Windows Keyboard Shortcut for Taskbar! (and others)

Ahoy from Amoy! (Historic Xiamen, China).

I know it's odd I post tech solutions on my China blog but those posts get hundreds of thousands of views, versus hundreds or a few thousand views for China content, so it seems they help. So  here's a great tip.

When the taskbar's on Auto-hide, sometimes it won't pop back up again (unless on desktop)--and it seems to be a permanent problem with the new Windows 10 Creators Update. I've tried everything--rebooting (works awhile), unclicking and reclicking auto-hide, locking the taskbar (but it covers content and links at the bottom that I need), etc..

Windows says it's working on the issue but even if they fix it, it's probably apt to reoccur. So I use Windows Keyboard shortcuts!

Windows Keyboard shortcuts are much faster than using a mouse and easy to remember (of course my first computer had Q-DOS so I'm used to learning commands (used to taking them, too, ever since I married, but that's another story).

For example, sometimes I can't get to the lower right corner for the Desktop, so I just hit, at the same time, the Windows Key (WIN--4 squares) + D Key [+ means hit the two at same time]. Hit again to return to screen you were on.

Guaranteed faster than a mouse, maybe even faster than the Rats in Redding who after decades still allow the problems that need shortcuts to escape from. 

My Favorite Keyboard Shortcuts in order of use:
[+ = hit both keys same time]

Alt + Tab: Change Screens (most used: flip from one open screen to the next).
WIN + D: Show Desktop
WIN +X:
WIN: Show Start Menu (also can use CTRL + ESC)
WIN + T: Show Taskbar (also WIN + B)
WIN + X: Quick Link Menu of advanced user commands
    (device manager, disk management--everything you'll need!)
WIN + L: Lock Screen
WIN + R: "Run" command
WIN + S: Start a Search
CTRL + C: Copy
CTRL + V: Paste
CTRL + A: Select all items (such as in a word document or web page)
CTRL + P: Print (from within Word, Firefox, etc.)
CTRL + Y: Redo an action
CTRL + Z: Undo an action (use this a lot!)
WIN + A: Enter Windows Actions Center
WIN + PrtScr: Save Screenshot of open screen
WIN + TAB: Launch Task View (small images of all open windows)
WIN + PLUS Sign: Start Magnifier and Zoom in (for us old folks)
WIN + ENTER: Start Narrator (hate this! Only opened by accident and could not get out. To escape, hit CAP LOCK + ESC.
CTRL + Left Arrow: Move cursor to the start of the previous word
CTRL + Right Arrow: Move cursor to the start of the next word
CTRL + Up Arrow: Move cursor to start of previous paragraph
CTRL + Down Arrow: Move cursor to start of next paragraph
CTRL + Diagonal Arrow: Either Backdoor to Diagon Alley or you live in one of the states that have legalized recreational marijuana.
 
Want more? Microsoft'sWebsite has them here:Microsoft Windows 10 Keyboard Shortcuts Program

Enjoy Amoy!


Dr. Bill 
Academic Director, SMXMU OneMBA
Xiamen University

Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

In China, Bill is not William (For Bill Gates, Clinton, or me!l)

 Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China).

When Sue and I were preparing to be married at Christ College Chapel in Taipei in 1981, we were told the planes from California were often late so we should book two rooms in the Hong Kong YMCA just in case we missed our connecting flight to Taiwan. It seemed like a lot of money for us to spend, but we did it, just in case.

We boarded our shoestring budget 35 hour Los Angeles to Taipei flight (via Seattle, Anchorage and Hong Kong) with World Airways, which went defunct in 2014 (that small airlines was not only always late but also had 5 accidents, four with fatalities). 

And sure enough missed our Taipei flight.

Not to worry! We had a YMCA reservation. We were so thankful for the old China Hands' wise advice. We took a cab to the YMCA, exhausted from the flight and lugging foud 70 pound suitcases (I for one am thankful the limit is now 50 pounds) and two 40 pound carry-ons (cake mixes and other things for the wedding).  And the YMCA said they had no reservation for us.

I argued and argued, saying we’d paid by cashier's check, and even been sent a receipt—but I’d forgotten to bring the receipt. So we went looking for another hotel but could not find one we could afford. About 10:00, we returned to the YMCA and just sat on the floor, exhausted, dejected and wondering what to do. 

William Fits the Bill About half an hour later, the desk clerk called to me, “Excuse me, is ‘Bill Brown’ the same as ‘William Brown?’”

So we got our rooms. 

 

Even today, Chinese find it hard to believe (and some just refuse to believe) that Bill and William are the same. I tell them that Bill Gates full name is William Gates, Bill Clinton’s full name is William Clinton, etc.—and they just look at me as if to say, “Yeah, pull my other leg.”

Dr. Beer.  In China, in print, my name is William, though when speaking to me Chinese call me Bill—or, more likely, they call me “Beer.” Their “I” sounds like an “ee” and the Southern Chinese can’t speak the “l” so they use an “r”, so my names ends up being Beer. I tried and tried to get them to quit calling me “Dr. Beer.” 

One Christmas, a class gave me a Christmas card, which they’d all signed, saying, “We love you, Dr. Beer!” And they gave me a ribbon-wrapped can of Budweiser.  At least they have a sense of humor. I thanked them—then told them they’d all lost 10 points from their final grade.

Maybe Dr. Beer is not so farfetched. Pearson's Magazine, in Nov. 1908, had an add claiming that doctors recommended to patients Schlitz, the "Beer that made Milwaukee famous."

 

Doctors Blowing Smoke 1908 was just a tad before my time, but I was born in 1956--the tail end of the 1930s to 1950s period in which one of the biggest cigarette advertising ploys was "Doctors recommend" smoking their brand. To combat the growing suspicion that tobacco was not harmless, almost every brand made that ridiculous claim, assuring us that if people got sick, it was not from the cigarettes but from other causes (lack of menthol, wrong method, etc). The worst was Camel

cigarettes--which paid off its doctor partners with cases of Camels. "More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette!" Or Lucky Strike's "20,769 physicians say Lucky Strikes are Less Irritating! It's Toasted!" Yeah, and so are smokers' lungs.

So how did I start with Bill versus William and finish with going up in smoke? But maybe that's to be expected, given I've spend over half of my 61 years in a country of 1.4 billion people that has two divisions of citizens: smokers and passive-smokers. And I hate smoking with a passion. My father died of lung cancer--smoked 40 years. Survived the Korean War (even Pork Chop Hill), Vietnam War, specials assignments in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand--but was done in by cigarettes that "doctors recommended," that are more addictive than heroin--and yet legal because there's too much money to stop it. And now China is a nation addicted to tobacco as it was addicted to opium (and tobacco, like opium, was literally forced on China).

Well, enough said. I could write not just a blog but a book on the disgusting tobacco trade (I marvel how even straightlaced Amish can justify growing it), but I'll get back to the subject on hand.

But I'm glad my students call me Dr. Beer than Dr. Smoke.

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Trump Deporting Seniors Instead of Illegal Immigrants

Hello from Amoy! (historic Xiamen, China)

I don't dare return to the U.S. because Trump, to save the economy, has vowed to deport seniors instead of illegals for 4 reasons:

1. Lower Social Security & Medicare costs.
2. Seniors are easier to catch ​than illegals
3. Illegals work cheaper than seniors (except at Walmart)
4. Seniors won't remember how to return home so we won't need Beijing to build the US-Mexico Great Wall.

So... See you on the bus!

Dr. Bill 
P.S. My apologies for using the politically incorrect term "illegal immigrants." Which reminds me of Joe Wong (Huang Xi 黄西), the Chinese molecular biochemist and part-time comedian who shared his answers to questions on his U.S. naturalization examination (obviously a few years ago, as nowadays no one needs to know anything at all to be American). When asked to explain "Roe vs. Wade," he said, "Uhhh... the two ways to get into the U.S?"

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com
Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Aladdin was Chinese--probably from Fujian's Quanzhou (Zayton) 阿拉丁是中国人！

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China).

I loved Disney's 1992 cartoon Aladdin--largely, of course, because of Robin Williams' inimitable Genie. But if Disney had followed the original story, Aladdin would have been Chinese--as depicted on the cover of this 19th century children's book. In fact, his story probably took place in Quanzhou (the Arab's legendary port of Zayton) just 50 miles up the coast from Xiamen!

The classic story begins and ends with China! The 1st line: "Aladdin was the son of Mustapha, a poor tailor in one of the rich provinces of China." And when the Princess tricks the evil magician into drinking the poisoned wine, "she asked the magician to changes cups, as was the custom, she said, between lovers in China." 

So why would an obviously Arab tale (part of the 1,001 Nights, though added later) take place in China? Because Muslims who traded with China via the Silk Road of the desert and Quanzhou's Maritime Silk Route viewed China as the most distant and exotic place on earth.

And the "rich province of China" was probably our Fujian province because 2,200 years ago, Fuzhou's Mawei built China's first oceangoing ships, Fujian merchants and fishermen were known all over Asia and Africa as China's greatest seafarers, and Quanzhou (known by the Arabs as Zayton) was the richest, greatest port on earth according to Marco Polo and famed Arab explorer Ibn Battuta. Marco Polo said that for every ship in the west carrying pepper (spices), Quanzhou had 100 ships.

Columbus carried Marco Polo's Travels with him on his 1492 voyage to find not a new world but a shortcut to India and China's Zayton (of which my own Amoy was a part of :) ). Columbus had underlined Marco Polo's descriptions of Zayton's fabulous wealth. Had Chris ended up in Zayton instead of the New World, gold would have flowed not to Spain but from it, because South Fujianese were known for 1,000 years as China's toughest business folks (fair, but tough).

1000 Years ago, Quanzhou had 40,000 Muslims (as well as Jews, Nestorian Christians, Manicheans, Hindus, Jain, Tibetan Buddhists, etc.) and 7 mosques, including Ashab Mosque. Modeled after a mosque in Damascus, it was considered the most beautiful mosque outside of the Middle East.

As the greatest and richest port in the world, and a center of culture and religion, it's no wonder the legendary Zayton figured in tales of Aladdin, Sinbad (who was probably Chinese Muslim Admiral Zheng He, aka Sanbao), etc. South Fujian--especially Zayton and Amoy, are truly magical places,

In closing, I do love Disney's Aladdin--but it would be fun to see an Aladdin movie in the setting for which it was intended--China!

To learn more about Zayton and Amoy, try my "Discover Xiamen and South Fujian" Amazon eBook, which has 200 additional pages over the print version, including history, culture, etc.)

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Blue light Filter for PC (Notebook, desktop) & Android Phone!

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China).

For years, I've used blue light filter software on my Android cell phone to combat the insomnia created by blue light. Even worse than insomnia--AMDF (American Macular Degeneration Foundation) warns that blue light causes retinal damage and can lead to (or worsen) macular degeneration.

So for years, I've wanted an Android-like blue light filter software for my computer--and it only occurred to me today to Google for one. And in seconds I found an amazing little blue light filter program that works on my Windows computer just as well as the blue light filter software on android or apple phones! It's called F.lux--though at first I was afraid to download it....

To avoid malware, I only download android software from Google Play (and even there, folks have had problems). I'm also cautious about downloading Windows applications for my computer from unknown sources. Even software with starred reviews from download.cnet.com have been found to be full of bugs, viruses, trojans, malware, etc. But in September, 2016, PC Magazine reported that Microsoft is finally getting on the blue light bandwagon and testing a blue light filter for Windows 10 (it's about time!), and they mentioned it will be like F.lux, which can be downloaded now for free. If PC Magazine recommends it, I trust they've done their homework.

It look me less than one minute to download and install F.lux--and for the first time since I started using PCs (over 30 years!), my face doesn't glow blue when I huddle over the screen in the dark.

F.lux is totally non-intrusive, doing its work behind the scene automatically. It turns on at night and shuts off by day (and like android or apple blue light filter software, you can adjust the filter level--from dim incandescent light to full day light). After a bit of use, you completely forget it's there!

Amazing app--and amazing it took me until now to figure out to Google blue light filters for Windows computers! Save your eyes and download F.lux today. And by the way, check out Google Play to download F.lux for Android (the device must be rooted, but hopefully they're working on a non-rooted version as well). But no need to wait.

For years, I've used the Android Bluelight Filter for Eye Care software, which has over 300,000 reviews (4 out of 5 stars--the low reviews primarily by people who don't even know how to use the software, or what it is for).

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Academic Director, SMXMU OneMBA
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Happy Lantern Festival from Amoy (Xiamen) China

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China)--and Happy Lantern Festival!

Lantern Festival (Yuánxiāojié,元宵节  is the 15th day of the Lunar Calendar.  We love the light shows at Xiamen's Zhōngshān (Sun Yat-sen) Park, and when the boys were young we bought them battery-powered plastic lanterns and join the parades of parents and children walking up and down Zhongshan Rd. I had as much fun with the lanterns as the boys did--perhaps more fun! I wish our granddaughter, Katherine Ruth, were closer so I'd have an excuse to buy a lantern (she's in Arkansas; Matt moved to Arkansas because the Bible said to "go to the uttermost parts of the earth"; just joking--we all love N.W. Arkansas, though S.E. Arkansas is.... different).

According to tradition, on Lantern Festival, young lassies prowl the streets at night, hanging around the lanterns or pulling up people’s vegetables--all to boost their chances of getting married.  I don’t see why uprooting veggies will increase their odds at matrimony and domestipation--unless she wants to get her husband a higher celery? (Sorry, I was too puny to resist that punishing opportunity; I hope you don't retaliate with punitive measures).

Girls eligible for marriage cast divining blocks, and then set out to stroll in some auspicious direction until she meets a person--any person at all. She memorizes the first word that they say, and then she seeks out a fortune teller who explains (for a fee, of course) if the word is lucky or unlucky, which determines whether she will marry that year or not.

Whether you're hankering to get married or not, or just getting your kicks from pulling up innocent vegetables (should make a Veggie Tales episode about this1), enjoy Lantern Festival!

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Academic Director, SMXMU OneMBA
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Cancer survivor's guide to Easy High Fiber Diet with Optifiber (wheat dextrin)

 

Ahoy from Amoy! (historic Xiamen, China).

Since battling colon cancer in 1999, I've kept a high-fiber diet, healthy diet. Although healthy food can be expensive, hospitals are  more expensive than healthy food--and a lot more painful. And thanks to Costco's Optifiber (see below), which I thought was a trademark for a hi-tech fiber-optic firm, an high fiber diet can be inexpensive.

I'm not fanatical about it health food, of course. As a wise man, Redd Fox, once said, "One day the hospitals will be full of a lot of health nuts feeling pretty stupid when they're dying of nothing." I know my days are numbered not matter what eat, but I'd like my remaining days to be healthier than they used to--and I do not miss the junk food.

Health on a Budget Over the years, I've found ways to cut sugar and salt, increase fiber, and eat healthy on a budget. For example, we spend only about $60 a year on breakfast, but it's tasty and nutritious, and packed full of some of the best fiber out there: oatbran and blueberries. Blueberries can be expensive, of course, but each year we buy a 4 pound box of Traverse Bay dried blueberries and Bob's Oat Bran from Amazon, which we rehydrate overnight in a glass of water and add to each day's oatbran (which we spice up with cinnamon, and sometimes add frozen banana slices). a 4 pound box of dried blueberries lasts us an entire year--as does 50 pounds of oat bran.

And Goodbye (almost--see below) Metamucil! Thanks to Optifiber, Costco's Kirkland version of Benefiber, I've almost said goodbye to that monstrous fibre fix, Metamucil. For years, I tried to stomach Metamucil, that slimy, slick concoction made from psyllium seed fiber. It works--but it's gross. And if you don't use enough water, it can actually swell up in your mouth and choke you.  I much prefer Optiber. In spite of it being 100% wheat dextrin, it is has so little gluten that it qualifies, by a long shot, as gluten-free. However....

Does wheat dextrin lower cholesterol? Sadly, dextrin does not lower cholesterol as well as Metamucil and other psyllium seed preparations--and I do have high cholesterol (DNA--it's high regardless of how well I watch my diet). It's the very mucus-like properties of psyllium seed that helps it bind the bad stuff in the intestines. While dextrin may help lower cholesterol (as any fiber might), it does not seem to be as good as Metamucil. But if you don't have a problem with cholesterol--go with Optiber!

Optiber mixes with any liquid--juices, or even coffee and tea--and it dissolves instantly. It is tasteless, odorless and there is absolutely no texture. It really is like nothing there. I simply add 2 teaspoons of it to my coffee or tea and it is the most painless way you can imagine to get a healthy dose of fiber! And believe me, when you take Optifiber, it really does work out well in the end!

Try my inexpensive breakfast of oatbran and Traverse Bay dried blueberries (I've tried many brands, and these are the best), with two teaspoons daily of Obtifiber. You won't regret it!

Enjoy Amoy!

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com

Homemade Weighted Juggle Balls ($9, not $66--and no sew!) EZ!

Ahoy from Amoy (historic Xiamen, China).

I wanted heavy bean bags (only 1 pound each, so no strain) to exercise while I juggle, but the cheapest I found online was 45 USD for 3 bags--plus $21.65 Shipping! Total cost: $66.65 for 3 balls!

Baby Socks and BBs--DIY weighted juggling balls!

I made my own, no sewing, for under $10!

You need:
1. BBs (click here for about 4 pounds of Crosman BBs, only $8.49, on Amazon)
2. 3 Pair of baby socks (3 pair for only $1 at a Dollar Store).
3. Small plastic bag and tape.

Steps to Make Your Own One Pound (or heavier, up to you) Weighted Juggling Exercise Balls
Pour the BBs into 3 small plastic bags (or make the bags from plastic sheet and tape). Tape the bags shut and reinforce well with the tape.

Place the plastic bag of BBs in a baby sock, then twist the top and fold the leg of the sock back over the ball. It will hold without sewing.

For extra strength, place the sock of BBs in another sock and, again, twist the sock just above the ball, then fold the leg back over the ball. This too will hold without sewing.

Now juggle to your hearts content with 1 pound weighted juggling balls that cost you less than $10 instead of $66!

Make your own No-Sew Weighted Juggling Balls (Socks 'n BBs!)

If you're muscle-bound, you can make 5 pound weighted juggling balls, or 10 pounders, but even one pound weighted juggling balls are enough to give you some good exercise while still having fun and without straining yourself (I may be 16 at heart but my body's 61 so I have to strike a balance).

Enjoy Amoy! And enjoy your juggling.

Dr. Bill

School of Management, Xiamen University
Amazon eBook "Discover Xiamen"

www.amoymagic.com

Bill Brown Xiamen University www.amoymagic.com