Com Special, Ed Zitron is joined by The Register’s Matt Rosoff to talk about what it was like to be in the tech industry during the last time the markets got drunk on a major digital hype cycle.

Matt Rosoff: https://www.theregister.com/Author/Matt-Rosoff/

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:agrmux4phzmfvgyblvhxrbnh

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In the final part of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how ignoring the horrifying margins and destructive practices of the AI industry is setting up venture capital and the global markets for a catastrophe, and how all of this could’ve been avoided.

This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/84rt762qen

Read along with the newsletter version for links! https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

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In part three of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how the imaginary demand for AI compute is setting up every single data center developer for disaster - and how many major banks will be caught in the contagion.

This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/84rt762qen

Read along with the newsletter version for links! https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

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In part two of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through how companies like AMD, Broadcom and NVIDIA are swindling stockholders with the help of analysts and the media, and how decades of easy returns for venture capital are an existential risk to the future of startup fundraising.

This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/84rt762qen

Read along with the newsletter version for links! https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

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In part one of this week’s four-part Better Offline Enshittifinancial Crisis special, Ed Zitron walks you through the enshittification of the stock market, where toxic companies appreciate in value despite their toxicity, recklessness and waste, aided and abetted by analysts who not only ignore the toxicity but actively celebrate it. 

This series was a ton of work, so please support me by subscribing to my premium newsletter - here’s $10 off your first year of annual https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/84rt762qen

Read along with the newsletter version for links! https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-enshittifinancial-crisis/

YOU CAN NOW BUY BETTER OFFLINE MERCH! Go to https://cottonbureau.com/people/better-offline and use code FREE99 for free shipping on orders of $99 or more.

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In this week's Better Offline monologue, Ed Zitron walks you through the seeming collapse of Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines, and why the AI bubble can’t survive the death of OpenAI.

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Kylie Robison’s scoop about Thinking Machines: https://x.com/kyliebytes/status/2011572331798548899

Max Zeff of WIRED’s follow-on story: https://www.wired.com/story/thinking-machines-lab-cofounders-leave-for-openai/

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In this episode, Ed Zitron is joined by Steve Burke of GamersNexus to talk about AMD, Lenovo, NVIDIA and Intel’s CES keynotes - and how the tech industry has turned its back on consumers in favor of growth.

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GamersNexus:
NVIDIA's AI Bubble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFG3Ah-zf18 
AMD Failed Us: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsCrKGY9F1o 
Intel Pulls An NVIDIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wNnLtsxNkY 
"AMD & NVIDIA Abandoned This Segment" | Intel Arc GPU Factory Tour with Sparkle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwrUxG26ulk 
Support GamersNexus’ AI Surveillance Dystopia Series: https://store.gamersnexus.net/ai-dystopia 
https://www.youtube.com/gamersnexus

https://gamersnexus.net/

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https://x.com/GamersNexus

CES Videos: 
Lenovo: https://youtu.be/vAa8ITmv54I?si=vfYqWhkbqGPa1avV&t=288

NVIDIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NBILspM4c4

AMD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvBNWbFK2lY

Intel: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/events/ces.html

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In our CES epilogue, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, tech bubble newsletter writer Ed Ongweso Jr. and CES bartender Phil Broughton to talk about this year’s coverage, the upcoming venture apocalypse, and what we expect from 2026.

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Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social

Cory Doctorow: http://pluralistic.net/

https://www.eff.org/ 

Phil Broughton: https://bsky.app/profile/funranium.bsky.social/

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Matt Osowski: https://www.mattosowski.com/ 

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

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Welcome to Better Offline’s coverage of the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show - a standup radio station in the Palazzo Hotel with an attached open bar where reporters, experts and various other characters bring you the stories from the floor.

In Friday’s second episode, Ed is joined by author, activist and journalist Cory Doctorow, the Las Vegas Sun’s Kyle Chouinard, Ed Ongweso Jr. of the Tech Bubble Newsletter, Garrison Davis of It Could Happen Here, and Robert Evans of Behind The Bastards to talk about Vegas’ reaction to CES, the useful stuff getting pushed to the fringes, the hollow nature of this year’s CES, and an acoustic version of the Better Offline theme.

EXCLUSIVE CES SALE! Get a *permanent* $10 off an annual subscription to my newsletter through January 13 2025:
https://edzitronswheresyouredatghostio.outpost.pub/public/promo-subscription/cue848p5sc 

Ed Ongweso Jr.: https://bsky.app/profile/bigblackjacobin.bsky.social 

Cory Doctorow: http://pluralistic.net/ https://www.eff.org/ 

Garrison Davis: https://bsky.app/profile/bishonentype.bsky.social 

The Tech Bubble Newsletter: https://thetechbubble.substack.com/ 

Robert Evans: https://bsky.app/profile/iwriteok.bsky.social

Kyle Chouinard: https://lasvegassun.com/staff/kyle-chouinard/

Donate in Sean-Paul’s honor: https://www.perc-epilepsy.org/

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