Category: Information Technology

I have an Associate in Technical Arts in Web Application Development degree, as well as certificates in:

  • Business Systems Analysis
  • Requirements Analysis
  • Database Theory and Design
  • Cisco Networking
  • And I’m one class away from a Desktop Support Certificate

I have a deep knowledge of technical systems and have solved a variety of problems.

Reflecting on Om Malik’s article “Silicon Valley Has An Empthy Problem”

Carl Setzer

​”Silicon Valley Has An Empthy Problem”

It’s very hard to break free of our focus bubble, seeing the impacts of our technological creations. Whether Uber, Amazon, Bitcoin , or any of a huge number of disruptive changes. People’s lives, and livelihoods are hugely impacted. We lose sight of that at our peril. 

i agree quite heartily with Om here. Tech needs to add empathy into its DNA. A simple elementary possibility: add empathically oriented checks in the project mapping. Ask “who’s hurt by this product”?

It’s a start. An important one. Or, perhaps, a critical one. 

Please give this a “like”, share and subscribe.

Rebooting a Samsung S7

Carl Setzer

My phone froze earlier today (black screen, no activity), and several of my default fixes didn’t do diddly-squat.

I googled it and found several options. Most of them didn’t do anything. Don’t know if that was due to some model differences (Verizon vs ATT, for instance), or something else.

Anyway, what finally worked was this simple combination:

  • Press and hold the Power button at the same time as the Volume Down button. You’ll hold them for around 10/12 seconds, so don’t give up too early.

That’s all it took. It booted fine and seems to be happy now.

Solved Mailchimp Issue 

Carl Setzer

While trying to send out an email this morning I got stuck with this error message. 

“Your list has an email type option, so the text part is required”

Mailchimp has settings for each list and the issue is buried in there. 

  1. Go to “Lists” 
  2. Select the list in question 
  3. Then “settings”
  4. Then “List Name and Defaults”
  5. Uncheck “let users pick plain text or html”

That fixed the problem for me and let me send the email. 

Not Able To View Tabs In Google Sheets

Carl Setzer

We had an issue this week of not being able to view the worksheet tabs across the bottom of a Google Sheet spreadsheet. This one was extremely annoying as I couldn’t see the screen of the user in question. Oddly, when I opened up the same sheet, I couldn’t either. But simply scrolling down brought the tabs into view. Didn’t work for the person I was helping, though. So, I poked around the internets and found this discussion in Google Docs Help. There are a couple of things they recommend.

  • if you have the Ask toolbar in your browser, remove it
  • try opening the spreadsheet using “incognito mode”
  • if that works, then we need to disable extensions until we determine the one causing the problem
  • try resizing the browser screen
  • try using Firefox (or another browser. If you’re in Firefox, then try Chrome or IE)

Anyway, I hope you find this helpful. Let me know in the comments.

Update: this came up again today. For this case, the line across the bottom of the Chrome window which pops-up when you download a file was blocking the tabs view. Make sure you close that window!

Download Popup Box

Not Able To View Tabs In Google Sheets

Carl Setzer

We had an issue today of not being able to view the worksheet tabs across the bottom of a Google Sheet spreadsheet. This one was extremely annoying as I couldn’t see the screen of the user in question. Oddly, when I opened up the same sheet, I couldn’t either. But simply scrolling down brought the tabs into view. Didn’t work for the person I was helping, though. So, I poked around the internets and found this discussion in Google Docs Help. There are a couple of things they recommend.

  • if you have the Ask toolbar in your browser, remove it
  • try opening the spreadsheet using “incognito mode”

  • if that works, then we need to disable extensions until we determine the one causing the problem

  • try resizing the browser screen
  • try using Firefox (or another browser. If you’re in Firefox, then try Chrome or IE)

    • Anyway, I hope you find this helpful. Let me know in the comments.

    Fixing Youtube “Embedding disabled by request”

    Carl Setzer

    So, one of my team’s videos was showing this error: “embedding disabled by request”. I have no idea how that setting got changed, as I simply uploaded it and then tried to embed it into our website.

    As you’d expect, this was obnoxious. Finding the solution was a bit annoying, too, as the most recent post I found, from 2009, Which, as you might expect, wasn’t helpful. However, I did get it figured out.

    • Go to www.YouTube.com/my_videos. This will give you the master list of all your videos.
    • Skim through to the video in question, click “Edit”. 
    • Go to “Advanced Settings” 
    • Scroll down to “Distribution Options” & Click Allow Embedding”

    My Recent Cell Phone Fail

    Carl Setzer

    I’m very happy with the Samsung S5 I bought last year. However, there’s one mistake I made for which I’ve been kicking myself for. When I was thinking about buying the next phone, I knew, KNEW I needed at least 32 gb. And yet, for some daft reason, I only bought 16. Really, an oversight, but one that’s making my life painful right now. I’m constantly deleting stuff so that I can perform updates. Part of my joy comes from running Lollipop.

    I dropped and broke my phone a few months back, and the replacement came with 5.0. There’s much good, but it uses a ton of space. Almost 6 gb is used by the os. So, any cache of significant size has, well, hurt. I have a SD card loaded and have most apps on there. Still, though, with all the bloatware that ATT has on my phone and other things I can’t port over, it’s been a royal pain in the tush. Reinforces my basic premise: no more phones less than 32 gb. And I’m starting to wonder if, maybe, upon my next phone, I’m going to go 64. I’m also looking at LGs, but that’s another post.

    My Recent Cell Phone Fail

    Carl Setzer

    I’m very happy with the Samsung S5 I bought last year. However, there’s one mistake I made for which I’ve been kicking myself for. When I was thinking about buying the next phone, I knew, KNEW I needed at least 32 gb. And yet, for some daft reason, I only bought 16. Really, an oversight, but one that’s making my life painful right now. I’m constantly deleting stuff so that I can perform updates. Part of my joy comes from running Lollipop.

    I dropped and broke my phone a few months back, and the replacement came with 5.0. There’s much good, but it uses a ton of space. Almost 6 gb is used by the os. So, any cache of significant size has, well, hurt. I have a SD card loaded and have most apps on there. Still, though, with all the bloatware that ATT has on my phone and other things I can’t port over, it’s been a royal pain in the tush. Reinforces my basic premise: no more phones less than 32 gb. And I’m starting to wonder if, maybe, upon my next phone, I’m going to go 64. I’m also looking at LGs, but that’s another post.