tools, technology, work
You may not like how WordPress’ Categories widget lists categories – particularly if you want to modify or customise the list that’s displayed. Learn a simple, easy (and code-free) way to customise the Categories widget display.
Cross-posted from edinburghwp.com
ScreenTime is Apple’s set of tools introduced in iOS12 to monitor/manage App usage – it’s usually used by parents to try and manage how their kids use Apple devices. At best it works poorly – at worst it doesn’t work at all.
Go to protectyoungeyes’s 12 ingenious screen time hacks – there are lots of useful tips for parents on specific issues in administering Screen Time. Also see How to Bypass Screen Time, or How Kids are Hacking Apple’s Control System for a list of steps you can take to make Screen Time more effective.
Screen Time should let you manage app use, accounts, and Settings, and… just about everything. And it’s all lumped together in a very convoluted interface.
Solution: Google is your friend. Search for answers to find the settings you can manage.
The easiest way to bypass Screen Time controls is to find out what the parental passcode is. Change the password frequently, and make sure you aren’t being watched or recorded when you enter your password.
When your child asks for more screen time, that request is sent to all your iOS devices. If your children get your iPad they can approve their own Screen Time requests.
You can set all the Screen Time settings that you can, but there are dozens of ways kids can get around them – and the older your child is, the more likely they are to either a) know people who know how to get around Screen Time restrictions, or b) search Google and find answers for themselves.
You need to regularly check their phone/app usage to see if they’re getting around your restrictions. When someone has a limit of 30 minutes of YouTube time but has spent 3 hours watching videos, then something’s not right.
If you’re using Screen Time on iOS13 to manage a device running iOS12 – e.g. if you’re using an iPhone 8 to manage a child with an iPhone 6 – then you’ll find that many of the settings that you toggle on your iOS13 device will not transfer to your child’s phone.
Solution: don’t change their ScreenTime settings on your phone – make them on the child’s phone.
What to do if you’ve created a new Custom Post Type, but you get 404 errors when you try and load posts.
Cross-posted from edinburghwp.com
I have been a long-term critic of amazon for a couple of reasons – one is because they don’t contribute enough to cities to cover the actual costs of their business model (a criticism not limited to amazon), and the other because amazon is an increasingly poor customer experience – with more and more counterfeit goods (what percentage of “Apple” products on Amazon are actually genuine apple prodcts? ), an increasingly complicated user/platform interface, and the ‘Prime’ service increasingly isn’t – less and less is available as Prime and ‘Prime’ goods can now take a week plus to be shipped/delivered.
A company spokesperson said the brand was focused on “elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships.”
As long as Amazon can’t control their sellers – and as a reseller it’s not necessarily in Amazon’s interest to actively control sellers who use their platform – this is the reputational risk Amazon faces.
Amazon is an increasingly bad place for brands to be – particularly if they have alternative distribution platforms.
A special edition bar, but there’s nothing special about it. Has a strange taste that’s not obviously orange, strange mouth-feel as well, a bit greasy. Orange after-taste (eventually).
[star rating=”1.5/5″]
This wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten, but it’s probably in the top ten. Awful flavour combination, terrible texture combination. Avoid.
[star rating=”0.5/5″]
Apple TV, Apple TV, Apple TV, and Apple TV+
Dustin Curtis has a wee review of just how confusing Apple TV (and associated apps/ecosystem) really is.
(After 8 paragraphs of spot-on analysis of how confusing the AppleTV ecosystem is…) Other than that, though, Apple TV is relatively straightforward.
I find Apple TV (i.e. the hardware) relentlessly confusing post recent updates. I see previews of films and don’t know what app they’re from – Netflix, iTunes? It’s prettier and looks flash but is confusing as hell. To me anyway. We just click away and hope for the best, which is frustrating.
People who say Apple software is easy to use – well, I don’t think they use it very often.
Google is getting very good at hiding some browser settings, and so much of the online advice on managing cookies is out of date. You could search the help in Chrome, but there are no results for ‘third-party’* and if you go to Clear, enable, and manage cookies in Chrome help page you’ll find several mentions of third-party cookies, but no instructions on how to mange them. So.
Go to Chrome’s cookie settings page – paste “chrome://settings/content/cookies” into the address bar in Chrome.
Click the toggle for ‘Block third-party cookies’.
Done.
*Third-party cookies are those set by advertisers, trackers, and other websites that have a financial interest in tracking your online behaviour.
Google Plans to Acquires a Trove of Health Data in Fitbit purchase
Reason enough to delete a Fitbit account. Regulators may have also have a view on this…
Three years ago I subscribed to Jocelyn Glei’s bimonthly newsletter. It was recommended somewhere (probably by Tina Roth Eisenberg, aka @swissmiss), and it looked interesting. And like many newsletters, I never read it. Any of it. Ever.
And then I recently made the decision to change how I used email, and to split my email life into “work” and “other” email accounts. And I saw this virtual pile of newsletters, piled up in my ‘new’ work email inbox, just like the pile of unread Esquire magazines on my nightstand.
And I took a look – finally. After three years.
Reader, it is an amazing email. Short, high quality, and infrequent enough not to feel overwhelming.
In Jocelyn’s words:
Twice a month, I publish a newsletter that highlights new ideas about how to be more creative and make time for the work that matters. It’s smart, actionable, and useful.
I love speculoos. And there are some great chocolate bars with speculoos. This is not one of them.
Imagine a milk chocolate bar full of flavoured grit, and you’ve got this bar.
Imagine a giant chocolate turtle and you’ve got Hammond’s Pecan & Caramel Piggy Back. They are huge – half an inch thick, solid, and a real handful. Great taste, great balance of caramel and nuts, great to chew on.
Incredibly hard to find, but worth looking for.
[star rating=”4/5″]