James Roeder

Month: February 2020

  • Automatically run a task every two weeks without cron

    I use fish as my go-to shell – it’s fast, the syntax is more sane than bash, and there are a lot of great plugins for it.

    One plugin I use a lot is jethrokuan’s port of z, which allows for very quick directory jumping.

    Unfortunately, sometimes I reorganize my directories, and z can get confused and try to jump into a no longer existent directory.

    No worries! z thought of that, and provides the z --clean command which removes nonexistent directories from its lists.

    But I never remember to run that. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could just have that run automatically every two weeks or so?

    (more…)

  • Bring back “Always open these types of links in the associated app” to Google Chrome

    I use Zoom for my work a lot. I pass around Zoom links like they’re popcorn being shared at a movie theater. I’ve got them in my calendar, in Slack, and in emails.

    I used to be able to click on a link, and the link would open in my default web browser (Google Chrome), and then that would open up the Zoom application.

    In Google Chrome 77, Google changed that. Now, I have one more button to click to confirm that I want to open up the Zoom application. There used to be a checkbox labeled Always open these types of links in the associated app, but that went away.

    However, there is a hidden preference (intended for policy administration, but usable by all) that can bring it back! Windows users can add a registry entry, but I’m on a Mac. Here’s how a Mac user can do it:

    1. Quit Google Chrome
    2. Open up Terminal
    3. Run the following code at the terminal prompt:
    defaults write com.google.Chrome ExternalProtocolDialogShowAlwaysOpenCheckbox -bool true
    1. Restart Google Chrome

    Now, when you try to open links, that checkbox will be back. Check it, and you’ll have less buttons to click in the future!