Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Remove Firefox URL auto complete / suggest / "visit X" prompt

If you upgraded to Firefox 43.0.1 , you may have seen the "New" auto-complete in the URL bar.












If you want to turn it off - you can do so by setting this browser preference:

about:config >  
browser.urlbar.unifiedcomplete = False

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Control a Lifx Bulb using Flic and Tasker

This is documentation on how I made Flic[1] control a Lifx bulb[2] on my local network WITHOUT requiring an internet connection.

I don't want to expose my Lifx bulb to the internet. (That's a discussion for another time and place). but, I wanted to use the Flic button to control my bulb. Here's how I made it work

Hardware Pre-requisites:

  1. A Flic button [1]
  2. A Lifx bulb [2]

Requirements:

  1. Android 4.4 or newer device. (I'm using a Nexus 4)
  2. Tasker [3]
  3. Lifx Plugin for Tasker [4]

Why:

The built in method of making Flic control a Lifx bulb is the following.

Push button -> Talks to Flic app on phone -> Talks to Flic server -> Talks to Lifx Server -> Talks to your Lifx Bulb
This requires too much internet access for my comfort. I wanted something that did not depend on the Internet to work.

How to configure it

  1. Install the Lifx plugin for Tasker.
  2. It will give you a very simple app outside of Tasker that allows you to perform the basic operations to your bulb. Make sure this works before continuing. I spent quite a bit of time before I figured out this part.
  3. Create a Tasker - Task (I named this LIFX-ON)
    1. Choose plugin -> Lifx tasker plugin
    2. Setup whatever you want it to do. I configured it to turn on my bulb)
  4. Open the Flic app - DELETE any existing actions. (this is important, otherwise, the programmed action seems to take precedence over the notification to Tasker).
  5. Close the Flic app.
  6. Return to Tasker - create a new profile (credit: [5])
    1. Profile -> Context -> Event -> Plugin : Flic
    2. Choose the flic button, and choose your event. ( I selected ON).
  7. Done.

How it works

  1. Push the Flic button
  2. This talks to the Flic app over BLE
  3. The Flic app notifies Tasker that the button was pushed.
  4. Tasker executes your Lifx ON task
  5. Your bulb should now turn ON.

I've also created another event, this time for double click to Turn OFF the Lifx Bulb.

Hope this helps someone.

[1]Flic : https://flic.io/
[2]Lifx: https://www.lifx.com/
[3]Tasker : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm&hl=en
[4] Lifx Plugin for Tasker: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.timothyb89.lifx.tasker
[5] http://ideas.flic.io/forums/283403-flic-ideas/suggestions/7177881-integrated-with-tasker-the-automation-app