Monthly Archives: March 2019

Technology

FIX FOR: cannot set up text message forwarding (MacOS High Sierra)

Quite a few folks have been complaining on Apple fora and various websites that they cannot get (SMS) Text Message Forwarding to work again (after it was fine before some update). I was bitten with the same issue. None of the “fixes”  I found in googling worked for me, but after banging my “sign out/ sign in” fixes around the four walls of my brain, I finally stumbled on a series of actions that worked. I cannot promise my situation will match yours, or that this will work, but perhaps it will help. (I have an iPhone XR with up-to-date iOS 12.1.4, and a MacBook Pro (17″) with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6.)

  1. On Mac, under Messages > Preferences, I signed out of iCloud account. (Didn’t sign back in until a step shown below.)
  2. I finally broke down and turned on Two-Factor Authentication at https://appleid.apple.com/account/manage
  3. While at appleid.apple.com, I “removed” my Mac from being logged in, so I could force a new login of it.
  4. All the above required some “verifications” (authentications) back and forth to get iPhone and Mac logged (/back) into Apple ID / iCloud.
  5. On iPhone, turned off iMessage. Waited a minute.
  6. On iPhone, turned on iMessage (switched it back on).
  7. On iPhone, went to Settings > “My Name” > iCloud. There, under “Apps Using iCloud,” I found that “iMessage” was ‘turned off,’ as in ‘not using iCloud.’ I switched iMessage ON for iCloud usage.
  8. On Mac, went back to Messages > Preferences, and signed in again. This time, there was a new option shown to “Enable Messages in iCloud.” So…
  9. On Mac, I marked the box to “Enable Messages in iCloud.”
  10. On iPhone, under “Messages > Text Message Forwarding” the Mac was properly showing as a (switched off) option. Switched Text Message Forwarding on for the Mac. No code was needed or called for this time, and it stayed on!

I hope this helps someone. I did a lot of fiddling before trying this “set” of steps that worked, and while I think I have not forgotten any steps I took, I may have. However, hopefully this general approach will spark someone in the right direction, even if some additional jiggling is required for your situation.

Design, Intelligent Design, Technology

That’s just cool! VIDEO: “Why Machines That Bend Are Better”

Music, Technology

This is what happens when Google AI mashes Beethoven + Bach together.

What happens when you let a Google AI mash Beethoven and Bach together? This.

Although some limitations (regarding composition) imposed by Google’s Doodle for 2019-03-22, in celebration of Bach, made it impossible for me to properly add the first few notes of Beethoven’s “Für Elise,” I got as close as I could, and then I unleashed Google’s AI—which was “formally” trained to try to mimic Bach’s style regarding adding harmonies. Listen to the not-half-bad result:

Think you can do better than my approximation of Beethoven’s “Für Elise”? Give it a try! Or to just create and share a composition of your own, either simply visit google.com any time during Friday, March 22, 2019 and then click on the doodle’s image at the top (see image below), or if you missed it on the debut date, just click here to visit the Doodle Archive.

After a brief intro (an initial tutorial), which looks like this,

…you’ll finally be able to give the composer tool a go. It  looks like this:

When you’re done, simply click the “Harmonize” button to “bach-i-fy” your work! Side buttons allow you to dump your work and replace it with “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” I did not try the “ACDC style” battery option on the right. Did not see it until just now. The up and down arrows adjust the beats-per-minute rate of your composition. Have fun!