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Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

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Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#151

Post by TheTaytay »

bobviolier wrote: post #106
yawnxyz wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've to this day never been able to pay for Gemini through the API, even though I've tried maybe 6-7 times If you bring it up to Logan he'll just brush it off — I honestly don't know if they test these UX flows with their own personal accounts, or if something is buggy with my account.

https://x.com/OfficialLoganK/status/1978897746921693572?s=20

Yes, I get the impression he has been fighting this fight internally since the day he arrived. He can’t exactly talk about how infuriating it must be, but I look forward to his memoir.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#152

Post by lxe »

I always wondered how something like AWS or GCP Cloud Console admin UIs get shipped. How could someone deliver a product like these and be satisfied, rewarded, promoted, etc. How can Google leadership look at this stuff and be like... "yup, people love this".

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#153

Post by kijin »

Arainach wrote: post #141
cortesoft wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had way too many arguments over the years with product and sales people at my job on the importance of instant self-signup. I want to be able to just pay and go, without having to talk to people or wait for things. I know part of it is that sales wants to be able to price discriminate and wants to be able to use their sales skills on a customer, but I am never going to sign up for anything that makes me talk t…

Instant self signup died with cryptocurrency and now AI: any "free" source of compute/storage/resources will be immediately abused until you put massive gates on account creation.

Who said anything about free? OP wanted to pay Google $100.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#154

Post by TheTaytay »

polalavik wrote: post #35
niwtsol wrote: post #34

The article lightly mentions it, but how AWS and Google Cloud Console are so absolute nonsensical in UX and ease of use is beyond comprehension.

holy hell google cloud is so confusing i just ended up using (a much more expensive) digital ocean droplet instead for a little project. I guess they only really care about enterprise customers who can burn tons of money figuring it out, but it made me never want to use it again. Same with google ads - super fuckin shit UI/UX, super confusing to understand what is going on. companies like digital ocean, supabase, etc…

Well said.

I’m literally afraid of the cloud console dashboards from the big providers. That’s especially true with the quagmire that is AWS. It’s so easy to leave a resource turned on that you are no longer using, and so hard to tell which resource belongs to which project, or have high confidence you set up permissions correctly. They have multiple products whose only job is to monitor and configure your AWS accounts. Multiple. That’s not a brag. That’s an admonition.

Digital Ocean, Hetzner, Render, etc, seem to have figured out how to rent millions of dollars of computers and services out every month without requiring you to become “certified” on their platform.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#155

Post by [deleted] »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #145

I was recently (vibe)-coding some games with my kid, and we wanted some basic text-to-speech functionality. We tested Google's Gemini models in-browser, and they worked great, so we figured we'd add them to the app. Some fun learnings: 1. You can access those models via three APIs: the Gemini API (which it turns out is only for prototyping and returned errors 30% of the time), the Vertex API (much more stable but lac…

[deleted]

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#156

Post by jiggawatts »

lxe wrote: post #152

I always wondered how something like AWS or GCP Cloud Console admin UIs get shipped. How could someone deliver a product like these and be satisfied, rewarded, promoted, etc. How can Google leadership look at this stuff and be like... "yup, people love this".

A purer, more perfect example of Conway’s Law has never been made more manifest than the myriad AWS consoles, each further partitioned by region.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

And see especially “The Only Unbreakable Rule” by Molly Rocket: https://youtu.be/5IUj1EZwpJY

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#157

Post by petesergeant »

StilesCrisis wrote: post #134
the_snooze wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parking apps don’t seem to care much for that. They know you’ll jump through their shoddy UIs and data collection because they have a local monopoly. Often with physical payment kiosks removed and replaced with “download our shitty app!” notices.

They get paid more if you get a parking ticket.

The RyanAir model of technically legal, but actively playing a zero-sum game against their consumers' diligence.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#158

Post by harikb »

vel0city wrote: post #144
CamperBob2 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Shrug) No, I'll just park someplace else. I probably need a good walk anyway. There's no such thing as a monopoly when it comes to parking. If there is -- if every single parking spot within walking distance is locked behind a shitty app -- then you need to spend some quality time at your next city council meeting making yourself a royal PIA.

You should read about the Chicago Parking Meters scandal. The City of Chicago leased all their meter rights to a private corporation on a 75 year lease for a bit over a billion dollars. The private company made it back in the first decade. The city even has to pay the parking company when they have to do construction or throw events that blocks the parking as revenue compensation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicag…

Sometimes I think, it should be illegal for these government contracts to last beyond 5 years for exactly this reason. Who know what kind of deals are being made. Some administration could sign away the whole country on their last day.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#159

Post by jwrallie »

modeless wrote: post #15

Seems like the real problem is something about his account or credit card tripped some fraud detectors and he got stuck in a part of the system designed to prevent credit card fraud rather than facilitate legitimate use. I can certainly imagine that Google gets a lot of chargebacks from people who had their credit card numbers stolen to mine bitcoin or whatever on Google Cloud.

Having moved from one country to another, I tripped all kinda of anti fraud systems and the only way out was to share my ID with every other company. It’s annoying but one common thing is that anti fraud systems seem to require humans in the loop, so it’s better to give up and get back to it next day.

The most annoying company I dealt with was Blizzard. I just wanted to play a game but it took days of back and forth, meanwhile I started to play something else and lost interest.

Re: Getting a Gemini API key is an exercise in frustration

#160

Post by theflyinghorse »

lxe wrote: post #152

I always wondered how something like AWS or GCP Cloud Console admin UIs get shipped. How could someone deliver a product like these and be satisfied, rewarded, promoted, etc. How can Google leadership look at this stuff and be like... "yup, people love this".

What are the chances that Google leadership even seen GCP interface outside of a demo once a never?
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