How to enter different whitespaces in Pages?

Unicode Hex Input

You can use Unicode Hex Input to enter the characters that you want. Go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Input Sources and enable Unicode Hex Input. Then you can enter the characters by holding ⌥ and typing the Unicode code.

Multi-stroke Key Bindings

You can edit ~/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict and create a multi-stroke key binding for each of the characters that you want to enter. More information is available on this blog post:

http://blog.macromates.com/2006/multi-stroke-key-bindings/

Press and Hold

Navigate to System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app/Contents/Resources/.
Backup the Keyboard-en.plist file.
Append the following to the Keyboard-en.plist file (before the closing </dict></plist>).

<key>Roman-Accent-t</key>
<dict>
    <key>Direction</key>
    <string>right</string>
    <key>Keycaps</key>
    <string>t                        　 </string>
    <key>Strings</key>
    <string>t                        　 </string>
</dict>

There are a number of different spaces included in the strings above.

Feel free to change the Roman-Accent-t to any character you wish, providing it does not already have Press & Hold keys assigned.

Text Shortcuts

Go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Text and enter some shortcuts.


How do I uninstall imagemagick from Mac OS X?

Please try brew remove imagemagick

Sorry my bad ;)
If you manually installed it, goto the root directory where you downloaded the sourcecode and try sudo make uninstall. If you already deleted the install files, redownload the source file and untar it. Then you can cd to the source dir. and use sudo make uninstall to uninstall.


Selling macbook, best/fastest way to delete data?

I don't know if I can necessarily help you out with the "fastest" way, but I think I can help with "best".

Most of your data will indeed be in your account, but there's also the chance that other personal items may be scattered about your hard drive.  I would not personally sell a computer after just removing my own account, particularly if my account was not securely deleted, either by overwriting the unused disk space or by discarding the encryption key.  (Of course, there's always the chance a computer could be lost or stolen, too, so I use FileVault 2 to encrypt my system's disk in case I'm not given the opportunity to securely erase it.)

You say you don't have a startup disk, but since you have Lion, you should be able to use OS X Recovery:

Hold command-R on startup.
Use Disk Utility to erase the disk securely using Security Options on the Erase tab.
Start the installer to install a fresh copy of Lion.  (This may involve downloading the installer from the Internet… note this can be a very large download.  If you're feeling nice, you could take this opportunity to grab a copy of the installer for your MacBook's new owner.)


Is there a convenient way for me to use my other macs audio output?

Sure. Since you can AirPlay system audio there are tons of solutions for this nowadays, any program that can act as an AirPlay receiver.
Many of these are commercial (like AirFoil and AirServer), not exactly made for your use case (media centers like Kodi) or  terminaly/somewhat fiddly (shairport-sync).
There should definitely be streamlined enough freeware/open source implementations out there that aren't outdated and abandoned, but I don't know of any. There's a list on the open-airplay github that might be worth a look.

Last time I needed to do this I used the old school method of soundflower plus a client+server to pass audio - Soundfly is free and still works fine. Can act up occasionally but more robust/set it and forget it than AirPlay in my experience.


Panic Report: Zone cache element was used after free!

I've had the same issue on two separate Mac's (including a brand new 16" MacBook Pro I bought two days ago) both running Catalina 10.15.3 (19D76). It's happened on system wake, using Chrome, and randomly with no apps running in the foreground.

Perhaps a background process is responsible. What background processes are active? (I'm running the latest versions of Little Snitch, Intego Virusbarrier X9 and Creative Cloud).


Can I type in inverse case, lIKE tHIS, with caps lock on?

See Update below...
It seems (only) the input source "French - Numerical" will behave like Window Caps Lock (with iNVERSE sHIFT):

Found that info here.
But note that this will come with a rather unusual keyboard layout (at least for me).

Update: Using Ukelele this can be applied to all keyboard layouts:
Thanks Daniel for pointing the right direction.
Open Ukelele and save your (current) layout to a file (e.g. by "New from current input source" and "Save"):

Open the .xml file in a text editor and find the mapIndex that you want to use for the combination ⇧ + ⇪ (shift + caps-lock). For German I used mapIndex="0". Insert this line:
<modifier keys="shift caps"/>

Find all other occurrences of this combination and comment them out (or delete the lines). Again for German it's:
<keyMapSelect mapIndex="1">
<modifier keys="anyShift"/>
<modifier keys="shift rightShift? caps? rightOption? rightControl"/>
<modifier keys="shift rightShift? caps? rightOption rightControl?"/>
<!--<modifier keys="shift rightShift? caps rightOption? rightControl?"/> -->
    </keyMapSelect>

Re-open the modified file with Ukelele.
Here is a comparison of the "German" layout before and after the modification:

Follow the instructions in Ukelele to create a new input source (Name, ID, installation).
I didn't test the modified file, should work though.


Can I use a normal USB-keyboard on an iPad3 with iOS6.0?

Absolutely bizarre! I've just tried it with an Apple USB Keyboard on an iPad3 running iOS6 and it gives me an error saying the device draws too much power! So the answer is no! Another bizarre move by Apple.


Can I use a USB to HDMI converter to set up 2 external monitors on my 2015 Macbook Air?

The MBA GPU may be limited to a single external monitor, but the USB to HDMI requires a driver installed on the MBA and that video/image is not using the GPU, it's using the CPU. So the limit is bypassed. Now it might be more complicated than this, but I think is this the basic premise. Be aware that for fast moving videos or games the USB connected display may disappoint. Also if the MBA is running near 100% CPU usage and then you add this USB display it may also disappoint.
If you looked to add more screen for email, YouTube it's likely to be fine.  The hub might be more of an issue, if the cable is USB 3 make sure the hubs too


If iLife came pre-installed on your computer back in 2008, your computer came with one or two install discs. If there were two, iLife installers exist on the second disc.

You didn't specify what kind of computer your old or new computers are, but if they both have FireWire ports, you could use Target Disk Mode and a FireWire cable to transfer files faster than via your slow network.

A third method to transfer GarageBand (and other applications) from your old computer to your new would be to use the Migration Assistant application. You can't select individual applications to copy, but you can fairly seamlessly transfer applications from one computer to another, then delete what you don't want.

Without knowing any specifics about hardware or OS version, it's difficult to give you better advice, but your three best bets to more seamlessly copy the application are 1) the install disc, 2) copy the files using Target Disk Mode, or 3) use Migration Assistant.


The script you want would be the following:

#!/bin/bash
su
ssh 192.168.1.1 <<-EOF
    reboot
    exit
EOF

If you can ssh into your iPhone from a computer, do so. Once you're logged in, create a new text file using nano ~/script (install nano from cydia if it isn't already) and paste the above script. Then hit ^X (control-X) and Y to save the script. The script is in your home directory (~) for quick access. Now, set the proper permissions to be able to execute the script:

chmod 755 script

Now you can open MobileTerminal on the iPhone and type ./script, which will execute it.

If you have to do it locally, the easiest way is probably using iFile: open it and change to the home folder using the button at the bottom of the screen.

Tap on "edit" (top right) and "+" (bottom left).
Enter a name and change the type to "Regular File", then tap "Create".
Tap on the file and select "Text Viewer" in the list.
Tap on "Edit" and copy the above script
Tap "Save" and "Done" and go to MobileTerminal to execute it (no need to set permissions, iFile did it)

Final note: you might want to set up automatic login using keys: http://www.tecmint.com/ssh-passwordless-login-using-ssh-keygen-in-5-easy-steps/

That way, you only have to launch the script, no password-typing required.


What does this mean: "mds: (Warning) FMW: event:1 had an arg mismatch. ac:2 am:51"

These are undocumented internal error conditions and most people outside of Apple can't say for sure what they mean. I wish I had a better, more concrete answer, but here are some ways to poke at your system to get a hint at which file is causing these errors to be emitted...

mds == indexing service. rule of thumb == don't f**k with it unless you know what you do.

Have you reset the spotlight database using any command line tools? (mdutil or mddiagnose) or conventional methods adding/removing directories from the privacy pane in System Preferences?
Does mdutil -s -a
-v say anything useful?
Disabling dropbox may help narrowing the cause

Lastly, watching for other mds related console output might be helpful.


Convenient way of maintaining differential backup of a large file

The only product that I know of that can handle binary files is an open source product called xdelta.

I have used it on Linux and it has worked really well.  However, there is a caveat and a big one - you must compile the application.  This means you are going to have to become familiar with compiling files on OS X.  This requires downloading the XCode development environment and issuing the make command.

I haven't done this on my personal mac as I keep my "dev" and "production" systems separate.  At the moment, I don't have a "dev" OS X box. I personally don't recommend installing development tools on production machines, but to each their own.  So....if you would like to install make on a Mac, refer to this article:
Installing "make" on a Mac

Some alternatives - check out this Wikipedia page for a list of alternatives based on rsync (built into OS X).  Your mileage may vary


How to check when Macbook was turned on first time?

You can try following this command on Terminal:

ls -lt /private/var/db/ | tail -3

There will be shown a list of files, and you can refer to the oldest one in order to determine the date you are looking for.


Trying to update macOS to Catalina 10.15.4 asks to restart again and again

You need at least 20GB to install Catalina (macOS 10.15).  Updating this OS probably requires the same amount of space.

I’m guessing that your constant restarts are due to the installing not having enough free space so it’s swapping info from the disk to memory.

Try to free up as much disk space as you can, the more the better.  Once you get to 20GB, you should be ok.  This answer is based on my personal experience with updating many OS versions over the years.


Apple Hardware Test gives no issues, but MacBook 8,1 fails to load after login

Run Disk Utitiy from Recovery Mode. On Reboot, press Command (⌘) R. Open Disk Utility. Your partition map might be corrupt. Hit repair a couple of times.
Reset NVRAM/PRAM.  http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18761
Also run EtreCheck and post the report here. Free Download:
http://etresoft.com/etrecheck.


You can have Pages automatically add a line across the whole page, the formatting options (dash size etc.) are rather limited though:

You can also use the fill option when setting tabs:


Gmail in iPhone: How to delete on swipe?

Go to the iPhone Home screen.
Open Settings.
Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Open the desired Gmail account under Accounts.
Make sure Archive Messages is OFF.

To make swiping archive mail (and remove it from the current folder, but keep it under "All Mail"), make sure Archive Messages is ON.

Just an addition for iOS6: there is an alternative for swiping:
When Archive Messages is OFF, the Archive button turns into a trash can.
When Archive Messages is ON you can press and hold the archive button in the right-hand corner to delete the message.


Can you make the menu bar never show while in full screen already?

One possible workaround... Go into System Preferences. Select "General." Towards the top, there is a place you can set the menu bar to "Automatically hide and show the menu bar."


Xcode is an app in /Applications — there's no CLI tool called xcode.

For the GUI application, launch it from the Applications folder or with open -a Xcode.
For the CLI build tool, it's called xcodebuild.


How do I make a voice-reply via Apple Watch send, and not delay by a variable amount of time?

After you've dictated your message, you can immediately send it by opening Siri and saying "send".

You can also say "don't send" to cancel your message.


iPhone not recognized by iTunes after not ejecting properly

The built in help (on Mac at least) doesn't have the good troubleshooting articles that http://support.apple.com does.

I would start with running a Device Sync Test in iTunes and if that won't even run, you can fall back to the Device Connectivity Test.

That should pinpoint the source of the issue if it's not software to:

OS issue
USB hardware failure (on the computer, cable or device itself)
Hardware failure of the device (get it repaired / restored by taking it to another computer)


How to focus and walk through menu bar on OS X using keyboard

The Alt + Letter is a Windows things doesn't appear in OS X. There are two native options to navigate the menu bar. First, very quick, and intuitive, is a Mac universal shortcut Command(⌘)+? (which is: ⌘+Shift+/) which will take you to the Help menu. From there you can search whatever menu bar item you wish, and get the shortcut if one exists; just start typing.

Second if you manually want to navigate the menu bar then, open System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Keyboard > Check and Set shortcut for Move focus to the menu bar. This way you can move focus and navigate using arrow keys.

If you go to the App Shortcuts category in the same pane, you can also change the Help Menu shortcut to your liking.

Tertiary option would be, investing in a third party application to help you find/remember shortcuts faster. Personally, would recommend KeyCue. There are several others, just search on Google or App Store.


If your drive is formatted with HFS+ and not APFS, you may be able to use DiskWarrior to repair your drive enough to use Target Disk Mode to extract your data through another Mac onto another disk. However, if the magnet damaged the partition table, or primary and alternate volume headers, or too much of the catalog & extents files, DiskWarrior may not be able to help. In that case you may have to use a professional recovery service like DriveSavers or face the music and start over.
In any of the above situations, once you've gotten your data recovered (or decided not to), you will need to do a full erase & install of macOS. You can do this by creating a bootable installer on another Mac.


How do I select a file or directory inside a package?

You can use the Finder to navigate inside the bundle, and then drag and drop the file to the 'Open file' dialog/sheet.

See a more visual explanation here.


For scanning with a P-150 on OS X 10.9 Mavericks:

Turn OFF the autostart under the scanner.
Disconnect the 2 USB cables and reconnect.

It should work correctly now.


How do I force Time Machine to back up to a USB HDD, instead of a .sparsebundle on that USB HDD?

In order to prevent Time Machine from continuing to use the created .sparsebundle for its backups, you need to delete it.

Time Machine tries to backup to .sparsebundle files first. If it can't find any, it will create regular local backup.


Why won't kern.maxfiles setting in /etc/sysctl.conf stick on macOs 10.15?

I found the solution. Actually sysctl.conf file works when starting the computer in safe-mode.
So i removed the sysctl.conf and then removed all launchDaemons and started the computer normally. Suddenly the defaults for kern.maxfiles and kern.maxfilesperproc
where around 200000/100000.
I copied one after the other launchDaemon back and restarted.
It turned out that two .plists caused the values to go down to 10240, wich are related to Anydesk:
com.philandro.anydesk.Helper.plist
com.philandro.anydesk.service.plist

I contacted the developers of Anydesk about my findings and hope they will optimize their software.


Tethering: Tell iPad to treat Wifi connection as mobile data?

I know from personal experience as an iOS developer and having researched this topic before that it is not possible.

If the developer was savvy enough they can write code that differentiates a tethered connection from real Wifi.

That, however, would be app specific and furthermore unfortunately there is no blanket setting.


Mountain Lion, Tap to Click and Two Finger Scroll Problems

This seems to be an issue with your trackpad not registering everything correctly, or a very slow computer. A way to fix this, but you would have to change the way you bring up the context menu, is to open System Preferences, navigate to Trackpad > Point & Click. Next, you can either disable it by clicking the checkbox next to it, which means you would then have to Control+Click for the context menu. You can also click on the down arrow next to "Click or tap with two fingers" and select one of the other options. Sorry there's no real solution to your problem.


iMessage isn’t a “separate” or 3rd party application; it’s built into macOS.

You will have to reinstall macOS on top of your existing macOS installation to fix it as that will replace anything that you’ve removed.

Start from recovery by booting your Mac with the OptionR key combo held.  That will boot you into a recovery version of macOS.  Select only to “Reinstall macOS” on the existing disk that there.  Don’t wipe it, partition the disk or anything.  Simply install  macOS as you normally would.

After you get macOS fixed, go back into iMessage and add back your iCloud account (remove it first if necessary).  This will force iCloud to sync your iPhone’s and Mac’s messages once again.

In the future, if you lose the ability to sync messages, your first thing you should try is to log out of iCloud and log back in.  Removing and reinstalling software is usually very low in the list of things to do to solve problems.


Some photos aren't displayed when iPhone connected to PC

After much frustration, Googling and trial-and-error, I came to the conclusion that the photos displayed on my phone weren't actually on my phone, but were instead "optimised versions" of photos stored in iCloud and therefore inaccessible through the file structure when connected to my PC.

(It should be noted that the photos did not appear pixelated or blurry in any way in the Photos app on my phone, but the following solution worked which indicates to me that these were "optimised versions"):

Navigate to Settings > iCloud > Photos on the iPhone
If "Optimise iPhone Storage" is selected, you have solved your problem:  this means that some photos appearing on your phone are in fact stored in iCloud
Select the option "Download and Keep Originals" - this will ensure all photos are actually stored on your phone, meaning they will appear when connected to a PC via USB.

Note: You may find that selecting this option results in a message that your phone lacks the necessary capacity to download originals of all your photos. I had to work in stages, allowing my phone to download the originals which I then copied to my PC and deleted from my phone, creating more space for more originals to be downloaded.


Can I use the Recovery Partition on one startup disk to repair another (internal) disk?

You may use either the Disk Utility on your Recovery partition or the one on the main volume of your HDD to repair the SSD as long as the Disk Utility version is not too old. It's recommended to use a similar version of Disk Utility as the one installed on the volume to repair.


Does Catalina device sync log what it's doing?

The heavy lifting seems to be handled by AMPDevicesAgent (AMP = Apple Media Player?). It logs some information to the system, which is available via Terminal with the log show and log stream commands.

This log show will show the past hour of activity.

    log show \
        --info \
        --last 1h \
        --signpost \
        --style compact \
        --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "AMPDevicesAgent"'

This log stream will show activity as it happens.

        log stream \
        --info \
        --signpost \
        --style compact \
        --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "AMPDevicesAgent"'

I like to wrap these up in bash functions, so autocomplete will see them.

function ampdevicesagent-log-show() {
    log show \
        --info \
        --last 1h \
        --signpost \
        --style compact \
        --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "AMPDevicesAgent"'
}

function ampdevicesagent-log-stream() {
    log stream \
        --info \
        --signpost \
        --style compact \
        --predicate 'senderImagePath contains[cd] "AMPDevicesAgent"'
}

The output is noisy and ugly, but includes some useful information. For example I can see dataclass Photo, so AMPDevicesAgent is working on my photos.

2019-11-08 10:01:21.112 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:4b63e] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] airtraffic> sending FileComplete for device id 24E310219F9516D1, asset identifier "04B3983D-75F1-4252-8CEC-FE87D05B1046", dataclass Photo (716), path "<private>"
2019-11-08 10:01:21.118 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:4b63e] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] stats> totalDiskBytes = 255989469184, freeDiskBytes = 74330591232 (reservedDiskBytes = 460324864)
2019-11-08 10:01:21.969 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:4b63e] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] airtraffic> sending FileComplete for device id 24E310219F9516D1, asset identifier "64FCE71F-0B7F-48C8-9F6F-E938D61C08EB", dataclass Photo (717), path "<private>"
2019-11-08 10:01:21.990 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:4b63e] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] stats> totalDiskBytes = 255989469184, freeDiskBytes = 74329260032 (reservedDiskBytes = 460324864)
2019-11-08 10:01:25.199 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:4b63e] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] airtraffic> sending FileComplete for device id 24E310219F9516D1, asset identifier "CD7C8B0A-85F1-4D16-8777-0F490976D366", dataclass Photo (718), path "<private>"

There's also some potentially useful information about totals:

2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> totalAudioTracks = 2000, totalAudioBytes = 19275661312 (17.95 GB)
2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> totalVideoTracks = 44, totalVideoBytes = 9366544384 (8.72 GB)
2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> totalGames = 0, totalGameBytes = 0 (0.00 GB)
2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> totalApplications = 49, totalApplicationBytes = 4917116928 (4.58 GB)
2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> totalPhotos = 656, totalPhotoBytes = 3300793216 (3.07 GB)
2019-11-08 10:05:57.930 I  AMPDevicesAgent[8032:1b65c] [com.apple.AMPDevicesAgent:device] totals> otherDiskBytes = 0 (0.00 GB)

However totalPhotos = 656 doesn't seem to line up with dataclass Photo (718).


Why do some items in my Finder window appear grayed out?

The items you are seeing are invisible items. Names that start with a dot indicate the file should be hidden. If you changed finder to show hidden files, it will display them greyed out, but the files will work as normal. Besides having a name that starts with a dot, it is possible to set a special file attribute that will make finder hide the file.

If you want to turn the showing of hidden files back off, one option is to use the terminal, open it and use this command: defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles NO and then log out and back in.


Wifi: no hardware installed, then flashing question mark when restarting

Assuming no major external force (drops) or liquid damage to the computer.

IT sounds like your hard drive is not "happy" and at the very least you might your hard drive directory repair beyond what Apple's built in tools disk utility / FSCK can perform.

Disk warrior is an excellent option for hard drive directory repair when the built in tools are not sufficient.

To be quite honest it sounds like your hard drive is failing. One unlikely scenario (still possible) is your hard drive SATA cable, optical drive etc.. one another part is bad making look like a hard drive issue.

I would have a tech take a look at your computer before you tinker with it too much, sounds like waiting until you return is your best option.


MZFinance.BadLogin.MacAppStore_message error when signing into Apple ID

Mavericks does not support asking for two-factor authentication. However, you don't need to disable two-factor authentication to log in to services which don't support it.

Attempt to log in as usual. You will receive an error message which may vary depending on the service and version of OS you are using.
Choose to allow the login on another device and note the code given.
Append the code to your password, then log in again.


What could cause a cumulative slowness that manifests itself as high WindowServer CPU usage in High Sierra?

I resolved this on the same system by installing the 10.13.2 supplemental update, and then the .104 version of the NVIDIA Driver Manager. (the installers are very picky about versions, so pick whichever matches your OS version here; nothing before .104 installed right for me https://www.tonymacx86.com/nvidia-drivers/ )

Restart, and then switch to the NVIDIA Web Driver from the manager:

(edit: driver helped for a while but the memory leak came back. sigh. back to not having scaled mode available on external screens...)


How to find and kill an installer that autostarts at boot time

Besides the Login Items (Open the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences),
try this.

In Terminal, type

ls ~/Library/LaunchAgents

You will see your "personal" launch agents.

To see all the currently loaded agents, type this:

launchctl list

If you can identify the one you don't want, use the unload option:

launchctl unload ~/Library/LaunchAgents/whateverItIsYouWantToUnload


Can I view hidden files and directories from the Open or Save As dialog boxes without making them visible in the Finder?

You don’t need an Apple Script or Visual Basic macro to do this as you can do it using a simple keyboard shortcut from within the Open or Save As dialogue windows. Using MS Word as an example:

In MS Word go to File > Open… or File > Save As…
When the window opens press the shift⌘ .  keys to toggle the display of hidden files on
Now you’ll be able to see hidden items and, if supported by the application you’re using, select them as well

Not only does this approach have no effect on the Finder, it also automatically toggles hidden files off again once you've saved or opened the file. In other words, the next time you’re in one of those dialog windows you won't see hidden files unless you want to (in which case you'd just use the shortcut again).

NOTE: The above keyboard shortcut also works within the Finder to toggle hidden files on or off more generally. Of course, if you’re using it within the Finder then the setting remains until you change it again.


Preference Panes can't be opened, says it doesn't work on PowerPC

System Preferences may be running in Rosetta (the PowerPC-on-Intel emulation environment). Do a Get Info on the System Preferences app (in the Applications folder) and check two things.

The "Kind" should say Application (Universal).
There may be a checkbox saying something like "Open using Rosetta". Make sure this is unchecked.


How do I delete a voice memo from my itunes?

Highlight all of the memos, and then press either the delete button on your keyboard or (as mentioned below) Command+Delete.


ping $(hostname) has request timeout but nslookup $(hostname) works

First off ping and nslookup are two totally and very different things:

ping is sending an ICMP packet to the specified host directly
nslookup is querying a DNS server for the IP address of a hostname

If the host is down (for example), ping will fail.  However, if you do an nslookup it will still return the IP address of the host you're querying.  Remember, DNS is essentially an address book - it translates or maps names to numbers.
Why does your ping fail?
There are any number of reasons, but these are the "big three:"

host can be down
it can be configured to not respond to ping
the firewall can block/reject ICMP packets - from either/or both your computer, your network; their computer, their network

When I am on another machine on the same network, I can ping deeznuts.noodleofdeath.com successfully

If others can ping it, the host is obviously up and not rejecting packets.  To find out why packets on a particular machine is being dropped, you need to do a packet capture with something like Wireshark to see where the packet is going and where it's failing.
I would look at these factors (in order):

firewall on the local machine that could be dropping packets
network firewall (local network) blocking ICMP/ping packets from a particular host, range of addresses, subnets, or networks
firewall on the remote machine blocking/dropping packets from particular hosts
network firewall on the remote network blocking/dropping packets from a particular host, range, or subnet.

An easy test to see if it's related to something security like the firewall or IPS software is to assign the IP of the machine that can't ping to a different machine.  If it fails, it's security related.  If it works, it's your host.
I can't rule out any IDS/IPS software that may be running on the remote.  For instance, if a host or firewall sees too many pings from a particular node, it will stop responding to requests from that node.  This is a very common tactic in preventing DDoS attacks.


Deleting undated files from Time Machine

Your best bet is to turn off Time Machine, eject the backup drive and get some help from someone trained to know what Time Machine looks like.

It's entirely possible, the software deleted the old files and over-wrote them with new backups. It's also possible you had a minor glitch in the permissions and all is well.

Assuming you are near a retail store, you can usually get a quick read from someone in the store or worst case, make a support request at the bar. Phone support is also an option, but I've found that taking the backup drive and the mac (as well as your old mac drive / CPU) in to the store is the fastest way to get someone seeing exactly what is going on and your data uncertainty sorted.

As much as I like to help guide people, it's really best to disconnect the drives and reduce the risk of more files getting deleted and not learn on this one instance if you can get some professional help on this.


Is there an app, or way to get a notification if someone starts to type a text message?

There is no app for that. On iOS there may never be one because there is no API access for that, but for the macOS desktop messages app, one could be made via hack-ish techniques like code injection.


Try this:

find ~/Downloads/Test -name '*' -exec ls -la -print > ./files.txt {} \;

~/ is equal to: /Users/XXXX

The file "files.txt" is saved in the directory that you run this command.


Replace a failed disk in a Disk Utility RAID 1

I was unable to find how to rebuild the RAID from disk utility after a couple of hours of research. However, I managed to do it from the command line.

sudo diskutil list  // to get a list of disks. Note the disk number of your new disk (e.g. disk4)
sudo diskutil appleraid list // note the uuid of the raid in question
sudo diskutil appleraid add member disk4 UUID-OF-YOUR-RAID

It will then kick you back to disk utility and start rebuilding the raid :)

Also, if the failed disk remains on the list, you can remove it:

diskutil appleraid remove UUID-OF-FAILED-DISK UUID-OF-RAID


Easiest way to transfer files from iPhone to Linux?

Install VLC (free, open-source). Share/copy files to the VLC folder. Then enable WiFi sharing in VLC. Navigate to the phone's URL.

This only works for video files, though.

courtesy Anshul Choudhary


Can't open a PDF from Terminal on Mac because it ‘couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console’

Were you literally typing in the “<“ and “>” characters in that command, or did you mean:

open FILENAME.pdf

Where FILENAME is a place holder variable for potentially any file name?

The redirection characters of < > have special meaning to and get interpreted by the shell and their use as you described might well cause that error message as your command in that case means something akin to ‘make the standard input file descriptor for the open command to be filename.pdf and make its standard output file descriptor to be UNNAMED FILE’

That probably accounts for your error.

F.


What iPhone model is shown in Apple's Recycling video?

Judging by the guts of it, the size, and the finish, I am going to say that this is an
iPhone 6
It's too big and rounded to be a 5/5S series or earlier.  Assuming that it's not the iPhone 7 (which hasn't even hit the prototype phase), we can narrow it down to a iPhone 6 or 6S.  There is one slight difference between the two:

In our little video we see that it has only the iPhone name on it:

So, that's why I say it's an
iPhone 6


How do I tell if my Apple hardware is covered by AppleCare?

Apple's self-solve web portal can tell you whether any Apple product is currently under warranty or covered by an AppleCare plan. It can also tell you when the coverage ends and help you setup an appointment to get your problem looked in to.

You'll need to know the serial number for your Apple product to look up the coverage. There's an Apple support article on how to find this identifier for all the different bits of hardware Apple makes.


Shortcuts for Inserting objects in PowerPoint for Mac

There are keyboard shortcuts for almost every menu command.  Here's a link for Microsoft's Office for Mac keyboard shortcuts site.  I normally frown on just posting a link but because there's so many shortcuts available it doesn't make sense to copy/paste them all here.

Also, if you don't find the shortcut you're looking for, you can always create your own.


Unable to install R-2.11.1.pkg and up to R-3.0.2 in Mac OSX 10.8.5

Why are you using the -store option? You realise that if you have that then -allowUntrusted is ignored. To quote the man page In this mode, no other options are supported. That option is there to check that a package is ready to be submitted to Apple for the App Store.

Take that out.

I also discovered that failed attempts seem to leave orphan installer processes running that seem to cause trouble in later attempts - even a kill -9 leaves them on the process stack.

Reboot your computer and then run Terminal. First go sudo -s so you get an actual root shell. Now installer -verbose -pkg ~/Desktop/R-3.0.2.pkg -target / in the root shell. Thats what worked for me under 10.9


How to track hardware resource usage statistics on OS X?

Hardware Monitor has the features you need, but only evaluation version is free.

  definition of artificial sensors that monitor aspects of the
  operating system, e.g. CPU load, number of processes, disk usage,
  memory usage, paging activity, network interface activity (only in
  10.4 or later)

Or you can make Bash script, and then import created CSV file into Google Docs or Excel to build chart.


Is there any keyboard shortcut to Force Quit all applications?

You could do it with a script... or you could hit CMD+Tab and while holding CMD hit "q" over and over. It will cycle through your apps and quit them one by one pretty quickly.


Missing Print Options in Office and PowerPoint 2011

I just solved this on my own machine. Very frustrating.

The issue is that the missing section of the print dialog is a "Print Dialog Extension" (PDE). This is loaded from the individual Office apps' plugin directories. The issue is that Office is coded to look for a "PlugIns" directory whereas the directory is actually named "Plugins".

I suggest using a symbolic link to fix this. Presuming you have a default installation of Office then open Terminal, and execute:

cd "/Applications/Microsoft Office 2011/Microsoft PowerPoint.app/Contents/"
ln -s Plugins PlugIns

Relaunch Powerpoint and bask in the delicious print dialog extensions. BTW, you will need to do something similar for the other Office apps.

NOTE: I advise against simply renaming the Plugins directory to PlugIns. It might break something else.


Is it safe to close laptop while "Shrinking APFS Data Structures"?

Interrupting the operation for any reason in the middle of it, like putting the laptop in sleep might (in case of sleep) or WILL (in case of everything else) corrupt the filesystem badly.
It may take more or less time as it moves around the data blocks from the place which is going to be removed from the partition. Depending on the arrangement of data on your disk as well as your general storage device performance it could take anywhere from 2 minutes (I had a new partition so I fell into this case) to several hours (if a lot of data needs to be relocated).


I have BOX MS Office 2010 and run it on my Windows machine. Can I install it/migrate licence to OS X?

No, you cannot migrate your license from Office for Windows 2010 to Office:Mac 2011.  You will need to purchase a new license for Office:Mac.

You could run Office for Windows on your Mac.  If you have a license for Windows, you could install Windows either using Boot Camp or a virtualization application like VMware Fusion or Parallels.  After you have installed Windows on your Mac, you can then install your existing copy of Office for Windows.


When will the Iphone 7 and Iphone 7 plus be released in Philippines?

Apple's Philippines website for the iPhone 7 only indicates "Coming Soon".  It appears they haven't announced the official rollout date yet.


Applescripting Numbers to save, close and quit in an App instead of the Script Editor

You need to direct the save command to Numbers app...

This should work for you.

tell application "Numbers"
    save document 1 in POSIX file "/Users/name/Desktop/Workout.numbers"
    delay 0.1
    close document 1
    delay 0.1
    quit
end tell

Or if you want to make the code a little prettier...  This should work also.

set saveToFolder to path to desktop folder as text
set numbersDocName to "Workout.numbers"
set numbersDoc to (saveToFolder & numbersDocName)

tell application "Numbers"
    close document 1 saving yes saving in file numbersDoc
    delay 0.1
    quit
end tell


How can I disable the notifications prompt in Safari?

Since the release of Safari 7.0.3 Apple finally gives us an option to turn off safari notification prompts. To disable safari notifications go to Preferences within Safari. Click the Websites tab (notifications tab for older versions of safari) and uncheck "Allow websites to ask for permission to send push notifications". And voilà.

Websites panel for current Safari (as of High Sierra):

Panel for older versions of Safari:

The explanation below is only valid for versions of Safari before 7.0.3

Apple obviously forgot the option to disable the notification thing in Safari altogether when they added the feature. Anyway this works, but is not for the faint of heart. ** This is only for older Safari before Version 7.0.3 **

Stop Safari
Open Terminal
cd ~/Library/Safari
chmod 000 RemoteNotifications/

That's it.
The chmod 000 just makes the directory RemoteNotifications inaccessible. To make it accessible again (and to re-enable notifications in Safari) just do the above again but use 755 instead of 000 in the chmod command.

As lined out in Renés comment below, it is also possible to change the access rights via Finder.


Do you have the required hardware for the system you want to run? Here is a list of requirements, I shamelessly copied these from support.apple.com
OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard system requirements
To install Snow Leopard for the first time, you must have a Mac with:

An Intel processor
An internal or external DVD drive, or DVD or CD Sharing
At least 1 GB of RAM (additional RAM is recommended)
A built-in display or a display connected to an Apple-supplied video card supported by your computer
At least 5 GB of disk space available, or 7 GB of disk space if you install the developer tools

OS X 10.7 Lion system requirements
To use Lion, make sure your computer has the following:

An Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
Mac OS X v10.6.6 or later to install via the Mac App Store (v10.6.8 recommended)
7 GB of available disk space
2 GB of RAM

OS X 10.8 Mountin Lion system requirements
To install Mountain Lion, you need one of these Macs:

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

Your Mac needs:

OS X v10.6.8 or OS X Lion already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space

OS X 10.9 Mavericks system requirements
To install Mavericks, you need one of these Macs:

iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)

Your Mac also needs:

OS X Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8 already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available space

OS X 10.10 Yosemite system requirements
Before you install Yosemite, make sure you have one of these Macs:

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

Your Mac also needs:

OS X Mavericks, Mountain Lion, Lion, or Snow Leopard v10.6.8, already installed
2 GB or more of memory
8 GB or more of available disk space


How to get Brew formula from the filename of installed binary?

The brew whence external command takes an executable and looks up the Homebrew formula from where the executable comes.

Installing

To install the brew whence command, run:

$ brew tap claui/whence

Running

To run brew whence, pass it an executable:

$ brew whence python3

Executable                Comes from
==========                ==========
/usr/local/bin/python3    → python 3.7.7

Or pass it several executables at once:

$ brew whence 7z git-shell lzgrep

Executable                  Comes from
==========                  ==========
/usr/local/bin/7z           → p7zip 16.02_2
/usr/local/bin/git-shell    → git 2.26.0
/usr/local/bin/lzgrep       → xz 5.2.5

More information

For more information and examples, run brew help whence:

$ brew help whence

Full disclosure

Full disclosure: I wrote this command.
It is not part of Homebrew proper but you can inspect the code yourself.


MacOS High Sierra: An error occurred while verifying firmware

Apple has introduced a new file system APFS in High Sierra. The easy fix is to verify your backup and then erase the volume and run the installer against a blank / erased main storage drive.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Because the APFS requires support from a new version firmware, your mac's firmware will have to be updated to the latest version during the installation of High Sierra.

After the first restart, the installer prepares the latest version firmware which suitable for your mac model onto EFI system partition of your main disk with bless command. Then restart automatically and trigger the firmware upgrade process. (marked as point A)

After the upgrade process (regardless success or fail), the installer continues. It double checks the version of firmware to make sure it was updated successfully in previous process (namely point A). As a result, the installer find out that your firmware is NOT a latest version still. Hence, it reports "An error occurred while verifying firmware". Yes, it is what you saw on the screen.

The root cause of the failure at point A, in your case, is no internal drive in main bay. The firmware upgrade process only recognize the ESP (EFI System Partition) of primary internal drive. That means the upgrade process was interrupted.

So, you might have to get the primary SATA port work and connect your disk to it. It's said that, most of time, it is the hard drive cable which is out of order, instead of the chipset. If that is the case, it probably  can be fixed within $20 to get a replacement. And that was my case. :)


Number of supported screens on MacBook Pro

I'd say that your MBP is limited to 2 external monitors. You can't sub-divide the same number of pixels across more displays.


You cannot change the dns while on cellular.  You may be able to do so if jailbroken--i do not know if you can or can't--but you cannot while on cellular.


Why do system information and du show drastically different numbers

Cause:
The "thin" command from tmutil thinlocalsnapshots [sometimes] does not delete all data content.

When this happens, after thinning the localsnapshots you may notice that not all free space were recovered [this is the OP problem he asked for solution]
The only working solution to recover space is to manually delete all localsnapshots.
After thinning you must verify if the thin command was successful by executing both commands below:
tmutil listlocalsnapshots / and tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
If their return is EMPTY, then everything was deleted.
Otherwise if they return something, then the thinning process did not recovered all free space. (see image below for such situation where I repeatdly run the Thin command and the List command)

On the above image, everytime the command tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates is run, there is a list output. (so there are data residues left)
Snapshot dates for all disks:
2019-08-28-082639
2019-08-29-113651
2019-08-29-135729
2019-08-29-145723
2019-08-29-155709
2019-08-29-181243

Solution:
It is necessary to manually delete them all:
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots <snapshot>
One by one:
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-28-082639
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-113651
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-135729
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-145723
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-155709
tmutil deletelocalsnapshots 2019-08-29-181243

After doing, check again:
tmutil listlocalsnapshotdates
Snapshot dates for all disks:

There is no listing result as output. So now you have freed all possible space!
The OP got 152GB of free space by manually deleting all localsnapshots, which was not recovered by the thinning process.
This is very, very common on MacOS Catalina, I can assure it, and Apple is aware of it and changing things during the Beta phase. But it can also happen on Mojave and/or other versions.


Getting unknown command error when trying to run script via cron

cron uses /usr/bin:/bin as the default PATH and diskutil is in /usr/sbin.

Specify the full path to diskutil or add a line like PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin to the start of your crontab.

Enter which diskutil to find its path, or enter echo $PATH to find the path where your commands are working.


How do I put my device in supervised mode from Windows/Linux?

Since you mentioned GroundControl in your link, I would like to make it clear that GroundControl is not an MDM. It is kind of an alternative for Apple configurator. You can supervise many devices at once and also it can be done from a Windows device but physical connection is required.
Another way to supervise device is by Apple Device Enrollment Program (DEP). Any device which is purchased directly from Apple or from an authorised re-seller can be supervised through DEP. DEP is the only available option for wireless supervision. DEP requires enrollment in an MDM solution. The MDM will assist in additional device management operations. To know more please check out Device Enrollment Program and iOS supervised mode.


How can I make applications on OSX open new windows in the same space when opening a file from Finder?

Does setting the assign to Desktop:none; work for you.
You can do this from the Applications Dock menu.


Can't mount Volume via Applescript as a login time

Changing

tell application "Finder" to mount volume "afp://Data_Cube.local/Scotts Stuff"

to

mount volume "afp://Data_Cube.local/Scotts Stuff"

seems to be the resolution.  As mount is part of the standard scripting library.


How can I remove the eject button from my menubar when cmd-drag won't work?

I have realized what the problem was

If you use Bartender.app, if the app is active, you cannot drag items out of the menubar. You need to quit Bartender first


Is it possible to undo the last digit entered on my iPhone's calculator?

Yes, there is an easy way to undo the last entry.

All you have to do is swipe the top of the calculator, in either direction. By ‘top’ I mean where the digits appear. This will clear the last digit you entered. If you swipe it again, then it’ll clear the next digit, and so on.

As a follow up, I agree there is some inconsistency here. I also agree with some of the comments below. Why it is I can shake my iPhone to undo something in other apps, but can’t do the same with the Calculator app, is beyond me. That said, I actually don’t like the whole shake function for undo. I’d much rather prefer a hard press on the screen (or some other input method) to be given the choice to undo. Basically I think it should be one of the options available in the same list as cut, cop, paste etc. If you happen to agree, you can submit feedback to Apple.


Why is my ethernet connection between two Macs so slow?

I already have this problem in the past and solve it by disabling internet sharing. I don't know why disabling internet sharing speedup bandwidth but it maybe useful for you.

You can also try another ethernet cable.


What type of cable can give the highest data transfer rate for an iPhone 5s?

The iPhone 5S offers USB 2.0 over its Lightning connector (USB 2.0 high speed maxes out at 480 Mbit/s ~ 0.5 Gb/s).
You will need either a USB-A to Lightning cable or a USB-C to Lightning cable. Combined with your current Mac Mini, either will give you the highest data transfer rate possible with the iPhone 5S.


Camera Roll is gone in iOS8.

It might be that you would nee the new iCloud Photo Library, part of iCloud Drive, before they will sync again.

One thing to do is to migrate any photos you might still have in iPhoto - launch it & you will be given the option - as that's gone too.

see http://www.imore.com/yes-camera-roll-gone-ios-8-heres-where-it-went-and-why
or http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/09/19/goodbye-camera-roll-where-to-find-your-photos-in-ios-8


exclude certain mailaccounts from sound notifications

You should be able to accomplish this from the Notifications section of the Settings app, which allows you to set the kind of alerts each app uses:

In that panel, each of your mail accounts will be listed separately, and can be configured individually. I have one account, for example, set to not even badge the Mail.app icon, let alone play sound:


Force Airport Express to join 5GHz network

Your computer will use the wifi best suited under current reception characteristics. If you want to force your windows computer to only use the 5GHz wifi, you'll have to remove the 2.4 GHz from the known networks as for example detailed here for Windows 10 (which you appear to be using judging by your screenshot): http://www.ilovefreesoftware.com/24/windows-10/remove-saved-wi-fi-networks-windows-10.html

What you could do is configure both wifi's with the same name and let your computer switch automatically (works way better when they have the same name), that way your laptop would choose the 5 GHz one when close enough to the Airport and choose the 2.4 GHz one when further away


Does iOS AppStore prohibit Youtube Downloading apps?

Here's the official Apple guide

  5.2.3 Audio/Video Downloading: Apps should not facilitate illegal file sharing or include the ability to save, convert, or download media from third party sources (e.g. Apple Music, YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, etc.) without explicit authorization from those sources. Streaming of audio/video content may also violate Terms of Use, so be sure to check before your app accesses those services. Documentation must be provided upon request.


Open Image Capture or the Photos app on the Mac and connect the phone over USB. That's the easiest way to pick one photo to import.

Other methods involve setting up sync or some apps to do the syncing if AirDrop is not reliable enough for your needs. (you're not alone there on depending on it - wireless interference that can be reasonable encountered these days can render AirDrop less than reliable in my experience)


installing windows from bootcamp with image dvd

You cannot use an ISO image with the Boot Camp Assistant. It only allows a disc, as:

You need to install it outside of Mac OS X
You cannot mount an image when Mac OS X is not running
Mac OS X's EFI bootloader only accepts physical storage media

Thus, you can only use a disc. To burn the ISO to a CD/DVD, mount the image, open disk utility, insert a blank disk and click on burn. After burning the disc, you should be able to use it for Boot Camp.


Why is my Wi-Fi Process eating >2GB memory

TL;DR - Your Wi-Fi program uses memory when you have network connections. It starts with little allocation and when you run other programs, Wi-Fi uses memory to do that work. Log out to free that memory if you don't want to quit programs or thr don’t release their connections to your liking.

Why is my Wi-Fi process using 3GB of memory?

As a developer (or just someone curious about memory allocation / virtual and resident/swap), it's pretty easy to dump the heap and virtual memory map for any process to inspect your current memory allocations.

sudo heap Wi-Fi

Except there's a wrinkle with Wi-Fi so you'll want to pass the process number the actual name of the binary, instead of the whole friendly name. (If you get close - heap knows to prompt you with a list of potential matching processes sudo heap Wi

sudo heap WiFiAgent
sudo mmap WiFiAgent

Now, the larger idea is Apple has re-architected the networking stack. On older OS, kernel just absorbed all the memory needed for networking, but now there are 4 programs (2 pairs) that run in user space and root space and the only reason they use Mach ports and memory is to serve and buffer network connections. If you have less connections open, the usage is small. In practice, I've never seen this cause issues since when you log out and back in (especially if you have no apps start at log in), the allocation of this set of programs is very lean and small.

They only grow when you run programs - so you'd need to look at the programs you run to reduce the load they put on networking. Browsers with lots of tabs open, "apps" that are really electron frameworks and node apps can be chatty on the network side or allocate a lot of resources when a more clean native app might use less system resources.


Are my wireless Microsoft mouse+keyboard supported in OSX?

Yeah, even Microsoft itself says it's compatible with OSX !


How to securely `shred` a file in Mojave/APFS?

The answer Apple implies:

You don't have to worry about that, since each file's data is not stored contiguously in the drive, but spread out across several physical and logical blocks. Removing a file from the file table makes it nearly impossible to read with forensic software/hardware.

Sources: About Apple File System | Apple File System Reference

The answer that may or may not work:

brew install coreutils
shred Secrets.txt

The documentation for shred doesn't explicitly call out APFS, but from what it says, it might be the case that the data is not necessarily overwritten.

If you wish to engage in determining this, there are contacts and other related links here: http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/


Conflict between internal Apache and Apache installed via Homebrew

I had the same problem on a Sierra system. I run:

which -a apachectl

outputted:

/usr/sbin/apachectl
/usr/local/bin/apachectl

to stop the apache by apple version:  sudo /usr/sbin/apachectl stop

To see the running processes: ps aux | grep httpd Outputted:

ibook             1359   0,0  0,0  2432804    768 s000  S+    4:13pm   0:00.00 grep httpd
_www              1014   0,0  0,0  2479412    836   ??  S     3:57pm   0:00.00

/usr/sbin/httpd -k restart
root              1013   0,0  0,1  2479668   7544   ??  Ss    3:57pm   0:00.12 /usr/sbin/httpd -k restart

So to stop apache by apple: sudo /usr/sbin/httpd -k stop
And to check if it occurred: ps aux | grep httpd Outputted:

ibok             1375   0,0  0,0  2432804    776 s000  S+    4:14pm   0:00.00 grep httpd

To start the brew apache:

sudo /usr/local/bin/apachectl start

And to check if it's on:  ps aux | grep httpd outputted:

 ibook             1390   0,0  0,0  2432804    768 s000  S+    4:14pm   0:00.00 grep httpd
    _www              1387   0,0  0,0  2652596    780   ??  S     4:14pm   0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start
    _www              1386   0,0  0,0  2652596    752   ??  S     4:14pm   0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start
    _www              1385   0,0  0,0  2652596    756   ??  S     4:14pm   0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start
    _www              1384   0,0  0,0  2652596    756   ??  S     4:14pm   0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start
    _www              1383   0,0  0,0  2652596    744   ??  S     4:14pm   0:00.00 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start
    root              1382   0,0  0,1  2652596  10976   ??  Ss    4:14pm   0:00.03 /usr/local/opt/httpd/bin/httpd -k start

To see the running version of apache: httpd -V that outputted:

Server version: Apache/2.4.28 (Unix)
Server built:   Oct 29 2017 19:28:54
Server's Module Magic Number: 20120211:68
Server loaded:  APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Compiled using: APR 1.5.2, APR-UTIL 1.5.4
Architecture:   64-bit
Server MPM:     prefork
  threaded:     no
    forked:     yes (variable process count)
Server compiled with....
 -D APR_HAS_SENDFILE
 -D APR_HAS_MMAP
 -D APR_HAVE_IPV6 (IPv4-mapped addresses enabled)
 -D APR_USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZE
 -D APR_USE_PTHREAD_SERIALIZE
 -D SINGLE_LISTEN_UNSERIALIZED_ACCEPT
 -D APR_HAS_OTHER_CHILD
 -D AP_HAVE_RELIABLE_PIPED_LOGS
 -D DYNAMIC_MODULE_LIMIT=256
 -D HTTPD_ROOT="/usr"
 -D SUEXEC_BIN="/usr/bin/suexec"
 -D DEFAULT_PIDLOG="/private/var/run/httpd.pid"
 -D DEFAULT_SCOREBOARD="logs/apache_runtime_status"
 -D DEFAULT_ERRORLOG="logs/error_log"
 -D AP_TYPES_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/mime.types"
 -D SERVER_CONFIG_FILE="/private/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"

And that was the APPLE installed version (2.4.28) again! In stead of the brew 2.4.38.
I recognize the frustration.

But it turns out that the pages in the localhost url are served by the new apache!

To show the OSX apache version:

Terminal input: /usr/sbin/apachectl -v

Server version: Apache/2.4.28 (Unix)
Server built:   Oct 29 2017 19:28:54

And to see the brew version:

Terminal input: /usr/local/bin/apachectl -v

Server version: Apache/2.4.38 (Unix)
Server built:   Feb 10 2019 02:49:25

And for php:
Just type in terminal : which -a php
My mac shows:

/usr/bin/php

/usr/local/bin/php

And to show the php versions just use this:

Terminal input: /usr/bin/php -v

shows the OSX build in version:
PHP 5.6.30 (cli) (built: Oct 29 2017 20:30:32)
Copyright © 1997-2016 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v2.6.0, Copyright © 1998-2016 Zend Technologies

And terminal input: /usr/local/bin/php -v

Will show the brew version:
PHP 7.3.2 (cli) (built: Feb 14 2019 10:09:47) ( NTS )
Copyright © 1997-2018 The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.3.2, Copyright © 1998-2018 Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.3.2, Copyright © 1999-2018, by Zend Technologies


How to disable the play button of an Apple Remote in OSX?

First, make sure you have the "Enable Apple remote plugin" box checked under settings. Also, make sure under Action settings> settings for predefined actions you have the right remote type selected. Then, simply create a new trigger with the remote's play button and no action. It should disable the remote. (You may have to restart both keynote and better touch tool for the effect to take place)


Number keys on the Numeric Keypad part of the Magic Keyboard don't work with Terminal

Keypad Application Mode
Terminals have a feature named Keypad Application Mode (the mnemonic for the command that enables it is DECKPAM).
When Keypad Application Mode is enabled the numeric-keypad keys send function-key escape sequences so they can be differentiated from the digit keys along the top of the main keyboard and used to perform other functions (e.g., cursor movement, scrolling, editing text).
This mode is described in the DEC VT100 terminal user guide here:
DECKPAM – Keypad Application Mode
The input sequences are described in tables 3-7 and 3-8. (The specific sequences depend on other terminal state.)
Overriding to Enter Decimal Digits
Typically, a Num Lock key can be used to override this mode to enter digit characters, and several terminal emulators have a preference to ignore this mode and always send digits.
Since not all keyboards have a Num Lock key, macOS Terminal—for example—also has a Num Lock menu item and by default it maps the keypad Clear key (which is physically located where Num Lock often is) to Num Lock. The Num Lock menu item also has the keyboard shortcut Command-Clear ⌘⌧ to make it available from the keyboard if the Terminal keyboard-map preference has been customized and Clear does not map to Num Lock.
Programs That Cause Problems
By default, Vim enables Keypad Application Mode but does not map the function-key input to anything, which means that the trailing part of the function-key escape sequences are entered as text. Similarly, the Zsh “Oh My Zsh” collection may enable this mode without mapping the keys to something useful.
In programs like these you may see text entered or the program may beep and/or enter nothing. As far as I am aware this should be considered a bug in the program that enables the mode.


Here's one way. We set a variable called "the_phone_number" to some value, then pick off the last three characters. You can probably tell by inspection that it would be easy to modify this script to get the last four, or last two, or whatever.

set the_phone_number to "424-354-3548"
set the_last_three to characters -3 thru -1 of the_phone_number as string


For tabs to work in all situations, you need to enable them in System Preferences->Dock (set the appropriate option to "always"). Afterwards, you can (in Mail) select "File -- New window" or press Opt-Cmd-N to create a new tab.


Launch of terminal after system login takes around 60 sec, is there a way to speed it up?

Do you have several apps that launch during login? This could cause the delay you are experiencing. Go to system Preferences and click on Users and Groups. Once this opens click on the tab "Login Items" and you see a panel that looks like the following:

The app names that show up in the window are apps that are set o launch at login. The can prevent these from starting up by selecting one of the names and click the minus sign in the +- box indicated in the image. Removing many of these will speed up you login time.

If you do this be sure to unlock this panel by clicking on the "lock" icon so your changes will be saved.


Can you buy Apple Care from eBay after purchase iPhone?

Caveat Emptor

You might be buying a sealed, boxed product at a reasonable price…
…only to discover it's only valid in Outer Mongolia.

Different countries have different statutory requirements & Applecare varies country to country.

I'd be more circumspect.

Read this before even considering it - https://www.apple.com/support/products/iphone.html
but make sure to swap to your own country via the flag icon in the very bottom right corner of the page before reading it.


Applescript is inexplicably failing in Big Sur

I don’t have TextExpander or BetterTouchTool so I could not test exactly how you needed it to be tested.  However, I made a few small tweaks to your code and I saved the script to the Script Menu Bar and ran it from there several times while working in several different applications. I got no errors on my end.
If your only reason for using ”System Events” is to make sure the application you were working in at that moment, when running your code, remains front most after your dialog window disappears… then all you need to do is insert an activate command before your display dialog command.  This will bring the dialog window to the front then when it gets dismissed, the current application you were working in remains front most.  If so, using ”System Events” is not necessary at all.
-- Get the raw numbers from the user
activate
set raw_timecode to text returned of ¬
    (display dialog "Timecode" default answer "")

-- Set the default variables
set user_timecode to "" as string
set rt_length to the length of raw_timecode

--Check to see if the TC field is blank
if raw_timecode = "" then set raw_timecode to "01000000"

--Parse the user supplied numbers and replace any "." with "00"
repeat with n from 1 to rt_length
    if character n of raw_timecode = "." then
        set user_timecode to user_timecode & "00" as text
    else
        set user_timecode to user_timecode & character n of raw_timecode as text
    end if
end repeat

--Set to 00:00:00:00 if only digit is 0
if user_timecode = "0" then
    set base_timecode to "00000000"
else
    set base_timecode to "01000000"
end if

set x to the length of user_timecode

-- Trim extra digits off base timecode
if x = 8 and user_timecode ≠ "0" then
    set raw_timecode to user_timecode as string
else
    repeat while (length of base_timecode) + (length of user_timecode) > 8
        try
            set base_timecode to characters 1 thru -(x + 1) of base_timecode as string
            set raw_timecode to base_timecode & user_timecode as string
        on error
            display dialog "Invalid timecode"
            error number -128
        end try
    end repeat
end if
set new_timecode to characters 1 thru 2 of raw_timecode & ":" & ¬
    characters 3 thru 4 of raw_timecode & ":" & characters 5 thru 6 of ¬
    raw_timecode & ":" & characters 7 thru 8 of raw_timecode as text

--set the clipboard to new_timecode
activate
display dialog new_timecode buttons {"OK"} giving up after 6
return new_timecode


Why there is a black spot in the display of my iMac?

Gotcha! the black spot is actually dead pixels. I had an Apple Engineer to diagnose the display who said this is an obvious thing to happen and it doesn't happens because of daily usage. So I asked him why does this happens, he said that Apple has the tendency to reuse old and thrown out refurbished, recycled displays which is why sometimes these displays fitted into a brand new $1000 iMac shows these black spots/smudges specially in areas where the speakers are located!


To disable Kerberos, open Terminal at Mac mini and enter the following command:

sudo sso_util remove -k -a username -p password -r YOUR.KERBEROS.REALM

Replace username, password with the user name and password of the Open Directory administrator (user/password with admin rights on Mac mini). It seems that YOUR.KERBEROS.REALM is "LKDC".

The Open Directory Overview pane of Server Admin (at Mac mini) should show the Kerberos service status as stopped.

Source


Is it possible to compile and run an Xcode project on a jailbroken device without a paid developer certificate?

The following instructional steps to accomplish this purpose are taken from:
http://iphonedevwiki.net/index.php/Xcode

My findings and actions are provided under each step.

1. Create a self-signed code-signing certificate with the name “iPhone Developer” on the “login” (default) keychain using Keychain Access.

I took screenshots as I followed the above instruction.
I left most fields blank or at their default value.

2. Open /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Info.plist (4.2 or below: /Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Info.plist). You may need root permission.

I'm using Xcode 4.6, so I opened the former .plist file.

3. Replace all occurrences of XCiPhoneOSCodeSignContext by XCCodeSignContext. There are three of them (XCode Version 3.2.4+).

I made three modifications as the screenshots indicate.

4. Save the file and restart Xcode.

Saved the file.

5. Make sure you have ldid on your Mac. Place a copy somewhere e.g. in /usr/local/bin.

I downloaded ldid from http://code.google.com/p/networkpx/downloads/detail?name=ldid
I put it in /usr/local/bin.

6. Create the a Python script ldid3.py right next to the ldid program. Make it executable. Fill it with:

#!/usr/bin/env python

from sys import argv
from subprocess import check_call
from os.path import basename, dirname, splitext, join
from tempfile import NamedTemporaryFile

app = argv[-1]
ldid_path = join(dirname(__file__), 'ldid')
obj_path = join(app, splitext(basename(app))[0])

if '-gta' not in argv:
    check_call([ldid_path, '-S', obj_path])
else:
    with NamedTemporaryFile('w+b', 0) as f:
        f.write("""
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>get-task-allow</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>
        """)
        check_call([ldid_path, '-S' + f.name, obj_path])

I created a new plain text file and copy-pasted the above code into it.
I saved this file as ldid3.py and stored it in the /usr/local/bin directory.
In terminal, ran chmod 777 /usr/local/bin/ldid3.py.

7. Open iPhoneCodeSign.xcspec. This file can be found in [For Xcode 4.6: /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Specifications/iPhoneCodeSign.xcspec]:

8. Change the entry in the file from calling codesign to ldid3.py.

As per instruction official instruction, converted the spec file to plain text by typing in console: sudo plutil -convert xml1 /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneOS.platform/Developer/Library/Xcode/Specifications/iPhoneCodeSign.xcspec
I opened the file with TextEdit.
Replaced <key>CommandLine</key><string>/usr/bin/codesign</string> with <key>CommandLine</key><string>/usr/local/bin/ldid3.py</string>.

9. Save the file and restart Xcode.

I saved the file and quit TextEdit.

10. Create a file /var/mobile/tdmtanf on the device, to enable Apple's "TDMTANF bypass" in installd (warning: doing so will also put you in a sandboxed GameCenter).

I create an empty text file in Windows, named it tdmtanf, SSH'd into my iPod, uploaded it to /var/mobile/, and reboot my iPod.

Now that all that is over with...

I open my existing Xcode project and hit Run. It works in the iOS Simulator without any problems.

I make sure that Code Signing is set to use the certificate set up in step 1.

I build the app (Project > Build). A success message follows.

I grab my app folder TicTacToe.app from /Libary/Developer/Xcode/DerivedData/TicTacToe-cjgzmoxtflyegtfypsbxbuiuwxns/Build/Products/Debug-iphoneos/ and transfer it to my Windows machine to install onto my iPod.

In an attempt to install the app to my iPod, I drag TicTacToe.app onto the applications section of iPhone Configuration Utility, but I received this error message saying that my app "is not a valid mobile application."

I have also tried manually installing the app using iFunbox and the AppCake app found in Cydia. Both fail.

As a point of interest, because as I've Googled around, I've noticed many people mention the importance of this: I do have AppSync installed. (Sorry for the huge screenshot. If I should take it down, please let me know!)

Conclusion

So despite following the instructions closely, several times, my app is not recognized by iPhone Configuration Utility as a valid app. I cannot install the app manually using programs like iFunbox, or Cydia apps like AppCake.

I suspect the app is indeed invalid, but having followed the instructions carefully, I'm not sure why.

Can anyone tell me why my app is not valid, and what I can do to fix this, besides coughing up money that is?


Mac keyboard shortcut to open recently closed pdf file on preview

My question is if there is a keyboard shortcut to open a recently closed preview file?

The following was tested in macOS Catalina 10.15.6 and worked for me while Preview has focus. (No third-party applications needed.)
If you just want to open the most recently closed document in Preview, then the following example AppleScript code used in a Run AppleScript action in an Automator Service/Quick Action and assigned a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services can do it.

In the Run AppleScript action in the Automator Service/Quick Action, replace the default AppleScript code with the following example AppleScript code:

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    click first menu item of ¬
        menu 1 of menu item "Open Recent" of ¬
        menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of ¬
        menu bar 1 of application process "Preview"

If you want to choose from the Open Recent menu in Preview, then the following example AppleScript code used in a Run AppleScript action in an Automator Service/Quick Action workflow and assigned a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services can do it.

In the Run AppleScript action in the Automator Service/Quick Action, replace the default AppleScript code with the following example AppleScript code:

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    set OpenRecentMenuList to ¬
        get name of menu items of ¬
            menu 1 of menu item "Open Recent" of ¬
            menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of ¬
            menu bar 1 of application process "Preview"

if the number of items in OpenRecentMenuList is greater than 2 then
    set OpenRecentList to items 1 thru -3 of OpenRecentMenuList
else
    display dialog "The Open Recent menu is empty." buttons {"OK"} default button 1
    return
end if

set menuItem to (choose from list OpenRecentList) as string

if menuItem is "false" then return

tell application "System Events" to ¬
    click menu item menuItem of ¬
        menu 1 of menu item "Open Recent" of ¬
        menu 1 of menu bar item "File" of ¬
        menu bar 1 of application process "Preview"

I assigned the following keyboard shortcut to the Automator Service/Quick Action in: System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services

Note: The usual security caveats apply. Permissions will need to be granted as prompted and or required in: System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy >

The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted.


After a bit of investigation, I realise this was mostly a misunderstanding:

reordering the categories doesn't affect what gets chosen as "top hit"
the "web searches" are not "web pages". Web searches are always shown.

So: Spotlight preferences are taken into account, they just don't affect those two things.


If you are using Adium, you can send the current Safari link by clicking on the toolbar item "Insert link to active page in Safari" on the chat window with a contact.

If you need to send it directly from Safari, you may need to create an automator action or applescript service.


Try to delete it directly on your iPod.
It may be in the Podcasts app (Downloads tab) if the podcast's download is still not finished, or in the Music app (Podcasts tab). To delete a podcast, you just have to swipe left or right on it.

PS: Unfortunately, I don't know what iOS version do you have installed and I cannot comment to specify this, so I have written these tips for iOS 5.


Found the answer:

Go to Play -> Record Slideshow.
Go to File -> Export To -> QuickTime -> Slideshow Recording.


What is the Apple Watch to iphone pairing animation called?

I don't think it has a public, catchy "name" as such. Apple seems to refer to it is as an "optical label", but that is a very generic term.

The technology can be thought of very much like an animated QR-code. The main principle of data encoding is very much like QR-codes, but obviously with the difference that as time goes forward, the displayed data changes as an animation.

In addition there seems to be the use of a neat trick with two different colors shown in quick alternation, which makes it possible for Apple to "hide" or make less obvious the clues that are used for the receiver of the data to synchronize with the signal (i.e. figure out where the boundaries of the encoded data is).

With a traditional QR code these sync markers are much more evident as they are big black square boxes with white borders that are set different places in the code to make it easy for the receiver to figure out what's encoded data, and what's not part of the code.

You can learn more from Apple's patent applications:

US Patent 9,022,291

US Patent 9,022,292


How do I search PDFs in Acrobat in Safari using command-f, without an extra buttom press?

You are oping the PDF files using the Safari PDF reader.

You need the AdobePDFViewer.plugin to replace the Safari build in PDF reader.

Here are the instructions how to do that.

Update:

Based on our discussion and your very specific needs here is a proposal.

Reassign the Safari default for "Find" keyboard short cut.

Open sys pref- keyboard - shortcuts.

Click on app shortcut

Select Safari

Type "Find..." (the 3 dots are important)

Select new short cut "shift + cmd + F"

Now when you use the "cmd -F" only Adobe search will show

When you use the shift- cmd -F the Safari search will show up.


How can I add a second Twitter account to iOS Contacts/iCloud?

It is possible to assign multiple twitter ids to a contact. You have 2 ways of achieving this. Through iOS or through the Address Book app on Mac OS.

On iOS 5 you can add multiple Twitter accounts to a contact on the device like this:

Chose a contact
Edit
Add field ...
Select Twitter
Enter the twitter account

When you already have a Twitter account field you can't add another one like this anymore. Instead you will have to do as follow:

Under the Twitter field you will see an empty field for Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace or Flickr
select this empty field's name and chose Twitter
Enter the additional Twitter account

You can repeat this procedure for additional accounts.

This doesn't seem very intuitive at first, but it looks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace and Flickr are simply subcategories for a dedicated "social network" field and are managed just like other multiple entries fields on the device:

email -> work, home...
url -> home page, home, work, other...
date -> anniversary, other

On Mac OS using the Address Book Application.
Select the contact you want to edit, edit it.

To to the menu Card -> Add Field -> Twitter ...
And add the twitter account.

Repeat as many times as needed.

Your contacts will sync shortly afterward.


Is there an app for manage documents for OS X?

The closest analog I know of for general purpose document organizing in an "everything box" similar to iPhoto/iTunes would be Yojimbo.

http://www.barebones.com/products/Yojimbo/

It lets you catalog and organize information in quite powerful ways. Also check out Evernote if you want files to be in the cloud and don't already use a service for syncing. I've heard Together is also worth investigating but never really known anyone that used it or tried it myself.

Finder is capable of using tags and smart searches, but most people that are inclined to do that have already come up with a folder hierarchy that uses the filesystem for storage and spotlight for indexing files. It really depends on how much time you want to invest in cataloging and the volume and type of files you are organizing.


Is it possible to make "Look Up" appear higher in Spotlight?

You might consider Alfred for your searches. It's not only an improvement over Spotlight for local searches (using Spotlight indexes) because it learns your frequent searches, it's extremely malleable.

Here's Alfred's preference pane that shows control of searches that use OS X's built in dictionary:

Here's what it looks like to search for a word. You can set Alfred up to come up with Command/Space or you can keep Spotlight active and bring it up with an alternative like Option/Space.

In my case, I type Option/Space and the word "define" and then the word I want to define (which I've left blank here). You can see the Dictionary comes up in the search results by default because "define" triggers it:

Alfred is a spectacular product and it's quite stable and free (you do not need the Power Pack extension to look up words). I think it will solve the lookup problem and become useful to you for many other things.


Did you try using static DNS servers on your Mac instead of fetching them from DHCP server? You can try Google DNS which is 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4


Use Mail app for mailto links but not receive?

Use RCDefaultApp to configure your default Mailer.
It installs as a Control Panel.


Yosemite - Make Safari tab font bold or bigger

As Yosemite user, I understand your problem. What you could try to do to improve readability is to install good old Lucida Grande font as system:
project page on Github

It worked fine for me.


Get the Google Meet mute mic keyboard shortcut working in Safari 14?

You just need to remove the unwanted command by replacing it with 'garbage' - something you don't already use or need...

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts
Click + then add the name of your desired app.
Type the exact name of the menu item you wish to replace[1]
Add a garbage command [anything will do, so long as it's not going to conflict anywhere else]

[1] This is especially important if the menu ends in an ellipsis … which typographically is not the same as three full stops ...
There is no need to specify any menu/sub-menu structure, no matter how far down the hierarchy your menu item may be - it will always find it using just the actual item name.
If you have two menu items with the same name but in different sub-menus, you can differentiate by giving the actual menu path using -> as the sub-menu indicator, eg
File->Open->Open Special Name


Messages in iCloud Won’t Delete from macOS

As of macOS 10.13.5 High Sierra, it appears you need to disable Save history when conversations are closed for message deletion to function as advertised over iCloud.

To do this, open Messages, then from the menu bar navigate to Messages → Preferences… → General. Uncheck this box:

It’s unclear whether this is the expected behavior, but it sure looks like a bug.


Where did "URL Access Scripting.app" go in Lion?

Apple eliminated URL Access Scripting.app in Lion for unknown reasons, and obviously hasn't released any documentation on why they did so or workarounds. Additionally, if you copy over the app, it will appear but it still won't work.

Likely the best workaround until documentation is released (although I wouldn't be surprised to see others recommend this) is to change your scripts to use curl. Editing the scripts should be fairly simple, and curl is actually quite reliable and useful.

If you don't know curl, you should be able to figure it out fairly quickly, it's nothing too challenging. Here is an example of a script that was converted (by another user) to curl. My apologies if it isn't exactly the same as your scripts, but you should be able to get a few ideas from the block of code.

-- Using URL Access Scripting
set myFile to ((path to temporary items) as string) & "url_access_file.xml"
tell application "URL Access Scripting"
download "http://whateverlink.com" to file myFile
end tell

-- Using curl
set myFile to (POSIX path of (path to temporary items)) & "curl_file.xml"
do shell script "curl -L " & "http://whateverlink.com" & " -o " & myFile


How can Skype track downloaded file on the file system?

I don't use Skype but I suspect the fact it came from Skype is stored in one of two places. To find out, copy a Skype download to your Home directory and start Terminal. If your file is called, say, photo.jpg, you would run:

mdls photo.jpg

to list the metadata and something in there will refer to Skype or its bundle identifier.

Alternatively, run:

xattr -l photo.jpg

and see if Skype is listed in its WhereFrom attribute.


What's the horizontal sync and vertical refresh values for the June 2012 MBP 13" display?

I was able to get these values by booting into the Linux partition (which somehow managed to get the correct resolution by itself!) and using the following cmd in terminal (requires super):

get-edid | parse-edid

I was expecting a range of values, e.g. 60.0 - 75.0, but got the exact values - vfreq 60.223Hz and hfreq 50.949Hz.

This should be available via a live-CD/usb too.


How to switch window with swiss german keyboard?

Never mind, I just figured it out by myself:

It turns out, on swiss german keyboards, the shortcut for cycling through windows is not command + tilde but instead command + backtick. The backtick is on the same key as caret, which is the first key to the left of the backspace key. Therefore, I need to press:

command + shift + ^


Software to increase my volume on iPod nano 6th gen?

I don't know of any software that can change the volume but you could use Apple Earphones with Remote to change the volume even though the buttons don't work.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB770G/B

I also found this, a remote that can be used with any headphones:

iLuv Universal Headphone Remote For iPod


MacBook Pro 15-inch booting halts and its screen becomes green

Normally when a problem is not occurring when booted into Safe Mode, but occurs when booting normally, it's time to investigate login items, fonts, and kernel extensions.

Based on what you've already tried, your scenario seems a little different to this, so I'd try creating a new additional Admin account to see if you can log into this normally.

Create an additional Admin account

You can do this by tricking your MBP into thinking it's being set up as new:

Boot into Single User Mode by restarting your Mac and pressing and holding ⌘ + S as soon as you hear the startup chime
Keep these keys down until you see a black screen with white text
Mount your drive by typing in /sbin/mount -uw / and then pressing the enter key
Remove the Apple Setup Done file by typing in
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and then pressing the enter key
Now reboot your MBP by typing in reboot and then pressing the enter key
Follow the prompts to complete the setup process and create a new admin account

Once you've done the above, try starting up and logging in as the new admin user and let me know what happens.

Reset the NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). It may be worth you also resetting this. Here’s how to do this on your particular MacBook Pro model:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again (i.e. a 2nd time) and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Let me know what happens.


Let's start with the obvious.

A song is considered played once the reproduction ends. It does not matter if you've listened to all of it or just skipped to the last second of the song, once the song automatically changes to the next one (or ends the reproduction list), the play count is incremented.

Now, the less obvious:

If a song is skipped in it's first 10 seconds, the skip count is incremented. If the song is skipped when the are 10 seconds remaining for the song to end, the play count is incremented. If you skip the song in between, nor the skip nor the play count is incremented.

The skip can triggered by either using the left arrow key, pressing the fast forward key or just selecting a different song a hitting enter.


Is there a problem with closing the lid of a MacBook Pro when using an external monitor?

Clamshell Mode

What you are describing when you operate your Mac laptop (Macbook/Pro/Air) is called closed clamshell mode or closed display mode.

In this Apple Support Article:  Use your Mac notebook computer in closed-display mode with an external display it goes into detail on what the requirements are and how your Mac will function depending on the version of OS X you are running.

But basically, you can hook up an external mouse, keyboard and display and use it like a desktop.  As far as what you can do with your Mac, pretty much anything you can do with it open, you can do with it closed

Ventilation

The vents on your Macbook are located in the rear and along the bottom - they are not obstructed when the lid is closed.

How heat gets dissipated is more determinant on where it's placed rather than if it's open or closed...

  Where you use the system may affect fan behavior and heat as well.
  Using the computer on a soft surface like a couch, pillow, bed, or
  your lap can trap heat requiring higher fan activity. Using the
  computer on a hard flat surface like a table or desk allows for
  optimal radiation of heat.

The vents are located along the back, not under the keyboard:

  Mac computers have air vents that allow heated air to exit. The vents
  are in the back of the computer on the MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook
  Pro, and Mac Pro computers. iMac (Mid 2012 and later) models vent
  along the bottom edge of the computer. Make sure the vents remain
  unblocked to allow your computer to perform at its best.

There is also no need to continually monitor the temperature of your machine.  The only time you need to do this is if you are having a problem like it's slowing down significantly or shutting down unexpectedly.

  The System Management Controller (SMC) firmware on every Mac
  manages the thermal conditions of the computer regardless of the
  operating system.

Basically, if your Mac gets "too hot" it will automatically shut it down to protect itself.  But before that happens, it will slow everything down to a crawl.

Source:  Apple Support - Learn about the fans in your Mac


No. Apple uses special blade SSDs. There are some aftermarket blades made/sold by manufacturers such as OWC. Please pay attention to get the correct blade. They differ from the blades for the MBP 2012.


Why are new Apps only compatible with the latest version(s) of Mac OS X & not backward comatible with earlier versions of the Operating System?

The main reason is that the OS changes. This means that there are new functions that are available in the new OS to the developer. If the developer makes use of them then it is not possible or at least much harder to write the code to support the OS.

One example is the Mac App Store to be able to use this you need a newish version of SNow Leopard and it is not possible to provide a way to use in in Leopard.

So a developer has to make a choice, provide some functionality that only works on a new OS or write code much more quickly that only runs (or is tested under the new OS) or invest time (and thus money) in supporting the old OS but make the app available to more users.


Troubles install Xcode 5 on Mountain Lion

I had a similar problem with one of the Xcode 4 versions.  What worked for me was to log in to Apple Developer Network (this will work with your free developer account login), at https://developer.apple.com/xcode/

Although that page says to get the most recent version of Xcode at the App store, there is a link that says "For past versions of Xcode or additional tools -- view downloads".

Click the downloads link
Unselect all of the checkboxes on the left except "Developer Tools", type "xcode" in the box at the top of the left column, and hit Enter
The top result will be Xcode 5 - click the disclosure triangle to view the download link for it.
Download the .dmg, double-click on it to mount it and run the installer

Note that the downloads page says that Xcode 5 requires OS X 10.8.4.

As I mentioned, this worked for me when the App Store locked me out with one of the Xcode 4 versions.  If this happened to you, please leave a comment indicating whether this solution works for you.


Finding Rosetta / PPC applications on disk

Bring up System Profiler (System Information in OS X Lion) -OR- go to Apple, About This Mac and click on the More Info... button.  If in Lion, click on the File, Show System Report menu.  In the left sidebar choose Applications under the Software section and sort by the Kind column. Now just find the applications that are PowerPC.


It is not necessary to be in possession of the lock code to erase the iPhone, since a DFU restore can be performed at any time (until iOS 12 restricts USB access after 1 hour since last unlock).

Activation Lock will remain if the device is still in your iCloud account's Find My iPhone, but it seems you've already removed it otherwise you could use the Erase iPhone feature remotely.


Where does the pmset CPU_Speed_Limit variable come from, and how to modify it

I cannot find out how to alter the CPU_Speed_Limit variable.

You can't.
It's not a variable in the sense that modifying it will increase/decrease your performance.  It's more of an indicator as to what the limit is currently; it's similar to your battery's current charge status - what it is at the time it was measured.
As correctly stated in the comments, your Mac will limit performance when the battery is missing: Broken battery - downgraded performance
Unfortunately, you'll just have to wait until the replacement battery arrives and you install it to regain full performance from your Mac.


Can I plug two external monitors in to a MacBook Pro?

In order to attach two or three monitors, you could use a third party device like Matrox GXM (Graphics eXpansion Modules) - you can connect two or three monitors from your Display Port, however, there are some limitations (like the OS does not know natively that there are two or three monitors connected and treats it like one). The price is about $350 for the Tripplehead and around $220 for the Dualhead one.

Here is the GXM homepage.


MacBook Pro: "Zero bytes left on iCloud" even after upgrading storage plan

After restarting for a couple of more times, the issue resolved for me.


The easiest way to do it is make your edits to one photo, then save the adjustments (I think it's called save as preset in the menu), then select all your photos and apply your saved adjustments.


You might also use fdupes. It doesn't have an option to search for duplicates of a specific file, but you can just grep the output for the filename:

fdupes -r1 .|grep filename

-r recurses into directories and -1 prints each group of duplicate files on a single line.

Other useful examples:

fdupes -r .  finds all duplicate files under the current directory;

fdupes -r . -dN  deletes all except the first duplicate from each group of duplicates;

fdupes -r dir1 dir2|grep dir1/|xargs rm removes duplicates in dir1.

You can install fdupes with brew install fdupes.


How do I make subtitles / captions in Final Cut Pro?

There are two different ways to do this - the way you are doing it, and the other is by using a text track in QuickTime.

The advantages of the way you are doing it:

You get more exact control over the font
You can ensure they show up
It works 100% of the time.

The advantages of doing it the other way (with a text track in QuickTime):

The captions are optional, and can be turned on or off by the viewer.
A single video file can be captioned in different languages, and those captions can be selected by the user.


Since Mavericks, iBooks is the app that handles the books/PDFs, you can "add to library" the books right from the old iTunes folder, and then sync to your iPad.

It offers features to handle books that iTunes didn't, such as adding categories and organizing from the application on the Mac, instead of doing it from your iPad.


When looking in "All My Files", I see multiple instances of the same file

Do you have an external (or network) Time Machine drive set up? If so it is possible that you are seeing the backed up copies of your files.

Open System Preferences and click on the Spotlight icon and then the Privacy tab. Click the "+" button at the bottom of that window and add the Time Machine drive(s). You can then quit out of System preferences.

Something similar was happening to me where I was getting seemingly duplicate items in searches. Excluding my Time Machine drive eliminated that issue.

Just realize that now if you need a file from a Time Machine backup you cant just search for it, you'll have to enter Time Machine to find the file.


How to move a window to another space without using the mouse?

While dragging a window, press key combo to move window to numbered space:

Control + 1
Control + 2
Control + 3
etc ...

EDIT: For Lion, I had to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Mission Control and enable these hotkeys.


MacBook Pro Late-2013 SD card reader not loading cards after 10.10.2 update

The first step is to open system information and see if anything shows for that device.

Next would be to install a clean OS on to a USB drive or back up and erase the Mac / reinstall the OS. You could try a safe boot, but I've not seen that make any difference for the SD card slot even though it could help if you had an oddball kernel extension conflict.

Also, be sure to test your SD cards on another computer or reader as it would be a shame to have that be the issue and have to restore a backup to find out that was the issue.


App to remember open app/file & browser window and their placement

Safari can save all open tabs from a single window & reopen them with one click. Bookmarks Menu->'Add Bookmarks for these n Tabs'.

Not certain for other apps, though as a workaround you could save copies of open documents all to the same project folder & reopen from there.