Richard's Tech Reviews

Viewing posts by date modified within Wordpress

If you use Wordpress dot com, it doesn't provide any way in the classic posts interface to view by date modified.  You can only sort by date posted, ascending or descending.

There is an easy fix by editing the URL. The end of the view by date descending URL is

/wp-admin/edit.php?orderby=date&order=desc

To make sort it by date modified descending, just change the orderby parameter to "modified":

/wp-admin/edit.php?orderby=modified&order=desc

 

NOTE: It's a manual fix, you'll have to make the URL edit every time you want this view.

Thanks to NameHero - How To Sort Posts By The “Last Modified” Date for this easy fix.

In-browser Firefox profile management

If you're used to looking up a command line in order to access the Firefox Profile Manager, there's actually a built-in configuration interface, just use

about:profiles

In addition to letting you Create a New Profile, it also offers a function that is not obvious in other interfaces: you can launch a separate Firefox instance with a different profile, using "Launch profile in new browser".

Google Chrome makes this really easy to do in its interface, but I've used Firefox for years and never knew it was possible to have more than one browser profile running at a time.

Unlike Chrome there is no built-in visual to distinguish which profile you're using. In order to tell which browser window is which, you may want to use something basic like Firefox Color, or something more elaborate like a Theme.

Each Firefox profile is a completely separate application instance; you will have e.g. two separate Firefox icons in your dock or taskbar.

Note that you may have to do some management of the default profile as I believe it will make any new profile the default.  You can select the default profile within the browser profiles interface.

Setting a sleep timer for radio on Sonos with Google Assistant

If you want to use Google Assistant to set a sleep timer in Canada on a Sonos (as of Nov 10, 2022) while playing radio (e.g. a TuneIn station)...

"Hey Google, set a sleep timer for twenty minutes"

It won't work.  It will say:

Sleep timers can only be set when media is playing.

Even though media is in fact actually playing.

This is a known issue that has been outstanding now for three years.

https://en.community.sonos.com/google-assistant-and-sonos-229109/sleep-timer-doesn-t-work-with-google-assistant-6825551

Playing BBC Radio 4 on Sonos with Google Assistant in Canada

If you want to use Google Assistant to play BBC Radio 4 in Canada on a Sonos (as of Nov 10, 2022)...

"Hey Google, play BBC Radio 4"

It won't work.  It will play BBC Radio 4 Extra (a completely different channel) from TuneIn.

You might say, well, maybe it's a problem with TuneIn, I'll get Google Assistant to play it from Sonos Radio.

It won't work.  Google Assistant can't play anything from Sonos Radio.

You might say, well fine, I'll use Sonos Voice Control for this edge case.

You must disable Google Assistant for Sonos Voice Control to work (inexplicably, since clearly the system should be able to route requests for "Hey Google" and "Hey Sonos" to different targets).  So unless you want to disable Google Assistant, it won't work.

This may seem like an edge case, but it's an outstanding request that hasn't been resolved for a year.  See for example this extensive thread:

https://en.community.sonos.com/google%2Dassistant%2Dand%2Dsonos%2D229109/radio%2D4%2Dvoice%2Dcommand%2Dstopped%2Dworking%2D6859212?postid=16541128#post16541128

NOTE: This has nothing to do with BBC Sounds, that's a UK-specific issue.

BBC Radio 4 is absolutely on TuneIn in Canada.  It is also on Sonos Radio, for whatever use that is.

Firefox configuration options

NOTE: This 2018 draft blog post is being published in 2022; it may be incomplete and the information is certainly out of date.

I've been meaning for a long time to do a blog post about Firefox configuration options, so here goes:

type about:config

you now have a search engine for configuration options.

To change a boolean setting (e.g. from true to false or vice-versa) double-click it.  The changed setting will show in bold.

Here are some that I like:

• geo.enabled - set to FALSE - this disables all location features in the browser
• media.autoplay.enabled - set to FALSE - this disables most HTML5 video autoplay - note: no longer supported as of Firefox 63
• browser.newtab.url to "about:blank"