Where is the ‘Other Devices’ link on the new Google Chrome? – Solved

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One of the best things about Google Chrome is the ability to log in to the browser and then be able to share your history across all your google devices, simply by clicking the Other Devices link on the browser.

However, during a recent update, that link disappeared and with it, apparently at least, the most useful feature of Chrome.

But never fear, because it hasn’t gone far. While researching moving a favourites folder from IE one one machine to Chrome on another machine for my Dad (sorted, thanks), I discovered that it’s safe, well and merely slightly less accessible.
Why would they want to do this? I have no idea, although they have a bit of history in this regard.

Anyway: to get access to pages you have opened on your Other Devices now, simply click the Customise and Control button on the top right of the browser – the one with three horizontal lines – and scroll to Recent Tabs. There, you will see all your Other Devices – and the pages you have been viewing on them – listed.

As an aside, clicking on History in that same menu drop down now shows your your browsing history on all your connected devices.

Vulture II

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Sometime last week, I posted a shot of a Cape Vulture taken at the Oudtshoorn Wildlife Ranch. That vulture was a “normal” Cape Vulture, in that, despite being in captivity, it knew that it was a vulture and it recognised others around it as being vultures too.

The Cape Vulture at Radical Raptors was slightly different. Sure, it probably knows that it’s a vulture, but it thinks that the guy who runs the centre is its mum, and thus constantly begs for food from him, in the same way that baby birds in a – say – robin’s nest would beg for food.

baby-robins-begging-for-food

Aww.

The difference, of course, is that the Cape Vulture is:
a) far more mobile than these baby robins, and
b) has a wingspan of 2.6 metres.

The result is frankly terrifying:

But for all his deafening, banshee like screaming, he’s completely subservient and all he wants is a few scraps of meat.

Still, you wouldn’t want to get between him and his food. Like… er… I inadvertently did.

More pics (but still no blog post yet!) from Plett here.

Some linky goodness

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I know that I need to tell you about Plettenberg Bay (as promised here), but all in good time. In the meanwhile (what’s a meanwhile?) here are some interesting stories for your perusal.

This is not to be confused with a Wednesday Ephemera post, despite the obvious similarities.

Fracking news: In a post that is more about the disgraceful hounding of the late Tony Twine than our energy reserves or whether or not we should be extracting them, comes the (repeated) news that there’s LOADS of gas under the Karoo and even if we can get at just a bit of it, it will have a HUGE effect on the country.

The potential was so mind-boggling Twine tried to tone down expectations. He ran his econometric model on just 10% of what the US’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) had published as the Karoo Basin’s “recoverable reserves”.Even at this conservative level, the model concluded shale gas would create 850 000 jobs and, for a minimum of 25 years, generate annual economic growth equivalent to 9.6% of 2010’s GDP.

In a country so bogged down by youth unemployment, a frankly terrifying economic outlook and widespread pessimism WHY ARE WE STILL WAITING to move on this?

Things which are connected to Fracking news: While the US economy continues to recover, use of clean shale gas instead of coal has assisted in reducing that country’s carbon emissions to levels not seen since 1994:

Last year, the US saw its lowest carbon emissions since 1994, continuing a downward trend that began in 2008 during the economic crisis. It marks the second year in a row that carbon emissions have dropped despite a growth in gross domestic product. Prior to the last few years, economic growth had been closely tied to increased carbon emissions.

Other fracking related posts on 6000 miles… 

Today’s bizarre story of the day: A man who forgot to book the venue for his wedding decided that rather than admitting this to his wife-to-be, he’d phone the place just before the ceremony and claim that there was a bomb on the premises.

…as she got dressed on the morning of the wedding he slipped out of the house, went to a phone box and, disguising his voice, told the receptionist at Liverpool Register Office, which is part of St George’s Hall:

“This is not a hoax call. There’s a bomb in St George’s Hall and it will go off in 45 minutes.”

The call, 11 days after the Boston Marathon bombing, provoked “terror” and the building was immediately evacuated and emergency services called. He was given a 12-month jail sentence after admitting making the hoax call.

And yes, they’re still together. Awww.

Bascule Bar at the Cape Grace is now a bit rubbish: According to this post, anyway. I haven’t been there for years, but they do (did?) stock Tamdhu, which is my whisky of choice when I have a spare £9 to drop on a shot. Would it be worth putting up with the (allegedly) rubbishy chairs, the lack of soul, the poorly motivated staff and the thieving prostitutes though?

What is worse is that prostitutes are camped out at the bar. I’m not naïve – Bascule is at The Cape Grace Hotel, a superb 5 star property. Ladies for hire are a fact of life at many 5 star hotels in tourist cities.  But at Bascule, they have taken over. There are many stories around of customers being robbed and accosted by the women. A few Friday evenings ago I went with an old friend – someone who at one stage shared a wine locker with me… That Friday it resembled a seedy pool bar, without the pool tables. There was a 19-year-old prostitute at the bar – and she left with an elderly German tourist. Another woman at the bar stole a bottle of cider – slipped it into her handbag. There was not a glass of whisky in sight.

Actually, I think it probably would. Especially if they get some pool tables in.

Nigel Clough is the new Blades manager: a little over 20 years after United ended his Dad’s managerial career with a 2-0 win at the City Ground (Glyn Hodges and Brian Gayle the scorers, if memory serves) in a game that he played in, Nigel Clough has been announced as the new Sheffield United manager. The board at the club have said some lovely things about him:

Nigel was the clear, first choice of the board. He brings an approach to the game that is well suited to what we are trying to achieve at Sheffield United. Nigel has enjoyed managerial success in the game. He knows how to inspire first team players to give their all and has a proven track record of making an academy a key ingredient to the club’s success. We count ourselves lucky to have Nigel aboard.

Just as they did about David Weir a few months back:

We are thrilled to appoint David and the three-year contract emphasises the fact that he will assist in a change in club culture. I have stated before that the club needs to act differently and David is young, has a great pedigree and will bring a new vision and leadership to the club.

Weir was rubbish and lasted just 13 league games.
So what of Nigel? We’ll surely keep you informed.

Powerful ad uses ‘Skip Ad’ box to highlight ex-cons’ issues

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This is very clever. Link (Note: video will start automatically on the page).

It’s a fake YouTube video, with the usual ‘Skip Ad’ box appearing in the corner after a few seconds:

The video appears to be an ad with a young ex-convict stating his case for getting a job. After five seconds, the usual Skip Ad button appears, but should a viewer choose to click the button, the video will merely start over again. Each time the button is pressed, the candidate becomes more despondent and desperate in his plea to have someone listen to him. Should viewers choose not to skip and hear his whole message, they will see him grow increasingly confident as he speaks about getting a job.

It’s worth looking at a few times, clicking and not clicking the button, just to see the effect on the actor. It’s a very clever and innovative method of getting a message across, using something that we see every day and – let’s face it – use almost 100% of the time, in order to ignore what the advertisers want to tell us.

BITC_PR_final_3-625x418

The idea is to promote the Ban The Box initiative, which aims to get the Previous Convictions box removed from job applications forms. Leo Burnett, the brains behind the campaign, have used the parallels between the Skip Ad box and the difficulties that ex-convicts face when trying to get employment to produce a really powerful and thought-provoking ad.

Nice work.

Road Trip Report 1: Oudtshoorn

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There’s a lot to do in Oudtshoorn. At least for a town of the size of Oudtshoorn (population 95,000), there is.

Having only around 24 hours to spend there, we narrowed our options down to three: The Cango Caves, The Cango Ostrich Farm and The… er… Cango Wildlife Ranch. All three came well recommended by friends and all three now come well recommended by us as well.

The Cango Caves don’t have to work too hard. They’ve got everything in place and they just need to show it to you. Mathilda was our guide and demonstrated the acoustics of the massive Van Zyl’s Hall (named after local farmer Jacobus van Zyl who discovered the caves in July 1780) with a fantastic rendition of Amazing Grace.

The lighting and the informative guide are the finishing touches for the natural beauty of the caves. With small children, we were limited to the Heritage Tour (we did the Adventure Tour last time), but that was certainly enough to enjoy the spectacular sights under the Swartberg mountains.

Back towards town then, and the Cango Ostrich Farm, where we were wowed by witnessing an ostrich chick “mid-hatch” (I’m sure there’s a technical term for this, but I don’t know what it is). Liesl took us around and yes, it was all very touristy: I got to kiss an ostrich (a bit beaky), I got a neck massage from the ostiches (warm, but not relaxing) and the kids got to sit on an ostrich and, in Alex’s case, ride one too. He was so proud of himself, and rightly so. But it was also really educational. Ostrich farming is a HUGE business in SA and it was great for the kids to get such an interactive experience. Here’s Scoop hands on with a half hour old ostrich:

Alex has gone to school today with the ostrich egg he bought at the farm and he can’t wait to share his experiences with his classmates.

Finally, the Cango Wildlife Ranch. Expensive, but well worth it, especially if you’re into your big cats. Or their big cats, anyway. Most of which were asleep for the majority of time we were there.

They have cheetahs (+ 2 cubs), leopards, lions, servals and Bengal tigers in the Big Cat section, plus three types of lemurs, crocodiles, duikers, cape vultures and an amazing snake house. It does cost a bit, but it’s a great (and again, educational) experience and at least part of your entrance fee goes towards their conservation and captive breeding projects for many of the endangered species they have at the park. Included in the price is a guided tour, which lets you see far more than if you were going around alone. Ed was our guide, made us feel very welcome and was able to answer all our questions.

To fit in all of this in one day was a bit of a squeeze, but we made it by being on the first tour (9am) at the caves (booking essential) and being the last ones out of the Wildlife Ranch at closing time, by which time we were all pretty exhausted.

Our departure from Oudtshoorn the following day was delayed by a military parade which we were told was to mark the anniversary of the Infantry School in the town and the 150th anniversary of the inaugural town council meeting.

It was actually a rather understated affair, but the kids loved seeing the band and the big army vehicles and it was a decent send off before we headed South over the Outeniqua Mountains towards the coast. More of that (and more photos) tomorrow, but in the meantime, the first pics can be found on Flickr here.

We stayed at the Turnberry Hotel, which was clean, friendly and well organised and was a great base for our activities. The family room was nicely set up with a separate annex for the kids, which was very helpful. Oh, and before I go, a shout out to Jemima’s Restaurant which provided us with an amazing opening meal to our trip. Best steak I have had in several years and superb service for the kids. Excellent.