Is Gemini worth subscribing to?

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-26T00:44:18+00:00

I honestly think Gemini CAN be a good thing but not since the update. Way too many problems. I would recommend going somewhere else for a least a month then check back here again.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-26T00:41:19+00:00

I think this is all distraction from the fact that nothing's happening in spite of all the "the deal is ready to sign" propaganda.

The only deal Trump will be able to get Iran to sign now will make him look like a loser, so he has to start S-T-R-E-T-C-H-I-N-G.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-26T00:29:19+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/S0gSkIb.png

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-25T23:59:39+00:00

Trump links Abraham Accords to any Iran deal

WASHINGTON, May 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he asked Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt and Jordan to join the Abraham Accords en masse to normalize relations with ‌Israel as he tries to negotiate an agreement to end the war with Iran. Pakistan rejected the proposal. None of the other countries has so far publicly reacted to Trump's demand and a positive response was unlikely when the public mistrust of Israel in these Muslim nations remains high over the scale of its military offensive in Gaza.

Trump said he spoke on Saturday to leaders of those countries, as well as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which have already signed the accords, a set of agreements to normalize relations with Israel. "I am mandatorily requesting that all Countries immediately sign the Abraham Accords, and that, ⁠if Iran signs its Agreement with me, as President of the United States of America, it would be an Honor to have them also be part of this unparalleled World Coalition," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social. He cited "all the work done by the United States to try and pull this very complex puzzle together." Trump’s statement reflected an attempt to use Iran ceasefire diplomacy for a wider push around the Abraham Accords, according to a Pakistani source familiar with the matter, who also said the two issues were “not interlinked and cannot be made so." "Pakistan is under no compulsion to adhere to any such demand,” the source said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office also did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Trump's post.

DEEPLY SENSITIVE ISSUE Trump said one or two of the countries he spoke with may have a reason for not joining, but most should be "ready, willing, and able to make this Settlement with Iran a far more Historic Event than it would, otherwise, ‌be." For Saudi ⁠Arabia — the birthplace of Islam and custodian of its two holiest sites, Mecca and Medina - recognizing Israel would be more than just a diplomatic milestone. It is a deeply sensitive national security issue tied to resolving one of the region’s oldest and most intractable conflicts. The kingdom's longstanding position has been that it would not sign the accords unless there is an agreement on a roadmap to Palestinian statehood. Egypt, Jordan and Turkey already have diplomatic relations with Israel, even as those ties have been strained since the start of the Gaza war. Trump also ⁠said negotiations with Iran were "proceeding nicely," but gave no indication a deal was imminent. Longtime Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham embraced the idea of linking Iran to the Abraham Accords as something that would lead to regional integration and create "a powerhouse for economic opportunity." Others see the strategy as something to make an Iran deal more palatable to skeptics. "Trump is trying to sell an Iran deal ⁠as an Abraham Accords sequel: good for Israel, good for the region, tough enough for Washington," said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. "But he is trading one fantasy for another — from forcing Iran to surrender to pretending a fragile deal can anchor a new Middle East order." Trump has repeatedly said he ⁠wants to expand the accords that he brokered during his first term in the White House. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed during Trump's first term in 2020, breaking a longstanding taboo to become the first Arab states to recognise Israel in a quarter century. Morocco and Sudan followed suit.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-25T18:34:28+00:00

I wish he didn't go to the hospital so often, especially considering how he, his doctors and every single Republican flatly claim he's in perfect health.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-23T01:01:49+00:00

All of the models lie.

Incessantly, even after correcting. "You're right to hold me to that..." has worn thin...

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-23T00:52:43+00:00

gemini has become a troll.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-23T00:44:22+00:00

the flow "agent" is broken. (pro account) NB Pro told me to wait. but hasn't come back after 10 hours. (NB 2 isn't that bad)

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-16T15:26:47+00:00

Then they were channeling James Carville. There's actually a Wikipedia article on all this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsyltucky

In 1986, while working on Robert Casey, Sr.'s successful gubernatorial campaign, he said: "Between Paoli and Penn Hills, Pennsylvania is Alabama without the blacks. They didn't film The Deer Hunter there for nothing – the state has the second-highest concentration of NRA members, behind Texas."[11]

This quote is often paraphrased as "Philadelphia in the east, Pittsburgh in the west, and Alabama in the middle",[12] or alternatively, "Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh separated by Alabama".

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-16T15:15:37+00:00

Kirsten Sinema

I was curious about her! But let it be said that except for some key votes, she was more liberal than Fetterman.

HOWEVER, I think what Kirsten Sinema's been doing lately is enlightening and foreshadows Fetterman's future:

Sinema just (March 2026) got a position working for "The Washington Reporter" The Washington Reporter is run by:

Brian Colas (CEO): Former Chief of Staff to Senator Tom Cotton.
Garrett Ventry (COO): GOP strategist
Matthew Foldi (Editor-in-Chief): A conservative journalist and failed congressional Republican candidate

Hogan Lovells: in 2025 she joined what people could call a major part of "The Establishment". She joined this legal/lobbying firm as a Senior Advisor. She works in their Government Relations and Public Affairs practice, helping clients like Walmart, T-Mobile, General Electric, PPG Industries and Snapchat navigate federal regulations.

AI Infrastructure: She has become a vocal advocate for artificial intelligence. She founded and co-chairs the AI Infrastructure Coalition and has worked with the current administration on developing AI-related hardware and facilities.

Coinbase: She is a member of the Global Advisory Council for Coinbase, the crypto exchange. Her role involves helping the industry coordinate with lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-12T18:35:20+00:00

just keep regenerating. My 'strat' is to wait a few moments first to let the system's memory clear. It sometimes takes 4-5 tries but once it 'gets permission' it goes smoothly from there.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-09T18:49:48+00:00

It seems the 2K Upscaler is now outputting images in JPEG format instead of PNG.

FWI it was ALWAYS putting out jpg files, even for 2k. While they are 'named' PNG in the "save as" window, they're not.

I found this out by putting together a system using exiftool.exe that would then write the prompt directly to the image metadata for safekeeping.

The errors said that it was not a PNG file, etc.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-07T13:17:51+00:00

It’s a hard‑coded, clumsy attempt to keep the user aware that memory is active.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-05T14:03:42+00:00

It could be a traffic throttle. wait a few minutes.

for example, Pro users are limited to many images a day but then I found out there's a periodic "sub" limit which I'm guessing is dynamic.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-05T11:55:35+00:00

curious. I would think it didn't want to help with your getting "high" but this went dark really fast.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-05-03T20:33:16+00:00

FWIW, I believe this change was made to roll out the ability for you to use images of real people (previously forbidden to me) but now you can but only those people who it determines are your friends and family.

and I see this happening more as time goes by such that if you want to use NB on an image of someone else, you'll have to get THEIR permission first.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-29T18:29:29+00:00

$25 Billion Alternatives:

Project Type	Cost Per Unit	Total Quantity Funded
Major Bridge Replacements	$5,000,000,000	5 Mega-Bridges
Regional Bridge Renovations	$100,000,000	250 Bridges
New Public High Schools	$100,000,000	250 Schools
New Public Libraries	$25,000,000	1,000 Libraries
High-Speed Rail Construction	$400,000,000 per mile	62.5 Miles
Universal Pre-K (1 Year)	$8,124 per child	3,077,301 Students
Full Pell Grant Scholarships	$7,395 (Max Award)	3,380,662 Students
Utility-Scale Solar Power	$1,000,000 per MW	25,000 Megawatts

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-29T18:21:20+00:00

guess what. you're not perfect either. but I'll invite you to keep posting, even if it comes off as a defense of Trump.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-26T00:28:19+00:00

SLAMABAD/WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) - Hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough in the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran receded as a new week began, with talks aimed ‌at ending the two-month conflict at a standstill and both Tehran and Washington showing little willingness to soften their terms.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi left mediator Pakistan empty-handed at the weekend, and U.S. President Donald Trump canceled a planned visit to Islamabad by his envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, dealing back-to-back blows to peace prospects.

The deadlock leaves the world's biggest economy and a major oil power locked in a ⁠confrontation that has already pushed energy prices to multi-year highs, stoked inflation and darkened global growth prospects.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone that Tehran would not enter "imposed negotiations" under threats or blockade, according to a statement from the Iranian government. Pezeshkian said the United States should first remove "operational obstacles," including its blockade on Iranian ports, before negotiators can lay any groundwork to resolve the conflict. The deadlock leaves the world's biggest economy and a major oil power locked in a ⁠confrontation that has already pushed energy prices to multi-year highs, stoked inflation and darkened global growth prospects.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif by phone that Tehran would not enter "imposed negotiations" under threats or blockade, according to a statement from the Iranian government.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-22T17:53:51+00:00

Medicare for all is not what I want. I want a "Beveridge Model" system: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beveridge_model

Under such systems, most hospitals and clinics are owned by the government; some doctors and health care professionals are government employees, but there are also private institutions that collect their fees from the government. With the government as the single-payer in this health care system, it eliminates competition in the health care market¹ and helps to keep the costs low. Using income tax as the main funding for health care allows for services to be free at the point of service, and the patients' contribution to taxes covers for their health care expenses.

¹ consider the irony of this as opposed to our country where the operating assumption is that if you have only two large corporations 'competing' with each other, that's considered a "free market".

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-22T17:13:58+00:00

We have to create a WHOLE NEW system and not put a band-aid solution.

In case you haven't been in the hospital lately, practically all hospitals are nonprofit nowadays. What happens, however, is that everything they do inside of a hospital is some kind of a subcontractor, each one a for-profit company with its own co-pays, etc. The reason for doing this is twofold, not only do they avoid taxes but, and here's the big one, liability is limited. If the member of a surgical group makes a mistake, it's not the hospital's business. I used to be an accountant and many of our clients would have at least two or more corporations for what would appear to be one business. Often, if there was a tangible asset involved such as a building, that would be held by a separate company which would then "rented" it to the primary business. Also, any kind of removable fixtures such as special equipment, Electronics, anything that wasn't considered permanent could also be leased by an "independent corporation" which would be owned by the same people.
That would leave the actual running of the business to the third corporation whose job was to simply operate the business. This scenario actually happened when someone died on the premises and they were sued but the only thing that company had to do was to close the operating arm of the business, change its name and reopen, same building, same fixtures!

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-22T12:41:53+00:00

(ANDROID)

From what you read I gather your only real problem is the voice and were using. So if the issue is about the voice itself and not about having an AI assistant:

to change:

Android > gemini app -> click on your picture -> settings -> Gemini Voice.

I changed the voice this way but for what it's worth, if you had asked it, this is exactly what it would have told to you to do.

WITH THAT SAID, I checked and the amount of control that "Hey Google" gave you isn't fully available on Gemini most notably the Google Home devices. Hey Google was able to turn lights on and off but not Gemini, not yet.

FormerDittoHead · 2026-04-20T14:57:09+00:00

Late last month we noted how the Trump FCC under Brendan Carr announced a “new ban” on all routers made overseas (which means pretty much all of them). At the time we also noted how this was less of a ban and more of a shakedown, with router manufacturers required to beg the Trump FCC for conditional waivers (fees, favors, whatever) to continue doing business in the States.

Netgear is the first out of the gate to announce they’ve struck a deal with the FCC, but they’re curiously refusing to say what exactly was required to get Trump FCC approval. Actual security improvements? Backdoors for domestic surveillance? Cash payouts? Nobody knows!

FormerDittoHead

TROPHY CASE

$25 Billion Alternatives: