What you are seeing is IPv6 dns servers that your Mac is getting from your router. Note that IPv6 dns can still return IPv4 addresses so you will need to handle both sets of addresses since some servers and networks are now IPv6 only.
IPv6 is a replacement for the older and more common IPv4 that you are used to seeing. Why? Because the world is literally running out of IPv4 IP addresses and the new IPv6 is an enormously larger address space (3.4×10^38 addresses).
There is nothing wrong with your Mac. You should leave it alone. Changing that to an IPv4 address, while possible, does nothing for you. And, in fact, it would be like someone deciding to go back to horse and buggy transportation instead of his car because he thinks horses are prettier. Certainly your call and certainly possible but not necessarily the most efficient use of your time and effort.
The conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 is taking longer than many people expected but it is happening and eventually the old IPv4 addresses will not be used. My advice to you, "get used to the new standard."
For some time, you might try disabling IPv6 entirely or force your Mac to use openly IPv4 based DNS services, but you will break things and be limited even today on what you can do by excluding the possibility of interacting with IPv6 networks.


Change iOS account on iPhone without losing data

You cannot add the business account for 2FA to your iPhone without first logging off the private account. However, when you have logged into the business account and enabled 2FA, you can logout and then login to your private account again.

Instead of purchasing a new phone for the business, you can also use any other modern iOS or macOS device for enabling 2FA. I.e. you can use for example a Mac computer or an iPad or iPod Touch.


How to export address book to mailchimp or CSV file?

Export your contacts as a VCARD bundle from Contacts.app and then import them into a gmail account which supports the VCARD format.  Once in Gmail, you can then export them as a csv file.


Turns out I couldn't access my disk when booting from disc (I apologise to all dyslectics reading this). I discovered, though, that since my last backup (which was 79 days before the crash) I had actually only used the computer very little, so I used a single USB stick to back up all files that were created or edited since then. (These files are fairly easy to find by sorting on last edited date in Finder. Luckily, I had still access to Finder.)
Booting from the disc in the Mac Box Set is indeed possible, I asked at the local Apple Reseller and did it myself. It was very easy (<3 Apple). I just had to press C during startup, see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533 for the official list of startup key combinations. (That is where I found the information.) After booting from disc, I used Disk Utility to erase the disk and then reinstalled Snow Leopard. Fixed!


Inbox messages not visible after upgrading to Yosemite

Your messages are not gone.

Apple Mail is not displaying the Exchange or G-mail inbox properly.

I tested this with 2 systems: 1 on Mavericks and 1 on Yosemite.

The Mavericks mail worked correctly and the Yosemite would stop displaying the inbox.  I was able to perform operations (read, flag, delete, move) messages on the Mavericks system and the actions would correctly show on the Yosemite system once I re-synced the mail application.

Furthermore, I only needed to click on my iCloud-based account and then go back to my Exchange account for the inbox to be displayed properly.  However, after about 30-45 seconds it would again stop displaying.

This looks like an Apple bug.

I hope this helps and that Apple can fix this annoying bug soon.


If you have access to another computer, you could try downloading the Lion installer from the App Store, right clicking on it and clicking "Show Package Contents" and finding the "InstallESD.dmg" file and restoring this to a flash drive (8GB+). Then you can hold alt on startup and select the drive as your boot option. You should be able to install Lion on the air without needing to download the additional components, but it may still try. Even if it tries, it might still work since you're installing from a different drive. It's worth a shot.


This is almost certainly a phishing message.

That means the sender is trying to collect your login and password. You should report this message as junk, delete it, and close it and any windows it opened.

If you've provided any details to the website thinking it was Apple you need to immediately change your password via https://appleid.apple.com

Also if you use this password on any other website you should consider these websites also vulnerable and should immediately change the password on all sites which use this password in the following order:

Email accounts + bank accounts
Social media
All other sites


How do I revert to a previous version of a file using Lion's file versioning tool?

Open the file in question.
If the application you are using supports Versions (not all of them do yet) you will find a downward pointing triangle to the right of the title of the document at the top of the window.
Click on that and it will take you into Versions.  If there are previous saved version, you will be able to "scroll" back through them and select the one you want.

Some applications have not yet been updated to take advantage of Versions...  In that case, you will find that you are out of luck for now.

Bill


Global keyboard shortcut to switch to an application (to use with Emacs/Aquamacs)

I tried to use specifically Applescript/Automator to avoid 3rd party applications, but eventually I utilised capabilities of application called Alfred (I can not recall right now, but there is a chance you should buy Alfred Power Pack to use this feature)

In addition with the help of Karabiner.app I forced CapsLock button to act as Shift+Cmd+Ctrl+Opt and there is almost no need to use Opt+Tab to switch between apps since then.


How to use Jar Launcher with specified jdk version

After long time efforts,I finally find the solution,that is ,to make your own Jar Launcher app:

Launch Automator to make Automator Quick Action

Select Application
Look for the Run Shell Script action with Filter Finder Items  and add it to
the right.
paste scripts here like this below:

I make some changes to make it better

export JAVA_HOME=`/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8`
cd "$(dirname "$@")"
java -jar "$@"

save this quick action as an app for example "open jar.app"
go to  /System/Library/CoreServices/Jar Launcher.app/Contents/Resources
and copy JarLauncher.icns

cd to "open jar.app" you just made and paste JarLauncher.icns to
"open jar.app/Contents/Resources"
edit  "open jar.app/Contents/Info.plist" and change key(AutomatorApplet to JarLauncher.icns):

    <key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
    <string>JarLauncher.icns</string>

now you can choose to open with "open jar.app" just like before.


Is there a faster way to insert text at cursor in AppleScript than "keystroke"?

Yes.

User @jackjr300 has devised an ideal solution to this question here:

Is it possible to keystroke special characters in AppleScript?

This solution works system-wide and does not affect the clipboard.

The provided TypeCharacters Objective-C file is significantly (i.e., exponentially) faster at typing text than AppleScript's native keystroke command.


How can I run a PHP script by dropping file on icon?

Yes, this should be possible using Automator. I haven't worked with php from the command line, so I'm unsure exactly how that works, but this is a general instruction.

Open Automator (It's in the Applications folder).
Choose to create an Application.

Select Utilities under Library and choose Run Shell Script and drag it to the area on the right.

In the text area for the run shell script action, remove 'cat' and write the full path to the script you wish to run.
Select to Pass input to stdin.
Save the Application somewhere and drag it to your dock.
Try it out by dragging a file to it.


I can't remove alarms set with old apple mail app

In Reminders there should be a folder titled 'Notes' where all your old Mail todo's have been moved.  To see your folders you have to click one of the buttons on the bottom right of the side-menu.  There should be a similar folder in the Notes application where all your old Mail notes have been moved.


Does the Mac mini come with a keyboard or mouse?


How to stream iTunes content to Chromecast

If you have actually downloaded the file, simply drag it into the Chrome browser - it will play your file locally and you can stream it from there.  I don't know of any solution built into iTunes that would allow you to stream directly to the Chromecast.  I do this with iTunes U lectures all the time.


While not a definitive answer, I know someone with an iPhone 4 that did something very similar. After it happened several times, they contacted Apple support, and it was replaced under Apple Care. There's nothing that I'm aware of that you can or should do to help it, and if it starts happening more regularly, you should obviously contact Apple support.

I'm confident you already understand this but while it could be a mere coincidence, factors such as extreme heat, and water damage could possibly have the same effect.


What will happen to our Mac if using higher RAM than Apple "allows" it?

The MacBook Pro (Early 2011) support up to 16 GB of RAM just fine. Apple stated 8 GB of RAM as maximum when the model was released, but it has later been confirmed that it actually support 16 GB of RAM without problems. For example check this link:

MacBook Pro Early 2011 - EveryMac

The Mid 2010 and Mid 2012 Mac Pro's support at least 48 GB of RAM.

So all in all, there should be no problems in upgrading to 16 GB of RAM if you have one of these Mac models.


Yes you can, as long as you put the disc in a usb 3 enclosure, compatible with your new Mac.
Edit after result of diskutil cs list.
Your HDD is part of a Fusion Drive :
HDD present :
+-< Physical Volume FF551275-7077-4759-870E-2AA51B847383
                ----------------------------------------------------
                    Index: 1
                    Disk: disk3s2
                    Status: Checking
                    Size: 999345012736 B (999.3 GB) –

SSD absent :
+-< Physical Volume 5CA40245-A547-42CE-A283-8A855191C7F5
                | ----------------------------------------------------
                | (No properties) –


Extreme lag when opening folders, new tabs, dragging/minimizing any windows. and clicking on any text box

spindump is used by various system components to create reports when an unresponsive application is force quit. Reports are stored at:
/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

So what you could do is to have a look at that directory to see which application required a lot of forced quits (aka crashes). Please raise a new question if you need help in reading the log.

In the meanwhile you can do the following to keep your system usable:

Keep a Terminal window open
When the system slows done to a crawl, switch to Terminal (via CmdTab)
run sudo pkill -STOP -l spindump; sudo pkill -STOP -l tailspind (you will be asked for your password once)

This will pause any running spindump processes (which is better than outright killing them because then they will be most likely restarted immediately).
Two caveats here

This will only work if the user you are logged in with has admin rights. If it doesn't, please add a comment and I can show you how to make this work for a non-admin user
It helps to put this in a shell alias (less character to type to execute it). If you need help with that, comment accordingly as well


Automator "Watch Me Do" function does not work in app

Watch Me Do and Accessibility

Since macOS 10.9, you need to add your Automator application to your Mac's accessibility list. To add your Automator workflow, go to:

System Preferences →
Security & Privacy →
Accessibility

…and drag the Automator app you are trying to use into the list.

This is needed because Watch Me Do uses macOS's accessibility features to simulate user interactions. Accessibility is powerful and Apple require applications be explicitly listed before they are granted this additional control over your computer.


How do I tell iTunes not to back up apps?

Back up apps is probably a wrong wording as you don't want to store the apps at all on your iTunes, if I understood you correct.

One option could be, to disable app sync. However, all apps are then probably deleted from your device and you have to download all of the again on your device again. If your apps will be deleted from your iOS device, you also will lose all the application data. Also the application data wont be backed up then to your iTunes (but could be backed up to iCloud).

Although you can redownload apps for free, you should keep in mind, that a developer (or Apple) can also remove an app from sale. It is then no longer possible to redownload the app. If you still have the app in your iTunes you still can continue to use it.


OS X uses a short user name and a long user name.

The short name is the home folder shown in /Users/xxxxx and the long name is only shown for programs and settings that know to request the long name to display. Any where you get to enter a user name, you can choose to use either the short or long name.

To see this in practice, you can either use terminal:

whoami
whoami | id

The first will print your short name and the second shows your ID and your user numbers and internal accounting.

This is covered in several Apple support articles - best being: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201548

I would recommend you make a back up and have someone to check your work if you try changing the short name. It can cause old backups to get erased (since the new folder gets backed up and doesn't "save space" like other Time Machine backups do) and can cause your account to not work where you'd need to reset the setup manually and create a third admin account to patch things up.


Forwarding a single port from one network adapter to another?

According to what you're trying to achieve, your rule is in a wrong position.

This Source will show you how to set up a rule.
However, you're navigation FROM:

  sudo ipfw add 100 fwd 10.37.129.3,3389 tcp from any to any 3389 in

Please don't hit me with a stick, I'm unable to forward this on my Mac to test.


This is possible in iOS 14 using the Shortcuts app. You have to create an automation to enable the airplane mode in the evening and another automation to disable it in the morning.
I used the following:

Create automation
At 22:30 → Airplane mode ON
Disable “Ask before running”
Finish

The same process for the morning

Create automation
At 5:30 → Airplane mode OFF
Disable “Ask before running”
Finish

Another approach.
On the other side, since many would want to schedule the Airplane during the night, I can recommend from my own experience that leaving the  devices (phone, computer, tablet), in a different room than the bedroom is a good idea.
I built this habit in the last months and I use my CASIO watch to wake me up every morning.


How to automate DropBox startup without logging in

You'll have to configure Dropbox identically for all users, at least to the extent of "start at login", and "save password/login information". But if you configure it for all the system users, it should work identically no matter who logs in.


How to Install PIL in El Capitan with Pip?

This is because PIL is not setuptools compatible (https://mail.python.org/pipermail/image-sig/2010-August/006480.html) and has as such probably never been installable through pip. I think in general it should be considered deprecated in favor of Pillow which is an actively developed compatible fork of PIL.

So what you want to do is pip install Pillow, and also consider different pip usage since El Capitan like described in another thread here.


Applescript to change Wacom Driver settings

The Wacom driver allows you to set things up for individual applications. Have a specific setup for Photoshop (which excludes the display toggle setting) and then another one for all other apps.


How do I mass delete photos from my iPhone in Yosemite / iOS 8?

Turning off iCloud Photos Beta and restarting my iPhone worked, then the option returned in Image Capture.  Seems to be a bug in iCloud Photos Beta


How do I share an optical drive with Windows?

It would appear tubedogg is correct. Or at least I know of no reason he/she is wrong. HOWEVER, while you may not be able to share the optical drive, it does appear you can share the content (CD or DVD) in the drive. This means you must insert the disk into the optical drive before enabling the sharing of the content with the Windows machine. I have verified this for both a data DVD and music CD.

Setup with Empty Optical Drive on the Mac

The Finder shows the following. The Coelacanth and Marlin are the only visible internal drive partitions on the Mac named Marlin.

Sharing under System Preferences shows the following. The only shared folders are each user's default public folder. The "File Sharing" box is checked off, as well as, all boxes in the "Options..." popup window. The "DVD or CD Sharing" box is not checked off.

Note: "Screen Sharing" is only checked off, because the two computers are currently connected using VNC. I verified this has no effect on this answer.

On the Windows PC side, the machine named Shark displays the following. Here, the Mac is already sharing its folders with the Windows PC. The internal drive partitions "Linux HFS+ ESP" and "rEFInd" are flagged as hidden so they did not appear in the Finder window shown above.

Setup after Inserting a Data DVD Into the Optical Drive on the Mac

The DVD now appears in the Finder, as shown below.

I clicked the + symbol and added the DVD to the list of shared folders shown on the Sharing window of the System Preferences. The result is shown below.

This results in the DVD automatically appearing on the Windows machine, as shown below.

I can now open this folder and access the files on the DVD.


How does macOS detect keyboard? How to manually add a new keyboard?

Have you tried Logitech Options?
 It's their custom software and in the specifics tells that it's good also for MX keyboards.


MBP trackpad not working, but Apple (store) got it to work during reinstallation of macOS

Reinstalling OS X will keep your previous system preferences set up.

Trackpad could be disabled in the System Preferences Accessibility.
Since in your case you had the Logitech plugged in, the system just did what it was asked and disabled the trackpad.

  USB Receiver: Product ID: 0xc52f Vendor ID: 0x046d (Logitech Inc.)
  Version: 30.00 Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec Manufacturer: Logitech Location
  ID: 0x14200000 / 14 Current Available (mA): 500 Current Required (mA):
  98 Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Solution: Disable the check mark in the system preferences Accessibility.


How to enable multiple words on Quicklook search?

Does Macbooks 2018 and earlier supports this quicklook force touch feature for multiple words?

I have MacBook 2017, macOS Mojave. Multiple words are picked up in Safari when they start with Capital letters, for e.g. proper nouns. This however won't work in Firefox.

I am not aware of configuration.


There is nothing that can fix this other than hardware service, it's greyed out because the Wi-Fi module is not functioning correctly, it is intermittent now but will eventually fail entirely.

Your best course of action if you are under warranty is to take it to Apple, however this model is unlikely to be under the 1 year warranty, or 2 year AppleCare warranty.

In this case, if all of these apply to you:

Bought the phone in the EU.
Are the original purchaser of the unit.
Bought for consumer use, not business
Bought from Apple Online or an Apple Store

Then you can make a claim under EU Consumer Law which states a device should last a reasonable amount of time, however you are typically required to demonstrate this within the first 6 months. However this issue was a common failure mode for this product so I would suggest that it's a known issue to Apple and they should replace it under EU Consumer Law on the basis it is a known issue.

If one or more of the above don't apply or Apple refuses, then there is no option but a handset replacement, I wouldn't personally attempt a logic board replacement using parts online, it's a particularly complex repair.

Source: 6+ years working at Apple Retail


What is the most reliable ATSC TV tuner for use with OSX?

I have an Elgato EyeTV 250, and it works great. I think Elgato may be the best (if not the only) option.


How do I give mysqld write access to a directory?

Depending on the uid mysqld is using, chmod 700 on the data directory might not help. You may do the following:

chmod 777 /usr/local/mysql-5.5.15-osx10.6-x86_64/data/
Startup mysqld again
ls -l /usr/local/mysql-5.5.15-osx10.6-x86_64/data/ to identify the owner of the created files
chown OWNER /usr/local/mysql-5.5.15-osx10.6-x86_64/data
chmod 700 /usr/local/mysql-5.5.15-osx10.6-x86_64/data/


Seagate Hard Drive Not showing in Disk Utility

Barring also testing it on another Mac, that sounds like a hard drive logic board failure. Your best bet might be to source a logic board from another identical hard drive, with an IDENTICAL board model identifier (including the revision if any), and swap for yours, then see if it works.


If the iPad 2 is not HD, why does Apple advertise them as able to watch HD movies?

I imagine this is a wording thing, there is a difference between benig able to "watch HD movies" and "watch movies in HD".  The iPad can take a HD source, and scale it to display.  Commonly (although not officially) HD modes can be denoted by their number of scan lines (720p = 720 progressive, or non-interlaced, horizontal rows of pixels), and in this case the iPad 2 has 768 rows.


How to Install latest mac os catalina, to the older laptop

Download the latest version of the Catalina patch here. Open the Catalina Patcher app.
Click Continue.
Choose Download a Copy.
The download (of Catalina) will start - since it's almost 8GB it is likely to take a while.
Plug in a flash drive.
Choose 'Create a bootable installer' from the options.
Plug the bootable installer into the Mac you wish to update.
Restart the Mac while holding the Option/Alt key. This will cause the Mac open in Startup Manager.
Choose the bootable installer drive and Enter.
Now your Mac should open in Recovery.
Choose Reinstall macOS and wait for the new version of macOS to install.
After the installation has completed, you should restart the Mac in Recovery mode again, choosing the drive that contains the bootable installer.
Now choose macOS Post Install and the required patches will be installed on your Mac so that Catalina can work.
When the patches have been applied to choose Force Cache Rebuild.
Restart.

I also suggest you go through this video.


how to check integrity of recovery partition?

You can mount the Recovery volume in your normal booted macOS.

diskutil mount readOnly Recovery

Then you can perform checksums on files as you normally would, on the Recovery volume.

shasum /Volumes/Recovery/*/BaseSystem.dmg

When you're done, you can unmount Recovery.

diskutil unmount Recovery


Trouble setting up separate iTunes libraries for iPhone and iPod

The library and iTunes media folder are two separate entities.
The media folder will hold everything contained within the library.
The library file will hold items such as playlists and preferences.
You could create the two libraries then go to preferences and edit the iTunes media folder locations.
You will need two separate folders with the specified media in each.


Why does macOS not assign unique identifiers to files?

Bookmark remains persistent across reboots. "File reference URL" (file:///.file/id=367.27/) is not reboot safe.
If user relocates a file, both "String-based path" (/Users/me/a.txt) and "Path-based URL" (file://localhost/Users/me/a.txt) break too.

  Locating Files Using Bookmarks

  If you want to save the location of a file persistently, use the bookmark capabilities of NSURL. A bookmark is an opaque data structure, enclosed in an NSData object, that describes the location of a file. Whereas path- and file reference URLs are potentially fragile between launches of your app, a bookmark can usually be used to re-create a URL to a file even in cases where the file was moved or renamed.

  To create a bookmark for an existing URL, use the bookmarkDataWithOptions:includingResourceValuesForKeys:relativeToURL:error: method of NSURL. Specifying the NSURLBookmarkCreationSuitableForBookmarkFile option creates an NSData object suitable for saving to disk. Listing 2-3 shows a simple example implementation that uses this method to create a bookmark data object.

source


Is there a way to put images in cells in tables in iOS Numbers? 3.2

Yes, this can be done with Copy and Paste.  It is not as simple as dragging or inserting into the cell, but it has the desired result.

Navigate to the desired image and save image to Photos if not already there.
In Numbers, tap the plus icon to add an image
Once the image is on the canvas, long press it to bring up the Copy dialog and then copy to the clipboard
Select the desired cell(s), long press and tap Paste or paste from the ⚡ Cell button
Delete the image from the canvas

The cell can be resized as needed and the image will adjust.  Other content can be added over the image.

Steps
Add image from Photos:

Long press to Copy to Clipboard:

Paste into cell(s)

OR:

Add text, formulas etc as normally


iPod 2nd Gen Replacement digitizer not working


Duet Display install caused reboot to hang on High Sierra

I've just encountered the same problem on my 15" 2016 MacBook Pro  running macOS 10.14.2 Mojave. While I expected it to take some time starting up it never came back to the login screen and here's how I solved the problem:

Reboot into single user mode by pressing the cmd + s keys on
startup. Note this not safe mode, it's single user mode.
Once in single user mode type mount -uw / so that you get write access to the drive.
Navigate to the kexts directory with cd /Library/Extentions.
Now delete the Duet Display kexts with sudo rm -Rf DuetDisplay.kext, it's a directory thus the -Rf.
Next clear caches with sudo rm -Rf /System/Library/Caches/*.
Finally restart with shutdown -r now.

Hopefully that helps anyone else with this issue. I'm so disappointed in Duet Display and asking for my money back. It's cost me more in loss of productivity fixing this mess than I hoped to gain using their App.


Why will iPad not find my home Wi-Fi network but works with others?

I had the same problem with my iPhone a fews ago. Please reboot the router first. If this didn't work, then reset the router to factory resettings.


How can I type unicode characters without using the mouse?

Press CTRL+CMD+space to bring up the characters popover.

Then type in the code point and press the down arrow to select the symbol.

Then simply press ENTER and you are done.

This also works with the names of the symbols (e.g. arrow).

Additional information:

Note the icon in the top right of the character popover.  It changes the popover to the full Character Viewer, which cannot be navigated by the keyboard.  Click the icon in the top right of the Character Viewer to return to the popover.  Many thanks to @Tom Gewecke for this information.


Not able to update from 10.8.5 to OS X Mavericks

Try changing the date to current date in terminal. You can follow Jonathan Mohar's advice.


Will upgrading my 2007 mac-mini from Tiger to Snow Leopard be a performance upgrade?

It is advisable to upgrade to Snow Leopard in your case. More specifically, it's very advisable to upgrade from Tiger to Leopard (10.5) at the very least. This will ensure that you can use newer software and hardware that is on the market these days.

Personally, I didn't notice massive performance increases between Leopard and Snow Leopard, but on paper it is designed to better take advantage of the hardware in your Mac Mini. You'll also see alot of new features that have been incorporated into 10.5 and 10.6 since Tiger.

You'll have to source a copy from eBay or something as now Apple only sell OS X Lion (10.7) through the App Store.


Office for Mac 2016, my Outlook can't connect with my company Exchange Server

It is very possible that your company is running an Exchange Server that is not compatible with Outlook for Mac 2016.

Check with your company's help desk to find out if this is indeed the issue and if so how you can reinstall Outlook 2011.


How to remove my Mac from iPhone call audio routing list?

Try allowing all devices and then disabling Mac specifically in the "Calls on other devices" settings you posted.

Open FaceTime-> Preferences on Mac and uncheck receive calls from iPhone checkbox.

On the extreme, if you don't use continuity feature, (didn't see it in the question), could you turn Handoff off altogether in iPhone and/or Mac? It is in Settings -> General-> Handoff on both devices.  Either of the devices could be at fault. So check all combinations.


error: There was a problem with the editor 'vi' when using it with git

As answered here:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22699614/git-commit-messages-lost-by-vi

The real solution is to

git config --global core.editor vim -f

According to vim documentation - -f option should be used when Vim is executed by a program that will wait for the edit session to finish


I have all my movies on an external hard-drive as well. There's an easy fix:

Delete all movies from the library, but keep the option for automatic organization checked, so iTunes manages your music etc.

Now drag all your movies from the second drive to the iTunes sidebar over the Movies folder. Press and hold the 'alt'-key and release the mouse. This created links to all your movies. You need to organize the Movies-folder by hand, but that's not that bad.

See also this question: iTunes videos on a different harddrive?


iTunes: "Your account was changed while you were editing your account information."

I could see a race condition causing this briefly, but if you get this error for more than 15 minutes, I would get in queue with Apple support:

http://www.apple.com/support/ios/contact/
http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus

Unless there is an outage, you'll likely need someone to assist you on the sever side to resolve these errors.


prevent desktops/fullscreen windows from being re-ordered

Please, look this and this QAs which have answers for your questions.


Where to store large photo library that also can be backed up?

A few thoughts come to mind.

Firstly, this is all dependent on what sort of software solution you're using to store your photos. If it's just files in folders, that makes things simpler, and is pretty platform agnostic. But if you're using (or want to use) some sort of organization software, then that obviously complicates things, both in terms of platforms and performance. That said, here's what I think are the best options.

PC as Network Storage

This is what I do (for videos and bulk archival, not photos, but the concept is the same). I have a generic PC with a bunch of hard drives running headless off in an unused room, connected to my network. It runs Linux, and while I have it set up to do various automated tasks, it's main purpose is to be a big network drive I can dump stuff on.

It sounds like this is more or less what you have already. If your current hardware isn't adequate, then look into upgrading. For file serving duty, most old hardware should do just fine (mine is a dual core Celeron circa 2008), the biggest bottleneck is network speed, make sure you have Gigabit and the file server software is behaving (I've found that file sharing between Linux and OS X is much faster over AFP than SMB).

Getting it quiet can take a bit more effort/expense, but it's definitely doable, particularly when you don't need a lot of horsepower (basically, get the biggest heatsink you can, and use a small number of very large fans spinning very slowly).

This option is definitely the best value for your money, but likely means more time invested on your part.

Mac Mini

Using a Mac Mini in basically the same role as above has some merit as well. It's a bit more expensive, and less expandable, but requires less time investment for set up and maintenance. And of course it's a much more compact form factor than your typical PC, and pretty quiet unless you're doing something very CPU/GPU intensive. You can get up to 2 TB internal storage in one (doing so from Apple requires the more expensive "server" model, but you can save a bunch of money by getting the base model and installing the drives yourself - it's fairly straightforward).

In addition to simply acting as network file storage, you can use iPhoto to organize all your photos, and share them over the network to your other Macs. If you add OS X Server ($20 from the App Store), you can have your Mini act as a Time Machine back-up server for your other Macs (I haven't tested this, but I've heard it's much more reliable and has better performance than using a Time Capsule).

Other Options

NAS Appliance

As you've seen there are a wide variety of these. The cheap ones don't have very good performance (few even come close to saturating gigabit ethernet) and lack expandability, and the quality ones ramp up the cost to the point where using a PC or Mac Mini seems to make more sense in most situations. The main selling point seems to be their relative set and forget nature.

Time Capsule

I've never heard very good things about this. As a network storage appliance, it's lacking in performance and expandability. It's major selling point is integration with Time Machine, but its reputation seems to be spotty at best as a back up device. Unless having one device as your Wi-Fi router and network storage really appeals to you, I'd recommend against it. Likewise an Airport with attached hard drive — if you already have one, then it might be worth trying out to see if it meets your needs, but I wouldn't go out and buy one just for this.

Backups

For backups, keep things as simple as possible. External drives are pretty cheap, buy one and plug it in to whatever stores your photos. Set up some sort of backup script or program to perform regular backups (rsync should suffice if you're just backing up your photo storage — some sort of cloning software might be better if you want the whole system backed up). For added protection, do backups to second drive every week or two and keep it at your office or somewhere else. Alternatively, look into online backups such as Backblaze, CrashPlan or Arq, which is less labour intensive, but can be more costly and/or problematic depending on your internet speeds and cap.


Ways to retrive deleted iMessages on iPhone

I am not aware of apps that can recover messages from your iPhone. If you accidentally deleted messages off your iPhone, you would need to restore the iPhone from your most recent iCloud or iTunes backup.

The restore will bring back all the SMS/iMessages that were present on your iPhone at the time of the backup itself.


Use Apple Watch as a handheld Keynote remote?

You'll need to set up the iOS version of Keynote on your iPhone to be a remote control for Keynote on either another iOS device (such as your iPad) or your Mac. To do this, perform the following steps:

On the device that you'll be using to present from, open the remote control configuration:
On iOS, this feature is located in Remote | Devices | Add a Device
On OS X, this feature is located in Keynote | Preferences | Remotes (Ensure that the Enable checkbox is checked)
On the iPhone paired with the Apple Watch, open Keynote and select Remote | Devices | Add a Device
On the Mac or iOS device you'll be presenting from, select the Link button beside the remote device that you wish to use to control presentations
Verify the code shown on the screen, then complete the setup

Once this initial setup has been completed, open the Keynote app on your presenting device and begin a presentation.

On the Apple Watch, launch the Keynote app. Once the app launches, it will search and connect to the paired Mac or iOS device used for presentations. You'll get a Ready message (Figure A) when you're ready to control a presentation. When you see this message, it means that you can open the presentation on your Mac or iOS device that you'll be presenting.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-how-to-use-the-apple-watch-to-control-keynote-presentations/


Difference between US QWERTY and International QWERTY Apple keyboards?

The most important differences are the size and position of the Enter/Return, and a few differences in the layout. The ~ key and the \ key have an entirely different position on both keyboards. Also, the US keyboard has no € label (although it can be entered: Alt+Shift+2).

The International keyboard (‘keyboard type’ = ISO) also has one more key than the US keyboard (‘keyboard type’ = ANSI).  Some Apple keyboard layouts use that key for essential characters, and this can cause problems for users with only the US keyboard.

Below is a high-quality visual comparison.

US QWERTY Apple keyboard:

EN International Apple keyboard:


How to eliminate noise on iPad analog/headphone output?

Well to my shock and amazement, I seem to have solved the problem on my own.  Looks like it was actually related to the specific USB wiring of my setup.

I have a 10-port USB Hub (un-powered as I lost the AC adapter at some point) with most of the ports filled (a USB mic, a couple pieces of external MIDI gear, iPhone, Mac keyboard, etc.)  In addition to the devices I just mentioned, I also had my audio interface connected to this hub, but had forgotten that it was so.  The iPad mini was connected directly to the mac.

By switching things around and connecting the audio interface directly to the mac instead of to the hub, all extraneous noise disappeared completely.  Everything is pristinely quiet now (as best as I can tell at the moment, being that this is an active household and it's not exactly silent very often).  Definitely the constant whirring and chirping and data noises I was hearing before, are gone.  As is the high pitched whine.  Interestingly the iPad works fine connected to either the Mac or the hub, however does not get power if connected to the hub, so I'm leaving it on the mac.

Just goes to show how critical the way things are plugged in can be.  Just because it's a USB port, does not always mean it's the right one to plug into!  =)


Where can I find a projector case which is compatible with the iphone 5?

http://dx.com/p/a50p-2-in-1-pico-projector-battery-pack-for-iphone-5-ipad-mini-samsung-galaxy-s2-black-201546

I have ordered many items from DealExtreme so far and I am overall satisfied with the quality-price and their great support and after sales team. You can trust.


El Capitan can´t see or remove partition but it shows up in Terminal

It is because the Linux file system is something that OS X cannot natively read.  The easiest thing to do is to is load up a live Linux CD and change the partition to something OS X can read like ExFAT, or MSDOS.  Once that change has been made, OS X should be able to see it; allowing you to manipulate the partition.

The other option is to load up FUSE for OS X which will allow you to read/write ext2, ext3, and ext4 file systems.  I am not a fan of loading up applications for one time use, but I wanted to let you know about it.


Replacing DVD with SSD - What is the best way to test SSD reliability?

I installed a Samsung 840 Pro 120GB in my Early 2011 MBP.

I have had no issues with it so far.

DriveDx is a good tool which gives health statistics on an SSD and I would also make sure you are running Trim Enabler which will prolong the SSDs life.

As said in other answer stick to big name brands and generally stay away from OCZ or Kingston as they have been reported to fail more often.


How do I share bluetooth keyboard with iPhone and iMac without re-pairing every time?

While a device (iMac or iPhone) can have a number of peripherals attached it it, a peripheral can only be attached to one device at a time. So you will need to re-pair it every time.


Position of the configuration files of TexMaker

The texmaker.ini file is created in the user's home and it's stored in:

~/.config/xm1

If I do

ls ~/.config/xm1/

the result is

texmaker.ini        texmakerapp.ini


After much searching I found the answer at http://www.henrywang.org/entry/mavericks-and-cisco-vpn (Warning : Written in Chinese you'll probably need to translate it.).

TL;DR The private key needed to be set to "Allow all applications to access this item" in  Keychain Access.


You seem to be using the Mac App Store version of DaisyDisk. Download the stand-alone version (https://daisydiskapp.com/downloads/DaisyDisk.zip), it has more features. Then use the "Scan as Administrator" command to reveal the hidden space. Also before scanning make sure you grant DaisyDisk "full disk access", if you're on Mojave or Catalina. To do this, go to DaisyDisk Preferences > Full Disk Access tab and proceed with drag-and-dropping as instructed there.


It wont work in Mac OS if there are sub folders with the same name.

I use Deltawalker for merging folders.

http://www.deltopia.com/compare-merge-sync/macosx/


Unable to Restore iPhone 4 and ERROR -50

This error (-50) usually happens when the location iTunes is trying to use for the backup is taking a long time to respond and times out (network share, iSCSI, USB/external storage...). If this is the case, the solution is to temporarily move iTunes backup/download location to your harddrive.

Here's also a KB from Apple:

  Error 13 and 14: These errors are typically resolved by performing one
  or more of the steps listed below:

  Perform USB isolation troubleshooting, including trying a different USB port directly on the computer. See the advanced steps
  below for USB troubleshooting.
  Put a USB 2.0 hub between the device and the computer.
  Try a different USB 30-pin dock-connector cable.
  Eliminate third-party security software conflicts.
  There may be third-party software installed that modifies your default packet size in Windows by inserting one or more TcpWindowSize entries into your registry. Your default packet size being set incorrectly can cause this error. Contact the manufacturer of the software that installed the packet-size modification for assistance. Or, follow this article by Microsoft: How to reset Internet Protocol
  (TCP/IP) to reset the packet size back to the default for Windows.
  Connect your computer directly to your Internet source, bypassing any routers, hubs, or switches. You may need to restart your computer
  and modem to get online.
  Try to restore from another known-good computer and network.

[...]

  Error 50: This error (and error -50) are timeout errors. Follow the steps for errors 13 or 14 above.

Regarding recovering data from backups, I used: http://code.google.com/p/iphonebackupbrowser/ to look through the app's data.


Have you researched error 27: https://www.google.com/search?q=itunes+update+error+27&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari
It appears to be a hardware problem, so you may need to go to the Apple Store.


How to direct an app to use a specific Java version?

It seems that Oracle could have fixed this. But didn't ...

So I got it working now doing this:
(All credits go to: https://oliverdowling.com.au/2014/03/28/java-se-8-on-mac-os-x)

I assume you got the latest JDK installed (currently 1.8.0_60, please adjust this in future)

Change content of Info.plist:

Open Terminal and issue this command

sudo nano /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Info.plist

Look for key JVMCapabilities and change it to this:

<key>JVMCapabilities</key>
<array>
    <string>CommandLine</string>
    <string>JNI</string>
    <string>BundledApp</string>
</array>

Add a symlink for libjvm.dylib and libserver.dylib:

Open Terminal and issue these two commands:

sudo mkdir -p /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries
sudo ln -s /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/server/libjvm.dylib /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_60.jdk/Contents/Home/bundle/Libraries/libserver.dylib


Apps aren't allowed to access this functionality so there is no way to get this without jailbreaking.


After proper transformations you can calculate at least simple combinations and permutations in Spotlight:

7P4=7!/(7-4)!=7!/3!. Entered in Spotlight as 7!/3! it will give you a proper result: 840.

C(8,5)=8!/5!(8-5)!=8!/5!3!. Entered in Spotlight as 8!/5!3! it will give you a proper result: 56.

For info on other advanced functions besides Factorial which Spotlight can handle, see this page

According to Google Search a WolframAlpha Spotlight plug-in for Flashlight (a Spotlight extender - link in the other answer) which should be capable of doing these kind of calculations once existed but I can't actually find it or it's gone.

With Google Chrome installed you can use a work-around and add the Wolfram | Alpha extension which supports expressions like in your question in the extra search bar:


How to unsync my phone and my tablet? How to get rid of the tab?

Settings > Messages > Turn off iMessage on your iPad.
That's it.

As long as you're signed in, you're going to get messages on both devices.


Your iPhone 4 needs to generate a pairing record and trust the computer.

First go through each of the steps. Don't skip steps and do them in order.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204095

If you don't see this message when you try to sync the phone over USB with iTunes, then you can remove all pairing records as follows:

Back up iPhone 4 (to the cloud or a computer)
Erase iPhone 4 (settings -> erase all content and settings)
Restore the backup to iPhone 4
Connect iPhone 4 to the computer over USB and be sure you Trust when prompted on the iPhone.

If the above doesn't work, then restore the phone and repeat the third and further steps above.


As usual, the flood of different converters uses only a few board designs, and the most popular one seems to use cheap components, most likely for power conversion from 5V to 3.3V for its internal electronics. A step-down converter (similar to a switching power supply) costs more than converting the excess voltage to heat via resistors, after all.

I have now found a product made by iTeknic (model # IK-UC001) which actually carries a warning that it might heat up to 130 F in use, but so far it has stayed cool in tasks where the other adapters would heat up close to those 130 F. I have not looked inside (yet) but suspect it uses a step-down converter. They cost about 0.1% of the hub's purchase price, after all.

I guess the Networkx hub's external power supply (for a device meant for portable use!) should had been a warning. The iTeknic hub comes without such a power supply.


How to set "Go to address" to open the address in a new tab in safari

You can use added hot-keys to make a whole set of different actions happen when you click a link.
This is the way I have mine set in Safari Preferences…

This way, a simple click will open the link in the current page,
 Cmd ⌘ /click will open it in a new Tab but not activate it &
 Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧ /click will open it in a new Tab & also bring it to the front.
Setting the first dropmenu to 'Always' will also set a new Tab to be opened if you select the URL in another application & right-click select 'Open URL'


Using multiple screens, how to switch spaces on all screens left or right

Only by not using  System Prefs > Mission Control > Displays have separate Spaces.

Once you do that, all 3 screens will 'share' the same space & switch together.

Personally, I find it a much better way to work, but I guess it will depend on personal preference. Using this method I like to 'tie' certain sets of applications together so I can see each 'set' on a different Space.

Each time you swap methods, all your carefully-prepared Spaces will mess up, as the numbering will change, so be prepared to have to reset which apps are set to open on which Space, if you wish to try it out.


Running Macbook with 7.3v battery & AC power adapter

If the apps are freezing then the Mac is trying to use the battery for power and failing.
Most (if not all) portable Macs use both AC and battery for short periods (like opening apps). A bad battery can cause crashes and data loss as the Mac tries to use the battery and cannot.
The CPU throttles without the battery because the Mac sees the missing battery and lowers power use. Your Mac has freezes because you exceed the AC adapter slightly. I assume a larger power demand will cause a crash.
At the very least the battery can swell and bend the Mac, and can sometimes catch fire if the defective cell cannot turn off. It would be safer to remove the battery and use on AC.
With only 3 cycles the battery looks like it was constantly full for 8 years (non-retina device) so it is time for a fresh battery. Batteries need to be used occasionally.


Is there a way to find out when a USB flash drive has been last used (on any computer)?

The best evidence you could get is to inspect the last access time of the files in question, or perhaps the last access time of the top-level directory on the file system.

But first, a bit of background.  A USB flash drive would be treated by the computer much like a disk.  The drive (or, more precisely, the main partition within the drive) would be formatted as a filesystem.  Most flash media come formatted out of the box with a VFAT filesystem, which is a lowest-common-denominator solution that works with nearly all devices, including OS X, Windows, Linux, and digital cameras.  The next most likely alternatives to VFAT would be HFS+ (the native file system of OS X, which Windows doesn't support at all) or NTFS (the native file system of Windows, supported by any version of Windows released this century, but which has just read-only support in OS X, and is rarely supported on digital cameras).

That background is relevant because different filesystems store the last access time differently.  I'm going to work with the assumption that your USB stick is formatted with VFAT.  This is important because VFAT filesystems only store the  last access date, not the time of day.  That would be the best evidence you could hope to collect, assuming that everything else goes right.

To see last access dates in the Finder,

Switch to List view (View → as List (⌘2))
Show the View Options dialog (View → Show View Options (⌘J))
Select "Date Last Opened"

Alternatively, instead of using the Finder, you could use the Terminal to run

stat -x /Volumes/USB-Stick-Name/Path/To/File

to see the Access time of a particular file.

There are some important caveats, though!

First, the act of plugging in the media on your Mac will cause it to be automatically mounted, thus altering the last access time of the top-level directory (and perhaps destroying even more evidence than that).  A forensic analysis should require precautions such as mounting the media in read-only mode.  Therefore, you would have to suppress the auto-mounting behaviour of OS X, which is not that easy.

Second, your suspected coworker / spy could have taken a similar countermeasure of mounting the media read-only, thus leaving no timestamp as evidence.  (There is also no guarantee that the computer that the spy used had its clock set accurately, which would cast doubt on the validity of any timestamp.)

The moral of the story is, if you have any sensitive information to be stored on removable media, encrypt it!  The easiest solution would be to use FileVault 2.  Note, however, that such encryption would make the USB stick unreadable on any machine other than a Mac.


Why doesn't the iMac Pro (2017) support the Apple Pro Display XDR at 6k resolution?

For 6K to work, you need one of the following:

A GPU that supports one DisplayPort 1.4 connection at HBR2 speed using Display Stream Compression (DSC). The signal can be sent directly using USB-C, or as Thunderbolt.
A GPU that supports two DisplayPort 1.4 connections at HBR3 speed without DSC. The GPU needs to be connected to a Titan Ridge Thunderbolt controller that can transmit both of those DisplayPort 1.4 singals over Thunderbolt.

The iMac Pro has a GPU that can support 6K without DSC, but it has an Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt controller that can only transmit DisplayPort 1.2 signals (but if it can't transmit DisplayPort 1.4, then how does the iMac Pro transmit 3840x2160 at 60Hz with the USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter when the adapter only has two DisplayPort 1.4 lanes?).

GPUs that support DSC are Nvidia RTX (Windows only), AMD 5300M, 5500M, 5700XT, W5700X, W5700. The W5700 has a USB-C port but I don't know if it works in macOS. The RTX cards have a USB-C port which allows 6K to work in Windows.

The Blackmagic eGPU doesn't support DSC, but it has a GPU that supports two DisplayPort 1.4 connections at HBR3 speed. The GPU's outputs are connected internally to the Titan Ridge chip in the Blackmagic eGPU which transmits the DisplayPort data over Thunderbolt to the Thunderbolt display that is connected to the eGPU. However, support for dual HBR3 connection (for 6K) requires a firmware update that was recently released by Blackmagic. Otherwise, it only supports dual HBR2 (allows only 5K).

Other computers that have a GPU that doesn't support DSC but does support dual DisplayPort 1.4 might be able to connect to the XDR display using a GC-TITAN RIDGE to achieve 6K. However, this might have a problem similar to the Blackmagic eGPU and therefore might require a firmware update that might not exist yet and might not ever exist. When I try to connect two HBR3 displays to the same Thunderbolt port of a GC-TITAN RIDGE, one connects at only HBR speed. I have not tried the firmware update from October. I doubt that it addresses this problem.

I do not know if the EDID of the XDR display contains enough information for dual HBR3 tiled mode to work in other OSs besides macOS. Specifically, the EDIDs that I have do not contain a 3008x3384 timing even though they specify a tile of that dimension. This might be because I've only seen EDIDs for dual HBR2 5K and HBR2 DSC 6K modes. The missing timing info exists in the mtdd files for the XDR display at /System/Library/Displays/Contents/Resources/Overrides/DisplayVendorID-610
where DisplayProductID is one of ae21, ae22, ae23, ae2d, ae2e, ae2f.

To obtain DisplayPort connection info, use the following command:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/MacOS/AGDCDiagnose -a > AGDCDiagnose_a.txt 2>&1

There is also a command specifically created for the XDR display
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleGraphicsControl.kext/Contents/MacOS/DisplayDiagnose -a > DisplayDiagnose.txt 2>&1


how can I use my macbook pro as a primary display for my mac mini?

Wirelessly I think you'd have to use something like VNC, which is built-in to the Mac OS.

Maybe see https://www.realvnc.com/products/ which I've had some success with.

Alternatively, there's Apple Remote Access, but that is more for a corporate environment & is reflected in the price.


How to get the path associated to a favorite in Finder?

If you want to find the original location of an unmounted folder you've added to the Favorites Sidebar, just select the item and press CommandI for Get Info.  Alternatively, you can right click it and select the menu item.

The location will be identified in the "Where" field.

In the picture below, I took a random folder (this one named "Music Archive") and attached it to my Favorites in the Sidebar.  I then unmounted it and "got info on it."

An easier way to accomplish this (if you are using external drives) is to make use of the tags field near the top of the Get Info dialog box.  See How to Keep Track of External Drives for further details.


Determine an SSIDs Index Value in the Preferred Networks List

Formulating the problem in terms of “which index does my corporate network have?” makes the problem more complicated. Since you only want to know whether it's at the top of the list, just check whether the top of the list is your corporate network.
Zsh
Here's a way to put the network names into an array in zsh. This uses three nested parameter expansion constructs around a command substitution:

${(f)$(…)} splits the output of the command substitution into lines (f flag).
${(@)…##[[:space:]]##} strips off the prefix matching the pattern [[:space:]]##, meaning one or more whitespace characters. ([[:space:]]#, meaning zero or more whitespace characters, would be equivalent, since removing an empty string has no effect.) The goal is to strip the leading tab. ${(@)…#$'\t'} would work too, but would be fragile in case a different version of macOS uses a different amount of spacing. The pattern needs setopt extended_glob, which is off by default. The @ flag ensures that the data is processed as a list of strings (list of lines from the previous step) and not as a single string.
"${(@)…[2,-1]}" selects the elements of the array from the second one (zsh arrays start at 1) to the last one (-1). This removes the “Preferred networks on …” line. The @ flag ensures that each line ends up in a separate array element. The double quotes ensure that spaces inside a network name do not cause each word of a name to end up in a separate array element.

setopt extended_glob
networks=("${(@)${(@)${(f)$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0)}##[[:space:]]##}[2,-1]}")

Now you can check whether the first element is what you want:
if [[ $networks[1] != "HOME-OFFICE" ]]; then
  …
fi

If you do want the (1-based) index of a network name, you can use the i array subscript flag.
echo $networks[(i)"HOME-OFFICE"]

Sed
You can use sed to extract a specific line by number. Line numbers start at 1. Use the -n command line flag to suppress printing and the p command to print the desired line, or use the d command to delete all lines except the desired one. Use the s command to strip off leading whitespace; note that there is a literal tab character and a space inside the brackets. You can add the suffix p to the s command to print its output without a separate p command.
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n '2s/^[  ]*//p')

or
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n '2!d; s/^[  ]*//')

You can get the 2-based index of an element by name with sed by applying the = command to the line(s) matched by a regular expression.
line_number=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | sed -n 's/^[     ]*//; /^HOME-OFFICE$/=')
zero_based_index=$((line_number - 2))

Awk
You can use awk to extract a specific line by number. Line numbers start at 1, and the number of the current line is in the NR variable. After matching the desired line, remove the leading whitespace with the sub command, then print the line. Awk recognizes \t to mean a tab character.
preferred_network=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk 'NR==2 {sub(/^[\t ]*/, ""); print}')

If you want the number of a line with a specific content, you can match the line with a regular expression or by doing a string comparison ($0 contains the whole line without a terminating newline character), then print NR.
home_office_zero_based_index=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk '{sub(/^[\t ]*/, "")} $0 == "HOME-OFFICE" {print NR - 2})'

or
home_office_zero_based_index=$(networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en0 | awk '/^[\t ]HOME-OFFICE$/ {print NR - 2})'


How to install Ubuntu on a 1st gen Apple TV?

Most of the time when installing Linux on the Apple TV, you are doing it in order to unlock more capabilities when it comes to video playback and options; I assume this is what you are looking for. If you follow these recently updated instructions everything should go fine. Just be careful to read them thoroughly.
They will walk you through two different options: running from a USB stick and not touching the Apple TV hard drive, or installing Ubuntu (CrystalBuntu) on the Apple TV itself. I would highly recommend the first: In the case you don't like it, you can just power off, unplug the USB and, then restart; everything would be back to normal. It has both Mac and PC/Linux instructions in there depending on what you have to work with.

Install Instructions

I know that the link says things about XBMC but it is for installing Ubuntu on it so that you can run XBMC too, its a very good media player option. It involves installing Crystalbuntu, a port of Ubuntu with media player options using XBMC.

Here is a nice how to video as well that goes over the booting from a USB stick option:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJqyr0QRRvU

UPDATED

I understand that you want to do an install that will leave you with a desktop/server environment, which is also possible.

There are also a few other different options for installing a regular version of Linux, like Ubuntu 8.04 and even Arch Linux, with these, you will have a regular desktop and such, as you can see in this example video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ko0cwbGsKHU

This process, discussed here on Ask Different, goes over the way a bootloader can be copied and used to boot most versions of linux:

What Linux variants can be installed on an 1st generation Apple TV?

The direct page link is here:

http://code.google.com/p/atv-bootloader/wiki/InstallingLinux

This page, has talks about the atv (Apple Tv) Bootloaders and how to use them.

For simpler install though you can download and run there is the following link, which will install the OS of your choice on an USB Drive and do all the heavy lifting can be found here:

http://stmlabs.com/2011/03/28/crystalhd-released/

Here is a direct link to the installer download page with more instructions:

http://www.stmlabs.com/projects/crystalhd-for-appletv/

Also, if you google search "Install Linux on an Apple TV 1st Gen" you can find loads of helpful articles too.

I hope that this helps you out.


No.

In case of star rating, no personally identifiable information is shared with the developer.

In fact the developer is not even able to see the individual star rating, only an aggregated rating after a minimum number of reviews are made.


Does iWork support OpenOffice filetypes?

I just created some test documents (.odt, .ods, .odf) in OpenOffice and I was unable to open them in iWork. I was able, however, to open the .odt in TextEdit, which probably accounts for the Quick Look compatibility you mentioned.


Archive/set some photos in Photos.app not to be synced with iCloud Photo Library

You can export original photos out of Photos on the Mac and then delete them.

At that point, they go into the Recently Deleted album. You can then manage things so you don't exceed your 5 GB allowance.

Both iOS and Mac preferences allow you to measure and see the storage allocation.

Then you can have a second Photos database on the Mac to store all the "offline" photos. It won't be the "system library" and it won't receive photos automatically from the cloud. You'll have to import photos manually to that second (and all other) libraries.


How can you run Apple Diagnostic through an external monitor?

Follow these steps exactly:

Start your computer with external screen plugged in and an external keyboard, typically a USB keyboard
Once your screen is started, close its lid, it will go to sleep
On your USB keyboard, type a key. It will wake up, but now using external display as its main display
Instruct it to restart
Hold D on external keyboard when it chimes


Trying to use Notability in split-screen mode on iPad

drag it to the right half of my screen

It could be that you’re not letting go of the app far enough to the right — try dragging it to the right edge of your screen.

  with one app open

It could also be that this app you have open doesn’t support being in split screen. Try with Safari as the first app.

  If an app is in slide over mode, how do I get it into split-screen mode?

Drag the small pill-shaped handle at the top of the slide over app slightly towards the left/right edge of the screen. The app behind will move out the way for you to let go in the space.


Is there a way to configure the wireless keyboard to control the keyboard light?

You would think this would be a simple task, such as simply designating a shortcut to a specific key combination for this action from System Preferences, but unfortunately it's not an option. You may have noticed that the actions themselves (dim, increase brightness, toggle backlight on/off) are not included in the 'Shortcuts' list in 'System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts' and therefore there isn't a way to configure them natively within the settings/preferences of OS X/macOS.

I have heard of a third party program called LabTick that has helped to resolve this issue with users in the past, but it was developed for older operating systems and warns against it being unstable on a newer OS. I have confirmed the instability myself by installing it on macOS Sierra 10.12.2; the first time I launched it, it quit unexpectedly while trying to configure the shortcuts. When I was finally able to configure the shortcuts, they did not work for me even after trying multiple different key combinations.


Is there a File explorer/Finder like tool for mac os, which can sort folders by name?

I hope running this python script works. TEST would have all the folders you mentioned. I have modified the workflow slightly to avoid messing with  Finder and AppleScript. The final file can be opened in Excel.

import os
import fnmatch

import time
directory = "your/dirname/Desktop/TEST"
y = [x[0] for x in os.walk(directory)]
y = y[1:]

#%%
thedict = {}
for one in y:
    thedict[one] = ""
#makes dictionary with all the folder names
for direc in thedict:
    matches = []
    for root, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(direc):
        for filename in fnmatch.filter(filenames, '*.jpg'):
            matches.append(os.path.join(root, filename))
    for photo in matches:
        stri = "open " + photo
        os.system(stri)
        error = raw_input("error?")
        thedict[direc] = error
#Photo opens, you see it, close it, type the error in terminal and hit #enter.
#Then the next one comes up.
import csv
with open('outputf.csv', 'w') as f:
    for key in thedict.keys():
        f.write("%s,%s\n"%(key,thedict[key]))


Table Layout > New [choose range]
Table Style: No Style_Table Grid

Then stretch the table to fit your slide


How to shuffle all songs by an artist in macOS iTunes?

How about: 1) create a smart playlist matching the artist name; 2) select the playlist; 3) hit shuffle.  Just a thought.


How to run Windows 10 from USB on my Mac?

I don't think this is an ideal situation to answer your question, but we run Windows 10 in VMware fusion and you can store the files on external USB. It's easy to set up, clear support path, but you have to install software and have a license for it so it's not something you can show up to the Mac and boot - leave no trace behind.
Check out the personal use license for VMware Fusion Player to get started while you wait for someone smarter than me to weigh in with how to do precisely what you ask or explain why it won't work.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/evalcenter?p=fusion-player-personal

Maybe a solution like this would help?


The whole iMessage system is entirely proprietary, and there are no 3rd party clients available to use instead of the official ones, on either iOS or OSX.  That's not to say it won't be reverse engineered in time, but I suspect that Apple will fix any issues way before anything like that happens.

I too get messages that appear out of order and occasionally ones that simply never show on one device or another, but anecdotally I only ever see this when devices are playing "catch up" with messages that I have already read elsewhere.


How to sort a playlist in iTunes 12.2.1.6

For ver 12.4.1.6 the pulldown on the right is gone.  In the menu bar click View > View As > Songs


Has Mountain Lion broken the ability to show Desktop with a gesture, begin dragging an icon, and unshow the Desktop?

Another way to do this is to map "show desktop" to a hot corner (System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners).

Show the desktop using the four-finger gesture or by using the hot
corner
Drag the file from the desktop to the hot corner, which will restore
the windows AND keep the file in hand
Drop the file onto whichever window you like.

This is how I do it, and it doesn't require any finger acrobatics.


How to get Messages to connect to Facebook chat?

Your work machine likely blocks port TCP 5222. Or both work network and iPhone mobile operator block port TCP 5222 or chat.facebook.com. Please ensure those are opened on any in between firewall.

Even when the network provider does not actively block port 5222 there can still be issues in the network as this discussion of 81 posts in length shows.

To be absolutely sure that the issue is network blocking, you could try to setup a VPN connection on the faulty work computer. For instance to your home computer or use the free VPN demo from usaip.eu.


Mess with multiples Emacs distros (Homebrew)?

If you don't want to use Homebrew, you don't have to. This is really a matter of taste. You can use Homebrew or not. You can build the application from source or you can download from GNU here or Emacs For Mac OS X here - both yield the latest versions.

If you want to use Homebrew, I recommend that you use:

brew install emacs

then link the binary if you want to run from terminal, this can be performed via:

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/26.2/Emacs.app /Applications

If you don't want to use Homebrew, use one of the binaries listed above. Keep in mind you can always link them later if you want to run the latest version from the command line.


No, there is no way to edit the text after saving the image.

You may be able to revert to a previous version of the image, before the misspelt text was written:

Open the image in Preview.app
Select the menu item: File > Revert To > Browse All Versions


Numbers: How to escape the "+" character for a phone number

I solved this by adding the ' character (i.e. the single quote) before entering the +33553379412.


Address Book / Contacts.app AppleScript plugins no longer working in Mojave

I heard back from a Developer Technical Support Engineer at Apple and he said:

"I’ve asked the engineering team about this and indeed, we have removed support for both compiled and AppleScript-based AddressBook plugins in Mojave 10.14."

His suggestion was to file an enhancement request via their Bug Reporter. Sorry for the bad news.


See all active clients with Airport Extreme/Express

If your need is a list of the wireless clients you can see them in the current (6.3.x) Airport Utility; hold down ALT and double-click the Extreme.


Sending a product on the Apple Store as a gift to a friend?

You have multiple questions here.

First see Apples instructions here http://store.apple.com/us/help/gifting

Will your Bank show and what, you can answer that based on prior experience. My Visa shows the Store name and the amount, not to whom is it shipped or what it was.

In your case better option might be a Gift Card, that you can mail your self, thus no trace.


What does "Failed to open swapfile" mean and is it a problem?

This could mean a number of things and yes, I would be concerned about it. First things first, ensure you have a working backup.

My next suggestion would be to reset both the PRAM/NVRAM and the SMC to see if this changes your computer's behaviour.

Reset your PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Here’s how to reset your PRAM/NVRAM:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the command-option-p-r keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).

Reset the SMC

Your computer's System Management Controller (SMC) can also be reset. The instructions for resetting your SMC depend on three things:

Does your device run from a built-in battery?
Does your device run from a removable battery?
Does your device just run off power from the wall?

Now, since I don't know what computer you're using, I will provide the process for resetting the SMC in all three scenarios. Just use the one that is appropriate for your machine.

For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Keep the MagSafe adapter (power cable) plugged in.
Press at the same time shift-option-control (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

For MacBook Pros, MacBooks etc that you can remove the battery from, here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Disconnect the MagSafe plug (power cable) from the computer
Remove the battery
Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
Put the battery back in
Reconnect the MagSafe cord (or power cable)
Turn your computer back on with the power button

For iMacs, Mac Pros, Mac Minis, etc that only run from a power point in the wall

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from the power
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
Plug it back in and turn it on.

Hope this helps. Please report back and let us know.


Has Mountain Lion helped take advantage of multiple displays?

The only change in Mountain Lion related to multiple displays is the ability to make an app go full-screen on a display other than the main one. Unfortunately, you can still only have one full-screen app open at once (the linen covers whatever display the app isn't on).

I recommend using a window manager like Divvy to easily make apps take up the full screen space and switch them between displays quickly.


Mountain Lion - Are these different ways of encrypting a Time machine backup equivalent?

With option 1 you are encrypting the files, not the drive. Option 2 encrypts the whole drive.


Downloading large photos from Photo Stream on iPad

On your first question, this is what the Apple My Photo Stream FAQ says:

  What resolution are My Photo Stream photos?

  On a Mac or PC, your photos are downloaded and stored in full
  resolution. On iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV, your photos are
  delivered in a device-optimized resolution that speeds downloads and
  saves storage space. Dimensions will vary, but an optimized version of
  a photo taken by a standard point-and-shoot camera will have a 2048 x
  1536 pixel resolution when pushed to your devices. Panoramic photos
  can be up to 5400 pixels wide.

On the second question, the Photo Stream criteria for deletion –not the images you took or saved with the device, which stay indefinitely on the Camera Roll– is defined as follows in the same document:

  How long are My Photo Stream photos stored in iCloud?

  The photos you upload to My Photo Stream are stored in iCloud for 30
  days to give your devices plenty of time to connect and download them.

  How many photos are stored in My Photo Stream on my devices and computers?

  My Photo Stream pushes all your photos to the My Photo Stream album on
  your devices and computers, and manages them efficiently, so you don’t
  run out of storage space.

  Your iOS devices keep a rolling collection of your last 1000 photos in
  the My Photo Stream album. From there, you can browse your recent
  photos or move the ones you like to another album to keep them on your
  device forever.


Extending Warranty - AppleCare Protection Plan

as long as your case is documented by the Genius before your warranty expires it will be covered under warranty (as long as there are no signs of physical or liquid damage.)  in some cases a Genius will cover items under warranty even a few days after it has expired.


I find the same topic in this post in Apple forum, you can have a look. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6830336?start=0&tstart=0


How to run /sbin/fsck -fy on the recovery partition if filesystem is unknown

I take no responsibility for what happens to your mac. The command line can destroy your working computer. Fsk can fix things better than disk utility though.
If you agree, open terminal on your the mac.

To repair disks first find their disk identifiers. They are all different.
In the terminal type without quotes "diskutil list"

In the left-hand column, you will see all identifiers for the drives unmounted and mounted. it will look like this disk2b1, put this in the the diskabc position below.

In the "sudo /sbin/fsck -fy /dev/diskABC"

Type your password for best effect! You will not see the characters of the password so type well.


Why is OS X able to send out email without first configuring SMTP?

SMTP daemons or servers are there to receive mail, not send it.  In your example, mail is purely an email client, and it connects to whatever server is defined by the appropriate DNS MX record of bar.com, and has no requirement for a local server to be running in order to do so.

However, depending on your mail setup, you may require to log into an outgoing mailserver to authenticate, or if nothing else just to provide sender and return-to addresses etc.  Now, you can do all this at the command line by passing the appropriate parameters on the terminal, but as long as you have set up your Mail app, this config is already stored,  and by simply temporarily firing up the mail subsystem the terminal commands can grab that info and now have one or more mail smtp servers they can choose to send outgoing messages. It will then terminate the processes when complete.

You can test this all out at the command line and send the mail without having to use a mail client.  I'm not at a Mac, so these commands may need editing by someone who is, but you can do this:

nslookup
set type=mx
bar.com
exit

telnet MXServer 25 (where MXServer is one of the results returned above and 25 is the port number for SMTP servers)

Read This for more info on emailing via telnet - it's a great debugging tool


Where do I find my user folder in the OS X folder hierarchy?

You can find the location to your home directory by looking in the "Users & Groups" System  Preference pane.

Open "System Preferences" application
Click "Users & Groups"
Click the padlock to unlock it, if it is not already unlocked. Enter user name and password for an Admin user.
Right click on the User name you want to find the home directory for, select "Advanced Options..."
Observe the path as noted next to "Home directory:"

Now, once you see where OS X thinks your home folder is located then you can work on un hiding it if it is not showing up where it is suppose to be.

Make sure its name does not start with ".", Additionally you can use the SetFile -a v /pathToHome command to make it visible if it appears to be hidden for no apparent reason.


Where does an iPhone store the number of failed password entries?

The number of failed passcode entries is stored within the Secure Enclave in the hardware. It is not stored as a file or anything like that on the Flash drive.
You cannot easily manipulate it.


Is there a way to force `apfsd` to defragment all the files on a disk?

It is correct that on HFS+ volumes a technique named "On-the-fly" automatically defragments certain files when they're opened. However, it only applies for files that are less than 20 MB in size, are not busy, not read-only, have been unchanged for at least 60 seconds and has more than 8 extents (i.e. "fragments"). Typically those files will occupy a very small percentage of your hard drive.

In order to get statistics and list of fragmented files on HFS+ volumes, you'll want to use a tool like "hfsdebug" (free). It offers both listing of all fragmented files, as well as various statistics such as top lists of most fragmented files.

In order to get the list of all fragmented files that you seek, run the following command in Terminal.app after installing hfsdebug:

hfsdebug -f /

You can choose to see only the top 10 files like this:

hfsdebug -t 10 -f /

A newer tool named fileXray (79$) also exists that gives you much of the same features, and plenty more. As noted it is commercial software that requires you to purchase a license - note that it does not have a GUI, but has a textual interface similar to hfsdebug.

You can use fileXray to for example check if a file is fragmented or not:

fileXray filename

This will output a list of extents for the file "filename". If the file has multiple extents it is in theory fragmented. If the startBlock + blockCount of an extent lines up with the startBlock of the next extent, then in practice it doesn't matter much.

A simple way to do the actual defragmentation is to simply copy the file. Ensure that you have enough (non-fragmented) disk space in advance, and then copy the file to a new name on the same disk. The new file should be less fragmented (or not fragmented at all) - you can check that with the above mentioned command. After copying, you can remove the old file and rename the new file to match.

UPDATE: In the comments, you have expressed that you needed a free solution, and cannot use fileXray because it costs 75$. In that case you could use SleuthKit from HomeBrew instead - you'll find the ifind command from SleuthKit can list the number of extents as well. Another possibility is hfsinspect by Adam Knight, which can also list the extents.


It seems that it works like this in the current Xcode version 9.2.

I can jump back and forth inside the same file using "Go Back"/"Go Forward".


How can two people read the same book on different devices

Have you considered adding her as part of the "family" ?

Did this with iTunes and my daughter, but a quick look in the help in iBooks shows that you can share a book via family without compromising either Apple Id...


What's the difference between Minimize and Hide, between Maximize and Fullscreen, and what are all the keyboard shortcuts for these?

After learning all the things below I am documenting them here for comparison and contrast.  This may seem idiotic to experienced Mac users but to a Windows user it will clarify a lot.
This is not exhaustive documentation on all these features.  It focuses on the confusing aspects, the contrasts, and how to undo mistakes.
There is a great and more exhaustive comparison of Minimized vs Hidden in this question: What are the differences between minimizing and hiding an application?
Maximized
A maximized window is expanded so that its contents can be fully displayed, but with the Dock and Apple Menu still showing.
The exact behavior is app dependent. For example, Safari will usually only expand in height, not in width, while Preview and the Finder will usually expand  to fit the entire current screen. You maximize with ⌥ alt+MouseClickGreenLight.  Same action to undo. Note that clicking the green light (without ⌥ alt) on a maximized window will Fullscreen it. Pay attention.
Fullscreen
A Fullscreen window is moved to a new Desktop/Space where it occupies the entire screen without a Dock or Apple Menu or even the window's own traffic lights.  To do this click the green light or use ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F.  To undo, ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F again or hover the mouse at the top edge of the screen for a bit and the Apple Menu and traffic lights will appear.
Minimized
A minimized window is moved to a small icon at the right or bottom end of the dock (depending on the dock's orientation).   Do this with ⌘ cmd-M or the yellow light.   Undo this by clicking on the window in the dock.  Note if you switch to an app by clicking on its main icon in the Dock or with ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab, its minimized windows won't open, and if it only has minimized windows you will make the app active but will not open any windows.
Hidden
An app and all its windows can be hidden.  They appear nowhere.  Do this with ⌘ cmd-H.  When you hide an app, even the windows that were minimized in the Dock are hidden.   Restore a hidden app by clicking on its main icon in the Dock, or ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab to it.  When you restore a hidden app its minimized windows will still be minimized.   You can also hide all apps except the active one with ⌘ cmd-⌥ alt-H.  You can't undo that in one action.
Closed (Killed)
A closed or killed window is permanently deleted.  Do this with ⌘ cmd-W or the red light.  Exactly what this does and how to undo it (if possible) is application-dependent.   If you close an app's last window, it may or may not Quit.
Quit
You can close all an app's windows and stop the process with ⌘ cmd-Q or with Quit from the Dock or Apple menus.   Some apps will quit if you close their last window, some will keep running.  You can identify a running app from the dot next to its icon in the Dock.   It may have no windows or only minimized ones.  If there is no dot, that means it is not running but the icon has been locked in the Dock for convenience.  There is no Undo - If an app has open windows when you Quit it, they may or may not be restored by the app when you restart it.
Switch
The active application occupies the Apple menu at the top of the screen and usually one of its windows has the keyboard focus and is in front.   Switch to an app by clicking one of its windows, clicking it in the dock, or with ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab.  Switch between windows of the active app by clicking them or with ⌘ cmd-~ tilde.  You cannot switch to a minimized window, you have to click that in the Dock.  If you switch to an app that is running but has no windows or only minimized windows, it will appear in the Apple menu but nothing else will happen.
Here is a cheat sheet you might like to print:
Switch App     ⌘ cmd-⇥ tab
Switch Window  ⌘ cmd-~ tilde
Hide App All  ⌘ cmd-H
Hide Other Apps ⌘ cmd-⌥ alt-H
Minimize Window ⌘ cmd-M or Yellow
Kill Window ⌘ cmd-W or Red
Kill App ⌘ cmd-Q or from Dock/Apple menus
Maximize Window ⌥ alt-Green
Fullscreen Window ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F or Green
UnFullscreen ⌘ cmd-⌃ ctrl-F or Hover Mouse at top
Addendum
I'm adding a few extra bits here at the end that I think would overcomplicate the answer but are worth mentioning.
The Dock setting Minimize Windows to App Icon changes the Minimize behavior described above so that Minimize works a little more like Hide but only for specific windows.  Minimized windows do not appear in the Dock.  I think that if you choose this setting, minimize various windows, then hide various apps and then unhide some ..... you probably end up in a state where you have no idea what windows exist where.  I'm not sure how you would employ this setting in a useful way or how I would describe it in the main answer without making the answer too complicated.
The Dock setting Show Indicators for Open Apps if disabled means the dots described above under "Switch" will never appear, and you would have no visual way of distinguishing running apps with hidden windows from not-running apps with icons locked in the Dock.  I suppose if you chose to have zero locked icons, the dots would be redundant so you could gain back a few pixels by eliminating them.
For people with multiple monitors, the Mission Control setting Displays Have Separate Spaces is not default but I use it and some of the details above may be based on that.  I can see these differences:
Differences with Displays Have Separate Spaces

With separate spaces, windows cannot straddle both monitors.  Each window is on one monitor, and if parts of it go off the edge they disappear.  With one space a window can straddle monitors.
If you Fullscreen a window without separate spaces It will occupy all of the monitor in which its upper left corner resides, and all other monitors will go blank and be temporarily disabled.  If you then switch back to the main space the other monitors will come back into play, so long as you are not in a space with a Fullscreen window.
Maximize is the same with or without separate spaces. The window is resized to use the current monitor for maximum effect.
Combining these, the only way to have a single application occupy all of your monitors is to use one space (not separate) and resize the window manually from its corners.


Save screenshot with document name and page

Is it possible to add the document name and document page when I do screenshots?

Using just what's setup by default, no; however, aside from doing it manually, it can be automated to various degrees depending on what methods and applications are involved.

So, if I open a PDF and do a screenshot at page 6, I will have: Document Name | Page 6 | Screen Shot 2012-06-12 at 8.02.40 AM

As an example, using Preview and AppleScript along with an Automator Service/Quick Action, and assigning it a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, the example AppleScript code, shown further below, will take a screen shot of either the full window of the front window of Preview or just its document scroll area, depending on its settings.
The name of the screen shot will be in the format shown quoted above from your question.

Here is a sample file name and a scaled down image of the screen shot taken of the document scroll area in Preview of The Room Where It Happened and was saved as:
    The Room Where It Happened | 3 | Snap Shot 2020-7-7 at 8.55.30 PM.png

There are three variables at the start of the example AppleScript code that are user configurable:

saveToLocation - Where the screen shot will be saved.

The default is the users Pictures folder.

ssFileType - Which can be set to: png, jpg, pdf or tiff.

The default is: png

captureArea - Which gets set to to either whole window, or scroll area.

The default is: scroll area (of the document, not whatever shows in the Sidebar.)

You should not need to edit the code below these initial variables, unless necessary, and the code is lightly commented to help one understand what it is doing.

The following example AppleScript code was tested as an Automator Service in macOS High Sierra, and should also work as a Quick Action in macOS Mojave and later. The Automator Service was assigned a keyboard shortcut of ⌥⌘S and was pressed while Preview had focus and was frontmost.
--  # Set the save to location, screen shot file type, and the capture area.
--  # The code below these three settings should not need to be edited.

--  # The saveToLocation must be in the form of a
--  # POSIX path for the screencapture command.

set saveToLocation to POSIX path of (path to pictures folder)

--  # ssFileType can be set to "png", "jpg", "pdf" or "tiff".

set ssFileType to "png"

--  # Set the capture area to either 'whole window', or just the 'scroll area'.

set captureArea to "scroll area"

--  # Do not edit the code below this line unless necessary.

--  # In Preview, when a PDF document is opened, the 'window name' is in the
--  # format of 'filename (page x of y)' for multi-page documents, or
--  # 'filename (1 page)' for single-page documents, and the 'filename' may contain '.pdf'.
--  # Example: "The Room Where It Happened.pdf (page 1 of 570)"
--  # Parse the text items of the 'window name' for parts of the screen shot name.

--  # Get then name of the first window of Preview.

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    set windowName to ¬
        the name of ¬
            the front window of ¬
                application process "Preview"

--  # Check to see the document is a PDF, and terminate if not.

if windowName contains "(page" or windowName contains "page)" then
    -- # Document is a PDF file. Continue processing...
else
    return
end if

--  # Parse 'windowName' to get the doc name and page number.

set text item delimiters to "("

set documentName to ¬
    the first text item of ¬
        the windowName

if documentName contains ".pdf" then
    set documentName to ¬
        characters 1 thru -6 of ¬
        the first text item of ¬
            the windowName
else
    set documentName to ¬
        characters 1 thru -2 of ¬
        the first text item of ¬
            the windowName
end if

if the first word of ¬
    the second text item of ¬
        the windowName is "1" then
    set pageNumber to ¬
        the first word of ¬
            the second text item of ¬
                the windowName
else
    set pageNumber to ¬
        the second word of ¬
            the second text item of ¬
                the windowName
end if

set text item delimiters to ""

--  # Get position and size of the front window or the
--  # document scroll area of Preview for the screen shot.

if captureArea contains "whole window" then
    tell application "System Events" to ¬
        set windowPositionSize to {position, size} of ¬
            the front window of ¬
                application process "Preview"
else if captureArea contains "scroll area" then
    tell application "System Events"
        if exists scroll area 2 of ¬
            splitter group 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            application process "Preview" then
            set windowPositionSize to ¬
                {position, size} of ¬
                scroll area 2 of ¬
                splitter group 1 of ¬
                window 1 of ¬
                application process "Preview"
        else
            set windowPositionSize to ¬
                {position, size} of ¬
                scroll area 1 of ¬
                splitter group 1 of ¬
                window 1 of ¬
                application process "Preview"
        end if
    end tell
end if

set x to item 1 of item 1 of windowPositionSize
set y to item 2 of item 1 of windowPositionSize
set w to item 1 of item 2 of windowPositionSize
set h to item 2 of item 2 of windowPositionSize

--  # Build out the date time string for the screen shot file name.

set currentDate to (current date)
set d to day of currentDate
set m to month of currentDate as integer
set yr to year of currentDate
set t to time string of currentDate

--  # Replace ':' with '.' in the 'time string'.

set text item delimiters to ":"
set t to text items of t
set text item delimiters to "."
set t to t as string
set text item delimiters to ""

--  # Set the screen shot file name.

set ssFileName to ¬
    (documentName as string) & ¬
    " | " & ¬
    pageNumber & ¬
    " | " & ¬
    "Snap Shot " & yr & "-" & d & "-" & m & " at " & t & "." & ssFileType

--  # Define the shell command.

set myShellCMD to ¬
    "screencapture -R" & x & "," & y & "," & w & "," & h & " -t " & ¬
    ssFileType & space & (saveToLocation & ssFileName)'s quoted form

--  # Take the screen shot.

do shell script myShellCMD

For the Run Shell Script action in the Automator Service/Quick Action, replace the entire default code with the example AppleScript code, and then edit the first three variables as wanted, if the default values are not what you want.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any additional error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


Time Machine: "Enter Time Machine" menu command does not do anything

I just had the same issue in 10.11 El Capitan: "Enter Time Machine" did nothing, and nothing relevant showed in Console.app.

I relaunched Finder (Apple menu > Force Quit > scroll to Finder and choose Relaunch) and the issue was then resolved.

This surprised me, given that the relevant app is /Applications/Time Machine.app, not Finder.  But it seems likely that Finder is actually responsible for the Time Machine display of the historic files: if I "Enter Time Machine", then check with ps or Activity Monitor via remote log in, I see no Time Machine process.  So perhaps /Applications/Time Machine.app simply tells Finder to start the display, then exits.


Logitech HD Webcam C310 to make Video Calls (FaceTime HD Camera not detected)

The Logitech HD Webcam C310 is compatible with OS X Yosemite 10.10 and later as mentioned in the product description on it's website.

An external webcam can be used with FaceTime. Refer to the Apple Support document, Choose which camera or microphone to use more details.


Long story short: the white drive represents a "removable disk", and the orange drive represents an "external disk".

Think of a removable disk like a thumbdrive, something small that people would usually throw in their pockets or carry around on a regular basis, or in your case, an external SSD.

An external disk is usually the exact opposite of the removable disk: it's usually something that sits on your table that rarely ever gets moved like a hard drive bay or a RAID rack, or in your case, an archive HDD.

I'm not too sure how the system determines which one to associate with which file, though I am fairly certain the icon is chosen based on the drive's capacity. If you'd like to see where these icons come from (or their names which give clues on what they are associated with), you can find them in /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources, or for your sidebar icons they can be found under /System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources along with many other system icons.


How to take a screenshot on Mac while keeping the aspect ratio of the capture area

As far as I know the exact thing you are trying to do is not natively possible in the current version of macOS Mojave. The current modifiers that do exist for the screenshot tool are as follows:

Holding shift  moves only one of the sides of the capture area.
Holding option scales up all sides of the capture area from the center.
Holding space  allows you to move the capture area around.

Alternatively you can use shiftcommand5    which will give you the onscreen capture controls with a few more options for resizing the capture area, however this doesn't include any options for locking the aspect ratio.


Create a space from script on El Capitan

I do not have Slate window manager installed however the following AppleScript code will add a new Desktop in Mission Control in a normal install of OS X El Capitan and other versions of OS X and macOS.

do shell script "open -a 'Mission Control'"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to click (every button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "add desktop") of group 1 of process "Dock"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to key code 53