Paying my piano bill through Intuit Quickbooks today:

1) Click on the link to pay
2) Enter my email (they didn't pre-populate it from the link)
3) Have to wait while they determine I am human
4) Have to click OK after
5) Enter password
6) Be told that'd not enough, they need to send a code
7) Select that the code be sent to email
8) Get the code, enter it
9) Be told that's not enough, need to send a code to SMS or a phone call
10) Select SMS code
11) Look at phone, which is off. Rather than just put the fucking code in the phone's preview spot, it should just enough text WE TAKE SECURITY VERY SERIOUS-- that I have to open the phone
12) Open the phone with finger print
13) Go to text messages
14) See the code
15) Enter it into the webpage for Quickbooks
16) Get asked TWO FUCKING TIMES if I want to make a passkey. I don't have a fingerprint reader on this machine. No, I don't want a fucking passkey.
17) See that Windows - which should fucking know I don't have a fingerprint reader - is ready for me to enter my fingerprint for a passkey!!!!!!!!!!
18) cancel out of it
19) Get to the screen where I can pay with my saved card
20) Pay


If they had used Skipify instead, it would be:

1) Click on link
2) If I had done it before, we'd recognize the user and send an OTP to their phone
3) Enter the OTP
4) Pay

That is why it is frustrating that all this SHIT exists and the place I work, which cannot get enough customers and clients, is where it is. 20 fucking steps to pay a bill.

I like the idea of a foldable phone.
But until they can design one that doesn't have sucky hardware, then no.

Da King wrote: Sat Oct 24, 2026 8:46 pm Logging into your phone is so 2020.

I'm talking about logging into websites. Not needing passwords anymore. Logging in with face or finger. This needs to get moving quicker.

The same interface works with apps installed on the fone and websites such as this one!

Also, the Apple duo is retarded.

I'm a little amused by Apple's foldable phones having instant issues with some owners.

I've had a Samsung foldable phone for a few years now. I'm on my 3rd one and on my second screen with this current one. They wear out at the hinge.

The posts I'm reading have people go the "Genius Bar." I think that and the unintuitive basic UI of the iPhone are the last 2 things I hate about Apple. Having to call those dorks "geniuses". I don't know how that isn't said sarcastically every time. Here, watch:

"Thanks, genius."

Anyway. Apple loves ripping off everyone else's ideas, they did it a little too well this time. Maybe the customers are holding it wrong.

Logging into your phone is so 2020.

I'm talking about logging into websites. Not needing passwords anymore. Logging in with face or finger. This needs to get moving quicker.

Da King wrote: Thu Oct 22, 2026 7:57 pm lets be honest. the future is biometrics. we are slowly getting there.

too slowly.

Yeah one thing I like about my current fone is I can just use my face to log into damn near anything.

However, back in my ehhhh less than ethical computing days I would avoid even the idea of it like the plague.

lets be honest. the future is biometrics. we are slowly getting there.

too slowly.

- Boot into Linux machine
- Go to Ubuntu's App Center
- Search for Claude
- An unofficial desktop app comes up. Nope.
- "Real" one comes up. Not updated in a year. Nope.
- Go to their website, claude.ai or something.
- Try to login.
- Can't find my password for my account in my password manager.
- Can't find it in my browser's password manager.
- Recall they send a fucking code through email
- Have it do that
- Not logged into gmail on Linux machine, look at gmail in my W10 machine
- It's not a code. It is a link to click on.
- Bring up gmail on Linux machine in a browser.
- Use password manager on Linux to enter the password.
- 2FA code goes to my phone.
- Enter that.
- Click on the link in the email to open Claude
- Brings up Claude in Firefox, but doesn't recognize it as a valid session
- Go to main page of claude.ai again
- Enter email
- Link goes to email
- Click on it
- Can now use Claude

This is the future of computing, everyone. Thank God they have AI to help with this shit, can you imagine how bad it would be otherwise?

The flow is a bit like this, and what I hate about SSO.

- Christ, I gotta go to this one site I have not been to in forever. I bet I don't have my password cached. I'll open my Password Manager.
- Okay, got it open, now I gotta search for the site
- Okay... gotta press the button to copy the password to the clipboard on the phone. So secure.
- Go to the site.... they all have "sign up" in bold face, gotta hunt for "sign in...."
- Ok, found it.... clicked it.... Jesus fucking Christ, just a username field. OK.... entered...
- Motherfucker. Sending a code to EMAIL. So I didn't need to go to the password manager at all.
- Go to email... hope the email shows up..... now I either memorize, which is fine, the six digit code, or I have to copy it and hope I can.
- Enter it

Like SSO, when only some apps use it and some apps do this, it's pointless to try to "get ahead."

More and more apps are doing this. I find it appalling.

Kickstarter should have been sued into bankruptcy the first time they promoted fraud. Today they didn't even give an option to enter my password. Sent a six digit code to email with no option to enter the password.

The only infinite thing in the universe is mankind's ability to fuck up a logon screen.

I think it was earlier today that I discovered yet another way Microsoft is trying to drive everyone away from Windows. I was trying to add a gift card I had earned through Microsoft Reward points to my Amazon account. I normally use the "redeem card" link I'm given as soon as I get the card, but this time, a Windows prompt popped up demanding a passkey even though none has ever been set up for this account.

I had to manually click around Amazon's site to find the code redemption area myself. Luckily, it worked that time, but dang, now Microsoft is trying to make every step of normal life annoying. They keep making me more and more glad I spend 90% of my time on Linux these days.

I want 2FA on my financial accounts.

I dont need it on a fantasy football website.

I'm glad you dislike it like I do.

Also:

I will never be convinced that the people who require 2FA on websites and the people that send 2FA requests directly to my spam folder aren't secretly sharing a beer somewhere and laughing at us all.

I am going to summarize a 5,000 word story in two sentences.

A scripted report I run that depends on a data source has been failing. After hours of troubleshooting I discovered that someone changed the name of the data source by one character, for no real reason.

https://oldbytes.space/@gloriouscow/116943167019839925

Yeah, you can't do that. 4 digits. Christ.

If where I work shuts down, I'm getting a job in 2FA. I have to meet these dumb fucks.

You should play the Lotto!

I will give a rare un-sarcastic "Great Moment" here.

Last year, I decided to try Quicken's product. I wanted a single location to track all of my finances (bank accounts, retirement, investments, etc). Quicken seemed to fit the bill well enough. It auto-renewed last night at $116. OUCH. Did I really pay that a year ago? I cant believe it if I did, but whatever. I dont want to pay that again, but I just did. I wish these companies would send an email saying "Hey, this is gonna auto-renew next month!"

So I go to Quicken's website, looking for a phone number. I see an online chat agent. I see it's all AI. Ah well, let's go thru the motions, and it'll send me to a human.

NOPE! I tell "Fin" that I want to cancel my account that renewed today and that I'd like a refund. AND IT DID IT! First try. No apologies or haggling or anything. Just cancelled.

Maybe AI and chatbots are finally becoming more useful.

Flack wrote: Wed Jul 01, 2026 8:06 am Not sure if she has an iPhone or not. I do and I got this working and it was a huge pain in the ass. I had to download "Link to Windows" (an official app) for the iPhone to get Phonelink to even see my phone. It connects via Bluetooth and won't work using a USB cable. Depending on the permissions you set it up it'll send every notification and text to Windows, but group chats and a few other things don't work. Sometimes contacts work and sometimes it doesn't. I tried it two years ago and couldn't get it to work at all. I tried again last year and it mostly works. Maybe next year it'll work even better. I've also had it quit working and the only solution I found was to uninstall everything and start over. Not for the faint of heart.

I am ASSUMING the difference here is that it is now baked into the OS, rather than an optional after-the-fact installation like you did? This is not an option I sought out. It was just another step in setting up a new laptop. I dunno.

As for its functionality... yeah, it seemed like it would be annoying to me. But thats her problem, not mine.

Dear Microsoft. Just make it work. Dont make me AI it, drain water from our reservoirs, and destroy the earth because of your shitty software.