06-06-26 Your Computer Is Already AI Ready If It Runs Windows 11

Siri has been “fine” for timers and quick lookups, but AI has moved on and Apple can’t afford to stay in catch-up mode. We dig into why Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference is such a big moment, and why the most interesting rumor is also the most uncomfortable one: Siri may get its new brain from Google Gemini. That would make Siri far more conversational and useful, but it also forces the hard conversation about privacy, data access, and what happens when Apple’s privacy-first story meets Google’s data-driven business model.

We also answer a question we hear constantly at the shop and on the hotline: is your computer AI ready? Most of the time, yes. We explain why today’s popular AI tools run in the cloud, what that means for your hardware, and why the real dividing line is often Windows 11 versus an internet-connected Windows 10 machine that’s aging out of security support. If your PC feels slow, we talk through the boring but effective fixes that still matter, like SSD upgrades and memory.

Then we zoom out to the infrastructure powering everyone’s prompts: AI data centers. We break down what’s actually different about AI facilities, why NVIDIA-class GPUs drive up electricity demand, what’s real and what’s hype about water usage, and how Florida’s SB 484 aims to stop data center buildouts from quietly pushing infrastructure costs onto households. We wrap with a Windows productivity trick you can use immediately: clipboard history with Windows key plus V.

Subscribe for more practical tech talk, share this with a friend who’s confused about “AI PCs,” and leave a review so more people can find the show. What do you want us to test or explain next?

Transcript

Welcome And Today’s Lineup

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Hey there and welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go ahead and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website at Refresh Computers.net or stop at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. That means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

All right. Thanks, Greg. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Oh, we got a lot of nice, cool stuff to talk about today. A lot of nerdy stuff, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

Oh, yeah. Like every show.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

That's right. So we, you know, we hope that this kind of inspires your your inner nerd, right? And because these are some things that you don't typically hear about on a radio show anywhere, really, except right here at Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Today we're going to be talking about this is Apple's big week. It doesn't seem like it's been a year since we talked about this last. It doesn't seem like it, no, not at all. This is the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference. Basically, the software side of what's coming at Apple. We're going to talk about all those cool things that they're planning to implement in their latest gadgets coming September. So that'll be an interesting topic. And then we're going to talk about well, is your computer AI ready? Then you'll be surprised, maybe, by what we have to say about that. And then we'll be talking about your electric bills keep climbing in Florida. Why AI data centers have a lot to do with that. And we'll be talking about that and getting deeper into are they really using all that water people are afraid of? No, they're not, by the way. And we'll get more into that as well. And then we'll also be talking about at the end a really cool Windows tip that you may not be aware aware of. It's a copy and paste superpower that comes with your Windows.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Built right in, and it's not even there.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yes. So I think a lot of us know Control C. We're going to get into Windows C. Yep. All right. Towards the end of the show. So

Apple WWDC And Siri’s AI Future

SPEAKER_01 2:38

starting off, Adam, it's a big week for Apple. It is. So they are kicking off their worldwide developers conference. And what they do is, you know, they talk about all the latest operating systems. Right.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

All the all the updates that are coming out, maybe all the new features that they're implementing. But you know, we've we talked on the show a lot about Siri specifically and what's been going on with her. And I haven't seen much movement since the last time we brought her up.

SPEAKER_01 3:06

Well, we did talk about Google and you know kind of getting attached to Siri. Right. You know, there's a a big deal that that Apple's doing. When we talked about how weird that seemed because, you know, they're big competitors. Right. Right. So, you know, of course, Apple makes the iPhone, Google makes the Android phone. Yeah. So so, you know, but they're all going to be using Google's Android or Google's AI, I should say, inside the Apple phones, and and which they've been playing with, they've been kind of using, and which is probably, you know, a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

Right. For Apple and for you if you own an iPhone, because it's like, you know, Siri is finally getting an AI brain, which it really hasn't had.

SPEAKER_03 3:56

It took long enough for Siri because, you know, right now, as far as I'm aware, or at least the last time I ever used an iPhone, Siri wasn't capable of much compared to some of these AIs now, like uh Grok, Gemini, things like that. So it's it's nice to see Apple's doing this, but again, we talked about this I I think almost a year ago.

SPEAKER_01 4:15

Jeez, it's been a year, I think. Yeah. And how Apple was in the catch-up game back then, as far as AI is concerned, because you know, with Siri, it was basically, hey Siri set a timer. Yeah. You know, that kind of thing, you know, and you is basically a one-way thing, and Siri would come back with a response. Not exactly a conversation mode, right? Which is what you really need with AI built in. So, you know, but now you should be able to say, you know, hey Siri, find the text from my daughter about Saturday and add it to my calendar. Yeah. And I'm sorry, folks, all of you people that own iPhones who just got a text, or who just had Siri look up a text, I should say, on your phone. So we'll try to refrain from saying hey, that again. But uh so much fun doing the show, I tell you. So so the twist is Apple is reportedly leaning on Google's Gemini AI to power Siri. So basically two giant rivals working together because Apple's own AI, well, fell behind. It's just really kind of non-existent.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

And that's a that's a really good way to put it, too. I think Apple hasn't really been in the AI game. They haven't there, they haven't been a big name in it. Like you got your uh, I think it's uh XAI, you've got anthropic, you know, you've got Google from Alphabet making Gemini, all these different big names making AI. Apple's kind of just been sitting on the sidelines watching what it you know it can be capable of.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, and that's not a very good place to be for an innovative company like like Apple.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

I was gonna wonder, is it more of a conscious choice by them, or was it just uh we were too late to the game, so let's see what happens?

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I I tend to believe they were just too late to the game. I don't think it was a conscious choice. I mean, because you know Apple has a lot of eggs already in their basket. And I mean, so does Google, you know, for that matter, but Google was able to do it, right? Right with the Android phone. You can have conversations with Jim and I, yeah, right, on your Android phone. You can't have those same kinds of conversations on your Apple phone.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Right. Right. And, you know, to maybe to give a little bit of an argument on that too, thinking about it, you know, Apple has always been very privacy focused. They've always been very forward with your data is your data. You know, what happens on iPhone stays on iPhone. Everybody knows that saying. So, you know, when you're kind of looking at Apple thinking about AI, there is a lot of privacy that has to be given to these AI, you know, your calendar access, your email access. I think maybe Apple's been playing it a little bit safe because they don't want to overstep that boundary and and and cause some sort of privacy issue that they've always promised their customers.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

That that could be too. Yeah, yeah, you make a good point, Adam.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

And how much of it is them looking at themselves as more of a hardware company than a software company as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

True, right, true, absolutely true. And so, you know, one thing that a lot of people may not realize is Google already pays Apple billions of dollars, I mean billions, to be the default search on the iPhone. Right? So when you do a search on using Siri, uh it's actually using Google to do that search and give you the results. So now Google's AI may run inside Siri, which it's you know not really doing right now, but they're working on it. You know, that's proof that in tech, you know, today's rival is tomorrow's partner.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Yeah. And you know, that's that's something that's actually, I think, a really good point on it as well

Gemini In Siri And Privacy Concerns

SPEAKER_03 7:55

is you've Apple and Google are such polar opposites of one another. Apple wants all of your information to be your information. They don't care about it, they don't want to collect it. That's right. Google is the entire opposite of that. They want to know all of every printing. They want to know, you know, what comforter you use at home, that kind of information. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

So it's marketing.

SPEAKER_03 8:14

Yeah. So seeing you know, Apple and Google try try to get together on this, you know, I bet there's going to be some butting heads of what information really is collected and kind of phoned home. Uh there's got to be something that Google has to be able to collect at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Well, true. And then we'll see in this worldwide developers conference, you know, this you know kicks off Monday, June 8th. And we'll see if they announce this this marriage finally, right, between Google and Apple and getting Siri more conversational as opposed to just, you know, hey, asking it to do something and it comes back and does it. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

You know, so it's a very basic assistant, just like how Google Assistant used to be. And I remember it was actually, you know, almost felt groundbreaking when you could ask your Google assistant something and it actually was able to live look up the answer. You know, that was that was like the first step we had towards these generalized assistants before Gemini came into the mix. That's right. So, you know, and I think moving towards that is is again a really good end goal for Apple. Getting an assistant that is more than just an assistant, something that can help, you know, find a text message that's been buried, finding an email that you you've lost, things like that. But again, the privacy is just the biggest question to me.

SPEAKER_01 9:32

You bring up a really, really good point because with Apple, it you're right. It's has always been about the privacy. Yeah. Right. And with Google, no, it hasn't been. With Google has been, let's goggle up gobble up all the information that we can find about you. Right. So we can use that in marketing. Yeah. You know what I mean? That kind of thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:52

And that's a that's a a good way to put it is marketing. Because just the other day I remember talking to one of my family members about we were here, we had a couple of bananas sitting in the kitchen that were just a little little brown. Right. And we're like, hey, you know, maybe we should uh maybe we should make up some banana bread. And I I kid you not, the next thing my mom saw on her tablet was a recipe for banana bread.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Of course, that's what's going on. And so maybe, you know, maybe Apple's finally deciding that, hey, you know what, we're throwing the towel here a little bit because this is what they are perceiving that people want. Yeah. So that the to have this conversational relationship with Siri as opposed to just asking Siri something and getting a simple response back. Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

I I also feel maybe it's a little bit of pressure too, because I can't imagine Apple just wants to be to collect information because of how much they push privacy for their users. But again, you see these AIs like Gemini, Grok, Claude expanding in their capabilities. Oh, big thing. It puts Apple in a very big shadow. It does.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Very big. It does. And it and the and the pressure. Yeah. You know, the pressure is on. And to Greg's point, is it, you know, is Apple a hardware company? I think they're more hardware, right? Than they are software. But you know, they need that software piece to make it work.

SPEAKER_03 11:11

Yeah. And it's a it's a big piece of the puzzle for them of having, you know, an AI assistant because it has it makes them relevant. It makes them keep up with you know their software. Because if you ship a new version of Mac OS and it's still got that very basic Siri in it, you know, there's no point in using it when you can just download Grok or Claude and just use that instead.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

Good point.

SPEAKER_03 11:32

So, you know, I think it is also to focus on you know staying in the Apple environment because a lot of users right now that have Apple devices, iPhones, iPads, Mac, you know, are downloading these other AIs because Siri just can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Can't do it. Yeah. And you would think but it it would be able to in today's environment, at least by now. Yeah. Right? Because uh so they're just go shows how far behind they are. And so that's another reason I don't think it's like on purpose. I think it's just because they just haven't been able to get there yet.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

And it's part of a long series of issues with Siri recently, and talking about a

Tim Cook’s Exit And New Leadership

SPEAKER_02 12:10

long series, it's now kind of the start of the long goodbye for Tim Cook, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:14

Well, yeah, that's a good point. Yes, this is going to be Tim Cook's last conference through Apple. He's stepping down as CEO. You know, he took over from Steve Jobs directly from Steve Jobs. Yeah. And it went from Steve Jobs to Tim Cook. Talk about pressure to make something work and to keep going and to keep growing. And I happen to believe Tim Cook has done a wonderful job with Apple. I it'd be hard to say he hasn't done a super job with Apple because look at how far they've come, have advanced even further ever since he took over from Steve Jobs, because let's face it, Steve J Jobs was the major innovator in that whole company and the guy that just pushed, pushed, pushed, pushed things forward. And so that was a big, big shoes to fill for Tim Cook. And and and he did it. And he's you know, so the the new CEO is coming along here on I think September 1st, is when Tim Cook is actually stepping down. And so we'll see if John Turnus is his name will be able to fill those big shoes of both Steve Jobs and Tim Cooks when John Turnis takes over September 1st. Now, John Turnus with Apple was more on the hardware side, right? So he was the hardware guy, right? And so a lot of hardware development things that that he was responsible for at Apple, which kind of further complicates the whole Siri thing because he's you know, to me, I mean, because he's not you know, he's not from the software side of Apple.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

But he was also the one that always liked to push the boundaries a little bit with the designs of Apple devices. I I remember, I specifically remember the explosion of the the iPhone forehead with that not that cutout notch at the top with the iPhone. I think it was the iPhone X. And that was that was like, you know, like it shook the ground a little bit, but it didn't it didn't come off wrong in the end of the day. It was just a step forward into pushing the boundaries, changing things, and I think that's what this this push with Siri is gonna be is with the transition to a new CEO, they're gonna they're gonna hit the ground hard and hopefully running.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Well, yeah, and hoping hopefully John Turnus can you know get the ball rolling for them on on the Siri side and get this stuff integrated so that the iPhone will have true AI. But hey, folks, that's all we have time for this segment. When we come back after the break, we're gonna talk about your your computer. Is your computer AI ready? We're gonna talk all about that, and I think you'll be surprised.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

And if it's not, we know where you can get one. Refresh computers, right? You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.

Is Your Computer AI Ready?

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Hey there, and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Fender of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use an open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Let me take this opportunity to remind you that you can listen to the show in its entirety by going to RefreshComputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner of the page. And because if you miss anything about the new Apple Worldwide Developers Conference that's going to be starting this Monday, and some of the things they're going to be talking about, we talked about Tim Cook's re eventual retirement in September and who's going to be taking over the reins for him. And we talked a lot about how uh Siri is needs to get that AI upgrade, and they're using Google to help them do that, supposedly. We'll see if that's really going to happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

So if you missed any of that, you can catch up by clicking on that podcast link on the homepage at refreshcomputers.net. Better yet, scroll down to the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, put in your email address, and just click enter, and then you will be able to receive, you will receive notification whenever a new show is ready to be listened to, along with bullet points about what we're talking about on the show. In this segment, we want to talk about your computer. Is your computer AI ready? Well, you'll be surprised. If you're one running Windows 11 with today's AI environment, yes. Yep. Pretty much. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

That's the answer. And that's the end of our segment. We can Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

So yeah, I just wanted to put that out there. You don't need some fancy AI-generated CPU, this kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

No, no 200 gigs of RAM, nothing like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:08

No, to run today's AI. Why? Because the AI processing is done in the cloud. It's not done on your computer. So when you ask AI something, you're you open up ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, your Gemini, Copilot, Microsoft, any of these, when you're using that, your computer resources aren't being tied up. Right. Only to the extent the same as it would be if you're typing a note on your computer. Because once you hit submit, that goes out to the cloud. The cloud does all the major computing to get your answer, and that's why it takes it a little while sometimes to get a response back from one of your AI inquiries, is because that cloud process is going on and it will deliver that to your computer.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

So as long as the computer has access to the internet as far as that goes, that's that's a major thing, is you know, Windows 10, they drop security updates. And there are there are some uh some websites that have already dropped support on Windows 10 because it is a security risk.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

That's right. So and so if you're running a Windows 10 computer, stop if you're connected to the Internet. If you're not connected to the Internet, okay, Windows 10 away. Exactly. Just keep on going.

SPEAKER_03 18:20

We we've talked the same thing about like Windows XP and Windows 7. That's right. You know, Windows 10 is unfortunately falling in the same basket now.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

It is, and we still have people come in with those Windows XP machines from ages ago. Why? Because those machines are running a piece of hardware.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Nothing but if you get addicted to the the starting up chime for a Windows XP machine. That's the whole point of it.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

So I think that's that might you might be onto something, Greg. Yeah. So it you know, so it's okay as long as you're not connecting to the internet. Right. If you're connecting to the internet, stop.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:53

Just stop. Upgrade your computer to Windows 11. If you're not sure if your computer is upgradable, give us a call. That's one of the reasons the free tech support hotline is there. 407-478-8200. We can also help you take care of things that you might think are, oh, this is because of AI. I'm using AI, but it's not. You know, your computer could be running slow. It might need a memory upgrade, a solid state drive repair, which we do all do, all that stuff at there at Refresh Computers. So, you know, bring it on in or give us a call first. 407-478-8200. You know, just tell us what's going on and we'll be able to tell talk to you over the phone. And in a lot of cases, we get you going, right? Right over the phone.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

Yeah. And a lot of times, you know, too, is uh, you know, over the phone, I'll direct people to our website, refreshcomputers.net, give you our whole inventory there. And, you know, right now we're even doing free shipping on orders over $300.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 19:49

So because most people don't need, you know, this $1,500 brand new computer.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

They don't. Oh no. And so you can save a lot of money. You can you can buy a quality, refurbished, refresh computers for a third of the price of a brand new one. It's going to last you just as long, if not longer.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Coming up next, we're going to talk a little AI and what it's doing to your electric bill, what Florida's actually doing about it. We'll have more on that coming up next. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDB at 1073FM and AM580.

AI Data Centers And Rising Power Demand

SPEAKER_02 20:30

Hey there, welcome to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website at Refresh Computers.net or stop at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4 in Longwood. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. If you're listening to the show here on Saturday, I mean you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for the men themselves, David Levitt and Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

All right. Thanks, Craig. And thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refreshed Computers. In this segment, we're going to talk about, you know, why your electric bill might be climbing. You know, it's creeping up there and and uh well, more than creeping up there. It's it's like exploding up there, right?

SPEAKER_03 21:33

It's not just the heat of this summer kicking up your AC. It's not, it's not even that simple anymore.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

So it it it a lot of it has to do well, I'm gonna say some of it has to do, retract that. Maybe not a lot. Not as much as people may be thinking or claiming, but but it but it but it does make an impact. I'll give it that. Or the AI data centers. So but first I want to get into the difference between a data center, which guess what? Data centers have been around for decades. Oh yeah. Decades. And guess what else? Data centers have always been a big consumer of electricity. They take a massive amount of electricity to operate. They do. They just do. And and they always have been. So you know, your ability just to connect to the internet and be able to look up things before before AI. Let's just forget AI just for a second. Your ability to do whatever you're doing on the internet is because of data centers that have been around all over the country. Right. And I think of the new host time data center going up right there in Maitland. That's been under construction for five years, six years, I'm not sure how many years, but a long time before AI data centers were going to be prevalent. Right. Right. So it's been it's been under construction, and I'm not sure what their delays are, what causes their delays going on, you know, and and why it's been delayed. I'm sure there's reasons for it. I just don't know what they are.

SPEAKER_03 23:02

It's probably the same reasons why the I-4 ISOR has taken so long to finish construction.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Oh, I don't think that's what it is, honestly. I don't know. But but you know, I think the I-4 ISOR is more of a, you know, it's a a religious organization that operates that facility or the AI or what the data center, which I would think maybe is becoming an AI data center. I don't know. If you can become a data center today without being an AI data center. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

So is there are you fulfilling a purpose at that point? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Right. Right. So the only difference, or not the only, but but a major difference between the AI data center and what the regular data centers are that we've seen for decades now are the graphics cards that are going into the AI data center that the regular data centers just didn't have. Right. Right? They just didn't need so much. I mean, they had, but not so much because AI uses a lot of the NVIDIA-based graphics cars and other companies also. Nvidia is not the only one, but if you wonder why NVIDIA is rapidly becoming, you know, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, company in the world right now, market cap-wise, anyway, it's because of their AI video, basically video cars that are being used because they process so much faster. They process data so much quicker than uh regular CPUs. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:30

And NVIDIA, they've they've they've been pushing a lot of AI for the last couple of years with you know their Blackwell cards, which are what mainly these AI data centers use. But even their consumer cards, they've started using AI algorithms for frame generation. Right. So the graphics card generates one frame and the AI generates the next three frames.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Well, and let's just go back to yeah, and and the comparison too, between regular data centers and AI data centers. How long has Netflix been around? Right? Right. A couple decades, no, at least a decade, right? Yeah, I'm not sure. But they've been around for many, many years before AI. Whenever you watch Netflix, guess what? You're going through a data center. Yep. You you know, the same thing with YouTube, the same thing with anything that you do online, you're going through a data center. So to start screaming that, oh, AI data centers are are drinking up all our water and and gobbling up all our electricity, nah, I mean, it's not any more than it has already been, really, for data centers. Right. And let's get into the water aspect.

Water Myths And Modern Cooling

SPEAKER_01 25:35

People are afraid of oh, it's the Florida aquifer can't handle that. Bull. I mean, a golf course uses more water than a data center, than a AI data center. A golf course does. But you know what? A golf course uses mostly reclaimed water, right? Right. And and also repurposed water. And the AI data center, they don't need all that water. So I don't know where this is coming from, Greg.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Well, but you can so I think a lot of it is and some of the older data centers for for sure used a bit more of like that evaporative cooling system where it would really it would they really did. It used up a lot of the water. But now with modern cooling systems, it is very greatly reduced for sure.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

It's greatly reduced because it's all they're basically reusing. Right. It's a closed system at that point. It's a closed system, right?

SPEAKER_02 26:23

And a lot of them use coolant, essentially, like what you use in your car when you have your freeze. Exactly. So to really increase that cooling capability and it lasts a lot longer. Now there are concerns, you know, when you've got to change that out. You've got to change your coolant every now and again in your car. You do. You got to change out the coolant in those coolant systems to keep them efficient. What do you do with that product? That's another topic.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

That's a whole nother topic.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

But it's uh but it's also it's you know, it's it's all a part of the full environmental concern aspects between what has been an AI blowup. We have seen, I know you mentioned that we've had data centers in the past, but we've seen a vast increase in the number of these centers going up around the country, right?

SPEAKER_01 26:58

Which is why I think the the bill that Governor DeSantis just signed into law,

Florida SB 484 And Who Pays

SPEAKER_01 27:05

pretty good bill, pretty good law. Because it requires the data centers, the big data centers, to pay the full cost of their electricity and infrastructures that they need, not to pass it on to households. Right. Now you may be thinking, well, duh, should they be I mean, yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

But there were municipalities that were using, hey, we have access to power, you don't have to pay for it. That's right. We'll pass it on to other people.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

They're using it as incentives to have the data center be be be built. And and no more of that.

SPEAKER_03 27:34

And a good point on that, too, is you know, a lot of these newer data centers are, like you said, Greg, closed loops on their cooling. So they're not actively pulling from the you know main reservoir that you your water is coming from as well. But we do have a lot of legacy AI data centers that are still constantly hooked in, that have not been retrofitted to be a closed loop that, you know, have shown some municipalities to maybe cause a drop in water pressure for some people. But again, it's as the technology has evolved, these AI data centers are getting better and you know, more efficient. Exactly. And I know a lot of these large AI data centers, they can use like anywhere between like a hundred to five hundred uh megawatts of power. That's a lot of power, you know. That's that's more than a small city. That's definitely yeah, yeah. But at the same time, there is also an upscale happening of our power generation across the country that I'm sure is helping the offset that issue. But again, like you were saying, the bill is offsetting that cost so it's not being put into our laps, the consumer laps, because this data center is being built.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Well, because let's face it, I mean, a lot of the power companies, you know, Duke Energy for for one, you know, the part of their structure for billing you is the cost of doing their business, right? And so when these AI data centers are allowed to to handicap the big power companies, because now suddenly they got to build up all this infrastructure to be able to power these data centers, some of that cost was being passed on to every citizen in the state. And that's not good. And that's what this bill does, it eliminates that. Now, kudos to Florida Power and Light because you know they already have a rate structure that makes these large customers pay a hundred percent of the new power generation that their projects require. Right. Which should again, that's another duh moment, yeah. Just be happening anyway, instead of having everybody else share in the cost. And it just hasn't, you know, been going on completely in the state of Florida. So that's why I kind of like this. It's SB 484 is the law, and I'm glad that Governor DeSantis uh signed that in the law to make sure that we're not paying for all these data centers. Because to your point, Greg, uh, you know, there there is an influx of data centers being built now because they are needed more with AI. Right. So much, so much of us are using the AI tools, we just need more data centers. Right. So it's not the has anything, you know, it's not like we've never had data centers, we've had them for decades. Right. But now we just have more and more sophisticated with with higher consumption of electricity type of machinery inside these data centers. They take up, you know, these uh video cars we talked about from Nvidia. They're they're they're power, they're power hungry uh resources inside a computer. Even you look at your regular gaming computer, the video card inside your computer requires more power in that computer than any other component in your computer.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

Yeah, check out that power supply and see what numbers it's running.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

I with my with a recent upgrade I did to mine, getting just one of NVIDIA's consumer cards, I had upgrade my power supply up to a 1200 watt because a graphics card alone, I think, is pulling about 600, 800 watts alone.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

The graphics card in a gaming computer takes more power than any other component in your computer. Yeah. By far. By far. And so you just multiply that if you think of these data centers that are using these kinds of graphics cards in their data centers, but they're using thousands of them, right? Thousands and thousands, tens of thousands in a data center. That's a lot of power that these data centers need. So they they they are consuming

Power Grid Upgrades And Nuclear Debate

SPEAKER_01 31:20

more power than the standard data center that we've had around.

SPEAKER_02 31:24

Definitely, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

For for decades.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

And even leading up to this with the AI revolution that we've talked a lot about and how that's created more of this need for consumption. We've talked about electric cars as well, putting a strain on the power grid that wasn't expected. The power grid in the United States has long needed an upgrade. Oh, yeah, yeah. I believe that this could will be a catalyst towards that. And we've talked in the past a little bit about Elon Musk's investment in those micro-nuclear power plants. I wonder if we're gonna start seeing a little bit more of that conversation again. President Trump just recently signed an executive order for $700 million to go to retrofitting some of these older coal burning power plants to kind of increase their productivity. Wow. But I wonder if this is really gonna kind of push back again that nuclear conversation that I'm always baffled why it doesn't get more play. I don't under I understand there are the concerns with the nuclear, but overall, it's been massively safe. Safe, cleaner, right? It kind of checks boxes for both sides, right? With your looking at it as a political issue, it kind of checks the boxes on both sides. I would think so.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

And you're right, Greg. We we do need a major, major power grid upgrade in this country. It's it's talk about ancient technology. That's what we're running on.

SPEAKER_03 32:37

A lot of my research I've done, because I'm I'm big on nuclear energy. Like that's that's the push I want for the whole world to just adapt and move to. There are a lot of things that hold you know a lot of people back. And it's thinking way back to the Chernobyl incident, you know, that scared and caused a lot of. Three Mile Island. Yeah. It scared a lot of people into, you know, thinking that it can happen again. And there's also the you know, the concern of just the waste. You know, nuclear waste is very hard to manage. It's got a half-life that's you know gonna outlive me, definitely. You know, it's not something we can just jettison into space and just ignore.

SPEAKER_00 33:11

You know, it's an idea.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

It's an idea. Think about it, should be. SpaceX chairs. But you've got technically, you know, a rocket filled with millions of tons of nuclear fuel that blows up in the stratosphere.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

That's not what happened with Blue Origin here quickly. There's still risks and concerns with space technology.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

The uh the uh what is uh SpaceX call it? The unplanned uh uh instantaneous disassembly or something like that. Uh instead of calling it an explosion, you're always right. But you know, going back to the AI stuff, and it's this is uh something we've talked about before, and I think I want you know more news on this. Where is Elon Musk with putting AI data centers in space?

SPEAKER_01 33:49

He is he's on he's that's part of the IPO. That's part of the reason to to to generate all this money by going public with SpaceX, is because he it needs uh all this money to put those million satellites, which I believe he already got approval. Yep, they've been approved.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

They've talked about lowering the orbit to be able to reduce latency for using certain of those uh new new version two, I believe it is, yeah, of those satellites. So it's a it's a it's a progress. It's uh it's progress. We're getting there. It is, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Uh I think it's gonna happen, and I it's soon too. And I think you know, we're gonna be not only doing our internet through satellite, but our phones, our phone conversations. It's you know, it's it's the next logical thing.

SPEAKER_03 34:32

We we already we already have support in like the most modern smartphones to have emergency satellite usage. One day that could just turn into the regular usage. Yeah. So, you know, it's there's a lot up in the air, I think, right now, with with all of the stuff going on. And but again, you know, AI data centers, that's that's the biggest thing in the news right now, but it isn't really always as bad as it's been painted out to be. It's n I don't think so.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

I know we touched on a lot in this segment. If you have anything that you'd like to say about AI data centers, nuclear power, or if you'd like to talk a little bit more about those tips to help save electricity, use an open mic feature inside the WDBO app. We'd love to hear your comments. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580.

Windows Clipboard History Copy Paste Trick

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Hey there, welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073 FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with David Levitt, President and Founder of Refresh Computer Superstore, and technician Adam Littlefield. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. You can also check out their website at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to David and Adam.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

All right. Thanks, Greg, and thanks everybody for listening to Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. As usual, we had a lot of really cool techie stuff that we talked about today. I'm hoping that you enjoyed listening to what we had to talk about and maybe learn something from that as well. If you missed anything, you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link in the upper right hand corner, and you'll be able to hear the show in its entirety. Better yet, scroll down to the bottom of any page at refreshcomputers.net, put in your email address. That's all we asked for, nothing else. Hit submit, and you will be notified when a new show is published, and you're able to listen to it, and then email notification will have bullet points talking about or indicating what we're going to be talking about on that podcast. Our radio show turned into a podcast, is basically what it is. So in this segment, we wanted to talk about a really cool Windows tip that you may or may not be aware of, right? It's the superpower copy paste mode.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Yeah. This is this is something that when I discovered it, it and I mean it, this is something that was really like almost life-changing for using a computer for me, because the normal that everybody knows is you can hit control C to copy and you control V to paste. Right. But what about Windows C and Windows V?

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Never heard of that. So this is copy paste with history. So how many times have you copied something and then you pasted it, and then you copied something else, and then you went and you pasted that, and then you had an opportunity to cop to paste the first thing that you copied. Right. And it's like, oh darn, I overwrote what I copied by copying something else, right? Well, you can still paste that first thing, right, that second thing, that third thing, that fourth thing, and so on and so on that you copied by using the Windows key plus uh V, right? Instead of the control key plus V. When you go to click paste. So when you do it for the first time, you you'll you'll get a little indicator asking, do you want to enable this feature called clipboard history? Clipboard history feature, and of course you just say yeah. And so after that, every time that you copy something, it remembers all the things that you've copied. I'm not sure how far back it goes, maybe at least 10.

SPEAKER_03 38:21

I haven't found a max for it yet, but I can tell you right now that I've reached over 30 things copied, and I can scroll through the list, click on something I copied eight hours ago, and it just pastes it like nothing.

SPEAKER_02 38:33

And that's what that's what always bothers me with copy paste is I'm like, I don't need I need this thing from a little while ago because I've done the thing and then it didn't work, so I need to start all over again or something like that. So this is a great tip. I honestly I did not know about this one going into this episode. So to see this, that's a great, that's a great tip.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

This was something even that I used once at the store, and our store manager saw me pull it up. He goes, Wow, in the 16 years I've worked here, I never knew that was a feature.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

It's crazy that it is it's something that and it's been around for a while. Yeah. It's been around since Windows 11's been out. Actually, Windows 10 had this feature.

SPEAKER_02 39:09

You know, so well that answers the question like, what do you do with the Windows button now? Because that's always been a question I think that so many people have. Like, what what does this button even do instead of just opening up the start menu?

SPEAKER_03 39:20

And there's there's so many other shortcuts you can use with the Windows key that I've been learning that just it really, really speeds things up. It does.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

I tell you what, a little bit of homework for your AI tool. Get your favorite AI tool out and ask it for all the Windows functions. The Windows key functions. And you'll be surprised and you'll be amazed, and you'll be happy that you did because there's all kinds of cool things. We had a whole show, Greg, once, like three years ago, on the Windows key and all the things that it could do. We had a whole, at least a whole segment anyway. And and there's so many things, it's it's it's amazing. And yeah, so and here, here's another Windows key bonus tip, right? Hit the Windows key plus the dot or the period, right? And it opens the emoji and symbol picker. So it's really cool for like if you just want to drop an emoji into something right that you're in, just hit the Windows key plus the period or the dot.

SPEAKER_03 40:18

It also has all the legacy uh ASCII emojis as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

That does. So it's pretty cool. So listen, folks, about all we're gonna have time for today. Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning because we have a whole new show and all kinds of cool stuff to talk about. If you missed anything today, you can go to refreshcomputers.net, click on that podcast link, and hear the show in its entirety. And so this is David Levitt signing off for this Saturday. We'll be talking to you again tomorrow morning.