Importing photos from Photos app on iPhone to Mac

This answer assumes:

your iPhone is not jailbroken and therefore does not have jailbroken options
your MacBook is running macOS 10.10 or later
that you have iTunes installed on your MacBook
that you don't mind purchasing some software that can help you do this (and more).

You can download/purchase Macroplant's iExplorer software. This software has been around for a long time now and generally works very well.

Using this software you can browse the contents of your iPhone, including photos and videos stored within the iOS Photos app. Below is a screenshot of the options I get when I've selected an album or folder within the Photos app and clicked on the Export > button:

Note: Just to be clear, the above screenshot is taken from a Mac with iExplorer installed. I am browsing the iPhone from within iExplorer on the Mac, selecting an album, and clicking on the Export > button.

iExplorer also allows you to mount albums/photos as a disk within Finder on the Mac so you can drag and drop files from the iPhone to your Mac. Once copied across you can then deal wth them like any other files on your Mac (e.g. you could import them into the Photos app on your Mac).

Below is a screenshot showing right-clicking on the Recorded Videos folder and selecting the Mount as Disk option.

Note: Just to be clear, the above screenshot is taken from within iExplorer on the Mac. I have selected the Recorded Videos folder and mounted it as a disk on the Mac.

I strongly suggest you check out the iExplorer page because it does a whole lot more than just transfer photos. You can also try it our for free and, if I recall correctly, can transfer a limited number of items.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated in any way with Microplant or the iExplorer software.

Finally, there are other software packages that claim to be able to do similar things to iExplorer. However I have never personally used them so cannot attest to how good they are, but you may want to try these out:

iMazing
Phoneview


Chrome window buttons hidden when Save As / Open window appear

Option 1 = Switch to fullscreen

Option 2 = Autohide the dock

When you try to save this time resize the dialog window so its not so low and continue saving.

It should remember the same size when you switch back to your normal screen or dock settings.


Applescript to quit all active browser processes

tell application "System Events"
    set ProcessList to name of every process
    if "Safari" is in ProcessList then
        tell application "Safari"
            quit
        end tell
    end if
end tell

Repeat as needed


MacBook Pro - Install slower memory than specified?

What will happen?  Either one of the following:

It will work but the memory will run at a slower speed
Your MacBook Pro won't boot

I personally don't use slower memory than what is recommended, but I have upgraded machines that had slower memory and those were working just fine when I did.  However, it's a pretty good bet that if Corsair says it's compatible, it will work.

If the memory isn't compatible, you aren't going to harm anything.  Your computer won't boot and will more than likely give you a series of tones indicating your memory is bad.


Boot Camp flash drive not showing on boot for late 2009 iMac

Update #2

I see you were able to successfully install Windows 10 by modifying the procedure given here. At some point in the future, I should replace this answer with a procedure similar to what you followed.

Update #1

In my answer, I did state that I would need additional information before recommending changes to the steps given. Apple has published that you can run Windows on a second internal drive, but you can not install Windows on the second drive. Apple recommends removing the first drive, installing Windows and then reinstalling the first drive. This is not a practical solution for MBP users.

I still have no more information about the partitioning of your internal drives than when you first posted your question. However, you may wish to try this older post regarding installing Windows: How do I install Windows 10 on MacBookPro5,1, with no optical drive (SSD+HDD)

Orignal Answer

Apple recommends using an USB optical SuperDrive to install Windows when the internal optical drive in unavailable.

Even though Apple documentation states a late 2009 iMac does not support Windows 10, this may not be true. I installed Windows 10 on my mid 2007 iMac. In fact, this post was entered using Windows 10 on this Mac. Generally, you should install using the latest drivers issued for your model Mac.

Installing directly from the iso file is possible, but the process is tedious. You also have to install free third party software. The steps would be similar to the answer given here. Of course, you do not have the standard OS X installation configuration. I would require addition information regarding the partitioning of your internal drives, before recommending changes to the steps given.

If interested, submit a comment below.


Printing 2 pages per sheet results in 4 pages

I have the same problem. The only way I manage to print 2 pages is printing it as a two-page layout PDF (which generates the expected two-pages per sheet layout), and then printing this as a one page per sheet. If I print directly, it will print 4 pages per sheet when I specify 2. This happens for the last 3 Mac OS versions, independent of the printer or program (I just checked with a PDF from Safari).

This happens from Sierra up to Movaje (as of now).


Proxy username and password not remembered in system preferences

Looks like this was a transient bug in 10.6.7 (and possibly earlier), I upgraded the OS to 10.6.8 and now the dialog remembers my settings.


Is there a quick way to delete Foldered bookmarks directly from Safari bookmark bar?

Since it's a folder, hold down the Command and Option keys, then drag the folder off the Bookmarks Bar. You'll get a confirmation dialog saying "Are you sure?" Just click the Delete Folder button in the dialog.

Holding the Command and Control keys keys down gets you a contextual menu that allows you to edit the name of the folder, edit its contents (jumps you to the Bookmarks window to do that), delete it, copy it, and a few other things.


How to stop Mail from automatic "mark as read" behavior? (in Sierra)

"Mail Act-On" by SmallCubed has a feature to "Do not mark message as read". It currently costs $30 and that is a lot if that is the only feature you plan to use (it's main purpose is to help you create advanced mail processing rules). I have used it in the past and it worked well (currently using Outlook).


MacBook Air Starts up when I close the lid

Try resetting the NVRAM and the SMC on your Mac then test it afterwards and see if it still continues.

NVRAM aka PRAM
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204063

  How to reset NVRAM

  Shut down your Mac, then turn it on and immediately press and hold
  these four keys together: Option, Command, P, and R. You can release
  the keys after about 20 seconds, during which your Mac might appear to
  restart.

  On Mac computers that play a startup sound, you can release the keys
  after the second startup sound. On iMac Pro, you can release the keys
  after the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time.

SMC (System Management Controller)
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

  How to reset the SMC on Mac notebooks

  First, determine whether the battery is removable. Most older Mac
  notebooks have removable batteries. Mac notebooks that have
  nonremovable batteries include MacBook Pro (Early 2009 and later), all
  models of MacBook Air, MacBook (Late 2009), and MacBook (Retina,
  12-inch, Early 2015 and later). Learn more about Mac notebook
  batteries.

  If the battery is nonremovable:

  Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.
  After your Mac shuts down, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the built-in keyboard, then press the power button at the same
  time. Hold these keys and the power button for 10 seconds. If you have
  a MacBook Pro with Touch ID, the Touch ID button is also the power
  button.
  Release all keys.
  Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

  If the battery is removable:

  Shut down your Mac.
  Remove the battery. If you need help removing the battery, contact
  an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store.
  Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds.
  Reinstall the battery.
  Press the power button again to turn on your Mac.


Can I Swap Out A MacBook Hard Drive For Windows

The SSD will need to be formatted / partioned to work with the « bios » on the macbook, after that Bootcamp will be able to allow you to run windows from a separate partition.

I have not done this, but many do have both OSx and windows installed and working on one machine.

Check out Bootcamp : https://support.apple.com/boot-camp.

Edit : macs don’t have « bios »  (only used that term as it is easily understood by those coming from the pc world...) instead there is a bootrom process to get to the desktop from pressing the on button, this link gives a reasonable explanation of that process which checks ram, the self tests and runs the efi to get to the desktop. See http://www.hawkdive.com/2017/09/understanding-mac-boot-process.html?m=1


Prevent external drive from requiring ejection

I would definitely recommend still unmounting (ejecting) the drive before disconnecting it, but you can actually make it so that writes are not buffered.
You do this by changing the mount options when mounting the external drive. You want to enable the "noasync" and "sync" options. This means that both data and metadata operations happen synchronously - i.e. the operating system waits for a write operation to complete before it lets the application continue.
Note that this comes with drawbacks - and still isn't a guarantee against data loss:
The synchronous nature of things means that you will experience some slowdown in the programs writing to the disk drive. For backup purposes that probably isn't so bad. The slowdown is less severe with SSDs than with traditional hard drives, but it is still there.
The writes being synchronous also mean that they're serialized (i.e. performed in order). If you have a program that is often writing to the same location with different data (for example a program updating a counter on disk) - this could lead to more writes to the actual disk. With asynchronous writes, a newer write could cancel an older, not-yet-performed write to the same location. This effectively speeds things up and reduces the number of writes to the disk. For SSDs this is the same as reducing wear of the drive.
Finally, you're still not guaranteed against data loss yet - for two main reasons:
A write might still be taking place or about to take to place when you're disconnecting the drive. If the program doing the write is not written to be resilient against "disconnections", you might end up in a situation where the application performed only part of a scheduled number of writes - and when the data is read in again, this creates an illegal state in the program. I.e. writes A and B depend on each other, and you're not supposed to have a situation with A performed without B or vice versa.
Programs do generally not take care to avoid such situations. You'll find that sort of support in for example many database systems - even in "small" systems such as SQLite, which thankfully is being used as a backing storage for many apps today.
The second main reason is that often the drives themselves contain a write buffer. Historically, cheaper consumer drives would often just stop working the instant power is lost - and the data in the write buffer would be lost. This would effectively negate the efforts you have made to ensure the operating system does not have a data buffer.
Traditionally this would be avoided on server systems by having a disk controller with a battery backed write cache - ensuring that as long as power was restored within the next 24-48 hours, the uncompleted writes would be performed when power is restored.
On SSDs today many will come with a supercapacitor (you can think of this as a kind of self-charging battery) that ensures that the disk always have power to complete the writes in progress when power is lost. However, some do not - and consumers brands usually do not advertise whether or not they have this feature.


Docking station for Macbook Pro that lets you use the book + external monitor

There isn't that many on the market (most users are happy to connect the mac cables manually).  However this solution looks pretty nice :

http://www.bookendzdocks.com/

Hope this helps.

PS Here is another solution,

http://www.hengedocks.com/

but doesn't allow the macbook to remain open, so you'd need an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.


Is it possible to use a third-party remote with an Apple TV?

Yep. You can have your Apple TV learn the remote codes of any IR remote by going to Settings > General > Remotes. It will then ask you to hit buttons on your new remote corresponding to what it shows on screen.

Full instructions can be found at Apple's site: Controlling Apple TV with a third-party remote control


Search result -> filename instead of name (For smart folders)

I don't think you can customize Finder in that way.

There is a third party program that does just what you want: HoudahSpot.
This lets you add columns for any attributes known to Spotlight. There are hundreds to choose from.

Filename is one of the columns you can add. By default, HoudahSpot and many other applications on OS X show the "display name". This can be a localized version of the file name or something entirely different. E.g. Apple Mail stores messages in numbered .emlx files. It stores the message subject with Spotlight.

Full disclosure: I am the developer of HoudahSpot.


TLDR - Could Apple do this with a quick update - of course it’s technically possible. Will Apple do so? I prefer the odds a snowball survives in December in Australia, but who knows what new hardware will allow or if software in the future is allowed to spend watch battery on this feature.

On a technical level, with the current iOS/iPadOS/watchOS throttling background data connections at 30 seconds in general when it used to be 10 minutes, there is no way you’ll be able to fit that much data through the watch hardware. My opinion is the carriers are borderline cruel to even offer that much “watch data” in my opinion let alone charge you $120 per year plus fees for that premium data. It would be a triumph to exhaust that data cap with the hardware and software going into 2020.

You are correct that if the watch is on WiFi - it will tunnel all data over that and if that doesn’t work, then the watch will talk to your iPhone over bluetooth to avoid running the LTE on the watch.

WatchOS will only consume cellular as the last resort and certainly the tethering code is disabled on watchOS as well to save power and allow it to run as described above.

If cost savings is your desire, consider dropping LTE on the watch and seeing if you an manage without it and fund more phone data.


iPhone 5 iOS7 no sound only vibrates when ringing?

moving mine in and of the holster moved the ringer button to the off position accidently. Glad it was something that simple....but sure stumped me for a while.
the ringer button is the one above the volume buttons on the left side


Well - at the most basic level iOS and Mac OS X are the same kernel and startup processes using launchd and standard unix-heritage programs.

iOS has full sandboxing and arguably tighter access control infrastructure to build up - so in some ways, iOS does more to start up than Mac OS X does.

Once you add on mac things, of course it is more extensible so many people have much bigger loads to lift on an OS X reboot than an iOS boot.

I would argue that all the above arguments are moot and to a first approximation, you are seeing the CPU capability of the Mac hardware shining as well as the read speed of the mac storage as opposed to the iOS storage and the effects of more RAM being a better advantage and more than offsetting the larger library and binary size on Mac OS X.


Swap is issued only when needed. There is no limit so if you have a memory leak, that will crash a program or allocate swap to grow as needed.
Usually the kernel detects and protects you, but worst case, reboot and swap is cleaned each restart.
How are you measuring things to conclude “swap memory is fullest”? It starts empty and grows as you use the system and then cleans each reboot. What value is swap now?


For the record, Airdrop only works if you have one of these Macs, and a supported iOS device:

"To send items to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, or to receive items from those devices, you need a 2012 or later Mac model with OS X Yosemite or later, excluding the Mac Pro (Mid 2012)."

iOS

iPhone 5 or later
iPad Pro
iPad (4th generation) or later
iPad mini or later
iPod touch (5th generation) or later

On the iPhone, you need to set Airdrop in Control Center, I recommend 'Everyone' just to be sure. Both wifi and bluetooth need to be on.


Mac startup sound keeps coming back to haunt me

You could try using a free application called Deeper by Titanium Software. You can download it from this link here, or by using homebrew cask in which you can enter the following terminal command after installing homebrew/homebrew cask:

brew cask install deeper

Once you have installed deeper and allowed it proper privilages, open it up and go to the "Login Tab". From there you will see a button to turn off your mac's startup sound. Click it and you should be good to go.


Remove margin reserved for dock when dock is hidden

Reboot.
Sometimes, settings don't come into effect until you reboot your device, especially if it's a system-wide preference. Rebooting tends to solve most System Preferences-related issues.
Also, System Preferences may not tell you to reboot your device, but if something isn't working, restarting should solve your issue.
If Dock settings do not work correctly, a reboot should solve your problem.


Error installing Nvidia driver for Mac Pro

I will answer my own question. Thanks to the help of the fabulous commenters, I managed to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) and install the driver. However, because I couldn't see the screen I had a bit of trouble. I booted the Mac Pro into target disk mode, then took an Apple laptop and used a FireWire -> thunderbolt cable to connect the two. I booted the laptop holding down the alt key. I selected the Mac Pro's recovery partition and booted into that. I disabled SIP in there. However because SIP is hardware specific, I had to change the laptop's startup disk to the one from the Mac Pro. I let it reboot, then installed the driver and shut off both computers. I booted both the laptop and Mac Pro up. The Mac Pro had installed the driver and still had SIP enabled. The laptop rebooted from its internal SSD. I hope this helps someone else!


how to search files modified between a specific time in a date

A terminal based approach would use mdfind (the CLI Spotlight too).

Using mdls on a file you can see all the attributes available to you, something like kMDItemContentModificationDate looks like what you want.

So, the mdfind command would be something like

mdfind 'kMDItemContentModificationDate < $time.iso(2018-10-30T16:00:00) && kMDItemContentModificationDate > $time.iso(2018-10-30T10:00:00)'

You can chain together any combination of the attributes returned from mdls.


Applescript to return name of new file added to folder

This should work for you

on adding folder items to theFolder after receiving theNewItems
    delay 20 -- ALLOW MULTIPLES TO BE ADDED BEFORE PROCESSING - OPTIONAL
    set filesAdded to {}
    tell application "Finder" to set folderName to name of folder theFolder
    repeat with i from 1 to count of theNewItems
        set thisItem to item i of theNewItems
        tell application "Finder"
            set FileName to name of thisItem
            set end of filesAdded to (FileName & linefeed)
        end tell
    end repeat
    activate
    display alert "New Items Added!" message (("These Files Have Been Added To " & theFolder) & linefeed & linefeed & filesAdded as string)
end adding folder items to


Follow these instructions on your first computer:

  Make sure that your Time Machine backup disk is connected and turned on, then turn on your Mac. [...] [O]pen Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder. Click Continue in the first Migration Assistant window, then continue to step 2.
  When you're asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk. Then click Continue.
  Select your Time Machine backup, then click Continue.
  If you're asked to choose from a list of backups organized by date and time, choose a backup and click Continue.
  Select the information to transfer, then click Continue to start the transfer.


The issue here is a little more interesting than it appears on the surface.

Both your old Nokia and the EarPods use a 3.5mm audio jack with support for four "poles", each one providing a different purpose. Each one has left, right, ground, and microphone. However, your old Nokia uses the OMTP standard, while the EarPods use the CTIA/AHJ standard. This means the ground and microphone are switched between the two.

You'll need an adapter like this one to get the EarPods working properly.


Unfortunately this isn't possible with native iOS controls. A work around is a Javascript bookmarklet. First, bookmark any page and then bookmark another page. Then, choose bookmarks and edit them. For the first one, rename it the minus (-) symbol and change the URL to:

javascript:var p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i<p.length;i++){if(p[i].style.fontSize){var s=parseInt(p[i].style.fontSize.replace("px",""));}else{var s=12;}s-=2;p[i].style.fontSize=s+"px"}

Do the same for the other bookmark, but rename it the plus symbol (+) and change the URL to:

javascript:var p=document.getElementsByTagName('*');for(i=0;i<p.length;i++){if(p[i].style.fontSize){var s=parseInt(p[i].style.fontSize.replace("px",""));}else{var s=12;}s+=2;p[i].style.fontSize=s+"px"}

Now to increase or decrease the size of text, simply tap the bookmarks.


What is the "On My Mac" folder in macOS Big Sur?

In Big Sur, ~/Library/Containers shows in Finder as ‘On My Mac’.
This is a trimmed down version of the Documents from each of those containers, only showing apps which open their Documents on macOS like iOS for visibility in the Files app.

https://georgegarside.com/blog/macos/macos-big-sur-hidden-features/#finderapp (my blog)


You can use this iFixit guide -or the one for your specific MacBook, if this isn't- to remove the hard drive, but in short:

Remove the lower case
Disconnect the battery (with care, as you may break the connector)
Remove the hard drive

Then put your hard drive on a USB 3 case and you're ready to plug it to any Mac or HFS capable Windows or Linux machine to recover your data.


The answer that is good enough for my use case is Firefox Voice:

Firefox Voice is an experiment in a voice-controlled web user agent

It comes from Mozilla which I trust not to misuse my data and allows me to easily set a timer in DuckDuckGo.


Umlauts on Sierra on English keyboard with Alt combo not working anymore for all

The default key combo in Sierra and older OS Xces on UK/US (physical and logical) keyboards to enter Umlauts is:

altu + a: ä
altu + o: ö
altu + u: ü

You probably had a key modifier (like Karabiner) installed in your previous systems and remapped the key combo to get your non-default behavior.

At least Karabiner doesn't work in Sierra currently (as of Oct 2016) and you have to either wait for an update and/or use the old key combo again.


Mac Terminal app - unable to use the up arrow to load previous commands when using SSH on remote server ( ^[[A )

Please try to temporarily change your shell, type the name of the shell:

$ /bin/csh

See if that fixes your arrow key. If so, your shell or shell profile is having the cause of the problem.

Possible solutions:

Fix your current shell or shell profile.
You can change to a different shell permanently.

Reference: Mac OS X: How to change the Terminal shell


How can I show the full notifications in the notification center?

Notification Center limits the size of a notification to 256 bytes (see developer reference), so there is no way to expand or change how much of a notification you see (unless you can find some third-party application that disables the limit).

After 256 bytes, the notification will be truncated and the user has to click on the notification to see the rest.

For example, if Mail.app sends you a notification of a new message, you likely won't be able to read the whole message from the notification, so you'll have to click on it to open the message in Mail.

However, if the notification is purely informative and does not point to a specific piece of data within the application, when you click on the notification, it will only open the application or, if it is already running, bring it to the foreground.

Terminal is not a UI-based application, so notifications from it are not going to focus on a specific element. A notification from Terminal will simply open the application because its notifications are plaintext messages from the application that don't point to a specific UI element or piece of data.


Apache bonjour module and Sites folder template

I was getting the same warning.
I did the following:

sudo mkdir "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/"
sudo touch "/System/Library/User Template/English.lproj/Sites/index.html"

apache now starts without the warning


Services are in ~/Library/Services and yes, that is the file that handles the service you see in the services menu. Yes, you can add or remove them and they will automatically appear or disappear from the Services menu. Restart is not necessary.


Can I make my Mac re-adjust to the original brightness when I plug my power cord back in?

I use a program named EventScripts which among the events it monitors, there are some Power Events, one of which is the Power switched to mains event. It uses AppleScript scripts to preform the action(s) you want to have happen when a given event is triggered.

It is a paid app, $3.99 USD, but does have a demo version you can download to test with before purchasing.

Mac App Store Preview (US)
Download for Demo

Note: Other then being a paid user of this app, I have no affiliation with its developer.


Is is possible to replace the CD drive in a 17" macbook Pro with a SSD/second HD?

System Profiler is an application that will show you hardware information to determine which bus the CD drive is connected. Once you know your hardware specifications, you can shop better.

Check MCE optibay and OWC Data Doubler for housings that work physically with SATA connectors. Also check Remiel's article on the issues you might face moving to an SSD / HD combination.


What does the "Flick only" setting of iPad's Japanese keyboard do?

It's like this: With the "Kana" setting, you can reach the different kana of one group by either "flicking" in different directions, or by repeatedly tapping one kana. With the "flick only" setting, only the flicking works, not the tapping.


applescript - How to convert youtube link text to embed html text?

This first AppleScript script performs based on the steps outlined in your question.

tell current application
    set theURL to the clipboard
    if theURL contains "youtube" then
        try
            set theVideoID to do shell script "sed -e 's#.*=##'<<<" & the quoted form of theURL
            set theVideoTitle to do shell script "curl -s " & theURL & " | grep 'eow-title' | sed -e 's#.*title=\"##' -e 's#\">.*##'"
            set theEmbedLinkSeg1 to "
"
            set the clipboard to theVideoTitle & theEmbedLinkSeg1 & theVideoID & theEmbedLinkSeg2
        on error
            display dialog "An error occured during processing. Check the URL and or Script Code." buttons {"OK"} ¬
                default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
            return
        end try
    else
        display dialog "The URL on the Clipboard did not contain a YouTube URL in the expected format." buttons {"OK"} ¬
            default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
        return
    end if
end tell

Assuming no error occurred, the Clipboard now contains the emebbed link information.

If by chance you're doing this in Safari, and are at the YouTube page and want to process, without having to first copy the target URL to the Clipboard and be faster then using curl, as in the first script to get the title (theVideoTitle), then the following AppleScript script is another way to go.

tell application "Safari"
    tell document 1
        set theURL to (get URL)
        set theVideoTitle to do JavaScript "document.getElementById('eow-title').innerText;"
    end tell
end tell

tell current application
    if theURL contains "youtube" then
        try
            set embedLinkSeg1 to "
"
            set theVideoID to my getVideoID(theURL)
            set the clipboard to theVideoTitle & embedLinkSeg1 & theVideoID & embedLinkSeg2
        on error
            display dialog "Please verify Safari's current tab is at YouTube with the expected URL format." buttons {"OK"} ¬
                default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
            return
        end try
    else
        display dialog "Safari's current tab is not at YouTube." & linefeed & linefeed & ¬
            "Please select the correct tab and try again." buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
        return
    end if
end tell

on getVideoID(theTextString)
    set TID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"="}
    set theTextString to text item 2 of theTextString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TID
    return theTextString
end getVideoID

Assuming no error occurred, the Clipboard now contains the embed link information.

If you're using Google Chrome, then change the following lines in the second AppleScript script as follows:

Change:

tell application "Safari"
    tell document 1
    set theVideoTitle to do JavaScript "document.getElementById('eow-title').innerText;"

To:

tell application "Google Chrome"
    tell active tab of window 1
    set theVideoTitle to execute javascript "document.getElementById('eow-title').innerText;"

Also change Safari's in the display dialog commands to: Google Chrome's

Note: In the first AppleScript script, getting the value of the variable theVideoID from the value of the variable theURL on the Clipboard is done using a do shell script command and sed, however it can be done using the getVideoID handler used in the second AppleScript script, as in the following:

tell current application
    set theURL to the clipboard
    if theURL contains "youtube" then
        try
            set theVideoID to my getVideoID(theURL)
            set theVideoTitle to do shell script "curl -s " & theURL & " | grep 'eow-title' | sed -e 's#.*title=\"##' -e 's#\">.*##'"
            set theEmbedLinkSeg1 to "
"
            set the clipboard to theVideoTitle & theEmbedLinkSeg1 & theVideoID & theEmbedLinkSeg2
        on error
            display dialog "An error occured during processing. Check the URL and or Script Code." buttons {"OK"} ¬
                default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
            return
        end try
    else
        display dialog "The URL on the Clipboard did not contain a YouTube URL in the expected format." buttons {"OK"} ¬
            default button 1 with title "Processing Error"
        return
    end if
end tell

on getVideoID(theTextString)
    set TID to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {"="}
    set theTextString to text item 2 of theTextString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to TID
    return theTextString
end getVideoID

Assuming no error occurred, the Clipboard now contains the emebbed link information.


macbook pro mid 2012 hard drive upgrade to SSD SATA recommendation

Any quality ssd would be fine, I've had great luck with Samsung 850/860.  Don't worry about mm size all are 7mm and will fit..Be sure to remove the silver studs on old HHD and
reinstall on your new SSD..  Ifixit.com has great tutorials..

it is really easy on a mid-2012 MBP

Good luck
PS While you have it open you may want to upgrade ram, replace battery and or fan.


Are there any security risks with leaving guest account enabled?

I'm not a security expert, but just browsing the web, I came up with this:

There are, however, some system directories, such as the Unix /tmp directory, that the guest account can write data to that may or may not be deleted at logout (or forced restart). The guest also has access to any installed applications, which could be used to perform malicious actions from your computer. If you must use the guest account, limit its access using Parental Controls. (MacWorld)

Following up on the /tmp directory vulnerability, I found this:

Almost every security professional known that /tmp is the first place that hacker will looking at to place their malicious software and scripts for further gaining root access. However, there several ways to protect system /tmp. In this article will show you a simple method making secure /tmp for Linux and Unix. (PatCup)

If you want some examples of how a malicious hacker could use the /tmp directory to their advantage, here you go:

It is a Unix tradition to use a directory called /tmp (or /var/tmp or even /dev/shm) to hold temporary files used by programs.  This prevents a user's home directory from getting full of old useless files.
Since everyone may write files into the /tmp directory, naturally there are some security concerns.  One feature of /tmp is that is has the text (or sticky) bit set, which means only the owner (or root) can delete or rename files in that directory.  However if an evil hacker can predict your filenames, they can create that file first (a denial of service).  They can also read your files, if created using a default umask value of 022.  Even if you immediately change the permissions, there will be a window of opportunity to access the file (sometimes called a race condition). (http://content.hccfl.edu/pollock/ShScript/TempFile.htm)

Once again, I don't know much about security so some of the info from the quotes might be incorrect.
Most of that was going over the vulnerabilities of the /tmp directory, but in the first quote it's implied that there are other System directories that could potentially be accessed from the Guest account. However, unless you have top secret government information, I doubt that it's too much of a risk to enable the guest account.


High Sierra shows wrong disk usage for photos in information

I recently ran into this - on my 500GB SSD, my free space was only 5% where I expected more like 75%.  I found an answer in a blog that worked for me:

Apple state that they automatically remove local snapshots when disk space is low, but their definition of low is apparently only 5GB of free space remaining – not really much free working space in 2017 when you might want scratch space of 22GB for 1 hour of 4k 30FPS footage.
On older MacOS releases, it was possible to disable the local snapshot feature entirely, this doesn’t seem to be the case with High Sierra – but it does appear to be possible to force an immediate purge of local snapshots with the following command:

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

From the tmutil manpage:

thinlocalsnapshots mount_point [purge_amount] [urgency]

Thin local Time Machine snapshots for the specified volume.
When purge_amount and urgency are specified, tmutil will attempt (with urgency level 1-4) to reclaim purge_amount in bytes by thinning snapshots.
If urgency is not specified, the default urgency will be used.


How do I move a contact on the iPhone from one group to another?

I had the same problem. I found this page looking or a solution. I wasn't satisfied with the above. So I did the following:

Email the contacts to yourself (share contact).
In the contacts app, make sure you are in the proper group (for me, my gmail account with exchange)
Import the contact. It should be adde to the group you selected in the previous step.
Now go check the contact is in the correct group, and if so, delete the one in the old group.


How to use BetterTouchTool to show Mail.app unread count in touch bar

BetterTouchTool has a "widget" option for the touch bar, and one of the options is to display the output of an AppleScript program. You could write a script that gets the number of unread emails (another question has some code for doing that here)


You are seeing the listing for both the logical volume and the physical disk on which that logical volume resides - note the Apple_APFS container disk1 matches the APFS container scheme Identifier disk1 - lines 6, 7, & 10 of your output from diskutil.

Suggest you look in the GUI version of disk util to get a sense of physical disk and logical volume - I think that will make it clearer for you:

hope this helps mate.


Can't install El Capitan update 10.11.3 because can't restart normally

I was able to complete the update by:

hard shutdown (hold down power button)
boot into safe mode (hold down shift when powering on)
open App Store and click Restart for the uncompleted update

was then able to restart successfully from safe mode, completing the update


OS X Mountain Lion Terminal and tabs take ages to load

Did you look at your .profile file (vi ~/.profile) to check if someone (some program) has added something there that takes the time?

Try to create a new user on your Mac (System Preferences -> Users), log in as this user and see if the problem also happens.  If not, compare this user's .profile and the one where the delay happens (or at least the experiment will tell if it is something system specific or user specific).

Also there is the global file /etc/bashrc which is processed for all bash shells for all users.  Something added there could cause a delay for all shells for all users.


Mac OSX High CPU % Usage - Draining battery and heating!

https://macmagazine.com.br/2017/11/18/o-modulo-de-seguranca-de-bancos-pode-estar-detonando-o-seu-mac-saiba-como-so-ativa-lo-quando-necessario-neste-tutorial/

Use the Finder to go to /library/LaunchAgents/, on the root of the main driver and delete the file com.diebold.warsaw.user.plist.
Use the Finder to go to /users/USER/library/LaunchAgents/, on the user's folder and delete the file com.diebold.warsaw.user.plist.
Kill the running application with the Terminal command sudo launchctl unload -F /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.diebold.warsaw.plist.
Uninstall the loser module sudo /usr/local/bin/warsaw/uninstall.sh
Restart your mac.


You can re-enable the apple dictionary by following this steps:

Tap on the word you want to define to select it and activate the popup.
Tap on Define to call up the dictionary.
Tap on Manage.
Now activate/download the Apple Dictionary or any other dictionaries you want.
Tap the X button beside any extra dictionaries you want to remove.

Now you should have your dictionary enabled again.


No iPads have ever been network locked and all current model iPads with cellular connectivity support both CDMA and GSM networks (see Apple's LTE information), with no frequency limitations.

What that means is that your US-purchased iPad Mini should work just fine with an O2 data SIM (and any other UK data SIM for that matter - EE, Vodafone or Three). If your SIM isn't working, I'd verify:

Is it a data SIM?
Does the SIM work in other devices (eg, try in a cellular dongle)


Upgrading from iPad 1 to iPad Air - restoring individual app data?

You can backup data from apps with a program such as PhoneView (Mac) or iFunBox (Mac & Windows), and restore the data individually per app.

  Browse, manage and download most any data saved by App Store apps from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. If you're looking for a quick way to download saved recordings, videos or images from your apps, this is it. Even transfer game high scores between devices. — PhoneView

Open the app in PhoneView or iFunBox, and copy the folders out, then copy them to your new device.


MacBook pro boot Kernel panic no kext summary

I'd advise you to boot your Mac from the system DVD and check the internal disk.
The coincidence of kext scan failing and the recovery HD unreachable
let me diagnose a major disk (and not just filesystem) trouble.
The CPU overheating might be a consequence of a fool's fsck.

If you don't have a system DVD to boot your Mac (which is the case
since Lion), I advise you to ask a colleague who have the exact same
MacOS X version to build you one.


Why does a MacBook throttle without a battery?

The CPU and GPU can draw more power than the AC adapter can provide as the battery serves as a capacitor and reserve. It smoothes out the voltage when a surge is needed. If the system over draws, voltage drops a little and subtle computing errors happen. If the voltage drops too far, the system shuts down entirely and abruptly.

To be reliable and fast, the battery is needed and the system slows down to preserve the correctness of the function. This is a very well tested design, so it’s not an accident that this happens and it’s not for some small reason. This can be measured with oscilloscopes and quantified precisely.

All the measurements you are doing are time averaged. You’ll want to look at millisecond to second level time scales to see this voltage compensation happen.

Apple engineers work from Intel specs on voltage drop curves and tolerances to meet the needs of the power handling on the Intel side as well as manage the battery and charging circuitry and also build in tolerances for aging gear and adapters.


I accidentally went to Siri settings and changed the info to "Cassie" one of my contacts that isn't me.

What you can do is:

Make a blank contact
Tell Siri you are the blank contact (Set My Info as blank contact)
Delete the blank contact

That should remove the contact from 'My Info'

To make a new contact:

Open the Contacts App
Touch the Plus sign at the top

To delete a contact:

Open the Contacts App
Select the contact you want to delete
Press 'Edit' at the top right
Scroll all the way down and press delete


MacBook Air charging light stays amber and does not go green and machine does not boot or even chime

I had a similar thing happen to my old Macbook. I discharged the battery all the way down and then couldn't recharge it for about two days. When I finally could charge it, it wouldn't charge or turn on. It turned out to be the battery. You can probably get a replacement battery from Apple (if it turns out to be the battery), but I found cheaper options on Amazon.


Does Network Link Conditioner Work Well on El Capitan

Yes, It will perform as expected.

Bear in mind that the Network Link Conditioner has noting to do with Xcode itself, but with the OS.

When downloading theses Hardware tools Apple points out that these graphics tools support running on [OS] which might lead you to think that and update is necessary, but the protocols and / or the way the NLC interacts with the System's connectivity, doesn't seem to have changed, as it does, indeed, work.


What is the wattage of the speakers in a 2011 MacBook Air?

The simple answer is - not many.

The iFixit teardown of an earlier model (mid-2010) suggests 1-2 watts. The teardown of the 2011 model says nothing has changed since then.


Converting mp3 and video content so I can listen to it on my iphone

iTunes plays both MP3 and AAC.

You can import one of theme and convert to the other by right-clicking on a song and selecting "create MP3 version" (or "create AAC version").

In iTunes you can set you can set the preferred format in the "import settings" (Preferences -> General -> Import Settings...).

Once they are in iTunes you can sync them on your iPhone or iPad.

For song found on YouTube you can google for "YouTube to MP3". You will find something (I'm not sure I can post a direct link here).


When installing an application is there any way to avoid any drag and drop?

You could copy/paste it. Might be simpler if you can't see the Apps folder right at that moment.

It will stay in the paste buffer so long as the .dmg is still mounted, unless overwritten by another copy action.

Frankly, it would be far more effort than it's worth to try automate that process, for any given .dmg with random content.


How do I prevent my husband’s emails from combining with my Mail.app account?

You don't specify if this is on a Mac or an iPhone etc? Also knowing what version of macOS or iOS you're running would be helpful.

However, the solution is to remove his gmail email account from your Mail app. The steps for doing this will depend on whether you're using a Mac or an iPhone etc.

EDIT

Edited answer to provide some step-by-step instructions for removing gmail accounts from Apple mail in macOS and iOS.

Steps for macOS:

Open the Mail app
Go to: Mail > Accounts...
In the Internet Accounts window that pops up you will see a list of all email addresses being used by Mail
Click on the address you no longer want
At the bottom click on the minus (-) sign to remove the account
Click OK when you are asked if you're sure
Close the Internet Accounts window

Steps for iOS:

Go to Settings > Mail > Accounts
Tap on the account you want to remove
Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap on Delete Account
Tap Delete Account when you are asked if you're sure
Exit your settings

Hope this helps!


Discoveryd Alternative to Replace mDNSResponder Argument?

Since 10.10.1, the simplest way to fix this is to add --AlwaysAppendSearchDomains to ProgramArguments in plist file /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

Then restart com.apple.discoveryd.plist with:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.discoveryd.plist

All this according to the help printed by:

/usr/libexec/discoveryd --help

That will do the same as it did for mDNSResponder as far as I can tell.


macOS Sierra broke SSH Kerberos authentication

I asked this in the SSH mailing list openssh-unix-dev@mindrot.org and I got this answer:

The GSSAPITrustDNS was never part of portable OpenSSH. This option originally comes from third party extending kerberos support in OpenSSH, which is no longer maintained, but can be simply rebased on the current sources.
The problem in this case is Apple dropping this patch used by many people, so the Apple is the place where you should ask (or your OpenSSH packager of your favorite repository).

http://marc.info/?l=openssh-unix-dev&m=147850754710753&w=2
It seems that we have to ask apple to put this feature back.


Free iOS app for JIRA was released in March and there are a lots of features coming on mobile.Here is the link to official JIRA app, JIRA Mobile


How can I find out what carrier an iPhone 3gs is locked to?

There is a small app which can show you the carrier with which your iPhone is associated.

The app itself is not free but the sole function of displaying the iphone information you require is free.


Brand new external hard drive formatted exFAT is mounted read only

If your exfat drive shows up as read-only, then all you need to do is unmount the drive and then use the "mount_exfat" utility to mount the drive. Once you do this, and right click on the drive → "Get Info" will tell that you have custom access to the drive, instead of "read-only". Here are the steps:

Open the terminal on your mac.
Type diskutil list and you will get a listing like this:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):    #:                       TYPE NAME SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme
*500.3 GB   disk0    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1    2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.1 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):    #:                       TYPE NAME        SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      APFS Container Scheme -
+500.1 GB   disk1
                             Physical Store disk0s2    1:                APFS Volume Untitled - Data         407.2 GB   disk1s1    2:           APFS Volume Preboot                 82.4 MB    disk1s2    3:           APFS Volume Recovery                528.5 MB   disk1s3    4:           APFS Volume VM                      3.2 GB     disk1s4    5:           APFS Volume Untitled                10.7 GB    disk1s5

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):    #:                       TYPE NAME SIZE       IDENTIFIER    0:      GUID_partition_scheme
*5.0 TB     disk2    1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1    2:       Microsoft Basic Data Backup Plus             5.0 TB     disk2s2

In the listing above, we notice that /dev/disk2s2 is our external drive. Unmount the drive by runningsudo umount /dev/disk2s2`.
Now create a directory in in /Volumes by running sudo mkdir -p /Volumes/<name of your volume>
Mount the hard drive to this directory your created by running sudo mount_exfat /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/<name of your volume>.

Once this is done, you should be able to create new folders and write to your drive.


How to calibrate a superdrive's laser for CD and DVD burning?

There is no calibration procedure. Perhaps they cleaned the inside of the mac to reduce dust, but the superdrive units are replaced as a whole by Apple technicians - you get a new drive - not something that is "tuned up".

The only calibration DVD are for running reference sound or visual patterns to help you calibrate a display system for video to ensure dim grey are differentiated visually from black, to focus a projection system, or to check channels or sound levels on an audio system.

Of course there are many cleaning DVD on the market, but I would be loathe to subject my SuperDrive slot loading mechanism to one of those. It could easily get stuck and do far more damage to the drive.


On iOS 12 the feature you are referring to is called 'Screen Time'.  With Screen Time you can restrict the ability to change the device's passcode.  You would find this under Settings → Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions → Passcode Changes, then set to 'Don't Allow'.  That way the device is secured with a passcode but the child cannot make changes to it to lock you out of the device.


Magic Mouse / Wireless keyboard not fully functional after Archive & Install

The "software update" spell solved it.  I had a number of updates come down last night and everything seems to work now.


How do I programmatically and reliably get the AirPort's interface name?

If you need to support old versions of OS X, the Wi-Fi network service was called Airport in 10.6 and earlier.

networksetup -listallhardwareports | awk '/^Hardware Port: (Wi-Fi|AirPort)$/{getline;print $2}'

You could also use -listnetworkserviceorder:

networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder | sed -En 's/^\(Hardware Port: (Wi-Fi|AirPort), Device: (en.)\)$/\2/p'

Or read /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist:

ruby -e 'require "plist";puts Plist::parse_xml("/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist")["Interfaces"].select{|i|i["SCNetworkInterfaceType"]=="IEEE80211"}[0]["BSD Name"]'


SSD always mounts as read-only on Mac OS Mojave

I wrote a bash script that I execute every time after inserting the drive
function mountTimeMachineDriveRWSANDISK1TBSSD() {
    diskutil mount /dev/disk2s2 # disk2s2 is from the output of diskutil list
    sudo mount -v -u -w /dev/disk2s2 /Volumes/SANDISK1TB # disk2s2 is from the output of diskutil list
    sudo chown myuser /Volumes/SANDISK1TB
    sudo chgrp mygroup /Volumes/SANDISK1TB
}

Now the disk is writable by the current user. Time machine can backup to this disk too.


What's the best place to post suggestions for Apple to read?

I always prefer this chain:

Speak with an Apple Employee - ask them who exactly is best to hear the specific feedback. Who better to know what the best channel for your idea / feedback than the people trained to interact with the public. Just be aware that not all employees will be in a position to take your feedback, but they might be taking mental notes to send it up even if they don't let on or promise you they will follow up on your feedback.
If it's really a bug in the hardware/software, you can file a bug at http://bugreport.apple.com
There's always http://apple.com/feedback


I don't think this is a question of "reliability", it is simply that the two programs display different things. "Free space" sounds simple, but in reality it is quite complex - different people, different systems, etc. all consider "free space" to be different things.

For example "free space" could mean "how much of the disk space is not currently used for any meaningful data", or it could mean "how much more data can I store here" or something completely different.

The "About this Mac" tries to take the latter approach. If I add more things to this disk, how much can I really add. Technically it involves the calculation taking into account things that are temporary in nature. Often the largest differences here comes from local TimeMachine snapshots (they're created on the source volume, not the backup disk). These are temporary and will be removed automatically.

In contrast, df takes a very "technical" approach and shows the "raw" file system information according to how much of the disk space isn't used for anything meaningful. I.e. even for example temporary TimeMachine snapshots are included in "used" as they're actually storing useful data.


I tested your code with "Notifications" and found that "get value" actually returns the "AXTitle" of button "Notifications" – NOT its "AXValue".

Therefore you must code:

if title of myNumberIs contains " (1)" then set myNumberIsAsInteger to 1

This works fine with me …


Have you tried Xupport?

  Xupport is a multipurpose system utility for Mac OS X. It provides many features to configure hidden Mac OS X and Unix options, to increase system security and performance, to maintain and backup Mac OS X, and to dig deeper into the world of Unix. Xupport 3 is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger), 10.5 (Leopard) and 10.6 (Snow Leopard), and is available as Universal Application for PowerPC and Intel Macs.

Available here


Is there any more way to squeeze out some performance out of my mid 2009 Macbook Pro 13"?

I found out that there is no more way to upgrade in terms of hardware since the last option would be a new CPU which cannot be replaced in the Macbook. Overclocking the CPU is no option either for safety reasons.

However, upgrading Mac OS from Yosemite to El Capitan has greatly increased performance, so I guess I'm good for now.


Can I still use my own apple ID with its asociated credit card when I'm in a family sharing family?

No. Any apps you buy with your Apple ID will still belong to you. If you leave Family Sharing other family members will lose access to the apps (Mac OS & iOS), movies, TV shows and music that you own.

Any family member's purchase will be charged to the credit card of the Family Organizer.  Gift cards can be used by a family member and they will be charged before the family organizer's credit card. Family Sharing will bill the family organizer's credit card even if other family members have a different credit card on file.

Here is a link to Apple's own support document on this.


How to disable autocomplete on macOS but not iOS?

Explanation

The text replacements in System Preferences > Keyboard > Text (macOS) and Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement (iOS) are tightly integrated into iCloud.

In fact, both sync using iCloud and are stored in your iCloud Drive (com.apple.TextInput). This is an invisible folder.

Disable text replacements on macOS

In order to disable them on your Mac, you have two options:

iOS: In Settings > iCloud > iCloud disable 'iCloud Drive'.
macOS: In System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive (Options) disable 'System Preferences'.

Now you need to delete your text replacements from your Mac. You may create a backup of them by selecting all (CMD+A) and dragging them on your Desktop.

Was this answer helpful?


How to cleanup HDD after installing a new OS X version using TimeMachine?

I'm pretty sure there is no such thing. But you do have a couple of options.

Get another totally clean installation of 10.8 and diff your whole filesystem. Then decide upon each "extra" file if it needed by you or your applications.
The "easy" option. Do a clean 10.8 installation and then restore from time machine into a folder on your desktop (f.ex.). Then manually copy over the files and stuff you want to keep


Would reformatting my Mac and restoring the latest Time Machine backup be likely to improve its stability?

There could be various causes for a Mac that runs slow during certain times:

too many applications running on the system (launched at login or explicitly by the user)
inadequate RAM
inadequate free space on the drive
file permission issues
corrupted files or configuration
updated OS and applications that need faster hardware, and so on

For all these cases, reformatting and restoring from Time Machine will not help.

If you'd like to clear caches and logs and repair permissions, there are far quicker and easier ways to do it than a time consuming reformat and restore from Time Machine. Make sure you have a backup and then try some of these utilities (you can also search for "OS X cleanup" to find other utilities):

OnyX
MainMenu
Cocktail
CleanMyMac 2

If these do not help:

if you're running OS X Mavericks, check the Memory Pressure information in Activity Monitor - this will tell you if RAM is inadequate for the applications you're running
try trimming down the number of applications that are running. Start with items launched at login (go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and then to the Login Items tab)
free up disk space (if it's quite low)
using Activity Monitor, check which applications use a lot of CPU and either remove them or reinstall them afresh (trash the application with a proper uninstall utility like AppCleaner so that its preferences and other files are also deleted and then reinstall it)
as a last resort, you may have to do a fresh install of the OS, followed by a fresh install of your applications, followed by a restore of only your data from the Time Machine backup (do not restore the entire applications folder or the home folders since that would bring back corrupt preference files, if any)


How to disable three-finger tap word lookup?

In System Preferences under Trackpad then Point & Click, uncheck Look up.


In Reeder for iPhone, how to add defaul recipients for sharing via mail?

It works. Don't tap on the actual word "Link" or "Article" etc... You need to tap the centre of the white space after the word. The keyboard will show up and you can type the default email address :)


Changing the Key Modifiers (CMDCTRL) affects VM

I saw that VMWare has this possibility, VirtualBox not.

I know use a headless VM (No GUI) so I use the OSX Terminal for all operations, behavior stays the same.


Can't find all features of iCloud Photo Sharing with non-Apple devices

This is correct. Apple did not reimplement all features of the iCloud protocol in its Web interface. You can install Google photos on your Mac or iOs devices, if you like, but it has also its problems.


How to turn MacBook Air 2015 on if the power button is broken and I don't have tools to remove battery?

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


Automator: Decode Decode64 selection and display output in a new TextEdit window

I know the question is about TextEdit, but for anyone who would rather do this in BBEdit, you can create a TextFilter to process the selected text.
#!/usr/bin/python

import sys

def decode64(myString):
    return myString.decode('base64')

input = sys.stdin.read()
print decode64(input)

If you want to use python3, it's even easier:
#!/usr/local/bin/python3

import sys, base64

input = sys.stdin.read()
print base64.b64decode(input)

Save this to: ~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Text Filters, then you can access it from the Text Filters menu.


Will it slowly ruin the battery to leave a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013) plugged in at 100% all the time?

This questions risks inviting a lot of opinion, so some may vote to close this down.

However, to try and keep this to the facts, I refer you firstly to what Apple has to say about their batteries.

In a nutshell, the key indisputable points are:

Apple lithium-ion batteries use fast charging to reach 80% of their capacity and then switch to slower trickle charging to complete the charge.
Charge your MacBook Pro whenever you want. Many people believe you need to let them discharge 100% before recharging. This is not true.
Ambient temperature is one of the biggest factors in battery health/life. MacBooks are designed to work at their best when ambient temperatures are between 16° to 22° C (62° to 72° F).
It’s important to avoid exposing your MacBook to ambient temperatures higher than 35° C (95° F)
If you're ever going to store your MacBook for long-term without usage, it is best to store it totally powered down and at only about half charge.

Also, the latest research confirms one of the most important determinants of what ruins a battery is time. (You could purchase a brand new MacBook Pro battery and leave it unused in its original packaging for five years and then find it's capacity is nowhere near what it should be when you start using it)

Finally, since you're using your MacBook Pro in clamshell mode, you may find this general info useful.


Are links in Podcasts show notes supposed to be "live"?

Apple's podcast specs explicitly discuss how to embed HTML links within the Summary field:

  Text Encoding

  Use plain text UTF-8 encoding for your podcast feed (no markup or HTML, except as described below).

  Tag values are limited to 255 characters, except for , which can be up to 4000 characters. Don’t add leading or trailing spaces to your values.

  Enclose all portions of your XML that contain embedded links in a CDATA section to prevent formatting issues, and to ensure proper link functionality in the Podcasts app. For example:

  <itunes:summary><![CDATA[Apple]]></itunes:summary>

Several popular podcast clients support this —  Overcast, Pocket Casts, Downcast, among others — ,and I believe Podcasts on iOS does now as well.

See for example this screenshot from Macstories' review of Overcast:

[


Linux Install on Mac. Macos Asks to Initialize

Having switched the installations grub to EFI and having shrunk the EXT4 partition by 200 mb, creating a fat 32 partition and naming it EFI, the message does not show up anymore.
Additionally, the Nvidia driver works as well in EFI mode. I would not expect though that any of the non bios version drivers would work. 340 is the one marked "bios".


Can I browse the Mac App Store without Snow Leopard?

It's possible to browse the Mac App Store in your browser. Here is the link to do so:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/genre/mac/id39?mt=12


TimeMachine backups on multiple volumes?

Yes, when you go to the Time Machine preferences, just select Use Both when adding the additional drive.

From: OS X El Capitan: Use multiple backup disks

  Time Machine rotates the backup schedule among the disks. For each disk, Time Machine backs up everything that’s changed since the last time that disk was used. If you designated items that shouldn’t be backed up, the list of excluded items applies to all backup disks.

  If you use multiple backup disks, when you click the Time Machine icon  in the menu bar and choose Enter Time Machine, you see the timeline for all the accessible disks used for backing up. To see the timeline for a specific disk, click the Time Machine icon, press the Option key, then choose Browse Other Backup Disks.

Note that there is a similar page for each of the last few major OS X releases too.


Actual working tutorial of installing catalina on an external drive?

Plug the external drive to your MacBook and Launch Disk Utility.

Select the external drive on the left-hand side panel, select Edit>Erase, choose APFS and GUID partition map and press Erase:

Download Catalina installer from your genuine MacBook App Store by clicking this link.

After downloading, the installer launches automatically. If you want to install Catalina at a later time, you can find the installer in the Applications folder:

Follow the onscreen instructions, and when asked where to install Catalina, choose the external disk.

You MacBook will restart and proceed with the installation.

When the installation is over, to boot from the external disk, start up your Mac and press and hold the Option key to display the Startup Manager. Choose the external disk and click the arrow under its icon.
See these support articles about installing Catalina and erasing a disk for more information.


Screenshots and images won't open - Don't have permission to view it

I solved the situation.  All I had to do was quit preview.


Deleting all keychain passwords on MacBook Pro

Keychain Access is built into macOS that stores your passwords, certificates and other sensitive information securely.

You cannot completely delete or disable Keychain Access, but you can delete individual keychains and keys.

Keychain Access
Select the passwords you want to delete
Right mouse click and choose delete

For further use:

You must deselect save password in Keychain (when you get a popup, to enter your password)
Also don't save passwords in Safari (they are also stored in Keychain)
Third party apps will store you passwords in Keychain. Because it is the safest place on the Mac to store sensitive data like passwords and keys.


How to save text to speech as a voice recording?

To save to a file use,  the -o <file name> option.

$ say “Hello World” -o helloworld.aiff


Is it possible to "emulate" virtual monitors like Windows does for remote desktop users?

Not using macOS Screen Sharing alone. It isn't really comparable to Windows Remote Desktop in terms of how it works.
Windows RD provides a service to the client, leaving it up to the client to handle the UI rendering.
macOS Screen Sharing / VNC relays screen contents to the client and returns user inputs to the server.


How to select a photo from Mac OS photos from an open/attach dialogue box

If you scroll down in the sidebar, you should have a "Media" section with a "Photos" item:

When you select that, you are presented with a photos browser, where you can select any photo from the Photos app:


Can you know the macOS version from the firmware version in Macs?

No, you can't.

Some Macs didn't get their updates. For a host of possible reasons. Install by image would be one where this is expected (Such as copying a partition from another Mac). Then the firmware is older than the expected OS.
Some Macs did get their updates with OS updates/upgrades. But then the owner decides that Mojave for example is still too buggy and they downgrade to what they had before. Then the firmware is newer than the associated OS.

What you get with the firmware info is just a weak indicator of what was installed at one point, but not a reliable one for what actually is installed.


To-Do List App with Sync, Repeating To-Dos

2Do
has all the features that you require (and more):

Due dates ✓
Notes ✓
Sync to a cloud or web-based service where changes can be made ✓ (Dropbox, iCloud and other)
Able to repeat to-dos by due date and last-completed date ✓
Prioritization ✓
Groups / Filters / Folders such as Business, Personal, School ✓
Badge for items due today (tab for today)
Projects (which incorporate other to-do items) ✓

[pictures]


Safe to use USB-C Charger (adapter) for Macbook Air 2013?

No, it's not possible to do that. The adapter you have pictured is the Nonda USB-C to USB-A adapter. It is commonly used for connecting older USB-A hardware (such as USB pen drives) to newer USB-C computers.

One of the big differences between USB-A and USB-C is that USB-A does not allow for transferring enough power to charge a laptop (i.e. it is limited to only few watts compared to USB-C). In addition USB-A is used to charge devices from the computer - not the other way around.

I have seen multiple adapters for using old MagSafe chargers with new USB-C computers. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any for charging old MagSafe 2 computers with a USB-C charger.


No input fields for the Apple ID Verification for the iMac 10.10.5

Got exactly the same problem today, e.g:

have two-factor auth.
tried login to icloud on some old macbook (OSX Lion - 10.7)
on my iphone i got the code
but on the macbook there are no input fields - e.g. impossible to enter the code - there is no place where.

More googling and I found this page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204915 where says:

What if I use two-factor authentication on a device running older
software?
If you use two-factor authentication with devices running
older OS versions—like an Apple TV (2nd or 3rd generation)—you might
be asked to add your six-digit verification code to the end of your
password when signing in. Get your verification code from a trusted
device running iOS 9 and later or OS X El Capitan and later, or have
it sent to your trusted phone number. Then type your password followed
by the six-digit verification code directly into the password field.

So, in short: if you didn't get the input fields, do the following:

on the trusted device "Get the verification code" how - see this
and on the device without input fields enter your password, immediatelly followed by the 6 digit code - e.g. "MyPassord123456"

That's all - it works. :)


Is it true for application that are installed by "dragging" into the Applications folder, it can be copied to other Mac?

Apps that are installed through disk images that simply ask you to drag the app file into your Applications folder usually create all of the files it needs to run (i.e. preferences, miscellaneous plists, cache files, etc.) on your first run.  So, yes, these kinds of applications can be copied to other Macs without a problem (unless, of course, that application requires a license and the license is asked for on first run and stored in a plist).

Apps that use Installer.app (.pkg files, usually) are different in that they have a bundle of files that they need to install in order to run (like Office for Mac).  Note that they, too, can create plists and preferences on first run, also.  You can see what .pkg files install by opening their Package Contents.  So, you are right, usually the apps that use .pkg files can't be run on their .app alone (you can't just copy Word.app to another Mac and expect it to work; certain frameworks need to be installed so that it can work).

In the specific case of your VLC download, which does not use a .pkg file should run just fine when copied.


Unable to open a folder that contains a . in finder

They are still folders, just packaged. You can right-click the folder and choose Show Package Contents to show the contents of the package.

If you want to permanently set .service packages as not assigned to OS X so they're normal folders, you can remove item 257 from…

/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Info.plist

Note that editing this file incorrectly can break many things. Be careful and have backups.


Can I generate a clickable link to local file using relative path like "file:///~"

Here is the solution.
The script that generates the link, generats a url that starts with a custom googledrive:// and then the path to the file in the Google Drive folder.

I then set lincastor to trigger the following script for urls beginning with googledrive://

on handle_url(args)
    set theUnixPath to |URL_PATH| of args
    set theUnixPath to (POSIX path of (path to home folder)) & "Google Drive" & theUnixPath
    set theMacPath to (POSIX file theUnixPath)

    #display dialog "handle url: " & theMacPath

    tell application "Finder"
        set theItem to item theMacPath
        if (class of theItem) is folder then activate
        reveal theItem
    end tell
    activate application "Finder"

    return 1
end handle_url

The script is super easy, it takes the url, attaches the path to the user homes folder and /Google Drive/, then uses this generated path to open the Finder and reveal the item


How can I make my MacBook Pro screws stop screwing around?

The first time you unscrew the screws on your computer, you'll notice there's some blue gunk around the threads.  That's Loctite.  It's essentially a sort of superglue for screws to help them stay in.  The glue adheres the threads to the casing, but isn't strong enough that a decent screwdriver and some wrist action can't break it.  I'd probably recommend finding an appropriate bottle of Loctite and then dabbing a bit on the screws and then screwing them back it.  That should keep the suckers from comin' back out. :)  I'm not sure about prices in Brazil, but in the US a bottle of Loctite (or something similar) should only cost you a few dollars.


Can beta-features be added to the app on the App Store?

No Demos, Betas, or Trial Versions

From the App Store Review Guidelines …

  2.2 Beta Testing

  Demos, betas, and trial versions of your app don’t belong on the App Store – use TestFlight instead.

Still unsure? Only Apple can answer this question authoritatively. Please contact Apple iTunes Connect team directly and ask.


How to change mouse speed of the login window?

If you are saying that you would like to set the mouse tracking speed for all users of the system I do not believe there is a way to do that.  Each will have his/her own preference.

If you are saying that when you set your preference and then log out/log in under the same user and unexpectedly find that your preferences are not retained then there should be a fix.

Likely cause ,either:

The the permissions on the preference file are set incorrectly --  This might be fixed in disk utility -- repair permissions. Logout and then login.

or

The permission file is corrupt.  You should move it to the desktop, logout, login and set the permissions. Should stick now.  I believe the preference is stored here:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse.plist


How does Preview calculate to display PDF when I select View / Actual Size?

There is a setting in Preview > Preferences, in the Images tab which might be relevant:


Magic Keyboard with number pad: type comma instead of a dot

System Preferences- Language and Region- at the bottom of the box click "Advanced"- then choose the dot/ comma under Number separators- Decimal and again under drop down box "decimal" under currency.


how to make an "archive" button for Mail.app in mac os x mountain lion to work with gmail accounts?

You could assign a shortcut to a script like this:

tell application "Mail" to tell account "Gmail"
    messages of mailbox "INBOX" whose flagged status is false and read status is true
    move result to mailbox "[Gmail]/All Mail"
end tell

This would only move selected messages:

tell application "Mail"
    selected messages of message viewer 1
    move result to mailbox "[Gmail]/All Mail" of account "Gmail"
end tell


MacBook Pro doesn't re-connect to Wi-Fi, iPhone does

You should check System Preferences > Network and click the Advanced... button to pull up the list of saved Preferred Networks. There is an option to drag networks in a preferred order. If your home network is not at the top of the list, drag it up. If your home network is the only network in this list, select it and hit the negative button to delete it, then recreate a new Wi-Fi connection.

Sidenote: If you are using iCloud Keychain, Wi-Fi networks you have connected to on any device also using iCloud Keychain will show up on your Mac and visa versa. This can cause a proliferation of Wi-Fi networks in this list.


Where iTunes stores my playlists and ratings

Actually it stores the original on your computer.

The iCloud just gets a copy of it if you have set it up that way.

You can find the file in the ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Library.itl

and in the iTunes Music Library.xml (located in same place)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201610


Do you have a netgear router?

Look here and search for “printer”. It looks like it could be something to do with vulnerability scanning in your router.

Suggestions are:

turn off the vulnerability scan in the router
turn off the web services on the printer


In iMessage - Double click the current pic to reveal the change panel.

It should open on Recents, showing you the current choice and any other pic that has been used in System Preferences > User and Groups > you account > Picture, and the Contacts App > My Card > your pic.

or

Messages Menu > Change my Picture!


When will my Mac (13inch MacBook Pro Mid 2013) become a un serviceable product in California?

Residents of California can obtain service and or parts for up to 7 years under the Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act.

First, what Apple terms "vintage" and "obsolete" are not in anyway bound legally to what California law provides for.  For the record, Song-Beverly provides for manufacturers making parts available for up to 7 years; Apple can, in it's discretion, make "Vintage" in 8 years.

Secondly, the law only allows for replacement parts and service information be made available.

  Every  manufacturer making an express warranty with respect to an
  electronic or  appliance product described in subdivision (h), (i),
  (j), or (k) of Section 9801 of the  Business and Professions Code,
  with a wholesale price to the retailer of one hundred  dollars ($ 100)
  or more, shall make available to service and repair facilities
  sufficient  service literature and functional parts to effect the
  repair of a product for at least seven  years after the date a product
  model or type was manufactured, regardless of whether the seven
  - year period exceeds the warranty period for the product

To put this in layman's terms, see:  Sold a defective electronic device? California Law Protects You

  To be clear, the law does not force manufacturers to replace an
  electronic device that no longer works. Instead, the law requires
  expressly warranted electronic goods to have replacement parts
  available to consumers and service information available that allows
  enough information for repairs.

What's most important here, is the context of that warranty point you brought up:

  Products purchased in the state of California, United States, as
  required by statute.

  Owners of vintage Mac products may obtain service and parts from Apple service providers within the state of California, United States.

(emphasis mine)

TL;DR

The Song Beverly Consumer Warranty Act says that the manufacturer (Apple) must make available parts and service information for up to 7 years on your electronic device (MacBook) that was purchased in the state of California.  This doesn't extend the warranty to 7 years.


How can I get more information about my iPhone's Wi-Fi connection?

Other than router address (just tap on the information icon - the blue "I" in the circle on the right), it doesn't display any of this other information because both of those are handled automatically.

If you need that info, you'll need a separate, 3rd party app.

Status Pro (Lite version definately doesn't have it)
WiFi Advisor (Free)

Those are just two of the options available.  Many commercial network manufacturers have much more robust utilities but, you have to have their products installed in order for them to work.

That said, channel and security (WPA/WPA2 Personal or Enterprise, Certificates, etc) weren't of any real use because unless doing in depth diagnosis because we set our WAPs to automatic channel switching meaning the channel we saw one moment would change the next and security wasn't important unless we were analyzing a customers network, but we easily got that info from Windows networking settings when we tried to connect.


How can I get the Terminal to keep a separate history per tab/window?

You could do something like this in your .bashrc:

MYTTY=`tty`
HISTFILE=$HOME/.bash_history_`basename $MYTTY`

This will create separate history files in your home directory such as .bash_history_ttys002.  When you create a new terminal window, it will use the history file corresponding to the tty name, which will usually be determined simply by the order in which you create the terminal windows.


Can a dedicated GPU use/share system RAM in addition to the VRAM included with it?

I believe "NO" is also an answer :(

The physical and design of the discrete (AMD in your case, nVidia in other MBPs) is such that their VRAM is on separate bus connected only to the GPU.

The IGPs (which are part of the CPU's die, ie. physical chip) shared the DRAM of the computer. That is where the term "shared" memory comes in, because the CPU and IGP have a shared access to the "computer's" RAM :)

Thus, if your application needs 512MB display memory, then you are out of luck with your current MBP ;(


How can I get the Alt key to work in an X11 application?

I think you want to check "Enable key equivalents under X11" in the Input tab of the X11 Preferences.


How to verify installation of a new battery in an iPhone?

Is there any way to confirm that the battery actually got replaced?

There are a couple ways you can use to check the battery status/health on your iPhone:

Check for your iPhone's battery's maximum capacity under Battery Health status in the iOS Settings app.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208387

Maximum battery capacity measures the device battery capacity relative to when it was new. A battery will have lower capacity as the battery chemically ages which may result in fewer hours of usage between charges. Depending upon the length of time between when the iPhone was made and when it is activated, your battery capacity may show as slightly less than 100%.

A newer/recent battery should show a number close to 100% for the Maximum Capacity value. You can access this information under Settings app → Battery → Battery Health on your iPhone.

Check the battery charge cycle count and charge retention capacity on your iPhone.
You can check the battery charge cycle count and charge retention capacity on your iPhone by using a 3rd party app called coconutBattery. A charge cycle count gives an estimation of full charge and discharge cycles endured by your iPhone.


I am trying to play music from an external hard drive to my TV using my Apple TV and Network with no success

You can use VLC which can play most media formats - both movie and audio.
Under “Local Network” map your External drive, and then you should be up running.
But the External drive need to be on the network e.g. as a NAS or added to your router as a media drive.


How to stop OS X from writing Spotlight and Trash files to memory cards and USB sticks?

For just a particular mounted volume - like a flash drive called yourUSBstick in this example - these commands will remove existing cruft, stop Spotlight indexing now and in the future, stop the related fsevents logging, and disable the Trash feature.

mdutil -i off /Volumes/yourUSBstick
cd /Volumes/yourUSBstick
rm -rf .{,_.}{fseventsd,Spotlight-V*,Trashes}
mkdir .fseventsd
touch .fseventsd/no_log .metadata_never_index .Trashes
cd -

Other unfamiliar stuff you may still see you probably want to keep, like Apple double "._*" files and other Apple DS cruft relating to icons and window placement.


Can "mdfind" search for phrases and not just unordered words?

You need to escape your quotes like so:

mdfind \"I love Apple\" -onlyin ~/Documents

This results in just the one document being found:

~/Documents/test1.txt

Without escaping them, I don't think the quotes actually get passed to the mdfind command, they're just interpreted by your shell to say that I love Apple is a single argument. With the backslash-escaping, the argument then includes the quote characters.


Can my former employer still monitor my iPhone after I erase all content and settings

That would really depend on how they went about doing the monitoring, on a functional level. Seeing as it was originally distributed by corporate for use in-company it's entirely possible that their apps were designed to modify the iPhone's system in a way that apps on the App Store would normally be prohibited from doing. Seeing as they were privately designed apps for use on private company property there wouldn't be much stopping them from designing the apps to inject monitoring software into the system storage, where the user cannot access or remove it, in an attempt to stop employees from simply uninstalling the apps to bypass the monitoring software.

To be completely safe I would recommend putting the iPhone in recovery mode, connecting it to a Mac with a stable (and private/secured) internet connection, and completely reinstalling the firmware & OS via iTunes' restore feature.

To put the phone into iTunes recovery mode, sometimes called "DFU mode" or "Firmware Update Mode" follow the steps below:

  Warning: Make sure to disable "Find My iPhone" and delete the connected iCloud account from the device before following these steps, or it may be left unusable after the restore has finished.

  1.) Remove the SIM card from the device.

  2.) Press and hold both Power and Home for 30 seconds. The screen should go black around the 20 second mark, this is because the phone has shut off. The boot screen (Apple logo) will appear on screen, keep holding both the power and home button for another 10 seconds.

  3.) On the 30th second the screen should turn black again. As soon as it does, let go of the power button, but keep holding down the home button for another 30 seconds.

  4.) On the 60th second let go of the home button. The screen should now remain black as though the phone is powered off. If the Apple logo appears on screen try again from step 1. If the screen remains dark it means the phone is now in iTunes recovery mode.

  5.) Open iTunes, plug the phone into the Mac, and a window should pop up saying that an iPhone in recovery mode has been detected, and that it has to be restored before it can be used.

  6.) Click the "Update & Restore" button, and wait for the process to finish. Make sure the cable does not disconnect during any point of the restore process, if your cable is finicky grab a better one, or buy a new one.

  7.) When iTunes says the process has completed, and the phone reboots: reinsert the SIM card. The phone's firmware and OS will have both been erased and reinstalled from the newest version on Apple's update servers. This means it is essentially no different from a new iPhone straight out of the box, and any spyware or monitoring programmes will definitely be gone at this point.


How to use Keep in Dock option with applications started form the console?

You could write a shell script to invoke the java app with the parameters you need, then wrap it up in an app with Platypus.

The resultant app can then be put in the Dock like any other app.

I've used it for a variety of tasks, such as popping-up a help screen with a serial number for users to enter for a recalcitrant app which didn't like mass deployment and would ask the user to enter it at first run, to a complicated script which mounted a disk-image of a science textbook's additional media DVD and then ran the associated app to access the content. Platypus even allowed me to roll the disk-image into the final app itself, making deployment easier.


How is the Apple Watch ECG disabled in certain countries?

According to a few 2018 articles, the restrictions are based on the region where the watch was sold, and the removal of blocks is implemented by a watchOS update.

Not tied to ID. No geo-fence.

There was speculation that changing the watch's region settings could bypass the restriction, but those articles correct that understanding.

Given these facts, the easiest way, and the way that fits the common programming design patterns, to restrict by region would be to disable globally, and with an OS update, enable the feature for the regionally purchased devices, likely by serial number/factory code.

As for which watchOS features are enabled for which country, Apple provides this handy list. The UK is listed as an approved country for ECG since watchOS 5.2 (March 27, 2019).


MacBook Pro goes black for a second or two and then comes back on

That actually sounds like an intermittent connection caused by a broken wire/conductor, or a bad solder joint. Essentially, you have two ends of a conductor that should be joined, but mild vibration is causing them to make/break contact, causing the symptoms you describe.

However, you should confirm that your screen saver settings aren't set to turn on after a very short duration.

System Preferences >> Desktop & Screen Saver >> Screen Saver tab.
At the bottom-left, try setting Start after = Never

BTW, if you want easy method to manually enable the screen saver, click Hot Corners and set a corner for Start Screen Saver.

It would be good news if just the screen saver is causing the blank screen.

Otherwise, you should send the macbook in for repairs (when you have a break from needing it).


Why won't my restored iPhone 4S accept my Apple ID credentials?

Try connecting via https://appleid.apple.com/ probably something wrong with your password.

Consider once you have access to the page to check your contact information, add a secondary e-mail etc…

If you still experience problems you should contact an Apple adviser via http://support.apple.com/


Which Mac Mini is the earliest able to run Yosemite?

See http://www.apple.com/osx/how-to-upgrade/:

These Mac models are compatible with OS X Yosemite:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)


iMac notified me when call comes in on iPhone. How do I turn this back on?

There are a few things to check.

Are both devices logged into the same AppleID account?
Is "Calls From iPhone" checked in FaceTime preferences on your Mac?
And on your iPhone check the settings under Settings -> Phone -> Calls on Other Devices.


iTunes not accepting me to download apps from the App Store

Is the account in your name or a parent/guardian?

There maybe restrictions set on the account, or the email address or password maybe incorrect.

As Subway Surfers contains in-app purchases this may also be restricted.

I would recommend speaking with your parent or guardian to get the issue resolved.

Although more information would allow use to help resolve the issue.


Files and Folders services do not appear

Well, that was silly.
As @Prado points out in the comment above, I had to select a file or folder first to access these services.


How can I remove or disable Bonjour on OSX Lion, is it safe?

No you cannot remove Bonjour from MacOS X. There is no real good reason to do so anyway.

Also the "problem" you link to describes an issue with Bonjour installed on Windows 7, so it does not apply to you.


AirPlay Music From AirPort Express Dropping Out

I have struggled with a similar issue for about a year now. Under the veil of secrecy, I think that airplay is a solid protocol.

I use an AT&T Arris Gateway for a DHCP server with an Airport Express as a LAN node. Here's what seems to have solved my problem:

Deep inside the configuration pages for my Arris router (Firewall > Advanced) I found a "Flood Limit" option, which was stated to block "bursting new traffic." Essentially, the router was dropping packets after a certain limit had been reached (I believe this is a mechanism against DoS attacks). Disabling this seemed to stop the AirPlay from dropping out.

Long story short, you may have a router that is tampering too much with the packets on your LAN. Go through every setting on your routers/APs. Disable MAC address filtering, make sure these TCP/UDP ports are open, and steer clear of firewall features that are degrading the performance of your network. Also, wired connections between APs really help with streaming.


Can we modify UDID added in iOS developer portal?

No, it can't be done. You can only remove devices when you renew your subscription.


If you hold down the Option key, your Library folder (~/Library), which is normally hidden, will show up under the Finders Go menu. Just selected it (Go -> Library) and you will be there in the Finder.


how to transfer song files inside the same iphone

When your iPhone is not jailbreaked it is not possible.

When you have an jailbroken iPhone, it is possible to move files in your iPhone with iFile. The music in iTunes on your iPhone is stored within several maps so I do not know if it works when simple moving the music files.


iPhone 7 has a cellular bug. Apple will repair - if i pay $$$ to have screen fixed too. Help!

As alluded to in the comments, many hardware repairs require removing the screen. If the screen is damaged (no matter how minor) there's a very high risk of it shattering during the repair process, and that is why Apple (and many others) won't do a repair unless you're also getting the screen replaced at the same time.

As for your question on how to get around this, the only other option is to get the screen replaced somewhere else, or to try replacing it yourself. Then, once the screen is okay, Apple will perform the other repair as per normal.

However, please note that not all screens are created equally and that the money you save on a non-genuine screen may not be worth it in the long run. I've seen many cases of iPhones and iPads with non-genuine screens work just fine for a couple of months and then start to glitch like crazy.


How can I convert HTML/Rich Text to Markdown in Automator?

HTML to Markdown

Brett Terpstra has written these automator services to help manipulate markdown in OSX.

One of these services does convert HTML to Markdown (which answers one part of your question), and any of these services can be individually added and assigned a shortcut if you so please. I myself use Markdown to RTF to send pretty emails written in md.

However, none of the services seem to do RTF to Markdown. And so deeper into the rabbit hole of RTF clipboard extraction I went...

RTF to Markdown

First I found this post and this SO question. The key, I found, is to use OSX built-in pbpaste (or osascript) and textutil.

And so, I've written a simple RTF to Markdown service for anyone who is still looking to compliment Brett's services mentioned above, it simply converts input to HTML and pipes result to the "HTML to Markdown" service.

  Note: RTF HTML output is not always what you are looking at because of how the style is converted, so I would go with HTML to Markdown where possible.


Turn off Safari 9 blinking in web inspector?

This can be done in the Elements tab by disabling this little brush icon:


Understand "Open in browser" vs "Open in Preview" for PDF files

Something that I have found quite useful is getting info for one type of file and then setting it so that all files of that kind open in a specific application.

  • Right click (or control + click) on any PDF file and choose Get Info from the pop-up menu.
  • In the window that pops up, choose which application to open that file with. (choose Preview if you want to open PDF files in Preview).
  • Click Change All… to automatically open all PDF files in the selected application.


You sure can! Try this:

say "the company [[slnc 1200]]" using "Alex" saving to ((path to home folder as string) & "TheCompany.aiff")

Note that you have to use the AIFF format, which iPods do support. This will save it in your home directory.

You have to install FFMPEG for the final part of this script. You may have to install the developer tools first. Run this command in Terminal to check:

xcode-select --install

Once that's completed, you should install a package manager for FFMPEG. I personally use MacPorts, so that's what these instructions are for. Install MacPorts from here, picking the correct version for your OS. Once it's installed, run sudo port selfupdate && sudo port install ffmpeg in the Terminal, and enter your password. Once that's complete, this AppleScript should now function:

global file_index
global temp_files
set file_index to 0
set temp_files to {}
set finished_filename to "result.aiff"

say "the company [[slnc 1200]]" using "Alex" saving to new_temp_file()
say "une entreprise [[slnc 1200]]" using "Thomas" saving to new_temp_file()
say "a farm [[slnc 1500]]" using "Alex" saving to new_temp_file()
say "une ferme [[slnc 1200]]" using "Thomas" saving to new_temp_file()

set final_command to "echo \""
repeat with filename in temp_files
    set final_command to final_command & "file " & POSIX path of filename & "
"
end repeat
set final_command to final_command & "\"|/opt/local/bin/ffmpeg -y -f concat -i - -c copy ~/" & finished_filename
do shell script final_command

#cleanup
repeat with current_file in temp_files
    do shell script "rm " & POSIX path of current_file
end repeat

on new_temp_file()
    set file_index to file_index + 1
    set current_temp_file to ((path to temporary items) as string) & "file" & file_index & ".aiff"
    set temp_files to temp_files & {current_temp_file}
    return current_temp_file
end new_temp_file

This will combine the says in the list to the file you specify in the finished_filename variable. You can add however many "say"s you want, just keep to the same syntax I used (saving to new_temp_file()) and you'll be good to go!


Adding text to PDF using Adobe Reader in OS X

I guess we can assume that the document does not fillable fields (because if it had, the question would not have come up).

The "Add text at cursor" tool is a markup tool, used for correction text. It sets a marker in the text, and the text to add is contained in the popup.

The suitable Comment tool for this purpose ("filling" out a form) would be the Add Text Comment tool.


Upload to business YouTube channel instead of personal channel

What you probably want to do is log out of both accounts, then log back in in the order of importance, in your case Business, then Personal. This should make the app default to business.