If your sound just goes mute, stops working, or you have some issue with audio suddenly going dead in
the middle of a song (it has only happened to me while listening to music) then you are not alone, forums are full of people complaining about
it.
I keep thinking one 'sudo dnf -y upgrade' will fix it soon, but it has been months since 34's release, and it's still not working well.
I read somewhere that they (the angels who make Fedora) are trying to replace pulseaudio with some new sound subsystem. Since my programming days
were over about 20 years ago, whether sound is managed by a new subsystem or fairy dust is the same to me, I am still sure they have a
good reason for it.
Well, until they fix it, I found this patch which reverts it to the old subsystem and it fixes the problem until they get the new one to work:
sudo dnf swap --allowerasing pipewire-pulseaudio pulseaudio
Enjoy!
Elazar.Pimentel@gmail.com
Credit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fedora/comments/n15wbg/fedora_34_various_problems_with_audio/
With many of us -in 2021- deleting our WhatsApp accounts and removing the app from our phones to be replaced by Telegram, Signal and others, we sometimes still need to chat with people who:
- Do not have Telegram or Signal
- Do not know how to install a new App
- Mistakenly think a new app will slow their phones down
- They have an iPhone and cannot upgrade storage space (add memory, as they say) when they either ran out or think they ran out of space.
- Don’t know how to delete unnecessary files from their phone.
- They have an Android phone and can upgrade their storage space but do not know how or think they can’t.
And many other situations, then there is a solution which is almost certain to work for both parties.
Google is phasing out the infamous hangouts we all hated so much, and thanks to the new work-at-home scenario we are living in, Gootle came out
with Google Meet, which besides being free -as most Google products are- is much easier to operate and use than most video conferencing software options out there.
To go with Google Meet, they also developed Google Chat ( http://chat.google.com ) and most people have a Gmail account.
Google Chat has a web client, integration with Gmail, desktop client, mobile client, and I am sure it will be integrated with more products as more and more people use it.
So, next time you don't have WhatsApp and they don't have Telegram or Signal, just go to http://chat.google.com and chat away!
Elazar.Pimentel@Gmail.com
In Linux you may get the followind error: No Java installation could be found" And then some more text with error, like "Please check your installation. /home/buildslave/source/libo-core/connectivity/source/commontools/dbexception.cxx:399"
For some reason Libreoffice still uses Java.
Until they get rid of the code that uses it, you need to install JRE to use some of its functionalities.
In Fedora, in order to do fix that, just close all LIbreoffice windows, run:
# sudo dnf -y install default-jre libreoffice-java-common
You should be ready to go now.
I have heard about wrist-bands, phone and computer Apps that remind you when to stand up, take breaks or whatever.
A lot of us are now working, studying and taking courses from home, as well as the rest of the stuff that we usually do with computers, like reading the news, watching movies, etc.
Thus, since I am spending so much time sitting down in front of a monitor I decided to give some of them a try.
It turned out I liked the first one I found, and it is called Workrave. You can download it here https://workrave.org/download/
It is available on Windows, Linux and you'll have to search around for a version for Mac.
You just install it, right click on it, select preferences and set three types of breaks, micro-breaks, rest breaks and daily limits.
I hope you enjoy it.
Elazar.Pimentel@Gmail.com
TAGS: #Computer, #fatigue, #rest, #rest-your-eyes, #stretch, #walk, #App
You may like Flathub or Snap, for those who do not like either, there is Fedora COPR
Check out Signal in COPR. Read the link, install at your own risk: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/luminoso/Signal-Desktop/
The instructions are pretty simple:
# sudo dnf copr enable luminoso/Signal-Desktop
# sudo dnf install -y signal-desktop
Enjoy
Elazar.Pimentel@Gmail.com
You might notices that you send a message to someone and they reply
immediately.
Other times they do not, so you open the App and find one or more
messages waiting for you, yet there were no alerts on you Telegram icon
informing you that people had written to you.
You are not alone.
The problem is that you do not get notifications from Telegram.
If you are not interested in all the talk and want to get direly to
some solutions to try, click HERE, if not, read on.
Let me start by saying this is not Telegram’s fault -not to have my
words thrown back at me I should better say is mostly not their fault-
for you see, when developers create an App they have to make sure it
works with all -or most- phones from all manufacturers, with most
versions of Android and iPhone, and that were created in the last few
years.
Just imagine having to make a radiator that would work in all cars that
were built in the last five years, and you can start to get the picture.
The reason for this has mostly to do with two not-unrelated issues,
one, phones are customized so Apps do not stay active when they are not
being used and thus not use battery unnecessarily. Two, same with data,
if an App is not active, your phone might block it’s usage to data. Do
you see the problem?
If Telegram is turned off when it is not on your screen (or, let’s say
put on standby) and it’s data sending or receiving capabilities are
also cut off, how is it to know that people sent you messages?
“Well”, you might say, “I had this other program which worked just like
Telegram and I never had that problem”. Well, but you see, no two
programs work alike. You might get a blender for your kitchen which is
great at making shakes but not so good when it comes to chopping onions
(cooking is not my forte, as you can see).
For now, the solution is to continue using Telegram and tweak your
phone so you can use a messaging app without your data being stored and
sold to who knows what company, entity, government agency or crazy
group of people (who, by the way, may fall into more than one of the
aforementioned categories)
So I have taken it upon myself to to scour the web in search for people
who have researched this issue and have some pieces of advise to offer.
I will not put them in any particular other since some seem to work for
some phones and not with others; I will separate them into Android and
iPhone for obvious reasons, here we go:
Android:
a) GadgetHelpline.com :
Enable push notifications
So, firstly you will need to make sure the app itself is not battery
optimised:
1.- Go to Settings
2.--Select Battery
3.- Tap Battery Optimisation
4.- Select Telegram
5.- Select Don’t optimise and tap done.
Now you will need to make sure Telegram is fully updated:
1.-Open Google Playstore
2.- Tap the 3 bars on top left
3.- Select My apps & games
4.- Select Update all
Restart your device for good measure then open Telegram and do the following:
1.- Select 3 bar symbol on top left
2.- Tap Settings
3.- Select Notifications and sounds
4.- Ensure the settings here are correct to how you wish to be notified
5.-Lastly, each separate group or chat will need to be opened in turn. Tap the top of the chat box with the title
6.- Select Notifications
7.- Select customize
8.- Enable custom notifications and ensure settings are correct to how you wish to be notified.
b) MobileInternist.com
Accordingly, you have to make sure that the phone settings are
optimized for background use of Telegram. These are some things you
have to do in order to receive the notifications as intended.
1.- Install the latest app version. Navigate to Play Store and check
for updates.
2.- Check in-app settings. Open Telegram > hamburger menu >
Settings > Notifications and Sounds. Make sure that Message and
Group alerts are enabled. Check System notification settings, too.
3.- Enable Keep-Alive Service and Background Connection. Open Telegram
> hamburger menu > Settings > Notifications and Sounds. Scroll
down until you reach Other. There you can enable both Keep-Alive
Service and Background Connection.
4.- If your handset packs a system manager of some kind, there’s a
chance that it reads Telegram as a power-intensive app and prevent
notifications. Navigate to the manager app and set Telegram as a
protected app or enable it to work in the background freely.
5.- Enable Lock Screen notifications in the phone settings.
c) YouMail.com
1.- Make Sure Wifi Is Always On (varies by device, the instructions
below are for the Note 5 but should be very similar for your device):
2.- Go to the app menu and tap Settings
3.- Tap on Wi-Fi
4.- Tap on “More” in the top right corner (your device may have 3 dots
instead of More)
5.- Tap on “Advanced”
6.- Tap on “Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep”
7.- Make sure it is set to “Always”
Elazar.Pimentel@Gmail.com
Few people who have access to computers have not heard of Zoom. Much
like Excel, it is not the tool for the job, most of the time.
People use Excel as a database program, to the point where Microsoft
has been forced to add database features to it; while having a much
better tool for the Process, Microsoft Access.
The issue can be broadly broken down in categories, habit and training.
If companies trained their people on Access -and insisted on it- or
they would learn out of their own initiative; Access would be one of
the most used tools at the office.
Instead, as many of us know, even specialized government agencies keep
very sensitive database information in spreadsheets meant to do
calculations, not store data (see news article here)
In 2020, something similar is happening with Zoom -and a few other
video conferencing platforms-, people are not using them for
conferences, but to teach classes.
Those of us attending online classes, be it school, training, or
helping others join their school Zoom meetings, know only too well how
inadequate Zoom is for the teacher or speaker to play videos, audio
files, or use a blackboard; as a matter of fact, most people use a
PowerPoint presentation and write on it, while sharing their desktop.
This, is not how Zoom is supposed to be used, and even more important,
it is not the right tool for the job.
Usually the attendee needs to receive an URL wit the invitation, create
an event on a personal calendar to remember the meeting, if there are
assignments to be turned in, the due date also needs to be manually
added to the personal calendar.
Then, the host will probably send an email, to a manually created email
list, which usually becomes obsolete within days of its creating -I
still get emails from a class I quit months ago- and then the host will
receive emails back from all the participants; if there is knowledge to
be extracted from the emails, the other participants will not benefit
from it; or, if one of the participants has a question regarding a
missed class, everybody who attended the class has to waste time
reading an email that does not help them at all.
Sounds familiar?
Well, Google Classrooms is the tool for the job. I will not go into
details on how it works, yet I guess by now you can imagine it solves
all the issues I have underlined in the paragraphs above.
The teacher/host creates a classroom, adds dates, a calendar is
created, adds material to the classroom, assignments, due dates,
meeting dates, and then adds the participants; who have access to all
of it and get automatic updates and reminders in a calendar share by
the whole class.
There is a real blackboard, videoconferencing, a message board that can
be moderated to contain only useful information, and it is about 10% of
the price of Zoom, depending on the entity that wishes to use it, and
some other factors.
You can see a nice YouTube video of Google ClassroomHERE.
Elazar.Pimentel@Gmail.com
Whether or not to use a social network (or anything digital) is not
an ethical or moral position.
Using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, WhatsApp, Signal, etc.,
to obtain the address of a dentist or make an appointment with a
hairdresser is not a political or religious act, it does not enunciate
to the world the type of person someone is or he aspires to become,
does not place the person on a spectrum of any kind. Not having a
social network simply makes it impossible or difficult to obtain
necessary information.
Except for specific cases where people suffer from addiction problems,
having an account on a social network is inconsequential.
In other words, one thing is to live to do marathons, another to go
jogging for two hours a day, then it would be to walk to go to the
places we need to go, and another is to say "no, excuse me, but I don't
walk."
I've never met anyone who says that it is good to spend hours in front
of any social network, nor is it good to spend that same amount of time
playing Rock Paper or Scissors; one must always choose how to spend
their time.
It is important to remember that you can have an account on all the
social networks that exist on the planet, write down the username and
password in a safe place that will not be lost if the computer breaks,
and not use them except when necessary.
In fact, there is no reason to use a real name in the accounts, it
could be Pepe Lopez de Sarmiento in all the networks. Enter the site,
get what you need, and close it.
Another phenomenon that occurs is when a person is told where to get
information on a social network, and they respond "No, I don't use
Twitter, I use Instagram."
Social networks are not interchangeable, if I ask an artist to please
pass me her portfolio and send me an Instagram address, I can't say
"No, I don't use Instagram, send it to me on Tinder."
In the same way, if a group of people has to be provided with
informative texts, schedules, addresses, questions and answers,
documents that they can download, and it is necessary that people can
comment, ask and respond on each of those items, it is not possible on
Instagram, the solution is Facebook.
If there are interchangeable applications, for example, at the time of
the publication of this text, many people - including those who
subscribe - abandoned WhatsApp for its privacy policies to use
Telegram, Signal, or some other.
If I tell my sister that I no longer use WhatsApp, she installs
Telegram in six minutes and we continue doing the same thing we did on
WhatsApp. Nothing changes her.
For her it is not "one more thing to take care of", if someone writes
to her on WhatsApp, she responds. If someone writes to her on Telegram,
she responds. If someone sends her an SMS, she replies. Having Telegram
installed on her phone is not going to cause her any work. She will not
receive any more messages because she has another application; People
who did not write to her when she did not have Telegram are not going
to start sending her pictures of kittens, and if she does, she could
have done it via WhatsApp, email, or fax; Either way the solution is to
ask them not to do it anymore or to block it; the problem is not social
networks, but how we use them.
Different is someone who creates accounts with his first and last name
on all social networks and adds or accepts all his friends and answers
the messages they send him on all social networks and ends up spending
hours a day suffering for having chosen that option. Commenting on
photos, replying to messages, looking at other people's posts, it's a
choice. You can have all the social networks and read or answer a
single message.
My Facebook has my basic information and a single message that says "I
do not use Facebook to communicate, please send me an email."
There is no reason to think about social networks but as a necessary
tool to work or obtain some data.
Imagine being on the first day of work saying "No, sorry, but I don't
use computers"