Fighting Notifications and Mailing Lists

 So far I've tried to unsubscribe from any unwanted update (in practise most of them are unwanted). After three months I only have to unsubscribe once or twice a week. Probably I'm having a windmill fight like Don Q.

Game: Age of Conquest IV - buggy

 Tried for three hours to attack with troops. No success. Conclusion: the game is a buggy waste of time.

MacOS: no USB connection to Rioch Theta 360-degree photos

 The Rioch Theta works with a Ext file system. You can mount it on Windows, but for some reason you're not allowed to do so on my MacOs.

• OS: macOS 12.0.1 21A559 x86_64
• Host: MacBookPro16,2
• Kernel: 21.1.0

I asume that you have to add the ability to mount Ext drives on the MacOS somehow. Then it should be possible to use the device. If this is not an option add a virtual Linux to the Mac - and share the drives. In theory that is possible. 

(To be done ... wait and see ...)  

Probably the cure is here.

Concerning Linux

USB connection is OK on Ubuntu 21.10 x86_64

Concerning the Wifi Connection

• Remove the USB Cable
• The Wifi icon will appear as soon as you push the Bluetooth button
• Now you can use the Theta app downloaded via Google Play

Since we can use the app the problem is sort of solved. At least if you posess a Linuxu system.

Citroën Bluetooth Connection Unstable

 My Android Phone has problems with the Bluetooth connection. Also with Citroën. I found out that the cure sometimes is this:

• Turn on Bluetooth on the phone
• If you don't see the Citroën connection restart the phone.
• Pair the devices.
• Then click on the Citroën Conneciton in the Phone's Bluetooth

I get a "syncronization error" every time. Then suddenly the connection to the phone is established. 

There must be some kind of dark shadowy magic afoot here. I strongly suspect that the Moon must be in a favorable aspect with Mercury when you try to use this connection ... but wait till black cats and witches pass the street. If you thought that Bluetooth was based on science, think again ;-)

Cure

Often af reboot of the phone before you put in the carkey will do the trick. This is only a partial success. Sometimes the reboot works. Somtimes not. 

[SOLVED] Zoom cannot share screen on Ubuntu

 The problem is still the Wayland driver. After an update Ubuntu could'nt share screens any more. As before the solution is: don't use Wayland at log in level.

[Problem] Adobe Animate - animations in the internal movies not working when exported to animated gif

 In Adobe Animate the animations in internal movies are not animated after export to animated gif.

Citroën: Bluetooth and Android Auto

Bluetooth

 For some reason the car had problems with the BT connection. I put the phone in pairing mode. But the car would not. I never found the menu entrance, but suddenly the car asked for the pairing code. Then I guess the BT connection worked. At least it did a moment ago.

Android Auto

I had to tweak the settings, and added the "OK Google" option. Worked like a charm. However there were many weird connection issues related to the BT connections, that failed. One workaround was to share the wifi via USB. That really did the trick. Android Auto seemed to work, while there was no BT connection. Apparantly that's a solution when the BT fails.

I really like Android Auto. It's a cool app, and since I never use iPhones the addition of Android devices is highly appreciated. Better late than sorry.

Driving Experience

By now were at around 200 km or so. The car is easy to use. Starting the cruise control was not easy to find. I guess it was a lucky punch when I hit the start button. On the speed limit there is a fine and easy to understand icon.

This morning my car wanted to communicate in French ... I don't know why. I had to change the language settings. 

Libre Office Annoying Autocorrect

 Every #€%&&%&!! time I use Libre Office I have to prevent i from becoming I. And capital letters after abbreviations is a pain in the butt. Here are the setting I have to correct after each update. Since this is not common knowledge I have to do this fight 20 minutes or more depending on my luck in the search engines.

Here is the solution:

The blank fieds are the ones I removed. Then work was possible again.

Figma - extremely slow on Ubuntu / Chrome

 In this case the solution is simple: use a Mac og Windows based PC. From a Linux user perspective Figma is useless - however nice on other OSs.

MacOs Cannot install drivers for tone studio

The installation guides are gibberish. While installing the driver, I'm asked to remove the driver ... and go to security and give permission [to WHAT, and WHERE]. Hopeless instructions here. Dropped the program after 10 - 15 attempts. That's enough. 

Linux / Unix: rsync vs. dd

• dd will create one file image
• rsync will copy file  for file
• dd is faster
• rsync will give you easy access to the files in the backup

Here is a nice dd cheat sheet.

Here is a nice rsync cheat sheet.

Ubuntu 21.04 Brightness GUI

Ubuntu 21.04 has no GUI for the screen brightness. Add  this repo:

# sudo add-apt-repository ppa:apandada1/brightness-controller
# sudo apt install brightness-controller

Now you can run the program, or add it to favorites.

Ubuntu 21.04 set brightness

There is no brightness button in Ubuntu 20.04. Why? But you can set the brightness via terminal commands.

Step one: find the name of your monitor.

In my case:

# xrandr | grep " connected" | cut -f1 -d " "
# HDMI-2

Then set the brightness in the terminal:

# xrandr --output HDMI-2 --brightness 1

Night settings could be a brightness of e.g. .75

No GUI for the screen settings, such as color and brightness etc. is yet another serious UX-flaw in the problematic Ubuntu 20.04. This update is not the best we saw from Ubuntu. We need UX'ers in Ubuntu.

[SOLVED] Ubuntu 21.04: if Share Screen in Zoom does not work

1.  Log out of the session.
2. On the log on screen click the gear at the bottom.
3. No you can choose between the new Wayland and another option.
4. Don't chose Wayland. Choose the old version.

It seems that Wayland is not ready for Zoom yet. I hope that you see this before trying to share Zoom screeens in Ubuntu 20.04 ;-)

Ubuntu: Connecting Gnome Files to MacOS via SFTP

 

So the connection via SSH from Ubuntu to MacOS was possible. Why not establish a GUI-connection via Files. You can add other network shares at the + at the bottom of the shortcut list.

In the form add the address of the remote computer and use a sftp connection:

sftp://192.168.xxx.xxx (use the actual ip-adress where you see the xxx)

Click ok.

And that's all it takes.

Now you can work with the files on your Mac from Ubuntu.

Nice!

Update Ubuntu to the latest version

 

Here is a crash version:

# sudo apt update
# sudo apt upgrade
# sudo apt dist-upgrade
# sudo apt autoremove

Edit this file: /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades

Make sure, that the Prompt is set to normal.

# sudo do-release-upgrade

or if you dare and want the upgrade before the actual release:

# sudo do-release-upgrade -d

Mainly based on this blog post.

SSH from Linux to Mac

 On the Mac: enable remote login

# sudo systemsetup -getremotelogin

If the result if "remote login is off", then turn it on:

# sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on

Now the users on the system are able to log in. You have to log in via your user name. But what is it. On the Mac try this in a terminal:

# whoami
# arwen

Then you can read your username, and log on:

# ssh arwen@192.168.0.123

Based on this article.

On the linux system

Enable openssh server, see this article. It's from Arch Linux, but here the actual distro does not matter, since we work in the terminal. 

Concerning the systemsetup

Actually the systemsetup is a powerfull swiss knife for the system administrator. Read the man page.

[SOLVED] Zoom 5.6.4 and MacOS 11.2.3: Zoom cannot share screen

Work in progress - trying to solve the problem: to share screens from MacOS on Zoom:

During today's zoom session with a class there were several issues:

• In order to enter Zoom I had to update Chrome.
• In Zoom I could not share any screens

Of course this fact was quite annoying during an online teaching session.

The problem is "well know" [sic] on Big Sur. I have the problem, because I updated my system (as you're supposed to).

On Zoom you find this page with this recipe:

Settings > Share Screeen > Advanced looks like this, and TCP-connection is marked:

Result: TCP-share no success

Unfortunately the recipe does not solve the problem.

MacOS makes Zoom useless from a MacOS presenter point of view.

Tried: Update Zoom
There was a new version of Zoom. Found it in the menu zoom.us > Check for updates. 

I hope that this update will do the trick.

@Zoom: some sort of automatic notification on updates would help. 

Result: Does not work.

Solution

The problem was probably MacOS related. After updating to macOS "Big Sur" 11.3 Zoom's screensharing was ok again. 

Zoom error: Chrome App not found

 

Zoom could not launch, but some threads in blogs mentioned, that Chrome might be the problem. Not Zoom. After a Chrome update, everything worked just fine. It's not a Zoom issue after all. 

Boss GT-1 and Orange Crush's fx-loop

 Here and now I tend to use the Boss GT-1 in the effect-loop. Sometmes with a t-wah, even though experts would say that it should be in front of the amp. All time-based effects - like chorus, flanger, delay etc. will produce a clear sound in the fx-loop.

Generally I use the dirty channel, so all fuzz and distortion noise is made by the Orange amp. That's the real strength of this amp - the dirty channel is wonderful. I don't use the reverb on the amp. 

I turn off all amp simulators and distortion on the GT-1.

Reverb and delay should be added via the Boss GT-1.

If I add Boss GT-1 in front of the amp the result is more "muddy". That's why I prefer this solution.

So my sound recipe is simple: use the GT-1 where it shines - and let the Orange Crush 35 rt shine with the ever lovely dirty channel.

GPG: backup and restore your keys

 Risan has a very clear and informative blog post here. In this post you'll learn how to export the keys - and import them somewhere else. As with any other key in the house: keep it safe.

Risan's article is meant for Unix systems. However, Linux is a close relative. The same principles apply.

Fight Spam with Contact Form 7 for WordPress

An easy way to avoid form-spam in the WordPress plugin Contact Form 7 is to add a quizz. Ask a question in order to sort out robots. 

But don't ask questions like "what is five times five". The spambots are perfectly able to hack this sort of input. As an alternative - just ask something else.

You could add a picture to the web page and ask a question about it. 

---

PS: I posted this four days ago, since then I had no spam mails via the mailform. So the quizz seems to do the trick. 

Thoughts about AdSense

These days I try whether ads from Google is a good idea - or not. The revenue for one month is 20 cents per month for this blogger site plus another website. As of now I'll let the experiment run for a month or two, and see what happens. 

MacBook: Fan running like Hell during conference calls

 It's very noisy this fan.  Running like a mad whining chicken. 

OBS and Zoom use a lot of the available CPU power. Probably the MacBook is not the mose usefull tool for a conference call. My 5-year old stationary Linux PC performs far better than this. 

However, here and now I have to use the MacBook.

Macbook: How to remove Siri

Unfortunately you can't remove Siri completely. That's an option I miss in this OS.

But you can ignore the bitch. Above you see my settings. Just turn off whatever you see: show on menubar and set "Ask Siri" to off.

On the touchbar Siri is placed on a really annoying position. At least for me - Siri started every time my fingers touched the bar by accident. 

Siri is not a service. It's a pestilence. 

Now I hope that Siri is silenced at last - but I would prefer if Apple asked permission before installing this crap-ware.

Git ignore .DS_Store from Mac

These files are soooo annoying ... and what a waste of time it is to delete them all.

In .gitignore add this:

**/.DS_Store

MS Powerpoint - if you cannot copy paste a link try this

 I tried and tried to insert a hyperlink in MS PowerPoint. Such a thing ought to be a no-brainer. But no. As usual either Mac or Microsoft or both in a sinister conspiration decided that this simple task shoul seem impossible.

But there is a stupid wordaround:

• SHIFT + CMD + V
  
• Insert unformatted text
• Now you can paste the link string
• Copy the #€%&/& link again
• Now you can paste the link in the link insert thing

Don't tell me that the window based programs are more easy to use than a terminal. What a silly waste of time. 

PS: Please, don't tell Mac or Microsoft about this hack ...

[Solved] Mac: Finder - shortcuts to the left disapperared

 Whaaat ... after a restart all shortcuts are gone. Access to the Desktop, Documents etc are all gone. How can we get them back again?

Solution
Here's a solution:

• In the bar to the left click on the > next to Favorites
• Badaboom!

Based on: this post

How to "Page Up" and similar on a Mac

 On a Mac you need to know the hidden secrets of the art. Here are some of the practical keys you'll miss from other OS's keyboards:

• Home: Cmd + ↑
• End: Cmd + ↓
• PageUp: Fn + ↑
• PageDown: Fn + ↓
• End: Fn + Cmd + 🠒

Q.E.D

Ubuntu: How to open a browser window in a URL via Bash

"I want a fast way to open a browser in a specific URL from a folder." 

Here is a solution in Bash. Create a file like this:

#!/bin/bash
# open url in chrome
xdg-open https://whateverURL.whot

Now save the file, as myURL.sh or similar. Remember to make the file executable:

# chmod a+x myURL.sh

Now you can run the file from your favorite terminal:

# ./myURL.sh

Works on: Linux / Ubuntu.