Catfood WebCamSaver 3.27 is out. This has a big increase in the list of working webcams and so definitely worth upgrading (or trying for the first time).
Code: I fix a pet peeve with Todoist so the Alexa Integration sets a due date. Also, here's how to use the new Google Search Console API to monitor the index status of your pages. Both in Google Apps Script.
Timelapse: San Francisco Shoreline. Sunsets 8 (Nice Pacific view from my roof) and 9 (the March 27 storm in San Francisco). Both sides of the Golden Gate.
Some Catfood updates - WebCamSaver has been migrated to .NET 4.8 and has a code signing certificate (less nagging from Windows during install) and updated notifications. The list of webcams has also been updated. Catfood Earth for Android now supports Material You. This was so painful that there is a companion 'making of' post so I can whine about it.
With all the news about San Francisco's crime tsunami I decided to look at the data. Here's an animation of all the crime from 2003 to 2021. Spoiler alert, the only really interesting trend is that there is less of it, and 2020 was a massive dip which makes all of the year on year increase statistics being paraded around at the moment a little less interesting. There is a good contrarian take in The Atlantic as well: The Great Shoplifting Freak-Out.
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Saturday, December 4, 2021.
I'm lucky enough to have the right sort of TPM so Windows 11 installed smoothly on my laptop through Windows Update. It's got some nice fit and finish improvements and round corners and generally seems well put together. Except for anything I actually use and care about on a regular basis.
It is still impossible to get rid of notifications with one click. This has actually regressed from Windows 10 as we're back to a little x to dismiss which actually sends the notification off to the action center for when you have some spare time to dismiss it a second time. Microsoft, spend less time on focus assist and more time on this!
The taskbar wants your icons in the center. If I wanted a Mac I would have bought one. Luckily there is a setting to move them back to the left. But one thing you can't do is have small taskbar icons. There is a registry hack, but it breaks the system icons so until that's fixed the main impact of Windows 11 for me is missing out on about one row of a spreadsheet. I would like those pixels back!
Maybe the start menu is better, but I stopped using that with Windows 10 and now just pin apps or search for them so I'd never know.
A few weeks into my Windows 11 adventure and I think they handed this one off to the designers and forgot the adult supervision.
Alt-Tab you have one job and it's switching between applications. Why then is the selection now indicated by a hair thin black border? It's pretty, but I now have to squint to figure out where I'm going.
Worse still you can no longer drag and drop to the taskbar. I don't do this every day, but it's a big time saver when I need it. Now I have to go through a re-org of windows to drag things between them.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Windows 11 Broken Notifications #etc#windows#microsoft Windows 11 still won't let you dismiss notification with one click. It also gets rid of small taskbar icons. The windows have nice rounded corners though!)
Continuing my Catfood Software refresh I have added a detailed WebCamSaver Guide as a companion to the Catfood Earth post. I also released Catfood Earth 4.20. This is a minor feature release (with the 2021d time zone database) but has a lot of upgrades behind the scenes. I've migrated to .net 4.8 and renewed my code signing certificate both of which make it much easier to install on Windows 10 (and 11). Upgrade notifications died when I moved Catfood Software to ITHCWY, with this release there is a new web service so Earth can tell you when thee is a new version available. Similar changes will come to WebCamSaver soon.
I have been listening to podcasts for over 20 years.
That shouldn't be possible as the format only really started in 2003. In late 2000 I was commuting from San Francisco to Sunnyvale and wanted to listen to Radio 4 while driving. I cobbled together a solution that involved some dodgy software that saved a RealPlayer stream to MP3, one of the first (pre-iPod) hard drive MP3 players and a headphone jack to FM dongle. I'm pretty sure I was the only person listening to the Today Program on I280 back then.
These days it's Podkicker Pro and Bluetooth and my problem is too many podcasts. For some reason I can't sit down and listen to a podcast. I'll immediately start reading some news or doing something else. The only times I can listen are while I'm occupied with something else - cooking, walking, commuting (and I haven't been doing much commuting recently).
I can't be alone in this but for some reason most podcasts are monetizing with extra content. Pay $5/month on substack and get the extra subscriber episodes or extended interviews or something extra. What I actually want to pay for is less content. Give away the three hour meandering version and charge for a tightly edited hour. Please.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
New Podcast Business Model: Less Content #etc#podcasts Podcasts should monetize by giving away the longer version and charging for a well edited cut.)
In one of the cases, filed Sept. 4, plaintiff Maria Infante seeks $50 million and class-action status after a San Francisco parking enforcement officer wielding chalk on a residential street gave her a $95 ticket.
The second case, filed the same day against San Leandro, demands $5 million for class members whose tires were chalked to financially benefit the city.
Civilization continues to collapse. I had my tongue in my cheek for this proposed constitutional amendment but I'm not so sure any more...
