text:
True Full Screen in Firefox?
In OSX, how do I have a true full screen? When I go to full screen mode, the tab and navigation bar are still showing. Those toolbars are annoying when I try to watch a movie, etc.
This is the shot of the top of the screen:
EDIT: I realized this may apply to other browsers such as Safari

Chrome has a presentation mode.

Most website movie players have a full-screen button (usually two arrows pointing to opposite corners of the screen) that enlarges the movie to fill the screen completely. Use that instead of the green Zoom button in the upper-left corner of the window.

I'm on MacOS, January 2022.  To accomplish what we want:

Go to Firefox "full screen" mode as normal (e.g. Ctrl-Cmd-F)

On upper right of the screen is the "hamburger menu" (three horizontal lines); right-click it, then select "Hide Toolbars".

No Firefox extension needed.

This worked like a charm

This should be the accepted answer!

This should 100% be the accepted answer! Worked great!

I had to control-click / right-click on an empty area outside of the of the address bar to get a similar context menu so the menus must have moved, that option is not in the “hamburger menu” anymore.

On the about:config page search for the following key
full-screen-api.allow-trusted-requests-only
and set it to false
Then you can create a bookmark 'link' with the following 'location':
javascript:document.documentElement.requestFullscreen()
Edit: new FF supports shorter syntax, thanks @trss for suggestion

My mind is blown good sir. Haven't seen this functionality in Firefox since ~2013, thank you!

Remember that bookmarks can have a keyword, which allows you to activate this by going to the address bar and typing the keyword you've specified.

I was just looking for a one time solution and this pointed me in the right direction. Went with opening the console and adding the script to a click handler. BTW, document.documentElement is short (and clean) for document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].

This is the only thing that's remotely worked in my system including several add-ons and dropping a css file in the firefox profile. +1

On about:config, set browser.fullscreen.autohide to true 1.
Bonus: also set ui.prefersReducedMotion to 1 and you'll have a slightly faster animation on macOS (or a hugely faster animation on Windows or Linux).

Thank you! Worked on Firefox version 105.0.3 (64-bit), on MacOS Monterey v 12.5.1.

If you don't find ui.prefersReducedMotion in your about:config, just create it. Worked for me.

2022 update
This answer is no longer correct due to native integration of this feature into Firefox. Look to other answers for better options.
Original answer
By default there's no way to do this in native Firefox, but there is an extension called Toolbar Autohide that should do exactly that! It allows you to use your mouse to make it appear again by hovering at the top of the screen where the toolbar would normally be.
Simply install the extension at that link and restart Firefox when it prompts you to do so. After Firefox restarts, right-click the toolbar and select Maximized Autohide; you should then be ready to go!
I would recommend changing an option for the add-on in the add-on manager (command + shift + a), though: under General, change Transition Type to Slide-in to make it a little prettier.
Lastly, keep in mind that hovering your mouse at the top of the screen can make the OS X bar appear as well, which can be mildly annoying (which would happen for almost any extension that does this type of thing). To get around this, make good use of key commands!

command + l brings up the address bar so you can immediately start typing in a new URL
command + k brings up the Firefox menu so you can select your print options, preferences, etc.
command + t creates a new tab and focuses on it
control + tab and control + shift + tab allows you to cycle through tabs just like command + tab and command + shift + tab allows you to cycle through windows in OS X

Hope this helps!

Note that the recommended extension is not verified for use in Firefox Developer Edition, but works nonetheless.

Unfortunately, it seems the author has removed the extension from the link you've provided.

Replacement which works as of Jan 2017: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen-plus/

@zwol unfortunately that addon completely removes all toolbars when in full screen mode. This is not recommended, because all tools now are not available. Also, security may be compromised, because the address bar (which shows some security info, e.g. https and certificates) is permanently hidden unless full screen is exited. I'm still looking for an addon that does what it should in true full screen.

As of the latest Firefox version, the extension no longer works.

Downvoted because "there's no way to do this in native Firefox" is not true. See this answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/435191/120350

@Zoltán no need to downvote. Notice the year of the question and answer — 7 years ago, this answer was correct ;) That said, I’ve updated the answer to reflect that.

I solved this by using Automator to create an Application that makes use of an Action > Utilities > Run Shell Script:
open -a Firefox
sleep 1
lsappinfo setinfo -app Firefox ApplicationType=UIElement
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to tell process "Firefox" to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to true'
sleep 0.5
for f in "$@"; do open -a Firefox "$f"; done

I set the shell script Shell: to /bin/sh and Pass input: to as arguments, save it as "Firefox Full Screen" in /Applications, change its icon as explained here and add it as an exception in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy Tab > Accessibility.
I then can click the application icon or run any of the following and it works:

open -a "Firefox Full Screen"
open -a "Firefox Full Screen" --args "https://google.com"
open -a "Firefox Full Screen" --args "https://google.com" "https://twitter.com"

I'm using this coupled with the following userChrome.css to both evade a well known issue with the macOS menu bar on full screen applications and another long standing address bar and tab auto-hide bug that Firefox have with macOS native full screen.
userChrome.css
#navigator-toolbox[inFullscreen] {
    position: relative;
    z-index: 1;
    height: 3px;
    margin-bottom: -3px;
    opacity: 0;
    overflow: hidden;
}

#navigator-toolbox[inFullscreen]:hover {
    height: auto;
    margin-bottom: 0px;
    opacity: 1;
    overflow: show;
}

#content-deck[inFullscreen]{
    position:relative;
    z-index: 0;
}

For a generic approach, check my other answer.
TIP

Firefox, by default, does not have any issue on Linux or Windows to auto-hide address bar and tabs in full screen as expected. With that said, I grabbed this userChrome.css from my ArchLinux setup. I use it on i3 and sway tiling window managers, with all the [inFullscreen] removed, to get address bar and tabs to auto-hide in normal bordless windows.

This css worked! I did have to set the toolkit.legacyUserProfileCustomizations.stylesheets preference to True in about:config. Full instructions for userChrome.css here

One way to do this is by using JavaScript. For Firefox, execute this code:
document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].mozRequestFullScreen()

On Safari, put this in a button href attribute:
javascript:if(!document.webkitFullscreenElement){document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0].webkitRequestFullscreen();} else{document.webkitExitFullscreen()}

Obviously, this isn't very graceful unless in an extension or bookmarklet.

TypeError: document.getElementByTagName is not a function
needs to be Elements (note the s), in Firefox 43 on OS X anyway

One way to do this that is handier than a bookmarklet and does not require fiddling with userChrome.css is to install Tampermonkey, then create an user-script with these contents:
// ==UserScript==
// @name         Fullscreen
// @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
// @version      0.1
// @description  Add fullscreen to every website!
// @author       You
// @match        *://*/*
// @icon         data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==
// @grant        none
// ==/UserScript==

(function() {
    'use strict';
    document.addEventListener("keydown", (e) => { if (e.ctrlKey && e.key == "F") {
        let button = document.createElement("button");
        button.innerHTML = "Switch to full screen";
        button.style.position = "fixed"
        button.style['z-index'] = "9999";
        button.style.left = "50%";
        button.style.top = "50%";
        button.style.width = "50%";
        button.style.height = "50%";
        button.style.transform = "translate(-50%, -50%)"
        button.style.background = "yellow";
        button.style.color = "black";
        button.style.border = "solid 10px green";
        button.onclick = (e) => {
            document.documentElement.requestFullscreen();
            button.remove()
        };
        document.documentElement.appendChild(button)
    }}, true);
})();

Then, Control+Shift+F will display a big button that you can click to make any page fullscreen.
The "button" step is needed because otherwise Firefox will refuse to switch to fullscreen as it believes the fullscreen request was not triggered by an user's action.

The only way I was able to get this working on FF Developer Edition v80 was the combination of:

Installing the plugin @Paul mentioned: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen_plus/

Setting full-screen-api.allow-trusted-requests-only: false in about:config

The Firefox add-on recommended by pat-s
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen-any-site/
doesn't work for me as of this date--it doesn't do anything.
I found a workaround to get a full screen with no search bar and related stuff at the top, suitable for those websites that don't have a full-screen button. Click the PIP button on the right side of the screen, and then double click the PIP screen, and it will make it a full screen without any search bar or bookmark toolbar. It has its own stop and start button, but it is not suitable for websites that have their own full screen button because, although it works for that, you lose the native controls of the websites full screen. To get out of it, click the X in the upper left corner and then click the PIP button on the right of the screen and you will be back to the original screen.

The extension Fullscreen Plus (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen_plus/) worked for me, for making full-screen of any website (note extensions do NOT function on mozilla extension web site, so you have to go to a different page).  CTRL-SHIFT-F full screens the current web site, including making the URL bar, tabs bar, and menu bar go away.
I did set full-screen-api.allow-trusted-requests-only to false and full-screen-api.macos-native-full-screen to true.  I don't think either of those were required.

For me, this addon currently works: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fullscreen-any-site/
Currently fixed to command + shift + o but maybe custom hotkeys are supported in future versions.


text:
How to display tagged files inside hidden directories?
Keeping hidden files hidden, how can I see content inside hidden directories using Finder tags.
I can assign a tag to directory A, but it does not show in Finder when I list all tag-tagged content.
.hidden_directory/
├── A
│   ├── a
│   │   └── 1.0
│   │       ├── bin
│   │       │   └── abc
...

Is this possible?
EDIT: I was able to successfully retrieve any content inside directories like Documents, even if those directories have been deliberately hidden via chflags hidden <FILENAME>.
This is not too bad, but it would be useful if I could add tags to some of the contents inside .directories to quickly access them via the GUI, but without turning hidden files on.
EDIT2: This could help some people, but it's not quite exactly what I want to accomplish.
EDIT3: The first answer here also helps, but I was hoping I could use tags instead of dragging a directory to the sidebar.

Not exactly what I was looking for, but here is a neat trick that satisfies most of my needs.
Create a new directory, hide it via chflags hidden directory, deposit tagged content in it.
Finder will cooperate with us and display all tagged content.

file is tagged dev and exists in a directory hidden via chflags. I named the directory dev as well for convenience, but this is not strictly necessary.

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
Any downside to using multiple mail and calendar apps on iOS?
I am wondering if there is a downside to using multiple mail and calendar apps on my iOS device?  Specifically the iOS devices come with apple provide apps for both, but I have found 3rd party apps that work better for me.  If I have both (Apple's app as well as the 3rd party app) configured, am I doubling the amount of data & memory I am using on the iOS device?

No downside. Either the apps will use the system's shared calendars and/or mail accounts or they will be accessing remote accounts such as a gmail account.

Yes, you definitely will double the data sent, if one uses two apps for the same account.
However, using different programs may be useful.  For example, if you want to separate your professional Exchange E-mail from your personal accounts.  This way, there is a logical separation, and you run less risk of accidentally sending out a personal mail on a business acount, and vice versa.  Some mail apps even have password or PIN protection (for example, Divide), which will keep your E-mail accounts safe, even if someone swipes your phone when you are using it.

If you use two mail apps for the same account you will be downloading the same information from the mail server twice. Which will result in around double data traffic. Emails isn't usually so much data per email but that depends of course on what you receive and how many emails that is going to be downloaded.
If you want you can check how much data that your email app used under Usage in iOS settings.

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


text:
How do I change the path that is being searched for launching an application?
I am trying to launch the D programming language compiler DMD, but the terminal is giving the following error:
dmd: failed to launch executable at /Library/Compilers/dmd2/osx/bin/dmd

But there's not folder called dmd2 under /Library/Compilers.
I can launch the dmd compiler from this path /usr/bin/dmd, but I don't want to type this path every time I need to compile a source code file.
This is my $PATH:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/texbin

Is there a way that when I type dmd it launches /usr/bin/dmd, instead of trying to language a compiler under /Library/Compilers/dmd2/osx/bin/dmd?

What's Your output of echo $PATH?

How did you install dmd (and also note that it is not good to install into /usr/bin )

What does type -p dmd show? This is the dmd you are actually running

re the install we do need to know where it was installed from so we can see the documentation

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Put /usr(bin towards the front of the PATH. The path is searched from left to right, until a suitable executable is found.

To answer your question, your PATH has to be modified to:
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin:/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/bin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/texbin

so that your shell will find
    /usr/bin/dmd
before any other one called from within one of the 2 Python library directories.
Please note: it is a dangerous practice to let any software not distributed by Apple to install anything within /usr/bin (or /bin, /sbin or /usr/sbin). This is a technic used by crapware to hide themself.

My 2nd § is inspired from @Mark 1st comment :).

If /usr/bin/dmd works and your path has /usr/bin in it, and your path is exported, then you can just type dmd. Otherwise you can change your path like this:
echo "export PATH=\"/usr/bin:$PATH\"" >> .profile

after which every new terminal will have the path you want.
(this is the method used by homebrew, macports, etc)

make sure your PATH is exported for it to work.

if the only thing you need to call is dmd, how about putting an alias in your ~/.profile?
add this to .profile:
alias dmd='/usr/bin/dmd'

then open a new terminal, or type source ~/.profile to relaunch .profile.
You can also type the alias command directly in the terminal and test it out first.  But it will not be around next time unless you put it in ~/.profile.
I do this quite a bit.  Don't like to mess with the PATH for every single app that needs bash launches and it avoids stepping on something else by mistake.
Then you just type:
dmd ...your arguments...
essentially, alias here does exactly what you don't want to do, it types out /usr/bin/dmd.


text:
Start QuickTime and set camera to iPhone from command line
I'm attempting to start QuickTime from AppleScript and select the camera of my iPhone like I do from QuickTime. I can't seem to make it change the camera.
The script I have now is:
tell application "QuickTime Player"
    set newMovieRecording to new movie recording
    tell newMovieRecording
        set camera to "iPhone"
        start
        delay 10 --(seconds)
        stop
    end tell
end tell

Of course the part of setting the camera to iPhone is not working.

What do you mean by "select the camera of my iPhone"? Could you explain what you are trying to do, because (to me) that's unclear.

In Yosemite you can see your iPhone (ios 8+) screen in Quicktime, you just need to start a movie recording and switch the camera. I want to automate that exact behavior.

Pam: I got your script to work, but when I saved it as an App, it will only start recording the regular webcam, unfortunately.


text:
Partition SSD in Yosemite for Dual-Booting Ubuntu
I've just bought a new Macbook Air (running Yosemite) and I am trying to create a partition from my Macintosh HD SSD for dual-booting Ubuntu. However when I try to create a partition in Disk Utilities, I keep getting the error "This Core Storage operation is not allowed on a sparse logical volume group." I have tried restarting the system in Recovery Mode and verifying and repairing the disk, but it did not work.  What can I do to partition? (I would prefer to not format the SSD.)

You have to boot from another device or to Internet Recovery Mode and then use the command line to modify the CoreStorage volume.
Preparation:

Backup your data.
Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive).
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.
The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot to a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an apple/akamai server.
I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.
Alternatively you may start from a bootable installer thumb drive (Mavericks or Yosemite) or a thumb drive containing a full system (Mavericks or Yosemite).

Modify CoreStorage:

Open in the menubar Utilities/Terminal
Enter diskutil cs list
Enter diskutil cs resizeStack LVUUID size with LVUUID: UUID of the logical volume and size: the final size of your Macintosh HD
Example: diskutil cs resizeStack DC2473AF-0833-4DBD-BF8F-D5D60063554A 200g
Enter exit and quit Terminal.
Reboot to your main volume.
Start installing Ubuntu to the now unallocated disk space.


text:
Trackpad and USB mouse frozen
my girlfriend broke her trackpad of her MacBook white 2009 and now she's using a USB mouse. This does not work properly and gets often stuck. Do you think the sto issues are related? DO you have any suggestion on how to fix this?

There is every possibility the trackpad is still generating data, even if only randomly.
The only two alternatives I could think of would be

Get it fixed, or
Disconnect it

Thanks! I'll try to disconnect it as soon as I get an Y3 screwdriver.

Wish you luck :)


text:
Disable display mirroring for every possible future display
Is there some 'defaults write' or other trick to tell OS X to never mirror displays? (Unless they're at least as good resolution as the retina display.)
I thought I had display mirroring disabled completely just from the 'displays' options. Every time I used one of the extra displays (projectors, TV) I regularly use, I got a them as additional displays, not mirrored. But today, giving a presentation, I attached another new projector, and it was mirrored. The horror! My desktop was left after that like my house would be after a robbery. I hate mirroring, because it squeezes the retina display into 640x480, and I have to rearrange all the windows back into reasonable sizes afterwards.

Sorry this isn't an answer. Did you find one elsewhere? Because an answer for this would change my life. As a VJ each night I connect to a new projector, and each time it scrambles the windows open on the internal display as it defaults to mirroring for each new projector.

Sorry, no - there's no such option on current macOS versions.
You can submit a radar with a feature suggestion at:
https://bugreport.apple.com/
However I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you. It is probably not one of the most requested features right now, although I think it would be very useful for me as well.


text:
Does iTunes Mac version 12.1.0.50 know about iCloud Photos?
My iPad Mini reports in General | Usage that it is using 440 MB for photos and camera.
iTunes Mac version 12.1.0.50 reports my iPad Mini is using 13.05 GB for photos, and that the device is Over Capacity.
This version of iTunes Mac also reports "iCloud Photos is On."
Is there a version of iTunes for Mac where the memory usage report takes into account that photos in iCloud do not use memory on the IOS device?

That is the latest version of iTunes. As iCloud Photos is still in beta, it is simply a glitch that should be ironed out in a future release.

@tubedogg So the workaround is "chillax" ? I can do that.


text:
Can *all* files on an AirPort Extreme be encrypted with FileVault?
I have a Macbook Pro (Mac OS 10.10.2, late 2013 model) and am considering to buy an AirPort Extreme 2TB. I want to use it not only for TimeCapsule backups, but also as a general-purpose storage disk (as discussed here Can I use a Time Capsule as an all-purpose storage disk?).
Can the data, which I save on AirPort Extreme not in the context of TimeCapsule, be encrypted with FileVault?
My question is not if TimeCapsule-backupped data can be encrypted - as I understand this is possible - but my question is if the other data, put onto AirPort Extreme outside of the TimeCapsule functionality, can be encrypted with FileVault?
I.e. can the entire AirPort Extreme be encrypted with FileVault?

Did I miss something? I can't find an "AirPort Extreme 2TB" anywhere.

@klanomath There is no such thing as a 2TB AirPort Extreme, as it is just a wifi router, but you can plug storage devices into it. There is a 2TB AirPort Time Capsule, which can also act as a wifi router with the time machine functionality.

thanks ajkblue for the clarification, yes that's what I actually meant, "AirPort Time Capsule" with 2TB.

Yes, just create an encrypted disk image on the Airport Extreme. That has nothing do do with it being an Airport, or having Time Capsule functionality; you can do it on any disk that you can mount. It's not technically FileVault, but it is 128- or 256-bit AES encryption.


text:
Executing files directly from read/write WebDAV server
I’m using the Finder’s built-in Connect to Server... feature and use it for connecting to a read/write WebDAV server. Everything is working except executing files hosted on the server. I tried mounting the server using the mount_webdav Terminal command, and got the same result as using the Finder. Running ls -laF /Volumes/webdav results in:
drwx------  1 myname  staff    2048 Mar 15 14:09 ./
drwxrwxrwt  4 root    admin     170 Mar 15 09:25 ../
-rwx------  ...
drwx------  ...
-rwx------  ...
drwx------  ...
...

Which makes me assume that files should be executable. However, executing a bash script from the server in Terminal results in:
bash: /Volumes/webdav/test.sh: /bin/bash: bad interpreter: Permission denied

I just want to be able to execute these files without having to move them to a physical disk. What am I overlooking?
EDIT: per request of @patrix, here are the commands i used:
mkdir /Volumes/webdav
mount_webdav -i -s https://example.com/program/ /Volumes/webdav/
chmod +x /Volumes/webdav/test.sh
head /Volumes/webdav/test.sh
/Volumes/webdav/test.sh

and the output was:
#mount_webdav
Username: ‹username›
Password:
# head
#!/bin/bash
mkdir /tmp/tex
cd /tmp/tex
cp -RX /Volumes/webdav/tex/* .
xelatex report.tex
open report.pdf
# exec
bash: /Volumes/webdav/test.sh: /bin/bash: bad interpreter: Permission denied

Can you run head /Volumes/webdav/test.sh and mount, then add the output of both to the question?

OP updated! The bash script works as intended when I copy it to the system disk. The issue has to be related to the server volume.

Can you just run mount without any options and include the output as well? The volume could be mounted with a "noexec" option set.

I have the same problem, and yes, the volume is mounted noexec. Is there any way to prevent that?


text:
App Store receipt email, forwarded as attachment, won't open
New user--just switched from Windows to an iMac running Yosemite. In the Mail app I use 'Forward as Attachment' a lot, with no problems.
However, I just forwarded an App Store email receipt as an attachment, and the recipient couldn't open the receipt. OS X identifies the attachment as a generic document (rather than an email) and can't find an app to open it. So far, this has only happened with the App Store receipt.
Is this problem likely due to something odd about the format of App Store receipts? If that's the case, I'll simply export those receipts to PDF and attach those files. Or is there something fundamental about attachments in Mail that I don't understand?

App store receipts are multipart mails, first part is text/plain, second is text/html. So in theory forwarding them should work just fine, in practice I see the same behavior you are seeing.
So either forward them directly (not as attachment) or print a PDF first (which might be kind of hassle depending on how often you need to do it).

I often get attachments that take quite a while to download, so accessing the file via webmail and/or saving the attachment (even on iOS) and then sharing it works well. Worst case, you can email the store and ask for another email with the receipt - and it's best to do that as soon as you realize the attachment is no longer viable.

I have accepted this response as the correct answer. It appears to be a quirk with the particular attachment, and not a case of "I don't know what I don't know yet. Thanks.

A iTunes receipt is simply html [I don't have an actual App Store receipt to compare, but I would imagine it's the same]
The header of the receipt itself is

Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1
  Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE
  Content-Disposition: inline
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"><\html><\head>
  <\meta http-equiv=3D"Content-Type" content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-=
  1">

…which is almost impossible to write out in markdown ;-) Ignore all the back slashes

You can try <pre /> or <code /> to output the special characters.

@bassplayer7 - I'm not great at html - first & last page I wrote was in 1992. Most welcome to try if you like [I had a quick fiddle & still couldn't get the remaining 's out.]

I understand. It's what I do for a living. But I am on my phone, so I didn't have an easy way to edit myself. The IPhone doesn't do well with special characters.


text:
32-bit or 64-bit version of Microsoft Office on Windows 7 64-bit bootcamp?
I wanted to ask which version I should download and install. First, I need to tell you that I use Windows 7 64-bit bootcamp on my Mac. I access it mostly via a virtual machine (VMWare). My Macbook has 8GB RAM and an about 3.1 GHz processor. I have about 10GB of free space on my bootcamp. Which version of Microsoft office should I install, 32-bit or 64-bit? Does 32-bit even work on my bootcamp?

The Microsoft support page describes the limitations of the 64bit office.
They are the following:

Solutions using ActiveX controls library, ComCtl controls won’t work.
Third-party ActiveX controls and add-ins won’t work.
Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) that contain Declare statements won’t work in the 64-bit version of Office without being updated.
Compiled Access databases, like .MDE and .ACCDE files, won’t work unless they’re specifically written for the 64-bit version of Office.
In SharePoint, the list view won’t be available.
If you have specific add-ins that you use in the 32-bit version of Office, they may not work in 64-bit Office, and vice versa. If you’re concerned, check your current version of Office before installing the new one. Considering testing the add-in with 64-bit Office, or finding out if a 64-bit version of the add-in is available from the developer.

If these limitations do not apply to you (they seem quite advanced and/or obscure to me) then you should choose the 64bit option.
The 32bit version will work as Microsoft is usually quite good in support of older windows versions and architectures, but there is really no benefit to it.

Thanks for the quick reply. I wasn't really sure which one to choose. I'll install the 64-bit version now.


text:
Use iPad as output device without iTunes?
I have an iPad with limited capacity. I waste a lot of time using iTunes on my MacBook Pro to delete content from the iPad and then sync'ing new content from the MBP. Not only does it waste time, I have to select movies and TV shows in advance.
Queston: How do I use the iPad as an output device to watch the material from the MacBook Pro? In this case, the MacBook Pro will simply be my personal storage device.

Related: I'll be doing this while flying, so things like spacious desktops and internet connectivity are out of the question. The MacBook Pro will be under the seat, and the iPad will be on the tray table.
The MacBook Pro clam shell is too big to fully open on the tray table, so I can't watch movies on it or operate programs like iTunes. And the cable for the iPad to the MacBook is too short to physically tether it.
About the only thing I will be able to do is turn on both devices, and use apps like Videos and iTunes on the device.

Related: the iPad Mini is running iOS 8.2 (fully patched). The MacBook Pro is running OS X 10.8.5 (fully patched). I have an iTunes account but it won't be accessible. I don't have an iCloud account and I don't want one (I have actively refused it since the iOS 6/7 days).

Related: years ago I tried to solve the problem by writing my own program to play the movie I was licensed (purchased under my iTunes account, all the hardware authorized under my account, etc). But Apple has some serious anti-competitive practices in effect such that only their programs can play the content. See Playing Movies from ITunes using MPMoviePlayerController? on Stack Overflow.

What you call anti-competitive is kind of the point of DRM -- if it could overridden by simply writing a new program, it wouldn't be much of a stopping point.
In any event, you don't really say except at the bottom, but the implication is that you are trying to watch content purchased from iTunes. Is that correct? If so, you may be much more limited. If it's not purchased content, there are more options.
Next you will need a way to essentially broadcast content to the device. For years I used Air Video. You need to download the app to your device to act as the receiver, and the server app to your MacBook to act as the, well, server. Note the above app does not support DRMed content, such as items purchased in iTunes, but it does support most everything else you can throw at it.
Then, while on the plane, you will need to set up a direct WiFi connection. On your MacBook, go to the WiFi menu bar icon, click on it and choose Create Network. Give it a name, choose a channel, and enable a password for it.
On your device go to Settings > WiFi and tap on your new network. Enter the password, and you should be able to stream content using the Air Video client on your iPad.

"What you call anti-competitive is kind of the point of DRM" - so I'm clear... the point of DRM is to forbid licensed users the ability to play their content? I think it would be different if I were not using iTunes account or not using an authorized device. In this case, everything is authorized - I've jumped through all the hoops.


text:
Apps stuck in pending update status?
I used my MacBook Pro and iTunes to download updates for my mobile apps. I then sync'd and the apps were updated. I verified they were updated through the device's Settings app.
However, when I visit App Store on the mobile device, the apps are shown as Pending Updates status even though they are up to date (see image below). I've opened the app several times, and it has not cleared the incorrect status problem. I've rebooted the device several times, and it has not cleared the incorrect status problem.
I also cycled App Store in the Notifications center with no joy. The App Store app still claims the apps are pending updates.
How do I clear the Pending Updates status?

The MacBook Pro is running OS X 10.8.5 (fully patched). The iPad is running iOS 8.2 (fully patched).

did you cycle iPad off/on ?

@Buscar웃 - Yes, two or three times now. Man I wish Apple would test their software before releasing it on the world....

@jww one person having an issue does not mean it is a widespread or easily-caught bug. At any rate, when you say you rebooted, did you hold Home + Sleep until the Apple logo appears? This often resolves issues that aren't fixed by a simple power cycle. I have had this issue in the past, though it was unrelated to a sync and each time eventually resolved itself after a couple of days.

@tubedogg - thanks, I'll give it a couple of days and try again. If you had the problem and I have the problem, its seems to indicate its more than a one-off. I stand by my statements that Apple needs to test their crap before releasing it. As a consumer who pays good money for this stuff, I consider companies like Apple stealing from me when they give me defective goods. If they want me to debug their broken stuff in the field, then they need to provide the equipment.

@jww I think you might be overreacting just a tiny bit. Software has bugs. Not all of them are able to be found before millions of people start using the software. There may be something particular in your configuration, or the exact order of the steps you took, or the combination apps listed in particular, that caused this to occur, and no amount of testing or planning would have caused Apple to stumble onto the exact circumstances that made it happen. (In addition to the fact that this bug is hardly a critical one by any means. It is annoying, yes, but it did not cause you to lose data,

brick your device, cause irreparable harm to anything, or prevent you from using all of the functions of your device.)

iOS 9.2
Option 1:
Try going to Settings -> iTunes & App Store -> and under Automatic Downloads, toggling the Updates switch next to the App Store logo. Now keep the Settings app open, ensure the App Store is closed, and reopen it. If this works, switch back to the Settings app, and toggle Automatic Downloads for Updates back on; if this doesn't work, still switch back to the Settings app, tap your Apple ID, and sign out of the App Store. Restart your iOS device (for safe measure), then sign back into the App Store with your Apple ID.
Option 2:
Backup your iOS device. Delete the apps pending updates, and reinstall them. This will force the apps to be flushed from the App Store as they no longer exist on your iOS device, but you'll also remove any data contained within the apps. You can easily reinstall the apps by opening the App Store, going to Updates -> Purchased, and downloading the apps from there.

Be careful before deleting apps! You can lose data.


text:
Abort OS X download initiated through App Store?
I started an OS X Yosemite download. I did not want to download it or install it; rather I just wanted it to show up under purchases so I could install it in the future after Apple removes it from the App Store. It will avoid problems like Where can I get a copy of Mavericks after Yosemite has been released?
The Pause button is not available (its greyed out), so I can't pause or stop the download.
How do I abort the download now that the "purchase" has been made?

why not download it but not install, then you are sure to have it. if a space is a issue, you get free google drive 10 Gig where you can keep it.

It's "waiting" which means something else is currently downloading, and it will start after that's done. Once it starts, the Pause button will be enabled. I don't believe there's a way to stop the download entirely, though.

You could just go to the Applications folder on your Mac, and find the App that is downloading, and delete it from there.  Once you do this, it should pop up a box asking you if you want to cancel the download.  Just select yes and cancel it.
I've done this before and it worked fine.  Usually, I just let it fully download, then uninstall/remove the App with an App called Clean My Mac, or App Zapper.  Both are great apps for uninstalling/removing Apps and other stuff from you Mac completely/fully.
Hope this helps :)
-James


text:
Configuring Apple Mail with Gmail Aliases
I am trying to use AppleMail and trying to configure to using gmail alias.
My primary email address is sid@mydomain.com and I have configured this in Apple Mail and able to send / receive messages properly. This primary email has an alias on my google apps for business sid-sales@mydomain.com
Whenever someone sends an email to sid-sales@mydomain.com, I receive it on sid@mydomain.com and on the Apple Mail. So far good.
Now, I want to configure Apple Mail so that I am able to send emails using both my primary email and the alias (and with different names). So, I want to have two email configurations -
- Sid <sid@mydomain.com>
- Sid from Sales <sid-sales@mydomain.com>

I am not able to get this working. I tried adding both the emails separated by a comma in the Accounts section. After doing this, both the emails appear in the From field and I can choose from one but the receiving side is always getting my email from my primary email address. So, if I choose sid-sales@mydomain.com in the From field, the receiver still sees sid@mydomain.com
I also tried changing the plist file by adding EmailAliases - I was able to change the Name but the email address is still sid@mydomain.com
Can somebody please help me with this? I tried searching a lot on the internet but I am not able to find anything which will solve the problem.

None of the other solutions worked for me right now with Apple Mail 9.3 on OS X 10.11.4. Just to make sure, my situation is as follows:

I have a primary email address xyz@somedomain.com as a Google Apps account
I added a domain alias otherdomain.com to that account
I want to send from xyz@otherdomain.com and have the receiver see this in the "from:" field (notice that this is slightly more complicated than in the original question, but includes the original question's case!)

After a lot of experimenting, this did work (both parts required, it seems).

On the Gmail end:

For the primary email address xyz@somedomain.com, I went to Gmail online, then (under the top right tool icon) Settings > Account.
There I clicked: "Add another email address you own".
In the window popping up, I entered my (same) name and, under "Email address", the full alternative xyz@otherdomain.com
I left "Treat as an alias." unchecked.
Clicking the "Next step>>" button, I left the default top selection (the one that says "easier to set up")
I saved this.
(Back in the main Accounts screen, I checked "Reply from the same address the message was sent to", but that doesn't seem to be relevant to the root problem we are trying to solve here)

Using "Compose" still in Gmail online, I was able to change the from field to xyz@otherdomain.com and confirm that the receiver saw this as the "from:" field (as well as in the raw mail data).

Now in Mail, in the settings for xyz@somedomain.com I just added an alias in the "Alias:" field right under "Description:". Now Mail shows the alternative email address in the From field when composing emails in Mail, too, and the recipient sees xyz@otherdomain.com as the true sender (checked in the raw mail data again).
a. For Mail v16.0, add under Email Address: -> Edit Email Addresses:

Notice that without the Gmail modification from Step 1, adding an alias to Mail just resulted in an additional header X-Google-Original-From: xyz@otherdomain.com, which Mail and most other email clients wouldn't recognize as a sender in any form.

This should be the accepted answer.

FYI, I needed to close and re-open the Mail app for this to work, but it did.

Best solution for Apple Mail 16.0 (3774.200.91.1.1) (Sonoma 14.1.1)

This worked for me:

Mail->Preferences
Select the G Suites email account
In "Account Information" tab, click "Email address" and choose "Edit Email Addresses..."
Click "+" and add the second alias email address. If it is setup properly in G-Suites it works in Apple Mail.

This is the correct answer

Do you have any solution for Apple Mail on iOS... because it doesn't seem to work?

No disrespect to jmuncaster, as this answer is from 2017. But the "setup properly in G-Suites" leaves important details out. The answer from marco is more specific on those details.

You need to configure these as 2 separate accounts in Mail. For some reason, to get it to work you will need to add the alias as an IMAP account rather than the standard Gmail account.
When you authenticate for the alias, you will need to use the actual/original email address, not the alias email, in the authentication settings.
I've been using this setup without  a problem for many years with several different accounts, without problems.

Doesn't work (anymore?) with Mail 9.3. Mail just reports that it can't find such an account no matter whether user name is left blank initially or putting in the primary mail address right away.

This may have to do with Gmail blocking the initial attempt to connect through a custom IMAP account that seems to let you add security features only once the initial connection succeeded. (I get a "Sign-in attempt prevented" from Gmail.)

I know this is a 4 month old question, but I wanted to add that if you're using your own domain with Gmail (and you've configured your aliases in Gmail settings) then there is another solution.
Simple open the account in Apple Mail, and in the email address box add as many addresses as you want separated with a comma. e.g. email1@email.com,email2@email.com etc.

another example: me@myfirstdomain.com,me@myseconddomain.com

Doesn't work (anymore?) with Mail 9.3

In Mail Version 14.0 (3654.100.0.2.22) it's very simple:

Launch Mail and in top menu bar go to Mail > Preferences...
Click on your added Google account
In "Account Information" tab click "Email addresses" drop-down select and click "Edit Email Addresses..." to add all aliases and names you've already added in your gmail settings (all settings) > "Accounts" tab > "Send mail as:" then "Add another email address".

I have tested the above solution and it's working perfect / sending emails as my alias.

I think this is not a problem of Apple Mail and your configuration, but more with Gmail. Are you able to send a mail from your alias via the Gmail website and is the sender address correct?
If no, this may help you. Afterwards sending via your mail app should also work.

Try to "Add account" and then select the last option "Add another email account..." and put your Gmail alias and password.
It worked for me ;)

I have found that following the steps in this article worked (MacOS Yosemite, Mail 8.2).
Basically in the account settings, add all your aliases as a comma separated list to the Email Address field:

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


text:
Have iTunes on Mac show the iPad with wi-fi
Usually, when I launch iTunes on my Mac and I have my iPad on nearby, iTunes shows the iPad at the top right. Then I can do a backup of my iPad in wi-fi.
Sometimes, randomly, iTunes fails to show the iPad, and I have to plug the iPad to the Mac so that it appear in iTunes.
I have encountered this problem with my 2 iPads.

How can I have iTunes show the iPad ?
Besides, it would help to know what conditions trigger the failure.

If its not too disruptive, try this: shut your wireless router off; on the iPads and other iDevices, remove any saved wifi networks, then power them down. Lastly, power down any other wifi-enabled devices. Boot the wifi router, give it a minute to gets it legs, then reconnect to your local wifi net on each iDevice. Boot any other wifi-enabled devices last. There has been considerable discussion on the Apple Support Communities about this and similar problems. It is most reliable when the device is plugged into a power source.

@IconDaemon — The discussion you link is about iOS 8. My iPads have iOS 7 and 5.

Put that information in your question, then, with the exact models of the iPads and their respective installed iOS versions. It'll will help others to assist you. Although not specific to your predicament, the steps delineated in my comment are generic and will help to make sure your wireless network, with all its connected devices, is re-created afresh to eliminate any oddities. It has fixed wifi issues for me in the past, both personally and professionally.

@IconDaemon - Now, the problem also occurs with iPads in iOS 8.


text:
still unable to find google drive on the sidebar of mac
I still cannot find locate Google drive on my mac sidebar. I cannot find the google drive folder to drag and drop. When I click  next to my user, the drive does not appear.

stupid question from me...did you install it ? did you enable it in finders preferences ?

Click the Google Drive icon in your menu bar.
Select "Open Google Drive folder"
Drag the icon from the top of that new window to your Sidebar.
Done.

Note that the consumer program was recently renamed "Google Backup and Sync" - if you don't see that app on your computer in the Applications folder, it isn't installed yet. Hit drive.google.com and download.


text:
Disk Utility message "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required"
Finder crashed on a external drive which caused an abrupt eject. I rand Disk Utility over the drive and the operation finished with the message:

Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required

Its a FAT32 partition, it already existed, and it was not bootable so its not clear to me what required updating.
What does the message "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required" mean? Or how can I determine the changes were made?

The message from Disk Utility is simply there to tell you it's checking the hidden EFI partition (if present) and updating as necessary. In your case it won't be necessary so nothing will be updated.
Disk Utility performs this extra step if you run a disk repair on a parent disk rather than on one of the partitions within that disk.


text:
Airports, Wifi Roaming, and Ethernet Backhaul
According to Apple's Wi-Fi base stations: Setting up and configuring a roaming network (802.11 a/b/g/n), there's an implicit assumption that I want to use a wireless for everything. That is, the extended base station backhauls its traffic using Wifi.
Wifi is a limited resource, and there's only so much bandwidth in a channel. I'd like to reserve the wireless bandwidth for clients, and backhaul the extended base station traffic using ethernet. But Apple's article doe not discuss how to bridge the APs using ethernet through a switch.
How do I set up roaming between two airports and backhaul over ethernet using a switch (and not Wifi)?

Related (from James' answer below): in the upper diagram, the extended Airport is plugged into the primary Airport base station directly. That's not quite the configuration we have because we can't run the direct cable. We are in a historic building, so we can only use existing cables and run it to the basement and into a switch.

The diagram at the top of the article you linked to in the question seems to show exactly what you are trying to achieve; the extended base stations are connected via Ethernet, from their WAN ports, to a network port on the primary base station. Have you tried this configuration?

Thanks @James. I updated the question to address your observations.

Ah, I see. Well, the fourth diagram in this support article, the bottom one in the Roaming Network section, right above the Wirelessly Extended Network section, states that you can put a switch in between the base stations. So Apple seems to believe even that should work.

Thanks @James. So I'm clear: do the Apple diagrams imply that it can go though a switch (i.e., not directly plugging onto another Airport)?

That is what the diagram linked in my comment above seems to clearly show. I can’t speak for Apple in any official capacity myself, but I would definitely try such a configuration given that article.


text:
The Boot Camp USB drivers paradox
I have following problem: I have Boot Camp Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro (OS X 10.10.2). I observed, that I couldn't connect USB flash drives to that Windows system, so I installed all Boot Camp drivers from the Boot Camp Assistant. I copied them to a USB flash drive and installed them on the Windows 7 partition. The problem was, that when I connected a USB flash drive to my Windows 7 partition, it was recognized as Generic USB. I actually couldn't eject it anymore. I read somewhere that this error was caused due to a version of the Intel USB driver i had installed earlier. That's why I deleted the Intel USB driver in the control panel. Now I can't seem to connect USB flash drives at all. I tried to drag the drivers to the Windows 7 partition via VMware, but it didn't work. When I double-click on setup.exe, it won't start.
I have access to following programs or systems: VMware Fusion, Boot Camp Assistant, Windows 7, OS X partition.
How can I install the Intel USB drivers since I can't use an USB on my MacBook?

email it to yourself, or push it to Dropbox etc

Beaten me to it! :-P

I'm trying to push the files to Dropbox and then install them from there on the win7 partition. Puuh 1.32 GB upload, I think I will go drink a coffee. I will let you guys know later how it went. Thanks for the replies anyway ;)

What a waste of bandwidth!  I'd temporarily mount the Windows volume Read/Write, copy the files over and then unmount it.

It worked, I could install it from the Dropbox folder.  @user3439894 I used the internet from my school on a Saturday, so I guess it's ok.

You could upload the drivers to a service such as Dropbox...


text:
Xcode vs TextEdit “Find and Replace…”
The default hotkey behavior in both Xcode and TextEdit “Find and Replace” is:
Find... ⌘F
Find and Replace... ⌘⌥F
However, in TextEdit, the dialog for “Find and Replace” remains even after you press ⌘F. In Xcode ⌘F hides the “Find and Replace” section of the dialog and only displays the “Find” part.
In TextEdit, ⌘F sets the focus (which means your text marker is in the box) in the “Find” textbox. ⌘⌥F sets the focus in the “Find and Replace” textbox. Pressing ⌘⌥F followed by ⌘F keeps the entire dialog open. In Xcode the focus is ALWAYS in the “Find” dialog, no matter what hotkey you invoked it with.
I prefer the TextEdit behavior, but would also like consistency. Is there any way to make Xcode behave as TextEdit in this regard?

Here is a Part solution for setting the focus for ⌘⌥F
Save this Applescript down as a Text file instead of a script.
#!/usr/bin/osascript
tell application "Xcode" to activate
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events"

    tell process "Xcode"

        keystroke "z" using {command down, option down}
        delay 0.3

        keystroke tab
    end tell
end tell

In terminal.app
Make the script file executable by running
chmod  +x /path/to/foo.applescript

In Xcode  go to the Preferences-> Key Bindings Tab.
And change the Find and Replace (menu) 's hotkey to ⌘⌥z

Now still in Preferences go to the Behaviours Tab
Click the '+' button to add a new custom Behaviour.
Name it and give it the hotkey ⌘⌥f
On the right hand pane of the Behaviours Tab scroll down to the bottom
And using the Run  dropdown choose script. Select your Script file.

Now you can use the ⌘⌥F and the find and replace will appear and focus will go to the replace field.

As to replicating the keeping the Replace in view if it is already showing when you hit  ⌘F.  I think that in most cases it is redundant because you will want to still hit ⌘⌥F to get back to the replace field and the Find's text field will still be show with the changes you just made.

I had no idea you could use scripts like that in Xcode. And I agree on your final point, though it would be nice to have a visual representation of what’s happening without having to always use ⌘⌥F and subsequently ⇧↹ several times… Your answer suffices for my usage, at least. Thanks a lot!


text:
iTunes 12 fails to sync on my iPhone 6 (iOS 8.2) and also other apps
In order to fix this bug I've been trying everything I could find on the internet. Basically whenever I try to sync music or videos from iTunes to my iPhone (they have both the latest version) and during the last step of that, iTunes would randomly stop just few songs from the start and it would wait until sync timeout.
Then I've also tried to export the songs with CopyTrans Manager which is a 3rd party tool similar to iTunes, but I get the same error: sync -> then stop at a random song -> app timeout.
Then I've tried an app from the store called PlayerExtreme, and I've tried exporting song to that using iExplorer but I still get the timeout.
The only error I got was that my iPhone disconnects during the process, which is weird since I've tried using 2 different USB cables (both original) and both of them randomly disconnect during the sync and they both reconnect few seconds later.
Other stuff I've tried:

toggle sync / no sync music from iTunes
sync only selected music and videos
manually manage music and videos
delete all music from my iPhone
resetting network settings (someone got it to work with that)
airplane mode

I've also read it could be because of duplicate songs in the library but I'm sure I don't have any duplicate song.
Also I'm not a iTunes Match customer.
EDIT: I get this error quite often : "This accessory may not be supported". Especially when I'm charging it on my PC and the battery percentage gets closer to 100%. I got the same error with both my 2 original USB cables.
EDIT 2: IMO it's either an iOS 8 bug or some kind of weird problem with my USB ports.

Changing USB port fixed my problem. At first I was using an USB 2.0 port on my case, then I moved my iPhone to the USB 3.0 port of my motherboard and it worked.


text:
How can I get a copy of a user-added image iOS is using for the wallpaper?
I thought I saw this question answered before but I'm just not seeing it now. If I can't access the file itself I know I can get a screenshot and crop out a little bit but I'd like the whole image if it is possible.
I looked in Photos but didn't see it, and I looked a bit in the wallpaper preferences and didn't notice anything that would help.
I'm looking at a friend's iPad with iOS 7 and I'd like to get this wallpaper image before updating.

No idea how to get them from the phone, but will this do? http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/09/11/new-ios-7-wallpapers/

nah, thanks, but it is a custom photo added later. I'll clarify in the question.

I've added an answer on the linked question which might be useful.


text:
How to download files from MediaFire directly on iPad?
I'm trying to download a .mp3 file from MediaFire on my Apple iPad, but whenever I click on "Download" button, a new tab opens and it plays the file.
I need to store this file in my iTunes instead of playing it, is that possible? Please note that I do not have access to a computer and I do not want to jailbreak my iPad.

It is not possible to download an mp3 file from a site like MediaFire and place it directly in the Music app on your iPad.
There are some app where you can download a file to listen it later, sorry i don't know the name of one of those apps.
The options you have are

to download it on a computer and sync your iPad
to jailbreak your device and use iFile to access the mp3 file

An example might be dropbox, I use it to download files for later use.


text:
macintosh HD missing from Disk utility
I've purchased macbook pro 13 retina, wanted to migrate data from my mba.
So I formated drive, installed spanking brand new osx from recovery disk. And launched migration assistant.
Migration assistant got stuck, at 70 hours...
I hit esc on keyboard, and mac restarted. Error message came on screen saying something has crashed.
Tried to restart but loading got stuck in the middle. I did another restart via power button.
Now macbook loads blinking folder icon with a question mark.
Tried to get back to recovery mode, but it forced me into internet recovery.
Under disk utility I don't see Macintosh HD anymore, just osx base system volume.
Is ssd dead?

what were you migrating?

@Buscar웃 I was migrating everything from timemachine backup.

the blinking folder question mark indicates your bot partition is broken. somehow your SSD got corrupted. using internet recovery might get you back.

@Buscar웃 internet recovery doesn't see disk at all. it just shows base osx partition. Macintosh HD is gone.

then reformat the disk

@Buscar웃 how do you reformat something you cannot see?

use external USB disk to try, start in Verbose or Single user mode.

@Buscar웃 oh I even tried to load linux and gparted :) in recovery mode I played around diskutil in terminal. its a toast.

It is likely that the drive is toast. Disk utility is designed to see everything on any bus that looks like a drive.
You could try zapping the PRAM, or as the kids call it these days, "resetting the SMC." Google will help you find instructions for that.
Failing that you could try putting the internal drive in an external enclosure, which will mostly tell you if there is something wrong with your internal bus. There is a slim chance that this will work, allow you to format the drive and put it back in the Mac and it will work. Depends on how skilled you are with hacking around in the hardware and how much time and effort you want to put into it to test a long shot.

PRAM and SMC was my first shot. Than I loaded linux and in syslog got ata1 controller not found error. gparted didn't see drive either. Taking it out was also my thought, but damn apple for those special screws. What I'm interested in is if pcie of ssd in mac is standard one, if yes I could find a desktop computer and test it out there in that slot.

p.s. I already gave laptop back to previous owner. He gave me a moneyback.

Most Macs (tho this is changing) use standard SATA drives. There are exceptions (MacPro and Air, for example) that use PCIe. But lots of places online will tell you what kind of drive interface. Macsales.com sells kits for this that I have used before I usually just go there to find out.


text:
Does the iPod first generation have emojis?
Okay so I asked this before well not exactly but can you get emoji's and the first gen iPod? I have and iPod 4 and an a iPhone 6 and they have emoji's but now I am buying the first and need to know. Thanks!

What's the difference to your other question?

There isn't really a difference. I guess.


text:
Any verification tricks for Mac OS X files?
Is there a good way to verify the various files in Mac OS X?
Ideally, one wants to verify system files in an installed system, but right now I'm curious about verifying the Yosemite installer.
If anyone still has a copy in /Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app, then maybe they could produce a signature of some sort?
I produced this hackish signature with these commands :
find '/Applications/Install OS X Yosemite.app' -type f -print0 | \
  xargs -0 shasum -a 256 > yosemite_shasum.txt
gpg --clearsign yosemite_shasum.txt

A diff command should pick up any files that're different in different people's installer, even if you drop the second gpg command.  I assume nobody sees any differences at this moment in time?

If you get the Installer from Apple (via the App Store), there shouldn't be a need to verify...

The installer (and any app from the App Store) is already Code Signed and any modifications to the files will result in the app not launching. Disk Utility launched from the Recovery partition is useful to check the OS files for modification.

There are adversaries who possess Apple's private keys both for code signing and TLS, and can win packet races, patrix.  And said adversaries targets sys admins who work in the telecom sector.  https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/03/20/inside-nsa-secret-efforts-hunt-hack-system-administrators/  Recall "every attempt to implant iOS [by QUANTUMTHEORY] will always succeed” :   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vILAlhwUgIU#t=44m45s


text:
USB 3 not working on Yosemite MacOS 10.10.2
I have a MacBookPro11,3, Intel Core i7, 2,5 GHz, ROM: MBP112.0138.B14 with Yosemite natively installed. I also use FileVault.
Here are my problems with external USB 3:

One of my FAT32 external hard drive is not showing up (neither under Finder, nor in Disk Utility).
And for mounted disks (either FAT32, or Mac FS), read/write rate is always thus of USB 1.

The weird thing is that when I use another user account, exchange rate with same hard drives plugged in is thus of USB 3.
Any idea, where the issue could come from? Help very much appreciated, thank you.
So far, I have run Kext Utility and rebooted leaving the external drive plugged in without success.

Why are you running Kext Utility on a real mac? Have you manually installed or removed any Kexts?

Have you tried resetting your SMC and NVRAM? Doing both of these can help solve not only this problem but other problems you're having with your system as well.
See these articles from Apple.com for more details:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac

Since the problem goes away when logged into another use account, the problem can't be in SMC or NVRAM, it has to be something installed in that account.


text:
Why NTFS write softwares cause some certain problems?
After installing NTFS write software on my mac, I found two problems.

The Windows system in bootcamp does not show in the startup disk in Settings app.
Parallels Desktop can't suspend the Bootcamp virtual machine because such software installed.

Both the problems can be solved by removing the software.
What's the reason behind this?

I don't know why, but it does. Paragon NTFS has an option to disable the driver to get around just this issue. You also should never suspend your Boot Camp volume in VM if you want to boot from it in Boot Camp; it can cause corruption.

You do not mention what software you're using to mount the NTFS volume read/write in OS X, nor which version of Parallels you're using, nor do you say what model Mac you have.  This is important to give you accurate information.
Paragon NTFS works with Parallels just fine.  MacFUSE or other NTFS read/write utilities do not.  Also, Parallels 8 and lower have issues with Paragon HFS if you have that installed on the Windows side.
Also, you should never suspend the Parallels Boot Camp VM.  If you attempt to boot to Windows via Boot Camp while the Parallels VM is suspended, you can cause data corruption.

I will conjecture here; feel free to downvote if you think I'm completely off-base:
Perhaps the NTFS utility puts the NTFS volume "in use". That is, other OS's try to access the disk but they can tell MacFUSE is already using the disk (or so they think). They're programmed to not interfere with other disk operations so they take a 'hands off' attitude so as to prevent data corruption that would result if two systems tried to write the same data at the same time.
As to why MacFUSE would leave the disk busy when it's not even using it (or running), that would be a question for the developers.


text:
Replacing alert file in app package contents?
Probably a strange question - not sure if this is possible or not....I purchased a utility app for Mac recently to manage my NAS and external hard drives.  Works great, only thing that's really annoying is the music/finished "beep" it plays as the "confirmation" beep.  I'm fine with regular notification alerts, but this gets very frustrating after a while.  I could, of course silence the speakers, but with how frequently I use the app, it will often come on without me remembering to silence it (and it's just plain inconvenient, if I want to listen to something else.)
ANYWAY.....I finally had enough of it and went into the "Package contents" of the app to locate the music file, which wasn't difficult (it is a .mov file.) I thought that simply deleting the file would fix the issue, but then the app wouldn't open (said it couldn't load all resources.)  Next thing I tried was replacing the music file with an inaudible track (same length, etc...) still didn't work.  It seems to only accept the original audio file.  Is there any way to remove/replace this?  There's no option to silence it in the (scarce) Preferences panel.  Ordinarily I would find another app, but this has worked much better than any alternatives I've found (aside from the mentioned issue. :P)
Is this possible?  Thanks.

I'm mainly puzzled as to why a sound file would be saved as a .mov, rather than wav/aif etc

@Tetsujin no idea....but .mov files can be used for just audio on OS X.  Not sure why either.


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Setup MacBook to accept ARD traffic over SSH?
How to access Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) via VNC-over-SSH? asks how to tunnel ARD traffic over SSH. But the answer provided does not detail the steps required to do so.
Would some please provide the steps to setup a MacBook to:

Disable ARD traffic on all forward facing interfaces
Enable ARD traffic over SSH

ARD must be disabled on forward facing interfaces because it has an 8-character password limitation.
About all I have been able to find on Apple's site is Apple Remote Desktop: Connecting through a firewall, NAT or VPN and TCP and UDP ports used by Apple software products. Surprisingly, Apple seems to think its OK to hang an ARD listener off the internet with a weak password (sigh...).
According to HowTo: Tunneling VNC Connections Over SSH, the remote client should be able to use the following to connect to the MacBook (this may need to be changed to port 5900):
ssh -L 5901:localhost:5901 -N -f -l <user> <server>

The MacBook is a bit dated circa 2009, but its got 4GB RAM, 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo, and OS X 10.9. So I think it meets requirements for this sort of thing. Its going to being used to donate cycles to open source projects that need access to OS X, so I hope so.
Thanks in advance.

I found a reference directing me to http://www.macitguy.com/2008/11/ssh-vpn-with-mac-os-x.html, but its from 2008 and the web page is no longer available (even on the Wayback Machine).

I agree with your ssh goal, yet your statement about weak password limitation is only true if you have enabled "VNC viewers may control screen with password". This option is found in the Sharing -> Remote Management (or Screen Sharing) -> Computer Settings.

You have two good questions. Is it easier to ask as two different questions? The SSH server with client tunneling question is common (you have almost answered it yourself), but the second firewall blocking question deserves it's own separate question/answer.

@glenschler - yeah, ARD and weak passwords may be the least of my worries: Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X.


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How to mitigate CVE-2015-1130 (Hidden Backdoor with Root) due to lack of Apple support?
This is related to CVE-2015-1130, a.k.a Hidden backdoor API to root privileges in Apple OS X. It appears Apple has refused to fix it in OS X 10.9 and earlier. Emil Kvarnhammar, the one who reported this vulnerability to Apple states:

Apple indicated that this issue required a substantial amount of
  changes on their side, and that they will not back port the fix to
  10.9.x and older.

I have an OS X 10.8.5 machine and an OS X 10.9 machine. I can't upgrade either machine due to requirements outside of my and Apple's control.
In the absence of Apple patching OS before 10.10, how can we mitigate this on OS X 10.8 and OS X 10.9 machines?

I would say it's simply not possible.
It apparently took Apple months of effort to close this door. They specifically asked the reporter to hold long past the accepted announcement embargo period, in order to give them sufficient time to fix it before it went public. They say the reason for not back-porting it to earlier OSes is the sheer amount of effort involved.
If they can't do it, I doubt anyone else could.
If it could be even slightly mitigated by any action on your part, I'm fairly sure there would have been advice from them to that effect.


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How does ICloud drive manage a local copy when the local drive is too small?
My MacBook has a 250 GB SSD and I have a 500GB iCloud Drive. The total size of files stored in iCloud is currently about 100 GB, which by default maintains an identical copy of all files in both locations without any user control. The local copy is hidden in ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents.
What files will be removed from the local copy, when the iCloud Drive file size begins to exceed 250 GB?

Probably no new files will come in, and you'll get "disk space exhausted" messages all around. But what has this to do with StackOverflow?

The question itself does not directly pertain to a particular language, but the behavior of local copy swapping is relevant to programming.


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Resolving problems with development tools on upgrading to Mac Yosemite
I use software development tools including Java, MySQL, Apache, PHP, LaTeX and Homebrew on OS X 10.7.5. What problems might I encounter on upgrading to Mac Yosemite and how can these be resolved?

I am curious...I never thought it was sound strategy to have a "dev" environment running on a production machine, especially if it is your daily driver.  With all of the current VM technologies out there, why did you not opt to install a solid build of linux and run your dev environment there?

I'm going to close this. It could be asking - are there versions of A, B, C that work on 10.10? It could be asking, will my specific set of tools A, B, C run without any change if I upgrade? It could be asking the implied question of have I broken my system in that any upgrade will overwrite my custom versions of system provided tools. We might need to sort this out in [meta] or [chat] based on what the OP intends.

Lian - please read http://apple.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-ask and at a minimum - show your research. Document where you read about problems and split this into a manageable chunk. Also, consider addressing why you don't just buy/borrow a USB hard drive, install a clean OS and then migrate data from your stable system to the test OS to see what breaks? You don't even need to have a backup and risk an upgrade until you dip your toes in the new waters first.

I am a bioinformatician developing on the Mac and implementing on Linux. I have all of the following technologies that you mention running on Yosemite: Java, MySQL, Apache, PHP; I do not use LaTeX or Homebrew so cannot comment on them. In addition I run Tomcat, Perl CGI, Perl CGI with MySQL drivers, GD graphics for Perl, PHP with MySQL, Eclipse and Python. So in general it is definitely possible.
Your question however refers to your current installations. The answer here is that your current install of MySQL should not be affected. (If you wish you could upgrade and install the latest version available for Yosemite from Oracle's website, although this requires a free sign-up.)  Your current installation of Apache will not be available and this will also affect how PHP runs. You will also have to update your Java.
For the record, let me try to summarise what you would need to do. (I'm assuming you are starting with something as different from Yosemite as Snow Leopard. I never had Lion running - only Mountain Lion and Mavericks - so some of this may already be familiar from Lion.)
Basics

Yosemite no longer has a Developers' Tools disc. Instead you should download Xcode from the App Store. It's free, but a huge download (ca 3Gb). However you are almost bound to need it.
You need to unhide the Library folder (so you can get to the Apache install etc.) which is now hidden by default (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18928). To make the Library folder in your home folder always visible you right-click and select View Options and then tick "Show Library Folder". However I use the main /Library folder for web development and can't remember how I unhid this. Apparently the following terminal command should work:
sudo chflags nohidden /Library/

Apache/PHP/Perl
The old option in System prefs of enabling the Apache website is no longer present for Apache 2. The following excellent article explains how to enable Apache 2 and the PHP5 and Perl modules: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3083. Do exactly what it says.
Java
There are three possible things you may be doing with Java, and as you don't indicate which you are interested in I shall mention them all. However the basic thing is that Apple no longer supplies its own Java, so if you need upgrades you get them from Oracle.

You write Java programs. In this case download Eclipse for Java (https://eclipse.org/) — Luna is the current version. If it launches, you have Java installed. If not, you need to download it from https://www.java.com/en/download/mac_download.jsp? . Then you are fine.
You want to run Java applications on your desktop. You will need the download above, but Yosemite may try to prevent you actually running Java applications that ran fine before. If you have used the application before or trust the author then bypass Gatekeeper by right-clicking when you launch the app and tell Apple you want to run it (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491).
You want to run a Java Applet in a web browser. This is still possible but is now a real nightmare. Basically you need a signed applet and even then you may need to set your Java System Preferences specifically to allow applets from the website in question and also make sure that in Safari Prefs > Security > Allow Plug-ins is ticked and the allowed sites are listed in Website settings. Even then Safari may ask you to confirm you want to run the applet each time. The current policy on browsers now is to only allow Java applets to run if you are using the latest version of Java. I do have some self-signed applets I wrote myself that I can still manage to run. However because the whole plugin technology is being phased out, I think the Java Applet is a dead man walking. (Server-side Java is no problem though, and has advantages over PHP and the like.) More details of setting your browser up for Java applets can be found at http://humairahmed.com/blog/?p=8061 and on the Oracle/Java site.

Note about Java 8 on virgin Yosemite
If you want to run an old Java application on a brand new machine with Yosemite installed (rather than upgrading from Mavericks or earlier), and download the latest version of Java it will be (April 2015) Java 8 and the application will not run. You need to install Java 6 from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572. I'd download it while it's still there.

One addition: MacPorts contains packages for Apache, Perl, PHP, LaTeX and other things that were mentioned. It is also rather easy to upgrade MacPorts when a new major OS X release comes out. If you only have a couple of packages that you want installed, your can write them down in a script, throw away the old installation, and reinstall MacPorts. If your setup is more complicated, then there is a migration how to.

Thank you to both David and @Arne. I suppose there is actually no "sense" to my current setup as I had not known about macports or homebrew back when I first moved to Macs, hence some of the systems are manually installed, some brewed. All will be brewed/macported when I next have enough budget for a new machine.

This question is to broad for a simple answer.
Most software will still work perfectly fine, some might break.
The only way to be sure is check the compatibility for each software you depend on. Usually the developer has some information on their page, further there are pages like RoaringApps which publish lists of application compatibility based on users feedback.

From my experience, upgrading to a new OS will cause major applications to break. I would hold off on upgrading the OS.
This is from a linux stand point since you're looking to make a major upgrade (i.e. Lion to Yosemite).

That's indeed what I'm wary of.

Yeah, so I'd just say, don't do it haha.


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How can I create Apple ID for a child without a Credit Card?
I am trying to create an Apple ID for my 10-year-old son. However, I do not have a Credit Card, only a Debit Card. I'm using the iCloud 'Family' setting, but it says 'Credit Card Required'. I guess this is because, legally, someone under 18 may have a Debit Card, but you must be 18 to have a Credit Card. How can I bypass this? I'm using an iPhone 4S, running the latest iOS update (I updated today). What should I do?

Sign out.
Search for any free app.
Select "Get" and "Install App".
You should see screen, that you need to log in to download. Select "Create New Apple ID".
You should see "None" option when selecting payment method.
Activate Apple ID and you have created new Apple ID for your son.

Then just sign out from son's Apple ID and log in to yours.


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How can I avoid permission-related failures when importing in Photos.app via AppleScript?
The new Photos.app does not come with Automator support (although there are third-party actions available). It does, however, have some basic AppleScript support, including support for importing a list of files.

However, I can't get this action to work correctly. Any attempts to use it, such as via the following simple script
tell application "Photos"
    set theList to {"/Full/Path/To/Some/Photo.jpg"}
    import theList
end tell

will cause Photos.app to report that "no metadata" could be retrieved from the file because it may not be a photo (however, the same file can be manually imported). Further investigation reveals that the automated approach is failing due to the lack of permission to read the file.
From the Console.app:
4/11/15 9:07:49.333 AM sandboxd[253]: ([3934]) Photos(3934) deny file-read-data /Full/Path/To/Some/Photo.jpg

(followed by a host of similar error messages). The third-party Automator actions I linked above have the same problem, for what it is worth.
How can I give the appropriate permission to Photos.app or the executing AppleScript/Automation workflow to perform this import? Note that the "permission" appears to be something other than (or in addition to) the usual file permissions, because setting the file and folder to "read/write from by everybody" (the nuclear option) does not change the behavior.

not my strong point, but that doesn't look like a perms error, but a sandboxing one

Yeah, I think that's absolutely the case, but I've no idea what to go tweak to fix or work around it.

from Applescript docs - When sending commands to a sandboxed application, such as TextEdit in OS X Mountain Lion, parameters that refer to files must be of an explicit file-like type and not a bare string, or the target application will not be able to access the file. For example, file "Macintosh HD:Users:me:sample.txt", POSIX file "/Users/me/sample.txt", or the result of choose file would all be acceptable, but the string "/Users/me/sample.txt" would not.

Seems like adding POSIX file would fix it

Sounds promising, but AppleScript tells me it "can't make file 'path:to:file' into the expected type" when execution reaches the "import" line. :(

set theList to {POSIX file "/path/to/file.png"} <- it goes inside the brackets

Perhaps this free app may discover an unintended glitch?

Based on this from an old Applescript Release Notes on sandboxing…

When sending commands to a sandboxed application, such as TextEdit in OS X Mountain Lion, parameters that refer to files must be of an explicit file-like type and not a bare string, or the target application will not be able to access the file. For example, file "Macintosh HD:Users:me:sample.txt", POSIX file "/Users/me/sample.txt", or the result of choose file would all be acceptable, but the string "/Users/me/sample.txt" would not.

&

Note: As mentioned under Compatibility above, sandboxed applications will not be able to access files referred to in commands using a string path. Any parameters or properties in your application that refer to files should be declared as type file, and not type text. Apple Event Manager will add sandbox extensions to events that have file-like parameters, but only if the parameter is of a recognized file-like type: typeAlias, typeFileURL, cFile, and so on. Without these extensions, the file will not be accessible from the target application’s sandbox, and the command will probably fail.

It would seem that the 'fix' is to use POSIX file to prevent the sandbox issue
After some hammering at how to make Applescript work with POISIX file of a list, I came up with this…
tweaked
set theList to {"/Volumes/Downloads/ScreenShot.png", "/Volumes/Downloads/ScreenShot2.png", "/Volumes/Downloads/ScreenShot3.png"}
set l to {}
repeat with f in theList
    set l to l & (POSIX file f)
end repeat
tell application "Photos" to import l

It ain't perfect, as every import is a new one, but it works.
Now works in one import.

tweaked it - better, one import

What is your outermost "tell" there? I can't tell Finder nor System Events to do this; both give me the same "can't get POSIX file <...> from file <...>" :(

Okay, got it: what you posted has to be outside a tell entirely (I had it inside one because I need to tell System Events to get every file in a folder; forgot you could actually have statements outside a tell/function, so that's why I was still getting an error).

Glad you got it. I assumed your initial list would be constructed differently, but had no way to know exactly how.

@Tetsujin Any idea on how to handle this question? This looks like the same problem, but I can't get it applied to my issue. http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/269539/applescript-pages-export-to-pdf-fails-due-to-permissions

You can also insert this line anywhere before the export line in your code:
open for access file f

This seemed to do the trick for me.


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Mac Calendar and Google Application Password
Following a system update, all Apple apps looking to Google required new Google Application Passwords. Generating and entering this enabled Mail, Notes and Messages to sync again.
Not so much with Calendar. I can find no field in Calendar into which to enter the GAP. Does anyone know what Calendar requires when it's lost it's link to Google, as different from Mail, Notes and Messages? I'm running OS X Yosemite on a Mac Mini.

Since you're asking about a setting in the Mac app, your question would probably be better off at [apple.se].

That said, I think you need the iCal link from your calendar settings.


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Is there any way to get OS X to keep the iOS Simulator icon in the dock across Xcode upgrades?
I use the iOS Simulator often to check webpages so I run it and pick "Keep in Dock". That's works except every time Xcode upgrades it's no longer in the dock and I have to go digging for it again.
Is there any way to keep it in the dock permanently across Xcode upgrades?

SimPholders2 looks like what you want, can't prove it until next Xcode update, though.

SimPholders2 is a menu extra.  It has nothing to do with Dock.

Command Space to launch Spotlight
type Simulator
now simulator opens up...
see the dock for Simulator icon,
Control Click on that Simulator icon,
Options > Keep in Dock
now Simulator stays in the dock for quick access...

Launch the iOS Simulator.app
Right click on it (or control click it) and select 'Options -> Keep In Dock'
That is a Dock-level preference and will survive Xcode updates.  You can see the data set in the com.apple.dock preference domain:
defaults read com.apple.dock

That's exactly what I've done for the last 5 years. It doesn't stick which is what I said in my question

Well that's exactly what I've done for longer than that, and it's never disappeared from the dock.

I wonder what's different about my machine. I just lost it again. Restarted my Mac my dock now looks like this the iOS Simulator has disappeared yet again

The setting for keeping something in dock is set in Dock's preferences.  Inspect the output of 'defaults read com.apple.dock persistent-apps'

I'm not sure what I'm looking for. It wasn't in there at this point. Adding it back to the dock (run it, lock click icon dock, pick "Options->Keep In Dock") like I always do added it back. Looking at what it added these 3 entries are different "file-mod-date" = 0;             "file-type" = 1;             "parent-mod-date" = 0; Otherwise no idea what's special about iOS Simulator except it's buried inside XCode instead of like a normal app. You can see Chrome and VLC survived from the pic


text:
Remount a network home directory without logging out
Looking for a means of reconnecting a network home directory without having to log out and back in. Unfortunately due to server maintenance or even sleep issues with the client, the network home directory connection is lost.

What OS(es)? What Protocol?

It is connecting back to a Windows 2008 R2 server over SMB.

'it' is…. still rather shy on information...

Why can'y you just reconnect - i.e. click no the drive in the Finder sidebar (i.e. there is more info you need to give us on how you normally connect and what you can't do this)

Sorry, the "it" is a 10.10.2 box. The drive is mounted through directory services bind tool that allows you to specify the home directory as smb://

The drive only appears in the dock as a question mark and is not visible either as a connected or disconnected drive in Finder.

Are you connecting as ip/share or name/share? Is the sever guaranteed to win the master browser election every time? Macs over SMB are notorious for forcing an election & winning, when they shouldn't.

It's connecting to a name/share combination. My issue that the file server will briefly disappear from the network during server backups and then clients can be left with a question mark as their home directory in the dock. Starting to think this is unsolvable without a login/logout.


text:
Wi-Fi on hardwired iMac?
I have a small network consisting of a couple of iMacs hardwired to an AirPort router via CAT 5e cable, and a couple of iPhones. Since the iMacs are hardwired, I'd normally leave Wi-Fi turned off on those machines. However, I have found Wi-Fi to be useful for AirDrop between the iPhones and the iMacs, and for AirDrop between the two iMacs.
Here are my questions:

Is there any way to leave Wi-Fi on for the iMacs, but prevent them from using it to connect to the router? The AirPort is running WPA2, so I know I could simply omit the WPA2 password from the iMacs. Is there a better way?
Does it do any good, or any harm, to let the iMacs establish a wireless connection to the router, in addition to their wired connection? It occurred to me that the additional connection might boost throughput, if the router knows how to use it. Is that the case?

Thanks for your help.

Without special software or hardware to do so, multiple connections are not combined for increased throughput, knowing as bonding. The connections are utilized in the order shown in System Preferences > Network (screenshot below). You can change the order by clicking the gear icon > Set Service Order.
There is no harm in letting the computer connect to the router, other than possibly a slight impact on load in the router - but assuming the connection is not being actively utilized, impact should be slight to none. The only way I am aware of to prevent the Mac from connecting to the router is to not tell it the password or turn Wi-Fi off.


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Unnecessary option when decrypting HDD before booting
I've just performed a clean install of OS X Yosemite 10.10.3 on my new hard drive. Before installing i formatted the disk as an encrypted drive. When i start up my machine now i get to select between my account and button showing a question mark stating update required before the actual booting starts. I assume this is for decrypting the drive. When selecting my personal account the machine boots right into the operating system without a detour. When selecting the question mark i get prompted to select my personal account after the process of booting is finished.
I am certain that this unnecessary second option is due to the encryption of the hard drive as it first showed after restarting during the installation process when no user account had yet been created. However i have no idea how to get rid of it. Help therefore is appreciated.

see http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/152271/user-update-needed-after-updating-to-mac-os-x-yosemite?rq=1

Thanks. Decrypting and Encrypting it again solved it for me. Also nicely explained in the last post.

Cool, glad it worked. I'm going to flag this question as a dupe of that one, in that case, which will permalink the 2 questions & give future Googlers double the chance of finding a solution. It doesn't reflect on the quality of the question, just improves future searches.


text:
Accidentally did rm -r ~/.Trash
What should I do now? Will my computer be okay?

well at least you specified to rm the Trash only, unlike some who do rm- rf and then wonder what happened.

Yup, the system will recreate it automatically.
Actually about .Trash, it is located on every drive you will connect to your Mac and where you will delete some files. Deleted files on external drive won't show in your local .Trash.


text:
iPhone 6 broadcasts two IP address's of which are identical, except for last set of numbers; possible clone of hacked iPhone?
When running ettercap on Kali Linux using my cellular connection from AT&T, i monitored the web traffic of my iPhone 6 of which I believe has been hacked by ex boyfriend. What was incredibly strange and without any plausible explanation, there were two external IP's broadcasting,  as if they were clones of one another. They had the exact same configuration with the exact same ports open, with the only true difference being the last set of numbers on the IP. Is cloning an iPhone or perhaps the SIM being cloned a feasible explanation and are there any other sure fire methods of determining what is going on with my phone?

Were the two IPS at exactly the same time or when did they switch?

when using cellular data your phone will obtain a differnt IP address at least every time the tower changes.

If your SIM was cloned, you wouldn't be seeing traffic from the cloned SIM when monitoring your own phone's connection.


text:
What happens if I create a file while Time Machine is backing up?
Will the file be saved onto my backup drive? Is there a possibility that I might corrupt my backup?

The file will be saved if the containing folder has not yet been backed up, otherwise it will be backed up next time Time Machine makes a backup. The backup will not be corrupted.


text:
Is there a way to color parts of the man pages on the terminal?
I would like to color some parts of the output of the command man, specifically I would like to be able to change the color of the most important things, for example the options or the first introduction to each command.
Is it possible?
I know I can change the color of the prompt and of the output of the command grep and ls, so I thought we could actually customise more things (if yes, in general, could you please show me a complete guide?).

Assuming you're fairly default and using bash:

http://www.tuxarena.com/2012/04/tutorial-colored-man-pages-how-it-works/

Short version:
Add the following to your .bashrc file:
export LESS_TERMCAP_mb=$(printf '\e[01;31m') # enter blinking mode – red
export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$(printf '\e[01;35m') # enter double-bright mode – bold, magenta
export LESS_TERMCAP_me=$(printf '\e[0m') # turn off all appearance modes (mb, md, so, us)
export LESS_TERMCAP_se=$(printf '\e[0m') # leave standout mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_so=$(printf '\e[01;33m') # enter standout mode – yellow
export LESS_TERMCAP_ue=$(printf '\e[0m') # leave underline mode
export LESS_TERMCAP_us=$(printf '\e[04;36m') # enter underline mode – cyan

If you use ZSH as part of oh-my-zsh there's a plugin for man-page coloring: colored-man-pages

man can do this on its with less.
You need to set the environment variable MANPAGER
I set it by
export MANPAGER="/usr/bin/less -R --use-color -Ddg -Du+y"

This works for zsh and bash
The -D arguments set colours,-Ddg sets bold text to be green -Du+y sets underlined text to be bright yellow.

with the modern versions of less (2021 an later), groff and man,
color output can be achieved by
export MANPAGER="less --RAW-CONTROL-CHARS --use-color --color=d+g --color=u+y"
export MANROFFOPT="-c"

Result:

See Adventures with man color for detailed explanations