Author: Chris

OS X Yosemite Notifications Preferences Don’t Stick

I’m really enjoying OS X 10.101 Yosemite and have only encountered one really pesky bug. Even the Citrix and VPN clients for work are running great. That hasn’t always been the case.

This bug manifests itself when you restart your computer after changing any of the Notification settings in System Preferences. They don’t stick!

Screen Shot 2014-11-07 at 2.42.14 PM

I found this fix on this Apple Support Community thread. Here’s the steps in case that thread disappears into the ether.2

1. Open the Library folder in your Home folder. Easiest way to do this is in Finder go to the “Go” menu in the menubar. Select “Go to Folder”. Punch this in: ~/Library/Application Support
2. Locate the folder named NotificationCenter. Drag this folder to the desktop.
3. Next, open the Terminal application. It’s located in the Applications/Utilities folder. Or just search for it in Spotlight.
Copy and paste each line of these commands into the Terminal window, in order. Press return after each line:

cd `getconf DARWIN_USER_DIR`
 rm -rf com.apple.notificationcenter
 killall usernoted; killall NotificationCenter

4. Close the Terminal app.
5. Restart your computer.
6. Change a few notification settings and restart one more time to make sure they stick.
7. You can delete the NotificationCenter folder you dragged to your desktop.

—

As a side note, I’m going to try and compel you to turn off some of your notifications. I’m an anti-notification guy. I don’t need to know when every email comes in or every @ reply on Twitter. I’ve got other stuff to do. So do you.

The first thing I suggest you do with all your devices is turn off about half of the notifications. The computer should work for you, not the other way around.

Disqusting

A Sponsored Comment can use all types of media to get the point across, just like any other Disqus comment. But they’re not part of the discussion happening on that page. Comments to the ad are driven to a separate landing page just for that ad. This keeps the core commenting experience uninterrupted and publisher communities just as they were. That’s the best of both worlds.

So Disqus, one of the larger comment plugins used on many sites, just added sponsored comments to their product. Yuck. Not only that, but the replies to said comments – which I bet are going to be a cruel and negative cesspool – will live in their own little bubble.

How quaint. from their website, “Everything you need to build a community, turn down the noise and turn up new revenue.” You had me at community, and lost me immediately after.

I have to agree with Matt,

“I was just reading some comments the other day and thinking how it’d be great to see some sponsored brand content there instead of users, like there already was on the rest of the page. Glad there’s a solution for that on a global basis now.”

This is probably a good time to highlight other, non creepy, solutions for comments on your site. Say Jetpack or Discourse?

On Kindness by Cord Jefferson

Conversely, waking up each day and devoting yourself to being kind, even and especially to people who are not kind to you, is actually incredibly difficult. It is arduous and deliberate work, and the doing of it will at times make you feel small and foolish. What’s more, in the end, it will on its own merits almost never yield a person awards or honors or riches.

…

 

Photo by Ginny – Licensed under Creative Commons

Tim Cook

Part of social progress is understanding that a person is not defined only by one’s sexuality, race, or gender. I’m an engineer, an uncle, a nature lover, a fitness nut, a son of the South, a sports fanatic, and many other things. I hope that people will respect my desire to focus on the things I’m best suited for and the work that brings me joy.

What a guy.