Spam in Apple Calendar I'm not too familiar with Apple Calendar because I don't use it, but every now & then I get spam entries ending up on it and receive alerts based on them.

My question is how they are getting in there (it's pretty clear that it's happening through email - but I'm not clear on the mechanics), and how do I stop it?

Screenshot below:

First, do not "decline" or "accept" the invitation. It tells the spammer that your account is active.

Next, you need to make a change to your iCloud account.

Go to icloud.com
Login to your iCloud account
Navigate to the Calendar App
Click in the settings (gear icon) in the lower left of the screen
Select "Preference" from the menu
Select the "Advanced" tab
Under the "Invitations" section select the "Email to" options

This will not stop the spam, but will forward it to your email, so you can deal with it there and keep it from getting to your calendar.

You can deal with the invitations already on your calendar by moving them to a new calendar and then deleting that calendar.

Create a new iCloud calendar (not “On My Mac”).
Move the spam event to the new iCloud calendar.
Delete the new iCloud calendar.
Calendar will now prompt you with “Delete and Don’t Notify” and “Delete and Notify”.
Select “Delete and Don’t Notify”.


Aura Pro X SSD upgrade for MacBook Pro Mid 2014 issue I have recently upgraded my MacBookPro with an OWC SSD after the original SSD crashed. I have not seen any issues with the system performance after performing the SMC & PRAM reset after the install. However, on running Apple Diagnostics, I am still seeing 'VDH002 - There may be issues with storage' error. The Disk Utility does not detect any issues with the drive.

Would somebody know if this actually indicates an issue with the SSD, or Apple not recognizing a third party device?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014)
Model Id: MacBookPro 11,1.
OS : macOS Mojave, version 10.14.1(18B75)
SSD : OWC Aura Pro X

I got a replacement hard disk, and ran it through all diagnostics including the apple system diagnostics. It passed everything except the default Apple Diagnostics with the error -  'VDH002 - There may be issues with storage' error.

So it looks like Apple Diagnostircs doesn’t recognize the OWC hard disk as good for some reason.

Hope this helps someone else!


How to implement text editing features in terminal interface? Sorry if the title is confusing but essentially what I want is to have standard text editor features like Command< to move to the beginning of the line or CommandShiftBackspace to erase a line. Is it possible to implement such stuff in the terminal interface? Preferably, I would not download a terminal emulator like iTerm etc..

There are ways to navigate in the terminal but they don't use the macOS keystrokes for navigation as the BASH shell actually predate macOS/NeXT. For example CtrlA moves to the beginning of a line and CtrlE moves the cursor to the end of a line. A quick search online on BASH shell keyboard shortcuts will yield a whole list like this, for example.

As an alternative BBEdit is a text editor that has been around on the Mac for ever. Way Pre-OS X. And one of the features is a command line window that acts much like a text editor and uses the standard Mac keybindings. But then you'll have to buy a programmers text editor to get the features you want in a shell window.

Might be best if you just learn the BASH keybindings, as that is lots cheaper ;-)


Create an automator script to create folder + move files into created folder Looking to create a service in Automator so when I select multiple files in the Finder, I can in one right-click create a new folder and move the selected files into that newly created folder. This action could include a step that will ask me to name this folder but it's not mandatory. Any idea?

Here is an alternate solution.

Not sure if you're aware of this but there's already a keyboard shortcut in Finder, (control + command + N) which creates a new folder containing the selected finder items.  This can also be accessed through the contextual menu when right clicking on selected Finder items.

This AppleScript code works for me using the latest version of macOS Mojave.


admin account not getting created in MacOS high sierra I am using macOS high Sierra. By mistake I converted my admin account to standard user account. Now by entering into the single user mode and trying to mount the disk,it shows message that "devise is write locked "  and "IO failed , error = 13" and trying to remove the apple set up done file the error message is "no such file found."  Please guide how to resolve this situation.

What were you doing when you "converted" the account type?  There is no need to re-run the setup.  Just toggle the checkbox in System Preferences > Users and Groups > Allow user to administer this computer.


Numbers giving a `can’t be used as a single value` error I have a table of data, I am using the following formula =ROUNDUP(Salary::Table 1::G2:BC5/6,0)

Error : The range Salary::Table 1::G2:BC5 can’t be used as a single value.

What am I missing ?

The roundup function needs to be applied to each of the values in the range you give,

Or, you need to use vlookup() for example to extract the particular value from that range and then apply the roundup function.


Make ls command sort by file type (e.g. directories and file extension) How do I make ls sort by file type (e.g. directories first and then by file extension)? The answers suggested in (Super User) Make ls sort by file type result in unknown option errors from ls.

As you've found out, the Darwin version of the ls command doesn't support the -X | --sort=extension option. This option is unique to the GNU version of ls.

You can obtain the GNU version of ls for your system. The easiest way to do this is through the Homebrew package manager and porting system. With Homebrew installed do:

brew install coreutils

to add the GNU Core Utilities package to your system. All the utilities will be prefixed with g so they don't collide with the default Darwin utils that OS X ships with.

With the GNU Core Utilites installed you can now do:

gls -X

And you'll see the output sorted as you desire.

If you want to use the GNU Core Utils instead of the utilities that come with OS X you can put the following line in your ~/.bashrc file:

source /usr/local/Cellar/coreutils/8.14/aliases

And you won't need to use the g prefix on the commands any more. I'll say this isn't an entirely safe thing to do as some of the GNU utils differ from the bash built-ins and Darwin tools in how they behave, enough so that they might screw up other things in your shell session. So do this with caution.


XAMPP error figuring out? I am using Google Drive to sync files for web projects that I am creating. I have a PC (Windows 7 and windows Vista) and a Mac (10.11.1).

XAMPP allows you to run PHP programs and databases on your local machine. The problem is that when I edit a file on my windows machine and then go to my mac machine and try to load the file in the browser, XAMPP gives me this error...
Warning: Unknown: failed to open stream: Permission denied in Unknown on line 0

  Fatal error: Unknown: Failed opening required
  '/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/htdocs/drive/fireworks/fireworks.html'
  (include_path='.:/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/lib/php') in Unknown
  on line 0

What does this mean? How can I fix it?

This problem is really annoying and I need to fix it because it is driving me nuts! If I change the file permissions, it will make it work until the next time I edit the file(s) on my windows machine.

I believe that you have the key to the answer in your question. It is a permissions issue and there are at least two ways that you could fix it. Ultimately, though, it is likely that Google Drive owns the file and then when the web server in XAMPP tries to execute it, it is denied. Likely, the web server isn't even in the same group as GD and therefore the Unix permissions should end in at least 5. I suspect that setting the files to the infamous (and absolutely rightly so) 777 would correct the problem. A permissions number ending with 7 indicates that you are giving the public full access to read, write, and execute the script.

For a resolution, move to git. I'm not aware of anyone using Google Drive as a deployment strategy, although I'm sure someone has. I believe the most popular version control is Git, which would be good to learn anyway as you will need those skills if you work for a development shop.

A second option would be to write a little bash or Apple script to change the file permissions.


Administrator priviliges request dialog does not accept my password I have recently installed OS X version 10.9 on my MacBook Pro. When I start it, it doesn't require any password but when I try to install Adobe Flash Player or other plugins I am asked to approve the installation by entering the password of the user who is now "Us" (different name). When I enter the old password I had before formatting and installing new OS X, it kept saying wrong password. Is there any standard password to use?

You need to open the Users & Groups section of the system preferences and check what users are available. Is there one with admin privileges? Use that for the installation dialog. The inconvenience will be that in those dialogs you will need to enter the admin user name in addition to the password.

If there is no admin user, you could try to enable a root account. However, this needs admin privileges to be set up. Check if the padlock icon in the lower left corner of the Users & Groups section is closed (needs password, click on icon to open the password dialog), or open (you are free to add accounts). If the padlock icon is closed and you do not have any working admin user - password combination, I recommend to re-install OS 10.9 and to add the admin user at the appropriate prompt in the installation process. I hope this won't be needed - this should really be your last resort.

For Apple's explanation of the root account setup, see this article.


how to start operating system on a Samsung SSD when old hard drive was broken so had to replace Recently went into Apple with my early 2011 MacBook Pro, was told that my hard drive was broken. So I decided to replace it myself with a Samsung 850 EVO, all went okay, but now when I turn it on all I get is a file with a question mark in it.

I couldn't upload anything to the SSD before installing as my Mac wasn't working at all and had a white screen with a spinning wheel. I had no new operating system on my Mac as I hadn't updated it in a while. A CD came with the drive but my laptop is having none of it it just turns on to a white screen with the mouse on it.

As you can see I'm not very technical so if any responses could be dulled down a bit that would be helpful!

If you can get it online (for example, with an Ethernet cable), all you have to do is hold command-R at startup to enter recovery mode and install the OS over the Internet. You can also use it to format the disk if needed.

http://www.techradar.com/us/how-to/computing/apple/how-to-fix-mac-boot-up-problems-in-recovery-mode-1305641


How to find a set of files containing a certain phrase using MacOS graphical user interface I am using a Macbook Pro with MacOS High Sierra. I have recently moved from Windows so I am quite new to Mac.

I have a folder of Xml files. I am trying to find the set of one type of the Xml file and drag that set of files into my Xml Editor to work on.

For example.

In Finder on Mac, create a directory in my Documents folder called "ExactSearchGui".

In that folder create one file called foo.xml with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<foo>
Hello
</foo>

Then, create another file in that folder called bar.xml with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<bar>
    <fooIAmNot>
        I am not the file you are looking for.
    </fooIAmNot>
</bar>

Note how a Finder Search within the ExactSearchGui folder for "<foo>" finds any file containing foo including the file we don't want.

As I understand it from this question, Finder Search and Spotlight return false positives, So, I am looking for a method to search for an exact phrase within a set of text files using a graphical user interface on MacOS without producing false positives such as this. On a PC I would use grepWin to achieve the result. So, if you know some similar solution, or a native technique, it would be appreciated.

There is a 3rd party app named EasyFind that has a GUI interface and allows you to search for strings inside files. You can search your whole drive or a single folder. Click the settings button at the top left and select scan all files to make sure your file type is searched. It will search for a user-defined string. EasyFind is free and available from the MacApp store.


How to get Finder in Lion to set group permissions to read/write by default? To have group permissions set to read/write by default in Snow Leopard and Leopard, I used /etc/launchd-user.conf to set the umask to 002.

This still works in Lion in every app except the Finder. Actually, Lion's Finder does apply the umask when setting permissions, but if the group (or everyone) bit is set to zero, the Finder will treat it like it's a 2, which makes new folders' group permissions read only.

Out of curiosity, I did try using the old technique I used in OS X 10.4, using the defaults command to set the umask and NSUmask, but that doesn't work (which was expected).

I'm hoping to find a solution without having to use ACLs.

Does anyone know of another way to get the Finder in Lion to set group permissions to read/write by default?

You can use BatChmod for setting permissions of files. You can also use it to chmod a batch of files. Download link: http://download.cnet.com/BatChmod/3000-2248_4-19574.html


Prevent notifications on Mailbox app for Gmail's Social/Promotions/Updates emails I just switched over to the new Gmail inbox with the smartlabel filters. Now whenever a social, promotions, updates or forums email comes in I get a notification on iOS from the Mailbox app. Previously I would just get notifications for "real" inbox emails. How can I continue to only receive iOS notifications for these?

As these emails are really in your inbox, you will receive notifications for them. My only suggestion is to use the gmail app in place of the ios mail app. The google gmail app allows you to specify for which folders you receive notifications for all new mail or 'primary only'.


Log out or sign out of Apple's Bug Reporter AKA Radar? I accidentally signed into Radar with the wrong account and I can't find the log out or sign out button in order to switch accounts. Is there any alternative besides clearing my cache?

Nm, I found it after clicking around. You have to click on the tiny padlock to sign out.


How do I choose the best color profile for a LG external monitor? I recently bought a LG monitor 22MP55, to use at home as a second monitor with my MacBook Pro.

But the color is a little weird! Slightly yellowish.

I tried using it with a Windows 7 PC with the same website, and the colors displayed with the PC windows were more accurate and better.

Why is the display color better with a Windows PC? How can I get a better colour profile on my MacBook Pro?

What you want to do is adjust the color profile on your Macbook Pro to take advantage of the LG 22MP55. So you would go to System Preferences -> Displays and then choose Color and play around with the selected Display profile: to find one that suits your needs best.

Or you can take it a step further by calibrating your own profile. Which can be tricky, but does work if you spend the time and effort.  In that same preference area choose Calibrate… to begin the process of adjusting your screen settings to best suit your needs.

But past any of that, you might find it worth it to invest in a calibration device such as a Spyder calibrator. I use the Spyder3EXPRESS and it works great. The newest version is the Spyder4EXPRESS which should be just as good if not better. It costs anywhere from $60 to $99 and is well worth the investment. The color on your display will be perfectly calibrated with little hassle or headache.


Is there anyway to prevent backups from saving iMessage videos I send? Is there any way to prevent iOS backups from saving iMessage videos I send as part of a conversation?

I'd like to still backup all iMessage text, other iMessage content, and videos received, just not videos I send. I'm willing to use iTunes or any other software to do backups.

Why the heck would that be useful?

I send video clips all the time via iMessage and they account for roughly 99% of the back up space I use in iCloud storage. Yes backups are a good thing. The problem is many people, including me already use services to back up their videos like Google photos or something else.  So you effectively pay twice for the very large space taken by all iMessage videos.

This is a relatively new problem, I'm guessing for many users, when iOS started offering the new (and sane) option to keep iMessages synced across devices.

Photos have the same problem, just to a smaller degree because they're orders of magnitude smaller.

Why not turn off backup of just iMessage content using options available?

Potentially years of conversations with friends/family, I think of as a small part of a life archive.

Maybe 20 years from now, to read some insignificant exchange with a no longer living relative, I think is a cool option for the future. Time will tell if it actually ever has any value.

Why not just continue backing up videos elsewhere and then before a backup, delete them before starting a backup?

To start, I'm not sure it's possible for end users to specifically access and delete only videos that are attached as part of iMessage conversations. However even if it were, you might imagine how this creates a new manual process to worry about or a more complex process.

Environment?

iPhones and iPads. I try to ensure I waste enough money so all hardware is relatively current. Normally use latest iOS versions. Willing to use developer betas if it offered a new option for this.

In your original question you mention iCloud backups, so I'll address that first. If you don't mind not backing up Messages at all, then you could turn off Messages in Settings app > Your Name/Apple ID > iCloud > Manage Storage > Backups > This iPhone under "Choose Data to Back Up" - that is assuming 1) you don't use "Messages in iCloud" and 2) you don't mind not backing up the entirety of Messages including just the message text themselves.

There's no such customization for making the iTunes backups that I know of. I make some software for filtering an existing iTunes backup before restoring, but that won't help with the storage on your hard drive.


Where are Mail.app rules stored? They got deleted and I want to restore them Since Mail.app had trouble connecting to the various accounts, I tried to 'reset' it by removing all accounts and the stored passwords in Keychain Access.app. Then I re-added all the mail accounts.
However, for some reason all configured rules were deleted too, even though they are not directly tied to a specific mail account.
Where are these rules stored so that I can restore them from a time machine backup?

The rules are stored in a property list at:

~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/SyncedRules.plist

Restore this file from a backup.
Restart Mail.app.
Re-enable the rules.

These days check for a V3 folder (El Capitan). Restoring only the SyncedRules.plist may not work as another .plist file indexes the active state of the current rules set. What worked here was to go back to an earlier version of the ~Library/Mail/V3/MailData directory (note that it is in the V3 directory-- not the V2 directory). This takes a few minutes as Mail has to re-import your messages, but it did restore rules which were not restored by restoring the just the ~/Library/Mail/V3/MailData/SyncedRules.plist file only.


Movies and Podcasts are not set as watched on the second generation Apple TV I have a little problem with my new second generation Apple TV. TV episodes and podcasts remain unseen/unheard status even if I did watch/hear them.
So the list of unwatched shows stays pretty much the same. I have to set the status manually in iTunes.

Is it just me or is the the way it works? Do I need to change some settings?

This is a known issue.

You can try holding down the Play/Pause button and then selecting "Mark as watched". The Apple TV sometimes crashing when you select "Mark as watched" is also a known issue.

Apple TV owners are awaiting a fix.


How do I reset the audio system when audio can't be heard anymore Playing music on YouTube in Chrome did not output any sound. Playing video files with Quicktime and VLC didn't work. I noticed this problem before and it fixed itself after a restart. But I wondered if I could reset a process to get audio back.

Killing the coreaudiod process might work (it did for me). One way to restart it is to launch Activity Monitor, then View->All Processes, scrolling down to coreaudiod then clicking the big X button to force quit. It gets relaunched automatically.

Another option is at the command line:

sudo killall coreaudiod

After doing that and refreshing the Chrome tab - audio output works again on my macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. Source of idea.


Broken dock connector on iPhone 4 My iPhone 4's dock connector is broken. I can still use it to transmit data to and from the phone, but I cannot use it to charge the phone. So, obviously it is not completely broken, but the pin that is used for charging seems damaged.

However, if you look at the iPhone connector pinout, it seems like a diffferent pin is used for charging via USB (pin 18) than charging with FireWire (pins 19 and 20).

So, if I would get a FireWire-based charger, it might work? Does anyone know whether this really could solve the problem?

Sadly you are out of luck, but it was a good idea!

Apple transitioned fully to charging over USB only, although for a while both Firewire and USB charging were an option.  This caused a bit of a row when it happened, because for years 3rd party manufacturers for charging docks and speaker docks etc never bothered to update their designs to use USB when warned that the Firewire was being deprecated by Apple.  So when they took out the relevant internals to support Firewire charging, you started to see messages like "This accessory is not supported"  and your device would suddenly no longer charge because the USB pinouts had not been internally implemented.

However, naturally the 30 pin pinout of the dock connector remains the same spec, but referring to it does not mean that all functions that the cable specification supports will be available to the end device, and in your case an iPhone 4 will only charge over USB.

I'll link you to a separate Q&A here that might assist in cleaning your connector up to make it work, sometimes a rigorous clean is all that is required.


Mac OSX alternative for TextWrangler I'm new to all of this, starting from scratch, and looking for the current best alternative for Mac OS X 10.11 for TextWrangler now that it's discontinued.

TextWrangler was always a feature-subset of the paid, full-featured BBEdit, from barebones.
Without a paid license, BBEdit runs just like TextWrangler & is a direct replacement for it.

Same maker, same look, same feature-set, opens all your saved documents, runs without an added license. The only action you need to do is install the app.

Ref: BBEdit FAQs for TextWrangler Customers


Moving mobile sync to home laptop My iPod Touch is synced to my work Mac. My iPad is synced to my home laptop. I want to move the Touch sync/backup to the laptop. If I copy the latest Touch Mobile Sync backup to the laptop will it clash/interfere with the iPad backup? I don't care about music just apps and preferences. I realize they're different numbers in the file name but is that enough to distinguish them?

You can back up as many iDevices to your computer as you please (technically). On my computer, I sync and have backed up at least three different iDevices.

All you need to do, is plug in your iPod Touch to your laptop, open iTunes, and back it up. It will know the difference between your iPod touch and iPad.

The difference comes in if you sync music from a computer (but that isn't relavent to this question, so I won't elaborate).


Make username@machine bold in Terminal's ZSH shell but not the command's output How can I make Terminal, using ZSH shell, display username@machine current_folder % in bold? I know it has to do with editing PS1 variable in zshrc file located in /etc folder. I have tried that, I added %B, like this PS1="%n@%m %1~ %# " => PS1="%B%n@%m %1~ %# " but that sometimes makes also output of some commands bold.

Just terminate the bold text after the current working directory with %b
PS1="%B%n@%m %1~%b %# "


How do make iOS autosave received iMessage photos? I want to make sure all photos I receive in iMessage are saved to Photos app.

How do I change this settings?

This is currently not possible. You can bulk save images from a conversation in Messages by opening the conversation details, holding down on an attachment, selecting More, then choosing the photos you want to save and pressing the Save button.


Optimize macbook pro for internal SSD+HDD drives I upgraded my MacBook Pro by replacing the SuperDrive with an SSD. I'm now using the SSD as the boot volume and have all my applications. My home folder is on the HDD.

My question is how to best optimize my setup for speed/performance/lifetime.

A few specifics questions

Is the SSD the ideal location for applications?
Where should the swapfile be located? Will it decrease the lifetime of the SSD?

My computer's specs

Is the SSD the ideal location for applications?

The SSD is the ideal location for all your data. However, if you are short on room (as are most SSD owners), "offloading" some of the bigger and more generic files types (music, movies, etc.) is recommended and won't adversely affect the performance of your day to day.

However, with that said, having your home folder on a separate drive may be overkill as there are many small files housed there (application preferences, program caches, and other miscellany) that help your software and system function efficiently, and in doing so, you may inadvertently decrease your performance moderately to quite substantially in some cases.

Also bear in mind that OS X will create tmp files as needed and even juggle things back and forth depending on the demand and this is all written to the drive where your system is installed (places like /var/tmp, etc.). And truthfully, there is little point in purchasing an SSD to make use of its benefits if you are going to offload everything. SSDs are cheap these days and all have longer warranties (most are 5 years) than most traditional HDDs.

Where should the swapfile be located? Will it decrease the lifetime of the SSD?

Leave the swap file alone. One of the first things new SSD owners do is scour their systems looking under ever nook and cranny for ways to prevent read and writes (read: slow cell wearing), ultimately in an attempt to lengthen the life of their drive, as if they had only a few short months (BitMICRO actually debunked some of the myths around SSD life-span). This is an impossible task. OS X (and all other OSes) perform millions upon millions of small read/writes to and fro in their tasks.

Files are cached multiple times over and a lot of "voodoo" is done under the hood. Lion, with Versions, local Time Machine backups, etc. doubly so. It will drive you towards insanity if you constantly worry about read/write cycles and all those that suggest the disabling of swap, running without atime, or even creating a RAM disk, are just peddling snake oil (however, there are some optimizations you can perform to free up space or reduce SSD wear, but the do often involve disabling services, which some may find useful). None of them ever present real, hard data on their performance increases. My car drives way better after it's had a good wash and detailing, but clearly, soap and water don't tune engines. It's a placebo affect and it is quite strong.

Now the new trend is TRIM. Firstly, the only genuine article on the subject (which has been criticized to some extent, though no one has debunked it outright) shows that OS X benefits very little from TRIM. Secondly, TRIM enabler (developed by Oskar Groth) has been a point of contention lately, with some claiming the installer is inherently flawed. Grant Pannell took it upon himself to fix it. But one question still remains: Does OS X need TRIM? And if that's a resounding "yes," under what circumstances?

It is now the case that many SSD manufacturers are putting their own garbage collection routines right on the drive. All SandForce chipsets come with something dubbed recycler, "which intelligently performs garbage collection with the least impact on flash endurance" (and it is now the consensus that TRIM shouldn't actually be used for any SSD with these controllers). Therefore, adding TRIM only serves to add overhead and decrease performance, albeit only slightly (based on my own testing using XBench and HD Speed Test). Other manufacturers, like Kingston, are also following suit by adding native garbage collection right on the controller (though this is nothing new). Therefore, it's not enough to flip the switch on TRIM and assume it's to your benefit.

While the net is filled with misinformation and rumour, one particular person (Hyram) as posted some interesting information on the topic. You can head over here to read more about what he has to say as to why exactly Apple has not elected to enable TRIM for all SSDs (be sure to read his follow up comment as well, just a couple below). He talks of the following in his initial post:

  Apple locked TRIM support for a very good reason — their code works reliably with the SSD’s they’ve chosen to use and no others, because they have programmed in nanosecond-critical timing loops that match perfectly with the access timings of the controllers used in Apple’s SSDs. Using these drivers with other controllers can, at best, slow them down, and at worst, increase the thermal effect that kills storage cells by forcing the controller to act when it isn’t quite ready. This thermal increase hastens the death of the SSD, reducing the already-low lifespan down to six months, if not less.

  Then there is the Sandforce issue. SSDs which use one of Sandforce’s DuraClass controllers (SF1200 or better) do not need TRIM at all, as they have their own garbage collection and wear levelling system built in which uses parallel writes, as there are actually two sets of chip controllers built in — whilst one is satisfying the demands of the host in reading & writing requested data, the other is autonomously managing the solid state arrays, shifting regularly-accessed data into new cells, updating block indexes and generally spreading the workload around to ensure thermal effects are kept to an absolute minimum. By enabling TRIM, the SSD is forced to work twice as hard as there are now two separate element management systems running, one from the OS and one built into the device itself. This dramatically increases thermal damage, and again, reducing the life-span of the drive.

While no one has officially confirmed whether he's on the mark or not, you'd have to be quite thick to completely ignore his warning. To put it bluntly, it does make sense. If the issue is nothing more than telling a kernel extension to flip the switch on TRIM for all SSDs, it wouldn't make much sense for Apple not to do it. Many would counter-argue that Apple does it so you'll buy their high-priced SSDs, but from my experience, Apple is in the business of expanding the user-experience, not stifling it. There exist a myriad of cheap, 3rd party peripherals on the market (from video adapters to mice and keyboards) and Apple has not blocked any of them from working optimally. Why would they start with SSDs? Clearly there is more going on here.

I urge you to look into your SSD and find out if it has on-board garbage collection. And even if it doesn't, I would give TRIM a second thought. It is my understanding and interpretation that TRIM is a deprecated system, in favour of much more efficient on-board garbage collection.

In all honesty, SSDs all carry a minimum 3 year warranty (most manufacturers have bumped it up to 5) and should the drive fail before then, you will receive a new one. Anandtech has written an exceptional article on the current state of SSDs that you may find useful, but even such things shouldn't frighten you. Just make regular backups and enjoy your new drive, balance the limited space of course.


How can I install getent on Snow Leopard? I have several scripts which require the utility getent. In addition, I've read several handy tips which use getent.

getent is a Networking utility which is widely available on Unix, *BSD and Linux-based systems. This tool is commonly used by Sysadmins and power users to lookup network information (IP addresses, etc). As far as hostnames go, getent is one of the few tools which use both /etc/hosts and DNS.

As Wikipedia says:

  getent is a unix command that helps a user get entries in a number of
  important text files called databases.

The important thing here is that getent will search the same name services in the same order as would most applications on a unix-like system. This makes it invaluable when debugging system or application trouble.
Tools like dig and nslookup specifically look at DNS only, while dscl expects you to spell out the name services you want to search.

I would like to use getent for two testcases:

Parse /etc/hosts before querying DNS. For example, if I add testhost.example.org to /etc/hosts, then getent hosts testhost.example.org should use the entry from /etc/hosts before querying DNS.
Query LDAP using getent

MacPorts does not seem to provide a package providing getent.

Does getent exist on Snow Leopard?

dscacheutil is probably the best way to do this. It doesn't emulate the usual search process, it uses it, so you'll actually get the same results as a standard lookup (including caching, /etc/hosts, computer records in directory services, DNS, mDNS for .local names, etc).

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name www.apple.com
name: e3191.c.akamaiedge.net
alias: www.apple.com www.isg-apple.com.akadns.net www.apple.com.edgekey.net
ip_address: 69.192.45.15

$ dscacheutil -q host -a name gordons-mbp.local
name: gordons-mbp.local
ipv6_address: fe80:5::e6ce:8fff:fe50:136

name: gordons-mbp.local
ip_address: 192.168.10.249

$ dscacheutil -q host -a ip_address 127.0.0.1
name: localhost
alias: 1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa
ip_address: 127.0.0.1

$ dscacheutil -q user -a name gordon
name: gordon
password: ********
uid: 501
gid: 20
dir: /Users/gordon
shell: /bin/bash
gecos: Gordon Davisson


Deleting a podcast on iPod. What will happen the next time I sync? If I out for a while and if I need some free space on my iPod, I can manually delete some videos (iTunesU) or some podcasts. Fine.

But what will happen the next time I sync ?

Will those deleted podcasts be deleted in my library on my computer

OR

Will they be reloaded on my iPod ?

If you play through the podcast before deleting it - iTunes on the iOS device will record that fact and sync this information to the main library even if you delete the episode before you connect to sync (over USB in iOS4).

The answer to your question depends more on how you have syncing set up. If the episode is still one that would be synced (after whatever play information transfers) - it will reappear again after the sync.

Whether you listen to the episode or not, it won't get deleted on the main library simply because you deleted it from an iOS device. It may get deleted if you have that podcast set to auto delete once you have listened to older episodes, but that is because of the listening and the subsequent sync - not the deleting.


When did the colon character : become an allowed character in the filesystem? Just noticed it works on Maverick.. the colon character : is valid for file and directory names (I accidentally entered it for a filename in Atom).

Can't find any reference to it becoming valid though (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_File_System still marks it as invalid).

It works in the Atom editor.

I can create a file called : with nano.

This works echo 'test' > : && cat :

In TextWrangler it only works if the file already exists but won't create it (with command line tools installed edit :)

Is this new from Mavericks? Works in Yosemite? Before?

Edit: A few more tests:

TextEdit won't allow me to enter it and always replace it with -
Finder won't allow me to create a folder with the name :

A : file created via command line is displayed as / in Finder.. and double clicking it will open it in TextEdit. TextEdit will load its content but show the name / in the title bar.

This change appeared at the beginning of MacOS X (i.e. MacOS X 10).

Then the directory separator from HFS :
was changed to the directory separator of UFS /. Since then the Finder is in charge of making the following mapping:

/ → :
: → /


Turn off iPad 2 screen mirroring I want to watch a video on youtube on my TV, connected with the HDMI adapter and a cable, but use other apps at the same time on the ipad's screen. I think this is possible if I use Airplay (to Airplay a video in the background), but I don't have an Apple TV, so i'm assuming it must be possible to play the video over the HDMI output while using apps on the screen.

But when I switch apps Screen mirroring kicks in and the video stops playing, if I press play in the multitasking bar I only get the audio of the video.

Is there a way to turn off screen mirroring on the iPad 2 when using HDMI?

Sorry, no, it's impossible to run HDMI video out in the background while doing other tasks.  AirPlay, however, allows this with Apple TV, which you mentioned that you didn't have.  The HDMI out is strictly mirroring only.  Sorry I was unable to help you further...


How to remove defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 10 Recently, it was suggested to me to run this in my terminal:

defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 10

but I have found that it is not helping my key strokes, but just adding one more annoyance to my work.

How do I undo this command?

You can delete it using the command defaults delete -g InitialKeyRepeat.

I'm not quite sure what the original value is, so deleting it seems to be your best option. However, some sources seem to indicate that 25 is the original value so you can try setting the value via defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 25.


Open Image in New Window did not work at Safari's Web Inspector mode I opened a website in Safari, opened Show Web Inspector, selected one of images from the Images folder, right-clicked and selected Open Image in New Window, and it did not open a new folder.

I used Chrome and used Inspect Element- Open Image in New Tab, and Chrome opened the image in new tab.

Is there some problem with Safari or my MacBook Air?

Follow these steps to fix safari issue

Go to Develop --> User Agent --> Safari ...
Select it and do inspect then you can see the button on left side top corner.
Now set to default setting by redoing the first point.


Upgrading to iPhone 11 Pro Max from iPhone 8 Plus w/o visiting the Apple Store I currently have an iPhone 8 Plus in the US, which I think is unlocked. My carrier is AT&T. Since all Apple stores are closed, I am wondering if I can purchase a new iPhone 11 Pro Max from apple.com? Is it possible to put the old SIM card from the iPhone 8 Plus into the new iPhone? Do I need to contact my carrier AT&T at all during this process (since my physical device will be changed)? Thanks.

I did same, moving from iPhone 6 to 11. All I needed to do was take out SIM card and put in new device. SIM card was same size.  I recommend you purchase the 'sim-free' or unlocked phone from Apple. It costs the same, and does not lock you into a carrier. It also supports AT&T towers (as well as verizon etc). If you purchase the AT&T phone, they generally want you to change your plan, update it or hassle you to death :)

There is no need to contact AT&T, as they do not require registration or activation as does say Verizon. I don't know if this is technical or just policy, but no need to call or configure anything, just put in the SIM Card.

Be sure to backup your old phone to either iCloud or to iTunes on your Mac/PC. If you use iCloud, simply sign into iCloud on new phone, and iCloud will load all your apps and preferences from the old phone. If you use iTunes, simply attach your new phone to your PC/Mac and restore your data to the new phone.  If  you are using iTunes for backup, be sure backup using a password/encryption. If you do not, any passwords or logins will not transfer.


Does iPad battery charging utility like Battery Boost Magic pro really make a difference in prolonging iPad's battery life? Do battery charging utilities such as Battery Boost Magic pro or Kingsoft battery doctor really make a difference in prolonging the life of an iPad battery?

No it really can't. What it can do, is show you how much battery the device has left, and hence motivate you to conserve battery with dimming the screen, and perform activities that are less battery intensive.

Apps in iOS are sandboxed heavily and consequently can't perform system-level functions that might possibly be used to conserve battery. The other problem with this sandboxing is it would likely mean any battery conservation would have to happen while the app is open, and the device unlocked. iOS 5 allows certain processes to continue running in the background, but those include things like using the accelerometer, GPS, and such. This again comes back to iOS apps not allowing access to many system-level processes.


How to maximize `Preview` by keyboard shortcut? This question is about the Preview app. I use that a lot to read stuff (PDF files, etc.
Each time it opens, it forgets the last Window state.
On a Retina Mac, it is ideal to have it opened at "Two pages" view (Command-3) in "almost fullscreen" mode: the window as large and wide as possible but keeping the menu, toolbar and dock visible (this is almost distraction free).

The way I do it now is tedious, especially as I have to repeat these steps for every document:

open a document
press Command-3
drag the top-left corner of the Preview window to the left of the screen against the menu bar on the top.
drag the bottom-right corner of the Preview window to the right of the screen against the dock on the bottom.

I'm a software developer. I hate repetitive steps.

How can I either:

force Preview to open this way?
if Preview can't: by keyboard force Preview to be "almost full screen" with "Two pages" view?
bonus: make this work for other applications (like Chrome or FireFox) as well.

Background:

  More than a year ago, I switched my host machine from Windows to Mac.
  Most things work great (some like battery life and speed of sleep/wake
  should be far more advertised), but there are still a few things that
  I miss dearly. Most of those have to do with me having had RSI in the
  early 90's because of mouse and touchpad usage, so I'm very keyboard
  oriented.

To make Preview open PDFs in the "Two Pages" mode, go to Preferences --> PDF, then select the desired mode in the "Show as" menu.

There is no shortcut to go to "Almost Fullscreen Mode" by default, but you can create one:

Go to System Preferences --> Keyboard --> Shortcuts;
Click "App Shortcuts";
Click the "+" button to add a new shortcut;
You'll be asked for the menu title you want to link to a shortcut. For the command you want, it is "Zoom";
You will also be able to specify whether you want the shortcut to be available in all application or a specific application only.

EDIT: Here's an AppleScript solution to set the first window of Preview (the frontmost opened document of Preview) to the size of the screen (works only with one display connected):

tell application "Preview"
    tell application "Finder" to set screen_resolution to bounds of window of desktop
    set bounds of window 1 to screen_resolution
end tell


Is there a way to disable the internal speaker in Macbook? I'm using a headphone at my workplace but I don't want to disturb others in case the headphone isn't working properly or I disconnect the headphone by accident. So I'm trying to find a method that can disable the internal speaker completely. Is there a way to do so in Macbook?

When you switch audio outputs, the volume level reverts to whatever level it was at when you last used that output. That means that if you mute the internal speaker before plugging in headphones, it'll stay muted if you accidentally disconnect your headphones.

If that's not enough, you can also use Soundflower. It's an extension designed to let your Mac record its own audio output, which it does by creating virtual input and output options that feed directly into each other. That means that you can hold down Option, click on the volume icon in the menu bar, and select one of the Soundflower options as your audio output before plugging in your headphones and selecting them as the output device. If your headphones get disconnected, your audio output will default to Soundflower, which doesn't send anything through the speaker.


Is there a way to automate the movement of application windows to assigned monitors? So I have a new set up: 2 large screens (top left and top right), my macbook pro (centre), and my ipad (left).
I'm a coder, I like to have my coding environment in the centre, with research on the top left, results (e.g. created webpages) top right. Certain apps like Postman are on the left on the ipad.
Sometimes, as we all do, I reset my computer. When I do this, upon login, all my apps will open on the same screen.
Is there a way (maybe an Alfred script), to move all my applications to the desired monitor (and the desired desktop on that monitor)? It would save SO much time I can't even begin to say.
Thanks.

Place the application window on the desired screen.  Then right click its Dock icon -> Options -> Assign To -> (select desired target)
These functions are especially helpful if you use Spaces.


How to get rid of supervision So, I today I went into my settings to see that my iPad is being supervised by some school. I don’t even go to this school, I had to look it up to realize it was a school, and they don’t even own this iPad. I certainly know this was not there before,I don’t know how long it has been in supervision for but I’ve only now seen it. I looked up how to remove the supervision and I was told to factory reset my iPad so I tried but it is telling me that there was an “error connecting to the Apple ID server”. I’ve realized just now that this happened like 10 min ago as my WiFi stopped working out of no where and it is asking me to put in the password for the WiFi which is strange. I don’t know if it has restricted anything but I sure don’t want them controlling my iPad.

The serial number may be claimed - correctly or incorrectly, you have two options.

If you can get to settings see if you can determine the exact address of the management server (get screenshots) and then try to remove the profiles.
If that doesn’t work, you have to handle this administratively with the School and/or Apple. Collect all your receipts for purchase so you can help clarify how you came into possession of a device that’s marked as school owned.


Why iPad is not listed in the Personal Hotspot area as the iPhone? I'm using internet from iPad/iPhone sometimes. The image bellow shows both devices but I don't understand why they are listed in different fields.

Why iPad is not listed in the Personal Hotspot area as the iPhone?

I see all devices from icloud.com. This means they are in the same account?

The Personal Hotspot is for devices signed in using the same Apple ID. Even if your hotspot is turned off it will still show up if you have the same Apple ID.

The lower portion is any detectable networks, including hotspots.


Wifi hotspot with cell turned on but no connection? So, I can't test this because my 6 is not hooked up to my phone line (otherwise I would). Before "closing as duplicate" know that this question DOES NOT ask "while I turned off cell data", so it's not a duplicate.

Cell data is on, but has no reception. Can we form a wifi hotspot still?

The reason being, apple does not give you access to high speed peer-to-peer. They indirectly do it through multipeer, and GK requires an internet connection so there's no real point in using it for p2p. Multipeer is slow, even for small text strings, huge (.33 seconds) lag.

So basically, no bars, data turned on, wifi hotspot work to form a local area network?

Thanks

It seems it is a yes, and Multipeer is not laggy if you remove the sample's fluff.

I had "no known" connection, 0-1 bars, it gave me warnings but still let me turn on one or another network (borrowed someone's and used mine as the other peer in the middle of nowhere)


How do I get photos from iPhone 4s onto iPad when taken on 3G? I have a new iPhone 4s. When I take photos away from my WiFi connection, the pictures do not appear in my photo stream on my iPad.

Can this be easily remedied?

Photo stream is turned on on both devices and I've just done a backup to see if that helped. It didn't.

The short answer is you cannot - it works only when the device is connected over WiFi.
Quoting from iCloud: My Photo Stream FAQ (emphasis at the end mine):

When do photos upload to My Photo Stream?
When you enable My Photo Stream on your devices, all new photos you take or import to those devices will be automatically added to your photo stream.
iOS devices: New photos you take are automatically uploaded to your photo stream when you leave the Camera app and are connected to Wi-Fi. My Photo Stream does not push photos over cellular connections.

Such limitations are usually imposed by Apple because cellular Internet is quite expensive in most places when compared to DSL/cable broadband. So uploading photos that are a few MBs each could quickly run the bill up to a hefty amount. Another example of limitations on cellular connection is App Store downloads, where iOS will only download an app or update if it's smaller than 100MB in size when the device is connected over cellular.


Per app audio device output selection Is there a way to tell OS X I want my music player to play over Airplay but Chrome to play on my computer's speakers at the same time?

I have a hunch it's possible because some apps let me switch (I can choose to have my VoIP calls output to the computer's speakers while all the rest of the audio plays through Airplay) but is there a way to control this globally whether the app has an option for it or not?

Hijack Pro seems to be doing it but it costs 50$ and seems to be overkill for what  I want to do.

Soundflower used to be the thing for that kind of task, but it's fallen by the wayside a bit over the past few years.
It was originally by Cycling 74, but then Rogue Amoeba took over the hosting. They never did anything further with it & eventually it was open sourced & a couple of newer versions were produced.
The latest I'm aware of is a signed v2.0 beta at https://github.com/mattingalls/Soundflower/releases though I've not tried it myself since the older 1.6.x versions started to fail on Mavericks.

Your fully-flexible & El Capitan-compliant alternative is, as you discovered, Audio Hijack - which is extremely good at what it does, but is pricey for a one-trick pony.

See https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/203009/85275 for some configuration examples.


Does software exist to rename songs in iTunes based on audio matching like shazam? I am looking for program which will automaticly rename songs and albums by comparing the actual acoustics and played /perceived?

Basically, use Shazam some way?

Equinux's Song Genie can do this, though it's not perfect.


Is there a way to make "find my iPhone" not work? Is there any possible way to disable find my iPhone without just turning it off?

My parents are extremely clingy (in a very bad way) but luckily I am at least privileged enough to have my own iPhone.

Every once in a while my parents use the "find my iPhone" app when they're nosing even though they promised to only use it in emergencies.

I'll be grounded if I turn it off, but they wouldn't know if there was somehow a way to just say "iPhone cannot be found" or something. Perhaps if I jailbreak it?

Remove an iOS device or Mac by turning off Find My iPhone

Remove a device from Find My iPhone by turning off Find My iPhone on the device.

On an iOS device: Go to Settings > iCloud, then tap to turn off Find My [device].

Note:   You can also remove your device by turning off iCloud completely on that device. Turning off iCloud turns off all iCloud features on the device.

You can read Apple's full article for more details, iCloud: Remove your device from Find My iPhone


Retrieving boolean values of System Properties (Terminal commands) I am familiar with the state changes to system properties (such as displaying hidden files) using Terminal commands including: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES to make the any hidden files become visible.

But what is the command for showing the current state/status of this (and similar) properties, to retrieve what it is set to, without changing the value?

During my initial tinkering, I've already trying appending a STATUS value in place of the YES or NO option; without any luck.

I'm certain there must be a command that returns the current state of the boolean or enumerated type's property, such that entering a variation of the above-mentioned command (to show hidden files) will not perform any changes but rather return the current setting i.e. YES or NO.

I am out of ideas and appreciate the help.

The read qualifier shows the value:

$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 1

$ defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles
1

$ defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles 0

$ defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles
0

The man defaults Terminal command gives a wealth of information.


Anyone else having problems joining domain in OS X 10.10.2? I am (have confirmed I have rights since I can remove and join a Windows 7 box) having problems joining a Yosemite OS X 10.10.2 to the domain--I receive a "authentication server encountered an error while attempting the requested operation (5202)" no matter if I use the GUI to join the "Network Account Server" or use DSCONFIGAD command-line command at Terminal.

I was able to join two Mac Minis on 10.10.x a few months ago but I am having problems with a new-out-of-the-box Mini right now. Even tried erasing and reinstalling from a OS X 10.10.2 thumb drive.

Alright, this was purely my own fault. After turning on Directory Services logging and discovering that no attempt was made it turned out to be the Ethernet jack the Mac was plugged into was going into another non-production lab environment. 5502 isn't super helpful by itself!


Periodic problem with DNS resolution Since a few days, the DNS resolution stops working for random amounts of time, a few seconds to a few hours (I logged it with a simple script). It sometimes goes back to normal without any intervention, but comes back to normal after a reboot  - not the cleanest way to solve this...  My other machines on the same network don't have any problems.

How can I trace the problem ?

Here is what happens when the problem occurs:

ping www.google.com
ping: cannot resolve www.google.com: Unknown host

whois orange.fr
whois: fr.whois-servers.net: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

I searched my logs and found a lot of instances of this error message:

Jan 21 00:30:03 shiny.home helpd[66064]: dnssd_clientstub read_all(9) failed 0/4 0
Jan 21 00:30:03 shiny.home configd[17]: dnssd_clientstub read_all(27) failed 0/4 0
Jan 21 00:30:03 shiny.home mDNSResponder[40]:  17: ERROR: read_msg errno 40 (Message too long)

It think it may be related to a program I was evaluating recently (Daylite)

The DNS are the ones provided by my ISP, and the ethernet interface is setup via DHCP.

This Apple support article, Non-responsive DNS server or invalid DNS configuration can cause long delay before webpages load, may help:

  DNS configuration

  This may indicate a non-responsive DNS server or an invalid DNS
  configuration. A DNS server converts a name to a numerical IP address,
  "www.apple.com" to "17.149.160.49", for example. You can connect to an
  IP address without any delay, because the need for DNS resolution is
  avoided. Here are four scenarios in which the symptom may occur:

  You have specified two or more DNS servers in the Network preference pane (possibly at the direction of a network administrator
  or your ISP), but the first server on the list has become
  non-responsive, or was entered incorrectly. The delay occurs while Mac
  OS X waits for the first server to respond, then it goes to the next
  server in your list.  Make sure the addresses are entered correctly.
  Changing the order of DNS addresses may improve performance. If your
  network administrator prefers that the primary server be used, you may
  wish to change back to the original order after the issue is resolved
  with the primary server.
  Your network may be configured to provide automatic discovery of DNS service, without needing to manually type the DNS server addresses
  at your computer. If you have manually typed a DNS address that is
  incorrect or out of date, your computer may wait for the incorrect
  address to respond (a "timeout") before succeeding at automatic
  discovery.
  You have not specified a DNS server, and automatic discovery of the service is not provided on your network. In this scenario, you can
  only connect via an IP address. Web pages do not load at all via a DNS
  name, such as is described in this article.

  How to resolve

  Check with your network administrator or Internet Service Provider
  (ISP) to make sure your DNS information is correct. If your ISP only
  provides you with one DNS address, consider requesting a second one
  for use in the event that the first becomes unavailable.

  Once you have the address(es), you can use these steps to change your
  DNS information. Note: After using these steps, some Internet
  applications may need to be quit and reopened to return to normal
  behavior.

  Mac OS X v10.5 or later:

  From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences.
  From the View menu, choose Network.
  Click the interface you use to connect to the Internet, such as AirPort or Built-in Ethernet.
  If you use Built-in Ethernet: Type your DNS address(es) in the DNS Server field. If you have more than one, separate them with a comma.
  If you use AirPort, click Advanced, then click the DNS tab. For each server, click the "+" button under DNS Servers and enter the
  address provided by your ISP or network admin. Click OK when done.
  Click Apply.


How are text messages (SMS) sent to an iPhone received in a Mac? I want to know the working of the program. When an SMS is sent to the iPhone, does it upload after receiving it on the phone to the iCloud, which then syncs it to the mac or does is it received directly by the mac independent of the phone?
In the first case, it would mean that the phone needs internet connection for the messages to be received on the Mac, whereas, in the second case, it would mean that messages are sent to Apple's server by the service provider. Or does it have any other mechanism?

The setting "Text Message Forwarding" on your iPhone uploads/broadcasts all text messages to all verified devices through iCloud.

Your iPhone needs data for this, obviously. Your carrier has nothing do to with this.

All devices need to be logged in to iCloud using the same Apple ID for this to work. Also, you need to verify each device as you enable them in your iPhone's settings.

This setting is part of Apple's Continuity feature set.


Paragon Driver for Seagate I'm using MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion (OSX version 10.8.5) and I want to copy some data from the MacBook Pro to an NTFS formatted external hard drive.

I know that we can use the paid solution from Paragon by purchasing its driver. But I recently discovered that the DMG files from Paragon are provided for free on Seagate site here as well:

https://www.seagate.com/in/en/support/software/paragon/

Has anyone used Paragon Driver from Seagate's site and can I use it safely? I'd like to make sure that this Driver works properly before actually using it. On one hand Paragon charges almost 20 USD for it and on the other hand, Seagate offers it for free.

The NTFS drivers provided by Seagate are OEM versions of Paragon's NTFS for Mac 14/15.

They share the same code base but work with Seagate's external (and probably internal, if you replaced the original Apple HDD - not tested) drives only.

By buying an external Seagate drive you already paid for it in the price category of dimes.


When launching java app as Mac app there default java process name and About description instead of mine I have a number of jar-files, some resources, h2 database, etc. in my project. To create Mac application I used Platypus. To run my application shell script was used.

However at this case when application starts then separate java process starts and there neither proper name of the app nor proper About description in Mac menu. Also Terminal starts that is not wanted.

How I should launch the app to avoid this drawbacks so that the name of the app and About description were the right ones?

What I see now (name and About):

My launching shell script is the following:

#!/bin/bash

export IRULE_HOME="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd -P)"

export IRULE_LANG=en
export IRULE_REGION=EN
export IRULE_XMS=-Xms256m
export IRULE_XMX=-Xmx1024m
export LOG4J_CONFIGURATION=${IRULE_HOME}/conf/log4j2.xml
export JAVA_HOME="${IRULE_HOME}/jre/Contents/Home"

export DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS="$IRULE_XMS \
              $IRULE_XMX \
              -Dlog4j.configuration=file:"${LOG4J_CONFIGURATION}" \
              -Dirule.home=${IRULE_HOME} \
              -Dirule.client.logs.path=${IRULE_HOME}/logs \
              -Duser.language="${IRULE_LANG}" \
              -Duser.region="${IRULE_REGION}" \
              $JAVA_OPTS"

export PATH=${JAVA_HOME}/bin:${JAVA_HOME}:${PATH}
export CLASSPATH=${IRULE_HOME}/lib/*:${IRULE_HOME}/conf:${JAVA_HOME}/lib/jfxrt.jar;

exec ${JAVA_HOME}/bin/java -Xdock:name="iRule Reader" -Xdock:icon=${IRULE_HOME}/image/irule.png ${DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS} -classpath "${CLASSPATH}" com.spi2.Main $*

How I created the app by Platypus. The process is simple: I set my shell-script and add all my resources. Also I can set up the icon. And I add Credits.html to allow About description as said in documentation:

If you use a shell script you must run it from a shell and so to ghet a shell macOS opens Terminal. You are also not running an app so not getting the correct setup for icons, menus etc.

To be seen as an app the executable needs to be packaged as per Apple's Bundle documentation

This Platypus seems to say it should do this. So in this case you need to read its documentation and see what you have not done. If this is the problem then this would need to be a question on StackOverflow but you would need to show how you set your app up.


Upgrade from Safari 4.1.3 I tried to check my yahoo email this morning and my Safari asks me to either upgrade or continue without upgrading. I am using a  Mac PowerBook G4 running 10.4.11
I clicked on continue without upgrading and the screen does not change. I restarted and then clicked on Upgrade and the same result....screen never moves to another?

Safari 4.1.3 is the last version of Safari for Mac OS X Tiger, so you're out of luck on that end. Furthermore, Chrome and Firefox (in their current versions) do not support Tiger either.

You can try looking for Mac OS X Leopard, since Safari 5.1.10 (the last version of Safari for Leopard) is available for download, but that's as far as your computer will possibly be able to go, since the latest version requires, at minimum, OS X Mountain Lion, which requires an Intel processor.

This Apple Discussions page suggests you could also try TenFourFox.

If you don't like any of these options, you'll have to purchase a new Mac.


Setting a specific dnsentry I have a server running at port 4433 on my localhost machine. I'd like to refer to the service as http://mytest.com:4433 from the browser or any script that I write. How could I set the DNS on OSX to do this? Thanks!

You could add a new line in your hosts file (see man hosts(5)). The easiest that I know of would be to open a Terminal and use nano to edit the file. You could type this in your terminal:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

(replace nano by vi if you are more familiar with the latter). Then go at the end of the file and add something like this:

127.0.0.1    mytest.com

Save the file (key combination for nano is (it's a o upper case): Ctrl + O).

The file hosts is read by mDNSResponder which is the local DNS cache on OS X (incl. Snow Leopard). So your browser will be redirected to the IP you set in the file.


A Blu-Ray drive to add to the MacBook 7,1? I am working on downgrading my laptop to make some extra money while having a beefy Windows PC for gaming, VR and other things...and I just really need a laptop for the go, and decided that the MacBook 7,1 was most appealing to me.

Since I can upgrade it with RAM, SATA drives and even it's ODD, I wondered if there was a way to plop a Blu-Ray drive into this? I would like to watch some DH Blu-Rays sometimes. Most of my anime collection is physical, therefore I need a physical drive to play them back.

What drive can I get to do an upgrade?

Already answered here:

Which internal Blu-ray drives are compatible with a unibody Macbook Pro?

Be aware that the OS itself won't play back BluRay movies; Steve Jobs was on the record as saying that BluRay's DRM were "a bag of hurt". The linked question has among its answers a link to a supposed workaround for this, but that link no longer works.


Renamed Home Folder, now Dropbox Mac App won't launch I renamed my home folder using these directions from Apple - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548

Worked great. However, now when I try to launch the Dropbox app it asks for permission to modify a folder, which no longer exists.

joshua1 no longer exists, it is now just joshua.

I give permission anyway, and then get this error.

Couldn't start Dropbox
This is usually because of a permissions error. Storing your home folder on a network share can also cause an error. For more information, click the help button below. Please contact Dropbox support with the following info for help: - long text part copied below.

I obviously need to move my Dropbox folder. But according to this Dropbox support article, I need to launch the app and set that in the preferences - https://www.dropbox.com/en/help/89.

Here is what Dropbox gave me to give to their support.
H
bn.BUILD_KEY: Dropbox
bn.VERSION: 3.6.4
bn.DROPBOXEXT_VERSION: failed
bn.is_frozen: True
pid: 1556
ppid: 1
uid: 502
user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='joshua', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Joshua Dance', pw_dir='/Users/joshua', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
effective_user_info: pwd.struct_passwd(pw_name='joshua', pw_passwd='********', pw_uid=502, pw_gid=20, pw_gecos='Joshua Dance', pw_dir='/Users/joshua', pw_shell='/bin/bash')
euid: 502
gid: 20
egid: 20
group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
effective_group_info: grp.struct_group(gr_name='staff', gr_passwd='*', gr_gid=20, gr_mem=['root'])
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH: None
cwd: u'/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources'
     real_path=u'/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources'
            mode=040755 uid=502 gid=20
     parent mode=040755 uid=502 gid=20
HOME: u'/Users/joshua'
appdata: u'/Users/joshua1/.dropbox/instance1'
         real_path=u'/Users/joshua1/.dropbox/instance1'
                not found
         parent not found
dropbox_path: u'/Users/joshua1/Dropbox'
              real_path=u'/Users/joshua1/Dropbox'
                        not found
              parent    not found
sys_executable: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/python'
                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/MacOS/python'
                        mode=0100755    uid=502 gid=20
                parent  mode=040755 uid=502 gid=20
trace.__file__: '/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python2.7/site-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyo'
                real_path='/Applications/Dropbox.app/Contents/Resources/lib/python2.7/site-packages.zip/dropbox/client/ui/common/boot_error.pyo'
                        not found
                parent  not found
tempdir: u'/var/folders/r9/dql9_58x0qq8x54hqtl1sw3m0000gp/T'
         real_path=u'/private/var/folders/r9/dql9_58x0qq8x54hqtl1sw3m0000gp/T'
                mode=040700 uid=502 gid=20
         parent mode=040755 uid=502 gid=20
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyo", line 3332, in main_startup
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyo", line 1594, in run
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyo", line 796, in startup_low
  File "dropbox/client/main.pyo", line 567, in safe_makedirs
  File "os.pyo", line 150, in makedirs
  File "os.pyo", line 150, in makedirs
  File "os.pyo", line 157, in makedirs
OSError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/Users/joshua1'

Dropbox support got back to me, and had a fix. Not simple so open up your terminal.

Please save and quit all programs accessing files in the Dropbox folder, and then follow these instructions:

Note: Please be sure to take note or take a screenshot of any Selective Sync settings you may have applied prior to re-installing in case you need to re-apply these settings upon re-install.

Stop Dropbox (If needed):

Click the Dropbox icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen
Click on the gear icon in the Notifications panel and select 'Quit Dropbox'

Download the newest version:

www.dropbox.com/install

Open your Terminal app (Located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
Copy and paste the following lines into the Terminal, ONE AT A TIME, and press ENTER after each one. PLEASE make sure you copy and paste these commands (don't type them by hand), as getting them wrong could cause some harm. You'll be prompted for your computer's admin password (not your Dropbox password) after entering the first command. Keep in mind that the password field in the terminal will remain blank as you type your password. After you type it, just press ENTER.

sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"

sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox

sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox

sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old

sudo chmod -N ~

sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old

(Note some of these commands didn't actually do anything. I think they were just trying to be super thorough.)

Open the .dmg file from step # 2 and double click the Dropbox icon to install Dropbox.
Restart Dropbox from the Applications folder, then please sign in and apply any Selective Sync settings you may have had prior to the reinstall during the sign in process. Your account will take a few moments to reindex the files and sync any pending changes.


Download Manager for Mac OS X What is a good Download Manager for Mac?
Are there free ones available?

There are several choices :

Folx :

  Folx is a free download manager for Mac OS X with a true Mac-style
  interface. It offers convenient downloads managing, flexible settings,
  etc. Folx has a unique system of sorting and keeping the downloaded
  content.

iGetter:

  iGetter is a full featured download manager and accelerator. With
  iGetter you can get the most out of your Internet connection be it
  dial-up, wireless, cable, DSL, T1 and other high end broadband
  connections. iGetter can greatly improve the speed of your downloads
  using segmented (accelerated) downloading.

Leech (paid one) : clean UI.

  Every modern browser has its own download functionality, so why should
  you use a separate application for handling downloads in the first
  place? Because Leech works better than any built-in download manager.

jDownloader 2

  JDownloader is a free, open-source download management tool with a
  huge community of developers that makes downloading as easy and fast
  as it should be. Users can start, stop or pause downloads, set
  bandwith limitations, auto-extract archives and much more. It's an
  easy-to-extend framework that can save hours of your valuable time
  every day!

 - Fat Pipe: (free)

  Most servers and internet service providers limit the speed a single
  connection can have. We can bypass these limits by splitting a
  download task up into many smaller chunks. This guarantees that you
  will fully saturate your internet connection.

http://fatpipeapp.com/media/demo.mp4


Installing macOS 10.12.4 beta 2 breaks OpenSSH installed via homebrew ssh: OpenSSH_7.4p1, LibreSSL 2.4.5 (installed via homebrew)
System Version: macOS 10.12.4 (16E154a)

Error:

me@mymac:~$ ssh foo@bar.local
dyld: lazy symbol binding failed: Symbol not found: _arc4random_buf
  Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/ssh
  Expected in: /usr/local/opt/libressl/lib/libcrypto.38.dylib

dyld: Symbol not found: _arc4random_buf
  Referenced from: /usr/local/bin/ssh
  Expected in: /usr/local/opt/libressl/lib/libcrypto.38.dylib

Abort trap: 6

Any advice how to solve this problem? This also breaks my git pushes (using ssh, obviously)

brew reinstall openssh

Solved the issue completely


Mail.app: How can Choose Signature choice be based on recipient? I have different mail signatures that I'd like to use, depending on whether my recipient is internal or external.  In the Signatures tab of Mail.app preferences, I can choose random or sequential only.

Has anyone set this up?  Anyone have any pointers on how to get started on something like this?  Even being able to choose signatures via keyboard shortcut would be an improvement.

I have heard on different podcasts of users who use TextExpander to shortcut into typing different e-mail signatures.

TextExpander is on my wish list of apps I will buy soon, I see a lot of potential in having keyboard shortcuts for common text snippets. Hope this helps.


Mountain Lion display sleep function and screen saver does not activate Since upgrading to Mountain Lion, the display sleep function appears not to work, and the screen saver is flaky. I can leave my machine for a couple of hours and when I come back the screen is as I left it.

I would expect the display sleep to be in effect, and if not that, at least the screen saver should appear. I have tested with various settings. In particular the screen saver set for 1 minute, and the display sleep set for 2 minutes. These functions just are not working. Note: I have Computer Sleep set to never, and usually 10 minutes for display sleep.

There have been no hardware changes to my system, and blue tooth is turned off. The system is on a LAN, but wake on network access is turned off. I am not sure if these network connections should affect the screen sleep/saver functions, but have heard of such issues in the past so have set them so as not to interfere.

I don't have any special programs running that should interfere with the display. Time Machine is running. However, before this upgrade, I did not notice a problem with any programs.

Here is the output from pmset:

$ pmset -g
Active Profiles:
AC Power        -1*
Currently in use:
 hibernatemode        0
 halfdim              1
 womp                 0
 networkoversleep     0
 sleep                0 (sleep prevented by )
 powerbutton          0
 ttyskeepawake        1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 autorestart          0
 disksleep            10
 displaysleep         2

Any ideas?

Addendum: while this issue has been going on for several days since the upgrade to ML, I notice that today the issue appears to be gone. Both the screen saver and the screen sleep are working.

Since the problem has been in existence for about a week solid, but has corrected itself without any action by me, I am not that confident that it is actually solved. No changes to the machine have been done.

After a long while now, the problem has come back.
I found very detailed and useful info at http://web.archive.org/web/20150405031645/http://mactips.dwhoard.com/mactips/system/display-sleep. For me the workaround was just to logout and login again. Then test and the problem is fixed. The referenced page gives other, perhaps better workarounds.
Please note that the normal "why doesn't my Mac sleep" issues such as given at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1776 are not the problem, and that some bug is the problem.


Is it possible to create a user without a home directory? I want to create a user to run tomcat on my system and was wondering if it is possible to create a user without a home directory like it is possible in linux.

Yes you can, using the following code.  Note that the UniqueID, if less than 501, may not list the user in the Accounts pane of system preferences, depending upon the OS version.  Be careful that it is not already assigned to another user account.

sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName
sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName UserShell /bin/bash
sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName UniqueID 505
sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName PrimaryGroupID 20
sudo dscl . -passwd /Users/ThisUserName Pa55w0rd

You can assign a home folder outside of the normal /Users/ hierarchy with:

sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName NFSHomeDirectory /path/to/your/home

If you want a clearer name to show up in the accounts preference:

sudo dscl . -create /Users/ThisUserName RealName "This User Name"

If you su to the new user without having set a NFSHomeDirectory, the $HOME defaults to /var/empty.


How can I easily and individually update the Genre tag for a lot of songs? I am a DJ and I have just got a new Mac and transferred all my music to iTunes. A lot of my tunes do have the wrong Genre assigned mis-tagged (e.g.a tune that is TECH HOUSE is maybe tagged as genre House).

What I would love to be able to do very quickly is go through all my tunes and tag them genre-wise how I would like them.  I have so many  tunes that I actually ned to hear them before tagging.  My dream is to be in the 'music' section of my tunes, play a tune, have a little listen then hit a keyboard shortcut that would assign/change the genre to what I think it should be.

At the moment, I listen, use a shortcut to get me to 'GET INFO' use the mouse to click in genre, delete it, then type in the new tag!

As a quick-fix you might just add the "Genre" field to the list of displayed columns (Cmd-J or right-click any column name) and edit the value there directly (double-click on the current value):

There are also applications available who try to clean song metadata automatically (e.g. Tagalicious) but they only work for "well-known" tracks and will probably not tag the genre the way you need it.


How to refresh metadata in iTunes? I've updated much of my songs' metadata using MusicBrainz Picard and it's successfully updated in the .mp3 files. However, a song's updated metadata is not reflected in iTunes until I play it. Is there a way to refresh this data for all the songs at once.

Also, just for testing, I dropped a music folder into iTunes. Instead of updating the song's metadata, it added the songs again and now I have duplicates.

PS: I am on Windows 8.1

Found a VBA Script here :
http://samsoft.org.uk/itunes/UpdateTagInfo.vbs

You can find many other scripts there too:
http://samsoft.org.uk/itunes/scripts.asp


Windows RDP client that allows key mapping and easy use of Function Keys I often use RDP clients (like Microsoft Remote Desktop or CoRD) to access my work machines to use Visual Studio at work. This actually works pretty well, except for when it comes to using the Function keys (especially F10 and F11 for debugging).

As you can see, the problem is that the Mac OS now also uses these keys for mute and volume down respectively. You can hold down the 'fn' key and get access to these, and sometimes that doesn't even work directly, you have to hold down Command too. This slows me down quite a bit. I have built up some serious muscle memory for Visual Studio key commands, and would like to replicate them as close as possible through Remote Desktop.

I am looking for a workflow that will:

Allow me to RDP into a Windows machine (Windows 7 if that matters)
Customize key commands JUST for that application, so that if RDP is the current application, hitting F10 will interact with the debugger in my RDP connection, and not mute my Mac
If I can't map those exact keys, at least have a way to map two unused keys to the similar function key in the RDP session (as in, if I could map F10 and F11 to F16 and F17 respectively, that could work.

It looks like Microsoft's RDP client allows you to change key commands, but not add new ones. And wasn't sure if there was another method I could use to incorporate these commands just for when RDP was the front-most application

The easiest way might be to disable the Fn key. Since you say that using Fn+F10 works, you could go into System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard, and enable Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys. This way you no longer need to press Fn to send F10.

The second solution is on the PC side. You could install a utility such as AutoHotkey on your PC and remap the keys there. That way the keybindings will only work on the PC. Lifehacker has nice looking tutorial about this. In AutoHotkey, you can decide which applications the shortcut applies to, but in your case it seems like a global hotkey would work since it is running on the PC side.

Another solution might be to try one of the ways to create keyboard shortcuts menitoned in this Lifehacker article. This article's goal is to help you do similar things that AutoHotkey let's you do on the Mac.


How to hide all file extensions in subdirectories of a given folder? I know that I can open the file information dialogue (Get Info) for several files at once using ⌘⌥I and hide/unhide file extensions. How do I accomplish this for all files in a directory tree (including files in subfolders)?

You can easily do this in Terminal with the SetFile command:

To hide file extensions in a directory and all sub-directories:

cd <path to directory>

find . -name "*.*" -exec SetFile -a -E '{}' \; | echo "hiding extensions"

(can change the second * to a particular extension type if you choose)

To show file extensions in a directory and all sub-directories:

cd <path to directory>

find . -name "*.*" -exec SetFile -a -e '{}' \; | echo "showing extensions"


How to trace what is re-entering jet.com super-cookie? In Safari (Version 10.1.1 (10603.2.5)) on OS X Yosemite, in the Preferences... -> Privacy [Manage Website Data...] I have an entry:

jet.com
Databses

If I delete this entry, it disappears, and returns in two seconds or less, even with no other windows open, certainly none open to jet.com, and even with Cookies and website data set to Always Block. Any ideas how to trace what is re-entering this super-cookie?

You can use a command line utility called fs_usage to find out which application is accessing a file.

To keep an eye on the files stored for this "jet.com" entry the following command will show all activity on all files that contain "https_jet.com" in the file name or path.

sudo fs_usage -f filesystem | grep "https_jet.com"

I'd recommend running this command and trying to delete the entry again. You'll be prompted for your password because of the sudo command at the beginning, but that's necessary because fs_usage needs elevated root permissions. To cancel the command once you think you have enough information hold down CTRL and hit C.

For example while running that command and removing the entry using Safari's preference pane I get the following entries, which shows activity from Safari, WebKit, dbfseventsd and fseventsd on these files. If the removal of these files is being prevented or if something is recreating them, I'd expect you to see something that might help you identify the culprit.

00:58:59  unlink            /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000010   Safari
00:58:59  getattrlist       /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000003   Safari
00:58:59  rmdir             /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000002   Safari
00:58:59  unlink            /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000002   Safari
00:58:59  getattrlist       /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000002   Safari
00:58:59  rmdir             /Users/alistair/Library/WebKit/MediaKeys/https_jet.com_0                         0.000002   Safari
00:58:59  open              /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000042   com.apple.We
00:58:59  getattrlist       /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000003   com.apple.We
00:58:59  rmdir             /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000003   com.apple.We
00:58:59  open              /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000004   com.apple.We
00:58:59  getattrlist       /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000002   com.apple.We
00:58:59  rmdir             /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/Databases/___IndexedDB/https_jet.com_0            0.000002   com.apple.We
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000008   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000002   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000013   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000006   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000002   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000002   Safari
00:58:59  stat64            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000025   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000005   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000003   Safari
00:58:59  unlink            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000194   Safari
00:58:59  unlink            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000271   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000004   Safari
00:58:59    HFS_update      /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000003   Safari
00:58:59  unlink            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000070   Safari
00:58:59  stat64            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000006   Safari
00:58:59  stat64            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000004   Safari
00:58:59  stat64            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000003   Safari
00:58:59  access            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000020   dbfseventsd
00:58:59  access            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000004   dbfseventsd
00:58:59  access            /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000003   dbfseventsd
00:58:59  lstat64           /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage         0.000019   fseventsd
00:58:59  lstat64           /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-wal     0.000003   fseventsd
00:58:59  lstat64           /Users/alistair/Library/Safari/LocalStorage/https_jet.com_0.localstorage-shm     0.000002   fseventsd


How to disable clamshell mode behaviour? Force machine lock on lid close 90% of the time I work with my macbook connected to a screen.

I want my macbook to go to preferably lock, but will settle for sleep, when I close it.

I don't care if it is doing anything, if I close the lid, I want the entire machine to lock/sleep.

This does not seem to be possible from what I can tell but I am hoping that you can prove me wrong.

Thanks for any suggestions that you can offer.

Sadly I don't think you can invoke this behavior and this is not the solution you are asking for, though as I imagine you are using a keyboard (apple?) you could always use the hotkeys to lock your laptop and screen.

Option–Command–Power / Option–Command–Media Eject: Put Mac to
sleep
Control–Shift–Power / Control–Shift–Media Eject : Put
display(s) to sleep

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236


torsocks command not working on Mac torsocks commands doesn't work on Mac. For example if I run:

torsocks http https://check.torproject.org/api/ip

It returns:

  1546862950 PERROR torsocks[6434]: socks5 libc connect: Connection
  refused (in socks5_connect() at socks5.c:202) 1546862950 PERROR
  torsocks[6434]: socks5 libc connect: Connection refused (in
  socks5_connect() at socks5.c:202)

  http: error: ConnectionError:
  HTTPSConnectionPool(host='check.torproject.org', port=443): Max
  retries exceeded with url: /api/ip (Caused by
  NewConnectionError(': Failed to establish a new connection: [Errno 4]
  Non-recoverable failure in name resolution',)) while doing GET request
  to URL: https://check.torproject.org/api/ip

The url is valid because when I do curl https://check.torproject.org/api/ip, it returns a valid response.

I don't know much about Tor but I managed to get rid of the error by starting tor beforehand:

brew install tor torsocks
cp /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc.sample /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc
Uncomment ControlPort 9051 and CookieAuthentication 1 in /usr/local/etc/tor/torrc and change CookieAuthentication 1 to CookieAuthentication 0.
brew services start tor

I'm using it successfully as follows:

brew install openssl
torify /usr/local/opt/openssl/bin/openssl s_client -quiet -crlf -connect example.com:443


MacBook Pro can't mount an exFAT external hard drive when having too many files I need to share files between Windows and Mac, so I chose exFAT as the file system for my external hard drive.

But soon I found a serious problem, when I put too many files (like 5M) in the hard drive, OS X can't mount it. Then I have to delete them in the Windows machine, after that it works well in Mac. Does anybody know how to solve the issue?

The OSX EI Capitan solves the problem, apple fixes it in the new OS.


Broken laptop key attachmment Is there a universal laptop key support. I have new key and hinge but pins are broken. How can I fix or adapt?

All it took was a single search query >_>

I've used LaptopKey.com's service before. It's pretty much what is says on the tin.


Trying to setup gmail on an ipad using a g-suite legacy domain. Get an error: "g suite access is disabled on this device" I have an account in a g-suite legacy domain and I'm trying to setup an iPad (Legacy g-suite domains are from back when they were free and lack some features).

I've gone through the process, but gmail says: "gsuite access for xxx@yyy.org is disabled on this device."

According to Google help, I need to enable IOS Sync in IOS settings in Device Management in my g-suite admin page.   However, this feature is not available to Legacy g-suite users.

Does this mean I need to return my iPad?

Thanks,
Brad

Went back and forth in a Google support forum and found the answer.

The documentation (perhaps wrongly), pointed me at the "IOS settings" under Domain Management -> Device Management as the place to fix this.  The problem is that Legacy Domains do not have this feature and it's greyed out.

However, If you go to Device Management -> Setup -> Sync on Mobile, there's another feature called "IOS Sync".  Turning this on was enough to solve my problem.

iPad is now working perfectly with Gmail and Google Docs.


How to install Ubuntu from OS X? I'm looking for a solution that would enable me to install Ubuntu and run it as a virtual machine under OS X but still be able to boot directly Ubuntu.

If possible I would like to test both scenarios: Ubuntu guest on OS X host and Ubuntu host and OS X guest.

If I remember correctly, you should be able to install Ubuntu into Boot Camp, and then virtualize it using Parallels Desktop. Works great with Windows; most likely with Ubuntu as well.


How do you use Google Voice instead of built-in text message with Siri on iPhone4S? I would like to use the Google Voice app instead of the built-in Text Messages with Siri on the iPhone 4S.

Is this possible and how?

No, it is currently not possible for Siri to use other apps than the ones it already integrates with.

Source: Daring Fireball (paragraph 9, or ⌘F “there are parallels”).


Does the new 24" iMac Touch ID keyboard work with Mac's with the T2 Chip? I have a 2019 MacBook Air with Touch ID and was wondering if the new 24" iMac Touch ID keyboard will work with my computer. I know for sure that it works with all other Apple Silicon computers, but what about computers with the Apple T2 chip. When I use my Mac with my external monitor my unlock with Apple Watch doesnt always work and putting in the password is hassle especially when I am in a hurry
Thanks in advance!

The Touch ID feature on the new keyboards only works with the M1 chip.

Implemented wirelessly on Magic Keyboard, it uses a dedicated security component on the keyboard that communicates directly with Secure Enclave in M1, creating an encrypted channel to protect users’ fingerprint data from end to end.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2021/04/imac-features-all-new-design-in-vibrant-colors-m1-chip-and-45k-retina-display/?afid=p239%7C10078&cid=aos-us-aff-ir


Is it normal for the iMac 5K's GPU to be at 90℃ with fan on constantly? I have found that the GPU die on my iMac is around 90℃ and the fan is kicking in all the time. Is this normal? If not, how should I fix it?

I have iMac 27″ Retina 5K (late 2014) with AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB, and I have Dell UltraSharp U2715H 27-inch LED-Lit monitor connected to the iMac.

Powering that many pixels will be a stretch. You're powering a 5K display internally to your iMac and a 2560×1440 external display. Having your GPU at 90℃ is standard for powering that many pixels.

If you don't wish for the GPU to be that hot, disconnect the external display. It's still well within the thermal limits of the GPU, so I don't think it's something to worry about particularly. Apple always seem to run components hot for the sake of keeping the fans quiet, but you can override the fan speed to cool the GPU further using an app like iStat Menus.

There's a nice discussion about that GPU in the 5K iMac over at MacRumors forum:

AMD Radeon R9 M295X Core Clock Throttling, Heat, and Performance (page 34)


30hz vs 60hz 4K output I am currently using a MacBook Pro 13" 2015 model with a Samsung U28D590 UHD display.

Currently I am using the HDMI port of the monitor with a mini-displayport to HDMI adapter and receive 4K 30hz output. The display is kind of laggy at the moment, with noticeable input lag with the mouse being the main issue.

When I switch to a lower resolution it returns to 60hz output and it is much smoother (less pixels) and the mouse input lag is gone.

My question is if I just use a displayport cable and receive 4K 60hz output, will this input lag disappear?

Most likely, yes. The only caveat being that OS X 4k @ 60hz support has been buggy for all of Yosemite.

You'll need a high quality Mini-displayport to Displayport cable. Look for DisplayPort 2.0.


Open second PDF file with hyperlink in first PDF file I have two PDF files:

First PDF file has a content page
Second PDF is the relative data (30 pages)

My requirement is to be able to click on the first PDF document, on a hyperlink for it to be open in the second PDF file on a certain page and certain location on that page. (Page 15 half way on that specific page)

Bare in mind I am not using a server and everything will be done locally.

One approach is to use Acrobat to add the links. When manually adding links, you specify the view to which the link points. With that, you can set the exact place where the linked to document opens.

If you have suitable software to create your "second" document, you can use Named Destinations, which can be used as target for the link.


MacBook Pro lock screen hotkey without sleeping? I'd like to press a key combo to get my computer to the lock screen. In Windows the shortcut was Windows keyL. On Mac I press CMDALTPower which turns the laptop off and puts it into sleep. I want to just have it go to the lock screen with the monitor staying on.

High Sierra and higher(?)
As usual every system update changes something.
There is now a Apple Menu item control+⌘+Q that locks the screen!
Sierra and lower
You can add the Lock Screen to your Menubar.

In Spotlight (⌘ + Space) search for Keychain Access

Open Preferences (⌘ + ,)

Check Show keychain status in menu bar This will show a lock in your Menu Bar with an option Lock Screen
(Optional)

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts or Keyboard Tab

In the App Shortcuts or Application Shortcuts section, add a new item for All Applications with the Menu Title of Lock Screen and a Keyboard shortcut that you like.

This way you don't have to change your Screensaver timeout and you can lock your machine much like you do in windows. Note that You may also need to Logout and back in for any changes to the shortcut to take effect.