Tableau Public for Mac

Tableau is a popular data visualization tool with strong map features. My workplace version has an extensive list of data connections.

Tonight I downloaded the public (free) version of Tableau for Mac. The connection list is far smaller than the commercial version. It will import from Excel, CSV, JSON, PDF, “spatial file” and “statistical file” files. It can pull data in from Google Sheets, Data, “Web data connector” and “ODBC”. It only exports CSV. It occupies 1.6GB of disk space.

Storage aside, it did a great job pulling data out of a PDF table. That’s almost worth the 1.6GB by itself. Given the state of Mac data tools I think it’s worth keeping around.

An Elgato T2 Hub and USB 3 SSD work pretty well

For 3yrs I’ve used a Samsung SSD (1TB) in a cheap Inatek IDE enclosure with UASP/USB 3 connection to an Elgato T2 dock connected to a 2015 MacBook Air by Apple T2 cable. The Elgato also connects to two Firewire 800 drives.

I realized today that it’s worked quite well for quite a while. Now that I’ve written this it will all go to pieces, but until now — good stuff. My 360GB Aperture library lives on that external SSD and I don’t have any real performance issues with it. I use Jettison to undock when I take the Air with me; I disconnect the power cable and the T2 cable.

Which reminds me of some rant I read today about how the Air is the worst machine in existence and everyone should buy a $400 Windows machine instead. I beg to disagree. The current Air is still a great machine. You may not like the non-retina screen (my eyes suck so what would I know?), but you can buy a nice external display.

The absolute best thing machine Apple could do would be to continue to sell the 2018 13” Air but swap the T2 for T3* and make the display Retina. Leave every other thing about it pretty much the same and sell it for the current price.

*Update: Actually, I’m not sure T3 is so great. Maybe just do the Retina and call it a win.

MarsEdit - drag and drop link creation only works with Safari now

In the past it was easy to create a link to a web page within MarsEdit from Safari or Chrome.. Click in the browser URL address bar, drag to rich text editor pane, and drop. Bam — a link is created with the page title text and page URL.

That was broken in a recent MarsEdit update. Happily it was quickly fixed for Safari. As of 4.2.1 it doesn’t work for Chrome though; with Chrome we get the URL text but no link.

I think Daniel will fix this sooner or later, but if you are a MarsEdit user and you miss fast Chrome link creation please let Daniel know. I’d like to get it back!

PS. I’m so Chrome-stuck, mostly due to need for identity switching, that I now drag the link from Chrome to Safari then from Safari to MarsEdit!

The end of Google+ will impact Blogger

Visiting Google’s official Blogger blog today I tried viewing comments on a May 2018 post (a list of things removed and a promise of future work). There are 858 comments, based on Google+. I wonder what will happen to them now that G+ is dead. (So will we get our + back in search syntax?)

At one point Google tried to integrate G+ and Blogger — particularly identity management. It didn’t go well. I suspect the divorce won’t go well either.

- fn -

[1] Suggestively most of the future work mentioned were enhancements to moving data out of Blogger.

PS. Google+ was a really dumb name.

iOS 12 update may undo cellular data lock

There’s an iOS restriction called “cellular data changes”. If it’s enabled a user cannot change their cellular data settings.

I think the iOS 12 update defeats this lock. Settings will show “Cellular Data Changes” - “Don’t Allow” but the settings can be edited.

To reenable the restriction turn it off then turn it on again.

I’ve seen this on a couple of phones post iOS 12 update. I think it’s an old bug.

Only Apple can provide family mobile device management for iOS

Update 10/24/2018: After writing this, and only by experimentation, I’ve discovered that Apple actually provides extensive remote control options for family members with an “Apple age” under 18. It’s imperfect and there’s no browser interface, but it is comparable to Google's Family Link.

—

Over on my book project blog I recently reviewed Google’s Family Link solution for mobile device management of children and dependent devices (“parental controls”). I reflected on my experience with third party solutions for iOS devices:

… I’ve found problems with all of the solutions I’ve tested. Qustodio’s VPN can’t handle encrypted connections, MMGuardian has several killer flaws, and their competition didn’t  even meet my minimal test standards …

I think there are four interlocking reasons that make this a “mission impossible” from anyone but Apple:

1. Apple’s mobile device management model is very difficult to implement — even for leading corporate partners [1].
2. It’s non-trivial development to build something like scheduled app access control on top of Apple’s suite of iOS restrictions. This isn’t something schools and business need, so it has to be supported by the family market.
3. Very few people will pay for this service. It’s a lot of work for a niche market.
4. Any vendor looking at the home market knows that Apple could eliminate their business at any time with no warning. That’s what Google did with Family Link.

Only Apple can do the equivalent of Google’s Family Link [2]. That may require governmental pressure. Until Apple does it parents of children and guardians of special needs adults will need physical access to iPhones to implement restrictions.

- fn -

[1] JAMF is the dominant vendor in the corporate and educational iOS MDM market. I recently took advantage of a “Daring Fireball reader” special offer for a free 3 device JAMF account. When I enrolled a test device I discovered that annual certificate renewal disconnects enrolled devices (unless you have a dedicated corporate Apple ID) and I learned that full access to Apple’s suite of iOS restrictions requires either Apple’s “PreStage purchase program” or use of Apple Configurator (I think this is in flux with iOS 11 and 12).
[2] If Apple does add MDM to iCloud, I hope they think about vulnerable adults. Google’s “age of consent” (13yo in US) opt-out and notification approach is a workable alternative to disabling use of Family MDM for adults.

Apple Manage Devices / Associated Devices is still kind of broken

If multiple devices share a Store Apple ID they will show up in Apple ID Devices. They will also show in iTunes (for that Store Apple ID), Apple’s current documentation states iTunes is the only way to see and manage this list. “You can have ten devices (no more than five of them computers) associated with your Apple ID and iTunes at one time."

And you thought iTunes was dead!

You have to remove devices manually from this list after you stop using them. If, like me, you use the same Store Apple ID on family devices it’s easy to hit the limit.

The interesting bit is these two lists are different and they don’t synchronize. They are presumably on two different databases.

The applied.apple.com list is current and shows 8 devices. I think if you sign out of a device you’re not using this list will be updated.

The iTunes managed list is not updated when you sign out of a device. You have to update it manually. I think it still supports iPods. It had one of our devices that was no longer active on it, but it also had an old iPhone 4 we use for music only that runs iOS7 [1]

iPod support explains why the iTunes managed list can’t be automatically updated. I don’t know what happens if you exceed the limit on one list but not the other.

- fn -

[1] The iCloud My Devices display supports “iOS 8, macOS Yosemite … or later …”