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21 votes
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US v. Google: As landmark 'monopoly power' trial closes, here's what to look for
4 votes -
The man who killed Google Search
81 votes -
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
36 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 -
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 -
New Google geothermal electricity project could be a milestone for clean energy
18 votes -
Apple announces that RCS support is coming to iPhone next year
66 votes -
Google witness accidentally blurts out that Apple gets 36% cut of Safari deal
58 votes -
Australian academics apologise for false AI-generated allegations against big four consultancy firms
10 votes -
In Canada’s battle with Big Tech, smaller publishers and independent outlets struggle to survive
15 votes -
YouTube’s anti-adblock and uBlock Origin
96 votes -
The people who ruined the internet
73 votes -
Google decides to pull up the ladder on the open internet, pushes for unconstitutional regulatory proposals
66 votes -
Trial testimony - Google considered and rejected creating a form of search that doesn't track users history from website to website
14 votes -
Google testimony confirms paying billions to lock in default search engine status
33 votes -
‘Reddit can survive without search’: company reportedly threatens to block Google
71 votes -
YouTube anti-adblock detection is illegal in the EU
77 votes -
Firefox money: Investigating the bizarre finances of Mozilla
16 votes -
Web Summit chief steps down over Israel remarks
15 votes -
YouTube is now rolling out disabling videos after detecting adblockers
122 votes -
What should I look at on Google Earth?
I opened up the Google Earth app on my phone wanting to browse random beautiful and interesting places, but it doesn't seem to have a good way to do it. (Maybe this is a limitation on the mobile...
I opened up the Google Earth app on my phone wanting to browse random beautiful and interesting places, but it doesn't seem to have a good way to do it. (Maybe this is a limitation on the mobile app, and the desktop app is better?)
For example, if I try searching for "wetlands", it only shows me a list of maybe 10 places near my current location.
I tried searching the web too, but I mostly get "listicles" like "10 amazing places on Google Earth" but they're practically unreadable with the webpage being covered with ads.
I found Earth View Gallery https://blog.google/products/earth/most-stunning-images-from-google-earth/ and it's nice but it's just a gallery of images with no contextual information (at least when viewing on mobile). It shows me beautiful pictures but no information about where the picture is from... I would have expected it to link to the spot on Google Earth.
Anyway if you happen to have some recommended places for me to check out on Google Earth I'd love to see them! I like:
- wetland-type habitats like marshes, pond systems, mangrove swamps
- beautiful natural scenery in general
- abandoned and/or ancient architecture
But open to any interesting recommendations in general.
Edit: It does seem to be slightly better on desktop. Searching on Google Earth works better, and Earth View Gallery does link to the location on Google Earth. I wish Google Earth had like, a built-in community feature for me to check out other people's public projects.
22 votes -
Should I bother installing another OS on my Pixel 4a?
I have a Pixel 4a which has just reached end of support for Android. However, I love this phone and the only hardware issue is that the battery doesn't last me scrolling social media all day, so I...
I have a Pixel 4a which has just reached end of support for Android. However, I love this phone and the only hardware issue is that the battery doesn't last me scrolling social media all day, so I am not looking to upgrade to a newer handheld just yet.
I've been looking into Graphene OS and Lineage OS as perhaps alternatives I should consider, at least just so I can keep getting security updates. However, looking through GOS, they say that their 4a build is an "extended support" build different from the main OS which is described as a "stopgap" before upgrading phones. LOS says it's supported but through an automatically generated page which doesn't leave me with much confidence about the attention and stability of the build on my particular phone.
I'm asking y'all's opinion on whether I should even bother. Security upgrades are important, but my phone is a secondary device at best, one which I always use with the same apps and websites and honestly not really that much of a security risk. Watch hubris get me.
23 votes -
Google user data has become a favorite police shortcut
54 votes -
Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro to get seven years of software updates
43 votes -
New developments in US antitrust enforcement - more and new types of cases brought under Joe Biden, new leaders at the Federal Trade Commission
14 votes -
Critical 0day in WebP: Google assigns a CVE for libwebp and gives it a 10.0 base score.
28 votes -
Google sued for negligence after man drove off collapsed bridge while following map directions
67 votes -
EU warns Elon Musk after Twitter found to have highest rate of disinformation followed by Facebook
34 votes -
Google killing basic HTML version of Gmail in January 2024
44 votes -
Your Fitbit is useless – unless you consent to unlawful data sharing
74 votes -
You can tell how bad Google Searches are now when you try to search for "Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki" and it pushes you a single outdated wiki and a bunch of posts telling you to use bg3.wiki
54 votes -
Google US antitrust trial - judge ordered trial exhibits removed from the web - the Verge responds by publishing them
24 votes -
Incomplete disclosures by Apple and Google create “huge blindspot” for 0-day hunters
13 votes -
Bard can now connect to your Google apps and services
16 votes -
Collective letter from game development companies concerning Unity's runtime fee
36 votes -
Chromebooks will get updates for ten years
23 votes -
Economist, business professor, digital economy expert Shane Greenstein discusses the US Department of Justice vs Google antitrust case
4 votes -
YouTube is testing a three-strikes policy for ad blocking
173 votes -
Google goes to trial in biggest US challenge to tech power in decades
32 votes -
EU ‘gatekeeper’ list has five American and no European companies
43 votes -
Google gets its way, bakes a user-tracking ad platform directly into Chrome
138 votes -
Google Gemini eats the world – Gemini smashes GPT-4 by 5X, the GPU-poors
9 votes -
After two decades the dominance of Google Search comes into question
85 votes -
Google wants an invisible digital watermark to bring transparency to AI art
30 votes -
Google removes fake Signal and Telegram apps hosted on Play
27 votes -
The Ugly Mugs Ireland android app has been removed from the app store
16 votes -
Google axes bad reviews of tracker exposing Uyghur forced labor
38 votes -
YouTube's privacy settings now block you from seeing suggested content
I've always been a bit of a privacy enthousiast. Have had everything blocked that Google and by extension YouTube wants to scrape off you. This means I've also blocked my view history. Recently...
I've always been a bit of a privacy enthousiast. Have had everything blocked that Google and by extension YouTube wants to scrape off you. This means I've also blocked my view history.
Recently YouTube started giving out a warning on the homepage that you have blocked your view history, that you can change it in your privacy settings and that it helps them serve you better content. What it also means is that your homepage is just one big popup to guilt trip you into sharing your data. The homepage won't show any suggested content anymore.
While it is in their interest to do so and since they are a company wanting to make money it is understandable. Nevertheless it seems harsh from going to see content that you might like to only seeing a big warning sign right now.
What are you experiences with this?
34 votes -
darken (developer of SD Maid for Android) has had his developer account terminated after twelve years for "stalkerware policy" on Google Play despite having no actual stalking tools in the app
14 votes -
“Gaming Chromebooks” with Nvidia GPUs apparently killed with little fanfare
11 votes -
Baldur’s Gate 3 could have saved Google Stadia
40 votes -
CNET is deleting old articles to try to improve its Google Search ranking
29 votes -
$5 billion Google lawsuit over ‘Incognito mode’ tracking moves a step closer to trial
58 votes -
Typograms — an image format for lightweight diagrams
18 votes -
Sync for Lemmy now available on Play Store
80 votes