macOS keyboard shortcut to dismiss notifications?

You can create Automator service to run this Applescript and give it a keyboard shortcut in the System Preferences Keyboard shortcuts

This will close Alert and banners Notification

In Automator choose a new service

Add a Run Applescript Action

and replace it's code with:

my closeNotif()
on closeNotif()

    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Notification Center"
            set theWindows to every window
            repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
                set this_item to item i of theWindows
                try
                    click button 1 of this_item
                on error

                    my closeNotif()
                end try
            end repeat
        end tell
    end tell

end closeNotif

Set the 'Service receives [no input] in [any application]'

Save the service.

Open the Keyboard shortcuts in System prefs and set your for your service under 'Services'

Now any newly launched app will pick the shortcut up.

(Note: I structured the script to counter throwing an error that will occur when the notifications/windows start to close.

otifications/window are numbered 1 through to the total count. But as they close the script would still be working of the old count.
But the system will be re assigning the index of the windows.

So where we say start at 1 -6 the script will try and close window 1, window 2, window 3 and so on. But the system has re assigned the window numbers 1,2,3 to the last remaining windows. But the script will try and close window 4 and throw an error because it does not exist. The script will catch this and deal with it. )

If you want to click the 'Show' button on an Alert Notification.
you change the button you click from 1 to 2.

click button 2 of this_item

Banner notifications do not have a button 2.

But you can just click the window.

So this code should take care of Showing.

my closeNotif()
on closeNotif()

    tell application "System Events"
        tell process "Notification Center"
            set theWindows to every window
            repeat with i from 1 to number of items in theWindows
                set this_item to item i of theWindows
                set cnt to count buttons of this_item
                try
                    if cnt > 1 then

                        click button 2 of this_item
                    else
                        click this_item
                    end if
                on error

                    closeNotif()
                end try
            end repeat
        end tell
    end tell

end closeNotif


Make Time Machine-like backups of Photos onto external drive

You will need an external drive formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) to use as a Time Machine backup. TM cannot use a NTFS formatted disk as the backup destination.

Unfortunately, Time Machine cannot use an NTFS drive as a backup source, either. Time Machine relies on the Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file system on all drives acted on to do its work. (This isn't strictly true as you can create and backup to sparsebundle files on a network drive mounted with NTFS, but this is not in the scope of your question.)

Thus you need two Mac OS Extended (Journaled) external drives - one for the TM backup; one for the Photos Library. If you know how to use Time Machine, you can stop reading. If not, keep going.

In System Preferences > Time Machine, Click the Select Disk... button and choose this external disk for Time Machine backups. One the disk is selected, click the Options... button at the lower right, which brings up the window where you can exclude items from backups. Normally, all connected disks (internal & external) are backed up, except for the Time Machine disk. You can drag (or click the + sign) and add Macintosh HD (or whatever else you may have named the boot HD) to the list of excluded items. This will enable you to backup only the external HD with the Photos library.


Macbook Pro on Yosemite - screen going to black

That log shows few problems.

First you have continuous Crash ReportCrash[2551]: Saved crash report for mdworker32[2550] version 917.1 to /Users/TARINISHOME/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/mdworker32_2015-04-03-123458_Tarinis-MacBook-Pro.crash

That is the

  mdworker32 is the 32 bit version metadata server worker process.
  mdworker is used by mds to scan and index files as a volume is mounted
  or a file changes.

So tell us what is connected to your system and Open that Crash report to look what is happening.

I would also (temporary) disable any sharing.


Sending images automatically via email to a specific email address

Since in your question, you did not include any code, error message(s), or even how you were implementing your solution, I'll offer the following as an example of how I might automate the task at hand. Note that while I looked at the link in your question, nonetheless, since it was for Outlook and you've tagged the question with mail.app, I'm going to ignore what was linked and proceed my way from scratch.

In this example scenario, I created a hierarchical folder structure under ~/Photos, e.g. ~/Photos/Clients/Name/Emailed Photos, and this is the folder that I'll drag the target photos to, that have the naming convention e.g. name@client.com_2847.jpg, and the folder to which the Automator Folder Action workflow will be attached to.

In Automator:

File > New
Select, Folder Action and click the Choose button.
In the Folder Action receives files and folders added to Choose Folder list box, select: Other...
Navigate to the target folder, the one the action is to be applied to, select it and click the Choose button.
Add a Run AppleScript action to the newly created Folder Action workflow.
Highlight the default AppleScript code, and delete it.
Copy and paste the AppleScript code, shown below, into the Run AppleScript action.
Save the Folder Action as, e.g.: Email Photos to name@client

This will be saved as, e.g.:
~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Folder Actions/Email Photos to name@client.workflow

Now when you drag photos having the naming convention, e.g. name@client.com_2847.jpg to the target folder, e.g. ~/Photos/Clients/Name/Emailed Photos, one email for each photo will be created and the target file attached. Initially the email will not be automatically sent until you uncomment, remove the -- from in front of the -- send theMessage line of code, and save the changes. This is initially commented out so you can test with one file and get your subject and message setup to meet your needs. I'd use a file that has your email address in it for testing purposes, doing one at first then several at one time.

The email message subject and content are initially set to "Portraits" and Photo attached." respectively, as placeholders. Additionally there is another line of commented code, -- delay 2, above the -- send theMessage line of code that you may need/want to implement if adding a large number of files at the same time to the target folder which has the Folder Action attached, as rapid sending may cause issues. Note that the value of the delay command may need to be adjusted higher as appropriate to accommodate the conditions and you'll just have to do some testing to see what works for you. While I did do some testing, I used a very small file (3 KB) that I replicated and sequentially named for testing purposes. I'll assume your photos will be much larger in size.

AppleScript code:

property theMessageSubject : "Portraits"
property theMessageContent : "Photo attached."

on GetTheRecipientNameFrom(theFilename)
    --      # Get the filename portion of the alias passed to the Folder Action.
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ":"
    set theFilename to last item of text items of theFilename
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
    --      # Make sure the filename contains both an '_' and "@".
    --      # This doesn't guarantee a properly formed email address,
    --      # however it does attempt to validate what was passed as one.
    if theFilename contains "_" and theFilename contains "@" then
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "_"
        set theFilename to first item of text items of theFilename
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
        return theFilename
    else
        return ""
    end if
end GetTheRecipientNameFrom

on run {input, parameters}
    set fileCount to (count of items of input)
    set i to 1
    repeat fileCount times
        set theMessageAttachment to item i of input
        set theRecipient to GetTheRecipientNameFrom(theMessageAttachment as string)
        if theRecipient is not equal to "" then
            tell application "Mail"
                activate
                set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:theMessageSubject, content:theMessageContent & linefeed & linefeed}
                tell theMessage
                    make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:theRecipient}
                end tell
                tell content of theMessage
                    make new attachment with properties {file name:theMessageAttachment} at after last paragraph
                end tell
                set i to i + 1
                -- delay 2
                -- send theMessage
            end tell
        else
            set i to i + 1
        end if
    end repeat
end run

Note that as coded, if a file dropped into the target folder, the folder to which the Folder Action is attached, does not conform to the naming convention of e.g. name@client.com_2847.jpg, then no email for that file should be created, unless the portion of the filename preceding the underscore contains the @ symbol and any other characters. In other words, the only error checking the code, as is, attempts to validate is the filename contains a valid email address only on the premise if it has both an underscore and @ symbol, then it assumes the filename conforms to e.g. name@client.com_2847.jpg. More strict error checking could be coded, however I'll leave that to you if what's presented isn't adequate.

Additionally, other forms of general error checking could be implemented, i.e. making sure the file was actually attached before sending, etc., however this answer is meant to be a simple example, not necessarily a fully coded solution. The onus is on you to insure you implement appropriate error checking as conditions warrant.

As you might be able to tell by the images below, I wrote and tested this in a pre OS X 10.9 environment, OS X 10.8.6 to be specific and I have "Enable access for assistive devices" checked in Accessibility preferences. In OS X 10.9 and later, including the latest version of macOS, Sierra, you may need to add Mail and or Automator to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility in order for the Folder Action to work. I'm not in a position to test in those versions at the moment, however if it doesn't work for you, then add these apps accordingly.


BigSur upgrade breaks the share menu option in Safari

I can suggest you to reinstall macOS BigSur from the recovery but without deleting your drive (so you don't loose your stuff)
The good thing is that inside of macOS the System and user partition is separated so you are not forced to touch the user partition while reinstalling the system!


Why does Safari autofill login information with weird username?

It' an old bug. Update safari to last version. Apple has released three updated versions of its Safari Web browser, which commonly address an issue where saved passwords would not be automatically into relevant password fields as expected. In addition to fixing how passwords are managed  Apple issues fix for password autofill bug in Safari | MacIssues


No More Vocals Instruments in GarageBand '11?

There are Vocal Effects in Garageband. Open Garageband and create a voice project:

Then go to the Info pane in the bottom right hand corner:

Under Real Instrument>Vocals, you will find all the effects you were looking for.


How to extend window to all edges in macOS?

Go to System Preferences/Dock and use this setting


how to use ipad to access webserver on macbook air

localhost is device-specific, so visiting it on your iPad is is taking you to a page on your iPad itself (that probably doesn't exist).

To access a page that is served from your Mac from your iPad, use the Mac's local IP address instead of localhost. To get your Mac's local IP, open the Network pane of System Preferences. Select your active network on the left and the IP will be shown on the right under the Connected heading. It will probably be something that looks like 10.0.1.1 or 127.0.1.1.


Do not open Apple Music when pressing a media key

This still works under Big Sur on M1 Macs:
launchctl bootout "gui/$(id -u "${USER}")/com.apple.rcd"
launchctl disable "gui/$(id -u "${USER}")/com.apple.rcd"

The top command disables it immediately. The bottom command prevents it from reactivating on restart.
To return to the default behaviour, replace bootout with bootstrap and disable with enable:
launchctl bootstrap "gui/$(id -u "${USER}")/com.apple.rcd"
launchctl enable "gui/$(id -u "${USER}")/com.apple.rcd"

Note this may disable the media keys for other apps as well.


Can I tell who used iTunes on my iMac to sync while I was away?

One way to tell if a device has connected to your iTunes is to check the preferences and see if there is a device backup.  When you can connect a device to iTunes it creates a backup of the device (if you are syncing stuff to and from it).  In your case it sounds like you wanna find out if your books have been syncing to another device.

Open iTunes Preferences:

Windows: Choose Edit > Preferences
Mac: Choose iTunes > Preferences

There will be no way for you to see what specifically was sycned, this will only tell you if a device has synced, and when.


Time Machine alternatives to clone one mac book to another

Two of the most popular and reliable backup options outside of using Time Machine are:

Carbon Copy Cloner
SuperDuper!

Keep in mind that using something new is still going to take time to do, as you're going to have to clone your data totally from scratch anyway.

So, if you already have a current Time Machine backup, then using that to transfer all your files is certainly a good option. Many people just set it up to do this overnight, so how long it takes isn't really an issue.

However, if you have other reasons for not wanting to use Time Machine, then using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! are excellent choices.


Since iOS7 there are a couple of options for reducing animations and other UI effects such as translucency:

Settings > General < Accessibility > Increase Contrast: On/Off and

Settings > General < Accessibility > Reduce Motion: On/Off


iCloud PhotoStream syncing to seperate Windows devices with shared App/Music/iTunes sync

Simple.

Use one AppleID for purchasing.
Use one or many computers to download this content. Remember that iTunes can sync apps to computer A and music to computer B and photos to computer C. Each person can decide to join the communal computer for App syncing / backup / downloading without it affecting their Photo browsing.
If they each get an iCloud account and use it for the rest - they can use the iCloud software on their PC to get the pictures or sync manually like any other photo device connected via USB.

I haven't tested it, but WiFI sync might also be available on the PC side of iTunes. Good Luck! Let us know how you fare...


It seems as though it's an issue with your local network. You may want to take a look into your 2.4GHz settings, and change them to Apple's Specified 20 MHz bandwith.

  2.4 GHz channel width

  Channel width controls how large of a ”pipe” is available to transfer data. However, larger channels are more subject to interference and more likely to interfere with other devices. A 40 MHz channel is sometimes called a wide channel, and a 20 MHz channel is a narrow channel.

    Set to: 20 MHz

  Use 20 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band. Using 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band can cause performance and reliability issues with your network, especially in the presence of other Wi-Fi networks and other 2.4 GHz devices. A 40 MHz channel might also cause interference and issues with other devices that use this band, such as Bluetooth devices, cordless phones, and neighboring Wi-Fi networks. Routers that don't support 40 MHz channels in the 2.4 GHz band do support 20 MHz channels.

If you choose to use the 5GHz channel width, it is reccomended that you use the 20/40 MHz band.

  5 GHz channel width

  Channel width controls how large of a "pipe" is available to transfer data. Larger channels are more susceptible to interference, and more likely to interfere with other devices. Interference is less of an issue in the 5 GHz band than in the 2.4 GHz band. A 40 MHz channel is sometimes called a wide channel, and a 20 MHz channel is a narrow channel.
  Set to:

    For 802.11n access points, set the 5GHz band to 20 MHz and 40 MHz.

    For 802.11ac access points, set the 5GHz band to 20 MHz, 40 MHz, and 80 MHz.

  For best performance and reliability, enable support for all channel widths. This allows devices to use the largest width they support, which results in optimal performance and compatibility. Not all client devices support 40 MHz channels, so don't enable 40 MHz-only mode. Devices that support only 20 MHz channels cant connect to a Wi-Fi router in 40 MHz-only mode. Similarly, don't enable 80 MHz-only mode, or only clients capable of 802.11ac will be able to connect. Routers that don't support 40 MHz or 80 MHz channels do support 20 MHz channels.

Source: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT202068


Contacts on my Mac out of sync with my iPhone

Go to System Preferences app → iCloud and toggle the checkmark shown alongside Contacts.

When you uncheck Contacts, the contact list shown in the Contacts.app is emptied. Re-checking forces the Contacts.app to reload from iCloud.


External drive not detected on MBP until it's connected to a Windows machine first

You do not have the "standard" formatting on the WD:
for TimeMachine it should be imperatively  GUID Partition Table.   and.  Mac OS X Extended (journaled).
If it really has that, open DiskUtility and select the WD, then select the FirstAid tab: it will check and repair permissions.


What are the consequences of turning iCloud Document and Data syncing off?

The consequence is data stays the same on your Mac and isn't kept in sync with other devices that use iCloud sync.

You can test if this is the cause of slowness by just disconnecting from the network.

Turning off iCloud documents is simple though and you can always turn it on again if you find something else was causing the slowness or you wish to have an easier time getting files back and forth.


Can you upload contacts from a car [Kia] *to* an iPhone?

Unfortunately, it's highly unlikely that you will be able to send contacts back to your phone.

While the iPhone (iPhone 4 and newer) supports the Bluetooth Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP) the process is typically only one-way.

There are two roles in the PBAP profile:

Phone Book Server Equipment (PSE) role - this role is for the device that contains the source phone-book objects; for example, a mobile phone.
Phone Book Client Equipment (PCE) role - this role is for the device that retrieves phone-book objects from the PSE device; for example, a portable navigation device (PND).

Your iPhone acts as the server and the car radio acts as the client.

  Phone Book Download Feature

  This feature is used to download the entire content of a phone book
  object. It is especially designed for devices with relatively large
  storage capacity that are typically attempting to download and locally
  store the entire phone book.

  Note that this feature is very basic. In particular, phone book
  entries are delivered in ascending index order only. No sorting is
  possible.

M = mandatory

In the Bluetooth specification for Phone Book Access Profile (where the above info was sourced), there is no "push" function; only "pull."  This means for your iPhone to receive the Phone Book, it must change roles to being a client and your car radio to becoming a server.  I can't find any documentation that indicates iPhone supports this role or the Kia radios becoming a server.


Your question and Webs' answer answer the question. With me.com, you can send an instant message to your iPod touch. Surely it needs WiFi turned on to receive the message. Additionally you can make the iPod beep for 120 seconds, and you can lock or reset it from remote.


sfltool add-item (to add Finder favorite) stopped working on High Sierra

Apple officially killed it :(

  Apologies, we do not plan to add back the feature. You will need to write a tool that does what’s needed.

https://openradar.appspot.com/radar?id=4985135170584576


NoSleep still in in settings though uninstalled?

Download NoSleep.dmg or use it if already there. Mount it and click "Uninstall.command".  Reopen preferences, it should be gone.

Uninstalling using official methods is preferred over simply deleting the app packages. Two old, but still relevant questions:

Why there is no standard way to uninstall programs in MacOS?
How do I uninstall a program completely on a Mac?


Remote Desktop Connection from Windows to Mac

There is a built in VNC server on Mac OS:
System Preferences -> Sharing -> Screen Sharing
It won't transfer files from another platform than Mac.
On PC side I used TightVNC in the past.
TeamViewer could be one solution.


I recently needed to replace an old NAS at home, and the cheapest option for my requirement was actually to build one and install FreeNAS on it.

You can add as many drives as your chassis will take, configure them to be RAID, mirrored, or independent, use UFS/ZFS on the partitions, and configure your shares as Windows, CIFS, or AFP with individual user accounts, groups, or getting permissions from an LDAP server.

Once you're set-up (which takes about 10 minutes from the CD) you're ready to go with a web interface which controls everything else.

While it's not HFS+, it is AFP capable out of the box so to speak, and works perfectly on my network with 2 Apple computers, and a Windows computer. It contains all of the resource fork information (meta data), and of course you can copy any existing data to it from anywhere else on the network.

Performance on a box like this is also going to be a lot better than most low to mid range NAS boxes too, which may be important with multiple users accessing large files. I backed up 580gb in just over an hour on a gigabit LAN connection.


Software for managing Word files (doc, docx) archive

I'd suggest you look at the File Content Finder (disclaimer - I'm its developer). It's specifically designed for searching file contents without indexing. It supports all major file formats - pdf, doc(x), xls(x), pptx, rtf, and others. It can also search in scanned png and jpg documents.

Its filtering lets you optimise and refine your search by multiple criteria - file type, creation/modification dates, etc.

Cost: $9.99 USD.


Location of java.security and deployment.properties files

OSX Yosemite 10.10.5

  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_67.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/security/java.security


Why does powerpoint go to different page when I don't touch my mac?

At the school where I work, those who have the oddest problems sometimes can't remember when they last restarted their MacBooks; have many apps open perpetually with some apps having many documents open within, etc. Purists scoff at the need to restart macOS, but I think it is the first, best step to resolving odd behavior.

In addition, if you do use a BT device at your desk, (or where you do most of your work,) and leave it behind, disable BT when you are presenting elsewhere.


iTunes Smart Playlists: don't include songs that I recently skipped

The rules look correct.  The problem may be in what YOU consider a skip versus what iTunes/iOS considers a skip.  There's varying reports that a skip in the first 3 seconds doesn't get counted, a skip in the last 10 seconds doesn't get counted, etc.

Maybe the best thing to do is this:

Create another smart playlist RecentlySkipped with one rule: Last Skipped IS IN THE LAST 1 days.

Then alter your existing playlist by replacing the "last skipped" rule with "Playlist IS NOT RecentlySkipped".

You can then play around with playing tracks and skipping them at various times - in the first 2 seconds, in the first 10 seconds, in the first 15 seconds, in the last 15 seconds, etc.  Then check the RecentlySkipped playlist to see which ones got added to it and which ones didn't.

Also, the play and skip count logic has been changed from release to release in the past.  So it's possible, for example, that what counted as a skip in iTunes 12.6 is not counted as a skip in iTunes 12.7 or vice versa.

Also, in older versions of iTunes you could reset play count independently of resetting skip count.  More recent versions reset both counts whether you want them both reset or not.


'No machine certificates found' when adding machine certificate into VPN

Not sure if it's possible using standard network settings, but you can configure VPN this way on OSX by using 3rd party software (e.g. Viscosity).


How to install .dict.dz/.index files to OSX dictionary.app

It looks like your input files are in the DICTD format. This can be converted to AppleDict XML source and then compiled for use with the OSX built-in dictionary using pyglossary as described at https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/119166/66812.


How to have arrows for moving the cursor up and down when writing text on iPhone?

The arrows you see in your screenshot move the cursor to the previous or next form input field, they do not navigate within a text field to go to previous or following lines. If you have a phone supporting 3D Touch, you can force press on the stock iOS keyboard to quickly move the cursor (the phone will vibrate and the letters will disappear, then the keyboard area acts like a touchpad to control the cursor). If your phone does not support 3D Touch, you double tap and keep your fingers on the screen on the second tap for the same effect.


Remove folder name from file name based on existing Apple Script

You can get the file name, then set the text item delimiter to the containing folder name, then put the text items of the file name into a list, which will ignore the delimiter (the folder name), then reset the text item delimiter to "" empty and coerce the name to a string. This is a VERY common Applescript trick.

set the_folder to (choose folder)
renamefilesinside(the_folder)

on renamefilesinside(next_folder)
    tell application "Finder"
        set folder_name to name of next_folder
        set folder_contents to every item of next_folder
        repeat with each_item in folder_contents
            if kind of each_item is "folder" then
                my renamefilesinside(each_item)
            else
                set n to name of each_item
                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to folder_name
                set n to text items of n
                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ""
                set n to n as string
                set name of each_item to n
            end if
        end repeat
    end tell
end renamefilesinside


How to change timezone in recovery mode?

As suggested by this answer, try setting the date to one earlier than the current date. The timezone should not matter at the time of installation.


How can I clean up 'Other' storage on iPhone 3G?

I had this same exact problem until 2 days ago followed the procedure outlined on this page: http://www.ipodrepublic.com/iphone/fixing-issue-other-files-iphone-memory/2010/03/31/ and it worked well.  Re-created below.  I haven't seen my Other size grow since.

Step 1: Turn of sync music in iTunes

When you have synced your iPhone and noticed that “other files” have taken up a lot of storage space on the iPhone, un-tick the “sync music” alternative in iTunes before un-connecting your iPhone.

Step 2: Install DiskAid software on computer/mac  (Instead of using DiskAid (paid), I used iPhone Explorer (which is free.))

DiskAid is a neat little software that allows you transfer files to your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, treating it as a USB drive. They offer a free trial of the software so no need to purchase it first time you have to use it at least.

Make sure your iPhone is connected with the USB when you open up DiskAid. When the program is running, at the bottom left corner it says “DiskAid folder”, click on the drop down list and choose “media folders”.

Step 3: Go into iTunes Control folder and then the Music folder

In DiskAid you will see an overview of all the folders and files on your iPhone. Go to the iTunes Control Folder and then the subfolder called Music. Under the Music folder you will likely see a lot of subfolders starting with “f”.

Step 4: Delete/remove all subfolders in Music

Delete all the subfolders under the Music folder. They include the files that are hogging your iPhone memory under “other files”.

Step 5: Open iTunes and sync your iPhone

With “music sync” still turned off in iTunes, sync your iPhone. This will remove all music files from your iPhone, but keep all other content. Don’t worry about this though, as in the next steps you will sync the music back onto your iPhone.

Step 6: Unplug iPhone and reboot it

Once the iPhone has finished syncing, unplug it and perform a reboot. The reboot is done by holding down the “power down” button at the top right at the same times as holding down the control button. Hold both of them until the iPhone has switched off and the Apple logo appears on the screen before releasing both buttons. This action will reboot your iPhone.

Step 7: Reconnect your iPhone to iTunes and recheck “sync music”

This will put your music back onto the iPhone, and you should not see any of the “other files” taking up any of the iPhone memory. Once the sync is complete your iPhone should be all sorted again.

If you still see “other files” taking up memory on your iPhone you have likely done something wrong or left out subfolders in step 4.

Also, delete the same type of sub-folders in the PWNTunes Itunes Control folder as well if you are jailbroken and have PWNTunes installed.


Attaching external mic to MacBook Air Mid 2011

The splitter in your photo has a TRRS jack, which is often called "4-pole" or "4 position" because of its 4 metal sections separated by 3 bands.

TRRS enables both stereo output as well as microphone input.  (Earbuds from iPhone 6 use this type of jack.)

Your MacBook Air (although I'm not familiar with yours in particular) probably has a TRRS port (rather than one port for microphone and a separate port for headphones).  So you could plug iPhone earbuds (which have a mic) into that port.

The lavalier mic shown in your photo appears to have a TRRS jack and so would probably work with your MacBook Air without even using an adapter.

However, you said that you own a different one and that yours has only "one ring".

I would agree with your assumption that plugging a 1-pole mic jack into that adapter and plugging the adapter into your MacBook Air should work.

Many people online are reporting problems with this MacBook Air port, however.

See my unanswered question here: External mic not working anymore on Macbook Air

By clicking the links mentioned in my question and comments, you might stumble onto some hacks relating to:

Putting your computer to sleep after plugging your mic in
The order in which you plug your mic into your adapter and your adapter into your laptop
Whether and when to plug headphones into the adapter
and more

I have not yet found a reliable repeatable solution but wanted to share what I've come across so far, and I hope it helps you (and others).


I got this from Key Codes (freeware)

Fn key down

Modifier Change
    Keys:
    Key Code:   65535 / 0xffff
    Modifiers:  8388864 / 0x800100 ⓘ

NX_SECONDARYFNMASK / kCGEventFlagMaskSecondaryFn / NSFunctionKeyMask
        = 8388608 / 0x800000

NX_NONCOALSESCEDMASK / kCGEventFlagMaskNonCoalesced
        = 256 / 0x100

Fn key up

Modifier Change
    Keys:
    Key Code:   65535 / 0xffff
    Modifiers:  256 / 0x100 ⓘ

NX_NONCOALSESCEDMASK / kCGEventFlagMaskNonCoalesced
    = 256 / 0x100

tbh, it doesn't really mean a great deal to me, I'm no coder... ;)


The firewall is designed to block incoming connections unless permission is granted (with the exception of certain essential system services and "sharing" services, such as File Sharing and Screen Sharing). The first time you use an application and it requests incoming network access, you will be prompted to allow or disallow. It is then added to the list and your decision is noted.

See OS X: About the application firewall on Apple's support website.


Detect single-user mode from the command line

$ sysctl -n kern.singleuser
0

It's 1 when booted in single-user mode, 0 when not.


Mounting a single partition dd image in macOS?

This doesn't answer the exact question, but the following has worked for me to mount a dd msdos image as read-only (-o ro).
$ hdiutil attach -nomount /Users/sunknudsen/Desktop/boot-clean.img
/dev/disk2

$ mkdir -p ~/Desktop/boot-clean
$ mount -o ro -t msdos /dev/disk2 ~/Desktop/boot-clean


How to safely delete .inProgress Time Machine backup?

The next backup interval prunes and cleans this folder. If you have 24 hours of backups and still have a hung inProgress, I would open a case directly with Apple.
With hard links, it’s unlikely you are using any space on these files, since another interval already covers them or the next interval will reuse that space.

The risk of messing with the backups is you ruin that destination so unless you are willing to make that destination read-only and start backing up to a new destination, I would not mess with this manually - even to try to convince tmutil to delete that non-interval.
I have had great success using time machine utility to delete whole backups and letting the system run to pre-clean and post-clean these progress folders. When the progress folder remains for more than a day of successful backups, you usually have another problem and poking at a system with one failure isn’t likely to address the main problem. You could also try to bypass and clean up a large file if that helps you get space back if deleting intervals doesn’t prune enough space.


I have just been using iAnnotate PDF it's very good for marking PDF's on the go. It's £6.99 in the UK app store. Not sure about the USA price.


High Sierra - Terminal lags if background opacity is set

So, for completeness' sake since there doesn't seem to be a better answer as of yet, I'll add my solution.
If your Terminal.app started showing the behavior outlined in the question and you have modified the blur/opacity settings, turning these off will restore previous performance. To do so, open the terminal settings (⌘ + ,), switch to the Profile tab and click on the background color picker next to color & effects. Here, set the faders for opacity and blur to 100%.

If someone finds a way to enable transparency again without trashing performance, I'll be happy to accept their answer.


Most Macbook DVD drives have a manual release. You'll need a straightened paperclip (or something similar) to push the release. The release is at the extreme right or left edge of the DVD slot (sorry can't remember which edge it's on—it depends on the model too). Insert the clip about 1cm. It should touch a hard surface. Carefully apply some pressure and the DVD will release. If the paperclip inserts more than 1-2 cm your on the wrong edge. Also be careful to not angle the paperclip.


is there a way to make my device look like it was never jailbroken

If your iPod has been completely restored with the original software, then there's no way to tell. A jailbreak just means replacing the software with hacked software - there are no other (physical) side effects or whatever you're fearing.


Is it possible to run OpenZFS on MacOS Sierra on a Mac Pro

Yes it is: I am using zfs, including after upgrading to High Sierra and after updating zfs a few times.

After updating macOS I vaguely recall reinstalling zfs for this version of macOS (and possibly uninstalling it first--fairly certain I followed the directions associated with the installer or in the wiki), and then later as zfs was updated installed the newer release. I was prompted to upgrade the zpool in the normal course of using my external drive (when I did sudo zpool import -a -f).


You can use Automator to create a service for this. Open Automator and click “New Document,” then choose the Service template:

Next, click on the “Service receives selected text” dropdown and choose “no input:”

Next, add a “Run AppleScript” action:

Click “Actions” in the sidebar
Ensure the “Library” row in the first column is selected
Search for “AppleScript”
Double-click the “Run AppleScript” row in the search results

In the action on the right side of the window, paste this AppleScript into the text box:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "System Events"
        repeat 2 times
            keystroke tab
        end repeat
        keystroke (ASCII character 31) -- down arrow
        keystroke "s"
        repeat 2 times
            keystroke return
        end repeat
    end tell
    return input
end run

Next, click the “compile” () button to verify that the code was pasted correctly:

Choose File → Save (or ⌘ + S), and type in a name you’ll remember. Next, open System Preferences ( → System Preferences…) and click “Keyboard.” Under the “Shortcuts” tab, select “Services” in the left list. Scroll to the bottom of the main list, under the “General” section, and select the service you just created. Click the “Add Shortcut” button and type the keyboard shortcut you’d like to use.

The shortcut should now work.

Based on the other answer


Tool that watches files / folders and upload on change on OS X?

Try cron. It's a tool that runs commands at a specific time or interval. It may not be exactly what you're looking for (clone on build) but it works quite well.

To set up cron: from Terminal, type crontab -e.

This should bring up a text editor (depending on which text editor you set as default) and a nice header explaining what each field does.

minute, hour: does as it says
dom: day of month
mon: month
dow: day of week

Now, we'll take a look at your command to do regular backups. A great tool for backups is rsync. You'll need to set up SSH keys for it to work without a password prompt.

Here's the command I use:

rsync -vzhaPE --delete-after /path/to/local/file ip.address.of.server:/path/to/backup/location

Options used: -vzhaPE

v: verbose
z: compress (good for slow connections. Adjust compression level with --compress-level=<1-9>)
h: human readable numbers
a: archive mode. This preserves timestamps and practically clones everything over as it were.
P: progress bar.
E: keep partial files. This means that if the connection was interrupted, rsync will pick up on the partial files and continue where it left off. Good for copying multiple large files over a slow network.
delete-after: deletes files from the server that have been deleting from the sending side

Options v, h and P are more for human debugging, so we won't introduce them into our cron job.

So, to put it together in cron:
(run every ten minutes, for example)

*/10 * * * * rsync -zaE --delete-after /path/to/local/file ip.address.of.server:/path/to/backup/location

This command will back whatever files in are the directory specified to the server's specified directory every ten minutes. No duplicates will be made as rsync will delete the files it copies over.

Additionally, if you'd like, you can also run a script that moves the copied backup over to another folder if you're interested in a Time Machine-like versioning functionality. You'll need enough storage space though, and some minor tweaks to the backup command (rsync push to rsync pull). If this is what you're looking for, let me know and I'll expand on it.


Yes you can. Use Boot Camp Assistant normally to create the partition, then boot into your Linux install media and select the new BOOTCAMP partition as the destination for the install.

This will set the default boot disk as the Linux partition, forcing you to alt-boot to boot into OS X. To reverse this, change your startup disk in System Preferences.


Thanks for the help. The problem turned out to be both more complicated and simpler than I originally thought.

I had installed a Tar Disk in 2015 and more research showed that quite a few users were having the same problems and error messages as I was.

I followed the instructions here - https://www.tardisk.com/pages/uninstall-sierra - to uninstall the Tar Disk - NOT removing it because I was coming from High Sierra, as the instructions said. It DID NOT solve the problem.

I then went through the whole rigamarole again; shut down my MacBook and physically removed the Tar Disk. I then reopened the Disk Utility and reformatted the internal Mac SSD - installed Mojave from a USB and it seems to have worked.

To answer my PRECISE question - now that Mojave is installed - Time Machine has been able to recover/reinstall all of my files and programs

Thanks again to those of you who responded


Can I design web graphics with Pages more easily?

As Pages was not really developed with producing pixel-based graphics in mind, I think you workflow is already quite the best way to handle such a task in Pages (+Preview).

However, if you have Pages, you may also have Keynote? Your task could be accomplished with this app much easier.

Slideshows are set up in pixels, not cm.
After creating a new slideshow by selecting one of the predefined sizes, these can also be completely changed to custom sizes (info window, first tab).
After finishing your artwork, you can directly export into several image formats like JPG and PNG. You can even resize the image during this step (again).

(Tested right now with Keynote 5.3)


If you didn't backup the notes with iTunes or iCloud, then they are gonna permanently. On iPhone, there are two different kinds of notes: one is synced with iCloud and the other is local notes. I am aware of this after switching to a new iPhone. I guess the missing notes were stored locally.


Hide Applications from other Spaces in Application Switcher

Windowflow - free for a limited time and gives some options for different spaces and such.

Witch - 12,99 € and has an option that will only show apps in the current space.

WindowSwitcher - 3,59 € and it comes very close to your needs, check it out.

As far as an native solution to your problem: I don't think there is a setting or command that makes the application switcher behave like this.

Definitely check out WindowSwitcher I honestly think it is what you are looking for!

p.s. prices were correct at the time of posting.


There is nothing inherently magically going on within /Volumes. So if you use rsync or something else to copy data into that folder, it will just do as told. If there is no folder with the target name already it will just create a new one on your main drive.

So

sudo rm -rf /Volumes/Hired-Hand

should remove the files/folders created by rsync. Just make sure you get the name right (and maybe eject the HiredHand drive first).


How to get the PID of every window of every process?

You want unix id. Like this...

tell application "System Events" to get unix id of every process

PS: Realize that not all "windows" returned by your original code are visible. So depending what you are trying to do you may want to also look into

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14551419/listing-all-windows-of-all-applications

Google will give you other examples...


After upgrading to iOS 5, how to restore my apps?

When you connect your iPad/iPhone you choose your device in left column under the Devices section, then got the Apps tab and select the Apps you want to sync.

Afterwards, select "Synchronize" at the bottom right to update your iDevice.


Create another column in Transactions. Put the VLOOKUP in that column. So then you have the miles for each one: 3.4, 2.9, 3.4, 3.4, 9.1. Then in another cell, use SUM(D2:D6) to add those up. If you don't want that column visible you can always hide it.


Turn on voice over in accessibility and when you click it it will speak what it is called.

It's called "hide keyboard" using voiceover, but it could be called something different within apple, because what voiceover reads could be a label set just for voiceover.


iPhone (iOS) mistakes my router (mifi) as needing a login page

When you log into any wifi router, immediately thereafter the OS (iOS or MacOS) tries to resolve the DNS for www.apple.com, and then attempts to navigate to this page:

apple.com/library/test/success.html

(Or one of a handful of similar ones distributed around the 'net.) The page is very simple and basically just responds with the word "Success". If they do not get that, or it times out, they assume that you're on a captive router that needs a login. In that case they navigate to the IP of your router/gateway, which in your case brings up the settings, but in a captive system brings up the login page.

Fixing it seems to be a bit of a dark art. Try this solution first and see if it helps.


Relative Wifi performance: iPhone 5 and iPad

Not knowing what iPad you have, it likely has a different CPU and Wireless chipset. It also could have differing RAM and workloads - although they usually are not a blocking or even major factor in download tests.


I wanted to keep a background from an older version of iOS that was no longer available.  I did the following.

Take a screenshot of your lock screen by pressing the Lock and Home buttons simultaneously.
Get the screenshot onto a computer by email or syncing.
Go to Google Image Search, press the camera icon, and upload the screenshot.
Find a suitable copy to download.

Unfortunately, if it's a photo you took, this won't show any results unless you've also uploaded the photo to the internet at some point.


Windows on an iMac: unable to change keyboard layouts

I had this problem and fixed it by: Control Panel -> Regional Settings -> Keyboard and Languages (tab) -> Change keyboards (button) -> Selelct the top language added: (English United States) -> then click "Add" -> Navigate between the options to (English United States) -> click on "keyboard" -> now check the option "US"

This solved my problem, I hope it solves yours


9,93 GB of 5 GB iCloud storage taken up by Docs - how to find an delete them?

I was unable to solve the problem myself, so I contacted Apple Support. During a phone call, I was explained that the space was taken by temporary, hidden files like incomplete backups.

I couldn't delete these myself and the technician did that for me.


Is there a way to add To-Do's to iCal from the iPhone?

With iOS5 and iCloud, iCal's reminders appear in the Reminders app.


Whats the last OS X that supported Power PC?

Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) is also the
  first Mac OS release since the
  introduction of System 7.1.2 that
  does not support the PowerPC
  architecture, as Apple now intends to
  focus on its current line of
  Intel-based products.

Thus OS X supported PowerPC up to and including version 10.5 (Leopard).


Just started using iBooks on Mac tonight. I was worried about the same thing.

Here's what works:

Go to List view in iBooks »
Click once on a book (anywhere on the line) »
Wait a couple of seconds »
Click once on the data that you want to change or enter »
That entry will become editable

You can edit anything: Title, Author, Category, etc. Voilà!


Volume and power button huge delays (iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 14.2, no jailbreak)

iOS 14.3 update solved the issue for me.
It's still a mystery, but at least it doesn't bother me anymore.
UPD: The issue re-appeared a week later alongside with antennae losing signal (both in 3G only and 4G/3G mode). Turns out, this was a faulty hardware.


MD711B, MD711LLA... How do I figure out which version is newer?

Go to the Mac App Store and download Mactracker. It has a database of pretty much every Apple product ever made, its history and full specifications.


Can I secure a Mac's ad hoc network better than just the default WEP?

I agree the hardware should handle it.

Apple says:  http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8339.html

Apple really just wants you to buy an AirPort Extreme or Express.


How to avoid a kernel panic during Lion install to USB disk?

Seeking clarification

Please add to the opening question a note of whether the panic occurs during:

a) the preparation stage of installation (before the first automated restart of the system)

or

b) post-preparation, the installation stage (between the first and second automated restarts).

Logging the preparation and installation stages of installation

Screenshots at http://www.wuala.com/grahamperrin/public/2011/08/01/a/?mode=gallery demonstrate the Installer Log window in foreground whilst Mac OS X Installer runs — the installation stage.

During either stage (preparation or installation) you can present a log window by keying:

command-L

With luck, you might see — possibly greyed-out beneath the foreground detail of the panic — the point at which panic occurs.

At the root of the volume to which installation is attempted: if installation fails you may find a directory:

Mac OS X Install Data

Within that directory, a log. If present, that log may be informative to you, but not as useful (to readers here) as the .panic file.

PRAM, kernel panic information and the .panic file

Apple's Mac OS X: What's stored in PRAM tells us that recent kernel panic information is stored in PRAM. If the first normal start following a panic does not present the customary dialogue, you should wonder whether/how that information was lost from PRAM.

If the kernel panic occurs during the installation stage — and if the subsequent start defaults to attempt continuation of the installation, or Mac OS X Utilities (not a normal start) — and if you are without an obvious interface to kernel panic information — then my hunch would be that whilst started in that special mode, the path to which a .panic file might normally be written is read-only …

… if that's the case and if you're comfortable at the command line, maybe start in single user mode following the panic then use the following command to see whether panic information is legible on screen:

nvram -p

(For the number of ifs above, apologies!)


When directly unzipping a file attachment in Apple Mail, where does it go?

I believe this is in:

~/Library/Mail/V2/
  IMAP-[address]@[server]/[Mailbox].mbox/
  (various folders)/Attachments/(various folders)

If you look in your Library folder for the Mail folder, then explore that a bit, you can hopefully see what I mean.  To see your Library folder, in the Finder, open the Go menu, hold opt or alt (depending upon how your keys are labelled) and then choose the Library option that appears.

Be careful not to change files in the Library folder unless you understand the consequences and have a good backup...


My friend installed Bittorrent and got viruses on her mac

So the torrent file had extras, and your friend installed them.

Videos are, in general, just data files and thus safe to open. If the download included an installer package, program (perhaps disguised as a video) or script, and you run it, it can do many things.

Ask your friend if she was asked for her password at any point in the process. Videos will never, ever ask for your password. If she said yes, and typed it in, she just allowed the download to install anything it wants. This is a trojan, not a virus, and like the horse the Greeks gave to the Trojans it bypasses almost all of the system security.

Your friend needs to stop using her computer. Right now. From a different computer, she needs to change all of her passwords. Email, online banking, Apple ID, Google Drive, dropbox - anywhere she has ever accessed from that machine. That needs to happen immediately after turning the computer off.

Next, you get to reformat the computer's drive and reinstall everything from the original media. Do NOT use the migration assistant or restore from a backup - it's very easy to install something in the user's library that will persist through a restore process. And copy files one by one, only if you recognize them. Copying folders will also copy hidden files, and we don't want any of those.

Will this take a long time? Yes, it will. It will take less time than dealing with your various online services if someone steals your information a second time because you didn't clear it out correctly.

Never type in your password unless you are expecting to need to.


MacBookPro8,2 (early 2011) RAM size limit per Bank

Apple states that you should fill both RAM banks with equal size memory for best performance, implying that one bank should work.  Your machine running on one bank would seem to bear this out.

For the second part of your question I can recommend RamJet (1-800-831-4569) as both a good source of quality technical support that is Mac specific, and a retailer of RAM.

I have no business connection to them, but I have been using them for my own machines and my clients machines for almost ten years.


Macbook Pro (Mid 2010) replacement power supply issue

Apparently 3rd time is the charm.   I asked to have this replacement power supply replaced one more time, and the 3rd power supply works fine.  Very odd, but things are operating fine now.


Double-clicking on a song in Finder launches Music.app but doesn't play it

Maybe there is a setting in Preferences that causes the song to play. Here is an image of my Preferences Panel for the General settings.

And the panel for Playback.


MacBook Pro 13” 2014 - Trackpad gestures not working after long sleep

I've recently had this issue as well. I found the temporary solution to be related to the hidd process. If you head to Activity Monitor and forcibly terminate the process (as outlined in the fifth option in this article from OSXDaily), the gestures should return.


Connect Early 2015 Macbook pro to TWO HDMI monitors via Thunderbolt or USB

Assuming you mean the 13-inch version and not the 15-inch one.

According to EveryMac.com "This model supports a simultaneous maximum resolution up to 3840x2160 on two external displays via Thunderbolt 2."

So as long as that max resolution is OK with you all you need is the appropriate cabling. And the one you found is for USB-C/Thunderbolt-3. Which is wrong for your Mac.

You need something similar to this. Note I just snagged the first product on an Amazon search for "Thunderbolt 2 to HDMI adapter." I have no idea if that is a quality product or not.


The only viable options for RAID using just 2 drives would be RAID 0 or 1.

RAID 1 wouldn't increase your storage, so 0 is the only remaining choice.

Even if you could RAID an internal fixed drive to a removable SD card (& without first formatting both), the drive would only be 'whole' so long as both were present (& still functional.)
If either drive was missing (or broken) the entire RAID would be irrecoverable.

Trusting an entire RAID to the vagaries of an SD card would be playing russian roulette with your data.


System-Preferences Applescript using osascript cannot select its window

So there are two ways this script can fail:

Command line version unable to get the System Preferences window.
Running it will cause the complaint about enabling access for assistive devices.

Well the latter case as it turns out is self-explanatory: This script requires that you have enabled access for assistive devices.  The former is still not obvious, but if you quit System Preferences and restart it then it might work; it finally did for me, and I have amended the code above to get System Preferences to quit at the end.


I would use Lingon to script this as a system startup - you can always use launchd to load or unload the job from the command line (or delete the route).

You don't need Lingon, it just makes it so much more friendly to assemble a plist that launchd likes to run.


From comments (& this took me years to figure out initially;)
You can't change an Apple ID address to one that is already in use as a 'Contactable at' or 'Recovery' address.
Once removed from there, then it will allow you.


Check if newly released iOS app is worldwide available on the AppStore

I only know of a manual way checking it.

Open App Store and click at the flag circle bottom right.

Now select the country you want to check for your app.


I get frustrated using the Finder application to find anything. I guess I don't have a mind that works like the authors of the Finder application. If you are used to using commands you can try the following.

Open a Terminal application window.
Use the cd command to change to the base folder where the files
are. The command pwd will give your current folder.
Enter to the command

find . -name "filesToFind" -print

and the current base folder and all subfolders will be searched.

For example to find all files ending the .txt on your desktop, open a Terminal window and type:

cd desktop
find . -name "*.txt" -print

Note: The instructions for the find command can be found by typing the command man find or at this link.


How to format Hard Drive and reinstall Catalina from USB

Thanks everyone. I reformatted the drive and reinstalled and now I am in the middle of a Time Machine recovery.  Cheers gents you are the best.


View passwords of all Wi-Fi networks my Mac has connected to in the past

Open Keychain Access from /Applications/Utilities and search for AirPort. All the network passwords are listed as 'AirPort network password' entries. Double-click an entry, then select Show Password and enter your login password to view it.


How to turn off iPhone without power button?

If you go to Settings>General>Accessibility>AssistiveTouch and flip the switch to "on," you will find a black square with a white dot in the middle.

When you tap the white circle for AssistiveTouch, tap "Device," then LONG PRESS on the "Lock Screen" option.  You should be set!


Google and Bing are your friends.

A Memory Leak is due to bad memory management of the application.  Basically, it allocates memory but fails to release it when finished.  Therefore, as the application continues to run, it keeps allocating free memory until there is no more.

The fact that certain browsers use more or less memory has nothing to do with there being a memory leak.  Chrome likes to have individual processes for each tab  or session (more memory) where Firefox does the opposite.  Memory is cheap now so there is less of a need to be efficient, but there is a need for higher performance.

The real issue is what to do about memory leaks - since most people don't reprogram and self-patch a program like FireFox - you can quit a program that has leaks or just log out. Mac OS (as well as most other operating systems) then release all the leaked memory and return it to the system pool. Leaks happen, so as an educated user you can watch for them and tend to leaky programs as opposed to letting them run continually.


Both Disk Utility and About This Mac use spotlight data to categorize the used space in terms of classes of data:

You can use Finder to search for items using the same classes:

Some notes:

type in the search box the text: kind:movie (as you type look for the hints as the system shows you possible values of kind)
choose list view (the four lines icon top left)
control click and add size so you can then click it and sort by size

You can save this "smart folder" or add a filter like size > whatever limit you want so you can review all large movie files or just all large files.


Can I used iMac's Image Capture app to import video from my camcorder to iMovie '09?

You would need the iMovie 10 installed on your iMac.

If you have a qualifying system and OS you get it for free, otherwise it is $15.

Be aware that you might have 2 iMovies apps in your Application folder. The older ver9 and the newer one v10. Look for it.

Apple shows it as supported (Canon VIXIA HF R600
Format: AVCHD / MPEG-4) in the iMovie 10 (but not in iMovie 9)


Absolutely. I personally still own an iPhone 4 and am using it to access the internet without the SIM card installed. The notification bar shows No Sim, which but this does not impact the device's WiFi.

The Common Fix: Resetting Network Settings
I would like you to try: Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings

Which should clear up any issues by resettings the Network gear to their default settings. It has shown to be a common solution in the past. You will need to reconnect to your WiFi access point once the iPhone has restarted. Please report back with the status afterward.


Is there a way to get a list of all currently running program's window titles with AppleScript?

I'm looking to write a script which outputs a list of all the window titles of all the currently running programs.

The easy, one-liner method of achieving this in AppleScript is:

    tell application "System Events" to get the name of every window of ¬
        (every process whose background only is false)

Annoyingly, this returns a nested lists, which you'll either have to loop through in a repeat with block, or flatten the nest into a simple list (which isn't too hard).

Running AppleScript from the command line has the advantage that the returned data are in text format, which can be manipulated quite easily.  You can even make use of the command line from within AppleScript to get the benefits of each:

    do shell script "osascript -e \" ¬
        set text item delimiters to tab
        tell app \\\"system events\\\" to get name of every window of ¬
            (every process whose background only is false)
        return the result as text \" | egrep -oi -e '[^\t]+'"

    return paragraphs of result

which returns a nice, straight forward, text list of window titles.

Finally, here's a formal AppleScript to get the job done properly, in a way that allows you to retain the ability to reference the window object if you need to get other properties or manipuoate it:

    use application "System Events"

    property R : {WindowTitle:missing value, AttachedToProcess:missing value}

    set WindowList to {}

    set P to a reference to (every process whose background only is false)

    repeat with proc in P
        set [proc] to proc
        set W to (a reference to every window of proc)

        repeat with _w in W
            set [_w] to _w

            copy R to end of WindowList
            tell last item of WindowList
                set its WindowTitle to title of _w
                set its AttachedToProcess to name of proc
            end tell
        end repeat
    end repeat

    return WindowList

The resulting list is a list of records that have the structure of property R.  Each record represents a single window, which contains the window's title and the name of the process it belongs to, e.g. {WindowTitle:"Downloads", AttachedToProcess:"Finder"}.  This way, it's easy to do things with the window, such as:

    set TheWindow to item 2 of WindowList --> {WindowTitle:"...", AttachedToProcess:"..."}

    tell process named (TheWindow's ProcName) to ¬
        tell window named (TheWindow's WindowTitle) to ¬
            set [focused, position, size] to [true, {0, 0}, {400, 777}]


iPad Refusing to Sync after 4.2 Beta Expired

Huh, figures I'd find the solution right after I finally ask someone...

Booting the iPad in restore mode allowed iTunes to begin a restore & update process and now my iPad is happily updating to the proper, non-beta release.


Mac automator to rerun a python script if first attempt failed

It really depends - is there any "pause" or do you want to continually keep sending emails? This sounds a bit SPAM-y?

If you have created a 'process' that does some checks and then if there is work to be performed - it does its work and when finished goes back to "sleep".  This sounds more like a daemon task loop.

You can leverage launchctl.  It will keep a daemon/process running indefinitely. I'd suggest you install your script in your user space not the system.  The only difference is it will not start up until you log into your Mac.


If the iPod is makes horrible drive noises, then you have most likely lost the hard drive in the iPod. It might have crashed in the middle of the format and caused a crash.

You can try the disk mode to see if you can do anything with it, but sounds like it might be a dead drive.


Restoring an iPhone that cannot be detected

To restore your iPhone, boot it into recovery mode and wipe it from there.

To boot your iPhone into recovery mode and restore it to the latest version of iOS supported by your iPhone:

Shut down your iPhone by holding the lock button.
Connect the USB end of your connection cable (presumably 30-pin by your software) to your computer but not to your phone.
After the iPhone is off, hold the home button as you plug in the 30-pin connector.
Your phone should start and iTunes should detect "an iPhone in recovery mode that must be restored before it can be used with iTunes".
Restore to the latest version of iOS that is supported by your iPhone (by iOS 4, I would assume an iPhone 3G, which supports versions of iOS < 4.2.1)


FileVault - One account can unlock but preventing full login and forcing logout and login again with other user

I can answer this question myself out of accident which I somehow was able to even retrace what I did.

To prevent a login you do this:

Add a new user, preferably a non admin user, and enter that password for that user which you wish to use as a filevault password.
Revoke all other users right to use filevault using: sudo fdesetup remove -user "username" from terminal. Note, do keep the user you just created. In fact you can not remove that user. One user must be on the filevault user list.
Go into the user settings again. And reset the password for the user just created. That will through I guess a bug, in my case feature, only change the password and not the filevault user.

Now, restart computer. When you are prompted for the fielvault password it is the old and not the resetted password. This will unlock disk, but since the password is wrong for login, system won't be able to login user. Press esc and login your user.

You are welcome.


I don't know of a way to make it only pair with a single KB/M/Trackpad, so a workaround it to prevent it pairing with anything further once you have paired what you need.

One method to do this, on the assumption that the users of the computers do not have administrator access:

Step one - turn on parental controls for the users of the systems in System Preferences > Parental Controls:

Then turn on Limit Applications, and scroll down to untick System Preferences under Allowed Apps > Other Apps

Now make sure that the Bluetooth menu bar item isn't shown in System Preferences > Bluetooth:

Obviously this may prevent legitimate access to other system preference items, but as I cannot find a way to lock down Bluetooth to Admin access only, then the next best thing is to prevent you from getting to the Bluetooth config areas.  It may still be possible to manually start the Bluetooth assistant, perhaps someone could comment on that.


How do I hide the "open window icons" in the dock in OSX 10.10?

I actually found an answer to this question now.

Apparently, there is an option "Minimize windows into application icon" in System Preferences > Dock that will accomplish what I want.

The option mentioned:


Magic Mouse2 keep loosing connection which keyboard and Magic Trackpad work fine

The problem was related to a cheaper dongle for HDMI. Once I removed the dongle my mouse problem disappeared.
It is related to this issue. I did not try wrapping the dongle in foil, but removing it completely solved my mouse dropping issue.
Macbook loses network connection when connecting external display


Why does Skype want to use a "Xcode Server Builder Identity" key?

An identity is a certificate with a private key. It's possibly Skype checks the keychain for identities so it can authenticate itself with a server when setting up a secure connection (server authentication is mandatory with secure connections; client authentication is optional).

Where is it stored?

As not all items stored in a keychain are shown in Keychain Access, the security utility can (must?) be used to show them instead. The message mentions an identity; the find-identity security subcommand can be used. The options to find-security are limited, and don't include options to filter based on name, label, description, creator or many of the other filters other subcommands take. Fortunately, there are likely far fewer identities on the keychain than there are of other types.

$ security find-identity
Policy: X.509 Basic
  Matching identities
  1) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iOS Dev" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
  2) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iPhone Configuration Utility (DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789)" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  3) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  4) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  5) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "com.apple.idms.appleid.prd.defaced2feelbad2feedfacedeadbeefcafef00dd00dc0de" (CSSMERR_TP_CERT_EXPIRED)
  6) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "member: DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789 DEADBEEF-1234-5678-9ABC-EF0123456789" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
  7) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "Xcode Server Builder (3/26/21, 12:32:33 PM)" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
     7 identities found

  Valid identities only
  1) 123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF012345678 "iOS Dev" (CSSMERR_TP_NOT_TRUSTED)
     1 valid identities found

In the example, note Item 7 in the output is the Xcode Server Builder identity.


Automatically Receive Calls App on iPhone using Internet

You cannot do this on an iPhone as Apple does not allow software to take over main-functions of an iPhone.

In the past (and it still probably is) it was possible to add BiteSMS to your iPhone after jailbreaking it. There might be a similar feature for phone calls, but it requires a jailbreak then.

So in short, No, Apple does not support this by default. You might be able to bypass this limit by jailbreaking your device and looking for a tweak which can do this for you.


Replacing battery in mid 2012 15" MBP myself - using genuine Apple battery?

According to several sites, which mostly point back to this iFixit page, "...Apple informs its own service personnel that 'batteries must be replaced with the top case assembly' and that 'the battery alone is not a replaceable part.'"

Also, iFixit found the following when trying to remove the battery:

Someone really did not want the battery in the MacBook Pro to come out of the upper case.
We tried valiantly with our iFixit 6 Inch Metal Ruler to free the battery from its aluminum confines, but to no avail. Rather than risk puncturing a lithium-polymer battery cell, we left the power source in place.
To complicate matters further, the TrackPad cable lies underneath the battery. Attempting to pry the battery off the upper case could easily sever the fragile cable, which would be bad.

It might be best to just take it to Apple to get the battery replaced.  It appears to cost US $200 for a new battery.


For network sharing you could do following in Terminal.

Assuming you have the file sharing enabled.

Applications using a file reference to your computer can mount a remote disk automatically, as long as the computer is on the network. A command like

netstat -na | grep 548

will list what machine and user is connected by AFP.

If you simply type netstat it will list all active connection.


Screen Brightness keeps automatically adjusting to 100%

Since you have already un-checked the "Auto-adjust Brightness" option in the display settings, try resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). This may resolve the issues related to power management. Follow these guidelines to reset the SMC. One of the indicators that your SMC might need to be reset:

  The display backlight doesn't respond correctly to ambient light
  changes on Mac computers that have this feature.


Why Does Photos Not Display All Pictures in Library?

Solved. Photos was set to read a different Photos library, not the complete one I’d copied from the Macbook Air. Launching Photos while holding the Option key brought up the “Select Library” dialog. I reset the selection to the correct complete Library, and the entire suite of pictures immediately appeared.


Based on this article from Apple:

  Turn off Lost Mode or change your contact info

  You can turn off Lost Mode by entering the passcode on the device, or by following the steps below. You can also follow the steps below to change the contact information displayed on your lost device.

  Note:   If your credit and debit cards for Apple Pay were suspended
  because you put your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus in Lost Mode, when you
  turn off Lost Mode and sign back in to iCloud, you can resume using
  your cards.

  Go to Find My iPhone on iCloud.com.

  If you don’t see Find My iPhone on iCloud.com, your account just has
  access to iCloud web-only features. To gain access to other iCloud
  features, set up iCloud on your iOS device or Mac.

  Click All Devices, then select the device that’s in Lost Mode.
  Click Lost Mode, then change the information or click Stop Lost Mode.

So if the person who picked up your phone is able to unlock your phone (using the correct passcode), they can disable Lost Mode. However, they won't be able to use your credit card information unless they also know your iCloud password.


3xHDMI out of a single Thunderbolt port - 2015 MBP

You're looking for an 'MST' hub.

https://www.startech.com/AV/Displayport-Converters/Mini-DisplayPort-Triple-Head-HDMI-Multi-Monitor-MST-Hub~MSTMDP123HD


Mail on Big Sur does not reliably find dollar values

I can confirm this is a real issue since Big Sur. I did talk with Apple Tech Support, she agreed it is a known issue. She told me to put problem in Feedback Assistance which I did a while back. I have not come up with any work around other then just searching for numbers to left of the decimal point as you mentioned.
In addition, various text and text strings are not found as well. Really want Apple to fix this asap.


IPad On Screen (virtual keyboard) does not hide when using Logitech K380 keyboard

I’m typing this on a Logitech K380 at this very moment and can confirm that the on-screen keyboard hides when connected.

I’m running iPadOS 13.3.1 so I would suggest upgrading to the latest OS for your device.


Unable to uncheck the "Encrypt Backup" box, in iTunes 11

I had a similar issue and documented the procedure here:

  I have found that this can be caused by installed Profiles
  (Crashlytics Provisioning Profile in my case, but some other people
  reported the same with an M1 (the telecommunication company) Profile
  installed).

  To delete it:

  Go to Settings > General > Profile, tap on the app’s configuration profile.
  Then tap Delete Profile. If asked, enter your device pass-code, then tap Delete.

  Then:

  Go to the Summary page for your device in iTunes
  Double check "Automatically Back Up" is set to "This computer"
  Double check "Encrypt iPhone backup" is unchecked
  Press "Back Up Now"


Will ipod 2nd generation support newer ios

As Arc676 comments:
A Generation 2 iPod Touch's latest possible firmware is iOS 4.2.1, which does not support iMessage.


How to delete a boot partition from MacOS Catalina

Disk Utility.app in the /Applications/Utilities/ folder would be my recommendation. That's generally the easiest/safest way to make changes to partitions.


Can I connect more than one external monitor to the late 2010 MacBook Air?

Sidecar is a nice product for windows and they have a Mac version, but seems outdated (and in fact I found the Mac version via Google, not through their product page). You might want to contact them in case they have something not shown there.

In any case, the graphic card (and CPU power) in the MBAir will have a “hard” time driving “two large monitors”.

If you still want to try, this guy over here is using not two, but three displays (plus the macbook’s display) for a total of four. He has a Macbook Pro tho.

He basically tried the Matrox solution and didn’t like it for various reasons he outlines in the post, so he tried the Diamond BVU195 USB-DVI adapter (he brought two).

Go ahead and read his post, he posts his impressions, problems and even links where to buy the things and their prices. You will surely need a couple of USB Hubs for that.

UPDATE: New products are now available for Mac as Matrox Introduces New Mac-Friendly DualHead2Go DP and TripleHead2Go DP Multi-Monitor Adapters.


How do I disable Wi-Fi roaming? (disable autoconnecting to the strongest AP)

It is sort of possible to do but the wording is not clear.

If you open System Preferences > Network and click on the WiFi icon on the left side of the Network Preferences window you will see two checkboxes below the Network Name pop-up menu. On my Mac it looks like this.

For your situation I would select your preferred network from the Network Name pop-up menu, and check both checkboxes so that it will auto-join your preferred network and force your Mac to ask to join other ones.

That is the only way I know to even get close to the settings you need without 3rd party software.


Will performance on my AirPort Extreme be hurt pushing AirPlay content over 2.4Ghz and the rest on 5Ghz?

But if you separate the two by SSID, giving you a dedicated 5Ghz and dedicated 2.4Ghz band, does it still transmit on both of those simultaneously to separate devices?

Yes (non-issue if the Airport Express units connect on 5GHz).

  ...so I'm just curious if there's anyone familiar with this or if it's even necessary.

I've had various Airport routers since 2007 and I've always separated the 5GHz channel from the 2.4GHz both at my parents house and in my flat downtown. If you can obtain good coverage with 5GHz then that's preferable because no nearby networks, cordless phones or microwaves will interfere with your music playback.

The main problem is not network congestion, it's interference.


Can I use a hotspot without data to connect to a wifi speaker?

No. Your iPhone can only join or create a Wi-Fi network at any one time. It can't do both simultaneously.

But you can buy a small travel router to do what you want. Both your speaker and iPhone would connect to it.


Are Logic Pro 8 projects working in Logic Pro 9?

Yes the session files are fully compatible both ways.
Options or plugins from PT9 that are not available in PT8 are automatically disabled (and vice versa).

Track routings are obviously not working if the originally used audio-interface is not available. You'd have to re-route.


What is your iPad firmware?
If you're running 4.3.3 you can use http://jailbreakme.com.


How do I access Windows PCs on the network?

Sharing must be enabled.  To see the Mac from your PC's, enable File Sharing (System Preferences/Sharing/File Sharing).  You will need to take the additional step of enabling Samba sharing, since PC's don't use Apple's File sharing Protocol (AFP).  Do this by then clicking on options, and make sure "Share files and folders using SMB (Windows)" is checked.  Turn it on for whichever accounts you wish to authorize.

In order to see PC shares from your Mac, the PC's must be on the same network, with sharing enabled.  Share a folder or something.  Is it XP, Vista, 7?  If it's XP, disable Simple File Sharing.  Do so by opening a folder, going to Tools->Options, and find it at the bottom of View.  Then right-click a folder, go to Sharing and Security, and enable sharing.

If it still doesn't show up, you may have a network/firewall issue, and it warrants further help.. but try that to get you started.


'Find My Mac' says that it is already in use, how to fully remove previous configuration?

I had this happen to me a couple of months ago.  I was perplexed, as you were, about what could be causing it.  I figured out the following, but as there's no information for this online it could be incorrect:

Find My Mac is tied to the serial number of your Mac
Find My Mac was partially enabled before iCloud was released
Since it was partially enabled, a previous MobileMe account could cause conflicts.

Again, I have no definitive proof for this.  But I got this notice on a fresh install of the operating system, only after upgrading my MobileMe account to an iCloud account.

So if I were you I wouldn't worry about it.  Most likely it's just a MobileMe bug that never got quite resolved.


Way to send Computer audio wirelessly (wifi or bluetooth) to iOS device to be heard on its speakers?

You can buy a bluetooth to audio jack adapter:

https://www.amazon.com/Wireless-Bluetooth-Stereo-Adapter-Transmitter/dp/B00RHKYX7W

This way you should be able to use it as an amplifier using Garage Band amp on your iPhone.

It should work just like so:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkL0bIx-ESk


Question about installing SSD into a Macbook Pro

You can restore the backup onto the SSD so long as the SSD fits the entire contents of the backup[1].
According to Apple's support pages, you do not need to use an Apple Time Capsule for backups:

Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac. To use it, you need an external storage solution, sold separately:

External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac
Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network
External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme Base Station on your network

Then you would want to restore using macOS recovery using the "Restore from Time Machine Backup" utility.
[1]: It's possible this is not the same as the size used by your hard drive, as the Time Machine backup also has previous versions of files and deleted files. However, since you are newly setting up Time Machine, there would be no previous versions of files.


Fix Better Touch Tool so that it doesn't prevent sleep?

After a year, you might need to publish the bug report and see if others are seeing similar problems. Has the developer responded to your bug report?

I can't reproduce this behavior, so perhaps it's related to your OS or something else on your setup that's interacting poorly with this software.


Why does iTunes continually ask me to authorize my computer?

In the end, deleting all the offending track and re-downloading it was the only thing that worked. Why I didn't think about this at first, I don't know, but it worked!


Is it possible to have more than one active windows on Lion?

Although it doesn't work with all of the applications, you could use the flag -n for the Terminal's open command.

  -n  Open a new instance of the application(s) even if one is already running.


How can I download Mac OS X El Capitan without app store?

You can't really download the OS X El Capitan installer app without the App Store.app easily. You can download the raw (unverified) pkg installer though, but to verify it and convert it to a legit OS X Installer.app App Store.app and a newer OS X system is required again. So simply downloading it on a Windows system won't help.

To solve your problem simply boot your MacBook Air to Internet Recovery Mode by holding altcmdR after turning it on.

In the OS X Utility window choose "Reinstall OS X" (or similar) which will download and install the original OS X your Mac came with (10.9 Mavericks).

After configuring your system open App Store.app and download OS X El Capitan. If you haven't purchased it previously use the answer in How to download OS X El Capitan from the App Store even if never downloaded before macOS Sierra was released or purchased is grayed out.


Macbook Pro Retina running at native resolution

See http://osxdaily.com/2012/06/18/3-ways-to-run-a-retina-macbook-pro-at-2880x1800-native-resolution/

There is no bundled way to do it yet, but four apps provide this ability:

  SwitchResX:
  A reasonably simple solution, SwitchResX is a third-party preference panel that allows you to run custom resolutions on any display. Install the preference panel, select the Retina Display, and add a custom resolution setting for 2880×1800.

  SetResX:
  Probably the easiest option of them all, SetResX is a little menu-bar app that allows you to run 2880×1800 easily.

  scrutil:
  Slightly more advanced due to the nature of the command line, the free utility called screenutil gets the job done immediately with a quick entry into the Terminal.

  ChangeResolution:
  ChangeResolution is a new tiny AppleScript front end to a command line utility that changes the resolution to 2880×1800.


Since upgrading to OS X Mavericks, I can't open any files on a SMB share from my Windows 8.1 PC

This seems to be a known issue as I remember running across a work-around the other day at TUAW:

http://www.tuaw.com/2013/10/27/did-mavericks-kill-your-network-drive-access-heres-a-fix/

Basically what they are telling you to do is replace the SMB:// in the Go > Connect To Server... dialog box with CIFS://

I gather this forces the Mac to use an older version of the SMB networking standard that is the default on Mavericks. Not sure if this will work in VLC and not sure how to compensate for the issue on a PC but this should help when you are working on the Mac end of things...


Streaming media from Mac to VLC for Android

You can just enable guests to access shared folders. Go to Users and Groups and give access to Guests to Shared folders/Sharing.


Distributing more than 50 full versions of my application

You can achieve this by signing up for the iOS Developer Enterprise program. This will allow you unlimited ad-hoc builds of your application, which will mean that you can deploy unlimited copies of your .ipa to send to as many users as you want.


Can I combine the address bar and the Google search bar in Safari?

Unless you want the Google-suggestions to appear, too, I think you might be looking for the free (SIMBL) plug-in Keywurl.


Odd Xcode error: Objective-C garbage collection is not supported

That is an odd error as the framework request in question is coming from an Apple app.

It seems your Xcode has been updated to a newer version and the licence agreement needs to be accepted. You can do this two ways:

Open Xcode.app and follow the prompts
In Terminal: sudo xcodebuild -license
(and with newer versions sudo xcodebuild -license accept to do it in one step)

Afterwards confirm xcode-select --print-path returns a valid result.

You should then be good to go, assuming your combination of macOS version and Xcode version are compatible.


FaceTime HD Camera not working on MacBook Pro 2016

This probably isn't a hardware issue. Third party apps can cause issues with Apple hardware. Do you have Bootcamp installed? If you do, does it work in Windows 10? Try changing your privacy settings.


How can I sum values over a range of dates in Numbers?

It works by dereferencing the value of a cell directly to the condition

Example:

SUMIFS(Daily Log::Income,Daily Log::A,">=2014-07-01",Daily Log::A,"<2014-08-01")

Referencing the cell could also be made possible with the same construct; by adding ampersand followed by the cell name outside the double quotes.

Example:

SUMIFS(Daily Log::Income,Daily Log::A,">="&A3,Daily Log::A,"<"&A4)


How am I supposed to fix a disk from single user mode?

For Mojave and other recent os, recovery HD and disk utility are far superior for repairing the containers and volumes.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314

Once you try twice to repair using disk utility, I might either look at the exact output from Disk Utility or then do the additional work repairing / deleting using the fsck family of tools, but I would use terminal from recovery instead of single user mode.

Basically, you aren’t supposed to use single user mode for this anymore from what I can tell. Also consider, some errors Disk Utility will not fix. You are expected to back up your files and erase the disk at that point, reinstalling the OS and restoring from a backup.


Using Terminal to order SSID preference in System Preferences

A couple of things to consider:

Supposedly, specifying 0 for the index puts it at the front of the list.
You need at least admin privilege and may need root privilege. Have you tried it with:
sudo networksetup -addpreferredwirelessnetworkatindex ...?
If the wireless network is already a preferred network, you may need to remove it first before adding it again. That is, it may be ignoring the index if the network already has an index. Assuming your wireless port is en1, you can get the list of preferred networks with:
networksetup -listpreferredwirelessnetworks en1. I admit that I'm just guessing here.
If you have multiple wireless ports, it will of course make a difference which one you add this service to. You can list all your hardwareports, wireless and otherwise, with:
networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder


Changing the background image in all spaces

desktop 1 seems to be the currently selected space, so you might use a hack like this:

set f to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg"
tell application "System Events"
    repeat 4 times
        key code 123 using control down -- 123 is left arrow
    end repeat
    repeat 4 times
        set picture of desktop 1 to f
        key code 124 using control down -- 124 is right arrow
    end repeat
end tell

The entries in ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist look like this:

default =                 {
    BackgroundColor =                     (
        0,
        0,
        0
    );
    Change = Never;
    ChangePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures";
    ChangeTime = 1800;
    DrawBackgroundColor = 1;
    ImageFileAlias = <00000000 00980003 00000000 cca6c692 0000482b 00000000 0049cf53 0049cf7a 0000cc06 bed80000 00000920 fffe0000 00000000 0000ffff ffff0001 00080049 cf530044 e295000e 00140009 00420065 00610063 0068002e 006a0070 0067000f 00060002 00480044 00120022 4c696272 6172792f 4465736b 746f7020 50696374 75726573 2f426561 63682e6a 70670013 00012f00 ffff0000>;
    ImageFilePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg";
    NewChangePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures";
    NewImageFilePath = "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Beach.jpg";
    NoImage = 0;
    Placement = Crop;
    Random = 0;
};

I don't know how to get an alias as data for the ImageFileAlias key.


OCR on PDFs in OS X with free, open source tools

Tesseract 3.03+ has built in support for PDF output. Which requires leptonica to be installed. You can use:
brew install tesseract --HEAD to get the latest version of tesseract. You will also need ghostscript installed but no need for hocr2pdf.

The following script uses ghostscript to split the PDF into JPEGs, tesseract to OCR the JPEGs and output single PDF pages, and finally ghostscript again to combine the pages back into one PDF.

#!/bin/sh

y="`pwd`/$1"
echo Will create a searchable PDF for $y

x=`basename "$y"`
name=${x%.*}

mkdir "$name"
cd "$name"

# splitting to individual pages
gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=jpeg -r300 -dTextAlphaBits=4 -o out_%04d.jpg -f "$y"

# process each page
for f in $( ls *.jpg ); do
  # extract text
  tesseract -l eng -psm 3 $f ${f%.*} pdf
  rm $f
done

# combine all pages back to a single file
gs -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dNOPAUSE -dQUIET -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -q -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="../${name}_searchable.pdf" *.pdf

cd ..
rm -rf "${name}"

# Adapted from: http://www.morethantechnical.com/2013/11/21/creating-a-searchable-pdf-with-opensource-tools-ghostscript-hocr2pdf-and-tesseract-ocr/
# from http://www.ehow.com/how_6874571_merge-pdf-files-ghostscript.html
# bash tut: http://linuxconfig.org/bash-scripting-tutorial
# Linux PDF,OCR: http://blog.konradvoelkel.de/2013/03/scan-to-pdfa/


Is it possible to hide tracked changes popups in Pages?

Kind of annoying but it works.

In your document, in the menu bar, go to View>Show Comments & Changes Pane then under View Options select Hide Changes.

Note: You must keep this pane open or the popups will come back, although you can move it off screen or shrink it to a minimal size.

If you would also like to hide the coloring you can Select the Gear icon   and then select Final


No, there are not any hidden buttons or features to filter search results when searching from an iPhone.
It's done this way when viewing the App Store on iPadOS because iPhone apps can be run in iPadOS.  This is the default setting for developers using Xcode to create their apps.  Sometimes when searching, you just want to see apps that are designed only for iPads (developers determine if their app can be run on iPad only).
Because you can run an iPhone app on an iPad but not an iPad only app on an iPhone, Apple provides a way to search for only those types of apps.


Downloading old version of any app in iPhone 8?

Once a new version of an app is released on the App Store, there is no way to access the older version. You may choose to not update to the newly released version, but once upgraded there is no going back.

This is true for any app on the App Store. A major purpose of releasing an update is to provide improved functionalities and fix issues with the previous version.


Are there iPad handwriting apps that allow you to insert space between lines?

MyScript Notes Mobile has that feature. It's pretty neat. You just press on blank space where you want the lines to split, and a "shift" pop-up appears. When you select that, a line appears that lets you move all the writing beneath it up or down as far as you want within the page's limits.


How can I configure macOS to mimic the double press spacebar function from iOS?

System Preferences > Keyboard > Text

Add full stop with double-space

or

Add period with double-space

I not sure when this was introduced but it is available in macOS Mojave 10.14.


Using existing DVI/VGA monitors with a new Mac Mini

The mini DisplayPort to DVI adapter will work great, so your 27" monitor is in.

The VGA monitor is problematic. HDMI and DVI share almost identical digital video signals, so any HDMI to DVI adapter (like the included one) has few (if any) conversion chips in it and the output DVI port will be DVI-D (digital only). DVI to VGA adapters also don't have conversion chips because they use DVI-I or DVI-A ports (A is analog only and I id both analog and digital): they take the DVI analog signal and move it straight to the VGA port. Unfortunately, that means that you cannot go from HDMI to VGA via DVI. You'll need a more expensive converter like this or this.

tl;dr: You can't go from HDMI to VGA without a converter; see the links for examples. For the dual-link DVI you need, the adapter you mentioned that will use the Thunderbolt port will work excellently.


Is there a way to program iTunes to only play all of your songs once?

This can easily be accomplished with smart playlists.

Make a smart playlist where the play count is less than one.

Then base iTunes DJ on that playlist.

You could also select all the songs (no matter what play count and simply add them to a normal playlist and have that playlist not shuffle, but play counts are more durable across launches of the iTunes app.)

And, there's no reason you can't make a second iTunes library just for this purpose. Be sure to not import or organize the tracks and have this second library file just reference the main library. Play through one time and the play counts will all be 1 in this "special" library - not the main library. Change the less than 1 to 2 - and you get the second pass of all the songs on DJ.

Also - there is a nice writeup in MacWorld explaining how to use this sort of smart playlist for listing to audio book chapters.


diskutil list seemed to be the answer I was looking for.

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *512.1 GB   disk0
   1:                  Apple_HFS SSD                     512.1 GB   disk0s1

/dev/disk1 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Passport                700.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            299.4 GB   disk1s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk1s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Partition 1             1000.0 GB  disk1s5
   6:                  Apple_HFS Partition 2             999.8 GB   disk1s6

This shows me that the Apple_Boot Recovery HD, at 650MB, is on disk1, and from the other partitions, it's obvious (to me) which actual device this is on. This was the primary goal.