Good Luck Sherlocking Claude
09:41 Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 27.1°F Pressure: 1032hPa Humidity: 79% Wind: 5.5mph
Words: 56
Unless or until Apple has Siri running on a local model, which I don't rule out, I think Anthropic has just made Siri irrelevant. Depending on how I feel when get back from the dentist, I may try to have Claude convert an Excel spreadsheet to Numbers. I'm not optimistic, but I think it'll be interesting.
✍️ Reply by emailBlue Morning
Current Wx: Temp: 25.36°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 6.98mphWords: 67
I've got a root canal coming up in a few hours, which I'm not looking forward to. But at least it's a pretty morning. It could be gray, which would make it just that much worse.
I'm looking forward to the day when we have a new house, higher up on the property, where I'll be able to get the power lines and poles below the horizon.
✍️ Reply by emailMonday Movie Matinée
07:36 Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 23.79°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 8.03mph
Words: 105
Mitzi and I saw Project Hail Mary yesterday afternoon. Only a handful of people in the theater at 1530, though a few of them insisted on talking throughout the movie.
I threw up a little in my mouth when I saw the Amazon Prime logo, but I wasn't going to walk out of the theater because of it. (But, fuck Jeff Bezos anyway.)
Loved the movie. A very welcome distraction from the chaos, corruption and incompetence continuously inflicted by the Commander Taco in Chief and his clown car cabinet.
Apparently a lot of people felt something similar. It's doing "boffo box." (Free NY Times link.)
✍️ Reply by emailPayPal Reaches Out
07:18 Tuesday, 24 March 2026
Current Wx: Temp: 24.06°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 7.61mph
Words: 189
I got a voice mail from Victoria F. at PayPal Global Customer Complaints and Advocacy. She said she would try again later, and I added the number to the whitelist so my phone would ring if she called again.
She didn't.
But she did also send an email saying, in part,
...upon receipt of your complaint, we conducted an additional review of your account and determined the limitation was placed in error by our automated tools...
Quelle surprise.
So the "limitation" on my account has been lifted. Huzzah.
But wait! I still can't close my account because there's a $.04 positive balance on it. That transaction looked pretty sketchy to me. They said I could donate it to charity and offered to do so for me. I've requested that they do so and report back to me when it's completed.
So complaining to the New York State Attorney General seems to have had the desired effect. I wonder if I'd have received the same service from Florida's attorney general. Probably not, I think.
Anyway, filling out that online complaint form, tedious as it was, was time well spent.
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