Automate workspace setup I'm a software developer and I often have to switch between different projects, each with its own environment setup. Some actions I have to do each time include:

creating ssh tunnels
connecting database inspectors
applying git stashes with local dev connection strings
starting local servers
opening specific IDE on the right project
recovering Postman saved requests for the specific project
set env variables
...

Those are all very basic tasks, but I have to do them every time with great time waste and chances to mess up.
It would be really cool to have something like:

an "application" or "desktop icon" named after the project
click on it and it will open a dedicated workspace with everything ready to start developing
keep the local environment isolated

Is there something like this I can setup on my Mac?
Thanks

Yes. You can automate things on macOS.
Before you start, since you are a developer - make a time budget for things you need to do so you can learn how to automate. Then have fun learning things, the first is how to split up a project into small tasks.

https://xkcd.com/1205/ quick estimator for time budgets
https://xkcd.com/1319/ much of what you seek could fall under continuous maintainance / ongoing development, though...

Have you tried seeing how much time you can waste on containers? (jk, not really) it’s far superior to making lots of user accounts and you can’t just use virtual environments for such a wide ranging project.


Is it possible to swap option and command keys for a specific keyboard? I just bought a Logitech USB keyboard (Logitech K120, if that matters.) It's a Windows keyboard, so it has a Windows key and an alt key. The Windows key maps to Command, and the Alt key maps to option. The keys are reversed from their positions on a normal Mac keyboard. It's driving me nuts.

I'm running 10.12.1 (Sierra)

Is there any way to remap them, for this specific keyboard?

You can change the functions of the modifier keys (Caps Lock, Control, Option, Command) in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Modifier Keys.

If you have more than one keyboard, the setting window allows you to select and set separate mapping for each one:


Steam under Parental Controls I need to allow Steam for someone's Parental Controls'd account, I've tried allowing steampowered.com and https://steampowered.com and allowing the copy of Steam.app in the applications folder. Also, I recursively changed Steam.app to 777 such that this user doesn't have issues with Steam Update complaining about admin access. This was the easiest way to do this though now anyone can edit it, I know, but all users of this machine are trusted and remote login (SSH) is very carefully disabled. Steam.app is allowed through the Parental Controls prefpane as the admin. Also, upon first run (and subesquent, post-update runs) of Steam, I allowed 'steam', 'ipcserver', and a few other little bits as dialogs popped up.

Previously, I temporarily disabled all parental controls on this account, logged in, opened and logged into Steam, downloaded all wanted games, and it Steam -> Go Offline; upon re-enabling Parental Controls and logging back in to the user account I got a 'Could not update - Updates must happen when in Online Mode, not Offline Mode' or some such message.

How can I get Steam to run? I'd like to be able to run it in Offline mode (or Online Mode, but this is not required) with parental controls set to whitelist both websites and applications. I'd like to be able to every now and then disable parental controls, open Steam in Online Mode, and download new games in this account, but then be able to drop Steam back to Offline Mode such that I can re-enable Parental Controls without breaking it.

Steam has an automatic updating system. Games, and even the steam client will update automatically, if you are connected to the internet.

What seems to be happening to you, is that one of the games (or the actual client) has registered its intent to update, but it cannot, due to offline mode being enabled.

Try enabling online mode, and updating everything. This should negate the need for an update, and fix the problem.

However, if I have read your question wrong, this method will probably not work.


Apple alias in Mail and iCloud revealing my identity I've set up a few email aliases in iCloud under pseudonyms.

If I receive an email to one of them (e.g. "Alias Name <pseudonym@icloud.com>), and I try to reply in Mail for Mac, it uses the right email address, but instead of putting "Alias Name" in the from field, it appends my real, full name:

Full Name <pseudonym@icloud.com>

No doubt that's very frustrating and unreliable.

In the drop-down, I can select Alias Name <pseudonym@icloud.com> but that's a hassle each time — I have already forgotten and compromised my pseudonym a few times.

What do you suggest? Is this a bug with my setup, or for everyone?

I am unable to replicate this behaviour – when I click "Reply" in the native OS X Mail app, having All Inboxes selected, the address and correct alias name pops up. (If I only have the iCloud-inbox selected, it automatically replies from the main iCloud address..)

One thing you should do is double check the alias' settings on iCloud.com – specifically the alias name. If it's filled correctly, try to remove the iCloud (mail)account from your mac and relink it. If that doesn't fix it, go all the way and remove the actual alias from iCloud and make a new one, and try again. If even that doesn't fix it, throw your mac on the ground and walk away angrily. (No, don't actually try that, it won't work)

If nothing works, and you are unable to replicate this behaviour on a different computer, delete all settings and completely reset the Mail app.


21:9 2560x1080 on Mini late 2012 I just bought an LG 21:9 monitor, with a native resolution of 2560x1080p at 60 Hz.

Now, my mac mini late 2012 (HD4000) allow me to select resolutions up to 1920x1080p and no more.
The monitor is connected via HDMI, but the HDMI on the mini should be able to output up to 2560x1440p@60Hz...

Any advice?

According to MacTracker.app:

Display Connection    1 - HDMI port or Thunderbolt digital video output
Display Support   Supports an HDMI-compatible device while using one Thunderbolt display or support for two Thunderbolt displays
Display Modes Dual display extended, video mirroring, and AirPlay Mirroring
External Resolution   Up to 2560 by 1600 (Thunderbolt) or 1920 by 1200 (HDMI)

Concluding: You need a Thunderbolt display adapter for your new display


Print Without Margins in Omnigraffle I have an Omnigraffle canvas sized at the exact size of U.S. letter format (8.5 X 11 in). I want it to print out without any margins, but can't seem to find the correct settings to do so. I have set the canvas size and page setup properly, but the page always prints out with a small margin on all four sides.

Did you set the margins to 0 under the document inspector?

Edit: never mind this step, you already had it set under Page Setup

Also, make sure to select borderless by going to Paper Handling > select Scale to fit paper size > US Letter Borderless


Device manager and Postgresql error message loop I'm on MBP 7,1, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4GB DDR3 Ram, 500GB hard drive with Lion. After the v10.7.3 update, the console has been putting a looping error message regarding Device manager and PostGre SQL (below). Can anyone help?

23/02/12 12:47:07.662 PM com.apple.launchd: (org.postgresql.postgres[1110]) Exited with code: 2
23/02/12 12:47:07.662 PM com.apple.launchd: (org.postgresql.postgres) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
23/02/12 12:47:13.834 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Initializing DeviceManagerDaemon with ports 3320,3321,3322,3323 (physmem = 4GB)
23/02/12 12:47:13.834 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Making sure Rails is configured properly
23/02/12 12:47:13.834 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Running rake command: /usr/bin/rake db:migrate
23/02/12 12:47:15.044 PM ruby: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)
23/02/12 12:47:15.044 PM ProfileManager: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)
23/02/12 12:47:15.045 PM com.apple.devicemanager: Feb 23 12:47:15 Computer.local ProfileManager[1116] <Error>: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)
23/02/12 12:47:16.449 PM com.apple.devicemanager: rake aborted!
23/02/12 12:47:16.449 PM com.apple.devicemanager: could not connect to server: No such file or directory
23/02/12 12:47:16.449 PM com.apple.devicemanager:           Is the server running locally and accepting
23/02/12 12:47:16.449 PM com.apple.devicemanager:           connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
23/02/12 12:47:16.450 PM com.apple.devicemanager: (See full trace by running task with --trace)
23/02/12 12:47:16.461 PM com.apple.devicemanager: (in /usr/share/devicemgr/backend)
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.devicemanager: /usr/share/devicemgr/backend/devicemgrd:109:in `rake': Rake command failed with 256 (RuntimeError)
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.devicemanager:           from /usr/share/devicemgr/backend/devicemgrd:103:in `setupRails'
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.devicemanager:           from /usr/share/devicemgr/backend/devicemgrd:33:in `run'
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.devicemanager:           from /usr/share/devicemgr/backend/devicemgrd:131
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.launchd: (com.apple.devicemanager[1114]) Exited with code: 1
23/02/12 12:47:16.470 PM com.apple.launchd: (com.apple.devicemanager) Throttling respawn: Will start in 8 seconds
23/02/12 12:47:17.682 PM org.postgresql.postgres: postgres_real cannot access the server configuration file "/var/pgsql/postgresql.conf": No such file or directory
23/02/12 12:47:17.682 PM com.apple.launchd: (org.postgresql.postgres[1117]) Exited with code: 2
23/02/12 12:47:17.682 PM com.apple.launchd: (org.postgresql.postgres) Throttling respawn: Will start in 10 seconds
23/02/12 12:47:24.482 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Initializing DeviceManagerDaemon with ports 3320,3321,3322,3323 (physmem = 4GB)
23/02/12 12:47:24.483 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Making sure Rails is configured properly
23/02/12 12:47:24.483 PM com.apple.devicemanager: DEBUG: Running rake command: /usr/bin/rake db:migrate
23/02/12 12:47:25.718 PM ruby: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)
23/02/12 12:47:25.718 PM ProfileManager: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)
23/02/12 12:47:25.718 PM com.apple.devicemanager: Feb 23 12:47:25 Computer.local ProfileManager[1121] <Error>: Unable to create ProfileManager log file at '/var/log/devicemgr/profilemanager.log' (No such file or directory)

Thanks

OS X Server update 3.0.1 seems to have cleared this up for me.

Mac App Store


If my iPhone 4 has spyware on it will encrypting my sms messages with an encryption app keep them private? I am currently dealing with a stalking situation and my iPhone 4 is being monitored. The person knows all my phone info like meid, imei, phone number etc…  Also I believe my phone has spy software on it.

I have removed this before by restoring the phone to factory conditions through iTunes, however, I now think they can install it remotely. If I use an app that does SMS encryption in your opinion do you think that will keep my texts private?

It is extremely improbable that your iPhone 4 with the latest software, without jailbreak, has a spyware on it, especially if nobody else than you had physical access to your phone after jailbreak.

However if someone has remote access to your phone communications through "encrypted" messagging apps should be quite safe for itself, but if you have a spyware on your phone be sure that someone could see you screen as you see it, for example when you type and read messages in the "encrypted app".


Is there any iOS offline maps app which also supports searching for an address offline? Is there any iOS map app that works completely without WiFi/3G connection and supports (at a minimum) viewing your current location (on GPS-equipped iOS devices) and searching for an address? My intended use case scenario is mostly navigating around on foot in a foreign city.

I tried Navfree but it seems to require a data connection to search for an address (and is also mostly meant for car navigation). I didn't try Galileo yet, but the website only mentions “online search” for the free version; it's not clear whether the paid version features offline search.

MapsWithMe does that. Available for iPhone/iPad and Android. MapsWithMe Pro for iPhone has offline search. Not an address search though, i.e. you can search for a street, city, restaurant or POI, but not for city+street or street+POI.


What features of iOS 7 are available to iPhone 4S users? What features from iOS 7 are available on the iPhone 4S? Is it any more sluggish that iOS 6?

TUAW posted this breakdown of new features and the devices upon which they will work when iOS 7 was announced:

  Panorama -- The photo feature Apple introduced last year will be
  available on the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and fifth-gen iPod touch. iPad
  users are out of luck here.

  Square/Video formats and swipe to capture -- These features will be
  available on the iPhone 4 and above, the third-generation iPad and
  above, the iPad mini and the fifth-generation iPod touch.

  Filters in Camera - This Instagram-inspired feature will only be
  available for the iPhone 5 and the fifth-generation iPod touch.

  Filters in Photos - This will be available on the iPhone 4 and above,
  the third-generation iPad and above, the iPad mini and the
  fifth-generation iPod touch.

  AirDrop - AirDrop in iOS 7 will only work on the iPhone 5, the
  fourth-generation iPad, the iPad mini and the iPod touch.

  Siri - Siri in iOS 7 has new voices, a new interface and a whole lot
  more functionality. Users trying to take advantage of the latest and
  greatest from Siri can run it on the iPhone 4S and above, the iPad
  with Retina display, the iPad mini and the fifth-generation iPod
  touch.

  iTunes Radio - Apple's long-rumored music streaming and recommendation
  service will run on any iOS 7-compatible device.

Since this announcement, Camera filters were added to the iPhone 4S as well.

The iPhone 4, iPod Touch 5th Gen, and iPad 2 and up models fully support Control Center, Notification Center, and Multitasking.

EDIT: Here's a helpful chart posted by Gizmodo:


How to make the "Search with Google" menu option open up in a new tab by default in Safari? I know I can Command-click it to achieve that. What I want is to change the default behavior from opening in the same tab to opening in a new tab.

Is there an extension or a hidden configuration for that?

In this article Jonathan Rentzsch creates a new service because he wants "Search with Google" to work in Chrome (his default browser) but a side benefit of following his tutorial is that your search should open in a new tab.

If your default browser is Safari it should open your new tab there.

http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/5794765921/search-with-google-using-chrome

Warning: This is essentially a follow directions, cut-and-paste affair but it does involve seeing code. I'm unaware of a easy to install extension to accomplish this same task.


Is Xcode 7.3 compatible with Homebrew on Sierra? I am a beginner and while attempting to get my Macbook Pro (early 2011, 4 GB RAM) ready for an online class (Python for DNA sequencing data analysis) I apparently did something wrong.  I first downloaded Xcode (v7) from the App store.  I chose version 7 because a friend said version 8 was crashing on him and also I've read that one may have both versions if they are placed in different folders.  I agreed to the Xcode licence then installed Homebrew by running the script from the Homebrew website in Terminal. It installed successfully.  Next I tried to insert the Homebrew directory at the top of path.  I did this by first creating a .bash_profile file, opened the file and inserted: export PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:$PATH.  This is when everything froze and I could not restart or force quit.  Waited for the power to die then recharged.  The computer is very slow now and Preview will not quit (tried many ways to force quit).  Preview will not allow a restart or shutdown.  Is problem from downloading the wrong version of software, or perhaps from messing with the Path?  Any ideas to solve the immediate issue with Preview and overall software installation guidance would be much appreciated.

For starters, if you were editing the .bash_profile in your user folder it should not be able to cause system-wide issues, the most you would experience is a lack of ability to run software installed by Homebrew if you mistyped the line. To be safe though, I would remove this line from your bash profile if possible. Homebrew auto-links software it installs into the /usr/bin/ and /opt/local/ directories, so you don't have to add anything to the $PATH for ot to work properly.

As far as Xcode goes I am on Sierra and version 8 has worked fine for me, but version 7 was extremely glitchy when I was running El Capitan. Not to mention that version 8 is about half the size of version 7, so I would recommend uninstalling version 7 and replacing it with version 8.

With Homebrew in particular there is the issue that it requires both the Xcode app, and the Xcode command line tools (a quick search will reveal how to install them from the Terminal) so if you don't have both it could cause issues.

Finally do you have System Integrity Protection disabled? Some features of Xcode require root to run, and the Xcode app is allowed to make changes to the system, even if SIP is enabled. Homebrew on the other hand requires root permission to install properly but will be denied access to modify the core system if SIP is enabled, so its possible that Homebrew made some system modifications through Xcode, some modifications to the non-SIP-protected root folders, and was denied access to modify the SIP-protected root folders, resulting in a half modified, partially linked and generally unstable system. You can check if SIP is enabled (if you don't know) by running the command csrutil in the terminal. If it is enabled, and you have a recent time machine backup, I would recommend rebooting to your recovery partition, restoring your system with the backup, opening a terminal while in the recovery, running csrutil disable, and rebooting to macOS. From there install the Xcode command line tools if you don't have them, and try the process again with Xcode 8 instead. While this isn't for sure the issue, SIP can cause problems when used with software that modifies the system, and seeing as how you have enough IT know-how to be installing Xcode and a command line package manager in the first place I recommend disabling it to be safe as a rule.


Where can I discuss Apple's Beta Seed program? Apple has an OS X Beta Seed Program, but the site only contains information about how to join, how to send feedback to Apple once you are in, and a rather sparse FAQ.
Due to the confidentiality of the program:

Is the pre-release software I am installing confidential?
Yes, the pre-release software is Apple confidential information. For example, don’t install the pre-release Apple software on any systems you don't directly control or that you share with others, don’t blog, post screen shots, tweet or publicly post information about the pre-release Apple software, and don't discuss the pre-release Apple software with or demonstrate it to others who are not in the OS X Beta Seed Program.

it is tempting, but impossible to ask questions with any hope of receiving an answer on sites like this. Is there a place that Apple provides for discussion of the program?

How you obtain Apple's pre-release software governs which forum Apple provides for discussion and support of the software as well as a place to exercise the ability to discuss the software with others in the pre-release program along with you.

I'm aware of three mechanisms for this:

Developer - https://developer.apple.com/programs/
AppleSeed: Software Customer Seeding - https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/welcome/
OS X Beta Seed Program - https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram/

For registered developers, you can look over your agreement for details and the proper discussion forums are at https://developer.apple.com/devforums/

For the public beta seed, I haven't found the location of that forum publicly disclosed, but I would be surprised if they don't have a place to discuss things there as well in terms of a more specific forum than the main Apple discussions forums.

I wouldn't try to use the public Apple support communities or this Q&A site for specific questions about pre-release builds or products, but getting a pointer to where these are actually hosted seems fine to host here.

And here - we now don't close beta questions as long as they are specific and otherwise valid questions about Apple products, services and such.

http://apple.blogoverflow.com/2015/08/beta-ios-9-and-el-capitan-questions-allowed/


Where can I find the magnifying glass UI for iOS 10? Just looking for the UI for the magnifying glass feature in the recent iOS 10.

If you are looking for ways to zoom the screen:

Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Zoom (second option from the top)

If you want to use the camera as a magnifying glass:

Settings -> General -> Accessibility -> Magnify (third option from the top)


trap -p or -l command outputs nothing When I run which trap, it outputs shell built-in command.
$ which trap
trap: shell built-in command

According to the manual:

If arg is not present and -p has been supplied, then the trap commands associated with each sigspec are displayed. If no arguments are supplied or if only -p is given, trap prints the list of commands associated with each signal.

But when I run trap -l and trap -p, it outputs nothing.
On Ubuntu, I get all signals.
 1) SIGHUP   2) SIGINT   3) SIGQUIT  4) SIGILL   5) SIGTRAP
 6) SIGABRT  7) SIGBUS   8) SIGFPE   9) SIGKILL 10) SIGUSR1
11) SIGSEGV 12) SIGUSR2 13) SIGPIPE 14) SIGALRM 15) SIGTERM
16) SIGSTKFLT   17) SIGCHLD 18) SIGCONT 19) SIGSTOP 20) SIGTSTP
21) SIGTTIN 22) SIGTTOU 23) SIGURG  24) SIGXCPU 25) SIGXFSZ
26) SIGVTALRM   27) SIGPROF 28) SIGWINCH    29) SIGIO   30) SIGPWR
31) SIGSYS  34) SIGRTMIN    35) SIGRTMIN+1  36) SIGRTMIN+2  37) SIGRTMIN+3
38) SIGRTMIN+4  39) SIGRTMIN+5  40) SIGRTMIN+6  41) SIGRTMIN+7  42) SIGRTMIN+8
43) SIGRTMIN+9  44) SIGRTMIN+10 45) SIGRTMIN+11 46) SIGRTMIN+12 47) SIGRTMIN+13
48) SIGRTMIN+14 49) SIGRTMIN+15 50) SIGRTMAX-14 51) SIGRTMAX-13 52) SIGRTMAX-12
53) SIGRTMAX-11 54) SIGRTMAX-10 55) SIGRTMAX-9  56) SIGRTMAX-8  57) SIGRTMAX-7
58) SIGRTMAX-6  59) SIGRTMAX-5  60) SIGRTMAX-4  61) SIGRTMAX-3  62) SIGRTMAX-2
63) SIGRTMAX-1  64) SIGRTMAX

How can I output macOS trap signals?

Short Answer
Your link appears to be for bash. The latest versions of macOS now use zsh as the default shell. The table below summarizes possible zsh equivalents.

Orignal bash
Close zsh Equivalent

trap -l
for sig in $(kill -l); do printf "%2s) SIG$sig\n" $(kill -l $sig); doneorbash -c 'trap -l'

trap -p
trap

trap -p sig
trap | grep -E sig$

trap -p sig1 sig2 ...
trap | grep -E -e sig1$ -e sig2$ ...

Longer More Detailed Answer
Your link appears to be for bash. The latest versions of macOS now use zsh as the default shell.
Under zsh, the command below will list the signal names.
kill -l

For example, the above command produces the following output
HUP INT QUIT ILL TRAP ABRT EMT FPE KILL BUS SEGV SYS PIPE ALRM TERM URG STOP TSTP CONT CHLD TTIN TTOU IO XCPU XFSZ VTALRM PROF WINCH INFO USR1 USR2

Also, the command below will list the corresponding signal number for each sig that is a name.
kill -l [ sig ... ]

For example, the command
kill -l INT QUIT ILL TRAP ABRT

will produce the following output.
2
3
4
5
6

You can enter man zshbuiltins to get help with the trap and kill builtins for zsh.

When you entered trap -l, the command -l was associated with no signals. This can be shown to be true by adding a signal to the trap -l command, as shown below.
trap -l USR1

Here, the command -l is associated with the USR1 signal. This can be demonstrated by entering the command given below. This command prints the list of commands associated with USR1 signal
trap | grep -E USR1$

The output from the above command is given below.
trap -- -l USR1

Normally, the command -l would not exist.

The commands below would produce output similar to using the bash builtin  trap -l.
for sig in $(kill -l); do printf " '%2s) SIG$sig'" $(kill -l $sig); done | xargs printf "%-15s %-15s %-15s %s\n"

The output from entering the above command is given below.
 1) SIGHUP       2) SIGINT       3) SIGQUIT      4) SIGILL
 5) SIGTRAP      6) SIGABRT      7) SIGEMT       8) SIGFPE
 9) SIGKILL     10) SIGBUS      11) SIGSEGV     12) SIGSYS
13) SIGPIPE     14) SIGALRM     15) SIGTERM     16) SIGURG
17) SIGSTOP     18) SIGTSTP     19) SIGCONT     20) SIGCHLD
21) SIGTTIN     22) SIGTTOU     23) SIGIO       24) SIGXCPU
25) SIGXFSZ     26) SIGVTALRM   27) SIGPROF     28) SIGWINCH
29) SIGINFO     30) SIGUSR1     31) SIGUSR2

I suppose the above commands could be wrapped in a function, as shown below.
trap-l() { local sig; for sig in $(kill -l); do printf " '%2s) SIG$sig'" $(kill -l $sig); done | xargs printf "%-15s %-15s %-15s %s\n"; }

This would allow the output to be produced by just entering trap-l. However, this might just be folly, since apparently you could have simply entered the command bash -c 'trap -l'.


How to have 2 Github SSH accesses? I have a personal account ericpersonal and a company account ericcompanyabc (they forced me to even though they could have add my personal GitHub account to their repos) on github.com.
I'm using a computer the company gives and spend more time on work projects so I'm primarily logged in as ericcompanyabc

I then generated 2 private and public keys as a result:

❯ ls -lrt ~/.ssh
total 72
-rw-------  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen   110 Aug 31 11:03 authorized_keys.jcorig
-rw-r--r--  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen  2004 Sep 13 14:16 known_hosts
lrwxr-xr-x  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen    76 Sep 25 21:53 ssh_auth_sock -> /var/folders/c3/q4dw0_q90lj6_nysk_hjt8p00000gn/T//ssh-31QAwZUf1Pmz/agent.501
-rw-------  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen   743 Oct 26 16:02 id_rsa2.pub
-rw-------  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen  3243 Oct 26 16:02 id_rsa2
-rw-r--r--  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen   746 Oct 27 16:29 id_rsa1.pub
-rw-------  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen  3243 Oct 27 16:29 id_rsa1
-rw-r--r--  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen   279 Oct 27 16:29 config
-rw-------  1 eric.nguyen  eric.nguyen   225 Nov  3 17:57 authorized_keys

I have to switch between the 2 accounts using the following commands but it's very tedious:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa1

I've also tried using .ssh/config file but no success

❯ cat ~/.ssh/config
Host githubcompany
    HostName github.com
    User git
    PreferredAuthentications publickey
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa1
    UseKeychain yes

Host githuberic
    HostName github.com
    User git
    PreferredAuthentications publickey
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa2
    AddKeysToAgent yes
    UseKeychain yes

What can I do to make switching between Github accounts seamless?

I'm using macOS Sierra 10.12.6

The simple solution for me is to avoid ever switching my identity, so I don't have to automate the changing of the environment variables and files that provide the identity to the shell:

Set up GitHub SSH for your work GitHub account e.g. ericcompanyabc.
Next, on my personal GitHub repos, I simply add ericcompanyabc as a collaborator. Voila, I can now push to my personal projects (as ericcompanyabc on the company's computer) without having to switch GitHub account back and forth.

(granting ericpersonal access to work repos is impossible here of course)


Install iPhoto '9 on Mountain Lion I just received my new iMac, with Moutain Lion and iLife 11 preinstalled.

I also own an older Mac, for which I bought a few years ago Snow Leopard and iLife 09.

Now, I want to get rid of iPhoto 11 and reinstall my good old iPhoto 9 as I like it much better.

I tried to reinstall it with the iLife'09 DVD I have, but the installer doesn't let me install iPhoto (and iMovie), but would let me install iWeb.

Is there a workaround so that I can use iPhoto 09 on my new iMac ?

According to a similar thread on Apple Discussions, yes, iPhoto does work on 10.8.
Try deleting the troublesome applications - and that way they should install.
What do you mean 'it won't let you install iPhoto'? How doesn't it let you install it?


Dock won't appear on other displays I know, you can't have the dock on both screens at the same time, and I know that there's a 'swipe down' gesture I'm supposed to be able to do with the mouse to make the dock appear. I just can't seem to get that to work, though... I've done this before on other computers.

Mac OS X El Capitan (10.11) clean install done yesterday.

You can also fix the dock on a other screen:

Go to System Preferences
Click on Displays
Click on Arrangement
Swipe the white bar from one screen to the other

If this won't work, also check the alt + cmd + d keycombination to show / hide the dock.


Hub disconnect from MacBook Pro 2018 Touch Bar I have a problem with my MBP 2018 Touch Bar.
Today I unplugged two hubs (with ethernet cable, HDMI, SD card reader and 4 USB ports)... and after this, when I plugged again the device the computer doesn't detect it, and I lost my other screen, keyboard, wacom, etc. Basically my workstation has been fall out
I tried to restart de SMC and PRAM. I reinstalled the OS too (Catalina 10.15.7)
The hubs are this:
https://cutt.ly/ugjYdwg
I need to finish a work for a costumer tomorrow...
Please! Can anybody help me?
Thanks in advance.

I bought another hub and an Apple device, and now is working.


How do I get vim to work at 256 colors in iTerm? I just got a new iMac, and installed iTerm (0.10).
On my last laptop 256 color mode worked fine, but I'm having trouble getting this to work on my new Mac.

I copied over all the settings, set $TERM to xterm-256color, but no dice.

I changed my .vimrc to the absolute minimum to try this out:

set t_Co=256
syntax on

Tried multiple colorschemes, too.

OK, so...

I just started vim again, and colors where there. Since then I did make a changehowever, I installed XCode. This is the only thing I did change, so there must be something in there that fixes this.

Thanks for the effort!


How to pause Applescript when another process is not responding to system events? I would like a Applescript to pause while a specific process/script/app is not responding (temporarily or permanently) to system events, and to start-up again when the other process is back.  In theory this could be done with a repeat loop provided there is a way to monitor the status of the process.  Is there any code that can do this?  via Terminal commands? via Applescript? Another possibility: can Applescript determine when the cursor has switched to the beach ball? Other ideas?

Quite simply in applescript terms, this is what I'd like:

repeat while "beach ball is spinning"
end repeat

This may be convoluted but try using try and with timeout to probe for lack of response to an appleEvent. The target app will have to have at least the standard suite dictionary.

try
    with timeout of y seconds
        ## request something simple like set x to name for testing
    end timeout
on error
    ## whatever needs to happen during a stall
end try


Email Client Software that Limits Number of Downloaded Emails? I'm searching for an email client (MacOS - I'm running Catalina) that limits the number of downloaded emails onto my macbook. Such as limiting to say 10000 emails, or limiting to emails in last 30 days. I don't want to bog my machine with too many emails so I currently use the Office 365 web client. It would be great if I could use a local email client, which would provide more features than the web interface I'm currently using.
Apparently the mail app doesn't have an option to limit the number of downloads. Is there another email client for MacOS that will allow control of how many emails are downloaded?

Thunderbird - a popular free and open source email client has a feature to limit email downloads by days, weeks, months, size etc. and is available for macOS too.
See this answer here to set the limits - How to prevent Thunderbird to download all emails after fresh install?


What does "[Update Needed]" mean when attempting to boot from an encrypted backup? When I attempt to boot from an external drive that is an encrypted SuperDuper! mirror of my internal hard drive, I get a login screen that's missing my account an instead has an account called "[Update Needed]", with no user picture.

I understand that this is a known issue with FileVault, but it is not clear from what I've read whether it is necessary to do anything about this, or if it can just be ignored (after all, the disk is a backup, and the source seems fine).

Can I just ignore this and deal with it when and if I need to use the backup? Is this a sign of problems on the source drive that just aren't showing symptoms there yet (that drive is not, yet, encrypted)?

Try this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3321886?start=0&tstart=0

To begin, make a backup.
Disable FileVault.
Check for updates again.
Apply update if possible.
Boot into recovery mode by holding Command ⌘->kbd>R at startup.
Run Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility.
Enable FileVault again.


Safari on my Mac won't open because "Safari cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer" I have an error message, which has already been reported but I can't understand how to fix it.

I have Yosemite and there's no updates available except for iPhoto, which also can't be updated. I'm also locked out of Safari and all of my Favorites. I don't know if they're backed up in iCloud, but I'm really worried about this. Can anyone help me by providing the dumbed-down version? Here is the message I get:

  Safari cannot be opened because of a problem.

  Check with the developer to make sure Safari works with this version
  of OS X. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install
  any available updates for the application and OS X.

  Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to
  Apple.

Restarting the computer does nothing, and I'm afraid to reinstall without knowing what will happen to my data.

Looks like you updated iTunes and this is the aftermath.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/12/14/itunes-12-8-1-breaks-safari-on-osx-yosemite/

I hope this helps you


I want the ability to easily silence all text messages TL;DR: Is there a way to toggle all message notifications easily?

While at work, I want the ability to by notified by phone calls, and reminders and event notifications, but I don't want to be interrupted by text messages. As soon as I get off work, I want to be notified by incoming text messages.

Settings → Notifications → Messages and turn off Allow Notifications.

iOS 12 Shortcuts should let you create a shortcut for this so you don't have to navigate manually.


popup when url redirection to itunes I have a URL, chizzle.com/app/download when I visit from iphone, my script detects the phone os and redirects it to specific app market. For android, it takes to play store, for apple, it takes to itunes, for other devices it takes to an Unsupported devices page.

What i dont understand here is that when we visit this URL in an iphone from skype, or make a QR code out of it and scan it, it takes to the itunes without any popup, but when the same is done from a link(FB or Google Ad campaign or a bitly link), it displays a popup whether you wan to open the page in itunes. Why would that happen????

Heres the bitly link:

bit.ly/chizzle

Unfortunately the link you supplied is location-specific, so I can't see the actual iTunes URL it's redirecting to

... however ...

You should try using itms:// or itms-apps:// in lieu of http(s):// when linking to an app in the app store. The iPhone treats those slightly differently and this may resolve your issue.


How to export only the selected part of my Numbers file to PDF? I have a Numbers file which has a lot of elements that when I want to export it to PDF it becomes 12 pages of A4 size. All I want is selecting part of it and exporting only that part to PDF. Is it possible?

If yes, how? please help me.

By the way, I am using Numbers 4.3(5046)

Unfortunately Numbers does not have a Set Print Area option in the way that MS Excel does.

It's not clear from your question how your elements are organised, but below are three options that may be useful.

Printing only a single sheet/tab

If what you want is on a single sheet, then you can:

Go to File > Print
In the Print Setup window make sure you only have This Sheet selected instead of All Sheets
Now print to PDF

Using Preview to create your PDF from a selected area

Another option is to use Preview to do this for you:

In Numbers, select the area you want on your PDF (Hint: You can use the command key to select multiple elements in different parts of the sheet)
Now copy the selected area with commandC
Open the Preview app
Go to File > New From Clipboard
Once the file appears, print it to PDF

Export to Excel first

If you happen to have access to Excel, then you could:

Export your Numbers spreadsheet to Excel
Open it in Excel
In Excel select the elements you want to print (Hint: You can use the command key to select multiple elements in different parts of the sheet)
Go to File > Print Area > Set Print Area
Now print to PDF


Do I need to enable Journaling on a Mac Pro M2 SSD? I am booting from an M2 SSD (PCI) on my Mac Pro 2012.
Running Mojave. I tried to run the Boot Camp Assistant but it doesn't run and I've seen solutions saying that you have to have Journaling enabled. If I'm using APFS, can I even enable Journaling in order to make Boot Camp work? Or if not, does that mean if you are using APFS you can't use boot camp assistant? There doesnt seem to be an option to enable Journaling on the drive so I dont want to try to force it in Terminal if its not even possible. Source of the pic: https://www.howtogeek.com/331042/whats-the-difference-between-apfs-macos-extended-hfs-and-exfat/

There’s basically zero downside for journaling the filesystem metadata and huge, huge upsides so even though you don’t need to do it, I recommend everyone does it as if they needed to. The only reason not to enable journaling is if you have some desire to test failure modes of a less robust filesystem.

As to the larger question, the boot camp info you read likely is wrong (please link to the exact article or advice if we can help be precise if it is outdated or correct).

What’s true is you can’t have APFS and boot camp. Pick either / or

HFS with journal and the possibility to use boot camp
APFS which journals always and no possibility to use boot camp that shares space with APFS

Now you can partition your drive to be part APFS and part HFS / bootcamp, so here is the boot camp FAQ for Mojave if you want to go ahead with that plan:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201468


AppleScript: How to write to a specific line of a text file? Sample contents of a .txt file on my Mac:

This is sentence A.
This is sentence B.
This is sentence C.
This is sentence D.
This is sentence E.

I want to implement a subroutine, like this:

writeTextAtSpecificLine(("This is the newcomer sentence." & linefeed), 4)

so that, the text file would consequently look like this:

This is sentence A.
This is sentence B.
This is sentence C.
This is the newcomer sentence
This is sentence D.
This is sentence E.

I know that I can accomplish my desired result by making each line of the text file its own item in an AppleScript list object, like so:

set theIndividualLinesOfTextFileAsList to paragraphs of (read theFilepathOfTxtFile)

I could then split the list, based on the desired line number, and then add it all back together.

But, does a more efficient method exist?

My real .txt file is much longer than the sample content above.

Edited version:

set selected_file to ((path to documents folder as text) & "hom.txt") as alias
set text_data to "This is the newcomer sentence."

InsertLine(selected_file, text_data, 4)

on InsertLine(the_file, the_data, num_line)
    try
        set file_id to open for access the_file with write permission
        set text_data to read file_id

        -- CHECK EMPTY LINE
        if (paragraph num_line of text_data) ≠ "" then
            set the_offset to (offset of (paragraph num_line of text_data) in text_data) - 1
            set remaining_data to (the_data) & (text the_offset thru -1) of text_data
            set eof of file_id to the_offset
        else -- LINE IS EMPTY
            set num_line to num_line - 1
            set the_count to (count of (characters of (paragraph num_line of text_data))) - 1
            set the_offset to (offset of (paragraph num_line of text_data) in text_data) + the_count + 2
            set remaining_data to the_data & linefeed & ((text (the_offset + 1) thru -1) of text_data)
            set eof of file_id to the_offset - 1
        end if

        -- WRITE DATA TO FILE
        --write the_data to file_id -- INSERT LINE
        write remaining_data to file_id -- WRITE REMAINING DATA
        close access file_id
    on error
        try
            close access the_file
        end try
    end try
end InsertLine


Auto run a UI app and click a button on startup I want to do two things when my Mac boots up:

1) Run an app
2) Click a button on that app

Any suggestions for how I can accomplish this?
FWIW, this is app I haven't written so I can't change source or pass in command line params.

Save a script like this as ~/Library/Scripts/test.scpt in AppleScript Editor:

tell application "Grapher"
    activate
    reopen
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Grapher"
    click radio button 2 of tab group 1 of window 1
    -- UI elements of window 1
end tell

Save this as ~/Library/LaunchAgents/test.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN
http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>test</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>/Users/username/Library/Scripts/test.scpt</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

More information about UI scripting and launchd:

http://www.macosxautomation.com/applescript/uiscripting/index.html
man launchd.plist
http://nb.nathanamy.org/2012/07/schedule-jobs-using-launchd/


AirDrop between Mid-2013 MacBook Air and iPhone 6S not working I have a MacBook Air from Mid-2013 and the new iPhone 6S, both running their newest OS (Yosemite and iOS 9).
According to Apple, AirDrop only works on these machines:

Use AirDrop between iOS device and Mac: the iOS device has to be running iOS 8 and has to have a Lightning connector. the Mac needs to be running OS X Yosemite and needs to be a 2012 or newer iMac, 2012 or newer MacBook Air, 2012 or newer MacBook Pro, 2012 or newer Mac Mini or Late 2013 Mac Pro. (Source: 9to5Mac)

So technically it should be compatible, and I also met the necessary other requirements:

Once you have met compatible hardware and software requirements, the devices do have to have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on, even though it works without internet access.

I even put them on the same WiFi network, with working Internet access.
I know that I have the "new" AirDrop on my MacBook Air, since it gives me the option to look for "older Macs". In fact, if I click on that option I can connect to my Late-2009 iMac without a problem, as long as both are on the same WiFi network.
I also tried activating AirDrop "for everyone" on both the MacBook Air and the iPhone but it still didn't work.
Does anyone have an idea why not, or what else I could try out?

I also suffered from the same problem, although wifi + bluetooth are in the on state in both devices, finder window was empty.

But when I tried to send a photo from my iphone to macbook, suddenly my iphone identified & shown in finder.

My devices

MacBook Pro 2012 Mid -El Capitan (10.11)
iPhone 5 - iOS 9.3.1


Remote desktop iPhone app vs BT Home Hub 2.0 I got an app (RDP Lite) which lets me use my PC remotely when I set the IP address to my PC's and use it at home. So it's fine internally but when I want to try it externally I try setting it to my router's IP address, provided by BT Home Hub Manager under Home Network > IP Addresses, and that doesn't work.

I know I need to configure my router to allow incoming traffic to my default port for Windows XP, 3389, but I really don't know how. I've tried a few things like letting supported applications VNC to device 'IBM...etc' and removing the firewall temporarily but I'm shooting in the dark here.

I was about to buy that app, but I'm a long time user of LogMeIn Free were from here (Denmark) I help my mum and dad as well plenty of friends with their computer related problems back in my home country (Portugal)

LogMeIn Free was a fantastic as free solution, no hassle with proxies, routers or anything as it works with port 80 (http traffic).

So I bought the LogmeIn Ignition App and continue to use my access to all computers that i used before. It's a bit expensive ($29.99) but I bought it within a promotion discount and works marvelous and super fast!

I can now access any windows or mac computer from my iPhone or iPad with no worries.

It's just an idea.


Apps that are Chromium or Electron base crashes on Catalina beta 6 (19A536g) So I recently updated from beta 5 of Catalina to beta 6 and noticed more than half of my apps will crash after the initial launch, these apps include things like:

Brave browser (beta, nightly)
Chrome (tried beta as well)
Chrome Canary (the same)

Any apps that are electronJS based such as: Spotify, Slack, Atom, VSCode & etc...

I have a hunch that it has something to do with a browser wrapper that can't be set

Already tried and failed:
sudo spctl --master-disable

Also re-installed apps, tried a whole different version and to no avail

is there anything I can do to fix this locally?

Unfortunately, the best you can do is revert to Mojave. This is a bug in AppKit that Apple caused (and must soon fix). It persists in beta 7.

I can feel your pain. I need my Electron apps like VS Code and Insomnia. The bug also affects JetBrains apps like PyCharm and Android Studio (based off IntelliJ).


Is it possible to enable kerberos on OS X 10.9 without joining the Active Directory domain? I would like to be able to take advantage of Kerberos without having to join my machine to the domain.

Why? Because this is a personal machine and we are not allowed to join them the corporate domain (nor we can).

Here is my partial success so far. I was able to setup Kerberos authentication but only on Firefox and Google Chrome, on Safari it doesn't work and it seems to be impossible to make it work without really joining the domain.

OS X Kerberos Setup

>kinit username@EXAMPLE.COM

>klist
Ticket cache: FILE:/tmp/krb5cc_0
Default principal: user@EXAMPLE.COM
Valid starting     Expires            Service principal
06/05/14 11:36:00  06/05/14 21:36:06  krbtgt/EXAMPLE.COM@EXAMPLE.COM
        renew until 07/05/14 11:36:00

Now you can use /System/Library/CoreServices/Ticket Viewer.app to view the ticket, or to renew it when it expires.

CURL

 curl -v --negotiate -u : -b ~/cookiejar.txt -c ~/cookiejar.txt --output /dev/null http://example.com

Firefox

go to about:config and configure network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris: .example.com

Chrome

defaults write com.google.Chrome AuthServerWhitelist "*.example.com"
defaults write com.google.Chrome AuthNegotiateDelegateWhitelist "*.example.com"

Safari [broken!]

Base on https://www.pingidentity.com/support/solutions/index.cfm/How-to-configure-supported-browsers-for-Kerberos-NTLM#safari it seems that Safari will use SPNEGO only when it is joined into the domain. Otherwise it will only try NTLM which is probably disabled as being insecure.

Any contributions are more than welcomed!


How to clean off keyboard marks on screen? On the screen on my MacBook Air, there are some little square marks from the keyboard.

Are they permanent, or can I clean them off? How can I prevent this from happening in the first place?

If you are very lucky it is just dirt and can be wiped off but usually it is permanent and there isn't much way to avoid them. I have seen it happen even when a soft cloth is used to cover the keys when the lid is closed. In fact that may even make it worse as the cloth adds thickness to the sandwich and may make the contact between the high points of the screen and the keys firmer. The screen surface of an anti-glare display just isn't very hard - glossy glass is harder but can still be marked.

Using a quality micro fibre cloth with a 70% water/30% isopropyl alcohol solution is a good way to clean the marks off if they are not permanent. I have been using the cleaning solution provided by my optician for my glasses for years with no ill effects, and I love the iKlear blue microfibre cloths (for both glasses and displays). They call it "terry" as opposed to their "chamois" cloth.


Can I edit the same Pages document on both my iPad and my Mac? I'm interested in editing a single Pages document on both a Mac and an iPad.

I understand the concept of "downloading" a document from iCloud (or from anywhere).

But that isn't what I want, because that would create a copy of the document, resulting in multiple versions.

So "sharing," "exporting," "copying," "downloading," etc. is what I'm trying to avoid.

I'm after something like when you have a file in Dropbox and you edit it on your work computer and then later go home and edit the same file there.

I'm guessing if it's at all possible it's going to involve iCloud, but if it can be done with Dropbox that would be preferable.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

No, downloading it from iCloud won't create a copy. All of your changes will be synced back to iCloud from both devices, and conflicts will be dealt with appropriately (a dialog to you).

As long as both the Mac and the iPad are connected to the same iCloud account, you will be presented with a list of your documents whenever you start Pages on either your Mac or your iPad.


How can I create a shortcut to switch to a specific keyboard layout? See I installed some chinese input methods, and some of them have already shortcuts, I'd like to add a shortcut for the one I use mainly so I can come back from chinese quickly without grabbing the mouse.
I inspected the pref pane for keyboard shortcuts but couldn't find out how.

PS: Mine is ArgenPinYin, a customized keyboard layout

You'll notice that the shortcuts only appear when you're using Chinese input methods. They don't appear otherwise per this article from Apple's knowledgebase.

I can't find any way around this limitation. However, there is a built-in keyboard shortcut for switching between keyboard layouts, if not for switching to a specific keyboard layout. You can find this shortcut in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard & Text Input:


How to monitor which apps are "calling home'? I want to monitor one app on my phone to see what webservice it is accessing when it first launches.  I remember seeing an article on TUAW a while ago that detailed using Charles snooper, or something like that to set up a network to detect that.  However, I can't find it.  Anyone know where it went?

For a fully featured application to monitor other applications' network usage (all traffic, not just http), try Little Snitch.

EDIT

Apologies, missed the whole key "app on my phone" bit. There is no way for one process to inspect or intercept data from any other app, since all apps are sandboxed. The only way to get close to accomplishing this is through a jailbreak.

Otherwise, you would have to enable logging on your router, and the specifics on how to do this or how easy it is depends on your firewall/modem/router. Little Snitch may still be able to help you here if you have your Mac act as the wireless access point.


Can I make hot corners require a mouse click to be triggered? I love the "Hot corners" concept. However, it happens very often that I trigger them accidentally.

Is there a built-in way to add a "click" requirement to a hot corner? ie. I have to move the mouse there and then to left-click.

(This would also help recreate Windows 7's "show desktop" behaviour, which is cool for people who recently switched from there to OS X.)

Modifier Keys
or keyboard click ;)
You can hold ⌘, ⇧ or ⌥ when selecting a hot corner.
You will need then to use the modifier key and the hot corner to trigger the action.

BetterTouchTool
While you cannot use hot corners, you can use a single finger gesture like this:


Is there a way for AppleScript to detect when a Desktop is switched? When I switch desktops, I want to have a way to remind me of the purpose of that desktop.  I'm thinking of using AppleScript to detect when I switch desktops, and show a pop up of sorts.

Desktops / popups would contain a label of some sort ("work", "communication", etc).  I'm thinking of launching a browser window, bring it to front, and update the contents to say the purpose.

In my head this sounds doable, I just need to find the event, if any that is related to Spaces/MissionControl.

http://piyocast.com/as/archives/5502
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZbMs1LJt8&feature=youtu.be

You can detect the switch of desktop. Though, Full-screen mode is detected as desktop switching.

Enjoy!


iMessages - can one disable 'join/leave' messages in group chats? Does anyone know where you can disable the join/leave messages in group chats in iMessages? In low-traffic chats it's utterly annoying to have scrollbacks full of 'xxx joined the chat.'/'yyy left the chat.'

Thanks.

As far as I know this isn't possible, I checked the iPhone, iPad and Mac version but this setting is nowhere to be found.
As for changing it through terminal or fiddling with program files, that will only change the setting on the mac.


Allow user to SSH to my Mac, but sandbox the account I would like to create an SSH account on my Mac to allow some friends to test code on my machine from the command line.

However, I want to sandbox them, so that the only folders/files they can see are those owned by them within their user folder. All other user folders, the application folder, etc, would be hidden. Ideally external volumes would also be hidden.

Is this possible to do with a standard user account? (The other accounts on the system are admin accounts) Is the guest account a better choice?

Secure Shell (ssh) Jail

The phrase you need to search for is jail ssh user.

See the questions and articles linked below for a range of approaches; being Unix-y, these approaches should also work on macOS:

Restrict SSH User Access to Certain Directory Using Chrooted Jail
Simple & easy way to jail users
Jail user in SFTP + SSH


Can I add 100 Phone Numbers to a Single Contact? My bank insists on sending me account info SMS (texts) from ~100 different numbers. They all start the same, only the last two digits differ.

e.g.

+43 664 6601301
+43 664 6601302
+43 664 6601303
...
+43 664 6601399

Can I add all of them to a single contact? Preferably without having to type them separately.

I tried

+43 664 66013
+43 664 66013,
+43 664 66013*
+43 664 66013#
+43 664 66013##

but the iPhone doesn't recognize any for the caller id.

As far as I am aware there is no reference to wildcard characters in vcard.

If Mac OS or iOS supported such feature it would not be supported by other devices.

But you can add the 100 phone numbers by hand. I would recommend exporting the contact as a vcd file then add all the numbers by hand. Copy paste will be faster than writing them one by one in the Contacts app:

TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:+43 664 6601301
TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:+43 664 6601302
TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:+43 664 6601303
...
TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:+43 664 6601399

And import it back.


repaired disk/permissions, now imac won't boot into login My iMac has been running horrendously slow the past couple days, so I booted into the Snow Leopard CD and ran a disk repair and a permissions repair.  Now I can't get past the spinner.  It's been going for about 4 hours now with no shows of progress.  Does any body have any ideas on what else I can try (I already tried doing the repairs again) or is there any way I can debug this?

There's a free app called AppleJack that's good for ths kind of thing. If you don't have that, Apple Hardware Test may help.


How to disable Incognito mode in Chrome? For Mac OS X, how do you disable Incognito mode in Chrome? The desired result simply being that the user cannot browse in Incognito mode, even if they know the keyboard shortcut or something similar.

The short answer: you must edit the preferences file so that the key IncognitoModeAvailability has a value of 1.

Original Instructions

In /Library/Preferences/ add a plist entry to the file com.google.Chrome.plist such that the key is IncognitoModeAvailability and the value is 1.

Here is an example: assuming the file com.google.Chrome.plist doesn't exist, use a text editor to save the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
   <key>IncognitoModeAvailability</key>
   <integer>1</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

The full file name and path of the above should be /Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist.

Updated Instructions

Since macOS Sierra, proper plist files seem to be in some binary format by default—a format that you can't edit with a normal text editor. I found that I can open them in Apple's Xcode and it has a nice GUI—very easy to edit. If you don't have access to Xcode, I think you can use the plutil terminal command like this:

plutil -convert xml1 YOUR_FILE_NAME_HERE

In xml format, you should be able to edit it in a text editor, and a web site I read says that the xml format should work fine.

Regardless, I recently was able to disable Incognito mode using Xcode on the ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist file. (Furthermore, I had to delete /Library/Preferences/com.google.Chrome.plist because my old version was deemed "corrupted" because it wasn't in a proper file format.)


Is there a way to add Word files with custom icons to the Dock? Many users will have a few files they access so often they serve a direct link in the MacOS dock. To quickly differentiate between different Word files with the same standard icon, the best way is to use a custom icon (bottom right). This is easily done by copying and pasting a new icon in the Get Info window. The problem is, these icons constantly get deleted by Word (bottom left) when you change the file, making a stable non-default icon impossible (Mac Word 2011 & 2016 on MacOS 10.11).

Do you have a way to create a dock link to a Word file with a custom icon and have it survive the next round of editing?

Here's my admittedly inelegant work-around for this problem.

Change the icon of the Word file.
Create an alias. It will inherit the icon of the original.
Change the name of the alias. I added a space. This will break the icon inheritance. Now, when the custom icon is overwritten during the next save of the Word file, the icon of the altered alias survives.

bjbk suggested an application bundle. Thanks for that. That probably also works.


Is there a VGA to Thunderbolt/mini DisplayPort adapter? I am looking for an adapter to connect my Apple display to a Sony notebook via VGA, so I need the reverse of this one:

Does such a product exist?

VGA is an analog signal and your Cinema requires digital so you need more than a simple cable. You need an appropriate interface box, called a VGA to DVI Scaler, such as the Gefen VGA to DVI Scaler Plus. (Shown for reference only—this is not a recommendation.)

You will also need the appropriate adaptor to use the DVI signal with your monitor.

Please note that I don't have experience with these products and can't guarantee results—particularly if your Display is the thunderbolt-equipped model. Contact the vendors to assure yourself that it will work.


Mixed RAM in iMac 27-inch 2020 i5 Can an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2020, i5) with 2x4Gb 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM be updated with 2x4Gb 2400 MHz DDR4 RAM (from an iMac Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)?
If yes, it is my understanding that the iMac 2020 runs at the level of the older RAM, is that true?
If that is true, would the loss of performance with the mixed setting as described above be large?
What do you think is a better setting (of course 16 Gb 2666 would be the best):

only 8 Gb 2666 DDR4 or
16 Gb mixed DDR4 RAM?

The iMac is used for office work and the SWAP is usually around 600 Mb.
Thank you.

I would use the mixed ram.  When using mixed speeds, your computer will under clock the higher speed cards to match the lower speed cards so they all have the same speed, but since the speeds are so close together (2666 MHz vs. 2400MHz) you wouldn't notice a difference.
An extra 8GB ram is totally worth the 266 MHz speed difference.


iMac 21.5" Late 2009 and external monitor at 2560x1440 with MDP-DP cable? I just want to know if someone has tested if an external monitor works at 2560x1440 with an iMac 21.5" Late 2009 connected via Mini Displayport - Displayport cable. I can't find anything certain on the web.

Thanks

Apple says it does:

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009) - Technical Specifications

  Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to a 30-inch display (2560 by 1600 pixels) on an external display

A well made Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort cable should work just fine.


MacPro 1st Gen - can it handle SSDs? I have a MacPro 1,1 and am considering putting an SSD in it to give it a boost. Can I safely assume compatibility or will its ancient  hardware and architecture cause issues? It cannot, as I recently discovered, run Mountain Lion so I'm not sure if I should even try bringing it up to date.

Yes, I can confirm that I have installed an SSD into my Mac Pro 1,1. Because the drive is a 2.5" drive, though, I am using a 2.5" to 3.5" SATA converter sled. Note, if I recall, there are some of these converters that only work with certain models.


"Computer admin" vs active account? So someone stole my mac and I just got a new used one and am setting it up and I can't figure out how to get it back to the way I used to have it.

The way it was before, I was a user with no password-- I didn't have to login when the mac started. But whenever I wanted to make significant changes, like installations or settings adjustments, I would have to give credentials.

How do I get back to that? Is it simply a matter of having a normal account and an admin account, and only using the normal account for day-to-day things? I never deliberately made two separate accounts on the previous computer.

The best way to solve this is to have one user who is an Admin and has a password.

In System Preferences navigate to Users & Groups.

Ensure you only have one active user.
Ensure that user has a password.

  Note: You might need to click the Lock button to make changes.

Then click Back in System Preferences. Navigate to Security & Privacy. Click the Lock button to make changes. Uncheck all three checkboxes:

Now you will be able to turn on the computer without logging in. OS X will launch directly to the desktop. If you need to perform a Administrator level operation like using sudo in Terminal, you will be prompted for the password. Magic! :)


Disable Display of Letters on Password (iOS) When typing a password in any password field on my ipad, it displays each letter I type for a short time.  I'm on the train every day, and I always have people looking over my shoulder.. just can't help that.  How can I disable this?

On Android, you can disable this in settings, but on iOS I can't find this setting anywhere.

The reason why you can't find the setting anywhere, is because such setting doesn't exist in iOS. I am not familiar with the Jailbreaking "world" in a sense where I haven't installed software from Cydia and such, but you can certainly try to find an app that does that.

Please notice I said: "try", because it might not even be possible.

On the other hand, the only reason for that is to make sure you've pressed the right key… I never liked it either but oh well.


Lion server - networked logins? I've setup an OS X Lion server at the office I work at, and would like to set it up so all the other Mac's in the office have to login when they want to go on their Mac and it connects to their user I've created on the server.

Can someone give me some resources (tutorial, link, information) to help get me started?

The following links will be helpful in getting you started with OS X Lion Server. Without knowing exactly what your client setup is, I simply provided general information in regards to OS X Lion Server. Hopefully it is organized in a fashion that is beneficial to you.

Standard Server documentation

Lion Server
Lion Server Support (Nearly everything needed for basic management)
Lion Server Advanced Administration
Xsan2
Apple Server Diagnostic User Guide

Apple's new Profile Manager

Profile Manager

More on Profile Manger
iOS4 Education Deployment Guide (outdated, but helpful | also applies to business)

Admin tools are still available

About Server Admin Tools 10.7.3
About Server Admin Tools 10.7.4

NAT/DHCP tips
DNS tips

Step by step (very simplified)

Simplified Server install | Utilize the documentation above to fill in the gaps
Simplified Administration | Utilize the documentation above to fill in the gaps


Why can't I resolve machine names on my LAN to their IP address? I purchased a new ADSL modem/router last week (Belkin Share), and can no longer resolve machine names on my LAN to their respective IP addresses under OS X. My Windows machines and VMs are able to do this successfully. If I ping the IP address directly, it succeeds, but if I attempt to ping the machine name I get 'cannot resolve . Unknown host'. My previous modem/router (DLink DSL-G604T) did not have this problem.

If I look at the DHCP leases on the router, the list includes the machine name, and this coupled with the fact that the Windows machines can resolve IP addresses makes me think this may be an OS X config issue (although I'm not experienced enough with it yet to know exactly what). I tried removing and re-adding the Ethernet connection under Network settings, but that made no difference.

It appears the router doesn't support Bonjour at all (and Belkin support were totally clueless when approached about it), so I've returned it for a refund and am on the hunt for one that plays nicely with Macs.


How to force Spotlight to index content inside a package? I wish to use Spotlight to search inside my Papers 3 library package (i.e., a 'bundle') as the search functionality within the application is broken and/or hamstrung. Is there any way I can force Spotlight to index the contents of the PDFs in this package?

I've tried EasyFind as an alternative and it seems pretty useless at searching file contents.

Not a direct solution to this problem, per se, but a workaround: the (very expensive) software FoxTrot Professional Search finds files within bundles like the one used by Papers 3. It's very flexible and powerful for searching document contents in its own right, too.


How can I get my device's unlock passcode from the KeyChain? Assuming that the four or six digit unlock code to the phone is in the Keychain, where exactly do I find it? I see my passwords for apps but not the unlock code for the phone

The unlock code (passcode) is not stored in the Keychain, so you cannot find it there.

In fact, the unlock code is not stored at all on the device. This is by design.

When you enter the unlock code it is used, together with other information, as the passphrase to decrypt an encryption key that is stored on the device. That key then makes it possible for the phone to read your other, sensitive data.

Without the user entering the pass code the phone cannot access the encryption key, and thus cannot access your sensitive data.

For more details, read page 12 of this document:

https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf


WhatsApp Web in Fluid throws JavaScript exception When I'm starting the WhatsApp web client in a Fluid app, this JavaScript exception is thrown:

[Error] TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'e.getDatabaseNames')
    U (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 63)
    c (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 62)
    n (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 6)
    (anonymous function) (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 6)
    t (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 5)
    (anonymous function) (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 5)
    t (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 5)
    (anonymous function) (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 5)
    webpackJsonp (app_59f797fae4fc761b3ee8.js, line 5)
    global code (crypto_8cbbef38a0cf6ff138dc.js, line 2)

This leads an infinite loading screen.

When I launch WhatsApp Web in Safari e is a IDBFactory, but it looks like the IndexedDB API isn't available in a Fluid app (there e is null).

You have to set either Firefox, Chrome or Safari as user agent to get to the loading screen. I tried playing around with the settings, but nothing seems to help.

I wrote a mail to the FluidApp support, but no answer so far. Does anyone have advice?

I don't have a solution that works with Fluid, but Aluxian/WhatsApp-Desktop on GitHub provides an open-source wrapper for the WhatsApp web app which works well and provides similar functionality to what Fluid would.


How can I limit my download bandwidth? Sometimes, I require a lot of bandwidth  but do not want to disturb other's browsing experience.
At the university I'm often connected to networks for multiple users which requires me to limit my download speed.
Question
How can I limit my download bandwith?

OSX provides ipfw to define custom firewall rules. Using this tool you can create a pipe with limited bandwidth.

When you assign the throttled pipe to a specific port, this port's bandwidth is limited.

Quick How-To

Create a pipe "1" limited to 500KBytes/s via

sudo ipfw pipe 1 config bw 500KByte/s

Guide all network traffic of port 80 through pipe "1" using

sudo ipfw add 1 pipe 1 src-port 80

When you don't need the pipe anymore, remove it from the port using

sudo ipfw delete 1

Other

If you want to set higher traffic barriers, you can use MByte/s
Port 80: standard port for unencrypted http traffic. This port is used for most browsing and downloading. You should be fine with this in most cases.
Port 443: standard port for SSL encrypted https traffic.


Restore deleted Mac App Store on 10.8.2 I accidentally deleted system apps like the App Store.app and the Calendar.app.

How can I restore these? I've tried the combo update like suggested for 10.6.6 systems, but that unfortunately doesn't seem to work on 10.8.

Boot to recovery HD and reinstall Mountain Lion if you don't have those backed up to your Time Machine (or equivalent) backup.


MacBook Pro overheating after being repaired I've recently had my MacBook Pro 15" model late 2011 repaired, it was a graphics card problem, they changed it and now it's working.

The problem that I've encountered now is that it is overheating a lot, compared to how it used to be. I used to have temperatures of about 30-40 °C 2000 rpm (ambient temperature of 20-30 °C) using integrated graphics and a workload of CPU of about 5% max (internet browsing, and stuff like that).

And after being repaired, in the same ambient and work condition I have 60-70 °C! I don't know what they could have done to my macbook in order to have this temperatures.

I first made an SMC and PRAM reset just in case, but no things changed. Then I reinstalled OS X El Capitan, but again nothing changed. So I thought that they could have incorrectly applied the thermal paste (or it was a bad quality one) so I reapplied some of my EVGA Frostbite thermal paste, and I've finally noticed some change. The temperature (again in same work and ambient conditions) is of about 40-50 °C 2000 rpm. But it is again far from what it used to be.

Long story short (UPDATED):

MB Pro late 2011 got graphics card broken, and repaired by certified apple repair center
I used to have temperatures of about 30-40 °C, 2000rpm
Now it is of about 60-70 °C, 2000 rpm
OS X El Capitan reinstalled and PRAM, SMC reset done
AHT made and no problem found

What can I do in order to solve this problem. I want to have my old macbook temperatures!

UPDATE: I've performed a SMC, because I've done it before the new installation of OS X. And for my surprise, the temperature values that were displaying were wrong. Now after SMC I've got the exact same range as before changing the thermal paste :/

I'm unable to answer / resolve the OP query, but I wanted to share my similar experience. I've had a very similar experience in that I had a MBP 2011 15" GPU failure about 18mths ago, which resulted in the Main Logic Board (MLB) being replaced earlier this year. Since then I upgraded the OS to El Capitan - and the MBP heated up faster and hotter than it did prior to the GPU failure, and the fans didn't audibly start up as much or as loudly as they did before the GPU failure/ MLB replacement. The OP's temperature stats & data were similar enough to mine to not warrant posting my own (plus i can't remember that level of detail! I then began experiencing similar GPU related symptoms (lines across the the screen etc) and I took the MBP to my local Apple Store, who replaced the MLB immediatley... since then I havent experienced the same high temperatures, however I still can't hear the fans kick-in when it does get hot...or somehow the new MLB replacement has somehow qietened the fans (although I can't see how this is actually possible). I've reported this to Apple Support, however there isnt a resoltion... arguably as there isn't a problem as such. I'm probably being over-concerned.

AS such, I would recomend you contact Apple Support and get it booked into a Genius Bar asap alongwith a set of actions that can be carried out at the bar to replicate the high temperatures. Good luck!


After upgrading weechat using Homebrew, brew says formula built but weechat was not symlinked I installed weechat 1.9(an IRC client) with brew a long time ago. Today I was trying to update the program to the latest version with 'brew upgrade weechat'. The whole upgrading process was successful, only with an error at the end that says

  Error: The brew link step did not complete successfully
  The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
  Could not symlink share/man/de/man1/weechat-headless.1
  /usr/local/share/man/de/man1 is not writable.

I first figured it might be for the reason that the /usr/local/share/man/de/man1 directory was not writable due to the user that homebrew runs as was not given enough access privilege. I then changed the group owner of the directory from 'wheel' to 'admin' which is the owner of most of the directories generated by homebrew. But it didn't work.

I tried to uninstall and reinstall weechat, it's still the same error.

Just fixed this same issue on my system!

From this related thread about a similar brew link issue with nmap:

  I'd wiped /usr/local/ before installing brew, so was unsure about this. Realised that MacTeX installs its stuff in there too by default, causing this issue.

Apparently some software will write to that folder using root privileges on install so there is an ownership issue here.

To fix:

ls -la /usr/local/share/man/
Identify which directories require ownership permission changes

Using /usr/local/share/man/de/ as an example, it was owned by user "root" in group "wheel" prior to the fix, whereas we want it to be owned by your user (output of whoami) in group "admin"

Recursively change ownership of the directory and all sub-directories thereof: sudo chown -R $(whoami):admin /usr/local/share/man/de/
Attempt linking again: brew link weechat

The above steps fixed the issue for me!


How do I delete events in my iPhone calendar posted by Apple Apple puts events in my Calendar like "Flag Day"  Is there a way to delete such events?  When I see a "dot" on a date, and go check what it is, it's a waste of my time if it isn't an event that I've posted. Really annoying.

You can disable unwanted calendars in Calendar.app on iPhone with these steps:

open Calendar.app in your iPhone
Hold your iPhone vertical
On the bottom are three buttons visible: Today, Calendars, Inbox if you don't see them, go back to the monthly overview)
Tap "Calendars" > Hide All Calendars
Now select only the calendars you want to see.
Tap "Done" when you're done.

Let me know if this works for you.


Yosemite: Change keyboard layout of an input source My MBP has an AZERTY keyboard (a French keyboard, more precisely). I usually type English, French and Vietnamese. For the latter I use the built-in Vietnamese Telex input source. Since I'm used to type Vietnamese on QWERTY keyboards, I want to change the layout of this input source to QWERTY as well, but I didn't figure out how to do that.

Thank you in advance for any suggestions.

Just switch your keyboard to the US layout before you switch to Telex.  It takes the layout of the last keyboard used.


How can I check if my iCloud email address or Apple ID has been compromised? We have 8 Apple IDs made up of 4 iCloud email addresses and 4 other email addresses. Is there an Apple service or other way for me to check if any of these addresses have been hacked?

There’s no 100% certain way to be sure that an Apple ID and/or iCloud email address has not been compromised.

However, you can use an online service such as the Have I been pwned? site to conduct a search of your email addresses to check whether there’s any known breaches (e.g. the Linkedin and Adobe breaches a while back) that contained information relating to your email address. If a known breach involving your email address has occurred, this site can provide details of what data may have been breached.

For example, say I've had my email address registered with Adobe for five years, then by entering it into this site it will show that there was a breach of Adobe’s site in 2013 and that the compromised data included email addresses, usernames, passwords and password hints.

Notify me function

Another feature of the Have I been pwned? site is that you can elect to be notified if at any future point your account is compromised. You can do that by registering your email address with the Notify me function.

Searching entire domains

If you happen to have your own domain (or are responsible for one), you can also use the Domain Search function to search for any email addresses on that domain that have been compromised.

However, this will require you to enter both the domain and an email address, as well as going through a quick process to verify you're responsible for the domain in question. Once you've done that you can choose to download a file containing the data.

NOTE: I am not affiliated in any way with the Have I been pwned? site. However I have used it many times and can attest to the fact that all features mentioned here work well.

IMPORTANT

If you have any reason to suspect that any of your Apple IDs have been compromised, I strongly recommend you change your password.


Block unwanted Gmail Texts Yesterday a person texted my phone through a Gmail account and I thought it was just an accident or a bot or something. I reported it as junk and it deleted their initial “Hi.” But since then they’ve messaged me 2 more times, so now I’m assuming is just a creep.

How would I go about blocking this Gmail, so I can no longer receive messages from them?

I tried looking up how to block numbers, but when I click the Information button and scroll down, “Block this caller” doesn’t even appear to be a button..?
I then looked up how to block Gmails, but nothing came up that would help.

I faced a similar issue where some stranger sending me creepy texts using Gmail chat. I simply sent a SMS with the keyword "Stop", and after that I didn't get a single text from that email address on my phone number. I'm not entirely sure if it would work in 2019, but you can give it a try. Same thing is suggested in this old article: https://techwithlove.com/how-to-send-sms-from-gmail. So it might worth a try!

If supported by your carrier, then you can login to your account and block that email from sending you text messages. Someone suggested these steps on AndroidCentral forums to block text messages from the email and/or on Verizon:

Login to your account and hit MY VERIZON.
Choose VERIZON FAMILY SAFEGUARDS AND CONTROLS.
Choose INTERNET SPAM BLOCKING.
At the bottom of the number block list, choose BLOCK ALL TEXT
MESSAGES SENT FROM THE WEB and BLOCK ALL TEXT MESSAGES FROM EMAIL .
Save and close.

Source: https://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-galaxy-s-iii/297351-how-block-texts-email-addresses-solved.html


How to make Google Chrome launch in incognito mode on an Ipad? It's possible to launch Google Chrome in incognito mode on a PC by adding -incognito to the end of the desktop shortcut. Is it possible to launch to Chrome on an iPad in incognito mode?

Apple does not allow command line access on iOS. This may be possible with a jailbroken device, but I have never investigated that.

I looked for a setting in Chrome to allow this and I could not find one on the Desktop settings panel, or in the advanced settings. My thought was that the setting would be synced to iOS and the iOS app would honor that request.

The last thing I can think of is to be in an incognito tab when closing the app, that way it will restore that tab when restarting the app. This worked in my testing, although it remembered and reloaded the page it was on.


Looking for iOS virtual environment to run on Windows 10 We are a team working from home and can't share iPad in the office due to pandemic.. We are looking for a virtual environment of iOS (iPad) to run on Windows 10 when it's time to troubleshoot iOS related questions. I am not sure this even exists for copyright and so on but I thought asking here might get me somewhere. Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately a legal iOS virtual environment on Windows 10 does not exist. Apple forbids, via their End User Licence Agreements (EULAs), running Apple operating systems on non-Apple hardware.
The only legal iOS simulator available is included with Xcode and Xcode requires macOS.


MacBook Air wrong fan reading My Macbook Air (Summer 2011, i7) tends to think it's running way hotter than it is, and permanently ramps up the fan. Closing the computer and reopening resets the mistaken sensor, but I'd rather not have to do this half the time after I open the computer.

I'm using Fan Control for the temperature reading.

The system management controller (SMC) is responsible for controlling fan speeds. This support document describes increased fan speeds as a symptom of SMC problems and how to reset the SMC


OS X Mountain Lion shortcut menu I just switched from a PC (Ubuntu 12.10) to a Macbook Pro (Mountain Lion). I'd like to know if there's a way to have a similar shortcut menu on the dock as I had on Ubuntu's sidebar? Basically I made a clickable menu to run a bunch of expect scripts so I wouldn't have to do it through the terminal.
Here's how it looks in ubuntu:

I used a .desktop config file to add each menu item and then dragged it onto the sidebar. So my question is - what are the ways to have something like this in OS X?

You could have a look at one of

Alfred

  Alfred saves you time when you search for files online or on your Mac. Be more productive with hotkeys, keywords and file actions at your fingertips.

Keyboard Maestro

  Keyboard Maestro 5 is now available with control flow, variables, calculations, file actions, image manipulation, macro library and more.

  Keyboard Maestro is a powerful macro program for Mac OS X Mountain Lion, Lion and Snow Leopard which has received glowing reviews.

Especially Alfred works like a command line for O X and gives you the option to control most of your system interaction with simple text commands. If you prefer menus and mouse clicks, Keyboard Maestro might be the better choice.


How to prevent "Do you want to terminate running processes" window when shutting down? When I have running processes on my terminal and I try to shutdown Mac, I get this window:

I want all running processes to terminate automatically when I shut down my Mac without being prompted the window shown above. Is there a way to do that?

I am using macOS Sierra 10.12.6.

Edit: My question is not about iTerm2 or closing tabs.

Terminal Preferences → Profiles, select the profile you're using (probably marked Default) in the sidebar on the left, then choose Shell. Under ‘Ask before closing:’, choose Never.


How do I delete all Podcasts at once in iTunes I'd like to know how I can delete all podcasts (via command line) or something, because unsubscribing from 90+ podcasts takes too long.

In iTunes, go to the Podcasts library (View > Media Kind > Podcasts) and view as Classic List (View > View As > Classic List).

Your list of podcasts should then appear in the main window. Select All (Edit > Select All). Click on the 'Unsubscribe' button in the bottom right corner.

This doesn't delete the files, it unsubscribes you so that you stop getting updates and new files. You can keep files even after you unsubscribe. To delete all the files, select all the podcasts you want to obliterate and type 'delete'.

NB If some of the podcasts are no longer subscribed to, the button will be 'Subscribe'. If you deselect those podcasts (Command-click on any selected podcast to deselect it) then the button should change to 'Unsubscribe'. If you start at the top and use the down arrow key, you can go through the list and see which podcasts this would apply to.


using the touchscreen from a distance Is there anything that might be able to mimic a finger (by changing the capacitance of the touchscreen) without having to make much physical contact? For example, an electric field that changes the capacitance? Or something similar? (presumably it would require a power source)

I realize similar questions have been asked, such as this one: What is the iPod touch's screen sensitive to?

What I'm wondering is if you could mimic a finger with a electrically charged or powered device...?

There many styluses in the market now a days with some good and innovative ideas.

There are even ways to create a home made stylus. Which usually uses you hands static energy. There are some good How To Guides on internet which can help you.

Some marketed styluses use some kind of rubber. To get phone recognize the touch like Ten One Design Pogo Stylus.

One most advanced stylus would be Studio Pen from by-zero. According to there website they use patented technology combining ultrasound and infrared technologies with sophisticated algorithms. In short (according to them) they type of ditch this touch sensitivity all together and use some "ultrasound and infrared technologies" to get the position of the pen tip and that is then feed to the iDevice using Receiver which is connected to the charging Port.

Hope that helps:).


Recover iPad serial number from iCloud backup I won't bore you all with the reasons why but I have an old iPad Pro that I replaced with a new iPad Air last month. I removed the iPad pro from Find my and other icloud services.
I now need the serial number of the device and don't have the box, receipt or anything like that. I thought I had written it down somewhere but stupid me cannot find that 'somewhere'. I don't have any iTunes backups of the device or anything like that, sadly.
What I do have is the old iCloud backup of the device taken just before setting the new device up. Is there any way to download/extract/view the backup of this device in iCloud and see if it has a serial number in there?

Unfortunately there is no way to see this without using third-parts softwares. You can try Reincubate iPhone Backup Extractor. It allows you to import backups from iCloud and see the serial number and other informations.
Here is a preview with an iPhone:


Playstation 4 on a Thunderbolt display? Is there any way at all that I could connect a Playstation 4 to a Thunderbolt display?

No. You can't connect a Thunderbolt display to it. No adapter has ever been created to connect Thunderbolt devices to USB 3 (what the PS4 has). The performance would be horrendous and not usable even if one was ever made.


Does upgrading your iMac's traditional HDD to SSD improve the graphics performance? I have a 1.4 GHz iMac (8GB RAM and Intel HD Graphics 5000 1536 MB). Running a simple code or creating a level in Unreal Engine makes everything work very slow. The graphics performance is lagging behind a lot when editing a level in Unreal Engine plus the whole UI freezes and seems a little hazy or blurry with screen tearing.

So if I raid the HDD and external SSD together will it solve my graphics performance issue?

I have already gone through this post (Would upgrading to SSD solve my performance issues?), but this guy has a MacBook so that doesn't answers my question!

I don't have many options and I believe an external SSD would be the best solution. Apple has now support for external GPUs. Can I insert a CPU into the GPU case, and improve the overall performance of my iMac?

And one more thing: Can I insert a processor into the eGPU enclosure in order to bypass my iMac's internal hardware such as the graphics card and the slow 1.4 GHz Intel processor?

It depends by what you define as "increased performance."

An SSD will increase performance with respect to getting digital assets off the drive and into memory and the CPU.  If you were having lag due to slow read/write times, an SSD will help.

If you have framerate issues, an SSD will do nothing to help your situation.  If your GPU chokes on 30 fps, it will still choke on 30 fps after an SSD upgrade.

  I have already gone through this post (Would upgrading to SSD solve my
  performance issues?), but this guy has a MacBook so that doesn't
  answers my question!

Technically speaking, that iMac is closer to a MacBook Pro than an actual desktop because it's using the Intel® Core™ i5-4260U Processor which is a processor aimed at the mobile (laptop) segment.

The HD5000 video chipset is shared video memory so even with 8GB RAM, you actually only have 6.5GB max available to you.

There's no amount of RAIDing or setting up external GPUs that's going to overcome this performance deficit.  This is like trying to supercharge a moped with the expectation it will haul freight.

Your best option is to get the most powerful older Mac Pro with a proper GPU that you can afford rather than try and bodge a new iMac into something it really can't be.


From Mavericks to Snow Lion: how to get back? I upgraded from Snow Lion to Mavericks and just found out that I can't sync my address book and calendar between my iMac and iPhone (3GS) using iTunes. I'm not using iCloud and not willing to use it either. All my data files (from Mail etc.) are also "upgraded" to Mavericks. Is it possible to reinstall Snow Lion and use Time Machine to place all date files back or am I going to be in trouble here?

Added: I meant Mountain Lion (in stead of Snow Lion -- sorry ;-))

There is no "Snow Lion"—Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion strike me as possibilities—but regardless, the answer is the same: you can roll back with your Time Machine to an earlier version of OS X:

Enter Recovery by rebooting and holding command+R.
Select "Restore from a Time Machine backup".
Select a backup from before your Mavericks upgrade.

Unfortunately, you may not be able to use all of today's data from a pre-Mavericks installation.  Some Mavericks applications (such as Mail.app) will upgrade their databases.  That data will not be able to be understood by pre-Mavericks versions of those applications.  If you haven't had any significant data changes since your upgrade, I would recommend a wholesale reversion back to your preferred OS.  If you have, perhaps you could roll back anyway and copy newer files from your Time Machine individually, provided they are not in a format your old OS can understand.

Apple TS article: OS X Mavericks: Revert to a previous OS X version


How do I update the FileVault 2 recovery key stored in iCloud? It's been a long saga getting to the point where I am comfortable that my new Macbook Pro has FileVault 2 enabled properly on Yosemite.

I ran into the "Encryption paused - connect power adapter" problem several times. Had to do a hard-disk erase and full re-install twice, and spent hours online with Apple support.

Eventually, encryption completed and it told me "A recovery key has been set" ... but never told me what the key was!

Today, I disabled encryption, rebooted, and re-enabled encryption - with the same result.

Eventually, I used fdesetup changerecovery --personal to create a new recovery key, which I was able to validate with fdesetup validaterecovery.

I now have that key stored in a very safe place (nowhere near my MBP).

But I originally requested, via the GUI, that the key also be stored in iCloud. Now I suspect that the key they have is not the key which will work to decrypt my drive at last resort.

I've spent hours googling, and browsing Apple's support pages, but nowhere can I find out how to update the recovery key stored in my iCloud account.

Any advice greatly appreciated

According to Apple's [documentation on Filevault 2] (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT4790) (emphasis added by me)

  Changing your recovery key

  In the Security & Privacy system preference, under the FileVault tab, click "Turn Off FileVault" to disable FileVault. After FileVault is off, FileVault will begin to decrypt your drive. Once decryption is complete, you can click the "Turn On FileVault" button. Doing this allows you to enable unlock-capable users. You're also provided with a new recovery key and have the option of sending this new key to Apple. The old key sent to Apple will not be able to unlock your newly-encrypted disk. If you need to retrieve your recovery key from Apple, only the new one will be retrieved based on the Serial Number and Record Number displayed in the login window.

I think that this might be your answer.


How can I make a LaunchDaemon run an app at login? I have an internally-maintained macOS app for my macOS Catalina-based enterprise environment which:

Must run as root (it accesses a privileged device API)
Runs in the background without a UI (via LSUIElement key set to true in its Info.plist)
Must run for every user who logs into a workstation without manual configuration (e.g. no manual Login Item configuration)

Creating a LaunchDaemon to launch the app seemed to be the right way to accomplish this. However, the app process is found to be hanging after first user login, presumably because it tries to start too early before app/window-supporting libraries are available (I thought setting LSUIElement to true would avoid this, but I guess not. If there's another Info.plist setting for the app I should use to accomplish this, I'm all ears). There are no errors related to the process or launchd service observed in system.log.
I've observed after login that if I kill the hanging process and the LaunchDaemon restarts it, it then works fine. So, all I think I need is a way to setup my LaunchDaemon plist so that the LaunchDaemon only launches the app on user login like a LaunchAgent, (which I can't use because LaunchAgents can't run as root). Does anyone have a tried and true plist configuration which accomplishes this? Maybe via setting a certain WatchPath for the LaunchDaemon?
My current plist:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>my.app</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/mydaemons/myapp.app/Contents/MacOS/myapp</string>
    </array>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

@Wowfunhappy's suggestion to use a Login Hook got me the exact behavior I wanted, even if it wasn't done via a LaunchDaemon as planned. The solution:
A script (myscript.sh) to launch my app (must be executable via chmod a+x)
#!/bin/bash

//launch app in background (otherwise login hangs)
/path/to/myapp.app/Contents/MacOS/myapp &

And specifying that script as a login hook via the command:
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /path/to/myscript.sh

My app now runs as root as needed on every user login


How can I fix my iPad Magic Keyboard when everything works except the trackpad? I’ve got the Magic Keyboard (the one with the hinge that holds the iPad Pro suspended in air above the number keys) and everything works except the trackpad. I can go into the settings app General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard and the brightness reacts when I slide the control.

What can be done to fix this so the trackpad works?

Apparently you are not alone. It appears to be a widely experienced issue. Here's an extended discussion on the MacRumors forums:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/magic-keyboard-trackpad-stopped-working.2233242/

Going through the discussion you'd see that there's no uniform approach that has resolved the issue. A variety of things have worked from cleaning the connectors, hard and soft restarting the iPad, reinstalling the iPadOS etc. People appear to have experienced the issue with iPadOS 13.4.1 as well, so it could very well not just be a software issue.
It's not clear from the discussions if it's a hardware bug or a software bug. Also, the folks at Apple Support are apparently unprepared too with responses like "never heard before".
I guess contacting Apple support may still be a good idea, hoping they have heard enough to call for an investigation and come up with an appropriate.