text:
Anything to watch for when buying a 2009 MBP?
I have the option to buy a 2009 13" MBP for $500 - mid 2009 with the 2.53 GHz C2D. At this point, I'm leaning towards it (I'd be using it for iOS development). I know it's been well taken care of.
However, before purchasing, I would like to know if there is anything particular to watch out for when buying this year of MBP. I know that the 2008 models had problems with the NVIDIA graphics.
So, my question: What should I watch out for when purchasing a machine like this?

Compliments for phrasing a shopping recommendation question in a way which is actually useful! I've edited out the "good deal" part because this will lead to debate (and heavily depends on your specific use cases). If you want to get people's opinion on that part, please do this in chat.

I used to work as an Apple Hardware Technician, and the biggest non-damage related issue I've seen with those machines is usually the battery (which is not technically user-replaceable). I'd make sure that it runs for at least 3-4 hours on a full charge. Also make sure that the optical drive works, because I've seen a number of those go out, as well, but that can be said for any notebook computer.
You will also want to check for the normal stuff: Impact to the casing, cracked screen, liquid damage, etc.
That seems like a pretty good deal, however. It looks like the average price on eBay is around $600, and that machine will have plenty of power for your purposes. Heck, I still do development on a 2009 Macbook and it works great.
For future reference, you can always find a listing of the open repair extensions (which are basically known-issues) at Apple's website.

Do you think the machine will be fairly future-proof for the next few years?

Fortunately with those models you can still upgrade the hard drive and RAM at a fairly low cost (if you're willing to do it on your own or know someone willing to open up the machine). When I worked with Apple stuff I used to see people with Macbooks from 2006 that were still going strong. It all depends on how you take care of it. Just don't drop it off the roof of your car or spill a beer in it and you should be good. :)

As in OS X releases, etc?

C2D is already in the "past", it will do what it have done, but the future OS's will most likely demand more horsepower, and the unfortunate thing about it is that it wont be able to do some stuff already, like airplay mirroring! none the less its a great machine, but if you are looking at the future a sandy processor or any i-Core is a minimum (at least for me) (hyperthreading and so on)

The minimum requirement for Mountain Lion is a MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer). Apple considers a machine "obsolete" after about five years, and typically as long as a machine isn't considered obsolete then you will be able to run the latest operating system. I suspect you'll be able to run at least the next two or three OS X releases.


text:
Managing to change my Apple ID to another country
I need to change the country of Apple ID from UK to US, but I previously purchased some apps with my UK-based account, do I need to re-purchase them after migration? Will I still be updating my apps after changing the country?
Thanks!

It's fairly well documented that when you change your store, you leave behind all purchases - both free and paid, but if you can edit your question to explain how it's not a duplicate of other questions here, feel free to flag it for a review and we should have no issues with reopening it.

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/80528/restoring-past-purchases-from-different-country?rq=1

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/83771/can-i-still-update-my-free-apps-if-i-change-my-itunes-account-country?rq=1

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Any danger to letting a MacBook stay on the charger long-term?
I came into possession of a 2009 13" MacBook Pro. Most of the time, it will be used as a desktop computer - but there will be instances when I will need the 5 hour battery.
Is there any danger to letting the machine stay on AC for weeks at a time? Will it kill the battery, or does the Macbook have a charge/discharge routine?

Ideally you should let your computer discharge completely every month to avoid losing battery capacity.
Apple has a calendar to remind discharging the computer every month at webcal://www.apple.com/batteries/images/notebook_icalreminder.ics

This is incorrect. Read my answers to this question the previous time it was asked: http://apple.stackexchange.com/a/12285/1538

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


text:
Change the Apple login account for iPhone developer programme
Recently I have registered for the iPhone developer program with an Email ID, but now I want to changer my login ID to some other email ID. Is it possible to change it now?

You could try following Apple's instructions for changing the e-mail address associated with your AppleID.


text:
iPhone 4s overheating and suffering from drained battery
So I have this iPhone 4s, which has a serious problem: when doing absolutely nothing with it (it just sits in standby mode) the battery drains from 100% to 0% in about 12 hours or less. Also, it appears to be working very actively, as it is constantly warm.
Does anyone know what the cause of this is, and how to fix it? I do have all the latest updates, so that can't be the issue (I think).

I assume this condition persists even if you reboot your phone and don't start any apps afterwards?

I would suggest backing up your phone with iTunes (a whole backup and not only synchronising) and transfer all your purchase. Afterwards, restore the phone with iTunes.
Test it for a couple days and if the issue is solved, bring back your back up. If the issue reappears, restore it again and re-download your content manually. It might be your user data or settings, or an app making your phone work when it's not supposed to.
If the issue persists even after the clean restore (without bringing back your back up), I suggest to get your device checked at a Genius Bar near you.


text:
Remapping keys in iterm2
I'm trying to remap some of the default key combinations in iTerm2, and would like to understand what is going on when I bind keys to "Send Hex Codes".
A previous post helped me get started with remapping the ctrl-a and ctrl-e key combos to cmd-left and cmd-right, respectively, but I would like to remap other key combos as well. (Link to previous Stackoverflow post).
I have a vague understanding that there are hex codes involved, but I am at a point where I can't figure out where to go next to understand what's going on or what to do.

Has nothing to do with bash. Removed tag.

Those hex codes are just sequences of bytes. For example mapping a key combination to 0x66 0x6f 0x6f would make it insert foo. 0xc3 0xa4 would insert ä if you use UTF-8. 0x1b 0x1b 0x5b 0x43 means escape escape [ C.
Some sequences of bytes like ANSI escape sequences and even single bytes like ASCII control characters have special meanings in terminals.
To make ⌘← and ⌘→ go to the beginning and end of line, you can assign them to 0x01 (^A in caret notation) and 0x05 (^E in caret notation):

⌘←: Send Hex Codes: 0x01
⌘→: Send Hex Codes: 0x05

You can make ⌥⌦ delete a word forward by assigning it to \ed:

⌥⌦: Send ^[ d

Changing ⌥← and ⌥→ to \eb and \ef in iTerm's preferences would also change them in programs that don't support readline or emacs-style keybindings. Another option is to add this to ~/.inputrc:
"\e\e[D": backward-word
"\e\e[C": forward-word

You can run read and press key combinations to see what characters they insert. For example ⌥← inserts ^[^[[D by default, where ^[ is escape in caret notation.
See also http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/wiki/Keybindings.

Thanks. I run into this answer when looking up a solution for my question here. How  can I look up the hex code for a specific key combination? (in my case I am interested in the combinations Ctrl+Alt+<char> with <char> being i, j, k, l and u)

I'd suggest to install Key Codes ($0) by Many Tricks and find out the shortcuts for yourself.
For instance if you want to remap the default shortcut for (forward) deleting a charcter – which is Ctrl-D (⌃D) – to be as simple as pressing the forward delete key (⌦), you would…

Open the app and press Ctrl-D

Back in iTerm 2, add the Unicode shortcut in iTerm > Preferences > Keys

Note: Don't copy and paste it, just type out the Unicode without spaces.

The action's value you input, should be 0x4, not 4/0x4

The best way that I found was either with sending keycodes (as described by @pattulus or using vim key bindings.
Note on key codes: Actually you cannot make it work by sending the unicode string as described above, you need to send both the modifier and the key to gether in case of Control+D you need to send this as code: 0x840101 0x4 where 0x840101 is the control key modifier and can be obtained through Key Code.
Note on sending as vim sequence:
As described in iTerm2 documentation, you can send a key code in vim-bindings format such as \<C-d> for sending Control+D (note that \ is important).
I personally prefer vim key binding because it's more readable and later you will understand what you have done.

Check out Karabiner.
Within this tool you can create key custom mappings that are specific to applications. It comes with some tools to help with that.

Preferences → Profile → Keys add the following shortcuts:

⌥← Send Escape Sequence Esc+ b
⌥→ Send Escape Sequence Esc+ f
⌘← Send Escape Sequence Esc+ [H
⌘→ Send Escape Sequence Esc+ [F
⌘←Delete Send Hex Code 0x18 0x7f (add bindkey "^X\\x7f" backward-kill-line to .zshrc)
⌥←Delete Send Hex Code 0x1B 0x08
⌘Del→ Send Hex Code 0x0b
⌥Del→ Send Escape Sequence d

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


text:
Preventing filesystem from locking up when automount NFS share from VM goes away
I do a lot of web applications development, and I run a Fedora VM on my Mac to simulate the server environment.  Meanwhile, I run the IDE on the Mac side, and it requires a local filesystem to make changes.  Hm.
I solved this problem by exporting my code directories in Fedora via NFS and using automount on the Mac side to automatically mount the shares as needed:

# fedora:/etc/exports
/var/vhosts/ 192.168.182.1(rw,insecure,all_squash,anonuid=1000,anongid=1000)

# mac:/etc/auto_master
...
/vhosts auto_vhosts

# mac:/etc/auto_vhosts
* fedora:/var/vhosts/&

I love this setup because it Just Works and is maintenance-free... so long as my VM is running.
If I suspend or shut down my VM, however, everything goes crazy.  Any filesystem-related operations take forever (even seemingly-unrelated actions like launching iTunes or shutting down my system), and the Console fills up with lots of messages from KernelEventAgent about the mount not responding.
The issue persists until I restore my VM state.
One way to work around this issue is to always leave my VM running, but that sucks up a ton of RAM, and I'd prefer to be able to suspend my VM for e.g., games or other resource-intensive apps that I might want to run.
Is there a way I can keep my existing automount setup, but still have the flexibility to suspend my VM and have my Mac stop blocking filesystem operations waiting for the NFS connection to timeout?

Possibly related: http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/83903/5118

I've found that umount-ing the share will also resolve the problem each time I suspend my VM.
It's not a perfect solution, as it has to be done manually, but it does work.
E.g.:

sudo umount /vhosts
(suspend VM)
sudo automount -vc

I haven't tested whether step 3 is necessary, but I figure it couldn't hurt.

You should add "intr" to your mount options. See the mount_nfs man page for details:
man mount_nfs
...
intr    Make the mount interruptible, which implies that file system calls that
        are delayed due to an unresponsive server will fail with EINTR when a
        termination signal is posted for the process.

Adding the intr flag didn't seem to help, but I looked at some of the other options, and adding the bg flag did speed things up a little bit.  If only there were a way to set the maximum connection timeout, I'd be set... but I didn't see an option for that.


text:
What does Apple want for the WWDC Scholarship application uploads?
I am trying to submit my app for the 2013 Student Scholarship - form here  (Dev program needed).
However, I am confused about what it is, exactly, that they want: Here's a screenshot of the section of the form I'm concerned about:

App File
For this, I seem to have several possible options - which is correct?
1 - .app file
Found in Xcode at the bottom of the Navigator:

I understand that I would right click and click 'Show in Finder' - then Zip it if I went this way.
Or...
2 - Ad-Hoc Deployment
Found by archiving the app and choosing this option:

If I choose Ad-Hoc, I end up with an .ipa file - is this what Apple wants?:

'Xcode Project'
I'm confused here too:
1: Just zip the entire project:

Or...
'Export as Xcode Archive'
Found by going to the Organizer of an archived app:

I hope it all works out for you. +1 if you make it.

What did you end up uploading, if you don't mind telling us?

I think Apple wants the people that apply to know how the Xcode tool chain works and have invested enough time to be able to submit a real app for review rather than being people that can fill out a web form to apply for a ticket.
Now, since you've found us and asked for help with lots of detail, I think you are very close to qualifying for a chance to win a ticket, but you might need to ask a second question staking out one specific step that you don't quite get.
That will entice someone who is an expert to help you over the one item you have identified as the single biggest obstacle. At that point, you are free to ask again with your next biggest obstacle, but as you have surmised, asking too much of an answerer by submitting a "wall of question" is generally frowned upon on Q&A sites. Your nice pictures do help ameliorate the large amount of text, but it still seems like a three part question (or more) to me as written.
Lots of detail does not imply lots of thinking. We can't do your thinking for you, but we can attempt to help if you've shown clearly what you think and what specifically you need help with.

Also - I'm answering this as a general case - don't feel like I'm talking down to you or any new programmer. I might make use of this text to add to the site FAQ on how to ask a good question or react to someone saying you have "too much detail". I hope this helps and let us know in chat if you apply successfully for a WWDC scholarship. I am envious of your opportunity as I missed the raffle and do not qualify as a full time student. :(

Thanks to everyone at Stack Exchange, I won a scholarship.

Line for keynote. A quarter of it.
They fed us quite well (Donuts and tasty bread things), and then they let us in. Then they fed us again.
Currently, I'm working on an iOS SE app using the knowledge I gained there. More info here.


text:
Clearing the cache/history not removing form field values
I am using Firefox and Opera in OS X 10.5.8. I have cleared the cookies, history, private data number of times. But when I visit gmail/facebook, the email ID is still auto filled up. Is there anyway to remove these values.
This is not an issue in Safari. When I reset the safari, everything gets deleted/removed.

The Clear Recent History option in Firefox doesn't seem to remove saved passwords. But you can remove them from Preferences > Security > Saved Passwords.

Still an issue in Firefox 26.0 on OS X Mavericks.


text:
Is there an application to create xml or plist files in a visual way?
What do I mean by "in a visual way" ?
Actually, I would like to create a simple "structure" where an element can have several sons, and so on. The xml format is a good format for this structure. But, the plist format could also do it.
I am looking for a software that would allow me to create the structure with the help of a good interface :

viewing it as a tree
maybe moving/copying branches, etc.

EDIT : So far, I am using Xcode. I am looking for a more "graphical" editor.

Also see in SO

The only difference is that this question also specifically asks about .plist format. Of course it's a type of XML file… does that mean all XML editors that work on OS X can open .plist files? If they can open them can they give similar, same, or better syntax highlighting, or at least improved graphical representation? IDK, but it's the clear starting point. So, only with that information answered would this become a useful reference as separate from the other two mentioned above.


text:
Are DropBox files viewed on iOS devices taking up space on them?
When travelling I will need all of the "space" I can claim on my iPad. Am I correct in thinking "space" is not being taken up on the iPad by DB folders, unless I have made them favorites?

Note however that in order to view a file, it must reside on your iPad, albeit temporarily. We can assume that such files are stored by Dropbox.app in a temporary/Caches folder, but they still take up space, until they're deleted. When are they deleted? Perhaps when the app quits, but we're not sure. An inconvenient but safer way would be uninstalling/reinstalling Dropbox.app before traveling.

On my iPad, the Dropbox app is taking up a bunch of space ( http://i.stack.imgur.com/RioaT.png ), even though I have <5MB of files favorited. There's no way to force the app to clear the cache, either. Supposedly iOS 5+ clears caches when space gets low, but as @magma said, it's not clear when.

Yes.  The files are cloud based until you favorite them.
Straight from DropBox:

How much can I store on my phone or tablet?
The Dropbox iPhone app can save as many files as your iPhone or iPod
Touch can hold or Dropbox space allows. If you find yourself running
out of space on your iPhone, removing files from your Favorites list
will clear up space on your device. If you're running out of Dropbox
space, you can delete files from your Dropbox, or you might want to
consider upgrading to a bigger Dropbox.

I think they cache them locally cause sometimes I'm able to view the images in my folders even while I'm offline but those files aren't on my Favorites.

I contacted DropBox in relation to this. The files will only stay on the device itself in the sandbox area if they are favourited. If not, they will load into the memory and be dropped from memory once the application closes. Because they are cloud-based, they are "read" then "dropped" once no longer being "read". Kind of like a while loop in programming.
Source: DropBox technical support

If marked as favourite then on iPad/iPod/iPhone
Looking at file means that it is temporarily downloaded  to view until application is closed, then it is removed.

Do you have any sources to back this up?

I have the Dropbox app on my iPhone and have closed and opened it multiple times, as well as resetting the phone, since getting a notice that my phone is nearly full, and Dropbox is taking up 3.9 GB of space without anything being selected as a favorite. Therefore it would appear that the files to take up space without being selected as favorite.

Actually there is a software called iFunBox http://www.i-funbox.com that allows you to "Manage App Data".
I noticed my DropBox app was taking 3.6 GB (99% data). Now I just used iFunBox to delete 3,6 GB of "uploads" from DropBox, and it shrunk again - works like a charm. And DropBox also correctly recovered - picked up to upload my camera folder at the correct place.

The best and the easiest way to release the dropbox memory is that you unlink your cell phone and then linked again... I have like 1.9 Gb (the same as the photo and video files) I try this and inmidiatlly the memory was clean... the best part is when you linked again you not have to reload your files...

Actually it saves everything on your harddrive. I just came to realize I only had 2GB of free space on my iPad. I downloaded iFunbox on my PC and with it I discovered that pretty much every file I've ever downloaded had a copy in a Cache folder under the Dropbox app directory. A couple of those files had even more copies because I had opened them multiple times. I deleted every file on my dropbox cache and recovered 12GB of free space on my 32GB ipad.

That is true for a PC or Mac or Linux but the question is about an iOS device

I think freddy meant the "harddrive" on the iPad, of which he used iFunBox to clear the Dropbox cache.

Just freed up about 8gb on my iPhone! If you're running low on memory just delete Dropbox & then re-install it. Apparently stuff you either upload,download, or view still gets stuck or cached in the local Dropbox app on your iPhone. Note to Dropbox: Fix this! I thought I had a virus or something for the last 2 months! Everytime I uploaded a video to Dropbox I'd use up actual iPhone memory & not just my Dropbox "Cloud" memory.

How does this differ from other answers?


text:
Updating to Snow Leopard through a USB optical drive
My optical drive on my Macbook Pro has gone out. I have a copy of Snow Leopard on a disc, if I borrow a USB optical drive, will I be able to install Snow Leopard and is this a reliable method? Thanks

Yes, this should work perfectly well. Almost all USB optical drives use standard drivers, so just about any one should work just fine with your MacBook Pro.


text:
Downgrading from 4.2.1 to 3.1.3
I have an iPhone 3g and I'm trying to downgrade it from 4.2.1 to 3.1.3.
I downgraded it successfully and use redsn0w to boot it.  It is factory unlocked by itunes, but it seems like it's not getting any signal though.  Is it because that I have a baseband of 06.15.00?  But how do I downgrade it if that's the issue?
Thanks guys!

I used Cydia to fix the no signal issue with my phone but i dont know if its possible without jailbreaking the phone.

Can you describe in more detail how you used Cydia here?


text:
Can I disable Dashboard in Mountain Lion?
I'm wondering if there's a way to disable the dashboard in Mountain Lion.  I never use it and I think it's consuming processor and memory powers.

Look in Activity Monitor to see how much CPU and memory it uses, I expect that it will be negligible if you have added no widgets.

With macOS 10.10 Yosemite or later, you can go to
System Preferences → Mission Control and switch Dashboard to Off.

On any OS with Dashboard, you can disable it through Terminal with the following command:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES && killall Dock

It can be re-enabled with:
defaults delete com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled && killall Dock

thanks!  I like the idea of the dashboard but the widgets available are absolutely terrible.

Is there a command to automate it in Yosemite?

@Allen Automate what exactly? mcx-disabled still works in Yosemite DP4

It does not work for me on 10.10 Beta. Actually some other defaults write commands does not work for me either.

If you don't want to use Dashboard at all, free Apps are available to disable & enable (if you wish to revert) it including:

Bye Bye Dashboard
‘Disable & Enable Dashboard’ Utility

EDIT
Alternatively see also this Youtube tutorial published on August 9th 2013 entitled "Removing the Dashboard (MacMost Now 902)"

Or you could just uncheck the 'Show Dashboard as a Space' checkbox in the Mission Control settings

This doesn't disable dashboard.

Just what I wanted, as I was always accidentally moving to the dashboard when switching spaces.

No hacks/apps or terminals needed.
Before you start you can Launch Activity Monitor and filter by dashboard to see this work.
Remove all dashboard items and see that the dashboard process disappears.
Add them again and all is back to normal.
And then use Greg's answer to remove it from Spaces.

No, that wouldn't work because the LaunchDaemons are still active, and rebooting will only bring it back.

To permanently disable Dashboard

open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app
enter these commands, authenticate when prompted:
defaults write com.apple.dashboard mcx-disabled -boolean YES; killall Dock
sudo mkdir /System/Library/LaunchDaemons\ (disabled)
sudo launchctl unload -w com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist
sudo mv /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.dashboard.advisory.fetch.plist \
        /System/Library/LaunchDaemons\ (disabled)/


text:
Not able to send emails through Microsoft Outlook on iPhone
I use Microsoft Outlook as my email client but I also have separate Gmail account on my iPhone 4S which has no problems sending or receiving emails. On my Outlook account at home I can always receive and send emails but only receive from my iPhone. When sending a message from my iPhone it says that the recipient has been rejected by the server.
It keeps trying to send but keeps rejecting.

When you say that you use Microsoft Outlook as your email client, do you mean the desktop client or the web client (outlook.com)?  If it's the latter, then the answer from HelpingHand is the one you need.  If it's the former, then you'll need to tell us who provides your email service (your employer, Comcast, or something else).  If you tell us what version of Outlook you're using, and on which operating system, we might be able to tell you how to get the necessary information out of Outlook.

There are two methods for adding an Outlook account to your iPhone:
In the Mail, Contacts, Calendars --> Add account section of the Settings app:

When adding the account you select "Hotmail" (Outlook) and type in your email and password.
You select "Other" and type all information required.

Unless its too hard and it may delete something that you need, delete the mail account, and create another one using the opposite method of how you originally created it.
This may help. (If it does, upvote or confirm)

When you add an account to your email accounts, have you entered the correct information?
I have my work email address connected through MS Exchange fine, and is on my iPad.
Email: sample@outlook.com
Server: mail.outlook.com
Domain: outlook.com
Username: sample@outlook.com
Password: *****
Description: Outlook Emails
Use SSL: On

Obviously, you replace the details with your own.


text:
How can I analyze and resolve a freezing menu bar?
My menu bar is freezing up. Whenever I put my cursor near it, I get the spinning wheel of death (rainbow ball). I opened spotlight and it's stuck indexing. The progress bar isn't moving.
I've tried rebooting, I've killed SystemUI and I've removed the SystemUI preference file but the problem persists.
How can I further analyze and resolve this issue?

Also, apps are hanging too. Here's CleanMyMac2's log. http://pastebin.com/fCmcjUr1

That's a crash report which may or may not be related to the problem at hand. To get some more details here, can you add a (link to a) screenshot of Activity Monitor (ordered by CPU%) and check whether any of the logs in /var/log show anything interesting? It might also help to deactive any add-ons which install themselves in the menu bar and reboot.

I had the exact same problem for a while now and finally figured out how to fix it. My problem was directly related to 3-party menu icons though, FYI.
Open the utility called Activity Monitor and select the offending applications (they will be red and say "not responding") one at a time. Then click the upper leftmost button with the X in it and select Force Quit. That should remove the icon from the menu bar.


text:
Sharing Google Calendar with wife so she can see it on iPhone
So I have two calendars that I share with my wife. One is normal (which she can see all details for) and the other (my counseling calendar) is for my therapy client schedule. I want her to be able to see when I'm busy but no details, as I put the client's name so I know who I'm going to be counseling at the appointed time. I set the share settings to public but so it wouldn't show details (only free/busy time). And when she logs into her Google calendar on a computer, it shows up correctly, i.e. it only shows the appointments for me as being "busy."
So the main issue is this: I cannot get her iPhone to be able to show my counseling calendar. When she goes to the Google Sync page on her iPhone where you can choose which calendars you want your iPhone to sync with, my counseling calendar will not show up. It will only show up if I give her rights to see details... which is unacceptable because of patient confidentiality, etc.
Has anyone heard of this problem or have any ideas??

Did you try googling it beforehand? Here is what came up on google: http://email.about.com/od/googlecalendartips/qt/Make_a_Google_Calendar_or_Free_Busy_Information_Public.htm

It appears those instructions have already been followed; I wonder if this might not be a failure of the iOS Google Calendar client.

The iOs Calendar client doesn't support availability-only calendars, that's why they are not listed on the Google Sync settings page.
Sorry!


text:
Kill processes automatically that get over x % CPU
I have a (rather annoying) process on my iMac that tends to get out of control.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to get rid of it. Much as I want to.
This process is fine at first - using 1-2 % of my dual-core CPU.
Then it happens. The entire machine slows down. If I can manage to get Activity Monitor open, I can see that the offending process is using 200%, even 300% of my CPU.
Not fun.
If I can get Activity Monitor or Terminal open, and kill the process, it will restart itself and behave like a good little process. For a while. The it goes crazy again.
Being an iOS developer, I'm thinking that the best way to combat this process is an automated assistant.
What I have in mind is a background process that would kill the offending process as soon as its CPU usage hits X%, say 50 or 75%. The the process will restart and become sane without my intervention.
Is it possible? I can write code, AppleScript, anything to make the machine usable again.

Is this a user process, or a system process? Have you tried nice on the process?

@demure Nope. What's the usage, and what does it do?

nice can change the scheduling priority of a process. see man nice*. Example: nice -n 19 process_name

@Undo what is the process that misbehaves?

@Undo Under OSX anti vurus programs call more issues than they solve :) One of he reasons many prople recommend not using them

@Mark We don't use the AV part. I'm an iOS Dev :)

@Undo uninstall Intego antivirus, you don't need it.

This post suggest using monit.
As you have given no details as to the nature of the process, I can't advise whether their suggested config would be of any use for you.

Does that run on OSX? the blog is for Linux and the download page ncludes several Unicies nut not OSX. I ask as i is likelyto deal with system level APIs which differ in OSX.

As you can see from the download page, there is a
macosx-universal binary.

SOrry I missed that the first time I read it


text:
Power Mac G4 doesn't start anymore
I have an old Power Mac G4 here that stopped working recently. It just doesn't start anymore when pressing the power button, not even a light or anything. It just doesn't react to the power button at all.
I have an old Power Mac G4 Digital Audio here that doesn't start anymore. The suspicion fell immediately on the power supply, as that had failed before and was already exchanged once. This time we bought an adapter that allows the use of a standard ATX power supply, but that didn't work as well. Nothing at all happens when pressing the power button, not even the fan of the new power supply starts.
I tried a PMU reset in a few variants, with or without removing the battery. This changed nothing. I also checked the battery itself, and it only provides around 3V, not 3.6V as it should.

Can the battery alone cause this problem? I would expect battery problems to occur later, and not stop the computer completely from starting.
Are there any ways to circumvent the power button and give the signal to start up the computer directly?
Any other ideas on what the exact problem could be, or how I could troubleshoot this further?

Battery alone? Eh, probably not. There should be at least some signs of life if the battery were dead - I would expect the power supply to come on, at least.
Circumvent button? Yep. Often, Apple engineers will leave little debug buttons or contacts on the motherboard that allow you to power it up. They might be buttons, or they could be two little contacts you have to bridge with a screwdriver.

Note: To do that, you would have to have the machine connected to power and open. Don't touch anything inside the machine while connected to power. That shouldn't need explaining, but anyway...

Other ideas? Fried MB. Seriously. I had an iMac G5 (and I think and iMac G4 too) die of a fried motherboard, and it had the exact same symptoms. Before it died, there were some, uh, weird graphics problems. Like the volume control overlay coming up black and not going away. Stuff like that.


text:
Ditto's equivalent in Mac
can you help me find an equivalent clipboard management programs in OS X?
I am used to how Ditto- clipboard manager (copy-paste stack) works and was unable to search for a replacement using "ditto Mac" as search terms.

Other related questions: http://apple.stackexchange.com/search?q=clipboard+history

@EladBenda This article maybe helpful http://gigaom.com/2009/06/02/10-clipboard-managers-for-os-x/


text:
How to install Snow Leopard from XP on MacBook?
The only OS installed on my MacBook is a XP pack 3.
I would like to install Snow Leopard on XP but when I boot from CD , It does not work I have a "panic kernel error"
any help ?

you have to make a bootable usb disk.
Transmacfor for Windows (2-week trial) can format USB drives for mac and restore .dmg files to USB drives.
http://www.asy.com/scrtm.htm
Download Transmac and install in Windows
In the right-side panel of Transmac, right click on your USB Drive >> Format Disk >> Format with Disk Image
Point to your .dmg file and click Open.
your USB Drive has to be at least 8GB.

but I have Snow leopard on CD ?


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What is the Master Agreement when trying to transfer an iOS app?
I'm trying to transfer an app to another developer, but when I click transfer the only criteria which is not checked is Master Agreement:

Where is this Master Agreement, and how can I fix this?

At the moment I get the same too. I expect Apple will fix this over the next few days.

The Master Agreement is now check marked. I guess Apple fixed this for my account on June 12.

I know we normally close developer questions and send them to stack overflow, but we're working on getting iTunes connect questions a place to come and live, so that means some developer looking questions might arrive. Let's talk on [meta] if anyone has serious heartburn about this change.

Well, the same thing happened when Apple last updated the developer portal: It took them a few days to fix up the ability to edit provisioning profiles and some other things.

You need to check your Contracts, Tax, and Banking information.

To resolve this issue, you need to check your Contracts, Tax, and Banking information. If you have Request button on the page, you have to click and review it.

After review it and check the box then submit.

Source: blog.jaey.ca: Master Agreement Criteria Not Met

+1 This is the best answer of the group. I was able to solve the problem posted by the original question without contacting Apple support. Thanks to both @Sanghoon and @grgarside!

This worked for me as well. Make sure you wait for your contracts to finish processing though. AKA there shouldn't be any contracts in the "Contracts In Process" section. Same goes for the recipient of the transfer.

I had to sign out from iTunes Connect and sign in again so that an alert message directing me to the new agreement would show up. I think it was a bug in the site not to show it in Agreements section from the start without need to re-login.

My 1 year membership expired, so I wanted to transfer this. Do i have to have a valid membership in order to transfer?

The correct action when you have a problem with your legal agreements is to call developer relations if it's impacting your business and you can't figure out how to solve the issue online.

https://developer.apple.com/contact/

In this case, a widespread software issue on the Apple side could cause this. Also it could be a more narrow issue, with the software not storing the electronic agreement properly or your account is in a state of transition or error. You may need someone on the inside to either correct the records or point you to what (and when) you can resolve this yourself.
In this case, it's an account management issue so log in with your developer ID and either fill in the form or call the numbers listed for your account.

https://developer.apple.com/contact/submit.php

This happens also when you are trying to transfer paid app or app with in-app purchases and you do not have "iOS Paid Applications" or "iAD App Network" contracts in effect.
Go to "Contracts, Tax and Banking" and check (or / and request) if you have all contact, bank and tax info sorted out for them.

What are the requirements for transferring an app?
To transfer an app, make sure that:

The transferor and the recipient have active developer accounts and accepted the most current version of all master agreements that are currently in effect
The app has at least one approved version
The app is in the Ready for Sale, Invalid Binary, Rejected, Developer Rejected, or Developer Removed from Sale state
Any associated In-App Purchases are in the Ready to Submit, Ready for Sale, Rejected, Developer Removed from Sale, or Approved state
You know the Apple ID of the recipient’s Team Agent and their Team ID

If the app uses iAd, the transferor and the recipient must have accepted the most current version of all iAd contracts.

Pulled info from Apple's FAQ in developer center:
https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa/wo/146.0.0.13.7.2.7.9.3.1.2.3.3.1.1.3.2.1.3.0.1.0.9.0.1.1.1

I had the same problem,
The IOS developer licence had recently been updated and I had to agree to it again, then this "Master Agreement" field was green and I could transfer the app.
I would recommend jumping into your Developer member center, and you can agree to the licence.
https://developer.apple.com/membercenter/index.action#updateAgreement


text:
Launchpad Icon in my Launchpad
I have accidently "dragged" launchpad onto the launchpad icon in my dock, thus it added the launchpad icon into my launchpad, how can I remove it from my launchpad?
Help appreciated!

Right click + remove ?

you can't right click on launchpad ...

sorry, Open Launchpad and Hold Option key.....ect

You can't delete Apple apps from Launchpad by holding the option key and pressing the "x"

Launchpad Manager
Launchpad Manager will allow you to delete any app from your Launchpad. Just open it, select Launchpad (or any other app) and ⌘ cmd+⌫ backspace.

To delete Apple aps from Launchpad without installing another questionable program from www you can do it your self from Terminal.

sqlite3 ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/*.db "DELETE from apps
  WHERE title='APPNAME';" && killall Dock

...replacing “APPNAME” with the name of the application you want to remove from Launchpad :)

How about adding one?


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OS X 10.8.3: how do I get it to remember my finder windows when I reboot?
I've looked all over for this, but with "windows" being a major OS name, it's pretty hard to search for this issue. :(

Feel free to edit in details to explain how the linked question doesn't solve your issue and we'd be happy to re-examine it and re-open it if needed. It will help with search terms in the mean time

No, that's a duplicate. I read through 7 pages of search hits here, and didn't come across that. Search-fu failure. :( Is it better if I delete this?

No worries at all, if you edit in the search terms you used - we will get a hit for those exact terms for the next person :-) Closed questions serve a very useful function here since they get indexed by google and lead to the real answers most of the time.

"osx remember finder windows" were the words I searched for here, so they're already in the question title there. :)


text:
Roll back from OS X Mavericks ( or any newer OS) to Mountain Lion
I installed the developer preview of OS X Mavericks, & too many things broke. I can't stay on it & need to roll back to Mountain Lion. Any ways of doing that? Please help!
I originally installed Mountain Lion & Mavericks through the Mac App Store.

I'm reopening this since it's more about how to erase a Mac and get back to an older OS than it is about any features in 10.9.

Also see this thread for someone that downloaded a newer OS from developer and wanted to get back to a stable release version of Mountain Lion. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/93751/installation-stuck-in-a-loop-due-to-damaged-hd

What I’m trying to do is install the OS X Mountain Lion installer on an external drive... I’ll be sure to keep you posted!

For link purposes: Can I reinstall Mavericks after I got Yosemite? – there are multiple questions …

Since the question does not mention backups, I guess there aren't any.  What you can try in this case, is to make a time machine backup (e.g. on an external USB Harddrive) of the current Mavericks partition.
Then do a clean install (as suggested by jaume) and then use the migration assistant getting your data back from the Maverick backup into Mountain Lion.

This is a good idea.  With the caveat, that occasionally (like, the mailbox format between 10.5 and 10.6, IIRC) some of the system apps will convert the data into a forma unreadable by older versions.  Still, it's better than starting over completely.

Startup volumes for OS X Mavericks 10.9.4 (13E28) and pre-release Yosemite 10.10 (14A298i) are not recognised by Migration Assistant 5 (521) in Mountain Lion 10.8.5 (12F45). Whether 12F45 can attempt migration from a Time Machine backup of 13E28, I don't know … but considering the nearby answer from @bmike, I should not recommend any such attempt without first fully understanding the possible negative consequences.

Migration Assistant in Mavericks explicitly prevents migration from a newer operating system (pre-release Yosemite) – I'll add to the linked question. If Migration Assistant in Mountain Lion can work with Mavericks data, I should certainly treat it as a bug. I can't imagine that the older assistant is designed for that task.

If you backed up your Mac before installing OS X Mavericks please take a look at:

OS X: About OS X Recovery (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718)

If you want to do a clean install, take a look at:

OS X Mountain Lion: Erase and reinstall OS X (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH11273)
OS X Mountain Lion: Reinstall OS X (http://support.apple.com/kb/PH10763)

To reiterate the obvious, you cannot simply roll back to a previous version of the OS. Many parts of the system like iTunes and iPhoto keep backup copies of library files so you can revert back once you handle the OS erase / reinstall.
Other data buckets like iCloud sync and email, calendars, contacts should be exportable or stored elsewhere. You may have to re-implement the settings you choose since they may be changed to a format that doesn't allow a simple copying back of preference files from a newer OS to an older OS.

I had the same issue as you. I was stuck in Mavericks and any time I'd try to boot and select a Mountain Lion installer, it wouldn't work.
This is what I did:

Booted holding cmd + r, which then showed the recovery options
Open Disk Utility
Erase the hard drive
Shut Down
Boot computer
It should show a rotating globe and a progress bar
After that is complete, you should be able to install Mountain Lion!


text:
How can I get Nike+ to play songs from Spotify?
Recently I've started using the Nike+ app on my iPhone to keep track of the distances and times when I go for a run in the park. I noticed that it has a power songs feature, which I haven't tried out as yet, I imagine it would allow me to specify particular songs that I can listen to while running.
When I try to use the power songs feature, it only lists the songs that I have in iTunes, I only have a small collection of itunes songs that I would care to listen to whilst running and would prefer to find a way of using the songs that I have on Spotify instead.
I have an unlimited Spotify account so I can store my playlists offline. I am not registered with Nike+.

I'm afraid there isn't a solution currently available for this.  I've been using Nike+ alongside Spotify for over a year now by starting my Spotify playlist then starting a run in Nike+ and selecting "no music". I used to use iTunes playlists which worked with the power song feature and while that was kinda cool it's really not something I miss.
You might email them through their support page (couldn't find a feedback form) and mention it as a feature for future revisions.
http://nikeplus.nike.com/plus/support/#contact

I use Nike+ and Spotify. Turn off music on Nike+ as you go to start a run.
Go to spotify and start it. Play the playlist/music you want.
Restart Nike+ and use normally.
Nike+ still tells pace distance etc. and during those notifications Spotify music is on lower voice level.


text:
Comparing performance between the 2012/2013 MBA 13' baseline model
The MBA just launch and I did a little research on the baseline 13 inches for both years:
--
MBA 13' (2012):  i5-3317U @ 1.7GHz (turbo: 2.6GHz); 4000 Graphics: 350MHz-1050MHz
MBA 13' (2013):  i5-4250U @ 1.3GHz (turbo: 2.6GHz); 5000 Graphics: 200MHz-1000MHz
--
Since both Ivy Bridge and Haswell are 22nm, doesn't that means the 2012 model's processor has a greater power?  And same goes to the graphics?
I'm getting a sense that Apple's trying to lower their performance on CPUs, thus extended battery life, then ultimately increase the lowered performance by putting a faster SSD; and Apple did that because they really have nothing to show around to the developers and the public in WWDC anyway so they launched a new macbook air which the only thing it does is stays on for 12 hours.
Am I correct? Please correct me if I'm wrong.  Thanks!

And what is the point here ? You disagree with Apples product plans ?

Comparing with the processing/graphical powers between 2012/2013 MBA 13'

Pulling engineers from Mac OS X to iOS was a big mistake, and it turned out that they couldn't launch anything but "it will be available in the fall"

Not if you look at the sales fuígures

It could be better, but the thing I'm asking here is about the performance of the CPUs in these baseline models ...

Now your "Nothing to show" characterization must be a trollish comment thrown in. I think Phil Schiller addressed that sentiment with his "Can't innovate anymore, MY ASS!" quip while on stage.

as @bmike said below, the cpu clock speed is only one part of the speed chain. An you got it wrong, the cpu is not slower, just opposite, it is more intelligent and has wider operating range. The base clock drops to 1.3GHz across all of the models, but max turbo remains at 2.6GHz.

I very much agree with @Buscar웃 here - the range of clock rates is more important here. I haven't seen someone benchmark these two chips by pinning the clock rate at the levels written (since the CPU regulate themselves up and down all the time in clock speed as the workload changes) but branch prediction, cache fill speeds, ALU timing changes are all relevant and totally unmeasured by the bulk general speed classifications of 1.7 and 1.3 nominal GHz.

Have a look at the CPU die micrographs and reviews in the press and all are singing the same tune:

modest CPU performance gains
significant overall power reductions
dramatically better GPU - competes with mid-range dedicated GPU where the 4000 level graphics were adequate at best and lagged behind it's era of mid-range GPU substantially in many cases.

I would say the 2013 Air are a significant step up from the 2010/2012 models - enough so that I'll be selling and upgrading as soon as I can find a buyer for my current Air.
Although you mentioned only the CPU and GPU, the flash storage is benchmarked at 45% faster than 2012 (and now 9x as fast as 5400 RPM drives) and they have the 802.11ac wireless chipsets so it's quite the improvement overall.
The reviews are coming in and they seem to confirm my thoughts that the "slower" CPU in the 2013 models get more work done than the "faster" CPU from the 2012 models. Clearly the clock rate isn't the bottleneck for these tests.

The full article is the source of this image above: http://www.macworld.com/article/2041698/review-latest-intel-chip-boosts-speed-and-endurance-in-new-macbook-air.html

The haswell i5 processor that they use for the new macbook air would be the one with the lowest clock rate to reduce the use of power, but the processor found in the 2012 air is faster though before they're turbo-boosted

Faster at what? Most tasks are not constrained by one core having a full queue and running at exactly the nominal rated cloak rate. Those numbers on CPU speed do match some synthetic bench marks, but in real world tasks, a marginally slower but architecturally newer CPU almost always is faster running real world workloads. All I've read is the cache and other internal changes of the Haswell chip generation shipping now makes the 1.3 GHz chip you mentioned fight "well above its weight" to use a boxing metaphor.

@herpderp AnandTech has benchmarked the old and new Macbook Air. The result is that last year's Ivy Bridge 1.8GHz i5-3427U is comparable to this years Haswell  1.3Ghz i5-4250U regarding CPU performance.


text:
See iAd Revenue in the new iTunes Connect layout?
I'd like to know how I can see my iAd revenue in the "new" iTC layout? Two days ago there was a link in iTC (I think the label even said iAd revenue or stats), but now all I have is the new iAd Workbench.
Do you know where the new page for iAd revenue is?

Looks like apple hides the url. After log in iTunes connect, visit https://iad.apple.com/itcportal/ directly.
Update:
visit https://iad.apple.com/

While this is beyond weird, the URL worked... thank you!

Are we supposed to guess that by ourself ? Thanks @Vince !

It is unfathomable!!!


text:
iOS updating from 6.1.3 to 7
I have an iPad mini that I'm trying to update from 6.1.3 to 7 -- however, the iPad seems to say that I'm currently on the latest version. Why does this happen? Is there something I should be doing?

iOS 7 is not yet publicly released yet. It is only available to developers. Unless you are a developer you can not yet update your device. 6.1.3 is the most current software so there is nothing wrong with your device. For more information regarding iOS 7 please follow this link: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios7/


text:
List of all devices connected to "Internet Sharing" Hotspot
How Can I know which devices connected my hotspot.
Or Where I can find list of connected devices to my hotspot.

What kind of hotspot are you looking at here? Your WiFi router, your Mac offering Internet Sharing, your iOS device with Personal Hotspot enabled or something completely different?

Mac's by default internet Sharing option.


text:
Is Mac Mini's Fusion drive useful if I mostly use windows 8 through Bootcamp?
I am considering of buying a Mac Mini with a 1TB Fusion Drive. However I will rarely use OSX (except for iPhone application development) and will mostly be running Windows 8 through Bootcamp. In this setup, is it worth for me to spend extra 250$ on the Fusion Drive?

My understanding is if you want to use Bootcamp, you'll have each drive formatted and available to the software as a two-drive system and not as a one drive - fused hybrid item.

Boot Camp 5: Frequently asked questions - http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5639

Out of the box, the BootCamp software will see if you have a CoreStorage fusion drive and just put the Windows partition on the spinning HD. There, it won't even get to see the SSD nor likely any of the data that exists on a core storage volume (which is a mix of files stored on the SSD and on the HDD).
I'd still get the fusion drive since you can always experiment with the BootCamp default situation, experiment with virtualization, and decide to partition both drives to be stand-alone and run BootCamp to install Windows on the SSD itself. Worst case, you don't like the experience and take advantage of Apple's 14 day return policy to get a different Mac if you don't like your Mini once you've tried it for a week or so.

Here's what you'll likely see when you get your Mac. The SSD will be disk0 and the DHH will be disk1 and the combination of disk0s2 and disk1s2 will be the raw space that fuses into Macintosh HD to be a logical:
MacMini:~ me$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         999.4 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk1s3

In system profiler under storage, you'll see something similar to this:
Macintosh HD:

  Available:    1 TB (1,000,499,220,480 bytes)
  Capacity: 1.11 TB (1,111,826,497,536 bytes)
  Mount Point:  /
  File System:  Journaled HFS+
  Writable: Yes
  Ignore Ownership: No
  BSD Name: disk2
  Volume UUID:  32F084C9-A737-34BE-9567-165721D02C07
  Logical Volume:
  Revertible:   No
  Encrypted:    No
  LV UUID:  CDBF5035-78F6-4302-B90E-2B9034324A26
  Logical Volume Group:
  Name: Macintosh HD
  Size: 1.12 TB (1,120,333,979,648 bytes)
  Free Space:   115 KB (114,688 bytes)
  LVG UUID: D0EFA715-18BE-408E-8149-838206F04AFB
  Physical Volumes:
disk0s2:
  Media Name:   APPLE SSD SM128E Media
  Size: 120.99 GB (120,988,852,224 bytes)
  Medium Type:  SSD
  Protocol: SATA
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type:   GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  Status:   Online
  S.M.A.R.T. Status:    Verified
  PV UUID:  94835A4F-7029-4334-A9B9-A4F510A11157
disk1s2:
  Media Name:   APPLE HDD ST1000DM003 Media
  Size: 999.35 GB (999,345,127,424 bytes)
  Medium Type:  Rotational
  Protocol: SATA
  Internal: Yes
  Partition Map Type:   GPT (GUID Partition Table)
  Status:   Online
  S.M.A.R.T. Status:    Verified
  PV UUID:  06A43A8A-0F80-4A9F-9034-BD6486F3AA34

Thank you, bmike. So if I have a two-drive setup with Windows residing on HDD, will SSD not be used in any way when I run Windows?

Windows will see two drives. The entire SSD will be a core storage volume with content it can't read. The half of the HDD will be it's boot partition, the other half will be a core storage volume with content it can't read. Only if you deleted the two core storage partitions that Apple places on both drives when they ship will windows have the ability to write to the SSD.

authors: สมิง'นนท์ เทพารักษ์


text:
prevent doubleapple files creation when tarring directories (Snow Leopard)
I'm looking how to prevent tar from saving or creating .AppleDouble shadow files and preferably do it in an automated manner. There are a few questions asking why this happens, but I want a solution that helps me prevent this in practice.
What do I need to do using terminal when I tar a directory to prevent these files from being generated?
The duplicate (linked above) as it has been pointed out shows a whole bunch of lines which I do not understand. I'm pretty new to working with Terminal, so that is probably the reason why I don't grasp it.
$ xattr -l file.jpg
com.apple.quarantine: 0002;50d20c48;Tweetbot;
$ tar -cf 1.tar file.jpg
$ tar -tf 1.tar
./._file.jpg
file.jpg
$ COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -cf 2.tar file.jpg
$ tar -tf 2.tar
file.jpg

I just cannot imagine that every time I want to tar a directory I need this bunch only to achieve not getting duplicates.
Regarding the solutions given below in the comments, does it mean that every time I want to tar something I have to use that whole line? Or is there a way to tell the system to set this as the default behaviour when tarring files?

Set COPYFILE_DISABLE to some value, like COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -cf directory.tar directory.

Thanks @LauriRanta I saw that question, but did not understand the answer.
So what you're saying is that every time I tar a folder, I will have to add the COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 ? Isn't there a way to do that automatically each time I tar files/directories?

I use an alias like alias tarc="COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar --exclude '\\.DS_Store' -c". alias tar="COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar" would also make tar -x keep ._ files.

The other question might ask why but the answer on it does answer how to stop the odd files so the question/answer is a duplicate not the text now says "This question already has an answer here:"

Well, with all due respect, but the answer that @LauriRanta gave about making an alias actually does answer my question and looks - imho - a whole lot different from the "duplicate", which says nothing on how to automate this.

I've re-opened this since we only intend true duplicate questions to be closed. I will need @piet to help edit the question so that all the question is clear (especially why related questions don't help this case) and then put the answer in the answer section and not in the question section. Be sure to elaborate on which answer doesn't help you (perhaps linking to the share button on the answer discussing COPYFILE_DISABLE)...

@LauriRanta answered the question by giving two solutions.
The first solution is to use COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar -cf directory.tar directory each time you want to tar a directory without the hidden files.
Her 2nd solution however - and also the one I was looking for - shows how to automate the whole lot by using an alias. If you don't know what an alias is (I didn't) there is a great tutorial available here that shows how to create a temporary alias (only valid for current session) and a permanent alias (stays valid even after turning your Mac off).
I used Lauri's suggestion with a few additions to create a permanent alias:
alias tarc="COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar --exclude '\\.DS_Store' -zcf"

so next time I want to tar a directory without overhead I only have to write tarc chosen-gzipped-tar-filename.tgz name-of-directory-i-want-to-tar/ and beam it up to my webhost.
Thanks for all comments and input!


text:
A 250 GB HDD stuck with one 180 GB partition
I have a 250 GB hard drive in my MacBook Pro, I used to have a 70 GB BootCamp partition installed, leaving the Mac partition to 180 GB.
Now I no longer need to have BootCamp, so I deleted it using a Ubuntu live CD.
The reason I did it this way was because after upgrading to Mavericks, OS X no longer recognised my BootCamp partition for some reason.
But after deleting the partition, my Mac partition got stuck on 180 GB, with no possibility to make it 240 GB (excluding the EFI and recovery partitions).
This is my current:
Last login: Sat Jun 15 00:55:02 on console
MacBookPro:~ auser$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            179.6 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
MacBookPro:~ auser$

I have solved the problem now.
All I had to do, is the following, in the right order:
1. Go to Disk Utility > 250.06 GB Hitachi HTblablabla > Partition.
2. Click on "Recovery HD".
3. Click +.
4. Click - on the newly created partition.
5. Click - on the Recovery HD, which suddenly jumped from 650 MB to 62 GB.
6. Resize "Macintosh HD" to 249,72 GB.
7. Click "Apply".

PS: it takes a hell lot of time to finish the process.


text:
Why does Pages all the sudden need permission to print?
I just tried to print something in Pages and got this:

The printer was paused, and I was asked to resume it, but this? Why?
Pages 4.3 on OS X 10.8.4.

Open keychain and find Pages.
Right click and click on Get info
in the you can set the access and change it to what you need.
this is an example only


text:
How do I recover a HFS+ journaled drive?
EDIT: I found a quasi-solution that sort of kind of works:
mount -o loop,offset=209739776,rw -t hfsplus /dev/sdc /mnt/mountpoint/

It appears (via "find /mnt/mountpoint/") that all my data is there, but attempts to access some of my data yields an "input/output error".
I had an external 2 or 3 TB (I'm not sure which) USB drive connected
to my Mac (running OS X Snow Leopard) with an HFS+ journaled
filesystem on it.
The drive was working fine, but was a bit slow and occasionally gave
I/O errors, so I backed up my files and ran fsck_hfs on it.
fsck_hfs died while trying to rebuild the B-tree, and the drive won't
mount at all now. Also, I lied about making backups first.
How do I get this drive working again? Given the redundancy of HFS+,
this should be possible no? Other notes:

If I run fsck.hfsplus -df /dev/sdb3 on a Linux box, I get this:

** /dev/sdb3
        Block 1565298166 is not an MDB or Volume Header
** Checking HFS Plus volume.
   Invalid number of allocation blocks
(-1, 0)
        IVChk - volume header total allocation blocks is greater than device size
        volume allocation block count 732533183 device allocation block count 195662271
** Volume check failed.
volume check failed with error 7
        volume type is pure HFS+
        primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
        alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
        primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
        alternate VHB is at block 1565298166 0x5d4c8df6
        sector size = 512 0x200
        VolumeObject flags = 0x03
        total sectors for volume = 1565298168 0x5d4c8df8
        total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00

Using a Perl script and "seek", I can see some of my filenames
  surrounded by information that I assume is telling me where on the
  drive to find my files. If all else fails, I'll pursue recovering
  files this way, but I'd prefer a "cleaner" recovery option.

DiskWarrior 4. It will run you $99. I've used DiskWarrior for several years and I'm very pleased with the results.
Data Rescue 3. $99. Similar to DiskWarrior, just an alternative program. Never used it before, but I've heard some good things about it. It's also sold in the Apple Store which gives it a lot of credibility.

OK. I was hoping for a free option, but maybe there isn't a good one.

@barrycarter Nope :)

even if this question is some time ago, for those who read it, I got another solution: Try testdisk, which is a cross-platform disk recovery tool. It helped me very often.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
Sorry for my bad english.

testdisk can help with restoring a partition table, but not repairing the actual filesystem in this case


text:
Lost contacts after turning off Exchange
On my iPhone, I gave it to another person who used it and added contacts.  Later I turned off the calendar, contacts, ets. (he didn't have the password) but some of his contacts disappeared.  Can I recover them?

When you delete Exchange account, sync deletes all of the contacts that are stored trough it. You can try to set up Exchange again to get that contacts synced on the phone (you said there is no password assigned) and then use this guide to keep them stored after turning off the Exchange account http://iphone-contacts.blogspot.com/2013/03/keep-your-exchange-contacts-on-your.html

Method #1
Go to settings/icloud on your phone.  Make sure you are logged with your Apple ID.
Contacts should be on, click on it to turn it off and choose keep (even though you show no contacts)
When the process is done go ahead and turn on contacts again, choose merge.  All your contacts should show up if you had a previous backup to icloud.
The difficulty in restoring iCloud data from a back up is that the back up is older than the current version on iCloud and anything that is restored gets removed again when an iCloud sync occurs.
Source
Method #2

Ensure the device is connected to your local network.
Start the restore from iCloud back up.
Allow the devices settings to restore (watch for the confirmation of
completion).
As the apps begin to restore, disconnect your Internet (e.g. pull the connection to your router WAN port - the one that goes to the telephone point).
Wait for the time out confirmation.
Navigate to settings > iCloud and turn off contact syncing (keep
contacts when prompted).
Reconnect the router to the internet and let the restore process
complete.
Delete any iCloud contacts from iCloud.com on a computer.
Navigate to settings > iCloud and turn on contact syncing (merge
contacts when prompted).

May I suggest that you carry out a back up to iTunes before you try anything, that way should things become even worse, you can at least restore iPhone contacts back to where you are now.
Source


text:
File Sharing Read & Write issue
I just ran into this odd behavior today while transferring files via the file sharing feature in Mac OS X.
What happened was most of the files I transferred changed the Read & Write permissions to Read only. These were mainly .css and .html files.
Any one had this before or know whats going on here?
Thanks!

I assume the receiving site did that ? Do you have admin access to it ?

Which file sharing protocol are you using, AFP or SMB/CIFS? Did you have to type a password to transfer the files? Is your Mac on the sending or receiving end? Which OS is running the other computer?


text:
New Mac Machine is asking apple id
New Mac Machine is asking apple id on start up of machine is it really required or mandatory to have an apple id to start with this? if so can i create an apple id without providing any credit card info?.
Please guide this newbe...

Why not call their customer support? You bought their product, they should fix it for you.

You cannot create an apple ID without putting in your card details. However I believe you shouldn't need to put one in, in order to log in.

@geminiCoder You can create an Apple ID without entering any credit card information, see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534.

To avoid people telling you to press the skip button, please edit in some more details on what exactly you don't get about this one form on setting up OS X. (You will also find that reading the guide on [ask] and sticking to one question per question works best on the Stack Exchange sites.)

The article on how to create an Apple ID without supplying a credit card is common to iOS and Mac OS X, so I'll point you there and you can feel free to edit this to reopen it if you find the answers here aren't what you sought.

The AppleID is used for a number of services such as iCloud storage and purchasing apps from the Mac app store. An AppleID isn't required to create an account, however, so you should be able to skip the 'create an AppleID step'.

You can absolutely skip the Sign in / Create AppleID step, simply click the "Skip" button in the lower right corner of the window:

You can always sign in and/or create an AppleID after the fact.  After skipping the step in the initial setup you WILL be prompted to create an account, however this is a local user account that will be used to administer your Mac, this is in no way attached to AppleID aside from enabling the option to "allow AppleID to reset this password".

+many points for the proper use of a black stick to focus attention on the skip button.

Is there a way to bypass it in command line?


text:
/etc/fstab file no longer working when writing on a NTFS disk
My Macbook Pro runs 10.6.8 and I have a NTFS 500G disk.
In order to write into the disk, I had tried to edit the /etc/fstab file.
It did work for years, but recently, I found it do not work and I don't know why.
Can anyone tell me why it has stop working and how to fix it?
I know installing some softwares can solve this problem, but I prefer to know why the /etc/fstab file invalid now.

The NTFS driver (ntfs.kext) Apple supplies with OS X provides read-only access. You need to get a r/w driver, and your best bet is to get on by installing OSX FUSE (File Systems in User mode), from http://osxfuse.github.io/ and then the Tuxera NTFS driver (www.tuxera.com/products/tuxera-ntfs-for-mac/), or the freeware NTFS-3G. Get the freeware version, and it works just fine. That should solve your problem.


text:
How to get Mac OS X printer preset to save paper size and not default to system default paper size?
I have a receipt printer and regular printer on my Mac and have the system default paper size set to Letter and default printer set to "Last Used"
In Safari I've setup a preset for my receipt printer but when I select it, the paper size still defaults to letter instead of the receipt paper.
I change the paper size to receipt size, select "Save current settings as preset" and all settings are saved in preset except the paper size.
How can I get the preset to save the paper size?

So you have two (2) printers in your System Preference ..Printer! For each you have set the default printing properties! So what is your question.

The Printing from Safari setup sequence for multiple printers.
Click on Print and in the pop up choose your printer and the settings you saved for it.

It will show it correctly in Presets!
When saving you will be asked for which printer the settings apply.

Does not work atleast in 10.6.8. The plist shows its saved, but the print dialog does not reflect the correct saved paper size.

The setting can only be overridden in the GUI by using an application that supports the Page Setup menu option. Apple’s apps such as Mail and Safari no longer have this menu item.
From an app that has Page Setup, make sure your preferred paper size is set correctly and in the Settings menu choose Save As Default.
If you want to try using the terminal, this website has a guide to key values:
Setting a Default Paper Size

authors: หมอผี milan หมอผี


text:
iPad and iPhone Default to Driving Instructions in Google Maps Would Like Default to Map
For a Google Maps, a URL like this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=from:90210,CA,US(You)+to:New+York,NY,US(Destination)
will show the driving instructions instead of the maps. You tap the map icon to get the map. Would like it to default to the map right away. Is this possible?
On the Google Maps app, it loads as driving instructions selector, is there a way to have the map displayed too?

The URL you listed explicitely passes information to Google Maps to put it into "driving instructions" mode. So unless you use a different URL (or just plain http.//maps.google.com/) there is no way to avoid that.


text:
Why do PNGs with embedded HTML links not open on iPhone and only allow to save as image?
My company email (sent from outlook pc) signature has social media icons at the bottom - images hyperlinked to facebook, twitter etc. The hyperlinks work perfectly when opened up on PC's and other android and windows based smartphones.
However, when received on an iPhone - tapping an image only allows you to save the image and the hyperlink isn't working.
The files are PNG's and have had nothing different done to them.
The user who created the sig said that it was created through the option within Office 2010.

Can you please add the HTML code used in your signature?

I'm sure that the datatype of IMAGE:PNG isn't set up to have clicks that have hrefs in them isn't set up to be detected and processed in the viewer on the iPhone.
Certainly appears to be a limitation in the image viewing code.
If you could save that image on your iPhone and send to your desktop over email, you could check if the href was being removed somewhere in the process, but I don't see an easy way to make this work.


text:
A2DP from phone to Mac
Is it possible to use your Mac as an A2DP receiver with your phone as the transmitter?  This way, I can get notifications from the phone while at my desk, without having to take out my headphones which are connected to my Mac?

That entirely depends on whether you can get the appropriate drivers and software for your PC.

what would you need as far as drivers and software go?  (i'm on a mac)

Software to make it act as an A2DP receiver, of course. So far this sounds more like a question about your Mac than a question about Android.


text:
Can I make a retina iPad display websites at full resolution?
In other words, can I make it appear to the web server as if the device is 2048x1536 pixels and device-pixel-ratio 1?
I'm happy to pay for an app that does does this if there is one…

I believe this could be a problem with how sites are interpreting the User-Agent string and are assuming that it's an older iPad / mobile device.
Try using the Google Chrome browser and it's "Request Desktop Version" feature.
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/chrome/id535886823

I'll try that, but I should have mentioned I've already tried something similar with Atomic Browser to no avail


text:
How to Stop the copy of ALL my pictures up to Dropbox
I accidentally touched the picture icon (lower left corner) in my iPad.
It started to upload ALL 400+ pictures to Dropbox.
I DO NOT WANT the pictures uploaded. I can't stop the upload!
And it is taking forever. It keeps telling me that I need to run Dropbox to finish the upload process.

Just a few ideas: 1) check Dropbox config in Settings. 2) Disable Dropbox access to Photes in Security in Settings. 3) remove Dropbox and carefully read the options when you reinstall it. - report your results here in case it wasn't solved.

And try going to Dropbox on the web and temporarily, at least, deleting that device.


text:
Exclude a mailbox from "All Inboxes" or compose a custom multiple inbox view
I have recently added my work mailbox to my iphone.
I have several other mailboxes that I use for non work purposes. I like to look at the mail from my non work mailboxes as though they were a single mailbox, so I use the "All Inboxes" option in the mail app.
I would like to exclude work emails from the "All Inboxes" view, is this possible? Failing that is there a way to create a view of my own that only includes my non work mailboxes?
I've had a look at Exclude mails from specific Inbox in “Inbox” view but nothing there fits my situation, and that's for mail.app anyway.
I can't see any way to create a multi inbox entry, is there a way?

Simple answer: no you cannot. But if you want, you could download other mail apps like "Mailbox" or "Mail Pilot".

This can now be done via the filter option in iOS Mail. Very handy. You just tap the filter button in the lower left, then tap the blue filter criteria in the center bottom, then adjust the options.


text:
When changing the file for a song in iTunes, the new file is not transferred to my iPod
In my iTunes library, sometimes I replace a low bit rate song that I have with a high bit rate version, such as by using the version found in iTunes Match's database. However, when I sync my iPod with iTunes, the new version of the song is never transferred to the iPod. How can I force the song to transfer? Without needing to restore the entire device, if possible, of course.

Sorry for late reply but your question is not detailed enough and requires guessing on our side. How do you replace bit rate? with what?

I subscribe to Apple's iTunes Match service, and what I do is delete a low bit rate song and download the high bit rate version from iTunes Match. I've edited my question to include this information now.

Thank you for clarifying. Did you try to delete on iPod?

One more question, what is the original bit rate of the tracks you are trying to update?

How do I delete a track on the iPod? I can only remove a track from a playlist, as far as I know. The original bit rate was 128 kbps, and the new one is 256 kbps.


text:
Getting homebrew upgrades to complete without link error interruptions?
Is there a way to invoke homebrew upgrades without having to handle errors manually? For example, when I run an update with:
brew upgrade

I get error messages like:
Error: You must `brew link libusb' before wine can be installed

Is there a way to tell homebrew to try to recover from these errors using the suggested solution without having to do something myself? I'm not customizing my homebrew installations in any way, so the suggested solutions always solve the problem and allow my re-run upgrade command to continue.

belongs on [apple.SE]

What does brew doctor tell you?


text:
How to change photo upload size in Dropbox iPad app
I'm going overseas and will be taking a lot of photos. I'm not taking a laptop, just my iPad mini. I understand that the default setting for photo uploads in the iPad app is medium. I can't see any option in setting to increase the default size to large.
How can I upload full or large size images?

I've used Files Pro to upload/download full-resolution images to/from Dropbox.  My need isn't quite the same as yours (I need to do this for accurate graphics when I'm developing apps), but perhaps this might help you.


text:
Lacie Big 5 10tb to be used as external hard drive but want security so: ZFS Raidz?
I've just bought the Lacie Big 5 10th and I want to use it as an external hard drive for my files. I was thinking of making it raid1 but then I heard about ZFS and Raidz. so that I can easily change/upgrade individual drives as time goes on
What matters to me is at least 5tb but a real safety for my files. Anybody can help me figure out what I need and how to do it?
thanks!

Do RAID 0 or RAID 6 and just user HFS+ if you're on a Mac.
I think it's best. Although I don't think RAID 6 is an native option in Disk Utility.


text:
Mute Mac Sound When Idle
I like it when my Mac announces the time every hour. It keeps me focused or provides me with a reminder to take a break. I also like it when Mail makes a sound when new messages arrive so I can check them. I like all these sounds when I'm using my computer.
What I don't like is these sounds when I'm not using my computer mainly because my Mac is in my bedroom. Usually the solution is simply to mute the Mac before bed but I sometimes forget and am woken up by an announcement telling me the time or letting me know new mail is in during the middle of the night.
Without putting my computer to sleep (I want it awake at all times when plugged in so it can do things I need it to do), is there any way my Mac can mute its sound when it is idle (or more preferably idle for some period of time)?

I wanted the same and didn't find anything nice, so I coded an app for myself. You can find the code here and already as compiled app here.
Let me know what you think.

iCal alarms can be used to activate an AppleScript.
If you're simply concerned with forgetting to unmute the Mac in the morning, set an alarm to fire this script at the appointed hour:
set volume without output muted

The opposite command, which sets the sound to "muted", is set volume with output muted. Set an alarm that activates that at night and you'll be set.

I haven't tested this, but you might run EDITOR=nano crontab -e and add a line like this:
*/5 * * * * test $(ioreg -c IOHIDSystem|awk '/HIDIdleTime/{printf "\%i",$NF/1000000000;exit}') -ge 300 && pmset -g assertions|grep -q 'PreventUserIdleSystemSleep *0'&&osascript -e 'set volume with output muted'
*/5 * * * * runs the command every five minutes. HIDIdleTime shows how much time has passed since you have for example pressed a key on a keyboard or moved a mouse. There is a PreventUserIdleSystemSleep assertion when you are for example playing music in iTunes or watching a video in VLC.
The command does not unmute the output volume when you start using the computer though.


text:
Password Protecting Folders in OS X?
What methods exist (either inbuilt or via third party) to password protect (encrypt) folders within OS X ?

If you search for "password protected folder" on this site, you will find several solutions :-)

@patrix Ah I searched for password protect, should have entered the whole search term.

No worries, your question now serves as an additional entry point for future visitors searching the same thing.


text:
What does boot.efi actually do?
I understand that when a Mac's EFI system runs, it locates the file boot.efi in the /System/Library/CoreServices/ (blessed) directory and runs this as an EFI application (subverting a large part of the UEFI specification if my understanding is correct).
My question is: what does this EFI application actually do on 10.8.4? I figure it must locate the kernel, pass through boot arguments, locate KEXTs, etc, but that is just my speculation. Is there anywhere I can find out what it does (ideally step-by-step) from a concrete source?

EFI is a contract that specifies how the hardware can find and start the software and vice versa.
Rather than have to build custom code into each new hardware device and each new software release - a standard was agreed upon and the specification was initially written by Intel.
Then a company like Apple decides to adopt a certain version of the EFI specification (perhaps even using specific implementations of the spec in hardware - either making it's own chips or adopting another company's implementation) and possibly extends/modifies the base implementation to meet Apple's needs.
From a high level, boot.efi is part of the software end of things that help shepard the hardware boot and handoff to the OS to let it run (in this case OS X 10.8.4):

The wikipedia article below is the source of the above image, as well as contains some good introductory details on EFI and Apple's use of it since 2006. Apple covers more details about their implementation of EFI and the boot process in the kernel programming guide:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extensible_Firmware_Interface
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/booting/booting.html

Now that is what I call good answer.


text:
How Do I Lock My Google Drive App (or files) on iPad?
How to lock my Google Drive app (or just one file on it) on my iPad so no one can view it if they find my iPad?

It seems that the Google Drive iOS app doesn't have this feature.
There are alternatives that do implement a password lock, like GDrive. However, its user experience seems to be overall less pretty than Google's own app.
As a marginally related side note, Dropbox iOS app does implement a password lock.

I can endorse GDrive for this functionality, as we have implemented this as a solution in my line of business.


text:
Display seconds in addition to hours and minutes on the Clock
How would I go about getting the clock on my iPhone to display the seconds beside the minutes?
I have looked at Settings → General → Date & Time, but it only allows me to choose a Time Zone, Set the clock automatically or toggle 24-Hour Time.
Is there anything I can do to cause the clock to display seconds in addition to minutes and hours?

Does the included Clock application fit the bill?

I hadn't thought to check that, I had a look and I've found that the Clock application doesn't show seconds, I've tried to find the settings for it to see if that can be changed but I can't see to locate them, are they there?

oops. maybe the upcoming OS ;)

I just checked my wife's iPhone 4. She also has the clock app. It is showing seconds in the World clock section. I'll look to see if there are other ways.

@DavidDelMonte I've just noticed that the world clocks have a red hand ticking for seconds, but there isn't a numeric value. What I'm really trying to achieve is to change the clock that is displayed at the top and also when the phone is locked so that it shows seconds

Is there anything I can do to cause the clock to display seconds in addition to minutes and hours?

In the default, non-jailbroken OS? I don't think so.
In the status bar on a jailbroken iPhone? Yes. It's called StatusBarSeconds.

If you look at the icon for the Clock app on your home screen it has a moving second hand. For most cases this is sufficient for me.

As they say there is an App for that.  Here is one I found:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/emerald-time/id290384375?mt=8

This doesn't address the question by the OP.

If u want to time 90 seconds set it to 2 minutes then run it down to 1 min 30 secs. Hit pause.  Now u can run 90 secs.


text:
How to easily and completely disable/enable WLAN (so it cannot be turned on again while travelling)?
Without going into specifics of why I might like to do this, or whether this is a good idea or not, I would like to know how I can disable use of wireless networking on my MacBook Air, either via removal of software or drivers or similar, such that the machine is unable to connect to a WIFI network in any way without I undo those changes.  The intention is for the machine to be unable to communicate wirelessly when out of the house, and for those changes to not be easily reverted until I return (for example requiring some piece of external storage that does not travel with me and which contains copies of whatever I have removed).
How can I easily remove and then re-allow WIFI access (without losing my stored profiles/passwords or disturbing anything else)? Is it possible to simply copy a certain app or plugin to an external drive, delete it from my laptop, and later copy it back, again having everything as it was before?

One year later
I have been happily using Daniel Lawson's solution below for quite some time now. I have created two applications with automator, one that deletes the .kext, one that restores it from an USB stick.
First, copy /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext to a USB stick and leave that stick at home.
Open Automator, select to create an "Application", then choose "Utilities" from the "Library", then "Execute Shell Script". (I'm translating this from my German menus, so the exact names may differ.)
For the "Disconnector" app, enter the following into the text area of the "Execute Shell Script" event:
echo YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD | sudo -S rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext

Replace "YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD" by your admin password. Then save the app and drag its icon to the Dock.
Now, when you are sure you want to be free of all online distractions, click the app icon, and the IO80211Family.kext is gone. Just restart your laptop and you can no longer connect to WLAN:

For the "Reconnector" app, enter the following into the text area in Automator:
echo YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD | sudo -S cp -r /Volumes/NAME_OF_YOUR_USB_STICK/IO80211Family.kext /System/Library/Extensions/

Replace "YOUR_ADMIN_PASSWORD" by your admin password and "NAME_OF_YOUR_USB_STICK" by the name of your USB stick. Save the app etc.
Now when you return home, insert the USB stick that carries the IO80211Family.kext into your laptop, click the Reconnector app icon and then restart your laptop. Now you can connect to WLAN again.
Note.
There are some security issues invovled when you echo your admin password, because by that it is written to the shell history and can be found there. I don't care, but you might, depending on your circumstances.

Discussions of willpower aside, my research suggests that the file you need to copy to the USB stick and later restore is /System/Library/Extensions/IO80211Family.kext. This will require a reboot to take effect.
Before removing any system files, be sure you have a working bootable backup of your system and time on hand to restore things should anything go wrong. I have not tested this solution on my system and am not willing to do so.

I've answered similar questions before, so I'll just link to those for reference and provide a TL;DR here
"Anything you can do or install or configure in order to produce a technical block to stop you running these apps, can also be undone", so the only real answer is to work on your will power.
The best you can hope is to try to make it more hassle than it's worth to mess around instead.  Try to create a new user account without any WIFI passwords stored etc, and force yourself to have to log out or switch users to procrastinate.  This isn't perfect, and it probably won't work.
As you say, you know the passwords by heart, so perhaps you will have to do something like set a static IP that won't route over the WIFI even if you connect because it will be different from the DHCP details you would normally be given, but obviously, as a technical measure, even this can be undone.
If this is a big big problem, you might need a combination of techncial workarounds that are backed up by another person you trust maintaining the administrator passwords to stop you from being able to undo the blocks put in place.

Your answers don't work for me and are not what I'm asking for. Note that my question includes the word "deinstall", while the other questions don't. I had a Windows laptop and there simply deleted the software that did the WiFi connection. No more WLAN for me and no way to reinstall it while not at home. Foolproof. And with software like Firefox, you can copy your app to a different HD, delete it from your computer, later copy it back and run it as if it was never gone. Maybe something similar is possible for WLAN. That's what I'm asking for.

Well, it was worth answering anyway.  Your question falls into the trap of you having already decided the answer, and merely wanting assistance in achieving it.  So you would be better to either accept ideas for other ways to solve your actual problem, or narrow the question to remove the why and focus on just getting clarification for your chosen solution.

lol, usually when I ask something straightforward without explaining the context there is a lot of back and forth about why doing what I want is not a good idea or what else I might do for what people think I want to achieve :-) Thanks for trying to help me!

I've edited your question, and you may get some better answers now, but this is still a technological way to solve a non technological problem. And this is coming from someone who isn't unaware of the issues.  I foresee a time when you might one day think "I'll just carry these files I removed on a USB stick, for emergencies only rather than leave them at home", etc etc, and be on the slippery slope again.  Best of luck.

It is VERY MUCH easier to have willpower in the quick moment I leave the house, than have to have it all day long. So it is much more likely that I'll leave the USB stick at home than it is that I don't use Spotlight to find an invisible app. The best method to exercise self-control is to avoid situations where you need it.

True, provided you had the time and inclination to actually make the modifications in the first place and put them onto the stick - that might take more will power when you just want to throw the laptop in your pack and leave. It's a fine line..

let us continue this discussion in chat

Thank you, but no, I have to study :-)

Just delete the login credentials of the WLAN of the university library.

That doesn't work, because I have memorized the login credentials (they are the same for all electronic services  and everyone knows theirs by heart). If I delete the login credentials, I can re-enter them in a matter of seconds.

You could in addition prevent non-admin users from joining new WLANs and use a non-admin user for your daily work. Still not what you need but at least better than nothing (and I agree with @stuffe that you can't win the fight against procrastination with technology)


text:
How to make the email app on iOS work like Gmail app?
I tried searching for Macy's e-receipt by typing in Macy receipt on my Mac using Gmail, and the result came back in 1 second. (some of those emails were 1 month old, and another one 2 months old).
But when I tried that using the email app on iPhone with iOS 6.1.4, nothing came back, and I click "Subject", and I changed the keyword to Macy's e-receipt and clicked "Continue Search on Server..." and it just kept on turning the spinning wheel for 2 minutes and nothing came back.
And then I searched for and installed the Gmail app on the iPhone, and type in Macy receipt and the result came back in 1 second.
So how do I make the email app standard on iOS work like Gmail's search?

@tubedogg does that question tell you how to make the email app work like Gmail's app or does it tell you to just use the Gmail app instead?

The underlying issue is that Mail.app's search appears to be broken when using it on a Gmail account. There is no way to fix that short of re-engineering Mail.app, which unless you work at Apple is not going to be possible.


text:
2.7GHz or 2.8GHz
What is the difference between

2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 and
2.8GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7

I know the difference is 0.1 GHz, but what does that mean?
It seems quite something, cause it costs $250.
Can anyone explain what it means or where to find it?
I know you can't give me a simple answer, so I would like to learn about it.
I want to understand what it means and how it affects the performance of the computer.
Where do I start?
I'm gonna use my computer for programming and video-editing, but probably not at the same time.

Which two computers have those processors? Putting the same V8 engine in a Ford Taurus will drive differently than if you put it in a Corvette.

I assume you're asking about the Macbook Pro retina, since that's the one that offers a choice between 2.7 or 2.8GHz CPUs right now. Apple doesn't like to give the actual CPU model designations, but Google can help us here, and we learn that the two CPUs are the i7-3740QM and i7-3840QM. Googling again for the difference (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=i7-3840QM+vs+i7-3740QM) finds that in addition to clock rate, there are differences in cache sizes. But within the first page of hits on that search, you can see benchmarks that show nearly identical performance for the workloads tested.
In short, I wouldn't spend $250 more for that CPU. (But I wouldn't buy a retina MBp either. :)

Very basically, this value designates the speed at which your computer's CPU runs. The faster the CPU speed, the faster, in general, the computer can process data.
In practical terms, the amount of memory, and the presence of a solid-state drive vs. a traditional HDD will make more difference in the performance of your computer than will a .1 GHz difference in clock speed.

All the other specifications are the same, the difference is just the .1Ghz.

Well, of the criteria listed above, the clock speed, especially one that is such a small difference, will mean the least. Personally, I would not pay $250 for a .1 GHz bump, but others may have a differing view.

There are multiple factors on which the clock speed depends such as the number of cores, cache memory, architecture etc.Clock speed is the rate at which a processor executes a task and is measured in Hertz, Megahertz or Gigahertz (GHz). One cycle per second is called as “Hertz”. Gigahertz (GHz) means 1 billion cycles per second and when you talk about 2.4 GHz processor, you usually mean that this is the maximum frequency of the clock to each core which is 2.4 billion cycles per second.
But if one CPU is dual core having 2.6ghz of speed and another one is a quad core having 2.5 GHz speed then obviously the second one will be faster because each core is going to have a speed of 2.5 GHz which means 4 cores * 2.5GHz.
Reference: What does GHz in processor speed mean?Clock Speed of Processor

I won't begin to guess what you might spend the $250 on if you didn't get that CPU bump, but most people should buy everything else they need (AppleCare, cables, software, cases) before paying to upgrade the CPU when there isn't a documented need to make money on a known task that would save time due to increased CPU speed.
The larger question is how to map Apple's CPU to Intel and whether industry benchmarks that will show a faster CPU does more math actually translates into an observable effect for the average (or for a specific) user.
I would say you could get good advice from the following resources:

http://www.macworld.com
http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.mactech.com


text:
Download Xcode with developer account and then change account
I have a developer account now, and I can download Xcode 5.
But soon I won't need this account anymore, and I may
get a new (organization type) account.
My question is, will I be able to use my new organization
account to write programs with Xcode 5 I downloaded previously?
And also submit possibly with this new account?
Thanks.

Yes.
If you submit the app to the App Store using your first account, then you can use iTunes Connect App Transfer to transfer it to a new account.
If you work on the app without submitting it to the App Store, you can change account and there will be no problems (you will have to change the App ID & provisioning profiles if you obtained these with the old account).

A downloaded copy of Xcode is not linked to an account, so you can use Xcode with any account, or no account.
The limitations come with the documentation - pre-release documentation will not be available in Xcode if you don't link an account, however Xcode will still work fine without the documentation. Once you add a new account, the documentation will download and be accessible. Documentation downloaded with your current developer account will not need to be re-downloaded if you switch account.

grgarside, thanks, I just means something slightly different, I will explain what now. Say I have developer account X now. I download Xcode 5 and start working on some application now (I am not sure if I must supply my account name). Then afterwards, I change developer account. Will I be able to continue working on this same application with the new account? Thanks.

yes, so the idea is I will have Xcode 5 with some developer account  (say X) that I won't need in future. So my question is basically should I start working on my new application now, with this old (X) account? (with the possibility to change it later to new account. I won't submit the app with the old account).

@user2568508 Yes, you can. When I was developing my first iOS app, I developed with a free account, then when the time came to submit to the App Store, I purchased a developer account and updated my bundle identifier, and everything worked fine.