Should you use iCloud to sync your desktop between computers? No!

 

iCloud says it can sync desktop between computers.

What really happens if you go down this path is this:

iCloud will copy desktop and documents folders to iCloud drive. If you turn syncing off, iCloud will delete your desktop items and documents on your Mac and keep them on the iCloud drive.

It will rename the desktop folder with the name of the Mac it was on. But, oddly it seems to place the Desktop items in the Desktop folder for the first computer that was set up.

It won't merge the desktop between two computers to give you a unified desktop, but rather, copy them up to iCloud separately.

I think this could be so much more useful if it could give a unified desktop across machines.

You'd better have a backup if you want to try this one!

https://support.apple.com/en-us/109344

Applescript to load three images, each on a different monitor, fullscreen

I've been wanting to automate this for a while, because it takes all of a minute to set up my screens the way I like when I come to my computer. Heh.

The task is to load three images, each on a different screen, and set them to fullscreen mode. Along the way I found some solutions that suggested using the pixel dimensions of the monitors to align the images, but I found that unnecessarily complicated and I couldn't make it work when the screens are not horizontally aligned.

A comment on one post suggested using the free tool Amethyst, which is a tiling window manager. Amethyst understands the monitor layout, and can move windows between screens with a keystroke. To send a keystroke you can use a key code in AppleScript.

There is a wonderful key code reference that helped figuring out some of the codes I needed.

I found that while I can modify the key code using the shift, option or command keys, I could not modify it using the function key. Fortunately, I was able to use the free key codes utility by Many Tricks to determine that Preview will accept Control-Command-F as well as Fn-F to go fullscreen.

Also note this requires changes to the accessibility control panel to allow keystrokes to be sent from the script. I have not been able to use the script saved as an app due to security limitations. That would be nice because I could tell Siri to launch the script.

So here is my script for posterity.

-- Change these paths to your actual images

set image1 to POSIX file "/Users/me/Pictures/pic1.webp"

set image2 to POSIX file "/Users/me/Pictures/pic2.jpeg"

set image3 to POSIX file "/Users/me/Pictures/pic3.png"

-- Arrange windows on different displays

-- key code 13 / w / screen 1

-- key code 14 / e / screen 2

-- key code 15 / r / screen 3

-- key code 3  / f / fullscreen

-- Open Amethyst

tell application "Amethyst"

activate

end tell

-- Open images in Preview

tell application "Preview"

activate

open {image1}

end tell

delay 1 -- wait for Preview to open

tell application "System Events" to key code 13 using {control down, option down, shift down}

delay 1

-- send a key code to Preview

tell application "System Events" to key code 3 using {control down, command down}

delay 1 -- wait before opening next image

tell application "Preview"

activate

open {image2}

delay 1 -- wait for Preview to open

tell application "System Events" to key code 15 using {control down, option down, shift down}

delay 1

tell application "System Events" to key code 3 using {control down, command down}

end tell

delay 1 -- wait before opening next image

tell application "Preview"

activate

open {image3}

delay 1 -- wait for Preview to open

tell application "System Events" to key code 14 using {control down, option down, shift down}

delay 1

tell application "System Events" to key code 3 using {control down, command down}

end tell

quit

De-fluffing Facebook on a Computer

How to De-fluff Facebook on a Computer...

Run Facebook from a web browser on your computer.  These steps don't work on the Mobile App.

I recommend running Vivaldi, which is based on Google Chrome, but is set up to avoid tracking. You could use most browsers – (F.B. Purity is compatible with the following web browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome, Edge, Safari, Opera and Brave running on Windows, Mac, Linux etc.)

The next steps are about using FBP (FB Purity).

Look up FBP at https://www.fbpurity.com

Download and Install FBP

When it is installed, you’ll see an icon for FBP at the top right of your screen

Click on that to open the settings.

You’ll want to try some things out gradually. Things are pretty well labelled. And there is a user manual linked right here on the top page.

Here is how I have set the newsfeed filters. 

Notice that I set it to default to the FRIENDS sort for the news feed. That’s key for me. 

Another feed type that is useful is MOST RECENT. Both of these feeds are available in regular Facebook, but the app normally defaults to TOP POSTS, which tends to have a lot of extraneous stuff in it. (By design) You can see where I am hiding advertisements, and other fluff. 

Tick open the arrow next to Various Post Types. Here you can filter out extraneous post types…

I’m kind of going scorched-earth. Turning off a lot of things you might like, so try them one by one if you don’t know what they are. In my case I’m hiding all videos, and filtering on a troubling subject. I’ll often put in there things that the algorithm wants to show me, which I don’t want to see in my feed. I’m using Donald as an example here.

If you tick on the arrow by Left Coiumn Links

I’m hiding the entire left column, which has a lot of random stuff. That’s pretty extreme, but I like it a lot. Set up other stuff first. There may be things you want to see here. So make your changes gradually.

I recommend saving your settings using the  SAVE and CLOSE button, but first you might want to EXPORT your settings with the link at the bottom of the page.

A couple things to note. When you want to create a post after setting this up, you may see that the usual Dialog Box is missing at the top of the page. There is now a link on the left to CREATE NEW POST, or you can click BACK TO TOP FEEDS, to show the usual “What’s on your mind” dialog box. It’s in Blue text on my screen which is hard to see…

Good luck! For more information take a look at the documentation here:

https://www.fbpurity.com/user-guide.htm

Recovering a Metamask Seed Phrase on a Mac with Chrome

After several upgrades I discovered that I no longer had Metamask installed. Metamask is a crypto wallet and it holds a small sum that I set to explore selling a video NFT.

Naturally, it was a Phishing email (your NFT has an offer!!!) that reminded me to check the wallet. Losing access to the wallet means the funds are lost.

Metamask uses a secret recovery phrase, with which you can import your wallet to a new machine. But I don't have the phrase...

So, Metamask provides a method to recover the phrase from a backup. They note that if the extension is uninstalled from your browser, the database may be wiped out.

The file location shown in MetaMask's support article is not exactly right:

https://support.metamask.io/hc/en-us/articles/360018766351-How-to-recover-your-Secret-Recovery-Phrase

If you have a backup, you can navigate to the Library file location in your user account. There you will find a low numbered database file, like 000005.ldb

You can load that file into the decryptor provided by Metamask, and recover the phrase.

Here's what I found that differs from the support article: The file location is in the user profile:

On a Mac, the location of the folder is: /Users/*username*/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/Local Extension Settings/nkbihfbeogaeaoehlefnkodbefgpgknn

If the Library folder is hidden: Select your user account in the Finder window. Hold down Command-Shift-. (period) to show the hidden Library folder under your user account.

I copied the file to my desktop temporarily to make it easy to select from the Github tool.

https://metamask.github.io/vault-decryptor/

Yay!

This process took a long time because I had to find a TimeMachine backup from the old machine. I had to figure out how to open a backup from a different machine, [Hold down the option key and select Browse Other Backup Disks] but doing that was no help because I could not access the hidden files! So, I just navigated into the backup archive to find my files and used the CMD-Shift-. option to show the hidden folders.

When the lights get dim?

We've got a great stove, at least in theory. A Thermidor RDFS30 gas slide in range from the mid 90's. For some time now they have not manufactured replacement parts.

It turns out the LED display on the oven control module (part number 486752) is dim. Hardly readable even in the dark. The time is readable but the oven temperature is not.

I see some of these modules used on EBay for over $600. Yikes! And one post for the wrong part. Scary. We'll need to re-do the kitchen eventually, and we've dodged a fridge replacement so far this year. So, I'd like to get this fixed until we have time to think about a re-do. An equivalent LG model is on sale for $1299.

Online I see two companies who will repair the unit and ship it back for about $200. Also, there is a 'repair kit' available, but the repair kit handles other issues with the control board - not the dim LEDs.

The deal with my partner is, if we can use the cooktop, I can disable the oven for a week.

To access the control module, first I had to turn off the power and unscrew the brass fittings under each burner.

Then the deck can be lifted up.

There is a cover over the top of the front panel to remove, and then screws underneath on each side of the front panel beneath the oven door. The front panel is glass, so be careful removing the screws, as you wouldn't want to drop the panel. I was careful to take pictures and make a chart of the wiring for the control module, so it is easy to put it all back together.

But when I take the control board out, it seems the gas does not flow to the burners. Bummer. I was scratching my head looking at the schematic, there are two gas solenoids but four burners. It turns out that this range has two burners that cycle off and back on to reduce the temperature on an ultra low setting. So those two burners will not work without power, but the other two will.

On the first go-round, I disassembled the cook top and discovered that two of the ignitors were loose. I ordered circlips ($2.50 ea.) to secure the two ignitors. I installed the clips but waited for a convenient moment to remove the control module.

As it is MLK day in the US, we were both home and agreed to fix the oven. We started by installing some screws on the "deflector" in the oven (a plate above the oven's heating element, not the Enterprise!) Then the control board came out, and I sent it off for a two-day turnaround repair. The repair is $219.99. I added an expediting fee and Fedex shipping (not to inconvenience my partner!) totalling $338.04 all in, I could have saved $100 by choosing a slower service. One of the companies is located in Canada, and prefers USPS international shipping. The other has expedited service and prefers FEDEX. As the postal service is close for the Federal holiday, I went with the US company. Hopefully - a three day turnaround rather than a week turnaround time.

Update: The unit came back FEDEX, packaged very well, installed and it works great!

Locast.org Taken Offline

Drinking Coffee, Lacking Motivation

What to do when technical achievements simply become boredom?
Or worse, when even listening to people talk mindlessly becomes painful?
Drink coffee. Maybe cultivate the ability to rock back and forth, standing, with a cup of coffee.

Like this guy. "How are those TPS reports coming?"

Check out this article on office design: "Uninspired Setting? Uninspired Work." - GQ

Perhaps this is a call to clean the office? That helps when I am feeling uninspired!
But first, coffee...

Don't be EVIL

EVIL is removing the home page option from Google Chrome on mobile browsers.

73 Words - Is Technical Writing a Dying Art?

As a Technologist, I rely on technical writing for my training, product evaluation and selection. When I see a video describing a new technology, I skip to the text.

Reasons to skip the video?

• The video is bound to simplify the important details that are fundamental building blocks in any product.
• The video is produced by marketing people, who all too often do not understand the product.
• If I am coming to you for information, I already have specific questions to answer about how your product will work in my business environment.
• I can read the text much faster and skip to the important parts rather than watch the video.

How can marketers and educators help me?

• Focus on the text.
• Hire technical writers.
• Focus on the technology.
• Eliminate "market-speak", a technical manual is not a place to blather on about innovation.
• Avoid appropriating terms from other technologies that have a similar meaning.
• Write declarative sentences.

Example: "Introduction to Microsoft Windows Server 2016" Microsoft Books

73 words, one period. A bit of a bad cut and paste job there in the middle: "software-defined datacenter features that can were born in..." I am glad they didn’t use the phrase “legacy” anywhere in this run-on sentence! "Legacy" describes me pretty well...

Anyone who survived the 90's in technology remembers Buzzword Bingo so here's a shot on that sentence/paragraph:

Market-speak	Buzzwords	“Self-Improvement”
Pillars	Security	Are clear about
Commitment	Software-defined datacenter	Choice
Platform of choice	On-premises	Now-exist
Frameworks	Application platform	Necessary
Traditional applications	Application	Allow
Azure	Cloud	Prepare

Join my Twitter poll - Is Technical Writing Dead?

See the discussion on SpiceWorks

Windows Holographic?

Will VR and mixed reality take off?  Microsoft touted Windows Holographic today in an email to Windows Insiders - members of its beta community.

Perhaps as much of a misnomer as 'four channel stereo?' Or just a way to say that we support interactive 3D media?

I'll have to reserve judgement on the 'Holographic' tag, as that implies vastly more information storage than 3D interactive.

The Verge

Microsoft Blog

Quadraphonic_sound

Tay it ain't tso!

Microsoft's experiment with an online Bot named 'Tay' was quickly ended when the bot began posting racist and even fascist messages.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/24/us/ap-us-microsoft-twitter-chatbot-deleted.html?ref=news

The initial response in the Twitterverse was that the Bot was 'trained' to become 'racist', but as the New York Times article reveals - the system was not filtering the type of responses that it came out with, so people tried to get it to say crazy stuff. It worked. Oops!

After brief experiences with Chatroulette, I have to agree that this was to be expected if the 'Bot was programmed to respond with no filters. Other systems, such as Siri, or Amazon Echo do not respond to 'inappropriate content'.

We were experimenting recently on a long tech support call, because it has been said that swearing while waiting on hold will result in the call being bumped up in the queue. I can verify that playing a video of swearing Parrots into the phone did not cause any reduction on on-hold time with Sage Software. (I hung up after two hours.)

Old cell phones make a nice webcam

Need a webcam in my computer room. Old smart phone and free IP Webcam software. Poof!

Standing Desk in use

Standing Desk, Read Only Friday

Thought I would try out a standing desk, with a treadmill. For me standing in one place is no better than sitting all day! Here is the result.

First I had to find a cheap treadmill. Craig's list didn't work out so I opted for the Confidence Plus treadmill (about $200 online with free shipping).

Preparing the treadmill involved removing the arms from the Confidence Plus treadmill (about $200 online with free shipping). See details here...

The second challenge is that Standing Desks are expensive. Ikea is out of stock on the Bekant standing desk which is around $500. Others ramp up in price quickly.

For a quick experiment, this plastic shelving from Home Depot does the trick.

To get the right height, just cut down the plastic spacers. We're using four of the five shelves, and the treadmill is resting on the lowest shelf. (The feet are not used.)

Works ok for a test. Next thing is to stabilize the shelving a bit more.

Great post on "Why Bad Software Succeeds"

Came across this today - worth a read:

http://pressupinc.com/blog/2014/12/bad-software-succeeds/

Clickbait Alert: The Latest Smartphone Security Alert

This is exactly the kind of security warning that trends towards "Clickbait":

Smartphone security alert: 87% of iPhone and 97% of Android top 100 apps hacked

First of all, there's the number, then there's the terminology.

What do we mean by 'hacked'? Was there a data breach? Was the Apple or Google app store hacked?

No. 

The report from ArXan, "State of Mobile App Security, Apps Under Attack", Volume 3 – November 2014 has this to say:

The 2014 State of Mobile App Security analysis followed the same methodology as last year’s research, which included identifying and reviewing hacked versions of top iOS and Android apps from thirdparty sites outside of official Apple and Google app stores.

Users know, even if they ignore, that installing apps from third party sources is risky.
While it is important to know that such a high percentage of apps that are distributed outside of the app store have been infected with Malware, the report does not show any compromise of the app store or these companies' infrastructure. However, other research linked in the article, available here, deals with those issues.

The Register had this to say:

As a specialist in application protection, Arxan has an obvious vested interest in talking up the threat from poorly protected mobile apps. However, that's not to say it isn't onto something. The recent discovery of the WireLurker iOS malware provides evidence that the issue of tampered apps is a real and present danger.

So, I guess, important to know. Perhaps this becomes a reason companies should avoid putting out branded apps, or for sectors that deal with private information - should employ technology (such as ArXan's) which helps to tamper proof the code.

Bottom line: 87% of reports that the sky is falling - need to define the term "sky".

What does 'Governance' mean to you?

What does 'Governance' mean to you?

To me it means dealing with politicians, Red State / Blue State, and the current raft of temporary political theories. It means Fox News vs. the John Stewart show.

In the tech world it has come to be used to refer to having policies and procedures that support a technical infrastructure. Microsoft has elevated this usage as it has promoted SharePoint. Why? Because SharePoint is an enabler for the end user. It is among 'content management' systems which allow the end user to create information storage systems. The worry is that these systems will grow like weeds, with no control, without 'Information Architecture' being considered. It is a legitimate worry, but the greater worry is 'Adoption'.

What does 'Adoption' mean to you?

To me it means children finding a new home. In the SharePoint world it means that there is a large portion of the installed base that is not using SharePoint. It could be because of missing functionality, lack of user buy-in, lack of executive support.

User Adoption is a real problem. But underlying the issue is a darker reality. A lack of User Adoption may result from the executive, or most likely IT acting in a vacuum. The tail wagging the dog.

Sure SharePoint is a cool thing to implement. But what does it do that we don't already have in place?

• Replaces file shares
• Allows collaboration
• Information portal
• Replaces Exchange calendaring
• Search Capability
• Document Management

Most of these functionalities are in place already in many businesses, with more purpose built systems that are, as a result, more finely tuned to business activity. SharePoint is a generic Swiss Army knife of features. It doesn't have as many embedded business rules as purpose-built systems.
(That is one reason why after-market products are quite important.)

Words Matter
By dressing up these basic requirements of our technology projects - Microsoft and IT 'elevate' the discussion. We tend to fool ourselves into thinking that we know what is best for our business. Maybe we're following the herd mentality? Maybe we are trying to stay relevant?

Until recently the term governance was rarely seen alone - most often it would be written 'Good Governance' or 'Bad Governance'. But 'Governance' became a buzz word used by consultants, and it is now frequently seen in email marketing. And this marketing drives us to implement governance before any project begins. And sure, policies are good to have. But we need to get our community behind us before any project begins.

Governance means nothing if it is a bunch of rules that the business (either explicitly, or de-facto) does not agree to. On the one hand, the IT organization writes up rules but the business management is not engaged. This is the curse of middle management! On the other hand management may be engaged but is unable to push through changes in procedure - as users will always try to find the easiest way to work - which may mean going around the system.

User Engagement
We need to practice user engagement. In a customer service context, some have called this 'customer delight'. We could call this 'user delight'. If we're not providing a better solution than DropBox, then our users are going to use DropBox. Otherwise we are like the tail wagging the dog. It kinda works, but it's never a sure thing.

User Engagement was the topic of a recent article in SharePoint Pro magazine:
http://sharepointpromag.com/sharepoint-administration/launching-intranet-crucial-step-you-cannot-skip

Sensatronics EM1 Environmental Sensor with PRTG

Monitoring the EM1 Sensor from PRTG
How we got here...

In the past we have had issues with the A/C in our computer room. The A/C unit was spec'd out with a consumer grade unit (Carrier) rather than a more traditional unit. Unfortunately the unit was not optioned to run in cold weather, and there were issues with charging the unit that required extra maintenance.

As so our locked room would occasionally have a propped-open door with a fan exhausting heat into the office. Of course we care about physical security, and the prospect of increased downtime when these failures occur on a weekend or during a vacation. So we looked around for a simple environmental monitor and came up with the Sensatronics EM1 (around $500) and Overseer software.

Overseer is designed to run on your workstation, which means leaving the machine running all weekend. Loading it up in a VM produces inconsistent notifications. And we also need to collect syslogs.

So, we are evaluating PRTG. PRTG loads up on top of Windows 2012 in a VM, does an auto discovery (here I blocked it from discovering desktops lest I get notified every time someone shuts down). And there is a Beta version syslog repository. Good start...

There is a monitor in our APC UPS which was discovered properly. But since we bought the EM1 monitor I figure let's give it a try. The EM1 has additional sensor capacity, and I could use it in a new location.

Key Tricks

Getting started - PRTG doesn't ship with the device information for the sensor built in, so auto discovery will not work. But, PRTG does have a concept of templates for the devices. And Sensatronics has a zip file of basic device configurations here. Update 7/2017: The zip file is no longer on Sensatronics' website, best option is to call support.

Load the extracted files into the program directory for PRTG on the server, in our case:
\\prtg\c$\Program Files (x86)\PRTG Network Monitor\devicetemplates

With the templates loaded we need to create the new device as follows:

In PRTG we need to do two things:

1. Create a new group, (I called it SNMP V1) because the SNMP version is inherited from the group.
2. For SNMP set the inheritance of settings OFF, and set the version to v1

Now we create a new device in PRTG, and specify as follows:

Start the discovery and you should get:

Which is at least data. The temperature is the main point, it's not 8 degrees in there. The web page on the sensor shows this:

And so here is where I call Sensatronics for Tech Support :-)
And.. the answer is, the template for the device has an error. In the column 'division' the entry should be changed from '10' to '1'. Do this in all the sensors. In my case I only have three sensors active.

And the result:

(Yes we do run hot. Saves energy.)

So there you have it. Thanks to Keith from Sensatronics for the final tip!