Need my automator script to display the regular shutdown prompt before shutting down I'm using the script below to trigger a shutdown but I would like it to give me the normal warning menu with the 60 sec. countdown, I can't figure out the warning menu.

tell application "finder" to shut down

I don't know what else to put so I get the normal shutdown prompt.

Use the menu item instead:

tell application "Finder" to activate
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Finder"
        click menu item "Shut Down…" of menu 1 of menu bar 1
    end tell
end tell

If you use another system language than English use the proper shut down command instead.
At least in OS X 10.11 you have to allow Script Editor/the resulting app to control your computer in System Preferences -> Security -> Privacy -> Accessibility.

You have to copy the menu item exactly including spaces. E.g. the three dots are not three dots but an ellipsis: alt; -> … (en-US keyboard layout)


How to use VPN with OS X Server? I have recently set up a server on my Mac mini with the OS X Mountain Lion Server app. I would like to have remote access (from outside of my home's wifi network) to the files and folders in my home folder and shared locations (on the Mac mini), and I understand that to do this I need a VPN connection. I'm not familiar with these kinds of things, and I've been trying to set this up but I can't get it to work.

It's worth mentioning that I don't actually have a registered domain name - the host name is server.example.private (I've replaced "example" with something else). From any computer connected to my home's wifi network I can access the server's wiki by entering "192.168.0.(some number)" into the address box, but I cannot access it by using "server.example.private" (even from the wifi network) - this might indicate what the problem is. Furthermore, I can access my home folder and shared locations using Finder from a Macbook Air (I can only do this when connected to my home's wifi network) by connecting to my Mac mini and logging in - I would like to be able to do this remotely.

I'm probably just doing something really stupid, like not configuring some setting (or perhaps not setting up DNS properly...). Could anyone please explain the steps required to set up VPN (and maybe different aspects relating to/depending upon this)? All the tutorials I've seen so far ask me to register a domain name, and I'm not quite ready to do that yet (I hope that's not the problem). Please let me know if you need any more details.

Thanks.

OSX Server does have several VPN servers in it.
You can configure these using Server.app however, if your internal name resolution is broken this is likely to be more trouble.

You'll also need to make sure your Mac Mini's VPN port is available to the internet on a static IP (or dynamic host name).

As an interim step I suggest looking at 'Back To My Mac' which is free as part of iCloud. Technically it uses adhoc ipsec vpn tunnels and gives you an DNS name for each mac set up, effectively bypassing the current internal name resolution issue. e.g. server.12345678.members.btmm.icloud.com
Services that you run e.g. web and ssh will accessible.

They're btmm DNS address are not internet routable and don't, generally, require any port forward or static IP addresses.
For a couple more technical details check here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/53776/46039


Bootcamp Windows 7 loading time optimization I've created a bootcamp partition and successfully installed Windows 7 there. The problem is that Windows loads too slow - there is a white pointer on black screen blinking for 2 or 3 minutes before system starts loading, so total loading time exeeds to 4 minutes.
How can I reduce Windows loading time?
I'm using MBP 2010 MC371, so there should be no perfomance problems.

You could try the solution on http://viperfx07.blogspot.com but I haven't had the problem myself so I can't say whether it will solve your issue

Just to note that this may be due to your copy of Windows not being genuine


Can I use variable in Numbers cell formula? I have to write a complex formula like this:

IF(5−SUM(C35:I35)>0,5−SUM(C35:I35),"")

Can I define a variable for 5−SUM(C35:I35)?

I think that the best solution would be to just assign your variable formula to a different cell and refer to that one in your main formula.

Example:

Cell A1:

=5−SUM(C35:I35)

Cell B1:

IF(A1>0,A1,"")

You could then hide the column where the variable is, so you don't have to see it.


How can I restore my iPod touch using a different computer? I've had my 5th-gen iPod for a while now, and my computer broke a while back, lost iTunes and everything. Also I can't remember my Apple ID. There was never any need to connect it after I first did to put my music on.

However, I am locked out since typed my password in too many times incorrectly. I have access to my friends computer to restore it, but how do I do this?

To restore your device…

Put your device into Recovery mode

Turn the device off
Holding the home button, connect it to your computer.

iTunes should prompt to restore the device.
Follow the instructions.

If you have Find my iPhone enabled, you will need to log in to iCloud and remove the device from your account before you can restore it.


where did this 2nd desktop come from, how to I move an open window back to the original? I was deep into answering another SE question and without realizing it I sent my browser (chrome) to the corn field a second desktop. I'm trying to read an equation in an SE question and type it into python but they are on two different desktops, and I don't want to close either of them.

I grabbed the Chrome by the very top with my cursor and tried to slide it just a little bit to the right, but instead it moved to the second desktop with a default background. I have no idea how this happened

I've been vaguely aware that multiple desktops exist in MacOS but never used it. Now I suddenly have two questions:

How can I move chrome back to my "main" or normal desk top where all the other screens are open?
How might I have sent chrome to the corn field a second desktop to begin with?

Here’s Apple’s documentations on mission control:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204100

  How can I move chrome back to my "main" or normal desk top where all the other screens are open?

Follow the directions to open Mission Control, click the desktop with the open chrome window, grab it, and move it to the desired destination desktop.

  How might I have sent chrome to a second desktop to begin with?

Don't know. If it happens again, see if you can note your exact trackpad and keyboard gestures at the time and leave a comment.


Mac mini (Late 2009) + Yosemite: cannot read CDs/DVDs Hardware: Mac mini (Late 2009)

OS: Yosemite 10.10.2

Problem: cannot read CDs/DVDs, either by internal drive or external drive.

...

When you insert any type of CD or DVD, ISO, UDF, HFS, original media or not, the Mac mini tries to read for a few seconds, between 15 and 30, and then ejects the media. Only the blank media remain on the drive, so the Finder when Disk Utility can identify them, but when you try to write something, the disc is ejected.

I've tried several tips found on blogs, but nothing can make the Mac mini read the disks.

I've tried also my external drive, an external USB case with DVD-RW from LG, IDE bus, which works perfectly on my PC with Windows 8.1 and Linux OpenSUSE 13.2, and also works perfectly on my old war buddy, a PowerBook G4.

My Mac mini simply refuses to read discs, either by internal as well as external drive by! Yosemite's fault?

Does anyone have a solution or something that could help me find a way to understand and solve this problem?

Mine did the same, however after purchasing an LG external drive Mac/PC from Best Buy, I am now successful in reading disks. I use the cable that came with it on the back of my Mac Mini USB port. This is the cheaper one, and has flimsy  CD tray, but works.


Name of file won't go away as file title in Finder Ultimately, this isn't a big problem but it is a bit annoying.

Something happened, at some point, to my Finder application.  Even after restarting my computer (even multiple times since this first appeared) the name of a file "CCBReader.h" appears written at the top of Finder.  It doesn't matter which  folder or file I select, it always reads "CCBReader.h".  I recall that this did occur after some point where I was looking at this file, but that was weeks ago.  Now, the file name is a ghost within Finder!

How can I make this go away?  See the image below for reference.

You can add any file or folder there by just dragging it from the Finder window below. Can be quite useful for quick access to specific folders or applications (if you really need them very often).

To remove just Command-drag the name from onto the desktop and release the mouse button to see it disappear in a cloud of smoke.


iTunes search API returns different app icons for 60x60 and 1024x1024 At first, I have to say that I am not sure whether I should ask this question on stackoverflow or on AskDifferent. I decided to use AskDifferent because this question is not programming-specific.

My question:
I use the iTunes search API to get information about some apps. I use the iTunes lookup (http://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=[some app id]) URL to get this information. The return dictionary contains two links for the app icon:

artworkUrl60
artworkUrl512

The urls after the specific links point to the app icon.
The problem is that the image returned for the artworkUrl60 key is not the same as the image returned for the artworkUrl512 key.

Example: (I'm sorry that the second image is so much bigger, that's because it's the big artwork)
Vizzywig 4K
artworkUrl60:
artworkUrl512:

Apps can have different artwork. Whilst Apple recommends simply scaling your app icon for iTunes Artwork, there's nothing preventing them from being different images.


How to Recover a gone OSX (mavericks) on MacBookPro? I shutdown my computer for some reasons with power button (cold shutdown). Unfortunately, my OS i.e.,mavericksis gone at the moment and I have no backup from the Data and settings of that Hard drive partition.
  I have the mavericks installation DVD, and tried to repair the disk with Disk Utility but it didn't work. getting the following message:

  Disk utility stopped repairing 'Macintosh HD`, Disk utility cant
  repair the disk, back up as many of your files.....'

I have 2 partitions on my hard drive including Macintosh HD which my OS was installed there, and Mac Store that contains my own data.
I tried to reinstall and recover the OS on the same drive i.e,Macintosh HD in order to keep the settings (password, usernames,) and information of my hard drive (However,later I should do the clean install).   To do this, I selected the Macintosh HD disk, and clicked on install , but I am getting an error saying

  The content of disk can't be changed. OSX couldn't be installed on
  this disk.

So I wanted to ask

1. Is there anyway to get my previous OS to work (I need my passwords and Data in Desktop,documents and download folders)?

2. Even if 1 is not possible, how can I backup the Data of that partition i.e,Macintosh HD?

3. Is it possible to extract my saved passwords on Firefox as well?

Thanks for your help.

Problem has been solved, Just thought it may be useful for others.

1. Is there anyway to get my previous OS to work (I need my passwords and Data in Desktop,documents and download folders)?

  Maybe, But I don't know yet. But anyway, it is better to clean install
  the OS again to make your computer faster.

2. Even if 1 is not possible, how can I backup the Data of that partition i.e,Macintosh HD?

  Yes, basically I installed mavericks on a USB thumb drive. Next I log
  in my new OS and copied everything I needed to a external Hard drive.
  Then I formatted the whole MAC HDD and then clean installed the OS
  there. Now it is working well.

3. Is it possible to extract my saved passwords on Firefox as well?

  Yes, Once I installed the Mavericks on a thumb drive, I went to user
  folder, library/application support and then found Firefox folder and
  copied my profile . After I inistalled the OS on MAC HDD, I installed
  firefox and then pasted that profile in the same place. All of my
  passwords and bookmarks are there.


How to update 10.4.11 OS X? Is there a way to update 10.4.11 OS X to the newest version of OS X? I have Mac Pro (2 x 2 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with 1 GB ram).

You'll have to at least buy Snow Leopard to upgrade. You can buy it from the Apple Store for $20, and then the upgrade from that to Mavericks is free.


iMessages sent from email address and not received by iPhone Whenever I send someone a text, I'm told that it shows that "myname@icloud.com" is sending the text and not my phone number. And when someone responds to "myname@icloud.com", I receive the message on my computer and Wi-Fi only iPad, but not my iPhone. Is there any way to only send and receive messages from a phone number?

I've done what it says on the forum to go to settings, messages, send and receive then it just says me emails and my number is just spinning it doesn't give me any other options.

On your iPhone, turn iMessage off and back on and wait for activation.


How can I discover the source of an alert chime on OS X At irregular intervals, my MacBook Pro is emitting a chime. Not the startup chime. More of a brief "alert" type sound.

A few minutes will go by, no chime. Then chime, or several in a row. Then silence for a few minutes, etc.

I clicked notification center when it occurs to see what it's trying to alert me about. There are no notifications listed within the last hour.

I went through everything in notifications control panel and turned off audible alerts.

I turned on "do not disturb."

Power is 100%. Machine is plugged in. Light on power input is green.

Wifi is turned off. Ethernet connection is ok.

Retina MacBook Pro mid 2012.

OS X Sierra 10.12 (16A323).

I figured it out.

It was MS Outlook client.

Outlook ignores OS X notification center. Alert config is in Outlook application preferences.


Finder search multiple file types I want to create a Smart Search Folder that will contain .xcproj or .xcworkspace files. I have no problem spefying a single of them, but how do I search for both in the same search?

After the initial link from fsb to How to create a smart folder for files created in the last 5 minutes I've went ahead and created a custom expression. For reference, this is the custom query that I've used:

kMDItemFSName == *.xcodeproj ||kMDItemFSName == *.xcworkspace


Apache problem with hostname on OSX 10.8.4 After updating to 10.8.4 I am having trouble running my macports apache server.  I stop the built-in apache with: sudo apachectl stop, then I try to start macports apache with: sudo /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start and I get:

httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using My-Name-iMac.local for ServerName
httpd (pid 98) already running

and when I load localhost in the browser I get Unable to Connect...

I'm just running this as a development machine, so I don't need a domain name.  The output of hostname (before and after this) is My-Name-iMac.local as you'd expect.  What concerns me is the httpd (pid 98) already running part of this output.

which  apachectl outputs /usr/sbin/apachectl

This problem seemed to slowly evaporate when I started using sudo apachectl -k stop (though this could be just coincidence).  It now seems I can switch between servers using

sudo apachectl stop and /opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start,

and then back with

/opt/local/apache2/bin/apachectl stop and sudo apachectl start

no problem.  I haven't been able to find any documentation on apachectl -k (beyond apachectl help).


Ipod Classic 120 GB frozen when syncing with a new PC. I am trying to sync my Ipod Classic with my new PC, and my iTunes account is the same username, login, etc. My iPod has frozen in the "Connected- Eject before disconnecting" screen. It isn't syncing, and it's not registering on iTunes, but my Spotify application is picking it up. However, the PC doesn't recognize it when I try to "safely eject it" on the bottom taskbar of the desktop/browsing window. I did get one short message from iTunes stating my Ipod is corrupted, but I have gotten this message before and it fixed itself. So right now my iPod is frozen on that "Connected" screen, but it is not registering on iTunes. any ideas? Thank you!!

Let your iPod connected to your PC then turn the pc off by clicking "turn off computer" good Luck!

Herchixnyc


Is it possible to hide title bar of Firefox 22 in OS X 10.8.4 Is there any way to hide or remove Firefox 22 title bar in OS X 10.8.4?

Short answer: no

It has been a bug since firefox 13
Even though autohide is set to 'true' the toolbars won't hide in fullscreen.

Best option is to go to view -> Toolbars and uncheck the toolbars in the top menu
But this leaves the 'tab toolbar'

So if you really want to hide the toolbars you should open the page in a different browser.


What can I use Apple TV for in an Android household I recently got an Apple TV (the new siri version) at a stupidly cheap price (Supermarket mislabeled it as the last version) it seemed rude not to buy it! But now I'm not sure what to do with it.

Unfortunately most / all of the information online talks about how well they integrate with the Apple ecosystem.

So my question is what can I use an Apple TV for if I'm an Android household.

P.S. I was going to put some of my use case here, to stop it being too broad a question, but I also suspect that might limit the answers a little (and stop it being as useful for other's doing the same google search I did!)

If you have a cable TV subscription, you can watch quite a lot of TV content through the different networks' apps.  If you own a lot of your own content, sitting on your network, install Plex Media Server on your PC/Linux/whatever, and the Plex app on the ATV.

I'd mention that you can play games on the ATV too, but I haven't found any worth the time yet...


Purchasing hundreds of consumer App Store apps for employees The question is very simple as the topic suggests. (How) Can a company buy multiple "licenses" of publicly available apps on the App Store (for example paid Angry Birds app) and distribute those to its employees? Does the company get .ipa files directly from the developer (Rovio) and distribute them using the company's iOS Enterprise Developer program? I would say no, because Apple would be omitted in the transaction and in that case, what is the way?

The distribution would by handled by an application called Afaria (which is a client of Afaria Mobile Device Management solution) via its own App portal (more info in iTunes).

I've read about the Volume Purchase Program, however this is not a solution, because I'm in Europe.

If you need more information, please ask. For now, I can't think of more information I can provide.

I suppose I should begin with the caveats that

I do not live in Europe so I do not know how things might work there.
I do not own or manage a business. So also clueless there.
I have not personally ever bought anything other than free apps from the Apple App Store.

So, what I am saying is that I can not answer your question. But I also suffer from Y-chromosome induced Male Answer Syndrome, so I'll try to answer anyway.

Let's start with the assumption that Apple wants to sell you these apps. You just have to track down someone to help you either at Apple or at the company which sells this Afaria app you mentioned.

You do not mention which country in Europe you are in. But I assume there is an Apple web site either for that country or for your native language. I suggest you go to that web site and search there for information on a volume licensing program.

For example, I tried looking at http://www.apple.com/uk/ and searched for volume license.

That search turned up this link: http://www.apple.com/uk/mac/volume-licensing/

Now the page that link took me too appears to apply to volume licensing only for the OS X Lion operating system. Still, the people involved would at least know something about Apple's Volume License process. So, if you were in the UK I would suggest you contact them and start a conversation.

Even if they can't help you they could still probably point you towards other Apple people who might be able to help you.

I suggest you try something like that with the Apple web site which targets your region in Europe.

I realize this would be a tedious and frustrating process. And I hope someone else provides a better answer to your question here. But unless they do, I think your best chance of solving your problem is to start working you way through people at Apple who would want to sell you something help you.


Adding an icon for a custom input I have a custom input (.inputplugin) installed already. I'm curious how I can change the icon of the input from just the C in a box to my own icon. The installation was rather finicky so I'd rather not uninstall it, and I'm not really in favor of using Ukelele. Any ideas? Thanks!

Normally you create an .icns file with the same name as your keyboard and put it in the same location and it will appear instead of the Apple default.  You can get sample .icns files with the Ukelele download.


Xcode keyboard shortcut for scrolling down both cursor and line How can I define a keyboard shortcut in Xcode to scroll down both the cursor and the line?

In Xcode's key bindings terms, this would be equivalent to performing "Scroll Line Down (Scrolling)" followed by "Move Down (Selection)". I'm looking for a way to define a keyboard shortcut which will perform both actions at once.

Xcode

Assign some key combinations to the Scroll Line Up and Scroll Line Down actions:

Then install KeyRemap4MacBook and save a file like this as ~/Library/Application Support/KeyRemap4MacBook/private.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <appdef>
    <appname>XCODE</appname>
    <equal>com.apple.dt.Xcode</equal>
  </appdef>
  <item>
    <name>xcodearrows</name>
    <identifier>xcodearrows</identifier>
    <only>XCODE</only>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::CURSOR_UP, KeyCode::PAGEUP, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, VK_OPTION | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::CURSOR_DOWN, KeyCode::PAGEDOWN, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Then open the KeyRemap4MacBook application, press the ReloadXML button, and enable the setting.

Other applications

Create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this like this as ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
  "~\UF700" = (moveUp:, scrollLineUp:); // option-up
  "~\UF701" = (moveDown:, scrollLineDown:); // option-down
}

Then quit and reopen applications to apply the changes.

DefaultKeyBinding.dict stopped working in Xcode 4. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5626788/custom-key-bindings-xcode-4.

This would make option-up and option-down scroll eight lines and center the view around the caret:

{
  "~\UF700" = (moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp:, moveUp, moveUp, centerSelectionInVisibleArea:);
  "~\UF701" = (moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown:, moveDown, moveDown, centerSelectionInVisibleArea:);
  "~$\UF700" = (moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection:, moveUpAndModifySelection, moveUpAndModifySelection);
  "~$\UF701" = (moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection:, moveDownAndModifySelection, moveDownAndModifySelection);
}


Replace MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) battery from MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) The macbook i am using currently is MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012). Now the battery warning is "Replace now" state. So i need to change it. I have another macbook with MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011).

Is it possible the replace battery from MacBook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011) to MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) ?

Yes, it is possible to swap the battery from a MacBook Pro 13" (Early 2011) to a MacBook Pro 13" (Mid 2012) model. In fact, the same battery is used from Mid 2009 to Mid 2012 in all 13" MacBook Pros. You will need a special screwdriver called a tri-wing screwdriver though, to remove and reinstall the battery.


Text comparison application I'm looking for a simple text comparison tool. Something which just compares two quick text, I don't care about file comparison, just quick text side by side comparison.

In TextWrangler, there is a command "Compare Two Front Documents". TextWrangler is not just a simple text comparison tool, but it's free, and if you need to edit text anyway, it's a useful feature.


Macbook randomly shutdown 4k external monitor I have a Macbook 16inch connecting to Dell 24inch 4k P2415Q with Moshi USB-C to Mini DisplayPort, bought from Apple.
After 1-2 hours the monitor just shut down like there's no signal, macbook still running. I have to turn off and turn on the monitor to reconnect but it keeps happening all day.
I've done these things so far:

Open / Close lid while connecting to the monitor.
Switch between ports.
Reset NVRAM, PRAM, SMC.
Tested with Macbook 13 (2016), same problem
Tested with my gaming desktop, same monitor same cable, working well, no issue.

Has anyone experienced same issue before ?

Turn out the problem is the the monitor. I've bought a new one and it's ok now.
Still don't know why it only happened to Macbooks not windows


Uncompress (zlib) files that "S3 Backup" compressed to Amazon S3 On windows I was using "s3 Backup" to backup files to amazon s3. One of the options is to compress with zlib.

As far as I can tell there is no mac version of this app. So now I need to figure out how to uncompress those files as I bring them on my mac. Anyone know a good way to uncompress files that were compressed with zlib?

The files retain the same name and extention after they had been compressed. I tried adding different extensions to the ends of the files to see if some standard compression programs would uncompress them but they did not.

I have also tried messing around command-line with the "uncompress" command. But no luck there either. Unless I can figure out a way to uncompress them I will be force to re-upload everything to amazon with compression off.

thanks in advance

To help figure out what these files are compressed with, you can try using the file command from the terminal. It should give you output like this:

% file archive.zip
archive.zip: Zip archive data, at least v2.0 to extract
% file archive.tgz
archive.gz: gzip compressed data, from Unix, last modified: Wed Aug  3 06:21:00 2005, max compression
% file srchive.bz2
archive.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k


Can the boot drive select screen be used with a PC video card? Since installing an unsupported video card typically means you don't get a boot screen on OS X, does that also preclude selecting boot drives on startup by holding down the option key?

I'm looking at getting a Radeon 6870 for a MacPro3,1 for use on OS X Lion. I've filled all the drive bays and sometimes have different OSs installed. I'd also like to know if I'm going to loose access to the recovery drive if I happen to need it.

If unsupported cards do prevent the boot drive selection screen from displaying, could I install a second 'supported' card in one of the PCIe x4 slots (the other x16 will be blocked) and get the boot drive selection screen back (by plugging in a monitor to it when necessary)?

What there any other deficiencies I can expect with this setup? Is a card that works but is unsupported on Lion likely to stop working with future versions of OS X (e.g., Mountain Lion).

The card works fine in Lion but, indeed, without a boot screen or boot drive selection. I've left an old supported video card in another slot, and hooking a monitor to that card shows the boot screen/boot drive selection screen.

I haven't had a chance to try out Mountain Lion on it.


iPad Other Storage - what is it and how to clear it up? iTunes reports my iPad has 4Gb of "other" storage (yellow). It was 6Gb before I did a sync.

What is this and what can I do about it?

"Other" data is memory things other than apps, music, or movies use. This usually consists of mainly downloads and other content that your device cannot classify. You can remove it by downloading a file explorer and deleting unwanted items to free up space.


How to prevent conversion to APFS on High Sierra install The current understanding seems to indicate that "all SSD" machines will have at least their main/root file system converted to APFS on the install of High Sierra.

That means HFS+ is still a viable boot file system (as it was during testing the beta on an external rotational drive). I want to keep HFS+ for now.

How do I force a full default install, including Recovery HD, onto an "all SSD" MacBook Pro that keeps HFS+ as the only file system?

It should work by exiting any High Sierra installer GUI and starting the install from the command line:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --converttoapfs NO

Further install options can be obtained by using the --usage argument:

  Arguments
  --applicationpath, a path to copy of the OS installer application to start the install with.
  --license, prints the user license agreement only.
  --agreetolicense, agree to license the license you printed with --license.
  --rebootdelay, how long to delay the reboot at the end of preparing. This delay is in seconds and has a maximum of 300 (5 minutes).
  --pidtosignal, Specify a PID to which to send SIGUSR1 upon completion of the prepare phase. To bypass "rebootdelay" send SIGUSR1 back to startosinstall.
  --converttoapfs, specify either YES or NO on if you wish to convert to APFS.
  --installpackage, the path of a package to install after the OS installation is complete; this option can be specified multiple times.
  --usage, prints this message.
  --volume, path to the target volume.

Sources report that the command (in the Beta version) doesn't do anything on the first execution  but on the second.


Store iTunes Password in Keychain Is there any way to get Mac OS X to save iTunes/App Store login info (ie username and password) to the Keychain? It's strange that pretty much all other application and website passwords are stored there, but not for iTunes.

Note: I'm not asking about iPhone/iPad etc.

Apparently not. Its is meant to ask for your password for your own safety, so no one except you can buy Apps.

It will remember your password for 15 minutes, though.


OS X 10.9 Mavericks subtle two-finger scrolling changes (on touchpad) I am still unsure whether this is dependent on, or even related to, the "Responsive Scrolling" feature rolled out in Mavericks.

Responsive Scrolling is intended to provide smoothness of scroll by doing such things as pre-rendering the areas surrounding the scrollable buffer. This in theory promotes buttery smooth scroll animation. I am all for that and I think such an abstraction layer is essential to great user experience. In practice, however, reports of increased lag or sluggishness were common in the early days of 10.9.

However, this topic is not about that. For me, I have not seen issues of this sort, thankfully.

But what I have noticed (and which I am having trouble finding others who have noticed it) is an aggravating subtle change to the behavior of scroll. Before, in 10.8, the two finger scroll on the touchpad controlled the scrollable buffer in a one-to-one fashion. Now, for very low finger motion velocities, the scrolling motion is accelerated.

This means the page will scroll much faster (something like 5 to 20 pixels per second) even when I am barely moving my two fingers at all.

In addition to this, this acceleration appears to have a rubber-band effect, where for slightly faster finger velocities, it actually slows down the motion of the buffer. It's almost like Apple is imposing on me some sort of "optimal scroll rate" and correcting me even though I know damn well how fast I want to move through the page to match my skimming speed, thank you very much.

And then, there is a separate higher-velocity regime where if finger velocity exceeds some much higher threshold the rubber-band adjustment is taken away. This feels good and proper and the momentum scrolling works just great.

I have become a bit of a speed reader/skimmer over the years and my rate of about half a page a second is just at this threshold, between the top range of the aggravating rubber-band-slowing regime and the "free-spinning" proportional control regime.

So, basically... I don't like this. I want it to feel like my fingers are directly dragging the scrolling buffer. I don't want "help". The non-physical "help" breaks the proportional physics of control, and it basically feels like they took a perfectly tuned rolling tube that I was using to view my documents on and squirted a magic rubber banding lubricant that defies physics into the bearing.

Note: It's possible that I am experiencing some side effect due to not installing the new OS fresh and instead updating a rather heavily "broken in" 10.8 setup. I've got BetterTouchTool and other widgets of this sort that took the ride over that might possibly be interfering and generating this strange behavior.

So anyway. The actual question is.... try scrolling a page in Mavericks at this rate of speed. Maybe try to do a comparison with a Mac that's running 10.7 or 10.8. See if you can spot this difference. If not, please tell me I'm crazy and maybe that means I can get this changed back to the way it should be.

I arrived at this page because I also perceived a subtle change in the trackpad scrolling mechanics after upgrading to Mavericks.  It does indeed feel that medium-speed scrolling is slowed down a bit from before (10.7 in my case).  I don't have a machine running the older OS to test this on, though.

Anyway, I turned up the scrolling speed to max in System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad and find the new mechanics tolerable on that setting.  This is maybe not the solution you are looking for but perhaps other readers will be content as I am with this fix.


Old MacBooks no longer boot Snow Leopard I have several old MacBook (MacBook2,1 units, from 2006) that have been running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard just fine, and been in use to teach a robotics class.

I know we used them in December, but a week ago (in Jan 2020) they would not boot up, but would kernel panic instead.

They have Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on their recovery partitions, which boots up just fine. I can boot into single user mode. I can boot in safe mode. Booting in verbose mode ends in an error (below). Unfortunately, I can't remember the password for the admin account, and when I tried to reset it (by saying the first boot process wasn't done), it kernel panicked before I could create a user.

In wondering if perhaps a cryptographic signature had expired, I set the date back a couple of years on one of them, but that didn't help.

I just re-installed 10.6 (.3) on one of the units, and the output, in verbose mode, looks very much like it did on the other units. (This photos is from one of the other units; I think it was running 10.6.7 or .8).

Any idea what I can do to get these units back into operation?

they won't run Mac OS X 10.7 without more RAM, and I think they are too new for 10.5
I'd rather not install Linux or Windows on them, although it is not beyond the pale. The software is only experimentally supported under Linux, and I don't have Windows licenses for the machines.
I don't need them to connect to the internet, and would be happy to disable WiFi (which is implicated in the stack trace). I tried disabling the .kext but couldn't figure out which file it is.

That photo says the kext (driver) for the Atheros airport card is what's causing the kernel panic.

There's a very simple way to disable this kernel extension, although it's terribly hacky: go into /System/Library/Extensions/, and rename IO80211Family.kext to IO80211Family.kext.bak.

Afterwards, go into the Terminal and run sudo kextcache -system-caches to rebuild the kernel cache.

On newer systems, this would require disabling SIP and/or remounting the root partition, but this is Snow Leopard.

Since you don't need the wifi, the above may be enough for you, but I'm at a loss as to the root cause of the problem—why would this kernel extension suddenly begin panicking? Safe mode, recovery mode, and single user mode likely don't load this extension, so the fact that those work makes sense, but how could the problem have suddenly appeared on two different machines?

The only other suspicious thing is that the computer kenel panics right after loading the lego mindstorm kext (com.ni.Fantom.nxtfwdl). That kext isn't listed in the backtrace at all, so it shouldn't be the culprit, but... if you upgraded the mindstorm software recently, you might want to try downgrading it. Or, you could try removing the mindstorm software altogether, but it sounds like that would render these machines useless to you.


Apple Remote controlling iPhone I am trying to connect an Apple TV remote to my iPhone so I can test my application with the remote.

But I can not find anything that shows how to connnect the devices together.  Does the remote only connect to the Apple TV?

Support is not just limited to the Apple TV, as the new Siri/touch sensitive remote can also pair with Macs so you can test tvOS apps in Xcode (presumably). Though only some Macs are supported.

However, there's no iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch support (on iOS 9.2 or earlier at least).


Is there a way to limit how frequently you can start an application? On my phone, I'm am enjoying a new tweak called MailStop which sole purpose is to limit my reflex of checking my mail far too often. I have set it to not allow me to start the Mail app for five hours once I have already started it. This has had a great impact on my mail checking abuse. I get to stop and remember I'm checking it far too often every time I try to open it during these hours.

There are other ways to limit the Mail app abuse with this application, but my question os the same as the title: Is there a way to limit how frequently you can start an application on the mac?

You can do this using AppleScript :

1. Open AppleScript Editor

2. Paste following code:

property appName : "Mail"
property minSecsBetweenLaunches : 600 -- seconds
property checkEvery : 5 -- seconds

-- DO NOT MODIFY AFTER THIS LINE IF NOT SURE --

property lastSeenOpen : ""
property lastMailState : ""

on run
    idle
end run

on idle
    my check()
    return checkEvery -- check every n seconds
end idle

on check()
    tell application "Finder" to set processes_names to name of processes
    if (lastMailState is "") then
        -- First run
        set lastMailState to (processes_names contains appName)
        if lastMailState then
            set lastSeenOpen to current date
        end if
    else
        if (processes_names contains appName) then
            if (lastMailState is false) then
                -- App just started
                set lastMailState to true
                if (lastSeenOpen is not "") then
                    -- Already been launched, check if launch allowed
                    set timeLeft to minSecsBetweenLaunches - ((current date) - lastSeenOpen)
                    if (timeLeft > 0) then
                        tell application appName to quit
                        activate
                        display dialog "Wait " & timeLeft & " sec. before opening " & appName & " again."
                    end if
                end if
            end if
            set lastSeenOpen to current date
        else
            if (lastMailState is true) then
                -- App just quit
                set lastMailState to false
            end if
        end if
    end if
end check

3. Adjust settings

The 3 first lines of the script can be edited to fit your needs. By default, check every 5 seconds if Mail has not been seen open since 10 min (which is 600 seconds).

4. Create the app

File menu > Export

Choose app name & destination
select to export as Application
check "stay open..."

5. Hide from dock

In the Finder, find the app you just exported, then right-click on it, and select "Show package content". Then open "Info.plist" of the "Contents" folder in TextEdit, and, before the last </dict> of the file, paste:

<key>LSBackgroundOnly</key>
<string>1</string>

For info, after edit, end of my file looks like :

[...]
        <string>event log</string>
    </dict>
    <key>LSBackgroundOnly</key>
    <string>1</string>
</dict>
</plist>

And save it of course.

6. Set your app as startup item

System Preferences > Users > ...


Why aren't iTunes Store links opening from Chrome and Edge? I'm trying to open iTunes links from the web in Windows 10.

Whenever I click on a "View in iTunes" link in Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, I get sent to a page saying I should download and install iTunes. I already did that and I'm on a fresh install of Windows. I've restarted after a repair install of iTunes without any difference.

If I do the same in Internet Explorer, the links work and iTunes opens fine.

Are others experiencing this at all?

I'm using 64-bit Chrome as I did on Windows 8.1. I don't remember having this problem on Windows 8.1.

This is a problem with Apple's website assuming you don't have iTunes installed, when it should really just try and open it anyway.
You can fix this in Chrome by spoofing your user agent to Chrome for OS X, or any other OS X browser.
I've been using this extension to do this. Once you've installed it, go to its options and add a new user agent for Chrome on OS X. The one in particular I'm using is:
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_11_1) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/47.0.2526.73 Safari/537.36

Once you've added that to the list of user agents, you can go to "Permanent Spoof List" on the left side panel in the options, and add a new rule for apple.com using the user agent you just added.
This will make the Apple website think you're running OS X, causing iTunes URLs to correctly open.


Does FaceTime take up data or calling minutes when in a Wi-Fi area? I am using FaceTime and calling my friend abroad. I am using an iPod touch, but my friend has an iPhone and is in an area where they have Wi-Fi access.  My question is, does that "call" count toward data or voice minutes, or is it unlimited and free as it's all going over Wi-Fi?

According to Apple Support:

  Check that each person has an active Wi-Fi connection.

Since both parties must use Wi-fi, no cellular data or voice usage will be charged.

More information can be found in this Apple.SE post, as it may be possible to use Facetime over 3G if the phone is jailbroken.


Cyberduck replacement for SCP transfers Since Cyberduck uses Java, it's out for me.

Any replacement for Mavericks that is good, has similar to WinSCP functionality and has an option to try before I buy?

I’ve heard only good things about Transmit.


An undefined volume appears out of nowhere? Today, I noticed another mounted volume on my computer:

This volume is the size of my whole hard disk. I can only see it in the iStat widget. I cannot see it in Finder or the Terminal.

$diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *128.0 GB   disk0
1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            127.2 GB   disk0s2
3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

The name seems as if it is an encrypted volume. However, I don't have anything encrypted on this Mac.

Where is this from?

(I hope this is not a bug of iStat Pro which showed me this.)

diskutil list will show you all the Lion core storage volumes and might be of use. The df command shows more network mounted volumes and will probably allow you to match that long string of characters to the storage structure used for MobileBackups in time machine.

mac:~ mike$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS mac                     499.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *1.8 MB     disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Google Chrome 17.0.9... 1.7 MB     disk1s2
mac:~ mike$ df
Filesystem                        512-blocks      Used Available Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       975093952 837212344 137369608    86%    /
devfs                                    366       366         0   100%    /dev
map -hosts                                 0         0         0   100%    /net
map auto_home                              0         0         0   100%    /home
/dev/disk1s2                            3412      3412         0   100%    /private/tmp/UpdateEngine-mount.yzrVRXvfxf
localhost:/J91gqbWGFXawS6VmjrAKYp  975093952 975093952         0   100%    /Volumes/MobileBackups


What can cause the volume keys to not work but show the prohibitory sign instead of changing volume? When i try to reduce my mac book volume it suddenly shows that this isn't possible, even the icon in the menu bar is (grey inactive)

This happens sometimes since i installed lion os

I have experienced this issue starting with my new install of Lion. I haven't been able to find the cause of the issue but I do have a quick way to reset the audio system and get back volume control.

Open Activity Monitor (Its in Applications/Utilities)

Make sure it is set to All Processes, look for coreaudiod, click "Quit Process" then "Quit". Wait a few seconds and you should have volume control back.

If your a terminal buff a quick sudo killall coreaudiod should whip it into shape.


Fast and easy OS X app, to copy and paste and store and retrieve, code and text back fast? Sometimes when coding I use TextEdit to copy and paste some snippets in it, buts it's not efficient.

So I look for some personal recommendations for a fast easy OS X app to copy and paste and store and retrieve code / text back fast?

You can select snippets of text and drag them to the Desktop, thus creating a Text Clipping file that you can drag back to another app.


Upgrade from iPhone 3G 4.2.1 to iPhone 5S 7.0.4 A friend of mine has a good old iPhone 3G (yep, the thing still works :)) and he just bought an iPhone 5S. When he takes a backup of the iPhone 3G in iTunes (iCloud isn't supported in iOS 4) and tries a restore on his iPhone 5S, the restore completely fails...

No errors are given. The iPhone 5S just starts in his configuration screen (select language). So it looks like the backup cannot be restored.
Weird thing is, when he tries to turn off the iPhone 5S, the background screen of his iPhone 3G is shown... So some data has been transferred, but not enough for the iPhone 5S to boot with the restore...

What's going on here? Is the backup of the iPhone 3G too old? Or is he missing something?

I just upgraded from 3G to 5S and at first had the same problem. What I learned in another chat was that prior to restore I had to update to IOS 6.1... Once the OS was updated, I backed up the 3G and did a restore to the 5S from the latest 3G backup. It took a long time, but was well worth it.


Create a bootable NTFS drive on mac I have a working MacBook Pro as well as an old Dell laptop with no OS installed whatsoever. I'm giving the old laptop to a friend and I bought a Windows 10 license to install for them. The problem is burning the image properly!
There seems to be an issue in recent versions of Windows 10 where one of the files in the installer is too large for FAT32 so (unless I want to do some off-label dark magic during install, which I'd prefer to avoid) I need to burn directly to NTFS. I installed the trial of Paragon's NTFS for Mac, which lets me format the drive, but I haven't been able to find any Mac applications that will let me burn an image in NTFS.

Unetbootin explicitly requires FAT32
Boot Camp Assistant - in recent versions - apparently no longer supports external drives at all (it explicitly won't even proceed unless I physically disconnect all drives)
balenaEtcher provides a warning that it may not work properly for windows images and then fails during the burning process with no explanation

Does anyone have experience with burning NTFS on mac or know of a tool that could help here?

The Windows 10 ISO file you download from Microsoft is not the same as the Windows 10 ISO file created using the Microsoft media creation tool.
The following steps can be used to create the Windows 10 installation media for a PC.

Install VirtualBox.

Note: This is free product.

Go to the link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download the Windows 10 ISO.

Create a Windows 10 virtual machine.

Note: You do not need a license (product key) to create and temporarily use this Windows 10 virtual machine.

From the virtual machine, Go to the link https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 and download the Windows 10 media creation tool.

Note: This web page, given in the above link, can not be viewed from Safari unless you select an User Agent such as Microsoft Edge.

Run the media creation tool to either download the Windows 10 ISO or write the installation files to a flash drive.

Note: Access to a flash drive will require the installation of the VirtualBox Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack.

If you used the media creation tool to download the Windows 10 ISO, then transfer the ISO back to macOS and burn a DVD.

I should point out that if the laptop has Windows 7 or a newer version of Windows, then there is a good chance you could upgrade to Windows 10 for free.


Is there a TODO list app for mac you can change Font Size? You can't do it, in wunderlist, reminders, any.do, etc.

You really need to ruin your eyes to read you notes.

With OmniFocus you can change the font and display styles with a ton of options.


Reinstalling my Windows machine and wanting to preserve iTunes backups Is there a way to preserve the backups from all my iDevices stored into the iTunes folder - photos, audio notes, SMS etc. and move them to the new Windows installation.

Is this possible? How?

Depending on the iOS version of your devices, I suggest backing up to iCloud instead. If you have iOS 5 installed, find iCloud in Settings, select storage and backup, and backup all of your devices.

If you do not have enough room for all of your devices under iCloud or if they don't have iOS 5, you can follow this guide to back them up.


How to Delete a MacOS Notification Center Widget? How to Delete a MacOS Notification Center Widget? Not how to disable it or simply turn it off, but how to completely remove it, like uninstalling it or simply finding the executable and deleting it?

It is probably unsafe to delete executables without knowing if the main app executable depends on them.
Widgets are .wdgt files. To completely remove the widgets you must delete them from your machine or move them to a different folder. There are 2 Library folders on your computer. Each Library folder has a Widgets folder. You may remove the widget from the widgets folder to get rid of it. One Library folder is in your home directory. /Users/username/Library, and the top level folder is /Library. You cannot edit the latter on macOS Catalina.
It may also be possible that apps bundle the widget in the .app bundle. So right click on the myapp.app file & "show package contents". Some folders in, Resources folder may contain a wdgt file.
You can also use app like EasyFind to search the whole Mac for the extension.
If you need the app, but not its widget:
Open the notification panel and click on Today at the top of the pane. After that look to the bottom of the Today view and you should see an Edit button. Click this button. Now the active widgets will appear on the left. There will be a red circle at the top of each widget. Click this to remove the widget. See the images below.

After clicking Edit we see:


What's the name of my sound card driver's file? I want to run fuser to determine what process is using my sound card, but I don't know what file to use. I ran fuser on /System/Library/Extensions while playing a YouTube video, but did not see any process IDs.

If you have an idea of which process is making the sound, you might be able to try them until you find it.  For example, QuickTime Player, when playing a movie, does not use any subprocesses.  Similarly iTunes when it is playing a song.

On OS X 10.7 Lion, I did the following:

open Activity Monitor,
switch to "All Processes, Hierarchically"
found the application process I wanted and clicked it,
clicked Inspect
clicked Open Files and Ports


iPad 2 is dead after failed upgrade I upgraded to iOS 5 sometime ago and all was fine.

Last night I got a message that another upgrade was available, so I followed the prompts.

During the upgrade the connection between my PC and iPad failed.

Now the iPad will not boot.  It just shows the Apple logo and stops.

How do I fix a interupted iOS upgrade?

Make sure the iPad is turned off. Hold Home and plugin the Dock Connector cable. If the iPad shows an attach to iTunes screen, you can restore it. If it doesn't, you have to put it into DFU mode. It's a bit tricky, so don't panic if you doesn't manage it the first time. When you're in DFU mode, iTunes will ask you to restore it.

A tutorial for iPad DFU is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWy2xG0U4u8
It's looking as if you would have to have a running iPad, but it does work the same way if it's turned off. This is also true for iPods and iPhones.

There is no way to brick your iDevice using software. If you can't get it to work using these two tricks, its hardware is faulty. Good luck!


Managing a Child's iPad Without Another Apple Device? I just purchased an iPad for my child. This iPad is the only Apple device that I own. After it arrived, I realized after the fact that iPads apparently do not support more than one user, which is news to me, as I'm an Android user and Android has supported multiple users per device for quite a long time now.

I don't have an iPhone, another iPad, or even a MacBook, or really any other Apple hardware at all. I have access to Windows 10, so I installed iTunes, but it appears that it's not possible to manage apps via iTunes either. There also doesn't appear to be a way to manage anything from a browser, so it appears that my only method of controlling things is to log into and out of my account and my child's account on the device to manage things, and this appears to wipe everything that I have configured.

I have created a family profile, I've created a child account, I have purchased an learn-to-read application in my main account, and after logging into my child's account, I can use the application, but it appears that the Screen Time settings get wiped whenever I log out and into the iPad.

What I'm trying to do is the following:

Set up this iPad for my child.
Setup Screen Time for my child to limit access to basically everything, I only want the apps that I select to be usable, no internet access, no maps, etc.

Do I really need to buy another iPad in order to manage this iPad, or am I missing something here?

What’s wrong with setting a parental restriction passcode and not letting your child know the iCloud password for the account you set up?

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201304

Pretty much everything you have set up is easily achievable in solo mode. You could also sign up for an MDM like Jamf Now

https://www.jamf.com/products/jamf-now/

That adds far more options than a family AppleID and has many classroom features and integrations. It’s free for op your first three managed devices and Apple specific MDM.

Longer term, you might pick up a used phone or iPod touch that can run the latest iOS and manage the shared family AppleID but many of the family features work best with an iOS device for you to manage things remotely from the iPad you leave with your child.

You have discovered all the drawbacks so your problem statements leads me to believe you don’t have any more major surprises. Two last recommendations, if your child is less than 13 you need to manage their password and agree to all terms for them. Use your account and birthdate and just don’t give them the password ever. Use a password service like 1Password to save all details about your AppleID, the birth date you entered (people often mis type that when they are wanting to get their account set up), security questions and answers and the password, passcode, unlock PIN, parental PIN, etc...  document everything and keep your proof of purchase if you need Apple to unlock the device if iCloud gets locked by your child entering the password wrong too many times.


Is there a terminal command to enable Continuity - handoff on unsupported OS X? It is known that Apple sometimes drops support for new features such as Continuity on older OS X releases or older Mac models, sometimes those new features not necessarily hardware dependent.

I've used a few terminal commands to enable hidden features on my Mac in the past, so I'd like to know if is there a Mac Terminal command or another safe workaround to enable Continuity feature on non supported Mac models?

I own a Mac Mini mid 2011, 8GB, Intel 2,3GHz running OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

It takes a bit more than just a Terminal command, but check out Continuity Activation Tool:

  This tool makes the necessary changes to enable OS X 10.10 and 10.11 Continuity features on compatible hardware. Continuity features activated by this tool include Handoff, Instant Hotspot, and New Airdrop. Support for OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) is currently experimental and does not support dongles yet.


How to make a custom search engine in AppleScript So I have a database of folders and files (.txt) and I'm trying to create a program that I can enter keywords and have it search those files, and it will output the text of any files containing the keywords. I have a working code that does just that, but it doesn't search the words individually - it searches for the words together, as a single string.

For instance, if I input "Joe Bill Bob," I'd like it to output files that contain each of those words anywhere in the file, even if they aren't next to each other, or in that order.

I would rather avoid doing a repeat loop to input one search term at a time.

I'd also rather avoid setting up hundreds of variables in the code, and do a repeat loop that if a character isn't a space it adds it onto the first blank variable and if it is it skips to the next variable.

If you have any other ideas, that would be great. Thanks!

Note: the text files must be encoded with the "UTF8" encoding.

Here's a starting script:

Example: The keywords:

"Bill
Bob
Joe"

fgrep and sort return lines, like this :

/path/of/thisFile.txt:Bill
/path/of/thisFile.txt:Bob
/path/of/thisFile.txt:Joe
/path/of/thisFile2.txt:Bob
/path/of/thisFile2.txt:Joe
/path/of/thisFile3.txt:Bob
/path/subf1/of/some_File.txt:Bill
/path/subf3/of/some_xzzz_File.txt:Bill

The script use a loop to check the path of each item in this list.

The script get the path from the first item, it remove ":Bill" at end of the line --> so the path is "/path/of/thisFile.txt".

The script check the item (current index  + the number of keywords -1), it's the third item, so the third item contains the same path, then the script append the path into a new list

The others items doesn't contains all the keywords.

set r to text returned of (display dialog "What keywords?" default answer "Joe Bill Bob") --- each keyword must be sepearated by a space
set tKeys to my makeKeysForGrep(r)
if tKeys is not "" then
    set masterFolder to choose folder with prompt "Select the source folder .."
    set filesList to my getFilescontainingKeywords(masterFolder, tKeys) -- get a list of files ( each file contains all the keywords)
    --do something with the filesList -- this list contains path of type 'posix path'
end if

on makeKeysForGrep(t)
    (***   delete trailing and leading spaces, replace multiple spaces in a row by one space (clean the string to avoid issue with the unnecessary spaces in the grep command),
     and replace the space character by a linefeed character , so each line contains a keyword.  ***)
    set r to do shell script "perl -pe 's/ +$|^ +//g; s/ +/ /g; s/ /\\n/g; '  <<< " & (quoted form of t) & "| sort -u" without altering line endings
    if r is not linefeed then return text 1 thru -2 of r -- remove the last line (it's a blank line)
    return "" -- r is a a blank line, so return ""
end makeKeysForGrep

on getFilescontainingKeywords(dir, tKeys)
    script o
        property tfiles : {}
    end script
    set numOfKeywords to count (paragraphs of tKeys) -- get the number of keywords
    set tFolder to quoted form of POSIX path of dir
    set o's tfiles to do shell script "fgrep -R -o -w  --include \"*.txt\" " & (quoted form of tKeys) & " " & tFolder & " | sort -u"
    -- fgrep return the full path + ":" + the keyword, sort -u  : sort the paths and deletes duplicate lines (because the same file can contains multiple occcurences of a keyword)

    if o's tfiles is not "" then
        if numOfKeywords = 1 then return o's tfiles -- no need to continue because one keyword only,  return all Files
        set l to {}
        set o's tfiles to paragraphs of o's tfiles
        set tc to count o's tfiles
        set firstKeyword to ":" & (paragraph 1 of tKeys)
        set numCh to (length of firstKeyword) + 1
        set i to 1
        repeat while (i < tc) -- check each path in the list, the same path must exists  numOfKeywords  in a row
            set thisItem to (item i of o's tfiles)
            if thisItem ends with firstKeyword then
                set textFilepath to text 1 thru -numCh of thisItem
                set j to (i + numOfKeywords - 1)
                if j > tc then exit repeat
                if (item j of o's tfiles) starts with textFilepath then -- this file contains all the keywords
                    set end of l to textFilepath --- append this path to the list
                    set i to i + numOfKeywords -- to skip items wich contains the same path
                else
                    set i to i + 1 -- next file
                end if
            else
                set i to i + 1 -- next file
            end if
        end repeat
        return l -- list of files which contains all the keywords
    end if
    return {} -- No files found
end getFilescontainingKeywords

The options of fgrep :

The --include \"*.txt\" option :  only files matching the given
filename pattern are searched, so any name which end with ".txt"

The -w option : match word only, so Bob does not match Bobby,
remove this option if you want to match a substring in the text.

The -R option :  Recursively search subdirectories, remove this
option if you don't want recursion.

Add the -i option to  perform case insensitive matching. By
default, fgrep is case sensitive.


How to set command line permissions after npm install I am trying to run the gatsby-cli on a fresh install of macOS.
I downloaded npm and node from https:node.js.org/en.
Then installed the packages.
Then installed npm i -g gatsby-cl.
However, when I try to run a command like gatsby build I get a string of errors like
"libpangoft2-1.0.0.dylib" cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.

I got into System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Allow Anyway but the execution sequence stops and the Allow command is not saved.
How to I grant permissions to these executables so I can run gatsby commands without the popups?

Adding Terminal permissions in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy corrects this issue.


Why won't my Apple Software Updater connect to Apple? Every morning, on one particular machine, I get a popup that iTunes has an update to install.  However, when I click download nothing happens.  If I try to use the Apple Software Updater manually it reports that the Apple Software Update Server cannot be found.  I have full Internet connectivity, having no problems getting to any other sites and my other machines on the network update iTunes just fine.  Any ideas?

I'd try downloading a full copy of iTunes rather than trying to update it: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/


Copying all my data to new disk, without resorting to Time Machine/Migration Assistant or cloning I want to move all my data to a new SSD drive, and I want to create a workflow that does not use cloning or Time Machine.  The reasons why I do not want to clone my drive or to reinstate my data from Time Machine/Migration Assistant (TM/MA) is because both methods suffer from 'crud transfer'.  I have always used Time Machine to move my data to a new mac, but over the time I noticed that:

TM/MA does not honour the install receipts, so I end up with quite a lot of stuff whose origin I do not remember, especially for obscure packages such as ZFS for OSX
a number of OS specific files are transferred as well.  I had a problem on ML due to a com.apple.whatever file that originated either in SL or L, and got passed on by reinstating my data from TM/MA.  Only problem was, this plist was (1) not playing nice in ML and (2) slowing Mail to a crawl.  I'd like to avoid this experience again.

So, is there a specific 'workflow' that will allow me to copy all my data to the new disk?  I can install ML on the new disk allright and copy all that is the old drive under /Users/me.  Is there more to do?   Any specific SNAFU in moving /Users/me/Library as a single block, especially between OS releases?  I will basically reinstall all my programs, but I find that less hassle than debugging obscure problems.

Because I am planning to do this for every OS upgrade (and I also need to move some data from a SL machine to a ML one) I will sum it up:

is there a way of safely and completely moving all my data, and all my preferences and history to a new Mac with the same OS release, or a different OS release, without losing anything but avoiding carrying over obscure OS specific files that will cause obscure bugs in the future?

As I mentioned above, I found that TM/MA does not do the above (and loses installation info), and I disk cloning would not work for data transfers between OS releases.

The answer is simply no, because no program will be able to know all the specifics of installed programs (MA probably comes closest to 'knowing' most of the specifics of Apple software but as you found, it did so for 99% only), much less drivers, **nix level installes (MacPorts, etc.).

If you have a well working copy, then clone the disk (SuperDuper, etc.) and then upgrade the new disk to the new operating system.

If you have trouble with your current installation, make a fresh install, then plug the old disk into an USB case and coppy the /Users/(you)/ folders.  This will avoid installed software , old drivers etc.  Then install the software you need (most of it will pick up the essential config data from /Users/you/Application Support/).

The first is quick and painless.  The 2nd usually is still quicker than you mostly think and gives you the nice good feeling of a fresh start :-)


Ruined 2006 imac - Only allowed to reinstall Lion which is no longer availiable I have a 2006 imac which was installed with lion and now I've got it to a point where the OS became corrupt. I've put a maverick install on a bootable USB but when I boot from the USB doesn't give me the option to "Install OSX" it only gives me the option to "Reinstall OSX Lion" which doesn't work because that is no longer availaibile from the app store. I've tried to format the harddrive and that doesn't change anything.

My question is, how do I get the option to install a new OS fresh instead of only being given the option to reinstall Lion which does not work.

If you don't have your original OS X 10.4 "Tiger" install media, you'll have to obtain a retail version of any system up to 10.7.5.; 10.8 "Mountain Lion"
10.9 "Mavericks" and 10.10 "Yosemite" require a 2007 or newer iMac to be installed.

I've found a couple of supposedly original retail installation media for 10.7 searching on eBay for $35-$40 (1), (2); just be sure to buy the retail version and not the recovery DVD unless it is exactly the same that came your iMac model.

You can try your luck downloading the OS from a non official source, but I wouldn't recommend that.


Refresh timing of Google Contacts Sync on iOS? I'm working on a CRM (based on web application), using Google Contacts API.

My iPhone’s contacts are linked through my Gmail account.

I tried to find the refresh timing between my iPhone’s contacts and the Google servers, but I can’t find it.

Does anyone know what it is? Under Settings, it says: New data will be pushed to your iPhone from the server when possible.

Your Gmail account is setup to use Fetch, which you have scheduled Every 30 minutes.

Your iPhone will thus sync contacts with your Gmail account every 30 minutes. You may set this to Every 15 minutes if you would like more responsiveness. Note that it may then take up to 15 minutes for your contacts to update, although it could happen much faster.

New data will be pushed to your iPhone from the server when possible is only an explanation for what Push does, and not a blanket statement for every account you have setup.

As you can see from the list underneath it, only iCloud is configured to use Push updates. Holiday Calendar and Gmail are both configured to use Fetch, which operates on the schedule you select at the bottom.

The reason for this is iOS simply does not support Push with Gmail. In fact as of iOS 10 you can only use IMAP Push with iCloud and Yahoo accounts. Apple has never explained this limitation, which does not exist on macOS. It is possible there was a partnership between Apple and Yahoo, since Steve Jobs made a big deal out of providing Push email with Yahoo during the iPhone’s original reveal.

However, as of  iOS 11 it appears that any IMAP server that supports IDLE (including Gmail) will finally work with Push.


Is it possible to disable spellcheck for Coda but leave it enabled for other applications? I use Coda as web editor, and I usually have to mix Italian and English nouns and phrases. I don't want spellcheck on (as I use programming-related words such as uid and pid), so I'd like to deactivate it.

At the same time, though, I'd like to have it enabled everywhere else on my computer.

It appears that Mac OS X doesn't have a way to enable spellcheck for some applications but disable it for others.

Is this possible?

Just right click in the working tab, select Spelling and uncheck the option "Check Spelling While Typing"


Is there a way to share iPad's (second generation) Internet with MacBook? (tethering) I have searched endlessly on the Internet to find a solution, but haven't found a single useful thing. So I'll ask you guys. Is there any way to share iPad 2's 3G Internet with my MacBook ? If possible without jailbreak? If it is impossible, does anyone know ways around it to make it possible?

There is an HTML5 app which will allow you to turn your iPhone into a personal hotspot without any jailbreak or extra apps. I don't know if it will work on iPad though...

And a second solution is not what you want to hear. The most easy solution is to jailbreak it indeed. There is an app in the Cydia store called TetherMe ($1.99). And it will allow yout to turn your iPad in a personal hotspot within the minute. It's super easy to install and very useful when you're in a desperate need of a 3G connection.

And these days, jailbreaking is as easy as it was before, so I'm not sure why people are against it since you won't lose your warranty or anything alike...


Upgrade from Tiger to Snow Leopard I have a 2006 MacBook (white, Core Duo) on which the hard disk crashed (it's not even recognized by the system anymore).

I will need to replace the hard disk, possibly with an SSD one, but since I was still running Tiger I figured out it's probably as good a time as any to upgrade that as well.

However, when Snow Leopard was introduced, I seem to remember the cheaper upgrade disk required Leopard to be installed. Nowadays, it seems only that disk is available from Apple, and it doesn't really specify Leopard as a requirement. I don't see a "full install" disk any more (and to be honest I'm not sure I want to pay that price either.)

Did Apple change this requirement because they don't care as much about older versions any longer, or is it still there, but undocumented?

Will I be able to install Snow Leopard from scratch on a new, blank, disk, without having any copy of Leopard whatsoever? Would it be legal?

While Apple stated that Leopard was required to install Snow Leopard, there was no technical limitation put in place.

From the day it came out Snow Leopard could be installed over top of Tiger or as a clean install. I don't believe Apple has ever released an 'upgrade' OS. The full installs have always been available, at least since OS X.


How to turn MacBook Air 2015 on if the power button is broken and I don't have tools to remove battery? The power button on my macbook air 2015 is not functional and I don't have the correct screwdriver to open the back up and take out the battery. Is it possible to turn the laptop on without having to open the back up?

No. You will want to keep it from discharging enough once you power it on if you can't repair the hardware switch.


Manage local emails on two Mac computers I use Outlook for Mac on my iMac and my Macbook (that I use when I travel).
Due to storage limitations in my employers Exchange servers, I need to store emails locally (as well on the server).
Is there any ways to have access to the locally stored emails on both my iMac and MacBook? Easy ways prefered ...

I would suggest using Gmail's powerful IMAP features to keep your emails synced on both computers.

I have set this up for lots of people and it works great.

Get a Gmail account and go to settings - Accounts and Import.

You will have to set it up to check mail using POP3 and enter your mail server settings.  Next set up Send mail as choose Send mail from another address then put your outgoing smtp settings.

Next go to the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab and enable IMAP and click on the Configuration instructions and it will give you the settings to enter into Apple Mail.

Once your Apple Mail is set up on both computers it will keep all your messages synced.  You can also set it up on your iphone or Android.


How to make a small storage in my macbook to act as a USB stick? I want to partition 128Mb out of my macbook hard drive and use it as an external usb; mainly for scanners that they can stick a usb stick into. This way I won't need to install drivers for every scanner I use.

Is that possible? Is there a small app that can make it? Convert the usb port into a usb stick on option.

You mean use the partition as a USB drive on an external scanner?  If you start the computer in target disk mode and plug it into the scanner with a USB cord, this may work.

If you're running Mountain Lion or Mavericks, you can use Disk Utility to add a small, FAT  formatted partition to your hard drive without erasing it or losing any data.

Connecting that partition to an external scanner may prove to be trickier than installing drivers for a scanner.


Using a Ukelele-created keyboard doesn't work in Chrome I tired to do the following:

Select the original US Keyboard layout as my current keyboard.
Launched Ukelele
Chose New > From current input source
Swapped a single key
Saved the file in my keyboard layouts and chose it as my input method.

Now when I try to type in Chrome, it doesn't output anything. It works fine in other apps such as TextEdit, though.

Try rebooting.

This helped me to globally apply a new keyboard layout - often logging out and back in helps, sometimes you need a reboot.


Quicktime Skip after fast forward I'm running Mountain Lion on my Retina MBP and whenever I use Quicktime to fast-forward and then return to normal speed, the audio is skipped and doesn't work properly. The only fix I found(which isn't a fix) is to reopen the file, and not fast forward.

Have you encounter this problem?

Found a partial solution. As it appears, running 'purge' command from the terminal fixes the problem. This is not the ultimate solution(), but it gets the job done.

Also I should note that another fix might be to use CMD + T(Trim) - I've heard it helps, but I usually use Quicktime to watch videos online, which this feature is not available when streaming videos.

Cheers.


iOS - App Store Stories Many of the stories shared on the iOS App Store are pretty interesting and informative. However, it is not always time permitting to go through all of them.

Is there a way to retrieve the archive of all the App Store stories ever posted? On another note, is there a way to create and access a users own collection of favourite stories?

Inspired by this question:

What was the link to the iOS App Store story on selected apps from WWDC18 Scholars?

There is no official way to access the data. However, there are some websites that offer similar functionality.

One website I found is Sensor Tower. It lets you see 3 day history for free, and up to a year if you pay. The feed appears as it would on an iOS device.

Alternatively, for some stories, you can tap on the Share Story button shown at bottom, copy the link and send it to yourself. However, this approach is highly manual, would have required following it since the day App Store redesign was publicly launched. Also, it is not possible to do so if you want to start out today as the older feed entries can no longer be accessed.


Automating ffmpeg using Automator Service I often use ffmpeg off the command line to convert video files into mp4 on my Mac (running Mavericks). Do note, however, that I am NOT re-encoding my videos; am just changing the container from an avi or an mkv to an mp4. The exact command I run on Terminal is as follows:

/Users/Amit/Documents/Scripts/ffmpeg -i /input.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy /output.mp4

As can be seen, this involves a lot of typing (for example, the entire path for ffmpeg and the source and target videos) and since I do a lot of such conversions, it would be great to have some Automator help here.

So, how can one go about creating a Finder Service that automates this activity? I would prefer a Finder Service instead of a standalone app or menu item.

Automator Service

You can use Automator to create a new service or droplet:

Launch Automator.app
Create a new service with service receives files or folders in any application
Add a Run Shell Script action
Set Pass input: to as arguments
Within the script, replace echo with the script below.
Save your workflow as a service.

Shell Script

for f in "$@"
do
    /Users/Amit/Documents/Scripts/ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:v copy -c:a copy "${f%.*}.mp4"
done

To learn more about using Automator, see Apple's Mac Basics: Automator.


App Store update and softwareupdate in terminal hang indefinitely OSX 10.13.1

The App Store shows a badge of "3" on the icon, but opening it and pressing "Updates" will result in an indefinite hang with low CPU utilization.

Tried going into the terminal and running "softwareupdate -l --verbose". I get "Finding available software" and that's it. It never returns more or accepts input again. Both using my admin account and then doing "sudo su" and running the command with sudo get the same results.

Any ideas? Thank you!

Thanks for the help on this! I finally figured it out, well sort of. I found in the logs a recurring softwareupdate error where a mkdir command was failing. Ended up searching around on that and fixed it with:

sudo rm -rf /var/folders/zz/zy*

Appreciate the tip on the Console app. I didn't know about that and it led me to the answer!


No sound through HDMI with Mac Mini Connected to Projection TV This is similar to this unanswered question and to this question, but it uses different hardware and can't be solved in the same way as that 2nd question is solved.  The bottom line is that I get sound from my Apple TV, from the BD player, but not from the Apple TV.  I'm using a MacMini 7,1

Here's a diagram of my layout:

I have three video and sound devices (Apple TV, Mac Mini, and a BD player).  Each has an HDMI cable running from the device to the Metra HDMI switcher.  The Metra switcher also extracts the audio, which goes through a TOSLink digital audio cable to a Sonos Playbar, which is part of a home theater sound system (including a woofer and two rear speakers).  The video from the Metra switcher goes through an HDMI cable to the Sony video projector.

It's worth noting that I had a similar problem with the BD Player.  At first I had a Sony BD player, but it would not send sound to the Sony projector.  It took me a while, including over an hour on the phone with the sales guy at Crutchfield to figure out that the Sony BD player and the Sony projector were talking to each other and, basically, the projector was saying, "I don't have speakers."  The Sony BD player got that and decided, since the projector did not handle sound, it would not send audio over the HDMI output to the projector.  We solved that problem by swapping out the Sony BD player for a Panasonic and it works fine.

The problem with the Mac Mini is that it is not sending sound out through the HDMI cable.  When I go to the Sound preferences, there is no HDMI device I can pick for output.  (I suspect this is because it recognizes the Sony projector and knows it doesn't have sound.)  I've tried using Airplay to send sound to the Sonos system that way.  It worked once, but with sound lagging behind video 2-3 seconds.  Next time I tried working on it, I could not get Airplay to send audio to Sonos at all.

One problem is that the only sound input the Playbar has is the TOSLink jack, so I can't pull sound from the headphone/audio jack on the Mac and get that into the switcher or Playbar without converting the sound to HDMI or to digital - and then I'd need some other switcher.

I did try using Airplay to use the MacMini through the Apple TV.  It could have been my imagination, but I was pretty sure there was a bit of an audio lag that way, as well.  Just barely noticeable.  (And if I do this, how will that work when playing games?  Won't there be lag with screen updates? And if I do that, is there a way to start the screen sharing with the Apple TV instead of going to the Mac just to start screen sharing, then go to the Apple TV?)

I'm wondering if there's a way to override and tell sound, "Just send through the HDMI output."  All I see as possible outputs on the Mac sound preferences is the built in speakers and a list of Sonos speakers.  (And, again, that was either not working or had a 2-3 second lag for sound.)  Or maybe there's a way to create a fake HDMI audio device to just make the Mac send audio out through the HDMI cable?

The bottom line is I want audio and video synced and and playing through the Sony projector and Sonos sound system.

I talked with the company that sold me most of my system (but not the Mac - just everything else) and we couldn't find a solution.  I called Metra, the people who make the HDMI switch and one of them suggested something I could get from Amazon.  It cost me $22.49 and fixed it.

I don't want to advocate for a particular brand, but what I found seems to not have a clear name yet.  Some are listed as HDMI feeders (the one I got that works is listed as an "HDMI feeader" [sic], which makes it easy to find.  Some are called HDMI EDID Emulators.  If you want to see examples, search for HDMI EDID changer (or emulator or anything close to that).

This is a small device that runs off the power from the HDMI cable.  Mine has a small post sticking out that looks like the post on a typical potentiometer.  There are 16 different positions and a chart on the back.  I picked "4k 5.1CH."  (The Sony projector is 4K, so the only thing that changed was the audio - which is, as I indicated, non-existent on the Sony projector.)

When I put the feeder in, between the Mac and the Metra HDMI switcher, the screen went blank for about 10-20 seconds, then the Mac display came back up.  Same when I changed the box to the setting I wanted.  It went blank for about 10 seconds, then the display returned.

I had a video playing on the Mac.  After the display came back on, with 2-3 seconds, the sound changed from being played on the Mac speakers to coming from my Sonos system.  (It may have changed with the display - I can't remember.)

So it's working okay.  The solution was the HDMI EDID emulator that edits the EDID from the projector to add the audio specs to it.


How can I use the automator to create text-to-speech service that talks faster than the current service? The text-to-speech service has a speaking rate option that goes from slow to fast. But the fast option is not fast enough (its 300 words per minute).

I just tried to create a service. I simply dragged the "Speak text" action, saved it and tested it. It seems that my new service still relies on the speed option specified in the preferences.

Is there a way for me to tell it something like "render speech at 400wpm"

Do this:

Remove the "Speak text" action.
Add the "Run AppleScript" action.
Clear all the default text in the action.
Copy/paste this script in the action:

on run {input, parameters}
  repeat with thisText in input
      say thisText speaking rate 400
  end repeat
end run

If you want a specific voice, append using "SomeVoiceName" after the say command.

Example : say thisText speaking rate 400 using "Bruce" -- Bruce is a name of the voice


need link to apple mac appstore's server application for 10.10 (version 4.?) did anyone buy this at the time and they can access it in "purchased" tab of app store.  and then get a link to it?

i asked my apple business rep and they told me it was impossible... but i'd love to update my server to 10.10, and not have to move to 10.11.

this happened with 10.9, and someone posted a link, i went there, bought it, installed it and it worked fine.

thanks.

someone named JohnnyNorCal knew a solution.

if you install 10.10, and try to buy the 10.11 version of server, it will ask you about installing the most recent compatible version.

this is all it took..

thanks Johnny.


Found a lost locked iPhone 6 So a friend of mine found a lost iPhone 6. It has activation lock, and I see no information on the previous owner.
I see the IMEI on the back, is it possible to get any information from Apple or whatever about who the user is? if I could get my hands on the email address, at least, I could contact him/her.

Any help?

Apple or the phone carrier won't likely give your friend any information about the owner, but I think that your only option for your friend is to turn it in to an Apple Store near him, tell them where/when he found it, and hope that Apple gets the phone back to the owner. Without any information about the phone other than the IMEI, there's not a lot he can do.


Does the "Find my iPad" service work without WiFi when you aren't paying for cellular service? If I'm not paying for cellular service on my 4G iPad, and it's not in range of a WiFi network it knows about (or is open), then will the Find My iPad service still work through the cellular network? I notice that I can sign up for service without being in a WiFi area when I haven't already purchased service, and it still tracks what type of cellular network I'm attached to and the signal strength when I'm not paying for cellular service.

It would be nice if Apple and the carriers threw in Find My iPad for free so that even if I lose it (or it's stolen) in a month I'm not paying for service then I can still find it.

Unfortunately, I already activated my service recently, so I have to wait another few weeks before I can test it.

No, you can get an app like NetStat and see the ports that open when WiFi is connected as well as when data is available, but not connected.

The carriers would know where it was since their cell towers would have a fix on the IMEI (or equivalent for non GSM carriers) - but that database isn't integrated into the Find My Phone service in any way we can see.

You are correct that the hardware talks with base stations that are near by and it would be nice (kind of like 911 service is permitted even when a line is inactive) for consumers to have this work without respect to billing status.


In numbers or pages for ios, Is it possible to force a trend line to start at (0,0)? I was wondering, if, in whatever the newest version of ios, numbers, and/or pages, it is possible to force a trendline through a point on a 2D scatter graph (e.g. the origin (0,0)).  I was hoping to not have to buy excel just because one teacher wants this specific thing.

Edit: Here is a list of what my teacher requires me to do (its a college biology class):

1) Show numbers to 1-2 spaces past decimal point.

2) Adjust document page setup so all cells of a table appear on the same page.

3) Always plot the independent variable on the X-axis

4) Always plot the dependant variable on the Y-axis

5) Label both axes with the quantity being measured

6) Except where data is processed as a ratio, the numbers must be associated with specific units.  Include on the graph axes or in table cells.

7) Number the axes appropriately at regular intervals

8) Show the equation for the trend line.

9) There must be a good title [insert long explanation here]

10) If there is more than a single data set plotted on a graph, distinguish between them via shapes or colours.

11) Adjust the scales of the X- and Y- axes so that:
a) All data points fit on the graph
b) Both axes are reasonably close to the same length.
c) You are using a reasonable portion of the overall page of graph paper.

12) a) For a standard curve, from which values will be extrapolated (which I am doing in this case), draw a best-fit straight line.  In a linear graph the line is typically forced to go through the origin.
1
b) For graphs that aren't standard curves, if the points seem to line up in a straight line or if the relationship is known to be linear, dea a best-fit straight line (which may or may not go through the origin)

c)....(not applicable to my question)

d)....(not applicable to my question)

e) Smoothing curves for aesthetic reasons "MUST" be avoided.

f) Adding portions of lines on graphs for which there is no data must be avoided.

The trendlines are based on the data and can't be forced thru any points. What you could do is have the app print out the equation for the trendline and plugin 0 to see what new trendline looks like. You can then adjust the coefficients so that you have a new trendline thru 0.0. This may not be a good representation for the trendline.

Another possibility is to add several pairs of 0.0,0.0 to the row and column you are plotting. Start with just 2 or 3 pairs and see how that affects the trendline. Depending on your trendline, you may need more pairs. this will weight that part of trendline more than other parts and will cause a shift in the line.

It should be noted that the trendline you enforce will probably not represent the data very well. If the value at 0.0 is actually 245, while the other values you have are in the range of 200-250, for example, forcing it to zero at zero is a bad idea. Adding data points is also a bad idea because you inputting data that doesn't exist grossly changes your data set.

The trendline is a representation of the data in a relatively simple manner. Changing it makes it no longer representative of the data. If you suspect your data at 0.0 should be 0.0, then this is probably a method to determine that.


Modifier Keys not working for swapping Option/Command on external USB Keyboard I have been using the Modifier Keys option for a few years. It is however not working on Sierra for external keyboards.

The screenshot shows the configuration:

I have exited System Preferences and only on Sierra this does not take effect.  The laptop has been rebooted a few times as well: still no change.

I have tried this for several external keyboards from different manufacturers and on two different Sierra laptops.

Anyone have a workaround?

Karabiner Elements to the rescue:

This actually works!


I can't find a setting to disable WINS in Network settings In my Network settings under WINS I have the NetBios name (elly) that I would like to disable (kill).

The message shows that the "elly"is currently been used ?

By whom, for what ?

There a bunch of messages in the Console with for example elly.local WindowServer ?? what server ? I do not have one ?

My search on Google and here did not help.

I tried deleting the NetBios name, but it comes back!

Also tried the without success!

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.netbiosd.plist

I have no local network, nor any workgroup set up, just a lone wifi connection to the world.

Running Hostname in Terminal shows "Elly.Local"

I would not mind using Terminal to kill it, but I'm just wondering whether there's any UI-based way to just turn off all of this stuff. I am not a big fan of running services I'm not using.

MBA 10.8.4

I didn't find any way through the GUI (on Snow Leopard, Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan & Sierra).

On the other hand the following receipe is stopping netbiosd.
In a Terminal or an xterm type:
% ps ax | grep [/]netbios
  122   ??  SNs    1:52.41 /usr/sbin/netbiosd
% /usr/bin/sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.netbiosd.plist
Password:
% ps ax | grep [/]netbios
%

The second ps command shouldn't output anything. This is normal and
means that there isn't anymore any netbiosd running.

Another way to check that netbiosd isn't anymore chating continuously on all your network interfaces is to use tcpdump for a full 5 minutes:

% /usr/bin/sudo tcpdump -i en0 host elly.local udp port netbios-ns
[...]
^C
0 packets captured
nnnnnn packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel
% /usr/bin/sudo tcpdump -i en1 host elly.local udp port netbios-ns
[...]
^C
0 packets captured
mmmmmm packets received by filter
0 packets dropped by kernel
%

These 2 commands should say exactly 0 packets captured otherwise something is leaking.


What is the name of the iOS browser app that automatically navigates to the URL that is on the clipboard upon launch? There is an iOS browser app that will automatically navigate to a URL upon app launch if there is a URL on the clipboard but I cannot remember the app. Does anyone know?

Mercury (free, or $0.99 pro version) will prompt you to open a copied URL on launch. You tap "Okay" and it opens a new tab in the foreground containing the page.

I haven't been able to find an iOS browser which automatically opens the URL on the clipboard with no user action.


Spotlight / Show in Finder / in new Tab instead of new Window In a Spotlight search instead of clicking on the search-results, one may press ⌘ Cmd-R. This shows the file in Finder.

Problem: this always opens the result in a new Finder window (despite having set the general setting in Finder as Always open in new Tab).

Question: How does one force Spotlight to always open results in a new Tab of the (last opened) Finder window? I am looking for a Terminal command, or something which does not involve having to download a special programme. (I already installed Totalfinder and that achieved nothing.)

Same thing bothering me. As far as I can tell, there is no 'native' Finder solution.

However, as a (belated) suggestion to OP, or anyone else with the same problem, here's how I solved it for myself -- sort of a 'hack', but better than Finder default behavior:

Use some keyboard customization software (I'm using Karabiner), and define a (user activated) shortcut that triggers two other keyboard shortcuts that are executed automatically, and in sequence. The shortcuts that do the trick are: (1) Reveal in Finder, (2) Merge all windows.

Details: "Reveal in Finder" is already bound to a shortcut natively (cmd-R), but "Merge all windows" is not afaik. Since adding menu items in Karabiner is a bit tricky, probably the easiest way is to assign a shortcut to "Merge..." in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> App shortcuts. I picked cmd-shift-M. You can then make use of this (OSX) shortcut in the definition of a Karabiner shortcut.

In Karabiner, I then defined a custom shortcut (cmd-R), triggering cmd-R and cmd-shift-M.

The effect is pretty close to what I wanted to see in the first place: in a Finder search tab/window, I select an item, press cmd-R, which reveals the item in a new window, which is immediately merged into the existing window as a new tab.

Focus remains on main window, the new tab goes to the end of the tab bar, and I can continue revealing other items immediately without having to cycle tabs.

The one thing that still bothers me: the "merge windows" animation is slow-ish, and I can't find a way to speed it up (or disable it).

Like I said, not perfect perhaps, but it's reasonably close to what I had in mind.


I have a shared folder called "Foldername" that shows up on another computer as "Foldername-2" I shared a folder on my computer, called "Foldername". My account on the computer is UserA, my wife's account is UserB. I gave UserB read+write access on Foldername, and
clicked the "shared folder" box.

On my wife's compuer, I log in to account UserB, and do "Connect to Server" and select my computer. It asks for the password for UserB, and it connects. In the dialog to select what folder to connect to, it lists "Foldername-2".

I have searched both macs for anything named "Foldername" and there is only the one. Any idea what is causing this? It's not a huge deal since the folder appears to work, it just worries me that the OS seems to think there is a duplicate somewhere in the system.

The -# suffix is appended to an item in OS X when another item with an identical name already exists in that directory. Is there a chance you're enabling a shared folder that's named exactly the same as a folder that already exists in that directory?