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Known for its microblogging format, Twitter once offered an open forum for diverse voices, real-time news, and global conversations with moderation for excess through an active team fighting disinformation and responding to content violations. However, the platform's evolution into "X" represents a significant departure from its origins. I advocated that Twitter had the potential to require regulation in 2009 when it was a company with just 35 people, but now that it is a worldwide influence on peoples behaviour it seems to me that the genie has left the bottle and the site is now a clear and present danger to our society.
Unplugging from Twitter/X has been something I've been thinking hard about for some time, so I set about removing myself from Twitter/X. Heres how I did it. It didn't take long and it protects the account name from spammers taking over. End of line for me is about me moving off the platform I loved.
TL:DR – This article explores the reasons why leaving Twitter/X may be the right decision now, and how to go about it effectively by mothballing a twitter account. Unfollowing all. Setting to protected. Adjusting settings to limit use for AI harvesting of data, deleting profile pic and background, updating profile to say bye, deleting third party products permissions to access my account and sending a final message.
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Ever wished you could transcribe the text of an audio file easily just from the command line, without heath robinson playback and dictation software? Its easy to do now from the command line and only takes a few minutes to set up. Just remember, you're the product and nothing is for free so don't send data that might be confidential to be transcribed.
TL:DR – The whisper tool from openai does the job well, certainly for my needs, in UK English and is easy to install and use. YMMV.
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Read more: Transcribing an audio file on a mac using AI in 2024
yEd is a hidden treasure. It is an application for making high quality diagrams. There's a level of this you can do in PowerPoint I guess, but if you need that little bit extra for documentation using more serious diagrams then yEd is really worth your time and investigation. yEd is Java based, but includes a suitable runtime for each platform that is supported. For macOS that means its own embedded OpenJDK Java 21 JRE. Don't let that worry you - it just works!
TL:DR – If you need complex custom structured diagrams then yEd is for you! Easy to get started, powerful and free!
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Things to do with a Nokia 9500 Communicator
Q. I just got a Nokia 9500 Communicator and I want to really make some use of its capabilities. What are the top things I must master to get the most out of the device?
TL:DR – The article that follows was written in 2004 and is interesting mostly for the screenshots of defunct phones and software.
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BBEdit has been around since the 90's. Don't let that put you off. If you are a web developer in particular it is powerful and supports a great authoring workflow. BBEdit is unashmedly aimed at pro HTML and text editing by writers and software developers alike. It is fast. Expected features like syntax highlighting for multiple languages are provided as you would expect, and support for Git, SFTP open and save, scripting, and markup tools make BBEdit a worthy tool for your macOS based computer. BBEdit fully supports Mac computers with Apple silicon. I am impressed. I set up an ssh connection to my server, and an ssh config file and BBEdit can open and save my file to the server, securely, encrypted in transit via ssh key, no password.
TL:DR – BBEdit is a proprietary text and code editor. Version 15 is downloadable from the App Store, or directly from Bare Bones Software. It features a MiniMap pallette, Cheat Sheets. Minimap. ChatGPT integration and more! I never really got along with BBEdit in the past, but decided to take another look chiefly because it is now a universal binary which means it fully supports Mac computers with Apple silicon introduced in late 2020. I'm glad I did. It's good!
Just take me to the link to download BBEdit
BBEdit (App Store) Barebones Software Store
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Read more: BBEdit - A powerful text and code editor for Mac computers
Link your phone to Windows
Link to Windows has had something of a chequered history, but seems finally to be getting some attention. Last time I tried, when it was called 'Your Phone' I could not make it function at all. Lets have another look at it in a kind of 'busman's holiday'. Microsoft used to make phones but threw in the towel, so they have to embrace other manufacturers mobile devices. This has clearly been something of a journey for them, and it is still a work in progress but its starting to make sense at last.
Features of Link to Windows
- Make and receive calls from your Bluetooth capable PC
- Read and reply to text messages from your PC
- Manage your phone's notifications on your PC
- Use your PC's bigger screen, keyboard, mouse and touch screen to interact with your phone from your PC.
Features of Link to Windows only for Android
- Access the photos on your Android phone from your PC
Features of Link to Windows that require the integrated Android version provided by a device manufacturer*
- Access your favourite mobile apps on your PC
- Drag files between your PC and phone
- Copy and paste content between your PC and phone
TL:DR – The latest version of Link to Windows keeps you connected to your PC, Lets you take and make calls (requires Bluetooth), keep up with messages and notifications, and on Android devices you can share your photos. Some manufacturers provide the Android app as a system app, which enables deeper functionality, but you can get the base functionality from the version available from Google Play, and just for the photo functionality and for the ease of pasting text into messages it is worth it. The iPhone version is more limited and looks like work in progress. Switching between phones is a little but clunky too, indicating again that theres still work to do.
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All developers must now complete account verification to comply with the updated Play Console requirements policy.
Google introduced verification requirements for Play Console Developer accounts in mid 2023, and have now begun to enforce them for older developer accounts in order to boost trust and transparency on Google Play. Once you've been verified you'll get a notification in your Play Console Inbox.
TL:DR – Don't ignore this. If you don't complete verifications by the deadline in your mail from the Play Console Team, your Developer Profile and apps will be removed from Google Play.
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- Save £500 on the latest MacBook Pro (2024)
- Stop data use for AI at Facebook, Threads, Meta
- Pixel 8a for £281, vs 7a and 6a
- First month comparison of Pixel 8a, 7a and 6a
- Passwords and security keys
- How much did my M1 Mac Mini cost me over three years?
- Using GNU ddrescue for hard disk recovery on Ubuntu Linux
- Using DDRescue GUI on macOS
- App Center for Ubuntu 24.04 is made with Flutter
- Installing VMware Workstation Pro for Ubuntu 24.04
- Let's Encrypt Secure virtual hosts on Ubuntu 24.04
- Install Windows 11 on a ThinkCentre with unsupported processor chip