garrett

2019 Austin Package Thief – Silver Cadillac CTS sedan

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A package was stolen from our home in the 1500 block of Arcilla St in Austin, Texas on August 14, 2019. The thief is a young female with a tattoo on her left shoulder. It’s likely she spotted the cameras because she covered up the tattoo as she walked up. She was in a newer model silver Cadillac CTS sedan.

If you have any leads on who this might be, please contact garrett at nafzinger dot com or the Austin Police Department. Thank you!

Silver Cadillac CTS spotting packages, then coming back to steal a package from porch.

Young female with tattoo on left shoulder stealing the package at the Park East neighborhood in southeast Austin, Texas.

The videos above were captured using the Nest IQ Outdoor Camera and the Nest Hello video doorbell.

Update on 9/13/2019: More packages stolen from Lawrence Street, Austin TX. Neighbor confronts thieves, calls police. 

The young female and a male accomplice return to Park East neighborhood in southeast Austin on September 13, 2019 at 7:35 pm. This time they steal larger packages and the male accomplice driving the silver Cadillac sedan gets out to help load the packages. A concerned neighbor confronts the thieves but is unable to capture the license plate because it is paper/temporary and is blowing in the wind. 

Video from package theft on Lawrence Street, Austin TX

https://streamable.com/5fumy

 

Disable insert mode on Apple Magic Keyboard & Windows

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I recently began using the Apple Magic Keyboard with my docking station. I use my docking station for my MacBook Pro and my Dell XPS 13.

I highly recommend the Cable Matters Thunderbolt 3 dock, which works great with a single cable to my MacBook or my Dell XPS 13 and also provides charging & power to both laptops.

All was fine until I accidentally toggled the keyboard into insert mode in Windows 10. Insert mode overwrites characters if you move the cursor earlier in the sentence to make an edit.

To disable insert mode on Windows 10 using the Apple Magic Keyboard

  1. Press clear, above the 7 on the numeric keypad.
  2. Then press 0 (zero) on the numeric keypad.

Are you using an Apple Magic Keyboard without a numeric keypad? Try this.

  • Press Fn – I at the same time.

I don’t have an Apple keyboard without a numeric keyboard to test on, so let me know if this works.

Another option to disable insert mode

  1. Go to the Start Menu.
  2. Search for On-Screen Keyboard app and open it.
  3. Click the insert key on the virtual keyboard.

Are you looking to purchase an Apple Magic Keyboard or Mouse? Use the links below.

WordPress Error Solved – Warning: Parameter 2 to wp_hide_post_Public :: query_posts_join( ) expected to be a reference

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Shop WordPress books on Amazon.

WordPress LogoAfter upgrading from PHP version 7.0 to 7.1 on my WordPress website hosted with DreamHost, I received the error message below above the header on my website.

Warning: Parameter 2 to wp_hide_post_Public::query_posts_join() expected to be a reference, value given in /home/xyz_vps/nafzinger.com/wp-includes/class-wp-hook.php on line 298

The solution

If you’re not using the WP Hide Post plugin, make note of the error message, it should give you a hint what plugin is causing the issue, in the case above, my hint was Parameter 2 to wp_hide_post_Public::query_posts_join(). You can also just disable the problematic plugin.

In my case, the error was caused by a bit of code in the WP Hide Post plugin. I fixed it by connecting to my server via SFTP, then navigating to the WP Hide Post plug-in directory, as shown below.

/wp-content/plugins/wp-hide-post/public/class-wp-hide-post-public.php
  1. Open class-wp-hide-post-public.php and do a search for &$.
  2. Remove the all & that appear in front of the $ and save your file.
  3. Refresh your website and the problem should be fixed.
  4. If you’re using a caching plugin you may need to force purge your cache and try again.

Apparently, PHP 7.1 doesn’t like & in front of $query parameters in functions.

Check out Garrett Digital for help with SEO or WordPress problems large or small.

Shop WordPress books on Amazon.

Google Home Mini vs Amazon Echo Dot

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Google Home Mini vs Amazon Echo Dot

Whew, it has been awhile. I’m here to give a quick overview of the Google Home Mini compared to the Amazon Echo Dot.

After using the Amazon Echo Dot for the past 1+ years, the Google Home Mini (and other versions of the Google Home) win for a few reasons.

  1. The speaker and sound quality of the Google Home Mini are better than the Amazon Echo Dot. You could almost use it as an everyday speaker as long as you’re not throwing a party and you have relatively quiet surroundings.
  2. You can make phone calls through Google Home and the Google Home Mini using your Google Voice phone number. No phone required. One thing they need to fix is the ability to connect the Google Mini Home and other Google Home devices to Bluetooth headsets. If you don’t have a Google Voice number set in Google Assistant, the phone calls with show up as “No Caller ID” to the person receiving the call. You can dial by name from your Google Contacts, or by phone number.
  3. The Google Home Mini and Google Home devices are more likely to understand complex questions, and you can ask follow-up questions. So the Google Home is more contextually aware.
  4. The Google Home Mini and Google Home devices don’t require you to add skills to achieve things like requesting a rideshare, playing simple games, etc.
  5. The setup process for the Google Home devices is much more pleasant. It doesn’t require you to disconnect from your wifi and connect to the device.