iPhone Phone Extensions from Dial Pad

Everybody knows the trick of putting extensions in the contact record with commas. 

But this is no help when you have to dial the same bridge line but with many different extensions. 

It's a total pain when you've gotten on the bridge like that and you get knocked off and you have to dial the whole thing again. It would be so nice to just hit redial.

Turns out Steve has anticipated our needs once again. You say, "but there is no comma (for pause) or semicolon (for wait) on the interactive dialer!" Ho-ho my friend I suggest you hold down the star or pound key a little longer and see what happens. That's right they become the other keys. How nice. 

So now I just input the bridge, the commas, and the extension, and then let it dial away, secure in the knowledge that I'll be able to easily redial. Yay!

Download Facebook Videos

I was afraid this would happen: there are some family videos on Facebook (if that's not bad enough), that are only on Facebook, the source has been lost, typically because it was on a cell phone, which has a somewhat temporary nature.

What to do? I want to get a copy of those videos, and back it up, even if the quality is bad.

So I googled "download facebook videos". Yikes! Turns out there are two common solutions, both horrible in my opinion: (1) Install a browser helper or download a utility. The problem is all of these seem to be very harmful, and also do not work as advertised. Just read some of the comments about them before you go clicking on them. (2) Get the facebook video URL and plug it at a certain website. As best I can tell that website then has your personal video, and does what it wants with it.

Is there a safer (more secure, more private) third option? You bet! I found the answer here: http://www.wikihow.com/Download-Facebook-Videos-Free . It's in the second section. Basically you get the video going in Chrome's developer mode. Find the video on the network tab, and open the URL in a new window, then you can rightclick on the video to download it. Yay! Problem solved without installing a virus or posting my videos to who knows where.

How to tell USB 3

Ever want to figure out whether your USB3 port or device is operating at true USB 3 speeds?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/usbcoreblog/archive/2012/06/27/how-to-determine-whether-a-usb-3-0-device-is-operating-at-superspeed.aspx

Sherlock Jr

Working on computers, be it hardware (IT) or software (development) eventually comes down to just one thing, detective work. 

Manually run a virus scan in Windows 8/8.1

It's bugged me since 8 came out that I couldn't "get to" Defender. I knew it was supposed to be there but the task tray icon is gone. Well no more!

Put your mouse in top right corner until the right hand charms pop out.

Click on search.

Type Windows Defender

Choose Windows Defender from the results.

You can change your settings, make sure you have the most updated dats, or run a manual scan, from the interface presented, which resembles the Windows 7 Security Essentials UI.

iPhone Texting Fails

"Error Invalid Number. Please re-send using a valid 10 digit mobile number or valid short code."

This from an iPhone 5 with iOS 8.1. Googling the error shows posts back to 2008 with no clear etiology, workaround, or resolution. 

A combination of the proposed fixes seems to have worked for me to fix it this time. I deleted the contact, deleted the message threads (original and error), and did a double button hot restart. Then I texted the problem number. Then created a new contact with the number. Glad to be past it for now. Not sure what service the other person has but I'm on ATT and it was a text not a message (green). 

iTunes to iPhone: move music without syncing

How do you get music from your PC to an iPhone you don't necessarily want to sync with? Apple makes this impossible, but somebody found a back door!

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19470407

(Go down to the comment by "karissafrey".)

In iTunes create a playlist with the music you want to download, then change the autodownload playlist to your new one, then choose autosync. This worked perfectly for me! Yay! No changes besides the one I wanted. 

Reverse Turing Test

You're probably familiar with the Turing test where a computer (AI) is said to have reached a certain level of advancement when it can fool a human being into thinking that it is a human being. It's more complicated than that but you get the general idea.

Well I came across the opposite problem today. How do I convince human beings that I am not a computer? Specifically I'd like to offer my friends a download but I don't want them to think that it's robotic spam message or a phishing attempt.

How do I assure them that it's really me writing the email? So many facts about us are widely available on the Internet. What piece of information or shared experience do I and my friends have in common that is not known? I honestly can't think of anything.

The best alternative I've been able to come up with so far is to let them see that the download is being offered from my own domain and the URL has not been tampered with.

Phone As PC

http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/02/ubuntu-store-apps-wont-work-across-mobile-and-desktop-in-14-04/#p3

It's not the main thrust of the article, but "Phone As A PC" does get a mention. I think this should be the hottest trend going, not wearable computing. My iPhone has always been faster than any work PC I have ever been assigned, with the exception of the latest. And apps and games on the iPhone seem to run better than on my strongest gaming machines at home, with less problems and gotchas.

So as more and more folks get smartphones, why not make them a substitute for their desktop PC? They already can work with monitors and keyboard and mice in a limited fashion. Just make such extensions easier and more useful. Enable phones to use external storage devices, and even printers.

There were some Android phones, I think from Motorola, that had a desktop mode, that were shown at CES two years ago. doesn't seem like they took off. But clearly this trend has far more usefulness than a watch that tells you when your phone has a text.

Imagine being able to sit down at any PC station, and get your stuff - your programs, your data, without having to mess with virtualization. I can imagine it, and I want it.

Can’t raise fold-down rear seat on 2010 Ford Escape because of stuck middle seat belt retractor

Ok quick break from tech to report on a known car problem and the fix. I have a 2010 Ford Escape, and put the bigger side of the 40/60 split rear seat down to fit a table in the rear. When I went to raise it back up, it wouldn’t move more than an inch or two.

After some investigation I determined the problem was that the middle seat belt, which actually retracts into the top of the seat, had retracted completely and then locked up, stuck.

I spent some time trying various things to get it to let go. I even had half the material off the seat so I could see up to the area where the retractor was mounted. Nothing I tried did anything but make it tighter.

I turned to the Internet, and found out this is a known problem with these Fords and perhaps other models going back several years. Argh! For instance, http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=60783 

Then I found a site that seemed to have some solid advice - http://www.fixya.com/cars/t6637034-ford_escape_middle_rear_seat . This turned out to be fix for me.

Basically take out the 6 bolts holding the seat backs down (2 on each side and 2 in the middle). Then you can get to the Torx bolt that bolts the seat belt to the floor. Then take out the 60 part of the seat back completely, turn it right side up, click in the latch on the side, and the seat belt should retract normally with a couple of pulls. Then just put everything back together the way it was.

Save yourself wasted time trying other methods. They are right when they say this is the only way that works. And once you figure it out, it’s not that hard. Good thing, because I’ve got a feeling I’m going to be doing this again and again.