I just had Google’s A.I. transcribe and summarize a conference call I was on. It worked, I guess. Reading through the transcript I had one important fact hammered home to me.
When I speak in public I sounds as if I am roughly as intelligent as a chipmunk. Make that a chipmunk with a speech impediment. I mean… wow, do I suck at speaking.
Here’s today’s photo a day pic to distract you all from how bad I suck at verbal communication. Ah-duh.
Here is a quick follow up to yesterday’s post about asking an A.I. to suggest some new names for my band.
Last night I went back to Google Gemini and asked a similar question. I didn’t reference where we are from, but instead mentioned something about how we were all getting up there in age. It again responded with a list of names that were mostly inane and lame.
There was one stand out though. I shared it with the rest of the band. I shared it with my wife too, and now she is really rooting for us to use it.
The Viagra Falls.
At last, A.I. does something useful. At last.
Want to know something that would make me really happy?
It would make me really happy if the damn spam filter in Gmail would actually do it’s damn job.
I can’t tell you how many junk emails I get over the course of a day that I have already, on multiple occasions, marked as spam. I know I’ve already marked the from addresses as spam because when I send the new emails to the spam folder I don’t get prompted with the unsubscribe option the way you do when you send something to spam the first time.
It’s not the end of the world or anything, but it does get on my nerves. It is something small and annoying that really pisses me off when it happens.
Come on Gmail. I’ve been a user since 2005 for crying out loud. Do your damn job.
Sing a Christmas song:
https://g.co/arts/mvZzrjALBd7MZFUh6
Make your own classic:
https://artsandculture.google.com/experiment/blob-opera/AAHWrq360NcGbw?cp=e30
When I first went back to college in 1997 one of the first classes I took was a course in using office software. I don’t know why. It was called Intro to Computing and I was a Computer Science major. I barely used any of it again over the course of the last 23 years.
Until today.
I am keeping two Google spreadsheets. One tracks COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts by date, the other does the same for the United States. One of the columns tracks the daily change in total cases. Today’s total minus yesterday’s total. Another column tracks the death rate. Just a few minutes ago I figured out how to take a math function from one cell and fill it down to the entire column below it. I knew how to do that back in 1997 but I didn’t know how to do it in Google Sheets. I am ignorant no longer (well…).
Oh, and did I mention that I have line graphs on both sheets too? I’m tracking the curves and hoping it is flatter than it would have been without us all staying at home. I hope so, but based on my little graphs it sure doesn’t look it. Those curves are steep.
Do you use Google Chrome for your web browsing needs?
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away
Enjoy the goofy fun.
You’re welcome.
Google has come one step closer to World Domination!!!
Well, maybe not world domination, but definitely apps-on-my-iPhone domination.
They have released an iOS version of their Google Calendar app. Add it to the list of Google apps I chose to use over the native Apple apps. Calendar, Gmail, Chrome, Maps… And counting.
And no, I have absolutely no interest in switching to an Android phone. Zero. None.
Do you have a Google account? You know how Google Ads are based on things you’ve searched for? Did you know you can opt out of that? You’ll still get ads, but they won’t be based on things you’ve been discussing in Gmail or watching on Youtube, or any other creepy things like that.
I assume Google will still store all of that info, but at least there will be one less place they are using it to make money off of you.
Go here:
https://www.google.com/settings/
Click Account History from the menu near the top of the page.
At the bottom of the page there is a section called Related settings. Go to Ads and click edit settings.
At the bottom of the table there is a row called Opt-out settings. You can opt out of focused ads both on Google sites, and on non Google sites.
I found this information on this article from BGR.com.
Why does Ello hate me? I requested invites using two different email addresses and nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zip.
I guess they hate me. Remember when I wanted Google Wave invites and Google hated me? There was another one too, was it Google Buzz? I just want social media sites to accept me for who I am… a ridiculously tall red head with lots and lots to say about absolutely nothing of value. Why does that rub these sites the wrong way? Why don’t they like me?
I just want an invite. Now I am a sad panda.
This is an unusual topic for me. This is the one where the unabashed Apple fanboy bitches about Apple.
Let’s see if I have the time line correct on this.
About two months ago I tried to associate the laptop I use when I work from home to my Apple ID. It sort of failed because I had too many computers authorized and I didn’t want to do to the work to find one to deauthorize, or to deauthorize all of them and start over. I just decided to forget about whatever I had been planning to do.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when we had the whole tablet computer shake up. Jen got a new iPad Mini and passed her iPad Air down to me. When I tried to set up my iTunes Match account I was given an error message stating my account would not be available to be added to a new machine for something like 40 days.
Ummm… What?
Apparently, Apple has a policy that states when you associate your iTunes account to a new device you must wait 90 days to associate it to another device.
Really?
You mean I can’t access the iTunes Match account THAT I PAY FOR on my new iPad? I can’t listen to the music THAT I PAID FOR on my new iPad? I can’t watch movies and TV shows THAT I PAID FOR on my new iPad?
That seems to be the case, yes. I did some forum searching for ways around it and I couldn’t find anything.
So while I wait out the final four weeks or so I have given the finger to Apple and gone back to setting up one of my pre-iTunes Match my-music-in-the-cloud solutions.
Google Music.
That’s right, Apple. I am setting up Google Music to run in place of the iTunes Match THAT I PAY FOR on my own swanky Apple device. Unlike the last time I looked at Google Music, there is an official Google iOS app. I just test drove it while driving over to Dunks and back. It worked great. I’m using it on my MacBook right now. Richard and Linda Thompson are sounding great over the Google entry in the iTunes competition game.
I want my account, Apple. I want it now and I am willing to give my fanboydome to your enemy while you fail to give it to me.
Inside the Red Head's Head 