Tony's Stuff

  Watch Out, There’s mRNA in that and a Tracking Chip! Lab grown food, refusing vaccines, and life in ‘Murica Anthony Lawrence PANDEMIC Photo by   National Cancer Institute   on   Unsplash Some of the fun conversations I’ve recently had in the land of Americanus Ignoramus: COVID Shots at home A COVID denier told me that government nurses came to his disabled and housebound sister to give her the “fake” vaccine. I asked him why the government would bother to put a tracking chip into a homebound person. He ignored me. mRNA brain cancer I recently heard someone’s excuse for not getting vaccinated for COVID. According to her father, his daughter said that the mRNA might cause brain cancer. I googled that while we were talking and found many results saying things like “Scientists excited about the possibility of treating difficult cancers with mRNA vaccines.” Lab grown chicken In the same conversation, the Dad mentioned that his daughter had tried some lab grown “chicken”...

  Ten Things — No, Eleven Things You Say That Drive Your Tech People Crazy It’s okay — we all do it sometimes Anthony Lawrence TECHNICAL SUPPORT Photo by author Yes, of course people sometimes say or do silly things, even outright stupid things. We all do. Look me straight in the eye and tell me you have never done anything dumb with a computer and I’ll look you straight in the eye and tell you the same thing and then we’ll both try not to laugh. However, there are certain things that happened frequently in my computer tech support life that really did cause me to shake my head just a little. “There was an error message that said something” Would you go to your doctor and say “I had something wrong last week but I wasn’t paying attention so I can’t tell you what it was”? Of course not. If your computer shows an error, get a screenshot or write it down if you have to. You don’t know how to get a screenshot? Don’t feel bad — we don’t do that often so I often forget myself, and honest...

  How about an iPhone/iPad Flashlight App on Your M1 Mac? Are you kidding me? Anthony Lawrence Apps available for M1 Mac- all screenshots bu author When we first learned that we’d be able to run IOS apps on the M1 Mac, some of us thought that was pretty neat. What on earth were we thinking? The screenshot above shows a few of the many ridiculous apps that   could   run on M1 Macs if you were perverse enough to install them. Just to see what would happen, I chose to download an iPhone/iPad Flashlight app to my Mac. Yup. I know, you are giggling. So was I. Flashlight app running, sort of Pretty much what you thought, isn’t it? I doubt the developer expects anyone to download his little crypto/t-shirt/whatever advertising app to be used on a Mac. This and all the other IOS junk that can be found in the Mac App store is because he would need to flag his app NOT to run on Mac to stop that appearance. Why Apple chose to do it that way is utterly incomprehensible to me. But they...

  What You Don’t Know about the New iPhone Bottom Tab It’s better than you think Anthony Lawrence IPHONE New Safari Tab Settings on iPhone — all screenshots by author Do you know what I did when I first saw the new IOS 15 Safari on my iPhone? That’s right: I went straight to Settings and put that bottom tab right back up top where the Internet Gods wanted it! Shaking my head in righteous indignation at this travesty, I wondered what special kind of fool thought THAT was a good idea. And I was wrong I admit it: I acted hastily. After listening to several podcast hosts express their appreciation of this unexpected topsy-turvy change, I sighed deeply and gave bottom tabs another look. First up, yes, it is better to have the tab at the bottom because it’s easier to reach there. More importantly, when you only have a few tabs, switching between them by swiping is quicker than clicking on the tab icon and then clicking on the tab you want. You can get a new tab by swiping left until you ...

  Buying a New Phone or iPad? Maybe It’s Time to Dump Some Junk No pain, no gain Anthony Lawrence Too many apps- screenshot by author A fresh start can sometimes be just what you need. Throw out all the furniture, buy everything new. Maybe move to another country, learn a new language, get a new job, new friends, new everything. Hold on. Maybe that’s a bit extreme. How about we just start by not transferring anything from your old iPhone or iPad to your new? This is going to hurt a little bit It can feel very good to clean out all the old apps and settings that you never use. Starting fresh can improve performance and sometimes eliminate nagging problems that neither you nor Apple support have been able to fix. So instead of restoring a backup or  transferring your old device to the new with Quick Start , you will just set up everything as new. Your Apple ID will bring back everything you have in iCloud storage and you won’t have to pay for any apps you have already bought, bu...

  IOS Photos Image Recognition: Is That a Lion or a Maple Tree? I’m pretty sure, but just in case Anthony Lawrence Photo by  Zach Key  on  Unsplash Have you noticed noticed the new image recognition feature in IOS, iPad0S, and macOS? It’s called Visual Look Up; Apple says it can identify “popular art and landmarks around the world, plants and flowers out in nature, books, and breeds of pets.” I was quite excited when Apple announced this because I’m a curious sort: I like to know what things are called. I had already tried apps that offered this ability; all of them disappointed me. I hoped Apple’s system would be better. It isn’t. Our mystery tree I first tried it on a tree in our front yard we have wanted to identify since we moved here in 2005. People have guessed, but no one was sure. After installing IOS 15, I whipped out my iPhone and snapped a not very exciting picture: As it looks in my Photos app (All Photos by Author) Those two stars decorating the “Informa...

  Because I’m So Lazy, Here Are Some Free Article Ideas For You Maybe you can make something out of them Anthony Lawrence WRITING Personal photo of author trying to write a coherent sentence I bet you have a file of writing ideas. I certainly do. Some of these little prompts of mine have been there for many years, even decades. It seems I may never use them. So, have at them. I only request that you credit me by pasting the quote somewhere (a footnote is fine) and linking back to here. And, if you remember, I’d like you to let me know about your post. Here they are. Make of them what you will. Maybe what you write will inspire me. Isn’t spreading disinformation about COVID and the vaccines shouting “Fire” in a crowded theater? (Tony Lawrence) Was Trump trying to say something about COVID when he tweeted Covfefe? (Tony Lawrence) A COVID denier told me that government nurses came to his disabled and housebound sister to give her the “fake” vaccine. I asked him why the government woul...

How Many Important and Useful IOS Settings Have You Not Noticed? And do you know which ones you have changed? Anthony Lawrence All screenshots by Author Are you intimately familiar with the Settings app on your IOS devices or System Preferences on your Mac? I wish I could say that I am, but I’m not, and most who read this probably are equally unaware of everything that can be found therein. Do you know which settings you have changed from their defaults? When you look at a particular setting, do you know if it has changed from its original setting? I can’t answer yes to either of these questions, can you? When there is an update, do you know what settings have been changed by that, what new settings have appeared, what older settings have been moved or even have disappeared entirely? Again, I don’t know. I get reminded of these knowledge gaps every time I notice or hear about a setting I didn’t know and when I tell someone else about a setting they didn’t know. These things might not b...

  You Might Not Even Notice This New iPadOS Feature I forgot about it until I accidentally triggered it today Anthony Lawrence Sometimes you read about some new feature and then forget all about it until you need it — that’s an “Oh, yeah, I can do that now!” moment. That’s not the case with the iPadOS 15 Shelf feature. I had completely forgotten about it, but even though I’ve been using IOS and iPadOS betas all through the betas, I’ve never needed the Shelf. In fact, it was only today when I accidentally triggered it that I remembered it exists at all! So what is the Shelf? It’s an improvement to iPadOS windowing. I wouldn’t call it a great improvement because it doesn’t work with all apps and although I may have no clue how to make iPad windowing better, surely there must be a way. How did I notice it? Take a look at the screenshot above. See the “Open in New Window” choice? That’s what starts setting up the Shelf. You get that menu by long pressing on something you want to open. ...