How to delete a specific line of a paragraph in AppleScript, while retaining the original format of the text? I have a text variable of class text that shows something like this when it is returned:

"
This is sentence 1.
This is sentence 2.
This is sentence 3.
This is sentence 4."

I want to be able to delete specific lines from the text, without affecting the rest of the variable.

For example: delete {1, 3} to get this result:

"This is sentence 1.
This is sentence 3.
This is sentence 4."

The method described in this answer has a serious bug:

"How to delete a specific line of a paragraph in AppleScript?"

The linked method to delete lines in a paragraph actually converts all linefeeds in the text variable to returns. In other words, it is impossible to run this code more than once on the same variable.

For example, the following code:

set varText to "
This is sentence 1.
This is sentence 2.
This is sentence 3.
This is sentence 4."
set varText to do shell script "sed -e '1d;3d' <<< " & quoted form of varText
-- Employing the same method on the same variable:
set varText to do shell script "sed -e '1d;3d' <<< " & quoted form of varText
return varText

returns

""

Since this method only works correctly if the lines of the text variable are the product of a linefeed (as it should), the problem is not that this method fails to perceive a return as a new line (as I had originally claimed in this question). The problem is that this code introduces a return to the text variable in the first place.

Thus, I want a solution that will allow me to run the same text variable through the solution more than once in the same AppleScript.

In other words, I am looking for a method to remove a specific line from a paragraph that does not have this bug and does not insert a return anywhere in the text.

Example:

set varText to "
This is sentence 1.
This is sentence 2.
This is sentence 3.
This is sentence 4."

set varText to do shell script "sed -e '1d;3d' <<< " & quoted form of varText

Returns:

"This is sentence 1.
This is sentence 3.
This is sentence 4."

Update: As a result of a discovery mentioned in the Edit: of How to delete a specific line of a “return”-based paragraph in AppleScript?, let me make the following statement:

NOTE: Unfortunately what's returned in this case has carriage return (x0D) characters instead of the expected new line (x0A) characters and in my opinion is a bug!

It's a bug because: The do shell script "sed ..." command when run in Terminal with that varText returns with \n (x0A) not \r (x0D) as it's supposed to. Even the compiled do shell script "sed ..." command in Script Editor still has \n (x0A) not \r (x0D) however why it's being returned with \r (x0D) intend of the expected \n (x0A) is a mystery to me at the moment and I'm going to consider this an AppleScript bug since it not mirroring the expected behavior of the same when run in Terminal.

So, to account for the bug in the results of the do shell script "sed ..." command, this is how I'd handle it. After the do shell script "sed ..." command use the following lines of code:

set newLine to "\n"
set varText to paragraphs of varText
set oldTID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to newLine
set varText to varText as string
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to oldTID

Now what's returned contains new line (x0A) characters as it should have to begin with if there wasn't this bug, not carriage return (x0D) characters.

Note: When compiled, the set newLine to "\n" line of code will show as below:

set newLine to "
"


icloud notes not fully loading on ios 8.1, OSX Yosemite & icloud.com I'm about to upgrade my Mac OS X to Yosemite version 10.10.1, but since its broken on icloud.com and iOS 8.1, I'm asking this question.

I have a critical Notes page in my iCloud account which is there, at least on my iPad which does not have 8.1 installed, which I was trying to access on my macbook via the Notes application and icloud.com. Neither are showing this note.

What could be the problem? I've already synced by Google accounts too, on the OSX Notes at least.

OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 have changed the way iCloud syncing works. With the introduction of iCloud Drive the file structure has been thrown open, but devices running iOS 7 or below and OS X Mavericks or below will not sync successfully once you have 'upgraded' to iCloud Drive. Have you done this? If so, the iPad won't sync.

To solve:
First I would try what tubedogg suggested above, and then I would recommend emailing your critical notes to yourself and putting them in the Notes app in iOS 8 or iCloud.com. See if it syncs, and then I would say it is safe to upgrade to Yosemite.
If it still doesn't work you could always have a go at using an alternative notes service like Evernote or any other which features syncing.

I learned this from personal experience when upgrading to Yosemite iOS 8 and iCloud Drive. Hope it helped! ;)


Dictionary: Syllable-hyphenation interpuncts (dots) missing This is regarding the Dictionary app (New Oxford American Dictionary) that comes with Mac OS X. I currently have version 2.2.1 (156) in Mavericks (10.9.1).

In previous versions (Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard, Tiger…), words were shown with interpunctual dots between hyphenate-able syllables—and now they're gone.

These were very useful for copyediting…is there any way (keyboard shortcut, Terminal command) to bring them back? Thanks!

Tiger Dictionary example entry:

Mavericks Dictionary example entry:

You can install the old dictionary from your old OS X install disk.

Here's what I did with my Snow Leopard disk on my Mavericks installation:

Quit Dictionary
Turn ON hidden file visibility in Finder by typing this into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles Yes

Rename /Library/Dictionaries/New Oxford American Dictionary.dictionary to something like  New Oxford American Dictionary-orig.dictionary, since you'll be putting the older OS X version of this dictionary here.
Grab the application Pacifist from http://www.charlessoft.com and run it
Pop in your old OS X Install disk to your DVD Drive
Find the dictionary package.  I found mine here:

/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Installation/Packages/OxfordDictionaries.pkg

drag this package into Pacifist
Within Pacifist, find your dictionary folder named New Oxford American Dictionary.dictionary
Drag this folder into /Library/Dictionaries
Start up Dictionary
Optional: Go into preferences and enable/disable the dictionaries you want.  The just-copied dictionary is probably already enabled, since it has the same name as the original dictionary.  But you can also enable the original dictionary so that both are active.
You can turn off HIDDEN FILE view by typing into Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles No

Now, I have the syllables displayed on Mavericks!


Hidden network warning With reference to the following thread (but without the security issue):

IOS 10 warning: Using a hidden network can expose personally identifiable information

Unsafe or not... Could this be a potential battery thief?

*Edit: This thread was put on hold (because of too little info.), so I add a complimentary question here to mike's answer below...

Are you saying that the "iDevices" are making broadcasts the very same way for not hidden networks as for a hidden ones? In that case, what content is broadcasted for those networks that are not hidden?

*Edit2: Please see discussion below. It would be nice if you could keep this thread open until it is answered.

No. The power consumption of WiFi doesn't vary if the SSID is broadcast and shown as hidden or broadcast and shown as not hidden.


OS X: Shift + Delete = Forward delete annoyance Has anyone noticed this strange behavior of OS X El Capitan regarding forward delete? The usual keyboard shortcut for this on keyboards that have no distinct forward delete button is fn + delete, which works on my MacBook Pro 13'' Early 2015 as it should.

Additionally I have a forward delete when holding down shift and delete. This is so annoying because it happens very often while writing larger texts (especially in German where you have a lot of capital lettered words) or programming that this situation occurs.

Does anyone know a way to remap/deactivate forward delete?

This is a change in behavior in the 10.11.2 beta, build 15C27e. Wether or not this is intentional or a mistake is unclear. But it is infuriating.


iPod Nano (6th Generation) Lyrics Support I'm thinking of getting an iPod Nano (6th Generation) and I'm not sure if it has support for lyrics.

Does anyone know if it does?


Can I run two non-thunderbolt displays from a thunderbolt RAID device? It seems like this question has been asked a million times, but after a few hours of reading similar questions, I have not been able to find a clear answer.

I have a mid-2012 Macbook Air running OS X 10.9. I want to run dual 24" 1920x1200 monitors and the built-in 11" screen.

Can I use a thunderbolt RAID device (i.e. Promise Pegasus R4 or anything else with two thunderbolt ports out) to drive two monitors?

Will this work:

MBA -> RAID -> 2x miniDP to DVI adaptors -> 2x 24" screens

No, not with the Promise Pegasus R4 has only two Thunderbolt ports. One you will need to connect to the MBA and then other to your miniDP adapter. You would need a Thunderbolt dock that has another Thunderbolt port or another video interface like HDMI, etc.

Something like this: http://www.caldigit.com/thunderboltstation/,etc


How can I open my Downloads folder in one click? How can I open my Downloads folder in one click?
Downloads are my most important folder because that's where the new files go. Yet, it is the only folder I can't make an alias for, meaning I can open it in a single click from my dock or home screen.
What success looks like:
Opening the Downloads folder in one click (A keyboard shortcut would be fine too).
Here's what hasn't been working:

Using spotlight to search for my Downloads (slow)
-right clicking Downloads in my dock and then opening the folder from there (2 clicks)

Since I open my Downloads folder so many times per day, I really want a way to open it in one click.
Note: Somebody already came up with a neat solution here, but it unfortunately brings ALL finder windows that might be open to the front, which is not really wanted behavior.

If you have the Downloads stack in the Dock, you can ⌘-click it to open a new Finder window to the Downloads folder.
If you want to create an AppleScript application to put in the Dock that when single clicked opens a new Finder window to the Downloads folder bringing it to the top without bringing other Finder windows to the top also, then the follow line of AppleScript code is all that's needed to be saved as an AppleScript application and placed in the Dock:
do shell script "open $HOME/Downloads"

If you want it to always be in the same location on the screen and set to a particular view and size, you can use information in my answer in question you linked in your OP.
Example:
do shell script "open $HOME/Downloads"
tell application "Finder" to ¬
    tell window "Downloads" to ¬
        set {current view, toolbar visible, bounds} to ¬
            {list view, true, {1475, 871, 2499, 1360}}

Notes:

If the Downloads folder is already open it will just bring it to the front without bring  other Finder windows to the front also.
If you close the Downloads folder it will bring other Finder windows to the front and this is the default behavior and has nothing to do with having opened the Downloads folder with this script.


Can the AppleTV (Version 2) send output to only the optical output? I'm looking for a way to have AppleTV (Version 2) output from optical out only without having HDMI connected or at least with the TV turned off. I've read that this is possible with previous versions. Is there a patch for nitotv or a jailbreak distribution that supports this feature? Or this is impossible?

I've got an unjailbroken Apple TV (2nd gen) running Apple TV Software 5.2, and it does permit audio through the optical out, even when my TV is off or when the HDMI cable is disconnected.  I have my Apple TV connected to my LG TV via HDMI and to my Onkyo receiver via S/PDIF (TOSLINK) optical out.  I tried these scenarios:

Base case: Everything connected, TV on, AirPlay works and audio is transmitted from optical out to the receiver.  The TV also receives audio over the HDMI, though I usually keep the TV's volume muted. (FWIW, I was used the Music app on my iPad to initiate AirPlay audio.)
Next case: TV off and HDMI not connected (headless).  I unplugged my Apple TV's power cord, removed the HDMI cable, and then plugged the power cable (only) back in, forcing a reset.  After a few minutes, I was able to use AirPlay to stream audio to the Apple TV and could hear it from the receiver via the optical output.
Next case: TV off and HDMI is connected.  I unplugged my Apple TV's power cord, plugged the TV HDMI cable back in to the Apple TV, and then plugged the power cable back in, foricng a reset.  After a few minutes, I was able to use AirPlay to stream audio to the Apple TV and could hear it from the receiver via the optical output.
Next case: Unplugging/plugging the HDMI cable while AirPlay audio is streaming already.  I tried this out of curiosity to see how the Apple TV would behave, e.g. would it get stuck?  When I inserted/removed the HDMI cable, audio to the optical output stopped for a few seconds, then resumed.

As to why your Apple TV might not output audio to optical without the TV on, I have a couple of theories:

Some TV sets, when the HDMI is connected and the TV is off, could interfere with the device's normal operation.  I used to own another TV, and my cable company's set-top box would routinely complain that its HDMI output was "blocked" when that TV was off, and it wouldn't permit playback through other outputs unless I turned on the TV or disabled the HDMI.  If you can't get AirPlay to work when your TV is off,  try the headless / no HDMI case #2 above.
Were you perhaps trying to initiate AirPlay after your Apple TV was idle for a long time or else put into standby mode?  Wake the Apple TV first with the remote and then try initiating AirPlay.  (Notice in each case I tried above, I had power-cycled the Apple TV prior to changing the cable configuration, and such power-cycling guaranteed the Apple TV was awake.)
How is your receiver set up?  In my setup, I have my Apple TV's optical output going to a dedicated device input on the receiver (DIG 2), and the TV's HDMI pass-through to another device input (DIG 3/TV).  (My TV's HDMI pass-through doesn't pass anything through the HDMI cable when the TV is off, hence why I use the optical output in the first place ... that, and the TV seems to boost & distort the audio.)
Perhaps the issue is media/settings specific.  Do your Apple TV's audio settings enable Dolby Digital output, and your receiver, perhaps, isn't capable of interpreting the signal?  Try turning this option off.

Additional links at Apple that may be helpful:

Apple TV: HDMI audio stops working and related questions
Apple TV (2nd generation): No audio when using Apple TV and related questions


Why is Windows 7 giving me a software counterfeiting error? I have a legitimate copy of Windows 7 Ultimate installed via Bootcamp on my Macbook Pro.  I also have Parallels 5 installed on my Mac OS X, which can boot up Bootcamp's partition of Windows 7.

I'm getting an error when I run Windows 7 on Parallels:

  You may be a victim of software counterfeiting

It wants me to go online and resolve it.  But I've already registered my copy of Windows 7 (I can't remember if I did it via Bootcamp or Parallels).

My question is: Does my single copy of Windows 7 only allow me to have it installed via Bootcamp or Parallels?

I only installed it once, and my copy of Parallels is booting my Bootcamp install.  It's the same machine!  I'm hoping I don't need to have 2 licenses of Windows 7 run it on my Macbook Pro!

I was able to get my Macbook Pro to run the same licensed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate on both Bootcamp and Parallels 5 by activating it on both.  I was having trouble running and activating it on my Parallels VM which ran the Bootcamp install.  So what I did was change the MAC address of eth0 to match the one from Bootcamp.

Once I changed that, I called Microsoft and activated via their automated system, which generated a set of numbers/code for me.


I'm looking for a quick entry TODO application that syncs across an iPhone and my laptop I haven't been able to find the following feature set all in one place:

offline access :: Something which guarantees offline changes aren't lost.
quick entry :: I should be able to activate it with a global hot key and it should provide me a quick entry window, either HUD-like a la Anxiety or Menu Bar centric a la Alarms
synchronized :: It should synchronize across my iPhone/iPad/laptop, either via iCal TODOs or whatever.
0 wait mobile entry :: Related: some mobile apps synchronize before I can enter in a new item.  This sucks.  I want to be able to add a TODO on the go with no wait (and definitely with no wifi).
no overdue, or autoadvancing overdue :: I don't want to spend any time maintaining my todo list.  If something is overdue, it should autoadvance to my "today" view/inbox or whatever.  I should be able to see at a glance all my tasks (including overdue ones) that I need to do today.
due dates optional :: I shouldn't need to assign something a date.

Bonus points for something that's stored as a simple text file.  I'm open to solutions like Notesy + nvALT + Dropbox.  That particular combination fails because I use Notesy for other notekeeping, and so I can't satisfy the zero-wait constraint.

Thanks!


How do I use only the external display with my MacBook Pro lid open on Lion? Sorry for the wordy title, but my problem is thus:

When I'm at my desk, I would like to use only the external display.
With the nifty gestures in Lion, I have decided I would like to use the internal trackpad on my MacBook
To physically touch the trackpad, the lid on my MacBook Pro needs to be open

This used to be a piece of cake with Snow Leopard and below - you plug in the external display, close the lid, plug in a USB device or press a key on a connected keyboard to wake the machine, and once it's woken up and using the external display reopen the lid and the internal screen stays off.

Unfortunately, Lion detects when my MacBook Pro is open and thinks its being helpful by activating the display. Is there a way to disable that? Is there a way to fool Lion into thinking my lid is closed?

I've taken up olivier's suggestion to arrange my monitors to eliminate a common border:

I chose the bottom right because I keep my dock on the left hand side of my screen, and I use my upper right as a hot corner to sleep the display. I also moved the menu bar to my desktop monitor and the MacBook screen is completely dimmed.

There was another option I heard about: using a magnet to make your MacBook think that the lid was closed. This does work - I placed a snippet of a refrigerator magnet near the bottom left side of my keyboard and sure enough my MacBook thought I had closed the display. Unfortunately, Mac OS X also disables keyboard and trackpad input when it thinks the display is closed, so this option didn't work for me.


Mac Mini + Thunderbolt Display+ Additional Display? I just purchased a 2012 Mac Mini to use with my Apple Thunderbolt Display.

The mini also included an HDMI to DVI converter.  I have a DVI-connected ViewSonic montior that I'd like to use as a secondary display.  Is it possible to use the HDMI-out port as a secondary monitor output?

Like so: (excuse the horrible art)

     Thunderbolt Port          HDMI Port
    /*****************|------|**********\_________
   |                  | Mac  |          |         |
---------------       | Mini |          | Other   |
| Thunderbolt |       |------|          | Monitor |
|   Display   |                         |_________|
|_____________|


iPhone 4 is stuck in a boot loop, has a broken power button -- how do I put it in DFU mode? I have an iPhone 4 that has a broken power button. There is no warranty because I bought it from my friend.

It has never been a problem because I had AssistiveTouch, until now.

I went to use the iPhone one day and it was stuck in a boot loop.

I have never attempted to jailbreak it or install 3rd party software onto it. When I connect it to iTunes it says that I need to respond on the iPhone before I can restore or sync it. I can't respond because it's in a boot loop and I can't enter DFU mode because the power button is broken.

Is there a way to put the phone in to DFU mode when it's power button is broken?

UPDATE: After I made this post, I plugged my iPhone into a Samsung wall charger and it booted properly. I used it all day, until it died. Once I got home, I plugged it into the charger, and now it's stuck on the boot loop again. When the iPhone booted normally, iTunes allowed me to put files on it, etc. I have already tried RecBoot, and iTunes won't let me sync.

If your iPhone is stuck in recovery mode, DO THIS: (ON Screen USB pointing to a CD with a Music Note).

Make sure your iTunes is up to data, if not re-download itunes.
after re-installing ITUNES, plug your iphone via USB into your computer. ITUNES will automatically pick it up and a pop up box will probally say that your IPHONE is in recovery mode would you like to restore?
Click the restore tab.
Note - If ITUNES if out of date, this will not work.
Note - Do not do this over WIFI
Note - Do not interrupt the restore
Note - If you did not make a previous back up, your IPHONE will restore back to the factroy settings.

All this happened to me, fortunately I made a back up. I hope this helps.


Automator for Saving Attachments I save MANY attachments from one URL about 50 times a day from clients. I'd like to automate the process for when I click on the download attachment button it will save into 1 specific folder when it's coming from that URL.

Is this possible, what do you recommend?

Thanks

It is possible to do this with Services and Automator.

Open Automator and choose to create a Service.

Now add the action "Download URLs" which downloads a URL in Safari. You can now specify the folder  the file will be saved.

Set the service to receive URLs in any application and save it. It will look like this :-

Now when you select a URL in your browser you can right click to get the context menu and under "Services" you will see your new Automator service.

You can even set a keyboard shortcut for it in the Keyboard System Preferences. Once you do that just select the URL and kit the keyboard shortcut.


external disk formated with NTFS not working on Mac Possible Duplicate:
  Hard drive read only access with Mac

I bought new 1 TB WD My Passport and format it with NTFS on windows XP. and now when I connect it on mac, I see the drive but I cant add files to it.

what is the issue?

Thanks,

Try installing the latest release of OSXFUSE - check their wiki page for more information on using NTFS-3G.


How can I access windows that become inaccessible when using two displays? Description

When I connect a second display, InkScape windows aren't visible on either the primary or secondary display on any desktop. When I enter & leave Mission Control, the InkScape windows fly off to the left towards the second display. Showing all windows (for XQuartz, as InkScape doesn't manage its windows) shows the window as belonging on the primary display (assigning it to the 2ary display doesn't make it accessible). When the second display isn't connected, the windows are accessible on the primary display.
How can I access the InkScape windows with two displays?

Non-fixes

Assigning windows to desktops on either display (2ary click on app (XQuartz) in dock → Options → [Assign to] Desktop on Display x), or to all desktops (2ary click on app (XQuartz) in dock → Options → [Assign to] All Desktops) has no affect on window accessibility.

Other Info

"Displays Have Separate Spaces" is set in Mission Control preferences.

System Info

OS: 10.12.6 Sierra

As a workaround, rearranging the displays allows temporary access to the hidden windows. The windows can then be moved to (hopefully) make them accessible with the original display arrangement.

Open System Preferences
Open the "Displays" preferences
Click "Arrangement" tab
Move 2ndary display around primary display until the missing windows appear.
Move the (formerly missing) window to the primary display.
Move the 2ndary display back to the original position.

After restoring the display arrangement, the window may become inaccessible again; steps 4-6 may need to be repeated.


In Yosemite, (how) can I save an entire Space/Desktop (or a collection of open programs and windows, like a Space)? The Spaces feature in OS X is great. It would be even greater if I could save a Space and recall it later, like the "Projects" feature that's available in many IDEs.

Another way to think about it would be like how OS X, when shutting down, prompts the user to re-open all programs. Saving or recalling a Space would be something like that.

Is this possible in OS X? Maybe through some kind of AppleScript hackery.

Alternatively, are there any third-party programs that accomplish this?

The paid App "Moom" (£7.99 Mac App Store) can save and restore desktop layouts (amongst other window related tricks). I don't think it actually starts applications though, but if they are already running it will arrange them for you. You might be able to combine an automator action to run a bunch of programs and then have Moom arrange them for you?

I have multiple applications open for marking student work (browser, word processor, text snippets, marking app etc.) and use Moom to give me a consistent layout for marking each type of assignment. It works well for this.


battery capacity indicator button not working i have this button (battery capacity indicator) in my macbook pro 2011 series that shows battery capacity, but when i press it nothing happens.
can i know if it is plugged in or not via a terminal command?
e.g.: ubuntu have 'lspci' command to know the plugged in devices
or how can i know if it is plugged via hardware disassembly ?
Edit:
here is how the button look like, its on the left of the macbook

Thanks

Your indicator light seems broken and is pretty much hardwired. Did it ever see any moisture? Replacing it is a relatively difficult procedure, as seen in this video. You will find more guides on iFixit (e.g. this one) explaining how to get to the Battery Indicator Light. But I don't know where you could get a new one if yours is broken.

If you are looking for a terminal command to get your current power status, use pmset. pmset -g batt will tell your the current power source and remaining battery capacity:

$ pmset -g batt

Now drawing from 'AC Power'
 -InternalBattery-0 99%; charged; 0:00 remaining


grep ^\. not working as expected in Mac terminal if I run the following command in my mac terminal:
ls -al | grep ^\.

or
ls -al | grep '^\.'

or
ls -al | grep "^\."

I get no results back even though there are several files in my home directory that meet this criteria. I tried this in both bash and zsh, and get nothing.
If I run this same command without quotes in Ubuntu, I get the expected results. Can anyone explain why this is?

The grep pattern matches lines that begin with a dot. The output of ls -al has no such lines.
Try ls -a | grep '^\.' and see the difference.


Update VirtualBox without losing Guest .vdi Files I have VirtualBox "Version 5.1.4 r110228 (Qt5.5.1)" installed on a MacBook Air macOS Sierra version 10.12. Now I got an update message: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.1.6/VirtualBox-5.1.6-110634-OSX.dmg

But how can I update my VirtualBox version from 5.1.4 to 5.1.6? Obviously without losing my guests installations CentOS 7 64 and Windows 10 Enterprise.

Do I need to remove VirtualBox 5.1.4? And what happens with my Guest VDI installations?

Shut down all VMs and quit VirtualBox. Open VirtualBox-5.1.6-110634-OSX.dmg and double-click the installer in the mounted image. The installer will overwrite the old VirtualBox.app and some other files.

The VMs will be kept in place and won't be modified.

Later download the latest Extension Pack 5.1.6-110634 and install it in the existing VMs if necessary/possible.


Is it possible to change the wireless card on a MacBook Pro? I'm interested in possibly upgrading my MacBook Pro's wireless card. Is this possible? Can I take apart the MacBook and install it? Is there a guide somewhere on how to do this?

(This isn't because of wireless performance, just lack of stable driver support on Linux.)

Probably not, but you can use the ExpressCard slot instead

The model you mentioned (17" MacBookPro8,3 late 2011) does seem to have a separate Wifi/bluetooth assembly, but you'll probably have a very hard time finding a matching replacement in both size and connection. I didn't find a disassembled 17" model, but the card in the 15" of the same generation looks like this (4 antenna connectors and what is probably some sort of PCI Express cable).

However, since yours is a 17", it does have an ExpressCard slot, where you can stick in a Wifi card of your choosing (something like this) without even having to take the whole machine apart.

Or patch around your Linux kernel with one of the BCM4331 drivers that are out there, but I assume you've already tried that.


Mac has become insanely slow : Processes SystemUIServer, UserEventAgent and loginwindow using a lot of memory I have been using my Mac for for many months without any problem. But recently all of a sudden the Mac became insanely slow.

I opened Activity Manager to see what was happening. For three processes SystemUIServer, UserEventAgent and loginwindow, the memory gradually increases and reaches upto 2 GB for each process. This completely hangs up my Mac.

I tried the following:

Restart Mac
Restart Mac in safe mode
Manually kill the processes
Remove Date and Time from Menu bar (this was supposed to be the problem for the SysteUIServer process's memory according to many users)
Removed the externally connected keyboard and mouse(some had suggested this for UserEventAgent's memory)

No luck with any of those. The moment I log in, the memory spikes up.

Any idea what the hell is happening? Please help.

First of all: High Memory-Usage is not a bad thing in itself - the goal is to have a performant system and it can accomplish that by using RAM.

That you Mac slows down is more likely a problem that a process or an App is hogging Memory and not correctly releasing it, forcing the system to use Swap-Memory (on your Harddrive) and thereby slowing your system down, but that is just one possible scenario.

I think it is necessary to differentiate that because i think you are looking at the wrong place for your problem.

Other Possibilities could be wrong File Permissions, I/O errors of your Harddrive or SSD, timout issues for some process or App (Google Drive, Dropbox etc), corrupted chaches or swap files.

You should:

check the CPU-Usage in the 'Activity Monitor.app' Is there a Process/App that is using up your CPU and slowing your system?
Check the 'Console.app' in /Applications/Utilities/ for errors and post them here. There might be some clues there, f.e. read/write errors, timeout issues etc.
It is always a good idea use 'Disk Utility.app' in /Applications/Utilities to check your HD/SSD with 'Verify Disk' and after that checking the File-Permissions with 'Verify Disk Permissions'. If you find some errors there you should use the 'Repair' Function.
try booting your system in 'safe mode' by holding the shift key on startup. Can you reproduce the problem in that mode?

Try that and post your findings.


Dictionary definition for hyperlinks Normal Behavior: When highlighting a word on a webpage, and right clicking on it, a contextual menu pops up; you can get the dictionary definition by choosing, "Look Up 'SelectedWordHere'".

However, if the word you want a definition for is also a hyperlink there is no option in the contextual menu to look up the word in the dictionary. Any hints on how to get this to work? Without copy and paste.

If you've got access to a multitouch trackpad, tapping with three fingers will (if you've enabled the option under System Preferences / Trackpad, of course) directly popUp the definition of the word, even if it's an hyperlink.


Removing, or minimizing, scratches on the top of a Magic Mouse Though I'm comfortable using either a trackpad or mouse for most tasks, there are some things that I prefer to have the precision of a mouse for. On one such occasion I was traveling with my MacBook, so I decided to toss my Magic Mouse into the bottom of a bag with other loose things. When I took it out, I noticed that the surface got all scuffed up and felt different.

The mouse still works, but the scratches annoy me. Is there any way to remove or minimize them? My biggest annoyance is the lack of consistent friction on the surface of the mouse - it makes performing some gestures harder. I'd like to have the entire surface have a consistent level of friction, and, if possible, have it feel like a new Magic Mouse. Is this possible?

Ok, so this is based on my experience as a hobbyist woodworker and from fixing up scratches and orange peels on my car. You will need:

Fine sand paper with grits 600, 800 and a 1000. If your scratches are deeper, you might have to go down to 400, but it would be better if you didn't (don't go below that — will be too hard to recover on plastic). If you'd like a much smoother finish, go up to 2000, but it isn't necessary.
Buffing compound.
Buffing cloth with microfibers.
A can of clear coat spray.
A steady hand.

You can easily get the first 4 from an auto parts store (e.g., AutoZone in the US).

  Caution: This will generate fine dust and the fumes from the spray can cause irritation, so use a dust/vapour mask.

Start with the lowest grit sandpaper and gently sand the roughed up area. Be steady in your strokes and use long strokes instead of short, rapid and jerky motions. Of course, "long strokes" is kind of ambiguous in a mouse that's only 4" long and with a scratch length much smaller than that, but the important thing is to be steady.

Don't take too much material and don't apply pressure. Let the grit work on the scratch; not your strength. Once it starts getting smoother and you don't see any visible improvement, move higher up in grit. Repeat the same till you finish the highest grit. Remember that the plastic layer isn't very thick and possibly contains sensitive piezos underneath, so do not dwell on each grit for too long.

When you're done, you should see a smooth, matty finish on the surface. If all you want is smoothness and don't care about gloss, I'd say stop here and move to the next paragraph. Else, spray about 2 light coats of clear spray. Sand gently with the highest grit in between coats (allow each coat to dry completely) and wipe with a microfiber cloth before the next coat. If you're worried that an additional film layer might affect the touch sensitiveness, by all means, skip this step.

Finally, apply the buffing compound and work into the area with a buffing cloth. The compound serves to fill in the ultra fine scratches that the grits won't get and brings out a nice finish to the piece. Use an orbital buffer if you have one, but hand should be sufficient.

Good luck, and hope that works for you.

  Disclaimer: I haven't done this to my Magic Mouse, but I have experience finishing stuff in wood, plastic and metal.


Windows 10 Professional, Macbook Air , cirrus logic on Bootcamp I have Windows 10 Professional installed on my Macbook Air.
I am using bootcamp version 6.0

I have serious issue with my audio device:

Scenario 1:

When my headphones are plugged in and i play a move via VLC player. if i pause the movie go away, then comeback after awhile and try to resume (play) the movie, i hear no sound and i see a red 'X' on my audio task bar icon.

Scenario 2:

My macbook air laptop is plugged to a Dell monitor (external view). my headphones are plugged in. they work and after a while they stop working and i see the audio device has switched to my dell monitor.

Something I've noticed:

If i click the audio taskbar icon to get the volume slide, if its color is orange then i will get the issues described above, if its color is blue then this issue doesn't occur. I wonder if there is connection

This is very annoying and it would be so much appreciated if someone has encountered this issue and knows how to help me

quick update:
* The color of the slider volume control has nothing to do with this issue. it just represent the current theme win 10 is using

I've downloaded cirrus logic driver CS4208(AB 126) and so far so good...i will update it that didn't work


What is the purpose of these Unix groups? I see the following groups on my user id when working in terminal:

$ id | tr ',' '\n' | grep apple
702(com.apple.sharepoint.group.2)
701(com.apple.sharepoint.group.1)
395(com.apple.access_ftp)
398(com.apple.access_screensharing)

What is the purpose of these groups?

com.apple.sharepoint.group.1
com.apple.sharepoint.group.2

Directory Services.  These groups for for the permissions of sharepoints (not to be confused with Microsoft SharePoint); shared folders, volumes, drives, etc.

com.apple.access_ftp

FTP file sharing.  This defines the access rights/permissions for FTP (File Transfer Protocol).  It a long since deprecated protocol/service and you should be using scp instead.

com.apple.access_screensharing

Remote Screen Sharing.  This defines the access rights/permissions for screen sharing (or "remote control")


Record video while playing TV on Jio Phone I connect my iPhone to the AUX cable in my car and play TV. This one time I wanted to video record, but when I switch to the video camera, it turns my TV off.

Is there anyway to record video on iPhone 6 while playing TV, so that the TV shows is in the video?

Check out Record and Listen. Jamcam is great, but only records videos for up to 15 seconds.


Is it possible to hide an account from the login screen where you can see all the users? I've got a Mac mini for temp/freelance staff to use while they were working in the office.

After a few years there's quite a few accounts on the Mac mini which are no longer required.

I don't want to delete them as there may be useful data in there, but I don't have time to do a full check/audit.

Is it possible to hide an account from the login screen where you can see all the users?

The mac mini is running macOS Sierra.

sudo dscl . create /Users/username IsHidden 1

Replace username with the username of the user you wish to hide.
To unhide the user, replace 1 with 0.

You can still log in as a hidden user by pressing ⌥↩ on the login screen, then entering the username and password.

Additionally, you could delete each account and leave the home folders alone. Changing the permissions to let your user read them is pretty straightforward an if you ever want the other users back, add the same short name and system preferences will give the user back permissions on their home folders again.


Which font is shown in the Visual Studio 2015 OS X sample code? What is the name of this font shown in Visual Studio 2015 for OS X?

That's probably the font Monaco !

It was used by Xcode and Terminal prior to Snow Leopard as the was the default monospaced font.


Cursor does not go begining of the line Hello I am trying to go begining of the line. neither left arrow key or ctrl + a
lets me do it. everytime it keeps couple letters on the right.
however its a visual bug my cursor is actually in the begining

I am not exactly sure why it happens but it happen both on default terminal app and iterm2

P.S : it isnt only happens with this command I just didnt know what else to write to show.

That issue is related to your $PS1, you're probably missing some escape character.
This one should work:

PS1="\[\e[1;31m\]\u[\w]$\[\e[0m\] "


How do I prevent getting several alerts for a calendar event? I am a Helicopter Pilot, the company I work for utilizes acuity scheduling for scheduling flights, all the pilots utilize google calendar but I am the only one with the problem. So we had a flight scheduled at 7:15. Just before the appointment I received 3 email alerts from iCloud and 1 alert from google.

Why do I get several alerts and how can I stop this?

You'll need to change the notification behavior (disable) in Google Calendar.

On your computer, open Google Calendar.
In the top right, click Settings Settings  and then Settings.
On the left, under "Settings for my calendars," click the calendar you want to change and then Calendar settings.
Under "Event notifications" or "All-day event notifications":
To edit a notification, choose if you'd like to receive a notification or an email.
To delete a notification, click Remove notification

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37242?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en


I keep getting an error on RedLaser app for iPod Touch 4th generation. How to fix? I just downloaded the RedLaser app from the App Store on my iPod touch 4th generation, 6.1.3.  If I go to launch the app, it goes to the Scan section and works normally for about 5 seconds.  Then, no matter what I'm doing within the app, I get this error.  Please see the screenshot here:

Plus, whenever I tap "OK", the error comes back.  It won't go away at all.
So, how can I fix this error so it goes away and doesn't come back?

kCLErrorDomain is error reporting regarding the OS framework "Core Location." See this document for more info (written for OS X, which iOS is based upon).

So, for troubleshooting, I'd check your location services, maybe disable them/re-enable them and relaunch the app.

If that doesn't work, try re-downloading the app.

If the issue persists after a reinstallation of the app, the next step I would try would be to restore your device.


Toggle alarm to scare intruders? My coworkers always tell me to lock my Mac when I get up from my desk, or they'll mess with it. I think it's pretty obnoxious that I have to lock my computer each time I get up for anything, and of course, they messed with some of my settings recently.

I was thinking that, to get back at them, I'd purposefully leave my computer unlocked, but toggle some sort of siren to trigger if any button is pushed (except for some kind of preset escape sequence to disable the alarm). Is there some sort of app that would help me accomplish this?

Might be interesting if you have a MacBook...

http://mac360.com/2011/05/free-add-motion-detector-security-to-your-mac/

  iAlertU is an alarm system for your Apple MacBook that uses the built
  in motion detection to trigger the alarm and the iSight to capture the
  image of the thief. Among many other features, it incorporates the
  ability for users with iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to connect to and
  control iAlertU remotely.


Access iPhoto photos? If you want to upload a photo to a website from iPhoto, is there a simple way that you can access it, without having to export it from iPhoto first. When I navigate to the iPhoto folder, it just appears as an empty folder.

You can reveal a particular photo by control-clicking it within iPhoto, and selecting the "Show File" menu item in the contextual menu that pops up. That will reveal the actual image file for that photo in the Finder. I highly recommend not moving that file anywhere, since that will cause iPhoto to lose track of it, but you can copy it to another folder, attach to an e-mail, upload to a website, etc.


Can I daisy chain Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 If I had a FireWire 400 DVD drive connected (via a FireWire 400-800 cable) to a FireWire 800 hard drive that was then connected via a Thunderbolt to FireWire 800 adapter to a Thunderbolt hard drive, that was then connected to a Mac, would I be able to use all the drives?
And would I get Thunderbolt speeds on the Thunderbolt drive and FireWire 800 speeds on the FireWire drive?
Also all the drives are powered externally.

Your setup will not work. You must have separate FireWire and Thunderbolt chains, and not connect devices to both interfaces simultaneously.


Tool to Consolidate Data on Multiple Hard Drives and List Differences Between Filesets I have several hard drives I've used throughout the years to backup my data. Each one has a different folder structure and fileset. I now have a massive NAS that I want to consolidate all my data onto. I've created a new folder structure on the NAS and have moved over most of my data.

Does anyone know of a tool that could index my NAS and then compare any other hard drive, folder, or other media and list what folders/files are not on the NAS.

I believe I could write a script that would md5/sha1 each file on the NAS and put that data into a database. Then the script could compare using those hashes and list differences. I'm hoping for a better solution if one exists.

To close out this question, I didn't really find anything out there already.

I ended up writing a python script that read all the files on the drive and saved an MD5 hash of each one in a database.

Then I created another script that would read the contents of the drive to compare and lookup the MD5 in the database to see if the file already existed. It's not perfect, but it worked.


Applescript - Automator - tomorrow keyboard shortcut I've been able to successfully create a keyboard shortcut from a "quick action" in Automator based on running AppleScript (inserts current system date). However, I cannot get a similar script to work for inserting tomorrow's date (current date + 1 day) or the day after (current date + 2 days).

Here's what I have:

on run {input, parameters}

    set thedate to (current date) as string
    set myNewDate to thedate + (1 * days)
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke myNewDate
    end tell
end run

It produces this Syntax Error:

Can someone help me identify my error and fix it? Apple support won't help with AppleScript-related issues for non-developers.

Any help is greatly appreciated by this novice coder.

Thank you to Allan, Ɱark Ƭ, Wowfunhappy and others for the quick help (not just a fix, but defining my syntax issue). I have a modification: how do I tell the string to leave off the time stamp at the end: "at 12:24:21 AM" ?

You are trying to add the day in the wrong spot. Try this:

set thedate to ((current date) + (days * 1)) as string
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke thedate
end tell

The "current date" returns the time in seconds, so you have to add one day worth of seconds (86,400 seconds in a day, but I'm sure you knew that) to get tomorrow. Change the multiplier to get more days in the future or past by using a negative value for the multiplier.

Note that not all days have 86400 seconds (DST change is +/- 3600, Leap seconds, etc…) so on some days it may be an hour off.


Using Terminal to truncate filenames in directory I have about a thousand jpegs in a directory that have filenames such as

1300-Kazoo-Pkg.jpg
1314-Learn-to-Play-Piano-withKid.jpg
1314-Learn-to-Play-Piano.jpg

I want to shorten them to the numbers before the first hyphen.

I have tried using for f in *.jpg; do mv "$f" "${f/-*.}"; done but I can't figure out what to add to get done what I want done.

Any suggestions?

To preserve the filename extension in the expected way, you should instead do this:

for f in *.jpg; do mv "$f" "${f/-*}.jpg"; done

That is, use ${f/-*}.jpg instead of ${f/-*.}.

To deal with the case of multiple files that have the same prefix before the dash, you can do something like this: [Note: For a better version, see the Update I’ve since added after this.]

i=0
for f in *.jpg; do
  if [ "$(ls -l ${f/-*}* | wc -l | xargs)" -gt 1 ]; then
    for g in "${f/-*}"; do
      mv "$f" "$g-$((i++)).jpg"
    done
  else
    if [[ $f == *"-"* ]]; then
      mv "$f" "${f/-*}.jpg"
    fi
  fi
done

That will give you output like this:

1300.jpg
1314-0.jpg
1314-1.jpg
1315-2.jpg
1315-3.jpg

That is, a -N suffix will get added, though with the limitation that this simple example just keeps incrementing the N value across the whole set of files instead of per-prefix.

Also note that you can safely re-run this script multiple times in the same directory and you’ll end up with the same expected filenames in the end (which I think is what you’d want, rather than it monkeying around further with any filenames that are already in the form you want).

Update

Here’s a better version that just appends 1-N suffixes to the renamed files if it finds an existing file with the same basename or same basename+N (in which case it increments by N+1 and retries).

for f in *.jpg; do
  base=${f/-*}
  if [[ -e "${base}.jpg" ]] ; then
    i=1
    while [[ -e "${base}-${i}.jpg" ]]; do
      let i++
    done
    base=$base-$i
  fi
  mv "$f" "${base}.jpg"
done

That gives output like this:

1300.jpg
1314-1.jpg
1314.jpg
1315-1.jpg
1315-2.jpg
1315.jpg


If I buy an SSL Certificate, is this trusted in Apple without installing cert file in iOS? I created an app for iOS for a company and I want to distribute this app ad hoc over the air.

In iOS 7 and greater, I need an https site to install this app.

I created my own certificate locally and I must install my cert file via email or a direct link on iPhone to Trust this certificate and then I can install my app.

I want to know: if I buy an SSL certificate from legal seller like godaddy or geocerts and set it to my own website, do I need install a cert file on the iPhone or not?

My company's site is offline and not connected to internet.

Purchasing an SSL certificate will not require any further configuration on the device, regardless of whether this is from a 'standard' Certificate Authority.

If the certificate is purchased from a standard Certificate Authority, this provides the additional benefit of verifying the company being represented by the domain, but this is tangental to the actual HTTPS requirement by Ad-Hoc distribution.


How do I create Growl notifications for FCE? I found this script online somewhere and I'm trying to make it so that it constantly checks to see if Final Cut Express is rendering and when it finishes rendering, it displays a Growl notification.

EDIT: My question is: How do I get the script to constantly check to see if FCE is rendering and once it's done rendering, display a notification? The script works to display the notification, now how do I get it to work right?

EDIT: I tried using an idle handler. It didn't work, but maybe I'm not using the idle handler right.

Here's the code for the script:

tell application "System Events"
    tell application process "Final Cut Express HD"
        set windowList to get name of every window
    end tell
end tell

if windowList contains missing value then
end if

tell application "GrowlHelperApp" -- ** the daemon that is behind the scenes
    -- Make a list of all the notification types that this script will ever send:
    -- ** They really mean "ever" or you'll have to reregister.
    set the allNotificationsList to {"Render Complete"}
    -- , "Another Test Notification"}
    --** Enable another notification

    -- Make a list of the notifications that will be enabled by default.
    -- ** We'll see shortly that a note must be enabled and the user can disable it.
    -- Notifications not enabled by default can be enabled later in the 'Applications' tab of the growl prefpane.
    set the enabledNotificationsList to {"Render Complete"} -- ** just one turned on, the other not.

    -- Register our script with growl.
    -- You can optionally (as here) set a default icon for this script's notifications.
    -- ** Theoretically, you only have to register once, but there is absolutely no harm in doing
    -- it every time the script runs, i.e., leaving this line in your script.
    register as application "Final Cut Render Complete Script" all notifications allNotificationsList default notifications enabledNotificationsList icon of application "Final Cut Express HD"

    --  Send a Notification...
    -- This one will appear because it was enabled by default.
    notify with name "Render Complete" title "Render Complete" description "Your Render has Finished." application name "Final Cut Render Complete Script"

    -- This one will not appear -- it wasn't enabled by default so the user has to turn it on in the 'Applications' tab of the Growl prefpane to see it.
    -- Take out the comments to enable it.
    --notify with name "Another Test Notification" title "Another Test Notification  " description "Alas  you won't see me until you enable me yourself..." application name "Final Cut Render Complete Script"
end tell

Did you save the script with the idle handler as a .app file with the "Stay Open" checkbox selected in the Save dialog?

This is required for the code within the idle handler to be run "on idle", else it won't run at all. Save it that way and try again.

You're checking windowList for missing value. This sounds like a condition where no FCE windows are open. If you want the block where you're scripting Growl to execute, it should be within the if statement, not after.

Also, depending on what version of Growl you're using, it might respond to one of "Growl" (v1.3+) or "GrowlHelperApp" (v<1.3), but not the other. To future-proof your script, replace

tell application "GrowlHelperApp

with the following:

tell application id "com.Growl.GrowlHelperApp"

All versions of Growl respond to that.

The block of code you have that triggers Growl looks like you modified their example, and from your comments it sounds like that's working fine.


Using Chrome on macOS without address bar & menu like kiosk mode I just want a browser window without the address bar or any menu, with just one tab.

In Windows, chrome.exe --app=http://gmail.com is used. I want the macOS version for it.

It's basically the same thing in macOS. Provide the path to the Chrome binary and use the flags as normal, such as:

/Applications/Google\ Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google\ Chrome --app=https://gmail.com


What kind of cloth and cleaner do the people who work at the Apple store use to clean MacBooks? I have a MacBook and an iPad and see dirt and fingerprints all over it.

What kind of cleaner do the people in the Apple store use to clean all the Macs and iPads on display?

I figure that anything strong enough to handle that abuse (being in a store used by so many people) should be good enough for use at home.

I use iKlear on my Retina MBP. I can recommend them, however, they are a bit expensive. I have seen workers clean MBP's screens with it(though not in an official Apple store, but in a store that sells only Mac related products).


How to fix curl throwing "error setting certificate verify locations" I'm a web developer and I have a MacBook4,1 with OS X 10.5.8. Important stuff like GitHub, homebrew, ruby and python doesn't work correctly, because curl doesn't work.
It seems that the SSL certificates are outdated.

I get this error every time:

curl: (77) error setting certificate verify locations:
  CAfile: /usr/share/curl/curl-ca-bundle.crt
  CApath: none

What can I do to fix this?

The problem arises because OS X doesn't keep its CA certs in the file system; they live in the "System Roots" keychain. You can see them with the Keychain Access app (found in your Applications/Utilities folder).

For those tools that don't know how to talk to the keychain (like curl), you can export these certs to a folder of your choice, say /etc/ssl/certs to be consistent with most linux distros. You can either drag and drop them out of Keychain Access into a finder window, or select them and choose "Export items..." from the file menu. With drag and drop it always seems to use the binary .cer format, whereas most CLI tools want base64-encoded PEM (commonly using the .crt file extension). You can export in pem format from keychain access, but it only seems to export one cert at a time even if you have multiple certs selected. To work around this, I wrote a bash script to batch convert .cer to PEM format .crt files:

#!/bin/bash
#Convert all .cer files in this folder into PEM format .crt files
shopt -s nullglob
for f in *.cer
do
        openssl x509 -inform der -in "${f}" -outform pem -out "${f%.*}.crt"
        rm "$f"
done
chmod 444 *crt

To use it, make a folder, put this script in it (I called it cerconv.sh), drag and drop all your root CA certs into it, open a terminal in that folder and just run bash cerconv.sh.

To avoid nefarious things swapping out your CA certs, I added a line to chmod them all as read-only.

This may all be unnecessary - I certainly have no trouble with git(hub), homebrew, curl etc without having to do this, and have done for years - but at least you now know how to get the certs.

This approach is better than using -k in curl because you're not compromising your security.

Update: I just discovered the security utility on OS X. Here's a command that uses it to to export all certificates from your system keychain into a single .pem file that should be usable with curl:

security export -p -t certs -k `security list-keychains -d system|cut -d '"' -f 2` -o certs/certs.pem


How to switch the primary iCloud account on my iPhone 4? I have recently upgraded an iPhone 4 to iOS 5.1 and when asked i registered it with Account A for both iCloud & iTunes.

However i also use Account A on my iPhone 4S and thus wish to switch the the iCloud account to a brand new Account B (keeping Account A for iTunes as all the apps are purchased on it).

Is this possible? The iCloud screen in settings does not let me change the Apple ID?

Open the Mail, Contacts, Calendars section and find the iCloud
account.
Select it.
Press "Delete Account".
Select "Delete".
Select "Add Account…"
Select "iCloud".
Log in.

This works on iPad; I assume it's the same for all other current iOS devices.


6hr 33 min to charge last 6% of battery - is this normal? Exactly as asked - I couldn't figure out why exactly this is happening?

No, it is probably not normal.

You can hold the alt key and click on your battery icon.
Then click Condition: X.

What is your X? You can read some more information based on the window that popped up

By the way, does it really take 6.5 hour to charge to 100%? Cause it could just be some temporary mess-up with the estimation.


Incorrect Terminal.app output for long lines with tabs When I run the following command in Terminal.app:

echo -e "a\tb\tc\td\te\tf\tg\tyo"

I should get the following output (using a 40-column window so that lines don't wrap here, and replacing tabs with spaces so that the correct amount of space is shown here):

a       b       c       d       e
f       g       yo

But instead, I get this output:

a       b       c       d       e       y
o

As you can see, the f and g are missing.

After trying various strings, I think the problem is that a tab at the end of a line does not advance the output to the next line, but instead leaves the output cursor one character before the line end.  For example (still assuming a 40-column terminal), 4 tabs puts the cursor at position 32 of line 1.  Another tab should put the cursor at position 0 of line 2, but instead the cursor is at position 39 of line 1, leaving room for one more character to be printed—and even at that point, the cursor is not advanced to the next line, so another tab will put us back to position 39.  Hence, an unlimited number of (single-character + tab) strings will be silently ignored.

I've experimented with a variety of:

shells (including bash, sh, and csh)
terminal widths (including 40 columns, 80, and many others)
terminal types (including vt100 and xterm-color)
terminal character encodings (including UTF-8 and ascii)
terminal settings (including Escape non-ASCII input)

Also, a friend ran similar commands on a Linux system with a different terminal, and did not encounter the same bug.

Anybody know how to fix this?  I'd be much obliged, as this bug is making it might tricky to debug some home-made shell scripts running on tab-separated files.

This has to do with line breaks. Terminal is looking for either a space, or a continuos string of characters to make a line break. In this case the first opportunity it sees to break the line is between the y and the o. The "y" is shown because the last character in an extended line is shown in the last place to hint the user that something is happening there.

Workarounds...

You could try:

echo -e "a \tb \tc \td \te \tf \tg \tyo"

and everything will appear as you'd expect it.

also something like

echo -e "ab\tcd\tef\tgh\tij\tkl\tmn\tyo"

should break between the "k" and "l"

Still this is odd behavior and defiantly worth a bug/radar report


Remote login error: "DISPLAY is not set" How to set up X's to be able login on your iMac remotely and run graphical applications?

When I login I get this:

servername:~ loginname$ xterm
xterm: Xt error: Can't open display:
xterm: DISPLAY is not set
servername:~ loginname$ echo $DISPLAY

servername:~ loginname$  launchctl list | grep xquartz
-   0   org.macosforge.xquartz.X11.5840
5342    -   org.macosforge.xquartz.startx

P.S. I installed XQuartz 2.7.5 (xorg-server 1.14.4) and use it successfully from iMac itself for many mouths already.
I have OSX 10.9.4.

The solution appeared to be straight forward: just set

export DISPLAY=":0"

in .bashrc or whatever file your shell sources its profile from.


Equivalents for genisoimage and qemu-img on Ubuntu How do I achieve the same result on OS X 10.9 as I do on Ubuntu with commands:

$ genisoimage -output init.iso -volid cidata -joliet -rock user-data meta-data

and

$ qemu-img convert -O raw disk.img disk.img.raw

You can use mkisofs instead of genisoimage - they are almost identical (mkisofs is actually newer and better maintained, while genisoimage is debian's old fork of it).

It comes with cdrtools, which you can install from brew:

brew install cdrtools


TextEdit shows dialogs about not having permission to open any files About once per day, TextEdit starts showing dialogs like this when I try to open any file:

  The document “test.txt” could not be opened. You don’t have permission.

  To view or change permissions, select the item in the Finder and choose File > Get Info.

There's usually messages like this in system.log:

9/13/12 10:41:42.952 PM sandboxd[21081]: ([357]) TextEdit(357) deny file-read-data /Users/lauri/Desktop/test.txt
9/13/12 10:41:55.118 PM TextEdit[357]: NSFileVersion tried to tried to add a new generation and failed. Versioned file URL: file://localhost/Users/lauri/Notes/temp.txt, contents URL: file://localhost/Users/lauri/Notes/temp.txt.sb-de6477ff-BhVNrq, error: Error Domain=GSLibraryErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (GSLibraryErrorDomain error 1.)"
9/13/12 10:41:55.118 PM TextEdit[357]: NSDocument failed to preserve the old version of a document. Here's the error:
Error Domain=GSLibraryErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (GSLibraryErrorDomain error 1.)"
9/13/12 10:41:55.119 PM TextEdit[357]: <Document: 0x7f971d00a510>: An error occurred while attempting to preserve the backup file at file://localhost/Users/lauri/Notes/temp.txt.sb-de6477ff-BhVNrq: Error Domain=GSLibraryErrorDomain Code=1 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (GSLibraryErrorDomain error 1.)"

I can't open any files until I quit and reopen TextEdit. I also have to delete the backup files (like temp.txt.sb-de6477ff-BhVNrq) manually.

I've had the issue on two different installations. I have tried deleting the sandbox container and repairing permissions from the recovery partition. Does anyone know what's going on?

I ended up replacing TextEdit's code signature with an ad-hoc signature:

sudo codesign -f -s - /Applications/TextEdit.app/

It disables sandboxing, so for example the preference files are in ~/Library/Preferences/ instead of the sandbox container.

Edit: The dialogs returned after I reinstalled OS X, and now I'm getting errors like this for codesign -f -s -:

$ sudo codesign -f -s - /Applications/TextEdit.app/
/Applications/TextEdit.app/: replacing existing signature
/Applications/TextEdit.app/: object file format unrecognized, invalid, or unsuitable

I'm using https://github.com/jjgod/TextEditPlus for now. It's based on a version of TextEdit that came with 10.7, but it works with 10.8.2.


Mac freezes when I try to open a particular Folder I am using Mac Book Pro with Mavericks. For last couple of weeks, I have been noticing that my whole machine going in to Freeze, when I try to open a particular folder.

Every time when I "force quit" (option+command+esc), I find the "Folder option" in a "Non response" mode.

Until I "Relaunch" the finder, It's not going back to normal.

What should I do? Is it happening for any virus or something?

Please share with me, if you have any idea.

Thanks in Advance.

It seems likely that the problem stems from corrupted data on your hard drive.
The Finder asks the FileSystem to give it information about the content of the folder and either the Finder fails to properly handle the error returned by the FileSystem or the FileSystem keeps trying endlessly to access the faulty data without properly returning.

In order to make sure it's not simply a Finder bug, check whether you can access the folder fine from a Terminal:

Open a Finder window and go to the parent of the problem folder.
Select the parent folder and command-click on it to reveal the contextual menu.
Select Get Info.
Look for the Where: field, it shows the actual path of the parent folder.
That will be something like /Users/your-user-name/Path/To/Parent
Select the path and copy it.
Open a Terminal window (press command-space and type terminal).
type cd (ending space) then paste the copied path. This should look like:

cd /Users/your-user-name/Path/To/Parent/problem-folder
If any folder in the path contains spaces, enclose the whole path with double quotes. I.e.: cd "/Users/your-user-name/Pa th/T o/Parent"

type ls -lR "problem-folder" replacing the last parameter with the name of the problem folder.

Normally this should list the content of the problem folder as well as that of all its subfolders (this should print a lot of text if the folder hierarchy is deep).

Since this completely bypasses the Finder, if this works it means that the bug lies with how the Finder deals with the folder data (for whichever reason). However if the Terminal freezes when running this command, this would really point toward a hard drive issue.

In the latter case I would recommend that you first run Apple's DiskUtility application and attempt to verify the disk:

Launch DiskUtility (press command-space and type Disk Utility).
On the left pane, select the hard drive your folder resides on.
On the right pane, click the Verify Disk button.

This should take a bit of time and will print a list of possible errors. If there are any issues and/or if the log indicates that you should run a repair on the disk then you should press the Repair button.
In any case it should not hurt if you choose to repair the disk even if no errors are displayed.

If a repair fixes the issue, then this likely indicates that the error was not due to a faulty hard drive but to invalid FileSystem data and you should be good to go again.

However, if the problem persists your hard drive could be the cause of the FileSystem corruption.

In this case I highly recommend to buy a more powerful disk diagnostic and repair program such as DiskWarrior (you will find it at http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/), it is one of the most reputed disk repair program on the Mac.

Update:

If ls -lR works correctly, this points to a Finder issue.
It could be a buggy QuickLook plugin which is triggered when opening the folder and which has trouble opening some of your files. This does not mean that these files are corrupt.

Using the terminal, use the mv command to move files to another folder to see if this fixes the issue. For example you could do:

mv problem-folder/a* fixa
mv problem-folder/b* fixb
etc.

Then try opening each of the fix folders to see which ones freeze or not.

This way you would be able to identify precisely which file(s) causes the issue if it's caused by a file.

If you have installed Quicklook plugins you might want to try to disable them temporarily to see if that fixes the issue.


Bootable usb stick created in windows won`t show in startup manager in mac My MacBook Pro (Early 2015) won't boot any more;  it boots into a flashing screen with a folder with question mark.

I downloaded a High Sierra DMG and created a bootable USB using both Transmac and PowerISO (in Windows 10) and none of them boots the system.

What should I do? Am i doing something wrong here?

EDIT:
I have tried from a ubuntu using dmg2img and then making a bootable stick by dd and it didn`t work either.

I haven't heard of any possible way to create a bootable USB drive on Windows, but if you have access to a Mac you can use Install Disk Creator to easily create the boot device.

Download Install Disk Creator
Download MacOS High Sierra from App Store
Open Install Disk Creator
Select your USB drive
Select the MacOS installer
Click Create installer


brew cask install java6 - Cannot install on volume / because it is disabled - MacOS 10.15 beta I've un/reinstalled brew,
turned off macOS Gatekeeper,
csrutil is disabled,
and a bunch of other things but brew cask install java6 always results in this:

> $ brew cask install java6                                        ⬡ 8.11.4 [±OLYM-152-optimizely-web-per-banner ✓]
==> Satisfying dependencies
==> Downloading https://support.apple.com/downloads/DL1572/en_US/javaforosx.dmg
Already downloaded: /Users/mmooring/Library/Caches/Homebrew/downloads/ef0dff3db9496248774373eb3eba27a50a91e83edda3fe32d2197db15a5ffc69--javaforosx.dmg
==> Verifying SHA-256 checksum for Cask 'java6'.
==> Installing Cask java6
==> Running installer for java6; your password may be necessary.
==> Package installers may write to any location; options such as --appdir are ignored.
installer: Cannot install on volume / because it is disabled.
installer: A newer version of this package is already installed.
==> Purging files for version 1.6.0_65-b14-468 of Cask java6
Error: Failure while executing; `/usr/bin/sudo -E -- env LOGNAME=mmooring USER=mmooring USERNAME=mmooring /usr/sbin/installer -pkg /usr/local/Caskroom/java6/1.6.0_65-b14-468/JavaForOSX.pkg -target /` exited with 1. Here's the output:
installer: Cannot install on volume / because it is disabled.
installer: A newer version of this package is already installed.
Follow the instructions here:
  https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask#reporting-bugs
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:111:in `assert_success'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:52:in `run!'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:29:in `run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/system_command.rb:33:in `run!'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:59:in `block in run_installer'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:65:in `with_choices_file'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:52:in `run_installer'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/artifact/pkg.rb:34:in `install_phase'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:214:in `block in install_artifacts'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/set.rb:777:in `each'
/System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/2.6/usr/lib/ruby/2.6.0/set.rb:777:in `each'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:205:in `install_artifacts'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/installer.rb:103:in `install'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:23:in `block in run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:16:in `each'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/install.rb:16:in `run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd/abstract_command.rb:36:in `run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:92:in `run_command'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:158:in `run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cask/cmd.rb:123:in `run'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/cmd/cask.rb:9:in `cask'
/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Homebrew/brew.rb:102:in `<main>'

I've tried and answers from this Apple StackExchange Question:
How to run an app that require Java SDK on macOS Catalina 10.15?

Any help will be greatly appreciated as I've been blocked now for a few days. ♂

I found a workaround here: https://oliverdowling.com.au/2015/10/09/oracles-jre-8-on-mac-os-x-el-capitan/

  You can have it (Java6) installed without actually using it, however, it’s
  possible to trick the applications into thinking legacy Java 6 is
  installed, without actually doing so.

  If you’re running El Capitan, this is actually a little difficult now,
  because Apple added SIP (System Integrity Protection) to OS X. I have
  written a post explaining how to disable and enable SIP.

  If you’ve disabled SIP, or are not running El Capitan yet, you can
  trick some applications into thinking legacy Java 6 is installed by
  creating two folders with the following commands in Terminal:

 $ sudo mkdir -p /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.6.0.jdk
 $ sudo mkdir -p /System/Library/Java/Support/Deploy.bundle

  Don’t forget to enable SIP again after creating these directories.


How do delete permanently (not hide) some of my iBooks? I have several iBooks that I have no interest in reading again. I want to delete them completely, but have only been successful in hiding them. I don't even want them in my iCloud storage now, but can't figure out what to do. I have iOS 9 and probably hundreds of books.

Open iBooks and right-click on a book you want to delete. When you right click you get several options and bottom option is delete. It then asks you if you want to permanently book and it deletes it from iCloud as well.


How to shrink (?) iMac's screen? I'm pretty sure there is a name for it, but I can't find it.

Is there a way to make my screen smaller? By "smaller", I mean...shrink the whole screen so that there are black borders.

I think I was able to do it in windows when I connected my PC to a TV.

Is there a way to do that in MacOS?

It doesn't seem to be possible to underscan an internal display on macOS, only over HDMI for external displays.

Underscan/Overscan is specifically an HDMI thing, as far as macOS is concerned.
I dug through the workings of the core frameworks responsible for display manipulation like two years ago and there was no way to accomplish what you're after. Like it's just not supported. You'd probably have to write your own graphics drivers to accomplish it, and I don't think that's terribly feasible. Sorry. :/

How do you Underscan/Overscan the internal display on a mac? - /r/osx


Why won’t desktops stay in order? I have created a number of desktops in which to keep Safari, Mail, iCal etc. These are all kept in full-screen mode and I have unchecked the setting to automatically rearrange spaces, yet whenever I restart my Mac the Spaces have changed order. Any ideas why?

You have a race condition and the outcome of it is non-deterministic.

They desktops get created in the order the programs are full-screened. So first desktop goes to the first application that tells the OS it wants to be full screen and so on. Apparently, when you resume your applications after a restart, they resume windowed and tell the OS that they should be full screen as they where before you shut down. The order in which they tell this to the OS is non-deterministic on every boot. They tell the OS, when they tell the OS, and in no particular order. So your full screen applications appear in random order every time you boot.

As of OS X 10.7.2, you can quickly re-order your desktops by bringing up Mission Control and then dragging the windows shown along the top of the screen in to the order you desire. Pre-10.7.2 you have to un-full screen all your applications and then re-full screen them in the order you want them to appear.


Under Mavericks with KeyRemap4MacBook my wireless keyboard doesn't register modifier keys I have the hyper key setup working on my rMBP 13" terrifically, but why I connect to my Apple wireless keyboard (Bluetooth) none of the hyper key combinations work (it doesn't send the modifier). I have caps lock set to be disabled in System Preferences, and if I try it on my MBP right beside me the commands work, but they don't on my external keyboard. Why is this?

For the record it seems to be sending escape instantly, and not waiting for the key up event.

Check if you have "do not remap external keyboard"  checked in Keyremap4macbook preferences.


Authenticate Mac users by LDAP I connected to the LDAP server with a special account and searching password using the Directory Utility.

When I set the LDAPv3 Service to RFC2307 LDAP Mappings, with SSL checked, I can move to Directory Editor and authenticate using the username and password for the LDAP directory. I cannot login to the computer however.

I did this:

Checked the box in Users & Groups - Allow network users to login ....
Clicked Options
Chose Only these network users
Clicked + and searched for my LDAP username
Selected the user name so it appears in the list.

When I try to login, the box only shakes and these log error messages arrive in the system.log.

Aug 31 10:35:58 MacBook-Pro SecurityAgent[1150]: User info context values set for
userid
Aug 31 10:35:58 MacBook-Pro authorizationhost[1157]: Failed to authenticate
user <userid> (error: 13).

Some guides on the web indicate error 13 to be so:

Indicates that the session is not protected by a protocol such as
Transport Layer Security (TLS), which provides session
confidentiality and the request will not be handled without
confidentiality enabled.

But I chose SSL and do not find a box or method to change this to TLS in the Mac Directory Utility. When I click Security in the setup section  (where I put the "use authentication when connecting" information) the Security Policy options are unavailable with the message "Server capabilities and requirements determine the availability of options."

So, I cannot choose to sign all packets or to Encrypt all packets...

When I choose other connection schemes, like Open Directory or Custom, I was unable to even authenticate in the Directory Editor window. (Error 500, 2100)

The "authentication when connecting" information is the same that I use for web applications that provide access by LDAP so it surely works in the field. Just not apparently from the Mac when trying to login.

Have any advice to allow users to authenticate on this mac by LDAP to access share folders?

Here are some settings that are working for now to provide a Default Kiosk Style Account logging in by ldap authentication.

Fileserver: MacBookPro
Mac OS: El Capitan

This is based on Connecting 10.5 to Stanford's LDAP

With this setup, all ldap users will log in, but have the same home directory and system user id. It is only useful if one ldap user at a time will log in to the machine.

Create the default user home folder contents

Make a standard user from Apple -> System preferences -> Users & Groups

User: ldaptemplate
Pass: randomAnyP@ssKe1

Login as the ldaptemplate. (Customize the desktop if you like.)

Logout

Make a folder with a unique id as the owner, then copy all inside ldaptemplate to the new folder.

su -s
mkdir /Users/ldap
rsync --quiet --recursive --links --perms --group --delete --extended-attributes /Users/ldaptemplate/ /Users/ldap
chown -R 900 /Users/ldap

Add the home directory reset script to the login hook

mkdir /Library/Management
nano /Library/Management/ldapcleanup.bash

Paste in the script below

#!/bin/bash
# /Library/Management/ldapcleanup.bash
# Copies the templates user home directory to the Kiosk user home dir
# When a Kiosk user logs in using LDAP authentication

templateDir="/Users/ldaptemplate/";
targetDir="/Users/ldap";
targetOwner=900;

# this script must be run as root, bail if it is not
if [ "$(whoami)" != "root" ]; then
echo "This script must be run as root!"
exit 0;
fi

# here we test to make sure both the directories we are using exist on this system
if [ ! -d $templateDir ] || [ ! -d $targetDir ]; then
echo "Either $templateDir or $targetDir did not exist!";
exit 0;
fi

# now we use rsync to make the target mirror the template
# note that we are not preserving owner
rsync --quiet --recursive --links --perms --group --delete --extended-attributes $templateDir $targetDir

# and then we make sure everything has the correct owner
chown -R $targetOwner $targetDir

exit 0;

Save the script and close the editor

control + x y return

Make the script run when a user logs in

 defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /Library/Management/ldapcleanup.bash

Exit root user terminal mode

exit

Add your ldap.server.tld to the list in Directory Services

command + space -> Directory Utility -> enter

Click lock and authenticate to make changes

Choose LDAPv3 -> Edit -> New

    Server Name or IP Address: ldap2.server.tld
    √ Encrypt using SSL
    √ Use for authentication
    Continue

Select Server -> Click Edit

Set all the parts of each tab like below, so they match your ldap server requirements and information fields provided. Stuff here, worked on this particular job.

Connection Tab:

Configuration name: ldap2.server.tld
Server Name or IP Address: ldap2.server.tld
default timeouts
√ Encrypt using SSL
Default port is 636 (your server may need custom)

Search & Mappings Tab

This part makes or breaks the login. I needed only a minimal setting in the end. Basically the things on the left side of the boxes can map to LDAP properties on the right side. They may be information about the person or account stuff like network home folder and many other things.

Choose Custom, erase everything from left box then add following.

> People         (Search base: ou=People,dc=server,dc=edu)
    RecordName   Map to uid
> UserAuthenticationData (Search base: ou=People,dc=server,dc=edu)
    RecordName  Map to uid
> Users      Search base: ou=People,dc=server,dc=edu)
             Map to inetOrgPerson
    AuthenticationAuthority  Map to uid
    EMailAddress             Map to mail
    FirstName                Map to givenName
    JobTitle                 Map to title
    LastName                 Map to sn
    NFSHomeDirectory         Map to #/Users/ldap
    OrganizationName         Map to serverEduStaffDepartment
                             (or some existing ldap field)
    PostalAddress            Map to postalAddress
    PrimaryGroupID           Map to #900
    RealName                 Map to cn (users ldap full name)
    RecordName               Map to aid (users ldap id)
    UniqueID                 Map to #900
                            (Default owner of that folder we made)
    UserShell                #/bin/bash

Security tab:

This ldap server requires the group authorized account to search it. Without this account the login screen on the Mac showed a red dot, unable to connect to the network. This information is setup and provided by the LDAP admin team in this organization.

Access to Directory
  √ Use authentication when connecting
  Distinguished Name: uid=someid,ou=SomeGroup,dc=server,dc=edu
  Password: somelongpasswordstringprovidedbyldapadmins

Click OK, OK

Choose Search Policy

Click +
Add your new LDAP server to the list

Choose Directory Editor an try to use the LDAP search and login.

Select Users in node /LDAPv3/ldap.server.tld
    * Try searching for your id, If you can't find it something wrong
      with setup.
    * Click the lock to authenticate. If you can't something did not
      map right. Check that mac did not auto-correct 'uid'

Click lock to de-authenticate

Close Directory Utility

Allow network login from Users & Groups

This part is just telling mac to check the ldap directory for user accounts.

Click Apple -> System preferences -> Users & Groups

    Automatic Login: Off
    Display login window as Name and password
    Show fast user switching menu as Full Name
    Click the lock to make changes and authenticate
    √ Allow network users to log in at login window
    Click Edit near Network Account Server:
    Click + and choose the ldap server created previously

After these changes, the MacBook was rebooted and I could log in as LDAP authenticated users. Log messages now show:

Sep  1 13:40:24 MacBook-Pro SecurityAgent[652]: User info context
                values set for auser
Sep  1 13:40:44 MacBook-Pro KeyAccess[62]: opened session B8860100,
                auser (en_US)

After all the setup was done, the answer to the original question, "Have any advice to allow users to authenticate on this mac by LDAP to access share folders?" is to setup everything like above, then share the folder with the network user.

Add network logins to the shared resource

Click Apple -> System preferences -> Sharing
Choose File Sharing
Select the Shared Folder:
Click + in the Users box
Choose Network Users
Search for the ldap ID you want to add
Highlight the user
Click Select

After this, when the backup toy was launched, the network users authenticated and the script ran as well as it did when authenticated against the local user account.


Cannot change App Store Country I am in the US and want to download an app, only in the US Store.

I tried changing the App Store Country, but seem to hit an impasse.

When entering my Credit Card details I cannot select Australia as the billing address.

I have 2 MasterCards, one Travel Money card with $US, and my Australian card.

I give up - this is apparently not possible!

I can't change App Store Country without changing Family Sharing.

A valid US postal address (could be your current hotel) is needed, and then you need to select NONE at the credit card - because you just buy some US iTunes gift cards, and load them into your new US Apple ID account, from where you'll pay for the apps you download.

And you can still use this US Apple ID when you are back in Australia - for app updates and new purchase from the App Store.


USB CDC ACM device cannot be set to use 1.5Mbaud I have a device which supports a USB Virtual COM port. When the device is connected and the serial port is configured to use 115200-8-N-1, I have no problem using minicom, screen, etc. to communicate with my device. However, when I configure the device to use 1.5Mbaud instead, Darwin refuses to operate the interface at 1.5Mbaud. I tested the device on Debian using minicom at 1500000-8-N-1 to confirm that the device is operating correctly.

First, it appears that stty does not allow the user to set the baud rate to 1.5Mbaud.

stty -f /dev/tty.usbmodemXXXX 115200

Succeeds, while

stty -f /dev/tty.usbmodemXXXX 1500000

Fails with stty: tcsetattr: Invalid argument and nothing more. I have seen this question, but I don't seem to be having this issue, and trying all of the answers provided only causes stty to hang without successfully changing the baud rate.

It gets better. When I run minicom, which supposedly initializes the interface to use 1500000-8-N-1 (the configuration in my .minirc.dfl), I have confirmed from the device side that the interface is not running at 1.5Mbaud, but at some baud rate that's much lower instead (haven't confirmed what the exact speed is).

I'm really stuck on this one. The strange behavior seems to suggest a driver problem, and I've heard that Apple's com.apple.driver.usb.cdc.acm driver is still not fully-featured. Might this be the issue? Thanks for your help!

It is a driver problem. The com.apple.driver.usb.cdc.acm driver actually instantiates an IOSerialBSDClient for the device, as seen in the output from ioreg:

+-o IOUSBHostInterface@1  <class IORegistryEntry:IOService:IOUSBNub:IOUSBInterface, id 0x100007a62, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (208 ms), retain 7>
  +-o AppleUSBACMData  <class IORegistryEntry:IOService:IOSerialStreamSync:IORS232SerialStreamSync:AppleUSBSerial:AppleUSBACMData, id 0x100007a6c, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 6>
    +-o IOSerialBSDClient  <class IORegistryEntry:IOService:IOSerialBSDClient, id 0x100007a72, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 5>

Which is very limited in the number of baud rates that it supports. Version 11 of the IOSerialFamily, the version on my machine, only supports the baud rates listed in the static struct speedtab iossspeeds[] in the IOSerialBSDClient class source. I tested this by successfully setting the baud rate for the interface to 1843200.

The solution, unfortunately, will probably require me to locate a generic driver that supports the baud rate I require.


Spaces (Mission Control) jumps to a space but won't stay there I have two spaces. When I try to jump from the left space to the right one using the swipe gesture, the right space shows briefly but then the screen immediately jumps back to the left.

As a result, I can't get to my right space. As you can imagine, this is quite annoying. I just noticed this happening in the last couple of days.

In my left space I'm running Sublime Text 3. I also have a few Google Chrome windows. In my right space I have more Chrome windows.

I'm running Mac OS X 10.8.3. I have none of the checkboxes checked in the Mission Control section under System Preferences.

There are a few "workarounds":

If I move all of my Chrome windows to the right space, I don't have the problem anymore. This hardly solves the problem.
As a last resort, I can kill the right space, which at least gives me access to those windows. This does not address my core problem (which comes back shortly).

Any ideas on the culprit? What can I do to fix, other than a workaround (such as the ones I list above)?

I cannot reproduce the problem at present, so it is "solved". So, "hooray" (spoken in a quiet, self-defeated voice).


SD slot for mac mini Last year I purchased a Mac Mini from MacMall. It came without a manual or  instructions.  I'm trying to find a slot in the back to install a SanDisk card to view pictures off a trail cam. The slots will not take the card directly.  Yesterday I drove 50 miles to a Best Buy and purchased an Insignia adaptor which the salesman assured me would fit any computer made. There are only two tiny slots at the back of the mac mini and the Insignia adaptor is too large to fit into either of them. Can any one offer me some advice or must I assume the mac mini will not take any SD card.  Ron

The Mac mini, since Mid 2011, has one Secure Digital (SDXC) card slot.  Prior to that, the Mid 2010 models have one Secure Digital (SD) card slot and prior to 2010 the Mac mini has no card slot.

Back side of Mac mini (Late 2014):

If the flash memory card is a micro card, then to use the SD/SDXC card slot, you need an SD card Adapter as shown in the example image below.

If you do not want to use the SD card slot then you'll need a USB SD Card Reader. As an example, the Insignia™ - USB 2.0 SD/MMC Memory Card Reader - Black, which is compatible with, SD, SDHC, SDXC, microSD, microSDHC, microSDXC, MMC and MMC+ memory cards on PC and Mac, shown in the image below.


Is it possible to shut down an Ipod nano 6th generation? If yes, how?

If no, why such a decision?

According to Apple Support:

  If the iPod nano is paused, and you
  press the Sleep/Wake button to turn
  off the screen, the following behavior
  will take place:

  For 36 hours after pressing the Sleep/Wake button and turning off the
  screen, iPod nano is in Standby, and
  will quickly wake up when you press
  the Sleep/Wake button again.
  After 36 hours in Standby with no activity, iPod nano will shut down
  automatically. Pressing the Sleep/Wake
  button after iPod nano is shut down
  will turn on iPod nano, and boot to
  the main Home screen.
  (Your iPod nano is considered paused if there is no music or FM radio playback, or an active pedometer session.)

Additional Information

A fully charged iPod nano provides up to 24 hours of music playback time.


Apple Mail vs Thunderbird performance I'm running Apple Mail 5.3 and Thunderbird 17.0.4 on Mac OS Lion 10.7.5. The system I'm running those apps it's an iMac with 3Gb of RAM and 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo.

I run both applications at the same time and I got those results looking with the Activity Monitor.

As you can see, Apple Mails consumes a little bit less than Thunderbird but uses more virtual memory.

My question is, which one has better performance? Apple Mail or Thunderbird? I ask this because that was a puntual test, and I don't know if they get stressed when looking for RSS feeds or email on the inbox.

Do you know any other mail app which works better looking on the performance?

usualy mail applications all lay around the same in preformance and memory depending on size of inbox, file sizes, nr of RSS's there are many variables, but the general thing is they only use enough to have an impact on performance, whenever they are grabbing new information! (not even then) but in order to minimize CPU usage you should set "grab mail" too manual

as far as tip on good mail client.. check out sparrow!


Is it possible to back up in-app purchases and game saves? Is it possible to back up in-app purchases (i.e. full game unlock) and game saves such that an iOS app can be deleted and later re-installed from the .ipa file? I'm using a 3rd generation iPad (model A1430; iOS 9.3.5).

Edit: I had recently re-installed the game "Escape: Norm's World XL" by IUGO Mobile but it appears IUGO's server required to restore my purchase of the local multiplayer mode no longer works. I contacted Apple and they told me to contact IUGO Mobile. Unfortunately, IUGO Mobile hasn't replied to my e-mails. I was hoping there was a way to backup and restore (local game mode) unlocks to avoid this situation when replacing my iPad.

Normally apps that sell in-app-unlocks (as apposed to like packs of currency or the like) will have a button to restore purchases. This will give you the unlock again after it checks your account.

It is dependant on the app though. IF the game has login system with a username and password etc, then it may keep track of the purchase from your login information.


How to export Epubs from iPad to my Mac? I have a bunch of books in iBooks in the ePub format from different sources. Some are iTunes, some Humble, LeanPub etc. I have notes and markings in there as well.

I would like to export all of that to my Mac. The iTunes books are ok. But I cannot find a way to export the other books and notes. How can I do that?

I copied this section from: http://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-export-ibooks-from-iphone-ipad-to-computer/ I am not sure how much of it is useful to you.

1). Get a file explorer. Usually, iExplorer should do just fine.
2). Connect your iPhone or iPad to the computer and fire up iExplorer
3). Open your iPhone/iPad as a mounted device and navigate to:
Media → Books → Purchases

The funniest thing is that you won’t be able to decipher what file corresponds to what book from your library because, like music, the file names are encrypted. Nevertheless, you can copy stuff now.
This folder method gives you access to all files including .epub, .pdf and all types you have purchased. You might want to check out epub to pdf converters to make a readable copy of the epub iBooks you’ve got.


Removing Internet Account without losing old messages in Messages App I use Gmail and Messages app on OS X. I would like to remove the Internet Account, and preserve my historical messages. If I go to remove the Gmail Internet Account, I get a warning:

  Deleting this account will remove its data from Mail, Messages.

I realize that I can simply disable the account, but I want to remove it all together while preserving the historical messages.

Here are the instructions for Messages and Gmail.

Backing up Gmail / Any or All of your Google Products Data

Google Takeout: The simplest of the backup snapshot offerings is the one provided by Google: Google Takeout. From your Google settings, you can export just about all of your Google data, across all your Google applications. Google Takeout dumps the data either into your Google Drive or lets you download a pile of ZIP files. It's easy, comprehensive, and free.

Create an archive with your data from any or all of your Google products.  https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Locate your Messages archive

In the Messages app, go to Messages > Preferences.
Check the "Save history when conversations are closed" box.
In the Finder, head to the Go menu and select Go to Folder.

Type in ~/Library/Messages

You should see two folders: Archive and Attachments along with a file database labeled "chat.db".

Archive holds all your past messages from conversations that you've closed or saved; Attachments holds all the images and video from those conversations. The chat.db holds all the information from your active message history.

Archived conversations are labeled pretty clearly: They're all in folders labeled by date closed, and individual files give you the name of the participant along with the date and time. Open one, and you'll see the conversation pop up in Messages.

You can't edit, search, or export conversations to a different format, but you can copy and paste sentences and load it through the Messages App while having an archive.


How can you replace macOS's bouncing dock icon animation? I often find macOS's endlessly repeating "I want your attention" dock bounce animation irritating, so I disabled it with the command defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE , followed by killall Dock.

I'd still like a visual cue when an app needs my attention, just a subtler one. Can the bouncing animation be replaced with a repeating toggle between the normal and translucent appearances of an dock icon, or some other low-distraction animation?

NOTE: The translucent dock icon appearance applies when an app is hidden. It can be enabled with defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool TRUE. To be clear, if I can replace the animation as suggested above, I don't want apps to be repeatedly hidden and shown while the animation is playing. That is what I assume would happen if, as would seem logical, the translucency adjustment controlled by com.apple.Dock showhidden can't be set independently of the actual hidden/visible status of the corresponding application.

With regard to the ‘endlessly repeating’, you don't need to activate the app or otherwise deal with the issue being notified to you with the bounce.

Instead, move your mouse over the bouncing icon in the Dock. This will mute the app and stop the bouncing.