Ditka’s Pot Roast Nachos — Still Craveable, Just Not Downtown Anymore
This one keeps coming up. On Planet Rage #238, in the middle of remembering Mike Ditka after his passing, one of the hosts couldn’t help himself: “His restaurants are good. They have pot roast nachos. That’s their specialty.” “Ooh, I want that. Sounds so damn good.” Same bit turned up on Unrelenting #207 too — pot roast nachos, repeatedly singled out as the thing to order.
One heads-up if you’re planning a trip based on this: the original Ditka’s flagship, the Gold Coast location in downtown Chicago, has been permanently closed since 2020. The restaurant hasn’t disappeared, though — Ditka’s Oakbrook, in Oak Brook Terrace, is still open and taking reservations, pot roast nachos presumably included.
Book a table: Ditka’s Oakbrook on OpenTable.
[Planet Rage #238 10:44]
The Art of Deception — Kevin Mitnick’s Classic Book on Social Engineering
While swapping stories about Kevin Mitnick — the legendary hacker who got famous not for coding skill but for social engineering (he talked his way into phone-company buildings just by carrying a clipboard, and got employees to hand over their own logins by posing as IT) — one of the hosts gave a genuine personal recommendation for Mitnick’s book: “a very good book if you’re into that kind of thing, the psychology of how people can get you to believe things or just where you don’t ask questions.”
That’s The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security, Mitnick’s first book, written with William L. Simon. It’s become something of a classic in the security world — less about computers, more about how scammers and social engineers manipulate people into handing over access. Given how often “how a lot of these scams are working now” came up in the same breath, it holds up.
Several editions are in print, so here’s a search starting point rather than a single pinned listing: The Art of Deception on Amazon.
[Planet Rage #238 40:07]
Pot Shards — Adam’s Uncle Donald Gregg’s CIA Memoir
A genuine family-history tip that almost slipped by in a segment about ex-CIA pundits writing books: Adam’s uncle, Donald Gregg, wrote a memoir called Pot Shards — and before it could be published, he had to submit it to the CIA’s prepublication review board, which Adam calls “the pickle factory,” for sign-off. The agency made him cut material about his time in Japan before they’d let it go to print. Gregg had a genuinely significant real-world career in and around U.S. intelligence and foreign policy: he served as National Security Advisor to Vice President George H.W. Bush and later as U.S. Ambassador to South Korea.
A must for your No Agenda bookshelf!
[No Agenda #1911 1:35:11]
RAM and Storage Prices Are Spiking — Here’s How to Track Them Before You Buy
A real, practical heads-up buried in the show’s “clip of the day” segment: RAM and storage drive prices have spiked hard this year, driven by data centers eating up the world’s SSD and memory supply. Guest co-host Rob backed it up with real numbers — a 256GB SanDisk SD card he bought in February for $74 is now going for $220, and a 4TB hard drive he bought the same month for $575 is now fetching $800 used. His advice, bluntly: “buy your hard drives two years before you need them” — track prices and buy before you’re forced to pay a spike price.
Two real tools for doing that tracking, both named on air: PCPartPicker’s price-trends page (it tracks SSD and hard-drive price history, not just full builds) and a newer site called RAM Radar, built specifically for watching memory and storage prices over time. Adam’s take: “These are good tips.” Worth a bookmark before your next drive or RAM purchase.
Not sold on Amazon — these are free price-tracking sites, not products. Check them out: PCPartPicker price trends and RAM Radar.
[No Agenda #1911 2:10:12]
Gray Zone Warfare — the Realistic Military Shooter Gene Can’t Stop Playing
Gene’s pick for the most realistic game currently out: Gray Zone Warfare. He likes it for the tactical realism (limited ammo, no spray-and-pray, real disorientation effects when a grenade goes off near you) but specifically calls out that the in-game guns are modeled on real manufacturers’ actual parts — you can build a genuine Daniel Defense rifle from in-game components and carry it into matches. If you want a shooter that rewards actual tactics over twitch reflexes, this is his pick.
Not sold on Amazon — it’s a Steam game. Get it: Gray Zone Warfare on Steam.
[Unrelenting #207 55:55]
Required Reading: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
An actual on-air homework assignment: “If you haven’t read Douglas Adams, we are going to give that as your homework before the next episode. Read the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” Gene calls it part of “the greatest trilogy ever written” (it’s actually five books) and credits Adams as a sharp, dry, dystopian-comedy pioneer taken from us too soon. Both hosts agree: if you’ve only seen the movie or TV adaptation, neither captured the book’s very British, ironic tone — read the original.
Several editions are in print, so rather than pick one for you: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on Amazon.
[Unrelenting #207 1:54:49]
Ditka’s Pot Roast Nachos — Still Craveable, Just Not Downtown Anymore
This one keeps coming up. On Planet Rage #238, in the middle of remembering Mike Ditka after his passing, one of the hosts couldn’t help himself: “His restaurants are good. They have pot roast nachos. That’s their specialty.” “Ooh, I want that. Sounds so damn good.” Same bit turned up on Unrelenting #207 too —…
The Art of Deception — Kevin Mitnick’s Classic Book on Social Engineering
While swapping stories about Kevin Mitnick — the legendary hacker who got famous not for coding skill but for social engineering (he talked his way into phone-company buildings just by carrying a clipboard, and got employees to hand over their own logins by posing as IT) — one of the hosts gave a genuine personal…
Pot Shards — Adam’s Uncle Donald Gregg’s CIA Memoir
A genuine family-history tip that almost slipped by in a segment about ex-CIA pundits writing books: Adam’s uncle, Donald Gregg, wrote a memoir called Pot Shards — and before it could be published, he had to submit it to the CIA’s prepublication review board, which Adam calls “the pickle factory,” for sign-off. The agency made…
Ditka’s Pot Roast Nachos — Still Craveable, Just Not Downtown Anymore
This one keeps coming up. On Planet Rage #238, in the middle of remembering Mike Ditka after his passing, one of the hosts couldn’t help himself: “His restaurants are good. They have pot roast nachos. That’s their specialty.” “Ooh, I want that. Sounds so damn good.” Same bit turned up on Unrelenting #207 too —…
The Art of Deception — Kevin Mitnick’s Classic Book on Social Engineering
While swapping stories about Kevin Mitnick — the legendary hacker who got famous not for coding skill but for social engineering (he talked his way into phone-company buildings just by carrying a clipboard, and got employees to hand over their own logins by posing as IT) — one of the hosts gave a genuine personal…
Pot Shards — Adam’s Uncle Donald Gregg’s CIA Memoir
A genuine family-history tip that almost slipped by in a segment about ex-CIA pundits writing books: Adam’s uncle, Donald Gregg, wrote a memoir called Pot Shards — and before it could be published, he had to submit it to the CIA’s prepublication review board, which Adam calls “the pickle factory,” for sign-off. The agency made…