Progressive Web App

As more people access the Internet using web browsers, web browsers have to evolve their sophistication and complexity to adapt to the traditional programs people have been accustomed to, programs that are installed locally on the computers. For example, many people are accustomed to the Microsoft Outlook program that they find the interface for the online web version lackluster. How does Microsoft make the web version of Outlook, accessed with a web browser, to have the look and feel of the desktop version of Outlook? The compromise is to make the web version a progressive web app. 

PWAs are installed using the offline cache of a device's web browser. This is akin to Java applets that have been fallen out of favor because they require the Java virtual machine installed first on the device. PWAs only need a modern web browser to act like this virtual machine. 

When you use a Chromebook, the only program on it is a glorified version of Google Chrome. This is where PWAs shine. You can use traditional programs as PWAs to get better performance. One such program is Zoom. Running Zoom on a web browser is slow and buggy because it has to interface with the computer's microphone, camera, and speaker. As a PWA, Zoom works better at these tasks. 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/progressive-web-apps-chromium

When you visit a website that offers PWA version of its service, you can install this PWA by going to the Customize and Control of Google Chrome, the 3 vertical dots at the upper right corner of the Chrome browser. Then go to Cast, Save, and Share. If a PWA is available to access the website's service, you should see something like this. I use Outlook as an example.

The first thing you notice when running the Outlook PWA is the removal of browser navigation buttons and the URL address bar. This makes the interface look like the desktop version of Outlook.

One side benefit is the offline nature of PWA can be used to cache an offline version of selected pages in a website so that you can browse these pages when the device is not connected to the Internet. This is basically the web crawler of the past. With PWA, the web crawler feature is built into the PWA so the website's administrator can control what pages can be cached using the PWA controls in the browser. This provides consistency of the caching across multiple web browsers. Imagine your daily routine is to visit a news website. You would casually access the various webpages while inside the PWA. Then you would hop on a bus to go to work. While you are on the bus, you can fire up this reading device and revisit the same web pages offline or only need to fetch the latest info on pages that have been modified since the initial caching, saving Internet bandwidth. Moreover, with PWAs, it is possible to access the same cached pages from different devices. You would cache the pages on a desktop, then the cached pages are synched to the PWA on a second device such as your phone at home over wifi. Then you can revisit the same pages on the phone while riding the bus where Internet connection is spotty.      

 

Tailscale Documentation

Below is a fairly comprehensive knowledge-base for its technology and how-to.

Of particular interest is how to use low-powered AppleTVs as exit nodes and subrouters so you basically can have your own private Internet with multiple hosts and clients inside the public Internet.

https://tailscale.com/kb/1017/install

https://tailscale.com/kb/1280/appletv  

Improve Your Roku Device Wifi Reception and wired network connection

Some Roku streaming devices have a USB port. This port can be used to plug in an Ethernet-to-USB adapter so the Roku device receives its Internet via a wired connection.

https://support.roku.com/article/360058027813

For TVs that have Roku built-in, try these adapters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6vlHmwFVrQ

Adapters with gigabit 1000mbps don't work. Always try the adapters with 100mbps (aka Fast Ethernet) with USB2. Any adapter that has the ASIX AX88772A chipset in its circuitry seems to play nice with RokuTVs and Roky streaming devices that lack the network jack. It's most likely that a Roku device with a network jack actually uses this chipset. Don't be worry about the "slower" 100mbps speed. It is fast enough even for 4K videos.

The key steps are:

1. Turn the TV USB port to ON so the TV will recognize any USB item plugged in to it. The USB on the RokuTV is meant for a harddrive that has videos and pictures to play from, but when a compatible USB-to-Ethernet adapter is plugged in, the TV will recognize it as wired network.

2. If the TV does not recognize it, Reset the Internet connection in the RokuTV system to refresh it. 

Settings -->System-->Advanced-->Network Reset.

What if a wired connection is not an option? You can still improve on the wifi reception by supplanting the device's wimpy internal wifi antenna with a more powerful external antenna. Roku does not sell its own Ethernet-to-USB adapters, but it does sell this external USB-powered wifi transceiver. 

Power Cable with Long-range Wi-Fi Receiver

https://www.roku.com/products/accessories/usb-power-cable-with-long-range-wifi-receiver-streaming-stick-4k-and-4k-plus?srsltid=AfmBOoo1ImnLQqJl_6UhC_R99xtcLhdrmpHhvLdUOqBJ75J9QfrkJBdM

The larger end USB (USB-A) plugs into your TV USB port. Because this connection is to power the transceiver, if the TV has a USB port meant for power, use that. You can also plug this USB-A end to an actual USB charger that is used to charge your phone.

The smaller USB end (USB-B) goes into your Roku device. Because this transceiver is made by Roku, the Roku device should automatically detect it and disable its own internal antenna in favor of this external one. With this external transceiver, your Roku streaming device should be able to pick up fainter wifi signal from your wifi router. 

This transceiver is compatible with these streaming devices:

Roku Streaming Stick 4K (models 3820X and 3820X2)

Roku Streaming Stick 4K+ (models 3821X and 3821X2)

This makes sense because 4K videos require more data going into the devices, necessitating a more sensitive receiver.  

Share YouTube Playlists

If some people, including yourself, rely heavily on Youtube to work on a project or share an interest, everyone can collaborate more efficiently by sharing playlists. Below is the how-to guide to do this.

https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6109639?hl=en

Needless to say, unless you are members of the same family group, you cannot share private playlists. The shared playlists must be either Unlisted or Public. 

Retirement of the Zoom Chrome OS App

As of February 1, 2023, the Zoom ChromeOS Apphas been deprecated in favor of Zoom ChromeOS Wed App that can be downloaded by pointing the Chrome browser on ChromeOS to  

https://app.zoom.us/wc

More info can be found here:https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0058646

Evaluate VMware Products

VMware Hands-on Learning & Trials 

https://www.vmware.com/trials-test-drives.html

Microphone Plug Types

 The video below is a good start to get information on a bewildering array of microphones. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0rCUohAVws

Below is the plug with a 4-hole interface called TA4F aka TQG aka 4-pin mini XLR. The TA4F end would go to a variety of wireless transmitters. Transmitters are devices that you clip onto your belt. They communicate wirelessly to an audio receiver appliance in an AV cabinet. The other end of this adapter is a microdot that is plugged into a microphone. Notice each hole has a number.

A wireless over the ear microphone that uses this TA4F connector 

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LizProT4Blk--acacia-liz-pro-headworn-microphone-for-shure-wireless-black

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/LizProT4Blk--acacia-liz-pro-headworn-microphone-for-shure-wireless-black

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/E6OW5T2SL--countryman-e6-omnidirectional-earset-for-shure-speaking-tan-2mm

https://www.shure.com/en-US/products/wireless-systems/qlx-d_digital_wireless/qlxd1?variant=QLXD1%3D-J50A

Use more than one version of macOS and Windows on same Mac

People can dual boot Windows computers for a long time, including with Linux and Windows. However, Mac users don't know they can do the same with having multiple macOS systems running on the same Mac computer. The process is simple.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/118282#:~:text=This%20%E2%80%9Cdual%20boot%E2%80%9D%20setup%20is,an%20earlier%20macOS%20after%20upgrading.

Dual booting macOS and Windows on Intel-based Macs is also simple. Macs with the newer Apple Silicon chip, this ability is no longer possible without using virtualization.

https://support.apple.com/hr-hr/guide/bootcamp-assistant/bcmp173b3bf2/mac

 

Sync Between Apple Photos App and Google Photos App

If you use Google Photos to back up your photos and videos -- they will be referred to as files from now on -- taken on your iPhones and iPads, you would want to know what happens when you delete something, namely does any automatic task happen in response to the deletions?

I should mention first that the backed up files are not physically stored on the GP app on the mobile device. Only thumbnails are stored there to reduce storage consumption on the these mobile devices which by their nature, usually do not have a lot of storage to accommodate hefty-sized media files.

You can delete files from AP and GP.

When you delete a file from AP, this file will not be deleted on GP. This makes sense because GP acts as a backup. Think about it, if you delete the source file, and this action is replicated automatically to the backup copy, the action defeats the purpose of a backup, doesn't it?

By contrast, when you delete a file from GP, be it on the iPhone or iPad or on the GP website, this file is no longer visible on GP because it is marked as "to be deleted" in GP. In 60 days, this file will be automatically and permanently deleted from GP trash.

If you don't want to wait 60 days for this automatic deletion in AP via GP, you can go to the GP app and tell it to empty the trash. 

https://support.google.com/photos/answer/6128858?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&oco=1