Hard to discover tips and apps for macOS - <AUTHOR> https://thume.ca/2020/09/04/macos-tips/ <comment><USER2> _Does anyone have a tip to keep macOS from phoning home when you run unsigned binaries?_

I almost locked up my entire computer this week, presumably because of this... here's the story for that:

I had setup unbound listening on 127.0.0.1:53 as the only DNS resolver for all network interfaces, so that I hijack several responses that I might want to (e.g. adnet sinkholes) and forward the rest to Google/Cloudflare over TLS.

When I rebooted the Mac, the entire computer was so fucked that I panicked cause I thought my SSD was failing. Turns out unbound failed to start so all DNS was down. I suspect it to be the "phoning home" because when I opened the Terminal, running `ps aux | grep unbound` took like 5 seconds to return anything (as did everything else that tried to run), and that behavior has been reported by other users as Gatekeeper's Phone Home checks being at fault.

 _So that 's why I was wondering if anyone has found out how to keep macOS from doing this (preferably without disabling all of SIP), cause that'd be one hell of a tip..._

<comment><USER3> First: binaries that ship with the system are not included in this because they're platform binaries. Tools like ps or grep won't be included.

Second: once the binary has been checked for malware it won't be checked again.

Third: if the connection fails immediately the malware check is skipped immediately. So if you are offline or otherwise force the relevant server DNS names to be rejected immediately it shouldn't wait for any timeout.

Fourth: anything you build with the Xcode UI is automatically excluded since you are using the user interface and explicitly asking to run "unknown" code.

Fifth: Anything listed as a Developer Tool in Privacy will have its child processes excluded from GateKeeper scanning. This command will make the category show up and put Terminal in it:

"sudo spctl developer-mode enable-terminal"

Once it shows up there go to Privacy and check the box to enable Terminal.

If you run CI or automation you can do the same by putting your Jenkins or other binary in the list, causing all subprocesses to be excluded.

<comment><USER2> I was partly aware of many of these, and like I said I'm not 100% sure if this really is the culprit. Your comment is a solid reference on this topic though (better than most of what's on SO), but here's a few comments regarding my specific incident...

 _On your first point:_ Was aware of this, and this is the part that is most puzzling about the whole incident to me. I just checked my $PATH and I am indeed running the system binaries, so not sure how to explain this one.

 _On your second point:_ Was aware of this too, but I assume a lot of the slowness comes from JITted programs, for which there will be phoning-home for any new executable memory page (AFAIK), and the policy decision caching semantics for things that are not on disk are not as clear to me.

 _On your third point:_ While this is true for the connection that gets established to Apple's servers, I think this might have had to do with DNS being UDP based by default (AFAIK), so there is no explicit refusal, and it hangs on a timeout because of that, even though DNS can be done over TCP as well. Haven't investigated this though, just a hunch...

 _On your fourth and fifth points:_ I don't use XCode, but my terminal (Kitty) was already on the Developer Tool list when this happened, which makes the situation with ps and grep even more mysterious to me...

<comment><USER3> #2: JIT pages are not run through an online scan

#3: Sorry I meant use hosts to skip DNS resolution and just map them to 127.0.0.1 directly (assuming you aren't running an https server locally). The names are ocsp.apple.com and api.apple-cloudkit.com.

Clearly something was trying to resolve hostnames but it may not be related to GateKeeper malware scanning. TBH a tarpit DNS server is not a case I have personally thought about before but is interesting to consider!

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Spotify flashes non-stop (the left sidebar and the bottom control strip, but interestingly not the main app window).

> Quartz Debug: There are some apps that reduce your battery life in an > insidious way where it doesn't show as CPU usage for their process but as > increased WindowServer CPU usage. If your WindowServer process CPU usage is > above maybe 6-10% when you're not doing anything, some app in the background > is probably spamming 60fps animation updates. As far as I know you can only > figure out which app is at fault by getting the Quartz Debug app from > Apple's additional developer tools, enabling flash screen updates (and no > delay after flash), then going to the overview mode (four finger swipe up) > and looking for flashing. This same problem can also occur on Linux and > Windows but I don't know how much power it saps there.

<comment><USER5> If you're using Quartz Debug, you probably want to set these as well:

      defaults write com.apple.QuartzDebug QuartzDebugPrivateInterface -bool YES
      defaults write com.apple.QuartzDebug QDDockShowFramemeterHistory -bool YES
      defaults write com.apple.QuartzDebug QDDockShowNumericalFps -bool YES
      defaults write com.apple.QuartzDebug QDShowWindowInfoOnMouseOver -bool YES

The first one lets the window list work, which Apple in its infinite wisdom has decided you as a non-Apple engineer don't need. The middle two are things you can set from inside the app but show useful things in the dock icon. And the last lets you identify which app a window belongs to (press ⌃⌥ while hovering over it), which is very useful when you have a random thing pop up and you don't know how to get rid of them.

<comment><USER6> Thank you!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> > cmd+shift+4 pops up a crosshair to take a screenshot of a region.

If you hit space at after invoking the crosshairs then you can take full window screenshots. This mode is nice for marketing material as it also captures the drop shadow and rounded corners rendered properly as a transparent png.

<comment><USER8> After cmd-shift-4 and space, a simple copies the window with its shadow. Some modified allows to copy just the window. But I forgot which modifier.

<comment><USER9> Hold down Option while clicking the window to exclude the drop shadow from the screenshot.

As a vastly more general rule, hold down Option while clicking _anything_ on a Mac to get the alternate/advanced form of the click action ( _e.g.,_ try Option-clicking the various status icons on the right end of the menu bar).

<comment><USER10> >> Hold down Option while clicking the window to exclude the drop shadow from the screenshot.

You just taught an exclusively-MacOS user of 15+ years a new trick! Thank you! :) I often marvel at how fantastic this OS truly is.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> If you use multiple monitors, and you're frustrated with the cmd-tab app switcher only appearing on the last monitor you touched the dock, this will make it show up on all monitors.

      defaults write com.apple.Dock appswitcher-all-displays -bool true
      killall Dock

<comment><USER12> You're a good person.

That's been bugging me for years, but just a tad under bugging me enough that I'd take the time to solve it.

Thank you!

<comment><USER5> Have a couple more, although they are purely eye candy:

      defaults write com.apple.dock mineffect -string suck
      defaults write com.apple.dock slow-motion-allowed -bool YES

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> I've been a long time user of Dash. There is a Linux alternative called Zeal for those that use multiple platforms.

I use Alfred quite a bit as well, though not as an alternative to Spotlight. I use it for automations via workflows instead. Turning on or off VPNs, sending files, converting date times, reading 2FA codes off my Yubikey, etc. I haven't found a great Linux alternative for this. Ideally I'd have something that lasts me reuse my workflows that I've written.

Not mentioned in the article is Better Touch Tool[1]. I've had this since the original Intel MBP and it's been incredible for making the fancy trackpads and touch bars actually useful. I've got a Pomodoro timer, Dark Mode toggle, Do Not Disturb toggle (also automated by ControlPlane), and lots of simpler app shortcuts.

I responded to someone else about ControlPlane a bit further down, but I have it automate things like DND when I start a call from my Mac.

[1] [https://folivora.ai/](https://folivora.ai/)

</comment><comment><USER14> Having emacs commands by default on native apps is a really nice detail. It's nearly impossible to do on Windows since there's already a bunch of shortcuts using control. On Linux it's definitely doable but you have to install a keyboard shortcuts app, get an emacs profile, etc.

If only reddit didn't use C-b to insert bold text, it'd make navigating in text boxes a lot easier.

<comment><USER15> If firefox had a setting, maybe per-site, to prevent text boxes from "helpful" editing key overrides it would be _wonderful_.

I have to use a web application that uses CKEditor for text boxes.

And just like you - the most annoying thing in the world - j I get: control-b is bold instead of back one character (one of my most commonly used keystrokes)

The other annoying one is control-k pops up a link dialog.

I tried to figure out how to override or disable it, but never got very far.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Author says Alfred is marginally better than Spotlight but I use it for so many different things. Doing quick math is a very common function for me. My favorite hidden trick is cmd+L which displays the typed text in HUGE fonts, so someone across the room can read it.

<comment><USER17> A few tips for Spotlight that made me stop using apps like Quicksilver and Alfred:

1\. Typing something and pressing CMD+B will open a browser and do a Google search for that

2\. Typing math works now

3\. You can change your Spotlight preferences to not include files you don't wanna search on, essentially always showing apps (if you just want it do be an app launcher)

Alfred does a lot more than this, but for me these were the key automation features I needed to stop using it.

<comment><USER18> Spotlight's math support is very rudimentary. I think I even found a bug in it recently trying to use "1e9" scientific notation.

I've found Google has the best calculator feature, which supports complex unit-aware inputs like "6 gigabytes / (7.1 mb/sec)". Even Wolfram Alpha seems to get confused with some simple inputs.

<comment><USER19> I reach for my physical calculator that is always with me. Seems weird as it's less convenient that using spotlight in the moment and larger than my iphone 11. Just never got out of the habit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Surprised no one has mentioned QuickLook. In Finder, select a file (document, image, movie, etc.) and tap the space bar to bring up QuickLook. You'll see a full preview of that document instantly. The preview window follows your focus, so you can use mouse arrow keys to navigate between files, etc and see an updated preview. Also works in Open dialogs, Mail attachments and elsewhere.

<comment><AUTHOR> I briefly mention the spacebar shortcut in the article but it does indeed deserve more explanation. One of my favorite macOS file browsing features for sure, miss it all the time on Linux, especially the part where it follows your focus when you use the arrow keys. Great for looking through large folders of poorly-named PDFs for the right thing.

<comment><USER21> If you're looking for text, pdfgrep works pretty well too.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I'll add one of my favorite ones: you can do Option-Command-C to copy the path of a file to the clipboard (if you need to use it somewhere that doesn't support dragging to paste a path).

<comment><USER23> This just made me able to de-bloat my macOS by removing the 'PathSnagger 2' app from my system! Thank you! :)

To add to this marvellous shortcut I will now be using very frequently:

Right click on the file in finder, then hold the Option key and you'll see the copy command change from "Copy [file]" to "Copy [file] as Pathname".

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> My tip:

System Preferences -> Desktop & Screen Saver -> Screen Saver -> Hot Corners -> Bottom Left Corner (or whichever you prefer) -> Put Display To Sleep (or Lock Screen if you prefer).

<comment><USER25> You can also lock the screen with control + command + Q. I always bump into the corners so I prefer a key combination.

<comment><USER26> If you press ⌘ when selecting hot corner action you can make it so assigned hot corner only activates when holding ⌘

<comment><USER27> Mind. Blown.

(seriously, this is a game changer for me, thanks!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> I have a few favourites

ControlPlane [https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane](https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane)

Divvy [https://mizage.com/divvy/](https://mizage.com/divvy/)

Stay [https://cordlessdog.com/stay/](https://cordlessdog.com/stay/)

<comment><USER29> Looks like ControlPlane is not actively maintained now. Last pull request merge was a year ago, with many issues and some more pull requests open.

<comment><USER30> Someone has a fork that gets it working with later versions of macOS, but it still has some worts. Very sad cause it's a brilliant little tool.

[https://github.com/PBMacDev/ControlPlane/tree/mojave](https://github.com/PBMacDev/ControlPlane/tree/mojave) [https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane/issues/501](https://github.com/dustinrue/ControlPlane/issues/501)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER31> To add some shortcuts that I use regularly but don't appear on the list:

\- Ctrl+Cmd+Space brings up a Unicode-Char-Picker

\- Shift+Alt+Cmd+V pastes from your clipboard without formatting from the source

\- Shift+Fn+Ctrl+Power shuts off the display

<comment><USER32> For shutting off the display (locking) I use Shift+Ctrl+Power (not Fn). Or are the two somehow different?

<comment><USER33> Ctrl+Cmd+Q = locks the screen, Cmd+Alt+Power = locks and sleep. It seems there are a lot of variations with slight details.

<comment><USER34> This right here is what I've been waiting for all these years...

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'll add another one, if you have a file dialog open, hit Command+Shift+G to open a dialog that let's you type in the path. Useful if you are going back and forth between terminal and some GUI app and some path is in your clipboard.

<comment><USER5> You can also use tab completion in said dialog.

<comment><USER36> And tilde also works for your home.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> eric-hu Does anyone know of a way to enable keyboard control of menus on Touch Bar MacBooks?

There's the keyboard preference which I have enabled, but it doesn't behave the same as my non Touch Bar MacBook. I can keyboard-interact with confirmation dialogs on my 2012 MacBook to hit Ok or Cancel. On my 2019, I must use the trackpad or the Touch Bar. I've been googling for a fix or even a bug report but it's a surprisingly hard thing to google for.

<comment><USER37> Do you mean "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls?" That's in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts.

<comment> eric-hu That's what I have enabled. That setting behaves differently between Touch Bar and non Touch Bar macs. On non Touch Bar Macs, you can hit space or enter to interact with a pop up dialog. On Touch Bar Macs, the tab key skips over certain UI elements as if they don't exist. "Conveniently", those elements are on the Touch Bar.

<comment><USER38> I'm not sure if this solves your problem, because I'm still on a non-TB Mac, but you can use CMD + [first letter] to select dialog options. For example, if you're closing an app and are asked if you want to save an open file, the dialog might have "Yes" preselected, but also let you choose "Don't save". If you hit CMD + D it will choose the "Don't save" option. Same thing for something that might say "All files" you can hit CMD + A to select it.

<comment> eric-hu I just took some time to try this and it didn't work. I think the Touch Bar acts as another device and UI prompts get forwarded to them. Thank you for the suggestion though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> My favorite is this:

You can drag the Spotlight search bar anywhere on your screen. But if you want to restore it to the default position long tap/click on the Spotlight icon in the menu bar and it will snap back.

<comment><USER40> Wow, how did you discover the long tap/click to restore it...

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> So long as we are sharing.. looking through my shell history:

organize windows without using a mouse. [https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle](https://github.com/eczarny/spectacle)

stop accidentally navigating back in chrome with the touchpad.

       defaults write com.google.Chrome AppleEnableSwipeNavigateWithScrolls -bool FALSE

Something about enabling darkmode?

       defaults write com.google.inputmethod.Japanese.Tool.DictionaryTool NSRequiresAquaSystemAppearance 0

show hidden files in finder?

       defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles YES

Disable attention seeking app bouncing animation, for those of us sensitive to these things..

       defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE

If you run dnsmasq, you can add addn-hosts=/etc/dnsmasq-hosts-blocking/ to the your dnsmasq.conf. In that folder you can put files from [https://github.com/unixsheikh/dnsmasq- blacklist](https://github.com/unixsheikh/dnsmasq-blacklist) and [https://github.com/adversarialtools/apple- telemetry](https://github.com/adversarialtools/apple-telemetry) to try and block apple and others telemetry .. but apple just seems to get around it by using, _x_.apple.com.akadns.net or _x_.apple-dns.net

<comment><USER42> I think that darkmode is applicable for Google's Japanese Input IME app (which I didn't even know existed!) [https://www.google.co.jp/ime/](https://www.google.co.jp/ime/)

<comment><USER41> I think that one didn't work to enable darkmode. I use the google IME so I can use the same dictionaries as i do with linux mozc. You can have a dictionary with the reading and english meaning of words, that pops up when selecting them, also lots of ascii emojis. I have a memo about it here. [https://become.radioac.dev/posts/terminal- tools/#language](https://become.radioac.dev/posts/terminal-tools/#language) (*^_^)ノどもっ

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Cmd+Shift+Period : toggles 'shows hidden files' in Finder

<comment><USER44> was literally looking for this only 2 hours ago...

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> My tip:

Make your Cmd-Tab do everything you've ever wanted it to do that it currently can't:

[https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos](https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab- macos)

<comment><USER45> Tried now and the .5s delay that happens sometimes already kills this for me...

</comment></comment><comment><USER46> Maybe my biggest improvement: Paste. A graphical clipboard history manager. Still cannot understand that I did not come up with this myself.

<comment><USER44> Worth it for the Setapp subscription alone!

</comment></comment><comment><USER47> Some hard to find tips that are a bit old (tested on OS X Lion), but most of them still work: [https://software.clapper.org/cheat-sheets/mac- os-x.html](https://software.clapper.org/cheat-sheets/mac-os-x.html)

For me, an immediately useful tip was hiding user login for Git user.

I would add the following tips to above article:

# System resource usage

* USE Method: Mac OS X Performance Checklist: [http://www.brendangregg.com/USEmethod/use-macosx.html](http://www.brendangregg.com/USEmethod/use-macosx.html)

# Emacs users

* For Emacs users with their config in version control, I would recommend downloading the latest Emacs.app version 27.1 instead of using Aquamacs, because Aquamacs has a bunch of customizations that do not play so well with original Emacs.

[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/)

# Printing

* If you have Acrobat or Acrobat Professional installed, add an Adobe PDF printer from System Preferences > Printers and scanners, so you can make better PDF files by printing from any application.

* You can save anything as PDF by choosing "Save as PDF" from the dropdown on the lower left corner on any print dialog.

* Open CUPS web UI by opening the following URL in a web browser:

[http://localhost:631/](http://localhost:631/) [http://localhost:631/printers/](http://localhost:631/printers/)

You may need to enable the web user interface by issuing:

cupsctl WebInterface=yes

Warning! Be sure that you are behind NAT or a firewall so as not to expose the web UI to internet!

</comment><comment><USER48> Weird. No DefaultFolderX. That is an awesome tool.

Also no Little Snitch.

I have had problems with iStat Menu. I _really_ want it to work, but it always introduces random crashes into my system. Every couple of years, I try it again, but it hasn't stabilized yet.

<comment><USER49> FWIW iStat menus has been working flawlessly for me for months.

<comment><USER48> Nope. Still causing problems.

It's messing with my displays (I use an eGPU and an LG Ultrawide 49-incher), and I am getting more crashes than usual.

It's def iStat Menus. When I removed it, all the issues stopped.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Swish, it's a clever window management app designed for speed with touchpads.

[https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/](https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/)

</comment><comment><USER51> I'll throw in another:

For a cool "hacker" (and more powerful in many ways) alternative to spotlight, install iTerm2, and activate a drop down quake style hotkey window. [1]

Then install broot, which is a fantastic command line search tool. [2]

[1] [https://www.iterm2.com/documentation- hotkey.html](https://www.iterm2.com/documentation-hotkey.html)

[2] [https://github.com/Canop/broot](https://github.com/Canop/broot)

</comment><comment><USER52> I have a macbook which I partitioned and installed windows on. the macbook is in a drawer in a stand up desk. The desk has a terrible ergonomic design. So I ended up using the pullout drawer as a shelf form my external keyboard, which is rested on a board.

So my macbook is closed, inside a drawer, covered by a board, and connected to external monitor and keyboard.

1\. How can I boot into windows from the mac desktop. Current procedure is to take off the board, open up the laptop, wait for startup, press a macbook key waiting for the os screen to start from which I can select windows icon. For some reason my external keyboard doesn't work during boot time. Its very annoying. Is there an app that will boot me into windows, from a mac desktop?

2\. I have to shutdown the laptop at night because the fans are driving me crazy. But that means I have to pullout the macbook out of the drawer in the mornings, and open up the laptop to start it with a power button. Any apps that will put the macbook into sleep mode, that turn off the fans and external drives, quickly.

3\. I miss cut and past for files the way it was on windows. This effectively moves them. Now I have to hold a key down and drag on a mac. Requires much more coordination, in selecting the destination folder. Is there anything equivalent to cut and paste on mac?

Thanks for any help.

<comment><USER47> 1\. I vaguely remember there being some command or sysctl preference which you can use to set options for next boot and also control sleep options.

<comment><USER47> The command is bless, and it requires some options to be able to boot a Windows partition:

Example to boot from `dev/disk0s3` once:

sudo /usr/sbin/bless --device /dev/disk0s3 --setBoot --legacy --nextonly

More information:

[https://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=201106012209257...](https://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110601220925705)

<comment><USER47> Actually there has been a `systemsetup` command for a long time now, that is preferred to using `bless`:

List the available startup volumes:

sudo systemsetup -liststartupdisks

Set startup partition:

sudo systemsetup -setstartupdisk /Volumes/MyPartition

[https://krypted.com/mac-security/dont-use-bless-to-change- st...](https://krypted.com/mac-security/dont-use-bless-to-change-startup- disks-any-more-in-os-x/)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> Two apps he didn't include that I like:

Levelator (free): [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the- levelator/id1493326487?mt=...](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the- levelator/id1493326487?mt=12)

LaunchBar (alternative to Alfred, free trial): [https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html](https://www.obdev.at/products/launchbar/index.html)

<comment><USER23> Side comment: anyone else feel like an app that only is in the MAS is lower quality for some reason? Apps in that quality seem to have a high ratio of junkware. This one looks good though, just giving my reaction to even seeing a MAS link. It's interesting how IMO macOS really doesn't need an app store. It's different.

<comment><USER53> I usually don't use the App Store unless it is the only option

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER54> I love how you added Option-2 for ™ as a tip, that's the only shortcut for one of those symbols I've committed to memory before for using in a jokey context.

<comment><USER5> I believe "tm" automatically corrects to "™" by default–it's one of the ones that are set up automatically to show you how to make you own autocompletions.

</comment></comment><comment><USER55> I recommend macports package management system, similar in function to BSD ports collection. Superior to Homebrew, the johnny-come-lately PMS with all the penguinista-style hype that seems to lean towards binary installs, unlike roll your own from all source in macports. Homebrew also does not honor the default privileges of /usr/local, which is an annoying security flaw.

<comment><USER56> Agreed 100%. No idea why homebrew is so dominant while doing the wrong thing by default. Binaries are nice but not worth the trouble Homebrew gives compared to sane, rational MacPorts.

<comment><USER55> While Homebrew defaults to binary, it can build from source, though it tends to leave behind a bloody mess when it does.

MacPorts has excellent housekeeping, which is controlled through port command arguments. One can choose to leave everything from the entire build, or have everything cleaned up as it builds, or clean it up after the build. Showing and eliminating leaves is also pretty simple.

Uninstalling MacPorts with these 3 commands leaves absolutely nothing behind:

>$ sudo port -dfp uninstall --follow-dependencies installed

>$ sudo port -dfp uninstall all

>$ sudo rm -rf /opt/local /Library/Tcl/macports*

Good luck completely uninstalling Homebrew without having to look everywhere to make sure it is all gone. It requires downloading and trusting the Homebrew uninstall script.

<comment><USER5> You may wish to follow the official instructions, which will also remove users that MacPorts creates: [https://guide.macports.org/chunked/installing.macports.unins...](https://guide.macports.org/chunked/installing.macports.uninstalling.html)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> I'm having several finder windows with tabs open as I work on certain projects. From time to time something crashes and closes all windows. Is there a way to 'store' the finder's open windows(including tabs!) and then restoring them again? I have not found anything that works on Catalina. (Stay doesn't do this)

<comment><USER58> Finder is essential yet it's the biggest pain point I have with macOS.

\- You've already mentioned a big one

\- Related would be remembering which Finder window goes to which "desktop" or screen

\- Another is no (permanent) custom width per folder or auto-sizing column view. Fixed width is either wasting space or not showing nearly enough. I always end up manually resizing the last/active column.

\- They recently added shared iCloud folders as well. Guess what, you can't see any filenames in column view because they repeat "Added by {Owner}" for every single file/folder which takes way too much space. I guess an icon/avatar was too much. Heck, even that is questionable since we have a sidebar with all the metadata.

I don't know the technical aspect of it but they seem to have also locked down macOS which resulted in TotalFinder calling it quits. Not sure how viable it is for alternatives nowadays. I have no need for split/ftp Finder alternatives, just need a polished column view.

</comment></comment><comment><USER59> There are better tools than a hex editor or system monitor (why do you want to constantly be bothered how well your hardware is performing?).

Unclutter - This gives you a nice non intrusive "memo zone" as well as manage your clipboard, so that copying password won't lose your user name into limbo.

BetterTouchTools - Who'll live without this one? Just give "three fingers swipe down" mapped to cmd-w and your life will be quite that much better. No more click at the upper corner tiny button to close a window which is an insanely dumb usability. Add several more to your likings and your life is even rosier.

And use a password manager, so that a new login made from your phone will be on your mac without effort and nothing gets lost on clean install even if you forget to export them if they're saved in the cloud, not to mention you can have randomized password for every site, but make sure to secure the master password with 2fa.

<comment><USER60> A free alternative to BTT trackpad gestures is jitouch2 ([https://www.jitouch.com](https://www.jitouch.com)). It's not as versatile and no longer maintained, but works well for most use cases even in the latest version of MacOS.

<comment><USER61> Thanks for the recommendation. I paid for BTT, and find it very unstable. More often than not the custom snap windows function just doesn't work. That's the only reason I bought it.

I used to be able to restart BTT and snapping would work again, but that is no longer effective in the latest version. I guess the fact that it even has a "restart" option in its drop-down menu should have been a hint.

<comment><USER60> Check out Rectangle ([https://rectangleapp.com](https://rectangleapp.com)) for window snapping. It's open source and I've had no issues with it.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> > You can select multiple images in Finder and drag them onto the Preview dock > icon to open them in one window with a Sidebar where you can quickly flip > between them with arrow keys.

Instead of wasting time dragging and dropping, just press Cmd+Down Arrow to open the files (usually images are associated with Preview.app as the default application). Cmd+Down Arrow in the Finder opens (navigates one level down) whatever is selected: folder or single file or multiple files. Cmd+Up Arrow goes one level up from the current folder.

> Path Finder: A fancier version of Finder with multiple panes and various > other advanced features.

Path Finder has a few nice features, but its updates and update schedules haven't been great. A cheaper alternative that also supports network transfers is Forklift.

<comment><USER62> > Instead of wasting time dragging and dropping, just press Cmd+Down Arrow to > open the files

I believe this does something different: it opens each photo in its own Preview window.

It's basically the difference between passing multiple arguments to one "Open" invocation, and passing one argument apiece to multiple "Open" invocations.

If the images are in a folder, though, you can "Open With" the folder with Preview.

</comment></comment><comment><USER63> > _iTerm2: An alternative Terminal with just so many features. I particularly > like the ability to split windows into panes, which Apple's Terminal does > not have._

Terminal actually has it, View -> Split Pane or Command-D - and has had it for ages (as well as tabs).

<comment><AUTHOR> Terminal's split panes are a totally different thing than iTerm2's and IMO not very useful. Terminal can have multiple panes that all show different places in the same scrollback buffer, not different terminals. iTerm2 can have many different terminals within one tab, which I use for example to have a tab for a project with one pane ssh'd into a VM/server and another pane on my local machine for file munging and syncing.

<comment><USER64> The tmux integration is amazing too! When I ssh into a server, whatever window/pane setup I last had (tab colors, names, and all), are restored.

On one server I run a few 'production' apps, but I also have a tab for 'random shit' and a tab for 'nginx config'. the production tabs are bright red, and are usuall split pane with the left showing logs, and the right giving me a terminal with app-specific commands (and in the current app home dir).

But then on another server I have two separate windows, and each window deals with one of the two 'concerns' on that server.

It's a massive help in managing all my panes/sessions.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER65> One useful shortcut I've discovered recently is cmd-[ and cmd-] to go forward and back through link history. Works in the browser as well as pdf viewers. With regards to pdf viewers specifically, this has greatly improved my paper reading experience.

</comment><comment><USER66> Shameless plug.

You can use a programmable tooltip for macOS, so you don't have to remember all the shortcuts for these workflows.

Please see [https://github.com/tanin47/tip](https://github.com/tanin47/tip)

</comment><comment><USER67> Add a "folder..noindex" to disable files in the folder from getting indexed

</comment><comment><USER68> I've been searching for a long time a tool that would resize all the windows open on a given space to fill up the entire screen.

I open lots of things when working and that would be more useful than doing the exposé and switching back and forth do declutter.

It seems to me that this feature is available on Windows and has been for a long time.

I tried almost everything that I could google and I even bought apps that I don't use anymore because I though that the level of customization would enable it.

Is there someone that knows a tool or a trick to allow that ?

<comment><USER5> Hammerspoon can do this quite easily, just grab all the windows using hs.window.filter.defaultCurrentSpace:getWindows() and set each's frame to it's screen:frame().

<comment><USER68> Thank you for the tip, I'll to code the algorithm to do it myself. That's great !

On an other note: a tip on iOS and MacOS, when you make a voice recording then you can edit it and activate a feature with the top left wand icon which is going to clear up the sound. When it's a voice recording it's pretty amazing how well it works, in particular to remove the echo.

<comment><USER68> I guess the topic is buried now ... but I'll update it for posterity.

What I want to do actually IS the mission control mode where all the windows are resized to fill up the screen.

To close a window while in exposé mode, the easy solution is effectively to use BTT, creating a new gesture for example "3 fingers click" with the ctrl modifier. Then selecting the action "Close Window Below Cursor (Works in Mission Control)".

And this effectively close my window. An other tip here, still in mission control while the cursor is on a window, pressing the space bar displays it full screen.

One more thing: While doing COMMAND + TAB to show the open apps, pressing the bottom arrow key show all the open windows for this app, regardless of the space they are in. Really useful.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Cmd + Shift + 5 gives you a crop tool and you can choose to create a screenshot or start a video. Little options menu lets you pick between audio inputs and outputs for the video too.

<comment><USER23> It pays to just try things out of curiosity:

Cmd + Shift + 6 takes a 'screenshot' of your touch bar!

(But let it be said that the touch bar should be deprecated. I want my Fn keys back.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER70> What I miss the most is a workable "focus follows mouse" solution.

Circa Snow Leopard, I used "mondomouse" but that is abandonware and does not work.

I tried to use "dwellclick" but it's not a good solution.

I _think_ there are now some new accessibility settings that actual enable a proper focus follows mouse in Mojave and later, but I don't have anything later than El Cap installed and am unable to test that ...

<comment><USER5> I've looked into this and the focus-follows-mouse part isn't actually all that difficult; there is SPI to do this. The difficulty is that picking what things should get focus is hard, because there are things in macOS that actually care about what is focused. For example, as I was running my test, from Xcode of course, I moved my cursor over the sidebar, which changed the focused item as I moved my mouse…of course, this had the effect of opening a different file. If anyone has any ideas on how do deal with this, I'd be happy to hear it!

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Also, check out

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091707](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24091707)

</comment><comment><USER3> For presentations turn on Zoom hotkeys in accessibility. Then you can instantly zoom in or out by pressing Control then doing a scroll gesture.

<comment><USER5> Thanks for the reminder to turn this back on; it used to cause some nasty WindowServer crashes in earlier betas…

</comment></comment><comment><USER72> Cmd-tab extras:

\- before releasing the command key and in between tabbing you can type H to hide/show and Q to quit the currently highlighted app. Note that quitting is often slow - can take a while for app's icon to disappear.

\- with shift to reverse direction

\- you can start a drag, then use Cmd-tab to switch to your destination app, and then drop

</comment><comment><USER73> FinderPath.

It makes Finder's title clickable to be able to copy or change the current path, just like Windows' explorer.exe.

<comment><USER5> I assume this requires disabling SIP?

</comment></comment><comment><USER74> In Finder and also in "Open File" dialogs, Command-Shift-G will allow you to type a path directly. You can use this to open the dialog to hidden paths, for example: "~/Library" and enter will open the dialog to that folder, allowing you to browse the folder normally.

</comment><comment><USER12> My personal must haves are Yoink for drag and drop, Moom for window sizing/placement, Default Folder X.

</comment><comment><USER75> The tip I want answered... how do I make the icons on the file open dialog large enough that they actually become useful? I can enlarge them in the finder but not in an open file dialog.

</comment><comment><USER76> Is there a setting to tell Mac OS to follow the mouse for focus, and optionally activate (bring to foreground) the window under the cursor (after say, a 300ms delay) ?

</comment><comment><USER77> > cmd+backtick is like cmd+tab but between windows of the same app.

Well, I wish that were completely true, because cmd+backtick only cycles through the windows of the application, while cmd+tab lets you select the application you want.

From Ubuntu (or maybe rather Ubuntu's default desktop environment?) I am used to cmd+backtick allowing me to select the window - I did find an application that does enable this behavior [1] but I wonder what else is out there. I used to use Hyperswitch but it doesn't seem to work on Catalina

[1] [https://contexts.co](https://contexts.co)

<comment><USER78> > > cmd+backtick is like cmd+tab but between windows of the same app.

> Well, I wish that were completely true, because cmd+backtick only cycles > through the windows of the application, while cmd+tab lets you select the > application you want.

I'm having trouble distinguishing between these two descriptions of the behaviour. What is different between what you say and what the author says?

<comment> D-Coder Cmd-tab shows the row of open applications, you can tab through them (or shift-tab to go backwards), OR mouse over and click whichever app you want.

Cmd-backtick only cycles through the windows.

<comment><USER47> Speaking of which — while cycling through windows with Cmd-tab, you can hide or quit them by pressing h or q, by keeping the command button pressed.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER79> When I turn off my bluetooth headphones osx switches my speaker to my microphone. Is there some hidden menu to disable this as an output device?

<comment><USER80> You might try the Audio MIDI Setup utility. This allows you to add/remove devices which might work to remove the microphone as an output device.

If you're looking for a fix and more advanced customization you could try Soundsource: [https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/](https://rogueamoeba.com/soundsource/)

</comment></comment><comment><USER81> Can anyone explain what a backtick is please?

<comment><USER82> It's the key beside "1", namely "`"

<comment><USER81> Ah, thank you. It's in a different position on my keyboard (Japanese) but now I know what it's called.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER83> Has anyone done or know of anyone who has done a third party security review of Karbiner-elements?

</comment><comment><USER84> in Finder, when you cusomize the toolbar(icons), yo can Drag-Drop, Folders, Files or Applications into the toolbar!

that's what I discovered lately, as cool feature.

</comment><comment><USER85> My tips: 1\. Forget Finder, it is just bad for any power user scenario, and IMO worst part of Mac OS. Use Forklift or other similar app for all GUI file management operations. 2\. Never drag and drop (this applies to any OS). Early release can cause all kinds of issues. 3\. Make sure that you have fast access to Activity Monitor, since some GUI applications do not show any reasonable progress indicators when they start long lasting compilation/export operations.

<comment><USER59> 1\. This. The only thing I miss from Windows is Explorer. I just can't understand how macOS dev feels Finder would work like that for 20 years without much change. It resets the config and the window size for a folder at every random occasion, creates .DS_Store garbage all over, you cannot even cut files and just feels uneasy. I even enable "Quit Finder" menu and get it out of my app cycle list but it randomly resurrects itself...

ForkLift is something that keeps my sanity.

<comment><USER61> _creates .DS_Store garbage all over_

Has Windows stopped polluting the world with Thumbs_db files? I hate when I see those things on a server.

<comment><USER86> Yes, ever since Windows Vista thumbnails are in a central per-user directory. Old thumbnails are removed automatically. Definitely an improvement over previous behavior, at this point I would say it just needs easier configurability.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


This machine catches stingrays: Pwnie Express demos cellular threat detector - <AUTHOR> http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/04/this-machine-catches-stingrays-pwnie-express-demos-cellular-threat-detector/ <comment><USER2> Here is the matrix of "odd events" that you need to be able to detect in a GSM network:

[https://opensource.srlabs.de/projects/mobile-network- assessm...](https://opensource.srlabs.de/projects/mobile-network-assessment- tools/wiki/CatcherCatcher)

(scroll down to table)

So while these very high level alerts from Pwnie are nice, I want to see what is really happening. Have I gotten any silent SMS or silent calls ? What network am I on and what cellID am I on ? Do I have an encrypted connection ?

I'm fairly certain that Pwnie does not have a baseband that they control and so there is a lot they (and we) cannot do, but there are things that can be done, and that outdated table of suspicious events can probably be expanded (and updated for LTE).

Comments ?

I was at their booth today at RSA and they confirmed that these cellular functions are _not_ available on the PWN Phone, which makes me suspicious that the cell modem they are using is _not_ a USB modem, but rather a minipci module that goes into their box. Would like to know what modem they chose...

<comment><USER3> A silent sms is like a ping. It generates a delivery receipt but doesn't display in the inbox. But what do you mean by silent call?

<comment><USER4> A silent call is when the phone is connected to a base station and forced into transmitting, you don't notice your phone is doing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> That's useful. It should be possible to do almost as well with a suitably programmed phone, if you can get to the RF control level. What's needed is something that gives to the app level the same kind of info that's available for nearby WiFi stations. Then anyone could write analysis apps.

"Cell tower pinning", so that your phone remembers the cell towers in an area and reports new ones, would be useful. When a new one pops up, that's an interesting event. That capability would be useful for other purposes, such as finding and reporting coverage holes.

<comment><USER6> Like this?

* [https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/](https://secupwn.github.io/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector/)

* [https://github.com/SecUpwN/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector](https://github.com/SecUpwN/Android-IMSI-Catcher-Detector)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> I kind of wish we would just use a more secure cellular protocol to begin with. And I know that's a lot to ask for, but can't we just have nice things?

<comment><AUTHOR> Encrypted content over the cellular protocol seems more plausible than a secure protocol, given that a) it's a feature that phones can roam across networks and b) the way these "exploits" work is for LE to emulate an endpoint in a system whose principles actively collaborate with LE (to some degree under force of law).</comment></comment>


Fakemyinbox – Free Temp Mail Generator - <AUTHOR> https://www.fakemyinbox.com <comment><USER3> I have run a similar service for a number of years: [https://disposeamail.com/](https://disposeamail.com/)

These services can be quite useful for legitimate things, but they also tend to be a magnet for spam, porn, scams, etc. (which is the point, really - <USER2> these types of email don't wind up in your real inbox).

</comment><comment><USER4> yet another temp email service, thx for the thing! If possible, please add more dot com domains, as many sites will block non-.com extensions.

<comment><USER5> IMO They also need a less revealing domain name, or they will be banned around pretty quickly from the same people they should protect against.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> The Chaos Computer Club also have a similar service:

[https://anonbox.net/](https://anonbox.net/)

</comment><comment> Lex-2008 new alternative to mailinator which is banned on some websites</comment>


Amazon.com Credit Builder: Build credit with no annual fee - <AUTHOR> https://www.amazon.com/iss/credit/creditbuilder?pr=conplcc <comment><USER3> Pretty sure they're breaking the law regarding the 2009 CARD Act. It took a search on that page for % to find the actual APR, which is 28.24% -- That was the 26th result on the page out of 38. The first 25 being provisions regarding their 5% back.

The APR is required to be prominently displayed so consumers can do their due diligence on deciding on a card.

But whatever, obviously Amazon is getting into the slave credit business. Like they care, and like anyone would bother holding them accountable.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, I don't think burying it in the ninth paragraph of the Terms could be reasonably called 'prominent'.

For that matter, the landing page for the Apple Card shoves it into a footnote.

Seems like a case of "tech company trying to act like bank has no idea how to comply with banking regulations".

<comment><USER5> It's highly unlikely that Amazon or Apple "had no idea how to comply with banking regulations".

<comment><USER6> Both Amazon and Apple have law departments larger than most large startups. It was intentional. They know nobody will do anything. So really, it's a case of "tech company pretends to be incompetent at pretending to be a bank."

<comment><USER7> Sign up X customers and make Y dollars.

Get fined Z dollars for breaking a regulation.

If Y > Z, congratulate those responsible.

<comment><USER8> +/\- TOO_BIG_TO_FAIL

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Can someone explain to me why America has this strange system of "building credit" while other countries don't really seem to?

In my country there are agencies that track, for example, the fact that you had a debt collector called on you, but you don't have to have ever used credit card to get a loan, which seems totally bizarre to me.

When I got a home loan the primary checks were about making sure my income was as I said it was, that I had a stable job, and then they wanted bank statements to see what my expenses were. My existing bank didn't require statements of course and just automatically worked out my weekly budget from my account.

Why would banks want to trust some arbitrary gameable score when the basics are barely more complicated to check when getting a loan?

<comment><USER10> A record of successfully repaying debt is highly relevant to whether you're likely to repay your debt in future. Credit risk is only partly about affordability; many people who can afford to reliably repay their debts still fail to do so, for a variety of reasons.

It doesn't really matter to lenders whether you "game" the system; if you're sufficiently organised, responsible and financially stable to take out and repay debts solely for the purpose of improving your credit history, then you're probably a good person to lend to. Americans tend to use a _lot_ of consumer credit, so not having a credit card, a cellphone contract or a car loan makes you anomalous.

I don't know what country you're in, but here in the UK "building credit" is very much a thing; I'd be very surprised if it had no impact whatsoever on your creditworthiness in your country.

[https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating- credit...](https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit- score/)

<comment><USER11> Don't you think it's bad for a society to have a system that encourages people to get loans?

I know for the businesses, it makes perfect sense to have a credit system, it's just that I appreciate it's not a thing over here: people should incur as little debt as possible.

<comment><USER12> There is bad debt and good debt.

Getting a credit card and spending up to the limit while only making the minimum payments is bad debt. Buying a luxury car that's more expensive than you can really afford because the car dealer talked you into it is bad debt.

On the other hand, if you need a car to get to work, getting a car loan for a practical car is probably good debt. If you're married and about to have your second child and need a house, a mortgage is probably good debt because you're building equity, the house might appreciate, and anyway the alternative is throwing away a similar amount on rent.

Point being, it is probably not best to always seek to minimize debt. There are trade-offs to consider. Often, avoiding debt is better, but sometimes the negatives of debt are more than outweighed by some opportunity it unlocks.

So is it bad for society? It depends on how much bad debt it encourages and how much good debt it encourages.

<comment><USER13> Where this becomes "bad for society" is when the customer _has to_ take on debt for the sole purpose of building a credit score. Some of us would prefer not to utilize debt at all, but if we want to (for example) rent an apartment we may be _required_ to have a credit score. Even if we offer to pay the full term's rent up front. Source: Experience.

<comment><USER14> > rent an apartment we may be _required_ to have a credit score. Even if we > offer to pay the full term's rent up front.

Well to be fair, offering the full term rent up front to avoid a credit check seems sketchy as hell. Did you still let him do a credit check? He could have use this to verify your identity. I know a virtual bank in Canada that use them for that (if you refuse, they simply ask you to go do an identity check in a Canada Post).

<comment><USER15> Well, what are you supposed to do if you would fail the credit check (but pass the identity check)?

Live nowhere?

Because if you won't pass the credit check for one property agency, you won't pass for any of them.

I've been in that situation. I had to pay 14 months rent up front. Crazy thing is I had the money and could pay it fine, but I couldn't pass a credit check to pay exactly the same amount monthly.

Actually the crazier thing is they required 12 months rent up front again, for the second year. You'd think by then I'd have a track record of paying rent.

All because paying rent for many years does not count towards credit rating, even though it's highly regular and the single largest outgoing for most people. (Paying mortgage does count. Annoying.)

<comment><USER14> I have an hard time understanding your point.

Sure I agree that paying rent should count towards credit rating, but that's not an argument against credit rating.

A bad credit rating means that it's a bad idea giving you a unsecured loan... that's all. An apartment is sadly pretty close to a loan, even more so with all the renter protection you get out of it.

Paying the full rent in theses cases make sense then.

My point is that in the lostphilosopher case, it was maybe simply used as an identity check, making sure it wasn't from a criminal. The resulting credit score wouldn't matter because of the full rent.

> You'd think by then I'd have a track record of paying rent.

Well, if they feel safer that way, again make sense. Why won't you personally give me a loan? The same apply to that case.

<comment><USER15> > An apartment is sadly pretty close to a loan, even more so with all the > renter protection you get out of it.

A place to live is also a basic life necessity.

Something is very wrong in a society where a "bad credit rating", which can arise from many things (some of them having nothing to do with credit - <USER2> malpractice comes to mind), threatens homelessness _even when you can afford to rent_.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Protip for anyone considering moving to the US. Make sure you open an Amex card in your current country at least 3 months before moving. Amex has a system where as a customer from another region they will let you open one card without needing US credit rating! Make sure you pick a card that doesn't have an annual fee as your first card, since a component of most credit scores is the age of your oldest card, so you want to keep this card open forever, so a fee would suck.

I'm approaching 2 years in the us and this has been quite helpful, however I'm still in the situation someone else mentioned. My credit score is high, but I have gotten rejections from "not long enough history" (chase)

But getting an Amex platinum after the fact was no problem to get in on the whole Airport Lounges US credit card thing.

<comment><USER17> AFAIK, if:

1\. You have had an account with the Canadian RBC Royal Bank 2\. You move to a state in the US where the US RBC Bank operates in

or

1\. You have had an account with the Canadian TD Bank 2\. You move to a state in the US where the US TD bank operates in

then, you can ask the US banks to look at your corresponding Canadian bank's credit history in making a decision in approving you for one of the US bank's credit cards (YMMV - your mileage may vary).

</comment></comment><comment><USER18> This is legitimately a useful service for those who need it. The status quo has created a unintended "chicken & egg" problem wherein people need ok credit in order to start building good credit.

This acts as an escape hatch allowing people to build up their bad credit up to a point where they'd qualify for normal credit cards.

<comment><USER19> There are already dozens of secured credit cards for the credit-challenged: [https://www.creditcards.com/secured/](https://www.creditcards.com/secured/)

The 5% back on Amazon.com purchases would give a slight edge to this new secured card.

<comment><USER20> 5% back on only Amazon with a $120 annual fee (prime) is not very good.

<comment><USER21> Plus 28% APR, though I can't imagine holding a balance on a secured card.

<comment><USER22> Secured cards are held by irresponsible people who carry balances. Otherwise they would get unsecured cards.

<comment><USER21> Holding a balance does not mean you're irresponsible, it just means you will be paying interest.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> After reading through the page, I don't see what makes this different from normal secured credit cards which have been around forever. Is it just the Amazon branding and gift-card promo?

<comment><USER24> It's worse than your typical secured credit card because it locks you into Amazon.com and services that use Amazon Pay. Basically, it's an agreement to buy Amazon products or products through Amazon until Amazon determines that your purchasing and payment habits reflect those of a person with good credit.

People saying that it's great because you get 5% back on Amazon purchases are myopic. Nobody on HN would be celebrating the Starbucks Card Credit Builder where you get a 5% discount on purchases and can build credit but can only do so by purchasing products from Starbucks and its affiliates. Why? Because as others have said, there are already plenty of secured Visa/Mastercard cards out there that don't convert your capital to funnybux and lock you in to a particular vendor and its best buddies.

<comment><USER25> On the other hand, Starbucks really only sells one sort of thing (food) while Amazon sells many things. Furthermore, Starbucks is a luxury, but on Amazon you can, I think, buy many of life's necessities at competitive prices.

I agree that the motive is not necessarily pure. Furthermore I think Amazon is a huge force opposite sustainable economics, and that the American credit system, credit bureaus, and the symbiotic partners who encourage people to take on debt and prey on them in that vulnerable, _owned_ state, are a diabolical construct engineered for social control and a crime against the American people.

But, I think the comparison with Starbucks is not quite right. This is short- sightedly better _and_ long-sightedly worse, for a lot of the same reasons.

<comment><USER24> You're right that it wasn't a good analogy. More like the Wal-Mart Store Card Credit Builder.

<comment><USER26> A Wal-Mart Store Card Credit builder that gave 5% cash back would be a great product for a lot of people, and just as worthy of "celebration" as this Amazon card.

I don't have any problems with store cards in general. I see them as a mutually beneficial agreement between retailers and frequent customers. It allows the retailer to capture a portion of the transaction revenue that would normally go to a third party (and some extra data about the customer), and in return pass on some of the savings to the customer in the form of discounts and rewards.

<comment><USER24> You need Prime to get the 5%. Prime costs $119/year. You would need to spend $2,380 or nearly $200/mo just to make it worthwhile.

Sorry; that's not a good product at all.

<comment><USER27> > You need Prime to get the 5%. Prime costs $119/year.

There are loopholes to this that make Prime much cheaper though.

For example, Prime Student [1] is $6.49/month or $59/year.

The EBT subsidized Prime membership mentioned elsewhere in the thread is $5.99/month (no annual discount).

You can also use Amazon Household [3] on an existing Prime membership to qualify multiple people in the household as Prime members. All members get the 5% benefit, not just the card holder. I doubt this stacks on the student version but it definitely does on vanilla Prime and likely on the subsidized version as well.

[1]: [https://www.amazon.com/Amazon- Student/b?node=668781011](https://www.amazon.com/Amazon- Student/b?node=668781011)

[2]: [https://www.amazon.com/l/16256994011](https://www.amazon.com/l/16256994011)

[3]: [https://www.amazon.com/myh/households](https://www.amazon.com/myh/households)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> History repeating itself...Sears was many peoples first credit cards, they'd give almost anyone a $300 card (which could only be used at their stores)

<comment><USER24> Yep. I'm really confused why this press release/advertisement for Amazon is on the front page of Hacker News. It's not new technology; it's not even close to being innovative. It's literally just an Amazon logo pasted onto an old idea. This is an advertisement.

<comment><USER29> HN just likes to have a discussion whenever Amazon offers a new product or service for whatever reason.

Same with Apple or Google.

<comment><USER24> I'm relatively new around here but it's a cringeworthy level of uncritical sycophancy. (Perhaps that's too harsh; perhaps not.)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> > with an eligible Prime membership

So there is a fee, it's a $119/year prime membership

<comment><USER31> I didn't dig into the FAQ or fine print, but I wonder what happens if you get the card, and then your Prime membership runs out?

EDIT:

> The 5% back benefit may apply to purchases (less returns and other credits) > made using the Amazon.com Store Card Credit Builder when signed into an > Amazon.com account with an Eligible Amazon Prime Membership, including > 1-Click orders and purchases made at physical Amazon locations (in each > case, where 5% back is selected as the default option or where Promotional > Financing is selected as the default option but is not available for the > particular purchase).

It seems like the 5% back is only for Prime membership folks. I think anyone can get the card, with or without Prime, though. So then it doesn't have a yearly fee, technically.

<comment><USER30> They almost surely just close the account after some amount of time. Like any other bank if you canceled your accounts with them.

<comment><USER31> See my edit on the comment. It looks like that's only for the 5% back. There isn't a fee technically.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> Why do secured credit cards have an interest rate? They're charging you to borrow money from yourself? The cost of maintaining an account should be covered by the processing fees, right?

<comment><USER21> Nothing more than greed. It's secured, the company will never lose money on it no matter what.

</comment></comment><comment><USER33> It's backed by Synchrony meaning it will have impossibly shitty management tools, can't speak to a human without spending an hour on the phone. No thanks.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is nice just for the 5% back on amazon purchases. I'll likely set it up just to wash through all my prime purchases.

<comment><USER35> Just pay it off fast as that interest rate is high!

<comment><USER36> Interest rates on credit cards don't matter if you pay off the statement balance on or before the due date.

<comment><USER37> The billing statements provided by these vendors, if taken at face value, clearly encourages the holding of a balance. Avoiding a balance is a reasonable goal and a smart fiscal policy, but the penalties for holding a balance, in my opinion, should not be so high.

I think a 28% APR is way high and their tiered financing strikes me as complicated. Do they clearly describe the tiers and payments required to stay in compliance and avoid that hefty interest rate? I bet they don't, that certainly isn't the case with other Synchrony cards.

<comment><USER38> Every single credit card statement I've ever seen clearly states the balance and payment due date before which interest will begin to accrue. Every single one offers an option to automatically pay it every month so you don't even have to do anything, other than not spend more than the cash you have in your bank account.

<comment><USER21> >other than not spend more than the cash you have in your bank account.

So then why bother opening a credit card?

<comment><USER39> Float, cash back/mileage rewards, emergencies?

Plus, if you're traveling, you _really_ don't want to put hotels or rental cars on a debit card - they put a huge hold on your balance.

<comment><USER40> > Plus, if you're traveling, you really don't want to put hotels or rental > cars on a debit card - they put a huge hold on your balance.

Isn't any hold equally large on a credit card? I've never noticed any differences in the size of holds between credit and debit (Finnish VISA cards).

<comment><USER38> It's the same, but people tend to pay large bills using bank accounts (in the US, landlords, mortgage issuers, taxes for government, insurance, utilities, tuition, etc typically don't accept credit cards for payment.)

So you don't want to give someone access to your bank account unless you absolutely have to, since they can "authorize" or "hold" funds in your account which can cause other expenses to not get paid.

<comment><USER40> Makes sense.

Somewhat related, I'm guessing from this that card usage limits are not common in US? Here almost(?) all debit/credit cards have daily limits that you can change via web/app/call, so there can be no arbitrarily sized holds.

<comment><USER38> There probably are, but they apply to the total of all transactions, so it wouldn't seem useful against protecting from a single merchant using up all of your funds/credit.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER41> I just finished a bankruptcy a month ago. Before a tenant fiasco my credit score was ~800. Now that I've gone through the process I'm at ~630. It's not that bad.

But when I went to look for an apartment in NYC. I was constantly denied due to the bankruptcy on my record. I felt the solution they offered was downright predatory. Either a for paid guarantor. Which took 3 months rent as a non refundable collateral, then an additional 3 months as buffer for failed rent. That was on top of most land lords wanting 6 to 8 months rent for down payment. Another service I saw was a guarantor insurance plan. Which tacked an extra ~8% as an insurance fee for the first year, than 5% the next year.

The only reason I care about my score right now. Is related to putting a roof over my head. Due to the above I went down to Philly and only had to put up four months instead of the typical three.

To rebuild my credit I had two secured cards. One for monthly services, the other for larger purchases. I paid them down to 10% each month. This is what brought my score to around 630ish range.

Since being discharged. I have been receiving offers that feel predatory to me. House loans with a consultation fee. Or auto loans with really high APR. I've also received a number of credit rebuilding loan offers. Which have non- refundable application fees ranging from 75$-100% with a variable APR between 24-32%.

I'm blessed to be a well paid software employee. Because once you're on the other side of the fence. No one trusts you, and the fine print is much more aggressive. I really feel now for people who are barely scraping by. Having to sign these agreements just to cover a roof.

I will look at this just to rebuild my score. It may not be the best. The only other company that approved me was Dell.

We do need a better program to help people recover. Without penalizing them with higher APR or hidden fees. If they got into that perilous position. They may not be on the best footing.

</comment><comment><USER42> The only drawback I can think of for this is that it's a PLCC and not a Visa or a Mastercard. That said it looks like it's got some neat benefits like the 5% back on Amazon purchases and promotional financing that seem to be on cards for people with established credit.

</comment><comment><USER43> This is called a "secured" card. Pretty much all banks offer this.

</comment><comment><USER44> Makes sense as Amazon wants to get to as many people as possible and those who can't keep a card ... might want a handy route to build credit and still use Amazon.

</comment><comment><USER45> I think most banks had secured credit cards for long time. I got mine from bank of America with 300 deposit which gave me 300 limit. they refunded it after 6 months

</comment><comment><USER46> This is perfect for immigrants who have good income but can't get approved for any credit cards because of lack of history.

<comment><USER47> Immigrant here. I've got approved for $10K CC at BofA without any history, just provided a bunch of documentation like proof of income. It's also a good idea to apply for some credit union to loan your vehicle even you can afford buying it for cash.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> This would have been great when I arrived in US with zero credit history. While I did get secured card from the bank, it took for ever to get a line of credit of more than $500/month. The "monitor/improve your credit score" approach is good too as it can be a very foreign concept when you come from Europe...

</comment><comment><USER17> Here is an article with the same story from a different source: [https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazons-new-credit-card- ta...](https://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazons-new-credit-card-targets- people-with-bad-credit-2019-06-10) .

</comment><comment><USER49> The comments here about how bad America's privatized credit system is, make me wonder what it would take to "disrupt" that industry. I guess the hard thing is that it's about having relationships with all these giant institutions, so there's a strong in-group bias.

</comment><comment><USER50> > standard variable purchase APR is 28.24%

Amazon has practically brought payday loans to scale.

<comment><USER51> Payday loans are often 300-600%. Or at least were in many states before regulation was passed. See here for details state by state:

[https://paydayloaninfo.org/state- information](https://paydayloaninfo.org/state-information)

That said, APR of 20%+ on high reward credit cards is not uncommon. I have various cards with various APRs over 20%. I have never paid a penny of interest on them so I don't track which APR is which.. usually the juicier the "reward" of a card, the higher the APR. Which matters not if you fully repay.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> There should be more was for people to build credit within our financial system, this along with some recent efforts by the bigger institutions to incorporate factors like utility bills are a nice step forward.

<comment><USER53> Have you read the terms for those up-your-score programs? If I were a CRA in light of all of my issues from FCRA transgressions to gaping security holes I'd want the entire world in mandatory arbitration for everything.

</comment></comment><comment><USER54> Looks like Amazon has figured out where to find even more Amazon.com customers by helping improve otherwise risky consumers' credit. Even applying gives $10 — in the form of an Amazon gift card.

</comment><comment><USER55> Does this tie in with recent news about local pushback against cash-free businesses, on social-justice grounds? (Amazon cash-free stores not accessible to poor people without credit cards.)</comment>


Giant Swiss Army Knife Customer Reviews - <AUTHOR> http://www.amazon.com/Wenger-16999-Giant-Swiss-Knife/product-reviews/B001DZTJRQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_btm_link_1?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0

<comment><USER2> Well, I'm not sure HN is the right place for that kind of things.

But I think Amazon customer reviews form one of the most interesting new kind of "literature" born from the Web: no organization (that I know of), no centralization, no pre-existing rules, organic growth around regular features hacked for a completely different purpose…

I love it.

I've "collected" a bunch of them on my tumblr:

<http://johncoltrane.tumblr.com/search/amazon></comment>


Hidden Features of JavaScript - <AUTHOR> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/61088/hidden-features-of-javascript <comment><USER2> I don't know why the second-top one has so many votes, it's completely wrong.

       var x = 1;
       var y = 3;
       var list = [0,1,2];
       x in list; //true
       y in list; //false
       1 in list; //true
       y in [3,4,5]; //true

That last expression is _false_. This is because the "in" operator does _not_ check for values in the list; it checks for keys. Try this:

       javascript:alert(3 in [3,4,5])

The only things that will be true for "X in [3,4,5]" are 0, 1, and 2 for X (since these are the natural keys for the terms in the array). More specifically, "in" in general checks for members associated with objects (e.g., keys in an array, methods of a class, etc.):

       javascript:alert("The setFlag method " + ("setFlag" in {setFlag:function(){}} ? "exists" : "does not exist"))

EDIT: This makes the keyword considerably less useful (since indexOf doesn't work for the Array object in IE--although jQuery has a way around this), although it can be used to replace the less elegant

       if (typeof object.method == "undefined")

<comment><USER3> Oh whoa! I never realized I could just type "javascript:..." into the status bar in Firefox and have it run it. That's awesome. (In retrospect, I realize I should've realized it, because I've always known that the javascript links are "javascript:functionCall()" or some such.)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> This is really scary. Hidden features??

Was this posted to show just how much misinformation and dumbing down there is at stackoverflow?

As if we need more misinformation about javascript on the net.

<comment><USER5> You know, it's kind of sad. Before reading the article, I was going to post a reply to your comment like "but omg, javascript has functions that are values!!1". Then I read the article, and found that that's the first "hidden feature".

I guess "hidden feature" means "something that's not in PHP".

I also like how people use terms like "null coalescing operator" when everyone else calls it "short circuiting". They are so smart!!11!

<comment><USER6> The "Hidden features of PHP" section is pretty damn funny actually, but not in a good way. I can summarise it for you if you're lazy:

      "ZOMG - PHP has arrays! Arrays are like, super cool!"

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> If you want to learn something new about JavaScript, just skim through Douglas Crockford's articles. As long as I've been doing JavaScript, I learn something new or rediscover something every single time: <http://javascript.crockford.com/>

</comment><comment><USER8> Wow, the top answer really doesn't understand first class functions at all.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, that's a pretty bad example!

<comment><USER10> That may not be a particularly interesting example, but I don't think it's bad.

      var a = 5;
      var a = function() {
        alert('hello world');
      };
      var a = 2;

It's not a closure (which is what I assume you were hoping for), but it definitely reveals something pretty unexpected about the language for someone who has no experience with first class functions.

<comment><USER9> Yeah, that's also pretty bad. It doesn't show what you can do with the function.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I have enough rep on the site to edit any question or answer. If you find something that's factually incorrect, post a comment on it, link it here and I'll edit it. Get off your high horses and help some people out.

<comment><USER12> High horse? I feel no impetus to participate in that community.

What I do find interesting is how it seems very much an extrapolation of Jeff Atwood's blog - much as HN, I suppose, is largely populated by people who are attracted to Paul Graham's essays. On the one hand, this is perfectly natural; on the other hand I find it fascinating.

Edit: I'm not saying that the people in these communities necessarily agree with the opinions of their founders.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I can understand covering the site itself, but posting links to the content? Did we run out of real Hacker News?

<comment><AUTHOR> You could always try to find interesting content and post it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=kylec>

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This is a matter of taste, of course, as we don't have a good study of programming code comprehension yet, but I think the coolest part of JS are cond statements using the trinary operator:

        var foo = predicate  ? "one" :
                  predicate2 ? "two" :
                               "default";

And short-circuit and/or:

        var foo = uncheckedFoo || "default";
        var wiz = (bar && bar(foo)) || "default";

Truthy values get in the way sometimes (especially 0), but it sure as hell beats a ton of if...else crud.

Worst part of JS, while we're at it:

        true == "0" == 0 == false

<comment><USER15>
         true == "0" == 0 == false

This is untrue.

        > true == "0"
        false
        > "0" == 0
        true
        > 0 == false
        true
        > true == "0" == 0 == false
        false

<comment><USER16> I think he meant something like this:

        true == !0 == "0" == false

Which still isn't that interesting, since it is much the same as:

        true == (false == false)

More interesting, something like:

        > ! 0 ==   "0"
        false
        >   0 == ! "0"
        true

Since "!" acts as if false === 0.</comment></comment></comment>


How Much Would It Take For You To Sell Your Friends; Apparently Very Little - <AUTHOR> http://www.centernetworks.com/how-much-to-sell-out-social-networking <comment><USER2> Er, "sell your friends" and "put a paid message in your personal stream" are NOT equivalent. I guess "sell your friends" will get more hits, though.</comment>


Secrets at Apple's Core [Entire Talk] - <AUTHOR> http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2973

<comment><USER2> Pretty interesting talk, though he paints Apple in a glamorous way. However, in the Q&A he does address the real culture of Apple. Apple is a culture of work. You put in long hours, you don't get very flexible vacation, you don't really have a work-life balance, and if you work on a major product you'll be sent to China to suffer in a factory for 3 weeks every other month. I've heard the burnout rate is high and the average number of divorces amongst its employees who have stayed longer than 5 years is 3. Also, Apple isn't an angel abroad. They put their vendors in tough positions and exert their power of scale and cash where it can benefit them most.

<comment><USER3> What do you mean by "suffer in a factory"? FWIW, I worked for a Silicon Valley company that sent me to China on a regular basis to solve problems on the factory floor and/or in the engineering offices nearby - I'd spend a few weeks in China, then come home for a week or two, then go back again - and it was one of the most fascinating experiences of my career. There was no "suffering" at my factory so far as I could tell. The factory environment was generally optimized for getting work done and foreign visitors were pretty much immune to the few mild annoyances the local workers were subject to (such as having to go through security when exiting the factory floor - we had a badge that got us around that. And we had access to nicer bathrooms.)

<comment><USER2> Sorry, my comment wasn't very well formulated. I actually was trying to be slightly sarcastic and over-dramatic to make a point. The point being, Apple seems to demand quite a bit from its employees, such that they are required to make sacrifices other companies do not usually require. For me, flying 14 hours to be away from friends and family and not allowed to go anywhere but the factory and the hotel in which you stay seems like suffering. To others, that could quite possibly be the best experience of their lives. To each his own I guess.

<comment><USER3> Why do you believe an Apple employee wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere but the factory and the hotel? Not that there's necessarily a lot _to_ do in the area, but are you saying they couldn't go out to lunch at a nearby hotpot restaurant? Or at least schedule their return so that there's a weekend to explore Hong Kong on the way back?

Me and my coworkers did a bunch of weekend excursions whenever we were in or passing through Hong Kong such as: hiking up to see the Big Buddha of Lantau Island, having dinner at Igor's (a monster-themed restaurant), seeing the local amusement park, finding a private Thai "dinner club", taking the ferry to Macau to play blackjack, seeing museums to get their take on the local history, or just wandering around to find food or souvenirs (the "Temple Street night market") or illegal software (the "Golden Arcade") or video games that hadn't come out in the US yet (Dance Dance Revolution was HUGE there in 1999)...

Also, I sometimes scheduled my trips to fly to Hong Kong with a stopover at Narita Airport so I could stay in Tokyo with a friend and take a few days of my vacation time there with my company having paid all my travel expenses.

If you _like_ exploring bits of China and the surrounding area, having a business excuse to be going there a lot is awesome. Even if the neighborhood of the factory itself is a bit boring - and it is - the journey there and back can be fascinating. Especially if you like your coworkers - both the ones from your home company and the ones you meet at the factory - and have tried to learn a bit of the local languages. I even had fun interacting with the girls who were working on the line doing electronics assembly - I taught them some magic tricks and brought pictures I'd taken on prior trips and we tried to have interesting conversations despite the language and other cultural barriers.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I'm 20 minutes into it and enjoying it. Adam Lashinsky does have some interesting observations.

<comment><AUTHOR> Yeah, I found a gem or two in there the first time I went through it. I didn't take notes though, so I'm planning to go back through again when I can focus on it (I was listening at work at the $dayjob first time around) and take some notes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> Regarding crapware preinstalled on computers:

"Apple doesn't insult it's customers in the first ten minutes with its product."

There is a reason it's called crapware.

</comment><comment><USER5> When asked if Apple could been located elsewhere:

"Apple is headquarter-centric....maybe it could have been in Boston, but Steve's feet would get cold when he walked around."</comment>


Ask HN: How do you find a name for your startup? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> Make a list of names couple three words together semi-mispellings, etc. Go wild make it long, think of names that your target audience will easily remember, type in.

Now go back through the list and pear it down to what works for your startup.

Now see which ones you can get a domain from; best is .com, others you will have to be a bit more aggressive in marketing the URL unless the extension is part of the name. Be prepared to buy it on the spot (have a cheap registrar handy), hesitating (especially on some not so trustworthy whois services, might get your domain tied up by cybersquatters.

Got your domain? Like the name? Make that your startup name.

You can go through more filtering and refactoring the names and refine more it's up to you, but for budget conscious Id base the startup on a domain you already have then try to purchase it if its already taken.

</comment><comment><USER3> Look thru .com domains first. If the .com isn't available, I'll keep looking.

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't like to focus on the domains available. I think it's very shortsighted.

<comment><USER3> Well you also don't want to have issues with branding down the road.</comment></comment></comment>