Viber is getting really annoying

It seems like when users are getting more dependent on a service, these service providers are doing everything to milk its users. And they’re doing it in the most annoying way.

Take for example, Viber:

That’s for their desktop app. In the phone app, there appears to be a setting to turn off Birthday push notifications of your contacts. But not in the desktop app.

How in the world did Viber get a hold of contacts’ birthdays in the first place? Now it’s shoving it to our faces!

How to sync Plex with Trakt

There used to be a plugin that seamlessly synchronized Plex library and watch history with Trakt.tv. Unfortunately, Plex discontinued the plugins feature, and thus leaving its loyal customers, even paying ones, in the dark. Yes, plugins still work, but I don’t think this particular plugin will still work in a fresh instance of Plex.

Of course, there’s the Plex scrobbler made by Trakt, which utilizes the Plex’s Webhooks, but that you need to have a Trakt VIP account to use this. Don’t get me wrong, Trakt is a great service, but I’m not paying $30 per year just for this scrobbler. They already have the vast users’ personal,  movies and TV shows preferences and collections information, those should already pay for the experience. They just need to be creative in order to monetize them.

There are also python scripts, but documentations are so poor, it’s not worth learning python just for that.

There’s a webhook, but it seems to do one way sync only (Plex to Trakt).

So, my questions are why:

  • If Kodi can have a native addon for Trakt sync, why can’t Plex?
  • Why is Trakt the only service that keeps track of your movies and TV shows collection that syncs with Kodi, Plex, Emby or Jellyfin? Where’s the competition?
  • Why Google is not making a service that competes with Trakt? I’m sure there are a lot of user data there that Google can use to enhance their collection.
  • Why Google is not buying Trakt?
  • Why Plex is not buying Trakt?
  • Why Plex can’t have a native library browser, complete with watch history?
  • Why Trakt? Where are the alternatives?

These are the questions that are painfully outstanding. Hopefully, in the near future, we’re not anymore dependent on Trakt.

Update: I have made PlexTraktSync work for my system. This required a little bit of work, installing Docker and running commands in the terminal, but I’m glad it’s working now. Read more about it here.

How to truly change the default email client in Windows 10

Have you encountered installing Microsoft Outlook in your fresh Windows 10 install, only to find it too resource hog for your use case, and thus installing Thunderbird, Mailbird, or any other email client that’s a lot less load to your computer’s meager resources?

Of course, you changed your system settings so that the default email app will be your new email client, just as below:

Apparently, this settings only affects clicks on MAILTO links. Continue reading How to truly change the default email client in Windows 10

GCash and CIMB, Are We Really Ready for Purely Digital Banking?

GCash and CIMB have been aggressively promoting their new digital banking platform they call GSave, with high interest rates (as high as 4% p.a.) to lure in GCash users, especially those they described as unbanked.

But are we Filipinos really ready for digital banking?

Not if there are still glitches in the service by GCash and CIMB. Last weekend, I needed to transfer funds from my GCash account to my bank account at once. I didn’t have have enough funds in my GCash account, thus I needed to withdraw funds from my GSave account. The debit to my CIMB GSave account pushed through, but the credit to my GCash didn’t.

That’s the big problem. People wants to keep some of their funds in regular Savings accounts to cover for their emergency or immediate needs. But if those funds are not available when they need them, it defeats their purpose.

So, to GCash and CIMB, if you want people to embrace this new digital banking revolution, you need to make sure the platform is ready.

How Omni Misleads and Defrauds Customers

I bought this Omni Model AEL-010 from Ace Hardware awhile back. It has been sitting in my living room for a while now. I can’t totally recall when exactly I bought this nor the Ace Hardware branch I purchased it from, not the actual price I paid it for. But it’s been a while — it could have been 6 months, it might even have been a year.

Now, in preparation for the for Typhoon Tisoy, I tried recharging this OMNI LED Emergency Light. Plugged it to the wall socket for like 8 hours. But when I unplugged and tested, it won’t turn on now.

It turns on fine while plugged, but not when I unplug. Thus, I searched around about this product. And this is the revelation about this good Omni Emergency Light: Continue reading How Omni Misleads and Defrauds Customers