Investigating the Android space again!
smartWake – lift up to turn on screen like iOS.
Airdroid – Share files with computer like Airdrop
Simply – pretty darn good news app.
Muting channels with Mainstage while preserving polyphony
A user on the keyboard corner posted a cool tip about the note modifier plugin. By making it map note events to off (i.e. nothing) you can mute a channel by stopping note events from getting there. This worked well until Mainstage 3.3 which was just released. I tried a number of work arounds but finally settled on the scripter plugin. All you need to do is add a scripter plugin, paste this code in, save and assign your scripter to this script. When the scripter is active, it will mute all note on events. When bypassed, everything is normal. It works very well. Here is the script:
// only get rid of note on events, send everything else.
if (event instanceof NoteOn)
{
}else{
event.send()
}
Increasing battery life on MacBook Pro
Found a neat program called Turbo Boost Switcher. It can turn off the Turbo Boost and give your computer more battery life. I tried turning off Turbo Boost and for most things, you can’t tell the difference, but your battery can!
Electrolux type dryer blow fans
Many types of blower fans for dryers have a plastic blower fan which has a metal spindle in the center which goes on the motor drive shaft. If the fan does not come off easily with moderate force – forget it. You will need to destroy the fan (crack the plastic) and replace the entire blower fan assembly. The fan has a plastic nut and will only handle moderate pressure until it will strip. In addition, the spindle will become fused to the motor shaft and will be virtually impossible to remove.
Lowering a stuck car window with cable type regulator
A catch 22 is that you need to lower the car window to take the window off the regulator track, but the window is stuck in closed position. Don’t even try to force the window down – it won’t work. A suggestion was made to try to press the down button on the window switch and hit the engine of the regulator with a hammer. This may loosen the engine and allow the window to lower. If this doesn’t work, you need to cut the window regulator cable. The cable must be cut on the upper pulley side. Hold the window while you make the cut – you need another person to hold the window or you need to tape the window when doing this. Use a tough set of wire cutters.
Here is a good article on how the regulators work:
http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/153
Update. If the window is stuck in the down position – you need to cut the cable on the bottom side. But how to reach it???? How about popping out the speaker? That works!
If the window comes off the rubber track, push the window forward towards the front of the car and the front rubber track has enough depth to allow you to reposition the window in the back rubber track.
No devices in XCode
Somehow the simulator had no iPad devices listed. Only the iPad device itself was available. To get the devices back you need to control-click on XCode and navigate to the following path:
- Open iOS Simulator is at
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Applications/iOS\ Simulator.app. - Go to Hardware > Devices > Manage Devices
Then you can add the iPad 2, iPad Air etc… back.
iOS9 – sign into the iTunes store keeps coming up
I did a reset all settings to try and fix the dreaded contacts not showing up in Spotlight search on iOS9. After that, “Sign into the iTunes store” kept coming up when going to Spotlight search.
The fix was not obvious. I need to sign out of iCloud and delete from phone, then sign in again. Weird.
3d Touch on iPhone 6s Plus
Selecting text with 3d Touch is not just pressing harder. First off, you have to press hard on the keyboard to get the trackpad – so now in this mode, you can move the cursor to your desired point. To select text, you would think that all you have to do is press HARDER. Well, press all you want, it will not select text even if you are pressing REALLY HARD.
The solution is to actually lighten your pressure without taking your finger off, then gently jab/press into the screen. Now it will select text. It takes a bit of practice and is not like the “test” of 3d touch in the settings app, where you clearly do press harder to get other functions.
Delete lingering repository in xcode project
Sometimes the Xcode remove repository doesn’t work at al. Use this powerful command linked here.
cd to/dir/where/you/want/to/start
find . -type d -name '.svn' -print -exec rm -rf {} \;