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Posts (alphabetical)
- “Adobe Creative Cloud, needed to resolve this problem” is driving us nutsWe’ve clicked repair countless times. It does its thing, reinstalling Creative Cloud and yet it keeps prompting us with the same annoying dialog box. Googling told us to uninstall the whole thing, and put it all back in. Hard pass. We suspect this is some kind of glitch which will simply crop up again. Frankly,… Read more: “Adobe Creative Cloud, needed to resolve this problem” is driving us nuts
- Adding Chromecast to Another HomeTechnically, it’s not adding, it’s “moving” to another Home. We like using voice commands through Google assistant to turn the television off (via Chromecast) – too lazy to reach for the television remote. However, we had unknowingly created a new home entity on a different Google account. Where we add our Chromecast seems to matter.… Read more: Adding Chromecast to Another Home
- Android Auto Maximise MapAndroid Auto has a split screen. With the map sharing space with a media player. We want map only. The solution is simple: press the map icon. For some reason, we didn’t think of it and kept pressing the icon on the lower right. Once the split screen was up, pressing the icon on the… Read more: Android Auto Maximise Map
- Binding Shortcut Keys to 3Dconnexion Knob/Axis on SpaceNavigatorWe love these space mice, so much that we bought ourselves two circa 2010. They work well in CAD software, but sometimes we wished we could use them in other applications. With a bit of scripting, we can, but we simply never bothered, hoping 3DConnexion would eventually release a driver that would do the job.… Read more: Binding Shortcut Keys to 3Dconnexion Knob/Axis on SpaceNavigator
- Brother Printer 2270DW No Paper Error (Repair)Let’s see if we can be logical and clear with this one. The printer was printing normally, then it ran out of paper. We put more paper in, get the orange error light, and nothing is printed. Print jobs appear to be sent, the printer comes to life with the sound of gears and motors,… Read more: Brother Printer 2270DW No Paper Error (Repair)
- Canon Image Transfer Utility 2 Does Not Transfer Movies or VideoThis one is rather simple. In fact, we had seen the solution in passing but forgot about it. The option to download captured video doesn’t exist in the Image Transfer Utility 2 software. It’s actually on the camera. Navigate within the camera menu as follows: Wi-Fi settings -> Enable Auto send images to computer Image… Read more: Canon Image Transfer Utility 2 Does Not Transfer Movies or Video
- Colour Matching Two Images Using Corel PaintShop Pro (2019 Ultimate)Two images of the same subject, yet different colour tones. The irritating result of using different lighting sources or different cameras. Sometimes it’s the automatic light metering or automatic white balance within the same camera. Nevertheless, we want some consistency and we’d like to do it using PaintShop Pro. Corel PaintShop Pro 2019 Ultimate, in… Read more: Colour Matching Two Images Using Corel PaintShop Pro (2019 Ultimate)
- Corel PaintShop Pro: Increase or Decrease DPIWant to keep the same size (in terms of pixels) but change the DPI (resolution). For example: from 1000 x 500 pixels 72 DPI to 1000 x 500 pixels 300 DPI Saw some guides that suggested using the image “Resize” tool and the “By Print Size” option. Never seems to work properly for us. The… Read more: Corel PaintShop Pro: Increase or Decrease DPI
- Digital Libraries After DeathWe’ve been users of Google Play Movies for years, finding it a good streaming service. Lately, as we scroll through our digital library, we realised we’ve amassed a considerable number of titles. Fortunately, the service grants us library sharing privileges (to a handful of people). It’s convenient to have the library available on smart phone… Read more: Digital Libraries After Death
- Disabling Windows Volume On-Screen Display (Overlay/Pop-Up)The Windows 10 volume indicator alone doesn’t bother us much, but the giant overlay to the right of the volume indicator does. It takes forever to fade and covers important screen real estate, obscuring buttons and menus. Furthermore, it regains focus upon mousing over it. Seems there’s nothing we can do about the volume indicator;… Read more: Disabling Windows Volume On-Screen Display (Overlay/Pop-Up)
- Emoji in WordPressSeems in Windows 10 an emoji menu can be invoked using: Windows key + Period. No need to install a plugin. It works everywhere. Chrome, notepad, WordPress, Microsoft Word, filenaming in Windows Explorer…
- FIX “PXE-05: The LAN adapter’s NVM configuration is corrupted …”Can’t remember precisely how this error came about. So in typical brute force fashion, we threw everything at it to get it to go away. While we succeeded, we couldn’t pin down what we did to make it happen. Things we tried (on our Lenovo X201) included: putting the WWAN adapter card back in (we’d… Read more: FIX “PXE-05: The LAN adapter’s NVM configuration is corrupted …”
- Fixing Slow Startup for Corel PaintShop ProPaintShop Pro is our preferred image editor, we’ve been familiar with it long before its acquisition by Corel. Back then it was Jasc PaintShop Pro. For the most part, its core functions – which we frequently use – have remained consistent over the years. Our only complaint is that recent releases have suffered miserably slow… Read more: Fixing Slow Startup for Corel PaintShop Pro
- Force Chrome Browser Screen CaptureWhen you need to do a screen grab, but some invisible force stands in your way. Control + Shift + I, that brings up developer console Control + Shift + P, that brings up the dialog box Type “screen” Click on the “screenshot” button (purple) The screengrab is saved to the downloads folder. Found this… Read more: Force Chrome Browser Screen Capture
- Gmail Account Picture for Other Email Accounts (Non-Gmail)Recently we noted that Gmail shows our account photo besides our emails, very useful for long email trails, in similar fashion to how profile photos appear in a YouTube video comment section. However, we also use Gmail to check email from other accounts and wanted to assign profile photos to those (non-Gmail) accounts as well.… Read more: Gmail Account Picture for Other Email Accounts (Non-Gmail)
- Google Account Picture Doesn’t Update in ChromeIn the past, we updated our account picture and eventually the change trickled throughout, down to the icons. However, occasionally the update doesn’t occur and we have to force it. This is a simple one. Go to settings page in Chrome browser (chrome://settings/people), turn off synchronisation, then turn it back on. Sometimes, that alone works.… Read more: Google Account Picture Doesn’t Update in Chrome
- How Does The Dropbox Quota Work?“Your Dropbox is full and is no longer syncing files.” That’s because we’re using the Dropbox Basic (free account) and didn’t know how the quota works. We assumed: we had 2GB of our own to play with, to put in a folder of our own; should a colleague share a folder in their Dropbox with us, it… Read more: How Does The Dropbox Quota Work?
- Owning the Razer Blade 15 Gaming LaptopWe grew up as members of Generation Gaming (Gen G) and while some still rock PC gaming rigs, others among us have adopted the mobility and space saving efficiency of gaming laptops. Consequently, we took some notes on our experience using the Razer Blade 15 Base Model (2020). Here it is, in our patently terse… Read more: Owning the Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
- PaintShop Pro Invert TransparencyThose were search terms I used trying to find instructions to turn this: Into this: Now that it’s done, the procedure is more like: creating a mask (layer) using luminance, then invert mask data. Mask is created in a group. Pair it up with a background layer.
- Polar H10 Does Not Connect to Polar Flow (Android)We had difficulty finding the Polar H10 heart rate monitor in Polar Flow, Polar Beats and our favourite app SportsTracker Pro (no longer supported). The short answer to our problem: Do not connect the H10 to the phone’s Bluetooth. Let the app discover it. If it’s connected in the phone’s list of Bluetooth devices, unpair… Read more: Polar H10 Does Not Connect to Polar Flow (Android)
- Premiere Pro is not yet available for your device error code “405”We recently (December 2020) hopped on the Premier Pro bandwagon, shelling out for the higher end subscription based software – in spite of our utter disdain for subscriptions. So guess how surprised we were to run into this error trying to install it? Just mere seconds after paying for it. As it turns out, we… Read more: Premiere Pro is not yet available for your device error code “405”
- Prepaid Sim Online Activation: “Something went wrong …”We decided to post this one for posterity, in case we have to get another SIM. Background: we discovered that SMS sent from one network, let’s call it “O”, to another network, called “T” can sometimes be delayed by up to an hour. Not good during urgent correspondence. We wanted to verify our suspicions so… Read more: Prepaid Sim Online Activation: “Something went wrong …”
- QiCycle Abrupt Power Shutdown Under Load (Climbing Slopes)We’ve noticed the electronic system cut out twice under load – riding up steep inclines. The bike was set to BO+ (boost mode) and we were powering up a slope of about 30 degrees. About five metres up the slope the electronics cut out entirely. It would not power up again via the power switch,… Read more: QiCycle Abrupt Power Shutdown Under Load (Climbing Slopes)
- Repairing and Cleaning Our Dyson V8It’s an intricate device. We’ve always accepted that, but never knew how much so. Our adventures began when we clumsily dropped our V8 and cracked the top part of the housing. Must have landed on its head. On YouTube we watched two disassembly videos (one, two) before proceeding. We had our trusty tamper-free tool set… Read more: Repairing and Cleaning Our Dyson V8
- Samsung Music shows same album artMultiple tracks seem to have the same album art. Turns out the answer was simple. The music files, MP3 or otherwise, had an empty metadata field under “album”. Samsung Music seems to operate under a shorthand that uses the same album art it caches for all successive files with the same album name. So we… Read more: Samsung Music shows same album art
- Some Google TV Movies Not Playing or StreamingProblem We’ve noticed that most movies play instantly on our android phone. Lately (Oct 2022), some movies refuse to play at all. In our case, both The Batman and Spider-Man: No Way Home were uncooperative. We’ve tried clearing the app data and cache, device restarts … all unsuccessful. Solution Google TV is an inferior replacement… Read more: Some Google TV Movies Not Playing or Streaming
- Turn off Smart TV with Chromecast using Android PhoneOn our android phones, we hold the home button to bring up Google Assistant. Then we tell it to “turn off [chromecast name]”, by voice command. Back in the day, we used the Google Home Mini to perform that function. However, over time we started feeling uneasy about its potential to breach our privacy. So… Read more: Turn off Smart TV with Chromecast using Android Phone
- Videostream Doesn’t Cast (cast button inoperable)Videostream used to work a treat. We use it specifically to handle videos with subtitles. Lately (Nov 2021), due to web browser updates, Videostream no longer works. The cast button might as well be a background picture. Clicking on it does nothing. In the beginning, Videostream worked well, flawlessly. Over time, we noticed niggling bugs.… Read more: Videostream Doesn’t Cast (cast button inoperable)
- Watching Google Play Movies in YouTubeWe’ve been using Google Play Movies for a while now and built ourselves a small library. Content is available everywhere we go and easily cast to the television. The problem is watching it on the computer, since the Google Play Movies application/plugin is a little clunky and not very responsive. What’s more, the picture isn’t… Read more: Watching Google Play Movies in YouTube
- Windows 10 TweaksFast Start-Up In our web trotting we found that Windows 10 uses Fast Start-Up which is on by default. It works similar to hibernation so when we shut down the computer, it tries to remember hardware settings and recall them upon next boot. In its attempt to save these settings, it drags out the shut… Read more: Windows 10 Tweaks
- WordPress and HTML for Wide Horizontal LinesWe use horizontal lines before and after advertisements to signify breaks in our text, so they don’t appear like images we’ve added to our posts. We found some HTML that did the job. <hr class=”wp-block-separator”/> However, we wanted the wide line and ran a quick Google to find the modifier. Didn’t find it as fast… Read more: WordPress and HTML for Wide Horizontal Lines
- WordPress Figure (Image) Caption Text SizeIt’s time for graphics and our theme had no option to set the caption text size to differentiate it from the main text in our posts. So we did a Google search for “image caption text size” and found different CSS code snippets. These were applied as “Additional CSS” in the Appearance > Customise window.… Read more: WordPress Figure (Image) Caption Text Size
- Yoast SEO Breadcrumb Category Does Not Update After RenamingNo need to string this one out. We solved our problem by going to: Yoast’s “Breadcrumb Settings” Taxonomy to show in breadcrumbs for content types Posts (post) and changing the value from “Category” to “None”. Save settings. Then change it back from “None” to “Category”. Save settings. We’re guessing that Yoast creates the breadcrumb upon… Read more: Yoast SEO Breadcrumb Category Does Not Update After Renaming
- Yoast SEO Menu Window Covers WordPress Gutenberg BlocksThe SEO menu window that covers the WordPress Blocks are called Advanced Panels. To turn them off: Click the three dots on the right (beside Preview/Publish buttons) Options (at the bottom) Advanced Panels – turn off the ones we don’t need. We had to add this in after the SEO menus got in our way.… Read more: Yoast SEO Menu Window Covers WordPress Gutenberg Blocks