text:
Mac App Store Upload Fail: Validation Error (SFML)
I'm working on a SFML App in Xcode 7.2, and I'm trying to upload my project build to the Mac App Store, and I'm getting the following error:

An error occurred during validation
Couldn't find platform family in Info.plist CFBundleSupportedPlatforms or Mach-O LC_VERSION_MIN for A

I've tried, among other things, adding a new entry to my Info.plist for CFBundleSupportedPlatforms with an entry for OSX. I've tried changing dylibs vs frameworks, i've tried universal vs standard architectures. All of these modifications have yeilded no success.
This question is following a previous problem with freetype that I fixed. Is it possibly still a problem with freetype? any suggestions?
UPDATE:
OK, I've gone through and reset up a whole new project following the App Distribution Guide. I Did see some issues with some of my build settings, and fixed them. But I'm Still getting the same error. Does anyone have a clue what I'm doing wrong?

A gentle reminder that iTunes connect is an Apple service and questions about that service are explicitly on-topic here. Only code level development is where we direct people to Stack Overflow.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20864559/malformed-freetype-framework-in-sfml-mac-app/20876352#20876352 this question seems to be closely related to my issue

I fixed it!
The problem was that I had only edited my project-info.plist. I went and added the same lines for CFBundleSupportedPlatforms to the info.plist's for each of my external frameworks.

CFBundleSupportedPlatforms => array,
item0 => MacOSX

Seems to have done the trick.


text:
Screenshot a specific dimension, by default
I would like to do a screenshot/grab of a specific size, is there a way to set this on Yosemite, or is anyone aware of a software tool/app to do this?
I currently have to draw the shape, but often start at the wrong place so have to go through the motions two or three times, when if I had a fixed size i could position it over the area to screenshot to make sure it is correct.
Unlike the related question, The exact position on the screen may differ as I'll be taking a screenshot of my own web site but the browser window might differ in its location.
I am open to all possibilities whether programmatically, workflow, app or website.
On Windows there is a tool called MWSnap that allows settings a default fixed area.
thanks

Do you have Photoshop? I'm thinking in terms of taking a 'whole window ' snap, which won't matter where it is, then using a custom crop job.

A popular capture tool that I'm aware of is SnagIt.   SnagIt does have an option for capturing a fixed region (pre defined size).
SnagIt isn't the cheapest of the capture tools out there...   just a popular one (and I also use it frequently for work).

source: Stack Exchange

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

sort: votes


text:
OS X Photos show old photos as new
A couple of days ago I noticed that Photos on El Capitan shows already imported photos as new photos, when I select an iOS device. The iOS devices are synced with the Photos library and contain the albums local. This happens only for a few photos, not all of them.
My Photos library contain a couple of thousand photos. You will notice in the screenshot below that only 11 photos on my iPad are new. However, those photos are years old and got already imported into an album.

I tried following:

Started Photos with ⌥ + ⌘ and repaired the library
Imported the photos to a fake album and deleted them afterwards

Unfortunately, nothing helped. Does anyone have an idea, what I can do, to get rid of the old or new photos?

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


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How to open applications in fullscreen via Terminal
I just created a script to open my most-used apps, but I have two questions about it.
The code of the script is the following:
#!/bin/bash
echo "Hi $(whoami)"
echo "Openning your default apps..."
open -a Mail
open -a Wunderlist
open -a Reminders
open -a Notes
open -a Pocket
open -a Safari
echo "Do you want social networks? [y|n]"
read social
if [[ $social == "y" ]]; then
    open -a Telegram
    open -a Safari http://web.whatsapp.com
    open -a TweetDeck
fi
echo "Do you want to listen some music? [y|n]"
read music
if [[ $music == "y" ]]; then
    open -a iTunes
fi
echo "Have a nice day $(whoami)! :D"

So here come the questions:

How can I open those apps in fullscreen by default? iTunes have memory and open in fullscreen mode, but the others don't.
How can I keep Terminal in foreground while the other apps are being open?

How can I keep Terminal in foreground while the other apps are being open?

Use the -g or --background flag to open:

 -g  Do not bring the application to the foreground.

for example:
open -g -a Notes
will open Notes.app in the background.
Unfortunately not all apps appear to respect this. For those apps you may need to hide them manually using AppleScript:
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to set visible of process "FOO" to false'
where FOO is the name of the app.
p.s. - instead of $(whoami) you can use $LOGNAME

Here's an answer without using keystrokes (as I use Rectangle which uses the command + option + f keystroke).
oinfs() {
    for app in "${@}"
    do
        # get application name (applicationName) from case insensitive input
        # activate application (delay while app opens.  may need to be changed to delay 3)
        # set application to fullscreen
        osascript \
            -e "tell application \"System Events\"" \
                -e "set applicationName to name of my application \"${app}\"" \
            -e "end tell" \
            -e "tell application applicationName" \
                -e "activate" \
                -e "delay 1" \
                -e "tell application \"System Events\" to tell process applicationName" \
                    -e "set value of attribute \"AXFullScreen\" of window 1 to true" \
                -e "end tell" \
            -e "end tell"
    done
}

To use this you can run
oinfs Safari "Google Chrome" # or `oinfs Safari Google\ Chrome`

The first three lines of the script gets the application name from a case insensitive input, so you can also run
oinfs safari google\ chrome

On the Fullscreen-question:
I guess there is other ways to do it but using AppleScript is one of them.
For Safari it would be something like this:
/usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Safari"' -e "activate" -e 'tell application "System Events"' -e 'keystroke "f" using {control down, command down}' -e "end tell" -e "end tell"

Just substitute the applications and the right keystroke in the line and use this instead of the 'open' command.

Where can I learn how to do AppleScript? Do you know any manual or website that explain the syntax?

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


text:
Move album from iTunes on PC to Macbook wirelessly
I have just used iTunes to import a CD on my desktop Windows 7 PC.
I'd actually like the CD on my Macbook Pro's (El Capitan) iTunes library; I've been using iTunes' Music Sharing to access it in the past.
How can I "wirelessly import" this CD from my PC's iTunes onto my Macbook's?
The two iTunes libraries use different iTunes accounts.

Is there a reason you cannot just do the same thing on the Mac with the CD you did on the PC?

@user3439894 Yes; I do not have a CD slot in my Macbook, and I do not want to buy apple's USB CD thingy (here). I cannot physically connect the macbook to the CD.

I wouldn't bother with looking for an iTunes based solution. Instead I would:

Locate the audio tracks in Windows Explorer.
Transfer the tracks to your Mac by whatever means you have (direct network connection, Dropbox etc.).
Import the tracks into iTunes on Mac (e.g. by double-clicking them in Finder).

Good idea! I used Finder's connect to server to see my PC's files, went to \Users\*\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Music and there were the songs. Then I just dragged the album's folder into iTunes. Thank you!


text:
Can't reinstall OS X 10.9.5 Mavericks
I updated a 2009 MacBook to OS X 10.9.5. It was running a version of 10.9, but I don't recall which one. After the update, commands like ls went missing. I tried a Repair Permissions via Disk Utility, but it was no help. I'm guessing it was a botched update.
I'm trying to perform a reinstall without the DVD. I'm following Reinstall OS X Without CD/DVD or Apple ID (but I have the Apple ID). I boot with CMD+R and I jump through all the hoops.
At the final install step, I receive an error The item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. I've been trying to do this for the last 2 hours or so, so I'm guessing its not going to be available anytime soon.
I found one previous question for The item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. Unfortunately, none of the answers really provide instructions on how to proceed. They are more like guesses at what could be wrong, and prayers hoping things will correct themselves.
How do I proceed?

I have two MacBooks. One is the MacBook discussed above, and the other is a MacBook Pro. Both of them are now broken due to Apple processes. I really need one of them to work.

Are you able to reinstall from the App Store? Under purchases the OS should appear.

Most common cause of ls not working would appear to be that the path was overwritten. Page full of google results would agree - https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=ls+command+not+found+mac+os+x&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&ei=Yv10Voy8H-Gq8werl5uQBA


text:
keyboard not working within Apps
After upgrading my Macbook Pro to El Capitan, my keyboard stops working from time to time, but within a particular App. The strange thing is the even though I can't type, I can still save and execute App shortcuts.
Then the only way to make it work again is to close the App and open it again. This has happened me with Xcode, Textedit and TexShop. I was wondering if someone is facing the same issue and if there's a solution to this problem as I can't seem to find one on the internet.

I don’t have enough rep to add this as a comment, but did you ever find a solution to this? The exact same thing happens to me from time to time. (And if it makes any difference, I’m running OS X 10.11.6.)

The problem went away with the last version of Mac OS X


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Xcode doesn't start
I recently downloaded Xcode directly from apple.com (I didn't use the App Store). Now I try to open it, but it just says "Checking Xcode", it loads until the progress bar reaches 100% and then it does nothing.
What can I do?

Delete all files at
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dt.*

Manually install Developer Tools from Terminal by running
xcode-select --install

Reinstall "XcodeSystemResources.pkg" from contents of Xcode.app itself
/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Resources/Packages/XcodeSystemResources.pkg

Finally Xcode 9.0.1 (9A1004) worked perfectly.

This also helps when Xcode was installed and suddenly doesn't work. Here there was just some Xcode bounces and Xcode closed again. After running the above, works fine again.

I see that you said that you downloaded Xcode from Apple.com, so you must have downloaded a beta version. The same issue also happened to me when the Xcode 7 beta came out. For whatever reason this sometimes happens when trying to run the betas.
Unless there is a big reason why you can't (some feature you need for app development), just download Xcode from the Mac App Store and you shouldn't run into this issue again.

The reason why I downloaded it from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/ was that I couldn't download it from the App Store.

@Alex How come?

Because it took extremely long and I wasn't sure if it was downloading at all. So I canceled the download.

developer.apple.com doesn't only host beta versions. The Xcode Code Signature verification (the screenshot) takes a very long time, since it must verify around 7GB worth of data. Just download it from the App Store, and remember it should take a while. You can check on the progress by going into the Launchpad.

I downloaded it now from App Store, it works. Thank you guys.

On MacOS High Sierra (10.13.4) I started XCode (9.3) and it immediately quit without any message. The solution was to

Find and close any running app that takes too much system resources (CPU, memory)!

In my case Android Studio got stuck and was running with 400% CPU power.

This should be a comment

I had a simmilar issue. I solved it following this answer:

removing the old tools (sudo rm -rf /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools)
install xcode command line tools again (xcode-select --install).

I use xed . to open my project/workspace.
I accidentally hit xed / and that some how put Xcode is a weird state that upon opening any project Xcode would just open a spinning wheel.
I restarted and deleted my derived data a couple times but nothing worked.
What fixed it was opening a single file with xed i.e. I just did xed foo.swift and I was then able to open projects in Xcode.


text:
Installing Windows on SSD in optical drive bay
I removed my HDD from the main bay to install Windows 10 (through BootCamp) on my SSD (in the optical drive bay) and then I put back my HDD.
After that, I can't boot Windows anymore. Is there a way to fix it other than putting my SSD in the main drive bay?
Thanks folks!

yes, there is a way to do this (I've got 2 drives and have been running this config for several years:  Mac OS on main drive, and FAT/winblows on optical bay)..
you have to first do the setup of the windows drive with it in the main bay (for some reason it won't recognize in the optical for purposes of BootCamp)...
Then after you've installed, you can move it over, then you can option-boot from it..
An added advantage of this setup is thatif you've got VMWare (fusion) you can also boot it as a virtualized OS from within Mac...

How did you do it exactly? I tried that. I installed Windows on the SSD while it was in the main bay and everything worked fine. As soon as I put it back in the optical bay and put the HDD in the main bay, I can't boot Windows anymore. There's just a black screen with a blinking cursor...

i'm guessing you didn't set up BootCamp properly, as that is what allows the OS to see the partition.

I posted an answer where the optical drive was replaced with a hard disk drive (HDD) and the primary drive was a solid state drive (SSD). See this link. I believe the procedure would still work for your configuration. You will not need to swap drives using my method. You will need to install a free copy of virtual box on your OS X disk.
Your question does not explain how you booted to the Windows installation media. Did you use an external DVD drive or a flash drive? In either case, have you tried booting to the Windows installation media and just executing steps 37 and 38 from the above link? Try preforming these steps with both drives installed in your Mac.


text:
Bash history is not remembered in Terminal
My Bash history is remembered when I connect to my Mac via SSH, use iTerm2 or launch bash in the built-in Terminal app (every command I typed in bash is saved) but is not when I just use the built-in Terminal app. I already tried resetting the profiles in Terminal. I also checked ownership and permissions of .bash_history. Later I also tried to delete this file. This answer didn't help either. My default shell definitely is bash.

Without further details, this could be a duplicate of http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/50649/how-to-make-bash-terminal-app-remember-history-of-previous-sessions (linked on top as well), http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/139807/what-does-update-terminal-cwd-do-in-the-terminal-of-os-x or one of the other similar questions here. Why don't you either try the suggestions in the answers to the linked questions or edit more details about your detailed setup and what you've already tried into the question?

@patrix Sorry about that. I already tried the suggestions in the question now linked above before posting this question. I added more information to my question.

Found a solution. I would have added it as an answer, if this question hadn't been locked. I had to create the following file ~/.bash_sessions_disable in order to disable behaviour introduced in El Capitan. http://superuser.com/questions/950403/bash-history-not-preserved-between-terminal-sessions-on-mac

The question’s not actually locked as far as I can tell. So I think you should be able to post your answer here (and if you do, I’ll upvote it, because while there’s already an answer for it a SuperUser, there isn’t one here at Ask Different yet).

Nothing suggested here seems to work on 10.15.5 with iTerm2 3.3.9. History is lost on close.

Editing ~/.bash_profile with SHELL_SESSION_HISTORY didn't do anything. The problem was .bash_history having permissions -rw-------   root  staff as set by /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal. Little bit of chowning solved it. Now history works with iTerm2.

Begin isolating the source of the problem by removing any customizations of Bash’s history. For example, any code that sets shell variables that begin with HIST, or uses set -o to set either the history or histexpand shell options.
The per-session command history code in /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal attempts to maintain compatibility with Bash’s history variables, and tries to detect when the user is probably doing something it can’t be compatible with and disables the mechanism in that case (because the user is doing something arbitrary, like loading, saving or modifying the history). However, if you have scripts that run the history command, that code has no way of knowing in advance; you’ll need to either update your code to maintain compatibility with the new per-session command history, or disable the per-session history by setting SHELL_SESSION_HISTORY=0 as described in the documentation in /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal.
If you’re not customizing HISTFILE, HISTTIMEFORMAT or the histappend shell option, another thing to check is if your shell startup script(s) modify either PROMPT_COMMAND variable or the EXIT trap without concatenating the previous value to avoid wiping it out.
See the comments in /etc/bashrc_Apple_Terminal for a description of how the mechanism works and how to customize or disable it.

See this answer from a similar question. El Capitan made some changes whereby it tries to do session-dependent history. You can likely fix your problem just by running touch ~/.bash_sessions_disable to create a flag file to disable this behaviour.


text:
External USB Audio not being picked up by Macbook Pro
I've just bought the brand new 13" Retina Macbook pro. I'd like to hook it up to my USB DAC (An Audio Engine D1) When I plug in the USB to the Macbook it doesn't pick up anything. I've restarted the laptop to no effect. Nothing is being displayed in the Output section of Sound in System Preferences.
The DAC is supposed to be plug and play and has been working fine on my Windows machine for years.
How can I set up external audio on a Macbook Pro?

Try booting with it attached.

@Tetsujin This does not work either.

If you have another, or can get access to another, it would be great if you could try that out as well. If it doesn't work, it is most likely a driver related issue.

In @Garex question, you mention it doesn't show up in any app, meaning it is not recognized by the computer. This can mean that it is faulty (which it most likely is not), or Apple doesn't have a good (or any) driver for it.

Could it be a driver issue? From http://audioengineusa.com/Store/D1-24-Bit-DAC, FAQs tab: "(...) the drivers [the D1] uses are developed and provided by (...) your computer's OS. In the case of a Windows PC (...), these drivers are provided by Microsoft, and are a part of Windows." Have you tried this (same link)? "Try a NVRAM/PRAM reset. This resets the system configurations for some audio and video related settings and can many times help clear up problems related to audio. See the link below from Apple’s support page for information on how to do this. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379"

Are you connection the Audioengine D1 directly to the Macbook Pro, or is it roughing through a USB HUB? I’m also assuming that you have tried a different USB cable just to make sure it’s not that.

@kenjikato Yes, directly into USB with no hub. I have tried both USB ports. Both work correctly with other USB devices.

First, it would be helpful to know the exact model and the brand.
Second, could you please give this a try:

Plug your DAC in,
open the Audio-MIDI-Setup utiilty from the Utilities folder and
check whether it appears?

If not, try to create a device for it... Just a crazy idea...

The USB DAC is an Audioengine D1 http://audioengineusa.com/Store/D1-24-Bit-DAC
When I plug in the DAC, all I see in the Audio-MIDI-Setup screen is Built-in Microphone and Built-in Output.
I'm not sure how to create a device, this is the first time I'm using OSX and a Mac, I'll look it up and try.

To just add one, click on the Plus sign on the left bottom of the device overview....

Is it in the list here?
Open Terminal.app and enter:
ioreg -p IOUSB

No, it isn't there either.

Last ideas I have before I have to admit I cannot help you: :-)

Try another USB port.
Plug it in before booting.
reset parameter RAM and SMC and reboot.

Unfortunately that didn't help either. I've seen many people )who I think have older macbooks) use this DAC.


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Is $PATH just a file with a list (in order of preference) of directories?
I'm having trouble understanding exactly how $PATH works?
I am on a Mac..  If I install Python with Homebrew, it will install Python into the /opt/local/bin directory.
Now assuming Homebrew didn't make any changes to my bash profile, if I run a generic Python script, that will run using the system included Python located in Library I think.
My understanding is that if I go into my bash profile and add this line:
export PATH=/opt/local/bin:$PATH

then it will add these directories to the front of the list.
I guess the question I have is, why do I add this line here.  Why can't I go directly to the source which I think is $PATH and add the line manually there.
Is $PATH a file?  And if so where is it located?

PATH is an environment variable. $PATH is the string you use when you want to access its contents.

That's the way it's supposed to be done, just do as instructed!

The shell path (i.e. PATH) for a user in OSX is a variable defining a set of locations in the file system whereby the user can use certain applications, commands and shell scripts without the need to specify the full path to that command or program in the Terminal.
If you enter abc in Terminal the first occurrence of abc in one of the paths defined in PATH will be executed.
To access or print the variable PATH you have to use $PATH.
Example:
echo $PATH

The variable PATH has a general and a user specific part.
1. General part:
The general part is defined by the (superior) file /etc/paths and by the (inferior) content of the folder /etc/paths.d.
The default content of the file /etc/paths (in OS X) is:
/usr/bin
/bin
/usr/sbin
/sbin
/usr/local/bin

The default folder /etc/paths.d is empty. On older systems with an X11 installation the folder contains a file named 50-X11 with the content
/usr/X11/bin

which adds an additional path (/usr/X11/bin) to PATH.
The prepended number- just defines the load order.
My /etc/paths.d folder contains the following files:
/etc/paths.d/40-mysql    #file content: /usr/local/mysql/bin
/etc/paths.d/50-X11      #file content: /usr/X11/bin
/etc/paths.d/60-testdisk #file content: /usr/local/testdisk
/etc/paths.d/70-git      #file content: /usr/local/git/bin

The resulting PATH is
echo PATH$
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/local/testdisk:/usr/local/git/bin

2. User-specific part:
The user-specific part is defined by the file ~/.bash_profile. If you have created a folder bin in your user folder and installed some apps in there you can add the following line in ~/.bash_profile
export PATH="/Users/username/bin:$PATH"

or
export PATH="$PATH:/Users/username/bin"

The first entry preferably executes a command abc found in the /bin folder of the user, the second one a command abc found in the general path before executing an identical named one in the ~/bin folder.
This part of PATH defined by .bash_profile is only effective for the respective user.
To add the path entered in .bash_profile to the current PATH immediately you have to source the file once:
source ~/.bash_profile

3. Temporary paths
By issuing export PATH="/Users/username/bin:$PATH" or export PATH="$PATH:/Users/username/bin" in Terminal you can add a path temporarily.
This part of PATH is lost after closing the Terminal window, logging out or rebooting the Mac.
Examples (using the general part from above):
The file ~/.bash_profile contains export PATH="/Users/username/bin:$PATH" and you issue in Terminal export PATH="/Users/username/bin2:$PATH" then the resulting PATH is:
/Users/username/bin2:/Users/username/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/local/testdisk:/usr/local/git/bin
\____temp. path_____/

The file ~/.bash_profile contains export PATH="$PATH:/Users/username/bin" and you issue in Terminal export PATH="/Users/username/bin2:$PATH" then the resulting PATH is:
/Users/username/bin2:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/local/testdisk:/usr/local/git/bin:/Users/username/bin
\____temp. path_____/

Summary
PATH (or $PATH) is defined by several files: /etc/paths, the files in /etc/paths.d and ~/.bash_profile and in case of adding a temporary path by additional RAM content.


text:
Set meta/command/⌘ key as Launchpad shortcut?
I would like to set the command key ⌘ as the shortcut to open Launchpad, is that possible? I've tried in the System Preferences, but it won't let me.

You cannot assign just the command key to Launchpad.

To make this work you have to use a third party tool: Karabiner.
In the customized keycode below I assume that you haven't enabled the consumer key function in System Preferences but have to access the consumer keys by using the fn+F1...F12.
In the example below just the left command key launches Launchpad if hit once. A second hit will close Launchpad again.
You can use either the left or the right command key as usual otherwise (e.g. open files with cmd+O or print cmd+P)

Download, install and open Karabiner
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences
Open the tab Misc & Uninstall
Hit the button Open private.xml
Open the file private.xml with an appropriate editor
Enter the customized keycode
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>When you type Command_L only, start Launchpad</name>
        <appendix>(Change Command_L lazy start Launchpad)</appendix>
        <identifier>remap.command_l_lazy_to_launchpad</identifier>
        <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::VK_LAZY_COMMAND_L, KeyCode::LAUNCHPAD, ModifierFlag::FN</autogen>
    </item>
</root>

Save the file
Open in the menulet Karabiner -> Preferences the tab Change Key
Hit the ReloadXML button
Enable the remapping. It should be listed at the beginning.

Thank mate! This worked a treat! I'm a long time GNOME 3 user, and have got used to opening apps by pressing command, then searching and hitting enter. :)

@ChristopherBayliss it may have been useful to know that ⌘+space brings up spotlight which allows you to search for and launch applications. Having also used GMOME3 extensively in the past, I usually hit both keys with one finger when using OS X to save adding extra configuration.


text:
Unarchive a file with a set of provided password list
Is there a possibility like in jDownloader, where password protected files are automatically extracted by trying all passwords one by one which are provided by the user?
Something like this:
$ unarchive foo.rar --password-list baz.txt

Which specific unarchiver are you using?

@patrix Thanks for your comment! There is no specific unarchiver I use, because the ones I use don't provide this functionality, thus I'm searching for one, which can already do that, if there is any.

You should provide your edited solution as an answer, not by editing the question.

@grgarside Alright, I added it as an answer. I don't have to check it as solution do I?

@Byte No, it's fine to leave the other answer as accepted. Putting your answer as an answer makes it easier to see the development of the solution and is less confusing to search/SEO.

The solution from @patrix works perfect, except for the case, when the password is not available in the provided list, then the archive will produce a lot of 0 byte files. My changed solution checks, if a password matches, then it's continues to unarchive.
while IFS= read pwd; do
    if lsar -t "$1" -p "$pwd" | grep "[1-9][0-9]* passed" -E -q; then
        unar -p "$pwd" "$1"
        break
    fi
done < password-list.txt

Ah, great. I didn't have any password-protected archives to test it with.

Get unar from http://unarchiver.c3.cx/commandline
Extract the archive and put unar (and lsar) somewhere your shell can find it.
Run
while IFS= read pwd; do
    unar -p "$pwd" ARCHIVE
done < password-list.txt


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Random latency ping spikes
So I have been having serious problems with lag(connection ping spikes) on my computer.
I am using Mac Pro (Mid 2010), and I used the “sudo ping -i .2 192.168.0.1” command in terminal to monitor my ping. My ping stays constant at 1ms-3ms, but always rises to 100ms-200ms every 6 to 15 seconds. And these “spikes” happens literally every 6 to 15 seconds, but it doesn’t go crazy until 1000 ping or even over.
The lag hits me a lot since I am playing Counter-Strike Global Offence on Mac, which the ping spike can be clearly felt.
The weird thing is that I am not running any program that uploads or downloads, and the lag only happens in this specific computer.The lag doesn’t happen on my laptop and all. What is going on? My speculation of this problem is probably my computer appears to be sending out files or signals hiddenly, and this is when the ping rises, but I just can’t figure out what is going on.
The connection used to be fine. Is it a problem with hidden network features within my Mac or what? I was about to try to disable SSDP service, which seemed to be the cause of lag of few of my friends, but I just don’t know how to, since its Mac.
Any help would be appreciated.

Are you using wired ethernet or wifi? If wifi, try wiring up & see if it improves; that way we've something to work with.

I have this exact same problem, and had it for at least 3-4 months. I'm fairly certain it's an issue with something on the mac itself. I've done pings directly to my router, on the wifi, from my laptop, and my phone - only the laptop sees it. Furthermore, 2.4ghz is horrendous, 5ghz bandwidth is still bad, but drops out less.

I've solved it here for me: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/348574/317354

I had a problem that presented very similarly to yours: excellent ping over wifi, except that every 6 seconds or so it would spike up to 100-200 ms. This was true regardless of the wifi network I was on, or the router hardware. I had no issue when connected via ethernet.
My problem ended up being related to a program which was regularly scanning for wifi networks. I found I could reliably cause my ping to increase in that same way by clicking on the wifi notification icon, which causes the OS to scan for new networks.
I looked in my wifi log (/var/log/wifi.log) and found entries like the following:
Tue Sep 12 11:38:59.570 <airportd[75]> WARNING: Google Chrome (412) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.scan, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release
Tue Sep 12 11:39:04.984 <airportd[75]> WARNING: jtmc (109) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.scan, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release

The application 'jtmc' (a diagnostic app for the Jive phone system) turned out to be the culprit. After closing it and removing it from my login items, pings went back to consistent 1-2ms to the router.

I had the same problem. The random latency ping spikes occurred when wifi was scanning for access points. It's even worse when many access points are in the neighbourhood.
The scanning happens when you click on the wifi icon to show the list of available access points, but this also happens when your location services tries to determine your location.
Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> Location Services and disable all apps that wan't to use the location services.
That's it.


text:
How does software updates work in OS X?
I just switched from Linux to OS X and I am still getting used to it.
I know I'll need to use Homebrew, as I rely on many CLI tools. Also, I just read about Cask, what make me wonder about one thing. How does software (not from the App Store) get updates? Windows-like, i.e. a message notifying about a new version so I can download it, or somehow integrated with the system, so that I don't need to download a new .dmg every time I want to update an app?
If it's "Windows-like", is it better to use Cask for things like Firefox, VirtualBox, VLC, LibreOffice...?

If you only need commands like g++/gcc and other developer tools, you can install Apple's command line developer tools, just by typing in g++ in Terminal, and then accept the install. All of the updates for these developer tools are in the App Store app, under "Updates".

With cask, upgrading all of your installed applications (that installed with cask) is done with a single command:
brew cask update

This is an unofficial (community based) way to upgrade applications and only has free softwares on its repository (there is no way to purchase). Advantages of this mechanism are:

It's scriptable
It separates system applications from user applications (your installed applications are placed in ~/Applications/ instead of /Applications/) so it's per user.
Installation of packaged installers is in the background so it doesn't need user interactions.
Uninstallation of applications is programmed by its community so there is no worry about remaining files after uninstallation.
It's possible to have multiple versions of applications systematically because the mechanism uses symbolic links for the latest or selected version of applications.
The source of applications is kept in the cache so you can install and uninstall them without additional downloads.

Disadvantages of this mechanism are:

There is no differential upgrade. It downloads the whole application image (.dmg) or package (.pkg) and stores in the cache.
Installation of applications is relied on symbolic links that may be not ideal (There are two copies of an application and may be repeated in "Open with" list)

There is also official App Store mechanism (the default) for upgrading applications that are installed with itself and it supports differential upgrade and can upgrade all of it's installed application with a single click; but unlike Cask it's not scriptable to run upgrade, installation, etc and does not keep the sources.
Another mechanism is in-app upgrade check that occurs when application starts. It is different from App Store upgrade and also supports differential upgrade.

I think it's up to you to choose which mechanism to use for which kind of applications, this comparison may help you.
I use the Cask for applications that is not provided in the App Store (like VLC, OS X FUSE, OwnCloud, Weka, etc.) and App Store for non-free applications i purchased. In-app upgrades are not suitable for me because it does not keep the source of downloaded data.

There isn't a general accepted "best" way for non Apple delivered, non Mac App store apps to update. There are many ways, some use linux tools, others reinvent certain wheels, others are scripting rsync/curl in a similar vein to how homebrew is built on a core script and ruby package recipes.
As far as apps self-updating (or at least notifying end users when an update might be available), some use a framework like sparkle to check for updates or program their own update check mechanism. Microsoft Office, Chrome, Firefox and many other apps don't need any other update mechanism other than opting in to the self-update mechanism.
Homebrew casks probably update as well as the core homebrew experience does for command line tools so I would start with that and then ask a follow on question if/when you have a specific app in mind that's not updating to your desires.

http://caskroom.io
http://brew.sh

If you manage Macs professionally, there are many frameworks to image, update, and even run your own "app store" to package specific versions of apps and side-step Apple's process.

http://www.johnkitzmiller.com/blog/better-software-updates/
http://www.lindegroup.com/autopkgr and https://github.com/lindegroup/autopkgr
https://www.munki.org and https://www.munki.org/munki-pkg/
https://github.com/unixorn/luggage


text:
How do I transfer iTunes on a PC to my new iPhone 6?
When I connect my iPhone 6 to my PC in order to transfer my music, I am told that the I need the newest edition of iTunes. When I try to download the newest edition of iTunes, I am told that the update is for Windows7 or higher. (I have Windows XP.) Microsoft no longer offers support for Windows XP. How else can I get my music from my PC to my iPhone 6?

If you can't upgrade from Windows XP you could use iExplorer, however I'd strongly recommend upgrading to a newer OS and using iTunes.

I'm afraid you're stuck.
The latest iTunes will not run on anything lower than Windows 7.
For many reasons, not least your own security, your solution is to be on Windows 7 at least.


text:
Saving space by hard-linking duplicates
I am looking for tool, script etc to hard link (or something equivalent) files with the purpose of saving space.
(Going through files, finding duplicates and hard-linking them in).
Will also then pure analysis - to find "duplicates", and see which ones are actually the same physical files.

Safe, yes, as the actual file will not be deleted until all hard-links are deleted. iPhoto/Photos Library is one example of where this is already done. As to automated, sorry, I've no idea.

Time Machine works EXACTLY like this. OS X is even able to hardlink directories.

I've removed the opinion-based part of your question. Also it might help to know a bit more about your specific needs (and the files you are looking at). Optimizing space usage in a standard OS X installation is probably not worth the trouble, are you looking at some specific user-generated files?

we have duplicates between iPhoto and the new thing (Photos?).

As mentioned in my earlier comment, iPhoto & Photos are already hard-linked. They don't take up as much room as the Finder would suggest. Finder file sizes do not check for hard links.

Between instances?  (We upgraded but still use iPhoto, also the iPhoto was from another machine)

Could this script work?:
http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/ANDK/Perl-Repository-APC-2.002/eg/trimtrees.pl
(On Windows there are GUI programs)

When you migrate your photo library from iPhoto/Aperture to Photos, the image files automatically get hard-linked into the new library (so they don't take up more space than before). This of course does not apply to images you add to both libraries after the migration.


text:
Why do I have 2 IPv6 addresses?
If I go to System Preferences > Network > Advanced it is shown that I have 2 different IPv6 addresses (both with a 64-bit prefix). Why is so?
If I type ifconfig | grep inet on the terminal, it also shows me those 2 IPv6 addresses (among the other addresses). At the end of one of those 2 IPv6 addresses there's the word dynamic and at the end of the other there's autoconf temporary. Why wonder why should we need two IPv6 addresses and what is the different between dynamic and autoconf temporary.

One is probably for the loopback adapter (lo0) and the other is for your active network connection, whatever your using Wi-Fi, Ethernet, etc.

You can read more about Loopback and Localhost. In IPv4 the loopback is 127.0.0.1. In IPv6, ::1 (0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001).

IPv6 used to be derived of the MAC address of your device. This is the Modified EUI-64 format. Such addresses are recognisable by looking at the middle of the last 64 bits. If they contain ..ff:fe.. then it is probably a EUI-64 based address.
Because the algorithm produces the same 64 bits every time some people were afraid that it would become easy to track mobile devices such as laptops and smart phones. Every network would have a different prefix, but the last 64 bits would always be the same.
That is why Privacy Extensions were invented. A device generates new 64 bits every once in a while and uses that in the IPv6 address. Because new addresses are generated regularly the addresses are marked as temporary. A device can have multiple privacy extension addresses if the system is still using an old address when a new address is being generated. The system will keep the old address for as long as necessary. For new outgoing connections a system will usually use the most recently generated temporary address to maintain a maximum level of privacy.

And you can have an arbitrary number of static addresses you choose your own, too.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't most devices have two IP addresses anyways (a "link local" version and a public Internet version)? I think I'd expect to see at least two IPs on any device connected to a network.

@phyrfox Yes, in fact it's entirely normal to see 3 IPv6 addresses on the same interface: a EUI-64-based number (usually of global scope), a privacy address (same scope, temporary), and a link-local address (starting with fe80:).

@GordonDavisson True, I was only talking about global addresses. Including link local then at least three addresses per interface is indeed the most common.

There appear to be four different types of IPv6 addresses:

Main address, using your ISP prefix + derivation of your network-interface MAC-address.
Temporary addresses, based on your main address but with randomization to prevent tracking. (a new one is generated every so often)
Link-local address, identified by starting with fe80:. (not usable globally, tied to routing)
Unique local address, identified by starting with fd00:. (not usable globally, not tied to routing)

In my case, I just enabled IPv6 on my home network, and found I have one of each of these these four types of addresses for my Windows computer. (showing up when I run ipconfig)
I wasn't confused by the Temporary address and the Link-Local address since they were marked as such, but I was confused at first by the second address that was labeled the same way as my main. I noticed it was shorter though and started with fd00, and after Googling that, found that it's the Unique Local Address for my device.


text:
Create a custom terminal window
is it possible to create (and put in the dock) a custom terminal window?
What I mean with "custom":

it should have a different name (eg. "myTerminal");
it should automatically start running a certain command (I'll ask if this is possible in another question);

Any help is appreciated.

Can you upload an image showing exactly where the "different name" will be drawn on your mac's screen? I'll answer the running a certain command as that part is quite trivial and I'm pretty sure I know what you need there.

@bmike: thanks for your kind reply. I'm not using the Mac in this moment, so I don't remember exactly when you roll over an icon in the dock if it pops out a label showing the name of the application (eventually, it is that name I need to change)

Yes, create a .terminal or .command file with the settings you like. The contents can then be a normal shell script that sets up the terminal the way you like it. Classic .sh files work as well, but the icon is not as nice. Place you file in a directory of your choice and add it to the dock.
Once you have that part working, you can probably paste a custom icon of your choice over the file using Finder and these posts.

where do I find documentation about creating .terminal files?

.terminal files are basically bash shell scripts. From bash, you can set the terminal settings. So basically, you are creating a bash script with a .terminal extension.

I don't understand very well the difference between a .command and a .terminal

Yes, at least to an extent.  You can of course change the name of 'Terminal.app' to 'myTerminal.app' and this would change the label of the shortcut on the dock.
Alternatively you could modify the 'file-label' tag inside of ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist though I suspect this to be a temporary change since the plist values will overwrite once the app is launched.
Your second request is much more simple to accomplish, simply enter any command you want executed when opening Terminal.app into a text file called .bash_profile inside your home directory, this file is executed every time Terminal is opened.
I'd like to also suggest an alternative solution, it sounds like your trying to create a shell script that can be launched from the dock, create a text file with any shell scripts you wanted to execute, then remove .txt and replace with .command and you have a shell script that can execute from the Finder.


text:
How to sort new folders alphabetically in OS X Mail?
I am running OS X Yosemite and Mail v8.2. Every time I add a new folder, Mail puts them to the bottom folder structure. This is very confusing and I have to go through all folders all the time to find my stuff. I would like the mailboxes to stay in alphabetical order. How can I do that? This was just working fine in previous version.
Any good solution? Disable and Enable the IMAP account is not option.

I have the same problem... Mail 9.2 El Capitan 10.11.2
So annoying...

Steve Price's answer pointed me in the right direction. I'm running El Capitan, and found the .mboxCache.plist files under /Users/my login/Library/Mail/V3. The file is a text file, and can be edited with a text editor (after closing the mail program).
For folders appearing in the wrong place, the problematic entries are as follows:
                    <key>MailboxDisplayIndex</key>
                    <integer>0</integer>

The value "0" puts the folder at the beginning, higher values go later in the list.
If you simply remove the two above lines for any folder appearing in the wrong place, and restart Mail, those folders will go back to being sorted alphabetically.
Sometimes the following two lines also appear in combination with the above:
                    <key>MailboxIsManuallySorted</key>
                    <true/>

In those cases, I changed "true" to "false".
Now my folders are back where I want them, yay!

I just backed up the file and then deleted it (like the KarlC answer).  Restarted Mail and it rebuilt it, a diff showed only the order and manual sorted had changed so all good :-)

The original answer didn't do the trick for me in macOS Catalina (10.15.4), but backing up .mboxCache.plist, deleting it and restarting Mail worked like a charm.

I am running Mac OS Sierra on a late 2009 iMac 27".  My Mac iCloud account mailboxes were NOT in alphabetical order and I have too many to manually sort.  Disabling and enabling IMAP Mail for my Mac iCloud account did not work for me. This did the trick perfectly.

Stop Mac application
Run these commands at a command line prompt in bash or ksh.  (Substitute your user name where you see "steve" below.  Substitute whatever you like for "Nov-12-2016".  That is just arbitrary stuff to rename the files and to be able to find them if needed later):

cd /Users/steve/library/Mail/V4

for file in $(find . -name .mboxCache.plist)
do
    print mv $file ${file}.Nov-12-2016
    mv $file ${file}.Nov-12-2016
done

I really wish Apple would just fix this bug once and for all. But until they do, when I see my Mailboxes are out of order I will run my script.
I cannot figure out how to get this simple ksh code to format correctly here, even though I read the help and tried the code and block quote buttons.  So the code as shown has too many empty lines and spaces.  Sorry for that.
Steve Price

This still works in Mojave, but you need to disable SIP.  Reboot your mac, holding command and r together, then open a Terminal in recovery mode.  In the Terminal, type csrutil disable.  Once that command executes, type reboot.

Practical Solution
Keep one Mac around with a copy of Snow Leopard. When you want to add mail folders, do it inside Mail 4.6. The folder will go into alphabetic order automatically. It will show up in the right place on all your other computers as well. I've just tested this on a large Apple Mail 4.6 archive. The 2005 Test folder is brand new and showed up in the right order.

I'll try and test this functionality in the powerful and utilitarian MailMate as you may be able to add your folders there (staying in Yosemite) but doing your actual writing and reading inside Apple Mail. MailMate looks and acts a lot like a cross between Apple Mail 4.6 and Eudora (my two favorite email programs) but is still a bit different in how it manages HTML emails and even reply quotes which keeps me away from using it voluntarily on a full time basis: we are creatures of habit. On the upside, MailMate does offer Markdown.
Frankly I'd be a lot keener to upgrade more of my five Macs past Snow Leopard if I could keep the amazing and robust Apple Mail (along with Letterbox for my very large monitors: the new two line viewing system is not nearly as good as clean columns).
Optimistic Suggestion
There may be a hidden preference default write which would enable automated alphabetic sorting. I can't find one but perhaps an Apple engineer could leak one to us.
As examples here's some other useful default write commands for Apple Mail:
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableReplyAnimations -bool true
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableSendAnimations -bool true

Change default font size and/or reset it:
defaults write com.apple.mail MinimumHTMLFontSize 12
defaults read com.apple.mail MinimumHTMLFontSize
defaults delete com.apple.mail MinimumHTMLFontSize

Turn on and off inline image viewing:
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool true
defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool false

Turn off Mail sent sound and turn it back on:
defaults write com.apple.mail MailSentSoundPath dummy
defaults delete com.apple.mail MailSentSoundPath

Copy and paste only the email address without name (this is a good one which I run by default on all my Macs:
defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool false
defaults write com.apple.mail AddressesIncludeNameOnPasteboard -bool true

Have you tried just dragging the folders to rearrange them in the order you want? This works for me under Yosemite & Mail 8.2. Give it a try!

Rearranging the folder is one option. However it's a not a solution.


text:
How do I create an automator to forward mail?
My parents both have GMAIL accounts. We were wondering if there was a way to forward email so when my dad's account receives email from a certain sender it would be forwarded to my mom's account.
Perhaps using Automator or applescript running on OS X 10.10 to solve this?

There is an easy way to do that right in Gmail. In the settings tab, go to settings and first add a forwarding address under Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Enter the desired forwarding address and confirm it by entering the confirmation code or clicking on the confirmation link. Then go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab in settings. On the bottom of the page choose "create a new filter". In the first line enter the email from the certain sender that you would like to forward, then click on "Create filter with this search", which will bring you to the next page. Here check the "Forward it to: choose an address" box, and choose the address.
That should do it. Gmail has great filters for mails
Hope this is helpful, might not be Automator or applescript, but it's right inside gmail, fast and easy... cheers

You could also do this with Mail rules.
The gmail method is better in that the forwarding happens when Mail isn't running, but you can set up a rule as follows:

The rules section is just in Mail preferences. You might try redirect instead of forward and see which "mom" prefers. I also added a bonus action of marking the message read - you can explore other options like filing or deleting or leaving it unread if "dad" wants to read these too.


text:
Mystery OS X Install program keeps running
I am regularly getting an error message from a program that purports to be an OS X Install program.  I have no idea how this is starting, or where it is from, but it appears after reboots too, and I don't like it.  I'm running the El Capitan 10.11 Beta (15A278b), so there is a possibility it's connected to that.
After trying to update some other apps from the MAS, I get an error message which indicates it's a Yosemite Beta Installer.
Anyone know where this can come from, and how I can stop it?

Have you tried just deleting the installer?...

Exact duplicate, except it doesn't show in my MAS. I'll mark as duplicate when I'm not using the iOS app


text:
How to disable Safari Frequently Visited?
How can you disable the Frequently Visited section in the Safari 9 Favorites tab?
I do not like how these auto-generate and need to be manually removed.

I see now that it can be disabled under the "Bookmarks" menu. Simple as that.


text:
Display just an image as a "window"?
Is there an easy way to display a PNG image (with transparency) as its own “window”, without any OSX window features (title bar, buttons, shadows)?
Ideally, it could also disappear when the mouse is clicked anywhere, or when Esc is pressed…

Yes, this is possible. See Apple's RoundTransparentWindow code example:

This sample demonstrates how to create windows with custom shapes, no title bar, and transparent content. It also shows how to change the shape of the window and recalculate the drop shadow around the window border.

I was hoping for something simpler ;), like an application. It looks like I'd have to modify the sample quite a bit to accept a file as an argument. If nothing else comes up I'll give it a shot...

Hopefully someone will come along who knows of an application that does this already. Otherwise, at least you now know it is technically possible.


text:
My iMac Doesn't boot it. Hangs with spinner and verbose mode can't boot
I have my iMac and I have to install Yosemite because I got iMac with older version when I got it. Then I did too many updates but I had my iTunes account and I had my credit card option set to "None" so that's where I started. My iMac froze!!! I can't boot anywhere! I haven't plugged any USB devices at any side I can find. So I used my second but it's non-mac computer. "Yes I have PC and iMac" but I gonna online and searched how I can boot to verbose mode "Learned when I got it". And then I hold "Command" key wich is "Windows" key on pc keyboard and I press "V" as well to boot to that mode but then I noticed this error came up.

xc240 -- 0xd000 -- 0xbc00 *****
And i did look in Google but there are no results for the error so i was worried that i should reinstall it. But i hate that because its waste of time. What command can i do in "Single user" mode for bringing OS X back to life?

  Specs of my iMac
 - 5024MB Ram = 4.9 GB Ram
 - 150GB of hard drive space

Sounds like your installation is messed up.
Are you able to boot in Recovery Mode?
Hold both the Command and R keys on the keyboard until you hear the chime noise.

I know what i did! I just got older mac CD/DVD installation disc burned on my windows pc so now i have mauntain lion and i can upgrade to the latest version


text:
Is it possible to set up rules in Mail that do not appear in the rules list?
I'd like to set up a few rules in Mail.app but not have them appear in the list of rules in Mail's preferences. Is there any way to do this?

Not that I know of. However, depending on your email provider, you may be able to set up server-side rules, which wouldn't appear in Mail.app and would be applied before your Mail.app rules.


text:
AppleScript Automator back-compatibility
I made a little, easy AppleScript and used Automator to launch it on click:
tell application "Terminal"
do script "myScript"
end tell

What about back-compatibility? Can I run it on every previous Mac OS X? Will it work?

Here's Apple page from 2007 using do shell script command: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/Concepts/work_with_as.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40001568-BABEBGCF So I think it will work in the previous OS X ;)

Ok, but in 2007 there was Automator?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automator_(software) 2005

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automator_(software) first release was 2005, but I would never assume compatibility for any process on any OS older than 10.7

10.7 would be absolutely fine

Then it's more down to what is in the terminal script. For instance, something as seemingly simple as flushing the DNS cache needs different commands depending on OS - see http://osxdaily.com/2014/11/20/flush-dns-cache-mac-os-x/


text:
Create a pdf with just certain pages from a pdf
I have a pdf, and I would like to select some pages from that pdf and build another pdf. Is it possible? If yes, how? I am on a El Captain.

The easy way hasn't changed in Preview for El Capitán In Thumbnail view select the pages you want, CMD-C (copy), File -> New from Clipboard (Save extracted pages to the new file). (See How to Extract Pages from a PDF Document in Mac OS X Preview).

Does not work for me: on Capitan 10.11, I don't have a "File->New from Clipboard" after copying page thumbnail.

What you might want to try is this:

Duplicate the PDF you want to remove the pages from in the Finder
Open the duplicate file, show the sidebar
Select the page(s) you no longer want and press the backspace key
Once you have deleted the pages you no longer want, save the duplicated file.
If you like you can then open another PDF and drag the thumbnails from one sidebar to the sidebar of the other document, thereby adding pages from one PDF to another.

Hope that helps.

Does not work for me: I cannot delete pages in the sidebar (Capitan 10.11)

Odd, works fine for me. Maybe the PDF is protected with a password somehow?

nope, I tried with normal PDFs I generate, I can select a thumbnail but not delete it or copy it, are you also on 10.11?

Damn strange, yes I am. Sorry, no other ideas...

There's a command-line option as well:

Install MacPorts (hosted by Apple) from https://www.macports.org/install.php . The link for your version of OS X, at the time of this writing, is https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.3.4-10.11-ElCapitan.pkg
Once it's installed, run the following command:
sudo port selfupdate && sudo port install qpdf

Enter your password (it will not be displayed as you type) and push return.
Now, you'll be able to use the command qpdf. To do what you're trying to do, try this:
qpdf --empty --pages ch01.pdf 1,5,9-15 ch02.pdf 1,5,7-20 -- output.pdf

You can specify as many input PDFs as you want (in this case I'm using ch01.pdf, and ch02.pdf), the way I did here. Separate individual pages using commas, and page ranges using a dash, as I'm doing here. You can change "output.pdf" to whatever output file name you want.


text:
Script opens two terminal windows
I coded this little AppleScript using Automator:
tell application "Terminal"
do script "myscript"
end tell

This perfectly works but has a side effect: when I close the window, there's always the Terminal window to close, so there are two windows, the one that executes the script and the Terminal.
Is there any way to have just one window running?

What happens when You only make do script "myscript" ?

@Mateusz Szolsek: I get an error

Try:
tell application "Terminal"
    if not (exists window 1) then reopen
    activate
    do script "echo hi" in window 1
end tell

Looks like when Terminal is not open, then tell application Terminal opens the Terminal with first window and do script opens another window (because do script is supposed to open new window).
Partial solution is to do script ... in window 1, which forces to run the script in recently opened window, but when Terminal was in use before, this would hijack existing window (and possibly unsuitable context).
Following script did the trick for me:
if application "Terminal" is running then
    tell application "Terminal"
        # do script without "in window" will open a new window
        do script "echo HELLO"
        activate
    end tell
else
    tell application "Terminal"
        # window 1 is guaranteed to be recently opened window
        do script "echo HELLO" in window 1
        activate
    end tell
end if

(I got inspiration from adayzdone's proposal, but it didn't work for me (in El Capitan). Looks like after tell application "Terminal" the condition not (exists window 1) never holds.)

I know this is 5 years late but I found the answer.
Here is my simplified answer for you. Change "" to my script variable. We must first launch the terminal to prevent a duplicate window bug cause by activate creating a new window after do script already created a new window. We cannot assume we can run in window 1 after activate as that window could be closing or running from another process. The best solution is the one I wrote and has 0 bugs:
tell application "Terminal"
    if not application "Terminal" is running then launch
    do script ""
    activate
end tell

Here is the full script I used for my Java library open terminal
on run argv
    set scpt to first item in argv
    set p to second item in argv
    tell application "Terminal"
        if not application "Terminal" is running then launch
        set newTab to do script scpt
        try
            if p is not equal to "" then set current settings of newTab to settings set p
        end try
        activate
    end tell
end run


text:
Exiting/Starting the Terminal (El Capitan)
In the latest Mac OS X Terminal version I noticed that if I type exit and the press Enter, I get the following:
Last login: Wed Jan 27 09:18:48 on ttys000
Ian-iMac:~ Ian$ exit
logout
Saving session...
...copying shared history...
...saving history...truncating history files...
...completed.

[Process completed]

As far as I can remember, previous versions of the terminal, simply closed the window when you entered exit.
Is there anyway to restart the same terminal after [Process completed] displays? Or should I completely close the window and restart the terminal? It looks like I can't type anything after entering [Process completed] displays.

When the Shell exits, it means that you are done. So one option is to close the window and manually start another one (or you can simply press cmd+N to automatically open another shell).
Another option that can save you some time is to make Terminal automatically close the tab after the exit process has been performed properly.
Open Terminal Preferences > Profiles > Select your profile > Shell tab > When the shell exits --> Close the window. In such a way, if you want to start again your shell (after having exit) you should just open another one.

In my specific case, I found very useful ^D (ctrl+D)

Once it says "Process Completed", the Terminal's session has been terminated, and there is no way to restart that specific session. You may close the window and open a new one or open a new tab on the same window.


text:
Will EarPods work with my 2010 Macbook Pro?
Plugging my EarPods into my Macbook pro will not allow me to use the button to control volume, nor will the microphone work.
The speakers work fine though.
Are there specific hardware requirements for the EarPods, when being used on something other than an iOS device?
They work as expected on newer Macbook Pros from the last few years.

I have a mid-2010 Macbook Pro, i can use my EarPods with it.
When plugging it in, try to give it a good push, i notice mine needs a a bit of force for it to click into the port.

Does your mic and volume control work?

Yes, both work for me.

Hmm, perhaps I have faulty hardware. I wonder if there are firmware updates for that.

Perhaps try the reset PRAM method. By holding CMD-Option-P-R at boot.

Nah, didn't help. Even SMC Reset didn't help.


text:
Change the icon of a single, specific file
I want to change the icon of a single, specific file, eg. not all the docs file, only one .doc file (and this change should even persist). Is this possible? How?

Open the image that you would like to be the icon in Preview.
Press ⌘A to select the entire image and press ⌘C to copy it.
Get Info (⌘I) on the folder.
Click the existing icon in the top-left and press ⌘V to paste the icon from Preview.

To revert back to the default icon, Get Info on the folder, click your icon and press ⌫.

Ok, but what if I totally remove the original image from my disk? That is: I suspect this "only" creates a link to my image. Please, correct me if I'm wrong

@Ian This pastes the image data into the image well, so the image data is copied and does not reference the original.


text:
Backward compatibility of shell scripts
I use a .command file to start a basic shell script in the form:
#!/bin/bash
-- this simply starts Something at /usr/local/bin/Something
myLittleOneLineScript

To make it work I changed its permissions and made it executable.
The question is: I run the latest Mac OS X version and this script perfectly works. But: will it work in any previous OS X version?

What makes you worry that it doesn't?

@patrix: the simple fact that I don't know if it does   ;-)

"Will it work" has two aspects here:

will executing the binary work?
is bash capable of running the script as such.

The example looks fairly basic as far as shell scripting is concerned. So yes, it should work with previous OSX versions of bash. It would (as long as Something is installed in /usr/local/bin) even work in quite old versions of the Bourne Shell (/bin/sh) on various Unix systems.

In most (if not all) default OS X installations the script won't work (OK the script itself works but the command Something doesn't). The folder /usr/local/bin simply doesn't exist.
The folder /usr/local and all subsequent folders are reserved or designated for/to third-party commands.
Here are just a few examples of command line tools installed there by third-party app providers:

MySQL Community Edition (Oracle)
VirtualBox (Oracle)
TextWrangler/BBEdit (links to a subsequent app folder)
NMap
homebrew
....

To get the script running you have to install the command line executable .../Something residing in a subfolder of /usr/local first. The installed executable has to be compatible with the older system and all arguments/options in the script itself have to be compatible with the lower versioned (old) executable.

the question is not about the executable. That is: I'm sure the executable is where it must be when the shell executes it

@IanBell The backward compatibility of the shell script may depend on the content of the script and the features of the lower versioned executable.

Ok, perfect, but that is not a problem because the users download a dedicated version of the executable, so if they use 10.8, they install the executable required for 10.8, etc.


text:
How to remove audio device from Preferences?
I'm trying to remove an old device from the Sound Preferences pane. The app is trashed along with whatever preference files I could find. But it remains after reboot.

Aggregate Devices are accessed from Applications/Utilities/Audio Midi Setup.
You can select & remove it from there.
Individual components will be added/removed as you install/uninstall them, but the Aggregate itself will remain until removed manually, as it contains all available sources.
The same is true of Multi-Output devices.

Thanks for answer but this make no sense. Why you can't remove it form the Settings/Sound UI!

@KamilDzieniszewski - Because it's not designed for that at all. You can't add it from there either. You can only add/remove aggregate & Multi-output devices from Audio MIDI Setup. I added a bit more explanation.


text:
File Recovery when Disk Space is not Reclaimed
I have a two disk system, Disk1 which contains OSX and Disk2 for misc files.
I deleted the .Trash folder on Disk1, which I assumed would only affect files on Disk1, but must have had an effect on Disk2.
There was about 500GB of data 'deleted' (This data was never trashed in the first place).
The free space on Disk2 has not changed.
I am running data rescue now, but I figure this might be a special case.
Is there any way to get the data back without forensic utilities?
Later:
Forensic utils didn't help.
Why is the available disk space unchanged?  Should I zero it to reclaim?

Did you do this from the terminal?

how did you delete the .Trash directory?

@WilliamTFroggard It might have been via terminal as I remember needing sudo, but then again .Trash wasn't all I deleted. It does seems the likely culprit to me.

can you please go into the terminal, and push the up arrow until you see the command you typed, then copy and paste it here?

@WilliamTFroggard I'm a dev myself - terminal is a daily tool.  The push up log is long gone.  It seems like you might have an idea.  Can you post it and I will follow through?

I'm trying to figure out exactly where the data went. I can't do with without some idea of exactly what was typed. How long ago did this occur?

@WilliamTFroggard It was two days ago - it seems like the data is still there as the space was not reclaimed.  But why would deleting files on Disk1 have had that effect?

it shouldn't have, which is why I'm curious as to what was typed. The tiniest typo could do unforetold things to a computer.


text:
Dual-boot Linux on a Mac with original Boot Loader without uninstalling OS X
I own a Macbook Air 2014 model, and have duel-booted OS X and Bootcamped Windows 10. Now I want to be able to install a Linux distribution (most likely my own custom one, but lets use Ubuntu as an example).
From all the examples I found on the web, they were either, "Dual-boot with rEFIt" or, "Pure EFI-boot, with an uninstallation of OS X and re-installation afterwards".
What I want, is something that looks like *this:
*picture grabbed from second link

With my Linux and Mac OS X partitions neatly tucked in there.
The second link does what I want, except OS X is uninstalled, which I don't have the time or external hard-drive reliable enough to not corrupt everything on copy over due to the age and damage.

This process will wipe OS X and any other data you have on the machine. All of it. That’s the whole point. Make backups.

I don't want this. So is there a way (god forbid, there MUST be) that I can get Linux on my Mac, and be able to hold Option/Alt on boot, to select one of the 4? (OS X, Windows, Linux, Recovery)
I don't want GRUB, rEFIt, a command line, nothing. Just ye' olde OS X boot-loader.

you can't do this. the problem isn't refit, command line, whatever - the problem is the way Apple ignores the core functionality of the UEFI spec and doesn't implement standard loaders. so all of that stuff is a way to bring it into conformity so it can work with the rest. I don't believe the disk would have to be erased - that seems a little weird - but the partition table will certainly need to be replaced. Without erasing, it would mean some tricksy binary edits of the head of the raw disk. I don't have a Mac and so can't help you there, but only the head of the disk matters for UEFI boot

@mikeserv Surely there'd be a way. Bootcamp functionally adds Windows to the table, why not the other way around...?

because it only adds windows. but i just read something that says if you have a 2013+ model it does the bootcamp install in UEFI mode, and so it should be possible without screwing w/ the partition table in that case.

Yes! I'm on a Late-2014 model. You wouldn't know how..??

sure. just go ahead and install it. make sure you configure at least one fat32 efi system partition. put the linux kernel on it and its initramfs, then you'll need to bless it. sudo bless --folder /Volumes/Linux\ Boot --file /Volumes/Linux\ Boot/vmlinuz.efi --options 'root=PARTUUID=3518bb68-d01e-45c9-b973-0b5d918aae96 initrd=/initramfs-linux.img' --label Linux

@mikeserv Mike, I really appreciate the help, but I have no idea what that means? 0_0

@mikeserv And is "Linux\ Boot" the name of my partition? What version of linux are you basing this off of?

versions 3.3+ will work for most compilation configurations. and no, it probably isn't the name of your partition. you need to install it in bootcamp. instead of windows install linux in efi mode. and you'll need to bless its boot partition afterward. if your linux of choice tries to sneak in a grub or whatever, you'd do better to uninstall that stuff. the linux kernel is an efi executable. in my opinion you'd do a lot better to remove the sheisty mac efi boot menu and replace it w/ rEFInd, though.

@mikeserv Hmmm... Bootcamp only gives me the options to: "Remove windows from my computer", "Download drivers for Windows" and "Set up a bootable USB".

yeah - just pretend you did. but don't boot a windows usb - boot a linux one.

@mikeserv Ahem... Boot Camp only supports Windows 7 or later installation on this platform. Please use an ISO file for Windows 7 or later installation.

@mikeserv is correct. Apple's EFI is unlocked during development and can boot to anything (including a raw EFI shell), but when they send the specs to the factory, the firmware is locked, and EFI acknowledges only what they permit. Boot Camp appears to be integrated with this, but all it actually does is set up partition maps and drivers. This is what you have, unless you can somehow get an unlocked EFI image and re-flash the onboard EFI chip. Using rEFIt allows you to boot into an alternate EFI implementation so that you can use EFI as it was meant to be used.

@KlaatuvonSchlacker - i dont think i was totally correct - i thought he could boot a linux kernel directly that. nil - you can install refind from windows if you like - it would be pretty easy to do. and the menus are cooler looking anyway. i didnt know it would lock you out - it should just set a simple windows esp -  or else you could modify the windows boot menu to add linux. but it really isnt all that difficult EFI isnt tricky or whatever like MBR was - excepting Apple's stuff and some of MS's ARM stuff, its just straightforward - mount a disk, run an executable. its simple.

Neat - I have an older (2006) imac and was never able to figure out why the original EFI was so bad. I'm happy with refit now and not going to move, but at least I know why Apple's was bad now.

@mikeserv I don't know if you have a definite answer, but would you mind posting one? I would like to give you the bounty for attempting, and since an acceptable answer hasn't yet been supplied, you deserve it.

I think the problem is that Apple's boot loader cannot read ext4 filesystems which is what Linux normally use. If you can install linux on an HFS or NTFS partition, then maybe it can be made to work?

1) Resize your OSX Partition, leave the space created as freespace (i.e don't create any partition)
2) Write the iso to USB and boot it (take the most recent image from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com)
3) Create ext4 for / where the freespace was created, use sda1 (osx: disk1s1) or use another EFI if you have more then 1 drive and you want to use the second for linux only - in short: use the EFI partition as the "bootloader" partition
4) Install Ubuntu (or any other distro) - but watch for the bootloader, if you don't want to use grub (care to elaborate, why?) you need to rebless the volume in os'x to boot through the normal bootscreen where you can hold ALT to fire linux.
I don't know what you want to achieve with that, since having grub is basically the same, and you will be loading grub from that screen anyways since you need to load the kernel somehow - guess there are other options but I never used them, just went with grub.
What I mean is that after you select the other partition with the normal bootscreen by holding ALT, you will load grub - since you must load the kernel, and there is now way to load it directly from that screen other then using MBR which even makes less sense since it's a UEFI system ;-)
note: I strongly advise you to use refit - it's a very good solution and has some extra functionality that will make multi-os setup's boot better.
If you don't like it, just rebless the volume in os x and you get rid of it.
bless is a system command- however in the new os x there is:
sudo systemsetup -liststartupdisks
and to setup back any Volume as the sys volume use:
sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk /Volumes/YOUR_SYS_VOLUME_NAME
to check if it worked:
sudo systemsetup -getstartupdisk
So even if something goes FUBAR with the bootloader, it won't be any problem.
Why would you reinstall os x or anything else to boot linux on a Mac?!? Anyone doing reinstallations to boot linux is just a windows impared user who does not know how unix works, what gpt is and thinks of EFI as fancy bios.

what i did was to make a bootable usb and dvd with the exact same files (copy/paste). first off i got a usb from amazon with already installed linux mint so i could use it with my mac i figured out that mac doesn't boot from usb even formatted to a FAT32/exFAT thats where the dvd comes in im using a 4.7gb dvd (enough to get linux distro on it). and all i did was copy/paste all the files and burn them on to the dvd. then put the dvd AND usb in and hold C key on restart to get boot from a cd/dvd and wait for linux to LIVE BOOT (live boot doesn't save and you will need to install linux on a patition).
sorry for the rushed post and bad spelling im in a hurry, please do research about this i dont want you to break anything :)


text:
Path not being honored?
I have the following in my .bash_profile:
$ cat ~/.bash_profile
# Prompt
export PS1="\h:\W$ "

# Standard path
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:
/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin"

# Android
export ANDROID_NDK_ROOT=/opt/android-ndk
export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=/opt/android-sdk
export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home`
export ANDROID_HOME="$HOME/.android"

export PATH="$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/tools/":"$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/platform-tools/"

I verified the path with:
$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/opt/local/bin:
/opt/local/sbin:/opt/android-sdk/tools/:/opt/android-sdk/platform-tools/

My local build of Emacs is in /usr/local/bin. I just built and installed it:
$ which emacs
/usr/local/bin/emacs

When I run Emacs, I get the one from /usr/bin:
$ emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.1.1
...
$ /usr/bin/emacs --version
GNU Emacs 22.1.1
...
$ /usr/local/bin/emacs --version
GNU Emacs 24.5.1
...

Why am I having trouble with the paths? Why is OS X ignoring them? How can I use my copy of Emacs in /usr/local/bin/emacs without specifying the full path?

If you open a new terminal tab, does the problem persist there?

I found I had to reboot the machine to have the changes take effect. A logoff/logon may have had the same effect, but I did not try it.

If you had cleared the hash table then the new emacs would have been called. No need tp logout or reboot.

@fd0 - Forgive my ignorance... What hash table are you talking about? What does it have to do with a path or a program?

The hash table is a shell feature that records the full path of a command to memory after a PATH lookup. Subsequent calls to a command are first checked in the hash table instead of having to use a PATH lookup. More info can be found with the command help hash.

In order to amend your PATH so that /usr/local/bin
is ahead of /usr/bin do the following:

execute . ~/.bash_profile
execute PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" in the current shell
restart Terminal

You may also want to amend /etc/paths so that /usr/local/bin is listed before /usr/bin. You'll need to sudo your editor in order to do that.
sudo open -t /etc/paths

Bear in mind that if you edit /etc/paths there is a risk that non-terminal applications may pick up your locally build version. Just FYI.
A little more information on paths.

/bin (and /sbin) were intended for programs that needed to be on a small / partition before the larger /usr, etc. partitions were mounted. These days, it mostly serves as a standard location for key programs like /bin/sh, although the original intent may still be relevant for e.g. installations on small embedded devices.
/sbin, as distinct from /bin, is for system management programs (not normally used by ordinary users) needed before /usr is mounted.
/usr/bin is for distribution-managed normal user programs.
There is a /usr/sbin with the same relationship to /usr/bin as /sbin has to /bin.
/usr/local/bin is for normal user programs not managed by the distribution package manager, e.g. locally compiled packages. You should not install them into /usr/bin because future distribution upgrades may modify or delete them without warning.
/usr/local/sbin, as you can probably guess at this point, is to /usr/local/bin as /usr/sbin to /usr/bin.

This source helps explain the filesystem hierarchy standard on a deeper level.
And you might find this article on the use and abuse of /usr/local/bin interesting as well.

The OP already had /usr/local/bin at the beginning of PATH…

Yes, thank you, I have noticed that too. One may (or may not) wish to omit according command at will. BTW, who is OP? :)

Original Poster :-) BTW, I didn't even realize that people go into holy wars over the use of /usr/local.


text:
How do delete menulets added via "Onyx"
I added some menus via Onyx and now I don't know how to get rid of them again. Holding option and clicking on the menus doesn't provide an option to close them and I cannot delete the "iChat.menu" in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/iChat.menu because I get an error message telling me that it can't be deleted because it's needed by OSX.

Thanks for the help :)

Presumably Onyx can remove them also.

Generally speaking you can remove Mac OS menus like that by Command dragging the menu off the menu bar (EG hold the Command key, click the menu and drag it down)
Tetsujin's suggestion also holds merit as the settings applied in Onyx can be unapplied in Onyx by clearing the check box and then applying the change.


text:
Copy extended attributes to new file (ffmpeg)
I'm currently trying to decode some video files with ffmpeg on my computer but am not able to make ffmpeg copy the tags from the source file to the destination file. I read through the man page but there seems to be no way to extract the file tags from the source file or am I missing something?
I was able to extract the information via mdls but this isn't getting me anywhere. Also, I found about xattr and tried to apply extended attributes this way but the option -x seems to be removed and applying the attribute without that option doesn't work either.

I needed this too—also after running FFmpeg!—so I wrote a shell script to do it. It’s not very quick, and it won’t work if any individual attribute contains more than about 128 KB of data. (Behind the scenes, it’s encoding each attribute value in hexadecimal to make sure that binary data is copied correctly.) It worked fine for my needs, though.
Save this to a file called copy_xattrs:
#!/usr/bin/env zsh

if [[ $# -ne 2 ]]; then
    print >&2 "usage: copy_xattrs SOURCE_FILE TARGET_FILE"
    exit 1
fi

set -e

IFS=$'\n' attr_names=($(xattr "$1"))
for attr in $attr_names; do
    value=$(xattr -p -x "$attr" "$1" | tr -d " \n")
    xattr -w -x "$attr" "$value" "$2"
done

Then run chmod u+x copy_xattrs to make it executable. Now you can run copy_xattrs source target to copy all of the extended attributes from the file source to the file target.

I'm not able to check for myself if this works but I guess this should be the accepted answer, since you had the exact same issue I had and solved it successfully. Thank you very much!

Great script, I used it to copy extended attributes from the timemachine folders and it works like a charm (Backups.backupdb, machine and backup set). Good job!

I found a convenient way to apply the tags from one file to another since this was my main goal.
Install tag via brew and proceed as follows:
tag -a "$(tag -Nl source_file)" destination_file

I'd still be more than interested if there was a way to apply all extended attributes from one file to another if there is any way.


text:
Safari 8.0 - 9.0 100% Cpu usage OSX 10.11.3 might be related to bookmarks / favorites
I'm experiencing very weird issue as far I remember from Yosemite up to latest El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) and Safari Version 9.0.3 (11601.4.4) Actually it's started to become more annoying with time. Sometimes Safari goes up to 100% cpu usage, sometimes even more, but it's directly on safari process, all child processes stay at normal cpu usage including networking thread. I have started to debugging issue as far I can with closed source. I have tried to delete all cache,cookies,bookmarks and all possible data stored in relation to Safari.app including browsing and other databases. It didn't help much. I have created new test account on my macbook pro, then tried to reproduce issue with plain-set osx with safari, but after hours of usage couldn't reproduce the issue. Then I have imported Bookmarks.plist from my current account into cleanly set account, after less then 15 minutes, safari went up to 100% cpu usage again. I have also tried to use iCloud to automatically migrate safari data incase I have made mistake with manual transfer, but it seems icloud safari backup also made problem come back. My bookmarks seems normal, nothing to share here, few pages stored in favorites, one sub-directory in favorites, and couple more in bookmarks but more importantly plist file format does not seems to be corrupted itself. I couldn't find that issue is related strictly to one website, it seems it might be related to Favorites bookmarks. Does anyone have and workaround on this issue?
PS. I don't have any problems with other browser, such as Opera,Chrome,Firefox - but using other browser it's not the solution. If that might be helpful I have took part in developer preview beta program during Yosemite, I have went back to normal release with first public Yosemite release, but I don't really think this is source of the problem.
Safari process sample before 100% load
Screenshot with highlighted 100% usage of safari mother-process

Safari process sample during 100% load http://pastebin.com/RDCLRB1n

Actually i have found solution of this issue. It seems apple didn't handled unusual cases with new Favorites tab introduced in Yosemite as far as i remember - but this is actually easy to predict, shame on you apple.
I have quite a lot pages in bookmarks (old styled, dropdown menu), and favorites tab, in favorites i have subdirectory with bitcoin exchanges. Some of those exchanges use cloudflare to prevent ddos attacks, and form time to time ask for captcha verification. It seems each time user click on URL Field in safari, favorites bookmarks appear, and safari try to download icons and maybe other meta data for each page, and then in case unusual response, it stucks safari and waste cpu on creating many threads for nothing, im not sure if it actually retry and try download again or it's strictly connected to processing downloaded metadata from page but it just make uncountable number of threads and block cpu with junk calculations. Im not exactly sure if it's caused by cloudflare check or by any other corrupted response. But finally i have moved all bitcoin exchanges subdirectory do old styled bookmarks, where obviously metadata or/and image is not being downloaded.
In case someone will need to fix it, just monitor bookmarks and safari cpu usage, and remove one by one from favorites, restart safari, and again until eliminate issue.

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


text:
Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 for Mac?
I'm having trouble editing a PowerPoint deck on my MacBook Pro. A colleague suggested I get the latest Microsoft Office for Mac.
I priced it on Amazon, and I came across Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 for Mac | Mac Key Card. However, the listing does not discuss the terms or explain the Mac Key Card.
I visited Microsoft's site and found Office Home & Business 2016 for Mac. It does not list the terms or explain the Mac Key Card.
So my questions are:

Is this an expiring copy of Office?
What is the Mac Key Card?

I don't use third party clouds, like Microsoft or Apple clouds. I'm happy to use my local OpenStack installation, but Microsoft and Apple don't allow me to do it.
According to the FAQ under What's the difference between Office 365 plans and Office 2016 suites?, it looks like Office 365 uses the cloud, but Office 2016 suite does not.
So this question is:

Does Microsoft Office Home and Business 2016 for Mac use an external cloud, like Azure and OneDrive?
Can I use my internal OpenStack cloud with Office 2016 suite?

My apologies for asking basic questions. I want to ensure I understand what I am getting into. I got burned in the past with Microsoft, their marketing literature that omits important limitations and details, and their expiring trials.

My understanding is that the only difference in the MS Office 2016 apps is the licensing key.
They will all want to phone home to microsoft's cloud services - so no matter how you buy/install it - you'll have to deal with that on a firewall / configuration basis after installing the apps.
The key card just provides you a license so you don't need to log in to authenticate that you're an Office 365 subscriber. Think of it like logging into iTunes or the various app stores. Microsoft gives you an account to verify if you have subscribed to their software.
The key card is the license to avoid that online payment / check.
Apple's web site is actually quite nice for sussing out how the various options are priced and licensed:

http://www.apple.com/us/search/office?src=globalnav

Office 365 is a subscription that expires. The rest are not.

Thanks Bmike. So I an clear... The Key Card is like a dongle that I have to plug into the MacBook to use Office. Its the license and a bearer instrument. Is that correct?

No hardware @jww  - printed patterns of ink on paper type of "key". See the Apple text for "what's in the box" - Alpha-numeric PIN and Product Key for downloading Microsoft Office for Mac


text:
Is iMessage tied to an apple account or a phone number?
If I send someone a message through iMessage from my Macbook and they are to receive it on their iPad/iPhone, what will happen if that person has changed their mobile phone number since I added them as a contact?
Will they still get the message?
I initially contacted this person with an email address.

Usually iMessage is tied to the email associated with iCloud. If the person is using iMessage on their new number they would have logged in with their email address and hence receive the message.


text:
I have an mp3 audiobook on my Mac, and want to listen to it on my iPhone
I have an mp3 audiobook on my Mac, and I wanted to listen to it on my iPhone .
I plugged my iPhone in, and synced "Audiobooks" and selected the audiobook in the list, via iTunes on my Mac.
So, I presume it's now on my iPhone.
How do I listen to it?
There seem to be solutions, but either:

they aren't vanilla (I don't want to download anything non-native), or
they are for older OS versions (I'm on iOS 9 and El Capitan)

When you set the series of .mp3 files as audiobooks (as I had), it will show up in iBooks.
I didn't expect to find it there!


text:
Where is the AirPlay menu bar app?
Apple hardware requirements state that AirPlay is not supported on my 2010 Macbook pro.
However, I can use AirPlay to stream music/movies from iTunes to my Apple TV (4th gen), as well as YouTube videos on Safari.
So why can't I get a menu bar app? AirPlay clearly is supported.

AirPlay is supported, extending or mirroring your Mac's desktop over AirPlay is not supported. As far as I know, the only way to stream from the menu bar is to stream system audio by Option-clicking the sound/volume icon. i think video streaming is still per-app if you can't do AirPlay desktop mirroring/extending.


text:
Applications restored after fresh install?
I do not understand. I have just performed a clean install of OS X El Capitan, from a USB pendrive, after repartitioning and formatting my drive. Yet, for a reason i do not understand at all, my applications seem to have been restored. Yet, as it seems, none of them are functioning properly.
What happened here? How and why were my applications restored, and where from?

Did you erase before you reinstalled? If you didn't, then that's why the apps are there

Of course, yes. I repartitioned the drive. I formatted it. It was a clean install. 100%

Possibly you logged into Mac App Store with your Apple ID, and had all the apps re-downloaded.

I opened App Store right after the first boot, to download the El Capitan Updates. I am on a very slow connection. It would have taken a long time to download all these ..

Did you migrate any files at all from a backup? What apps were reinstalled unexpectedly and on exactly which way do they not function?


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Password resets itself after each reboot
Macbook with OS X 10.11.3. No iCloud account, regularly updated via
softwareupdate -i -r && brew update && brew cask update. Rather
restrictive firewall(ing) via LittleSnitch and pf. Case-sensitive
partition.
Two user accounts, let's say ROOT and USER. First is used for
exceptional cases like installing new software and the second one is for day-to-day tasks, web browsing, etc.
Since very recently, password for USER is being set to unknown value after each reboot. I am able to login as ROOT and do sudo passwd USER, but I'm concerned this could be a consequence of malware or so.
Parts of various log files I've found a tad suspicious:
accountpolicy.log:
Feb 18 22:10:45 (75.25.1) PasswordChangeAllowed completed: record "USER", result: Success (0).

system.log
Feb 18 22:10:33 USER com.apple.preferences.users.remoteservice[481]: ### ODFDEResetPassword failed
Feb 18 23:36:33 USER com.apple.preferences.appstore.remoteservice[2230]: Failed to connect (_asnPasswordSettingsManager) outlet from (AppStorePref) to (ASNPasswordSettingsManager): missing setter or instance variable

Before reinstalling the system, is there any recommended recipe I should try?

Actually, I'd just reinstall OS X, and if that fails, start as new (reformat HD) and manually copy over applications & files from your backup. I've had a problem with logging in too, and that seems like the easiest way to fix it.

@IronCraftMan, Thanks, I'd like to find out what actually happened and how to avoid it in the future.

Can you login to the USER and use the OSX built in tools for reseting the password via the System Preferences? My guess is just changing the password at the CLI might not be updating the entire system OSX uses.

Also do you have a reason for the case-sensetive partition? It's my understanding this can cause a whole host of it's own problems.

@ToddDabney, tried it, same result. Just used to case-sensitive FS. Any specific reason why not to use it in OSX?


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Display S.M.A.R.T. statistics for an SSD?
I purchased a couple of used Intel 320-series 160 GB SSDs. I attached one of the drives to my MacBook Pro running OS X 10.8 using a SATA III to USB 3.1 cable.
When I attempted to view the drive statistics, it resulted in S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported.

I'm fairly certain S.M.A.R.T. Status: Not Supported is wrong. According to Intel Solid-State Drive 320 Series, S.M.A.R.T. is supported. From the document (section 5.4):

The Intel SSD 320 Series supports the SMART command set, which
  consists of:

SMART READ DATA
SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS
SMART ENABLE/DISABLE ATTRIBUTE AUTOSAVE
SMART SAVE ATTRIBUTE VALUES
SMART EXECUTE OFF-LINE IMMEDIATE
SMART READ LOG SECTOR
SMART WRITE LOG SECTOR
SMART ENABLE OPERATIONS
SMART DISABLE OPERATIONS
SMART RETURN STATUS
SMART ENABLE/DISABLE AUTOMATIC OFFLINE

How do I display the S.M.A.R.T. statistics for the SSD under OSX 10.8?

Getting  the SMART status is possible with these disks but not if they are attached to USB. The necessary ATA commands usually aren't propagated through the USB-controller.
You can try to get that working though by using OS X SAT SMART Driver.

Thanks klanomath. I prefer not to use a third party driver. Does Apple offer a command line tool to do it? Do you know if there are any Apple RARDARs covering Disk Utility and SMART drives? I'm interested in Apple-approved methods, and I'm having a heck of a time searching for it.


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El Capitan changes language input after reboot
every time I restart my Mac (OS X El Capitan 10.11.3), the language input is set to "ABC Extended" instead of English or German. This causes me trouble when I want to type my password. Is there a way to set this back to English or German?

One workaround is to open System Preferences -> Users & Groups -> Login Items and enable "Show input menu in login screen".

After enabling the checkbox you can choose between several input sources in the upper right corner.

I do have that enabled. I was just wondering if there's a way that it's German right from the get-go.  Thanks anyway.

Thank you so much! I have been going crazy over this for such a long time and over several versions of OSX, as well as the latest El Capitan.
I went in the settings above and saw my box for "show input menu in login window" was unchecked, so i checked it. And voila... now my native language still is the selected one after a reboot.