text:
How often should one shutdown a MacBook instead of just closing the lid?
I have found contradictory opinions on this. Some say Windows users tend to shut down but that it is not necessary, and I tend to do that too.
Others say it is preferable to shut down, as it does not take too much time to boot anyway, and that in this way the battery is protected. While others say that it is in fact better not to shut down to often, including for the battery, etc.
An interesting opinion - cannot find the link for that now - was that shutting down / restarting serves no purpose for Macs, except when that is needed after installing or upgrading applications or the system, unlike in Windows, where shutting down was (is?) very important. Also, that Macs do periodical system maintenance work during operation and even sleep, which eliminates the need for restart; possibly restarting would even come against all this, etc., and "not shutting down" is in fact a typical differentiating Mac feature. Is this true?
I need a competent opinion on this - not just a description of the most common use - preferably reflecting some advice from the manufacturer.
I have a Macbook Air.

Update after answer:
Although I got a good answer, a crucial point in it (that the system has to be shut down, but only from time to time) is not yet clear: how often should I shut down the system. So, I will bring my question down to this formula.
As pointed out by that answer, my question cannot be answered in relation to a tangible benefit for the system, but rather in relation to the battery life. So, I guess this last point can be answered by some information on how how is battery life dependent on how often the system is shut down.

Whether to shut down or keeping it in sleep state (by closing the lid) depends on the time usage in between. The short answer is:

If you use it daily, enter sleep mode is recommended.
If you rarely use it, shut it down.

So let‘s see the difference between each option.
We’ll start with this statement:

An interesting opinion - cannot find the link for that now - was that shutting down / restarting serves no purpose for macs, except when that is needed after installing or upgrading applications or the system, unlike in Windows, where shutting down was (is?) very important. Also, that macs do periodical system maintenance work during operation and even sleep, which eliminates the need for restart; possibly restarting would even come against all this, etc., and "not shutting down" is in fact a typical differentiating Mac feature. Is this true?

It’s true that OS X has a periodical maintenance script that runs daily, weekly, and monthly. Each script has  a different purpose to remove logs, rebuild whatis database, and bunch of maintenances on user levels. I can say that it doesn’t affect our day to day usage. It’s more like system maintenance to clean up and sort logs.
In fact, for MacBook models, we should decide whether to shut down or enter sleep state by focusing on which method can keep the battery healthy. Healthy in the way the battery can maintain a maximum capacity in its lifespan.
Most of the MacBook models use Lithium-ion polymer batteries which requires low level discharge to get the maximum usage. Based on the explanation by Battery University:

Similar to a mechanical device that wears out faster with heavy use, so also does the depth of discharge (DoD) determine the cycle count. The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses. Partial discharge on Li-ion is fine; there is no memory and the battery does not need periodic full discharge cycles to prolong life, other than to calibrate the fuel gauge on a smart battery once in a while

For the maximum battery health, you should use your MacBook Air at least until the it depletes to ±60% level before you keep it plugged in again.
It‘s okay to just close the lid without harming your MacBook. Beside, it can run the maintenance script on time.
The only time when you should consider shutting down is when you’re not going to use the MacBook for more than 36 hours. Apple recommends to discharge the battery around ±50% before shutting them down.

If you don’t plan on using your notebook for more than six months, Apple recommends that you store the battery with a 50% charge. If you store a battery when it’s fully discharged, it could fall into a deep discharge state, which renders it incapable of holding any charge. Conversely, if you store it fully charged for an extended period of time, the battery may experience some loss of battery capacity, meaning it will have a shorter life. Be sure to store your notebook and battery at the proper temperature. (See “Notebook Temperate Zone.”)

I know I’ve emphasized too much on battery health in this answer, but instead of asking if shut down or sleep is better, the decision affects your battery health more than the performance of the operating system.
Feedbacks and corrections are welcomed in the comment below.

we should decide whether to shut down or enter sleep state by focusing on which method can keep the battery healthy. Healthy in the way the battery can maintain a maximum capacity in its lifespan ... I’ve emphasized too much on battery health in this answer, but instead of asking if shut down or sleep is better, the decision affects your battery health more than the performance of the operating system - that is very instructive and reflects upon other answers as well

can you please point out the source for the idea: consider shutting down... when you’re not going to use the MacBook for more than 36 hours"? It seems a short time compared to what I heard.

This is more like a personal opinion. Although Apple states that long term storage up to 6 months, I believe it’ll be beneficial to shut it down when you’re not going to use it for more than 2–3 days. 36 hours is more a psychology number to help you remember this suggestion.

too bad... i greatly appreciate your answer, but this is an important point of the question; of course shutdown is supposed to be recommended some times: the crucial point being how often. All my question comes down to that in fact, and cannot be answer by a psychology number, can it? You clearly pointed out that all the question cannot be answered in relation to some benefit for the system, but rather for the battery life. So: how is that dependent on how often the system is shut down?

if the computer is fine with just the lid closed after 24 hours, wouldn't it be as fine after 36 or 72 hours?

I know that this answer is old, but I'll add this comment anyway for those who read it in future. I recently came across a question somewhere on this website where someone told that they reboot their mac once in every seven days, and to me it sounds good for maintaing performance and keeping battery healthy. So may be that information will help you. I'd like to know more about battery charging/discharging best practices though.

Something to bare in mind, after 3 hours most modern MacBooks will enter "Standby" which is the same as Hibernate on Windows.
Also whether or not you have 'Power Nap' enabled (this causes the Mac to wake up every hour to check for emails/download photo steam etc.) will also have a big impact on battery drain
Source: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4392?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

When you say to le the battery deplete until around 60%; isn't that in contradiction with the quote just above it? Or at least, not supported by it

The battery needs to have enough room, but not too much, for the "energy" to move around. 60% is a decent number before you start charging again. The quote is meant for long-term storage option.

I do not claim to provide an answer  - as much as a step-by-step clarification of the question (by re-edits), which in the end might sum up to an answer.

I see here the idea that: waiting for an OS X Update or Security Update is generally a sufficient time between reboots. Also, that shutting down is useful, because system temp, memory, swap, and cache files get cleared out during boot. But how useful is that it's not very clear.

I appreciate a lot this answer which states clearly some important ideas that sum up to what I was looking for:

for MacBook models, we should decide whether to shut down or enter sleep state by focusing on which method can keep the battery healthy. Healthy in the way the battery can maintain a maximum capacity in its lifespan.
MacBook models use Lithium-ion polymer batteries which requires low level discharge to get the maximum usage. -- The shorter the discharge (low DoD), the longer the battery will last. If at all possible, avoid full discharges and charge the battery more often between uses.
For the maximum battery health, you should use your MacBook Air at least until the it depletes to ±60% level before you keep it plugged in again
If you don’t plan on using your notebook for more than six months, Apple recommends that you store the battery with a 50% charge.

I think the usefulness of that is very much dependent on usage. So it is near impossible to give advice that is good for everybody. Lately, updates requiring reboots seem to be rare, so for me at least, such reboots are too far apart. I typically find my laptop feeling a bit sluggish if it's more than a month or so since the last reboot.

the way to see objectively that is to have something to  check usage of memory. Some apps have memory leaks. By using apple system monitor or another app like that you can see when this happens. and then its time for a reboot. However all this is empirical ... and not something out of apple :)

So in short, it's like your iPhone? :) I too am conflicted about this topic but I rarely shut down my macbook because I'm a forgetful person and I tend to forget something I should've done when the laptop was still awake. That's why it's convenient to just let it sleep because I can open it and it's immediately right at my home screen :)

according to apple:

"Standard Maintenance
For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to
  keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Apple does not
  recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time . An ideal
  use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs
  it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing.
  If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a
  notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and
  discharging its battery at least once per month. Need a reminder? Add
  an event to your desktop’s iCal. When your battery no longer holds
  sufficient charge to meet your needs, you may choose to replace it. If
  your notebook came with a built-in battery, you should have the
  battery replaced only by an Apple Authorized Service Provider."

So basically you most SHOULD shut down when not using it for some time. You don't want the Macbook to be for a long time on and in sleep mode.
leaving your Macbook both ON charge AND in sleep mode is bad on the battery.
Being merely in sleep is another matter, which is fine.

Nice, so the question is do you have any numbers for prolonged life? And your conclusion is not correct, they say keep the juices flowing, not shut down.

@Buscar - I see nothing in that quote that supports the idea that shutting down a macbook air is preferable to closing the lid (sleep). In fact all the linked article is only about battery - while my question is not restricted to that - and doesn' t entail the idea that "ON charge AND in sleep mode is bad on the battery". It only says that it is meant to be charged after using it unplugged in view of a new such use, and not to leave it plugged in for a long time.

"you most SHOULD shut down when not using it for some time" : this seems to mean that the rest of the time it can be on sleep - as you say: "Being merely in sleep is another matter, which is fine.". But what is the relation between these ideas and the other one: "You don't want the Macbook to be for a long time on and in sleep mode. leaving your Macbook both ON charge AND in sleep mode is bad on the battery.". The later may be false. When leaving unused for some time the mac should NOT be charging (but 50% charged and unplugged, as seen in the quote). But it may be shut down or sleeping.

anyway, down-votes are not mine :)

@Buscar - based on the same apple page, a new answer clearly points out why the battery is the important point in answering my question

@cipricus correct, but a battery is a consumable, so getting more mileage out of it is ok, but does it do much? you Mac is not a consumable, so letting it operate all the time it will not shorten its life. Do you turn off your iPhone?

@Buscar웃 - you are right, and the answer seems to be that in most cases you don't need to shut down. But since one will finally shut it down, and that shutdown is recommended after some time, the only unresolved point is: how often should that be. I am not satisfied with the answer I got (see edit in Q) that if computer is used daily, no shutdown is needed, but that one should shut down if not using the computer for  36 hours. I guess that if the computer is fine with just the lid closed after 24 hours, it will be as fine after 36 or 72 hours...

I'm no expert at all, but I can tell you that I regularly keep my Mabook Pro 2008, MacBook Air 2012 and Mac Pro 2008 powered on / asleep for weeks if not months at a time without rebooting. When their charge drops to around 20%, I plug them in. The machines don't noticeably slow down over time like PCs do, so I only reboot if installing something, or if I experience a bunch of software crashes, which is pretty rare. They only get turned completely off if I'm going away for a few days or more.
Basically I treat them like iOS devices - always on / ready, with very occasional reboots!

I'm no expert either, but I know that if left on sleep/having the lid down but the power on can build up enough heat (if on long enough) to catch on fire.
iOS devices are different though, as they do not release heat.
If you need to charge the MacBook quickly, shut it off completely as this increases charging efficiency.

Keep in mind that if you use FileVault, it only encrypts when it shuts down. Leaving your Mac turned on but sleeping or just shutting the laptop doesn't encrypt it.


text:
How can I convert HTML/Rich Text to Markdown in Automator?
I have an Automator service that takes selected text and saves it in a file. However, bold, italics, and linked URLS aren't preserved. Is there a way I can convert it to Markdown before I save it? When I searched Google, I only found guides to convert plain text to HTML.

HTML to Markdown
Brett Terpstra has written these automator services to help manipulate markdown in OSX.
One of these services does convert HTML to Markdown (which answers one part of your question), and any of these services can be individually added and assigned a shortcut if you so please. I myself use Markdown to RTF to send pretty emails written in md.
However, none of the services seem to do RTF to Markdown. And so deeper into the rabbit hole of RTF clipboard extraction I went...
RTF to Markdown
First I found this post and this SO question. The key, I found, is to use OSX built-in pbpaste (or osascript) and textutil.
And so, I've written a simple RTF to Markdown service for anyone who is still looking to compliment Brett's services mentioned above, it simply converts input to HTML and pipes result to the "HTML to Markdown" service.

Note: RTF HTML output is not always what you are looking at because of how the style is converted, so I would go with HTML to Markdown where possible.

Thanks @Calion , I've pushed it to https://tinyurl.com/y66cjlfm. Note that the service needs Brett's services.

This seems to convert italics to _bold_ markdown, not *italic*. https://www.markdownguide.org/basic-syntax/#emphasis

Mark It Down - XSLT transform
I don't know if it's exactly what you wanted, but I found the in browser tool Mark It Down and its source code:

The conversion happens entirely on the client (in the browser) using Saxon-CE and an XSLT.

How would you integrate this into an Automator workflow?

@GrahamMiln Thanks for fixing the links. It doesn't address the fundamental issue with this answer though (integrating this service into an Automator workflow), Any idea on how to solve this?

One approach would be to use /usr/bin/xsltproc with the XSLT files in the above project. An Automator workflow could pass the input file to xsltproc and either pipe out the results, or save the output to a folder.

FYI, the Mark it Down extension has been put down by its developer.

The clipboard in HTML format is included for text copied from from Safari, Chrome, NetNewsWire, and Preview, but Skim and Pages only include the clipboard in RTF format. And Chrome only includes the clipboard in HTML format but not RTF format. So this first tries to get the cliboard as HTML, and if it's not available then it converts the RTF clipboard to HTML instead:
# pbpaste Markdown
ppm()(pph|hm|dumb)

# pbpaste HTML
pph()(x=$(osascript -e'get the clipboard as"HTML"' 2>/dev/null);if [[ $? = 0 ]];then sed 's/«data HTML//;s/»//'<<<"$x"|xxd -r -p;else ppr;fi)
ppr()(osascript -e'get the clipboard as"RTF "'|sed 's/«data RTF //;s/»//'|xxd -r -p|textutil -convert html -stdin -stdout)

# HTML to Markdown (`markdown_strict` uses `markdown.pl` syntax without Pandoc extensions)
hm()(pandoc -f html -t markdown_strict --no-wrap --atx-headers|sed 's/\\\$/\$/g')

# convert non-ASCII characters to ASCII
dumb0()(sed $'s/[\u201c\u201d]/"/g;s/[\u2018\u2019\u2032]/\'/g;s/\u2026/.../g;s/[\u2010\uad\u2011\u2013]/-/g;s/\ua0/ /g;s/\u2010/-/g')
dumb()(dumb0|sed -E $'s/ ?\u2013 ?/-/;s/ ?\u2014 ?/ - /g')

How does this code need to be run? How would it work within an Automator workflow?

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

sort: votes


text:
Is it possible to play youtube video in safari browser on WiFi in iOS devices?
I have a query regarding playing you tube videos in iOS devices (like iphone,ipad).I can able to play youtube videos in safari browser in iphone on 3G data connection but can not play the same video on WiFi.
I am facing the same issue in the youtube iOS application also. Is it possible to play youtube video on WiFi in iOS devices ? Please help me to fix this issue.
Please refer this stackoverflow question also for the same issue.

Please refer the link https://discussions.apple.com/message/25267323?ac_cid=op123456#25267323 also for the same issue.

Yes; its possible i do it all the time

Why wouldn't this be possible? I am doing it as we speak. When you say not playing do you mean it won't load. Probably a WiFi issue rather than an Apple issue.

Are you using Wifi at home, or at school/work? If you're having the same problem in the app and the browser but only on Wifi, it sounds like your wifi provider is blocking youtube.

Thanks for your replay.
I can able to play the youtube videos on android devices on the same WiFi but can not do so on iOS devices. My WiFi is working fine and open all websites even youtube also and got the youtube video playlist also but when I play the video the loading appears on device continuously.
I think the are some terms and conditon issue to play youtube videos in ios devices.
Same issue on ipad also. Do you able to play youtube videos in safari in iOS devices on WiFi ?

Yes it is possible. I am doing it as I write this answer. There shouldn't be an T&C issue as I know it, just check whether your WiFi is properly connected and has enough bandwidth to stream video. Also you can cross check this by streaming something else through one other application.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Markdown application for mac ox ? github compatible?
I am looking for a markdown editor for mac os x. There seems to be so many around.
Ideally one that is compatible with github MD
Anybody can recommend one that allows preview, and with really good functionality and kept up to date and frequent updates.
Its not important if its pay or free..
Thanks in advance
The question being presented as a duplicate, is out of date, the program they suggest hasn't been updated for a while.

I've added a bounty to the original questions to encourage people to provide up to date answers.

Martin: I've added an answer for Mou — it has a GitHub theme which should be perfect.  cc @patrix


text:
Show In Playlist functionality
I frequently use the "Show In Playlist feature" to pick songs so I can play songs that I have not played before.  However, I have multiple copies of the same song - some are the same version, some are different renditions.
Is there a way I can select multiple songs and see all playlists that they appear on?

did you try renaming?

@Buscar웃, What do I rename?


text:
LaTeX on OS X stoped working after update
I have TeX Live installed on my MacBook Pro with OS X 10.9.2. I installed TeX Live through MacPorts. Not long ago, I did an update of out of date packages. I just tried to compile a Tex document, and I get the following error message:
dyld: Library not loaded: /opt/local/lib/libpng15.15.dylib
 Referenced from: /opt/local/bin/latex
 Reason: image not found
Trace/BPT trap: 5

I have seen that this error comes up for other questioners in different contexts with different commands. None of the fixes suggested in those contexts worked for me (or sometimes didn't make sense in this context). Is there a simple fix?

I’ve always found MacTeX to be so much less hassle than anything else for installing TeXLive (with the notable exception of imagemagick and ghostscript which are installed in /usr/local).

Try 'sudo port rev-upgrade' (which searches for and tries to repair broken linkages like this) or ask the question on the MacPorts mailing list. https://lists.macosforge.org/mailman/listinfo/macports-users

This fixed it for me:
After the upgrade, in my /Applications/TeX/ directory I found a FixMacTeX2013.pkg. Running this fixed the pdflatex issue.


text:
Is there a way to set application-specific 'hot corners' in OS X?
OS X's 'hot corners' feature is great, but I'd like to use it in just one specific application - or, set a specific hot corner action for one app, and a different action (for the same corner) in another app.
Is there a tool that can do this?
The tool CornerClick seems to have a lot of custom features over OS X's own one, but from a brief look it doesn't seem it offers a way to actually isolate/customize hot corners to specific apps per se.

CornerClick and AppleScript
Try creating an AppleScript that is triggered by CornerClick. Your AppleScript could check which application is front most and act accordingly.
Enhancement Request
Also, consider opening an enhancement request with CornerClick. The project is open source and your interest may help motivate the author, or other developers, to improve the product.


text:
Installing the Festival Speech Synthesis System with Mavericks
I am trying to install Festival onto my Macbook Pro running Mavericks. I tried installing it on my own, but that didn't work.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any up-to-date instructions out there on how to do this properly.  There are these dated instructions from 2007, and these slightly less dated instructions from 2011, but neither worked for me.
When I download the 4 different packages I need and then try to use the less dated instruction set, I run into this error (along with some other warnings) with GCC 4.9:
../include/EST_String.h:576:16: error: friend declaration specifying a default
      argument must be a definition
    friend int fcompare(const EST_String &a, const EST_String &b,
               ^
../include/EST_String.h:579:16: error: friend declaration specifying a default
      argument must be a definition
    friend int fcompare(const EST_String &a, const char *b,

So I go into the source code and change the declarations where it sets const unsigned char *table=NULL within the function call and remove the =NULL.  I then keep compiling and run into this error:
../include/EST_TIterator.h:292:7: error: no matching function for call to
      'begin'

Can someone provide a complete instruction set on how to install Festival onto a more recent version of OS X? I have Homebrew 0.9.5 if it helps.

what is happening, when you say it did not work, any error messages ? did you look in the console log? it says it supports 10.6?

did you contact robert@cstr.ed.ac.uk

@Buscar웃 Upon the using the less dated instructions, I do what they say as the first fix.  I then run into a few compiler problems which I go into the source and fix so it will compile.  Then I run into the compiler problem error: no matching function for call to 'begin'.  I'm not sure how I would fix that one.  And no, I have not contacted Robert.

OK, please list details in your question so we do not waist time in comments, like Mac Ports version installed (2.2.1) etc....

@Buscar웃 Added all of that information.  Let me know if you would like any more.

Here is an email reply I got from Rob Clark (one of the creators of Festival):

Use the speech_tools and Festival packages, then
  unpack and run make in each directory.
You will also need dictionary and voice packages from the standard download site.
  The festvox and festlex packages should be unpacked in the directory
  above festival (i.e. where you unpacked the festival package itself)
Regards. Rob Clark.

Since Rob responded to my email with in hours, feel free to contact him for more information if needed robert@cstr.ed.ac.uk
As mentioned in the comments, unpack the festvox and festlex packages with the command line, and not the Mac's default unpacking software.

Everything worked very nicely with this solution.  I would like to mention to unpack the festvox and festlex packages with the command line, and not the Mac's default unpacking software.

Following the release of Edinburgh Speech Tools 2.4 (on 12/25/2014), it's now possible to install that package through Homebrew:
$ brew install speech-tools

No formula for Festival itself yet, though.

Why bother using Festival when you have Dictation & Speech System Preferences ? And using Automator you my create a service (& contextual) menu item to "Save the synthesised version"...
However have you installed XQuartz ?
http://xquartz.macosforge.org/landing/
Consider using a virtual box or else to get an old operating system running on your latest Mac.
After further investigations :
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19221650/error-in-building-speech-tools-for-festival2-1-under-gcc-in-mac-osx-10-8-5
With

gcc --version
  Configured with: --prefix=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/usr --with-gxx-include-dir=/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.9.sdk/usr/include/c++/4.2.1
  Apple LLVM version 5.1 (clang-503.0.40) (based on LLVM 3.4svn)
  Target: x86_64-apple-darwin13.1.0
  Thread model: posix

I have the same error as you while compiling speech_tools.
Error I don't get using GCC 4.7 https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-dupes/issues/20
Hope it helps and you'll provide the 10.9 missing manual for Festival.

I would downvote this if I had the reputation. My reasons are really my own, but if you must know, I need to access to a portable speech synthesis API. The option you suggest does not offer that.

This is fair enough and indeed a good reason to get a headache  and not using Apple tools. While investigating about your question I was surprised you wanted to use a more than "3 years old" un-updated software...

For macbook pro with Sierra High OS, this link perfectly worked for me festival-mbrola

While this link may answer the question, it is better to include the essential parts of the answer here and provide the link for reference. Link-only answers can become invalid if the linked page changes.


text:
Control iPad with iPhone (Netflix in particular)
I have searched all over the internet for an answer to this question and have not found anything. Basically, my iPad is connected to my TV in my room and I don't want to have to get up every time a movie or show ends to go to the next one. This would be my primary use for it, but I'm sure I would find many other uses. I would like to be able to completely control my iPad screen from my iPhone (have it appear fully on the phone). Similar to controlling a PC or Mac from an iOS device. Any suggestions? I have an iPad 3rd gen (not Jailbroken) running 7.1 and an iPhone 5s (Jailbroken) running 7.0.4.

To confirm: (1) Netflix is playing on the TV. (2) The iPad is selecting the things to play. (3). You want the iPhone to control the iPad to select things to play on the TV. Is that right? If so, are you using AirPlay to display Netflix on the TV or the iPad Remote.app to control the device (e.g. Apple TV) plugged into the TV?

The question was already answered previously. Apparently both devices need to be jailbroken. I just haven't been able to jaibreak the iPad because my computer is broken. I guess I'll just have to find a way. Thank you for your quick response Federer.


text:
Can iTunes be configured to have the 'Store' be default screen at startup?
I like to use iTunes predominantly to check things out on the iTunes store (and make the occasional purchase), not to browse a library of downloaded media by default.
Is there a setting or way to make the store be the default initial screen in iTunes for Mac?

There may be other even more elegant ways to do it, but here's one way to automate the process:

Download Keyboard Maestro (it's a paid app, but you can try it out at least and see if you like it - it's an extremely powerful app that is worth purchasing if you are committed to enabling tweaks such as this one), and open the app.
In the 'Macros' pane, click the + button at the bottom of it to create a new Macro. Give the Macro a name as prompted. Click on 'New Trigger' and select 'Application Trigger'. Select iTunes. Then under iTunes where it says 'Activates' click on that and change it to 'Launches'.
Now click on 'New Action' further down. An 'Actions' pane will appear to the left. Scroll down or search within the pane to find 'Execute an Applescript'. Double click on it or drag and drop it into the 'No Action' box in the right-hand pane.
Insert the following code in the Applescript box:
tell application "System Events"
tell application "iTunes" to activate
    delay 1.0
    keystroke "H" using {command down, shift down}
end tell

And the process is complete. It is already enabled in your list of active Keyboard Maestro Macros and you can test by opening iTunes afresh to see the Store Home open by default when it opens.
N.b. there's a 1 second delay in the above Applescipt code due to it not working if I didn't include the brief delay. Tweak it as desired, maybe less than a second is fine but 1 second is not much to wait when launching the whole app anyway.
And also to explain: ⇧+ ⌘ + H is the default assigned hotkey for Store > Home for iTunes in OS X, so that's all this Keyboard Maestro macro is emulating. (Obviously, the hotkey combination can be customised in System Preferences keyboard shortcuts.)
Upon brief googling it appears there may not be any free apps/tools available to automate such a 'execute applescript/hotkey action upon app launch so Keyboard Maestro might possibly be the only way. But I only did a quick search, there's probably some tool on github somewhere that can do it, and it'd be nice to know of any free solutions for this problem too.

No sooner had i finished my answer when I noticed 'DSW' or 'Do Something When' is a free tool that can more or less do it. Not as much flexibility though, and while I use DSW for other things already, I actually couldn't get it to successfully perform a script (via opening .app or .scpt file) per se - so DSW may not be an option for this after all. If there are any free apps please chime in.


text:
Volume control in OS X has no effect
My volume in OS X doesn't seem to be actually controlling my volume. Not that the displayed "output volume" in the Sound preference pane doesn't change as I press volume up and volume down keys. The overlay changes, but the actual volume (the little boops) pushed through the headphones and the displayed volume in the preference pane don't change.
Shortly after taking these images, I lost all sound control via the keys. It just shows a muted overlay. The only way I could change the volume is via the sound preference pane now.
After a few minutes, I spontaneously regained control of volume via the keys. This has been happening on and off for the past week. What is happening?

Batteries of the keyboard are ok? Does the problem persist after a reboot?

reboot ^ (or relaunch coreaudiod)

@patrix The keyboard is the laptop keyboard. Also, the overlay does respond to the keys. It's just the actual volume does not. The problem goes away immediately after a reboot but returns later on.

@XAleXOwnZX If that is the solution, please write it as an answer. Why would I need to manually do this? Is this a bug or known issue?

For future reference, press space after pressing ⌘ + ⌥ + 3, to go into a mode which automatically detects UI elements. It makes for nicer screenshots :)

I'm just having the same issue on my MBP. Did you resolve the issue since then? Would it be a hardware issue?

Try rebooting or relaunching the process coreaudiod. This is a glitch that often results from 3rd party programs, but occasionally coreaudiod will mess up on its own.

Can you provide a reference for this?

Does first hand observation count?

Maybe.. How many times has this worked for you? How do you know that this is a result of 3rd party programs? How do you know that occasionally, coraudiod messes up on its own?

everytime 2) i've isolated it to be caused by my USB speaker driver on my iMac 3) because I occasionally get it regardless of current apps running on my MacBook

I can confirm that development with Xcode involving audio can cause strange behaviour such as this. Thanks for the solution!


text:
MacBook Pro Retina 13" not connecting to some Wifi networks
I just bought a MacBook Pro Retina 13" with Mavericks and all the latest updates, and have an issue connecting to some Wifi networks that my Windows Laptop and my Windows Phone had no issue with at all.
I have sucessfully connected to my own Wifi router (Asus) and various coffee shop wifi access points.
However it does not connect to the Wifi in my local coffee shop at all. It just shows 'Connection time out' after about 5 seconds.
It is not the WPA2 password, because I can connect to it from my wifi enabled phone (Nokia Lumia 920) with no issue. (I deleted the Wifi connection on my phone and reconnected to make sure)
Are there any steps I can take to get my MacBook working with all the routers again?

not sure if this would help but I have had times when my mac (and sometimes iphone) would not connect to wifi when other windows machines around me have no issues. we traced it down to the fact that some wifi's that do not support apples but if you can't check what device/setting is on the public wifi I guess you wouldn't be able to fix it.

Yes, I have seen some internet forums discussing issues with Apples and specific types of routers. It seems a bit crazy if it is the router's responsibility to support the Apple, not the other way around. You are also right to say that diagnoses on the router is not feasible for public wifi.

Usually the 'Connection time out' happens on weak WiFi signal.
I am assuming you have a decent signal, and further assuming there is something wrong with the saved WiFi profile for that specific location.
To test that:
Follow this guide to connect using copy paste.
In Terminal type following (to turn the airport on)
networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Next type (to scan for networks and find the one you want)
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

From the Scan above you will get a display of available networks, so pick the one you want and type following (to connect).....while at it look at the RSSI number, the lower the better like (-) 50 or lower.   The RSSI is the signal to Noise ration, and if it is a high number (70 or higher) there is your problem.
networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD

skip the password if none.
If above worked, then lets open your WiFi find and Delete that profile, then make a new one.


text:
Is it possible to submit not sandboxed app to the Mac App Store
I have an AppleScript Cocoa application that does a lot of shell scripts like kill or chflags. Is there any way I can try to send it on review to MAS and get it approved?
According to Wikipedia:

Disallowed types of applications revealed by Apple include new apps
  that are not sandboxed (as of June 1, 2012). At WWDC 2013, Apple
  announced that this rule no longer applied, and that so-called
  "temporary exceptions" may be used when the app has a reason not to be
  sandboxed.

However, Apple OS X Developer website states that sandboxing is required for Mac App Store.

According to this it is possible but with caveat.
App Sandbox Temporary Exception Entitlements

Note: This chapter describes property list keys specific to the OS X
  implementation of App Sandbox. They are not available in iOS.
A temporary exception entitlement permits your OS X app to perform
  certain operations otherwise disallowed by App Sandbox.
If you need to request a temporary exception entitlement, use Apple’s
  bug reporting system to let Apple know what’s not working for you.
  Apple considers feature requests as it develops the OS X platform.
Note: If you request a temporary-exception entitlement, be sure to
  follow the guidance regarding entitlements provided on the iTunes
  Connect website. In particular, use the Review Notes field in iTunes
  Connect to explain why your app needs the exception, and include the
  bug number.
To request a temporary exception entitlement for a target in an OS X
  Xcode project, add it to the target’s .entitlements property list file
  using the Xcode property list editor.


text:
Desktop shows for split second on wake before password requested
If I wake my Mac from sleep I always get a split second flash of my active desktop before the screen is replaced by my usual password unlock screen. When I unlock, I get my desktop as normal, as it appeared in the split second flash (i.e. It's a live flash, not a cached or buffered screenshot from when it was locked).
I'm not particularly fussed, it's merely annoying, but I imagine that simply filming the screen waking would allow a screenshot to be pulled from behind a locked display, which others may find a risk.

does it do that without screen lock ?

@Buscar Not sure I understand, without a lock it would just open straight to the desktop anyway?

you are right (that was a stupid question), my question would be do you see something in the console?

09/05/2014 21:26:57.816 WindowServer[107]: CGXDisplayDidWakeNotification [818322756714729]: posting kCGSDisplayDidWake

09/05/2014 21:26:57.816 WindowServer[107]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: Reordering authw 0x7fef5ad3db50(2000) (lock state: 3)

09/05/2014 21:27:03.595 loginwindow[76]: CoreAnimation: warning, deleted thread with uncommitted CATransaction; set CA_DEBUG_TRANSACTIONS=1 in environment to log backtraces.


text:
Where does the Apple app Contacts store its files in Mavericks?
I'm making a clean re-install of Mavericks on a client's computer. I believe she had a large number of address book entries in the Contacts app that were not in iCloud, and I need to restore them from the backup. Where are they stored? I'm guessing they should be in Users/~/Library/ but I cannot find the location.

For precicely this reason, I have a recurring task to export both my contacts and calendar data to the archive format so I don't need to mess with the internal database state on any particular build. They are so small, I generally keep three or more years of data in my Backup folder on the filesystem. If your hand-migration fails, you can always restore from that backup and re-export things to a flat file or add that to your list of steps before the next clean install.

My hand-migration seems to have failed. See my comment on the answer below.

I'm not surprised. I've seen conflicts between the application saved state (~/Library/Containers) and database storage files (~/Library/Application Support) and sync sources (iCloud is all over the place). In your case, the problems that led you to seek a clean install might also have affected the files. I've had much better luck just restoring the entire user account to a new user folder and then exporting the data. How exactly was the "backup" made? (p.s. you might just accept this answer since it's where the data lies and ask a follow on question with the real problem - how to recover)

I cloned the entire hard disk using CCCloner.

Boot from the clone and export the contacts to a flat file. At that point oh can boot back to the clean system and import the data after wiping the failed hand migration.

Unfortunately this is no help. She has a 12MB address book database but since she upgraded to Mavericks recently, it only shows about 15 addresses. It appears to have failed weeks before I got here.

Contacts.app stores its data in ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook.
For the individual databases, you can list them using the following command:
find ~/Library/Application\ Support/AddressBook/ -name "AddressBook-v22.abcddb"

Great. I have found the folder. But Contacts will not import the 16MB of files for this user. I can copy the entire folder from the backup to the new installation, but Contacts shows the same 15 addresses no matter what I do. With 16MB of data in there, there must be hundreds of addresses. What am I overlooking?

@WheatWilliams Are the contacts on the On My Mac user? Make sure this account is enabled in the Contacts.app preferences as I believe 'account enabled' states are stored elsewhere as they are used for other features.

Yes, of course , the contacts are on the On My Mac but there are no preferences to set. And Mavericks automatically re-enables iCloud in Contacts every time you restart, and some local cache shows up in Contacts, even though I have unplugged the Ethernet cable.

Still applicable to 10.13.x (High Sierra)? The above directory exists on my 10.13 MacBook.

@Johnny Indeed, still applicable in macOS 10.13 and macOS 10.14 at the time of writing


text:
Add to Reading List from Mac OS X Mail
Is there a keyboard shortcut / key modifier for adding links to the Reading List from Mail? You can hold ⌘ to open the link in the background, but that seems to be about it.
In Safari, you can ⇧-click links to add them to the Reading List. Does such a shortcut exist in Mail? I'm aware of the Add to Reading List command available in the context menu; I just find it more cumbersome than I'd like, especially for newsletters such as StackExchange's, which are essentially a collection of links.

You can use Keyboard Maestro with a macro such as this. The following macro will add the link to the Reading List if the link is clicked whilst holding control and alt. Holding control means it will be right-clicked anyway and typing the text means it will select the option from anywhere in the list.

If you have multiple services enabled, you will need to add a step to select the Services submenu.

Shouldn't there be the step with typing Services and hitting Spacebar before typing "Add to Reading List"?
NOTE: I don't have Keyboard Maestro so I might be wrong...

@Mateusz I don't have a Services menu?

On my OS X 10.9.2 there's Services menu when I right click. Perhaps this is because I have more than just a few items there.

@Mateusz Ah, I usually don't have any services enabled :) Only enabled the Add to Reading List one just for this answer! I've added a note to the answer. Thanks


text:
Make rule for message in mail.app
Is there a way to create a mailbox rule based on the currently highlighted message in mail.app? OSX 10.8.5
I want to create a rule from the application rather than have to go to Mail -> Preferences -> rules and create it there.

Please explain further what you want to do with the rule and message

something like a keyboard shortcut?

That would do I guess.


text:
Do the 'OS X Beta Seed Program' updates wipe your existing OS install?
I've joined the OS X Beta Seed Program but am not sure about this detail. Does it upgrade 'in place' and all your countless system tweaks and customizations are kept in tact, or does it do a 'fresh' install and so you are forced to restore from backup all your apps, tweaked system files (such as defaults write variables), third-party prefpanes, and maybe even user documents, at your own initiative?
I didn't see anywhere that they address this.

You should always install such beta stuff on a separate empty partition somewhere so that whatever problems it might have does not destroy/disrupt your current working OS.

I have already seen people say that, but I am guessing this pretty far-down-the-line beta (not internal, not developer) is not too unstable - I'm actually pretty desperate to try and have little fixes/tweaks make my way sooner than normal public release, and my submitted question remains in either case - which is very useful to know regardless of this other matter you bring up. I may end up answering the question myself, as I (possibly) take the plunge anyway.

If you are worried about losing data, then the OS X Beta Seed Program is probably not something that you should be doing.  Generally, only developers and IT professionals should be using this software, and this software should probably be used on a spare machine or drive that cannot be damaged by a bad update.

"Upgrade in place" doesn't touch your data, in theory. However, I would always backup your data before installing, especially beta releases. It's not supposed to change your data, but that's not guaranteed, particularly in a beta release

Could you clarify your answer a little further? Are the beta seed updates indeed of the 'upgrade in place' type? (You didn't actually specify that and that's the question I ask.) Thanks!

ok, well, as a guinea pig I can confirm also, that yes it DOES keep all your system settings. It appears to be fine - so far - from my observations.

I believe they are. Sorry, I think I misunderstood what exactly you asked.


text:
Need ios app for read and mark pdf documents
I need some ios app for ipad where I can read scientific pdf documents and mark part of text and do some notes on the margin of the document and then read it with marks at my PC.
An option can be to get translate of selected word in small pop-up window near word.
What you can suggest?

I would definately suggest that you start searching in the AppStore for an app that can do this.

I've closed this as a duplicate. The linked question has a slightly broader scope but most PDF readers offer note capabilities by default. In case none of the tools there solve your problem, please edit your question to add which tools you have tried and which functionality you are still missing so we can reopen the question.


text:
New 2013 MacBook Air connects to routers everywhere but home, older MacBooks connect fine
A different situation from what most people experience on here: A new Air will not connect to the Internet via our home router (though other MBs will) and the Air will connect to the Internet via other routers at other locations.
We bought my mother a new 13" MacBook Air (so: purchased May 2014). From the start, it's had issues connecting to our LAN. Other computers, including my 2011 MacBook Pro, connect fine.
I've tried multiple times running the Wireless Diagnostics and connection wizards that come with the Air, which offer no help. The Air also can connect to the router via Ethernet and gets the Internet connection, but obviously we don't want to do that all the time.
My mother brought her Air to her work today and connected to that Wifi network without issue.
At home, our computers connected to the Internet run an IP address in the range of 173.195.x.x. Hers runs at 166.x.x.x whenever it doesn't connect properly, but if I renew the DHCP lease a couple times and keep switching settings randomly then I can connect the Air to the network until the Air sleeps. It's an unreliable method.
Specifically, the Air has this IP address but does not say this address is self-assigned. It also does not tell me that I 'won't be able to connect the Internet'.
My suspicion is currently with the router. It's about 3.5+ years old at this point, a Netgear WND3400 N600. I think it may just be that it's a wireless-n and the Air is wireless-ac, but the Air should be backwards-compatible.
I haven't updated the firmware on the router, I'm about to do so now.
Does anyone have any ideas for me to try out?

Ensure that you have a supported configuration on the router. See here for Apple's recommended wifi settings.

Another problem with my router is that I can't seem to reliably get into its interface to change the settings. My MBP can sometimes get to the settings page but other times it says it doesn't exist. I've tried using the IP address provided at the Network Settings page as well as some of the other common ip addresses for the router.

Ok so, there is an option to manually connect to your Router/LAN. Open up Terminal.app and type in (or copy and paste) these commands.
Turn on said MBA's Wi-Fi:
networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

List all available networks:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

(Note: If you already know how to turn on your MBA's Wi-Fi and list all networks using Terminal commands, you can skip step 1 and step 2)
Now we can finally attempt to manually connect to Wi-Fi:
networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 [Wi-Fi SSID] [Wi-Fi Password]

Unfortunately it did nothing. It made the wifi icon in the status bar act like it was searching for signal, then nothing.

(Sorry for this massive in-active post bump due to this comment but) I can confirm the commands here do the exact same as what @amess said above.


text:
How to install reader on iOS 5
I have iPad 2 with iOS 5.1
I am developer and I need it to test apps.
But 99% of time nobody use it.
I decided to install ebook reader to reads fb2, mobi and other ebook formats.
But all readers I found do not install on iOS 5.
iOS 6 is minimal requirement.
Is there way to install older version of app?
Or upgrade just to iOS 6 (I know impossible)
Jailbreak? (I think it is impossible with version 5.1)
I am looking for solution to get some reader to work on iOS 5.1

Here's some information to keep in mind for the future. If you had ever installed a version of some app, then the App Store will allow you to continue either installing that app (if you had deleted it), or to install the last version compatible with that version of iOS. But if you never installed the app in question, Apple, the App Store will prevent you from installing it, even though there is obviously a version from App Store that will install if they'd let you. This is Apple's restriction and not something the individual app developers can decide.
Jailbreaking provides many options, but in my experience, introduces some new problems. I am just astounded by what, in particular, the Dev Team has accomplished, and more so what Jay Freeman (aka saurik) nearly single-handedly has accomplished. Cydia existed before the App Store, and is an implementation of Debian linux Advanced Packaging Tool. Developers began selling software there a good 5 months before App Store existed, as far as the public was concerned.
The new problems introduced by jailbreaking are merely that you really need to keep on top of things, and things change pretty fast in the jailbreaking community, which you necessarily need to become a participating member of if you want your device to continue working, or ever need help from someone because something stopped working. By and large, I found everyone in the jailbreaking community to be refreshingly shocking, but ultimately gave me a really great experience with it. But once my curiosity was satisfied, I found that maintaining my jailbroken device required more effort and time than I had to spend on it.
That being said, I just purchased a new iOS device, on the way... and because I really can't stand iOS7, I intend to get reaquainted with the jailbreaking community to mitigate what I just can't stand about it.
I recommend that you seek out more information from the dev team blog linked above, and also rediscover IRC, and the various jailbreaking IRC servers and channels, on Freenode and elsewhere (google helps), and involve yourself in that community in whatever positive way you can. And be patient with your desires.
Sorry for the magna carte here! And best of luck on your adventure!


text:
Can someone describe the purpose of OSX root level folders in laymen's terms?
Simple and concise documentation on the OSX folder hierarchy is sparse. I'm looking for a simple description of each - what are the functions of each?

/private
/var
/usr
/tmp
/etc
/bin
/sbin
/fseventsd

I don't plan to modify them in any way, I just want to understand the FS hierarchy.

Thank you both for your responses and the detailed literature linked to. I have a much clearer picture now. Thank you "ask different" community!

It's a bit messy, and there is a degree of cross-overs, but the quick tour, without really going into the subfolders of these:
/etc, /tmp and /var are just symbolic links to subfolders in /private.
/etc generally contains configuration files.
/tmp is for temporary files used by running processes (also see /var/tmp)
/var is also used for somewhat temporary files used by running processes, but these tend to be less temporary and more often preserved between runs - e.g. logfiles which are usually in /var/log.
/usr contains binaries (executables) and developer-related files for core unix/BSD utilities. Things the user installs themselves should end up in /usr/local.
/bin also contains binaries but they tend to be more OS-fundamental than those in /usr - such as cp, cat, bash.
/sbin is as above but focused on routine administrative tasks such as mount and shutdown.  The s=system/superuser, usually you need root/superuser rights to use these commands.
/.fseventsd is used by the OS to log file-system change events (such as folder creation) so that interested parties can be notified when the filesystem changes.
However, to run the risk of saying what you didn't want me to say - most of these are of little interest, and if you were to use any, you'd be most likely to be in /usr/local, /var/log or /tmp.
Additional information with a focus on the common Unix structure can be found on Wikipedia (Unix File System).

See man hier:

/private: this is undocumented
/var: multi-purpose log, temporary, transient, and spool files
/usr: contains the majority of user utilities and applications
/tmp: temporary files
/etc: system configuration files and scripts
/bin: user utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
/sbin: system programs and administration utilities fundamental to both single-user and multi-user environments
/fseventsd: I believe you mean /.fseventsd. It is documented here. gzipped data relating to file deletion and file system events is stored in a series of files in /.fseventsd.


text:
Is my computer infected by the Recycler virus?
I installed Parallels Desktop for Mac and installed Windows 7. It seems like I loaded an infected file and now there are some $RECYCLER.bin folders around some places. Is this the Recycler virus? How can  I delete these files? Do I just delete the Parallels VM or do I have to do something else?

I presume you're referring to folders called $RECYCLE.bin and not RECYCLER (the latter is the recycler virus created folder).
These $RECYCLE.bin folders exist because they're created by Windows (through Parallels) because of the shared folders feature in Parallels (using which you can access folders on the other OS directly). These are not from a virus and you should just leave them as they are - they hold files/folders you delete.
This thread titled "$RECYCLE.BIN folder created?" in the Parallels forum provides a concise answer from the support team:

The $RECYCLE.BIN folder is created due to the shared folders and shared profile of Parallels.
You can disable it under Virtual Machine -> Configure -> Shared Folders.

To make things simpler in your usage of Parallels, you may also want to explore the "Levels of integration - Like a Mac or Like a PC" knowledgebase article.


text:
Block an application's read/write access to a specific file in OS X?
The premise is this:
I have an app which has been set in its code to only run on OS X versions 10.4 to 10.9.2. (When I try to install it, it gives a message "This version of ____ is for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.9.2."). I have updated to 10.9.3, and the developer just needs to update the app to fix this restriction in his tool.
I'm actually in contact with the developer, who says he is 'too busy' to work on the app or issue an update right now.
I worked out that the app is just reading /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist to determine OS version, and I managed to bypass its installer restriction by temporarily editing the file using this guide. But after reverting the plist values to 10.9.3 and restarting the system to start (hopefully) using the app, I saw that it even checks SystemVersion.plist to even run as well - not just during installation.
I'm worried that if I keep SystemVersion.plist at 10.9.2 indefinitely it would ruin other parts of the system such as App Store updates and the like.
So my idea now, is to try and find some method or tool, to block the app from being able to even read SystemVersion.plist entirely - think of it as a 'file system' version of Little Snitch if you will - just some way to create custom rules, for specific processes, that disallow read and/or write access, to specific files/folders in the system.
Maybe it would just cause the app to throw an error and not run at all (I could probably test this by temporarily moving the plist file to Trash for just 30 seconds while trying to install/run it) - but in either case, I think it's a really useful thing to be able to have, for powerful security purposes - just like the custom-blocking network access for apps in Little Snitch.
So is there some awesome third party tool, or even native OS X / Xcode tool, that can do this? Any insights as to what would even need to happen anyway, system/programming-wise? Tweaking with 'Sharing & Persimmons' for a file in Finder lets me control user access, but not process.

What's the value in /Applications/APPNAME/Contents/info.plist of LSMinimumSystemVersion? Does one exist?

Gah - actually, it's a prefpane 'app' (didn't realise it was as it sits in the os x menu bar anyway) - will try to work out now the location of its files and/or if it's even got such a plist file inside it.

Update - within the .prefpane file, both its main Info.plist and the Info.plist within the nested .app file inside, don't have such a string. Originally checked for it in the installer file anyway, in the installer the code for checking OS version appeared to be within the compiled Mac executable file itself.

attempt to add the following to the info.plist:       LSMinimumSystemVersion10.6  #see if that helps. I'm not providing an answer because I'm not sure if it would work.

The problem is, the app is enforcing a maximum OS version too. Does the LSMinimumSystemVersion deal with that, or only minimum? In fact, the app actually states a specific range (and I'm guessing it enforces both ends, since it certainly does the upper) - ah and actually I think I remember trying adding this string with value 10.9.3 to the installer .app file (some days ago) and it didn't work, so I'll conclude for now, that that wouldn't work on the .prefPane either! :/

You could just use the built-in sandboxing features of Mac OS X.
Create a custom profile that limits access to the SystemVersion.plist file, using syntax like this:
(version 1)
(deny file* (literal "/System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist"))
(allow default)

Save that as for example ~/myprofile.sb and then run your program like this:
sandbox-exec -f ~/myprofile.sb "/Application/My Program.app/Contents/MacOS/My Program"

that sounds brilliant, but I just realised, it's actually a prefpane 'app' - wonder if it can still be sandboxed?

I guess you could just start "open -a system\ preferences" using sandbox-exec to achieve that goal.

Thanks for that, I'll start off with trying it on the installer .app as a simple first test - I'm getting an error, 'unbound variable: deny', though :/.

Check the documentation for the correct syntax for the whole policy file - or start from one of the examples. I was just describing the specifics for limiting access to that file.

Yeah I'll google around and I'm sure I'll solve it, thanks for your guidance and once/if I get it working, will +1 and mark your answer as the accepted one, thank you!!

So I got the code working in the end, but the installer for my app gives an 'Abort trap: 6' message. I reckon it's a measure to not run unless it verifiably can check SystemVersion.plist, as I suspected it might. But at least we now outline the basic procedure for this really cool general security feature; this worked with other apps just fine! Still, it'd be good to try out your idea of sandboxing System Preferences itself. But, when I tried it (sandbox-exec -f ~/myprofile.sb "/Applications/System Preferences.app/Contents/MacOS/System Preferences"), it also threw Abort trap 6 - any ideas?

Have you tried running System Preferences with just a allow default profile? (i.e. without denying access to the SystemVersion.plist file) - If that doesn't crash, we know it has to do specifically with SystemVersion.plist. An idea to try would be to let SystemVersion.plist be a named pipe instead of a file. The other end of that pipe would send the original contents of SystemVersion.plist the first time it is read, and the changed version number the second time around. I haven't tested it, so I don't know if it would work, but sounds plausible.

Good thinking - yes, running it with just (allow default) works fine!! Which is good (I guess) - boy you're spot on all the way so far! You're a guru!!! I'm learning so much too, thanks. So on to the named pipes idea (and again I should test this on the app's installer .app first) - what few commands would I do to set that up? Have googled around a bit and need guidance as to quite how to do it :). Thanks. I'll keep googling for now, but feel a bit in the deep end (this is really advanced, obscure stuff) and certainly don't want to muck things up...it'll be good to document this all anyway.

You run the command "mkfifo /Library/Preferences/SystemVersion.plist" to create the fifo in the file system. Then you run a command like "cat originalversion > /Library/Preferences/SystemVersion.plist" to send the original version of the file, and similarly again with the modified file.

let us continue this discussion in chat

Sadly, sandbox-exec is marked as deprecated in the current Mojave release. It seems that Apple was not able to make sandbox useful without making the sandbox programs useless.

Hands Off app has this feature:

Monitoring disk access
Applications present on your computer can freely read, store or erase information on your computer without your knowledge. Using Hands Off!, you can monitor and control disk access from all applications as to prevent them from obtaining confidential information, erasing your data or storing cookies.

And it happens to include the network firewall feature of Little Snitch.
https://www.macworld.com/article/3190149/little-flocker-reincarnates-at-f-secure-in-free-beta.html:

Little Flocker, a tool that restricts apps and system processes access to files without permission. He was unable to talk details, but recently F-Secure, a leading security developer and analysis company, announced its purchase of Little Flocker, which it’s rebranded as Xfence.

MacOS Catalina now has this similar feature:

Data protections
macOS Catalina checks with you before allowing an app to access your data in your Documents, Desktop, and Downloads folders; iCloud Drive; the folders of third-party cloud storage providers; removable media; and external volumes. In addition, you’re asked before an app can perform key logging or capture a still or video recording of your screen.


text:
What is the difference between 'Application' and 'Process' in OS X?
As I increasingly dabble with AppleScript and OS X tweaking in general, I arrive at this question:
What is the difference between these two words in terms of OS X's inner operations - e.g. do some processes operate 'within' applications (or vica versa), or two processes operate as part of one 'application' in terms of what the user interacts with GUI-wise (or, vica versa)?
Also - I come originally from a Microsoft Windows background. Do 'application' and 'process' have any relationship to 'service' in OS X, (given 'service' and 'program' are different things in Windows), and is there indeed a third category in OS X called 'service' as well?

The standard way of approaching these terms is to say that an "application" is a specific, static program on storage. It's some piece of code stored on a hard drive, a CD-ROM or elsewhere.
A "process" on the other hand is a specific instance of a running program. I.e. it is registered by the operating system as executing or being able to execute whenever the operating system feels like it.
If you take for example Calculator.app, it is a single application.
However you can have multiple Calculator processes if you start the program multiple times.
As chananelb wrote, it is also possible to have processes which are not "just" ordinary applications that have been started up. That could be for example kernel processes, or simply ordinary processes spawning up subprocesses to do specific tasks.
Regarding services, I chananelb's answer leads you in the wrong direction. His answer tells you about what is called a "Service" in Mac OS X... but you asked about what is called a "Service" in Windows.
The counterpart to a Windows Service is a Daemon on Mac OS X (and other Unix-derived systems).
Daemons are normally categorized by running in the "background", i.e. without direct user interaction through a graphical or non-graphical user interface. The distinction is a bit blurry though, as a Daemon might for example have a web interface for user interaction.
Daemons on Mac OS X are controlled by the launchd program, which is responsible for for example starting up daemons on boot, and letting the user start and stop daemons at request.

According to the Mac App Programming Guide,

You use Cocoa to write apps for OS X.

Based on that definition, applications should be packaged in Application Bundles:

Application bundles are one of the most common types of bundle created by developers. The application bundle stores everything that the application requires for successful operation.

On the same page, it says:

Note: Although bundles are one way of packaging executable code, they are not the only way that is supported. UNIX shell scripts and command-line tools do not use the bundle structure, neither do static and dynamic shared libraries.

Based on that, I would say that Apple does not consider command-line tools such as ls to be "applications".  They would be executable programs or executables.

A process is any instance of a computer program that is being executed.  A process could be created by running either an application or a Unix executable.  (Shell scripts would be a kind of executable where /bin/sh or another shell interprets the script.)
"Process" means the same thing in Windows (see the Process tab in the Windows Task Manager).

Service has three different meanings in Mac OS X:

It could refer to a daemon, which is analogous to a Windows Service.  These are persistent system-wide background processes that do not belong to any user's session.
It could refer to a Mac OS X-specific feature that facilitates the transfer of data between applications.  For example, there is a "Make New Sticky Note" service that lets you convert a text selection into a Sticky Note.
It can also be used in the generic English sense of the word, as in Launch Services. Launch Services is an API to open applications, and can, for example, decide which is the appropriate application to handle a particular kind of file.

An application is a process that can spawn sub-processes (known as children) but some processes are spawned by the OS itself and may not have an 'application' per se behind them. This is (to my understanding) the way unix works in general (unix intro - processes).
Thanks jksoegaard, the following is irrelevant, I misread the question. I'm sort of new - do I delete it or leave it?
Services in OS X are somewhat similar to the share button in android - its a way for you to send a chunk of data directly from the current app to a different one.
An easy example is text - highlighting some text and right-clicking will show you the context menu with services at the bottom, drilling into that menu will show you which other apps on you mac have the ability to use that text for something (e.g. summarize, search web (Chrome), Spotlight, etc).
You can modify services in the Keyboard Preference pane under the 'Shortcuts' tab and create your own in Automator see this Ars Technica article for more info.

Application: a computer program that performs useful work not related to the computer itself; a piece of software that performs a particular function for the user. Examples include word processing programs, web browsers, presentation programs, and accounting systems.
Process: a series of instructions that a computer is executing in a multitasking operating system. Many processes execute concurrently. From the user's viewpoint, processes may be programs or parts of programs (such as the editing routine and the printing routine in a word processor that can print while editing).
Note that the two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. Simply put, though, an application is a bundled set of processes, which, to the user, appear as one.
Definitions from: Dictionary of Internet and Computer Terms

These are not the terms uses in OSX - OSX has much more specific definitions which are what the OP needs to know

General, yes. Applicable to OSX? Completely. The question itself is broad enough for these definitions to be perfectly applicable. A process is a process, and an application is an application, as defined above, regardless of whether you're running Windows or OSX. OSX specific terms 'launchagents, launchdaemons, etc' aren't necessary to answer the question; moreover, they may be misleading. My answer is clear and straightforward. Regards.

For Applescript there is a very strict definition of Application - and in OSX I would only call Packaged application bundles as Applications (I can't find all the exact Apple reference documents at the moment so can't write an answer yet)

To OSX, an Application is an app you can use as a user. A process on the other hand is any running binary executable, also encompassing apps. One app might have multiple processes running etc.


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Is there a way to blacklist USB devices without unplugging?
I'd like to prevent an USB device from registering (e.g. the internal Bluetooth hub). Is there a way to blacklist/disconnect USB devices without physically unplugging them?

What's the problem you're trying to solve? Perhaps there's another approach

I'm trying to use an external Bluetooth dongle rather than the internal one, due to wifi-coexistance issues that are causing major interference problems.


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Macbook pro, disk utility and external hard drive
I have a Macbook Pro running on Lion.  My external hard drive is a Buffalo and used as data backup only, and is formatted to Macs.
I have used the ext. hard drive for two years with no issues. I am considering running "disk utility" (specifically "verify disk") to check its health.  Is there a minimum or maximum amount of times you can run it on an external hard drive?  I am aware of the different types of software you can buy, but running "disk utility" on an external hard drive is my only option right now.

"I am aware of the different types of software you can buy, but running "disk utility" on an external hard drive is my only option right now." Is there an actual issue? You shouldn't need to run disk utility regularly, or use other software such as Drive Genius, unless you are experiencing a problem with the drive which requires troubleshooting. Moreover, much of the third party software that purports to "defrag" the drive is complete nonsense because Journaled Filesystems do not become fragmented.

Internal or external makes no difference. it wont damage the disk in any way, it does not use up "write-cycles".
the only useless option would be running verify permissions if you dont have an OSX installation on it.


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iPhones in business: How to set restrictions on devices provided to employees
I was recently able to use an iPhone supplied by a tech startup to one of its affiliates. The phone had limited apps, several disabled settings, and no icon for the App Store among its restrictions. The device Restrictions feature in Settings was set to Off (it was not being used). The iPhone was essentially set up to serve as a tool for affiliates to use in their work and nothing more.
How can a company that wants to provide employees or affiliates with iPhones strictly for limited business work set similar restrictions as those set by the startup? Are there specific tools available to make this happen short of compromising the device's security settings?
Related: As part of your answer, please feel free to comment on similarities and differences to Android devices if you have a broad knowledge of this topic.

The iPhone was setup and restricted with a mobile device manager (MDM for short.)
Apple Configurator is designed to do just what you experienced. I use Configurator to maintain >200 iPads at my school. Not every facet of the iPhone's configuration points can be locked down, but it is has more than enough details to keep 12-year-olds from making a bad mess.
The VPP for Business program is designed to allow you to purchase license codes for apps that can be distributed to individual users or installed by Configurator.
With Apple's new MDM and Managed Distribution system, apps and configuration profiles can be distributed and revoked remotely. You can also distribute private apps designed by your company/organization.
We also use the provider Meraki for location tracking, remote wipe, passcode reset, etc. Meraki is free. It can also do Managed Distribution, and we plan to use Meraki for our institution.
For more information about MDMs, including MDMs which can also be used to manage Android devices, check out  EnterpriseiOS' comparison of MDM providers.

Thanks for the insights. I look forward to researching this further.

Apple Configurator can be used to configure devices in various ways including restricting apps, features and connectivity.
Payloads can be configured in these profiles that customise the device in various ways, such as pre-configuring certain settings or restricting functionality.

These profiles are by default able to be removed at any time, however they can be set to only allow removal with authorisation, or never.

These .mobileconfig files can be installed on a device simply by downloading them through Safari, or can be installed over USB to the device.


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How to stop Siri from playing undownloaded purchased songs
Here is an interesting one:

I have 264 purchased songs downloaded on my iPhone
If I go "Songs > Shuffle" it goes 1 of 264
If I go "Siri > Play songs shuffled" it goes 1 of 456

So basically, if I use Siri, it keeps shuffling through every song I have purchased rather than just the ones that have been downloaded onto my iPhone.
I have already tried:

Settings > Music > Show All Music Off
Settings > iTunes & App Store > Show all music off + Automatic downloads music off
Settings > Usage > Music delete + iTune sync to put back only the songs I wanted

How do I stop this?

I do not know about a better solution than logging out of the Apple Store. It will prevent Siri from accessing your purchased songs library from there.

Clever solution! After googling many users had the same issue but no one had a solution.


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What is Macports?
So, I've read the documentation on Macports. As described:

MacPorts is an easy to use system for compiling, installing, and managing open source software. MacPorts may be conceptually divided into two main parts: the infrastructure, known as MacPorts base, and the set of available ports. A MacPorts port is a set of specifications contained in a Portfile that defines an application, its characteristics, and any files or special instructions required to install it. This allows you to use a single command to tell MacPorts to automatically download, compile, and install applications and libraries. But using MacPorts to manage your open source software provides several other significant advantages.

Most of this goes right over my head. I assume I'm not computer literate enough to understand it's purpose. Can anyone provide me with a simple explanation (to an average, rather than 'super' user) of the following questions:

What is Macports used for? Can you give me a concrete example?
How does it relate to "X11?"

If the answer is simply, "you need to understand these terms to understand what Macport is," then that's okay. Thank you.

Macports is a tool for installing applications and command line tools on your Mac, with a huge library of “ports” (the Macports term for something that can be installed). You use it in Terminal.app like this:
$ sudo port install nmap

To break this command down:

The $ at the beginning generally means that you have to enter the rest of the line into Terminal. In the official documentation, it's a %%, but they both mean the same thing; don't paste or type that part, only the command after it. You will see the $ right before your cursor in Terminal.
sudo means that you'll be doing this as the “root user”, which can do (almost) anything with your system. Be very careful when you use it. It only works if you're an admin, and you have to enter your password.
port is the name of the Macports command itself.
install is an argument (also known as a command-line option) to the port command. You might see this referred to as a “subcommand”, which is because you're telling port what to do in general, rather than giving a specific thing like the name of what you want to install. Arguments are separated by spaces.
nmap is the name of the program to install. It's another command-line tool, and you use it for things like port scanning.

So, that command uses port to install the nmap tool. You might be installing things that have actual windows and a GUI more often, and that's where X11 comes in.
X11
The X Window System is a system used to show windows, controls, and UI elements in general. The XQuartz project is an implementation of the X Window System on Mac OS X. It is one application that shows all the windows of apps that use X11. Usually, X11 is the easiest way to make something that can be used on both OS X and Linux without extra code, which is why you'll see a lot of Macports “ports” using it.

It's hard to keep the final “binaries” in sync with the source sometimes, which is why some things have to be compiled (turned from source to runnable file/app) on your computer.
It's really complicated under the hood, but the point of it is so people can do all this stuff automagically (with a little knowledge of Terminal and Unix) without having to worry about that. The “portfile” part of what you quoted is just the entry in the Macports database that explains everything that Macports needs to do in order to install something. Meaning it might be a script that you could run in Terminal, or some other program, but the point is to make it so you don't have to do any of the hard work.
Currently, Homebrew is a more popular alternative to Macports, but it doesn't have as many windowed (X11) applications. These types of things are usually called package managers.

This is a perfect answer. Literally exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!

MacPorts doesn't only install software, it builds software from the source code, tracks the dependencies needed to build the code, updates all the software it works with, including itself, and it manages itself and all the software that it builds. It can also install prebuilt binaries if you tell it to. MacPorts is nothing short of the bees knees and everything pseudo-package managers like the Mac and iOS App Store should have been and are unfortunately not. Homebrew has similar goals as MacPorts, but is no where near to realizing them. MacPorts is mature, stable, complete, and just works.

This is a great answer.


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iPhone - what does each number of rings mean?
Let's say someone blocked your number one week ago. When you tried calling them you'd get one ring and it goes straight to voicemail... or no rings and it goes straight to voicemail.
A week later you call and you get two long rings before it goes to voicemail. Does that mean they unblocked your number?

This depends on how they blocked your number. However, generally the number of rings is not a good indicator of whether you've been blocked.
I would suggest solving by talking to or contacting the organisation or person that has blocked your number.


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Dual booting Yosemite/Mavericks: Stuck in Yosemite with an 'Install OS X' volume instead
I've made a partition on my hard drive, so I currently have Macintosh HD (call it 1) and Macintosh HD 2 (call it 2).
I downloaded the Yosemite installer with my Mavericks install on 1, then ran it and selected 2 as the disk to install on. It worked fairly well and I'm running Yosemite without any problems.
But tonight I tried to switch over to Mavericks, so I rebooted and held down option. When the list came up, it contained recovery volumes for OS X 10.9 and 10.10. It had Macintosh HD 2 on it (my Yosemite partition), but not Macintosh HD. Instead of my Mavericks partition, it showed an 'Install OS X' volume. Selecting this shows the Apple logo with a progress bar under it, then boots into Yosemite.
I can view /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ and see that everything is still there.
How can I boot back into my Mavericks install?

I also asked on the developer forums and got an answer there (iOS/OS X dev account required to view).
The solution was to boot into a recovery partition (⌘ + R), and change the boot disk from the Apple menu. It needed to be changed to my Mavericks install instead of my Yosemite install.

You can also boot into Yosemite > System Prefs > Startup Disk > Select Mavericks and tap Restart.


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Windows shares keep dropping from OS X
I have a Windows Server 2012 machine providing shares for multiple workstations.
I have 2 Mac users that connect to this server and use the shared folders. They report that this share keeps dropping. Everytime they report it, I check from my Windows workstation and the shares appear to be online -- there seems to be no issue.
Is there anything I can do to make the mounted share consistent and not disappear? The issue is only on the Macs.
Both are running OS X v10.9.3

Are the devices connected via WiFi, or Ethernet?

I have similar problems with users on my network using Mavericks, where no such issue existed with Mountain Lion. Most users can live with it, and they simply re-mount the disk. Apparently, the SMB implementation on Mavericks is different than it was in prior OS releases. What I have found is that if I connect to drives using cifs://servername rather than smb://servername, this pretty much mitigates the issue. This has been true for NAS, MFDs with Windows shares, and Windows servers alike.

Thanks Dave I'll give it a go and let you know how it goes.


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path when I hit double tab
I am almost a newbie to command prompt control in Mac.
Yesterday, when I open terminal and hit command prompt twice. I have a very neat result showing a few truly useful stuffs... But after I instal Pycharm today and maybe the path variable has been changed, I get about 1500+ results in the bin when i double hit the tab... I just want to revert to my original neat bins but I am almost an absolute newbie and don't know what to do. Could anyone help me with this?
Also as you see, do you think there is some sort of newbie guide to use Mac as a professional computational scientist? Thank you:)

I'm getting 1594 results on pretty much a default Mavericks install (plus Xcode command-line tools).

oh... I just felt that there is a bin that contains things that are sort of more important, things like gcc+ and things I installed like gurobi and python3.4


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Can I connect 3 displays to a late 2012 Mac Mini?
I have the late 2012 Mac Mini, which has a HDMI port and a Thunderbolt port.
I have 3 1080p monitors that each have DVI, HDMI and VGA. Is it possible to connect them to my Mini, no mirroring?

did you look up your system specs?

@Buscar웃 yes, it's the late 2012 i7 Mini.


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iPhone, mistakenly fooled with VPN on to off. Now can't get back to On and no internet phone gmail or text on iPhone 4S
I foolishly clicked VPN to OFF. Now I can't get things back to the way it was before clicking that OFF. I have no internet, phone, text, gmail on my 4s iPhone now! Help!
So, I cANNOT receive email from you now, either! I'm on desktop and can't get on as guest...

I don't see how disabling VPN would cause a lot of damage? What did you do exactly?

VPN turns off every time you lock your phone, so this doesn't make much sense.

As Rob and 0942v8653 told you, we need more indications about your problem because right now it is hard to understand it.

Sounds like the OP activated airplane mode inadvertently. VPN would have no affect on the wifi or phone radios.

If you have removed VPN connection completely, it's easy to configure your VPN again. As I don't know the details of your VPN, here is very general PPTP configuration guide that could give you better idea of the procedure:

Choose Settings from your home screen.
Choose General
Choose VPN
Choose Add VPN Configuration
Choose PPTP at top of screen.
Description = whatever you wish, for eample: "VPN Connection"
Server = VPN server IP address or hostname.
Account = Enter your VPN Username
Password = Your VPN Password
RSA SecurID = OFF
Encryption Level = Auto
Send all Traffic = ON
Proxy = OFF
Click SAVE at the top

Connecting and Disconnecting
Just go to Settings and slide VPN selector to on. You will receive a welcome message and a VPN indicator will appear at the top of your device’s screen. To disconnect, go to Settings and slide indicator to off.
Hope it could help

What you have to do, if you were fooled into the app hooked, is go into settings then general. From there, find profile and click delete account with hooked.


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How do you make a complete backup?
On Android, you can use recovery to make a complete NANDROID backup, which when restored, is exactly the way you left the system. What would be the iDevice equivalent of this and how would one go about making one?

iPods and iPhones are backed up using iTunes to a Mac or PC.
"On this iPhone" has options to backup either to iCloud or the device running iTunes.

When I restore the backup, everything will be restored to that point?

Yes - otherwise if you have something bad introduced onto the phone, it would still be there if you didn't go back to the time of the backup.


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Prevent uninstallation of Cydia tweaks
I have GuizmoDNS installed on my iPhone (it can lock in DNS settings for WiFi and Cellular data). This is great for when my kids browse the web, as it can block most inappropriate sites, and the settings themselves are password protected.
But removing the tweak itself is an easy way around this. Is there any way to password protect the removal of Cydia tweaks?
I would very much like to not have to password protect Cydia itself.

Manually installing the tweak without using dpkg or Cydia will do the trick. Cydia won't even know about it.

A possible solution is as mentioned by @Andrew, according to me there are two other possible things you can do:

install iAppLock and lock Cydia so nothing can be changed at all with in Cydia
install GuestMode and disable Cydia so that, you can see it but can't open it


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Having trouble with a SMC reset
I'm having trouble with my built in iSight and I'm trying to reset the SMC. My MBP has a non-removable SMC, so the instructions ask me to press CMD-SHIFT-ALT-POWER at the same time, release it at the same time and then press the power button to power on the machine.
Trouble is that, the machine power ons when I press CMD-SHIFT-ALT-POWER and I dont think that resets the SMC. What should I be doing to correct this?

You have to take out the battery when doing this. Which MacBook do you have?

MacBook Pro 13-inch Retina

Strange, according to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFCF86GOFRI your procedure sounds correct.

That is the incorrect key combination. You are pressing Command instead of Control.
To reset the SMC on portables with a builtin battery, press (left side):
ShiftControlOption + Power Button
Subsequently, release them at the same time. Then power on your computer.


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Incorrect keyboard mapping on OS X guest in vmware fusion
I have installed OS X Mavericks as a guest on a macbook pro with vmware fusion 6.
To do this, I followed the instructions at the following:
Creating a new OS X virtual machine from the recovery partition in VMware Fusion 6.0 (2056798)
How to install Mavericks in VMware Fusion?
I have installed the vmware tools.
After completing the installation steps I started using the vm and found that the § and ` keys are the wrong way around.
I tried adding two keyboard input sources, US and British, switching between these does not help.
I searched around a little and found the following on the vmware communities
incorrect keyboard mapping in OSX 10.7 guest
This seems to be the problem that I am facing, I could not find any solutions on that page. It is marked with the following

This question is Not Answered.

What do I need to do to get the keyboard on a guest os x mavericks on a macbook pro host respond to the same keys as the host?

Go into the VM’s settings (⌘+E), and enter Keyboard & Mouse. You will see various profiles. Select one to use (or leave the one that’s already selected), press the small cog at the bottom of the window, and pick Edit Profile…. Go into the Key Mappings tab where you’ll be able to map keys into other keys. While this won’t correct the keyboard layout on the system, it will at least make so that the correct keys are passed when you’re using it.

This requires you to be able to figure out how to produce a particular character keystroke in the client in the first place. On Linux running in VMWare Fusion, I can find no way to insert the | character with a Finnish keyboard.


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How to change to workspace on non-active monitor?
I have multiple workspaces. I can switch them via Ctrl + Arrow Keys Left and Right.
I also have multiple monitor setup. I realized I can only switch this way on the current, active monitor. How do I change the active monitior?

That awkward moment when you notice that you asked the same question before. http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/132143/53299

so why are you asking it again ?

@Buscar웃 By mistake. I want to keep the duplicate though if someone else searches for the same question. Yet somebody should close one as a duplicate.


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Apple tool to print SMS Messages
I need to print some SMS messages for a legal action. What tool does Apple provide to print SMS messages with their time stamps and other metadata?
This is similar to Need to print out iPhone text messages, but I don't need to transfer them to a different email account.
I don't want a third party tool or jail broken the device. A third party tool or jail broken device might not produce material that satisfies the "best evidence" or "accurate representation" rules. If the evidence produced does not satisfy the rules, then it will likely waste time and money in the action.
Does Apple make such a tool for their devices?

I've edited out the discussion for [meta] whether this is a dupe or not and reopened it. I believe the correct answer is "No - Apple makes no tool to print SMS messages" and the larger answer is you will need to hire someone to do forensic evidence gathering and not prepare data DIY style for it to meet legal criteria for evidence. Perhaps you just want it for you and your lawyers to prepare for the case so we'll try to cover what's possible as opposed to what's legal.

Use SQLite to query the database /var/mobile/Library/SMS/sms.db on your iPhone.

Thanks @Andrew. Does that require a JB device? if so, that might be a problem.

No, it just requires you to either use iFunBox or to extract the database from a backup.

Thanks @bmike. If I use an Apple tool to print the messages and metadata, then the resulting evidence should be OK. The evidence would be gathered using the platform vendor's tools and satisfy the "best evidence" rule. If I jail break the device or use a third party tool, then I'm likely looking at $5000 to $15000 in legal fees to sort out the motions to have the evidence suppressed. Hence the reason I'd like to "do it right" the first time. If the community does not know, then I'll open an Apple support ticket or a radar (and report back what I discover).

Feel free to post a copy of the radar to http://openradar.appspot.com/ :-) Andrew's suggestion to use the bundled sqlite binary on OS X to read the contents of the sms.db might be one "Apple" provided tool chain to get you what you need. I use PhoneView instead of iFunBox to read files from stock iOS devices. Editing in the "best evidence" to your question might strengthen the question as well.


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How to fix permissions with Repair Disk Permissions?
I just installed Xcode 5.1 and the latest round of updates. I followed that with a Repair Disk Permissions. For some reason, Apple installs its software with broken permissions.
I then ran Repair Disk Permissions (Applications → Utilities → Disk Utility):

Now, XQuartz will not start:

In the above, Xquartz cannot write to /tmp after the permission repair because Repair Disk Permissions remove w from the link.
It appears the permissions in Disk Utility are broken out of the box, too. How does one modify the permission used by Disk Utility so that the utility will not break an installation? Is there a plist somewhere that can be tweaked?
I've been suffering these types of problems for years. Its like a death from 10,000 cuts. Why does Apple not test their software before unleashing it on unsuspecting users?

Are you asking how to change permissions on tmp or how to change the expected permissions on tmp?

I just checked the permissions of my /tmp and it is 733, same as your example.

Thanks @Fyrefly - I'd like to know how to modify the permissions used/applied by Disk Utility. I expect its in a plist or data file somewhere. If they are hard coded into Disk Utility, then I'm probably out of luck.

Its my understanding Disk Utility references    /Library/Receipts       for installed software, I don't know what it references for base system files.

My Mac used to always mess up the /tmp write permissions by itself, causing copy/paste and dragging to stop working. It doesn't anymore, and I don't know why.


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Imported iphone cannot be activated
Recently I bought a used iphone 4s that was imported to Sweden. The problem is that I am not able to activate it, it only displays messages about how it tried to but failed. As a result I am getting the "No Service" banner and no connection to the carrier, Telia that I am trying to connect to.
I had however a brief moment of luck when I was able to get it "almost" activated and it connected to my carrier and allowed phone calls and texts but no data and since cellular data is very important for me I tried another system restore to get it working but unfortunately I cannot get the phone activated now again and I am stuck with the "No service" banner.
In the phone menu inside the settings I can still see the banner for "Sprint-services" could this be a cause of the problem?

is the phone Unlocked ? means freed from Sprint ? Did your "Telia" company give you a SIM card ?

Yes it is unlocked and I got a SIM card from Telia, which the phone accepts. I just cannot connect to 3G for some reason.

Does your phone shows Telia and full signal bar

No, no signal or Telia just No service. Going to take it to the Telia store later and let them have a look


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Window corners don't render properly
I have recently noticed that some of my windows have weird looking corners. It's like they are missing dark pixels right on the edge.

It doesn't always happen, some windows seem to be 'immune' - one example would be Messages, which is the window in the middle.
I'm running OS X 10.9.3.

Do other users on the same computer have the same issue? (I can't reproduce this behaviour on my machine.)

I'm the only user on this computer, but I've just tried enabling the guest account, and it still looks this way when I'm logged in as a guest.

Is this a MBP? If so, is it a Retina display MBP?
Judging by the picture in the OP, it seems that it only happens when multiple windows are open at the same time, is this an accurate assumption?

Nope, it's Air (13-inch, Early 2014).

@smadeja I'm not familiar with that model's internal specs. Do you mind providing us with the specs - especially the graphics information?

Sure. It's a 1.4 Ghz Intel Core i5 with HD Graphics 5000. The problem seems inconsistent, at the moment all inactive windows look fine.

I'm not 100% sure, but it seems to be caused by Firefox. If Finder and Terminal are the first windows to be opened after booting the system, they look fine. If I begin by starting Firefox instead, windows opened afterwards become corrupted.

After the OS X Mavericks v10.9.4 Update, window corners have returned to their previous glory. Update notes don't mention any issue of this kind, so I guess it might have been fixed as a side effect of running the system updater.
EDIT: Aaand the corners are ugly again. It's really weird.