Dariusz Więckiewicz 🇬🇧

I recently faced an interesting issue with a friend’s new Chromebook.

My friend has a disability and uses a single finger to write on her blog antybariera.pl. Because she wrote in Polish by default, to put special characters, like ąśćżęł, she would need to use key combinations. For that purpose, she would have to use two fingers, which is extremely difficult, if not impossible.

Chromebooks are equipped with useful accessibility features. I remember seeing something called a sticky key that, in theory, should work as follows.

To produce the character ę in Polish, press and hold the Alt key and then press the letter e.

Sticky Keys work in a way that allows you to single-press a key like Alt. This activates it and makes it behave as if held down with another finger. In the same way, you can double-press the Control key (like the Alt key) to make it act like it’s always pressed, similar to how the Caps Lock key typically behaves. This will allow you to type more than one special character in one run. If you don’t need to use the key any longer, you press it again (for the third time) to release it from serving the sticky key function.

That’s in theory.

Thanks to Cloudflare Email Routing, I can accept and send emails in my domain, but still manage them on my ordinary Gmail account. This all is set as I wrote down in my post titled Email in your own domain with Cloudflare (and Gmail)

Over the last week, I faced an issue with emails not being delivered to my mailbox.

Firstly I thought that there was something wrong with Gmail service blocking forwarded messages. The same though had plenty of people using this service and writing their experiences all over the internet.

Just a few weeks ago I have been thinking about, what I am doing with my ageing MacBook Air with an M1 chip.

The MacBook Air Air with M1 was introduced in November 2020 but I purchased mine in July 2021, officially from Apple, but from their refurbished store.

I saved a bit on a base model and thanks to that I have been able to take 3 years of Apple Care and still meet my budget.

Despite that nothing happens along the road, so I don’t need to use this plan, I still wonder, if, after these 3 years, I will be able to buy, at least, a year more.

The device working well. I would like to have a bit more internal storage (currently got 256GB base), but apart from that everything working fine. The device is still fast and reliable. For my needs, I don’t see a reason for change.

I have been thinking about a possible upgrade when the MacBook Air is introduced with the M3 chip and that is what happens today (4th March 2024) through press release.

At the same time, Apple decided to discontinue MacBook Air with an M1 chip. Its place, in the same price range, has been offered to a 13-inch MacBook Air with an M2 chip, which is typical.

But what does that mean for users, who use MacBook Air with an M1 chip? Also, what does that mean for people, who just now decide to buy MacBook Air with an M1 chip?

The Linux environment has been a part of my computer workflow for years.

In my personal life, I use macOS, which allows me to leverage the terminal to extend my possibilities beyond the graphical user interface (GUI).

At work, I use Windows devices. Through the Windows Subsystem for Linux, I can also use Linux on these machines.

Recently, as part of my work with Chromebooks, I decided to leverage the power of the Linux terminal there as well.

Since Microsoft Edge transitioned to the Chromium engine (the same engine as Google Chrome), I encouraged Windows users to try the updated version. After all, both browsers offer similar functionality.

Microsoft Edge, when logged in with a Microsoft account, was nicely integrated within the Windows operating system, offering a seamless experience. However, I’ve noticed that for users who primarily use Android phones and rely heavily on Google Services (like Google Photos), this solution is no longer optimal.

I recently got the privilege to assist an elderly member of the community in his first steps with the computer as a part of my volunteering through a UK charity called AbilityNet.

AbilityNet’s mission is to make a digital world accessible to all. Through it, they offer support services for a wide range of users. From older or disabled people looking for help with their technology to digital professionals advocating for accessibility best practices within their organisation.

As a part of the adjustment for that person, I decided to introduce them to ChromeOS Flex.

ChromeOS Flex is an operating system provided by Google, which is very similar to these on branded Chromebooks, but without access to the Google Play Store and not backed up by the Android engine. This system can be installed on a variety of devices making it more accessible for people who need stability and simplicity.

Windows and macOS can be overwhelming for people who never used computers, this is where Chromebooks fit perfectly.

Google integrated a lot of accessibility features into this system allowing it to adjust them to the needs of users with its users in mind.

There is one problem, however.

How do you introduce somebody, who lived his life without a need to integrate into technology?

I am quite a tech-savvy person and I know how to spot fraud, and how to protect myself from losing money to fraudsters.

To my surprise, I recently discovered 3 unauthorised transactions on one of my credit cards which is issued by Barclaycard.

Because I am using this card to pay for my balance transfer and nothing else, I have been logging into the app only once a month to pay a part of it.

Just last month, when was time to pay it, I noticed that the outstanding balance was higher than what I calculated that I needed to repay. I have looked into a statement and noticed that for the last months, from September to November, each time on the 8th, I have been charged for Amazon Prime £8.99.

The funny thing is, that I already have Amazon Prime, for years, but I am paying it annually and not from Barclaycard. I don’t have Barclaycard added to my Amazon account.

Because these transactions are not displayed on my Amazon account, I haven’t been able to sort this out with Amazon itself and need to contact Barclaycard.

Before that, I raised claims about unauthorised transactions for all three transactions.

As a precaution, I cancelled my Barclaycard and requested a new one with a new number as I thought that with a new number, no more new transactions would happen. Below I will show how wrong I were in that assumption.

If your daily digital life relies on Google Services, once you become an iPhone owner this may not change. I was a long-term Android user before I changed to the Apple ecosystem.

Even though Apple is offering their equivalent of what Google offers on Android, I never found a better alternative for storing pictures than Google Photos.

Google Photos for most of the typical users is unreplaceable due to the Storage Saver option. Thanks to that we can store all our photos and do not pay too much for the storage. At some point we will need to pay Google to store them, however as they are compressed, they consume less space than storing them in full resolution in, for example, Apple Photo Library.

The first thing that I do when setting up my iPhone is to download the Google Photos app from the App Store. This is what I recommend to my friends who switch from Android to iPhone, however, there is one thing that needs to be remembered.