ZAFFIRO Lapel Microphone comparison B074SF96X9 vs B0765NGK4N
In this episode I’m taking a look at two lapel microphones by ZAFFIRO. They’re both called “Lavalier Lapel Microphone”, and the description is more or less identical on both items – yet there are significant differences between these products. I bought both of them back in March 2018, and given the sound quality and amount of accessories you get, for less than $20 each, these mics are good bargains for casual users. But no matter how detailed (or vague) their shop descriptions are, and no matter how hip the...
read moreHow to bring back the date on Sticky Posts in TwentyThirteen
By default, the TwentyThirteen theme suppresses the date byline when a post is marked as Sticky (in which case, it’ll always be displayed at the top of the posts list). That’s usually great, because Sticky Posts are often timeless announcements, and the fact that they’re a year or two out of date doesn’t look as handsome as if the date byline would simply be removed. I like this as a default behaviour. Here’s what a default sticky post looks like, without the date displayed: But of course, every now and again you...
read moreHow to take a screenshot on a Chromebook
My wife recently got hold of an Acer Chromebook. She just got a promotion in her job, and part of said promotion was a laptop so that she can work 18 hours a day more efficiently. The biggest question we both had less than 10 monies after switching it on was: how to we take a screenshot with this thing? Short Answer To take a full screenshot, press CTRL + F5. To take a partial screenshot, press SHIFT + CTRL + F5. Now left-drag the area you’d like to take a screenshot of. If your Chromebook doesn’t have F keys, look for a rectangle...
read moreHow to bring back the Author Byline in TwentyThirteen
I could have sworn that when I started using Automattic’s TwentyThirteen theme over five years ago, it displayed an Author Byline in the meta description. That’s the text right underneath the title of a post, the same line that displays the post date, categories and tags. I remember this because there were many an instance on which I had to hide that Author Byline, because on single author websites, crediting yourself over and over again just leads to a cluttered reading experience. Furthermore, if you have several tags and...
read moreHow to fix the Disappearing Mobile Header in TwentyThirteen
I’ve recently changed themes on this site, from my own development of P2 Categories to Automattic’s TwentyThirteen. P2 Categories was not mobile friendly by default, and TwentyThirteen gives all my major notebook sites a cohesive look, making maintenance easier for me. One thing I’ve noticed about TwentyThirteen is a small bug that’s been discussed several times around the web: when no header text elements are shown (under Appearance – Customise – Site Identity), a graphical header image disappears on...
read moreHow to build an Amazon link efficiently
When you want to share a product on Amazon with someone else, the easiest thing to do is to copy whatever is in the browser bar at the time and paste that elsewhere. While this works, it’s not an efficient way to link to a product. The URL is often extremely long and contains additional parameters that tell Amazon’s systems either how the product was found or referred, or what else to display on the current product page. Most of that additional information makes the URL longer than it needs to be. In this article I’ll show...
read moreHow to create a YouTube Subscription Prompt Link
Ever wondered how you can send a link to someone with an immediate prompt to subscribe to your YouTube channel? It works by appending a parameter to the channel link you’d like people to subscribe to. It doesn’t have to be your own channel either. Here’s how to do it. Find the YouTube Channel URL There are plenty of ways to do this, I won’t go into detail here. Check out my article on how to find your YouTube channel URL instead. Let’s take my own YouTube channel’s URL for this example. It’s...
read moreWordPress 5.0 and Gutenberg: What does this mean for you
In this episode I’m explaining the implications of the new default text editor in WordPress 5.0. It’s called Gutenberg, named after the man who invented the printing press (and hence revolutionised how printed books were duplicated and distributed at the time). I’ll also show you how to test drive the Gutenberg editor in WordPress 4.9 and earlier, and how to bring back the Classic Editor if Gutenberg is not for you. I’m not going into details on how to use the new editor, this is just an explanation what Gutenberg...
read moreHow to take pictures with Photo Booth on macOS
In this episode I’ll show you how to take pictures with built-in and external USB cameras using Photo Booth on macOS. Photo Booth is the equivalent of the Camera application in iOS. I will also explain how to export your images, where they are stored on the hard disk, and what you can do if the built-in camera gives you an error message. For Ivy-Jo. Troubleshooting As I’ve explained in the screencast, if Photo Booth or any other app is giving you grief about there camera “not being available”, you can try to reset the...
read moreHow to turn text into an audio file on macOS
Ever since Lion, Mac OS X 10.7, there has been a great and very underrated feature built-in to every Mac: the ability to highlight some text and have macOS turn it into an audio file. This is a wonderful way to listen to written text while you’re on the go, or if you want to skim through text you or others have written while you’re occupied with another activity, such as walking or driving. I love this feature! I’ve seen the option in the context menu many times, but I’ve never dared to use it until today. Perhaps I...
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