How to fix the wrong-start-page-problem when occurring with Firefox browser

Recently, my Firefox browser always opened with a start page (or startup page) displaying content from a third-party provider I never had invited to do so.

I fixed this problem in three quick steps:

1. Open the desired start page in sabotaged Firefox browser.
2. Select and drag the URL string from the address bar to the Home button in the toolbar. 
3. When asked “Do you want this document to be your new home page?”, click Yes.

Now, my desired start page comes up each time, when I launch Firefox.

Note: I experienced some confusion about the terms “home page” and “start(up) page” when consulting different tutorial or support websites. My understanding is that one may set one's home page as a browser start page, but does not have to. Personally, I like to have a search engine page as my browser start page; neither my home page nor a browser-enforced page.

Upgrading to pgAdmin 4 on Windows: issue with contacting the local server solved!

Recently, I upgraded to PostgreSQL 10 and pgAdmin 4 on Windows 10. When I started pgAdmin 4 from the All apps list in the Start menu, pgAdmin did not start as expected and a message was displayed that the PostgreSQL server could not be contacted!

How to fix that? Fortunately, it turned out to be easy. I inspected the AppData\Roaming\pgAdmin folder within my Windows user account home folder and realized that it contained various files and folders. After moving all of them into the Recycle Bin, I was able to restart pgAdmin successfully.

Maybe, data stored and dumped while working with a prior pgAdmin version interfere with version 4. Then, to avoid pgAdmin4 start-up errors has a simple one-step fix (the way it worked for me as described above):

Remove all files and folders from your AppData\Roaming\pgAdmin folder. This folder has the path

C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\pgAdmin

with YourUserName being—well—your user name. If you still want to switch back to an older pgAdmin version previously installed and run on your computer, you should keep the removed files in storage—just in case..

How to tweet the URL of a web page successfully with a “Large Image Summary Card”

Example of a “Large Image Summary Card” for an HTML document featuring Meeks Creek Falls, a waterfall in California's Desolation Wilderness

On Twitter users tweet short text—microposts.

You want to enhance your tweet with an image? Post it along with your tweet (see Posting photos or GIFs on Twitter).

You want to enhance your tweet with an URL of an exciting web page plus an illustrating image?  Use Twitter Cards.

Frequently, I design an image page (photo page): a web page (HTML document) that contains an image annotated with some informative text. I like to include such pages in Twitter posts by presenting the targeted image with descriptive text—microannotation. This stirs up reader's curiosity and invites them to click through. To achieve this, I employ Twitter's “Large Image Summary Card” technology (see Summary Card with Large Image).

Here, I'll demonstrate how it works (how it worked for me, anyway).  Follow these straightforward steps:

1. Add specific HTML meta tags to your web page.
2. Run the URL of the page through Twitter's card validator tool.
3. Tweet the URL

As an example page, I am using my Meeks Creek Falls picture and page. I inserted the following metadata lines into the head section of the respective HTML document:

<meta name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"/>
<meta name="twitter:site" content="@TravelingAhead" />
<meta name="twitter:creator" content="@TravelingAhead" />
<meta name="twitter:title" content="Meeks Creek Falls" />
<meta name="twitter:description" content="White water tumbling, splashing and spraying downcreek between naturally sculptured rocks" />
<meta name="twitter:image" content="http://www.axeleratio.com/pic/waterfall/meekscreek/img/Meeks_Creek_Falls.jpg">
<meta name="twitter:image:alt" content="Meeks Creek Falls next to Tahoe-Yosemite Trail">

Then, the document was tested with the Card validator at https://cards-dev.twitter.com/validator. After pressing the Preview Card button, I got the following preview display including an info log indicating successful card mark-up:

I submitted the following message with link and hashtags via @TravelingAhead:

#TYT Refresh yourself on a Tahoe-Yosemite Trail outing http://www.axeleratio.com/pic/waterfall/meekscreek/meeks_creek_falls.htm #MeeksCreekFalls #DesolationWilderness #Waterfall
 
The tweet showed up in the feed (https://twitter.com/TravelingAhead/status/869294403973660672) as shown at the top of this post.

Keywords: microblogging, microdata, meta tags, image collecting, annotated image.

How can I edit the PATH variable under Windows 10?

The PATH variable is an environment variable of an operating system. The value of this variable is a list of folder (directory) paths. These specified folders are the names of installation paths—also called system paths—of executable programs.

Here, we are interested in the accessibility of programs installed in Windows 10. The list of folder names is searched when a program is called from the Run dialog box, a Command Prompt or Powershell command line and also when requested by a running process. Thus, inclusion of a program's directory path in the PATH list enables a program launch by program name without typing or providing the complete path.

Updated Windows 10 versions now contain a PATH editor that facilitates modification, addition and deletion of path names. Using this editor infrequently, I am finding it difficult to memorize the step sequence to access it. In the following, I am sharing how to tab down to the PATH editing dialog:

1. Right-click the Windows icon (Start button) and, from the pop-up menu, select System to open the System window.
2. From the menu items on the left side of the basic computer information, click Advanced system settings to open the System Properties window.
3. Click the Environment Variables... button to open the Environment Variables window containing a scrollable System variables pane.
4. In the pane, double-click the line with the system variable Path to open the PATH Editor (with the heading Edit environment variable). 

In the editor, select a line with a given installation path. Click the Edit button to modify the path or the Delete button to remove the path. To add a new path, click the Browse... button to open a dialog that assists you in finding the folder path you want to add. No typing required! Leave the editor by clicking the OK button to save your changes.