What? Google discontinued something that people use? Say it aint so. Shocking. <thud>

I hate podcasts on youtube music! For one thing, the maximum speed is 2X. Far too slow! To be clear, listening to podcasts is the least important part of my day. I need to finish them as quickly as possible and then get on with more important things. Preferably I will do the more important thing at the same time, like eat lunch. 3X minimum for podcasts. Time is money, people!

I recognize that I am weird and that most people do not listen to podcasts at triple speed. But seriously, this transition to youtube is not at all seamless. I have no idea what order or logic the podcasts appear in my list of shows, but it certainly isn't newest first. To get that you go into youtube's autogenerated playlist of new episodes. This has two major drawbacks. First, it does not auto-refresh. I need to leave the playlist and then come back to see new episodes. This wastes my time for no reason. More importantly, though, is that it is presented with the most recent episodes first. This makes sense visually I guess because it puts the most recent episodes at the top. It also means that everything plays in reverse chronological order! Only demons, people who work at the DMV and other inhuman monsters would choose to listen to things this way. Youtube's new podcast offering is clearly designed for aliens and thus, I shall now need to waste my time searching for a podcast replacement. I would use Google for this, only:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/googles-new-ai-search-results-promotes-sites-pushing-malware-scams/

gmail is the only thing they have left to ruin.

Ack, I spoke too soon! Now Google redirects to youtube music. Though... the site still works? Whatever. Google bad, google dumb, etc.

I'm sorry, that was unfair--the program did what it was supposed to, the weak links in this chain were all the humans.

Moving on.

[quote="Google"]Google Podcasts is saying goodbye
After April 2, 2024, you will no longer be able to listen to podcasts in Google Podcasts. Transfer your subscriptions to YouTube Music or export them for the service of your choice.[/quote]
This is in a banner that shows up when you launch the app or go to the website. It is impossible to miss.
It is now April 4th, and literally nothing has changed! I can still launch my podcasts the same way I have every day for the past six or so years: I say "hey google, play my podcasts." And the podcasts show up in the main Google app. podcasts.google.com works fine. The feeds are still updating. Everything works.
Which I'm, actually pretty happy about, but really, they can't even kill the product correctly!

What side ya on there, buddy? You picking sides?

https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/

No, I am telling you that a few months before your referral, you (very likely) got some mail from Costco with a rebate certificate in it. You take that certificate to Costco, and they would have handed you to $108 cold hard cash. You likely thought it was junk mail and tossed it.

Because your membership cost you $120, they wanted to make sure you got your money's worth out of it, so they cut you a check for an additional $12, so that you received $120 total (the cost of your membership).

Well, we got something, but it was only 12 bucks.

Is this -- did they hypnotize you? I am genuinely asking. You have to understand how grateful I am that you are posting on the BBS. But I think that Costco got you.

Or am I meant, in true Costco style, to get a pack of several $12 checks?

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=142505 time=1711769221 user_id=3]
When you say $108 in cash back already, what do you mean? Not trolling. I honestly don't know.
[/quote]

From their website (https://www.costco.com/executive-rewards.html):

[b]The 2% Reward is issued approximately three months prior to the member’s renewal date, in the Renewal Statement, and reflects the Reward earned up until the issue date.[/b]

Sounds like prior to your renewal, you get a rewards certificate that you bring back to the store and redeem for cash. (Mine works slightly differently only because I have their credit card, but it's the same idea.... once a year, you get actual cash back from them).

Every time a computer professional hates text based 2FA, the wings on my back grow stronger.

Buddy of mine told me a story the other day where his daughter left the car while he went into a convenience store. His keyfob's signal wasn't strong enough to tell the car, hey, I'm in here! So the car automatically locked itself. Fob, wallet and phone inside.

He borrows the phone of a random woman and tries to get his insurance to send someone out to open the car. The insurance place wants to make sure it's him, so they send him a code.... to the phone locked inside the car.

I get frustrated in my line of work when people don't spend enough time thinking "what if...." before coding. But 2FA makes people's brains shut off. They don't think about ANYTHING involving it.

I just launched a new YouTube channel. This now requires a phone number, so I gave them my cell phone number. Over the next several hours, YouTube used my cell phone number at least 10 times for MFA nonsense. I get using it once, that's fine. But using it nearly a dozen times during the same session is stupid. With every change, every update, it sends you a new code. Anyway, the punchline is that the final step said, "this phone number is associated with too many accounts and cannot be used, please provide another." The phone number that is good enough to establish a YouTube account is not good enough to verify it. I ultimately fed it a Google Voice number (which forwards to my cell number) which it was pleased as punch with and verified the channel. I'd love to stab the person who came up with this logic and have them explain it to me as they slowly bled out.

When you say $108 in cash back already, what do you mean? Not trolling. I honestly don't know.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=142497 time=1711688737 user_id=3]
"You must have qualified for $108 in cash back rewards, leaving you $12 short, so they cut you a check. How nice of them, eh?"

I don't understand. I paid an extra $60 and got a check for $12. Shouldn't I get a check for $60?
[/quote]

No. You probably got $108 in cash back already. They cut you a check for an extra $12 to make sure you got $120 back, which was the cost of your membership.

"You must have qualified for $108 in cash back rewards, leaving you $12 short, so they cut you a check. How nice of them, eh?"

I don't understand. I paid an extra $60 and got a check for $12. Shouldn't I get a check for $60?

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=142488 time=1711645910 user_id=3]
My wife and I renewed her Costco membership last year. They charged us $120. It is supposed to be $60. We didn't get anything worth the extra sixty bucks. They sent us a check for $12 to be used at Costco for some reason.
[/quote]

They have two levels of membership.

The "basic" one is $60/year. The "executive" one is $120/year.

At the "executive" level, you get 2% cash back on everything you spend (as opposed to 1% with the basic). They will guarantee that the extra $60 is worth it to you. You must have qualified for $108 in cash back rewards, leaving you $12 short, so they cut you a check. How nice of them, eh?

We have a Costco 5 minutes from home. We get 99% of our gas there. The membership more than pays for itself, especially when you get their credit card (4% back on gas, 3% on travel and restaurants, 2% at Costco, 1% everywhere else).

We normally get about $650 cash back every year.

My wife and I renewed her Costco membership last year. They charged us $120. It is supposed to be $60. We didn't get anything worth the extra sixty bucks. They sent us a check for $12 to be used at Costco for some reason.

They intentionally create no way to downgrade your membership online. What a bunch of fucking assholes.

My Moto G Play is too small for my hands, gonna need a tablet.

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=142105 time=1710020971 user_id=3]
On the iPhone 13, the phone itself is so small that you can get anywhere and I do not have particularly large hands.
[/quote]

The 13 and 15 are within .03" of each other.

On my 15, I have to strain my hand to reach up to where the address bar is. It can be done with my likely smaller-than-average hands (draw your own conclusions, they're probably true), but it is not comfortable.

I rather enjoy having it at the bottom of the screen. :shrug

[quote="Ice Cream Jonsey" post_id=142105 time=1710020971 user_id=3]
I do not have particularly large hands.
[/quote]

Shh, you're not supposed to admit that.

[i]Counterpoint[/i]

On the iPhone 13, the phone itself is so small that you can get anywhere and I do not have particularly large hands.

It's not that I want to lower the misery rankings of slavery and the Holocaust. It's more that I want to raise the awfulness of this. You can hopefully see my quandary.