#tech woes

Create a new German PP account (with a different email login)

Link that new account to my German bank account by logging into my bank through PP – effectively giving PP my bank login details

Then of course I had to confirm the bank login on my banking app, for which I needed to open the app using my fingerprint and then click "confirm login"

Finally the new German account was set up and it was time to make the transfer. So...

I logged out of my German account

I logged into my US account

I chose the "Send and receive money" option

I was then asked to confirm my identity through either 1) a text to my US phone number; 2) a Whatsapp message to my US phone number; or 3) "verifying my photo ID"

I do not have a US phone number (see: the whole living in Germany thing), so I had to choose the third option, although I was feeling pretty uncomfortable by this point

I had to scan a QR code on my computer screen and open the PP verification link in question on my phone

At this point I was asked to choose between five methods of verification, rather than just three. The first was "get a verification code emailed to you", so I chose that option with relief.

I then opened my email account on the computer, got the code, and typed it in on my phone

Then I realized with disappointment that this was only the pre-verification in order to verify me sufficiently to allow me to move onto the next step, which was the REAL verification

I was informed that I would have to let the app scan my face and also scan my photo ID

At this point I said FUCK THAT, NEVER MIND, JESUS CHRIST

Listen. I'm glad PayPal is being careful with my money. But like. Dude. There's gotta be another way? This is creepy as shit.

so I've been trying to set up a new-ish computer and reached the stage of installing software, but Windows won't let me

I'm trying to install Office 2013 (which I own). I've never installed the Microsoft 365 garbage on this computer, but the installation package is giving me an error that says the machine already has a pre-release or beta version of Office installed. and a new machine certainly doesn't come with non-rent-seeking software

because I can't uninstall something I never installed, I've had to delete the files and folders where they hid all the Office 365 elements, removed all traces from the Registry, disabled everything via Group Policy, and went Command Line Admin to directly strip that garbage from the drive

I even pulled out my old external DVD and installed Office 2000, in hopes that uninstalling that one might clear up whatever is going on with Office 2013. (interestingly, it wouldn't install using the newer Dell drive, but did using the older Samsung one)

and yet. still the error code. MS help offers nothing useful, and even drilling to the depths of Reddit user forums cannot help me

Meta’s various sites have over 3 billion users, an incredible percentage of the world’s population. But businesses demand constant growth and, not content with almost half of the living people on the planet, Meta has decided to cut out the middle-man. It is flooding Facebook and Instagram with AI-generated posters of its own creation.

A December 27, 2024 article in Financial Times laid out the vision. “We expect these AIs to actually, over time, exist on our platforms, kind of in the same way that accounts do,” Connor Hayes, vice president of generative AI at Meta, told the outlet. “They’ll have bios and profile pictures and be able to generate and share content powered by AI on the platform . . . that’s where we see all of this going.”

Soon people discovered that Meta’s ghoulish posters had been among us for months, even years. There’s Liv, a “Proud black queer momma of 2 & truth-teller,” according to its Instagram profile. Add to that Brian, “everybody’s grandpa;” Jade, “your girl for all things hip-hop;” and Carter, a “relationship coach.” I’m sure there are more yet to be discovered [...] Liv’s account posts photos of children that do not exist, Brian rambles about how much seniors love to learn about textiles above an AI-generated photo of a nursing home where the faces of the elderly melt together like Barbie dolls cooked in the microwave, and Jade posts photos of her non-existent vinyl collection, the labels impossible to read. “Road tripping with friends is the ultimate relationship test drive. Nothing says ‘friendship goals’ like being confined to a car with your favorite people, navigating unfamiliar roads, and sharing questionable gas station snacks. But the real prize? Watching the miles fly by, creating memories to last a lifetime, and witnessing the beauty of the country together. #imaginedWithAi,” Carter said in a June 25, 2024 post.

Translation: You do not exist as a person on Meta-owned socmed, only an account, a set of data points.

Like. The only reason they're pulling the profiles is because "they weren't received well." Meaning to say if more people had fallen for this shit and engaged with the profiles, they'd have just left them up ? Because 'engagement' is all that matters, right ???

Another point of ire is that there doesn’t appear to be a way to block the bots through typical channels: the option to block or restrict the profiles is missing.

Meta spokesperson Liz Sweeney told The Verge in an email [...] the company has identified the bug that was affecting users’ ability to block the accounts, and that the profiles are being removed to fix the issue.

The idea of purposely flooding social media with bots is ridiculous on its face, but it’s in line with how Meta has promoted generative AI tools. Anyone in the US can make a chatbot of themselves, with the idea being that users can send their bots in their place to chat with followers.