This is a bug introduced in iTunes 12.2 at the end of June.  It appears that iTunes has done some sort of averaging of track ratings and written them as album ratings overwriting the original per-track ratings.

I've seen this issue with my library of approximately 100,000 tracks and have filed a bug report with Apple in Radar. Removing the album rating data is difficult as iTunes won't reliably show this data in smart playlists and many of the utilities that try to do mass change operations fail when setting this attribute.

The tool I've been using to slowly clean it up is Doug Adam's "Album Rating Reset."  This only works on one album at a time, but if you really care about your ratings, you're going to want to clean this up very carefully to avoid damaging any of your remaining per-track ratings.

I should add that I was also able to restore a number of the lost per-track items by restoring a pre-iTunes 12.2 library to a separate user account , confirmed that the ratings will still present and then used the commercial SuperSync utility to transfer the ratings from the old library to my latest 12.2.2 library using the metadata transfer tool.

What a hassel!  I hope sharing some of my tools helps you with your carefully crafted library.


How to install Monkeysphere on OSX El Capitan

I got it working like this

#configure perl
sudo perl -MCPAN -e shell
perl> o conf init
#update perl (this takes a while)
sudo perl -MCPAN -e 'install Bundle::CPAN'
#link openssl
brew link openssl --force
#installing this dependency that monkeysphere was originally complaining about
cpan -i Crypt::OpenSSL::Bignum
#installing monkeysphere
brew install monkeysphere


How could one make an automator script to restore all hidden windows quickly?

This AppleScript should restore all hidden windows.

The first action unhides any hidden programs. The second action restarts the Dock, which has the effect of un-minimizing any windows minimized to the Dock.

tell application "System Events"
    set the visible of every process to true
    do shell script "killall -HUP Dock"
end tell

If you particularly want an Automator workflow, give it one action: Run AppleScript, and assign this AppleScript.


How to display (small) image previews at actual size?

You can press the space bar to open Quicklook; it opens quite fast, and you can still use the arrow buttons to navigate through your images.


Will updating my MacBook Pro to OSX Yosemite delete/ruin my current files on desktop

It probably won't, but just to be safe, it never hurts to take a backup! Take a Time Machine backup of your hard drive, and then upgrade. Worst-case scenario, you lose your Xcode files, in which case you can just wipe your hard drive and restore from the backup.


Automator service script ALWAYS launches application, disregarding conditional

El-Capitans security restrictions are NOT responsible for erroneous behaviour above. I tested the script some more and found that:

Any "is running"-phrase needs to have a short "delay" in front of it to  reliably return a true answer ... but still won't do so if called as an app's service.
Furthermore I guess that Automator scripts are somehow "pre-processed" before being run as Services.
All if-branches are evaluated (played through) and thereby activated "just in case".

In jweaks code at stackoverflow, iTerm is only affected directly in the 2nd clause ("tell ...").

tell application "System Events" to set theProcesses to name of every ¬
    every process whose visible is true

if theProcesses contains "iTerm" then display notification "running"
else [...]

Try this code in ScriptEditor, Automator and as Service in Safari:

display notification "" & running of application "TextEdit"
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
quit application "TextEdit"
display notification "" & running of application "TextEdit"

You will get different results from AppleScript/Automator (=> false + true) and Safari (true + true).
Especially AppleScript/Automator's true from the 2nd notification is quite telling.

... however, if you insert just a minute delay, say 0.01, after the "quit" line, running will be tested as "false" - if the script is run from within AppleScript/Automator.


How do I set an animated GIF as my desktop wallpaper?

You can use Mojave's dynamic wallpaper. macOS doesn't natively support animated GIFs as wallpapers.

However you can use this https://lifehacker.com/set-an-animated-gif-as-your-macs-wallpaper-1756859302
but at the cost of a shorter battery life for a wallpaper that you probably wouldn't see in action because you got windows all over.

Your case is more like needing a really thin phone(GIF) which you are gonna cover with a case(windows) anyways.


Damaged and can't be open app error message

In Terminal, run "xattr -rc /Volumes/Application.app", that should fix it (naturally, replace "/Volumes/Application.app" with your actual application path. No need to disable GateKeeper.


Possible duplicate of this answered question.

The solution seems to remap all keyboards with KeyRemap4MacBook and then remap just the internal keyboard with standard keyboard preferences pane. (not tested by myself)


How do I create an automator to forward mail?

There is an easy way to do that right in Gmail. In the settings tab, go to settings and first add a forwarding address under Forwarding and POP/IMAP. Enter the desired forwarding address and confirm it by entering the confirmation code or clicking on the confirmation link. Then go to the Filters and Blocked Addresses tab in settings. On the bottom of the page choose "create a new filter". In the first line enter the email from the certain sender that you would like to forward, then click on "Create filter with this search", which will bring you to the next page. Here check the "Forward it to: choose an address" box, and choose the address.

That should do it. Gmail has great filters for mails
Hope this is helpful, might not be Automator or applescript, but it's right inside gmail, fast and easy... cheers


I put my phone on airplane mode before I sent a text but it's still trying to deliver

Yes, you can simply delete the video message that was in progress of being sent and it will not be delivered.


The keychain may still be using the old password. In order for the act of logging in to unlock your keychain the two (user account and login.keychain) need the same password. I would recommend turning off in Keychain Access the settings that will prompt you to enter your long password. With your login keychain selected on the left, under the Edit menu select "Change Settings for keychain login" and uncheck both boxes.


Calling an app from the terminal via script

That looks like /Applications/MyApp.app doesn't actually exist.

You can test for that in your script, perhaps like this:

#!/bin/sh
APP=/Applications/MyApp.app
if [ ! -d "$APP" ]; then
  echo >&2 "$0: $APP not found."
  exit 1
fi
exec open -a "$APP" "$@"


I'm so happy! I found it and it works great!

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL907

These are the up-to-date HP Printer drivers appearently. If anyone else is having issues with their printer I'd suggest looking on Apple's website.


How do I determine the version of Bluetooth my iPhone supports?

You can search for your iPhone's technical specifications page by model name (like "iPhone SE") on the apple support site. However, make sure you know what generation you are interested in, if that's a thing with your model. I searched for "iphone se technical specifications" on both the support site and the main Apple site and one site gave me info on 1st gen SE, the other on 2nd gen SE (both labelled "iPhone SE").
The resulting spec page has info about the Bluetooth version supported, so I suppose it is determined by the hardware and not on the iOS version.
UPDATE:
It seems you can find a spec page containing bluetooth information on https://everymac.com by searching for the model number "MP8K2LL/A" as well.


ls output does not have color while SSHing to another machine with iTerm2, but does with Terminal

ls output with colors (ls -G) is not the default option. Run the following command in your terminal to enable ls colors by default:

echo "alias ls='ls -G'" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

This and all future terminal sessions will now display colors correctly.

If you're still not seeing colors on your remote (or local) session follow these steps:

In iTerm verify that you're sending a terminal type that supports colors. Open the preferences window -> Profiles -> Default -> Terminal. I'd recommend putting xterm-256color as the Terminal Type.

While connected to the remote machine, run ls -G and open the iTerm preferences again: preferences window -> profiles -> Default -> Colors. Adjust the ANSI Colors, and turn the minimum contrast down until the colors in the terminal window start to show color.

If the remote system supports ls --color=always, remove any existing aliases in ~/.profile or ~/.bashrc and update as follows:

echo "alias ls='ls --color=always'" >> ~/.bashrc


Which is the earliest Apple TV that can mirror an iPad?

The Apple TV 2 is the earliest Apple TV that supports AirPlay Mirroring, being the earliest Apple TV capable of installing Software Update 4.4, which added the feature.

  AirPlay Mirroring: Wirelessly stream what's on your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen to your HDTV.

https://support.apple.com/kb/HT202157


How to share my music with my kid's iTunes?

In terms of technology, the files you're talking about don't have DRM, so you can simply copy them to your son's computer. You don't say what kind of devices either of you are using, but you can right-click songs in iTunes and choose Show in Finder/Windows Explorer to see where your music files are located. Then you can transfer these files to your son using the same methods as any other files.

But whether it is legal to do that depends on where you live and other factors, and in some cases it may be a grey area. I just want to be clear that I can give you technical advice, but I can't give you legal advice. I am not suggesting that you break any the laws where you live.


Why?

All OS since Snow Leopard are 64 bit only.


Modify private.xml and add:

<item>
   <name>F1 Safari</name>
   <identifier>f1_safari</identifier>
   <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::F1, KeyCode::VK_OPEN_URL_APP_Safari</autogen>
</item>

Then enable it in Change Key. Depending on your settings (Consumer Keys or F1-F12 for the F-keys) in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard -> F-key behavior you may have to hit the fn-key also.


I've taken a screenshot, how do I edit it?

There is a default application named Preview in OS-X for editing images.

If you created any screen shots, just open that screenshot image in Preview application and you can see the edit toolbar to edit the image.


How do I install Linux on an Intel iMac with no OS nor CD drive

Looks like you have all you will need already, you were just missing the following bits of information.

You should checkout a Ubuntu instructions for Intel Macs, so no need to worry about a BIOS your running EFI. Ubuntu for Intel Macs and additionally the Ubuntu Intel Mac CommunityHelpPages looks to be loaded with lots of resources that you might find helpful.
Since your iMac is an intel one, you can use a standard Ubuntu ISO built for any x86 PC. However since your iMac is a Core Duo it will need a 32bit Ubuntu as noted on Ubuntu's Mac Community documentation.

  ... If you have a Core2 Duo Mac (as oppossed to the Core Duo), it is capable of using the AMD64 (64bit) CD otherwise you have to use the standard version...

The standard version meaning a 32bit version.

Pick and download a 32bit version of Ubuntu , the Mac documentation pages say going with the latest version should be a good move, yet pick which one works best on your iMac, this may require trial and error.
Follow the standard How to create a bootable USB stick on Ubuntu using the Ubuntu ISO you downloaded above.
Boot the iMac with the USB stick inserted, if the iMac does not boot into the Ubuntu installer you may need to reboot and hold down the "option" key, and then selcted the USB stick to continue booting into the Ubuntu installer.


Time Machine Icon on Desktop showing the yellow icon

To fix this I went into Get Info for the external drive and under the "Preview:" section it showed the TM icon, which I clicked and dragged to the top of Get Info and it overlayed the yellow icon.


dyld message when launching commands as sudo

I found out that the warning is generated by the line

source ~/Software/ros/fuerte/ros-stacks/setup.bash

It is a line needed if you have installed ROS.

Commenting the line fixes the problem. However ROS cannot work without this line.


App Store asks me for a password, but won't let me change the Apple ID

It won't let you change it because the apps are tied to the account that purchased them.  See here for the legal details.

Basically, only the original purchaser can update.  If you'd like to be able to keep up-to-date with an application, you must have it tied to your account...by buying/downloading it yourself. If that's the case...

Delete the application

open Finder
select Applications folder in left pane
drag apps tied to the old account to trash

Ensure that the old user is signed out of the Mac App Store
Sign in under an account you control
Purchase/download to your heart's content


You could install OS X Server. Then you will be able to start a ftp server in few clicks.


Is it not possible to use Preview to highlight text or a portion of an image from a screenshot? macOS High Sierra

In a word, no.

While you can annotate anything in Preview.app it does not offer the option (that I have seen) to use translucent lines or shapes. You can change the color to anything your heart desires of both the line, shapes and shape fill but you can't make it transparent.

Not that this applies only to bitmaps like JPG & PNG where you are taking a picture of the screen or downloading a picture of text from somewhere. If you have a PDF that has actual text in it. EG a PDF that you can select and copy text in then, yes, you can highlight portions of the text:

Select the text just like in any word processing program
Go to Tools > Annotate > Highlight Text
Save the PDF

The difference being "a picture of text: no" or "actual text in a PDF: yes."

If you want to "annotate" a screen capture of text you will need to find a program that lets you overlay a transparent colored shape over another picture. I would bet there are a number of shareware/freeware programs (GIMP springs to mind) that would let you do this.


Agree with Tetsujin about doing an SMC reset.
I recently had the same issue - I had hard-powered-off the computer in the middle of booting, and my system would then just remain black-screened at boot.  Resetting the SMC brought everything back to normal (able to do Recovery Mode, Choose Boot Disk or boot from internal drive as usual).

However, for me to reset the System Management Controller (SMC), the procedure was different.
From Apple, for computer without removable battery:

Shut down the computer.
Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to
the Mac if its not already connected.
On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option
keys and the power button at the same time.
Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
Press the power button to turn on the computer.

Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

( SMC reset: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295 )

This immediately solved my booting issues (just last week).  Good luck.


Standard Function keys using External Keyboard on 2016 Macbook Pro (touch)

At least in Sierra 10.12.3, the Keyboard panel of System Preferences has a check box for that which says:

  Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys on external keyboards

  When this option is selected, press the Fn key to use the special features printed on each key


What do I have to take into account if I want to replace my iPod touch with an iPhone?

I've not tried this myself but this guide on ehow.com makes it look fairly simple using iTunes.

Basically as long as the host computer is authorised for iTunes use, you can connect your old iPod, right click on the icon from within iTunes and select Transfer Purchases to get the apps onto iTunes. Then connect the target device and sync the applications to it.


Safari actually has this! Well, sort of.

Just pinch out or hit the "two squares" button to view your tabs in a Cover Flow-like view. On the iPad it will be a grid of cards that sometimes stack and sometimes don't. This also works on the Mac as well.


Deleting mails from Apple Mail Yosemite 10.10.5

Some of it depends on what type of account @outlook.com accounts are but I am quite sure that it would be IMAP. As such, if you delete your messages, it will delete them from your live email account to, which obviously could come with unintended consequences. To avoid that, I would recommend first confirming that messages are only set to download when you click Refresh. As I don't have Outlook I cannot confirm or guide you on how to do that.

After that is set, I would delete the account from Outlook and then re-configure it. Doing so will remove messages from your computer without deleting them from the cloud. You should then be able to send emails as desired.

The other thing to consider is that unless you are running low on disk space, there is no need to worry about having some unneeded messages sitting in your Outlook application. If it were me, I would turn sync to manual and leave them there, likely.

Edit:
It took me awhile to grasp your question, and it looks like I partly failed. It looks like you don't want your messages sitting around in Apple Mail.app. As such, the above would apply. However, OS X does allow you to set default Mail programs and you can likely set Outlook to that function. With that, you could use Outlook as your primary, and only, email client and delete the account from Apple Mail.


Having trouble deleting old Time Machine back-ups after a restore

To see these backups, you need the Browse Other Backup Disks by Alt/Option-clicking the Time Machine icon in your Menubar, or by control-clicking (right-clicking) the Time Machine icon in your Dock.


Why OS X says a low free space, despite having 25GB free?

25GB is not alot of space on a nearly 500GB drive. It seems that OSX has a built-in alert for 5%.

Recall that the operating system needs to rely on the drive being available to manage conditions where there may not be enough memory to complete processes. This is what we call 'virtual memory'. OSX will swap older memory items to the hard drive if needed.

In addition, OSX wants enough space to provide the ability to write all of current memory to the hard drive in case of a power issue, so that you do not lose data due to battery issues. In this case, it needs at least enough space to ensure it can write 4GB/8GB/16GB depending on your RAM size.

All of these items are managed by the OS, and if it detects a condition where it may not be left with enough space on the hard drive to perform its functions, it will alert you the user.


Can't find 'Apps & Data screen > Move Data from Android' option in IPhone XS

The articles you posted are for freshly setting up an iPhone.

You have two solutions:

Transferring your contacts using an account

You can send your contacts through WhatsApp or back them up using Google Cloud.

Set up again

You can return to the setup screen but this will erase all data.

To do this go to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all content and settings


Seeking for some advice of Mac Mini vs Macbook Pro both maxed out specs

The current Macbook Pro 13" (early 2015 model with i7-5557U) is faster than the latest available Mac Mini (late 2014 model with i7-4578U).

On paper the Mac Mini (late 2012 model i7-3720QM) is faster and more easy to upgrade (ram + hard drive) but it's probably not available for purchase any more.  In reality the new Macbook Pro will be much faster because of its insane fast SSD (AND its bus).  Yes you can upgrade the Mini with an SSD but you're still stucked with that bus.

Don't be fooled with the form factor.  Mac Mini's and iMacs basically are laptops in desktop casings.

I'd personally go for the Macbook Pro, any day of the week.  You state you are a notebook guy.  Stick with being one.  On top of that the Macbook potentially has better 2nd hand value if that's important to you.

The new Macbooks (Macbook Air from Mid 2013 and Macbook Pro's from Early 2014) have insane fast SSD's.  Remembering what every forum told thousands of times: if you want to get more speed out of your Mac, upgrade to an SSD before spending money on the RAM.  On a maxed out Macbook Pro you'll have both.


OSX 10.8 - How to keep a custom dock for all users that login

Dug up my notes from when I first modified the user template in our base images.  Ran back through the process, changing the default Dock to have about 15 items, on a fresh Mac and these steps worked.  I did a lot of this from the command line, so as to not fuss with changing/reverting permissions using Finder.

Arrange your Dock however you would like for it to appear on new user accounts, changing the orientation and adding/removing applications.

Browse to ~/Library/Preferences and copy the com.apple.Dock.plist file to your desktop.

Open Terminal and start a root session by typing: sudo -s

Enter your current account's password when prompted

Copy the copy of your modified dock preference file from your desktop to the User Template in your Mac's System folder.: cp ~/Desktop/com.apple.Dock.plist System/Library/User\ Template/English.lproj/Library/Preferences/

That should do the trick.  I tested this on a fresh Mac by logging into both a Guest account and a new (created after the above steps) standard user account, both accounts showed the proper Dock with 15~ items.
It shouldn't be necessary with these steps but if you run into trouble you should verify that the /System/Library/User Template folder has permissions set to: System - Read/Write & Everyone - No access.


Is it possible to install a Safari extension on an iPhone?

Safari on iOS does not support general extensions added to the web browser. Apps on iOS can provide app extensions such as action extensions and share extensions which are supported on iOS, or content blockers, but these frameworks are limited in what access the extension has.


How do I remove a preference (save password) set in the iCloud keychain?

The setting is in Safari, not Keychain.

Open Safari > Preferences... > Passwords. You will see a list of sites that is searchable. Under "Password" you will find some that say "never saved", select that item and click the Remove button.

Basically Safari keeps track of the sites that will have remembered credentials, but they are securely stored in Keychain.


Remove bookmark/reading list/link column in safari on ipad

Tap the blue highlighted book icon next to the address bar.

A clarification:  Tap the book icon directly to the left of the address bar (on my iPad this book icon is white; not blue) Do not tap the blue book icon that is located on the reading list itself (nothing will happen when you tap the blue book icon on the reading list itself).

If you do not see the book icon to the left of the address bar, tap the grey bar at the top of the page (where you see the time, battery level, the word 'iPad', wifi symbol) and you will then see the address bar.  The book symbol is immediately to the left of the address bar. Tap this book symbol and the annoying, large, reading list box will disappear.


Update May 2019
There was recently a Meta question on this - Changing Apple links depending on region which concludes that, whilst support.apple.com/kb/[reference code] is the correct way to link these, caching/cookies sometimes upsets it & it turns out that removing kb/ entirely seems to fix it, leaving support.apple.com/[reference code] rather than any country or generic code at all as the simplest & potentially most reliable method.

Previous answer below

I've found the simplest workaround is to clear back the URL to just
http://support.apple.com/kb/
This will then usually quickly redirect to your own country, at the entry to the support portal.

Then simply paste the KB article code into the search at the top right of the page, et voilà.


Restoring an old backup to the latest ios version returns an error

I had a similar problem with an iPod Touch. It went info DFU mode, and could not find the iTunes server, and was throwing up errors. It all began to work again once I shut down both the Mac and the iPod, restarting both. Some sort of I/O or USB issue I suppose. YMMV


Will restoring from Time Machine carry over hard disk error?

The only way filesystem errors like those you describe could be copied onto a different disk (e.g. your Time Machine volume) is if the whole disk partition or whole drive were copied at the block level using dd or something like Carbon Copy Cloner.  Time Machine doesn't work that way, so its stored backups should be free from the filesystem errors and the files it restores should be free from them as well.


Keyboard shortcut for powering down MacBook Pro with Touch Bar?

In System Preferences → Mission Control

Change "Show Desktop" to F10
Change "Show Dashboard" to F11

In System Preferences → Keyboard, open App Shortcuts.

Click + to add a new shortcut.
Leave Application as "All Applications".
In Menu Title enter exactly this phrase (without quotation marks): "Shut Down…"
Click cursor in the Keyboard shortcut field, then on keyboard hold "fn" key then select "F12" on Touch Bar

Holding "fn" key and selecting "F12" on Touch Bar will bring up the shutdown prompt.
Holding "fn" key and selecting "F10" will show desktop, holding "F11" will show dashboard.


Bring back the OS X 10.9, Maverick, theme on 10.10, Yosemite, (UI Elements and Icons)

Install a program called XRevert. This will change the buttons, icons, etc. Install cDock to change the dock. Use Lucida Grande as system font.


This should kick them out of all connections regardless of what they are using to connect.  Most (if not all)  iOS apps that need to use some sort of internet connection for functionality talk to a webserver using various methods of data exchange, but at the end of the day it's http/https and there is a session registered with the server. Delete that session and connection is cut.


How can I easily test sound (speakers and Mic) on my ipad?

Take a video of anything (yourself, your pets, traffic, etc.)  and while recording, say something.  Replay the video.  If you hear the sound you are supposed to, it works.

This has the benefits of testing both at the same time and ruling out hardware issues should you run into difficulties during the webinar.


First of you you cannot expand a RAID-1 (Mirror). If you want to make a larger RAID array you will have to back up the drives and recreate the RAID array in a different configuration.

Once you have done that you have several configuration options with 4 disks. A quick google of types of RAID will show that... However if it were me I would set up the 4 3TB drives as a RAID-5. Yielding 9TB of disk space. That makes all disks in the enclosure part of the same array.

There is a problem with that though. Disk Utility will only give you RAID-0 or RAID-1 (non-redundant stripe or mirror). Which means that you would have to purchase a third party RAID utility to do RAID-5. There are a couple out there and I have heard they do a good job. Depending on your budget that would work well.

Your other (no cost) option is to put the other two disks in your enclosure and just set them up as a second RAID-1 array. It won't give you the speed or as much space as a RAID-5 (6TB total usable space) but it will work just fine and show up on your Mac as a second volume.


What about generic lightning cables or adapters?

It's pretty much impossible to say for sure at the moment, as the cables aren't publicly available yet, nor are the licensing agreements, but we can do some informed speculation.

From a legal standpoint, if Apple is granted patents on the connector, they could go after anyone who produces a copy without a license. So far I haven't seen any evidence they've applied for a patent on it (nor can I find any about the original dock connector), but that doesn't mean it hasn't/won't happen. However it's a timely process, as a patent won't be granted right away, and litigation also takes time.

It's also worth considering that there seem to be a lot of no-name manufacturers producing dock connectors, and I suspect that while the numbers may be large in the aggregate, the individual ones are small enough that it may not be worthwhile for Apple to pursue all the small entities in court. They don't seem to have made a dent in the off-brand market for cheap 30-pin dock connectors, based on searching Amazon.

Apple can (and almost certainly will) license third parties to manufacture their own cables and connectors—they do this currently with the Made for iPod/iPhone/iPad programs. Anything that has the "MFi" logo on it is made by a company that has paid license fees to Apple:

From a technical standpoint, how difficult it is to produce depends on what's inside the connector exactly.

Apple has used various methods in the past to restrict certain dock connector features (mostly using some resistors in the connector I believe), but it's also possible that they'll use some active circuitry to prevent unlicensed copies. However I'd bet against that, as they have to make massive quantities of these, and the cost and production constraints of even a simple chip could make things problematic.

The physical connector is also unlike most other connectors out there (which come in all sorts of different sizes and shapes, but are largely made out of stamped metal with pins or an array of contact points). Everything on the Lightning connector is flush, and knowing Apple, the tolerances are probably fairly small. It may be different enough that it takes a while for other manufacturers to reproduce it consistently, but eventually I'm sure it's doable.

So my guess is that yes, we'll see cheap generic Lightning connectors, but it may take a bit longer, and the supply may ebb and flow if Apple takes legal action.


Check your network settings, also go to iforgot.apple.com and enter your first and last name as well as the Apple ID email address to make sure that the account exists. If it does not identify it then it may be that you didn't verify your email address. If it does identify it then you may need to try restarting the device and the network connections to see if you are able to sign in (also sign in to the Apple ID page to verify that you can sign in after you have identified it as an Apple ID).


Battery SOC is always time dependent.

  Determining the state of charge (SOC) in lithium-ion batteries is
  essential yet challenging due to the great variability in capacity not
  only across different cells, but also in the same cell. As a Li-ion
  cell ages, it loses its ability to store charge. Consequently, even if
  fully charged, an older cell would deliver usable voltage for a
  shorter period of time than a newer cell.

While in the first moments it might look OK, soon after it shows the true State of Charge.

That is because it measures Voltage and Current variations over time to determine the SOC.

I recommend at least 10 minutes of testing of allowing the Mac to collect the information.

The State of Cycle count is only a indicator for us humans, but not accurate to determine the true state.

Probably the best indicator is the

  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):   6705

Found in About this Mac > System Report > Power

It basically says how much charge the battery can hold.

It is not a linear scale thus when it reaches half a way of new battery (4000) Mac will say service the Battery.

New battery has values of >8000.

  What is the most accurate method of testing batteries for A1278
  MacBook Pro?

it is TIME allowing it to collect the information time related.


Accidentially broke a header - but do I really need to worry?

The broken header appears to be the right speaker connector (or the sleep LED connector).

Comparing it with the "left side" (and considering the two cables only) I tend to the speaker connector. The accompanying text is not very precise.

Both links/pics from: iFixIt's MacBook Unibody Model A1342 Logic Board Replacement


Choppy Bluetooth audio: How to persist Bluetooth bitpool settings on Mavericks?

To force the system to use USB Bluetooth by default, try the following command:

sudo nvram bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior=always

This will modify your boot kernel arguments.

To do opposite, use never. The change would be applied after the reboot. To return to the default, run:

sudo nvram -d bluetoothHostControllerSwitchBehavior


How to Connect Multiple Monitors to a MacBook Air

As has been mentioned, you couldn't daisy-chain multiple Thunderbolt displays on pre-2012 Airs. Two possible add-ons that'll allow you to connect an additional external display:

Matrox DualHead2Go (in action hooked up to an 11" Air)
DisplayLink adapter

I've used the latter and they work pretty well for non-intensive applications.


I'm not sure how to prevent sleep only in the iBooks app, but if you find yourself in a situation where you don't want your iPad to go to sleep, go into Settings -> General -> Auto-Lock and select "Never". With this option selected, the iPad won't go to sleep without user input.


Previous shutdown cause 0 on Mac Pro 2008

Considering it is an eleven year old machine, I can quite safely say (from three decades as a hardware tech) that either the power supply is starting to play up, or one of the voltage-regulator blocks that keep its Xeon(s) well fed are starting to get constipated with age. Either scenariou is equally plausble.

When was the last time the ol' cheesegrater had a full strip-down, clean (which includes taking the cover off the PSU, they make excellent dust filters!) and some fresh thermal re-paste?


Override iTunes "media" keys (play, pause, etc) for Spotify?

The software Beardedspice provides a user-friendly approach to prioritizing Spotify for your media keys. It runs in the background and gives you a few simple settings in the Mac menu bar. It just works.

Download and installation
It can be downloaded and installed directly from the Beardedspice homepage, or by using e.g. Homebrew:
brew install --cask beardedspice

Notes

It is compatible with macOS Big Sur.
Ensure the application is given sufficient privileges in Security & Privacy in the System Preferences.
Beardedspice supports controlling a vast amount of media players. Simply disable any unwanted players, while keeping Spotify enabled.
I am not affiliated with the developer(s), I am just a satisfied user.

Update 2021-01-16 - Use Beardedspice as the alternative app Mac Media Key Forwarder is no longer being updated
As there are reports of Mac Media Key Forwarder not working for some users, and the developer no longer updating the app, it is recommended to use Beardedspice.
Nevertheless, Mac Media Key Forwarder will still work fine for most people running on e.g. MacOS High Sierra, Mojave, Catalina, or Big Sur so it remains an alternative.

Download and installation
It can be downloaded and installed directly from GitHub, or by using e.g. Homebrew:
brew install --cask macmediakeyforwarder


Desktop clean up function - Control, Command 1 – is not working after I installed Lion? Other keyboard shortcuts are working, as far as I can tell

The keyboard command appears to be ⌘+⌥+1 to clean up by name now.


Can I use my iphone charger to charge my kindle?

I use the Kindle USB cable with the iPhone wall adapter (US-style plug). It works fine.


To convert .iso file to .img file while trying to dual boot with linux

Your path, by the looks of it, ought to be
~/Downloads/ or ~/Desktop/ rather than
~/Users/Yourname/…

~/ is already the shortcut to /Users/Yourname/

You can also use the file command to check that the file you are converting already exists. Copy the path and paste it after file at the shell. You can also shorten the directories, by changing to the folder

cd ~/Downloads
mv file ~/Desktop
cd ~/Desktop
ls ubuntu*iso
hdiutil convert -o ubuntu.img -format UDRW ubuntu*iso

The ls command makes sure there is only one file starting with ubuntu and ending in iso on your desktop - you can put the whole file path instead of using the * that I used for brevity if you have more ISO files that match on the desktop.


Can I set up password protection for an external hard drive?

Password protecting a drive isn't really possible (or even useful) without also encrypting the contents of the drive. Honestly I'm not even certain that's something you can do since, what would the password be granting access to if the contents of the drive weren't encrypted?

So really the question you want to ask is: how do I encrypt an external hard drive?

With Lion you have FileVault to achieve this. FileVault makes it easy to encrypt your primary drive but you can also use it to encrypt the contents of remote storage. Just about any read/write storage media you attach via USB or FireWire can be FileVault'd and secured. The caveat? You can only use FileVault-protected drives on other Lion machines.

MacWorld has a short slide show that walks you through mounting and formatting the disk with an encrypted file system. To summarize the steps:

Mount the drive
Open Disk Utility
Select the drive and click on the Erase tab
For the format pick either Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) or Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) from the list of available options. In most cases you'll want the former.
Press Erase to start the format
You'll be asked to confirm your choice and enter a password for the volume
Once the formatting is complete you'll need to enter the password to be able to mount and view the contents of the drive

If you're not running Lion or you want something that's portable across multiple OSes you can look at TrueCrypt. It's free software for encrypting file systems, much like FileVault, but it's available for Windows, OS X (both Snow Leopard and Lion) and Linux so you can access the encrypted remote media from just about any machine.


How to batch rename files via Terminal using the file's date as filename?

for f in *.*; do
    echo mv "$f" "$(stat -f '%Sm' -t '%Y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S' "$f").${f##*.}"
done

Or as a one-liner:

for f in *.*; do echo mv "$f" "$(stat -f '%Sm' -t '%Y-%m-%d %H.%M.%S' "$f").${f##*.}"; done

In either case, remove the echo command after testing.

The ${f##*.} portion of the command get the extension of $f so you can use the glob *.* vs. using an extension in the for f in, i.e. for f in *.* vs. for f in *.jpg


How to check if journaling is enabled or not on my disk?

You do not specify which version of macOS you are using. I will assume the current version (macOS 10.13.3).

Open the Disk Utility application and select the volume you wish to check. In the image below, "MyFish" has been selected.

  Note: For a better view of an image, either click on the image or open the image in a new window.

Next, click on "File" in the menu bar. In the pulldown, you will see "Enable Journaling". If "Enable Journaling" is grayed out, then journaling is enabled, otherwise journaling is disabled. Below, the image shows the volume to have journaling enabled.

The older versions of macOS, would allow for journaling to be disabled directly from the Disk Utility application. With macOS 10.13.3, journaling can be disable by using the diskutil command. Below is the command to disable journaling for the "MyFish" volume.

diskutil  disableJournal  MyFish

Similarly, journaling can be enabled by using the command below. As stated earlier, this can also be accomplished from the Disk Utility application.

diskutil  enableJournal  MyFish


Getting HTTP error 403 when trying to download macOS Mojave from App Store

Forcing the link to open in the Mac App Store app solved the problem for me. Just run this command in Terminal:
open -a App\ Store https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?mt=12

Since the App Store app opens the link just fine, the problem must be something with the browser.


I think I lost everything after boot camp

You have three options, they go from best to worst:

Reboot into your recovery partition by holding down Command+r, and open disk utility, and attempt to repair your drive.
Still in the recovery partition, restore from backup, which most people do these days.
Reinstall OS X, and begin taking backups so #2 will work.

Hope this helps.


Audio issue when HDMI drawing tablet is connected?

1. Facebook Huion Thread

I found a thread with your issue on the Huion facebook page. They suggested there trying to re-install the drivers for this particular device there. The thread.

This was the verbatim from the support person in the thread:

  Huion Cerine Oshiro

  Please try to reinstall the driver from our website to see if it
  helps: https://www.huiontablet.com/support/ Here's a step by step to
  reinstall, please try and see if it works:

  (If you are using Mac system, please skip 3-4 steps）

  Log out the Huion driver, close all drawing programs you are running, close your anti virus software.
  Uninstall the Huion driver from control panel.
  Find the TabletDriver folder from C:\Program files\ and delete it. (If you are not able to find this folder, that means you have
  deleted it already, and you may skip this step.)
  Go to C:\windows\system32 or C:\windows\system64, find wintab32.dll and delete it.
  Unplug the USB cable.
  Download driver from Huion website and install it as an Administrator.
  Reboot the computer and wait until it finishes rebooting.
  Plug the tablet back in. If the problem still persists, please send your problem to:service@huiontablet.com to get instant technical
  support, thank you!

2. DeviantArt Thread

I also found another thread mentioning a prior version of a Huion device, Huion GT-185 HD. This is a tablet monitor which I assume is the same type of item as your Huion Gt-220.  The thread was on DeviantArt page for the GT-185 HD device.

In the thread a Huion support staff made the point that these tablet monitors do not include audio.

  huion Oct 20, 2017
  Hello,

  Kindly note that there is no audio device in the monitor, so it can
  not give off any audio.

They then went on to suggest that the ordering of the displays mattered because of this fact.

  huion Oct 23, 2017  Hello,

  Yes, it supports extended mode. Kindly inform you that if you want to
  use the monitor in extend mode and then use the pen on the HUION
  monitor, you need to go to control panel to identify Huion monitor is
  recognized by which monitor in your system. For instance, if GT-185HD
  is monitor 2 in your system, please select Monitor 2 in the driver. If
  you have selected Monitor 2, but you still couldn't use the pen on it,
  please try to select "all desktop area".


By default, the shortcut is Control+Down.


Apple Mail make mails unsigned by default

Try this. Go to your your Preferences of the Mail application. Then, you should be in the Account section. Choose your account then at the very bottom change TLS Certificate to "None".


I'm missing buttons and pull down menus in Mail

I'm going to assume you're talking about Mail on a Mac.

Since you haven't included a screenshot of the actual window you're talking about, I'll refer you to the fact that you can customise the toolbars in various windows within Mail.

To do this: go to View > Customize Toolbar...

This menu option relates to whatever window type you have active at the time.

For example, if you've got a New Message window active (commandN) and then go to View > Customize Toolbar... you'll be able to customise the toolbar within the New Message window.

Likewise, if you have the Viewer Window active (i.e. the main default window that Mail launches with) and then go to View > Customize Toolbar... you'll be able to customise that toolbar.


While in Recovery mode, the trackpad works in press to click mode. If you're used to tap to click, this might come as a surprise and make you think it's not working properly. Try pressing down on the trackpad to actually get the feedback of a click and see if that works.


Device is picking up the wrong IP Address from DHCP

First let's clear up some nomenclature inaccuracies...

Your iPhone didn't "pick up" a link-local address from the DHCP server.  It assigned itself a private IP based on Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA).  There's a huge distinction here and is relevant to the problem you are having:

DHCP hands out IP addresses based on a configured pool of addresses.
APIPA self assigns an address when, for whatever reason, it doesn't get one from DHCP

So, armed with this knowledge, we know one of two things happened:

Your DHCP server didn't respond or ignored/denied the request for an address
Your iPhone didn't request or it rejected/ignored the DHCP offer.

DHCP server

It's entirely possible that the issue is with the DHCP server on your router. It may have been configured for a small amount of leases and at some point you hit the limit (your previous lease was given to another client).  You may have also "blocked" your client (iPhone from the DHCP pool).  Given that your iPhone is the only device not connecting, it would be beneficial to look at the router's DHCP config to see if you have any limitations or restrictions in place.  Restarting it wouldn't hurt, either.

Your iPhone

It's also entirely possible that an update or a configuration change has "hosed up" your networking configuration.  Usually, forgetting the wireless network and re-connecting will solve the issue.

However, one of the best ways to narrow down the possibilities is to connect it to another network.  Take it to your favorite coffee shop, a friends house, or anywhere that has a WiFi network that you can attach to easily.  If you can connect there, then you know the problem is with your home setup.  If it fails on other networks, you most likely have a hardware issue which means it's time to take it in for service.


Since dropping my iPod, I can only hear music, but no vocals

It looks like a Hardware problem with the mini Jack. Apparently one of  rings is not connecting properly, as if it was not fully plugged in. Make sure it is, try moving the mini Jack in circles and rotating, and see if that makes any difference.


Pink and Blue artefacts appearing in the notification centre

I do have exactly the same artefacts on MacBook 2016 1.2 Ghz.
They appearing when there's some window under the notification centre. Can be seen on FaceTime app window sometime as well.

Looks like a software/driver issue so far.

Update:
Tried it with clean install of El Capitan — it's not there, everything is ok. So it is a Sierra bug. Reported it to Apple via Bug Reporter as a 10.12 bug.


Can Firefox 4 and Firefox 3.6.15 coexist on the same OSX machine?

Yes, you can have both versions. In fact you can install the new Firefox in your home directory's Application folder (and it will be only accessible with your account). If you don't have ~/Applications folder, you can create it (and Finder will mark it with the same icon as the /Applications one). Note that you cannot use both versions simultaneously. You can also rename the Firefox.app to Firefox 4.app, and install it in /Applications - it'll work flawlesly.

ps. I prefer the first method - Install applications that I'm testing in my home Applications folder, and when I'm sure they're ok, move them/replace application in /Applications.


Where to search for more specific information about actions used in Siri Shortcuts app?

Here’s a good resource page on Siri shortcuts...

https://www.reddit.com/r/shortcuts/comments/9k0sup/siri_shortcuts_resources/

And here’s the link you are looking for...

http://userguide.icu-project.org/strings/regexp

Also a great site for learning and testing regexp

https://regex101.com

And a great beginners video to get started

https://youtu.be/sa-TUpSx1JA


How can I automate taking screenshots of 10,000+ pages?

Write a script,  use something like pageres.

Check out this list , in the "Screenshot Utilities" section, you'll find many links to utils, APIs and web services.


Yosemite - Finder has a disconnect button when attached to OSX Server, not working

In the Finder, select the "Go" menu > "Connect to Server...", then click on the Recent Servers menu button (button with tiny clock, to the right of the "+" button) and select "Clear Recent Servers".

Now go to a Finder window, select the server from the list and click on the Disconnect button and the server will be disconnected.

(OS 10.10.3)


List main folders that contain non changed folders and files since a specific date

cd <to directory containting the main folders>
for d in */; do
    if [[ $(find "$d" -mtime -26w | fgrep -v .. | wc -l) -eq 0 ]]; then
        echo "$d"
    fi
done

should work, with the usual caveat about file/directory names containing newlines etc.

mtime compares the modification timestamp of the file with "now", -26w means "less than 26 weeks" (which is roughly 6 months).


How can I fix a Macbook Pro when the Touch Bar doesn't work?

Please put this into the terminal

sudo pkill "TouchBarServer"

it will ask for a password type  it and hit enter it won't show that you are typing the password but it did


2013 macbook retina has extremely short battery life

The picture you post might not indicate any problem whatsoever with the hardware. However, the tools and steps to determine if this is hardware or software are quite easy and powerful.

Since the Mac is new, you would be free to use internet or in-person support to ask Apple to help determine if the battery is sound and the software installed properly. You can also check System Information (spotlight will locate it) and check the power settings. If the health isn't Normal initiate hardware service with Apple as software alone won't remedy the low battery life.

To determine if software is the cause, I would do this as follows:

Back up your files or the entire drive. It could be hardware and why risk losing anything - whether during troubleshooting or if the Mac fails completely.
Make a new user account as administrator
Disable automatic log in
Shut down your Mac
Plug in power and wait for the LED to turn green and disconnect from power
Start the Mac and log into your newly created empty admin account

It won't have any saved state, nothing extra running except perhaps any software you have that starts at boot (instead of when your normal account logs in). Run Activity Monitor for 20 minutes and nothing else. Also, document the power in System Information -> Power:

You care about documenting the overall settings and these settings over time as the Mac runs:

  Charge Information:
    Charge Remaining (mAh):     5975
    Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 6432
  Amperage (mA):               -1101
  Voltage (mV):                12096

Open Activity Monitor and go to the Energy tab. Not all the programs listed are running as things from the last 8 hours of non-sleep time are displayed, but you can sort on Energy Impact to show running processes.

In the next 20 minutes where you don't do anything on the Mac except wait for the battery to go down a bit, watch for apps that are using non-zero energy. In general, apps that support App nap and sudden termination will let the OS be most frugal with power when the app isn't busy with work.

After 20 minutes, you should have a good reading on the estimated run time with no load as well as a baseline for what apps are using power before you start loading your menu bar extras, chrome. You can use the Activity Monitor to watch and determine whether your battery can run for 8+ hours idle (it should) and if programs you don't want are causing the CPU and GPU to drain that 8 hour allotment in half the time. Since all shipping MacBook are capable of draining their batteries in 3 hours if the CPU and GPU are loaded 100% - you'll have to determine your energy usage by using Activity Monitor or getting Apple to assist you in testing the battery.

They do have diagnostic tools that can read the power logs and battery information and summarize things more rapidly, so if none of this makes sense you can always get a new Mac checked during the warranty period for proper battery function for free.

This turned out to be longer than I hoped, but my guess is you will find a good battery and that the "light browsing" in chrome is actually one or two tabs that take continual CPU time as well as a few other background tasks that run constantly and prevent the energy savings that depend on App Nap and CPU sleeping for un-noticed to us, but significant portions of the time.


Panic Coda 2.5.1 SFTP No longer connects "Could not connect to server _____. Failed to open file"

The SSH known hosts file had the wrong permissions (which were not fixed by "repair permissions" from the disk utility)

to fix, run the following in terminal:

sudo chmod 644 ~/.ssh/known_hosts


Is there any way to detect suddenly closed tabs and restore them on iOS Safari?

Depending on how long ago they were closed, you might be able to see them in a list an open them (one by one).

Tap the lower right button to view the list of tabs open.
Tap and hold the plus button to show recently closed tabs.

This does not work for private tabs.


Project file can't be build error you don't have permission to view it

I have resolve the issue by following way. The project i have download from the internet don't have the executable file in info.plist which should be there and its value should be this ${EXECUTABLE_NAME}. Instead of this value it consist some different value. So i have changed it ${EXECUTABLE_NAME} this value then clean->build->run successfully.

See the below link also

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27355361/error-while-build-project-xcode-says-you-dont-have-permission#


Given that the file has extended attributes and on a fresh install doesn't I'd start by removing them, xattr -c ~/.ssh/known_hosts.

When you say you can't write to the file, do you mean directly or via ssh adding a host? I'd try cat ~/.ssh/known_hosts to make sure you can open it. Then you might try cp ~/.ssh/known_hosts ~/Documents/known_hosts and echo "Delete this line" >> ~/.ssh/known_hosts to see how that goes.


How can I reduce/optimize downloads when upgrading to an SSD and installing Mountain Lion?

How much space are you using on your current drive and how big is the SSD? If your current space is less than or equal to that of the SSD, you can do a direct clone, without downloading the OS again.

You'll need to get an external enclosure (2.5" bus powered USB ones can be had for ~$20). Put your SSD in that, and you can use Disk Utility to clone your current drive to the SSD. If your current drive is bigger than your SSD (but the capacity used is still smaller), you'll have to shrink your current partition first. You'll also probably want to reinstall the recovery partition to your SSD, using Apple's tool. Once the clone is done, you can just put the SSD in your Mac and everything should work as before.

If you don't want to buy an external enclosure, you can use another external drive (if you have enough free space), and essentially perform the above procedure twice - once from the old drive to the external, then install the SSD and clone from the external to it.

The final option, if you have a Time Machine backup, is to install the Recovery Disk to the SSD (so you can boot to a recovery mode off the SSD), then restore from the Time Machine to the SSD.


There is no upgrade command available for brew cask. The GUI apps are updates by running Check for updates... from within the application which is generally found in the menu.

You can force install a newer version of the cask item by running brew cask reinstall <package>. In case of Google Chrome, run brew cask reinstall google-chrome.

You can use brew cask upgrade --greedy to upgrade all the GUI apps to respective latest version. From man brew-cask:

  upgrade [--force] [--greedy] token [ token ... ]

  Without token arguments, upgrade all the  installed  Casks  that
    have  newer  versions available in the tap; otherwise update the
    tokens given in the command line. If --greedy is given then also
    upgrade the Casks having auto_updates true or version :latest.


Why doesn't my new iPod Touch have a camera?

Apple sells refurbished models of many of their products, including the iPod Touch. So it's quite possible that you have a previous model (also known as the 3rd generation iPod touch).

To tell, if your iPod Touch looks like this:

you have the 3rd generation (without the camera).

If it looks like this:

you have the 4th generation model, with the camera.

If it doesn't look like either of these, you have an even earlier model, but that is unlikely as Apple rarely sells models two generations old. You can see the full range, and get more help on determining the model from this website. Identifying iPod Models


I accidentally allowed software to load when asked. How do I find out what I allowed (and block it again if needed)?

It will depend on precisely what permission it was requesting - though note for future reference you're going to see a lot of these with Mojave, so get into the habit of reading carefully; even to the extent of researching exactly what it is you're allowing before clicking either option. Some apps will never ask again & then you may lose functionality.

Generally, these allowed apps are listed in System Prefs > Security & Privacy > Privacy & then whichever subsection they requested permission for. [I think] The two new options in there since Mojave are Full Disk Access & Automation.
I don't know of any way to determine the date the permission was granted.

Of course, once identified, there is a simple checkbox to allow/disallow.


Self hosted VPN solution with Mac client

I do have my own OpenVPN server running on Linode, and I use Tunnelblick to connect to it. Works flawlessly.

There's a guide on Linode's library to help you set things up.


How to apply the parameters of view to all the directories?

When you're in a directory press command+J to see the View options.

Now go about setting the view options exactly how you'd like them to be. Once completed, click on the Use as Defaults button at bottom centre of the View options window. This will set your configuration as the default for all directories.


Yes. iMessage allows this with the following caveat.

Joe uses iPhone A to sign into iCloud with his account. The phone number for the first phone gets associated with the AppleID / iCloud account.
Joe uses iPhone B to sign into iCloud with the same account. Now both phone numbers are associated with the same Apple ID.

Now - set the "caller ID" in iMessage from both phones to be the same number (either can be chosen) and for iMessage recipients - all new messages started from iPhone A and iPhone B will be "from" one number.

This doesn't work for SMS since the carrier assigns the "correct" sender in that case.


Is it possible to know the last time my iPhone was online?

Go to iCloud - Find My iPhone, and select your device. You can also see where it is right now, and you can lock and erase it.

What's required though is that you have to had iCloud set up before it got stolen.


How do I install Xcode if I'm getting this message "Xcode can’t be installed on “Mac HD” because macOS version 10.14.4"?

Recent versions of Xcode require macOS 10.14.4 or higher to run. Since you have 10.13.6, you can't run that version of Xcode. With 10.13.6 the most recent version of Xcode you can use is Xcode 10.1.

Also, Macs made in 2010 cannot run macOS 10.14.4, which is why that version of macOS is not available to you as an update. Your Mac can't be updated past macOS 10.13.x.

You can do one of the following:

Stick with Xcode 10.1. You can download it from https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_10.1/Xcode_10.1.xip (you'll need to log in to your Apple developer account).
Upgrade to a newer Mac that will run macOS 10.14.4. You can find a list of the system requirements at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacOS_Mojave


Normally you create an .icns file with the same name as your keyboard and put it in the same location and it will appear instead of the Apple default.  You can get sample .icns files with the Ukelele download.


Know this is a year old, but instead of using Parallels and suffering with nested virtualization, you can enable VT-x prior to Windows booting up by using the rEFInd boot loader.  This is the blog post I wrote about how to do it:

http://nuts4.net/post/hack-force-vt-x-to-be-always-on-when-booting-to-windows-on-your-macbook

WARNING: While this has worked on many Intel-based Mac's, rEFInd messes with the Model Specific Registers on the Intel processor to enable VT-x.  If Apple should ever come out with an AMD-based laptop, or Intel makes massive changes to their MSR's in future versions of their chips, make sure rEFInd supports your specific processor!  You do these steps at your own risk.

Go here and download rEFInd (the zip version): http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/getting.html
Extract the zip to a folder, open the refind folder and edit refind.conf-sample.
In refind.conf-sample:
Set the timeout to 5 seconds (or whatever you want)
Find enable_and_lock_vmx, uncomment the line and set it to true
Shut down your computer.
After powering back up, press and hold Command+R before the chime/apple logo appears to boot into Apple Recovery.
Once in Apple Recovery, go to Utilities -> Terminal.
Navigate to the folder where you extracted rEFInd, and run ./refind-install
If a warning about SIP (System Integrity Protection) appears, press "y", and continue with the installation.  We're in Recovery Mode, so SIP should be disabled at this point.
Note: The installer will copy the refind.conf-sample file to EFI/refind/refind.conf on your ESP partition.  If you need to change settings later on, you'll have to mount the partition first (use the first two commands from the uninstall instructions below to mount it.)
Reboot your Mac. (Now, your Mac may freeze. If it does, press and hold the power button until the LCD turns off, then turn it back on.)

You'll be greeted by a GUI bootloader menu, which will load whatever OS you sat as your default.  In my case, this was Windows, and Hyper-V worked flawlessly from a cold boot!

If by chance you want to use something other than Hyper-V, you'll need to use bcdedit in Windows to disable the hypervisor (since Hyper-V takes exclusive control over VT-x once Windows boots):

bcdedit /set {current} hypervisorlaunchtype off <-- Turns off Hyper-V

bcdedit /set {current} hypervisorlaunchtype on <-- Turns on Hyper-V


How to create link aggregates (bonded interfaces) in shell?

See man networkSetup.
Execute the following to bond interfaces en2 & en3:
sudo networkSetup createBond bond0 en2 en3

It is also useful to be able to get all active interfaces (with or without IP, simply labeled as active since you might have a primary interface + the interfaces you want to bond):
for i in $(ifconfig -lu); do if ifconfig $i | grep -q "status: active" ; then echo $i; fi; done


Is it safe to create a tarball of a Time Machine backup?

tar does not preserve all the information in the HFS filesystem.

I would look at having it converted to a image file instead.  I believe Disk Utility can do this for a folder.


Mountain Lion firewall is randomly delaying DNS requests

You are right. I diagnose the same rate limiting at the firewall level
on MacOS X 10.7.4 (Lion).

Moreover, if you look at

/usr/bin/sudo tcpdump -i en0 udp port 53

You will notice that the round trip time to get a reply from 8.8.8.8
is much lower then the 40 msec displayed by the server.

On a long test run I had:

;; Query time: 44 msec

and an average roundtrip time of 26 msec:

09:36:14.360564 IP me.53866 > google-public-dns-a.google.com.domain: 9943+ A? www.google.com. (32)
09:36:14.386302 IP google-public-dns-a.google.com.domain > me.53866: 9943 5/0/0 A 173.194.41.180, A 173.194.41.178, A 173.194.41.176, A 173.194.41.177, A 173.194.41.179 (112)

(386302 - 360564 = 26 msec)

To understand this protection mechanism (against basic DOS), look at:

/usr/bin/sudo pfctl -i en0 -s timeouts

The full documentation of this complex command is pfctl(8) Mountain Lion reference manual

Beware this is a powerfull but highly dangerous command. You may easily break your network access (Where is my backup?).


Quick question first, are you setting the proxies manually or are you getting the settings via Auto Discovery or an Automatic Proxy Configuration (APC) URL?

If you are setting them manually then you should be able to select Proxy Server requires password and enter the correct credentials there.

If you are getting them as an APC URL then you may have a problem with that particular keychain. Using the Keychain Access utility look in both your login and iCloud keychains and delete any you find for the the proxy server.

Now you should be able to save your credentials properly.


Can't update from OSX 10.9.5 to OSX Yosemite 10.10

I think you are misreading the numbers.

Yosemite takes a little more than 5 Gig.

Your Hard drive is 500 Gig. Even if you have used (consumed) lots of it, if you still have about 10 Gig of free space you can upgrade to Yosemite.

To look how much space you have on your Hard drive:

Click on the top left Apple symbol and then on the About this Mac.

In the new window click on "More Info", now click on the Storage Tab.

It looks like this on my Mac, showing I have 108 Gig free.

The other storage is called RAM (that is not your hard disk). Yosemite needs minimum 2 Gig and you have 4 Gig, so no problem there.


Software for sorting images based on the image data (not file type)

You can use the built in features of OS X to help you narrow down your personal images from system and application images.

AFAIK most Application images and system images are not going to be large. Or wider then either 512 pixels or 1024 pixels.

So I assume all the files are in single folder and your personal ones are taken on a camera or Smart phone so will be of a larger size.

Use Command +F keys to bring up the search options for the open window of the folder.

Set up your search criteria too.

Kind is Image.

And either of the below or a combination.

File size is greater than 300kb

Pixel width is greater than 512

And so on.

There are many more options to use for the search under the other.. menu.

You can then move the ones remaining in the results out into a another folder.

Use iPhoto to import the potential personal ones for you final check

Hopefully you will only have a few that are not.


How to disable Mavericks' emoji shortcut

You can change the shortcut from System Preferences:

Either three periods or an ellipsis character should work.

You can disable the shortcut by modifying ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist:

defaults write -g NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add 'Special Characters...' '\0'

Quit and reopen applications to apply the changes made with the defaults command.


No, that feature does not exist for FaceTime calls and you could not add a password to a FaceTime call yourself.


Resolving problems with development tools on upgrading to Mac Yosemite

I am a bioinformatician developing on the Mac and implementing on Linux. I have all of the following technologies that you mention running on Yosemite: Java, MySQL, Apache, PHP; I do not use LaTeX or Homebrew so cannot comment on them. In addition I run Tomcat, Perl CGI, Perl CGI with MySQL drivers, GD graphics for Perl, PHP with MySQL, Eclipse and Python. So in general it is definitely possible.

Your question however refers to your current installations. The answer here is that your current install of MySQL should not be affected. (If you wish you could upgrade and install the latest version available for Yosemite from Oracle's website, although this requires a free sign-up.)  Your current installation of Apache will not be available and this will also affect how PHP runs. You will also have to update your Java.

For the record, let me try to summarise what you would need to do. (I'm assuming you are starting with something as different from Yosemite as Snow Leopard. I never had Lion running - only Mountain Lion and Mavericks - so some of this may already be familiar from Lion.)

Basics

Yosemite no longer has a Developers' Tools disc. Instead you should download Xcode from the App Store. It's free, but a huge download (ca 3Gb). However you are almost bound to need it.
You need to unhide the Library folder (so you can get to the Apache install etc.) which is now hidden by default (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18928). To make the Library folder in your home folder always visible you right-click and select View Options and then tick "Show Library Folder". However I use the main /Library folder for web development and can't remember how I unhid this. Apparently the following terminal command should work:

sudo chflags nohidden /Library/

Apache/PHP/Perl

The old option in System prefs of enabling the Apache website is no longer present for Apache 2. The following excellent article explains how to enable Apache 2 and the PHP5 and Perl modules: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3083. Do exactly what it says.

Java

There are three possible things you may be doing with Java, and as you don't indicate which you are interested in I shall mention them all. However the basic thing is that Apple no longer supplies its own Java, so if you need upgrades you get them from Oracle.

You write Java programs. In this case download Eclipse for Java (https://eclipse.org/) — Luna is the current version. If it launches, you have Java installed. If not, you need to download it from https://www.java.com/en/download/mac_download.jsp? . Then you are fine.
You want to run Java applications on your desktop. You will need the download above, but Yosemite may try to prevent you actually running Java applications that ran fine before. If you have used the application before or trust the author then bypass Gatekeeper by right-clicking when you launch the app and tell Apple you want to run it (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202491).
You want to run a Java Applet in a web browser. This is still possible but is now a real nightmare. Basically you need a signed applet and even then you may need to set your Java System Preferences specifically to allow applets from the website in question and also make sure that in Safari Prefs > Security > Allow Plug-ins is ticked and the allowed sites are listed in Website settings. Even then Safari may ask you to confirm you want to run the applet each time. The current policy on browsers now is to only allow Java applets to run if you are using the latest version of Java. I do have some self-signed applets I wrote myself that I can still manage to run. However because the whole plugin technology is being phased out, I think the Java Applet is a dead man walking. (Server-side Java is no problem though, and has advantages over PHP and the like.) More details of setting your browser up for Java applets can be found at http://humairahmed.com/blog/?p=8061 and on the Oracle/Java site.

Note about Java 8 on virgin Yosemite

If you want to run an old Java application on a brand new machine with Yosemite installed (rather than upgrading from Mavericks or earlier), and download the latest version of Java it will be (April 2015) Java 8 and the application will not run. You need to install Java 6 from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572. I'd download it while it's still there.


"open or reload" html doc from command line?

Check out LiveReload. It is an app that watches your HTML files and can automatically for reload the pages in your browser. LiveReload can also do other things like automatically recompile SASS files to CSS and then reload the browser.

In addition to the app at the link above, LiveReload is available on GitHub under a "Open Community Indie Software License" which is not quite open source, but does include a dead man clause to convert to MIT if no new binary updates come out for two years. https://github.com/livereload/LiveReload


Best practice to connect two monitors with my Macbook Pro

You need to find DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor and connect one monitor over it and another one over HDMI.

Besides I wonder how exactly you gonna chain two HDMI monitors?


What kind of adaptor do I need to connect RJ45 / ethernet cable to my Macbook Pro Retina display?

Your best bet is Apple's Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

There are also assorted USB ethernet adapters available from various sources (including Apple), including a few Gigabit ones that use USB 3.0, but the Thunderbolt one will likely have the best performance, so unless you're using both Thunderbolt ports already, that's the better choice.


It's there for me both in iTunes and the iOS App Store (on an iPhone, don't have my iPad handy to test). That's in the Canadian store, FWIW. Things can and do vary by country, and for that matter by what CDN node you're connected to, so it may be different for others. Best advice is to wait it out and try again in a little while, in case there was a glitch somewhere along the line.


Hear ambient sound while listening to music with headphones on OSX

There is an app in the macOS app store called "Dumbo" that lets you monitor room audio from your mac mic when you have headphones on. It doesn't automatically lower the volume, but you can adjust the mic input level as well as the iTunes level to get the mix you want.

Here's the link to Dumbo in the US Mac App store.


If I were running bind on a Unix server, I'd add this to the config file at /etc/named.conf. Not sure how much access Apple gives you to customize the configuration though:

channel query_log {
    file "/var/log/named/query.log" versions 5 size 1m;
    severity dynamic;
    print-time yes;
};
category queries { query_log; };


No option to share internet connection with computers using wifi

While Wi-Fi is the internet connection path, it cannot simultaneously share internet from the same interface.

This is similar to iOS's feature, where turning on Wi-Fi disables hotspot.


Mission Control not working after system upgrade to macOS Sierra

I had a similar problem with a Mac Book Pro (late 2011). I did a clean installation of macOS Sierra and Mission Control and Launchpad were not working, but it did not restart the Dock when I tried to open any of them. I researched a bit I tried killall Dock on the Terminal, for restarting it manually and that worked for me.

Give it a try. Maybe doing it manually will make it work.


Can I do CAD and rendering work on my Mac by Remote Desktop(ing) to a powerful windows machine? (wired connection)

The performance of any Remote Desktop connection by the laws of physics and the need to encode the data is always slower than a native display.

So, no, the performance can’t be as good with a remote connection adding latency and delay.

That being said - practically, you are always going to be more productive than getting up and moving to another computer and you can get prodigious amounts of work done remotely across a continent let alone across the room. With a decent WiFi connection (say 802.11 ac and less than 10 radios connected to the AP and low interference / SNR above 10 dB ) or any 100 megabit wired/switched ethernet you will have a hard time measuring the delay or worrying about performance. Gigabit ethernet is even better.

I wouldn’t worry about this performance loss in practice, you are likely going to be 100 to 10000x times slower than the CPU in all cases, not the remote connection.


Office 2011(mavericks). Attachments from outlook only open word & excel as read only

This is a feature of Office 2011 Outlook.  The behaviour is not limited to Mavericks or Word or Excel files.

When you double click an attachment to open it, a copy is saved under your Library folder (in ~/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/Outlook Temp).  This folder is not generally visible or intended to be accessible to users hence the "Read Only" attribute of the file.

You can either

double-click the attachment in Outlook (to Open it in its default application) and then Save As... to, for example, your Documents folder before editing or
right-click and Save As... in Outlook itself, in which case the file will not be "read only".


Get text from multiple webpages doesnt work if one URL is down

The reason is, the "Get Specified Text" does not allow returns (if you are putting more than one line of text).

In order for me to fix this problem (mine was similar), I found an automator text actions pack on line and bought it (really cheap). You can find it here:

http://www.automatedworkflows.com


How can I fix permission issue when I cannot start Mac OS X?

Boot to single user mode by holding command + S right after powering the system on (before the chime & apple logo). Once the system has booted to the command line, type these commands without the leading tick mark. Spaces matter, periods matter, it has to be exact.

/sbin/mount -uw /
cd /private/var/db
rm .AppleSetupDone
halt

The mac should shut off. Now power on - you will get played the normal welcome screen. Make a new user (try not to re-use one of the old names - "rescue account" might be a good choice). You can then go to the preference pane and see what happened to the users.


How to insert ALT character with Edit -> Emoji & Symbols

By far the simplest way I can think of is just search for 'option' not alt.

Then it's the only result.

Alternatively, most of the keyboard 'keys' are in Technical Symbols..


How can you verify when a drive was last formatted?

I'm not aware of what's causing that stat behaviour — are you using Big Sur? On a drive formatted with Catalina, stat reports the correct value.
In any case, you can use my tool Drat to see the timestamps of all APFS volumes. Do diskutil apfs list to find the block device that represents the "Physical Store", e.g. in the following output...
APFS Container (1 found)
|
+-- Container disk1 9FB9190C-8782-48FB-956E-0539C73996ED
    ====================================================
    APFS Container Reference:     disk1
    Size (Capacity Ceiling):      479894224896 B (479.9 GB)
    Capacity In Use By Volumes:   409366626304 B (409.4 GB) (85.3% used)
    Capacity Not Allocated:       70527598592 B (70.5 GB) (14.7% free)
    |
    +-< Physical Store disk0s2 44F7C60F-6302-4F08-A1A4-40F7BAA25D12
    |   -----------------------------------------------------------
    |   APFS Physical Store Disk:   disk0s2
    |   Size:                       479894224896 B (479.9 GB)
    |
    +-> Volume disk1s1 68FF83AF-C326-4C78-ABDA-C33E52D07D29
    |   ---------------------------------------------------

[...]

... the Physical Store is disk0s2, which corresponds to the block device /dev/disk0s2.
Then use Drat to inspect the physical store, e.g. drat inspect /dev/disk0s2. Included in the output for each volume is "Formatted by:" and "Last modified by:". All times are in UTC. For example:
[...]

Volume name:        ### macOS ###
Role:               System (contains a root directory for the system)
Flags:
- Volume is unencrypted.

[...]

Formatted by:
- ID: diskmanagementd (1412.41.1)
- Timestamp: Sat Nov 23 11:18:26 2019
- Last XID: 25

Last modified by:
- ID: apfs_kext (1412.141.1)
- Timestamp: Mon Feb 15 10:22:49 2021
- Last XID: 5d644b

[...]


The error code indicates that the Apple Hardware Test tested your RAM-modules and found a problem with at least one memory module.  In order to solve this you'll need to have the RAM module replaced (i.e. hardware repair).

If you have the 15" MacBook Pro (mid-2012, non-retina), you can buy a new RAM module yourself and replace it fairly easily.

If you have the 15" Retina MacBook Pro (mid-2012) the RAM module is soldered on the logic board and not easily replaceable. In this case, contact Apple or a repair shop for help.


key combo to toggle showing hidden items

I don't think you can do this by default.

I myself use Hidden Files widget. it's so easy to use.


For Mac OS X, what is required for HDCP (video copy-protection) on an external monitor with HDMI?

The answer is that I seem to have encountered a bug in the implementation of dual displays in Mac OS X 10.9.1 Mavericks.

If I am using both the internal display and the external display at the same time, without using "Mirror" mode, then iTunes will not permit playback of the iTunes HDCP-encrypted movie on the external HDMI screen.

However, there is a workaround: if I close the MacBook Pro's lid, disconnecting the internal display, so that the MacBook Pro is only driving the external display, then iTunes will play the HDCP-encrypted movie on the external display over HDMI, in full-screen mode -- although iTunes still displays the same error message saying that it can't play back!

This is quite inconvenient, because I want to use both displays at once, without Mirror mode, at all times, so, for example, I can have Apple Mail and Microsoft Word up and running on the internal display while I'm watching the iTunes HDCP movie on the external display.

It looks as if I can further work around this bug, by first starting iTunes, then closing the lid, then starting the movie in iTunes on the external monitor, then raising the lid on the laptop again to activate the internal screen, then continuing to use other applications on the internal screen while the movie continues to play in iTunes on the external screen.


Leaving the last 9 characters of a filename in Automator

If the files are in the same folder, go to Finder and select all the files you want to rename. Then right-click on them and one of the options is to rename xxx items where xxx is the number of files selected. When you select this option it opens a panel where you can enter how you want the files renamed. Then you can select rename and all the files will be renamed.
Or from the command line use ls *.ext where ext is the extension of your file names, in your case pdf. If the ls command listed just the files you want to change the name of use cp *.ext newFileName.ext to copy the files to a new file name or use mv *.pdf NewFileName.pdfto move the files.


White screen for 10.12.2 upgrade on mac mini

I experienced the same white screen issue after updating to 10.12.2 and was forced to restore from a previous time machine backup (after trying to repair the drive, resetting the PRAM/NVRAM and booting safe mode failed to work).  Stupidly, I tried updating to 10.12.2 again on the restored version and during the reboot process it went back to the white screen.

Don't install 10.12.2 if you have this issue.


How would I remap Mac CMD to CTRL keys in Blender?

Your private.xml is missing the only key and would swap the keys system-wide. Additionally you got the naming of the item wrong.

Here is a working private.xml:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Enable at only Blender - custom</name>
            <item>
                <name>Swap Command and Control</name>
                <identifier>private.swap_command_and_control</identifier>
                <only>BLENDER</only>
                <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
                <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
            </item>
    </item>
</root>

or if you want the "For applications" to appear in the private section:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>For Applications</name>
        <item>
        <name>Enable at only Blender - custom</name>
            <item>
                <name>Swap Command and Control</name>
                <identifier>private.swap_command_and_control</identifier>
                <only>BLENDER</only>
                <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
                <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
            </item>
        </item>
    </item>
</root>

If you want the key mod to appear in the non-private part "For applications" you have to add it (the most inner item key including <item> and </item>) to the file: /Applications/Karabiner.app/Contents/Resources/include/checkbox/apps/blender.xml.

Any Karabiner update/upgrade will remove/overwrite your mod probably.

Example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>

  <item>
    <name>Enable at only Blender</name>

    <item>
      <name>FlipScrollWheel</name>
      <item>
        <name>Flip Horizontal and Vertical ScrollWheel at Blender</name>
        <identifier>remap.app_Blender_flipscrollwheel</identifier>
        <only>BLENDER</only>
        <autogen>
          __FlipScrollWheel__
          Option::FLIPSCROLLWHEEL_HORIZONTAL,
          Option::FLIPSCROLLWHEEL_VERTICAL,
        </autogen>
      </item>
      <item>
        <name>Flip Horizontal ScrollWheel at Blender</name>
        <identifier>remap.app_Blender_flipscrollwheel_horizontal</identifier>
        <only>BLENDER</only>
        <autogen>
          __FlipScrollWheel__
          Option::FLIPSCROLLWHEEL_HORIZONTAL,
        </autogen>
      </item>
      <item>
        <name>Flip Vertical ScrollWheel at Blender</name>
        <identifier>remap.app_Blender_flipscrollwheel_vertical</identifier>
        <only>BLENDER</only>
        <autogen>
          __FlipScrollWheel__
          Option::FLIPSCROLLWHEEL_VERTICAL,
        </autogen>
      </item>
    </item>
    <item>
      <name>Keys</name>
      <item>
        <name>Swap Command and Control at Blender</name>
        <identifier>private.swap_command_and_control</identifier>
        <only>BLENDER</only>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
        <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
      </item>

    </item>

  </item>

</root>

with the result:


By default the Dashboard is on its own space, always the leftmost one. The Dashboard button still works and makes you jump right there.

Alternatively, you can disable this behavior in the General preference pane and revert to the Dashboard as an overlay, just as it was before Lion.


Mac Mail.app (Yosemite) - preview pane on right WITHOUT individual message previews on left

In Yosemite (I'm on 10.10.1) I can do the following:

Mail > Preferences…
Viewing Tab

Uncheck "Use classic layout"
Uncheck To/CC label in message list
Uncheck Contact photos in message list
List Preview: None

In my toggling of options, the message pane itself disappeared. However it was made available via a grab handle at the right edge of the screen. I now have a message list showing me no previews and a message pane to the right of that.


Reset used Apple Pencil in preparation for sale?

Apple Pencil is a Bluetooth device and is not tied to the iPad its paired with any more so than Bluetooth headphones are.

Per Apple:

  After you pair your Apple Pencil, it will stay paired until you restart your iPad, turn on airplane mode, or pair with another iPad Pro.

You can also manually make your iPad forget the Bluetooth association (go to Settings > Bluetooth > tap the "i" button across from Apple Pencil > tap Forget) but that doesn't affect the Pencil in any way other than you'd need to re-pair to use it again.


Update iPad 3 iOS 5.1.1 to 7.0.4 not 7.1?

Actually you can't update iOS devices to old versions.


How to get back the missing monitor option in High Sierra's menubar?

Open System Preferences → Displays and enable ‘Show mirroring options in the menu bar when available’.

This should add a menu item  for the AirPlay menu even without an external display connected, and when an external display is connected you can use this to switch between mirror and extend.


Converting M4A file to MP3 - Selected files could not be found

Another solution:

Select View | As Songs to display the library as a list of tracks (i.e. not organised by album). This is the key part.
Then hold the Control key and select the songs to be converted by clicking each one.
Lastly, select File | Convert | Create MP3 Version.

Before doing the above, make sure that the sound encoder is set to MP3 under Edit | Preferences | Import Preferences | Import Using ...


The solution of the error "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" is:
for me the dev is /dev/desk2

sudo diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk2


Relative performance of 2006 Mac Pro and 2007 iMac

Your question is somewhat difficult to answer, because not all is based upon “raw” performance.

I’d say that it would be better if you consider the following differences:

RAM

MP(MacPro): Very easy to add and the limit is probably higher than what you can/Want to afford for the task you want to perform. Adding 8-12GB is probably “cheap”.
iM(iMac): Probably more limited, tho not harder to change as far as I can remember, but if you need 12 GB you can’t achieve that with that (or any AFAICR) iMac.

HARD DRIVES

MP: Although “external” drives are “ok”, having four internal SATA bays is godsend. Very easy to add/remove drives and to create a simple RAID1 if you wanna have a mirror “just in case”.
iM: close to impossible (unless you have the right tools, time, patience and dedication) to change the internal drive, which is a “slower” 2.5 drive if I am not mistaken. Some “hacks” exist to replace the superdrive with another drive, but I don’t know if that Model fits.

Video

MP: Tho I don’t know if the NVIDA is better than that particular ATI (tho I believe it is), the expandability of the MP is superior to the zero expandability of the iMac. You could add more cards to your MacPro for more than two displays if that’s what you want. But you have to get your own displays…
iM: Zero. You can’t change or add another video card. You’re stuck with a very nice 24 inch display and an integrated iSight. The MacPro, will need displays (and webcams). The CONS here is that if you don’t like Glossy Displays… you’re out of luck :)

RAM Speed, Bus Speed, etc

All these things don’t really change your day to day workflow, yes, some Front Side Buses are faster than others, but in the end, the difference is probably not a decision factor. (given similar specs of course).

Connectivity

Both machines have enough USB/FW ports I believe, tho the Mac Pro surely has some more, you will need more ports in the iMac if you use external drives (not that you have much choice there).

So which one do I chose?

The answer is, there’s no answer. You have to evaluate your priorities. I wouldn’t change my Mac Pro (early 2008) for a new iMac, because I already have two 27’’ screens, already have 4 drives in there (with some RAID going on) + an SSD for the OS and I have replaced the stock video card (NVIDIA) with an ATI (because my nVidia Failed and the ATI costed the same as the out of warranty nVIdia). My Mac Pro is going to turn 3 years soon and it works fantastically.

The iMac on the other hand, is a beautiful looking machine that if you use paired with a lot of BlueTooth stuff, makes your desk look very pristine. Sadly, I need storage, redundancy and multi-core for some of the things I do for a living, so the 8 cores of my Mac Pro are needed in my case.

I notice that the MultiCore is godsend sometimes, you see processes hanging there at 100% and the rest of the CPUs and cores take care. But of course, a normal World of Warcraft user wouldn’t even use 5% of all that.

I suggest you visit Anandtech’s Mac section if you want some benchmarks and reviews. It’s usually filled with good impressions and comments and sometimes comparisons. I don’t know if you’ll find an exact comparison between those two models, but you might come up with something similar.

My Personal Opinion

Get the Mac Pro if you’re going to develop and already have screens (or the budget to buy them), because in the future, when you want your time machine, your drive cloned, more space, etc., the Mac Pro is going to be much more helpful than stacking fragile external Firewire/USB drives.

UPDATE ON VIDEO

According to the experts (tegeril), the “ATI 2600 Pro is a substantially superior card to the Nvidia 7300GT”. You’ll have to find some benchmarking for that and of course evaluate if you’re going to need the extra power or the expandability is better.


Why can't I install Xcode 4.4 on Mountain Lion?

You can manually clear the store where the App Store saves the downloads before completion:

Quit the App Store app
Open Terminal.app (search with Spotlight)
rm -r /private/var/folders/*/*/*/com.apple.appstore

This step is the removal part...
Restart the App store.app


The difference between clean install from bootable USB flash drive and from the built-in recovery disk

The short answer is that there is no difference to the end result. The difference lies in the process.

As an example, your current USB installer will install macOS Sierra 10.12.0. After installation you will still need to update it via the Mac App Store to get it back to macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

If you erase and install from the internet the version installed will already be macOS Sierra 10.12.5.

You can also startup from macOS Recovery and may be able to install macOS Sierra again without the need to re-download it.

But to answer your question, whatever you do makes no difference to the end result. In this case you just have a number of roads all leading to Rome.


How to prevent OSX Yosemite from launching old app for ":news" URL in browser

Simplest method is probably to install RCDefaultApp - freeware, old but still works well.
It installs as a Control Panel, from which you can define it in the Internet tab...

I don't have a specific Newsreader installed, so mine just says 'other' at the moment.


Having more iCloud space than actual disk space (on macOS)?

You can do this for iOS and macOS. The iCloud controls will tell you that there’s not enough space to download all the files and that you’ll have everything in the cloud, but only some files cached locally.

So, you can enable save space / optimize photos which will resample images with lossy compression or just store thumbnails locally. For actual files, you will download them from the cloud when needed and only have a subset of them in local storage.

You don’t need to have as much local storage as your full files stored in iCloud.


You can use Assistive Touch. Enable it from Settings → General → Accessibility → Assistive Touch, then to take a screenshot you can tap the Assistive Touch button and choose Device → More → Screenshot. The menus can be customised in Settings to provide easier access to the function if you use it often.


How do I view emoji in Google Chrome in Lion?

This isn't exactly what you're looking for, but it should actually work, which is an advantage.

Create a service in Automator. The service takes no input.

Two actions.

First action:

Run AppleScript
Here's the script:

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Google Chrome" to activate
    tell application "System Events" to tell application process "Google Chrome" to set myvar to value of text field 1 of tool bar 1 of window 1
    if myvar contains "://" then
        -- do nothing
    else
        set myvar to "http://" & myvar
    end if
    return myvar

end run

Second action:

Website Popup

Assign it a keystroke and you're good to go.