Multizone | All our technotes
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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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Apple will update the MacBook Pro and other Macs with its latest M4 chip later this year, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Which begs the question
Q: Which Apple MacBook should I buy?
A: At least a 16GB MacBook Air (13-inch, M3, 2024) if funds allow, or if you need to be frugal, a 16 GB MacBook Air (M1, 2020) or MacBook Pro (13-inch M1, 2020). There are lots of 8GB machines around but they won't do for development work or other heavy workloads and for protecting your residuals when the time to resell or trade in the 16GB will be far more desirable.
TL:DR – The 6GB/256GB MacBook Air (M1, 2020) at £599 is pick of the week on Amazon in February 2025! A 16GB/512 Macbook Pro (M1, 2020) at £750 is also quite enticing. Always read the fine print and compare prices widely before deciding, 256GB is not enough space for a main computer but as a laptop its probably fine.
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You have the right to object to Meta using posts, photos, captions and messages you’ve shared using their services to develop and improve Artificial Intelligence (AI). You have to submit a form including an impact statement to exercise that right. That seems quite an administrative burden but lets do it. I may not be Scarlett Johansson, but I think we can all agree that its for the best to keep my personality out of AI too.
Start here. Note that even if you do this it seems that Meta may ignore it if you are not covered by a relevant data protection law. And Meta may process information about you anywhere on their platforms where images of you are shared or mentioned in posts by someone else. Short of deleting all Meta products and looking for alternatives that do not behave in this way submitting an impact statement is the best you can do.
TL:DR – Meta are the owners of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. Your information is everything except your private messages between friends and family. This could include postings on pages, photos, captions, and messages not between friends and family as well as the very specific graph information that these services collect about you to serve advertising and analytics. I'm going to suggest you don't want that! You can at least use the form to express in writing your request to prohibit the practice of your data being fed into these AI technologies as training data. It requires an impact statement which is a chore but I've created one. Whether it really achieves anything remains to be seen. Facebook responded pretty instantanously probably automatically, to my form.
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- 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
- FileCloud
- Tascam 302 Professional level Compact Cassette Deck