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