How to switch to underlying window of the same application?

You can switch between an app's windows using a keyboard shortcut, a menu bar item, the app's Dock icon, and Mission Control.

The keyboard shortcut to switch to the next window behind the current one is cmd+`. That corresponds to the Window-> Cycle Through Windows menu bar item. The menu item isn't available in all apps, but the shortcut usually is.

You can also use the Window menu in the menu bar to go directly to the window of your choice. Each window is shown there, and you can click on its item to switch to the window.

A similar menu is available in an app's Dock icon's contextual menu (access by clicking and holding, or right/control-clicking):

You can also acces visual previews of all of an app's windows and click on the preview of the window you want to switch to. To do this, press F10. This brings up Mission Control's Application Windows function. You can also access this function by the Show All Windows item in an app's Dock icon's contextual menu.


How do I repair movies with "invalid public movie atoms"?

I recommend using the free app HandBrake to re-encode the movie, which will hopefully fix the problem.

Open HandBrake and it will automatically ask you to select a source (otherwise, you can use the Source toolbar item). Select the problematic movie and click Open.

Make sure the Presets panel is visible by clicking the Toggle Presets toolbar item. Then, under Apple, select the Universal preset.

The default settings should be fine, but you can tweak them if you like.

Click the Start toolbar item to begin. HandBrake will chug away and re-encode the file. That's likely to fix any problems with the encoding.


Any free and reliable app to display Markdown documents in macOS?

Xcode : if you already use it.
Sublime text:  https://www.sublimetext.com you can also install plugins suitable for you. It is much smaller than Xcode, doesn't exceed 100 MB, despite several packages.

Install packages using cmd+shift+p and then typing "install package". Then type the name of the package, it would show you the webpage of the developer where you can find the documentation.
VSCode: with some extensions it can work.


Why is the steps data in Health app all the same on everyday?

First thing to do is establish if the underlying data is wrong or the chart is wrong.

Tap to the month (top of your picture) and the compare a few days with what Show all data reveals for the daily summaries.

Strange steps measurement in iphone

The month view is shown in the thread linked above.

Either way, I would back up your health data to iTunes with a passphrase to encrypt the backup and to iCloud so you have two good backups before you try to upgrade to the latest iOS.

If the data is bad, you’ll have to look at the sources of step data and possibly upgrade the iOS / wait for a bug fix from Apple.

If it’s just the graph, updating iOS and bug report to Apple is likely the fix.


What is the 'If Finder Window Open, Then...' AppleScript code?

You can use the following AppleScript code to avoid an error if Finder doesn't have any windows open.

tell application "Finder"
    activate
    if exists window 1 then
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "w" using {command down, option down}
        end tell
    end if
end tell


Cannot enter "app wiggle"/delete mode on iPad Air, iOS 11

To enter app wiggle mode on iOS 11 and up, only on iPad systems, it is necessary to hold an app icon for about four seconds, whereas on older versions it would activate much quicker. On the other hand, on iPad, apps can be moved without entering app wiggle mode.


Manually cleaning up a threat detected by Sophos Anti-virus?

Minus the fact that Sophos is just a giant waste of resources and space on your mac. The easiest way to clean it up would be to close chrome and go to that path in terminal and delete the file.

Open terminal and type the following:

rm -f /Users/USER/Library/Caches/Google/Chrome/Default/Cache/f_000e36

That should delete the file forcibly.

Personal Note:

Having to run antivirus on your mac to protect windows machines is like wearing a helmet at your desk cause the guy on the bike outside might get hit by a car....


My seagate disk that was detectable earlier is now showing SMART status "not supported". Anyone experienced similar thing before?

I haven't seen an external drive where SMART was supported, so you can probably ignore that aspect and just focus on the rest of the information you can obtain about the drive's health.


Why are some backups grey and others purple in Time Machine in Lion?

I just recently noticed this, too, and discovered this Apple KB article: OS X Lion: About Time Machine's "local snapshots" on portable Macs

  When you enter the Time Machine browser (used to restore data), local
  snapshots will appear on the timeline along with regular backups
  distinguished by different colors. Gray tick marks represent local
  snapshots and pink tick marks represent backups stored on your
  external backup disk or Time Capsule. Note: Pink tick marks will be
  dimmed if your portable computer is not connected to your external
  backup disk or Time Capsule.

Emphasis mine.


How can I tell if a shortcut is already used?

This isn't possible since the app doesn't store what shortcuts it may make available, as it can change the menus as it wishes or use a shortcut for something not available in a menu.

When user shortcuts are added and the user presses the shortcut, macOS looks through the menus to find the menu item which matches the name you enter. This is a runtime check performed when the shortcut is actioned, since it's not possible to check prior to this. This is why the text which you enter for the menu item in System Preferences is a freeform box, since it's not possible to enumerate every menu item which could exist for an app.
Apps don't have to restrict shortcuts to items available in the menus. Apps can trigger on shortcuts without registering a companion menu item. This is the second reason the shortcuts can't be enumerated.


Apple USB Ethernet Adapter has a self-assigned IP address and will not be able to connect to the Internet

Assuming that there is no firewall running (you can do this by issuing the command sudo pfctl -d at the command line), there are two possibilities that would be causing this:

A faulty Apple USB Ethernet Adapter
Network security measures preventing you from obtaining network access

Faulty USB Adapter
This is fairly easy to diagnose; try another one.  If another adapter gives you the same results, it's highly likely the issue isn't the adapter.  Additionally, to be 100% certain, take the suspect adapter to a different network (or just connect it directly to another computer).  If it works there, the adapter isn't faulty.
Network Security Measures
Getting a self assigned IP address means you didn't get a DHCP offer (and accept it).  Manually assigning a known good IP  and still not being able to browse means your computer is blocked from accessing the network.  This could be due to many factors:

The port is disabled on a switch.  This is done to eliminate the possibility of a rogue actor gaining access to the network by simply plugging in a device.  This is not the case here as your Win10 machine works when plugged into it

The switch could be using Mac Address filtering.  The Ethernet adapters (the USB adapter and one in your Win10 machine) have unique MAC Addresses (Media Access Control, not "Macintosh") and the switch could be configured to only allow certain MACs access.  This is easy to test/bypass by spoofing the USB Adapter's MAC with the Win10 machine's MAC.  If it works, you've got your answer.

The company (I suspect this because this is very uncommon in home networks) has employed some sort of authentication mechanism like RADIUS that will prevent you from gaining access on an unknown/un-trusted device.  Spoofing a MAC address will not bypass this and you'll need to contact your IT admin for assistance.


Calendar alert sound on the iPodTouch isn't loud enough is there some "mobile" way to make it louder?

As far as "volume boost" or "overdrive" type features are concerned, I don't think there is one. You could always get a battery powered external speaker.

When I'm out driving I usually plug my iPhone into my car stereo and listen to music / Pandora. It quiets the music (but doesn't pause) to play notification sounds, so it's quite audible.


Yes, You will be prompted to input the correct username and password for each new entry, Should be no problem at all :)

Just remember to log out with your personal/company account when buying new software and login with the correct account for the CC


This isn't an issue with OS X itself, it must be the enclosure that's combining the drives. If it was a software RAID, you would see the drives as disk1 and disk2, and the combined volume as disk3. It's possible that the enclosure's software is refusing to destroy the combined volume because it's partitioned and breaking it apart would result in data loss (although in your case obviously not). I suggest deleting the partition on there and trying to separate them in the device-specific software again. If that fails, try physically taking out one of the drives, configuring the other one on its own, and only then adding the second one.

Have you tried both eSATA and USB modes to see if there is any difference? (assuming you have a spare eSATA port)

I'm unfortunately not familiar with Hornettek and its devices, so I can't make any more specific suggestions than that.


This question has been asked on Stack Overflow also - it seem that it has simply been removed with no word from Apple, no response in the developer forums (surprise!) and no word about what might replace it.

I can't find any discussion in the LLVM project about a future distributed approach either.

Can you share any information about what you are compiling? I'm curious because I generally only do small apps.


Is there software for transcribing and recognizing musical pitches in an audio recording?

No, GarageBand cannot do this. You should investigate the commercial products Celemony Melodyne and Neuratron AudioScore.

Also have a look at Capo by SuperMegaUltraGroovy. It provides a good method for assisting a person in transcribing by ear.


How do I run a terminal script when mounting a specific disk?

Ok as per all the suggestions the users gave I googled and found a nice .plist file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd >
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.company.popup</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>sh</string>
        <string>-c</string>
        <string>/usr/local/bin/backup</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartOnMount</key>
    <true/>
</dict>
</plist>`

I have put this code under ~/Library/LaunchAgents and runs at login.Thanks for all your replies again it helped me find a better code.


CLI unable to access files on external disk

Apple sandbox privacy now applies to the terminal app as well as specific binaries in some cases.
As a developer, you can script for this.
Even Apple tools need to be granted access and you have to approve it with a click.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210595
https://support.apple.com/guide/security/controlling-app-access-to-files-secddd1d86a6/web

Until you grant permission to look at the disk, the permissions will show incorrectly.


Embed live camera in Keynote presentation

You can play your presentation in a window. This Keynote window can then go full screen with Photo Booth in split screen to one side, or as a normal window as you've been doing with Keynote in editing view.

To play your presentation in a window, choose Play > Play Slideshow in Window (from the Play menu at the top of your screen).

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/keynote/tana4da2681/mac


How to merge pictures using adobe acrobat?

Open Paint on windows, click "paste from" and choose a picture from your pictures or documents to load onto paint, where you can resize it,or crop it, (if you know how),
Do the same for each picture you want , it drops on top of your last picture and you just drag it alongside where you can resize to match other pictures or not..
Once you have left a picture and started another you cant go back and change the previous one...
When done close "paint" and it will ask to save,and name, it creates a new collage and all original pictures still remain as they were..


Set the time to require a password after sleep/screensaver in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General to "immediately".

To lock the screen enter in the ssh session:

open -a ScreenSaverEngine

To stop the screensaver (=show the login screen) and unlock your user enter

osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke return'
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke "password"'
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke return'

Under certain circumstances you may have to enter the password one by one or first one keystroke and then the rest:

osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke "p"'
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke "a"'
...
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke return'

or

osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke "p"'
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke "assword"'
osascript -e 'tell application "system events" to keystroke return'


I'm not an expert in the field, but I believe the reason for this is you probably saved your test file only with ASCII characters. When using only ASCII characters UTF-8 is simply indistinguishable from it. It's when you start using characters that are outside ASCII scope (e.g. accents in other languages, like ąśćż in polish) the difference is noticable.

Try copy&paste the characters I used as an example, save your file again and test it.


Is there a way to purchase Cydia apps from a regular browser and not from inside Cydia?


Can MacBook Pro get slower after SSD is almost full?

While this is certainly not the only reason you may experiencing a slow down, a filled up SSD is one possible reason for slow downs.
The first reason connected to that is inherent to the filesystem macOS uses. If the filesystem is HFSplus, then the free space usually needs to be above a certain percentage to ensure smooth operation. If the free space falls below 25% things start to get complicated and the directory structure gets more and more inefficient. To name just one reason connected to the filesystem.
Why is it important to keep lots of freespace on OSX? What is the impact? and How much hard drive space to leave free?
Next it depends on whether you have trim enabled or not. Without trim it gets harder and harder to know which cells to use next as the wear leveling is designed to use each cell ideally equally compared to the others. On an original Apple SSD trim should be enabled.
Then all currently sold SSDs age and get indeed slower over time. This should not be that much noticeable, though.
More importantly, all the above combines to something like a perfect storm on all SSDs, as they fill up:

 Why Solid-State Drives Slow Down As You Fill Them Up
The benchmarks are clear: Solid-state drives slow down as you fill them up. Fill your solid-state drive to near-capacity and its write performance will decrease dramatically. The reason why lies in the way SSDs and NAND Flash storage work.
Filling the drive to capacity is one of the things you should never do with a solid-state drive. A nearly full solid-state drive will have much slower write operations, slowing down your computer.
Empty Blocks and Partially Filled Blocks
When you write a file to your solid-state drive, it looks for empty blocks and fills them. Writing to an empty block is the fastest possible write operation. That’s why new operating systems (Windows 7 and later) support the TRIM feature, which automatically deletes a file’s data from the solid-state drive as soon as you delete the file in your operating system. This works differently from magnetic hard drives, where bits of deleted files sit around on the hard drive.
They don’t sit around on a solid-state drive — TRIM ensures that the block is emptied so the SSD can quickly write new data to the empty block in the future. Writing over an already-written sector is just as fast as writing to an empty sector on a mechnical hard drive, but a solid-state drive must erase a block before writing to it.
NAND Flash memory writes data in 4 KB pages inside of 256 KB blocks. To add additional pages to a partially filled block, the solid-state drive must erase the entire block before writing data back to it.

As your solid-state drive fills up, fewer and fewer empty blocks are available. In their place are partially filled blocks. The solid-state drive can’t just write the new data to these partially filled blocks — that would erase the existing data. Instead of a simple write operation, the solid-state drive has to read the value of the block into its cache, modify the value with the new data, and then write it back. Bear in mind that writing a file will likely involve writing to many blocks, so this can introduce a significant amount of additional delay.
TRIM Doesn’t Consolidate Partially Filled Blocks
If you fill a drive to capacity or near capacity, it’s likely that you’ll end up with many partially filled blocks after you delete files. The TRIM command just directs a solid-state drive to remove file data when the file is deleted. It doesn’t force the drive to do any sort of cleanup operation.
In other words, fill a solid-state drive to capacity before deleting files and you’ll likely end up with many partially filled blocks. The drive won’t go out of its way to consolidate these partially-filled blocks into full blocks, freeing up empty blocks. The drive will still be full of partially filled blocks and write performance will be degraded.
Overprovisioning and Garbage Collection
To prevent consumers from filling up their solid-state drives and ending up with severely degraded performance, SSD manufacturers are going out of their way to counter this.
Consumer-grade solid-state drives often set aside about 7% of their total flash storage and make it unavailable to the user. This is known as “overprovisioning” — extra storage hardware is added to the drive but isn’t visible to the computer as available storage it can use. The spare area ensures that the drive can never become completely full — there will always be some spare capacity to help keep write performance stable.
Each solid-state drive’s controller has a garbage-collection algorithm to try to mitigate this problem. When the drive becomes full, it will look for partially-filled blocks and start to consolidate them, freeing up as many empty blocks as possible. Different solid-state drives run these operations at different times and thresholds — that depends on the drive’s controller.
Benchmark Evidence
Anandtech performed a variety of benchmarks with different drives to tease out the relationship between a solid-state drive’s spare area and the consistency of its write operation performance. When filling up an empty drive, they found high write performance very early in the process and a significant drop as the write operations continued to fill up the drive.

Setting aside more spare area on the drives helped the performance to remain consistent, as it ensured the drive should always have enough empty blocks ready.
They found that “minimum performance improves substantially once you hit 25% spare area for these [consumer] drives.” Their final recommendation was that you should “plan on using only about 75% of [your drive’s] capacity if you want a good balance between performance consistency and capacity.”
If you have a solid-state drive, you should try to avoid using more than 75% of its capacity. Buy a larger drive with more storage than you need and you’ll ensure that you always have consistent write performance. Luckily, SSDs are gradually becoming much cheaper, so this isn’t as expensive as it once was.

Apart from these general considerations, if the perceived slow downs are exclusive to the browser, then the browser itself is the more likely culprit.
Using the same amount of free space on the SSD but with a fresh browser profile, and a freshly launched browser, things will likely look much better in most cases.
An easy test for this might be creating a new user, log into that and try it out. If things look better, it's time to cleanup your browser profile. Caches, cookies, icons, local storage, extensions, the lot…


Yes, it is possible to move a SoftRAID array of disks from the internal drive bays of a MacPro and into an external enclosure connected to the same computer. You might have to do a small reconfiguration to ensure that it "finds" the array, but if you have used proper disk labelling it should be pretty much automatic.

Note that it is important that the external enclosure supports JBOD - i.e. it must be able to present the drives to macOS as seperate, single drives. If the enclosure only supports its own form of RAID, it is still possible to use the old disks - but the data on them will be overwritten.

Another thing to observe is that the 2012 MacPro tower by default hasn't got Thunderbolt or any of the newer, faster external busses. You might find an external enclosure too slow if it is connected via USB 2.0 for example.

Before you embark on anything, remember to take backups!


Count checked cells if cell on same row matches state in Numbers

You need the COUNTIFS() function.

So in this case:

=COUNTIFS («gun range», true, «Firearm», "Pistol")

Accounting for ; delimiters:

=COUNTIFS («gun range»; true; «Firearm»; "Pistol")

From the help:

  The COUNTIFS function returns the number of cells in one or more
  collections that satisfy given conditions (one condition per
  collection).

  COUNTIFS(test-values, condition, test-values…, condition…)

  test-values: A collection containing values to be tested. test-values can contain any value.

  condition: An expression that can include comparison operators, constants, the ampersand concatenation operator, and references. The
  contents of the condition must be such that the result of comparing
  the condition to another value results in the boolean value of TRUE or
  FALSE.

  test-values…: Optionally include one or more additional collections containing values to be tested. Each test-values collection must be
  followed immediately by a condition expression. This pattern of
  test-values, condition can be repeated as many times as needed.

  condition…: If an optional collection of test-values is included, an additional expression that results in a boolean TRUE or FALSE. There
  must be one condition expression following each test-values
  collection; therefore, this function will always have an odd number of
  arguments.

  Notes

  Each value in test-values is compared to the corresponding condition.
  If the corresponding values in each collection meet the corresponding
  conditional tests, the count is increased by 1.


What kinds of things should I do to maintain the performance of my iMac?

Set up Time Machine the first time you start you Mac,
Set up Software Update so that your system is always up to date.
A shutdown once in a while should clean most of little garbage but you will have to perform it anyway with some software updates.

and

Never log in with administrative privileges unless you have a serious reason to do so.


How can I stop Mail.app from automatically downloading full messages?

You may try a workaround: users with high email count can configure their Google Apps accounts not to sync more than 1000 emails per label (or folder).

Each user will have to:

Go to their Gmail interface
Go to Settings (by clicking on the gear in the upper-right hand side of the page)
Select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab
Look for "Folder Size Limit "and check "Limit IMAP folders to contain no more than this many messages" and select 1000 (or another number that seems appropriate)


In Finder Go to /Library/Preferences/Audio

and delete those files from there (2 or 3 files)

Do not worry OS will recreate them.

Empty your trash

Restart


How can I tell if my Mac mini is asleep?

I own the same model of Mac mini as you.  I use it without a monitor, so have become quite tuned in to observing when it's in sleep mode and when it's not, which determines whether or not I can connect remotely from my other machine across subnets.

The white light at the front is your indicator.

When the Mac mini is awake, it maintains constant, full brightness.

When the Mac mini is asleep, the white light begins to "breathe", as its intensity oscillates between dim and full brightness at about the rate of a person breathing at rest.  It's a gradual waxing and waning, but once you notice it, you'll be able to spot it easily.

If you want a slightly more technical option to verify whether or not your Mac mini is awake or asleep, one option is to ping its IP address from another device on your local network.  This assumes that your Mac mini automatically connects to your network upon waking, which is usually the case, but if it doesn't manage to re-establish Wi-Fi networking for any reason, then a ping request will fail even when the machine is awake.  If you don't have another computer to send a ping, there are numerous networking apps available on Android and iOS devices that can do this, and some will even explicitly tell you when a device is awake or asleep by whether or not it registers a network presence.


Can´t mount encrypted external hdd after encryption was interrupted

A reboot usually un-pauses conversion, so I would try that first. Consider storing the passphrase in your keychain (even if temporarily) so that it mounts when you log in and gets going on conversion after the restart.

You are doing it perfectly - looking at diskutil cs list and checking the "Conversion Progress" and "Conversion Status" fields.

A restart might be overkill, you could try:

diskutil eject disk3
diskutil eject disk2

Once both the logical and physical volumes are detached, you could disconnect physically the drive and then wait a slow count or two and then reconnect.


How to enable display on Dell monitor connected to MacBook Pro when not charging?

I am happy to tell you that keeping it charging will not damage your MacBook in any way! There is also a way to do your requested way of streaming data to the monitor. You can use the amazing Apple TV. This is not only for TV's because you can stream to monitors, and your own TV! (which personally is amazing if you have a large flatscreen!) However I am not 100% sure this is compatible with all types of monitors or TV's so i would recommend just keeping it plugged in because like I said earlier that will not damage your computer. I hope this helped! The reason your having this problem is because monitors aren't computers. They don't have wifi, you can't connect them to anything wirelessly. Monitors don't have any form of computational power except for converting computer code to images which still requires being connected to a computer to work.


Is there a URL scheme for the Music app that allows me to link to a playlist?

You can use the iTunes url and append &app=music.  it will look for the song or album on the iTunes catalog and start playing it locally:

https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/album/clair-de-lune/id319190952?i=319190960&mt=1&app=music

Note that this plays the first of nine songs in the query response this creates.


Backup/Archive a particular version of an app

This isn’t feasible since you can’t really restore or install the IPA even should you manage to back them up. We engage with app developers as a business so they can sell to us direct when we need to manage upgrade cadence or pin an app, but ever forward is the model for consumers now.


Accidentally emptied a Note, which was then automatically deleted

I'm sorry to say this but I think your note is permanently deleted.
Here's why:
Deleting text in a note is like deleting text in a Word-document. When you delete all text in a Word-document, you can still undo (using CMD+Z) while the document is open. If you closed the document, the undo history gets deleted. And I thinks iOS Notes works this way. Try to create a new Note, add some text, go back, exit the app (by swiping up) and open it again. Can you undo(shake the device) to remove text? No. Undo history is gone.


Try getting a new adapter as that could be faulty.

If that doesn’t work try resetting the iPad:

Press and hold the sleep/wake button and either volume buttons
Hold them top I’ll the Apple logo appears

If that doesn’t work try and see if the headphone wire/speaker works properly.


What font is used during verbose boot mode?

The font used seems to be a somewhat nameless cowboy apparently just called Iso-Font and was made by Ka-Ping Yee. He doesn't seem to care about this accomplishment, since he does not list it on his CV.

The sources for this font are compiled into the kernel and the sources to that are to be found at https://opensource.apple.com/source/xnu/xnu-3789.70.16/

In there it simply says:

/*
 * ISO Latin-1 Font
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2000
 * Ka-Ping Yee <ping@lfw.org>
 *
 * This font may be freely used for any purpose.
 */

This rather unsatisfactory naming seems to be accurate nevertheless, as an email transcript on Russian site reveals:

Ka-Ping Yee ISO Latin-1 Font in linux kernel

That site also illustrates how to use this on a Linux console and  will show you how it looks when booting linux:


Running AppleScript When Inserting a Blank CD

Open burn.scpt in the AppleScript Editor and save it as an Application. Then select burn.app as the desired action on CD popup.


Running out of hard drive space, yet Disk Inventory shows only 190GB used vs. 480 GB used in HD Get Info? How is that possible?

Time Machine local backups

If you use Time Machine, my guess is that the discrepancy is from local backups. If so, you can free up that space by connecting your Time Machine drive and running letting Time Machine complete a backup.

Once you have done that, you might want to disable local backups by issuing this command in Terminal.app:

sudo tmutil disablelocal

but keep in mind that the local backups are meant to provide a safety net for those times when your Time Machine drive is not attached.

If the cause is not Time Machine, try OmniDiskSweeper

If that is not it, I recommend using OmniDiskSweeper to check your drive space.

ODS is a free app, and works very simply. When you launch ODS, it will show you a "Drive List" showing all of the available drives. Choose your main hard drive and then it will start searching.

The results are shown in a very simple column format, similar to the Finder. The largest folders will bubble to the top, and will let you see exactly where your disk space has gone.

Using OmniDiskSweeper as root

ODS will only calculate the sizes of the folders that you can read. 99% of the time, that should show you the problem.

However, if you want to be sure that you are seeing everything you can launch the app as root using this command:

sudo /Applications/OmniDiskSweeper.app/Contents/MacOS/OmniDiskSweeper

BUT BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WHEN DOING THIS, since ODS will allow you to delete files.


Mouse Keys randomly enabled. How can I prevent this?

Default trigger switch for Mouse Keys is to hit  Opt ⌥   5 times.

You will usually hear the little 'zipper' noise it makes as it switches.

Occasionally, you can trigger it accidentally with seemingly unrelated presses of  Opt ⌥ . To reverse it, just tap it 5 times again.

To disable it entirely, System Prefs > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad > Options... & uncheck


There was a study about it recently and it compared the data used on average for 10 miles and for 20 minutes driven.
Google Maps uses the less data, 0.67 MB every 10 miles and 0.73 MB every 20 minutes on average.
On the other side, Apple Maps uses 1.33 MB every 10 miles and 1.83 MB/20 minutes.
If you want to use less data you should turn off trafic data and satellite view.
I’ve tested caching for long trips <60 miles and it worked in both apps, so you can use the one you prefer!


Skype puts macOS users on mute for all calls on macOS Sierra

Seems to have been fixed in the latest patch from Microsoft.


Installing Xcode 7.x on El Capitan 10.11

The last Xcode version compatible with El Capitan is Xcode 8.2.1. If you can't install it from within Apple App Store, visit Apple Developer and download the app there. An Apple ID is required.

Xcode is provided as xip file (signed zip). You can simply unzip it by using Archives.app (i.e. with a double-click).


What is this key, and where is it on a MacBook Air?

It is the symbol used for the escape key (esc), located on the upper left corner of pretty much any keyboard, MacBook Air included.


Can extensive creating, copying and erasing files eventually ruin a HDD?

Everything eventually wears out, it's just a matter of time and a fact of life.  Since it's an unknown as to explicitly why your HDD failed it can only be said that normal/excessive usage leads to normal/excessive wear and tear which does contribute to the eventual failure.  The only thing you can do about it is to ensure that you always maintain proper and current backups so in the event it fails you do not loose important files.


2 iPads - does that mean double storage?

Yes, this is possible. I assume you're using the same Apple ID on both iPads (otherwise it isn't an issue at all). Go to the Settings app and choose iTunes & App Store. In the Automatic Downloads section, disable the switch next to 'Apps'. Once you've done this, apps will no longer automatically be installed on this iPad if you install them on the other.


Numbers 3 - How to apply custom chart style

It appears that the Data Symbols series preference is not a part of the styles. Why can't you select all of the charts when you are finished with them (by Command clicking or Command + Shift dragging) and then changing the data point styling of all of them at one time?


No - there is no merging. The point of APFS is to put all your volumes in one container and not make multiple containers, but you're where you are today.

Looking at the image you should have more than enough space to move what you can off of the middle container (into the first ideally or into the last if needed. Then you can remove the middle empty container, grow the first container, then complete cleanup

Of course, just copying the data from the second two containers to another drive and then removing both, growing the first is the simplest way to return to one container with all your space.

David's comment to show the diskutil list will unlock someone giving you the exact commands needed to accomplish the rough sketch idea I've put in words here.


How can I delete multiple users from OS X Yosemite?

If you have no tools to manage scripts, you'll want to look into something like JumpCloud or OS X Server or Apple Remote Desktop.

Deleting users is quite trivial to script. Adding them back in is a little more tricky as they need to be created with proper settings and passwords.

dscl . -list /Users

The above command will list out all the users, so you can then filter out all the users you want to keep. Then you can pass the list of users to delete to:

dscl . -delete /Users/<whatever>

Finally, you can delete all user directories that are not remaining with a simple (and dangerous) rm -rf /Users/<whatever> command

Pretty much anything you can do by typing and clicking, you can script in Automator or script in myriad languages. Consider using a tool like Munki to automate installing apps. It can also be leveraged to run these management scripts as well as serve as a custom "App Store" for your school Mac lab.

Also, with 40 Macs, you will certainly have support from Apple. Reach out to your contact or call them. I'm sure someone from the small business team, retail team or education team can get you in touch with resources to learn and get your tech up to speed on Mac administration or help you select a more efficient/proficient tech for your needs.


Mail.app accidentally deleted (OS X 5.8)

The only way to re-install applications that are on your computer is to use your Mac OS X Install DVD (if your computer is running Mac OS X Snow Leopard or below), or Internet Recovery (if you are using OS X Lion or Mountain Lion).

In your case, it's Mac OS X Leopard. This support webpage from Apple should do the trick.


A new macOS version exists, no update available from the App Store

Apparently macOS doesn't allow you to install macOS Updates while FileVault is encrypting, so it blocks every possible way of installing software updates. However, it is still possible to install macOS updates from an external flash drive since there is no encryption going on when you boot from an external device, thus allowing you to install the update. You will need to follow Apple's instructions on how to create and boot from an external macOS Install USB. The only thing you need to do different is before starting the macOS installer, open Disk Utility, select your disk and mount it. You will be prompted for your disk's password since it uses FileVault. After that, simply start the Installer and install macOS onto your main partition. It will not overwrite your existing installation. It will only replace essential system files with fresh ones, thus updating your system.


The F11 key shows the desktop by default.

If you would like to change it, you can in the keyboard preference pane under keyboard shortcuts, Mission Control. Feel free to make it Ctrl-Alt-D or Fn-D

Be aware that the function keys normally map to volume control / brightness, so you have to hold the fn key down to get F11 to be F11 instead of  (the best I can do for the volume down icon that coexists on the key labeled F11.)


is there any alternative OS to give more lifetime to an older iPad?

As far as I know: Not really.
All you can do is to jailbreak it - as @Nimesh Neema suggested -, which is usually done to do some customization of iOS. It shouldn't allow you to install apps that require a newer iOS, yet you can install apps outside of the AppStore. I am pretty sure though, what you are looking for, does not exist.


How to export a table with transparency from Numbers to PNG?

It works in Photoshop. You can select a transparent or translucent cell fill in Numbers. Copy the table from Numbers and paste into a new blank document in Photoshop, and then hide the Background layer in Photoshop.

Here's another angle using built-in system tools, but you might need to be a bit proficient with AppleScript:
https://iworkautomation.com/numbers/examples-table-as-image.html


What build flags are available for brew install of gcc?

Use brew options. On my machine I get this:

brew options gcc48
--enable-all-languages
        Enable all compilers and languages, except Ada
--enable-cxx
        Build the g++ compiler
--enable-fortran
        Build the gfortran compiler
--enable-java
        Buld the gcj compiler
--enable-multilib
        Build with multilib support
--enable-nls
        Build with native language support (localization)
--enable-objc
        Enable Objective-C language support
--enable-objcxx
        Enable Objective-C++ language support
--enable-profiled-build
        Make use of profile guided optimization when bootstrapping GCC


Why does the webcam on my Dell SX2210 go all green and purple?

That sounds like an issue with the camera - is the monitor still in warranty? Definitely try it with another computer if at all possible.


Route the Audio Output to Input (not creating loop)

Use either Audio Hijack, SoundFlower, or Loopback.


Yes, symlinks work fine with iCloud. I have been using them since before the introduction of iCloud Drive using manual manipulation of the Mobile Documents folder and developer.apple.com, and this still works since the introduction of iCloud Drive.


Considering Preview.app to be mediocre as a PDF viewer (and that's a compliment for it), you might use Adobe Reader on the Mac; this should maintain the annotations (not tested, however).


How to use double click on desktop to act as a shortcut for a few commands

To hide other all other open applications windows while in another:

option + ⌘ + (mouse click)

by clicking on it's dock icon


Windows 10 USB installer not detecting Mac SSD on Macbook Pro 2016

Your link https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8269886 contains the image shown below.

The $WinPEDriver$ folder should be in the root folder. There should not be a WindowsSupport folder. In other words, I would expect to see the path shown below.
D:\$WinPEDriver$\AppleSSD64\AppleSSD.inf

You are suppose to copy the contents of the WindowsSupport folder to the root folder of the flash drive containing the Windows 10 installation files. The image shows the WindowsSupport folder was copied instead, which is incorrect.
A Windows installation can fail if the wrong Window Support Software is being use. The best way to insure you are using the correct Windows Support Software is to use the Boot Camp Assistant installed on the same Mac that is going to run Windows 10. There is a option on the Boot Camp Assistant menu bar for downloading the Window Support Software. I should point out this is not the only way to acquire the Windows Support Software.
High Sierra and newer versions of macOS no longer hybrid partition a drive when creating a ExFAT partition. Since you only want Windows on your Mac, then you can use the USB Windows installer to erase your entire drive before installing Windows. This would make any previous hybrid partitioning irrelevant anyway.


Is there a way to use my iOS 8 device as USB Mass Storage Device for Windows

You can download files on your iPhone from computer by moving into some app's directory in iTunes. There are a lot of apps with such functionality. For example USB Disk. But in order to access the files on another computer iTunes must be installed also. Without it the only things you can view are photos and videos.

There are also apps that set up a local file server which can be accessed  wirelessly from any device in the same network just by typing iPhone's ip in the browser. Like this one.

Connection of iPhone as flash drive requires access to iPhone system directories which is achievable only through jailbreak.


How can I get an (iMovie-created) movie in the Videos app into iOS iMovie to edit it?

iMovie only supports the H.264 format, and will only load videos from two places:

Camera Roll
Synced iPhoto Library via iTunes (Photos Tab → Sync Photos from iPhoto → Include Videos)

As you've noticed, videos in your iTunes → Movies folder will only sync to the Videos app, and will not appear in iMovie.

The process is not at all convenient, but here's a video detailing how to convert a video to the right format on a Mac, and then get it into iMovie on an iPad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8-sDmD_1Y.  He uses an app called StreamClip Video Converter to convert to H.264.  You might be able to get away with exporting that format from iMovie on your Mac instead.  iMovie is picky about the format though.  If you have trouble, try to reproduce the settings in the video exactly.


is there any way to cache network content and management well by the cache system

You can add them to reading list and have them offline.

https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/keep-a-reading-list-sfri35905/12.0/mac/10.14

It gets tricker to work if it is synced across devices. So I tend to save pages I need using File menu > Export as PDF.. or Save as.. > Web Archive.

Often wget -c site.com is also helpful.

As pointed out by nohillside in comments, youtube-dl can save videos offline too, not just from YouTube, despite its name.

Both of the CLI tools can be managed by brew, cleanly.

https://brew.sh


Are Google services backed up by iCloud?

Sorta–but no.

There are actually three different things we're talking about here.

iCloud mail
Storage of attachments in iCloud
Backup

Each of these items are very distinct, but all pull from the same storage pool (your 5GB default.)

Let's go over each.

The first is iCloud mail. This is an email service effectively equivalent to any other, provided by Apple. Depending on when you registered for it (if at all), you'll have either an @icloud.com, @me.com, or @mac.com address. If you're not registered (which is what it appears is the case with your account), you simply don't have one. It's by no means necessary.

The second storage in iCloud. There are two versions of this: the first is temporary storage of large attachments in iCloud. This is a fairly new feature: you may notice if sending an attachment over a certain size that it will ask if you'd like to store it in iCloud instead. The second is just saving attachments you receive, which is pretty self explanatory In essence, this is no different from any other app using iCloud for storage.

The third and final is backup–or rather lack thereof. Backups (at least of iOS devices to iCloud) do not store mail data, as it has to exist somewhere else in the cloud–be it on Apple, Google, or whoever's servers.

In summary, you aren't using any space for mail in iCloud (unless you told it to, and you can always turn it off.)


Create bootable USB with multiple installers?

I'll answer each of your questions separately:

All on one partition

Not possible with the current state of technology. Apple's startup systems look for bootable partitions, not images. You'll have to partition your device if you want to put many systems on it.

GRUB-style boot menu and selecting ISO

Try using macOS' built-in Startup Manager by holding down Option on boot. This will show you a list of bootable partitions that you can boot your system from.

Installers

If you intend to put OS X/macOS installers on your partition, look into createinstallmedia. Provide the path to the installer under the option --applicationpath and the disk to put the installer on (and make bootable) under the option --volume. Example syntax as follows:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --volume /Volumes/somevolume


There is something wrong with your FireFox.

On MBA 10.9.5 with FF 38.01 there is About FireFox, that also shows new versions available.

Right now it is showing a 38.05 as new version that can be downloaded by clicking on it.

If that for some reason does not work for you you can manually update choosing your language first.

Check your settings for FF updates:


Missing keyboard shortcut in El Capitan 10.11.5 to switch between windows within app

The Keyboard item in System Preferences has a Shortcuts tab. The Keyboard item in the Shortcuts tab has one item labeled Move focus to next window. The binding for that has a  `   rather than a  ~   (with the  Cmd ⌘  key; I don't know how to type a cloverleaf), but either binding has the same effect for me (that box is checked on my Mac).

It's possible you simply need to check that box; in any case, that seems like the first place to look.


Audio Out Different from Retina Model MacBook Pro?

You say it works fine with your set up. Are you connecting to his TV?
If so, it points towards the issue being with his MBP.

One quick bit of troubleshooting you could try - plug a set of earphones into his MBP and ensure audio is being sent. That'll help to isolate the problem.


Do a consumable iOS product REQUIRE restore functionality?

No.

In the requirements and guidelines for App Store Review (shown below) it does not say anything about a return mechanism. It does however say "you should make sure you have a restore mechanism for any restorable in-app purchases." What this means is explained here.

App Store In App Purchases guidelines:

  3.1.1 In-App Purchase:

  If you want to unlock features or functionality within your app, (by way of example: subscriptions, in-game currencies, game levels, access
  to premium content, or unlocking a full version), you must use in-app
  purchase. Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or
  functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR
  codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external
  links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing
  mechanisms other than in-app purchase.
  Apps may use in-app purchase currencies to enable customers to “tip” digital content providers in the app.
  Any credits or in-game currencies purchased via in-app purchase may not expire, and you should make sure you have a restore mechanism
  for any restorable in-app purchases.
  Remember to assign the correct purchasability type or your app will be rejected.
  Apps should not directly or indirectly enable gifting of in-app purchase content, features, or consumable items to others.
  Apps distributed via the Mac App Store may host plug-ins or extensions that are enabled with mechanisms other than the App Store.
  Apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized
  virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each
  type of item to customers prior to purchase.
  Non-subscription apps may offer a free time-based trial period before presenting a full unlock option by setting up a Non-Consumable
  IAP item at Price Tier 0 that follows the naming convention: “XX-day
  Trial.” Prior to the start of the trial, your app must clearly
  identify its duration, the content or services that will no longer be
  accessible when the trial ends, and any downstream charges the user
  would need to pay for full functionality. Learn more about managing
  content access and the duration of the trial period using Receipts and
  Device Check.

This line basically means

  if you delete the app, move to a new phone, whatever, your purchases
  will no longer be available on that device. Restore Purchases asks
  iTunes what of the available in-app purchases you've paid for.

It does say "should" which you could imply to mean that it is not forced but highly suggested.


Force quit then restart, all apps still active iOS 9

The list of apps shown after double clicking the home button is not only the list of open apps but also the list of apps most recently used. Or in other words: not all apps in the list are actually "open" (whatever this means on iOS anyway).


Restoring window configuration for monitor setups

The App "Stay" that I discovered today does this extremely nicely.

Thanks to this answer on the Super User S.E. for the link.


Is there a command-line BitTorrent client preinstalled on OS X?

No, not pre-installed as far as I know.

Try Deluge.

  It has been designed using the client server model with a daemon process that handles all the bittorrent activity. The Deluge daemon is able to run on headless machines with the user-interfaces being able to connect remotely from any platform.

Source: About Deluge

Alternatively, try rTorrent, aria2, or TorrentFlux.

For simple downloading of .torrent or magnet torrents, aria2 might be your best option.

Setting up aria2:

Install aria2 per the official install instructions.
aria2 can accept .torrent links and magnet links:

aria2c http://example.org/mylinux.torrent
aria2c 'magnet:?xt=urn:btih:248D0A1CD08284299DE78D5C1ED359BB46717D8C'

Setting up Deluge console access:

Install Deluge per the official install instructions.
Run the daemon and the console process, then connect locally.

deluged
deluge-console
connect 127.0.0.1:{{DELUGEDPORT}}

Add a torrent per this syntax:

add [-p <save-location>] <torrent-file> [<torrent-file> ...]

Use --help flag for more help on commands.

Setting up Deluge remote access:

Install Deluge per the official install instructions.
Create the configuration files by starting/stopping the daemon:

deluged
pill deluged

Add authentication with the syntax <username>:<password>:<level>:

echo "alice:MyC0mpL3xPass:10" >> ~/.config/deluge/auth

About authentication levels
Allow connections beyond localhost.

deluge-console "config -s allow_remote True"
deluge-console "config allow_remote"

Start the daemon.

deluged

Setting up rTorrent:

Install rTorrent per the official download & install instructions.
Run rtorrent to begin the interactive access.

Use -h flag for more info on using rTorrent.


Are there USB-A to USB-C adapters for the Early 2015 MacBook

Simple answer - yes.

Apple has also announced an USB-C to USB connector for £15 in the UK store or $19 in the US store.

USB-C to USB (UK Store)
USB-C to USB (US Store)

It too isn't shipping yet, so it's hard to know if this is a custom chip and design or any old "connect the wires" adapter will do the trick. However, my guess is that it's just a simple adapter and there's no licensing like the lightning port requires/allows.

The specifications are that the port is just USB 3.1 Gen 1 which means that pretty much any USB-A device in existance will interoperate with the new MacBook.


Make Yosemite Installer USB drive that does not require internet access

I just noticed that 10.10.3 was available and tried it again. I am guessing that others noticed this bug and reported the problem for 10.10.2. createinstallmedia works as expected.


As markhunte said, NSAppleScriptEnabled is set to true by default in Preview's Info.plist in 10.9. So Preview has a basic AppleScript dictionary, and tell application "Preview" to properties works by default.

In 10.8 or earlier versions of OS X you can set NSAppleScriptEnabled to true manually:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSAppleScriptEnabled -bool true

The open and activate commands also work with applications that don't have an AppleScript dictionary.


Ultimately, I had to delete the Airmail app and reinstall it entirely. It's now able to update.

The problem appears to be due to the fact that when Airmail 2 was upgraded to Airmail 3, the internal app version was 3 while the version shown in the Applications folder was v2. I think this confused App Store.


The App Store does not care about your physical location, you can shop in any country's app store from any other country. To change stores, just click the flag icon at the bottom of any page.

Your main problem will be that to purchase from any country's app store, you need to use an Apple ID that has a valid billing address in that country.


Acorn

  Acorn has everything you need in an image editor.

See also Can anyone recommend an app for creating flowcharts and diagrams? for other suggestions.


How can I tell if my iPad is 32 or 64-bit?

Any iPad Air or later or iPad mini 2 or later has 64 bit processors.

This basically means any iPad released on/after November 2013.

In terms of iOS devices generally (i.e. iPods, iPhones and iPads) any device with an Apple A7 or later chip will be 64-bit.

For iOS devices generally (as well as tvOS and watchOS devices), you can refer to Blake's iOS Device Specifications Grid for an easy reference to determine this and other specs.

Note: I have no affiliation with Blake Patterson or blakespot.com.

If you have no idea what device you have

If you aren't sure what device you've got, then:

Go to Settings > General > About
Make a note of the Model
Now visit EveryMac.com's lookup page
You'll see a field labelled as: Enter Mac, iPod, iPhone or iPad Identifier
Enter the Model number you obtained at Step 2
Click on the Lookup button
Now you'll get a summary of the device with a link to full details
Compare that info with my answer above, or click on the link to view full details. If viewing full details you'll find whether it's a 32-bit or 64-bit processor that powers your device.


Difference between iTunes Connect App Version and Build Version

It may be necessary to submit multiple builds when submitting or updating an app (due to finding bugs before the app completes review, etc.).  iTC requires that the build numbers be different (and ascending) for each subsequent build submission for same version update to an app.  Thus two different fields, one version number for the App store visible (e.g. marketing) version of the app or app update, and one build number for one or more uploads before app review starts or completes (and without changing the App store visible or marketing version number).

It's also handy when testing many dozens of incremental builds of an app on your devices and iOS Simulators to have some way of telling them apart other than mucking with the marketing version number (which you might want to be a nice clean looking 2.0 or something).


Make sure you select the correct HDMI Output in System Preferences | Sound. You are probably still listening to the sound through the mac speakers.

sheepish


Can I move data from old to new Time Capsule through USB?

I'd suggest using rsync from the terminal. It may still be slow, however:

It should be faster than finder.
You can stop the transfer any time. It will resume from where you left the next time you issue the same command.

So, it should both reduce required time and also make it possible to stop it and resume if you actually need to use your computer.

sudo rsync -avPh --delete-after /path/to/original/gromit.sparsebundle/ /path/to/copy/of/gromit.sparsebundle/

Explanation:

-a: Archive (be recursive, preserve timestamps ownership etc).
-v: Verbose.
-P: Show progress and real-time transfer rate.
-h: Human readable output.
--delete-after: At the end of copying remove any files at the destination that don't exist at the source. This gives you the freedom to continue making backups on your old time capsule without worrying about excessive files being copied to the new one.

Important: The trailing slashes in the two paths are important! If omitted a new dir may be created when you resume the sync (i.e. /path/to/copy/of/gromit.sparsebundle/gromit.sparsebundle).

Also note that the transfer rate displayed with the -P parameter is not accurate when small files (a few KB) are transfered.


OS X Lion Excel 2011 data lost and undeletable Excel file

There is clearly a bug in Excel 2011 for files on the Desktop where Excel does not clean its scratch files during editing and quitting. Like you, only rebooting seems to get rid of them. The only workaround I have sorted out is to simply not edit Excel docs on the Desktop. I have not seen any data loss issues related to those files on the Desktop.


Stuck on boot loop after upgrading iPhone SE 10.3.3 to 13.3.1 via iTunes

Not sure whether this is the best answer, but as I more or less got my issue ultimately resolved, I'll describe what I did. DFU mode did not prevent a boot-loop, but restore mode did, which I was only able to enter by holding the power and home buttons continuously while it was plugged into my Mac. iTunes then wanted to install the latest version of iOS, and I had to install it by choosing to restore from a backup rather than trying to install it as an upgrade. This worked, and then it restored from my iTunes backup. Eventually it rebooted, which took longer than normal but not more than a few minutes, and iTunes got right to syncing my music and podcasts.

Unfortunately, having to re-download all my apps over my internet connection was not desirable, especially considering that I intentionally did not update certain apps, but this is better than a boot loop.

One hitch that happened was that on the new welcome screen on my phone, it didn't accept my Apple ID login/password, even though it worked initially within iTunes itself. But it let me skip that step and nevertheless seemed to be signed in to iCloud in iOS anyway.


You can use the VALUE() function for that. Its only argument is the cell that you want to evaluate

From the documentation:

  The VALUE function returns a number value, even if the argument is formatted as text. This function is included for compatibility with tables imported from other spreadsheet apps.

  VALUE(source-string)
  source-string: Any value.

  Notes
  You’ll never need to use the VALUE function in a new table, because numbers in text are automatically converted for you.

  Only the formatted text is converted. For example, if you type the string $100.001 into a cell, the default format will display only two decimals ($100.00). If VALUE refers to this cell, it will return 100, the value of the formatted text, not 100.001.

  If the argument can’t be returned as a number value (does not contain a number), the function returns an error.

  Examples
  =VALUE(“22”) returns the number 22.

  =VALUE(RIGHT(“The year 1953”, 2)) returns the number 53.


iOS Simulator installations fail on Xcode 6.4 on El Capitan v10.11

Xcode 7 does not support iOS 8.4 and earlier.

Xcode 6.4 does not support iOS 7.1.2 and earlier.


Is there an application to emulate I'm in a different location?

There's no way to do this in the App Store. Unfortunately, you'll need to use Xcode and the iPhone Simulator to do this. This Stack Overflow answer describes how to do this.

Edit: Yes, it is possible using a Cydia program, called LocationHolic.


how to delete an administrator on yosemite

I got this hint from here http://applehelpwriter.com/2013/05/09/how-to-log-out-another-user-without-logging-in/

Log out the user or any other processes that is still running owned by the user you wish to delete.

  Open up Activity Monitor (/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app)
  Use the drop down menu in the Task bar to change the menu to ‘Other User Processes’  (note: you can use ‘All Processes’ in the menu if you
  wish, but that is less safe as it makes it possible to accidentally
  click on your own user process in step 4 below!).
  In the filter bar, type loginwindow.
  From the list of users that show up, for each one that you wish to log out:

  click on its row in the Activity Monitor pane to highlight the process
  press the ‘Quit Process’ icon in the Task bar above
  from the resulting dialogue window, click ‘Force Quit’
  supply an Admin password if requested.


1. Check for System Integrity Protection (SIP)
Open Terminal and type
csrutil status

if it says
System Integrity Protection status: enabled.

continue to step 2. Else, skip to step 3.
2. Defeat SIP by Rebooting into macOS Recovery mode

Turn off Mac; turn back on while hodling ⌘ and R.
Open Terminal from the Utilities menu.
Type csrutil disable
Reboot (reboot)

3. Unload, then delete kext
In Terminal,

Unload Extension

sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleThunderboltNHI.kext

Delete Extension

sudo mount -rw / # mount root as RW
sudo rm -rf /System/Library/Extensions/AppleThunderboltNHI.kext

4. Re-enable SIP (if turned off)
Follow the steps for 2. except type csrutil enable on step 2.3.


How to disable Command + Left keyboard shortcut in Yosemite

Nevermind. i found out why - apparently someone installed BetterSnapTool on the server, which does this.


How to recover the deleted partition and get its UUID in macOS

You have to destroy the GUID partition table and create a new one. The UUIDs of the various partition types are fixed. You can get some or most of them here: Partition type GUIDs.

Below I assume that your MacBook Air contains an SSD and the main partition was formatted as CoreStorage volume. You can check this in Recovery Mode with a method outlined here: OS volume shows as type 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFF' (last part)

Preparation:

Detach any external drive (especially your external Time Machine backup drive)
Restart to Internet Recovery Mode by pressing alt cmd R at startup.

The prerequisites are the latest firmware update installed, either ethernet or WLAN (WPA/WPA2) and a router with DHCP activated.
On a 50 Mbps-line it takes about 4 min (presenting a small animated globe) to boot into a recovery netboot image which usually is loaded from an Apple/Akamai server.

I recommend ethernet because it's more reliable. If you are restricted to WIFI and the boot process fails, just restart your Mac until you succeed booting.
You can either use fdisk or gpt to remove the MBR at block 0. If you use an admin user prepend sudo using the gpt .... commands.
First get an overview. This step is important before you destroy the gpt, because it's the source to rebuild it from scratch:

gpt -r show /dev/disk0

Then delete the gpt:

diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk0
gpt destroy /dev/disk0

Create a new GUID partition table:

gpt create -f /dev/disk0

Finally add all common Mac partitions one by one based on details shown in the gpt -r show /dev/disk0 output:

gpt add -b 40 -s 409600 -i 1 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 134167720 -s 1269760 -i 3 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0
gpt add -b 409640 -s 133758080 -i 2 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC /dev/disk0

Hint: You may add and remove partitions in an arbitrary order if you keep the right index number. In the above commands I added the third partition (... -i 3 ...) before adding the second partition (... -i 2 ...). You don't have to unmount disk0 then because the partitions i=1 and i=3 don't contain auto-mounted volumes while the second partition does.
Check the disk with diskutil verifyDisk disk0
Check the disk with diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

Resizing the main volume to fill the whole disk

Finally you want to resize the main volume to fill the whole disk.

Get an overview with:

diskutil cs list

You may have several CoreStorage Logical Volume Groups, if you boot from an external drive with a full system! Use the proper one!
Resize the whole stack:

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID size #lvUUID is the UUID of the Logical Volume. Usually it's the last one listed.

Booted to Yosemite you can use 0g for the size to expand it. 0g is a "magical" size here.

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID 0g

Booted to El Capitan or later you have to use a real size like 120g. If you get an error use a slightly smaller size like 119g or199500m.

diskutil cs resizeStack lvUUID 120g


If I turn off iCloud Camera Roll backups, do I still have the pictures somewhere?

You should still have them on your device, unless you deleted them already. However if your device is wiped, you will not be able to restore them from iCloud, as they no longer exist there.

Also, photos taken in the future will no longer be backed up to iCloud. They will only be on your device.


rEFInd not showing macOS partition, just Ubuntu


Try this tool:

http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

It allows you to manage multiple libraries, and split, merge, etc.


What's the MacOS equivalent for Ctrl+Shift+V?

Not all apps support this (MS Office, I'm looking at you) but many do including Apple's Apps.

Though is not without formatting Per Se. It is actually Paste and Match Style and you do it with:

  ShiftCommandOptionv


Does the iPhone 5S with iOS 8.4 have a cellular data addiction?

There are a lot of situations in which your phone, while connected via WiFi, might need to make a cellular connection. This would include normal communication with a cell tower, incoming calls, Visual Voicemail, or depending on your WiFi signal and performance, additional data from apps.

Once you have reset your cellular data usage statistics, re-run the same test you did. Once complete, go down into Settings -> Cellular  and look at which apps now report data usage. This will help you narrow down which app is causing it, but again there are too many potential answers as to why it is happening.


Mac OS X Lion Server: How to disable Sleep/Restart/Shutdown options for users?

I've removed shutdown for my lab Macs on OS X Lion. The two commands that should accomplish this are:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow ShutDownDisabled -bool true
sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow ShutDownDisabledWhileLoggedIn -bool true

I've not had 100% success with them, so I've also edited the interface file at: /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HIToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/English.lproj/StandardMenus.nib/objects.xib

If you want to remove the Sleep and Shut Down options, look for the following id's in object and reference tags. Delete the entire object, one for the Sleep option and two for the Shut Down option, and each of the references.

id's:
Sleep - 236
Shut Down - 238, 285

Source: http://rustyisageek.blogspot.com/2012/06/editing-apple-menu.html

Edit: I've been told that when these settings are applied with MCX, they work as expected!


An alternative for newbies (and webdevelopers) is MAMP and phpMyAdmin (that comes bundled with MAMP). Maybe worth a thought.


How can I delete a custom ringtone exported from Garageband, after Garageband has been reinstalled?

FWIW I created a test ringtone using GarageBand on iOS 12.2 using the directions linked in your post.

I then use iExplore to delete the file under Media > Purchases where there were three files on my device at that location, a Ringtones.plist file that had information about the .m4r file which had a GarageBand icon and a com.apple.ToneLibrary.lock file which was zero bytes in size.

Since this was the only file I've created with GarageBand and was indeed the file I created and was the only one in the Ringtones.plist file, I deleted both, leaving the com.apple.ToneLibrary.lock file, and then checked the iPhone and the ringtone was no longer available to be selected in Contacts or System Preferences in iOS.

Note: I am not affiliated with the developer of iExplore, Macroplant, simply a user of the product.

This was also done with just downloading and installing iExplore without purchasing it, as I currently do not need the paid functions.


MacBook late 2016 does not recognize internal SSD. I can boot up from an external SSD that has macOS installed

first you should go into macOS Recovery and go to Disk Utility. Select Macintosh HD and then Info. See if the disk is listed as bootable by Disk Utility. If it doesn't say bootable, then try running first aid. If the Disk is not recognized, then see if it is recognized when booting macOS Sierra from the external drive. By doesn't boot up, if you mean it is stuck on the Apple logo, then you can try resetting the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM. Also, try using power-on self diagnostic (you must disable Firmware Password). If none of those work, then try using Single user mode (reboot then Command + S). After that, run fsck_apfs. I am aware that this probably won't work if the MBP won't boot but if you can access macOS Recovery, then you can rest assured that this is not an issue with your SSD being dead. Good luck!


How to deal with whitespaces in OS X along filepaths when certain UNIX programs dislike it

In bash, there are two main ways to have spaces in path names:

Backslash escape the spaces

/path/to/folder\ with\ spaces/

Wrap with quote marks

"/path/to/folder with spaces and $variable/"

'/path/to/folder with spaces and a literal $/'

Double quote marks expand shell variables. Single quote marks do not.


How to enable true color mode in an OS X Terminal?

True color mode is enabled by default in iTerm 3.0+.

The default MacOS Terminal.app is still limited to a 256 color palette.


My 2011 MacBookAir boot screen does not list MBR USB flash drives anymore – Why, and how to list them again?

Solved - if no partition of the disk has the bootable flag, the disk does not appear at the boot screen.

In my tests, if the partition that has the bootable flag has been formatted with mkfs.vfat /dev/sdxn command (without options) using mkfs.vfat versions 3.0.14 or 3.0.17, the disk appears at boot, but, when the disk is selected, the bootloader is not run. Instead, the message "This is not a bootable disk" is printed.

The partition that is flagged as bootable does not have to be the one that contains the bootloader configuration files, and it may have MBR partition type 83 and/or ext4 or btrfs filesystem.


How can I initiate scripts to run on my Mac from triggering events on my phone?

I use EventScripts in order to run AppleScript when certain events occur, and there is EventScripts Mobile wich is a free companion application to EventScripts that let you trigger scripts on your Mac from your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. You can find a demo on the link provided.

I never used it, but as EvetScripts is very reliable and quite easy to use, i'm gessing that EventScripts Mobile will do the work ! Also, you can try it for free.

(Note that EventScripts Mobile only works over Bonjour, and so is not suitable for triggering scripts on Macs not on your Bonjour network).

Note: I am not affiliated with the developer of EventScripts, just a satisfied user of the product.


If you've "purchased" iPhoto before, trash the old version and download the current version (9.6.1) from your Purchases tab in the App Store.
Edit: updating won't work any more (Apple wants you to use Photos).

PS.  I have Photos, Aperture and iPhoto 9.6.1, the latter I can download any time from the 'Purchases' page in (UK) App Store and launch/use it.


I have the same problem too. I've solved this with updating the driver but with an old driver Broadcom version 5.106.199.1 (11/13/2012). Here is the steps :

Left click on your wireless adapter in Device Manager
Choose "Update Driver Software.."
Pick "Browse my computer for driver software"
Pick "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer"
Choose "Broadcom....Version: 5.106.199.1 [11/13/2012]"
Next.. Wait for installing.. Finish (no need for restart)


Cut functionality shortcut for folders and files

Yes, but it's a little different in Lion.

In both the move and the copy situation, you use ⌘ CommandC to put a file on the clipboard.

When pasting:

To copy the file to the new location, press ⌘ CommandV.

To move the file to the new location, press ⌥ Option⌘ CommandV.


A way to generate a universal image URL that works between Mac and iOS (DropBox, iCloud, other?)

I want to have a single folder where I stick all my images and then point to that folder from whatever OS/device I'm using [and] would be readable in the .md file from anywhere.

What you're looking for is a cloud based service.  There are several image specific services that can do this for you:

Flickr/SmugMug
500px
Imgur (used by Stack Exchange)

However, you're not limited to a service that only supports images.  iCloud (pending), DropBox, OneDrive, etc. all the ability to do what you want.  For instance, using the following markdown code, I can insert the following image hosted on my OneDrive account:

Code:
<img src="https://kl8ofa.bn.files.1drv.com/y4mW66FhA4IBlnLBez4t70-rBq51PBEoTI6USX6Kxn46GjR-xfXtWz3knMJm6MbqIOwqutlneyiaDLQvj_upQgrhVjIsjQFjmHEb_DPIsIwQtzE1KD52cMyrRkZuSFQw-vJdTSkIfQfcU3IOPTj0VxC_o_Sbew8NK7I9RtUBAmfCk1NXqURe0BIVkt2-NeHQhadleH2VG0HN8e5PV3BggllSA?width=2048&height=2048&cropmode=none" width="400"

You can even create a download link to the original wallpaper file by using supported HTML within your markdown:

Code:
original wallpaper file

Now, understand, that link must be generated by the service unless you plan to host the images yourself (way too much work!).

More Examples:

Dropbox:

Code to Embed image:

Important note:  To embed the image and not make it appear in the DropBox widget, you need to replace the ?dl=0 at the end of the URL with ?raw=1.

Code:
Download link for Think Correctly Wallpaper

Download link for Think Correctly Wallpaper

Box.Com

Unfortunately, you can't embed an image from Box.com because their widget is incompatible with Markdown.  However, you can still share the link  Apple Leather Desktop Walpaper  like the others above.

Code:
 Apple Leather Desktop Walpaper

Image Attribution.  None of these wallpapers are mine.  They are the work of the original artist and I claim no ownership.  These were sent to me or I found them in my travels on the Internet.

Summary

Other than the dedicated services, OneDrive and DropBox seem to have the best integration (IMO) for both embedding and linking images into a markdown document.  I'm partial to OneDrive and it's integration directly into macOS, but preferences vary.  DropBox is a bit more efficient with respect to the length of the link.  Box.com falls short in that you can't embed images but you can link to them.


"Instagram could not be downloaded at this time. No matter how I try I am not able to download the app. Pls Help

That particular site could be temporarily out of service. I'd wait about 15 or 20 minutes and try again.  If that doesn't work I'd check using your iPhone if you have one. If you've downloaded Instagram once it should remember you and if you try a 2nd time the Get button on the link will become an Open button. See the image below from my iPad.


How to change Exchange email account settings on 50 iPhones, remotely?

Sure, You could use the iPhone Configuration Utility or Apple Configurator to create a profile for the server settings.

Once you've gotten a signed profile document (it can be self signed if you haven't set up trusted SSL certs, etc…) you can email it or post it to dropbox or otherwise put it on a web server for each device to retrieve.

The users would tap the file to download it and then tap to accept the payload. You could leave the account blank so each user would just have to enter an account/password and the profile would have the details on the mail server and settings to be installed.

Start with the deployment page at Apple and scroll down to the Configure section to read more on MDM and Configurator.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/it-center/deployment.html

Reading into your settings, you might also consider using directory services or a single sign on solution to pull a person't correct email account from a central directory, but that might cost more than a one time, touch all 50 devices exercise. In the end, you might pay for automation software since it allows better reporting and flexibility as changes like these tend to come more and more often in most businesses.


Is an external drive connected to Time Capsule also backed up?

No, that won't work. Simply connecting the external drive to the Time Capsule wouldn't start a backup by itself, because, counter-intuitive as it may seen, a Time Capsule doesn't know anything about backups: the Time Capsule is, in effect, just a network attached drive -- it doesn't back up anything by itself, but rather just makes storage space available to a Mac to be used, among other things, for backups; such backups must be entirely managed by that Mac, running the Time Machine software provided by OS X, which is what actually performs the backup process. No Mac, no automatic backup.

What Time Machine can do is back up an external hard drive physically connected to your Mac (via Thunderbolt or USB), so long as it is formatted using HFS -- if it's in FAT32 or NTFS format, Time Machine won't back it up. That's not your case, since you've plugged the drive to the Time Capsule and not the Mac -- the only way you can access that drive from your Mac (which, as explained above, is what actually performs the backup) is via the network. Quoting from Pondini's excellent Time Machine web site:

  Time Machine can easily back up multiple internal and/or directly-connected external drives and partitions simultaneously (but Time Machine cannot back up data that's on a network).

So if you really want to back that drive up, you'll have to connect it directly to a Mac, make sure it is in HFS format, and follow the instructions on the link above.


Why is iPhone battery percentage fluctuating at lower levels?

To recalibrate your iPhones battery, you should:

Use the iPhone until it shuts off due to low battery.
Charge it, without interruptions, to full charge (100%).
Reset the iPhone by Holding Home and the Power buttons at the same time. Ignore the Slide to Power off,  and let the iPhone restart itself.

And for the notifications, as far as I know, no such thing can be achieved without jailbreaking. Cydia's app LowPowerBanner, for instance, should do the trick, though.


May I remove Python.framework in $PATH enviroment variable?

Unless the new items are causing trouble, I suggest leaving them as-is. Most apps will probably have their desired version of Python bundled with them, but some may not, and some may want the 2.7 framework rather than the 3.4 version. The only issue I can think of is if Python 3.4 is running and accidentally stumbles over the 2.7 files first because they are first in the PATH.

As for where they're coming from, they're coming from your .bash_profile. The lines you pasted from there show the two directories being prepended to the PATH environment variable. Since they don't get added twice, the Python installation edited your .bash_profile directly. Removing them will, no doubt, remove them from PATH, with questionable benefit.

Finally, I would not recommend uninstalling both versions of Python. Keep at least the one that came with your OS. You might have some better control using MacPorts to install updated versions of Python, if you really need them. Again, you don't say if there's any real problem other than things looking funny, so it's hard to make recommendations.


How to block an app's access to a specific website using the hosts file?

The hosts file is used by the system and can't be used to restrict access for specific apps.

See I'm trying to block game "X" from accessing the internet including updating for alternative software which is able to block specific apps from accessing specific sites.


The author of the linked article probably had a modified bash profile (like explained by the user user3439894 in the comments to your question) or had problems to copy and paste the commands.

Use the following instead:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support
cp -r Mendeley\ Desktop/ ~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/
mv Mendeley\ Desktop/ _backup_Mendeley_Desktop/
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/Mendeley\ Desktop .

Please don't forget to include the dot . at the end of the last command. The last line means: create a soft link of the folder "~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/Mendeley Desktop" at your current working directory (which is "~/Library/Application Support").

Explanantion:

cd ~/Library/Application\ Support: change the working directory to "/Users/YourUserFolder/Library/Application Support".
cp -r Mendeley\ Desktop/ ~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/: copy the folder (including the content) "Mendeley Desktop" into the folder "~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/"
mv Mendeley\ Desktop/ _backup_Mendeley_Desktop/: rename (move/backup) the folder "Mendeley Desktop" to "_backup_Mendeley_Desktop".
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/Mendeley\ Desktop .: create a soft link of the folder "~/Dropbox/Mendeley/db/Mendeley Desktop" at your current working directory.


Merge old exchange contacts to iCloud (with iPhone)

I would try using iExplorer to extract the contacts from the iPhone.  It works on Mac or PC, and it has a free trial version that should allow you to do everything you need.


Older Mac Minis don't like running headless (without a monitor)

Here's one solution involving some cunning use of a display adaptor and a 100 Ohm resistor.


How can a bring the windows of an application on the primary display?

Although the issue is rather strange, you can always take a look at some of the utilities suggested in this stack exchange question. I personally use SizeUp so I'm able to move windows from one display to the other at will (something I do fairly often).


Shortcut key to open/apply profile in Terminal

To Create a new Window or Tab with a Specific Profile
You can assign keyboard shortcuts to the items in the Shell > New Window and New Tab submenus using System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts to add shortcuts to Terminal.
For example, if you add

Homebrew ⌥⌘9

to the preferences, typing ⌥-⌘-9 will open a new terminal window with the Homebrew profile.
If you want to assign keys for creating tabs, you'll need to explicitly refer to the New Tab submenu using “->”. For example, I have this in my preferences:

Shell->New Tab->Homebrew ⌥⇧⌘9

Typing ⌥-⇧-⌘-9 will open a new tab with the Homebrew profile.
To Apply a Profile to the Current Terminal
You can change the profile of the current terminal using the Inspector window. You can use Shell > Show/Hide Inspector ⌘I to show or hide the Inspector. In the Inspector’s Settings tab you can use the keyboard to select a new profile—you can use the up/down arrow keys or type the name of a profile.


Partition showing as 'FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFF'; attempted to fix it but made it worse

The disk lost any gpt partition in the partition table because the secondary GPT mismatched the primary GPT (and its CRC was wrong) and thus was bogus.

To recover everything the following was done:

boot to a working external macOS boot disk
get the details:

diskutil list
gpt -rvvv show disk0
fdisk /dev/disk0
diskutil umountDisk0

completely zero out the 1st and 2nd GPT and the MBR:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 count=34 bs=512
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 seek=(size_of_disk_in_blocks-33) count=33 bs=512

create a new gpt:

gpt create -f /dev/disk0

add all partitions

gpt add -i 1 -b 40 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk0

a hexdump of block 409640 revealed a CoreStorage partition - a pic taken by the OP before, suggested a size of 187683544 blocks for the second partition:

gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 187683544 -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

the volume verified with 0 errors and had to be unlocked: the volume is encrypted!
Tried to restore a previous recovery partition:

gpt add -i 3 -b 188093184 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s3

No file system was detected; the diskutil verifyVolume command failed. The recovery partition and its content was deleted previously. The third partition has to be removed again:

gpt remove -i 3 disk0

Since the recovery partition - usually containing an intermediate FV key required while booting to FV - is missing, the main volume was reverted to HFSJ:

diskutil cs list #get the lvUUID of the main volume
diskutil cs revert lvUUID #old (admin) password needed to unlock the volume

The volume was expanded

diskutil resizeVolume disk0s2 0
diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2

Booted to the restored and expanded main volume the system (Sierra 10.12.6) was reinstalled to restore the missing recovery partition.
Re-enable FileVault.


Depending on what specific verification item is problematic, you might need to reset the Apple TV and make sure your Apple ID and date/time setting work before loading any third party apps or logging into other accounts.

There is a chance you could use Xcode to look over the AppleTV logs and determine what app is triggering the requests, but it might be faster to wipe and verify it’s not software corruption or storage issue.


If the wireless printer has joined the network, OS X should see it listed as a nearby printer. From the Print & Scan pane in System Preferences, click the Plus (+) button in the lower left, and it should show up in the popup menu.

If it doesn't, select "Add Other Printer or Scanner…" In the resulting window, the "Default" Tab will show all local Bonjour printers, as well as any connected directly via USB. If you know the local IP of the printer you want to add, you can enter this in the IP tab.


Is this noise my trackpad making normal?

Well, I figured it out, it's part of the "haptic feedback" which is configurable in System Preferences => Trackpad:


How do I install OpenSSL in ElCaptain if my HomeBrew it's broken?

You can curl without SSL by removing the ‘s’ from ‘https’:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL http://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Additionally, you could just point a web browser to the page, http://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install and save the code to /tmp/brew.rb as a text file and then run it

ruby -e /tmp/brew.rb


How to Programmatically Find, Kill, and Restart a local DynamoDB Process

kill `ps -ax |grep Dynamo |awk '{print $1}'`

should do it. note, this will kill any proc that matches Dynamo


Is there a way to create a custom keyboard shortcut in OSX?

This may be a viable solution, you'll have to give it a try and see:

This answer uses Safari as the browser, change as needed.
The Service1  was named Collaborator Keystroke, change as wanted.
The keyboard shortcut assigned to the Service is ^`, change as wanted.

For the Automator Service1:

Use the image below for the settings.

ApplesScript code:

tell application "System Events" to keystroke "]" using command down

For System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services:

Note: Sometimes with an Automator Service1 and assigning a keyboard shortcut, you may first have to trigger it from the target App's Services menu one time. From then on the keyboard shortcut should work normally.

1 In macOS Mojave an Automator Service is called a Quick Action.


Cannot use Mac Mail to send email via my two gmail accounts (e.g. iPhotos)

To send photos from within the iPhoto app:

If you get this message in iPhoto when sending email:

Then you need to enter the new/correct password for your gmail (you can find it in your keychain)

To tell it the new password open iPhoto preferences and enter new correct password there.

Here are settings on my mac that work.


What virtualization solution should I use if I want to use real partitions?

I've used raw disk access under VMWare Fusion.  It's less than intuitive, but it works.  The helper app (and google-fodder) is /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator.

Important: Consider this a "from-memory, basic idea of what the process requires", rather than a howto - please do google for "fusion vmware-rawdiskcreator" to find a proper walkthrough if you choose to go this route.  I can't promise my memory is accurate enough to trust your partitions to.

The biggest catch is that it won't find the partition unless it's been previously booted with Boot Camp, or you've used rEFIt's partitioning tool to sync the MBR. vmware-rawdiskCreator reads the partition list from the MBR, which isn't otherwise kept in sync with the GPT  (bios partition tables vs EFI partition tables).

Try:

$ /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator print /dev/disk0
Nr      Start       Size Type Id System
-- ---------- ---------- ---- -- ------------------------
 1          1  976773167 BIOS EE Unknown

(disk0 is your first disk).  If you get similar results to mine (one big partition type'd BIOS), you don't have the MBR synced with GPT.  rEFIt (refit.sf.net) is my preferred way to do this, but bootcamp will do it for OSes it supports.

If you do get a list of usable partitions, you then need to create a vmdk (VMware's disk format) pointing to the right partition.  This is done with

$ sudo /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/vmware-rawdiskCreator create /dev/disk0 n Filename lsilogic

Where /dev/disk0 is the physical disk containing the partition, n is the partition number listed by the first command (print /dev/disk0), and Filename is what you want to call the resulting disk image.

You can then change ownership of the two files it creates (Filename.vmdk and Filename-pt.vmdk), and use them as existing disk images when creating a VM.

Not so straight-forward :) It does work though; I've used this method to install linux on a machine that has a dead optical drive.


Can I configure terminal to show stderr output in different colour

There is no straightforward solution, but there are at least a few workarounds available to do this.

You can install hilite by building the single C file (hilite.c in this case) or by using brew install hilite (with homebrew installed on the system). Use it as hilite <command>.
You can use the command from this answer on serverfault (substitute command with the name of your script/command) to make stderr appear in red (for other colors, refer the ANSI escape sequences list and change the 31m in the below command accordingly):

command 2> >(while read line; do echo -e "\e[01;31m$line\e[0m" >&2; done)

You can use stderred to color stderr in red.


I don't think it'll be possible - terminal-based applications (as those running in terminal emulators like Terminal.app, iTerm.app, etc are) don't support multiple concurrent fonts. This is because a terminal application is written to run on a traditional dumb terminal which wouldn't have the concept of multiple fonts. Within a terminal emulator, all text is displayed in the same font and this is why the sidebar doesn't look as it should.

The only solution is to use a version of Emacs running under either Cocoa/Carbon (eg, Emacs.app or Aquamacs) or X11.


Set up FTP server on macOS High Sierra (ProFTPD)

I have used pure-ftpd instead of ProFTPD. It is simpler.

After I installed pure-ftpd using brew,

brew install pure-ftpd

I configured the FTP (username-password) setting referring to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pure-FTPd

And then start FTP server.

brew services start pure-ftpd


OS X: Is there a way to change the default behavior of copy/move overwrite?

EDIT: Based on your clarification, you're looking to merge two directories. See this question for more information. There's no built-in way to do that using the OS X Finder.

As an alternative, you could try using standard unix tools like rsync, which are available via the command line. But this is not a very "Mac like" solution.

I'm not sure what you're asking, because when you copy a folder from one place to the other, nothing is deleted at all. I assume you're talking about copying a folder from one location to another where a folder of the same name already exists at the destination? If so, The Mac OS X Finder will show you a warning, it won't delete anything without your permission.

If that's not what you're asking, please edit your question to clarify, and comment on this answer asking me to update my answer. Thanks!


Time Machine disk is filling up to quickly

You can use a program like BackupLoupe to browse the changes added in each backup version.

Otherwise, the tmutil command (specifically tmutil compare) can be used to observe the differences between two TimeMachine backups (or a backup and the current state).


iPhone 5C taking >25 minutes to charge from a dead battery from <8 hours ago

My experience has been that some (most?) non-MFi chargers/cables are unable to bring an iPhone out of a completely discharged state. In the past, I’ve had to use an MFi-certified Apple charger/cable first; only after the iPhone came back to life did the unofficial charger work.


Where does OS X keep the FileVault password during reboots in an upgrade?

There's an OS X feature called authenticated restart that stores the FileVault key in the SMC for the duration of the reboot. Apple acknowledges in the manpage that it does reduce FileVault security for the duration of the restart:

On supported hardware, fdesetup allows restart of a FileVault-enabled system without requiring unlock during the subsequent boot using the authrestart command.
WARNING: FileVault protections are reduced during authenticated restarts.
In particular, fdesetup deliberately stores at least one additional copy of a permanent FDE (full disk encryption) unlock key in both system memory and (on supported systems) the System Management Controller (SMC).  fdesetup must be run as root and itself prompts for a password to unlock the FileVault root volume.  Use pmset destroyfvkeyonstandby to prevent saving the key across standby modes. Once authrestart is authenticated, it launches reboot(8) and, upon successful unlock, the unlock key will be removed.


Merging multiple AIFF files from the command line

Using sox:

sox 1.aif 2.aif output.aif

Using ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -f concat -i <(printf %s\\n "file '$PWD/"{1,2}.aif\') -c copy output.aif


How can I bring back my world clock widget?

Go to System Preferences → Extensions and click on ‘Today’ to see the World Clock widget.  Make sure it has a check next to it.  When you go back to Notification Center, you should see the clock.

I've had problems where some of my widgets would disappear for no obvious reason.  I don't know why this happens but I always end up going back to Extensions to add them back.