Replies

Good question. I’m not 100% sure of that. Someone can likely clarify.

Thanks everyone for your comments! As I sign off this evening, I’ll quote Porky from Looney Tunes, “That’s All Folks!”.

Nathan Parker

I’ve heard good results on Startpage as well. Thanks for that. I’ve had decent luck with DuckDuckGo. It’s about as good as what I’ve searched with using other search engines. Everyone’s mileage may vary, but it’s been good enough for me to use it and enjoy the extra privacy.

Nathan Parker

Good points, and some of those are covered in my first article. Some of the weather apps I set privacy to “while using” and only access those apps at home, then force quit them before heading out. One app I have to keep location services on for work, but it’s an app our business customers pay for (Earth Networks Sferic Connect), so we don’t sell advertising in that app.

Nathan Parker

1 user thanked author for this post.

AlexEiffel

The Privacy Labels are fairly new (I think last December is when they went live). I’ve definitely purged some apps after reading them. There was one report where some developers weren’t accurately reporting their privacy practices in some of the labels (I probably should have mentioned that in the article). I hope for those developers, Apple will block their app updates until they provide accurate info.

Nathan Parker

Thanks for that, Microfix. I believe that has to do with the “Sign in with Apple” feature.

Nathan Parker

I will always restore using iMazing now. It went way too well.

Nathan Parker

1 user thanked author for this post.

dmt_3904

Yep, you can.

Nathan Parker

1 user thanked author for this post.

OscarCP

Once you’re ready to go, you should be able to successfully go from Catalina to Big Sur.

Nathan Parker

My experiences with AT&T as well.

I need to look further into Insty Connect. I’ve been told Verizon 5G Wideband has been turned on in parts of the city, but I’ve yet to pick it up anywhere. Asking Verizon to confirm if it’s true and if so, where.

Nathan Parker

PaulK wrote:

AT&T DSL (if it sprinkles, it goes out)

This rang a bell – so to intone.
We too used to have AT&T DSL. Around 2012 I put in a service call because any rain called serious problems, just as you describe. (It was OK in dry weather.) A tech replaced the phone drop from the utility pole, and then DSL was very reliable in all weather.

The old wire probably was the original installed when this subdivision was built in 1947. The black insulation had weathered badly, and just left one’s hands black. I had to discard it as the tech wouldn’t take it back for copper salvage.

If you can ladder-up to a hanging (sunlight-exposed) portion of your drop, how is your hand after you rub the wire?

Thanks for the info. We have underground lines here, so I can’t test any drop without digging up my front yard (our power lines are also underground, so probably not wise for me to dig around).

AT&T looked into it when I had them. It turns out the connection drop was at the “RT” box down the line since my connection connected to an “RT” instead of a traditional “ATM Circuit”. AT&T told me they had no plans to resolve it, so I could either live it it and keep paying me bill (that while I had to pay my bill, they didn’t have to provide me with reliable service) or go elsewhere. I went elsewhere.

Nathan Parker

Sounds good. I’ll look around. Thanks!

Nathan Parker

Actually we don’t even have Comcast here. Only: AT&T DSL (if it sprinkles, it goes out). A local Cable company (in which I signed up for $75/month and only got .1, yes point 1 down), a and local WISP (was working but now getting unreliable since they’re not actively maintaining their connection). There’s a couple other local providers, but one has pivoted to fiber for businesses only, and the other only has a couple of wireless towers in rural areas.

For a town our size, our lack of real broadband options is appalling.

Nathan Parker

Got the dual-boot working. Here’s basically what happened:

1. I needed to manually install rEFInd using the Recovery partition and Terminal to bypass FileVault and System Integrity Protection. It went exceptionally well. Too easy
2. The breakdown happened when trying to partition my Mac for the Linux partition. I should have done it from Recovery or an external drive. Doing it inside macOS, it threw a kernel panic and also messed up my Recovery partition. After rebooting the Mac and running the “Password Reset” utility, I was back into macOS and all my data.
3. I had a backup Recovery partition on the Mac created using TechTool Pro’s eDrive software. Booted off of that and successfully re-partitoned my Mac.
4. To ensure my main Recovery partition works if I need it in the future, I quickly re-installed macOS in-place, as well as ran the update to the latest security updates.
5. I also ran DiskWarrior on the macOS partition to rebuild/optimize my Mac’s directory (all of the partitioning made the directory a little un-optimized).
6. With macOS fully in business, the bad news is the reinstall of macOS disabled rEFInd. I booted off of Recovery again (plus this verified that it was successfully working again). I re-ran the final “bless” command from the manual install instructions, rebooted, and rEFInd was back in business.
7. Back on macOS, I created a bootable Ubuntu installer using Ubuntu’s instructions. Rebooted and selected the bootable Ubuntu installer using rEFInd. Successfully installed Ubuntu.

The dual-boot is successfully working now. Only two issues are occurring at the moment:

1. The Ubuntu installation re-disabled rEFInd. I need to boot off of Recovery and likely run the “bless” command one more time. I can still boot into Ubuntu by holding down the Option key at startup. It functions just like Boot Camp would.
2. My Bluetooth Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard aren’t connecting to Ubuntu. Bluetooth works in Ubuntu, just not with these two devices. The Bluetooth Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard with my iMac are the older models without Lightning ports, so they’re Bluetooth only. I was able to borrow my iMac Pro’s newer Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard and connect them to the iMac using USB, and they worked with Ubuntu (but the Magic Trackpad and Keyboard kept trying to re-connect to my iMac Pro over Bluetooth). Long-term, I’ll pick up a low-cost USB mouse and keyboard (already found a couple that should work) I can plug into my iMac and use on the Linux side.

Nathan Parker

Alex5723 wrote:

Nathan Parker wrote:

What would be some good solutions for a personal accounting program (mainly just linking all my bank accounts in one place so I can track transactions, bill tracking would also be handy)

Doesn’t Apple Pay do all these functions ?

Only if I conduct all of my transactions using Apple Pay, and if the card supports it.

One of my cards does not support logging transactions in Apple Pay, plus there are tons of transactions I still complete without Apple Pay.

Even then, it’s per-device, so my transactions aren’t in sync (except maybe with Apple Card).

Nathan Parker

Kirsty wrote:

Did you try out Wave, as above?

I did a while back, but my main bank wasn’t supported yet. Since then, my bank was acquired by a large bank, so I’ll try it again. Thanks for reminding me about it. I think it’ll work now.

 

Nathan Parker