Category: Geekery

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Geekery

Catacomb Folder in Mac OS

Catacomb Folder in Mac OS with Touchbar

Catacomb Folder in Mac OS with Touchbar
The mysterious Catacomb folder in my MacBook Pro 15″ with Touchbar, is still… mysterious. It appeared in my Library folder last January 6, 2017 at 2:19 PM. I don’t know if this folder appear as well in other MacBook Pro with Touchbar users on the same day at the same time. If this appeared simultaneously, probably it’s a MacBook Pro with Touchbar specific update, but if it didn’t appear on all MBP with Touchbar users, then probably it’s a virus, which is unlikely, but probably.

There are several discussions in Apple forums like this, this, and this and many more, but there’s no definite answer about this Catacomb folder. I can’t even find any documentation about it at Apple.com or any other forums explaining the exact function of this folder and why it is in my Library folder. There’s even a YouTube video that says it’s a virus, and if you google it, you’ll find instructions of how to remove it.

I haven’t remove it yet. Maybe there’s a core function that is associated with it. So I’ll keep it there and just observer what will happen with my MBP in the next few months. It’s there since January and my Mac is functioning just fine.

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Geekery

Google Finance API stopped working as of September 2017

If you’re using the Google Finance Exchange Rate API and it suddenly stopped working, then don’t be shocked. At first, I thought they now require an API key, but that assumption vanished in seconds after I noticed that https://www.google.com/finance/converter was redirected to https://finance.google.com/finance/converter. So if you’re using file_get_contents to fetch the latest forex rates at https://www.google.com/finance/converter, just change it to https://finance.google.com/finance/converter and it will work just fine. No other major changes, it’s just that the API is now in the subdomain.

Maybe there are announcements this month, but I’m not subscribed to any. I googled “google finance forex API september 2017” but it seems nobody posted or blogged about it or asked about it in Stack Exchange. So, that’ it. I just want to share it!

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Geekery Random

Is Animoji an innovation?


Yes it is. It is awesome and it’s fun. Even if Devin Coldewey of Techcrunch said that it’s dumb and he detest it, it’s not. It’s actually one of the best innovations this 2017, according to me a whole lot of my friends in Seattle and Singapore.

And $1000 for a phone is not that expensive. It’s actually pretty cheap if you sum up the years of innovation and the long sleepless nights of the hardware & software nerds, and those geniuses who have a lot of prefixes and suffixes in their names, who made it possible to be put in your pocket. That small, but powerful device with that so-called neural engine that comes with your phone, for $1000.00, it’s a steal.

You cannot make a phone that sophisticated for $1000 all by yourself, can you? So please stop bashing iPhone haters. It’s the best iPhone yet.

Anyway, Animojis are awesome and I love animoji and I’m excited to pre-order it this October and receive it by November this year! And oh, the girl animoji model (pictured above) in the iPhone X page at Apple.com is pretty, I love you girl, whoever you are!

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Geekery

Magento Batch Update Product Type in MySQL

I just want to share a simple MySQL snippet to batch update product type in Magento. This is a pretty basic SQL query, and I’ll just save it here in my blog so that I can remember what I did to update product types by batch.

I just went to my SQL database via phpmyadmin, click the SQL tab, and run this command:
UPDATE prefix_catalog_product_entity
SET type_id = REPLACE(type_id, 'simple', 'virtual')

If you’re using a custom table prefix, replace prefix with your prefix. Otherwise, just use catalog_product_entity.

This is what I did to change all my product types from simple to virtual. It’s quick and easy and I was able to change it all in 1 second.

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Geekery Internet Software

First, Magento Connect Reviews are gone, now they are closing

First, Magento Connect Reviews are gone, now they are closing. Yep, you read it right. They will now close the good old Magento Connect and will move everything in the Marketplace. Good news is that they will filter all the extensions and will only retain the ones that are worthy to be retained. You can read more about the announcement here: https://magento.com/blog/magento-news/magento-connect-moving-marketplace

Below is the screenshot of my Magento Connect Manager that I took today. It will be practically useless, but still, you can use it when you have downloaded an extension package from Magento Connect using this freegento.com/ddl-magento-extension.php, or if you have your own packaged module from a Magento extension store.

All good things will come to an end eventually, and one of the pretty good things in my life is Magento Connect. I’m one of the Top 10 reviewers in the world in M1 connect extensions, and it’s sad to see that it’s gone for good.

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Geekery Internet

The extremely annoying WordPress 4.8 and its Visual Editor in Text Widgets

Yes, it’s extremely annoying. It should be optional in the first place. Let’s wait for the WP guys to fix this issue once and for all. I hope WP 4.9 will make it optional, or just completely remove it. This. Is. So. Annoying.!!!

For the meanwhile, you can use this plugin:

Add Paragraphs Option to Text Widget

Or just wait for the future release of WordPress.

And nope. I am not alone. There are a lot of us:
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-disable-visual-editor-in-the-text-widget/
https://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/269719/can-the-new-4-8v-text-widget-visual-editor-be-removed

And more. Oh please, Matt… for the sake of all the people of the universe, just disabled the visual editor in text widgets. T_T

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Geekery Personal

Sparc 4K LED TV Philippines Review: Reasons to NOT buy it!


This is a very short review of the unknown Sparc LED TV. I owned one (I bought it from Lazada last December 2016), and now it’s broken. There are no Sparc service centers the in Metro Manila and the whole Philippines, not even China, where it was made. You only have 7 days to return it to Lazada it case it’s not working anymore. So after 7 days, there’s no way to replace your super cheap TV.

A lot bought this TV from Lazada a month ago. Even my friends was lured to buy it because it’s unbelievably cheap. It’s like a disposable TV, for 5,999, you’ll get a 32″ LED TV and for only 19,999, you can buy the Sparc 55″ 4K LED TV! It’s insanely cheap right? 55″ 4K TVs are priced around 70,000 to 200,000 pesos. Too good to be true? You can actually buy one here. It’s for real and it’s insanely cheap.

Continue reading “Sparc 4K LED TV Philippines Review: Reasons to NOT buy it!”
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Geekery Internet

Adsense Payment Settings Blank (a.k.a. Loading Forever)


Are you attempting to change your payment settings, like holding or unholding a payment, scheduling a payment, or changing your payment threshold! Now you can’t, because the payment settings page doesn’t load anymore. It’s blank in the classic Adsense dashboard, and it’ loading endlessly in the new Google Adsense dashboard.

Continue reading “Adsense Payment Settings Blank (a.k.a. Loading Forever)”