Category Archives: Software

.new TLD Looks Handy

At least, I thought so….

As described in How to open blank documents/instances of many common programs from your browser, google is rolling out the .new TLD exclusively for shortcuts that “[t]ake the user directly into the action generation or content creation flow”.  E.g.,

  • doc.new for a new google doc
  • sheet.new for a new google calc sheet
  • word.new for a blank M$ Doc file
  • excel.new for a new Excel sheet
  • ppt.new for a new powerpoint presentation

Many, many other shortcuts too.

The nice thing about this — besides noticeably reducing the time to open blank documents in Word or Sheets — is that because this is a DNS hack, it works in all browsers–it’s not just a Chrome thing.

Google is opening the .new TLD to all comers, subject to mild restrictions:

All .new domain names are required to comply with the .new Registration Policy, which features a usage-based restriction to ensure that all domains are being used for new actions. That means that all .new domains registrations must:

  • Be used for action generation or online content creation;
  • Take the user directly into the action generation or content creation flow;
  • Resolve to the action within 100 days of registration;* and
  • Allow Google Registry to verify compliance at no cost.

While anyone can register, domains that don’t comply with this usage policy may be suspended or deleted by Google Registry without refund. So be sure you review the full .new Registration Policy before you register your .new domain to ensure that it meets our policy requirements.

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Tripit Three

I sent in my form, and that seems to have done the trick.

Previously:

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Internet, Software | Comments Off on Tripit Three

Tripit Two

Next act in, Does Tripit Think I’m on a Watch List or Financial Sanctions List?

After I wrote in asking why my account was suspended, the Tripit help desk promptly sent me a form to fill out attesting that I’m me, and asking where I live and what my birth date is; they promised not to share it with any third parties. Top of Tripit form requesting ID confirmationThe form didn’t ask for any proof, other than my signature, but I’m sure it’s a trivial thing to validate the information against many commercially available data bases.

I sent in the form last night, and we’ll see how long it takes them to chew on it. Worst case, I suppose I can always open a new free account with a different email address. I’ve got several…

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Does Tripit Think I’m on a Watch List or Financial Sanctions List?

Admittedly, its been a long time since I tried to use Tripit, the handy travel itinerary planner site. Today I noticed that my Tripit widget on my phone wanted me to re-login, so I tried to do that. Didn’t work.

OK, maybe I have the wrong password, let’s try the web version. Password manager confirms I have the right password, but still no dice:

OK, maybe the link to the help page will explain this?

Well, that’s odd.

Seems to me there are four possibilities:

  1. Tripit is having a bad day.
  2. For some weird reason (unlikely to be my VPN since that’s set to a domestic location), Tripit wrongly thinks I’m located abroad or on a watch list / Treasury sanctions list.
  3. Tripit has decided that Florida is a foreign country they will no longer serve.
  4. I am on a watch list or a Treasury asset control list. (Would be news to me.)

I’m betting on #2, but we’ll see.  I opened a ticket with Tripit, and will report back if I hear anything.  Then again, if they think I’m on some list, maybe they don’t even answer help requests.

Other possibilities?

 

Posted in ID Cards and Identification, Internet, Software | 2 Comments

Avast Antivirus Blocks DisplayFusion

I was called in to debug a relative’s Windows 10 PC. All of a sudden DisplayFusion, the program that ably manages multiple monitors, was not doing anything.

Investigation showed DisplayFusion was active in the Task Manager. The item it creates on the Windows right-click task menu was still there, but none of the items in the sub-menu did anything. The telltale extra button in other programs’ windows, the one that lets you send them to the screen, was missing.

Various combinations of stopping DisplayFusion, restarting it, rebooting the machine did nothing. Updating everything in sight made no difference. Malwarebytes reported no viruses. Google revealed no useful hints. Stopping Avast did nothing either…

But totally uninstalling Avast (and replacing it with Windows Defender) then rebooting–that did the trick.

So I’m writing it up here, in case anyone else has the same issue, likely caused by a recent update to Avast’s antivirus files. Then again, who uses Avast these days?

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Restoring Multi-Row Tabs in FF 107

Firefox’s update to version 107 destroyed my custom CSS for multi-row tabs. But the internet has an answer. These are the steps:

  1. Go to about:config and turn layout.css.moz-box-flexbox-emulation.enabled to “true” (source of this important advice: here)
  2. Strip out any old multi-row code from your C:\Users\[YOUR USER HERE]\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[PROFILE NAME]\chrome\UserChrome.css file [or create one if this is a fist time]
  3. Replace it with the code at MrOtherGuy/firefox-csshacks [link updated].

Worked for me.

Posted in Internet, Software | 9 Comments