In this episode of The Computer Man Show on KSQD, Luigi Oppido and his guest Nyanko, dive deep into the hottest topics in tech right now.

The show opened with a heavy hitter: a drone strike on an Amazon data center in the United Arab Emirates, marking a rare physical disruption of cloud infrastructure by military action. While redundancies are in place, the event highlights the physical vulnerability of our digital world. Back home, this global tension is colliding with supply chain issues to send component prices through the roof.

https://www.techpolicy.press/the-legal-and-policy-fallout-from-data-center-strikes-in-the-middle-east-war/

In security news, Luigi and guest Nyanko broke down a vulnerability called “Air Snitch” affecting Xfinity/Comcast routers. This low-level exploit uses the “Xfinity Wi-Fi” public hotspots to perform man-in-the-middle attacks, allowing hackers to monitor your traffic. The advice was clear: use the Xfinity app to toggle off your local hotspot or, for better security and to save on rental fees, buy your own Arris Surfboard modem and a separate router.

https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/02/new-airsnitch-attack-breaks-wi-fi-encryption-in-homes-offices-and-enterprises/

The conversation then shifted to the streets, discussing Waymo’s massive fleet outage that saw nearly 1,600 autonomous cars stall out, creating traffic nightmares and blocking first responders.

https://sfstandard.com/2026/03/03/waymo-san-francisco-december-blackout-stalled-cars-hearing/

Luigi kicked off a segment on Freeware apps to remind our dear listeners, that Free doesn’t always mean Safe.

Luigi went through some recent scams and interesting headlines.

We had a call from Ray, who was battling a “no signal” issue between his MacBook and a high-def monitor. Luigi explained the absolute “nuts” reality of USB-C cables, how some are only for charging and lack the internal wiring for video. Ray is heading into the shop to put Luigi’s new USB-C cable analyzer to the test.

On the final call of the program, Luigi addressed a listener’s concerns of the high cost of leasing equipment from internet service providers. To regain security and eliminate monthly rental fees, Luigi strongly recommended that users purchase their own dedicated hardware rather than using the standard “all-in-one” gateways provided by companies like Xfinity. The listener also asked a question about DVR Camera Systems.

Don’t stress about your tech, call the Computer Man on KSQD between 6-7pm PT each Tuesday: 831-900-5773

Write to [email protected]

EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert, directed by Baz Luhrmann, draws from newly uncovered footage of Elvis’s later years performing in Las Vegas for electrified audiences. Luhrmann meticulously assembled the film with audio help from Peter Jackson, to present these performances from Elvis’s own point of view.

One of the documentary’s greatest pleasures is watching Elvis rehearse with his band and backup singers. Their sessions reveal a deep professionalism: they mastered a vast catalog of songs and could switch instantly depending on the audience’s energy. The film also highlights the wide range of musical influences that shaped Elvis’s sound—gospel, R&B, country, and rock and roll—and his remarkable ability to evolve while staying rooted in those traditions.

The physicality of Elvis’s performances is on full display, along with an astonishing array of costumes. I used to find the jumpsuits a little silly, but after seeing the sheer athleticism of his movements—gyrations, karate-inspired choreography, and nonstop dancing—it’s clear that ordinary clothing would never have held up.

The chemistry among Elvis, his band, and his singers is unmistakable. With a single look or gesture, they moved as one to thrill the audience. The film offers a refreshing portrait of a fun, hardworking Elvis, rather than focusing solely on his battles with Colonel Parker or addiction. He comes across as a man of humble origins—born poor, raised in a Baptist church, and often insecure—who found purpose in performing live and gave everything he had onstage. If he were alive today, he would have cracked the Taylor Swift–style marketing machine; in many ways, he invented it.

It’s striking to realize how young Elvis was during his Las Vegas “comeback” years. He appears tanned, fit, unlined, and almost mythic. I had just gotten my driver’s license when he died, and I still remember hearing the news on the radio that August day. I didn’t grasp the complexity of his journey then, but EPIC makes clear that he was an American success story who longed to learn, grow, and travel more than he was allowed.

Elvis understood what his audiences needed and delivered it every time. He was a gentleman with genuine empathy, even as he endured ridicule and constant pressure to be someone other than himself. He stayed true to his own voice, and I’m grateful this lost footage has resurfaced.

More than once, the music and emotion brought me to tears. I kept wondering what he might have achieved had he lived long enough to pursue his dreams on his own terms.

By Susan Lovegren for KQSD’s Film Gang.

 on Sustainability Now!  Sunday, March 1, 2026

Over the past several decades, there has been a concerted effort by biologists, economists and others to put a value on nature’s services: what would it cost, for example, to provide clean water the way nature does?  Oxygen, photosynthesis, soil?  Early estimates were around $30 trillion per year; arguably, today they are much higher, over $100 trillion.  But getting from hypothetical calculations to actual incorporation into real work policy and development projects is no easy task.  Join host Ronnie Lipschutz for a conversation with Daniel Chiu Suarez, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Middlebury College in Vermont. He has just published Biologists Unite!  The Rise and Fall of Ecosystem Services, an account of why three decades of academic, activist and policy efforts have failed to incorporate ecosystems services into global economic accounting and action.

Check out these other KSQD shows on matters of sustainability!

Episode 88: Originally recorded in 2023 and just as resonant today, this remixed episode explores one of life’s most devastating questions: How does a parent go on after the death of a child?

In this moving conversation, we are joined by father, author, and director Colin Campbell, who shares how he is learning to live with “hope and purpose” after the tragic loss of his two teenage children, Ruby and Hart, who were killed in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. Colin speaks candidly about the raw terrain of grief and the long, uneven process of finding meaning after unimaginable loss.

The episode also weaves in powerful audio stories from two other parents—one who lost a child to suicide and another to overdose—offering a broader and deeply human portrait of parental grief in its many forms.

Rounding out the conversation is Kara Bowman, psychotherapist, grief specialist, and writer, who helps contextualize the emotional realities of traumatic loss and offers insight into how bereaved parents can be supported as they navigate grief, resilience, and remembrance.

This is an honest, tender, and ultimately hopeful conversation for anyone touched by profound loss.

Broadcasts:  3/1/26 & 3/9/26

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            Transcription. Read the full English transcript of this episode here:

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🧠ABOUT STATE OF MIND

 🙏 SPECIAL THANKS…

Audio Production: VJ Lukka, Youssef Hassanein & Austin Gautreau

* Indicates a Monterey Bay Area Resource 

Support

The Compassionate Friends: Supporting Family after a Child Dies – a national  organization providing information and support for families who have lost a child. Website has an online meeting finder to locate the nearest meeting.

We Need Not Walk Alone –a free e-magazine by The Compassionate Friends featuring articles by and for parents, siblings, and grandparents who are grieving the death of a child in their family.

*The Compassionate Friends of Santa Cruz – a self-help organization providing hope, personal comfort, and support to families experiencing the death of a child, sibling, or grandchild and helps others better assist the grieving process. The Compassionate Friends of Santa Cruz has no religious affiliation and offers monthly support groups in person and online.

Grieving.com – a global community offering online support forums, including one specifically for loss of a child.

Helping After Neonatal Death (HAND) of the Bay Area – virtual and in-person peer support to parents and their loved ones who are grieving the loss of a baby before, during or after birth. Also offers online resources.

Reading

Heartbreak to Hope: Poems of Support for Grief and Loss by Kara Bowman (2021) – a sensitive and poetic accompaniment to the journey through grief. It captures much of the darkness and difficulty of that journey while holding out hope that through those difficulties one can still get to a sense of peace–even growth.

Finding the Words: Working Through Profound Loss with Hope and Purpose by Colin Campbell (2023) –a powerful account of one father’s journey through unimaginable grief, offering readers a vision for how to more actively and fully mourn profound loss.

Grieving to Gorecki’s 3rd by Tim J. Woods. August 18 2022 – a blog post written about the suicide death of his 23 year-old son, the profound grief he’s experienced and how he has come to bear that grief in a way that keeps him connected with his son.

Listen to Tim Woods’ favorite version: Henryk Gorecki ● Symphony No. 3, Op. 36 – Symphony No.3, Op.36 “Symfonia pieśni żałosnych” (Symphony Of Sorrowful Songs) (1976) – Conductor David Zinman, Dawn Upshaw (Soprano) And The London Sinfonietta – Henryk Gorecki, Composer (1933-2010)

The Unspeakable Loss: How Do You Live After a Child Dies? by Nisha Zenoff – a book written by a grief counselor and psychotherapist whose own son died.

More Information

Just Enduring: Living and Loving after Child Loss – website offering an array of guidance for the bereaved parents and for their friends and family. Specific guides for what to do after a child dies and helpful blogs on topics like surviving the holidays, getting therapy, engaging with meaningful rituals and more.

Open to Hope – over 7,000 searchable articles on loss, including loss of child.

Child Health: CDC National Center for Health Statistics – national statistics on child mortality through 2023.

Adolescent Health: CDC National Center for Health Statistics – national statistics on adolescent mortality through 2023.

Herbal supplement kratom targeted by lawsuits after a string of deaths – NPR news story on Weekend Edition Saturday. Reported by Peter Haden. Updated July 24, 2023, 8:22 AM ET (7-minute listen).

Colin’s Book and Self-Care Recommendations

Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss, and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief  by Dr. Joanne Cacciatore – “This was the first grief book I read, and one of the best. I sent copies to everyone in my family. It was a way for me to let them all know that I was going to actively grieve for my children, which meant talking about them and my grief.”

It’s OK That You’re Not OK: Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn’t Understand by Megan Devine – “This grief book has many pearls of wisdom. One of the most impactful ones for me was how she delineates between the healthy and necessary pain of loss versus the unhealthy and unhelpful suffering that can so often accompany us in our grief. The tools she gave have helped me avoid much of that suffering.”

Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl – Frankl is a Holocaust survivor who writes powerfully about searching for meaning and purpose even in the darkest of times. “I find his writing to be inspirational and practical.”

Support of Nature:  “Staring out at the ocean, or desert, or mountaintop panorama and taking in the vastness of nature has helped me endure the pain of my loss. When I am thinking about the immensity of geological time, it helps give me some perspective on my loss. And the beauty of it all gives me some solace as I grieve.”

Counseling Support

*Shine a Light Counseling Center – Offers affordable, quality individual, couples, family, and group therapy—including men’s groups—in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, and Monterey.

*Family Service Agency (FSA) of the Central Coast – A long-time State of Mind underwriter, FSA offers low-cost and Medi-Cal/Medicare therapy for all ages and backgrounds, including sliding-scale options. Offices in Santa Cruz and Soquel.

Guest Contact Information

Colin Campbell

Kara Bowman, LMFT

* Indicates a Monterey Bay Area Resource

In this episode of The Computer Man Show on KSQD, Luigi Oppido and his guest Nyanko, dive deep into the accelerating AI revolution, sparked by recent warnings from Bernie Sanders about job loss, automation, and economic disruption. The conversation explores bold claims from tech leaders like Elon Musk and Bill Gates regarding a future where most human labor may become obsolete.

Listeners call in to debate AI consciousness, universal income, and the philosophical implications of machine sentience, drawing comparisons to classics like Metropolis and Ghost in the Shell. The show also uncovers real-world tech vulnerabilities, including hacked RoboVacs, smart device surveillance risks, and connected car telemetry concerns.

From AI safety fears to subscription-based car features and the rise of “digital ghosts,” this episode blends tech news, cultural critique, cybersecurity warnings, and speculative futurecasting into one fast-moving hour about where computing and humanity may be headed next.

Don’t stress about your tech, call the Computer Man on KSQD between 6-7pm PT each Tuesday: 831-900-5773

Write to [email protected]

Links:

https://www.theghostintheshell-anime.jp/

We are celebrating love and Valentine’s Day later in the month with Gail Groves and Dinah Phillips who were the first same sex couple to officially be married in Santa Cruz County in June 2008. There were over 70 couples across the county that were married after the California Supreme Court affirmed that same sex marriage was legal in June 2008. The Santa Cruz County Clerk at the time was Gail Pellerin who is now the State Assemblywoman for Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. Gail, Dinah and Gail join the show to share about the importance of that day back in June of 2008 when many couples legally declared their love for one another for the first time. 

Writer Joan Gelfand’s life so far has been bookended by what she refers to as “strange moments.” As a teenager, she left New York City for the allure of the Berkeley Women’s Movement, a time when lesbians were forming their own radical community and forging a new way for American women to live. Now Joan finds herself in another “strange moment,” when as a grandmother with a long, successful writing career she finds herself moving away from writing and back to activism.

NOTE: The audio on this page is the broadcast version of this episode. Visit The Babblery for the full stream, more information, transcript, and links.

The Babblery features conversations about who we are and how we got this way. Modern humans can seem like the ancients building the Biblical Tower of Babel, cursed by God/nature never to understand each other. As Visiting Translators at the Tower of Babble, our guests delve into their work, their research, and their own experiences to try to explain the bits they’ve learned about Earth’s most perplexing species. Though we all speak different languages, here at The Babblery we aim to promote understanding, one conversation at a time. Visit The Babblery at Babblery.com/. The Babblery is produced by Suki Wessling with support from KSQD.

Crime 101 was the perfect remedy for a rainy day in Santa Cruz County. The 2026 crime thriller, written and directed by Bart Layton and based on Don Winslow’s 2020 novella, delivers a suspenseful and thoroughly entertaining ride. It was also the most crowded I’ve seen the Capitola CineLux in quite some time.

The standout performance comes from Mark Ruffalo, who plays Lou Lubesnick, a rough‑around‑the‑edges LA detective whose glory days are behind him. Lou’s reputation is slipping, and in an effort to get back in shape, he even takes up yoga. Those scenes add a touch of humor and humanity, showing a man trying to evolve rather than simply fade away. When a string of robberies hits the California coastline, Lou leans on both his instincts and his renewed discipline to piece together the case.

Halle Berry shines as Sharon, a high‑end insurance broker who’s been repeatedly dismissed and disrespected for “aging out” of her career at just 53. The film doesn’t shy away from the sting of that ageism, and Berry brings a quiet resilience to a woman determined to prove she still has plenty to offer.

Chris Hemsworth plays Mike Davis, the strong, silent mastermind behind a series of meticulously planned art and jewel heists. His character is given a romantic interest, and while Hemsworth brings a tender, almost vulnerable quality to those moments, the emotional connection never fully lands. The film gestures toward a love story, but the chemistry feels more conceptual than convincing.

The supporting cast adds texture, especially Nick Nolte, who leans into a wonderfully seedy, gravel‑voiced presence that grounds the film in gritty realism. Barry Keoghan also delivers a sharp, memorable performance. The ensemble as a whole gives the story a lived‑in quality, and even the smaller roles feel thoughtfully placed, helping the film build a world that’s both stylish and slightly off‑kilter. It was disappointing that the director didn’t make fuller use of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who appears as a steadfast lifeline for Mike — she’s such a powerful actress that her limited screen time feels like a missed opportunity.

The pacing balances car chases and suspense with character‑driven moments. I appreciated that the film avoids gratuitous violence, instead framing Hemsworth’s character as a “non‑violent” thief with a love for classic muscle cars — almost a modern Robin Hood. It’s also refreshing to see a new action lead emerge, evoking shades of Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, blending bravado with surprising tenderness toward the film’s female characters.

The writing ties up the major threads in the final sequence while still leaving room for a few twists. While not a deeply cerebral film, it was exactly right for escaping the rain, enjoying some popcorn, and settling into the movie‑theater experience.

Film Gang Review by Susan Lovegren.

Defiance.org with Miles Taylor

 “Be Bold America!” Airs February 20 2026 at 5:00pm (PT)

“If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”     – President Dwight D. Eisenhower from a 1956 speech)

Defy Like De Niro.

From the mean streets to the halls of power, Robert De Niro has always stood up to bullies. His new role? Defying Trump and He’s daring the rest of us to do the same.

No. I’m sorry to say we won’t be interviewing Robert De Niro, but we have the next best person, his friend Miles Taylor. Miles Taylor is a former White House official who was Chief of Staff to the Department of Homeland Security in the first Trump administration. You may know him by the pen name “Anonymous.” He created a nationwide controversy when he wanted to assure the American people that there were those inside the administration who were trying to hold on to the democratic guardrails against a lawless president.

When Trump returned in 2024, he claimed Miles’ action treasonous.

Miles is fighting back, not just legally, but creating a nationwide organization called Definace.org. This organization has real teeth and is funding 100% of its income to nonprofits fighting against the Trump regime.

Interview Guest:

Miles Taylor (security expert): is an American author, commentator, and former government official who served in the administrations of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In the first Trump administration, he was an appointee in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2017 to 2019. He was first recruited into the department by former DHS Secretary and White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, serving as his senior advisor.

In 2018, Taylor wrote an op-ed in The New York Times under the pen-name “Anonymous” that was titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration“, which drew widespread attention for its criticism of Trump. Several months after quitting the administration, again under the pen name “Anonymous,” he published a book in 2019 titled, A Warning. In 2020, he revealed that he was “Anonymous” while campaigning against Trump’s reelection. His second book: Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from Trump’s Revenge and workbook for Blowback by Miles Taylor: a step-by-step guide to Understanding the Struggle for Democracy were published in 2024.