iTunes Rants

Dear Apple,

when people tell you that iTunes is a piece of crap, this is what they mean.

I'm sure one of those numbers is correct ...

Useful Mac Hacks

If it gets in here, it has to be pretty useful.  I didn't work it out, I'm just trying to hold on to it for posterity.  Always look to the original link for details.

Add a "recent apps" icon to the dock.

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = {"list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile";}' && \killall Dock

Credit: http://www.howtogeek.com/273187/quickly-open-recent-apps-and-documents-with-this-hidden-mac-feature/

Note: I don't know why they include the \ in front of killall - it isn't needed, it merely escapes the 'k'.  If you wanna avoid PATH issues, use /usr/bin/killall.

16 blocks making up circular patterns

Here's another that I must have gotten years ago, and I've lost the instructions.  The sticker on the only remaining part of the packaging says "Attempt to arrange the tiles so that different colours never touch!". That seems too easy - here are two solutions that only took about ten minutes to find.

all the circles the same colour scheme, but no two colours touch anywhere

all of the tiles connected in a single loop, again no colours touching anywhere

The PLEXi Iamond Hex solution

Since I'm recording the nice way to put the puzzles away, here is the pretty solution to the PLEXi Iamond Hex puzzle (which is apparently a licensed version of Kadon's original).

The Pentomino Square Solution

I keep having to rediscover the solution to the pentomino square puzzle that's so hard to put away nicely otherwise, so here it is.

Google Calendar not syncing to Nana's Nexus 7

For some reason, Google Calendar on Mum's Nexus 7 has a long-standing bug where it spontaneously forgets how to sync her calendar data.  Since I'm on the other side of the country, and I don't use Android at all these days, here are the notes on how to fix the issue.

• Open Settings
• Select Storage
• Select Apps Data and Media
• Sort Apps By Name (using the right-hand menu)
• Scroll down to Calendar
• Remove Data
• Scroll down to Calendar Storage (this should be the next one on from Calendar)
• Remove Data

Make sure you do both Calendar and Calendar Storage!

• Go back to top of Settings
• Under Accounts, go to Google Accounts
• Select Sync (using right-hand menu)

The human brain is really good at seeing patterns...

Dear Penthouse, I would never have thought something like this might happen to me.

I got into work this morning, and I had forgotten to rinse out my coffee cup the night before so I needed to clean it.  Imagine my surprise, however, when I looked down into it and saw someone looking sternly back at me.

Don't take my word for it, though.  Here is iPhoto agreeing that there is a face in there, you can't argue with computer software...

I'm pretty sure its Alan Moore, famed comic artist and well known magician. Go take a look at him on Wikipedia.  But what is the author of V for Vendetta doing in my C for Coffee Cup? Sadly, we'll never know. His unnerving visage made me feel so guilty that I washed the cup immediately, well immediately after taking a few photos.  Here's one more close-up.