Blizzard is one the biggest game developers in the industry. Some of its more popular titles include World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Hearthstone, among many, many others. Hearthstone is the one that appears to have landed the company in trouble, that and Hong Kong. It seems the company revoked a title and prize money from a Hearthstone player, and suspended their account. Vox has more details on it but it’s safe to say players aren’t happy and a mass boycott is in order. Players are looking to delete their accounts with Blizzard and if you’re looking to do the same, we have you covered.
Delete a Blizzard account
To delete a Blizzard account, you need to visit this link. It looks like a support page and it mostly is but if you scroll to the end of the instructions (make sure you read them), you will see a ‘Request’ link. Click it. This will allow you to request all your Blizzard data be deleted.
You will have to login with your Blizzard account and confirm that you really want to delete it. There will be a list of all the things that are removed and unrecoverable. Once you click Proceed, the request will be submitted and it can take up to 30 days for the account to be deleted.
In some cases, you may have to provide some form of identification before the account can be deleted. This is likely because many players have spent quite a bit of money on various game titles and deleting an account will remove those purchases completely with no way to recover or refund them. Blizzard needs to know that it’s really you that’s requesting to delete the account.
There are rumors that Blizzard is blocking users from deleting their accounts. This isn’t true. Even if the company were inclined to do something like that, it can’t, legally. Your account will be deleted within the specified time frame or someone, somewhere, will sue Blizzard.
You may experience some difficulty accession the account deletion page if there are one too many users requesting to delete their account. This doesn’t mean that Blizzard is blocking users from deleting their account. This tends to happen when too many people try to access a website at the same time. You can come back in a few hours, or a few days, and try again.
As part of the deletion request, you are asked why you’re deleting your account. You can enter anything you want here.
Apple’s Swift programming language works on Ubuntu Linux, and the language is open source. If you’re a developer looking to set up the Apple Swift language on Linux, follow along with this guide, and you’ll be ready to start writing programs in no time!
Ubuntu Linux setup
Apple’s Swift programming language is available on Linux officially, but only for Ubuntu Linux, and distributions based on Ubuntu. As of now, Apple hasn’t ported the language to any other mainstream Linux OS.
Swift’s official software release on Ubuntu covers versions 18.04, 16.04, and 14.04. However, if you are using Debian Linux, you may be able to get Swift working with the Ubuntu version. Keep in mind that your OS will not have official support from Apple, as Debian isn’t the targeted distribution.
Getting Swift working on Ubuntu is more tedious than you might think. As it turns out, Apple hasn’t taken the time to put out any easy to install DEB packages. Instead, those looking to write Swift applications on Ubuntu will need to get it working by hand.
The first step in installing Apple’s Swift on Ubuntu Linux is to download the latest release. To do this, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T and use the wget download command below.
After downloading the latest release of Swift to your Ubuntu Linux PC, you must install the various dependencies it requires to make everything run correctly. These dependencies are Clang and a few other packages.
Apple does not officially support the Arch Linux operating system, and Swift will not make an official appearance on the development website any time soon. Thankfully though, this doesn’t matter, as the Arch community has found a way to make Swift work regardless through the AUR.
If you’d like to work with the Swift programming language on Arch Linux, a lot of software dependencies must be installed. To install all of these dependencies efficiently, and quickly, we will walk you through how to set up the Trizen AUR helper.
The first step in installing the Trizen AUR helper, you must install the Base-devel and Git packages using the Pacman package manager in a terminal window. Using the commands below, install the packages.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
After installing the Base-devel and Git packages on your Arch Linux PC, use the Git tool to download the Trizen AUR helper snapshot.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git
Once the Trizen package is done downloading to your Arch Linux PC, move the command-line window into the “trizen” directory.
cd trizen
Build the Trizen AUR helper on your Linux PC by running the makepkg command.
sudo makepkg -sri
Now that the Trizen AUR helper is installed on your Arch Linux PC installing Apple’s Swift programming language is very easy. To do it, enter the command below and follow the prompts on-screen.
trizen -S swift
Fedora Linux setup
Apple’s Swift does not officially support Fedora Linux. However, as the Fedora operating system has a lot of development-minded users, Swift has been ported over and is installable from the official Fedora software repositories.
If you’re looking to get Swift working on your Fedora Linux workstation, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the Dnf package manager to install “swift-lang.”
Note: if you are an OpenSUSE Linux user, consider downloading the “swift-lang” package here to get it working on your system. Use at your own risk!
sudo dnf install swift-lang
Snap package setup
The invention of Snap packages has made installing complex technologies like the Apple Swift language on Linux incredibly easy. So, if you’re using a Linux operating system that is compatible with Snap packages, use the command below to install Apple’s Swift programming language.
Note: Snap packages requires the Snapd runtime be enabled. To enable this runtime, follow our setup guide on how to get Snap packages working.
sudo snap install swift
Are you having trouble using the swift Snap package? An alternative Apple Swift Snap is on the store. To install it, use the command below.
Rainmeter skins are normally distributed/published as RMSKIN files. They’re easy to install; you run the file and Rainmeter takes care of the rest. These files have everything a skin needs to run and look the way it’s meant to. Every skin has at least one INI file in it which, if you’ve ever edited one, changes how a skin behaves. In rare cases, you might find a Rainmeter skin that’s just an INI file. Running it with Rainmeter will do nothing. It won’t install. Here’s how you can install a Rainmeter skin from an INI file.
Rainmeter INI file
Before we can explain how you can install a Rainmeter skin from an INI file, it’s important to know how the app itself is installed. Rainmeter can be installed as a normal app, or as a portable app.
The installation type decides where the Skins folder is created. If you have a standard installation, the Skins folder will be in the following location.
C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins
If you went with the portable version, the Skins folder will be in the folder you created/selected when it was being installed.
Now that you know where the Skins folder is, open it. Inside this folder, create a new folder and name it the same as the skin you want to install or one that will tell you what the skin is for. Move the INI file that is the Rainmeter skin to this folder.
Exit Rainmeter and run it again. Access its settings and on the Skins tab, you will see the new folder that you added for the skin. Expand it, and under it, the INI file will be listed. Select the file, and in the pane on the right, select ‘Load’.
INI files vs RMSKIN files
A RMSKIN file will have at least one INI file in it. A RMSKIN file is a ‘packaged’ skin and it contains everything fonts, images, etc., that a skin needs. An INI file is just one configuration file. It will be basic and won’t be able to use any special elements e.g., a custom font, or an icon.
That said, an INI file can still be used as Rainmeter skin. There’s no need to package it as an RMSKIN file unless you want to edit it to use additional items. Even then, the RMSKIN file is unnecessary. You can move the items you need to the folder that you created for the skin and it will be able to use them.
A note on the desktop is a good way to remind you about something important, or to have important information readily available. Sticky notes are often the go-to tool used to add important information to the desktop but they don’t always do the job. Information can still get lost in a pinned note. Here’s how you can easily display custom text on the macOS desktop.
Need to display custom text on the desktop on Windows 10? We’ve covered how you can do that with a Rainmeter skin.
Custom text on macOS desktop
In order to show custom text on the macOS desktop, we’re going to use a tool called GeekTool. If you’ve ever used a Windows system, or have heard of Rainmeter, this app is the Mac equivalent of it.
The text is going to be sourced from a simple TXT file. This allows you to change the text easily whenever you want. Go ahead and create the text file, and enter the text that you want to display.
Install GeekTool and open it.
Drag the Shell item out and drop it on to your desktop. You will see a placeholder frame which will determine where the text will appear. You can move it around now, or later, it’s up to you.
You will also see a Properties window. The window has a ‘Command’ field.
In the Command field, enter the following command;
cat path-to-text-file
The placeholder frame will show you the text in the file. You may not like how it looks in which case, use the Properties window to change the background color the text is displayed on. To change the font and color of the text, click the ‘Click here to set font & color…’ button. You can select any color, and any font that’s installed on your Mac.
Once you’ve set the font and color, return to the GeekTool window and close it. Make sure you do not quit it. The app needs to continue running in order to display text.
Once you close the app’s window, the Properties window will disappear. You can’t edit the text’s appearance nor its position on your screen at this point. If you change the text in the file, you will have to open GeekTool again and the text will update when it does. Likewise, to move the text, you will have to open GeekTool and then drag the frame around the text to move it.
GeekTool is a pretty powerful tool so explore some of its other options and the many Geeklets that are available for it.
Social media apps like Facebook and Twitter have an option to automatically hide graphic content. Messaging apps rarely have anything like this and iOS’ Messages app is no exception. You can send images over it but they’re not hidden. If you’ve sent something that may not be appropriate for viewing in public, your recipient could probably do with a heads-up. Here’s how you can discretely send NSFW images over iMessage.
Discretely send images over iMessage
iMessages can be sent with special effects. This is a feature that was added a few years ago and while the effects are modest in number, they’re still good for sending more expressive messages. One of those effects is the ‘Invisible ink’ effect. This effect can be applied to both text messages and images and it essentially hides the message/image. The recipient needs to wipe over it to reveal it. If they happen to be sitting next to someone, the image won’t be revealed the second your message is opened.
To send a message/image with the invisible effect, open the Messages app and select the image you want to send. Instead of tapping the send button, press and hold on it. You will see the following screen. Select Invisible Ink and you will get a preview of what the image will look like once it’s been sent. Tap the send button on this screen.
When the message/image is sent, it is hidden for both you and the recipient. Swiping over it will reveal the image but, when you navigate away from the thread and return to it, the image will be hidden again.
The only shortcoming here is that it only applies to iMessages and this of course only works in the Messages app on iOS.
iMessage effects are supposed to be ‘fun’ so this is likely an unintended benefit that comes with them. If it were actually marketed as such, it’s likely that other messaging apps would have introduced something similar. Messaging apps generally have features for sending secret messages or self-destructing messages but there’s no way to give users a heads up that a message should be read a little more discretely.
Social media apps generally have this feature to protect users who may see graphic content when they do not want to or when they least expect to. Messaging apps don’t have the same problem but they’d still benefit from a way to hide certain messages when they are sent.
Blender is the leading, free 3D modeling tool on Linux. It’s highly advanced and can be used for everything from video game development, films, as well as basic animation projects.
The Blender application is an open-source project, so it enjoys widespread support on all modern Linux distributions, like Ubuntu, Debian, Arch Linux, Fedora, and OpenSUSE. Additionally, Blender is available for installation in both Flatpak and Snap package formats. Follow along with this guide to learn how to install Blender on your Linux system
Ubuntu installation instructions
On Ubuntu Linux, the Blender app can easily be set up through the software repositories built into the system. However, if you want the latest and greatest, it’s highly recommended that you install it through a PPA. To enable the Blender PPA, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T and enter the command below.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender
After adding the Blender PPA to your Ubuntu Linux PC, you must run the update command to ensure that Ubuntu’s software sources are refreshed.
sudo apt update
Following the update command, install the Blender application to Ubuntu with the apt install command.
sudo apt install blender
Debian installation instructions
Debian Linux carries the Blender app in the “Main” software repository for most versions of the operating system. To install Blender on your Debian Linux PC, open up a terminal window with Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. From there, use the command below to get the app working.
sudo apt-get install blender
It should be noted that though Blender is readily available to all Debian Linux users, the app is out of date due to the nature of how the operating system releases their software updates. If you need a newer release of Blender on Debian, consider following this guide here to learn how to enable Debian Backports. Alternatively, follow the Flatpak or Snap instructions further on in this guide.
Arch Linux installation instructions
To use Blender on Arch Linux, you must enable the “Community” software repository. To do this, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, from there, open up your Pacman configuration file in the Nano text editor.
sudo nano -w /etc/pacman.conf
Using the Down Arrow on the keyboard, locate the “Community” section of the file, and remove the # symbol from in front of “Community.” Be sure to also remove the # symbol from all lines directly below it.
Once you’ve made the edits to the Pacman configuration file in the Nano text editor, it’s time to save the edits. To save, press Ctrl + O on the keyboard, and press the Enter key. Then, close the Nano text editor by pressing Ctrl + X.
After saving edits to the Pacman configuration file, use the Arch package manager to re-sync software sources, so that “Community” is accessible.
sudo pacman -Syy
Finally, install the Blender app on your Arch Linux PC with the following command.
sudo pacman -S blender
Fedora installation instructions
Fedora Linux users can get their hands on a relatively recent release of the Blender application through the “Fedora” software repository. To install Blender on your Fedora Linux PC, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, from there, use the Dnf package management command below to install the app on the system.
sudo dnf install blender -y
OpenSUSE installation instructions
Every release of OpenSUSE Linux has the Blender application available in the “Oss all” software repository. To get the Blender app installed on your OpenSUSE Linux PC, start by launching a terminal window with Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T. Then, with the terminal window open, use the Zypper package manager to install Blender.
sudo zypper install blender
Blender works pretty well on OpenSUSE Linux. That said, the operating system is pretty out of date, compared to a lot of other Linux distributions out there. If you’d like a more recent release of Blender on your OpenSUSE PC, consider following the Snap or Flatpak instructions instead.
Snap package installation instructions
The Blender 3D modeling application is available for installation via the Snap store. So, if you’re running a Linux operating system that has Snap support, getting Blender working is a quick and painless process.
To install Blender via Snap, open up a terminal window and run the installation command below to get it going. Or, launch the Snap store app, search for “Blender,” and click the blue “install” button.
Note: to use Snap packages on Linux, you must enable Snapd. To learn how to do this, click here.
sudo snap install blender
Flatpak installation instructions
Blender is installable as a Flatpak, which means that if you’re having issues getting the app working through your Linux OS’s software repository, you’ll still be able to use the program.
To set up Blender through Flatpak on Linux, open up a terminal window and enter the commands below.
Note: Flatpak programs require the Flatpak runtime. Before attempting to install Blender, follow our guide to learn how to enable Flatpak on your system.
Virtual desktops on macOS have remained unchanged for a long time. The feature was unmatched on Windows, until Windows 10 came around. Virtual desktops on these two major operating systems are almost the same with some exceptions. On macOS, you have the freedom to add as many desktop spaces as you want and you can assign apps to a particular desktop space. Unfortunately, they do not maintain their order. If you switch to an app that is on a different space, the space will move so that it is right next to the one you just came from. This is a feature but not one that you have to live with if you don’t like it. Here’s how you can prevent desktop spaces from rearranging on macOS.
Disable desktop spaces rearranging
The desktop space rearranging feature is really easy to turn off. It’s a feature that’s part of Mission Control. To disable it, open the System Preferences app and go to the Mission Control preference.
There are four options here that you can enable or disable. For our purpose, you need to disable/uncheck the ‘Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use’ option. Once you do, desktop spaces will stop rearranging themselves.
The benefit of having desktop spaces rearrange themselves based on use is that it makes it easy to quickly switch back to the previous task. It’s assumed that you’re mostly switching between the same few desktop spaces even though you can create as many as you like.
As for disabling the rearranging feature, that has to do with training yourself to remember which app is open on which desktop space. Let’s say you have Chrome open on Desktop Space 2, and a document on Desktop Space 3. You’re working mainly on Desktop Space 1 but anytime you need to go to your document, you won’t have to shuffle through all the spaces to get to it. You will know that the document is on Desktop Space 3. The auto rearranging disrupts the numbering that’s assigned to desktop spaces making the above scenario impossible.
It’s clear that the feature can be useful, but it can also be annoying which is why Apple has had the foresight to allow users to disable it. It’s not exactly the most publicized feature on macOS though so, it’s possible not everyone knows about it. Most users might just think that it can’t be disabled since Apple rarely gives users a lot of choice, or as much choice as they’d like.
The easiest way to display text on your desktop is through a sticky note. Windows 10 has a Sticky Note app that allows you to pin notes to your desktop. That said, sticky notes are best for when you need a scratch pad, for making a list, or for storing information you need to access often. If you need to display custom text on the desktop and sticky notes aren’t what you’re looking, we strongly recommend using a Rainmeter skin.
Rainmeter is a great app that you can use to show all sorts of information on your desktop, and if you need to add text e.g., a sign telling you to sit up straight, or drink water, a Rainmeter skin might be the best option. As for which skin you should use, we’re going to show you how you can make your own.
Font selection
A Rainmeter skin can use a custom font and it’s really very easy to add. Before you create your Rainmeter skin, decide first if you want to use a custom font or not. If you’ve decided to use a custom font, go ahead and look for one that is suitable for the text you want to display. Be mindful of the license that a font comes with.
Create text display Rainmeter skin
To keeps things simple, you should first create a folder and give it whatever name you want the Rainmeter skin to have. We’re going with DesktopTextSkin. You can pick whatever you like.
Once the folder has been created, open it. If you decided to use a custom font, create a new folder in this one named @Resources. Inside this folder, create yet another folder called ‘Fonts’. Move the font you want to use to this Fonts folder.
Return to the root of the skin’s folder.
Create Rainmeter skin INI file
Open a new Notepad file and enter the following in it. You will have to edit it to suit your own needs.
[MeterString]
Meter=String
FontFace=BEYONDCONTROL
FontSize=50
FontColor=FFFFFF
FontWeight=400
Text=Hello, World
The ‘FontFace’ field is where you need to enter the name of the font you’re using for the skin. If you’re not using a custom font, set this to ‘Trebuchet MS’. It’s a Microsoft font.
The FontSize and FontColor fields are self explanatory. Change them to whatever suits you. Play with the FontWeight if you want. FontWeight is basically how you make text bold. You can reference its values here, or you can omit this line if you want.
Last, but not least is the Text field. Replace ‘Hello, World’ with the text you want to display. Save the file with the INI extension and save it to the folder you created for the skin.
Package Rainmeter skin
You must have Rainmeter already installed on your system. Open it, and click the Create .rmskin package button.
Enter the name of the skin, the name of the Author (that’s you), and the version of the skin. Click ‘Add Skin’. In the window that opens, select the ‘Add custom folder’ option, and then select the folder that you saved the INI file to. Click Ok, and then Next. The skin will be packaged as a .rmskin file.
Install it and load the skin like you would any other skin. Any time you want to change what the text says, you can edit the INI file of the installed skin from Rainmeter. If you need to display multiple text snippets, you can use this same skin and create a copy of it.
This is a basic skin that we’ve created. You can add additional attributes to it such as where it’s positioned on your screen, add icons, and more. Read the documentation that’s available if you want to develop the skin further.
Google has its own image format; WEBP. You’ll find this image format is used all over the Google Play Store and it’s also used on the official Android website. The format, although developed by Google, isn’t as common and some of the best image viewers like IrfanView do not support it. If you have a WEBP image, you can open it in Chrome or Edge but they’re browsers and not image viewers or editors. If you don’t need an image to be in the WEBP format, you can convert it to a more common one like PNG or JPG. Here’s how you can convert WEBP images to PNG or JPG.
There are online apps that can convert WEBP images to PNG or JPG but we’re going with a desktop solution that doesn’t require any third-party apps; Paint.
Convert WEBP to PNG or JPG
Paint can open a WEBP file and, while it’s a basic app, it can also convert images to common image file formats like PNG, JPG, GIF, or BMP.
Open the WEBP image in Paint and then go to File>Save As. The Save As sub-menu will list common formats that you can save the file to, and both PNG and JPEG/JPG are listed there. Select a format, and save the file.
The WEBP format supports transparency but you’ll find that transparency is lost when it’s converted to PNG with Paint. It’s an unfortunate drawback that comes with using the app. Unfortunately, the WEBP format has such poor support that not even Paint.net will open it. It likely has a better chance of preserving transparency but it can’t open a WEBP image so it doesn’t matter.
If you’re looking for a simple file viewer that will let you open/browse WEBP images, and not as interested in converting the file to a different format, go with Windows Photo Viewer. This app is still around. You may have to enable it on your system but Windows Photo Viewer is perfectly capable of opening a WEBP image.
WEBP, as an image format, hasn’t exactly caught on. It’s an open source format and despite that, it’s not very popular. It may have to do with not many image viewers supporting it and not many viewers support it because it’s not very common. Regardless, two stock apps on Windows 10 can open the image without any problems.
WEBP is meant to be used on websites and you’d be surprised how long it takes for websites to change the technology they use, even if it’s just an image format.
Firefox has a full screen mode and most, if not all media players you find online have one too. It may seem like a harmless feature and it is for the most part but there are still exceptions. This is why when you enter full screen mode, you get a warning from Firefox. It’s there for a reason but you can get rid of it if you want. Here’s how you can disable the full screen warning in Firefox.
Disable full screen warning
Open Firefox and in the URL bar, enter the following. Tap enter, and accept the warning that you see.
about:config
This will take you to the Firefox preferences page. In order to disable the full screen warning in Firefox, you will have to change several different preferences. The list of the preferences you need to change is below. To find them all, enter ‘full-screen’ in the search bar, and tap enter.
All these preferences have some sort of numerical value set for them. Some have two values such as the ‘full-screen-api.transition-duration.enter’ preference which is set to 200 200. Replace it with 0 0. You need to change all these values to zero. Where a preference has two values as in the example, you will need to enter zero twice. For single values, you only need to enter zero once.
Once you’ve changed these preferences, you will no longer see the warning you get when you switch to full screen in Firefox. These preferences collectively control different aspects of the full screen warning such as how long it remains on the screen, and how long after entering full screen it will display it.
If you want to enable the warning again, you will need to set the value for each preference back to what it was. Granted, it’s unlikely you will remember what the values were but resetting a Firefox preference is pretty easy. Right-click it, and select Reset from the context menu.
If you’re wondering why a full screen warning is necessary, it’s because a malicious website may force itself to run in full screen mode. An unsuspecting user may think something is wrong with the browser since all controls disappear in full screen mode and that’s what a website looks to exploit. A lot of malicious websites rely on users being unaware of certain features or being naive enough to give them free access to run scripts and install add-ons or just show notifications.
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