#Microsoft ALL ACCESS subscription

[mostlysignssomeportents]

An adversarial iMessage client for Android

Adversarial interoperability is one of the most reliable ways to protect tech users from predatory corporations: that's when a technologist reverse-engineers an existing product to reconfigure or mod it (interoperability) in ways its users like, but which its manufacturer objects to (adversarial):

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

"Adversarial interop" is a mouthful, so at EFF, we coined the term "competitive compatibility," or comcom, which is a lot easier to say and to spell.

Scratch any tech success and you'll find a comcom story. After all, when a company turns its screws on its users, it's good business to offer an aftermarket mod that loosens them again. HP's $10,000/gallon inkjet ink is like a bat-signal for third-party ink companies. When Mercedes announces that it's going to sell you access to your car's accelerator pedal as a subscription service, that's like an engraved invitation to clever independent mechanics who'll charge you a single fee to permanently unlock that "feature":

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/05/carmakers-push-forward-with-plans-to-make-basic-features-subscription-services-despite-widespread-backlash/

Comcom saved giant tech companies like Apple. Microsoft tried to kill the Mac by rolling out a truly cursèd version of MS Office for MacOS. Mac users (5% of the market) who tried to send Word, Excel or Powerpoint files to Windows users (95% of the market) were stymied: their files wouldn't open, or they'd go corrupt. Tech managers like me started throwing the graphic designer's Mac and replacing it with a Windows box with a big graphics card and Windows versions of Adobe's tools.

Comcom saved Apple's bacon. Apple reverse-engineered MS's flagship software suite and made a comcom version, iWork, whose Pages, Numbers and Keynote could flawlessly read and write MS's Word, Excel and Powerpoint files:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/adversarial-interoperability-reviving-elegant-weapon-more-civilized-age-slay

It's tempting to think of iWork as benefiting Apple users, and certainly the people who installed and used it benefited from it. But Windows users also benefited from iWork. The existence of iWork meant that Windows users could seamlessly collaborate on and share files with their Mac colleagues. IWork didn't just add a new feature to the Mac ("read and write files that originated with Windows users") – it also added a feature to Windows: "collaborate with Mac users."

Every pirate wants to be an admiral. Though comcom rescued Apple from a monopolist's sneaky attempt to drive it out of business, Apple – now a three trillion dollar company – has repeatedly attacked comcom when it was applied to Apple's products. When Apple did comcom, that was progress. When someone does comcom to Apple, that's piracy.

Apple has many tools at its disposal that Microsoft lacked in the early 2000s. Radical new interpretations of existing copyright, contract, patent and trademark law allows Apple – and other tech giants – to threaten rivals who engage in comcom with both criminal and civil penalties. That's right, you can go to prison for comcom these days. No wonder Jay Freeman calls this "felony contempt of business model":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

Take iMessage, Apple's end-to-end encrypted (E2EE) instant messaging tool. Apple customers can use iMessage to send each other private messages that can't be read or altered by third parties – not cops, not crooks, not even Apple. That's important, because when private messaging systems get hacked, bad things happen:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_celebrity_nude_photo_leak

But Apple has steadfastly refused to offer an iMessage app for non-Apple systems. If you're an Apple customer holding a sensitive discussion with an Android user, Apple refuses to offer you a tool to maintain your privacy. Those messages are sent "in the clear," over the 38-year-old SMS protocol, which is trivial to spy on and disrupt.

Apple sacrifices its users' security and integrity in the hopes that they will put pressure on their friends to move into Apple's walled garden. As CEO Tim Cook told a reporter: if you want to have secure communications with your mother, buy her an iPhone:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tim-cook-says-buy-mom-210347694.html

Last September, a 16-year old high school student calling himself JJTech published a technical teardown of iMessage, showing how any device could send and receive encrypted messages with iMessage users, even without an Apple ID:

https://jjtech.dev/reverse-engineering/imessage-explained/

JJTech even published code to do this, in an open source library called Pypush:

https://github.com/JJTech0130/pypush

In the weeks since, Beeper has been working to productize JJTech's code, and this week, they announced Beeper Mini, an Android-based iMessage client that is end-to-end encrypted:

https://beeper.notion.site/How-Beeper-Mini-Works-966cb11019f8444f90baa314d2f43a54

Beeper is known for a multiprotocol chat client built on Matrix, allowing you to manage several kinds of chat from a single app. These multiprotocol chats have been around forever. Indeed, iMessage started out as one – when it was called "iChat," it supported Google Talk and Jabber, another multiprotocol tool. Other tools like Pidgin have kept the flame alive for decades, and have millions of devoted users:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/07/tower-babel-how-public-interest-internet-trying-save-messaging-and-banish-big

But iMessage support has remained elusive. Last month, Nothing launched Sunchoice, a disastrous attempt to bring iMessage to Android, which used Macs in a data-center to intercept and forward messages to Android users, breaking E2EE and introducing massive surveillance risks:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/21/23970740/sunbird-imessage-app-shut-down-privacy-nothing-chats-phone-2

Beeper Mini does not have these defects. The system encrypts and decrypts messages on the Android device itself, and directly communicates with Apple's servers. It gathers some telemetry for debugging, and this can be turned off in preferences. It sends a single SMS to Apple's servers during setup, which changes your device's bubble from green to blue, so that Apple users now correctly see your device as a secure endpoint for iMessage communications.

Beeper Mini is now available in Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beeper.ima&hl=en_US

Now, this is a high-stakes business. Apple has a long history of threatening companies like Beeper over conduct like this. And Google has a long history deferring to those threats – as it did with OG App, a superior third-party Instagram app that it summarily yanked after Meta complained:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/05/battery-vampire/#drained

But while iMessage for Android is good for Android users, it's also very good for Apple customers, who can now get the privacy and security guarantees of iMessage for all their contacts, not just the ones who bought the same kind of phone as they did. The stakes for communications breaches have never been higher, and antitrust scrutiny on Big Tech companies has never been so intense.

Apple recently announced that it would add RCS support to iOS devices (RCS is a secure successor to SMS):

https://9to5mac.com/2023/11/16/apple-rcs-coming-to-iphone/

Early word from developers suggests that this support will have all kinds of boobytraps. That's par for the course with Apple, who love to announce splashy reversals of their worst policies – like their opposition to right to repair – while finding sneaky ways to go on abusing its customers:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin-locking/#thought-differently

The ball is in Apple's court, and, to a lesser extent, in Google's. As part of the mobile duopoly, Google has joined with Apple in facilitating the removal of comcom tools from its app store. But Google has also spent millions on an ad campaign shaming Apple for exposing its users to privacy risks when talking to Android users:

https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/21/23883609/google-rcs-message-apple-iphone-ipager-ad

While we all wait for the other shoe to drop, Android users can get set up on Beeper Mini, and technologists can kick the tires on its code libraries and privacy guarantees.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/07/blue-bubbles-for-all/#never-underestimate-the-determination-of-a-kid-who-is-time-rich-and-cash-poor

[terramythos]

It's 2030, windows 12 has just launched. Everything has been forced to cloud storage you have to pay a $15/month subscription for and have a working high speed internet connection to use. There is no native functionality to access local files. You are required to watch an unskippable 2 minute ad every time you access or close a program. A mandatory webcam is on at all times, which pauses the ad if you aren't paying complete attention to it. If your monthly subscription lapses all of your files are deleted forever unless you pay Microsoft an additional $300 restoration fee within a month. By turning on the OS you automatically sign a waiver which forfeits your right to sue Microsoft or pursue criminal damages for the next 1000 years. Within 2 months of release it is discovered that Windows 12 installations somehow cause 5% of GPUs to explode into deadly shrapnel, killing dozens and maiming hundreds

[autolenaphilia]

The main reason to use Firefox and Linux and other free and open source software is that otherwise the big tech monopolies will fuck you as the customer over in search of profits. They will seek to control how you use their products and sell your data. When a company dominates the market, things can only get worse for ordinary people.

Like take Google Chrome for example, which together with its chromium reskins dominate the web browser market. Google makes a lot of money from ads, and consequently the company hates adblockers. They already are planning to move to manifest V3, which will nerf adblockers significantly. The manifest V3 compatible chrome version of Ublock Orgin is a "Lite" version for a reason. Ublock's Github page has an entire page explaining why the addon works best in Firefox.

And Google as we speak are trying to block adblockers from working on Youtube, If you want to continue blocking Youtube ads, and since Youtube ads make the site unuseable you ought to want that, it makes the most sense to not use a browser controlled by Google.

And there is no reason to think things won't get worse. There is for example nothing stopping Google from kicking adblockers off their add-on stores completely. They do regard it as basically piracy if the youtube pop-ups tell us anything, so updating the Chrome extensions terms of service to ban adblocking is a natural step. And so many people seem to think Chrome is the only browser that exists, so they are not going to switch to alternatives, or if they do, they will switch to another chrominum-based browser.

And again, they are fucking chromium itself for adblockers with Manifest V3, so only Firefox remains as a viable alternative. It's the only alternative to letting Google control the internet.

And Microsoft is the same thing. I posted before about their plans to move Windows increasingly into the cloud. This already exists for corporate customers, as Windows 365. And a version for ordinary users is probably not far off. It might not be the only version of Windows for awhile, the lack of solid internet access for a good part of the Earth's population will prevent it. But you'll probably see cheap very low-spec chromebookesque laptops running Windows for sale soon, that gets around Windows 11's obscene system requirements by their Windows being a cloud-based version.

And more and more of Windows will require Internet access or validation for DRM reasons if nothing else. Subscription fees instead of a one-time license are also likely. It will just be Windows moving in the direction Microsoft Office has already gone.

There is nothing preventing this, because again on the desktop/laptop market Windows is effectively a monopoly, or a duopoly with Apple. So there is no competition preventing Microsoft from exercising control over Windows users in the vein of Apple.

For example, Microsoft making Windows a walled garden by only permitting programs to be installed from the Microsoft Store probably isn't far off. This already exists for Win10 and 11, it's called S-mode. There seem to be more and more laptops being sold with Windows S-mode as the default.

Now it's not the only option, and you can turn it off with some tinkering, but there is really nothing stopping Microsoft from making it the only way of using Windows. And customers will probably accept it, because again the main competition is Apple where the walled garden has been the default for decades.

Customers have already accepted all sorts of bad things from Microsoft, because again Windows is a near-monopoly, and Apple and Google are even worse. That’s why there has been no major negative reaction to how Windows has increasingly spies on its users.

Another thing is how the system requirements for Windows seem to grow almost exponentially with each edition, making still perfectly useable computers unable to run the new edition. And Windows 11 is the worst yet. Like it's hard to get the numbers of how many computers running Win10 can't upgrade to Win11, but it's probably the majority of them, at least 55% or maybe even 75%. This has the effect of Windows users abandoning still perfectly useable hardware and buying new computers, creating more e-waste.

For Windows users, the alternative Windows gives them is to buy a new computer or get another operating system, and inertia pushes them towards buying another computer to keep using Windows. This is good for Windows and the hardware manufacturers selling computers with Windows 11 pre-installed, they get to profit off people buying Windows 11 keys and new computers, while the end-users have to pay, as does the environment. It’s planned obsolescence.

And it doesn’t have to be like that. Linux distros prove that you can have a modern operating system that has far lower hardware requirements. Even the most resource taxing Linux distros, like for example Ubuntu running the Gnome desktop, have far more modest system requirements than modern Windows. And you can always install lightweight Linux Distros that often have very low system requirements. One I have used is Antix. The ballooning Windows system requirements comes across as pure bloat on Microsoft’s part.

Now neither Linux or Firefox are perfect. Free and open source software don’t have a lot of the polish that comes with the proprietary products of major corporations. And being in competition with technology monopolies does have its drawbacks. The lacking website compatibility with Firefox and game compatibility with Linux are two obvious examples.

Yet Firefox and Linux have the capacity to grow, to become better. Being open source helps. Even if Firefox falls, developers can create a fork of it. If a Linux distro is not to your taste, there is usually another one. Whereas Windows and Chrome will only get worse as they will continue to abuse their monopolistic powers over the tech market.

[formerlyashkatom]

I've been trying out Plottr and I really like it, the featureset jives really well with how I outline and what information I want around in that process and how I want to manipulate it.

You'd think that would be enough for me to recommend it, but for some reason it's followed suit with the enshittification of the internet and the primary way to access it is a subscription service. It's a fuckin' piece of software that you download to your computer and has files stored locally. It is feature complete and a full release so there is no real excuse for a subscription-oriented model except the company realising that a drip feed from your wallet is more profitable than selling you a piece of software that does not need any upgrades. The website attempts to justify this by saying 'lifetime updates' are included but it is currently fully functioning as is so I question the value proposition of paying in perpetuity to use a program on my computer to access and interact with files stored on my computer.

(There is an online version as well. I understand subscription models in this case as this is an area where continued development and maintenance are required, as well as server costs for your files etc.)

But, you say! There is a lifetime license! Problem solved!

It is two hundred fucking united states dollars.

I am in a good financial position these days. I can spend money on stupid shit I want. But I cannot get past the audacity of charging $200 for what should be the default fucking option for owning software.

There's nothing that quite does what Plottr does, at least that I've found. But for some comparison:

Scrivener is $59.99 once-off and is probably the best writing-oriented program out there

Aeon Timeline is $65 once-off including a year of free updates

Campfire Blaze honestly has a payment structure I am sideeyeing but at least you can get a lifetime license tailored to what you need out of the program and characters + timeline is still cheaper than Plottr

Wavemaker is donationware

Metos is a subscription model, but has Web-only considerations mentioned above, specific plans for features in development, and is $24 annually rather than $150

The entire Microsoft Office suite is $149.99. Between Word, Excel, and OneNote you could definitely figure something out from a writing perspective and also have all the functionality of a full suite of office software FOR LESS MONEY THAN PLOTTR.

There are of course a wide array of free softwares (Google docs/sheets, Libre Office, etc) but I specifically wanted to call out paid options here to demonstrate how ridiculous their pricing structure is

I dunno man. People are allowed to charge whatever they want for the things that they make, but this is just so blatantly out of step with the market that I can only assume the lifetime license price is specifically aimed at deterring lifetime purchases and extracting the maximum amount of money possible from their target market through subscriptions instead. I feel a particular kind of way about that target market being writers, a group notoriously not known for their financial stability.

Fuck subscription services with no ongoing value proposition taking over how we access software and fuck every company that makes the revenue-driven decision to engage in this tactic. Even if your motivations are honourable (we have people to pay! you want us to be able to pay our hard-working employees, right?) you are pursuing those goals through nothing less than the exploitation of your customers for maximum financial gain.

[onestepbackwards]

I've been following the Unity situation and its so fucking insane like holy shit. We have everything! - Absurd fees for devs! That may or may not be retroactive and illegal, but we won't say until you cause a stink about it! (We totally aren't shh we wouldn't break the law. Totally :) ) - Getting rid of one of their levels of subscriptions during all of this, The 'Plus Plan', and allegedly putting you on the more expensive 'Pro' subscription if you auto renew! - Insider trading! Selling their stocks not even a week before they released this new change in their company! x x They've since backpedaled from what their original plan was. Originally, they told everyone that every Install, reinstall, dlc, demo, and pirated copy would now cost a fee (with few exceptions, such as charity games and bundles) It's not hard to see how this could tank an indie company with ease. Mad at a dev/company? Just mass install/uninstall. Now they are apparently saying that 'nonono! We only meant the original install :)' Which also opens the door as to how they are tracking installs. They so far have seemed to be avoiding as to how on earth they are going to do that without breaching privacy on a computer. Especially when it could just be easier to make a fee based on purchases, but no. x

So you know, don't worry guys, they have their own 'proprietary data model.' But so far (As i type this, or am aware of) have not given details about how that model works. When asked about stuff such as Xbox Gamepass, Unity mentioned it would be Microsoft paying for the fees. As of now, I have no idea if Microsoft was even told this, and I doubt they are going to agree to it either out of nowhere. x Another fun thing, is if you change your Unity plan, you are added to the revenue threshold immediately. Interesting that this is after they sneakily got rid of their Plus plan, which a lot of devs seemed to use.

And interesting enough, they seem to contradict themselves from their QnA and their official twitter post regarding Demo's and Early Access, or at least tried to be sneaky about the wording?? x x

They won't charge for demos or early access, until they do, apparently. Or if the demo has data that can be transferred to the main game, anyway. Unity also claimed this would only affect 10% of its users. Which is funny when you look at all the Indie devs and studios who are coming out on twitter saying that this actually directly hurts them. Not to mention all the people that have spent years learning this engine, for themselves, or so they can apply to companies using it. And now all of that was just spat on by Unity themselves. There's also the games that have been out and are built on this engine, and can't just be tossed and rebuilt. Such as Among us, Genshin Impact, Pokemon Go and the Diamond/Pearl remakes. Overall, it's a huge mess. Unity majorly screwed up. I'd recommend looking into what games you like, and if they run on Unity. If you don't have them yet, you may want to purchase them so they are in your steam library, or whatever console you play on. With the uncertainty of all of this, I wouldn't be surprised if some companies delist their games on steam. If you buy from them now, you'll still be able to support the devs before Unity implements this new fee plan. Plus, since you paid for them, they will still be on your console/in your steam library. Please stay safe ya'll, and support your local game devs during this storm. They need it.

[fakeagatha]

Behind Bars | Agatha Harkness x Rio Vidal & Alice Gulliver x Jennifer Kale | Chapter One: The Most Effective Scheme

Summary: Agatha's new side hustle is a complete success, and soon, her and Rio will be living their dream life.

A/N: I wanted the word count to be higher but for the first chapter, there isn't really much to include. I know I said I wouldn't start another series until I finished the other two, but I lied. I haven't read this all together myself so make sure to let me know if you spot any grammatical errors or misspellings.

Warnings: Scamming, swearing, crimes Word Count: 3214 Genre: Romance, Crack Date: 2/6/2025

"Good evening, my name is Jenny. How can I assist you?"

Jenny? No. That was Agatha. She was honestly worried that she would eventually run out of names to use. This was the eighth call she had received that day, and had done a decent job at bringing up names on the spot.

"Hello? Is this Microsoft Support?" Another voice of a much older woman was heard on the other end of the line.

"That is correct." Agatha smirked, fidgeting with a pen she was holding, "What seems to be the problem?"

"I have been trying to cancel a subscription all day, but it's not working! Can I cancel it with you?" The woman replied, and she sound panicked.

Great start. "Of course, I will just require some more information, if that's okay with you?"

Agatha quickly signaled to Rio who was laying in bed and scrolling on her phone. She sighed and stood up, sitting next to Agatha who put the device on speakerphone. Rio turned the laptop to face her, opening up the banking app.

"Now, we just need to access the purchase. May I please have your credit card number to verify?" Agatha asked, using her best customer service tone. Moment of truth. This was normally where she would get hung up on.

"My card number?" The voice seemed hesitant, making Agatha cringe, "Uh, okay... It's four, seven..."

Agatha started waving her hand aggressively in Rio's face, silently telling her to type, who in response practically slapped her away. She began typing down the details, leaning closer to the phone's speaker to make sure she heard everything clearly.

"Wonderful. And the CVV number, please?"

"... My CVV is..."

Agatha looked at Rio with a raised eyebrow. This was way too easy. Rio was holding in a laugh, tapping at the keyboard.

"And when is your card due to expire?"

There was a pause, "I think April of 2028?"

Jackpot.

"I'm in." Rio mouthed, rapidly clicking the mouse across the screen to transfer the money over to another account, as Agatha managed to keep the woman on the other end occupied, with completely irrelevant questions until Rio was done.

"And what was the reason you wanted to cancel the subscription?" She asked, eyeing the screen.

"It was for my grandson," The woman started, making Agatha feel just a bit guilty, "He said he wanted this subscription for his birthday, but it turns out he wanted a subscription for... Fortine?"

Rio clamped her hand over her mouth, and making eye contact with Agatha almost made her lose it.

"But I understood wrong," She sighed, "I don't use this Mic Soft stuff."

"Ah, the videogame Fortnite?" She replied, grinning as she watched Rio trying not to break.

"That's it! I won't be buying the subscription for him though, it's a very violent game." The woman shuddered, tutting in disappointment.

Rio gave Agatha a thumbs up, pointing to the screen which now showed "Transfer Successful." Agatha beamed, and turned her attention back to the phone.

"Could you please confirm through your credit card history that the subscription has been cancelled? You should have a notification." Agatha turned to Rio with a grin, and as soon as the woman went to speak again, she hung up and blocked the number.

"Fortine." Agatha deadpanned, and Rio let out the laugh she had been holding.

"Bless her. I feel bad for her if I'm being honest," She chuckled, "There was a shit ton on there. Something like ten thousand dollars? I'll never understand how people fall for it."

Agatha wrapped her arm around her shoulder, "I know. Well, the minority fall for it. Out of the one hundred calls I've had this week, this was the fifth person to actually give me their information." She laughed, "By the way, just wait a few minutes before you transfer it to our account though, keep it in the backup for now."

"Will do, don't worry." Rio smiled, "This was a great idea Agatha, the money will keep flowing after this."

"I know." Agatha smirked, "But this might not last long. Only old people fall for the credit card scam. We can make up one of those remote control app systems, you know, the ones where you can control another's phone via your own screen?"

Rio nodded, "Ah, I actually fell for one of those a few years ago."

Agatha rolled her eyes, "Of course you did. Proves my point though, they're more effective."

Rio smacked her shoulder, then stood up, "I'm going lie down."

"Sure, go on." Agatha agreed. She turned the laptop back to her to check the new balance on their alternative account. It had gone up to more than fifty thousand dollars at this point. "If we keep this up for a couple more months, we can buy that house in the suburbs you liked."

Rio grinned excitedly, turning her phone on and scrolling through her social media. Agatha was already on the run again, looking up more popular companies that she could create a fake customer service website for. Airline companies could do well, there are always complications with people's flights.

Agatha opened up the banking app again, and transferred all of the money on their alternative account to their main account. Even though it was still risky, it was good to have another account between theirs to help prevent them from being caught.

Agatha was very proud of herself. She wanted money, and she didn't feel like working for anyone, so as any rational person would, she looked into web making and was able to create a "Microsoft Support" web page with an email, a phone number, and even a "Report a Problem" button. While pretending to be someone who worked with the company, she was able to make people believe it was an official website.

Rio was hesitant at first, but when Agatha's 15th phone call was a success, she knew she wanted to help her. Double the work, double the earnings.

Agatha pressed the power button on the laptop and closed it, joining Rio in bed and wrapping her arms around her. "I'll work on making a Qatar Airways Support page tomorrow." She mumbled into Rio's shoulder.

Rio chuckled, "That's good. Will you try the remote app system?"

Agatha yawned, nodding, "Yeah, I think it's more believable. I'll find a reliable app tomorrow and include it in any support emails we get, and see how it does."

Rio nodded, running her hand through Agatha's hair. She kept scrolling through TikTok silently, as Agatha began to fall asleep. She must be tired after all, she had been in front of that screen all day.

The next morning, Rio woke up a few minutes before Agatha. The witch was laying comfortable on her side, and her hair was a complete mess. She sighed and got out of the bed quietly, figuring she should let her sleep in some more. 

She sat on the desk chair and turned the laptop on. They had received a couple messages during the night, and Rio hoped that they would be good, so she opened the first one,

"Hello. It seems that Word has an error, and I am unable to save anything I have written."

She rolled her eyes, closing the UI. Useless. How could Agatha use that to make someone give her their credit card information? She pressed the second message,

"My PowerPoint presentation keeps deleting itself, please fix this."

She scoffed, she's not responsible. She closed the tab and checked through their email instead, and most of it was all the same types of problems, nothing that could help them. She moved all of them into the archive, and climbed back into bed.

The feeling of the bed moving woke Agatha up and she stirred, turning to face Rio, "What time is it?" She asked groggily.

"Just past nine." Rio smiled, moving her hand to push Agatha's hair out of her face.

She grunted, sitting up in bed, "It's still so early..." She sighed, laying her head in Rio's lap.

"I checked the messages and emails," Rio stated, "Nothing good."

Agatha nodded, "Thanks for looking. I should get up and make the new website."

She crawled out of bed, and took a seat at the desk. She opened up a new window on a notes software, and copy and pasted the same code the used for the other page, and changed the title along with some of the text.

She opened up another tab in Google and found the official Qatar Airways page, and did her best to copy their fonts and colors.

It looked believable.

Rio leaned her head on her shoulder, looking at the new creation, "I'd fall for that." She said proudly, and Agatha looked up at her with a grin.

"Now, I just need to make a new email. No one will notice if the phone number is the same."

Rio shook her head, chuckling. Making the email was much easier and was quick. Agatha made it in a matter of minutes, called "QatarAirwaysSupport" or something along those lines.

"Agatha, how will you answer the phone if you don't know which website the caller came from?" Rio asked suspiciously.

Agatha paused, "Well, I never mentioned the company name beforehand. If the customer asks if we're Qatar Airways, I'll just agree. The question will answer itself, they'll always ask if we're the person they think they called anyway."

Rio nodded, "I suppose so, just don't slip up."

The witch shook her head, "No, I won't."

Now, advertising the website could be tricky. With the Microsoft one, she was able to make a fake account on Facebook and boast about how helpful their new website was. She could make another account for the new page, but maybe, she could do even more.

"I'm going to make us something to eat!" Rio called out as she walked out of the room. Agatha thanked her, keeping her eyes glued to the screen, clicking and tapping intently.

Rio reached the kitchen, debating on making eggs, toast, or crepes. Agatha loved crepes, so she settled on that option. She found a couple pans, and turned the stoves on. She had some mixture left in the fridge from when she made them the other day too, so she poured it into the pans, doing her best to keep it steady.

It never took long for the crepes to cook. She flipped them over successfully without dropping them, and when both sides were ready, she put them both on two separate plates, and took out the toppings. Two bananas, sprinkles, crushed biscuits and chocolate spread.

The wrapped them both up carefully, and went back into the bedroom. Agatha was leaned back in her chair, staring at the now published website.

Rio gasped, grinning as she put down a plate in front of Agatha, "This looks so legit!"

"Crepes!" Agatha exclaimed, "Thanks. Yeah, I did my best to replicate it."

Rio kissed her cheek, "I'm going to get ready to go and do some shopping, alright?"

"Okay, thank you dear."

Rio started digging through the closet, and found a simple plain white t shirt with some blue jeans. She didn't bother in wearing any makeup, it wasn't something that affected the way that she felt about herself at all.

She took her purse and put her wallet inside, and her phone in her pocket. "I'll see you later!" She called out to her wife.

"See you!"

Rio shut the door behind her, and made her way to her and Agatha's shared car, which may or may not have been Ralph's at some point in the past. It was a red Honda, and they both absolutely loved it.

"Good morning Miss Vidal!" A young voice exclaimed.

Rio sighed and turned around to see their neighbor, Billy. He was living next door to them with his parents, Mr and Mrs Kaplan.

"Hey Teen, how are you?" She asked, and Billy smiled,

"I'm great thanks, I just got back from helping Miss Calderu with her new online business that she made last month, and she pays me a small commission!" He said excitedly, and Rio raised an eyebrow. She didn't know that Lilia had started selling?

"Damn, she has a business now?" She laughed, "Mind sending me the link later? I'm curious."

"Of course!" Billy grinned, "Have a good day Miss Vidal."

"You too." Rio waved awkwardly, and stepped into her car as the boy went inside.

The engine started with a rumble, and she pulled out of the driveway. The scenery of Westview was always nice to admire and look at. Maybe it was the healthy trees, or the lack of trash on the ground.

The drive was short, as the nearest grocery store was quite close to Agatha's house. It wasn't busy either, conveniently enough for Rio.

She stepped out of the car and pulled out the shopping list she had on her phone, the main items were fruit, vegetables, bread, wine, and a few sanitary items, but she would obviously end up walking out with more than that.

"Hey Rio!"

For crying out loud, she wasn't that popular!

There's the familiar voice of Dottie. Rio subtly rolled her eyes and turned around, smiling at the younger woman in front of her.

"Hey Dots, how are you?" She asked politely.

Dottie chuckled at the nickname, "I'm alright, just getting a few things to make dinner tonight for me and my daughter, we're having a few cousins round."

"That'll be nice," Rio replied, "I'm just stocking up for the wife, she's been working very hard lately." Rio winked, and Dottie's eyes widened.

"Did Agatha finally get a job?"

Rio blinked and quickly nodded, "Yeah, something like that. Anyway, I've got to go, it was nice catching up with you." She walked away, making her way to the entrance of the store. Dottie shrugged, pushing her shopping cart over to her car to begin unloading it

Rio pulled out a shopping cart as she made her way into the not so crowded store. She browsed through the fruits and vegetables by the entrance, and picked up some potatoes, carrots, and cucumbers for veggies, and apples, bananas and oranges for fruit. 

She stopped by the refrigerators, and picked up a few bottles of soda, specifically Iced Tea and Pepsi, because Agatha insisted it was better than Coca Cola, despite Rio debating that they taste the same.

She went over to the frozen food, and picked up a bag of vegan nuggets and veggie burgers. Rio had been a vegetarian for as long as she could remember, and Agatha had recently agreed to try it with her- for the sake of the animals.

The candy isle was one of Rio's favorites. There were so many options to choose from yet she knew she couldn't take them all, so she settled on some gummy fruit and some sour gummy worms, which she knew her wife also liked. Now with chocolate, she preferred the plain milk chocolates, so she picked up one for herself, and one for Agatha.

Rio liked the bread section too, as there was also a small bakery next to it which she loved to get fresh pastries from. She picked up a cheese pie, and for Agatha, a spinach pie. Before leaving she also threw in some sliced brown bread into the cart, along with some bagels.

Now sanitary products were tricky, because despite Agatha being post menopausal for the past 250 years, she still insisted that she needed a very particular size and brand of pantie liners. Rio's convinced that if she switched them, her wife wouldn't even notice, but she respected her orders anyway and bought them every time.

On her way to the wine section, she spotted the snack isle from the corner of her eye and figured it would do no harm to make a quick stop. Just a couple bags of chips and maybe some pretzels, which were perfect for movie nights.

Last and definitely not least, wine. Rio didn't have a preference but Agatha loved red wine, so that's what they got, every. Single. Time. Rio didn't mind of course, and she honestly found it quite endearing how Agatha stayed so loyal to it.

She couldn't be bothered to interact with any more people so she used the self checkout machine. Despite her being awful at using them when they were first installed in the stores, she had gotten quite the hang of them and used them with ease.

"Total: $46.78"

She barely got anything!

"You fucking thieves!" She cursed the machine, tapping at the screen, "And no, I don't want your 10 cent bags. Bought some a year ago and they're still brand new." She said proudly, whipping out two cotton grocery bags, as she started packing everything up.

She threw the bags back into the cart and made her way out of the store and back to the car, unlocking it and putting the bags in. She pushed the cart back and received her coin, shoving it into her pocket.

Meanwhile, Agatha's new website had already gotten a few emails. Some which were general questions about the airline that she replied with nonsense for her own amusement, and some which she just deleted.

But there was one that stood out.

"I need to cancel my flight immediately!"

Agatha giggled at the screen and typed back a professional seeming response, and attached a link to a remote app she had found. She tested it out with one of her old phones and it worked perfectly.

She had been staring at the screen for a good ten minutes until finally, her phone pinged with a notification.

"You have been connected to a device."

She gasped, but made sure not to get her hopes up. How would she possibly do anything without the person on the other end noticing that something suspicious was going on? So, she did nothing, at first.

She replied to the email again explaining how a member of staff would be back with information shortly. She opened up the app again and stared silently at the screen, then struck. She studied  the home screen and located their cash related apps.

"I'm home!" Rio suddenly called out, dropping the shopping by the door. She wandered into the bedroom quietly, as not to disturb Agatha in case she was on a call.

Agatha turned to her with a smirk, "It worked."

"The remote app?"

Agatha nodded, "Look." She pointed to the screen, and Rio gasped as she saw that their bank balance on their backup account had increased, by at least two hundred thousand. 

Rio shared a silent glance with Agatha, before squealing and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "I'm so proud!" She exclaimed, "That seemed... Way too easy though." She added, and Agatha shrugged.

"What can I say? I'm a professional now."

Rio chuckled, "Come help me put the groceries away?"

"Of course!" Agatha nodded and got up from her seat, briefly running her hand through Rio's hair as she made her way to the kitchen with her, picking up the two bags on the way.

Agatha began putting everything away, picking up the glass bottle of wine and winked at Rio, "Want to drink this while watching something on Netflix?"

Rio grinned and nodded, placing some of the snacks to the side, and put the fruit and vegetables away.

Agatha dragged Rio to the couch, nearly dropping the glasses she had picked up along with the bottle. They made themselves comfortable on the couch while Rio filled up two glasses, and ripped open the bag of gummy worms.

Everything was going wonderful to for the couple, and it was only a matter of time before they could invest in the money they had made and buy the perfect house for the two. At this rate, it wouldn't take long for their lives to finally take a drastic change.

[allaboutkeyingo]

Get all the Microsoft Office apps for Mac for just $59.98 

Say goodbye to subscription fees.

Forget subscriptions — get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac for just $59.98 (reg. $229).

Ironically, in a world where there are even subscription fees for music and books, nobody likes subscription fees. Whether it’s your streaming service, your cloud storage, or that random app you forgot you were paying for, they add up fast. But here’s some good news: You don’t have to subscribe to Microsoft Office.

For just $59.98 (reg. $229), you can get a lifetime license for Microsoft Office Home & Business 2021 for Mac — a one-time purchase that gives you full access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and OneNote with no monthly fees, no auto-renewals, and no surprises.

     Microsoft Office Home & Business for Mac 2021: Lifetime License $59.98 

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You can even work offline because it doesn't rely on the cloud. And because this is a lifetime license, you won’t be dealing with nagging reminders to upgrade or ongoing subscription charges. Just install it on one Mac, and it’s yours forever.

You can download and start using Office right away. Then get a instantly delivery of the Office Mac 2021 Home Business key to bind with your Microsoft account to use the Office apps 

What macOS does Office 2021 Home Business for Mac support ?

The latest version of  Office 2021 Home Business for Mac currently support 13 Ventura，14 Sonoma and 15 Sequoia.  You can download it here .

If you have 10.15 Catalina, 11 Big Sur and 12 Monterey, and want to use the Office 2021 Home Business for Mac, you can download the previous 16.66 version here.

[pintsizebear]

A guide on using RSS

This is an extension of my previous post about diversifying your internet use!

What is RSS?

RSS (short for Really Simple Syndication) is basically an update log for a website. When a site has new content the RSS feed will update, and an RSS reader will show what's on the RSS feed. Think of an RSS reader like a centralized timeline/dashboard for all your favorite sites.

Why use RSS?

The most important reasons are to reduce your reliance on any one site, and to save time by compiling all the websites you check in one place instead of having to visit each one individually.

There's also no algorithm that decides what you see (or don't see.) No more shadowbanning, it's all where it's supposed to be. Plus, it makes it incredibly easy to jump ship from a platform that's endlessly fucking up, without having to start over entirely or maintaining profiles on 20 different sites.

Examples of websites that have RSS feeds:

Blogging + Social media sites (tumblr, cohost, blogspot, livejournal, mastodon, bluesky social, reddit, etc)

Video sites (youtube, dailymotion, vimeo, etc)

Podcasts

Forums

News sites

Personal websites (if the person running the site has added one. Here's a guide on adding an RSS feed to your own website! And here's a shorter one!)

How to use RSS?

You will need an RSS reader. I personally like and use Feedbro, which is a free browser extension (available on chrome, firefox, and microsoft edge.) Feeder is free and popular on android. Chrome on android also has a built-in RSS reader that can be enabled. Feeeed is a good free option on iOS.

How to find RSS feeds?

Some RSS readers like Feedbro are able to automatically find the RSS feed for a page with minimal effort on your part, you just click a button and it'll pull up the info.

Others will need you to paste the feed URL into a box, which isn't particularly hard either. There's a few ways to find an RSS feed URL. Some sites will have a direct link to it. It'll usually be an orange icon that looks something like this:

Less commonly, it'll be a link that says "subscribe", "web feed", or just a + icon.

Many sites don't have a direct link listed anymore, but that doesn't mean they don't have an RSS feed. A simple tool for finding unlisted feeds is Thirdplace Discovery. On that website, you paste the URL of the site or page you want the feed of, and you're given the URL of the feed if it exists.

Some sites simply don't have their own RSS feeds. That can often be worked around with tools like OpenRSS, RSSHub, or RSS.app!

It's also worth suggesting for websites you like to add their own RSS feed or to add the link in an accessible place. The more interest people show in it, the more likely it is to be supported.

That's about all you need to get started!

RSS is infinitely useful and customizable, it's worth trying out at the very least. Once you get settled in, it's very easy to use.

There's a huge amount of RSS reader options out there. Don't like the reader you started out with? The vast majority of them will let you export your subscription list as a file that can then be imported into a different reader! Feel free to experiment with different options to see which one you like best.

Also feel free to ask questions if you have them!

[darkmaga-returns]

by Murtaza Hussain

We have a commitment to ensuring that our journalism is not locked behind a paywall. But the only way we can sustain this is through the voluntary support of our community of readers. If you are a free subscriber and you support our work, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription or gifting one to a friend or family member. You can also make a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible donation to support our work. If you do not have the means to support our work financially, you can do your part by sharing our work on social media and by forwarding this email to your network of contacts. We know a lot of people have strong opinions about X/Twitter, but it is where many Palestinians are posting updates on the genocide in Gaza. If you use that site, make sure to check out our feed, which we run as a regularly updated news service. We are also on Instagram. Paid subscribers also have access to our internal Discord Server

—Drop Site News

In mid-March, Google announced that it was paying the staggering sum of $32 billion for the acquisition of the Israeli cloud-computing security company Wiz. The acquisition, pending regulatory approval, will be the largest ever of an Israeli firm.

“Organizations of all sizes—from start-ups and large enterprises to governments and public sector organizations—can use Wiz to protect everything they build and run in the cloud,” Google said in a statement announcing the acquisition. The statement added that Wiz would join Google Cloud, but that the Tel Aviv-based company’s security services would still be available across other cloud platforms used by major firms, including Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud.

What was left unsaid in Google’s announcement, however, were the personal backgrounds of its four founders. The co-founders of Wiz—Yinon Costica, Assaf Rappaport, Ami Luttwak, and Roy Reznik—are all veterans of Unit 8200, the signals intelligence division of the Israeli military, which is playing a key role in helping to carry out Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

[maypop-the-dragon]

PSA: Free Software

Reading this may really save your time, privacy, and money! Reblog or share to spread awareness!

Folks often use software that’s expensive and sometimes even inferior because they don’t know there are alternatives. So to those unfamiliar: basically, free and open-source (FOSS) or "libre" software is free to use and anyone can access the original code to make their own version or work on fixing problems.

That does not mean anyone can randomly add a virus and give it to everyone—any respectable libre project has checks in place to make sure changes to the official version are good! Libre software is typically developed by communities who really care about the quality of the software as a goal in itself.

There are libre alternatives to many well-known programs that do everything an average user needs (find out more under the cut!) for free with no DRM, license keys, or subscriptions.

Using libre software when possible is an easy way to fight against and free yourself from corporate greed while actually being more convenient in many cases! If you need an app to do something, perhaps try searching online for things like:

foss [whatever it is]

libre [whatever it is]

open source [whatever it is]

Feel free to recommend more libre software in the tags, replies, comments, or whatever you freaks like to do!

Some Libre Software I Personally Enjoy…

LibreOffice

LibreOffice is an office suite, much like Microsoft Office. It includes equivalents for apps like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint, which can view and edit files created for those apps.

I can't say I've used it much myself yet. I do not personally like using office software except when I have to for school.

OpenShot

OpenShot Video Editor is, as the name suggests, a video editing program. It has industry-standard features like splicing, layering, transitions, and greenscreen.

I've only made one video with it so far, but I'm already very happy with it. I had already paid for a video editor (Cyberlink PowerDirector Pro), but I needed to reinstall it and I didn't remember how. Out of desperation, I searched up "FOSS video editor" and I'm so glad I did. There's no launcher, there's no promotion of other apps and asset packs—it's just a video editor with a normal installer.

GIMP

GNU Image Manipulation Program is an image editor, much like Photoshop. Originally created for Linux but also available for Windows and MacOS, it provides plenty of functionality for editing images. It is a bit unintuitive to learn at first, though.

I've used it to create and modify images for years, including logos, really bad traceover art, and Minecraft textures. It doesn't have certain advanced tech like AI paint-in, but it has served my purposes well and it might just work for yours!

(Be sure to go to Windows > Dockable Dialogs > Colors. I have no idea why that's not enabled by default.)

Audacity

Audacity is an audio editing program. It can record, load, splice, and layer audio files and apply effects to them.

Audacity is another program I've used for a long time. It is not designed to compose music, but it is great for podcasts, simple edits, and loading legacy MS Paint to hear cool noises.

7-Zip

7-Zip is a file manager and archive tool. It supports many archive types including ZIP, RAR, TAR, and its own format, 7Z. It can view and modify the contents of archives, encrypt and decrypt archives, and all that good stuff.

Personally, I use 7-Zip to look inside JAR files for Minecraft reasons. I must admit that its UI is ugly.

Firefox

Firefox is an internet browser, much like Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or Safari. While browsers are free, many of them include tracking or other anti-consumer practices. For example, Google plans to release an update to Chromium (the base that most browsers are built from these days) that makes ad blockers less effective by removing the APIs they currently rely on.

Aside from fighting monopolies, benefits include: support for animated themes (the one in the picture is Purple Night Theme), good ad blockers forever, an (albeit hidden) compact UI option (available on about:config), and a cute fox icon.

uBlock Origin

As far as I know, uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blockers there is.

I was on a sketchy website with my brother, and he was using Opera GX's ad blocker. Much of the time when he clicked on anything, it would take us to a random sponsored page. I suggested that he try uBlock Origin, and with uBlock Origin, that didn't happen anymore.

Linux

Linux is a kernel, but the term is often used to refer to operating systems (much like Windows or MacOS) built on it. There are many different Linux-based operating systems (or "distros") to choose from, but apps made for Linux usually work on most popular distros. You can also use many normally Windows-only apps on Linux through compatibility layers like WINE.

I don't have all four of these, so the images are from Wikipedia. I tried to show a variety of Linux distros made for different kinds of users.

If you want to replace your operating system, I recommend being very careful because you can end up breaking things. Many computer manufacturers don't care about supporting Linux, meaning that things may not work (Nvidia graphic cards notoriously have issues on Linux, for example).

Personally, I tried installing Pop!_OS on a laptop, and the sound output mysteriously doesn't work. I may try switching to Arch Linux, since it is extremely customizable and I might be able to experiment until I find a configuration where the audio works.

Many Linux distros offer "Live USB" functionality, which works as both a demo and an installer. You should thoroughly test your distro on a Live USB session before you actually install it to be absolutely sure that everything works. Even if it seems fine, you should probably look into dual-booting with your existing operating system, just in case you need it for some reason.

Happy computering!

[mareastrorum]

I’ve been trying to get into meal planning, and like the other 10 or so times I tried to get into it, I get too frustrated with privacy issues to focus on that initial intent.

First step: hey, there’s probably apps, I’ll browse apps. Every highly recommended app has ads and/or collects my data. Also, I don’t mind paying for an app one time (especially if it’ll be ad free), but all of them only offer a subscription, as if access to the equivalent of a fancy excel sheet is an ongoing service. No, I’m not paying per year for a fancy excel sheet. No, I don’t want any of my data collected. Fuck apps.

Next step: someone has surely made this excel sheet anyway. Problem is Excel is now also a subscription, and I’m not going to pay for limited term access to a completed product. Also, Microsoft is increasingly imposing data collection on individual users and collecting data via Copilot anyway. No.

Next step: someone surely has made a Google sheet. But all the ones I can find want me to enable scripts (hmmm, don’t like that), and Google tracks all that anyway because it’s part of their terms and conditions. No.

Solution: I am going to pen and paper it. Like, not even looking up calories and such online, just getting them off the labels of the groceries as I buy them.

I used to be able to document things about myself on my own computer without worrying that someone else has access to that data. I could just buy a program, install it, and no one could get it without physically being at my computer.

Why the fuck isn’t that even an option anymore?

[c-rowlesdraws]

The real crux of the whole discussion is that windows and Mac are both closed proprietary systems that want to withhold your own hardware and software from you and give control of it to a company with the explicit goal of extracting more and more profit from you.

Use whatever environment that you like best, but understand that ultimately both suffer from Capitalism Problems, and those are only averted by the Free and Open-Source philosophy (which Linux is a project of). Remember that if they could get their way, both Apple and Microsoft would happily charge you a fee every time you turn on your own computer and lock access to your files and software behind a subscription service. In a lot of ways what's sold to you as user friendliness and ease and convenience is walls, locks, and a loss of control of hardware that you wholly own.

Whatever system you do use, I recommend doing everything you can to learn how to tear down those walls. Pirate stuff, use FOSS programs, learn enough about your hardware and software to confidently bypass the restrictions built into it by people who want you to be a product.

I'm not interested in selling you on a particular OS, but I deeply passionately want everyone who depends on technology to feel a confidence and sense of ownership over their stuff.

Personally I use windows as my daily driver, and I have for decades. There are shockingly easy ways to wrest control back from Microsoft within it, and if you'd like some help or advice in that direction I'd love to provide that for you if you reach out to me.

You don't have to learn disk architecture or command line operations or throw your iMac down a well in order to make your computer truly yours, but you do have to proactively choose not to accept the cages these capitalist entities try to force you into.

Whatever you do, *do not* use the windows app store for software.

I appreciate all of this, I really do. I would love to give a big ol middle finger to capitalism and seize my computer destiny with both hands. But I am, for now, completely willing to sacrifice freedom for convenience and suckle meekly at the teats of Microsoft and Apple if it means never having to mess around with the intricate and fragile and expensive insides, hard or soft, of my computer where basically my entire life and work are stored.

[madootles]

sorry if you’ve already answered this but what brushes do you use? I especially love the ones you use on sketches, your art rocks!!

thank you so much!!! I pretty much just draw with Photoshop (it's the 10 USD/month subscription, definitely recommend although I completely understand that many don't have the means or access) and occasionally Microsoft Paint or Fresh Paint.

All the brushes I regularly use are accessible on Photoshop. I haven't been very adventurous with brushes (although I'm always down to try new ones!).

For sketches, I rely on textured brushes and bright colors. Usually I will keep the brush size very small so I can be looser while drawing.

Here's a lil png with all the brushes I use regularly and what I use them for :)

Thanks again!

[apokolyps]

All companies that provide a writing platform for you to use try to profit in some way and a bunch of those are using your writing to train AI. If you don't pay for something, you are the product being sold (your information, writing, space on your screen for ads).

So I use LibreOffice for my writing. The main thing I like about it is that it doesn't have a cloud and downloads the documents directly to my computer, aka, they don't have access to my writing and I can also write offline (looking at you google docs).

LibreOffice Writer feels pretty similar to how Word used to be and has every feature that I could think of. It also comes with a spreadsheet program, LibreOffice Calc, (the only other one that I've used) and a few other programs that I don't even know what they do.

The whole thing cost me $4.59 on microsoft store and is a one time payment not a subscription. This isn't an ad, just my review of a product that works really well for me and doesn't use your writing to train AI. If anyone has more experience with the program or any additional info feel free to share.

[plasteredwalls]

Rant incoming

WHY IS TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT SO GODDAMM DIFFICULT I SWEAR TO GOD.

So. I want to play minecraft online. I don't really use my Microsoft account often but I figure it should be fine. I get signed up for PS Plus, I pay my £6.99, and now I just have to link my Microsoft.

I do the link. I submit the code, then the email, then the password...then the code again then the email then the password and so on so forth until the link expires.

I make a new Microsoft account, as suggested, and it actually seems to be getting somewhere. Until the game is like "Oh you have to sign into the account linked with your game. Yknow, Jyan, which we can remember the name of but not your freaking details".

So I try that. Get in a loop again because it's that outlook email. I sign into Gmail outlook, everything looks fine. I have a string of very recent emails from Amazon about a refund so I know my email *works* at least.

But log in still won't work. So I look on the Microsoft question thing for answers and someone has had the loop issue. There's a link about account recovery. I'm desperate, I mean what the hell nothing else is working, so I use that link. They ask for an alternative email to send me a confirmation where they explain that I did not give them enough details and, as a really really kind courtesy (BECAUSE THATS HOW THEY PHRASED THIS, LIKE IT WAS A COURTESY) they've locked me out of my account :). Yay :). Because they take security reallllly seriously. Except they haven't Because I can still access my emails on the Gmail app but still can't do anything else.

By the way, did you know once you link a Microsoft account to a ps4 account you can NEVER UNLINK AND RELINK A NEW ONE?! Why. What do you GAIN Microsoft. Oh also because ps plus is a paid service they really hate you using it on other accounts of the same ps4 device or really any online features on any account other than the main one. Because what.

So clearly my issue is too complicated for online articles. I've tried and got no where, in any case worse. Let's try reddit - SYKE ALL THE BOTS RUINED REDDIT AND I CANT ACCESS ANY TECH SUPPORT GROUPS TO ASK QUESTIONS MYSELF UNLESS I GET SO MUCH KARMA. GREAT.

So. Microsoft tech support. Please be a good - OH OF COURSE ITS NOT

To summarise this amazinggggg service

1 - CAN'T FIND A RELIABLE NUMBER BECAUSE OF THE SCAMS

1.5 - Google AI summarise RECOMMENDED ME A SCAM NUMBER AS THE OFFICIAL ONE

2 - I can't find anywhere where I can submit a text complaint.

3 - All the search bars just take me to pre written articles as if I haven't read enougj

4 - THEY THEN OFFER ME A PAIDDDDD SERVICE TO "GET FIRST IN LINE FOR GPT TO SOLVE MY ISSUE"

What. The actual. Fuck.

I just want to talk to a human who knows something PLEASE. No none of the articles have helped. No I don't want AI to tell me, it has PROVEN its USELESSNESS. I just wanna talk yo a freaking human, preferably over the phone, who can tell me what to do or initiate some stiff themself because clearly the design has self imploded and IM JUST SO FREAKING FRUSTRATED IM SAT HERE WITH £7 OF A WORTHLESS SUBSCRIPTION AND NO RELIABLE TECH SUPPORT TO FIX IT ALL BECAUSE EMAIL BROKE BUT NOT REALLY.

And that doesn't even BEGIN to worry about whether I'm gonna be able to get my money back on this completely useless service.

So I'm turning to Tumblr. What's tumblrs tech support like??? I don't know, maybe there's a genius out there SOMEWHERE. Because clearly I can't use reddit, thanks barrier to entry :/ and I can't just ring up a human who can actually listen to my words with the nuances that don't fit into the fucking booklet.

If anyone knows anything that could help, please leave your wisdom here I'm frustrated and desperate and don't wanna lose £7 on something I can't even use.

[neptunesenceladus]

17, 22, 30 !

17. Share your favorite opening line

You come to gasping for breath and with ribs aching.

This one was from Prey (and a sit-and-wait predator), which I wrote on a whim for 2024 Cal Kestis week. It was so fun to write and low effort which I really enjoyed. I also experimented with my writing in this one a bit more, including having the opening scene be written in second person.

22. What writing programs did you use? Did you write by hand?

I use Microsoft word, primarily due to it being what I've grown up with and the fact that I store all my files on a usb, so I like to be able to access it on any device. I use msword for typesetting as well so I splurged to own a copy instead of having the subscription model (which I hate). In 2024 I did also do some writing in my notes app for when I didn't have my pc and outlining on sticky notes at work when I'm bored.

30. What would you like to write next year?

in 2025 i really just want to write more. Some smaller one-shots would be fun and I'd like to explore some other fandoms through character studies as well. I think one of my main writing goals is to write the first star wars comics fic on cfaarchive and finally write the a fic I've had in my head for ages for a fandom that only has two works on ao3.

ask game