Send SMS/text messages from Windows through USB + iPhone? I use the MyPhoneExplorer (MPE) utility to send SMS/text message from my Windows host through my Android smartphone connected to the computer with a USB cable. It's a no-brainer.

A friend of mine has an iPhone and a Windows laptop: I was wondering if there's an equivalent to MPE that can work with an iPhone:

Runs on Windows and iPhone
Windows and iPhone connected through USB cable

Connecting both hosts (Windows laptop + iPhone smartphone) to wifi just for this is overkill.

Thank you.

Not without jail breaking the iPhone. There are numerous tweaks available on Cydia (jail break equivalent of App Store) that enable this functionality.

iPhones and a Mac computer will both send SMS messages natively from your phone number, but this isn't available on Windows.


How to generate an automatic bash/script I'm new to terminal and unix like systems. I'm searching a way to automatically create a batch file.

Let's say I have a bunch of files in a folder, and I want to change the creation dates. As it is now, I have to touch -t 201704011215.00 Desktop/Old_cam_vids_converted_from_avi_to_mp4/file0001.mp34 for each file. What I would like to do is something like this: ls -lT /Desktop/Old_avi_to_conv/*.avi and have the date and time for each file as time-date parameter for the touch command.

How can I accomplish this?

Edit:
I hope the explanation makes it clearer. This is the scenario:

Two folders on the desktop containing video files.
one (folder_1) contains the original files (.avi)
the second (folder_2) contains converted files (.mp4)
all the files in the second folder have a newer sequential date, since the conversion tool made worked through a list of files.
I need to take the date/time stamp from the original file, in the first folder and assign it to the converted file in the second folder.
each file in the first folder has a different date, possibly days and months apart.
the files in the second folder have the same names than the ones in the first folder, except for the file suffix, e.g.:
folder_1/CIMG_0001.avi is the original of folder_2/CIMG_0001.mp4
folder_1/PIC_0003.avi is the original of folder_2/PIC_0003.mp4
folder_1/PIC_0015.avi is the original of folder_2/PIC_0015.mp4
folder_1/CIMG_003.avi id the original of folder_2/CIMG_0003.mp4

You need to process each mp4 file individually:

cd folder_2
for m in *.mp4; do
    a="${m%.mp4}".avi
    if [[ -r "/path/to/folder_1/$a" ]]; then
         echo touch -r "/path/to/folder_1/$a" "$m"
    fi
done

Run once to verify that the generated output makes sense, then remove the echo and rerun.

PS: This assumes that the names of the video files don't contain the string ".mp4" as such.


What is AppSC extremely slowing down my MacBook Pro? I noticed that my OS X very frequently runs extremely slow and everything lags. I opened up Activity Monitor and I saw that something called AppSC is using up to 95% of the memory. It makes my computer run very hot. I immediately Force Quit the program when I notice it but it keeps happening.

Does anyone know what AppSC is?

AppSC is malware. Download, install and run the free app Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac. It will detect it and you will be asked to remove it (and some other potentially installed malware).

If you can't download/install the anti-malware app because everything is sluggish, you have to move or remove the responsible plist file(s) in /Users/your_user_name/Library/LaunchAgents/, /Library/LaunchAgents/ or /Library/LaunchDaemons/ manually by booting to Single User Mode or to Recovery Mode. Remove the responsible plist file by cd'ing to one of the directories and mv'ing or rm'ing it. I don't remember precisely but I think the file name contains *.appsc.* or *.appscd.*. If you are running El Capitan you might have to disable System Integrity Protection. Then continue booting or reboot to your main volume and try again downloading, installing and running Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac.

I recently got hands on a client's iMac infected with AppSC and some other malware. I've suspected MacKeeper (which was "installed" also) as the main culprit but I haven't been able to substantiate my assumption.

To remove the malware I first booted to a thumb drive containing a full OS X Mavericks and then - after investigating modify/create dates of several apps and folders - moving suspicious launch agents/daemons in ~/Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchAgents or /Library/LaunchDaemons to inert folders like /Library/LaunchDaemons (Off). Then I booted to the main volume and installed the aforementioned software and uninstalled/deleted all malware files.

AppSC (accompanied by an AppSC daemon which starts AppSC while booting and restarts AppSC after force quitting it) just "eats" RAM with a rate of 50 MB-300 MB/s. Immediately after starting the iMac about 6 GB of 8 GB RAM were free. After all free RAM is gone the whole system swaps with a slightly slower rate. After one minute the client's iMac had a swap size of 4 GB with no other apps running.
Memory swapping will slow down your OS X and all running regular apps and after a while it's almost impossible to do anything even rebooting.


Can you have symlinks across various backup disks/ volumes? Is it possible to have two backup disks, which, when connected to the same machine, can have directories symlinked to each other? I'm working on this triple redundant backup scheme in which not all data is replicated across all three disks, but when working in a given disk, I would still like to have access to files and scripts on another remote disk.

Yes, symlinks can be pointed anywhere. They’ll only function correctly when the destination is mounted, but that’s to be expected.

Something which might not be expected is if for some reason the path doesn’t match. The most likely reason would be if an incorrect mount occurred previously or two partitions have the same name, causing one partition to mount as /Volumes/Name (1), which won’t match what your symlink is looking for. If something doesn’t seem right, check everything is in order in your /Volumes folder.


Powering on while the lid is closed in clamshell mode For a recent MacBook Pro, lid closed, non-Apple keyboard: can I map some key (like F15) to be the same as the Apple power key so I can do a full shutdown and start up without opening the lid?

Launchers like Alfred.app allow you to assign keyboard shortcuts to run commands (it has built in ones for restart and shut down).

There is a default shortcut alt+cmd+eject for putting the computer to sleep.

Additionally, control+alt+eject will log you out, and;

shift+control+eject will sleep your displays (and keyboard lights if you have them).

As for booting the computer without using the power button, I'm not sure that's possible, as I don't think the laptop gives power to the keyboard while it's powered off.

You could setup something like scheduled startup/shutdown, to automatically boot at the set time. Find this in the Energy Saver preference pane.

Update: Newer laptops don't have an eject button, but instead the button in the top right corner of the keyboard is the power button. The above shortcuts will work with the power button i.e. shift+control+power for turning off the displays.


OS X in VM Ware or Virtual Box Is it possible to run OS X in VM Ware? I want to setup a virtualized OS X for testing instead of going to buy another mac. Can I do that technically and legally?

To be explicit I do own a mac already.

You can do it technically. Legally I think you can do it if a) The VM is on Mac hardware and b) you purchase a unique disk (license) for the OS in the VM.


How to install Homebrew on Mavericks? How can i install Homebrew or R on a mavericks machine? I tried looking at this link.

Can anyone help me out?

The homebrew homepage has a single step instalation:

paste

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/go/install)"

into terminal and hit return


How do local TimeMachine backups work exactly? Since Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) TimeMachine performs local backups to /.MobileBackups if enabled (tmutil enableLocal, default enabled on portable macs).

The different types of backups are color encoded in the fancy TimeMachine space thingy, local backups are white, external storage purple. They mostly differ only by a minute. What exactly is the concept of those local backups?

Are they simple a completely parallel, additional backup? Or are they at least merged into your external storage backup when you come home after begin away from your backup drive for a week? And what happens if i require lots of disk space suddenly? Do i need to remove the local backups manually?

I also thought that the Local Snapshots were supposed to merge into your Time Machine backups but it seems, in my experience, that they don't. You can see both when you're in Time Machine and "About This Mac" shows that they still exist after multiple backups to an external harddrive. I do think that they are supposed to merge with themselves the way that Time Machine backups do, to save space, merging into daily and weekly backups instead. As far as Finder is concerned, the space is not used. Looking in the info bar at the bottom of a Finder window showing your root drive will show that you have more space than something like iStat Nano will show on Dashboard. I think this is because the backups are supposed to be expendable. If your computer really needs the space I assume that it will get rid of some of its snapshots to make room.
We may see that in the future they merge back into regular Time Machine backups as Lion matures more.
It's also worth noting that I don't think they count as real 'backups' in the sense that you can't restore to them the same way you can restore to a time machine backup from the Recovery HD. They are really meant to help you recover a file instead of your whole filesystem.


Send background email alert if Time Machine backup fails Curious if there is an easy way to send a background email alert if a Time Machine backup fails (or continuously fails rather than just one time)

I've found TM Error Logger however, it cannot run in the background, and also generates the email through the systems default mail client, which then needs to be manually sent.

Ideally I'd like a solution that does this in the background without any input or action from the end user - so that I can be notified if their machines aren't backing up.

The trouble is many users don't realize that Time Machine may not be working for them - they don't know to look for the "!" in the TM menu bar icon (or often what it means)

This is a great use case for a simple shell or python or ruby script and launchd.

I'll assume you can find on this site how to configure the launchd item or want to buy Lingon which is a great timesaver. (Be aware Lingon 3 is for Lion and there is another also paid version for Snow Leopard just named Lingon on the App store)

You also will need to set up an internal mail server that accepts command line mail from all your clients, so there is that large chunk of setup.

With all that "hand waving" to explain broad concepts - you now could use these core commands to get the job done:

tmutil latestbackup
date "+%Y-%m-%d"
mail -s "TimeMachine Failure Report from $HOSTNAME" "This mac needs attention"

Depending on how much fun this sounds, you can pick apart each task and work on them or look into software that is designed to do this for you like Apple Remote Desktop or Robot Cloud.


Command line utility to create screenshot Is there some command line utility to create a screenshot of the my screen and store it as png? (Preferably one in the system, without need to install anything new)

It sounds like you're looking for the command screencapture, which, according to its man page, is to "capture images from the screen and save them to a file or the clipboard".

It's been a standard part of OS X since 10.2.


Putting a PowerPoint and Video together What is the easiest way to take a powerpoint or keynote presentation and a video of me giving the presentation and put the two together so that they can always see the slides and my video of me giving the presentation.

It would be nice if I could zoom into each and shrink the other has I wanted to focus on the slide or the presentation, but just being able to put the two side by side would be good enough!

You have several possibilities.

The easiest for you would be probably be using Screenflow. It allows you to record what happens on the screen (the presentation) AND the camera input. It also allows you to do some simple post-production, like focusing on the screen or on the camera.


WiFi sync with computer connected by cable to the WiFi router? My computer does not have a WiFi card, so I connect it via LAN cable to my router. My iPhone is connected to the WiFi signal of that router. Is there some kind of magic that will enable me to use WiFi sync with my computer?

No, if they are both on the same network, there is nothing special you need to do.


Download El Capitan Installer now that Sierra is out I have recently been having issues with my mac and want to do a clean install. I still have Yosemite and thought it’s a good time to upgrade the OS. However, I am wary of jumping directly to Sierra when it’s so fresh.

My specific circumstances:

Sierra could run on my computer (early 2015 Macbook Pro), but I would prefer to install El Capitan
I have not previously downloaded the El Capitan installer

I realize apple provided a link to install El Capitan from Snow Leopard. However, when I follow the links to the app store to get the install file, I am met with this message:

  This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer.

Is there a way to download the El Capitan installer now that Sierra is out, for more modern computer? Searching El Capitan on the app store yields no results for the installer.

It depends on your circumstances. It can be difficult to find old OS downloads.

If you purchased it previously it will be in the App Store under the Purchased tab.

If your mac came with it pre-installed you may have to go the internet recovery or Recovery HD route, but that would entail wiping your hard drive in order to do the install. You could then migrate your user data from a Time Machine backup or similar.

Alternatively, if you have a bootable backup of your El Cap system (assuming you had it installed) you could reinstall that.

More specific answers will require more specific information from you (it's generally a good idea/helpful to provide more information so that answers can be geared towards your situation and others in the same situation can benefit).

Whatever you do, make sure you have a full working backup (which you have tested) so that you can revert should something fail.


Is it possible to have two partitions on external drive that is used for time machine backups? Basically I want to create to partitions on the external SSD drive, one for backups using time machine and one for windows 10 that I will boot externally. Is something like this possible?

Yes, it is indeed possible.

The easiest way is to start with a clean drive (i.e. containing no data you want to save), and then use Disk Utility to create two partitions on the drive. You can name the partitions so it is easy for you to identify which one is which.

The partition for Time Machine needs to be formatted as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" (HFS+).

The Windows drive will usually be formatted during Windows installation.


Wrong function key layout on a Mid 2011 MacBook Air My wife just got a used Mid 2011 MacBook Air. The keyboard looks like this:

But the keys work like this:

There's no way no adjust the backlight brightness and the volume controls are all messed up. How can I fix this?

I am back after reinstalling my old flaky trackpad. My function keys are back to normal. This shows that the trackpad somehow interacts with the keyboard layout but I can not tell you how. Since the mid-2011 Air models seem to have numerous trackpad problems, it is possible your wife's used one had had the trackpad replaced.


Should I use MaxiVista or Air Display for a Windows 7 monitor extender? I'm about to go on a trip and I'm wondering if anyone has tried both MaxiVista and Air Display as monitor extenders for Win7. MaxiVista was first on a PC and Air Display is still in beta for PC.

I use Maxivista and have no problems. I use it on my Windows boxes for a very long time and it just works as promised.


How to check battery capacity of a new phone (iPhone SE)? So I just bought an iPhone SE in an unofficial store (new packaging and everything, warranty, etc.). The only problem with the phone is, the battery life seems super short to me. In settings -> battery -> battery health it says 100% capacity. But could somebody have taken out the new battery out of the phone and replaced it with an old one before packaging, and for some reason the phone still thinks the battery is at 100% health?
How can I make sure the battery is indeed old before I go to an official store and tell them to replace my phone? What ways are there to check the capacity?
P.S. a rip-off like this maybe couldn't happen in America, but I don't live in America so this is possible, in my opinion.
And yes, I have closed apps and tried different ways of minimizing battery consumption, yet the battery life still seems to me way too short for a new phone.

There's no way to check to see if the battery is genuine without opening it up and visually inspecting it.
When the battery gives you it's capacity, it's basing that on a moment-in-time measurement of the battery's charge against a known capacity value (1624 mAh for the iPhone SE; 1821 mAh for 2020 SE). Any 3rd party battery can have that capacity, but how they discharge is what makes the difference (quality of the cells).
That said, there are many reasons for quick discharge of your battery: an update to iOS may have a bug, apps being open or utilizing too much resources, etc.  For example, my own iPhone started exhibiting poor battery life the moment I upgraded to iOS 14.  I confirmed it by restoring a backup from iOS 13.
That said, "way to short" is very subjective - you need to define what way to short is in terms of hours of use compared to what Apple publishes.  However, it's been reported that battery life is a "Major Letdown" when compared to other manufacturers.  So, based on how you use the phone and the factors mentioned above, YMMV with respect to battery life.
If you're concerned that the battery may not be genuine, the only way is to physically open it and have an Apple technician inspect it.


Folder with a question mark on purchased Mac I just got my MacBook Pro mid 2012 laptop and stupid me did something to it, now I have a flashing folder with a question mark. The previous owner said she accidentally deleted the software when she was transferring her things to the other laptop.

I rang AppleCare and I did all these things to try and solve it but all it come up with is a password but I don't know the password. Is this a common thing? Should I take it to Apple Store?

Not in contact with the seller.

Folder with the question mark usually means "no valid device to boot from".

Try to boot to recovery (if any exists) by keeping pressing command + r when turning on the Mac. You should be able to reinstall it there.

If still fails you may try Mac OS X internet recovery (cmd+option+r keeps pressed while pressing power button)

If still fails, get someone with a working Mac with App store to get you a Mac OS X El Capitan Installer following the steps listed here:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201372

Make sure the usb disk itself is a bootable instance (as in some cases it is blocked by hardware design).

When the bootable USB disk is plugged in, hold down the option when turning on to get a selectable boot device list and you should be able to see a disk to install to (if, not there is not any, it will be a hardware issue then -> go to Apple store or get someone else to fix).

After in recovery mode if seeing a disc to install to: feel free to erase the disk as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) (==HFS+) and install your instance with your Apple ID.


iPhone upgraded to iOS 11 - retrieve log data from an old incompatible app called "Articles" I mistakenly upgraded my iPhone to iOS 11.4.1, and my Wikipedia app called Articles, which I've been using for 8 years or so, is now no longer compatible.

Does anyone know if there is a way to retrieve or extract my search log from this app? I just want a plain-text list with all my search terms and their date.

There are a couple possibilities.

You can backup your iPhone using iTunes, and then try restoring your iPhone's backup to another iPhone that is running an older iOS version.

You can backup your iPhone to a Mac using iTunes with encryption turned off, and try using one of the (paid?) Mac utilities that can read unencrypted iOS backup files in the iTunes backup directory.


Opening a new file in TextMate opens the last opened file as well Here is a small annoyance that I have with TextMate. When I want to open a new file in TextMate when it's not running it also opens the last opened file. Now for some cases that's just nice of him to do but in most cases I end-up closing the previous file. Maybe this is a simple setup/preference issue? Any ideas?

It's not something you can set in the app preferences.

If you want to change this behavior, open Terminal.app and type

defaults write com.macromates.textmate OakDisableSessionRestore 1

This will make Textmate not remember the last session.

Change the 1 by 0 if you want the default behavior.


Smart Folders: What is the difference between "This Mac" and "All My Files"? What is the difference between "This Mac" and "All My Files"?

All my files could contain files from mounted or networked drives.


Terminal Open Safari with Website open /Applications/"Safari.app" "https://plarium.com/en/strategy-games/vikings-war-of-clans/"

This opens both Safari and Chrome, Chrome being my default browser
How can I open specific pages in Safari?

open -a /Applications/"Safari.app" "https://plarium.com/en/strategy-games/vikings-war-of-clans/"

Note the inclusion of the -a flag.


Apple's iCloud SMTP Server For Old Devices Does Not Work I have set up my iPod Touch 1G to use the iCloud mail servers as per http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4864. IMAP works, but SMTP, although it worked for the first ~24 hours, refuses to work, complaining that the username or password is incorrect. I tried manually using this SMTP server on my Mac (Lion 10.7.2) and it gives the same result. Is anyone able to send emails via smtp.mail.me.com or has anyone experienced this problem and has a fix for it?

EDIT: I have checked with a new iCloud account (set up on 4th Nov) and it works, so if anyone else has this issue it is a problem with your account. AppleCare, get ready!

Well it recently started working, so let's hope it stays that way!


MacBook Air (13-inch, 2017) [MacOs Catalina 10.15.6] Yellow tint when watching video in Netflix, Youtube or even Videos(Quick Time) I noticed recently that when i try watching youtube videos in full screen, when i didn't move my mouse and the play bar disappeared , my screen turn yellowish. This happen only during full screen and only if i connect my MacBook Air with an external monitor via thunderbolt (I connect monitor with HDMI through a converter [HDMItoThunderbolt].
If i unplug the monitor from my MacBook, it becomes normal.
Any solution for this? I reach help from apple support but they seems can't fixed this issue.

Hope this helps: turn of "Night Shift" when watching movies.
I had this with subtitles. Whenever a subtitle appeared the color became blueish, when it disappeared the color turned to amber.
It took me a while to find out "Night Shift" was the problem. At least turning it off solved mine.
Night Shift can be turned off by clicking in the utmost right corner of the menu bar. On the three horizontal stripes with dashes. This opens the notification center. If you don't see "Night Shift" on the top of the notification center, scroll the center down.
Other method: Open System Preferences > Open Displays > click on "Night Shift" and turn it off.
Hope I was of any help,
regards Peter


iPhone 4 (and 4s) won't take a screen shot. What should I do? After owning an iPad for a couple of years, last week I purchased my first iPhone.  I've been well aware of the feature where you press the power button + Home key, and iOS will take a screenshot of the display.

Today I tried to take a screenshot in my iPhone and after numerous attempts it just won't work.  Could this be a problem with the hardware or is there an alternative way of taking a screenshot?

Numerous people have reported the problem above and, unfortunately, this is being caused because you are instructed to "release both the power and home buttons at the same time."

Releasing two buttons at the same time, at computer processing speeds is impossible, so this could be problematic for some of us.  However, I have discovered that if you follow the mechanism outlined below, you will be able to always take a screenshot.

Press and hold the power button.
Tap the home button.
Release the power button.

Your screen will flash, and your image will be saved to your camera role.  This is effectively the same operation as you are instructed to do on every HOWTO page on the internet.

However, if you were releasing the power button a little faster than the home key, you were preventing the operation from taking place.

UPDATE

After reading stuffe's comment on Ryokuchasan's answer, I decided to test out a few different way's of pushing these buttons and seeing if I could take a screenshot.

It turns out,  The following operations all produced a screenshot, in addition to my instructions above.

Option #2

Press and hold the home button.
Press and hold the power button.
Release the home button.  (Image is saved)
Release the power button.

Option #3

Press and hold the power button.
Press and hold the home button.
Release the power button.  (Image is saved)
Release the home button.

It was the fourth, and final means of attempting this that has failed.  See below.

Press and hold the home button.
Tap and release the power button. (iOS locks the device)
Release the home button.

This may be a bug, or intentional.  I think what is going on is that myself, and numerous others have been 'tapping' the power button, while holding the home.  I know this answer is a bit overkill but I think it's worth documenting the full observation of this issue for reference.

UPDATE #2

Great news!  Since iOS 7's recent release, I recalled this problem.  After loading the OS, I attempted the fourth method, outlined above, that wouldn't work.  In this case, iOS took the screenshot and did not lock my device.  Apparently this was a bug and it has been fixed.


Xcode 3.2.6 and iOS 4.3 SDK installation problem on Mac OS X Lion I recently brought a new Mac mini running Max OS X 10.7 Lion.

I downloaded the iOS SDK 4.3 and Xcode 3.2.6.dmg from Apple.

The download was successful and I was able to install it without any problem. But after installing, I cannot find Xcode in the /Developer/Applications folder.

All I do see there are performance tools and utilities folders.

Can anybody help me in properly installing Xcode on Lion?

For Lion you need Xcode 4 (not 3.2) This is available from the App Store or from a paid Developer account).

This will install the installer in /Applications, run this to install Xcode to /Developer


Undo sudo nvram boot-args="-s" without terminal I couldn't boot into single-user mode on my iMac 2007 with Mac OS X 10.5, so I forced it to do so with sudo nvram boot-args="-s". However, now my Mac won't boot and sits there with the spinning icon under the Apple logo.

Obviously, being an older OS there is no Internet recovery or normal recovery partition to boot to.

Icing on the cake is, it's a 2nd hand iMac with no recovery disks.

I have tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM, alas to no avail, does anyone know how to remedy this?

Turns out this was as simple as a stuck key was stopping any boot up commands.

Plugged in a different keyboard and everything was just fine.


New securely erased drive not empty according to Disk Utility Erased 32GB USB flash storage with Disk Utility's "Secure Erase" feature, one pass of zeros. Disk Utility now reports that there is only 26GB of my drive available. Not sure what is going on here, but I'd like to know where my 6GB of space went.

Update: Zeroed the drive using DD, created new partition using Disk Utility, resized the partition and created a new one. It appears that for each of my partitions created, 6GB of the available space is taken up by something. The hidden files (Trashes, Spotlight, and fseventsd) do not account for this usage. This is really baffling and annoying, and any clue as to what is happening would be very appreciated.

Edit: Pictures to clarify:

Problem occurs on more than one drive, I think it has something to do with either journaling or local time machine backups.

This is likely coming from one or two things (or both).

Partitioning a disk, any disk, takes up drive space. In the megabyte range it is not even noticeable. In the gigabyte range it can be a substantial byte (sorry...) out of the drive.

Also computer makers and Drive/RAM makers often calculate bytes differently. O/S companies (Apple, Microsoft, etc...) call 1K 1024 bytes. Drive/RAM makers call 1K 1000 bytes. If you do the math it looks like you "lost" a lot of space when it is just different conventions.

Also formatting a drive will map out bad blocks. So depending on how many bad blocks there are that can reduce the size of the formatted volume as well.


New phone registration into old apple ID data I got a new iPhone 4S and I used it to voice-record an important lecture. I plugged it into my computer and iTunes popped up saying I had to register it.

It showed me two options:

Register as a new iphone.
Register as "__ iphone" which of course was my old apple id.

I texted myself my audio file. I thought registering the iPhone with my old Apple ID would just format a couple things on the phone like the apps, contacts, and pictures. However, I did not realize it would reset everything including my text messages!

I should've texted this file it to another person too!

Can I unregister my old Apple ID and register my iPhone with option 1 (as a new iPhone)? I desperately would like to retrieve that file ASAP!

Reading your question I doubt you have any backup, the data will be gone and you cannot recover it.

Texting a voice-file is a pretty weird option IMO, as once it will be sent by the provider it won't be sent again to any device. (You don't receive all your text-messages again on a different phone, do you?)


Will the Mac Mini late-2012 try to reformat dual PC raid discs when I plug them in? I have a new Mac Mini late 2012 model replacing a PC with dual 2 TB hard drives set up in Raid format mirrored and auto save.

I want to put them into a caddy, a Startech 4-bay SATA version with a view to eventually adding 2 more as separate drives but for now I need to know whether it will try and reformat these discs when plugged in as there's 1.3 GB of data on each that isn't backed up elsewhere!

I could buy an external drive to save the data to but seems a waste of money if this will work without affecting the existing files.

Does anyone know for sure either way please or if there's a way of making sure they work?

If it can't read them, it will ask you if you want to reformat them. It won't reformat anything automatically.


Lowering iMac height How to (inexpensively) lower the screen height of an iMac 27? (late 2013 if it matters)

I can't damage the computer so torching the stand until it bends to lower the height of the screen is out of the question.

According to Apple: iMac (21.5-inch and 27-inch, Late 2012 and later) computers can be configured to order with a built-in VESA mount adapter when ordering via the Apple Online Store. (...) VESA mount adapter upgrade kits are not available for iMacs with a stand.

Option 1 - Build your own mount
The only way I could see getting either a new stand or a VESA mount is having a custom VESA mount built for this unit.
It's actually not too difficult to build the mount, you just need a flat piece of aluminum or stainless thick enough to attach to the mounting plate of the hinge (area circled) in pic below and long enough that comes out the back of the iMac and either welded or screwed onto a flat plate with the proper VESA mounting holes so you could attach any arm or 3rd party stand.

Making the bracket wouldn't be all that difficult.  Any welding shop or machine shop could fabricate it for you.   All you really needs is an "L" or "T" shaped bracket (instead of the articulating head in the pic below) for the VESA mounting holes.  But you would want the mount to come out of the back of the case in a similar fashion.

Normally, I would recommend this product because it's elegant and German made (German engineering is top rate), but after researching their site, they don't make anything for iMacs after 2011.
The toughest part of this custom build would actually be the complete teardown of the iMac to install your new mounting bracket.
So, it's not impossible, it's just a very involved process.
Option 2 - An Ikea Hack
bmike got me thinking...  How to do this cleanly, but very inexpensively...
You could get a shelf from Ikea like the  EKBY JÄRPEN and mount it to the wall at a height below your desk that lowers the screen to your comfortable viewing height.  Sort of like in the picture below.  It's hard to see, but the iMac is sitting on a support on the lower shelf (lighting is horrible)


Mount a RAM disk on boot I'm running different applications for development purposes: Apache, MySQL, Tomcat and a couple of other products. I would like to set up the logging verbosity of all applications to debug, but when doing so, the disk gets a lot of activity.

Therefore I would like to create a RAM disk, for example 512 megabytes and get it mounted at boot time, so I can set the path of the log files to the RAM disk.

I looked into /etc/fstab, but there is a notice that this file is deprecated.

You can create and mount a RAM disk with the following Terminal (i.e. shell) command:

diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "diskName" `hdiutil attach -nomount ram://2048`

Where 2048 can be any number and represents the number of 512 byte blocks you want to allocate.  So 1,000,000 will get you 512,000,000 bytes.  (Of course, you have to leave out the commas.)

So edit the command to your liking and put it in a shell script, then add that shell script to your login items.  If you really need to run it at boot instead of when you log in, that is a lot more involved.  Either you don't need to do it, because you're not starting Apache etc. before you log in, or you've already done it to get Apache to start before you log in, in which case you can just piggy back on whichever daemon you are starting first.


Did Mojave break SSH login? I hope someone can help me troubleshoot this ssh login issue. In my home LAN, I develop websites and have set up my router to forward external SSH calls to my main laptop from this external port.

So if I'm logged into a customer's computer I would ssh, or scp

$ ssh -p 7219 sam@mycomcastip

which worked well until a few weeks ago when I upgraded it to Mojave. Now the connection times out. Here's my steps to isolate the issue:

$ ssh -p 7220 sam@mycomcastip

works because my router port forwards it as port 22 to an older machine running High Sierra. Maybe my router is goofed? I thought so, so I installed OpenWRT on it (which is very good, so far) and I cannot ssh into the laptop from outside as I could before.

Perhaps Comcast is blocking port 7219? It if was, it would be blocking port 7220 and it's not blocking it. Changing the port forward to another port fails with the same timeout.

Perhaps it's my SSH daemon that's goofed? Changing the port forward to route to the laptop's port 80 (which has Apache running), instead of 22 yields no difference in the result.

I can confirm that inside my LAN I can SSH into this laptop with no issues. That assures me that the laptop's ssh daemon is running. I have no trouble ssh out from this machine.

I can confirm the router is not doing the blocking because I can run tcpdump on the router looking for this port and it receives it and passes it on.

I've run tcpdump on this laptop and examining the PCAP in Wireshark I can see the packet coming in on port 22 and subsequent attempts by the remote operator retrying the connection, but I just haven't found the right tutorial on analyzing a packet for this issue to help me see what might be the cause.

  41    3.349934    remoteIP    192.168.1.105   TCP 74  45166 → 22 [SYN] Seq=0 Win=14600 Len=0 MSS=1460 SACK_PERM=1 TSval=1415111467 TSecr=0 WS=512

Perhaps someone can shed light on what this means?

I attempted to install Mojave on another machine to see if it is a Mojave issue but every other machine is too old to run it so I'm unable to isolate that it's the hardware or software on this machine. Speaking of which, this behavior occurs when I'm routing to the laptop through the wireless and Ethernet/Thunderbolt of the laptop which would suggest that if it's hardware, it's not the networking ports causing the issue.

Since the port forwarding rules are the same except for the source and destination ports, I'm leaning on thinking something changed in Mojave as that's the only change I've recall that I made to the laptop when this capability broke.

Looking online, I found the closest which suggests that Apple has closed off certain folders to remote users. Except as this poster determines, SSH gets around this block so that may not be it.

https://www.sentinelone.com/blog/mojaves-security-hardening-user-protections-bypassed/

I discovered a clone of this machine on High Sierra before I upgraded it to Mojave. Running off that clone, the expected behavior occurs. Running tcpdump on this laptop I can see the TCP passed through the router to this laptop from the remote server and I can see my laptop is ACK in return, which confirms what I saw when I SSH in from remote. That seems to eliminate that it's my firewall on the router that is blocking any of these odd ports to this laptop. Which points more likely that Mojave is blocking port 22 from outside its subnet.

I can show screen cap that shows this Mojave firewall is turned off if important.

That's why I ask here, instead of another networking forum as it seems to be only the Mojave OSX machine that is rejecting port 22. What other troubleshooting steps should I try?

1. SSH key bit length

Is your SSH key bit length > 2048? You can use this command to confirm.

$ ssh-keygen -lf ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
4096 SHA256:0f7e9153ec1edf81c224fec24c76d3ab1be7010e joeuser@dom.com (RSA)

If it's less macOS will refuse to allow it.

2. Cipher Suite Support

Also you should investigate from the client where you're running SSH which cipher suites are being presented to your laptop's SSH server. You can do this using ssh -vvvv .... to see what ciphers are available on your client like so:

$ ssh -Q cipher
3des-cbc
aes128-cbc
aes192-cbc
aes256-cbc
rijndael-cbc@lysator.liu.se
aes128-ctr
aes192-ctr
aes256-ctr
aes128-gcm@openssh.com
aes256-gcm@openssh.com
chacha20-poly1305@openssh.com

You'll also want to investigate several other components of the cipher suite.

Ciphers: ssh -Q cipher
MACs: ssh -Q mac
KexAlgorithms: ssh -Q kex
PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes: $ ssh -Q key

The man page's details on -Q as well:

 -Q query_option
         Queries ssh for the algorithms supported for the specified version 2.  The available features
         are: cipher (supported symmetric ciphers), cipher-auth (supported symmetric ciphers that sup-
         port authenticated encryption), mac (supported message integrity codes), kex (key exchange
         algorithms), key (key types), key-cert (certificate key types), key-plain (non-certificate
         key types), and protocol-version (supported SSH protocol versions).

3. IPQoS

There have been reports from newer versions of OpenSSH pertaining to connectivity issues. I've found these as examples:

SSH fails on macOS Mojave 10.14.1

OpenSSH 7.8 causes VMware Workstation and Player networking SSH bug on Linux VMs #287
SSH connections dropped due to QoS flags

The workaround requires adding the following to your ~/.ssh/config:

$ cat ~/.ssh/config
...
...
Host *
  IPQoS throughput

I've seen variations of this so you may need to try low instead of throughput. You can consults the man ssh_config for more details, here's the excerpt for that option:

 IPQoS   Specifies the IPv4 type-of-service or DSCP class for connections.  Accepted values are af11,
         af12, af13, af21, af22, af23, af31, af32, af33, af41, af42, af43, cs0, cs1, cs2, cs3, cs4,
         cs5, cs6, cs7, ef, lowdelay, throughput, reliability, a numeric value, or none to use the
         operating system default.  This option may take one or two arguments, separated by white-
         space.  If one argument is specified, it is used as the packet class unconditionally.  If two
         values are specified, the first is automatically selected for interactive sessions and the
         second for non-interactive sessions.  The default is af21 (Low-Latency Data) for interactive
         sessions and cs1 (Lower Effort) for non-interactive sessions.

You can of course pass it via CLI like so as well:

$ ssh -o IPQoS=throughput joeuser@192.168.1.1

If find you're not having any luck with the above you may want to try this form instead:

Host *
     IPQoS lowdelay throughput

Several threads mention this form working as well.

References

ssh man page


Command line: Sending a zip file via e-mail I am using "mail" to send e-mails from command line on my OSX 10.6

the "< filename" however doesn't work quite well, as I don't really see the file as "attachment" on any standard e-mail client. Is there any solution for this with the standard tools that come pre-installed with OSX 10.6?

The quick and dirty way to send an attachment is to uuencode the file and mail it.

uuencode report.pdf report.pdf | mail -s "Here is the report" bossman@company.com

If you want to do it easily and build a proper MIME encoded message, you could install mutt, and use the -a flag to attach your message.

If you don't want to install anything else, you could build your own MIME message by hand, or use the perl MIME::Entity module to help you:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use MIME::Entity;

$message = MIME::Entity->build(
  Type    => "multipart/mixed",
  From    => "me\@company.com",
  To      => "bossman\@company.com",
  Subject => "Report attached" );

$message->attach(Data=>"Here is the report, as promised.");

$message->attach(
  Path     => "./report.pdf",
  Type     => "application/pdf",
  Encoding => "base64");

open MAIL, "| /usr/sbin/sendmail -t -oi";
$message->print(\*MAIL);
close MAIL;


External monitor option for MacBook AIr I understand it is possilble to connect an external monitor to my MacBook Air. For photo editing can I have both screens open at the same time ?

Yes, both the external display and the internal display will be active at the same time, unless you close your MacBook.

Have a look at Apple support article HT5019: How to use multiple displays with your Mac for more details if you need them.


Slate window manager disrupts text manipulation When I turn on Slate window manager with the default configuration, I cannot use Cmd+Left, Cmd+Right, Option+Left or Option+Right to move around in text.

Is there a way around this, or do I need to use a different window manager? I am a dev, but an OS X newbie.

Simply create a .slate file in your home directory with these contents:

# This is the default .slate file.
# If no ~/.slate file exists this is the file that will be used.

config defaultToCurrentScreen true
config nudgePercentOf screenSize
config resizePercentOf screenSize

# Resize Bindings
#bind right:alt       resize +10% +0
#bind left:alt        resize -10% +0
bind up:alt          resize +0   -10%
bind down:alt        resize +0   +10%
bind right:ctrl;alt  resize -10% +0 bottom-right
bind left:ctrl;alt   resize +10% +0 bottom-right
bind up:ctrl;alt     resize +0   +10% bottom-right
bind down:ctrl;alt   resize +0   -10% bottom-right

# Push Bindings
bind right:ctrl;cmd  push right bar-resize:screenSizeX/3
bind left:ctrl;cmd   push left  bar-resize:screenSizeX/3
bind up:ctrl;cmd     push up    bar-resize:screenSizeY/2
bind down:ctrl;cmd   push down  bar-resize:screenSizeY/2

# Nudge Bindings
bind right:shift;alt nudge +10% +0
bind left:shift;alt  nudge -10% +0
bind up:shift;alt    nudge +0   -10%
bind down:shift;alt  nudge +0   +10%

# Throw Bindings
bind 1:ctrl;alt         throw 0 resize
bind 2:ctrl;alt         throw 1 resize
bind 3:ctrl;alt         throw 2 resize
bind right:ctrl;alt;cmd throw right resize
bind left:ctrl;alt;cmd  throw left  resize
bind up:ctrl;alt;cmd    throw up    resize
bind down:ctrl;alt;cmd  throw down  resize

# Focus Bindings
#bind right:cmd    focus right
#bind left:cmd     focus left
bind up:cmd       focus up
bind down:cmd     focus down
bind up:cmd;alt   focus behind
bind down:cmd;alt focus behind

# Window Hints
bind esc:cmd hint

This is the default Slate file with the bindings you mentioned commented out.


External Monitor's USB ports don't work I have connected an external monitor to my macbook pro through a thunderbolt vga adapter. The monitor has several USB ports on it and if I plug a mouse or keyboard into them, they will not work. Is there a fix for this?

You'll need to connect a USB cable (probably A/B) from the monitor to your laptop.


Screen sharing with windows 8.1 - observe windows screen on mac Here are already some questions about how to connect to mac's screen from windows, like:

screen sharing from Windows to Mac over LAN
Screen Sharing from windows to mac with no software on the windows computer

I'm looking for a reverse way. My wife got a new windows 8.1 notebook, and i'm looking for a way how to

connect to her notebook from my Mac
observe what she doing and allow remote assistence from my MAC
in short - the same functionality as the /System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen\ Sharing.app does with another mac. (e.g. vnc://... )

What i need to install and/or configure in the windows notebook to got the ability share the windows 8.1 screen, e.g. what allows me doing the following:

$ smbutil lookup wifebook
Got response from 192.168.1.13
IP address of wifebook: 192.168.1.13
$ open vnc://192.168.1.13

Any ideas?

(ps: while i'm pretty familiar with UNIX like systems, i'm totally windows noob & ignorant)

A couple of options come to mind. You can try both and see which works best for you.

1) you can install VNC for Windows (there are several versions) on her machine

Most are free and should work with the OSX vnc client application. I haven't use it so I can't say more. As long as they on the same network you should not have any problems. Over the internet, things get complicated...

2) install a free (for personal use) application like TeamViewer.

I prefer Teamviewer as it is simpler and it will work from anywhere in the world with a semi decent connection. There are several other applications like this out there but I've used it for years and I've come to trust it.

The other good thing about TeamViewer is that once her machine has it installed (and password protect it), it will get an numeric ID that should not change. Open an account with TeamViewer.com and save her ID there. Then anywhere in the world you can find her machine and share her screen. Neat no?

Hope that helped.


Apple MFI: Is there any fee for entering the program? I know that Apple charges fees after accepting the device (a fee for every device sold).
Are there any costs associated with enrolling to the Apple MFI program?

You have to purchase a credit review and have your credit approved in order to enroll in the program.  That is the only cost to enroll.

Be aware that this is for large companies that intend to sign an NDA, receive Apple confidential information and pay royalties for access to and/or participation in the program.

The credit check is required so that Apple can ensure your company has the financial resources to bear the costs of participating in the program:

From http://mfi.apple.com/faqs :

  Why do I need to complete a credit review?

  A credit review must be completed in order to determine your company's
  ability to meet the financial obligations associated with the MFi
  Program.


Using launchd to monitor a running program or process I've written a simple bash script to check whether a program (supplied as its only argument) is running and send an email to a set address in the script if it's not. The script works if run on the command line, but I cannot for the life of me get it to work under launchd as a user agent (~/Library/LaunchAgents) where I try to set it to run every minute. The latest incarnation of the relevant .plist file is (monitoring Dropbox):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>greencollar.Dropbox.checkRun</string>
        <key>StartInterval</key>
        <integer>60</integer>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/Users/greencollar/Documents/code/proc_check.sh</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
            <string>proc_check.sh</string>
            <string>Dropbox</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</plist>

Yes - the bash script is executable and no there are no entries in Console indicating any problems with the .plist file. I have tried making /bin/bash the program, but that doesn't seem to make any difference and reading execvp(3) seems to hint that it wouldn't. I've also tried having everything under <ProgramArguments> without any luck as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated as this seems to me pretty basic and it's very frustrating that I can't get it to work!

----------------------------- 1st Edit ---------------------------

Here is the pared-down basics of the shell script:

#!/bin/bash
PROC=$1
if ! /usr/bin/pgrep $PROC > /dev/null
then
    /bin/echo "$PROC is not running!" | /usr/bin/mail -s "$PROC down" email@mydomain
fi

Not much to go wrong there...

I'm posting this as an answer because it's to much for a comment and I believe I know what the issue may be, even without seeing the contents of the proc_check.sh shell script.

I realized after reading again your question and ensuing comments, after deleting my first answer, the hint was the script worked from the command line but not when called by launchd.

When your User Agent .plist file is triggered, the $PATH it receives may not contain the paths to some commands/utilities that are being called within the script.  The $PATH passed to the proc_check.sh shell script is only:

/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

So, any program that is called in the script that is not in the above $PATH or includes it's fully qualified pathname is not running when called by launchd.

To fix this, either use the fully qualified pathname for all executables called within the script, that are not in the above $PATH, or add a PATH=... statement after the shebang, where ... is the actual output of, echo $PATH in Terminal, e.g.:

#!/bin/bash
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin

Note: The $PATH above is what's outputted by echo $PATH on my system and may well be different on yours.


How can I quickly open a text file from the iPhone's home screen? Just like you can save a URL from safari to the iPhone home screen, I want to put a .txt-file on my iPhone homescreen.

I use PlainText to store my files, but sometimes search is too slow. For my heavy used documents, I'd like to store them on my home screen.

I'm prepared to jailbreak if needed.

If you jailbreak, you can install file:// in MobileSafari from Cydia. this would allow you to place text files somewhere in your filesystem (using iFile, also available from cydia) and access them from MobileSafari. for example, a file called text.txt in the root / directory would be file:///text.txt.

You can just open these files in MobileSafari and then add them to your home screen.


copy last command in terminal I can see the last command in the terminal by pressing up arrow as in the following example:
I typed cd /:
Makss-Mac:~ maks$ cd /

... pressed enter, command cd / executed and now I can press up arrow and see the command cd / again:
Makss-Mac:/ maks$ cd /

I want to not only see the last command but also copy it to the clipboard.
Maybe there exists a shortcut that not only shows the last command in the terminal (as up arrow does) but at the same time copies it to the clipboard.
Or maybe there is a shortcut for selecting all from current terminal line. And so I would be able to copy the last command (after pressing up arrow) by pressing super+c. Of course I can select it with the mouse. But when commands are 10 times longer than cd / it can be too time-consuming, especially if you do it every 30 seconds.
Or is there maybe a way to write a plugin for the terminal?

Put this into your ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile or where-ever you like it:

alias copyLastCmd='fc -ln -1 | awk '{$1=$1}1' | pbcopy '

After opening a new window (or running source ~/.bash_profile) you should be able to run copyLastCmd and have the command in the clipboard.

To explain what's going on: you're basically using "fix command" (fc) to get you the last command, remove both leading and trailing whitespace for nicer formatting with awk and then copy it into your Mac's pasteboard with pbcopy.

EDIT:

Now that we know that you want to copy to paste into another terminal tab, there's another option:
Add these lines to your ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile or where-ever you like it:

shopt -s histappend
PROMPT_COMMAND='$PROMPT_COMMAND; history -a; history -n'

Then, once you have some new tabs open (let's call them "tab A" and "tab B"):

Execute any command in tab A
Switch to tab B, press enter on an empty line, giving you a "fresh" new line (and thus re-evaluating the history)
use the up arrow once and you should have the command you've just entered in tab A.

EDIT 2:
I've replaced the usage of sed with awk in the original answer above, to take care of both leading and trailing whitespace .


Cannot connect to Apple and iTunes Store I own an iPhone 4S with IOS 7.1.1 and started to use iCloud 2 days ago. Today, I couldn't connect to iCloud and the iTunes Store. It appears that I need a wi-fi connection to connect, but I've using my wi-fi for some time now without a problem. I can still use Google and What'sapp, but the iPhone is saying I need to have a good connection. I can use other apps that need an internet connection, but every time I open Safari it says that I need to have an internet connection. I even tried some methods to troubleshoot the problem by changing the date and time and rebooting and resetting my phone. Can anyone pls. Help me???

Sounds like it may be Restrictions which is in:

  Settings -> General -> Restrictions

if this is off, check if everything is turned ON for cellular:

  Settings -> Cellular -> Use cellular data for

If everything is ON, then it could be a type of profile installed for blocking these apps at:

  Settings -> General -> Profiles

Remove what you don't know, let us know if you fixed it.


I can't create new iOS 11 HomeKit automations When I go to create an automation on my iPad which shows as the home hub device and is updated to iOS 11 I see this message:

  To run automations based on other people's arrival or departure, make sure your home hub's software is up-to-date.

Not viable for many, but deleting and rebuilding my home enabled this feature. I use an ATV4 for a hub and tried disconnecting/reconnecting to no avail.


The only thing I can do on my iPhone 6 is make calls Today I was in a bike accident. I landed right on my phone (which was in my pocket) and cracked the entire screen. I've even got a bruise on my leg where the phone was sitting.
Anyways, I texted a few people and got back home. Fast forward an hour, I lose internet connection.
My phone still has 3 bars of LTE, it still has 3 bars of wifi, yet I cannot do a single thing on it. I can't load my email, I can't browse safari, I can't get on reddit, etc.. The only thing I can do is make calls.
I've reset my network settings, I've restarted my phone 3 times, and I've done all the basic "turn it off and back on again"

It is an iPhone 6+, iOS 11.0

Does anyone know what could have happened to it or any fixes?

Since we cannot visually inspect the damage on your phone, I would say take your phone to the Apple Store to get a better answer. The Apple Store will also suggest how much it would cost to repair the phone.


Is it possible to keep using iPhoto in parallel with Photos? Is it possible to keep using iPhoto after starting to use Photos?

You can keep using it, but not in parallel.

Any changes made in one app will not be reflected in the other.
Over time, things will diverge more & more.

I would use one & stick to it for now.
When you finally decide to go over to Photos full-time, then do a resync from your current iPhoto state, by deleting the Photos Library & importing again.
Doing that will then erase any work done in Photos & replace it with the latest iPhoto state


Encoding video for the new (2010) Apple TV What applications are recommended for encoding existing videos from various sources (ripped DVDs, MKVs, AVIs ...) into a format playable by the new (2010) Apple TV?

Somebody's gotta make the first obligatory post recommending HandBrake—might as well be me.


Login screen characters all question marks, login info isn't working I just reinstalled high Sierra after my Mac wouldn't restart. The moment it loads up I am presented with this screen. My login credentials don't work. Can someone explain to me what this screen is and what I'm supposed to input?

This looks like a font corruption issue. If you can boot into recovery mode and access Terminal you might be able to solve the problem by restoring the default system fonts.

First, to boot to recovery mode: Reboot your machine holding CMD + R until you see the Apple logo.

When you see the "Utilities" screen, choose "Utilities" from the menu, and then Terminal

Paste the following into Terminal:

fontrestore default

Press RETURN.

If this doesn’t fix the problem then paste the following after the prompt:

sudo atsutil databases -remove

Press RETURN.

Close terminal and restart normally.


Can we simply rename an app if they are different versions and keep them both? For example, I have Xcode 4.4.1, and now Xcode 4.5 Golden Master (GM) version is available, but it is also called Xcode (when the .dmg is mounted as an disc image, it shows only one app (or folder), called Xcode)

I think the way is just to double click on the .dmg file, and then drag and drop that app into our Applications folder.  But since the current Xcode and Xcode 4.5GM have the same name, can the new one just be renamed and so we can have both versions on our machine?  I was worried that what if the app writes back data to the /Applications/Xcode folder, then the GM version can write unexpected data for the 4.4.1 version.

And will it work with other software, such as Xcode 3.2, Xcode 3.3, or even different versions of Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop?

There are several things to look at here:

Application (folder)

It's usually perfectly save to rename the application (aka the application folder) so you can easily rename the existing Xcode to /Applications/Xcode 4.4.1 and install the new version in parallel

Preferences

Typically the application saves it's preferences in a fixed location in ~/Library. So if you have two versions installed in parallel they will both read and write from the same preferences files. This may be desirable from a user point of view but will lead to problems if the format or content changed in incompatible ways.

Addons

As far as Xcode is concerned, there is additonal software installed (automatically and/or on user request) in /Applications/Xcode Utilities. If you need this, it might not be enough to simply rename this folder because you will end up with two versions of these utilities (with Xcode/OS X picking up the "wrong" version)


Extract .zip directly to external hard drive I have a huge .zip which extracted takes up to 100 GB, and storing that amount of data on my MBP's SSD is not an option.

Is there a way to extract a zip file directly to an external hard drive, without filling up the MBP's SSD?

I tried copying the .zip to the external drive I have and extracting it from there, but it gets unzipped in the Downloads folder.

Does anybody know how to achieve this?

Thank you for your time.

Terminal (Hackers way)

Open the Terminal.app  (Hidden in Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and Navigate with cd to your Folder where the zip file is stored.

Example:

cd ~/Desktop/

And extract the ZIP file with the OSX command line tool unzip

unzip /path/to/the/archive.zip -d /Volumes/USB_Drive/

the -d switch let you set the extraction Archive - the second path is your external HDD - you may have to change the name USB_Drive (Tipp: Type /Volumes/ and the hit the Tab-Key twice to see all Volumes.

Software

Keka

I know the Software Kea.app where you can specify in the Setting a custom folder for the extracted folders.

StuffitExpander

Also StuffitExpander will let you choose for every extraction the location in a Finder Window

I hope it helps - and happy extracting


How to install macOS on a encrypted, journaled filesystem? I just wiped my 500GB disk on my Mac Mini (2011 model) to freshly reinstall macOS Sierra.

I restarted the system, pressed CMD+R to get into recovery mode and went into disk utility.
I erased the macOS partition and formatted it with journaled and encrypted file-system. Picked a password, and good.
I quit the disk utility and selected 'Install macOS'.

This told me it will check eligibility of my device and due to my encrypted disk it will ask for the password during installation. And it did. I entered the password and the process continued until at some point it aborted with the following message:

macOS could not be installed on your computer.
Storage system verify or repair failed.

Now my only option is reboot and remove the encryption via disk utility. I was not able to install macOS onto a fully encrypted disk. Is this desired behaviour? How to install macOS on a encrypted, journaled file-system?
I'm usually installing my Linux systems on fully encrypted disks, thus I am wondering whether this is also possible with macOS Sierra.

I know you have a working answer already, but I thought to share my experience anyway, only updated for High Sierra and using Apple's new file system APFS.

My motivation: I was driven by the (constantly varying) 6-14 hour estimate for FileVault to finish on a new install with no additional user data.

So this is what I did to install macOS on an already-encrypted filesystem - much like yours:

Create a bootable macOS installer
Erase and format as APFS (Encrypted)
Install High Sierra

Pros:

< 10 mins to encrypt by Disk Utility? (possibly less, I didn't monitor closely)
FileVault already enabled.

One main difference is that you supply a password earlier when formatting with Disk Utility, rather than being given one (the Recovery Key) when enabling FileVault post-install.

Hope this helps someone.


iphone 4s is not connected to itunes When I connect my iPhone 4S to my computer (Windows 7 32 bit), iTunes (11.2) does not detect the device. The phone displays the green battery meter indicating it's charging, I can sync the photos & videos, but when open itunes to copy songs, its not connected yet, i tried various USB cables,Itunes versions, but no hope. But i can connect it with from another Computer with 64 bit windows 7. i tried so many tricks via youtube too, i just purchased the phone last week.so kindly please help me. And 1 more thing, what is bonjour,it is used for?

Follow these steps, testing to see if the issue is resolved after each section.

Update iTunes
Check the USB cable
Verify that Apple Mobile Device Support is installed
(can be found in installed programs)
Restart the Apple Mobile Device Service
Windows Vista or Windows 7
Close iTunes and disconnect the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
Click the Windows Start button  Start button.
In the Start Search field type Services.
In the Programs section of the search results, Click "Services".
Select Apple Mobile Device and click Stop the service.
Verify that the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver is installed
1.Connect the device to the computer.
2.Quit iTunes if it launches.
For Windows Vista and Windows 7:
3.Click the Start menu, right-click on Computer, and choose Properties.
In the upper-left corner, click Device Manager. The Device Manager window should open.

4.Click the plus (+) icon (or disclosure triangle () (for Windows 7 and Windows 8) next to "Universal Serial Bus controllers" to expand the selection.
5.Locate the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver in this list. If this entry is displayed without any downward arrow, "!" or "?" symbols over it, then this driver is successfully installed.
If the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver is not listed, reinstall it (instructions on apples site)
If the Apple Mobile Device USB Driver entry is listed, but has an exclamation mark or question mark over it, continue to the next steps to reinstall the Apple Mobile Device driver.
Check for third-party software conflicts
Uninstall any cellular device connectivity software from vendors such as Samsung, Nokia, Bora, Novatel, Sony, Android, LG, Sierra, Huawei, Pantech, or Motorola and see if the problem persists.
Reinstall Itunes

For a way more detailed explanation check here:http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538


Different free storage space reported in the Files app and in Settings → iPad Storage The reported value looks off by ~38 GB

Settings → General → iPad Storage:

Files → On My iPad:

I'm trying to Airdrop a 9 GB file to this iPad and it fails, this could be why. Smaller files (~1,5 GB) get transferred just fine.

Rebooted the device several times. Is this fixable without a reset of any kind?

Solution (kind of): delete the files app, and then install it from the app store. That made it report different storage usage, that was more in line with what's under settings → general, which is close to what I needed.

Of course it's a workaround, and make sure you back up your important stuff before proceeding.


Are there any good iPad games for kids to learn numbers? I'm looking for iPad games for my 4 year old daughter to learn numbers. I've tried many different games, like "Learn Numbers", "Counting101", "Animals Count", "Baby Phone", etc. but none of them are really good. They are either too simple, too hard or too boring.

I'm looking for something that is interactive, fun, and that my daughter can play by herself without asking me what the questions are (some games have questions written but not spoken out loud). She has learned all of the single digit numbers although sometimes she makes random mistakes with them. She doesn't know about two-digit numbers except 10, 11 and 12. If there is a game with princesses it would be perfect for her :)

Could someone here please let me know, what is a good game to try out? If possible, please describe why you think it's good.

Many thanks.

EDIT: I got the first answer for this question after my daughter has mastered numbers until 20. I think it's good for her right now. I don't try push her much at this age. So I accept Numberland since it's the first answer although it seems to be too simple at the first glance. I didn't try other apps yet but will give them a try later. Thank you all for your effort.

You can try Numberland (App Store). It's available in 3 languages: English, French and Spanish. It won a Parents' Choice award in Fall 2011.

Check out the video demo.


Macbook Pro Retina 15" (late 2013), is it possible to run 1 extra display at 60hz in a best resolution than full hd? Sorry but I have read a lot on this topic, in threads of this platform and multiple articles .. etc. And I'm still not sure what resolution and frequency my laptop can run on an external monitor.

Laptop: Macbook Pro 15 "Retina (Late 2013)
Connections: 2 Thunderbolts, 1 HDMI

About what I would like:

I want to add 1 new monitor to work on a double screen: monitor + laptop screen.
I'm thinking about 27 "- 32" with a resolution somewhat higher than FullHD.
In this way I hope not to notice too much negative ppi difference compared to the Retina display

About Freq y Res:

I don't want 30hz or 24hz with higher resolutions;
I would like to know the maximum resolution for an external display at 60hz.
QuadHD, 2K, 4K? I have no idea.

I have read about MST and 60hz at 4k works with this computer, but I do not understand too much how it works and if this affects me. Because I want to connect only 1 additional monitor.

Now, knowing this maximum resolution at 60hz, I will be able to decide to buy a monitor that best suits the requirements.

And now what cable or adapter do I need so that everything works correctly without limitations?

Thank you

According to EveryMac.com

"This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 2560x1600 on two external displays via Thunderbolt. Alternately, it can support a single display up to 2560x1600 via Thunderbolt and a single 1080p display at up to 60 Hz, 3840x2160 at 30 Hz, or 4096x2160 at 24 Hz via HDMI."

EveryMac is your friend when it comes to Mac details and specs. I find it better (often) than the official Apple support site.


How can I prevent the administrator password prompts? When deleting files, installing new applications, running AppleScript code, etc, I am prompted to enter my administrator password:

How can I set it so that everything I do is authorized to where it doesn't require a password?

Note: I'm running OS X Yosemite v10.10.5 (14F27).

You can use the root user. This is highly unrecommended, but it will never show you an administrator privileges dialog.


Mac Photos stuck on "Restoring... 0%" after Time Machine restore I’m having troubles with a Mac Photos library after a Time Machine restore.  It’s an iCloud library with roughly 120,000 photos, and was set to only store optimized images locally.  Catalina 10.15.7, with plenty of free space.
My Mac was repaired under AppleCare, including replacing the logic board, which replaced the SSD.  I restored from my Time Machine backup without incident, other than Photos wouldn’t launch.  The window opened with “Restoring… 0% complete” and never stopped.  (Not “Restoring from iCloud” which I know is a message that can also appear).  After several hours with no progress, I killed the app.  My photos are in iCloud, and work fine on other devices so I figured I’d just create a new local library and re-sync from iCloud.  I’ve been unable to do so.
What I do:

Create a new empty library and set it to be Primary.  Photos freezes
(spins) when I press that Primary button.  Location of that library
is irrelevant (tried both default and non-default location)
Once I
kill Photos, I relaunch, and it shows “Restoring… 0%” and never makes
progress.  Photos, along with the related daemons (photolibraryd,
photoalanlysd, and cloudphotod) remain at 0%.

Steps I’ve tried multiple times in various combinations:

Delete the Photos library
Delete Photos preferences, at least all I can find
Turn off iCloud->Photos in system preferences
Reboot

Any suggestions?

I solved this with the following steps:

Restart in Safe Mode (Shift key held down).
Attached an external drive containing a clone I’d made the same day as the Time Machine backup.  I don’t remember if this clone was made with Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner, as I have both.
Copied the Photos Library from the external drive to the internal drive.  I made this copy with the ditto command in the Terminal.
Disconnected the external drive
Launched Photos, and verified the photos (in low-resolution) were present.
In Photos, set that just-copied Photos Library to be Primary.
Reboot normally
Waited about five minutes for all startup routines to complete
Launched Photos and enabled iCloud Photos
Verified I could access high-resolution versions of the photos (confirming iCloud connectivity).
Waited overnight for photos newer than the clone date to appear, which they did.


Quicktime Screen Recording doesn't work in Lion When starting a new Screen Recording in Quicktime Player in Lion 10.7.3, as soon as I click record I get this following error message:

Here's a video demonstrating the issue: http://db.tt/CROyXgIt

Here are the settings under the triangle on the right:

Finally figured it out - apparently the Movies folder in my home directory had a weird permission set on it and things couldn't be written to it, which caused QuickTime to give a very descriptive message "The operation could not be completed" and saving to a different folder (or after fixing the permissions on Movies), worked.


Finding iPhone which is on silent I have an iPhone 5 on silent in my room (somewhere). iCloud's Find My iPhone feature obviously will show me that the phone is in my building.

Is there any other way I can try to find it? Is there an alarm, etc.?

iCloud's "play a sound" feature will ding even with the phone on silent.


Mac Developer Program & free copies of OS X The Mac Developer program is advertised as including access to Pre-Release Software (which right now means betas of Mavericks). Once Mavericks is released, will everyone with a Mac Developer account get a free copy/upgrade to the released version (including all future Mavericks updates)? Or will it be necessary for developers to also purchase Mavericks itself to be able to use the normal version?

Since Lion, the developer program issues its beta seeds of the OS using the Mac App Store.  You get a code in the developer portal which is redeemed in the Mac App Store. You can redeem this code on any Apple ID. It does NOT need to be the Apple ID that you  signed up with on the dev portal.  Once the final release is out, the beta seed in your App Store is transformed into the fully released version.

So yes, you do get it. And in fact, you will be unable to purchase it on the Apple ID with which you redeemed the seed.


Is it allowed to be an Apple trusted developer with pure Java I am developing JavaFX with Spring applications that are shipped with native installers for Windows, Linux and macOS. I am hosting the macOS DMG and pkg installers outside Mac App Store on my web site.

When I download and attempt to install a DMG on my macOS Mojave, the latter forbids to install because the app is not from a trusted Apple developer. Downloading the same installer from FTP is allowed by Mac to be installed.

My question is - Can I have my package installer signed (by registering as an Apple developer) if the application is purely Java and has nothing to do with Apple specific SDKs?

Basically if I understand your question - yes, it’s allowed, but might not be required.

When you pay to be a developer, Apple generates a secure certificate you can use for many functions - one of which is to code sign a folder of files. Applications on macOS are just bundles of files with some conventions which files make something a package or an app. You can sign a script, package,  interpreted code bundle or a compiled app.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_your_app_before_distribution

Apple is offering additional items like notarizing an app but you should be able to sign your example app with a self-generated certificate before you pay for Apple to sign / provide your identity that all of their devices and OS will trust as valid.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizing_your_app_before_distribution

To recap, you pay for an identity that Apple validates. Of course if you abuse this, your certificate can and should be revoked but as long as you are signing legitimate apps you should expect to only have to pay annually for a renewal of your certificate. This is pretty much analogous to getting an SSL cert. You pay for those periodically, and then the signer generally doesn’t care why / where you install that cert - as long as you don’t break their rules and get caught, they don’t revoke your certificate.

Now - if the java executable gets notarized and signed by someone else, you might not need this at all and you’re not embedding executable bits and just resources and text or source code. For example, it doesn’t make sense to pay if you write swift scripts or python scripts or bash (or other shell) scripts. That would be like code signing a word doc and not word the program itself.


Change default app for all files in a folder I know you can change the default app for single files on Mac simply by going in "Get Info". But, it's a bit inconvenient if I want to change the default application to open all files for only a single folder. Is there an application that can select a bunch of files and change the default apps to open them with the help of a single click?

This is not how it works.

A file type (i.e. PDF) is registered with the system through a process called “LaunchServices.”  It’s what associates a file with what opens it.  It can even have multiple entries to do things like “Open with Preview” and “Edit with TextEdit” for example.  It can’t, however, dynamically change based on a folder because folders aren’t registered with LaunchServices.

Looking at this pragmatically, how would the system know which folders to monitor for application associations of its contents?  Folders are created and deleted all the time - it wouldn’t be efficient to manage those relationships.


How to embed iTunes metadata into the actual files? I really struggle working with iTunes on Windows XP Pro sp3.

I have lots of mp3s, movies and TV shows, but it is a huge pain to get all the metadata into iTunes in the first place.

Then I tried looking at the files in Windows Explorer, and the data is just not there, not in the extra columns, not in the properties.

How can I get all the data put into the actual file properties?

I think your problem is with Windows XP and not with iTunes.

iTunes does indeed put the meta-data into each music file, according to the standard ID3 meta-tag specification.

I have checked with my iTunes 10 library in Windows 7, and Windows Explorer in Windows 7 displays the meta-data for those music files from iTunes correctly.

I can't test this, not having a Windows XP system anymore, but I wonder if perhaps Windows Explorer in Windows XP displays file meta-data in some different manner that causes it not to recognize the ID3 tags placed in the files by iTunes 10.

I know that the way that Windows Explorer displays meta-data changed radically when Windows Vista was released, and works basically the same way in Windows 7.

I suspect that iTunes works fine with Windows Vista and Windows 7 in this respect but that Windows XP, being a 2001 technology and more than a decade out of date, doesn't do this according to the standard "modern" Windows conventions.

Here is a file from iTunes 10 displayed in Windows Explorer in Windows 7.


Behavior of hard-coded date in AppleScript I am designing an AppleScript which contains a hard-coded date to which the script refers multiple times throughout the duration of the execution.
An example is as follows:

property someDate : date "Monday, 1 January 2018 at 01:00:00 PM"

As one can see, the format of the timestamp is appropriate for my region and country. Another example would be: Saturday, April 15, 2006 4:29:04 PM or 12/25/04 - which is the format for other regions such as the US - mm/dd/yy.

The following questions arise

If my AppleScript will be run in other regions/countries
(those with different timestamp formats eg. mm/dd/yy instead of my
dd/mm/yy), how does AppleScript behave with the above declaration?
How should I ensure that AppleScript will correctly convert the timestamp from my format into the respective format used by the end user's device?

The proper conversion becomes critical if the format of the date changes to the previously mentioned dd/mm/yy and is then used in a mm/dd/yy environment (region or country). In that case, the order may not be apparent.

Example Case

property someDate : date "02/01/18" as dd/mm/yy would be hard-coded with the intention of representing 02 January 2018, but when used in a different region (those using mm/dd/yy); naturally, this will become 01 February 2018. See the issue?

As my research into this leads nowhere fast (and should be specific to AppleScript), I hope somebody who has implemented similar code could assist me in clarifying the two points above. Thank you.

This works for me using the latest version of Sierra

--property the_date : current date
property the_date : date ("Sunday, May 31, 2009 at 4:00:00PM")
property the_year : year of the_date
property the_day : day of the_date
property the_month : month of the_date
property the_hours : hours of the_date
property the_minutes : minutes of the_date
property the_seconds : seconds of the_date
property shortDateString : missing value

make_date(the_year, the_month, the_day, the_hours, the_minutes, the_seconds)

set shortDateString to short date string of the_date
set timeString to time string of the_date
set systemDate to date string of date shortDateString
log timeString
log shortDateString
log systemDate

on make_date(the_year, the_month, the_day, the_hours, the_minutes, the_seconds)
    --set the_date to current date
    set year of the_date to the_year
    set day of the_date to 1
    set month of the_date to the_month
    set day of the_date to the_day
    set hours of the_date to the_hours
    set minutes of the_date to the_minutes
    set seconds of the_date to the_seconds
    return the_date
end make_date

In this script, I set a predetermined date value as a variable.  With my region set up to United States, in system preferences, I ran the script and logged the results.  The first three lines of the results in the following image, were the values returned with my system set to United States region.  Next I went back to system preferences and switched my region to Hungary and ran the script again.  The last three lines of the results in the image, reflect the date and time values as if I was on a computer in Europe (Hungary)


Set different double click times for physical click and trackpad double-tap When clicking my trackpad physically, I want the double click speed to be as fast as possible. When using the tap-to-click feature, though, I want it to be a tiny bit slower. Is there any way to set this, either natively or with third party apps?

You can rule out SteerMouse, I just connected a second mouse and there is only one setting for double-click delay shown. Based on that I'm doubtful of USB Overdrive's claim:
"The USB Overdrive can easily handle several USB devices at once and can assign different settings to each one." - but it's probably worth a look!

I think ControllerMate could do it if the developer felt like it - it's a way more configurable approach and is flexible enough to build complex control schemes for HOTAS game controllers. You should register your interest in being able to control the Magic Trackpad with a quick email. I don't know for sure that ControllerMate can't do what you want, it all depends on whether its building block approach sees a "Source" for each mouse-like device or whether it just uses the kernel's mouse driver output and sees an aggregate of control input for the two devices. There is a time-limited trial available.


Can you test an app before you buy it on the iPad? I want to buy an app, but don't want to waste money on something that's not gonna work for me.  Is there any way to test drive one?

Sometimes app developers will release a version that allows you to play with it, but to get full functionality you need an in-app purchase.  See this app for Summoner Wars as an example:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/summoner-wars/id493752948?mt=8

But this is a choice the developer makes, so if the app you're interested in doesn't supply something like this (or a lite version; see @Alex's answer), then no.


How does my iPhone know which headphone cable I plug in? When I plug in my Apple EarPod earphones, my phone sets the volume to whatever it was the last time, but when I plug in the auxiliary cable in my car (just a simple jack, no fancy infotainment system) it puts it to full volume, like the last time I plugged in that cable. Is there something special about the Apple EarPod cable? Or does the iPhone do something even cooler?

An line-level input, which is what your car's aux in jack is, presents a relatively high impedance to the source - generally 10k ohms. Your 'phones have a much lower impedance, typically 32 ohms for PMP phones. It's possible to distinguish between them in that way.


Hotkeys (COMMAND-V ....) don't honor Dvorak layout I'm on 10.9 Mavericks and I am using the Dvorak keyboard layout. However every time I go to paste something using the COMMAND-V shortcut it doesn't do anything, I discovered hitting the physical V key which is K on Dvorak it works. What's going on here? The shortcut keys seem to honor QWERTY layout instead of Dvorak, I don't even have QWERTY enabled as a selection on my account, the system-wide default is Dvorak. How can I fix this? It's really annoying.

Maybe you are using "Dvorak - Qwerty ⌘".

How to fix:

Open "System Preferences" > "Keyboard" > "Input Source".
Click "+" and select "Dvorak".
Select "Dvorak - Qwerty ⌘" and click "−".


Mac mini Mac OS 10.6 server migration to new hardware I have a Mac Mini with Mac OS X 10.6 Server installed. It has two external drives attached to it. One is for Time Machine and other contains data. I have bought the latest Mac Mini with Mac OS X 10.7 and two new hard drives. I want to migrate to the new hardware (the new Mac Mini and the new hard disks). Can Migration Assistant do that for me or do I have to transfer the data in the external drive manually?

Apple prepared a nice, long document listing the steps needed to prepare for and implement a migration from an existing Snow Leopard server to Lion server.

Have a look and come back and ask more specific question if you run into any snags...

Lion Server: Upgrading and Migrating For Mac OS X v10.7 Lion Server


Show thumbnails of AVI and WMV files in finder In OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, I could view thumbnails/previews of .wmv and .avi files in Finder through the software Flip4Mac. However in Mavericks, I cannot see previews although I've installed the newest Flip4Mac (3.2.0.16) software.
Did something in OS X 10.9 Mavericks change for previewing in finder? Is it possible to get a preview of .avi and .wmv files?

Apparently I was a bit trigger-happy with the bounty, because after a bit more Googling, I stumbled upon QLVideo, which:

  "-- allows macOS Finder to display thumbnails, static QuickLook previews, cover art and metadata for most types of video files."

The Github page has an installer (.pkg) under the releases page, but if you have Homebrew installed, you can also use brew cask install qlvideo on command line (that's what I used — and thumbnails started generating immediately).

It even has couple of settings available:

  defaults write uk.org.marginal.qlvideo SnapshotAlways -bool XX

  Controls whether QuickLook "Preview" shows static snapshot(s) even if
  a playable preview is available. Default is NO.

  defaults write uk.org.marginal.qlvideo SnapshotCount -int XX

  Maximum number of
  snapshots to show in a QuickLook "Preview". Default is 10.

  defaults write uk.org.marginal.qlvideo SnapshotTime -int XX

  Time offset in
  seconds for thumbnails and for single snapshots. Unless the video clip
  is shorter than twice this value, in which case the snapshot is taken
  at the mid-point. Default is 60.
  This setting doesn't affect thumbnails that have already been generated - use qlmanage -r cache and re-start Finder to force regeneration of existing thumbnails.


How to retrieve pictures from guest account? I have saved pictures in my MacBook Air on a Guest Account. I am trying to locate my pictures in guest account but am unable to find it. How can I retrieve these?

On an Apple guest account, the home directory is wiped each time you logout or shutdown. That's why it's called a 'guest account', because it is meant to be temporary.

You will need a tool to recover deleted files if they have not been overwritten by new files in the time between when they were deleted and now.


Why does Adobe Reader require an installer? Does anyone know why Adobe Reader requires a permissioned installer application, rather that simply existing as a self contained macOS application bundle?

What system level configurations is the installer making changes to, and why does Adobe feel they are needed for a simple PDF reader?

The Acrobat Reader installer not only installs the application itself into /Applications but contains a bunch of other packages which need to get installed into other places (e.g. browser plugins). These things can't get installed by just using a simple application bundle (at least not as easily).


how to display 4:3 full screen game on widescreen monitor without stretching? I am playing the game Age of Empires 1 on Mac OS Sierra, running on a 11 inch macbook air connected to a 23-inch Acer monitor with native 1920 x 1080 resolution. The game is for Windows and doesn't have an official Mac version, so I am using a program called "Porting Kit" which appears to be some kind of Wrapper utility for Wine.

The game itself is 1024 x 768, so when I run it, my screen goes into full screen mode, but the 4:3 aspect ratio is stretched all over the screen, so the picture is shorter and fatter than it would be. I would very much prefer to play with black bars on the left side of the screen, so that the picture at least displays in the correct aspect ratio, not stretched.

I found some forum threads where PC users with Nvidia cards had this problem, e.g. the thread here. However, my Macbook air, if I'm not mistaken, has Intel integrated video, so that doesn't apply.

Also, I tried changing the settings in the Mac OS display preferences, and hold Alt/Option while clicking "scaled" which gives a list of resolutions, including 1024x768. However, when I switch to that resolution, Mac OS also stretches. This is strange because I've seen screenshots of others' display preferences resolution list, and they have things like "1024 x 768" and "1024 x 768 (stretched)", e.g. two different versions, which implies the first one is "unstretched". However, my resolution list doesn't have the corresponding "stretched" versions, and unmarked one is stretched though. Strange.

I also tried fiddling around with the hardware controls on my monitor (an Acer G236HL), i.e. the physical buttons near the power button on my monitor. There seems to be an option called "Wide Mode", which is set to "Full", but there seems to be no way to change it, although the interface suggests there are other options besides "Full", but trying to change that option results in nothing happening, e.g. there do not appear to be any other options.

How do I force my monitor to display a full-screen 4:3 picture with black bars on the two sides, rather than stretched? Again, the program I am using, "Porting Kit" by some guy named "Paul the Tall", doesn't appear to have any "play in windowed" mode feature. There appears to be a "AOE rise of rome unofficial HD patch" (also installed via Porting kit) made by yet another person that allows windowed mode, as well as widescreen resolution support. (edit update: for some reason, windowed mode using this patch crashes the game for me, but full screen mode works, and it allows playing the game in 1920 x 1080 resolution, so technically this is fine. However, I was wondering if there is a more general solution to this problem that can work for other full-screen 4:3 stretched games)

Right-click the port in your Porting Kit library, press "Wineskin Tools" -> "Launch Wineskin". In the window that opens, press "Screen Options".

Select "Override" instead of "Automatic" in the top, then select "Fullscreen" in the left and choose the "Resolution" that you want to use below.

Also, that port uses Mac Driver, which is incompatible with the configurations above, so uncheck the "Use Mac Driver instead of X11" box. Be warned: the game was tested with Mac Driver and not X11, so it may not work if you disable that box. If it stops working, you can repeat the process and check that box again.


OSX Dock's Equivalent of Ubuntu Launcher's Super + (1, 2, 3) In Ubuntu 12.04+, you can hold Super, then press 1 or 2 or 3 and so on until 0 to open or focus an application. The number corresponds to the location of the icon on the launcher from top to bottom.

In Windows 7, you can just press the Windows Logo, and 1 or 2 or 3 etc to open or focus an application on the taskbar (the number corresponding to the location on taskbar)

I'm currently using mission control workspaces to do something similar on OSX, but I'd really love it if I could number the icons on my dock instead, and be able to open/focus on an application on the dock using a keyboard shortcut.

Is there maybe something in the app store or some system preference I can tweak so I can number/add keyboard shortcuts for the icons on my dock like this?

I think you're looking for Snap

  Snap automatically assigns keyboard shortcuts to apps pinned in your dock using a modifier key (command, option, control, or shift) and the number keys. For example, command+1 opens the 1st app in your dock, command+2 the 2nd, etc.

You don't really need to configure anything in the app. All you need to do is change the order of apps in your dock, but you always have the option of setting manual shortcuts for apps that are not on the dock.

The only problem is that it ignores Finder, so if you have Finder first, Cmd+1 for example, will open the second item in your dock.

You can choose to open with only or a combination of command, option, control and shift with number keys as the triggers for the actual app.

A screenshot I took:


Launchd plist runs everyday instead of only weekends Scenario: I need to force a reboot as a Launch Daemon at a specific time only on Saturdays and Sundays.

Output

The reboot command gets launched at the specific time everyday instead only on Saturdays and Sundays. LaunchControl GUI even reads the plist for Saturdays and Sundays, yet the output the .plist is launched everyday.

The .plist

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <false/>
    <key>EnviromentVariables</key>
    <dict>
        <key>PATH</key>
        <string>/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:</string>
    </dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.test.restartschedule</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/sbin/shutdown</string>
        <string>-r</string>
        <string>now</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>23</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>35</integer>
            <key>WeekDay</key>
            <integer>6</integer>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>Hour</key>
            <integer>23</integer>
            <key>Minute</key>
            <integer>35</integer>
            <key>WeekDay</key>
            <integer>7</integer>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
    <string>/var/log/RestartScheduleError.log</string>
    <key>StandardOutPath</key>
    <string>/var/log/RestartSchedule.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

As Ted Wrigley stated: "The key for specifying day of the week is Weekday, not WeekDay. Launchd may not recognize the capital-D keyword, and might be ignoring it."

After correcting the key, launchd is now not triggering everyday.


Is there an iOS equivalent of Bonjour for Mac? you know how you can search your locally networked devices on Bonjour in Safari on Macs, and once you select a device, Safari asks you to log in with a username and password to get to the device's settings?

Well i was wondering if I can do the same thing on an iPhone or iPad. Since there is no official Bonjour on iOS, is there a third party app or something that can do this?

There is, in fact, Bonjour on iOS: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/NetServices/Introduction.html