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82 votes
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Why did Google Maps have a big black smudge in the South Pacific before 2012? And why did it disappear? And what does it have to do with Captain Cook? And what is a phantom island? | Map Men
37 votes -
Help me ditch Chrome's password manager!
I've been trying to reduce my reliance on all things Google, and one of the big ones is password management. I've tried several times to make the jump, but every time I start researching options...
I've been trying to reduce my reliance on all things Google, and one of the big ones is password management. I've tried several times to make the jump, but every time I start researching options I'm overwhelmed by the selection. There are a lot of popular options out there, and I really don't have the time/energy to endure a misstep. So without a clear idea of which manager will check all of my boxes, I end up bailing on the process and keep using chrome's built in option.
So to start, here's what I like about Chrome:
- Automatically offers to store passwords without extra clicks
- Autofills automatically where it can, and gives me an easy choice when it can't
- Works everywhere I need passwords. (basically everywhere I browse the internet since chrome works everywhere)
- Minimal overhead. This is hard to beat since Chrome just includes it, so I'm fine with a little extra setup if necessary.
I used to use keepass portable on a thumb drive (I want to say circa ~2009ish), but it became really inconvenient as my usage shifted more to mobile devices.
I see this as a first step to also reducing my reliance on Chrome so I can start to consider other browsers. Right now I feel locked in to Google's ecosystem, but I know I can break it up if I don't get too bogged down by choice. Much appreciate any help. :)
34 votes -
Polish court orders Google to stop favouring its own price-comparison service in search results
16 votes -
Google blocks some California news as fight over online journalism bill escalates
26 votes -
With Vids, Google thinks it has the next big productivity tool for work
17 votes -
Google unveils custom Arm-based chips, following similar efforts at rivals Amazon and Microsoft
10 votes -
Google is killing Retro Dodo and other independent sites
47 votes -
Wikipedia "AI" Chrome extension
19 votes -
Lessons learned from the Google trade secret theft indictment
7 votes -
Stability AI reportedly ran out of cash to pay its bills for rented cloudy GPUs
28 votes -
From its start, Gmail conditioned us to trade privacy for free services
32 votes -
What useful tasks are possible with an LLM with only 3B parameters?
Playing with Llama 7B and 13B, I found that the 13B model was capable of doing a simple task, rewriting titles in sentence case for Tildes submissions. The 7B model doesn't appear capable of the...
Playing with Llama 7B and 13B, I found that the 13B model was capable of doing a simple task, rewriting titles in sentence case for Tildes submissions. The 7B model doesn't appear capable of the same task, out of the box.
I heard about Android's new AICore available on a couple of new devices. But it sounds like Gemini Nano, which runs on-device, can only handle 2B or 3B parameters.
Is this size of model useful for real tasks? Does it only become useful after training on a specific domain? I'm a novice and wanting to learn a little bit about it. On-device AI is an appealing concept to me.
12 votes -
Spotting visual signs of gentrification at scale
11 votes -
In the AI era, is translation already dead?
18 votes -
Please proofread this AI-generated AutoHotkey script
For my job I need to copy a person's name out of a field and split it into first and last names. I have a AHK script that can do this but my version only works with simple, one-word,...
For my job I need to copy a person's name out of a field and split it into first and last names. I have a AHK script that can do this but my version only works with simple, one-word, non-hyphenated names. I tried prompting Gemini as below.
There is a line of text consisting of one or more words, a comma, then one or more words. write an autohotkey 1.1 script to select everything before the comma, store it to a variable called firstname, then select everything after the comma and store it to a variable called lastname. thanks
(the firstname and lastname variables should be swapped as the last name would come before the comma, that was my error)
Here's the AutoHotkey 1.1 script to achieve what you described:
; This script splits a text line into first and last name based on a comma #NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility. SendMode Input ; Simulates keystrokes for reliable input. ; Function to split the text Func SplitText(_text, firstName, lastName) { StringSplit, parts, _text, `,` if (parts[1]) { firstName := parts[1] ; Assign first name lastName := SubStr(_text, 1 + StrLen(parts[1])+1) ; Extract last name after comma (including space) } else { firstName := _text ; Handle cases without a comma lastName := "" } } ; Hotkey to trigger the script (replace F2 with your desired key) F2:: Send, ^c ; Copy the selected text to clipboard clipText := ClipboardAll ; Read the clipboard content SplitText(clipText, firstName, lastName) ; Call the function to split the text MsgBox, First Name: %firstName%`nLast Name: %lastName% ; Optional: Clear clipboard to avoid unintended pasting (comment out if not desired) ; Clipboard := Return
Explanation:
#NoEnv and SendMode Input: These lines are included for performance and reliable input simulation.
Func SplitText(_text, firstName, lastName): This function takes the text (_text) as input and assigns the split parts to variables firstName and lastName.
StringSplit, parts, _text, ,:** Splits the text based on the comma (,`) delimiter.
if (parts[1]):** Checks if there's a second part (i.e., text after the comma).
If true, the first part is assigned to firstName and the text after the comma (including the space) is extracted using SubStr and assigned to lastName.
else:** If there's no comma, the entire text is assigned to firstName and lastName is set to an empty string.
F2::: This line defines a hotkey. When F2 is pressed, the following actions occur:
Send, ^c:** Copies the selected text to the clipboard.
clipText := ClipboardAll:** Reads the copied text from the clipboard and stores it in the variable clipText.
SplitText(clipText, firstName, lastName):** Calls the function to split the copied text into first and last names.
MsgBox:** Displays a message box showing the extracted first name and last name.
Optional: Clear Clipboard: The commented line Clipboard := clears the clipboard content after processing. Uncomment this line if you want to avoid accidentally pasting the copied text elsewhere.Edit: To answer questions, and provide info I probably should have from the beginning: I'm a medical transcriptionist using AHK with my job's software (Emdat Inscribe) and a word expander (Instant Text). Inscribe seems to be browser-based but functions as a standalone app. I already have dozens of AHK 1.1 macros; my .ahk file has over 2000 lines, although I'm sure it's terribly written code. This is also why I'm disinclined to switch to AHK 2.0 since I have no desire to rewrite everything unless absolutely necessary. The first part of this macro is a bunch of keypresses to jump to the relevant patient info field, then this part would be used to store the names appropriately. I already have hotkeys to use the variables as needed and most macros are limited with #ifwinactive to Inscribe.
6 votes -
How to start Google
27 votes -
Cracking down on Big Tech works. Brave, Firefox, Vivaldi surge on iOS.
25 votes -
How sixteen companies are dominating the world’s Google search results (2024 Edition)
24 votes -
The FBI’s new tactic: Catching American suspects with push alerts
32 votes -
Google announces major update to combat AI-generated spam in search results
21 votes -
Chile puts brakes on Google data center over water use, environmental concerns
17 votes -
I got paid $0.33 for confirming with Google that I got a haircut where I did and paid with a card
Who got the better end of that deal? It was in Google rewards. They were already involved in that transaction. How much is me matching their phone records really worth?
27 votes -
Google cut a deal with Reddit for AI training data
23 votes -
How Google is killing independent sites like ours
59 votes -
Google’s retiring of Internet archiving tool draws ire of China researchers
18 votes -
Google Bard is now Gemini; Gemini Advanced launched
24 votes -
Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro is a new, more efficient AI model
10 votes -
How bad are search results? Let's compare Google, Bing, Marginalia, Kagi, Mwmbl, and ChatGPT.
47 votes -
Google Pixel phones unusable after January 2024 system update
29 votes -
I got a spam call and the automated voice that requests their reasoning for calling was my voice AI generated
13 votes -
Big Tech won’t let you leave. Here’s a way out.
28 votes -
Google formally endorses right to repair, will lobby to pass repair laws
25 votes -
Google's Say What You See - Come up with a prompt to match an already generated image
12 votes -
The perfect webpage: How the internet reshaped itself around Google’s search algorithms
15 votes -
Custom phone OS - long term opinions?
I am and have been on a bit of a quest to make my computing devices suck less. Over the last few years I have migrated all of my laptops and desktops over to various Linux flavors. My experience...
I am and have been on a bit of a quest to make my computing devices suck less.
Over the last few years I have migrated all of my laptops and desktops over to various Linux flavors. My experience with this process is that each flavor has their own quirks that need to be ironed out, but after getting things running there is little in the way of maintenance. Things kind of just work nowadays.
I have been looking into getting something like (but not necessarily) LineageOS on my phone. As I am looking into this and reading forums on the subject, it seems like a perpetual arms race between application developers and application users. One puts in a way to check for root, then there are root hiders, then there are root hider checkers, then there are root hiders that you build with custom names, etc.
I want my device to not suck.
I don’t want to be going in and fighting with my banking applications every time there is an update. I am totally willing to fight a painful setup once.
Is a custom phone OS something that is essentially only viable to use if you are driven by spite? Am I reading too much into the struggles that are posted in various forums? I am looking for any input for anyone that has used a custom OS short or long term.
26 votes -
Google's VideoPoet: A large language model for zero-shot video generation
16 votes -
Scientists explain why ‘doing your own research’ leads to believing conspiracies
42 votes -
Largest dataset powering AI images removed after discovery of Child Sexual Abuse Materials
27 votes -
Fighting with Fitbit's tech support
I doubt I'll find any new ideas, but maybe someone here has one. I'm running out of places to turn, with no solution. I have been in a fight with Fitbit support for a few weeks now over their push...
I doubt I'll find any new ideas, but maybe someone here has one. I'm running out of places to turn, with no solution.
I have been in a fight with Fitbit support for a few weeks now over their push to migrate everyone to a Google-linked Fitbit account. I'm pretty sure what I've found is a rare edge case of a bug, or rather, an unaccounted for set of conditions when trying to migrate.
A long time ago, 2017 I think, I created a Google-linked Fitbit Account (via oauth, "Login with Google"). I used it briefly and then stopped, and completely forgot about its existence.
In 2022, I got a Pixel Watch and created a new/second Fitbit Account with a different email address, as I did not remember I had a Fitbit account already and I wanted to use a masked email address through my personal domain.
With the push to migrate all Fitbit accounts to Google accounts, I decided to try to do so last month. When I attempted to migrate my second account to a Google account, I got an error that I already had an account registered under my Google account. So I logged in to that old 2017 Google account and initiated its deletion. It told it me would take 30 days to delete it, so I waited 31 days.
31 days later, I tried to migrate my second account to a Google account. When I try to do so, I get an error:
Can't use Fitbit with this Google Account This could be because you're using a Google Workspace account, or because your account is supervised.
My account is neither a child account, nor a Workspace account, it's a standard (adult) account I've had for something like 16 years.
So I tried to see if my old Google account was perhaps not deleted after all. I tried to log in to my old account via oauth (Sign In > Continue with Google), and I get a different error:
Sign in again to continue Since you deleted Fitbit from your Google Account, you’ll need to sign in again as a new user.
I suspect that what happens when I deleted my old/original Google account is that it wasn't actually deleted, but made inactive with some "deleted" flag, but the account hasn't been purged. As a result, I'm unable to migrate my new account to the same email address I used for my old Google account.
Reaching out to Fitbit, they continually put the blame on Google for reporting my account as a workspace/supervised account, and the only solution they'll offer me is "You should create a new Google account". Google has also been unable to help, but that doesn't surprise me, as I don't think it's an issue on their end. Requests to Fitbit to escalate my case to a higher tier of support and/or someone from some type of database team have been stonewalled, and I think that Fitbit support has now just stopped responding to me entirely.
Does anyone have any idea where I could turn?
14 votes -
Google promises unlimited cloud storage; then cancels plan; then tells journalist his life’s work will be deleted without enough time to transfer the data
90 votes -
Pixel 6 owners who use multiple profiles run into problems with Android 14
13 votes -
Google Groups to drop most Usenet support on Feb. 22, keeping only a read-only archive of pre-2/22/2024 posts
17 votes -
YouTube likely lowering resolution of videos if it detects you using Firefox on Asahi Linux
39 votes -
US Federal jury decides Google’s Android app store benefits from anticompetitive barriers
62 votes -
Today's Google doodle is pretty entertaining
Google's Most Searched Playground: find on a huge map the most searched things of the year
11 votes -
Google announces Gemini model, claims it outperforms GPT-4
43 votes -
US senator warns governments are spying on Apple and Google users via push notifications
38 votes -
Smartglasses use ChatGPT to help the blind and visually impaired | 5G Playbook
7 votes -
I edited the Netflix Castlevania show's first two seasons into a single, slight-over-two-hours movie
51 votes