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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Posts Tagged ‘google’

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Google Nexus 4: How to Undo “Android sync of Google Contacts will sometimes auto-merge contacts with the same last-names”

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/04/05

On my brand new Google Nexus 4, I had this problem that some contacts were merged based on their last name.

They were merged only on the phone: at the Google Contacts web page, they still were separate.

The issue was very much “in my face”, as one of the merges was my brother and mother. For which I am pretty sure they are separate entities, both alive and kicking.

Browsing for a solution, I found these links (the first one got me to the others):

The issue is still there (I synced 3 weeks ago).

The solution is per device (the sync breaks on your device, not on Google Contacts).

The steps of the solution were not completely clear, so below are screenshots. Click on each screenshot to get a larger crisp 768×1280 HD image. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Android, Google, Nexus 4, Power User | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

The Missing Windows 8 Instructional Video (awesome 25 minutes, via: Scott Hanselman – G+)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/21

A couple of weeks ago, Scott Hanselman posted a great Windows 8 instructional video.

It contains all the stuff that geeks like me will find out themselves over time, but in a well paced and complete manner:

… to give new users to Windows 8 a near-complete understanding of the major features including the Start Screen, Hot Corners, Full Screen Apps, Desktop Apps, The Store, Browsing, Doing Social Stuff, using the Mouse effectively and exploiting keyboard Shortcuts.

It also shows what a power user like Scott uses besides the standard Microsoft Windows/Office combo.

Oh: and it includes the “Windows-X” shortcut (:
(no: not the mobility center any more)

Recommended watch!

–jeroen

via: (12) Scott Hanselman – Google+ – The Missing Windows 8 Instructional Video. It’s 25 minutes….

Posted in Power User, Windows, Windows 8 | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Brochure “Is het dementie?” van Alzheimer Nederland (directe link; http://10signalen.nl)

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/02/07

Met diverse mensen in mijn omgeving die al redelijk op leeftijd raken vroeg ik me af: wanneer gaat vergeetachtigheid nu over in dementie.

Gelukkig was er vanorgen op de radio een spotje over dementie die verwees naar 10signalen.nl.

Via een ingewikkeld proces* (handig voor demterenden!) kun je daar een brochure aanvragen. De naam ervan is “Is het dementie?“.

Voor het gemak: je kunt de brochure ook telefonisch aanvragen via 030-659 69 00 of 0800-5088.

Omdat de brochure toch via Google search gevonden kan worden, hier de directe link: http://www.alzheimer-nederland.nl/media/460524/is_het_dementie.pdf.

Vanaf pagina 23 staan er in de brochure 2 interessante vragenlijsten (van respectievelijk 25 en 16 vragen) die je helpen te beslissen of je (voor jezelf of iemand anders) een afspraak met een arts wilt maken.

Pas op pagina 11 begint de folder over de 10 signalen. Die staan gelukkig ook apart on-line: Alzheimer Nederland – Tien signalen van dementie.

–jeroen

via: site:http://www.alzheimer-nederland.nl/media “u loopt naar de keuken om iets te pakken” – Google Search.

vergeetachtigheid Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in LifeHacker, Power User | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

If your system is configured as Metric, then any app not honouring that have a UX #Fail

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/19

I love Google:

Especially since there is still software like Garmin Training Center for Mac on Mac OS X with – in the System Preferences – the Measurement Units set as Metric, insists on entering weight as lb, and workout distance in miles.

The reason is that Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X has its own “Measurement Units” settings. Where Mac OS lets the system wide setting be either “Metric”  or ” US”, Garmin choose between “Metric” and “Statute” (the latter is default, not the OS X setting).

The problem is twofold:

Garmin has head offices and most of their customers outside the USA, so why insist on US units being default, and why not link the setting to the Mac OS X Preference?

UX #fail.

Oh BTW: if you connect your Garmin device, and GTC still indicates ”no fitness device was found”, then use a different USB Cable and don’t connect it through a hub: the device is very picky on talking over USB (charging over USB works with virtually any USB cable).

Mac OS X System Preferences Measurement Units Metric

Mac OS X System Preferences Measurement Units Metric (click to enlarge)

Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X insists in imperial units, even though the system is configured as metric.

Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X insists in imperial units, even though the system is configured as metric.

Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X has its own

Garmin Training Center on Mac OS X has its own “Measurement Units” settings. Where Mac OS lets the system wide setting be either “Metric” or ” US”, Garmin choose between “Metric” and “Statute” (the latter is default, not the OS X setting).

Even after setting the Garmin Training Center to

Even after setting the Garmin Training Center to “Metric”, it still lists “Miles” in your workouts.

–jeroen

Posted in Google, GoogleSearch, Opinions, Power User, User Experience | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

TURKTRUST Incident Raises Renewed Questions About CA System | threatpost

Posted by jpluimers on 2013/01/05

A small quote from the very interesting  TURKTRUST Incident Raises Renewed Questions About CA System | threatpost article:

“Subordinate certificates have long been identified as a point of weakness in the CA system. They are typically granted unconstrained power to issue certificates for any domain name. Thus, a leak of one subordinate certificate is seen as equivalent to a leak of authority equivalent to all CAs combined. Worse, subordinate certificates need not be explicitly trusted by the software that authenticates encrypted SSL connections typically your web browser. They inherit their trust from the explicitly trusted CAs that have been vetted by your browser vendor,” Steve Schultze, associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, wrote in an analysis of the TURKTRUST incident.

A CA (Certificate Authority) issues certificates, most of which are used for domain validation by web-browsers, email and applications. This allows you to make sure when you communicate with your bank (through a web browser or banking app on your phone) to verify the server of the bank is in fact the server of your bank. Or your email program really talks to the server of your email provider and not some intermediate that spoofs your mails.

If fraudulent certificates get issued for certain domains (sometimes specific like http://www.google.com, sometimes generic like *.yahoo.com, or *.*.com), then you cannot trust those domains any more, nor your communication with them. So communication with your bank could be intercepted and changed, thereby loosing money.

That’s exactly what happened in 2011 and late 2012:

The heart of the problem is twofold:

  1. if a CA somehow (by mistake, hacking or whatever) issues a rogue certificate, it takes a relatively long time to find out it is rogue. In the mean time, everyone trust the rogue certificate, and a lot of damage can be done.
  2. it takes a relatively long time for people to patch their systems making the window of opportunity even bigger (heck, I regularly see systems that have not been patched for months or years).

While a IETF proposal to log all intermediate and end-entity certificates tries to fix 1., make sure you fix 2. by keeping your systems patched.

–jeroen

via TURKTRUST Incident Raises Renewed Questions About CA System | threatpost.

Posted in Opinions | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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