Are you ready for the second half of the 2020 game?

Someone said that 2020 was the longest decade of his life. Do you feel the same way?

What a year it is! So far the world has already experienced:

• Bush fire in Australia
• Volcano eruption in Malasia
• Koby Bryant's death
• A Global COVID-19 pandemic and a worldwide shutdown
• Multiple stock market crash pauses
• Flood in 26 provinces of China
• Many earthquakes around the world (US, Puerto Rico, China)
• Protests, riots, and Culture Revolution in many parts of the world (US, Europe)
• Multiple dam breaches (Michigan US, China, Uzbekistan)
• China passing national-security law for Hong Kong
• Border clash between China and India
• Heated tension tween North Korea and South Korea
• Cyclones and tornados (India, US)
• Locusts swarms around the world (Africa and Asia)
• NAVY releasing UFO footages and UFO crash in Brazil
• NASA finds evidence of parallel universes
• 30 million people unemployed in the US

I personally experienced an earthquake and a wildfire that almost resulted in an evacuation.

Prayers! Hope people stay safe! 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/9tr7U1fS1S

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 28, 2020

So how are we doing so far? This picture perfectly summarizes it:

Today's July 1, 2020, which means we are just starting the second half of the 2020 game, or level 7 of the Jumanji game.

Congratulations on successfully completing level 6 of Jumanji. Level 7 starts today. Retweet if you think you are ready! pic.twitter.com/KRkcWuqLTj

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 1, 2020

I get the feeling that the second half of Game 2020 will be even tougher. I wouldn't be shocked if we ended up with:

• A disastrous dam breach at Three Gorges Dam in China
• World War 3
• An alien invasion

In fact, someone already got a video of this:

#StayCalm The second half of 2020 is about to begin! https://t.co/MHgKFKXUzi

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 29, 2020

So are you ready? I am ready!!

I am so thrilled to have survived the first half of Game 2020, and I am going to put it all in for the second half!! I am going to stay tough and fight it all the way with my teeth and nails. I swear that I'll be more efficient, more productive, healthier, and stronger when I look back at 2020. I'll be fighting like this little tough guy:

#StayCalm Are y'all ready for the second half of 2020? I am ready!! Bring it on!! https://t.co/3epDf6NYb3

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) July 1, 2020

Join me to fight in the second half! Let's kick some ass!! And whenever you feel hurt, defeated, or feel the need to give up, look at this video, chill, and then get back into the fight! We can do this!!

Whenever I open news these days, I go:

XUE HUA PIAO PIAO! pic.twitter.com/1EErlrRVu9

— Lanny Lin🧢 (@lannyland) June 20, 2020

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: StayFocusd Blocking Websites Not On Blocked List

StayFocusd is a free Chrome Extension I use to self-regulate how much time I spent on news and social media web sites every day so I can stay more focused and waste less time. It is a great tool I would recommend to everyone who wants to be more efficient and get more done each day.

However, I just found out today that the StayFocusd tool started blocking my Google Adsense dashboard page. I don't ever recall blocking this web site. And after I went into the extension settings page, I also don't see the Google website on the blocked list.

If you also experience similar problem where websites not on the blocked list gets blocked by StayFocusd, don't worry. Here's how you can take care of this extension bug.

If you are like me, most likely you enabled the Require Challenge option, which requires you to type this long paragraph of text (min 425 characters) without making any mistake (any mistake would reset the challenge). Don't bother! Because it is HARD! I failed the challenge twice today.

1. Go to the settings page of the StayFocusd extension and then click the tab that says Import/Export Settings on the left and then click Export Settings to save your settings to a JSON file.

2. In the address bar of your Chrome browser, type in chrome://extensions. Find StayFocusd and then click Remove.

3. Go to the Chrome Web Store and find StayFocusd (or click this link) and click Add to Chrome.

4. Go to the settings page of the StayFocusd extension and then go back to the tab that says Import/Export Settings on the left and then click Import Settings and load the JSON file you saved on your computer.

That's it. Now it should not block websites that are not on your blocked list anymore.

Tao of the Day:

If you get erased by the Mainstream Media, become the Mainstream Media! #LetYangSpeak







BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Blank Notifications on Samsung Galaxy Android

Have you noticed that recently you start getting blank notifications on your Android phones? It happened to my Samsung Galaxy S8. Some notifications are fine, while others are just blank, something like this below.

First I thought it was a bug from the app I was using. But then I started noticing it happening with different apps, such as my Vivint app, Twitter, or even my coupons.

Did my research and eventually found out the cause. It is a bug relating to fonts and styles. To fix the problem, just go to your settings page, search "Font size and style", then select the one under "Display". Choose "Font style", and then select the one you use. If it is already selected, just deselect it and then select it again.

Now go back to your home screen and then swipe down to see your notifications. All the notifications should be not empty now!

Wish I had figured this out before I start cutting down on my twitter time. Well! Another battle won!

Video of the Day:

So glad the fire is under control in Australia. Such a disaster. Even the magpie learned to sound like a fire engine!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: How to use Chrome with multiple Google Accounts

Some people have multiple Google accounts (like me). Some people help their family members with their Google blogs or Gmails (like me). Some other people share a computer among family members (not me). Yet some other people have multiple emails such as a school email and a personal email (like my daughter). Each Google account also meant different bookmarks, different Google drive docs, different YouTube subscriptions, different Google map timelines, different Google calendars and task lists, or different Google search preferences... (now you see, Google owns our lives, and there's no escaping it).

Whatever the situation, it can be very helpful to be able to use multiple Google Accounts on the same computer. It would be super inconvenient to have to log yourself out and then log into other people's accounts. So in the past, I would just open an incognito Chrome window and then log in to their accounts. But that's still a lot of work, especially trying to remember all their different passwords. There's actually a much easy way:

You can configure Chrome to use multiple Google Accounts!

And here's how you can do it:

1. Click on your avatar at the upper right corner of your Chrome browser (which is just left of the 3 dots icon).
2. Click Add.
3. Follow the instructions to log in to the Google Account you want to add.

Now if you right-click on your Chrome icon on your taskbar, you will see all the accounts in a list that you can just click on one to open a new Chrome browser window with that Google Account. As simple as that!

Hope this can be helpful for those who could benefit from this feature!

Video of the Day:

The Known Universe

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Can't login to WeChat in a web browser

I use WeChat, because I can use it to video chat or voice call family and friends in China for free. But really, it's because most of my Chinese friends (in China or not) all use it as their main messaging app. Fine, the real truth is that my boss (wife) uses it to inform me when she needs things done. 😅

As not a Millennial or Gen Z person, I am very uncomfortable with typing on my phone. I type super slow and make all kinds of mistakes (and then the autocomplete feature of the phone would replace them with all kinds of stupid and inappropriate words). On a keyboard, though, I can type super fast, both in English and in Chinese. So when I have to use WeChat, I'd much prefer using it on the computer than using it on the phone.

That's why one day when I saw a friend using the web browser version of WeChat, I was super delighted! She told me that all I had to do is to go to http://web.wechat.com and then scan the QR code with my WeChat app on my phone. Sounds easy, right? So I immediately gave it a try. Then I got this:

What's going on? My account was suspended? What did I do???!!!

Also, I only want to use the web version. I definitely don't want to install any Chinese apps onto my computer!!! Who knows what kind of Trogen Horses they are going to sneak in with those apps!

I frantically searched the web for solutions. You know, it's like when you just found a treasure chest, and then realize it is locked. You want to pick that lock, or smash the lock, or just pry the chest open, or smash the chest.

Couldn't find anything! Keep searching!! Still can't find anything!!! Keep searching!!!

Eventually, I found it!! From a developer on GitHub who wrote a program that integrates with WeChat:

Your issue is related to the latest policy changing from Tencent: Newly created Wechat Account will not be able to login via Web Wechat anymore. Wechaty is using the Web API of Wechat, which means newly created account will not use Wechaty to log in.

Now I just feel like Fan Xian who simply can't open that chest his incredible mother left him no matter how hard he tried. (Check out Joy of Life, a great book and TV Series.)

Well, you win some battles, and you lose some battles. I'll patiently wait for Tencent to someday enable this feature for "new" WeChat users like me because after years pass, I will no longer remain a "new" WeChat user.

Video of the Day:

This is how I feel about my daily battles sometimes.

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: How to disable news notification on your Mac

I don't remember that I ever enabled news notifications on my Mac. But time from time, something would pop up on my screen, notifying me of some piece of news I had no interest in reading.

Hi Apple, if I want to follow the latest news, I go to Twitter or go to YouTube and watch the Daily Show. Stop sending me useless stuff I never requested like how the many other companies do.

I tried searching for "news" in system preferences in my attempt to shut it off and found nothing!! Is this Apple's way of telling me, stupid Apple users, Apple knows what's good for you. So stop questioning and just OBEY!

Enough ranting. Here's how you can turn it off:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Select Notifications.
3. Find News in the left pane and select it.
4. Select None under news alert style.

You are welcome! Now on to my next tech battle!

Key to Happiness: Lower your expectations, especially when it comes to your kids.





BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: An error occurred when viewing YouTube videos

When you open a YouTube video on your computer, have you seen this error below?

If you have, chances are, you see this error a lot when you go to different youtube videos. Even though you could refresh, or click the play button a few times to get past this error message and get the video streaming started, it is SUPER ANNOYING!

People have posted this issue on Google Support web site, and hundreds of people echoed their frustration with the same issue. As usual, Google simple ignores the request for help as evidenced in this thread below:

https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/10329866?hl=en

Anyway, I did my own research and investigation and finally found a solution to this problem. Here's what you have to do if you are in the same boat: You have to disable hardware acceleration from your Chrome browser.

1. Click the 3 dots icon on the top right corner of your Chrome browser.
2. Select Settings.
3. Click Advanced in the left pane.
4. Click on System.
5. Toggle off Use hardware acceleration when available.
6. You will be asked to Relaunch Chrome.

That's it. Happy Internet Surfing!

Picture of the Day:

Lower left news: Speed limit jump will 'eliminate the safety risk' on Legacy Highway, officials say

Headline news: 2 dead after head-on crash on Legacy Parkway.

Such irony!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Not getting Blogger new comment notifications in email

I have been encouraging my daughter to blog because I think it is a great habit to write every day. Writing can help you organize your thoughts in a logical way, so it not only improves your writing skills, but also improves your thinking skills. It allows you to offload stuff from your brain so it can work better with other matters. It gives you tangible records of your thoughts that you can go back to. It also facilitates with whatever kind of research you want to do. It is just such a great habit that I encourage you all to try.

Here's my daughter's blog if you want to check it out. Appreciate any kind of encouragement you can give to her!

As I was going through my daughter's posts and leaving comments on how she can improve, it came to my realization that she never gets notified for all the comments I leave on her blog. Strange! Cause I do get notified in email whenever someone leaves a comment for my blog post.

After some digging, I finally found the reason: You have to specifically enable comment notification to the email you specify. It is not on by default.

If you noticed the same problem with your blog comments, here's how you can enable it:

1. Go to your blog settings page and then select Email under Settings.
2. Under Comment Notification Email, add the email you want to use.
3. Make sure you click the Save button to save your changes.

If you use a different email address from the admin user of the blog, an email will be sent to that email address inviting the user to view new comments.

There you have it. Wish Google would have made comment notification enabled by default. But Google is never good at UX design (or really, they never cared is the more accurate description), and we have to live with that.

Video of the Day:

If you have never heard of Andrew Yang, Google him. He brings a fresh air and a lot of sense to US politics. Here's a video of people dancing to a rap song written by a fan of his that describes his policies. This is the first time I know of people writing songs about a presidential candidate's policies. So check it out!

It's not left, it's not right, it's forward! -- Andrew Yang 







BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: Fighting Bad UX Designs

Today's blog post on daily battles is a bit special, because we, consumers, cannot win this kind of battle directly with technological solutions or hacks. All we can do is to complain or vote with our choice of products. And if we are loud enough, product makers will have to listen and then make improvements.

I am talking about Bad UX Designs, where UX stands for User Experience.

A good product lets users accomplish tasks. A great product also makes the process intuitive, efficient, and pleasant.

Let me give you two examples of bad UX design that bugs me almost every day.

The first example is a function in the Android mobile operating system running on my Samsung Galaxy S8. As illustrated below, a user can use a button (or swipe up) to show all apps currently running on the phone and then swipe up to force quit the app that is malfunctioning or one you no longer want.

Most likely, you are in the app you want to force quit before you perform the swipe up action to kill it. But as soon as you swipe up, the app you want to quit moves right and hides itself behind the edge of the screen, so when you swipe up the app to kill it, most likely you'll be killing another app that you had no intention of killing. This happens to me almost every time, and it is super frustrating. Why can't we just keep the current app right in the middle? Whoever came up with this design would be having a serious talk with me if he/she worked on my team!!

The second example is a web page used by the County Library. What's the first thing a user does when he/she visits the library web page? Most likely the user would try to log in, so he/she can get personalized information and paths to activities relating to his/her personal account. In the picture below, you can see that when a user tries to log in, a popup would jump out from a control right above the login link, obstructing the login link completely. The user has to then try to figure out how to get rid of the big popup and then get to the login link by carefully maneuver the cursor around all the controls in order to avoid triggering any popups.

Such bad UX designs add unnecessary stress and cognitive workload to users who already have to fight all kinds of battles with technology every day besides their non-technical daily challenges. Please! Please be a little bit more diligent with UX design work so we can make their lives slightly better! Use your own design daily so you identify the suffering, and run good user studies to iron out all these annoyances!!

Video of the Day:

Lesson learned: divorce the woman who thinks the car is more important than your life.

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com

Daily Battles: OpenDNS blocking a domain resulting in undefined error

OpenDNS is a useful tool for monitoring your kids' online activities and blocking websites you don't want them to visit. I blogged about this tool in my blog series named The Complete Guide on Monitoring and Parental Control on a Chromebook.

One useful feature of OpenDNS is the ability to block en entire category of websites with a few clicks. You can look at the list of domains your kids visited and select the domain you want to block. Then you have the option to block this domain or block similar domains as shown below.

For example, my daughter used to waste a bunch of time "window" shopping on online shopping sites. I simply clicked block similar domains from OpenDNS, and many web shopping sites that I have never even heard of all became blocked, to my great satisfaction.

However, sometimes a specific website slips through because it was not part of a category when it should have. One example is disneynow.com. It is clearly a video site. But when I blocked YouTube with the category of video sites, OpenDNS only considered video upload sites.

If you select block similar domains on disneynow.com, you will get a prompt saying it doesn't belong to any categories and you can suggest a category. However, it doesn't really let you create the new category and block it. If you select block similar domains, you actually get an error message says "Error blocking disneynow.com. Undefined." This is No Bueno!

A little bit of research revealed that people actually reported this problem as far back as 2016. But guess this bug never had high enough priority, so it never got fixed (see link below).

https://support.opendns.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/220050547-When-i-try-to-block-a-domain-i-get-an-error-

However, it is still possible to block the domain. You just have to go through a different route. Here are the steps:

1. Click the SETTINGS tab at the top.
2. Select your network from the dropdown box.
3. Scroll to the bottom to find a section named Manage individual domains.
4. Add the domain you want to block in the Always block field.
5. Click the ADD DOMAIN button.

Voila, mission accomplished! Lanny 1 and Lanny's daughter 0!!

Moving on to the next battle!!

Video of the Day:

You got to love this boy's attitude. He keeps battling and never gives up!

BTW: The easiest way to remember my blog address is http://lanny.lannyland.com