How to enable Global Media Controls play/pause button in Chrome

Google Chrome’s new media playback controls are part of the stable version of Chrome 77 and higher but are but disabled by default. Here is how you can enable the button.

Copy and paste the link below in a new tab.

chrome://flags/#global-media-controls

The below screen shot will the be displayed and just select enabled from the drop down box to the right.

After you've done that relaunch the browser, and you’ll see a tiny play button next to the left of your personal icon button to the right of the url field. The new feature will allow you to skip forward or back, pause, or play a file in a tab.

*FYI - If you do not see the media control icon it's because there are no open tabs with media. To see this icon there must be a tab with media to play.

The more tabs with media to play will show up in a drop down list once you've enabled this feature. This is a way to quickly identify where unwanted noise may be coming from if you should happen to have many tabs open, and this option will make it quick and easy to stop media playing that you don't want to hear.

There you have it, and good luck, Google may change how it works or remove it in the future. However, I believe Google will enable the Play/Pause button for everyone in future versions of Chrome by default, but we'll see.

Did You Know? One Player Has Won 7 NFL Titles & 3 Others Have Won 6

Tom Brady aka Tom Terrific, the Goat, and TB12 is the one and only winner of 7 glorious NFL Titles. However, a long time ago there were three others who each had 6 NFL titles to their credit. Frederick Charles "Fuzzy" Thurston, Herb Adderley, and Forrest Gregg are the others who have each won 6 NFL Titles. That's right, 6!

"Fuzzy" Thurston  was an NFL player who played offensive guard, while playing for the Baltimore Colts he won his first of six titles with the Colts in 1958 before joining The Green Bay Packers and winning five more Championships.

His fellow teammates Herb Adderley and Forrest Gregg also won 5 Championships with the Green Bay Packers under famed coach Vince Lombardi.

Herb Adderley, and Forrest Gregg both finished their careers with the Dallas Cowboys, and won their sixth Championships there as they helped the Dallas Cowboys beat the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl VI on January 16th, 1972, which makes them the only players besides Tom Brady of the New England Patriots in professional football history to win six NFL titles.

Time will tell whether Tom Brady can be the first player to win 8, wouldn't that be something.

*There is one person who tops them all because he has won 8 NFL titles. Can you guess who this person is?

*Be sure to pass this bit of NFL trivia along to all you know.

Google Tricks...Secret Hidden game

Google Chrome's "Unable to connect to the internet" page has a hidden T-Rex Endless Runner game.

Leave it to Google to come up with a way to make use of down time when your internet connection is not working.

Hidden and unknown to most is a T-Rex Endless Runner game that is activated by hitting the spacebar. This turns the error page into a basic desert plain with cacti and the occasional cloud above,  that the games T-Rex must hurdle. You rack up the points the further along you go, but the game is over as soon as you hit the cactus. Hit the spacebar again and the game begins anew.

The game works when you're offline, so the next time you see this awful no internet connection splash page, just remember their is something you can do while you wait for your internet to reconnect.

Now you can try this game out while online simply by following the provided link below.

T-Rex Endless Runner Game Online

"We just suspended your Social Security Number because we found some suspicious activity."

The Latest Scam Robocallers claiming to be from the Social Security Administration.

Scammers pretending to be from the Social Security Administration want your Social Security Number.

They claim they are from the Social Security Administration, and here's their pitch.

"We just suspended your Social Security Number because we found some suspicious activity."

We have found some suspicious activity with regards to your SSN and have suspended your Social Security Number until we resolve the issue. Please call back. When you call back, they simply want you to repeat your SSN number for verification and that's it. If you fall for this and give it to them, they'll have your number and who knows what they'll do.

As of this posting, the Federal Trade Commission has received more than 75,000 reports of Social Security robocalling scammers, that has resulted in more than $18 million in losses.


Things to keep in mind

1. Your Social Security Number is not going to be suspended.

2. The Social Security Administration will never call and ask you for your number.

3. Regardless of whoever may call and ask, never answer if asked to confirm the last four digits of your social to anyone!

If you believe that you may have mistakenly given out your SSN and are worried or if you think you are a victim of identity theft you can file a report with identitytheft.gov. or you can also call  1-800-772-1213

Get Rid of the Electoral College and Make Every Vote Count

The Electoral College dates back to the 1787 Constitutional Convention. There, in Philadelphia on September 6th, 1878 a body of electors was formed.

The whole idea of an Electoral College that ultimately decides the final outcome of Presidential elections, was born out of fear and was flawed from its very origin. In fact, we almost had Aaron Burr as our President instead of Thomas Jefferson.

Since its inception, the system has been amended many times, until we have what we have today, and that is a system that does not do what it was intended to do.

What people don’t realize is that the Electoral College system was devised to prevent someone with little sense, without governing experience, a person who could possibly do more harm than any good from being elected. The system was considered a safeguard for sensible legislators to have the ultimate final say.

What our founding fathers did not come right out and say, was that they did not completely trust the voting public. There was real fear in mob-mentality and that some fanatic from The Great American Awakening movement might rile the masses and influence the voting and take the seats occupied by more sensible elected officials, rather that the fear mongering fire and brimstone Bible thumpers who could roll into town and draw huge crowds.

The real problem with this system is that it’s simply not fair. It sends the wrong message to American citizens. It tells citizens in more than half of our 50 states that their votes don’t count at all towards electing a President, because that is going to be decided by the most populous states. These are also called battleground states and if you win these you’ll win the election. This system does not motivate or inspire people to actually go out and vote at all in these less populated areas and that behavior gets passed along from generation to generation. It’s probably the main reason for low voter turnout.

Before every Presidential election the songbirds come out and call for changes or call for an end to this flawed system, and only time will tell if we are fortunate enough to see it happen. However, there is hope. A National Popular Vote campaign has been going on for some time and it is gaining some momentum. So far to date, 14 states with a total of 189 Electoral College votes have pledged to give their votes to the Candidate who has the national popular vote, regardless if the candidate wins their state or not. Before this movement becomes law, we need more states to agree. When the movement gets to 270 votes this will then take effect and whoever wins the popular vote will become the next President. Only when we get to this point will every vote count!

Four times in our history has a candidate been elected President who did not win the popular vote and twice in our very recent history.

Curiously, back in 2012 in support of Mitt Romney, Trump called the Electoral College “a disaster for a democracy … a total sham and a travesty.”

I doubt he’d support getting rid of the Electoral College now.

You can sign a petition and show your support by clicking on the link below

Elect the President by National Popular Vote

Google is planning to cripple ad-blockers on Chrome

Google is threatening users of Ad-Blockers again. They make an exception for their Enterprise users saying "blocking will still be available to enterprise deployments." For the rest of us they intend to interfere with our web browsing and render present ad-blockers useless.

If you are getting tired of Google’s threats and attempts to force unwanted ads into your web browsing, then maybe you’re ready to make a change. If you’ve been a Chrome user and just don’t want to go to too much trouble, but you are ready to make a change then go and be Brave...I mean get Brave.

What you’ll discover is a web browser that is nearly identical to Chrome and maybe even a little bit faster, and with ad-blocking already built in. With Brave there’s no need to install ad-blocking extensions at all. Even better it will import all of your Chrome’s information into Brave in seconds.

What’s all the fuss you wonder? Earlier in the year Google announced their Manifest V3 project. In this they propose changes to Chrome's extension system that would essentially stop ad-blockers from working. Users and extension developers have both protested these proposed changes in Google's plans, but so far to no avail. Chrome’s software security engineer Chris Palmer did have this to say...the new API’s are not going to break content blockers, and that the “declarativeNetRequest” limitations are under active discussion and may change.

To further explain, ad-blockers currently use Chrome's "webRequest" API to block ad-based HTTP requests from being made. Manifest V3's proposed changes, will force Chrome's ad blocker extensions to use their new, faster "declarativeNetRequest" API, and the real problem is that the new system has too many limitations, which really means that some ads will get through the ad blocker, not all but whatever surpasses the limitations of the new API.

Considering how much notice all extension developers have had, I would not be surprised if and when the new Chrome changes go into effect, that the extensions we have come to depend on will comply, and that extension developers will find a way around the "declarativeNetRequest" obstacle now confronting them.

If you value your browsing space and do not want to see ads, and like to browse with the additional extensions you’ve had in Chrome, then you have nothing to worry about because Brave offers support for nearly all of the extensions that are compatible with chromium.

So, if you are new to trying out Brave, be not afraid. This web browser is almost identical to the Chrome browser, and I’m sure you’ll love it.

How to install Extensions in Brave

1. Launch Brave and open the Menu on the top-right:

2. Select More Tools > Extensions

This will launch a new tab and from there you can add the extensions you like from the Web Store.

But can we use brave on a Chromebook? Yes,the Brave Android app works on most newer Chromebooks. But if your Chromebook is older and doesn’t support Android apps, then it will not work as of this posting. Considering that the alternatives are Edge, Firefox and Opera, I’d simply go out and get a new Chromebook and run the Brave android app.

The Top 10 Music Albums of 2018 and more

With 2018 well behind us I thought it would be a good idea to have a quick look back and highlight some of the best that might have been overlooked.

This list does not include the top sellers, but rather the ones that never received much media hype, and some of these are actually better than most of the best sellers that do get the hype.

Many of these can be streamed from YouTube for free and you can save the album's playlist to your list of favorites for repeat listening. You can try them out and then buy what you like from Google Play - Amazon - Apple or possibly someplace else.

Here are some of the best albums to have come out this past year. These vary from new artists to some older artists and are just a small sampling of great music to have come out in 2018. Many of these are the ones the did not chart well and have gone under the radar. Don’t be put off by that, check out these albums and you may discover something new.

1. Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa - Black Coffee
2. Cat Power - Wanderer
3. Still Corners - Slow Air
4. Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe
5. Edie Brickell & New Bohemians - Rocket on YouTube
6. Yasmin Williams - Unwind on YouTube
7. Lykke Li - So Sad So Sexy on YouTube
8. Mitski - Be the Cowboy on YouTube
9. Soccer Mommy - Clean on YouTube
10. Elle King - Shake The Spirit on YouTube

Listed below are some other really great works that also came out in 2018.

• Aimee Mann - Mental Illness
• Shannen Moser - I’ll Sing
• Tash Sultana - Flow State
• Bebe Rexha - Expectations
• Florence + The Machine - High As Hope
• Marissa Nadler - For My Crimes on YouTube
• Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood on YouTube
• Mirah - Understanding on YouTube
• Anne-Marie - Speak Your Mind on YouTube
• Lindsey Stirling - Warmer in The Winter on YouTube

And lastly, here I am including some important albums that were also released in 2018 from the big name artists that you might have missed.

• Cher - Dancing Queen on YouTube
• Joan Baez - Whistle Down the Wind
• Jimi Hendrix - Both Sides of the Sky
• Uriah Heep - Living the Dream
• Ann Wilson - Immortal
• Yoko Ono - Warzone
• Billy F Gibbons - The Big Bad Blues
• Steve Perry - Traces on YouTube
• Paul McCartney - Egypt Station
• Roger Daltrey - As Long As I Have You
• Rod Stewart - Blood Red Roses 0n YouTube
• Tony Bennett & Diana Krall - Love is Here to Stay
• Ace Frehley - Spaceman on YouTube
• Mark Knopfler - Down The Road Wherever
• Sara Brightman - Hymn on YouTube
• Elvis Presley - Where No One Stands Alone on YouTube

Below I have also included two important EP's

Mazzy Star - Still (EP) on YouTube



*Billie Eilish - Don’t Smile At Me

Although actually released in 2017 this EP charted better in 2018

Looking back at 2018 I do believe there were many great albums that came out. Possibly you already own some of these or prefer streaming songs on Spotify rather than whole albums. These are some of the best of the best and if you have a suggestion of a title that I did not mention in this posting please include it in the comment section below.

See for yourself, check 'em out and...

NFL - How many Quarterbacks have won multiple Super Bowls?

How many quarterbacks have won multiple Super Bowls?

Here Are The Winningest QB's in Super Bowl history

One and only one QB has the distinction of winning the most Super Bowls, and that of course is the New England Patriot's Tom Brady who is the winningest QB to date. Only time will tell if another QB will tie or surpass his mark or if he'll win again and extend his record.

With 53 Super Bowls having been played, and a new season already being prepared for, many have wondered about how many QB's have won multiple Super Bowls.

To date only 12 QB's have won more than one Super Bowl and they are as I have listed below.

Bart Star – 2

Bob Griese, 2

Roger Staubach, 2

Jim Plunkett, 2

John Elway, 2

Ben Roethlisberger, 2

Eli Manning, 2

Peyton Manning, 2

Troy Aikman, 3

Terry Bradshaw, 4

Joe Montana, 4

Tom Brady, 6

How many quarterbacks have lost multiple Super Bowls?

On the other hand, you may be wondering how many QB's have lost more than one Super Bowl? To date there have been 8 QB's with the dubious distinction of having lost more than one Super Bowl. They are, as I have listed below.

Craig Morton - 2

Roger Staubach - 2
Kurt Warner - 2

Tom Brady - 3
Peyton Manning - 2

Fran Tarkenton - 3

John Elway - 3

Jim Kelly - 4

Hope this helps keep you strong in your all things NFL trivia knowledge. After all, NFL news is the only news for real  football fans.

The Top 10 Free Learning Websites For Kids

Here you’ll find the Top 10 Free Learning Websites for Kids. In fact there’s listed 18, but the top 10 of these are the best, I’ve included some extras that are also worth checking into. I’d bookmark all of these and let your kids choose their own favorites.

Summer is here, and while some kids will be going to Summer Day Camps, others will likely spend more time at home. With little to do and considering the costs of things these days I have compiled a list of really cool FREE elearning websites that will not only entertain your kids, but will also educate them.

It is inevitable that at some point your kids will be clamoring for some computer time, so with that in mind why not point them towards elearning websites, after all there are so many great websites out there that can build upon what they already know and lead them further along. These sites are a useful alternative to playing games, and just watching videos.

I have compiled a list of sites that cover everything they’ll be doing in regular classrooms and  more. The best part of my list of recommended sites is that we’ve tried them all out and made certain that they are really FREE and also kept in mind that these sites are easy on the eyes and have avoided the sites that are really intended to be used as phone apps.

So, if you’re looking for a kids website to improve their math, or get them a little extra grammar practice, writing practice, history, planets, or even art projects and even listen and read along with some fun stories, you’ll find it here in the list below.

Check out these 18 FREE fantastic, educational websites for kids. Here’s hoping that you and your family will find among these your own favorites to bookmark and save for future reference.

Have a Happy and safe Summer Everyone

1. e-learning for Kids 

2. The Old farmer's Almanac for Kids

3. Aztekium

4. Highlights Kids

5. Fuel the Brain

6. Khan Academy Kids

7. Grid Club

8. Fun Brain

9. Tvokids

10. The Kids Page

11. National Geographic Kids

12. Smithsonian Learning Lab

13. Nasa Kids Club

14. Cells Alive

15. Switch Zoo Animal games

16. Storyline Online

17. Into the Book

18. The Story Starter

Lyft Now Has a Panic Button so riders can dial 911 from the app

Lyft, the pioneering rideshare company announced some major new changes today that have been specifically designed to provide better safety for its passengers.

The company has now added an in app panic button for riders who need to call 911.

They have also added an enlarged version of the driver’s license plate number in the app, which should help prevent passengers from getting in the wrong vehicle.

Lyft also tweaked their app to require passengers to give feedback every time they rate a driver with less than four stars. They say this information will then be relayed back to the driver, anonymously of course, to the driver so they can see why they received a low rating, hopefully prompting drivers to become better.

These changes are really great news, and they are coming at a time when it’s needed most.

How to fix the annoying YouTube 400 error

Just click to open the vertical ellipsis or more options icon to the top far right of Chrome’s browser and scroll down and select “Settings.” Scroll to the bottom of this screen and select “Advanced.” In the Privacy and Security section below and towards the end select “Content Settings.” The next thing to do is to select “Cookies.” After you select Cookies a new screen will appear and on this screen click and open “See All cookies and site data.” At the top right you’ll see a line with a magnifying glass and in the blank space it will say Search cookies. In this space type youtube and just below will appear a button that will say “Remove All Shown.” Click this button to remove all shown and another button will appear that will ask if you want to continue, select the button “Clear All.”

Now you can close the settings tab and open YouTube and watch what you wish without the annoying 400 error.