Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Watch Out for LEGAL Scams: App that Cost WAY TOO MUCH on Subscription

For those who don't operate multiple phones... Androids use JPEG (or JPG), but iPhones use HEIC. The two standards are NOT compatible. If you share a photo from iPhone straight to Android, it will not be viewable. So what do you do? 

You convert it. 

Except the first convert I ran into is... essentially a scam. It basically won't do anything unless you engage the "free trial" which means you'll be charged in 3 days. It didn't exactly mention what's the cost. Then I looked at the email I just got:

Auto-renew subscription of $14.99 PER WEEK for an image converter?!

This app subscription costs $14.99 PER WEEK. 

Not per year. Not per month. PER WEEK?!

And this app doesn't even do HEIC to JPG, despite its name, "Image Converter Premium". 

Needless to say, I cancelled ASAP. 

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Some Quick "Spending Money" Side Gigs in San Francisco (6/14/2025)

Need some spending money in San Francisco, but don't have a lot of time? Here are two things I've tried and gotten money for, 2 hours at a time, pay starts at 17.50 per hour and up, for VERY simple work:

A) Condu.it

Want to help a company that wants to create a headset that turns your THOUGHTS into typed words on a computer? Condu.it is working on that, and they need help of people who can type without looking at the keyboard, wear this heavy headset, and spend two hours looking at a screen and type responses without looking. You get paid $50 for two hours, and you can do up to 10 hours total. Beware... they are so booked, they are paying extra $10/hr if you can go extra early or extra late. That's $25+ PER HOUR (not counting any cost to get there, but there's a bus that go within 2 blocks)

However, beware, there are a couple caveats:

* You need some neck strength, because the headset is heavy and they provide a "chin rest"

* You do the two hours in the dark, as they need the laser to align properly. If you need a break, ring the bell

* You REALLY need to know how to type without looking at the keyboard, because you can't see the keyboard! 

If you can do all that, you will make easy $50 for 2 hours, up to 10 hours total ($500). They will hand you a check right at the end, which you can remote deposit into your bank via your banking app. Click on link above to book. If you click through, tell them "Kasey Chang" sent you. :) We both get a small bonus.  

B) Reflex

Reflex is working on something similar, albeit, they want to use your jaw's micromovements via subvocalization and turn that into typed words. What does that mean? Can you "say" things without actually making the sounds? That's subvocalization. At the study, you wear a headset with some extra sensors (more like a regular headset), and read both out loud and subvocalize a bunch of nonsense phrases to calibrate the sensors. Once you got it calibrated, you read aloud a book of your choice, for the remainder of the time. If you go back, you get to keep reading the book, or choose any ebook for under $10 on Amazon and they'll buy it for you to read into the machine to train their AI on the words and your jaw muscle patterns.

Their pay is $35 for 2 hours to read a book out loud. However, they only pay via Paypal, so you *do* need a Paypal account (at Paypal.com)  You can keep booking more time, but no more than twice a day.  

Sounds interesting? Click here to book time with Reflex $35 for two hours. You'll be paid within hours of finishing your session. 

https://reflexresearchstudy.as.me/schedule/7307a5c3/appointment/72148510/calendar/any

Any way, hope you earn some extra money!