Make App Disappear From Taskbar On Minimize

Screenshot showing Windows 8's ability to pin apps and show different wallpapers on different monitors, as well as displaying the new Explorer file browser interface, Task Manager, and multi-monitor taskbar (in "Duplicated on all taskbars" mode). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

28-March-2018

I wanted to completely hide an application after it is minimized. Hide() is not enough. [ShowInTaskbar = false] did the trick.

Well, I could say that I struggled a bit finding out what would really make the application disappear from the taskbar.

I used Hide(). Didn't work. I also tried Visible = false. Also did not work. I combined both, but still, it did not work. I combined both Hide() and Visible = false, and even then, I still did not see the job done. App icon still shows in the taskbar when it was minimized.

I should mention that I already have the application creating an icon in the System Tray as I have previously created a NotifyIcon to handle that. And what I am adding now is to minimize the window via code, which also requires the app icon to be not shown in the Taskbar.

I couldn't find many articles that provided help. What came up usually just mentioned Hide() or Visible, and some of the old stuff about adding a NotifyIcon function. I found one that did mention about making use of the property ShowInTaskbar. So I grabbed that one-liner code, tried it, and it worked!

So now my program is complete! Now I can hide an application after it is minimized. Thanks to ShowInTaskbar, I could declare it a holiday!

Till then!

[Late posting; drafted on 04-October-2017]

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Kernel Panic - Not Syncing After Ubuntu Upgrade, Update

Ubuntu Desktop 11.04 started from Live CD with Install window open (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kernel panic - not syncing! I upgraded to Ubuntu 16.04, and that is what I got.

After being away from my blogs for so long a time, building my own website, and letting it go after a year, I am back to Blogger.com.

Since my last blog, it was about 2 years already, I think more than. And I have forgotten what my e-mail was. I mean, there is one e-mail that I always use, as much as I can remember. But I tried to log in using that account, and it was not!

I tried my second best candidate, and even that one, it was not!

Searched a bit on how to find out who the blog owner is, found some things, like looking at the profile, etc. Didn't work for me.

Finally, I had to log-in with the account that I knew I always use, and checked out the settings, and I saw another e-mail account, and to my surprise! I mean, I can't believe, and I doubted, that I am using that e-mail in my blogs.

Nothing would be lost, so I tried, and what do you know? That was the correct e-mail account!

And I had to put this in writing, the error I encountered when I updated Ubuntu Linux to 16.04. That was the reason why I was anxious to start blogging again.

Kernel panic - not syncing... and some other texts.

Problem: 

After upgrading Ubuntu Linux to 16.04, I can't boot up Ubuntu Linux. Grub shows, but after selecting Ubuntu, OS stops at that line: Kernel panic - not syncing....

Solution(s):

1. boot-repair - this was the first thing I did. Using a Live CD/USD of the same distro, I booted up my laptop to Ubuntu, and issued below commands line-by-line:

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair

boot-repair

There is a good graphical article here in help.ubuntu.com: Boot-Repair. 

That fixed Grub, and Ubuntu is able to boot up properly again. But Windows is now not showing in Grub! So I searched for possible fixes.

2. bootrec /rebuildbcd. That was the suggested fix, which requires botting up with a Windows installation CD/USD. And that was required to be run in a command prompt environment.

At first, it was not a success. Further searches, I got the idea that I need to mount Windows drive, which I unmounted when I tried to install 16.04 over my 15.04 version.

3. mount Windows partition. I booted up to Ubuntu Live CD/USB, opened up disks from terminal, click-select Windows partition, flicked the switch to mount, then remove hibernate file by adding in mount option: ,remove_hiberfile.

Then I ran grub repair utility. Still didn't see Windows in the Grub list.

4. boot-repair. I ran it a second time, and I saw that it is already seen as one of the OSes. I completed the repair.

As I was able to boot up Ubuntu Linux and Windows, I did 2 cycles of booting up Windows and Ubuntu Linux without touching anything yet. Once I am confident that Grub is properly working again, I did the last step of customization.

5. Grub Customizer. I removed Windows 8, moved up and down Ubuntu, Advanced Ubuntu Options and Windows according to my liking, and I am back.

I am posting up this article from Ubuntu Linux 16.04 distro. I hope it helps me in the future, if the opportunity comes, and I hope that it helps somebody else who face the same problem.

Till then!

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Google Uses its Social Network to Get Nosy

English: Google+ wordmark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Social Network (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am just wondering and pondering what would happen if I post this seemingly anti-Google article in a Google-owned blog site. But this was an article published in the open, so while I am having my doubts, I still believe this is a fair game.

Read on...
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BY CLAIRE CAINE MILLER


SAN FRANCISCO – Google Plus, the company’s social network, is like a ghost town. Want to see your old roommate’s baby or post your vacation status? Chances are, you’ll use Facebook instead.

But Google isn’t worried. Google Plus may not be much of a competitor to Facebook as a social network, but it is central to Google’s future – a lens that allows the company to peer more broadly into people’s digital life, and to gather an ever-richer trove of the personal information that advertisers covet.

Once you sign up for Plus, it becomes your account for all Google products, so Google sees who you are and what you do across its services, even if you never return to the social network itself.

Google says Plus has 540 million monthly active users, but almost half do not visit the social network.

“Google Plus gives you the opportunity to be yourself, and gives Google that common understanding of who you are,” said Bradley Horowitz, vice president of product management for Google Plus. “It’s about you showing up at Google and having a consistent experience across products so they feel like one product, and that makes your experiences with every Google product better.”

Plus is now so important to Google that the company requires people to sign to use some Google services, like commenting on YouTube. Larry Page, Google’s chief executive, tied employee bonuses companywide to its success and appointed Vic Gundotra, a senior Google executive, to lead it.

The value of Plus has only increased in the last year, as search advertising. Google’s main source of profits, has slowed.

“The database of affinity could be the holy grail for more effective brand advertising,” said Nate Elliott, an analyst at Forrester studying social media and marketing.

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Need help in achieving clarity of mind?
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Google says the information it gains about people through Google Plus helps it create better products – like sending traffic updates to cell-phones or knowing whether a search for “Hillary” refers to a family member or to the former American secretary of state – as well as better ads.

Plus has 29 million unique monthly users on its website and 41 million on smartphones, with some users overlapping, compared with Facebook’s 128 million users on its website and 108 million on phones, according to Nielsen.

The way Google is tying its research its search engine, which dominates the market, with a less popular product in Plus has set off antitrust concerns. The United States Federal Trade Commission raised the issue during its recent antitrust investigation of Google, according to two people briefed on the matter. That investigation closed without a finding of wrongdoing.

Google declined to comment on this issue.

In the meantime, while some Google users have been turned off by the push to sign up for Plus, few have actually fled.

“If people want to use your platform enough,” Mr. Elliott said,” you can get away with quite a lot.”


Taken from TODAY Saturday Edition, March 22, 2014

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Wearable Tech Doesn’t Have to Be Ugly

Mediamatic Hybrid Wearables (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By MOLLY WOOD


Wearable electronics – often a dull representation of function over form – are finally getting a fashion-industry makeover.

Fitbit, the maker of the Fitbit One and Flex, has teamed with the designer Tory Burch to make new trackers that look like jewelry. In January, Intel started a wearable design competition that will award $1.25 million in prize money. And a few companies are already shipping wearable gadgets that look like well-chosen accessories.

The Shine tracker by Misfit Wearables is a small aluminum disc with a magnetic clip for attaching it to clothing or shoes, and a black rubber wristband. Accessories that hold the disc, like a leather wristband and a necklace, are options to change the look.

Sonny Vu, Misfit’s chief executive, said his team spent months researching wearable tech. Neither men nor women wanted to clip devices to their shoes when they weren’t cycling or running, he said, because “your shoes are the foundation of your fashion.” Many women also said they wouldn’t wear a wristband because it created tan lines.

“If we only think about the wrist, we will definitely be limiting our imagination,” Mr. Vu said. “You can do a heck of a lot at the wrist, but you will be limiting the people who will use it. The body is such a sacred place that you really have to think this through.”

The wrist is where wearable gadgets first got noticed. Nike’s introduction of the Nike+ FuelBand in 2012 spurred a wrist-based rush that spread to smartwatches, an idea that has had varying degrees of nonsuccess since the 1980s.

The earliest activity trackers were clips that were meant to be worn on a waistband, or clipped to a sports bra or pocket.

When companies like Jawbone and Nike released wristbands like the Up and the FuelBand, Fitbit said its customers started to ask for bands in addition to clips.

“The wrist is good and bad,” said James Park, Fitbit’s chief executive. “The great thing is that once you put a band there or some other device, you have the option of not having to take it off and not forgetting it. But it’s much more difficult to track things like motion, steps taken, calories burned –filtering that out is a lot tougher than it is on a clip.”

Some exercises won’t count if you’re wearing a wrist tracker. Burn 1,000 calories in spin class, for example, but your FuelBand might never know it because your wrist stays stationary.

Consumers are also asking for devices that can measure heart rate, which is difficult with a wristband.

Then there’s style. Many athletic wristbands are simply athletic-looking or ugly. Even beautiful ones like the Jawbone Up look inorganic. The Shine comes closest to a wardrobe addition. It costs $120 for the disc, clasp and wristband, and $50 each for the necklace and leather band. Neither is high-fashion, but it’s a start. Shine lets the wearer specify that they’re swimming, cycling or playing other sports, a feature that is supposed to help get more accurate measurements.

The Shine shows that there’s no need for wearable devices to be tied to the wrist, or to any single part of the body. The little sensors inside the devices are simple and are the key to the next wave of wearable evolution.

They will power devices that “are going to continue to grow on us, on the body, and around the body,” said the creator of the Jawbone Up, Yves Behar, adding, “People will pick and choose what fits them.”


Taken from TODAY Saturday Edition, March 29, 2014

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Apple stirs debate with frozen-egg staff perk

English: Apple's headquarters at Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

SAN FRANCISCO


Apple is following Facebook by offering company insurance coverage to women who wish to freeze their eggs.

Facebook started providing the benefit, which applies to employees and their spouses or domestic partners, in January. The Menlo Park, California-based social network firm offers full coverage, or as much as US$20,000 (S$26,000) for expenses related to the procedure, which could include surrogacy or court fees.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, said it will start offering similar coverage next year. In a statement, Apple spokesman Kristin Huguet said the iPhone maker wants to “empower women at Apple to do the best work of their lives as they care for loved ones and raise their families.”

The decisions come amid a debate about the best ways to recruit and retain women in the technology industry, where they are underrepresented as a percentage of the total workforce. Apple and Facebook are among the first companies to offer the option to freeze eggs.

The developments, which were reported earlier this week by NBC, sparked a debate on social media about whether the benefit would pressure women to undergo an invasive procedure to delay childbirth in favour of their careers.

“Is an employer paying to freeze a woman’s eggs empowering or suggesting motherhood and a career are incompatible?” songwriter Miranda Dawn, wrote on Twitter yesterday.

Gawker’s Valleywag blog jumped in with a post entitled Facebook And Apple Offer Egg-Freezing Perk So Women Never Stop Working.

In response to the debate, Facebook spokesman Genevieve Grdina said the company also offers other benefits to make the transition to parenthood easier whenever an employee is ready, such as nursing rooms on campus and subsidized day care. When a baby is born or adopted, a mother or father gets four months of paid parental leave and US$4,000 in “baby cash.”

BLOOMBERG

Taken from My Paper, Thursday, October 16, 2014

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