How can I enable Safari 13.1 (Catalina) to render specific unicode characters? Since upgrading to macOS Catalina (10.15.4) I realized that Safari (13.1) can no longer render my lovely black truck(⛟). If I inspect this element in the developer console or copying the character into the url bar, everything is rendered perfectly fine, but in the web view, I only get the white square displayed. The same problem exists on 2 other Catalina machines, but not on the 10.14 and 10.13 Safaris.

How can I fix this on Catalina?

Display of unicode characters in any app normally requires that a font with that character be installed on the machine.  Black Truck (U+26df) is not in any MacOS font for 10.13, 10.14, or 10.15 as far as I can tell, so you would need to install one of those mentioned on this page to see it.

MS Word comes with one of them,  Segoe UI, so if that app is present and that font is available to other apps, then you should be able to see 26df (⛟).


Hide certain files/folders from "All My Files" How can I hide certain files or folders from "All my files" I'm developing a website with 100s of icons and now they making this section in finder quite redundant.

See this this morning on Mac OS X Hints.com:

10.7: Customize All My Files

I agree that in the case of pros, this All my files thing is quite useless because there is way too many files. This is more a consumer-level thing.


Yosemite - Mail not working After installing Yosemite, Clicked on "Mail" it said, "Installing, will take a few minutes" when that finishes, it says "optimizing mailboxes" and then immediately crashes.

Tried deleting accounts, and then adding them back.  Tried rebooting.  Still the same happens each time.  Can you offer helpful suggestions?

A couple of things to try:

Go to System Preferences > Internet Accounts > Turn off any email accounts, and try launching Mail again.

Open Terminal.app, and paste or type:     ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail/Data/Library/

Find the Saved Application State folder, drag it to Trash, and try opening Mail. Finder will re-create the folder, and this should clear out anything that may have been corrupted when you updated OS X.


Is it recommended to use Mac wifi sharing for long periods of time? I am going to be buying a MacBook Pro within the next few months (hopefully an updated version if it comes out) for university this autumn.

I am wondering, due to the Uni halls having only wired Internet, whether using the hotspot feature of the mac is appropriate for extended periods of time? This would be for the use of my iPhone and iPad which do not connect via Ethernet obviously.

I know I could buy a wifi router but was just wondering as this method (via MacBook) would be cheaper and more portable.

The Internet Sharing "hotspot" feature does work well for this. However, it is WEP only and you are stuck with the default IP address range unless you do some hacking. I use an Airport Express and I find it's very convenient, supports "more" secure connections(WPA), and is configurable. It's also always available, never goes to sleep and never drains a battery. It can become a pain always having to have your MBP available for your iOS devices.

Being in an University environment, I would want to use something a little more secure then WEP.

Also, you can adjusts the signal strength on the AE. Turn it down if you'd like it to just cover your room. Turn it up if there is a lot of other WIFI going on. I'm not sure what kind of range you'll get on the MBP and how many connections it will handle well.

The MBP will work in a pinch. I'd get a dedicated device to save yourself time, and hassle.


Can I run a terminal on IOS with sandboxed filesystem (w/o jailbreak)? Can I run a terminal app on IOS with a sandboxed filesystem (no jailbreak).  E.g. is there an app that allows me to locally install linux on an IOS device (without jailbreak)?

More precisely: I am not looking for an ssh client, but for a way to install locally on IOS e.g. something like homebrew, e.g. to use arbitrary programming languages or emacs or vim or latex or clojure or haskell or etc ;)

So, it would be totally fine, if such an app has its own unix-style file system and only commandline, i.e. no GUI.

Sorry to resurrect an old question. . .

I was actually browsing for info on a new iOS app that sort of does just what this question is asking about, emulates a Linux environment via a pretty slick terminal app.

It's called iSH. Still in beta but I think you can get a Testflight invite right on the homepage.

It even has pseudo access to the Files app.

For instance, you can make a directory with mkdir, create a script with the terminal using any number of editors, and then open said script in the Files app like it were an iCloud text document in your TextEdit folder.

But, as far as I can tell, you can not move that script directly to Dropbox, or your TextEdit folder on iCloud.

You can, however, copy and share the text via the share extension.

Anyone else been screwing with this app?

Here's the GitHub link to the project, and they've got a Twitter and reddit, too.

A few screenshots of the app in action on an iPad with the Files app, and without:


Thunderbird Could not connect to server My wife's MacBook Pro running macOS 10.14.3 suddenly developed a problem with Thunderbird 60.7.0.

It cannot connect to any email server and produces an error "Could not connect to server" "The connection was ref..."

I have checked the email accounts, and can logon from Google Chrome on my iMac and on her computer.

What steps can we take to resolve this without losing existing emails?

Time Machine backup (about a week ago) and a fresh backup just now.
Time & Date OK.
I deleted Thunderbird app, and re-installed from a fresh download. Problem remains (as expected).

Apologies for the question.

After further analysis I found ApolloSearch running and busily downloading.
Killing this with MalwareBytes and updating to latest macOS seemed to "fix" the problem.

Not sure why this just seemed to affect Thunderbird, or how it got there.

It would still be handy to know how to kill Thunderbird without losing emails.


\u2018 includes a whitespace character under Mac OS X Regardless of whether I use the GNU version of printf--and regardless of whether I'm using the \u2018 escape sequence in printf or in nodejs's console.log--the unicode character ‘ is always interpreted as the character with a space following it.

Any ideas on how to get this behavior to stop?

As it turns out the problem was an option that I had set in iTerm2.  When you have the following option set for your iTerm2 profile, \u2018 is interpreted as an ambiguous-width char and so is considered to be double-width, but since it isn't an double-width character, such as a kanji, a space gets appended to it.

Just make sure that you have the following option unchecked:


How can I change the font used in Preview PDF notes? As of Mountain Lion, Preview has been "upgraded" with a ridiculous font choice for its Notes (Control-Command-N). I use them all the time in PDF files and suffer from the Comic Sans feeling of Marker Felt.

Is it possible to change the font used by Preview to show notes?

It does not seem that the question has already been asked.

Sadly, it is not possible to change the font used by Preview for Notes - this is denoted by Apple an 'UnEditable'.

This thread on the Apple forums (which I can't take credit for) provides a couple of work arounds such as using Annotations instead of notes (as these are editable) or post-editing comments in Adobe Acrobat Reader XI, but not an actual solution to this problem.


inetloc files broken in Mojave 10.14.2 I usually distribute inetloc files to people who need to occasionally access shared drives... they're super convenient, and, since their existence, it's been possible to include passwords (though in plain text)..
For those who don't know what I'm talking about, open TextEdit, type in the following:

smb://login:password@address/Sharepoint

then select the whole thing, drag it to the desktop and, voilà, you've got a ready-made shortcut to your shared drive!

The Problem Is: as of 10.14.2, Mojave ignores the included password and puts up a password dialog, which defeats the whole purpose of these shortcuts..
Indeed, the problem is that these shortcuts can include the password without the user having to ever re-enter it

(Additionally, inetloc files have never worked to mount NFS shares)

So, the only solution now is to create an AppleScript app (using Script Editor) with the following command:

tell application "Finder" to mount volume "smb://login:password@address/Sharepoint"

note that this works with nfs shares too -- even though inetloc files never did...

Alternatively, you can use the command:

tell application "Finder" to open location

but that no longer works with nfs shares since 10.14.2 either


iTunes connect - app sales not showing 2 people told me (in the last 24 hours) that they bought an app I sent to App Store, but neither App Analytics nor Sales and Trends in iTunes Connect show a thing, they show there isn't any sale and no analytics at all.

How can I see the information of the app correctly? Why is this happening?

iTunesConnect stats are not real-time.  It usually takes 24 hours, sometimes longer depending on where the sale took place, time of day, etc., for app sales to be displayed.  If it's been more than 48 hours since the sale and you still don't see it in iTC, contact Apple's developer support.

For analytics, the user has to explicitly tell Apple that they want to share analytic data and logs with both Apple and the developer.  That question is usually only asked once during the initial iOS setup on that device.  Did both those users indicate they're willing to share this data?  If not, you won't see it.  The user can change their selection in Settings but it's a global setting and not for each different app/developer.


Why is sysdiagnose constantly running? Every ten minutes or so sysdiagnose hogs all my CPU cores. Trying to Google for the problem leads to a lot of advice of how to run sysdiagnose as a solution to other problems. I guess it is another app running it constantly, any way to easily work out which one?

It was bound to Cmd-Opt-Shft-Ctrl-W or (Q not sure which)
I was using them to power a Keyboard Maestro macro, using a different shortcut has resolved the issue.
Credit to @anki for point this out


Macbook Air: shutdown on 50% battery Target machine: MacBook Air, 13-inch, early 2014, MacOS Sierra 10.12.6, used for 4 years very carefully without any problems.

Battery has only 70 cycles, condition reported as "Normal", and still works good on long flights.

However, yesterday I faced a problem, when the battery was about 50%, system just performed hard shutdown. I tried to turn it on twice, it kept shutting down after 2-3 seconds after the system boot. After plugging in power it works without any problems.

I doubt if I can reproduce the problem, it means I should work from the battery in the moment of shutdown (and lose work results)

Does anyone met the problem? How to detect the reason, is it hardware or software, or just system settings (I believe, it should be warning and regular shut down, never drained the battery before)?

Judging from the symptoms I highly suspect it's an issue with the battery. I recently had my late 2013 Macbook Retina serviced because it experienced exactly the same issue: Immediate shutdown when the battery was drained to 60%. It would instantly turn back on if connected to power. My battery was 5 years old and had about 240 cycles. The apple engineer told me that the battery needs to be replaced because it was so old and coulndn't hold a charge.

What does the System Information (Click on Apple Logo while holding down option to access it) report about your battery?

Can you check what coconut battery reports about the remaining actual charge? It would be really interesting to see what the actual fully charged capacity of your battery is and the designed capacity. If it's less than 80% of the designed capacity when the battery is fully charged then I would recommend replacing the battery regardless of its cycle count.


Accidently formated my external 1TB hard drive! Is there any way to recover the data off of my 1TB hard drive once it has been erased? From my mac I just selected that external drive and clicked on erase and both the partions are gone now :(

PS: I havn't copied anything on it.

There are only 2 options at this point, #1 is to try a data recovery program and #2 is to have your hard drive sent in to a professional data recovery lab where they actually physically recover the data from the drive, but this can cost $1,000s. I have lost many many hard drives do to corruption and accidentally erasing and the best option for me has been to use Data Rescue. I actually just got done recovering over a TB worth of photos and videos from one of my hard drives and data rescue works wonderfully. I have tried many other data recovery applications and none of them work as well as this one. I hope this helps.


How do I add System Apps to menu items toolbar? I'd like to add System Apps to menu items toolbar e.g. show I am hotspotting with my iPhone?

The below first 6 apps (e.g. network app), are utility style apps for me, and I would prefer they be out of my Dock and in the top right hand corner (menu items bar). How do I do this?

Plus a 7th app, which is a purchased app via the App Store.

System:

Yosemite 10.10.3
Installed Bartender app (this app allows you resequence menu item icons and pop desired apps into a sub "menu item bar" -- very nice!)

Bartender app does not appear to allow me to add System Apps that I am always using as there is no setting in the app "make menu item".

OS X system preference - Network so I can see internet connectivity when hotspotting to iphone. Similar to Wi-Fi indicator but Hotspot.
OS X System Preferences
OS X Activity Monitor
OS X Terminal App
OS X Automator
OS X Calendar App
A purchased app from App Store called Screen Rotate, so I can use my macbook like an ebook reader

A simple way to accomplish what you ask is to use AppleScripts. The result will be a Status menu represented by the script icon as shown below. (Hint: for a better view, click the image.)

Using the Finder, navigate to your home folder. From the Finder menus select View → Show View Options. Make sure "Show Library Folder" is checked off as shown below. (Home folder was shown in list view)

Create the ~/Library/Scripts folder, if it does not already exist.
Open Script Editor application. In the Preferences for the Script Editor, check the box "Show Script menu in menu bar" and uncheck the box "Show Computer scripts". An example is shown below. The script icon should now appear on the menu bar.

Using the Script Editor application, create a single line script for each menu item you want to appear in the scripts menu. Each file name should be the same spelling as will appear in the menu. Save each script file to the folder ~/Library/Scripts.

For Activity Monitor:

do shell script "open -a '/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app'"

For Automator:

do shell script "open -a /Applications/Automator.app"

For Calendar:

do shell script "open -a /Applications/Calendar.app"

For Network:

do shell script "open /System/Library/PreferencePanes/Network.prefPane/"

For Screen Rotate, you are on your own. I assume this would be similar to System Preferences.

For System Preferences:

do shell script "open -a '/Applications/System Preferences.app'"

For Terminal:

do shell script "open -a /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app"

After saving the script files, the menu items should appear in the script menu.


How can I connect to an external monitor and charge my Macbook Pro with one wire? I have a 2020 Macbook Pro (with the M1 chip). I also recently got an ASUS ProArt display which has an HDMI port, Display Port and some USB ports.
I wanted to see if it's possible to connect the external monitor as a second screen, while also charging my Macbook using the same wire.
I understand that I need a hub of some sort and a wire that can handle both tasks.
What are the specifications for hardware that would allow me to connect one cable to my M1 Mac and have power and a display share a cable?

In general the cleanest solution to achieve this is usually a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 monitor. These connectors not only have capacity for the video signal, but also feature power and USB passthrough to the MacBook.
If you don't have a USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 capable monitor, you would need to get a separate USB-C Hub or docking station. They usually not only feature a video output (usually HDMI), but also USB and SD card slots, sometimes even Ethernet. Yet, be careful: although USB-C is fast (5Gb/s) it is limited, i.e. if you connect 3 external SSDs, a 4K monitor and want 1Gb/s Ethernet, that's obviously not going to work.

You mention you have an ASUS Pro Art display. Without knowing the exact model, on ASUS website they are all featured as either USB-C or Thunderbolt 3 capable, so you should actually be able to only plug one Thunderbolt 3/USB-C cable into your M1 Mac and be ready to go. Some of them even feature a USB-Hub, which means there are some old-style USB-A ports on the monitor which will also be passed through via the USB-C/Thunderbolt connector to your MacBook. Even further some allow daisy chaining, so you can connect another Thunderbolt device to the monitor and use that as well.

Read more about the difference between Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C.


How do I change the name of the hard drive Right now my hard drive is called "Macintosh HD." How do I change it to something cool like "Death Killer"

You can rename a file or a drive by selecting it by clicking on it, pressing "return", typing the new name, and pressing "return" again to set it. There are a few restricted characters, like :, but for the most part you can name it anything you want.


How to disable zoom-out in Safari in split-screen on El Capitan? In split view on El Capitan Safari zooms-out some websites, making them unreadable (and making split view unusable).

Is there any hidden setting to disable this?
I tried to use setting in 'Advanced' preferences that is called 'Never use fonts smaller than X' - it does not seem to make any difference. Also there is nothing in TinkerTool about that.

As an example, this is how Chrome and Safari behave in the same situations:

When Safari side takes minimum space, Safari completely "zooms-out" website and shows "overview" (?) of the web-page:

When Chrome side takes minimum space, it still shows normal font sizes without any special treatment. (Notice how this web page looks normally in Safari):

This effect looks cute, but is not very useful in my opinion.

Can this behaviour be disabled, so Safari behaves like it does when window is just resized?

Just scale it yourself with ⌘+. With the split in the middle, ⌘++ will scale it to 100%.

FWIW I much prefer Safari's scaling—it should be a preference.


How to get my external and internal drives to show up on the desktop I have a 2020 iMac running Catalina. I would like for my internal drive and my external drives to show up on my desktop. Currently I have a blank desktop. I have tried going to Finder/Preferences and selecting the General tab. From General I check the boxes for Hard Disks and Internal Disk but they don't show up. Is there a command line tool to display them?
When I first started my new computer the internal drive and the external drives all showed up on my desktop. Later that day I used migration assistant to transfer the files i wanted to to my new machine. Since then none of my drives show up on the desktop.

In Terminal, run the following compound command:
defaults delete com.apple.finder; killall -HUP Finder

Then go to Finder > Preferences… > General and under Show these items on the desktop, check Hard disks and check External disks.


Convert single unicode character to png image I need to convert a Unicode character (e.g. ⦿; CIRCLED BULLET; U+29BF) to a PNG image for use within a reporting tool (Crystal Reports).  I need to preserve the font, size, and formatting of the character.

Is there a more-accurate way to do this than just ⌘⇧+4 and a less-burdensome way than Gimp or Seashore?

Using ImageMagick:

convert -pointsize 64 -font /System/Library/Fonts/Apple\ Symbols.ttf label:⦿ output.png

convert -background transparent -fill 'hsb(0%,0%,0%)' -font /System/Library/Fonts/Apple\ Symbols.ttf -pointsize 64 -size 200x200 -gravity center label:⦿ output.png


Create a bookmark to a site in the dock Is it possible to have an icon in the dock which is a link to some specific site and opens it in Chrome when clicked?

I'd like to put Trello in the Dock so that to quickly access it when needed.

Yes it is. If Google Chrome is your default browser.

Procedure

Go to Trello.com in Chrome
Drag the text in the URL field to the desktop. This will create a document that ends in .webloc. EG "Trello.webloc"
Drag that icon into the right side of the dock (it's a document and has to be to the right of the divider bar)

I had forgotten that you could drag the bookmark out of the URL bar directly into the dock. Do it that way if it suits you, either works.

Now when you click on that icon trello.com (or any .webloc document) will open in your default browser.

(This works in Safari and I don't have Chrome handy on this Mac to test. I am assuming that Chrome for Mac behaves the same as Safari in this respect)


Upload photos synced from iTunes to iCloud I have about 1500 photos on my iPhone which I imported from my old HTC Titan, through iTunes. I recently tried to turn on iCloud Photo Library and it said it would delete all my photos from my old phone (!)

How can I combine my old photos with my current ones?

First upload the old photos using https://www.icloud.com/#photos

Once they are securely uploaded, you can then check that the old photos can safely be deleted since the phone will then re-download them from the cloud.


How to use and access web sharing with Mac OS X Lion? I am new to Mac OS X, and I have a MacBook Pro. I am developing a web application with PHP and MySQL. I already installed XAMPP on my Mac. I discovered the option for hosting in System Preferences > Sharing > Web Sharing, but I don't know how to use it or how to tell my friend to view my web application remotely. Can someone help me?

Web Sharing opens port 80 (http) on your machine and points any incoming requests to ~/Sites. You'll want to put your PHP app there for it to work through Web Sharing. I'm not sure if there is any further configuration you have to do on the PHP/MySQL side since I don't know anything about either of those languages. That's probably a question for SuperUser.

As far as accessing it remotely, you'll need to open port 80 on your router and point it to your computer's internal IP address. Then you'll want to give your friend either your domain name or your current IP address from your ISP and have them type it in their web browser.


Is it possible to reinstall Mountain Lion using Lion Time Machine backup? I have an old MacBook which cannot run anything newer than 10.7.5 Lion. I do regular Time Machine backups to an external drive. I plan to buy a new MacBook Air, but I want to make the migration as smooth as possible, with all my apps, configs and files copied and set just like on the old Mac. I was thinking of re-installing Mountain Lion on the new Air and selecting the old Lion backup as "from backup" source during installation. Will it work? Has anyone tried this and can share experience/problems?

Or maybe I should downgrade Air to Lion (how?), re-install from backup, then upgrade to ML?

When a newer Mac migrates data from an older OS, the system has upgrade scripts to make sure that the data lands properly on the new system.

These scripts handle all Apple software and perhaps a few high profile programs in case that Apple has found a need to clean up other data.

Migration the other way isn't tested, no scripts or support is provided and in fact, the system normally detects you are moving data backwards and refuses to restore in the first place.

You should be fine restoring a Lion backup onto any Mac with Mountain Lion. You don't need to reinstall anything - just don't run the Setup Assistant until you have the external drive and can move everything to the new mac.

Running an older OS on a newer Mac is also problematic, since often drivers are missing and again, Lion will check and refuse to install on hardware that is too new in general.


MacBook Pro connected to Dell monitor display issue I have rather a strange issue when I try to connect a dell monitor to MacBook Pro.
Firstly the Dell monitor won't detect the signal from MacBook if I connect it immediately after the laptop is booted. It takes a while (I didn't measure how long) for the monitor to detect the signal from MacBook after lot of attempts.

This is not the end of the problem. If I want to log in back after my MacBook goes to sleep mode, then it won't wake up. I have to disconnect it from the Dell monitor in order to log in back, worst of all sometimes I need to force shutdown the MacBook to log in back.

I am using a DVI connector from Monoprice to connect the Dell monitor to my MacBook.

What could be the issue? Any help is appreciated.

Given that nobody seems to have any idea what the solution might be, I'll give you the Ask Different Backup Answer to Hardware Problems (aka ADBAtHP): go to your local Apple Store (or Apple Authorized Reseller) and ask them. Take your Mac, the adapter, and the monitor so they can reproduce it. They'll probably try other monitors, other adapters, and other Macs to see what the issue might be. Hopefully you're under warranty and/or it's just a bad mini DisplayPort adapter, as that's the cheapest fix.


Mail: Separate unread counts (badges) on dock icon for different accounts I have multiple accounts configured in Mail and I would like to see the separate unread counts in the dock icon.

I was looking at dockstar. When I google I see that another plugin Mailbadger is also available (the homepage is down for quite sometime now, and the download available via macupdate and others seem to be outdated)

Is there another/better app/plugin for customizing Mail's dock icons?

For all the software I searched and see the detailed specs, Dockstar is the best choice for the feature you are requesting.


Is it possible to submit not sandboxed app to the Mac App Store I have an AppleScript Cocoa application that does a lot of shell scripts like kill or chflags. Is there any way I can try to send it on review to MAS and get it approved?

According to Wikipedia:

  Disallowed types of applications revealed by Apple include new apps
  that are not sandboxed (as of June 1, 2012). At WWDC 2013, Apple
  announced that this rule no longer applied, and that so-called
  "temporary exceptions" may be used when the app has a reason not to be
  sandboxed.

However, Apple OS X Developer website states that sandboxing is required for Mac App Store.

According to this it is possible but with caveat.

App Sandbox Temporary Exception Entitlements

  Note: This chapter describes property list keys specific to the OS X
  implementation of App Sandbox. They are not available in iOS.

  A temporary exception entitlement permits your OS X app to perform
  certain operations otherwise disallowed by App Sandbox.

  If you need to request a temporary exception entitlement, use Apple’s
  bug reporting system to let Apple know what’s not working for you.
  Apple considers feature requests as it develops the OS X platform.

  Note: If you request a temporary-exception entitlement, be sure to
  follow the guidance regarding entitlements provided on the iTunes
  Connect website. In particular, use the Review Notes field in iTunes
  Connect to explain why your app needs the exception, and include the
  bug number.

  To request a temporary exception entitlement for a target in an OS X
  Xcode project, add it to the target’s .entitlements property list file
  using the Xcode property list editor.


Disable automatic switch to Bluetooth carkit on iPhone Whenever my iPhone connects with the Bluetooth carkit that is integrated in my car audio system, the iPhone switches AirPlay to the carkit and thus sends all audio to the carkit instead of the iPhone speaker. However, when I'm listening to the radio, those sounds are essentially lost.

So, whenever I start the car, I have to manually switch AirPlay back from the carkit to the iPhone, to make sure I will hear text messages coming in, for example. That has become a lot easier with the advent of the Control Center in iOS 7, but I would like to disable the automatic AirPlay switch to the carkit. How do I do that on my non-jailbroken iPhone 4S running iOS 7?

To remove a paired device (your car BT) from Bluetooth on iOS:

Touch Settings
Touch Bluetooth
Ensure Bluetooth is turned on and touch the Arrow next to the required Bluetooth device
Touch Forget this Device
Touch Forget Device
The pairing has been removed

A personal Note: Please do not text while driving!


Changing Folder's Icon I am using Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8. I tried changing a folder's icon using this well known method. I used a png image as my target icon. The icon does get changed, but not to the picture itself, but the icon of a png file.

The Icon I want to be there:

What I get:

You see? That is not the png itself, but the icon of a png file.

I want the png to be the icon. Am I missing something?

(If it is important, "Show Icon Preview" is turned on in Finder view options. This folder was read-only for everyone but after seeing Problems changing drive icon I changed it to Read Write for everyone)

I've had a similar problem in the past.

First, open the file you want to use as an icon in Preview. Select all, then copy.
Close Preview.

Navigate to the folder whose icon you want to change. Go to File-> Get Info. Select the icon at the top left of the info window and paste. The folder's icon should be changed.

Basically, by copying the image directly from Preview, we don't have to worry about how the image has been saved and whether the image's icon is a generic one or a rendered preview (which was likely the problem originally).


How to fix when Mac fails to reboot, instead hangs at a black screen, while unplugging USB devices continues boot? I almost never reboot this Mac. Lately I noticed after a system freeze that the Mac would not boot, instead the Mac boot process hangs at a black screen.

Regression:

Unplugging the USB devices immediately continues the boot process to the gray screen with the Apple logo.
Because 2 USB hubs are attached I tried to isolate, by moving all USB devices to one USB hub and then to the other, no improvement.
Tried to isolate the individual USB devices, boot still fails.

How to fix the boot process of my Mac?

After a few hours of fiddling with USB and USB devices I found the solution.

In "Apple menu" > "System Preferences" > "Startup Disk" there was no longer a disk selected that I would like to use to start up my computer from.

After selecting the corresponding Mac OS X system, I could reliably reboot again, without pausing/hanging at the black screen during boot.


Can I automate ad posting on Craigslist using the Fake browser? I just purchased Fake yesterday thinking I could use it to help automate my Craigslist ad postings.  Unfortunately I am at a loss (I'm not very technical) on the actual ad description/posting screen.  I've attempted to use the "Set Values of HTML" form to populate the price, number of bedrooms, ad title, location, and the ad's body.  The problem I am finding is that the id names in Craigslist seem to change every time the screen refreshes so Fake has an error when I run my completed task.

Does this make sense?  Can I use this with Craigslist or is their system too smart?  What am I doing wrong?

Thank you for your help!

After snooping a bit on the Craigslist-form, it seems the IDs are randomized, as you said, and there is definitely a reason for this (to avoid spam). I'd say Craigslist most likely have pretty secure websites and forms to prevent spam and scams, but you might be able to get around it if you were experienced with JavaScript.

I see Fake can run JavaScript, so if you have some experience with that already, you might want to try a follow-up question on Stack Overflow.

As a side note, I would advice against doing this, Craigslist have their reasons for making it harder for you, and nobody likes spam! :)


Greyed out AirPlay symbol in Safari We recently upgraded from Snow Leopard to El Capitan to use the Safari AirPlay feature for embedded HTML5 Videos.

On videos (e.g. YouTube) we see that AirPlay symbol but it is grey and clicking on it shows something like "looking for devices".

The strange thing is that in iTunes everything works fine. We can select our AirPlay speaker and successfully play music from iTunes.

So why can't I stream music from HTML5 videos to my audio system, when iTunes works perfectly?

Network:
Computer is connected via WLAN to an AirPortExpress. The audio system is plugged into the AirPort via this round headphones cable.

You can only stream AirPlay video to a device capable of displaying a video signal.

You can stream audio to a speaker and video to an Apple TV but you can't just pull the audio from the video.


Wireless or Wired Apple keyboard for programming? Why one or the other?

I don't use the numpad nor much of the functional keys (delete, insert, etc.).

The latency with the wireless worries.

What are your experiences?

I prefer the wired version primarily because it has a 10-key pad, the dedicated page up/down and home/end keys, and the arrow keys aren't so tiny.


Using DisplayPort hubs, splitting the massive meta-screen I've recently started a programming company with my girlfriend and we're doing a lot of pair programming. I'm looking into the various solutions for driving multiple external monitors from a MacBook Pro. It looks like the solutions are to either find a DisplayPort 2.0 monitor and daisy-chain them (too expensive / rare), use a USB video card (lol, lag), or use a DisplayPort hub.

The problem with DisplayPort hubs like this one are that they apparently show up to the computer as one big display, X times as wide as each of the individuals. My question to you, AskDifferenters, is if there is a way to make the system believe that they are individual monitors, either in hardware or in software.

Thanks!

The Matrox TripleHead2Go includes their Powerdesk driver that can apparently send windows and the dock to specific displays. I'm not sure how far the illusion goes that they are indeed separate displays instead of the one logical display they represent.

Have you actually tried USB monitors? If used for coding and/or docs, I don't think their theoretical lack in bandwidth creates much of a practical problem. If you plan on gaming or watching videos on them, that's another matter. I wouldn't rule them out for ordinary work-type jobs without checking them out myself first.


Macbook bad internet connection WIFI I rented a room in a shared house (we are in 5).

What I've noticed is from my room the internet connection is really bad (sometimes it doesn't even load the google homepage).
My guess is not that the bandwith is saturated even though there are 5 of us, instead that there is some kind of router problem in managing many devices all at once (like if I turn off my cell wifi gets slightly better).

Today I was downloading a file at 1.5 mb/s from this connection even though pages struggled to load, but as soon as I clicked the download button it went straight up to 1.5 mb/s with a decent speed stability.

Moreover I think the signal is good enough 4/4 in the indicator at the top-right of the screen.

How can I solve this? I also noticed my cell has kind of priority if compared to my mac since sometimes when I cannot even load google with the pc I can navigate with my cell browser.

What is the reason behind this? Are there any solutions? If there's this "priority system" how can I put my pc at the top?

Over time, Wifi hardware has progressed through several versions. In addition to higher speeds, the newer versions tend to offer better connection quality when there are many wifi signals and other interference in the vicinity. It could be that your computer has older wifi hardware than your phone, and hence is not able to handle the interference as well, producing slower speeds.  Interference is especially likely if you live near many other homes with people using wifi, too.

If you are on a Mac (assuming you are because this is AskDifferent), you can see what Wifi revision your Mac supports by doing the following:
Click the menubar Apple logo in the upper left corner of the screen, then "About this Mac", then "System Report", then "Wi-Fi" mid-way down the list on the left.  About 14 lines down in the right-hand pane, you should see an entry for "Supported PHY Modes:".  Next to this you'll see something like "802.11 a/b/g/n/ac". Those letters indicate the WiFi versions your hardware supports, with "a" being the oldest, and "ac" being the newest. Versions "n" and "ac" in particular added improved support for handling lots of interference from congested airwaves.

[Added based on receiving more model information from OP:]
You have support for wireless version "n" in your laptop, but not version "ac".  There may be a performance difference between these two standards in your situation.  If you can find a machine (computer, cell phone, tablet) with support for "ac", try testing that in your room to see if speeds are better than you are getting on your 2008 Macbook. If so, then this is the issue (and please up vote this answer; thanks!).


GarageBand sound holding/freezing when multiple notes are played on USB keyboard I just bought a MIDI to USB cable so I could connect my electronic piano/keyboard to my mac mini. I open GarageBand and the keyboard will play one note at a time just fine, but if I play two or more notes at once, then the sound will kind of spaz out, with the two or three notes just lasting forever and no sound from any new notes being played. The sound only stops if I hit the spacebar about two or three times (to press play and stop).

The keyboard and mac mini I'm using never did this with the last MIDI to USB cable I had been using previously, I only stopped using that one because it was borrowed and I had to return it. The new looks pretty much the same as the old one though, are MIDI to USB cables not all created equal or something? How can I get GarageBand to play/record what I play even when I press more than one note?

Buy a new midi cord.
I'm not sure why the first one didn't work, but I eventually bought a new midi cord/cable(s) and now the above problem doesn't happen.


How can I reconfigure the RAID settings on a Maxtor OneTouch III? I have a 1TB Maxtor OneTouch III. This is the drive that comes with two 500GB disks and software to configure RAID 0 (mirroring) with 500GB of storage, or full use of both disks for 1TB of storage. Way back when I set it up with RAID 0, and now I want to switch it back to no RAID.

Alas, Maxtor/Seagate do not make the software to do this available for download anymore. Naturally I don't have the DVD it came with (if there even was one!). Can anyone tell me where I can find a Mountain Lion or Lion utility to change the RAID configuration on this drive?

The only solution I was able to come with was to borrow a Windows laptop and install the software there. Was enough for me to learn that one of the two disks in the drive was dead. :-(


How to free up storage taken by the "On My iPad" app? I have a 6th generation iPad, iPadOS 13.5

I have used an app called "On My iPad" that came preinstalled to this iPad to copy files to this iPad (like PDFs, movies, etc.). Eventually, I deleted all the files that I have copied (at least this is what I think I have done).

The problem is that there is still a lot of storage taken by something in this "On My iPad". Has it not completely deleted the files? How to clean up the storage?

Please see the screenshots.

You can see that there are zero items showing when I open the "On My iPad" app. There are three folders Downloads, Keynote, Pages, and they are all empty.

Recently Deleted

There is nothing in the Recently Deleted items.

iPad Storage

When I look at the overall iPad storage I see that there is about 1GB taken by the "On My iPad".
Also, there is a discrepancy in the reported available space. The "On My iPad" above shows that 20.31 GB available. The iPad Storage reports 14.3 of 32 GB used, i.e. only 17.7 GB is available.

Documents and Data

When I tap on the "On My iPad" to see the details, I see that "Documents and Data" take 1 GB.

Recommendations

When I tap further on Recommendations, there is nothing there. When I had some files, they were showing here. I have deleted all I could. Apparently, something is still sitting somewhere.

I have seen advice to delete an application and reinstall it back to reclaim the storage taken by the "Documents and Data" and I have done this trick successfully with the Keynote application. But there is no option to delete the "On My iPad" application and there is no such application in the App Store, so this method can't be used here.

Any ideas?

Well, it was sort of a mystery.

I'm not really sure which of my actions produced desired effect.

I copied a lot of files to iPad using the same "On My iPad" application to completely use up all available space. Then I deleted them via the Settings - Storage and also via the "On My iPad" app (where I could see the files going into the "Recently Deleted" location and where I could delete them completely).
I played with iTunes, connected the iPad to my Windows PC.
Rebooted iPad by holding the button on the top of the case and waiting till "Slide to turn off" appears on the screen.
Rebooted iPad by holding both the button on the top of the case and the Home button simultaneously till the screen goes black and then the Apple logo appears.
Also, probably, rebooting while it was connected to a PC with iTunes running.
Deleted the iPad's backup from the iCloud.
Turned on the iCloud Drive.

Eventually, I looked into the Recently Deleted location in the "On My iPad" application and I saw a bunch of files and folders that I have deleted few days ago. Those files that were hiding somewhere and taking up that 1.02 GB of space. As you can see from the screenshots in the question there was nothing showing up in the Recently Deleted location at the time when I was writing this question.

So, I don't really know what made those files to hide. I suspect that those files were not properly moved into the Recently Deleted area, because when I tried to delete them few days ago the iPad's storage was completely full and the deletion operation didn't go correctly. What an irony - there is no free space on the device, but when I try to delete a file it disappears from the view, but still stays taking up the space.

Most importantly, I don't know what made those files become visible again. Probably one of the things I did above.


How to mount certain SD cards to a specific mountpoint in El Capitan? Desired behavior:

When SD card1 (LABEL=NIKON D60) or SD card2 (LABEL=NIKON D70) is put into cardreader, it automatically gets mounted to /media/digicam. I run a script, which copies the files to my SSD, renames them with timestamps and rotates them if necessary.

What I tried:

Both cards are formatted in fat32.
I tried to create a /etc/fstab with sudo nano /etc/fstab containing the following line:

LABEL=NIKON\ D60 /media/digicam vfat rw,auto

After rebooting the card still gets mounted in /Volumes/NIKON D60 automatically.

How to stop the automount to /Volumes/... for those cards and get them to mount to my desired folder?

The following two conditions must be met:

The mount point must already exist.
Spaces in the Label Name need to be escaped with an octal space character, e.g.: \040

As a test, I did the following:

Relabeled one of my FAT32 formatted SD Cards to NIKON D60 then ejected and removed it.
Created the /media/digicam directory using: sudo mkdir -p /media/digicam
Added LABEL=NIKON\040D60 /media/digicam msdos rw,auto 0 0 to: /etc/fstab

I then inserted the SD Card and it mounted as expected, it appeared in Finder as NIKON D60 and its Mount Point showed in Disk Utility as: /media/digicam


Any concerns in upgrading to El Capitan over Chrome Remote Desktop? So I'm about ready to upgrade my mac (which is on the other side of the United States) to El Capitan. I'll only have access to the computer via Chrome Remote Desktop and SSH while this happens.

Has anyone tried this before, and is there anything I should be worried about happening or any need to have physical access to the computer?

I will have some physical access, but it will be either a couple of days away or will be very unskilled labor.

The reason I'm doing this at all is that I actually do a significant amount of work on this computer remotely, but I'm away from it long-term (I do development on it over SSH from my chromebook).

I personally would recommend staying away from anything that requires a restart of a remote computer you don't have easy access to. First I would hope that you have a backup of your computer since it sounds like it's important (aka more than just a web browser to you) whether or not you decide to proceed with this update. However why I recommend against you doing any restarts let alone an update is you are unable to control your computer from the moment you log off to the moment you log back on. If the update were to fail for some reason and the computer is unable to boot/log in you will be out of contact with it till someone can see what the issue is and fix anywhere from needing to type in a password to worst being go through a Time Machine restore of before the update. So basically to keep it simple if the worst case scenario of being unable to use your computer till someone can tend to it is not that bad of a thing to you, go ahead, a remote desktop connection does not put the computer at higher risk of something bad happening. If that is a bad thing then try to hold off till you have some safe down time. Hope this helps!


Prevent OS X from powering off, via CLI I use maid to run a few maintenance scripts regularly, via launchd. The time I chose for those tasks to run makes it very likely that I won’t suddenly decide to turn off my computer around then, but one can never be absolutely certain.

Sometimes, GUI apps prevent the computer from turning off due to unsaved changes. Can we replicate this via CLI? A bit like caffeinate but for power off instead of sleep.

How about actually using a GUI app to make an unsaved document?

osascript -e '
    tell application "TextEdit"
        activate
        set d to (make document)
        set text of d to "Your script is still running!"
    end tell
'


Did the shell ( terminal ) change in Catalina? My login script is behaving oddly since I moved to Catalina.  Particularly this line:

# set cursor to display path and command count
PS1="<: \w | \! :> "

Now my cursor actually has a \w and a \! in it.  Before in my older Mac from about 4 years ago it would show the path and command count.

Also this command stopped working:

history -c

and gives an error.

I looked at the default shell using

echo $SHELL

and it gave

/bin/zsh

and the current shell using

echo $0

and it gave

-zsh

Your shell has been changed to Zsh, which is the default for new users on Catalina (10.15) and later. To go back to the old shell (BASH), run chsh -s /bin/bash (chsh is a "Change Shell command, the -s flag is "set", and /bin/bash is the location of the BASH shell). Then close and re-open terminal, or log out and log back in, and your shell will be bash again.

Alternatively, if you want to use the GUI, open System Preferences, Users and Groups, unlock the padlock at the bottom left, and control-click or right click on your user. Then, select "Advanced Options." There should be an entry called "Login Shell", which you can set back to /bin/bash.

Source: How to set shell in OS X - Super User


Select and quit multiple processes at the same time in Activity Monitor How do I quit multiple processes in Activity Monitor at the same time? As you can see, it doesn't let me do that:

The quit button is disabled when I select more than one process in the list. Is there a way to quit more than one process at the same time? If not, why is it not allowed? (I can quit multiple processes one-by-one, but not altogether)
I'm not trying to quit Activity Monitor, it's just an example.

EDIT: Quitting multiple processes in Activity Monitor is possible in macOS 10.15 and newer.

This doesn't seem possible in the Activity Monitor.

However, it can be done from the Terminal like so, as long as the processes you want to quit have the same name.

To view running processes, in the Terminal

$ ps

To end processes by name

$ pkill -9 "nameofprocess"


Moved iPhoto Library: Need to point iMovie in the right direction my friend has moved her iPhoto 08 Library from an external HD. She has some iMovie 08 projects which reference iPhoto movies.

How can I update iMovie to the new location of the iPhoto library. We no longer have access to the external HD.

Locate the iPhoto library in Finder, drag and drop it to iMovie's project pane?


How to create new mysql user/db in Mac OS X? Can any one please let me know how to create new user and new db in MySQL? How to use mysqladmin in Mac OS X?

If you are using the terminal client, generally you can do things like reset the root users password for mysql or create databases.
A simple example can be found at the MySQL docs site, of which I will copy the highlights.

To create a new MySQL user:

Login to MySQL in Terminal:mysql -u username
In the prompt:CREATE USER 'admin'@'localhost';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'admin'@'localhost';
If you want to create a database: create database name; is all you need to do

If you do decide to use mysqladmin, mysqladmin can create and drop databases, but it cannot create new users.


Reinstalling OS X Lion after erasing the HD A friend of mine recently bought a used Macbook (I believe it's the model before the last Macbook model from 2011). It had OSX Lion installed. I rebooted the system, held down Command + R and used Disc Utilities to to wipe it out. When I went to reinstall Lion, I get an error say that the item is not available and to try again later. Of course, trying again later has done me no good.

Any ideas? I've read elsewhere online that this is a common problem but have not found any solutions.

You can purchase Lion at Apple on a DVD: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/D6377Z/A/os-x-mountain-lion I guess that is the only legal way to install Lion on a clean Mac.


iCloud is full but iphone storage is empty Is that possible to backup all the photos from iCloud into iphone storage? How to do that?

There are two options for iCloud Photo Library: 'Optimize disk usage' and 'Downlaod and keep originals'. Optimize disk will delete original photos from your device and keep only thumbnails to free up space, while 'Download and keep originals' will keep originals in iCloud and on your device.

From what I know there is no easy way to delete photos from iCloud. If possible, the best option will be extending the iCloud storage.

If not, you can try the following:

Go to Settings > Photos on your device and tap on 'Download and keep orogonals'.
Leave your device charging overnight with a strong Wi-Fi connection to make sure that all photos are loaded (there is no progress bar for downloading original photos).
Delete photos from iCloud to free up additional space.

Be aware that in this case you won't be able to use iCloud Photo Library as the storage will get full again. The only real optio is backing up photos to your computer (Image Capture on Mac or drag&drop with Explorer on Win), then delete photos from both device and iCloud.

Hope this helps.


syntax error near unexpected token `(' I was given a script to automate some processes. This script gets executed on a Mac in Terminal. The script is a bash script.
However, Terminal is showing
syntax error near unexpected token `('

in
ManagerDaemon="/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.graphisoft.PortalServerService-v24.0(Manager-2020-07-21).plist"

What could be the issue? How can I remove the error?

ok, so I think the answer has to do with "curly" quotes or "smart" quotes as opposed to "straight" quotes.
I had been using a text editor to edit the script. However, when I switched to an actual code editor, it noticed several "curly" quotes. I replaced those with straight quotes and all is well.


MacBook Internet Recovery "?" Folder With my 2012 MacBook Pro, I'm trying to reinstall Mac OS X (any version that will work) onto a new Solid State Drive that replaced a broken one. I can get to the Internet Recovery screen just fine when directly connected to the Internet (ethernet). The problem lies AFTER the Internet Recovery installation succeeds.

There really isn't a good way to describe what happens because the laptop seems to be trying to decide whether or not there is a problem or not. Here is a link to a YouTube video I've uploaded of the problem:

YouTube Video of Problem

After this happens for a while, it resolves to just the blinking "?" Folder Icon.

I do not have access to another Mac computer.

The '?' generally means that the system is not able to detect a properly-formatted hard drive. If your SSD is new, your will need to format it to Mac OS Extended Journaled using disk-utility.

Here is the link that will help your through most of this stuff.

http://mashable.com/2014/10/17/clean-install-os-x-yosemite/


macOS Catalina renamed external volume name I have an external APFS RAID 1 array made of three USB hard drives connected to my Mac Mini.

Before I installed Catalina (10.15) on my Mac Mini, this array was called "Primary" and was mounted as /Volumes/Primary/.

After I installed Catalina, that array appears to have disappeared and been replaced with "Primary 1". This is an inconvenience because various programs looked for files in /Volumes/Primary. I can deal with a one-time inconvenience. What's really weird is that "Primary" apparently coexists with "Primary 1". Some applications see "Primary", but others see "Primary 1".

Here's the output from ls -lha@:

ComputerName:Volumes NonAdminUser$ ls -lha@
total 0
drwxr-xr-x   5 root          wheel   160B Oct 31 07:38 .
drwxr-xr-x  22 root          admin   704B Oct 30 20:42 ..
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root          wheel     1B Oct 31 07:31 InternalDrive -> /
d--x--x--x   3 root          wheel    96B Oct 29 07:56 Primary
drwxrwxr-x@ 14 NonAdminUser  staff   448B Oct 31 18:34 Primary 1
    com.apple.backupd.unlockrecordUUIDs   84B

I should mention that I normally operate my computer as a non-admin user and sign into the admin account for system maintenance and installing new software.

Why are there suddenly two drives, and why do some applications see one path while other applications see another?

EDIT:

Here's the output of df:

Filesystem     512-blocks        Used  Available Capacity iused       ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s5   1953595632    21149624 1183122536     2%  483557  9767494603    0%   /
devfs                 407         407          0   100%     704           0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s1   1953595632   709969192 1183122536    38%  609430  9767368730    0%   /System/Volumes/Data
/dev/disk1s4   1953595632    37748824 1183122536     4%      17  9767978143    0%   /private/var/vm
map auto_home           0           0          0   100%       0           0  100%   /System/Volumes/Data/home
/dev/disk6s1  15627315072 10505155688 5120487720    68%  695289 78135880071    0%   /Volumes/Primary 1

This happens from time to time when the dismount isn’t clean. It’s not new and has been around since the beginning of OS X.

Eject the drive and be sure it’s disconnected and then remove the folder where you prefer the volume to mount.

When you reconnect the drive, it will mount in the proper place again.


Output JXA to stdout I have a small script made with JXA (JavaScript for Automation) that outputs a result to the shell with console.log.

However, console.log seems to output to stderr and I’d like to output to stdout. I can always 2>&1 when calling the script, but it would be preferable to output directly to stdout from the script.

Is there a way to accomplish that?

Found the solution: don’t use console.log or anything else. Instead of

console.log('something');

Simply

'something';

It will be output to stdout.


Why does spaces keep capturing keyboard input some times after switching spaces? I'm running snow leopard on a fairly new macbook pro 13" (september 2010).

Sometimes the black visualization showing the available spaces and the space I'm currently on doesn't disappear when I have switched between two spaces. When this happens, spaces seems to steals keyboard input from the application(s) on the space I have switched to. Sometimes the visualization disappears after I keep switch spaces some more, but sometimes I have to force a reboot.

Also, spaces seems quite slow at times.

Does anybody else experience the same thing, and is there anything to be done about it?

I find that killing the Dock only sometimes makes the problem go away. Usually keyboard input returns, but if I switch spaces using the keyboard shortcuts, the visualisation sticks around & keyboard input is stolen again.

What I have found to work is putting the display to sleep. I've had the bottom right corner of the screen set to do that for ages, so it's quite convenient for me. I've never had this method fail; once the screen is awoken, the problem is gone & doesn't return when I switch spaces again.

To me this suggests that the problem isn't actually in Dock, it's in the system's EventTap subsystem, the bit that lets stuff like Spaces, Screen Sharing, LaunchBar, & Spotlight take keystrokes before the focussed application gets them. I've actually experienced a similar problem with Screen Sharing, where the system whose screen is being shared gets its keyboard input mangled if a modifier key is pressed on the viewing computer & not released until Screen Sharing has lost focus. It's sort of the reverse problem, but it indicates that perhaps the Spaces problem is the EventTap framework getting stuck in a similar way, never sending the message that Control isn't being held down any more.


How does Time Machine deal with moved files I have a large photo library (a couple of 100GBs of data) on an external hard drive, but I will need to move it to a different drive.

When moving the files, will time machine try to backup up all the moved files again, so my photo library will be stored twice in the backup set - or is it able to recognize that the "new" files are indeed identical to existing files in its history?

Time Machine works at the file level.  Change a single byte in a file, and it backs up again.  Move it into a new directory, technically it's a new file, so new backup.  There is no way to avoid this in the current implementation.  Ideally future enhancements to Time Machine will enable block level backups and some form of de-duplication, which will fix both the above scenarios, but for now you just have to be aware of it.  What you can choose to do, if you like, is confirm that the new location is successfully backed u p in the new place, and then manually remove the old location from your Time Machine.  This clearly doesn't prevent the need from repeating the backup, but it does at least stop you doubling the storage requirements.  Having said that, the old stuff will naturally get recycled off as it's no longer required should the backup drive fill.


Can't access internet through network share I have an MBP with the latest OSX connected to the internet through ethernet. I've created a wi-fi network with the same name as the laptop and set the WPA2 password. I then enabled internet sharing in System Preferences.

I then booted another laptop also running the latest OSX and tried to connect to that network. The network was visible and I made sure I could see the password but my other laptop was unable to connect to the wi-fi network. Both machines are on the same desk.

How can I debug this? Console seems to show nothing relevant.

Make sure you are sharing internet from Ethernet to others computers using WiFi/Airport


How do I re-associate HTTP links with my browser in OS X? I installed iTerm2 the other day, and was playing around with it. In the process I seemed to have messed up the handling of HTTP hyperlinks on my system. Sometimes (annoyingly, not every time, which is very confusing - I can't spot a pattern) when I click an HTTP link in the Twitter app, MS Word, and so on, it opens a new iTerm2 terminal window or tab, and the webpage doesn't open. How can I get back to the original behavior and have the link open in the default web browser?

I've already checked the iTerm2 preferences - under "URL schemes", no scheme is selected:

Check the file associations for both HTTP & HTTPS, make sure both are set to Safari.

A simple way to do this would be using RCDefaultApp

 Answered as Community Wiki just so we don't have a dangling question when there's a perfectly good answer in the comments.


Can macOS operate/output video at 144 Hz screen refresh rate? I am planning to invest in an external 144 Hz display for smooth game developments, now as far as I know macOS outputs video at 60 Hz so if I buy an 144 Hz external display will my MacBook be able to output video/operate at 144 Hz screen refresh rate?

Yes, it should work out of the box given the right cable and a new enough MacBook (some MacBooks will need a 3rd party patch.) If you're still having issues (which you shouldn't), you can try using SwitchResX to force the monitor to work at the correct settings.

However, you indicated that screen tearing was the issue you wanted to solve. Faster refresh rates won't solve screen tearing, only Vsync (which hurts performance), FreeSync (which requires an AMD card, specialized monitor, and Linux/Windows) or Gsync (which requires an Nvidia card, and more expensive specialized monitors.)


Should I buy an iPod touch in Canada in July or wait 'til September and buy it in Europe? My title is pretty clear: I'm going in Canada for a trip with my father in July and I wonder if I should buy a new iPod touch there or wait until the new one comes out around September and buy in Europe? The 8 GB version costs 199€ (roughly 256 Canadian dollars) in Europe and 199 Canadian dollars in Canada (roughly 154€).

I'm going to use it mainly as a gaming and Internet device. I might listen to music with it from time to time but I won't take the 32 GB version only to have my entire music collection on it.

So, given my use of it, will the new version be worth the extra 45€ (assuming the price won't change)?

The new model (if one comes out; it's not necessarily certain that one will) will be better. Will it be 45€ better? I don't know, and that's something only you can decide. If you don't need the extra disk space, the 8 GB model should be sufficient (despite what @comradsky's answer says, the internals of the 4th-gen touches aren't any different between the size models except the internal storage space.

All in all, I have to say the same thing I always say when it comes to buying Apple products: if you need it, buy it. If you wait, there's always the possibility that they won't release a new model when you thought they would, so you buy the old model, and then they release the new model a month after you thought they would.

Also: consider looking at the refurbished store on Apple's website. There are (from time to time) fairly good deals on current- or previous-gen items.


Are there alternative ways to interface with Mavericks tags? My company hosts quite a large amount of reference material (images, video, pdfs) on a server, and we're looking for a good way to organize these assets by tags. Searching for these tags in Finder is very slow.  Are there any other ways to interface with any of these tags/files?

Launchers, like LaunchBar 6, can be a great way to navigate tags. Type the name of your tag and then right arrow to navigate the files. Alfred may offer something similar.


Is the original photo in an iPhoto library still saved if I trash the photo after dragging it to the desktop? If I move a photo from iPhoto to the desktop, and then trash, is the original still saved in the library?

Yes.

You can't move a photo from iPhoto out of the library simply by dragging it. It'll be a copy, therefore deleting it from the desktop will not remove the original from the iPhoto library.


Why is my startup disk so full? I've been getting messages recently that "My startup disk is almost full," and I'm quite sure I haven't used the full 250GB of my Macbook's hard drive. Using "Get Info" on Macintosh HD says that I'm using around 245GB (aka 5GB from being full), but I have no idea what could be using that much space. My home directory (with Photos, Movies, Downloads, etc.) is only around 34GB. Applications? only 11.

In fact, I looked into it using a disk sweeping application, and it profiled my hard drive as only having 65.1GB in total! Where are the other ~200GB? What's filling them?

(I did search using Finder for files over 1GB, and there were only a few, so I don't think the problem is one massive file).

Result of ImageDiskSweeper:

It turns out that another user account (not the one I was logged into) had many gigabytes of photos stored on the hard drive. DiskImageSweeper, along with any other tools (spotlight search, etc.) could not search through the other user's files, so they were virtually undetectable.

I solved the problem by logging into the other user account and clearing up space. I imagine that you could also just delete the user's account and have the same effect.


Running 'brew upgrade' on a schedule How can I run brew upgrade automatically on a daily schedule?

You can make a daily crontab to run brew upgrade

Something like :

PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin
@ daily    brew upgrade

Find a nice tuto of how to use brew and cron here


Is there a way to control dual monitor relative position from terminal? I have a weird setup for my home office that allows me to switch from a standing desk to a sitting desk. The only problem is that when I alternate positions, my laptop's external monitor switches sides. (When standing it is off to the left of my laptop, when sitting it is on the right). At the moment, every time I go from sitting to standing, or vise-versa I have to go into System Preferences -> Displays -> Arrangement and rearrange them. What I would love is some sort of terminal command that moves the 2nd monitor relative to first one. Doesn't matter how long the command is since I can just alias it.

I wrote a small C program to accomplish this, as this cannot be done any other way effectively.
You'll need Xcode installed to compile it.
https://github.com/stnvh/cgorigin

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <ApplicationServices/ApplicationServices.h>

#define MAX_DISPLAYS 10

static CGDisplayCount dispCount = MAX_DISPLAYS;
static CGDirectDisplayID dispOnline[MAX_DISPLAYS];

int main(int argc, const char * argv[]) {
    CGDisplayCount dispOnlineCount;
    CGDisplayErr errActive = CGGetOnlineDisplayList(dispCount, dispOnline, &dispOnlineCount);

    CGDisplayConfigRef configRef;
    CGError err = CGBeginDisplayConfiguration(&configRef);

    if(!argv[1]) {
        printf("usage: [-l | --list] [[-o | --origin] x y index] \n");
        return 1;
    }

    for(int i = 0; i < dispOnlineCount; i++) {
        if(dispOnline[i]) {
            int dispWidth = CGDisplayPixelsWide(dispOnline[i]);
            int dispHeight = CGDisplayPixelsHigh(dispOnline[i]);
            CGPoint dispOrigin = CGDisplayBounds(dispOnline[i]).origin;

            if(strcmp(argv[1], "--list") == 0 || strcmp(argv[1], "-l") == 0) {
                printf("display %d: %dx%d %ldx%ld\n", i, dispWidth, dispHeight, (long)dispOrigin.x, (long)dispOrigin.y);
            }

            if(strcmp(argv[1], "--origin") == 0 || strcmp(argv[1], "-o") == 0) {
                int posX = dispOrigin.x;
                int posY = dispOrigin.y;
                int dispInd = 1;

                if(argv[2]) {
                    posX = strtol(argv[2], NULL, 0);
                }
                if(argv[3]) {
                    posY = strtol(argv[3], NULL, 0);
                }
                if(argv[4]) {
                    long _dispInd = strtol(argv[4], NULL, 0);

                    if(_dispInd < dispOnlineCount) {
                        dispInd = _dispInd;
                    }
                }

                if(dispInd == i) {
                    err = CGConfigureDisplayOrigin(configRef, dispOnline[i], posX, posY);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    err = CGCompleteDisplayConfiguration(configRef, kCGConfigurePermanently);
    if(err != 0) NSLog(@"Error with applying configuration: %d\n", err);

    return 1;
}

Save to a file called main.m, then run:
clang -Wall -framework Foundation -framework ApplicationServices main.m -o cgorigin

Example (from Github):

assuming we have two monitors connected, both at 1920x1080
cgorigin --origin -1920 0  # positions the second monitor to the left of the main display
cgorigin --origin 0 0  # positions the second monitor to the right of the main display
cgorigin --origin -1920 1080 0  # positions the first monitor below the second display


MacBook Bound to Active Directory Domain My MacBook is bound to a Windows Active Directory domain.  For the computer to keep contact with the domain controller, the DNS server needs to be set to the IP address of that controller.  However, since we are talking about a laptop, it often goes off-site where so that DNS server is not available.  In Windows, this is a very easy fix as the DNS settings are customized for different networks.  I cannot figure out how to do this for macOS without manually changing it when I need to.

My Macbook is also bound to a AD domain, but I do not have any such DNS issues. DNS settings are configurable per network connection type in System Preferences. System Preferences>Network>Advanced>DNS.

Simply edit (if allowed?) the DNS entry for the connection type. You can have more than two DNS entries, so for example, you might simply ADD Google DNS to the work DNS. In this case, if the work DNS are not available, it will fail-over to Google DNS.

You could do this for all network types, or perhaps just for wifi, if you use a hardline at work.


How to Format exFAT on Mac with custom block size (Read only problem!) I'm trying to format a CF card on Mac Osx 10.14.4 to exFAT with a specific block size of 4MB, with this terminal command:

sudo newfs_exfat -b 4194304 -v exFAT /dev/disk3s1

It appears to have worked…

Volume name      : exFAT
Partition offset : 63 sectors (32256 bytes)
Volume size      : 125059009 sectors (64030212608 bytes)
Bytes per sector : 512
Bytes per cluster: 4194304
FAT offset       : 2048 sectors (1048576 bytes)
# FAT sectors    : 2048
Number of FATs   : 1
Cluster offset   : 4096 sectors (2097152 bytes)
# Clusters       : 15265
Volume Serial #  : 5e319fb9
Bitmap start     : 2
Bitmap file size : 1909
Upcase start     : 3
Upcase file size : 5836
Root start       : 4

…but then it refuses to mount the volume afterwards:

Volume on disk3s1 failed to mount
If the volume is damaged, try the "readOnly" option

Any ideas please?

Answering my own question here!
Use this wonderful app, which mounts the disk perfectly:
exfat


Safari update for MacBook Pro Trying to update Safari 11.1.2 and I keep getting an error message.  Something about unable to update because of an extension in use in Spotlight.

I can quit the application - but Spotlight is not an application.

Don’t install/remove anything, instead, quit Spotlight from Activity Monitor once that message pops up and it will continue. Spotlight automatically restarts.


Yosemite mail notification delay I use gmail will the OS X mail app. When I get a new email, there's about a five minute delay until a notification appears. It's instant on my android phone.

I can check for new mail every minute. Is it possible to make it instant?

It simply takes time for Gmail to notify your Mac mail, and it can not be instant.

However if you must have Instant notification, then open your Gmail in a web browser and go to gmail settings.

In gmail settings you can enable instant notification (you get it as soon email arrives, but you will get it in the browser window, as well later in your mac Mail.

It works great with Chrome web browser, there will be a pop up on your scree when new email arrives.


How can I force Parallels to ask about re-associating my USB drive with my Mac or VM? When I plug in a USB drive while my VM is running, Parallels offers a dialog lightbox asking whether the USB drive should associate with the Mac or the VM. Once this choice is made, Parallels tends to remember/respect it on every subsequent reconnect. Sometimes I want to change this association, but I don't see how I can. Is there an easy option to change the USB drive's association on the fly? Or do I need to select something to make Parallels forget all USB associations and start over?

I had the same problem, with a USB disk drive. Parallels was configured to ask each time yet always put the device to the guest I'd first used it on. Choosing Parallels Preferences didn't help. The device wasn't listed as one that had a permanent assignment.

I think this is expected behavior as the documentation talks about a "New" device.

The fix for me was to Option-click (Alt-click) the Parallels icon in the Dock and choose Devices -> USB and there I saw the device listed with a tickmark next to it. Selecting the device removed the tickmark. Next time the devise was connected I was asked.


Does the D-Link DIR-857 support streaming Time Machine backups from multiple machines? I'm looking to replace my aging DIR-655 and the new DIR-857 looks appealing. This C-Net review has this to say about the USB port on the device:

  SharePort is a useful feature of D-Link USB-equipped routers that enables the router to support any USB device as though it were connected to a network computer directly. Over time this technology has evolved from allowing only one computer to access the connected USB device at a time, to multiple access, and now, the ability to share data via the internet.

But I'm having a hard time finding any concrete details on how that port works and what it really supports. D-Link's product page is lean and so is their brochure.

Can I connect a drive array to this port such that multiple Macs in my network can do their remote Time Machine backups to that attached storage space?
Will it handle a HFS+ formatted file system?

And as a bonus:

Will it handle a Drobo?

I know none of the above is possible with the DIR-655 I have now.

Some clarifying points:

I realize I could do this with a TimeCapsule but I have all the disk on hand already with the Drobo and I happen to really like the features of the D-Link firmware (see my comments in Kyle's answer below for details)
Daniel Beck has found out that the SharePort software does work on Mac, but is it Time Machine friendly? There are non-Apple, remote storage devices that do support Time Machine (see this ReadyNAS FAQ for example) so is this similarly blessed and compatible?

Product description
According to the datasheet, it looks like this device's share functionality does not work with Macs at all, since you need to install a driver to get USB-via-Ethernet support. From the footer of the last page of the PDF you link to:

Minimum System Requirements
Computer with:

Windows® 76, Windows Vista®6, Windows® XP
SP26, Windows® 20006, or Mac OS® X (v10.4)5 + Internet Explorer® v6 or Mozilla® Firefox® v3.0

And 5 translates to:

The software included with this product is not Mac-compatible.

SharePort drivers
There are SharePort drivers for OS X though:

This forum page links to a driver download for OS X up to 10.6.
This manual (zipped PDF)  is linked as Additional downloads and also mentions support for OS X up to 10.6.

This is for the "USB via network" feature, so this might work. The advantage is that the file system on the drive should be transparent to the router just forwarding the USB connection. That's why they can say they support any USB device: They don't actually care what kind of device is connected.
Regular sharing
It doesn't look like this device has any regular sharing functionality. Wouldn't surprise me, given the networked USB feature.


How to Install Ubuntu on Mac with High Sierra and Legacy BIOS Booting Windows 10? My 21.5-inch, Mid 2011 iMac has High Sierra (macOS 10.13.6) installed. A 64 bit version of Windows was originally installed using Boot Camp. Windows uses the legacy BIOS boot method. I have upgraded to the Windows 10 version 1803 (March 2018). I wish shrink my Widows 10 partition and use the free space to install Ubuntu.

What would be the procedure to do this?

Steps Needed to Install Ubuntu after Installing macOS and Windows 10

Here I assumed the following.

The macOS operating system was installed to a partition formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
Boot Camp was used to install Windows 10.
Windows 10 uses the legacy BIOS boot method.
Windows 10 is version 1803 (i.e. March 2018).
The Desktop Ubuntu version is 18.04.1 LTS.
Ubuntu uses the EFI boot method.
The file ubuntu-18.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso was used to install Ubuntu.

  Note: If you are using APFS or Core Storage, then you will have to make the appropriate minor modifications to these instructions.

Boot to Windows 10.
Download and install gdisk.
Launch the Disk Manager.
Right click on the Windows boot partition and select Shrink volume..., as shown below.

Enter the size needed for Ubuntu. In the example shown below, 100 GB was selected. After entering the amount, select the Shrink button.

The result is shown below. You can exit the Disk Manager. Note: The Disk Manager has updated the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table, but not the GUID Partition Table (GPT) used by macOS and Ubuntu. This error will be corrected in subsequent steps by using the gdisk command.

Enter the following command in a Administrator Command Prompt window to execute gdisk on your primary internal drive.

gdisk64 \\?\PhysicalDrive0

This will result is output similar to what is shown below.

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help):

Enter the commands needed to copy the size of the Windows boot partition from the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table to the GUID partition table (GPT). An example is shown below.

Enter the following commands to print out the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table.

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o

Disk size is 1048576000 sectors (500.0 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x3C984A3E
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1       411647   primary     0xEE
   2                411648    210126847   primary     0xAF
   3             210126848    211458047   primary     0xAB
   4      *      211458048    843775966   primary     0x07

Recovery/transformation command (? for help):

  Note: You should record the information stored in this table. You will need this information to rebuild the MBR partition table after installing Ubuntu.

The * character shown above indicates partition 4 as the boot partition. The boot partition information needs to be copied to the GUID partition table (GPT). Note: your start and end values will be different from the values of 211458048 and 843775966 used in this example. Also, your boot partition number may be 3 instead of the value of 4 used in this example. Below is an example, where the copy is accomplished be deleting and creating a corrected partition 4.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): m

Command (? for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 4

Command (? for help): n
Partition number (4-128, default 4): 4
First sector (34-1048575966, default = 211458048) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 211458048
Last sector (211458048-1048575966, default = 1048575966) or {+-}size{KMGTP}: 843775966
Current type is 'Microsoft basic data'
Hex code or GUID (L to show codes, Enter = 700): 700
Changed type of partition to 'Microsoft basic data'

Command (? for help):

Print out the GPT to verify partition 4 has the correct values, as shown below.

Command (? for help): p
Disk \\?\PhysicalDrive0: 1048576000 sectors, 500.0 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A984BAF1-4F22-4E6C-9077-40FEEDF064DB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1048575966
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 204802014 sectors (97.7 GiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          411648       210126847   100.0 GiB   AF00  Apple HFS/HFS+
   3       210126848       211458047   650.0 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD
   4       211458048       843775966   301.5 GiB   0700  Microsoft basic data

Command (? for help):

Write out the changes and quit, as shown below.

Command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to \\?\PhysicalDrive0.
Disk synchronization succeeded! The computer should now use the new
partition table.
The operation has completed successfully.

You can now shutdown Windows 10 and install Ubuntu in the free space.

Adding Partitions for Ubuntu

Below are display snapshots illustrating the partitioning I chose while installing Ubuntu. Basically, I added a new partition for the Ubuntu files and allowed the EFI partition to be default for storing the GRUB boot files. These boot files a stored in a way compatible with the Mac Startup Manager.

When the following display occurs, select Something else, as shown below, then click on the Continue button.

Select free space, as shown below, then click on the + button.

Create swap space. For Use as:, select swap area. For Location for the new partition:, select End of this space. A typical value for swap space is twice the amount of RAM memory installed. Since my Mac has 4 GiB of RAM, the "Size:" field should be 8590 MB. The result is shown below. Next, click on the OK button.

Select free space, as shown below, then click on the + button.

For the Mount point:, select /, as shown below, then click on the OK button.

  Note: The Size: field should automatically default to all the available free space.

The result is shown below.

  Note: Since End of this space was selected in a previous step, the new partitions will not be created in ascending order. This will cause problems with macOS. In a later step, this problem will be corrected.

Next, click on the Install Now button.

Click on the Continue button shown below to allow the installation to proceed passed the partitioning phase.

Correcting Errors in the GPT and MBR Partition Table

When you installed Ubuntu, the MBR partition table was converted from hybrid to protective. This means most of the values in the MBR partition table were erased. This will prevent Windows from booting. Execute the following steps to correct this problem.

If you have not already done so, boot to Ubuntu and login. You should see a desktop similar to what is shown below.

Press the key combination controloptionT to open a Terminal application window. The result should similar to what is shown below.

Enter the following command to execute gdisk on your primary internal drive. You will be prompted for your login password.

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

This will result in output similar to what is shown below.

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.3

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help):

Start by checking to see if the partitions in the GUID Partition Table (GPT) are in ascending order. Enter the command below to print out the GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 1048576000 sectors, 500.0 GiB
Model: VBOX HARDDISK
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A984BAF1-4F22-4E6C-9077-40FEEDF064DB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1048575966
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4062 sectors (2.0 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          411648       210126847   100.0 GiB   AF00  Apple HFS/HFS+
   3       210126848       211458047   650.0 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD
   4       211458048       843775966   301.5 GiB   0700  Microsoft basic data
   5      1031798784      1048573951   8.0 GiB     8200
   6       843776000      1031798783   89.7 GiB    8300

Command (? for help):

Partition number 5 should occur after partition 6. Enter the commands given below to swap the values stored in the GPT for these two partitions.

Command (? for help): x

Expert command (? for help): t
Partition number (1-6): 5
New partition number (1-128, default 7): 6

Expert command (? for help):

Enter the command give below to confirm the partitions are now in ascending order.

Expert command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 1048576000 sectors, 500.0 GiB
Model: VBOX HARDDISK
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A984BAF1-4F22-4E6C-9077-40FEEDF064DB
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1048575966
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 4062 sectors (2.0 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          411647   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System
   2          411648       210126847   100.0 GiB   AF00  Apple HFS/HFS+
   3       210126848       211458047   650.0 MiB   AB00  Recovery HD
   4       211458048       843775966   301.5 GiB   0700  Microsoft basic data
   5       843776000      1031798783   89.7 GiB    8300
   6      1031798784      1048573951   8.0 GiB     8200

Next, rebuild the MBR partition table. To do this, you will need the values your recorded earlier while booted to Windows. Enter the following.

Command (? for help): r

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): h

WARNING! Hybrid MBRs are flaky and dangerous! If you decide not to use one,
just hit the Enter key at the below prompt and your MBR partition table will
be untouched.

Type from one to three GPT partition numbers, separated by spaces, to be
added to the hybrid MBR, in sequence: 2 3 4
Place EFI GPT (0xEE) partition first in MBR (good for GRUB)? (Y/N): y

Creating entry for GPT partition #2 (MBR partition #2)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AF): af
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #3 (MBR partition #3)
Enter an MBR hex code (default AB): ab
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): n

Creating entry for GPT partition #4 (MBR partition #4)
Enter an MBR hex code (default 07): 07
Set the bootable flag? (Y/N): y

Recovery/transformation command (? for help):

If you are prompted with the question given below, enter n. Note: The more experienced individual may want to enter y, then enter 83 when prompted for a MBR hex code.

Unused partition space(s) found. Use one to protect more partitions? (Y/N):

Print out the MBR partition table to verify the partitions have the correct values, as shown below. The result should be the same as you recorded earlier.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): o

Disk size is 1048576000 sectors (500.0 GiB)
MBR disk identifier: 0x3C984A3E
MBR partitions:

Number  Boot  Start Sector   End Sector   Status      Code
   1                     1       411647   primary     0xEE
   2                411648    210126847   primary     0xAF
   3             210126848    211458047   primary     0xAB
   4      *      211458048    843775966   primary     0x07

Recovery/transformation command (? for help):

Write out the changes and quit, as shown below.

Recovery/transformation command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/sda.
Warning: The kernel is still using the old partition table.
The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you
run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
The operation has completed successfully.

Quit the Terminal application.
Power off or restart Ubuntu.


can i use iMac (Retina 5k, 27-inch, Late 2015) as target monitor? i have an iMac 2020 and a late 2015 iMac. I wish to know if it’s possible to use the latter as target display monitor. and if yes, which cable should i buy? thanks

2014 iMacs were the last to support target display mode as these were before the 5K screens were introduced, which requires too much bandwidth.

27-inch iMac models introduced in 2009 and 2010: Use a Mini DisplayPort cable […]
All iMac models introduced in 2011, 2012, 2013 and mid 2014: Use a Thunderbolt cable […]

Furthermore, your 2020 iMac is too new to support target display mode even if you had a ≤2014 iMac to use as a display.

You can connect any of these older iMac models to another Mac from 2019 or earlier

Use your iMac as a display with target display mode - Apple Support


Touch ID doesn't work first thing in the morning? Here's a weird one.

I have an iPhone 6 Plus, and the last phone I had was the iPhone 5 so this is the first device I've had with Touch ID. I'm using Apple's leather case and no screen protectors or anything.

I use it as an alarm clock and so sometimes when I wake up I notice there's something like an email I need to see immediately.

What I've noticed is that when I first wake up, Touch ID doesn't let me in. Like, it doesn't even recognize I'm touching it. I don't get the "try again" like I'm using the wrong part of the finger or wrong finger, the screen just turns off after a few seconds like I'm not doing anything. I have to unlock using my keycode. If I quickly lock my phone and try again it still doesn't work. If I try a few minutes later it works fine.

I don't think this is a hardware or software flaw, my guess is that there's something about my hands first thing in the morning that the Touch ID sensor has problems with but I can't imagine what.

Does anyone else have this happen or know why it happens? Or is it just me?

Probably (maybe? possibly?), your finger looks "dead" first thing in the morning. Touch ID uses both capacitive sensing,  which is activated by the slight electrical charge running through your skin, and radio frequency sensing which does not respond to the dead layer of skin on the outside of your finger -- the part that might be chapped or too dry to be read with much accuracy -- and instead reads only the living tissue underneath. This is why you can't unlock a phone with someone's dead finger.

So, one theory is that your finger, when you're first waking up, isn't in quite the same state as your finger later in the day, on the day when you set up your touch ID.

But, this could all be inaccurate.

How to test?

Idea 1. Try massaging your fingers first thing in the morning before trying to unlock the phone. Maybe getting the blood flowing in your finger will make it look right.

Idea 2. This one would be very interesting. Next time you wake up and your finger isn't working, unlock your iPhone and then use your finger to set up a new Touch ID. Then, the next day, see if your early morning finger can unlock the phone.

Very curious to hear your results :-)


Run script on networked user login The computer lab is running 10.8. I would like to run a script when networked users login. As far as I can tell my choices are:

launchd agents - Not meant for this. On the launchd.plist man page it says "An agent launched by launchd SHOULD NOT do the following as a part of their startup initialization: Setup the working directory." That's basically what my script does.

login items - A number of posts indicate that they worked in 10.7 but don't work in 10.8

login hooks - This works but the "Customizing Login and Logout" on developer.apple.com says "There are numerous reasons to avoid using login and logout scripts: Login and logout scripts are a deprecated technology."

I don't want to use something that won't work tomorrow. I would like to do this the "right way" if there is one. Please advise. Thanks.

Setting the Working Directory for a Script

You should use a launchd agent job placed in the /Library/LaunchAgents folder.

The advice you mention, quoted below, is aimed at the executable or script being launched. You should let launchd manage the working directory for you.

  A daemon or agent launched by launchd SHOULD NOT do the following as a part of their startup initialization:

  Setup the user ID or group ID.
  Setup the working directory.
  chroot(2)
  setsid(2)
  Close "stray" file descriptors.
  Change stdio(3) to /dev/null.
  Setup resource limits with setrusage(2).
  Setup priority with setpriority(2).
  Ignore the SIGTERM signal.

The launchd job ticket is responsible for requesting the desired working directory; use the WorkingDirectory key to set the directory. The directory will be automatically set before your executable or script is launched.

A full description of the available keys in a launchd job ticket are available in the  launchd.plist(5) manual page.

Setting the Working Directory for the User

Consider providing a modified ~/.bashrc or other shell login script to provide a known current working directly.


What happens after an iOS magazine subscription is canceled? Now that iOS 5 has been released and devices now have the 'Newsstand' feature, I've been considering switching over some of my print magazine subscriptions to the iPad platform.

Does anyone know what happens to your existing issues after an iOS magazine subscription is canceled?  After downloading the "free" app for a magazine (such as PC Gamer), you have the choice of either buying individual issues at a high price or "subscribing" on either a monthly or annual basis.  The subscription can be stopped at any time (and will expire at the end of the current paid period.)

After the subscription is stopped, can you continue to access the issues that you received during the paid subscription (and, importantly, will you still have access to them using the 'Restore paid issues' option on a new device even if you don't have a then-current subscription)?  Or do you lose all access to the issues after the subscription payments stop? (I'm really hoping that's not how it works, but it wouldn't surprise me.  I think it should work like a paper magazine; i.e. when your subscription ends, the issues on your shelf don't spontaneously combust...)

From a technical perspective your subscription is only valid as long as you're paying for it. After that Apple's servers return the same response for you, as they would if you had never subscribed.

You will probably still keep access to all your issues, although restoring old issues has to be implemented by the app itself. For example wired magazine requires you to create a wired account to later restore all magazines. (But even without the account you can keep your downloaded issues as long as you want. I expect that to be standard across other magazines as well - but again, that's up to the publisher.)


What does a CUDA driver do? I've heard talk of installing a CUDA driver for the new unibody mac (Nvidia 330M) to possibly resolve graphics problems (though it seems it actually doesn't do so). I'm not having problems but I was wondering exactly what the CUDA driver does, if it supplements or replaces the default graphics driver, and if it gives better performance. Please explain!

Nvidia offers a CUDA driver and OpenGL driver, for use with their APIs. The application would need to be recompiled with these options for the .app to use the cuda driver.

Here is the latest info, from a last month...
http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda_3_2_downloads.html

Scroll down to Mac OS X section for some good non-programmer - adv programmer info.


Using an iPhone 5 (Verizon version) in Europe and India? I am going to try and consolidate all of the questions I have here:

Can I use the Verizon iPhone5 with a GSM carrier in Europe (Vodafone) and in India (Airtel or Aircel) with both calling and cellular data working properly?
Question 1 extended: Could I use it on the GSM carriers whilst on a 2 yr contract with Verizon? (The way I understand, it does come unlocked??)
On ending my contract will I be able to pop in a t-mobile sim and use it in the US?

Please advise

Yes.
Yes.
Yes.

Only quirk is you won’t get LTE data on networks other than Verizon, especially Airtel and Aircel, as Asian carriers use different bands. You are probably gonna get LTE in Europe, and that too most likely on CDMA networks, but you will have to check with the carrier. I really hate this fragmentation.