Did I forget something?

🤔 Did I forget something? If your emails, blog posts, articles or any other writing feel off, ask ChatGPT to check for holes or confusion. Try this prompt: “Could you critique my writing and see if anything is missing?” Another set of (virtual) eyes will save you time.

Tags: AI (artificial intelligence), Virtual Assistants, writing


Reset your social media algorithms

Still stuck in election season on your social media feed? Or maybe you bought one bottle of perfume and now Big Tech thinks you’re launching a beauty empire. Algorithms are smart, but they don’t know when you’re ready to get back to your regularly scheduled programming, like cat videos and memes. Here’s how to reset your feed and take control of what you see.

Continue reading

💔 Another romance scam victim: A 77-year-old Florida widower lost over $100,000 after falling for “Julia” on Facebook. The two chatted for eight months, and she promised to relocate from the U.K. to the U.S. after paying off a debt to a man in Minnesota. Hoping to speed things up, he sent cash to a home and a bank in Minneapolis. The twist? “Julia” wasn’t real — it was a 26-year-old man in Minnesota the whole time.

💰 Your go-to rideshare app may not offer the best deals, depending on your location. Type your pickup and drop-off points into RideGuru to get a comparison of rideshare options in your area, including Uber, Lyft, Curb, Ola Cabs and DiDi Rider.

Smaller or regional options (like those names above you probably don’t recognize) can be a lot cheaper than Uber. Try Wingz, too, if you’re scheduling a ride to the airport in advance.

Speaking of, many airports add an expensive rideshare fee that gets passed along to you. I know someone who takes the airport shuttle to the nearest hotel or parking area instead of directly to the airport, and they catch an Uber from there to their destination instead.

Hackers like to sneak in characters that look just like the ones your eyes expect to see.

🎖️ He’s not that into you: Officer Kagan Dunlap says his wife constantly gets messages accusing him of cheating on her. The good-looking Marine isn’t unfaithful. Romance scammers have been using his photos since 2015 to woo women around the world, and some victims have lost thousands of dollars to their tricks. Pro tip: Do a reverse image search on anyone who claims to “love” you but you haven’t seen them IRL.

“Poke” your way to love: Facebook Dating has grown 20% every year since launching in 2019. One big reason? It has free features other dating apps charge for. Friends can do the swiping for you and you can let someone know you like them anonymously. It makes sense; Facebook knows everything about you, so it should be able to find you a date.

Making money in podcasting: It’s not easy. Spotify wants to lure creators away from YouTube. Their plan? Pay hosts of popular shows and let premium subscribers watch ad-free (paywall link). YouTube pays creators 55% of ad revenue; Spotify estimates a show pulling in between 1 million and 2 million views a month would earn about $50,000 with them. That’s not a bad return, btw.

☕ Yum, a $25 latte: You can now order delivery directly through the Starbucks app. Brace yourself for fees: A $1.99 delivery charge, a $2 small-order fee if you spend under $10, a 15% service charge and sometimes an extra $4.99 for wages. Oh, and don’t forget to tip!

Patch your PC: Microsoft’s latest update fixes 89 security flaws, including four zero-day vulnerabilities. Bugs could expose your sensitive info, give hackers control of your PC or let them run malicious code remotely. Go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and hit Check for updates.

A hush-hush economy: When you agree to an app’s terms and conditions, you’re agreeing to be tracked — so says the Secret Service (great read, but it’s a paywall link). They used a data-broker company’s tool called Locate X to follow people over time through the apps they’d given GPS access to — no warrant needed or required. Now you know what you’re really doing when you agree to those permissions.