How can I disable all stack exhange sites except stackoverflow.com? How can I set SelfControl to only accept visits to stackoverflow.com, but none of the other sites on the stack exchange network? I want to become more productive, but the clickbait with abusive bosses, dumb coworkers and D&D rules are all too enticing...

Here's the list of all Stack Exchange sites (wow this was hard to do on my phone...):

http://stackoverflow.com
http://serverfault.com
http://superuser.com
http://meta.stackexchange.com
http://webapps.stackexchange.com
http://gaming.stackexchange.com
http://webmasters.stackexchange.com
http://cooking.stackexchange.com
http://gamedev.stackexchange.com
http://photo.stackexchange.com
http://stats.stackexchange.com
http://math.stackexchange.com
http://diy.stackexchange.com
http://gis.stackexchange.com
http://tex.stackexchange.com
http://askubuntu.com
http://money.stackexchange.com
http://english.stackexchange.com
http://stackapps.com
http://ux.stackexchange.com
http://unix.stackexchange.com
http://wordpress.stackexchange.com
http://cstheory.stackexchange.com
http://apple.stackexchange.com
http://rpg.stackexchange.com
http://bicycles.stackexchange.com
http://programmers.stackexchange.com
http://electronics.stackexchange.com
http://android.stackexchange.com
http://boardgames.stackexchange.com
http://physics.stackexchange.com
http://homebrew.stackexchange.com
http://security.stackexchange.com
http://writers.stackexchange.com
http://video.stackexchange.com
http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com
http://dba.stackexchange.com
http://scifi.stackexchange.com
http://codereview.stackexchange.com
http://codegolf.stackexchange.com
http://quant.stackexchange.com
http://pm.stackexchange.com
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com
http://fitness.stackexchange.com
http://drupal.stackexchange.com
http://mechanics.stackexchange.com
http://parenting.stackexchange.com
http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com
http://music.stackexchange.com
http://sqa.stackexchange.com
http://judaism.stackexchange.com
http://german.stackexchange.com
http://japanese.stackexchange.com
http://philosophy.stackexchange.com
http://gardening.stackexchange.com
http://travel.stackexchange.com
http://productivity.stackexchange.com
http://crypto.stackexchange.com
http://dsp.stackexchange.com
http://french.stackexchange.com
http://christianity.stackexchange.com
http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com
http://linguistics.stackexchange.com
http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com
http://history.stackexchange.com
http://bricks.stackexchange.com
http://spanish.stackexchange.com
http://scicomp.stackexchange.com
http://movies.stackexchange.com
http://chinese.stackexchange.com
http://biology.stackexchange.com
http://poker.stackexchange.com
http://mathematica.stackexchange.com
http://cogsci.stackexchange.com
http://outdoors.stackexchange.com
http://martialarts.stackexchange.com
http://sports.stackexchange.com
http://academia.stackexchange.com
http://cs.stackexchange.com
http://workplace.stackexchange.com
http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com
http://chemistry.stackexchange.com
http://chess.stackexchange.com
http://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com
http://russian.stackexchange.com
http://islam.stackexchange.com
http://salesforce.stackexchange.com
http://patents.stackexchange.com
http://genealogy.stackexchange.com
http://robotics.stackexchange.com
http://expressionengine.stackexchange.com
http://politics.stackexchange.com
http://anime.stackexchange.com
http://magento.stackexchange.com
http://ell.stackexchange.com
http://sustainability.stackexchange.com
http://tridion.stackexchange.com
http://reverseengineering.stackexchange.com
http://networkengineering.stackexchange.com
http://opendata.stackexchange.com
http://freelancing.stackexchange.com
http://blender.stackexchange.com
http://mathoverflow.net
http://space.stackexchange.com
http://sound.stackexchange.com
http://astronomy.stackexchange.com
http://tor.stackexchange.com
http://pets.stackexchange.com
http://ham.stackexchange.com
http://italian.stackexchange.com
http://pt.stackoverflow.com
http://aviation.stackexchange.com
http://ebooks.stackexchange.com
http://beer.stackexchange.com
http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com
http://arduino.stackexchange.com
http://expatriates.stackexchange.com
http://matheducators.stackexchange.com
http://earthscience.stackexchange.com
http://joomla.stackexchange.com
http://datascience.stackexchange.com
http://puzzling.stackexchange.com
http://craftcms.stackexchange.com
http://buddhism.stackexchange.com
http://hinduism.stackexchange.com
http://communitybuilding.stackexchange.com
http://startups.stackexchange.com
http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com
http://ja.stackoverflow.com
http://emacs.stackexchange.com
http://hsm.stackexchange.com
http://economics.stackexchange.com
http://lifehacks.stackexchange.com
http://engineering.stackexchange.com
http://coffee.stackexchange.com
http://vi.stackexchange.com

You can also hide the Hot Questions sidebar with a browser extension like AdBlock or Stylish.


What the “Other” Storage Space is in Mac OS X? What exactly is included in the Other (blue one) part of the Storage space on my Mac? What could take 31.2 GB?

Essentially it’s anything that OS X does not allocate to the listed specified storage types of applications, backups, audio, movies, backups, and photos. That means a very broad list of items will be considered as Other, including things like the following:

Documents and file types, including PDF, doc, PSD, etc
Archives and disk images, including zips, dmg, iso, etc
Various types of personal and user data
Anything in the system folders of OS X, ranging from temporary files, swap, voices, etc
User library items like Application Support, iCloud files, screen savers, etc
User caches and system caches, including things like browser caches and locally stored message media files
Fonts, app accessories, application plugins, and app extensions
Various file and file types not recognized by Spotlight, for example a virtual machine hard drive, Windows Boot Camp partitions, etc

As you can see, this is not unnecessary junk or clutter. Basically, anything that is not one of the media types that the Storage tab specifies will be shown as “Other”.

Source: OS X Daily: What the “Other” Storage Space is in Mac OS X & How to Clear It Up


What is the most advanced JavaScript editor for OS X? I tried Espresso but it lacks so many important features like no auto-parentheses, no auto-aliging.
What is the most advanced JS editor for OS X?
(please not Emacs for me).

I use the free version of Komodo Edit by ActiveState on Mac and PC. Through its plugin architecture it has extensions that let you edit Javascript files wonderfully, with intellisense, code completion, and so on, and it also lets you write Javascript macros. Very cool. I have a JSBeautify macro that formats the code wonderfully as well.

Edited to add sample macro I made in Komodo Edit. The following sorts lines in alpha order:

var appObj = ko.views.manager.currentView.scimoz;
if (appObj.selText == '') {
     appObj.selectAll();
}
var docText = appObj.selText;
komodo.editor.beginUndoAction();
var ary = docText.split('\n');
ary.sort( function(a,b){
 var a1 = a.toLowerCase();
 var b1 = b.toLowerCase();
 return (a1 > b1) ? 1 : (a1 < b1) ? -1 : 0;
});
docText = ary.join('\n');
appObj.replaceSel(docText);
ko.commands.doCommand('cmd_cleanLineEndings');
komodo.editor.endUndoAction();


Macbook Pro Retina 15" nearly burning my fingers, is this normal? A few months ago I bought the new Macbook Pro Retina 15" with a 2.7GHz I7 cpu.

So far it's been working fine, but as soon as just 1 of the cpu cores is at 100% the thing heats up like crazy. Heating the keyboard area up to the point of being uncomfortable to type on. Is it normal for Macbooks to heat up to the point of being painful to type?

My previous laptop (IBM Thinkpad) would only get this hot when running at 100% cpu + 100% gpu load in the burning sun... otherwise it wouldn't get close to being this hot (and noisy...).

The temperature indicates about 65 degrees Celcius right now with slightly more than 1 core filled up (i.e. 15% cpu load).

From what I've seen so far from others with the same laptop is that it's normal.

One possible fix/improvement to this is the latest Apple SMC update which contains some fixes for this: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1559

It also reduces the amount of noise your fans start making with even a little bit of load so it is quite useful.


Command in MS Word on Mac to resize whole text A nice feature of TextEdit on a Mac is the Command+ or Command- shortcut which makes a selected piece of text grow
or shrink, respecting the ratios between the different parts of the text (thus, if a heading’s font size is twice that of a paragraph, this 2:1 ratio is preserved by Command+ or Command-).

I have been unable to find an equivalent in the MS Word 2011  on my Mac 10.11.6. Are there any ?

You can do this in MS Word 11 using the Increase/Decrease Font Size buttons.

In MS Word select the Home tab. Under the section titled Font there are two buttons that both have an uppercase 'A' on them with an up and down arrow, respectively, next to the Font Size drop-down menu. If you select your entire document (using Command-A) and then select one of these buttons it will resize the entire documents proportionately.

The hot keys for these functions are Shift-Command-< and Shift-Command->. And again, you need to have the desired text highlighted in order for this to work.


Alternatives to Google Notifier Like many people, I’ve received today an email from Google telling me that Google Notifier Beta is no longer supported and will stop working on January 31. That is too bad. (BTW, I have 1.10.7, not a Beta version. What are they talking about?)

What are some simple alternatives to Google Notifier?

I’ve looked at Gmail Notifr and at GmailStatus but they are not really the same as Google Notifier. Are there any Google Notifier clones around?

I’m looking for a menu-bar app, not a browser add-on.

EDIT (Mar 10): Google Notifier seems to have stopped working today. That's sad.

Just installed Mail Notifr - $2.99 on AppStore, or free if you download the previous version here: http://ashchan.com/projects/gmail-notifr

At least the paid version looks nice, clean, and in terms of functionality it's pretty similar to Google's Notifier, less Calendar notifications. Mail check frequency can be set in Preferences (Google's was a hidden undocumented feature); multiple GMail accounts are supported. I just hope it's stable and reliable enough. We'll see.

Update: so far so good. One little nice thing about this app is that when the system wakes up from sleep it checks for email immediately, whereas with Google Notifier you had to wait another 5 minutes or force mail check manually.

Update 2: one other thing missing compared to Google Notifier is handling of mailto: links and in general, redirecting to GMail when trying to send mail from any desktop app. Mail Notifr doesn't do this. Would be nice to have actually.


Are all iPhone/iPod accessories are compatible with iPad? I bought an iPad 2 recently, and tried to buy some accessories such as a cigarette charger or something. What I found was that I can't find accessories for iPad, and the accessory box says it is for iPod/iPhone/iPod Touch, but there was no mention about iPad.

Is that because all the iPhone/iPod accessories are compatible with iPad? I mean, if it's for iPhone/iPod, is it always also for iPad?

I believe the lack of accessories may be due to the power requirements of the iPad.

The iPad comes with a 10 watt charger while most iPhone chargers are only 1 watt. According to this article lower wattage chargers will work, they will just be slower.

http://m.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/04/ipad-battery-charging/


Terminal command to get app switcher information? The native app switcher orders the apps based on chronological focus. This ordering is useful to me for a script, but I'm not sure where this ordering information is stored.

Is there a way to get the app switcher list or something similar directly from terminal or applescript? Or a way to investigate where it might be?

I tried to search for this, but all of the results were about hiding apps from the switcher.

Looking through the man index pages I was able to find a command that gives this information:

lsappinfo metainfo | grep bringForwardOrder

This lists the apps in the same order as the app switcher when invoked, along with the app ASN, which can be useful.


Partition Type : FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF I know this has been asked on here before, and similarly to the others I have not backed up my data... I found this duplicate and got lost in the answer and didn't want to mess too much with the tables without finding out if that is even the right fix for my issue.

The drive is my internal drive from my old Macbook Pro (early 2011 model, was dying from the video card issue after having the logic board replaced about a year ago) which was dual booted with Windows 10, but my computer got stuck while trying to boot and had to be force shut down. Took the drive out and plugged it in to another Macbook and it didn't mount the MacOS partition.

sudo diskutil list

yields:

/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            394.0 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                105.2 GB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk1
1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               419.9 GB   disk1s2
3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                80.0 GB    disk1s3

As well as

sudo gpt -r show disk1

yields:

gpt show: disk1: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  820115416      2  GPT part - FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF
  820525056  156248064      3  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  976773120         15
  976773135         32         Sec GPT table
  976773167          1         Sec GPT header

Thanks so much for any help that can be given!

The issue was fixed based on this answer: OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF'

It's unclear why the partition type was changed. On the original boot drive (disk0) Yosemite is installed. On the second "broken" drive (diisk1) an APFS partition was detected with the sudo dd if=/dev/disk1s2 count=3 | hexdump method from the linked answer.

After removing the second partition on drive1 with sudo gpt remove -i 2 disk1 the MBR blocked adding the partition with the proper type. So the gpt had to be destroyed:

sudo gpt -r show disk1 #get the details
sudo gpt destroy disk1
sudo gpt create -f disk1 #create a new partition table

Adding all previous partitions with the proper types:

sudo gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk1
sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 820115416 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk1
sudo gpt add -i 3 -b 820525056 -s 156248064 -t EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 disk1

Verify the disk:

diskutil verifyDisk disk1

Since the version of the boot system is 10.10.5 (Yosemite) which can't deal with APFS volumes, it wasn't possible to verify the volume.

Further similar questions (and solutions) on this site suggest that the problem is related to the SIP protected MBR. Yosemite doesn't recognize SIP protected items but newer systems do. Here it was possible to kill the MBR, but on newer systems SIP has to be disabled.


Cropping frustration in iPhoto 11 -> iMovie 11 set up a slide show.
select 'sliding panel' theme. Set aspect ratio to 4:3
observe that, on the very first image, the program has chosen a bad crop. there's uninteresting stuff on the right (next to the text title) and not enough of the left side.
use the hand tool to move the image and fix the crop.
export to a quicktime movie using 'custom export'
play quicktime movie with quicktime player
observe that cropping is now different -- back more or less to the original.
import into iMovie
image is then recropped on the left, resulting in complete frustration.

Any way out of this? Is there something about aspect ratio that I don't understand, or is iLife 11 just buggier than a new york hotel?

Make sure you have it set to Preserve Aspect Ratio: Letterbox.
Photo in this question.


Apple recovery partition possibly creating problems in Ubuntu Before reading, it may help to know I have a 13" Macbook Pro (model 7,1. Mid-2010).

Recently, the HFS+ filesystem on my OSX became corrupt and after many trials and errors, it was clear I was going to need to backup, format, and reinstall OSX. After I got OSX reinstalled (10.6.8), I updated to 10.9.1 and everything seemed to be working properly. However, I booted into Ubuntu and found that the boot loader couldn't find my filesystem and I was getting a grub rescue screen. I followed the first half of this answer (up until normal), and my grub menu appeared, untouched.

Now, when I continue following the instructions, it says to reinstall grub. So beforehand, I did a little look into the partition setup to make sure that I was installing it in the right place (I want to install it on my boot loader, not in the root partition. That way I can use rEFInd or hold the alt/option key to select if I want to boot into Ubuntu or OSX, then upon choosing Ubuntu I'll see the grub menu. Obviously this case isn't ideal because I get to choose twice which operating system, but I don't want to mess up anything with the EFI startup... we all know how crabby it can get).

Upon looking into the partitions on Ubuntu, I found that GParted is seeing a Recovery HD partition and fdisk -l isn't. So, to GParted /dev/sda3 is the recovery partition, but to fdisk -l, I'm seeing /dev/sda3 as the boot partition... I figured that the offset between the two is creating weird behavior on startup. Even if that's not the case, I want to get this figured out before reinstalling grub so I know where I'm installing it.

Does anyone know why there are inconsistencies between the two records? Is OSX not hiding the recovery partition properly, or should it not be there at all? Generally, I want to know how I can get these records consistent, and if that requires removing the recovery partition (which I've never seen before!), that's fine with me.

For the record, the recovery partition isn't showing up in Disk Utility, but it does show up when I run diskutil list in OSX's terminal. Also, to set up my partitions, I followed my own answer here. As you can see by the screen shots, GParted was not detecting the recovery partition before formatting and reinstalling OSX.

  Edit: Ubuntu users -- I've linked to this question as part of an answer here if you're having an issue with grub rescue after reinstalling or making chances to OSX.

OS X creates the recovery partition as an alternate boot solution for ease of reinstallation and troubleshooting.

It is not needed for normal operation, and as someone that's familiar with boot technology and options, the simplest option would be to simply delete the partition entirely and patch the partition table if needed.

Here is a stock layout:

Mac:~ me$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

You could merge partitions disk0s3 into the partition that precedes it (in this case) to effectively erase and then delete the Apple_Boot partition listed as Recovery HD. In this case, you would need to be booted to some other drive than disk0 to have both disk0s2 and disk0s3 unmountable (which would make them disk1 or higher in all likelihood).

 diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0s2 disk0s3

Should that not work, you might have to image Macintosh HD to another drive as an img file (or straight partition to partition) and then repartition hdisk0 to have just one partition and restore.

As to the deeper question, my guess is that the "hiding" of the partition isn't compatible with other non Apple tools and is confusing the issue - hence the advice to just remove it and count on alternate options to restore your system or boot externally in stead of the recovery HD.


How can I be auto logged in with the computer locked? I want to have the computer log me in so all my login items can get started, but I need it to be secure, aka it still needs to ask me for my password before I can actually use the computer.

I outlined how to do this at https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-07-terminally-geeky-use-automatic-login-more-securely.html but I will summarize it for you:

set your account to autologin
create a login item (using launchd) which calls:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

NOTE: that command should be ONE LONG LINE not two lines with a line break/line feed.
A more thorough explanation is available at TUAW, so I won't repeat it all here, because those are the relevant details.
What it does:
The idea is very simple, your account is set to auto-login, so all of your login items will run, however, one of those login items (the CGSession command listed above) will tell the loginwindow to appear. If you have used Fast User Switching before, you will be familiar with how it works.
"But what if someone holds down the shift key to stop autolaunching?"
In my testing, that will also prevent the user from being automatically logged in.
Is this 100% as safe as not using auto-login?
Probably not, but I'd consider it close to 99.999% as safe.
That said, use at your own risk, etc.


How can I keep bugs out of the MacBook Pro's hinge vent? I've noticed that some flying bugs have an irritating habit of crawling into the hinge vent on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2009).

I don't know what possesses them to go in there, maybe it looks like an inviting hidey-hole, but they obviously end up dying from the heat. I'm paranoid they'll eventually clog something. Bless the designer for the nice design, but it's next to impossible to fish dead bugs out of there! Ironically, because of the silent design there's also no huge gust of hot air to persuade them not to try climbing in there.

The problem is made worse when there's a light above the table drawing them in, but even without it the screen is a bright enough draw. I've seen them crash into the screen (or fall from an above light), and then make a mad dash straight into the vent. It's infuriating!

Has anyone else experienced this problem with bugs and that hinge vent? How did you de-bug yours? My only workaround so far has been to surround myself with tons of other lights on to keep them as scattered as possible...

Edit: Looking back at this question I'm disappointed that I forgot to include any regional info. At the time I was in a house in the country in Queensland, Australia. Bugs inside the house are the norm rather than the exception. I may have to wait until Summer again (in December) before I can actually test to see if this was a seasonal thing for the bugs, as I haven't been bothered by them again since then.

Hmmm....I have a pc and it's bug free.

[non-troll answer]

Ok, ok....you might try flushing the vent openings with canned air while the computer is off.  Turn the can upside down so that you can actually get that super cold dangerous liquid in there.  Maybe there's some kind of scent that's drawing them in (is it the same species?).


VLC Stuck in playlist mode. I hear audio but no video! My VLC player is stuck in playlist mode, and I can not get it to play the video but I can hear Audio. It doesn't work on any of my videos. But all my quick time files work. My VLC is up to date. It was working earlier today, I made no adjustments then a few hours ago I went to open up a video and I can't get it out of playlist mode to show the video.


How to remap finder folder navigation shortcuts? I don't like  the default finder navigation shortcuts command-up, command-down because you need to press 2 buttons instead of 1. On windows, delete leads to previous folder ("back") and enter enters the folder instead of renaming it like on the mac.

I have already tried in system preferences but mac os won't let me enter delete or enter as a valid shortcut key.

Thanks

Check out Keyboard Maestro http://www.keyboardmaestro.com/, it should do what you want. I know it is not exactly cheap for a utility app, but it does a provide a huge amount power beyond simple key remapping, and it has proven to be stable across many Mac OS X versions.


How can I delete the historical chain of imessages from someone? If I delete an imessage from someone in IOS6, the moment i send them a new text/message, the entire chain of previous messages reappears.

Go to the "Messages" screen where it shows all the contacts you texted and select edit, then delete the entire conversation


View laptop hardware statistics How can I return the temperatures, fan speeds, etc, using Terminal?

This website claims to have a free commandline tool to monitor temperature sensors.

http://www.bresink.de/osx/0TemperatureMonitor/details.html

  tempmonitor command-line tool

  Temperature Monitor

  version for the BSD command-line of Mac OS X, temperature sensors only

  yes

(Name of tool; part of package download; description; free of charge?)


Flagged emails keep returning and won't synchronize between Apple Mail and Gmail I've had this problem before and can't recall how I managed to fix it last time. I use Apple Mail to access my Gmail and normally flagged emails show up correctly. Starred emails in Gmail equate to flagged emails in Apple Mail and I can unflag an email in either Gmail or Apple Mail and it works.

But now I've got four emails that I can't unflag. They're not flagged in Gmail at all (although they used to be). When I see them in the Flagged folder in Apple Mail, they don't even have flag icons next to them but they're still counted in the number showing next to "Flagged". If I manually re-flag them and then unflag them, they disappear from the Flagged box. But then if I click into Inbox and then back into Flagged they show up again.

Any ideas about how to make these guys disappear for good?!

Simply delete the e-mail entirely, then move it from the trash back to a folder (or the inbox). There should be no more flag.


Enabling Intel VT on Macbook Pro 9,2 (Mid 2012) I want to enable (if it's not) Intel VT-x to speed up the Android emulator.

How can I see if it's enabled and if not how to do it ?

Apple says VT-x technology is enabled on Intel-based Macs.

It seems to be (after this page) that only first Intel-based Macs may have some problem with VT-x so it should not be your case.


What exactly are the files . and .. on mac? Anecdotally, files called . and .. seem to often (always?) be present inside otherwise 'empty' directories on macOS.
Example
Create a new directory (with nothing in it)
mkdir test

cd into it
cd test

and list its contents
ls -a
.   ..

What exactly are these files . and ..?

Technically and practically, they represent directory entries for the current directory (.) and the parent directory (..), respectively.
So cd . always keeps you in the current directory (useful mainly in scripts when a directory is assigned to a variable and the value should represent just the current directory), whereas cd .. always takes you one level up (unless you are already at /, in which case .. is the same as .).


How can I map the Windows key to option in Microsoft Remote Desktop version 8? In Remote Desktop Connection version 2.x you could map the remote windows key to the local option key (instead of the command key) in preferences. In the new Microsoft Remote Desktop version 8 from the App Store I can no longer find this setting. Is this feature tucked away somewhere and I'm missing it?

One option might be KeyRemapForMacbook as discussed here, but I want to know if there is a solution that doesn't require third party software.

Indeed, this appears to no longer be possible without 3rd-party software.

Adding the same preference key to the new app seemed to not make any difference - it appears that this ability has been removed from the app.

As you mentioned, KeyRemap4Macbook would work with the private.xml that you linked to.


Copying blocks of text in terminal Is it possible to copy a "block" of text from a terminal window without having to copy entire lines?

Example:

Say I just wanna copy the text I’ve circled in the image above, is this possible? Or do I also have to copy everything to the left of the block I want to copy?

You should be able to do this by holding the option key down while doing it. This changes the cursor to a '+' sign and allows you to select any rectangular area of text.

See screenshot below:

If you look at the above image closely, you'll see in the left window I've highlighted a block of text in Terminal and in the right window I've been able to paste this text into a new TextEdit document.


Find my phone stopped working from homepod I use find my phone often by asking siri on my homepod.
However without changing anything siri now says "before I can help with that you'll  need to update your information in siri settings on  your iphone "
Now there is no siri settings on the phone  there  is in settings a section for siri and search. Which exact settings do I need to change?
I found my phone by logging into icloud on my desktop and running find my from there. My phone made a sound with no problem. Using find my from my ipad made the phone make a sound as well
So what does the homepod need and will that change how my desktop or ipad finds the phone?
All running ios 14

I encountered this problem when trying to launch a third party app via Homepod, either directly or in a Shortcut. Turns out you have to give explicit permission for Siri to use it with a particular app. Go to Settings -> Siri & Search on your iPhone, scroll down to the list of apps, open the app you wish to use with Siri, scroll down and turn on "Use with Ask Siri". If you hear Siri saying this when trying to use Apple own apps like Find My, the only thing I can think about is enabling Personal Requests, as described here https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/homepod/apd779d9bb45/1.0/homepod/1.0#apdf41297105


A suggestion for a Fortran IDE? I just installed gfortran on my Mac OS X 10.8.5, and now I need an IDE in order to write and compile and run my fortran programs. I used to use Codeblocks in Ubuntu, but I prefer to ask for an optimal IDE for Mac OS X.

Looks like there is an Eclipse extension for Fortran, aptly called Photran. It should run fine on the Mac.


How can I add a personalized symbol to Calendar entries? I would like to be able to record on my calendar a quick symbol to indicate that I exercised that day.  Is that possible?

There are several possibilities to add symbols to iCal/Calendar.app:

Use Emojis. Emojis are Unicode characters and will be displayed without special software. Use Cmd + Ctrl + Space to insert emojis or any other special character.
Use the find function. Use a unique name for your event ("Exercise"), go to month view (Cmd + 3) and search for your event (Cmd + F)
Use a separate calendar to hide your other calendar temporarily. You will only see your exercise events.

You cannot add graphics to a events' title so it stands out easily. But I think using emojis as the first character for the title could work in your case.

Happy exercising!


Recovering files from Time Machine backup disk after wrong dd I made a horrible mistake: I ran dd on an external hard drive, that was the Time Machine backup storage, to make it bootable. After a few seconds I cancelled the command, but the hard drive is shaped as bootable image, and the backup folder is missing.

What can I do?

Sounds like you started to overwrite the drive. The data is probably still recoverable, but, as Graham said, you don't want to do anything to the drive until you attempt to recover the files.

A few options:

While I haven't used it, PhotoRec looks like a good option, if you are comfortable with the command line. Despite the name, it can recover all sorts of file types. It only reads the disk, so your data should be safe even if it is unable to recover it.
For a graphical (and more expensive option), Disk Drill has gotten good reviews. It's pricey at $89, but you can use a free version to preview what it would be able to recover.
If you're in the market for a general disk protection utility, Tech Tool Pro 7 has a data recovery mode. Also, you can set it up to monitor your drives going forward, which would protect against future errors.
DrDD won't completely solve your problem, but it is a graphical way of copying the raw data off your Time Machine drive. I'm not 100% sure that the above programs will be able to read from the copy, but if they can, it would give you another margin of safety. It's also designed to protect your data on failing hard drives, so it should be safe to use in your case.

Hope this helps.


How to enter multiple tasks at once as batch or text import in OmniPlan? I want to enter multiple tasks at once. A simple import from a text file might work. I tried copy-paste multiple lines but then they were treated all as one task.

Is there a way to enter multiple tasks in one step?

You need to paste the list into the list of tasks, not into the title of a single task. Make sure you've selected a task, rather than the title field of a task.

This is the title field selected. ⌘V here pastes the list into the title field of a task.

This is a task selected. ⌘V here pastes the list in as separate tasks.


Attach one .dmg file on different computers at the same time (hdiutil attach) I have a question about "hdiutil attach"
I've "created" (ctrl+c/ctrl+v) one bash script to execute some .app automatically.

First im mounting shared folder:

mount_smbfs -o nobrowse //SERVER/share "/Users/user_name/APPNAME/18"

and attaching with the help of "hdiutil" the .dmg file
(you must attach .dmg in order to install this app :) )

hdiutil attach -nobrowse /Users/user_name/APPNAME/18/appname.dmg

so far so good. But! if im going to deploy it on multiple end-devices, i suppose its going to cause some issues.

So that's my question: Is it possible to attach the same file on multiple Computers at the same time? And if so, is it possible to execute this file from them?

Thanks for yout help!

Is it possible to attach the same file on multiple Computers at the same time?

This is possible if -- AND ONLY IF -- the disk image is read-only.

Most filesystems -- including HFS+ -- are designed with the assumption that the system mounting the filesystem has exclusive access to the filesystem. Attempting to mount a HFS+ filesystem as read/write from multiple systems will likely result in multiple systems trying to update data in the same locations on disk, causing catastrophic filesystem corruption.

The safest way to ensure that the image is always mounted read-only will be to create it as a compressed disk image, or write-protect it directly on the server. If these options are not available, use

hdiutil attach -readonly ...

to mount it on the client.


Pages: How to expand comments by default? I bought my wife a new iMac for Christmas and she's one of those people who fear change and anything different than what she's used to scares her to no end.

She's demanding Microsoft Office without even trying Pages. She has no real use for Office and Pages would be just fine for her but she's making every tiny excuse she can come up with why Office is better.

Now it's the comments in Pages. I don't use Pages at all so I don't know but is there a way to keep all comments open by default? She's complaining about the little square it makes instead of the bubble in Office.

You can keep comments always on-screen by going into the menu bar and choosing View → Show Comments Pane.

This will open a sidebar with all her comments on the left.


Running iPhone side by side with another iPhone I just bought a new iPhone to replace the one I dropped in water. The old iPhone works except for the screen, and I can't back it up via iTunes on my computer because I have a password on the old iPhone.

On another thread (see below), it said running the iPhones sides by side works, but I can't find anywhere that says how to do this. Please help - I have a number of texts I need to back up and have access to.

Suggestion from other thread:

  I think your best bet is to to run your iPhone side by side with another iPhone that is also set to lock. Now, by using the two phones side by side, you should be able to enter your passcode 'blind' using the position of the keys on the working phone as a guide.

Literally, put the phones side by side & using 2 fingers simultaneously, tap the same part of each screen at the same time, using the working screen as the guide & simply tapping 'blind' onto exactly the same place on the other screen at the same time.

That way, hopefully, both will be in sync as you tap in the unlock code, then work towards being able to back it up.


USB flash drive not shown My macbook suddenly stopped showing USB flash drives in Finder when I plug them in.

I tried 3 different USB sticks - none work (worked just fine yesterday).

USB-ports work fine - I tested all three with an iPhone, iPad, my Nike+ device, even my usb-modem stick - everything works just fine. Except for the USB-storage devices...

The USB drives do not show up in the Disk Utility. The USB drives do not show up in the "System Report" (known as "System Profiler" in earlier versions of OSX). 1 times out of 10 they do show up as some weird "Composite device" there, but do not work.

I have Mac OS 10.7.5. I tried resetting  NVRAM / PRAM - didn't help.

PS. the weird thing is that the drives do not show up under Boot Camp as well, when I'm on windows. So it's not just some drivers problem, but maybe firmware fault? My guess is - my Mac does not supply enough power to the USB ports when a USB drive is inserted? It's a hardware problem since the ports work fine with all other "non storage" devices.

When "System Report" aka "System Profiler" does not list your USB devices, and Windows running from Boot Camp also does not list your USB devices and no power is supplied by your USB devices it is very likely that this is not a software issue.

Another way to see your connected USB devices with detailed information is to run

system_profiler SPUSBDataType

If the above fails and gives no satisfied output, it is very, very likely some of your internal hardware components are broken or disconnected.

When there are no problems with your other IO devices (e.g. firewire) it might be an internal cable that came lose, else I would suggest your south bridge is broken.

If you still think the power is the problem, try to use a powered-USB hub that will provide the juice needed for your peripherals. Or you can try to plug-in a low power consuming device like a USB mouse.


iOS Simulator installed app location in Xcode 6.1 I am trying to locate the actual location of app installed on iOS Simulator. I am using OSX 10.9.4 with Xcode 6.1

Already tried looking Application Support folder but can't find the simulator location. Tried a bunch of different locations as well, but can't find anything. Any ideas where can I find it or where should I look in apple documentation regarding this? Any pointers will be appreciated.

For newer Xcode's (including 6.1) follow below steps to see the installed apps (.app) location >>

Right click Xcode.app.
Go to 'Show Contents'.
Navigate to this part of the file path: Contents > Developer > Platforms > iPhoneSimulator.platform > Developer > SDKs > iPhoneSimulator8.1.sdk > Applications

Here will show all installed .app list.

Besides if you want to install new .app on simulator, just drag and drop .app to this location.


Does the Catalina Music app preserve star ratings from iTunes? Ever since the introduction of iTunes and the 5-star rating system, I've heavily used the feature to organize my library.

When migrating to Catalina (and thus retiring iTunes), will the star ratings I've set over the last 15+ years be preserved and still usable?

Yes, but it's disabled by default. I had the exact same question and found the answer here (screenshots included):

  The Music app won’t show the iTunes Store or your star ratings by default. You can re-enable these features by clicking on Music > Preferences then enabling “iTunes Store” and “Star ratings” on the General tab.


Time Machine ridiculously slow after El Capitan upgrade I recently updated to El Capitan, and told Time Machine to backup. It got stuck on Preparing Backup for hours, so I stopped it, deleted the InProgress file, rebooted and tried again. After ~30 mins, Time Machine was still preparing. I looked into activity monitor and backupd had only read ~140Mb, in 30mins... Looking into iStatMenus, I find that backupd tends to have a read speed between nothing, and 120Kb/s (If I'm lucky. It sometimes peaks up to to 500kb/s, and very rarely 1Mb/s). Spotlight is not indexing (As I heard sometimes Spotlight gets in the way of backupd), and the hard drive has gone to sleep in the time that I wrote this, rarely waking up for my Mac to briefly read something from it.

Here's what comes up in the console when searching for backupd:

I'd rather not have to reformat my hard drive, in case I ever want to downgrade back to Yosemite, however I am willing to if it solves the issue.

Also, it seems like whenever I reboot my Mac, the hard drive loses its Time Machine icon, and reverts back to an orange drive.

Screenshot of Activity Monitor, Disk mode at ~50 min mark:

EDIT: I've tried disabling and reenabling Spotlight for the disk, and I have also wiped the .Spotlight-V100 folder and rebooted. No change.

EDIT 2: What seems to be some errors has appeared in the console

EDIT 3: After many, many hours, Time Machine has finished scanning and is now backing up! I'd still like to know why it took so long (I didn't expect updating to El Capitan to take so long. I excluded system files as well, although I guess I'm in for another long wait since I just removed them from the exceptions list)

Part of the issue is that low priority input/output-operations (I/O) now seems to get throttled heavily. You can check it via Terminal (can be found via Spotlight (usually bound to ⌘Space) and entering terminal) then entering at the bash prompt:

fs_usage backupd

and look for the THROTTLED entries. If you see them, the backup is throttled.

So if you have a ton of files, just the time it takes to do the I/O takes forever, even if the files are small (because it performs a bunch more I/O operations around xattrs etc. than it used to).

Go to a Terminal and enter:

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0

For me, this speed it up from 72 hours to ~4 hours on an filesystem with 2.5 million files.

It's also a good idea to re-enable the throttling after your backup finished successfully with the following command

sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=1


Why does my external USB drive power off even when set not to? My understanding of standby modes in MacOS is they will not be triggered with an external disk. However even though I explicitly set my power settings not to sleep the disk, it still does.

$ pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standby              0
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 womp                 1
 autorestart          0
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             0
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            0
 sleep                60
 autopoweroffdelay    14400
 hibernatemode        0
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         10
 standbydelay         4200

Why is this happening and how do I stop it?

I should add I've been using this Mac Mini with this drive and it never used to have this issue. It is my OS drive so if it turns off, things go wrong so I would've noticed.

I wonder if it's linked to autopoweroff AKA Deep Sleep but shouldn't the disk come back on at power-up anyway?

Some brands ignore your preferences in favour of their own power down schedule. Most notably Seagate.

The only thing you can do is change to another brand of drive that respects your preferences.


Install FreeBSD on xhyve I want to install FreeBSD 10.3 as a virtual machine on my Mac mini with 10.11 via xhyve. I found this tutorial. But I don't get it to install. When I run the install script I get this error.

dlopen(/Library/Caches/Homebrew/xhyve--git/test/userboot.so, 4): image not found

What do I do wrong? Also, maybe someone can explain to me, what the install script xhyverun-fbsdinstall.sh actually does.

The tutorial has an error. It refers to the userboot.so file in the Homebrew source code cache, which may not be in the same place or existent on all systems with xhyve installed.

A recent pull request into homebrew-core fixed this issue; that file is now in $(brew --prefix xhyve)/share/xhyve/test/userboot.so.

You should do the tutorial as before, but with every line starting with USERBOOT=


Photos "People" Function Keeps Merging People I was organizing photos on iOS 12.2 and it reported that one of the people in my library had "new photos" it wanted to confirm. One or more of those had that person cheek-to-cheek with another person in my album (let's call them Joe and Jane). I was horrified -- since I have thousands of photos of both Joe and Jane -- to find that as soon as I approved that ill-fated photo, the facial recognition system decided the two people were the same person and merged their entire set of photos.

I tried deleting both Joe and Jane on macOS 10.14.4 and recreating them by manually tagging them in photos where they were by themselves and not together, but no matter what I do, as soon as photoanalysisd kicks into gear when Photos is closed, it merges the two people back together into one entry. I can manually label photos with Joe's name and I'll still come back to find them relabeled as "Jane." I can select all of Joe's photos in Jane's people entry, right click the photos and click "Jane is not in this photo," have Jane's album only contain photos of Jane and within minutes those very same photos will again be labeled as Jane (not just other photos, the ones I've manually corrected Photos on!).

I'm guessing Photos' machine learning database is corrupted, but I'm not really sure how to completely delete data on Joe and Jane (beyond what I did in deleting their entries by selecting all the photos in them and using the "Name is not in this photo" option), but somehow I need to convince Photos to either start from scratch or believe me when I tell it that it is wrong on its labels so it doesn't keep overriding me.

Talking to Apple Support, they said the only thing they could come up with was to delete my Faces database. That hurts -- it involved deleting 116 people covering 170,000 photos. All of my devices are still "processing" after several days, but I've been adding many faces back in the time being.

One helpful comment from Apple Support was to make sure to ignore the automatically generated circles around faces if they covered multiple faces and simply to draw new circles (on Photos for macOS) that only cover the face in question. Previously, if it drew an automatic circle, I would label that with whichever person was most prominent and draw a manual circle for the secondary person in the circle. (This isn't as helpful on iOS where it lacks those circles and the ability to add manual faces.)


Iphone 4 drain wifi 1 percent per minute I have an iPhone and it's jailbroken, running iOS 5.1. When using WiFi, it drains very quickly. The rate of discharge is about 1 percentage point every minute. Is this normal? Any suggestions? As usual, all push options are turned off, location services are off and only Safari is running.

Seems not ok to me. Does it still do that when it isn't jailbroken? If it does you should go to the Genius Bar and maybe get a replacement.

Maybe you could restore then put all your extra software on one by one to see which app is the likely cause.


How do I make my Mac use .bash_profile to add extra paths after I statically set $PATH? I, like an idiot, decided to export PATH=/usr/local/sbin/.

After some googling I was informed that one should use a .bash_profile file in the root directory of your user which you can use to append paths to the initial $PATH . However the .bash_profile file did not exist prior to me creating one so I'm unsure how to prompt my Mac to actually use this file as part of it's PATH configuration. Every site I've visited simply tells you to make edits to said file but does not explain how to get the OS to use it.

How do I get my Mac to read from .bash_profile to add custom paths?

The bash shell actually defaults to look for ~/.bash_profile even though it may not initially exist.

After creating this file in the root directory of your user, just enter source ~/.bash_profile . This forces the bash shell to read immediately from the file and will run it's contents straight away.

As long as you have a line that looks like export PATH=<directories> in the file, your PATH will be set by this every time.
This helped.


Accessibility — click a link/button by typing its text Background: Voice Control lets you click links by just saying “Click <link/button name>”.
Question: How would I do this by typing instead of speaking? (Siri has a “Type to Siri” option, but Voice Control does not).  Is there really no accessibility option for letting the user type the text of the button they want to click?
What I’ve tried: I tried Switch Control, but it scans for links instead of letting you jump to ones matching a given text.  I’ve also tried Cmd+F in Safari to highlight links, but nothing I’ve found lets me click the highlighted link without using the mouse.  I’ve been using Mouse Keys to navigate instead, albeit slowly.

In Safari you can use ⌥ Option⇨Tab to move through clickable controls/links on a webpage. Use ⇧ Shift⌥ Option⇨Tab move backward through the page. Then use the ⏎ Return key to open the link. You can make it a bit easier by turning on "Press tab to highlight each item on a webpage" in Safari → Preferences → Advanced. That will remove the need to use the ⌥ Option key, so just use ⇨Tab and ⇧ Shift⇨Tab.


Applescript Invoke Specific User and Password I have a do shell script that I need to run in Applescript, but it needs to run as a different user. It is to be deployed into the student's network drive as a standalone application that the students can run when required.

The example code below is only for illustration.
This code works when I am logged in, because it's picking up my username (local admin account) on the computer and uses the password provided (not the actual password included).

do shell script "rm -rf /$HOME/Downloads/*" password "Password01" with administrator privileges

I have tried to specify a username with user "sdadmin" to the code and it won't work, it throws an error.

Is there a way to ask AppleScript to run a command with a specific user and password provided in the code like above?

Updated answer:

There is an Apple doc which shows the correct way of doing it. You was close.

(I have not tried it myself)

do shell script "rm -rf /$HOME/Downloads/*"  user name "USERNAME" password "THEPASSWORD" with administrator privileges

From the doc:

  How do I get administrator privileges for a command?

  Use the administrator privileges, user name and password parameters
  like this:

  do shell script "command" user name "me" password "mypassword" with
  administrator privileges user name and password are optional; if you
  omit the user name, do shell script assumes it to be the current user;
  if you omit the password, it will ask for a password when it runs.
  Once a script is correctly authenticated, it will not ask for
  authentication again for five minutes. As of Mac OS X 10.4, this grace
  period does not extend to any other scripts or to the rest of the
  system; manually calling sudo -k is unnecessary.

  For security reasons, you may not tell another application to do shell
  script with administrator privileges. Put the command outside of any
  tell block, or put it inside a tell me block.

  Bear in mind that administrator privileges allow you to change any
  file anywhere in the system. You can render your system unbootable or
  even erase the entire disk with a few well-placed commands, so
  exercise caution. Better yet, don’t use administrator privileges
  unless you absolutely have to. Unless you are doing system-level
  development, you should never need to change anything in /System —
  changing /Library should suffice.

  Note: Using sudo(8) with with administrator privileges is generally
  unnecessary and creates security holes; simply remove the "sudo".

IMPORTANT UPDATE 2

*You can save the app as "run only" (Save an editable copy for yourself first)

( If you only save it as a Run Only even you will not be able to open it and edit it later on once you have closed the script window.)

Then use the File->Export menu which will give you the option in the save dialogue to save as "Run Only"

Attempt to open main.scpt file in application package:

A Run only will stop someone from opening the script embedded in the Application by double clicking on it to open it in Script Editor and discover your password. But there is a way of finding the user name and password from a  Run Only and it is not that hard to figure out even for a casual user.

I WOULD THINK TWICE ABOUT PUTTING YOUR USER NAME AND PASSWORD IN THE APP.

UPDATE 3

A little idea to help if you must do this is to break up the password text by creating nonsensical  variable  name to hold it and jumble them.

When the code runs it will reassemble them in the correct order.

For example.

if the password is 88>0TpFpax

I will use:

    set T to "Tp"
    set Po to "88"
    set TC to "Fpax"
    set TEH to ">0"
do shell script "say blahbla" user name "markhunte" password (Po & TEH & T & TC as string) with administrator privileges

Notice that not only do the variable not mean anything or show any sense of order but the bits of password are also jumbled within them.

All until the code runs.

So even if they do stumble on how to do what I am talking about the password will not be assembled in any order that it can just be used.


What is the meaning of the command, function, option.alt and control keys? I'm wondering if there is any meaning to the combination of button presses I make to use keyboard shortcuts. I'm hoping to speed up the learning process of learning keyboard shortcuts in this way. I figure if I have an idea why (for example) I might press fn+delete that it performs the same function on a mac keyboard that traditional keyboards do when just delete is pressed. More examples of keyboard shortcuts are ones that everyone knows like command+c or +v or +x for copy, paste and cut.

A helpful answer, if someone who'd like to answer doesn't have an end-game answer, would include trends they've noticed with different functions of the option, command, function, and control keys. Is one button perhaps typically used for a type of shortcut?

There must be a way they decide to make keyboard shortcuts assigned the way they do and I'd like to gain some insight into that. Questions? Please ask, I feel this question is appropriate to post here.

Fn is simply a modifier to allow the same key to be used for two purposes. It started on laptop keyboards, where space was at a premium, and has since migrated to Apple's regular keyboards.
As far as Fn-Delete: if you are referring to the Delete key in the same column as Return, Mac has used Delete as the name of that key for a while (couldn't nail down a date, but it seems like it started shifting sometime in 2010). Windows has used Backspace instead (a holdover from typewriters, where it literally moved the carriage "back a space", to allow for overtyping). Regardless of what it was called, it has always deleted the character or space to the immediate left of the cursor. Delete seems more accurate, since you are not actually just moving the cursor, but removing the character too.
The key that is generally further to the right on the keyboard, labelled Del or Delete on most Windows keyboards, deletes the character to the immediate right of the cursor. This key is also present on full-size Apple keyboards. On laptop keyboards, where space is, again, at a premium, the key does not exist, so the modified key combination of Fn-Delete was implemented to allow this functionality to still exist absent a dedicated key.
Command is generally used for command execution. Command-Q executes the Quit command for the foreground program, for example. The majority of keyboard shortcuts use Command as a starting point, sometimes adding Option and/or Control as modifiers.
Control in recent times is generally only used as a modifier to allow additional keyboard shortcuts to exist. It still, however, acts as a right click when using Control-left click, from when Mac did not have mice with more than one button.
Option is generally also used as a modifier. In some applications, it changes what menu items are present. In Chrome's File menu, it changes "Print..." to "Print Using System Dialog" and "Close Window" to "Close All Windows". This extends to its use as a way to type characters not found on the user's physical keyboard, such as ¢ (using Option-4).
Apple's Human Interface Guidelines outline their philosophy on the creation of keyboard shortcuts:

As much as possible, use the Command key as the main modifier key in a keyboard shortcut.
Avoid creating a shortcut by adding a modifier key to an existing shortcut, unless the shortcuts are related.
Use the Option key sparingly.
As much as possible, avoid using the Control key.


Cocoa app to publish podcasts vs Mobile friendly site I'm not sure of the legal implications of what I am trying to do, but here it goes.

There is a radio show that I love listening to. It comes on everyday and the podcasts are uploaded to a website so users can download and listen to them for free. The website isn't very navigable, however, and it's extremely hard to play the podcasts from my phone (and, therefore, my car).

I have a long commute and I would love it if I could either access these podcasts via some kind of iphone app or maybe even a mobile-friendly website. I am first trying to figure out which would be better (iphone app vs mobile friendly website) and how sketchy you think it would be for me to develop the app (or site) and then offer it to the radio show for them to upload their podcasts. Alternatively, if they didn't want it, I would just download the podcasts from the site and re-upload them to mine.

Please note I am not trying to make any money off this, I am only trying to make it easy for people like me (with long commutes) to enjoy this particular radio show without having to navigate the existing (dysfunctional) site- risking the lives of dogs, squirrels, and other drivers in the process.

It's not a podcast if they just upload files and tell you where to find them. The whole point of a podcast is that they are referenced explicitly in a feed of some manner, such that a utility can automatically make them available in whatever manner you need.

Like iTunes for example. It (by default) updates the feed occasionally, and downloads new episodes when they're available, suitable for immediate listening, or sync'ing and listening on-the-go.

Anything else is just silly, and probably means the site operator doesn't really know what they're doing.


What is the default "cursive" font for macOS? I am working on a Processing project for fun and I wanted to use the cursive font that is usually called in HTML and everything else, "cursive" or "Cursive," but in Processing it does the default sans-serif (Arial I think). Does anyone know what the actual name of this font is? "Times" and "Marker Felt" do work, but "monospace" also doesn't.

A snippet of my code (though not necessary as this is a question about macs and not code):

textFont(createFont("Cursive", width*0.75/9));

Post-scriptum: I did check font book and wikipedia, but not thoroughly.

WebPreferences has properties for each of the standard font families. See

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/webkit/webpreferences/1536642-standardfontfamily

Apple doesn't publish the defaults for each of these, but you can use an Xcode playground to quickly print them:

let prefs = WebPreferences()
prefs.standardFontFamily  // Times
prefs.sansSerifFontFamily // Helvetica
prefs.serifFontFamily     // Times
prefs.fixedFontFamily     // Courier
prefs.fantasyFontFamily   // Papyrus
prefs.cursiveFontFamily   // Apple Chancery


Changing sort options in icon view Is there any way to sort files in any way other than NAME while in ICON view? This is typically when in a file dialog (i.e. browser upload window) there are no options for sorting by Last Modified or similar, you have to be in DETAIL view for that.

Please see this screen shot as an example: http://cl.ly/0w0f3L0z3z0Q2n2E042F

No.

I would suggest heading to http://bugreport.apple.com and filing a bug there. Apple does base, in part, what they do on the number of similar bug reports they get. If enough people want this same enhancement and file bug reports, there is a good chance Apple will get it done.


Songs stuck in Automatically Add To itunes folder I use an mp3 tagger to fix my mp3 tags, and the tagger is set to move my tagged mp3s to the Automatically Add to iTunes folder.  Then, iTunes usually copies the tracks to iTunes and organizes the folders accordingly.  For some reason, its not working on three albums.  I can't see anything unique about these albums, but iTunes is adding it to my library, and leaving it in the folder.  Then it seems to repeat this process every so often until I have a number of duplicate entries of the same song, all pointing to the same location.  I've got it working properly before and after adding these tracks, just not for these specific 3 albums.  Any thoughts?

I will post a screenshot as soon as my reputation allows ;)

iTunes will put any songs that aren't compatible into a Not Added folder (underneath Automatically Add).  If your music wasn't compatible then you would find them in the Not Added folder.  So it seems that they are compatible, just not getting deleted.

I would check the permissions on these files and see if iTunes has permission to delete them.  Command-i on the files and folder concerned and ensure your use can read and write them.

Another solution is to open the Console.app application (found in the utility folder in Applications) and observe the output of that whilst iTunes is adding the music and see if there are any specific error messages that may point to why it isn't deleting the files.


Copy directory structure and symlink files (alternative to `cp -as`) I'm looking for how to recursively copy a directory structure and then fill the copy with symlinks to the corresponding files from the source directory. This has a simple solution in Linux in the form of cp -as, but cp seems to lack the s option on macOS Mojave.
The underlying goal is to automate the process of making applications that do not reside in /Applications show up in Launchpad.
What would be an elegant, preferrably future proof, alternative to this on macOS?
From doing brew search cp I get the impression that Homebrew does not have an alternative version of cp.

Update
Additional information
I'm currently running this regularly, but I want to improve it by making it recursive:
ln -s /<Source app directory>/*.app /Applications

It also has to preserve the directory structure because:

Subdirectories are used to manage sets of applications that are to be excluded from backup, without having to manually change Time Machine settings every time I add a new application. For instance, games are large and do not need to be backed up. Same goes for versions of Xcode.

A mere symlink to a subdirectory does not include its linked target's applications in Launchpad.

A symlinked directory would prevent creating a real directory with the same name. That prevents the source and destination directories from being organised identically.

The GNU version of cp is part of coreutils

brew install coreutils

It gets installed as gcp to avoid conflicts with the BSD version of cp (which behaves differently for some arguments).


Process using more memory than I physically have I'm loading a 4GB csv in Python using pandas, and activity monitor says I'm using more RAM than I physically have in my laptop (15GB out of 8GB). How's this possible internally?

This guy explains it well http://www.chriswrites.com/what-is-virtual-memory-on-the-mac/

  So What is Virtual Memory?

  Your Mac comes with a limited amount of
  physical memory (RAM) installed by default. Memory is critical to any
  computer to run applications and carry out all the operations
  commanded by the user. Memory must be as fast as possible (and it
  helps to have as much as possible) to maximise your Mac’s performance;
  thankfully, prices have drastically fallen in recent years.
  Nevertheless, every computer has a finite amount of memory so Mac OS X
  might actually need to use more than is physically available on your
  system.

  This is where virtual memory comes in – you can think of it as a kind
  of extension to the real memory on your system, albeit much slower
  because it is in fact physical space on your hard disk (or SSD, if you
  have one installed). Let’s say that you have 4 GB of main memory on
  your Mac and a 512 GB hard disk. If Mac OS X needs to use all 4 GB of
  main memory, it can still make use of any free space on your hard disk
  as an extension to that memory. Unfortunately, virtual memory is much
  slower than the physical RAM installed in your computer, because hard
  disks cannot match the speed of memory chips.


Why have pictures on Instagram got blurry since my iPad has been updated to iOS9? I recently updated to iOS9 on my iPad4, and ever since then the pictures on Instagram have been blurry (It looked fine previously). Is this an Instagram bug, old Hardware, or something else?

Let me know if this is the wrong site to ask on.

My suspicion is that the Instagram app was programmed for the older OS and needs an update. You could check their support forums, but it also might be something you just wait out for the next few app updates to post from the vendor.

It also could just be server side changes - if your iPad isn't served the complete resolution images, you won't have them. (i.e. the problem might not exist on your device at all).


How to Download to Computer a Voice Memo Received via MMS on my iPhone? A friend sent me a Voice Memo recorded on their iPhone, to mine through MMS. How might I go about getting this audio from my phone to my computer?

I've already tried syncing Voice Memos through iTunes, but apparently that's only used for memos recorded on the actual iPhone in question. Since this was recorded on another, it did nothing.

Thanks for your help!

Forward the MMS to your E-Mail.
The Email client of your computer can then extract the attachment.

In the SMS/MMS view, touch edit in the upper right-hand corner.
Touch the circle to the left of the audio clip(s) you want to keep or send to others.
Touch forward at the bottom and then type in the email address that is linked to your phone, or touch the + and you can pick any of your contacts and send it to their cell/email.


how to buy apple developer membership outside US? I'm trying to buy one-year membership of apple developer program for 99$. I can shop everything else from Apple store. but when I try to buy ADP there is a field that needs zip-code for a state in the US and I don't have it!
I have VISA and I can buy everything else but ADP! so how can I buy it?

Why are you trying to register as an Apple Developer in the US? You only need the one Apple ID, so assuming your Apple ID is based in the UAE you should be registering from there.

Regardless of where you're registered you'll still be able to sell your apps in all App Stores.

If the registration process takes you to the US site, you'll find you can click on the US flag icon at the bottom of the screen. This will open up a screen displaying all countries and their flags. You should find that the first grouping is for Africa, Middle East, and India. You can select United Arab Emirates from there.


Problems to install silverlight I'm trying to install silverlight in mi Mac pro (retina) with Yosemite bat I can't. I install de package, it says correctly installed but when I try to run netflix it ask me again to Install Silverlight. might be a problem with Rosetta but I dont know how to uninstall Rosetta.

Appreciate any help

I had this problem a while back. What was suggested and worked for me was a full uninstall of Silverlight, a reboot, and a reinstall. You may have to manually remove Silverlight files.

Here's a good explanation of the issue and how to fix it: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macoffice2011-macother/netflix-silverlight-mac-problem-installation-says/0b71af78-cb94-46e3-9629-f97c8dda1361


Why does only one episode show up under "unplayed" in Podcasts when I haven't heard any of them? I have this issue on my iPhone, iPad, and the iTunes app on my computer, which leads me to believe that it's not just some bug in the app. This happens for all the podcasts I have. The weird thing is that it actually knows which episodes are played, and indicates this with a little gray circle next to each unplayed episode, but for some reason the "unplayed" menu only shows one episode.

What I ended up doing was pressing "Edit" at the top left of the screen, then selecting all the episodes I haven't listened to yet (yeah it takes a minute), then pressing "Mark", then "Mark as unplayed". I don't have an answer for "why" though.


MacBook Pro: long time to wake from sleep, what could it be? I have a 2011 13-inch entry-level MacBook Pro, which was upgraded almost straight away to Lion.

I consider myself a careful, conscientious user, not installing things I don't need. However, recently, my MacBook Pro has started taking a very long time to wake from sleep.

I understand that it takes a long time to go to sleep, around 15-25 seconds usually. However, before, waking up was almost always instantaneous.

I'd like to know if there are any terminal or gui-based tools that help diagnose this problem. I recently checked pmset -g assertions and that seems to be fine. Any other tools I can use?

Updating my own question: it was a software issue after all. Avatron's Air Display server software installs a helper daemon that slows down the waking of my MacBook Pro.

After uninstalling it, the Mac wakes up a lot more quickly.


macOS 10.15.5 screwed up Sound Output device I've noticed it only as soon as yesterday, so I'm going to pin it on the latest macOS release, i.e. 10.15.5.

The sound output is unreliable in the latest update. I have three output devices in my setup:

Internal Speakers;
Speakers on the secondary monitor; and
Plugged-in headphones.

Yesterday I saw that both my headphones as well as internal speakers were engaged simultaneously. Meaning, I was listening to music on the headphones and some alarm sounds (like the sound that plays when you have hit the end of current line in Terminal etc.) would come through internal speakers.

Today I noticed that the audio from a monitor is coming from the secondary monitor's speakers while message notification sound came off the internal speakers.

Is anyone else seeing something similar?

Is this something that would be / need to be fixed or has Apple had some better understanding of sounds output and decided to engage multiple outputs at the same time?

This has been a feature of Mac OS X as far back as I can remember.

You can set the system alert sound device separately from the device the main audio output (for "regular audio", such as music, audio track of movies, non-system-alert-api application sound) uses.

It might be you only noticed this now because maybe your internal speakers weren't functional before the update, and you didn't notice because you didn't use them too often? But that's just a wild guess.

Might be relevant: the release notes for macOS Catalina 10.15.5 mentions:

  Addresses an issue for Mac computers with the Apple T2 Security Chip
  where internal speakers may not appear as a sound output device in
  Sound preferences

I think you might have been having the above mentioned issue, and the internal speakers weren't available as an output device,


Properly sort multiple albums from one artist in a year in iTunes I am trying to clean up as much of the metadata as I can in my iTunes Library. One issue I came across is albums from a band, where the band releases multiple albums in a year. While this doesn't happen all that much, a good example is the Smashing Pumpkins, who released Machina in Feb. 2000, and then released Machina II later that year in Sept 2000. Live concerts are a great example as well, for example if you have recordings from different shows on a tour.

In iTunes, currently Machina II is before Machina (Probably because in ASCII 'I' may come before '/'. This wouldn't matter much, except all the other albums from this artist are in order. Every once in a while, I am in the mood to listen to a particular artists set of albums over the years, and you can see then this won't work out.

Is there a way to say either what Month the album was released, or another workaround (other than just saying the next year for example)?

Update: I looked through the AppleScript dictionary, and it doesn't look like you can access anything except the year through AppleScript either.

The tag format iTunes uses allows the storage of year-month-day for release dates. You'll note if you buy songs from the iTunes store they frequently have the release date including the month and day. I do not know if iTunes actually obeys this data when sorting a list, but you can add it anyway, so it's worth experimenting.

The Get Info window won't let you add a month or day - there is only a year tag - but external tag editors certainly do. I had a simple one that looked like the iTunes Get Info window but with more options, I can't remember what it's called... I think MusicBrainz Picard also lets you enter month and day.

If you've edited a track with an external editor, you can force iTunes to refresh the data using an Applescript (assuming you're on Mac OS). There are other tricks that are documented here on the MusicBrainz site. The Applescript in question is near the bottom, I use it all the time after editing tags with Picard.

EDIT: Let me know if it works, eh?


Install Mavericks on Unsupported MacBook 4,1 I've spent the last 2 days trying to install Mavericks on my MacBook 4,1. It is from Early 2008. It is unsupported, but I would like to install Mavericks on it. Is there a workaround for bypassing the system check or just generally getting it to install?

I've tried:

SFOTT (found out it's for Macs that have 32-bit EFI and/or processors; I have 64-bit versions of both)
Making a plain USB installer by using DiskMaker X (fails at the prohibitary (⊘) symbol when booting)
Doing SFOTT on a partition on the internal HD (same result as SFOTT)

Oh, and if you need it, here are hardware specifications:

MacBook 4,1; Early 2008
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
160 GB internal HD
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Intel GMA X3100 144 MB
64-bit EFI and processor
Current OS is Mac OS X 10.7.2 (11C74)

And one more thing: I don't want to give up trying.

@Thinkling You were so close...I'm currently running Mavericks 10.9.5 on my Blackbook 4,1 Early 2008. Here's how:

Make a plain USB installer by using DiskMaker X, but after its complete, navigate on your new thumbdrive to: /System/Library/CoreServices/PlatformSupport.plist and completely delete that file.

Boot holding option key, select your thumbdrive, and install away.

Worth Noting:
I had to install the kext file for my graphics (Intel GMA X3100 144 MB) to work properly, and I'm still fighting a no sound issue, as well as machine not sleeping with lid closed. Other than that, I've got Messages working, and haven't had any other issues in the month i've had it installed....


What Is the Keyboard Shortcut for Sleep Display Without Eject Key? I read that if you want to put your display into sleep the keyboard shortcut is Control ⌃+Shift ⇧+Eject ⏏, but what is it in Mountain Lion or Lion using a retina MacBook Pro or MacBook Air without an eject button?

(At least on the Retina display MacBook Pro) use the Power button the same as you previously used the Eject button. So Control ⌃+Shift ⇧+Power puts the display to sleep and Command ⌘+Option ⌥+Power puts the machine to sleep.


iPhone virtual machine I would like to run some iPhone applications on my MacBook and be able to use them with the mouse.

Is there some way to run an iPhone emulator via Parallels Desktop or any other virtual machine?

AFAIK there's no iPhone emulator besides the one that comes with iOS SDK.


localhost/phpmyadmin - 404 error on macOS High Sierra I'm setting up a PHP project on my machine's loalhost. This part is working fine, and it's loading the index.php correctly when visiting http://localhost. However, visiting http://localhost/phpmyadmin it is giving me a HTTP 404 error.

Here are my settings:

Project's path Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites/Meetings
phpmyadmin path Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites
DocumentRoot settings in httpd.conf: /Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites/Meetings/public
VirtualHost setup in httpd-vhosts.conf for /Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites/Meetings/public

Tried to setup a VirtualHost for phpmyadmin as well, but it didn't work.
I did however follow the steps in the second answer here. That worked, but it doesn't seem right to access phpmyadmin via phpmyadmin.localhost.

What am I missing in order to make localhost/phpmadmin load with no errors?

Here is my software configuration:

macOS High Sierra 10.13.3
Apache 2.4.28
PHPMyAdmin 4.8.0.1

Phpmyadmin should be inside your DocumentRoot. ‘localhost/phpmyadmin’ stands for phpmyadmin inside localhost DocumentRoot. Change either the path for your DocumentRoot inside your httpd.conf or move the phpmyadmin folder inside the folder you have already configured.

VirtualHost or DNSmasq only make certain folders accessible via a specific address. If I am not mistaken they should still reside inside your DocumentRoot.

You should also edit permissions for user and group inside httpd.conf or set permissions on the DocumentRoot accordingly.

Remember to restart Apache after you change settings.

$ sudo apachectl -k restart

Update:

Web applications are placed in a particular folder on your machine. A web server such as Apache serves them to the web or your browser. You will have to configure apache and DNS for each project. Usually all application directories reside in the document root. In any case the connection between the application directory (in this case your phpmyadmin, which is just a web app) and your web server is made in a configuration file such as httpd.conf for apache. Depending from how you installed apache you will have to configure:

the port where to listen
set DocumentRoot /usr/local/var/www to your document root
change the  tag reference below and set AllowOverride All
enable mod_rewrite
depending on how you would like to manage permissions either keep _www and apply corresponding permissione to your web app folder or better set in the config file user YourName + Group staff
set the server name to ServerName localhost
set up your site folder (edit permissions if necessary)
restart apache

This will serve everything on your development machine starting from localhost, which coincides with your document root.

localhost/phpinfo.php will open the phpinfo.php file placed in your document root
localhost/phpmyadmin will open the index inside the phpmyadmin directory

In case you have multiple web projects they will be available through the same procedure: localhost/webapp1 or localhost/webapp1/index.html etc.

The translation to another address available to your system is made through virtual hosts, dns server, etc. Which translates/connects a URL to the root of your web app.

To do this:

uncomment LoadModule vhost_alias_module lib/httpd/modules/mod_vhost_alias.so in /usr/local/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
include /usr/local/etc/httpd/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
edit the /usr/local/etc/httpd/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Be aware that when configuring virtual host you will loose your document root so the first thing is to add it back or you will loose the ability to use localhost/phpinfo:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites"
    ServerName localhost
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites/webapp"
    ServerName webapp.test
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot "Users/zaina-alyahya/Sites/PHPmyadmin"
    ServerName phpmyadmin
</VirtualHost>

The ServerName for the web app has to be chosen by you. You will have to add it to your host file /etc/hosts, use a DNS server, which I would prefer. Since OSX server is going to loose DNS functionality you should take a look at dnsmasq (simple) or better BIND (full functionality). These programmes resolve an URL to your machine.

Certain areas could create trouble:

in case Apache is used: is Apple's version used? Which one? System or macOS server's? In case you have macOS server installed deactivate the web server part. You will loose it anyway this year in case you decide to upgrade to the next version of macOS. It is better to configure everything manually, much more educative anyway!
DNS setup
Permissions!!!!!!!! In case they are not set correctly you will get a 404.
restart the web server after you changed its configuration.


AppleScripts to create Calendar Events not working in Catalina I have a number of AppleScripts that are triggered by Mail.app rules. They were working perfectly (and still are) on my old iMac running High Sierra, but I now have a new iMac running Catalina on which they are no longer working.
An example script is the one below which extracts some details from the email and then creates a Calendar event containing those details and adds a couple of alarms to the event.
-- Triggered by Mail rule.
using terms from application "Mail"
    on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
        tell application "Mail"
            repeat with theMessage in theMessages
                try
                    set msgsubject to subject of theMessage
                    set msgcontent to content of theMessage
                    set msgid to message id of theMessage
                    set {amount, dueon} to my parseMsg(msgcontent)
                    my createEvent(msgsubject, msgid, amount, dueon)
                end try
            end repeat
        end tell
    end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from

-- Parse the email content to extract invoice details.
on parseMsg(msgcontent)
    set amount to extractBetween(msgcontent, "Invoice for", "due by")
    set dueon to extractBetween(msgcontent, "due by", "Review")
    return {amount, dueon}
end parseMsg

-- Extract the substring from between two strings
to extractBetween(theString, startText, endText)
    set tid to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to startText
    set startComps to text items of theString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to endText
    set endComps to text items of second item of startComps
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to tid
    return trim(first item of endComps)
end extractBetween

-- Trim all whitespace from start and end of a string
on trim(theString)
    set theChars to {" ", tab, character id 10, return, character id 0, character id 8232}
    repeat until first character of theString is not in theChars
        set theString to text 2 thru -1 of theString
    end repeat
    repeat until last character of theString is not in theChars
        set theString to text 1 thru -2 of theString
    end repeat
    return theString
end trim

-- Create a calendar event for the specified invoice.
on createEvent(msgsubject, msgid, amount, dueon)
    set startdate to (current date) + 28 * days
    set sentdate to current date
    -- set enddate to startdate
    tell application "Calendar" to tell calendar "Invoices"
        set theEvent to make new event with properties {start date:startdate, summary:"Check " & msgsubject, allday event:true}
        delay 5
        set description of theEvent to amount & return & "Due on: " & dueon & return & "Sent on: " & sentdate
        delay 5
        set url of theEvent to "message:" & "%3c" & msgid & "%3e"
        delay 10
        tell theEvent
            -- Add a email alarm
            make new mail alarm at end of mail alarms with properties {trigger interval:10}
            delay 10
            make new sound alarm at end of sound alarms with properties {trigger interval:370, sound name:"Sosumi"}
        end tell
    end tell
end createEvent

The following Mail.app Rule triggers the script
I have also enabled access to the Calendar for Mail.app in the Privacy Panel of System Preferences.

The rule tries to run as I see a little gear icon appear in the menu bar and the Calendar.app opens, but the calendar event isn’t added. As I say, this works perfectly in High Sierra. I also have a corresponding AppleScript that removes the alarms from the Calendar when an alternative email is received. Again this one works in High Sierra but dosen't work in Catalina either.
Has anyone got any ideas?
Thanks,
Alan.

OK, I've made some changes so that I can run the Script in Script Editor (by giving the variables plain text strings rather than extracting them from the email).
When I run the script I get the following error:
error "Calendar got an error: Can’t get calendar "Invoices"." number -1728 from calendar "Invoices"
That gives me a clue I guess - although the Calendar that it should be adding the event to does exist in my Calendar app. Could it be something to do with the quotes around "Calendar" and "Invoices" in the following line of the script?
tell application "Calendar" to tell calendar "Invoices"


Does Yosemite have a problem reaching alternate subnets? I know my question is a bit vague.  Read on.

I have a static route set in my Asus router to bridge from one subnet to another (downstream router).  My Mavericks machine can connect to devices (via a web browser pointing to a devices' IP address control panel; for instance, a Brother printer) on this other subnet just fine but all (and I've tested 4!) Yosemite machines cannot.  I have also found that a Windows 10 machine connects just fine.  These Macs are all connected to the main router via wifi, DHCP and all options in network settings appear to be identical.  It appears to me that something changed in Yosemite.  btw, ping results via Terminal are basically identical on Yosemite and Mavericks.  0% packet loss to one of the intended targets and 100% packet loss to an unused address in the downstream subnet.  The only differences are just some expected variations in the ping times.

I have also found that a Lion computer (10.7.5) can also connect to the other subnet just fine.  Do I have something screwed up or is there a problem with Yosemite?

No - I've not had any issues with 10.10 or 10.11 with multiple subnets, multiple IP address per host and multiple network interfaces on a single OS/Mac.

I'd think something else is up. Are you familiar with the bonjour utility:

dns-sd -B _http
dns-sd -B _ipp

You can take the instance name and then dig up the IP address and cross reference it with arp -a to figure out many printing network issues...

mac:~ me$ dns-sd -L "Living Room HP D110" _ipp local.
Lookup Living Room HP D110._ipp._tcp.local.
DATE: ---Sat 28 Nov 2015---
12:44:33.139  ...STARTING...
12:44:33.584  Living\032Room\032HP\032D110._ipp._tcp.local. can be reached at hp.local.:631 (interface 4)
 txtvers=1 qtotal=1 pdl=application/vnd.hp-PCL,image/urf,image/jpeg rp=ipp/printer URF=CP1,MT1-2-8-9-10-11,OB9,OFU0,PQ3-4-5,RS300-600,SRGB24,W8,IS1 ty=Photosmart\ D110\ series product=\(HP\ Photosmart\ D110\ series\) usb_MFG=HP usb_MDL=Photosmart\ D110\ series priority=60 mac=68:b5:99:3e:a3:8b adminurl=http://hp.local. note=Family\ Room Color=T Duplex=F Scan=T
^C

Also, pings are the first packets to get dropped in most network overload scenarios, so try telnet on a known port (80 or 631 in this case) to get a reliable indication of health of the printer or device on the network.

You might need to handle IPv6 and IPv4 versions of the tools, too. (ping6 and telnet -6)


RAM for late 2008 Macbook? I'm looking to upgrade the RAM in my late 2008 Macbook, see the spec below.

A few people have mentioned getting Crucial RAM but I'm unsure of what specific RAM to get and what the limit is. Or if there's better/cheaper options than Crucial.

I'm looking to get the max amount possible I can fit in.

Thanks

From EveryMac :

RAM-Type = PC3-8500-DDR3 SDRAM @ 1066 Mhz

Supports officially max. 4GB and unofficially max. 6GB,
but indeed a total of 8GB on ROM Version MB51.007D.B03
and if running Mac OS X 10.6 or higher.

Apple released an update (including 8GB support) here.
Also check for information about it here.

And if you are unsure, which to buy: here are some on amazon.co.uk


Flash Local Shared Object storage security issue? I have encountered some strange behavior when navigating through the flash Local Shared Object folders on my computer running OS X version 10.11.5

The behavior is as follows:

Navigate to the base local shared object storage cd ~/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash\ Player/
Navigate through the shared object using the below path cd \#SharedObjects/6MB4PXSB/skype.com/
On this path is another folder named "#ui"

If I change the directory to the #ui folder it takes me back to home folder i.e. it is the equivalent of typing cd ~

Listing the contents of parent folder shows the following:

> ls -latr
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser  staff  102 Jun 17 12:07 ..
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser  staff  102 Jun 17 12:07 .
drwxr-xr-x  3 myuser  staff  102 Jun 17 12:07 #ui

I do not see any symbolic links from #ui to my home folder so I am not sure why this is happening.  I have tested this repeatedly and it consistently takes me to my home folder.

My questions are:

Is this a security issue?
Is it safe for me to do an rm -rf #SharedObject given the observed behavior?

# is used by the shell to indicate a comment. So if you type

cd #ui

everything after the # is ignored and you basically just execute cd. To change into the directory, use one of

cd ./#ui
cd \#ui

instead.

The same applies if you want to remove it.


Different Graphics Switch options on Yosemite I'm used to see this checkbox in the Energy Saver window:

When I turn it off it will switch to the discrete GPU.

Now I'm using a program (gfxCardStatus) to switch between GPUs as I wish, and when I opened the Energy Saver window again I saw that the checkbox was replaced by this:

Which I saw some saying that was the way it was before the automatic switching feature.

I'd like to know how this second screen can be enabled without using this program, because my discrete GPU has some issues and I'd like to leave it always on the integrated.

Also, I'd like to know if the meaning of "Higher Performance" is the same of unchecking the checkbox in the first screen, that is, to force the discrete GPU.

On a Mac with dual switchable graphics (iGPU and dGPU) the general setup is as follows:
Boot uses usually dGPU with limited, basic capabilities since the drivers aren't loaded yet. Once the GUI arrives the drivers for both iGPU and dGPU are available, full acceleration for both is available and the power management kicks in.

For graphics performance and power management Apple deems fit a rather simplistic scheme:
The default checkbox you see without gfxCardStatus means:
iGPU is used as default but anything requesting "real graphics power" leads to switching to the dGPU. Depending on the version of the operating system or the application this request could be quite arbitrary (e.g. just a simple Java stub with demanding graphics or a badly written app).

Influencing these settings leads to the following options:

checked "Automatic Switching" =  defaults to iGPU switchable to dGPU
unchecked "Automatic Switching" = defaults to dGPU not switchable to iGPU
checked "Better Battery Life" = defaults to iGPU not switchable to dGPU
checked "Higher Performance" = defaults to dGPU not switchable to iGPU

So, in effect, yes, "Higher Performance" is the same as unchecking the checkbox in the first screen, that is, to force the dGPU.

Only using hacks – like gfxCardStatus – it is possible to get into the state of forcing more iGPU and better battery life (compared to – sometimes badly working – "Automatic Switching"). All the configs Apple seems to offer are more graphics power: force more dGPU and therefore force worse battery life.

It might be possible with a hack or maybe even to cleanly force the appearance and availability of the choice you seek in SystemPreferences.
But for your alluded usage scenario gfxCardStatus is the best and cleanest option available. If your system is still usable.

Alternatives:
Cody Krieger's original gfxCardStatus is no longer under active development fot some time now. It is not the only option:
A newer/forked version (its development also ceased now) would be Steve Show's forked gfxCardStatus.
Please note: these versions of gfxCardStatus are a fine example for wisely choosing which version to use. The versions available have different options, abilities. The newest version might not be the best choice for what you want to achieve.

A seemingly similar desire as yours, avoiding gfxCardSatus, led to the development of gpu-switch
So that option might be the part of this answer that comes closest to your question.

Finally some precognizing: the point "because my discrete GPU has some issues" might need a more detailed approach.
If it is the AMD RadeonGate dGPU for MacBook Pro 8,2, 2011, I'd suggest lobotomising the dGPU with software out of the system. A complete guide for that would be here: GPU Problem. Further pointers to mitigating hacks for the most common issues for badly designed and manufactured MacBook Pros in the past are listed also in the announcement of ceased development here: https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus