Can I trust the driver/software installer downloaded from https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1888?locale=en_GB?

Yes, you can trust it. Only Apple can upload files to support.apple.com. Most of the software there is Apple-authored, although in a few cases I think there may be some third-party software that Apple has decided to supply via their server (but in those cases, I'm pretty sure Apple has checked them thoroughly). The kb page can also be found via https://support.apple.com/downloads/hp.
Also, if you download the the disk image, open it, and then open the installer package inside it, the Installer application will show a padlock in the top right of its window indicating that the package is signed. Click the padlock, and it'll show that it's signed with Apple's "Software Update" certificate. See the "Check Installer packages" section here for a similar screenshot (and lots more discussion about verifying code signatures).


You need to separate the arguments on the command line. Try

ln -s /Volumes/NONAME/POP-emailaccount@provider.net/ ~/Library/Mail/V2/POP-emailacount@provider.net

(note the space character after -s)


How do I enable "Announce the time" programmatically?

That preference seems to be stored in com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs

Try this:

defaults write com.apple.speech.synthesis.general.prefs TimeAnnouncementPrefs -dict-add TimeAnnouncementsEnabled 1

or 0 at the end to turn it off. See man defaults for more info.

Edit: Another thing that the shell script should do: if you haven't enabled this preference or another speech synthesis behavior since startup, you'll also need to launch the Speech Synthesis Server daemon:

open /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/SpeechSynthesis.framework/Versions/A/SpeechSynthesisServer.app

otherwise, the option will show up as checked in System Preferences, but nothing will actually read the option when it is time to speak the time.


ios9 updated iPad now wants passcode already tried restore

Looks like I got it...I noticed my iTunes would say there was no updated version available, but the latest version to download (new) from the website was a higher version number.  So I re-installed iTunes on my computer and it seemed to work!  Yay!


this sounds like a Hardware Issue definitely. I have the same A1502 model. I have never seen any Mac do this but if you can connect the MacBook Pro to its charger then startup, you should press "D" while its starting. This will allow it to check itself for issues. If you are convinced that its a software issue, you can try booting up from macOS Recovery and reinstalling macOS. Good luck!


Mail on my Mac Pro running the latest update of High Sierra (newest OS I can use) keeps crashing when I use "Select All" to empty the trash

When you rebuilt the mailbox did you also get it to re-index?

Quit mail, then ~/Library/Mail/V6/MailData/ delete all the Envelope Index files [duplicate to the desktop first for safety] & re-launch Mail.

The rebuild may take some time


Troubleshooting the spinning wait cursor or spinning disc pointer

One would use the Activity monitor in your Utility folder to find out the Loads to the CPU, RAM or Disk.

On my MBA 10.9.4 it looks like this:


What are the advantages of Emacs for Mac OS X users?

You can use a OSX GUI Emacs in the form of Aquamacs which is configured to be more OSX like it its key commands and menus and integrates with the OS.

One appeal of emacs is because emacs is mainly written in the language (e-lisp) that users can use to extend it there are a lot of scripts that add all sorts of functionality to the editor making it nearly as powerful as an ide. Even configuration is written in the same language so once you learn it you can modify anything you want.

The other reason I use emacs is that it runs on several OSs (Windows, Linux, Solaris and OSX ) and so I don't need a different editor for each one as I would if I used BBEdit etc.


How can I force the application switcher to stop following the dock and instead show on my main display in Mavericks (OS X 10.9)?

If you are OK with losing the new features of Maverick's multiple displays, open System Preferences, click Mission Control, the uncheck the box that says, "Displays have separate spaces". Log out, then log back in, the problem should be resolved.


Ok, I think I found the answer. It was fixed in 4.3.3. Data is only saved for a week, along with other safeguards.

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Apple-to-shortly-release-iOS-4.3.3-update-deals-with-location-tracking-bug_id18571


How can I run homebrew from an automation?

The PATH passed to a Run Shell Script action in Automator by default is:
/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin

You need to include a PATH statement in the Run Shell Script action and or use fully qualified pathnames for any executables called.
That said, using three separate Run Shell Script actions in this use case makes the first one useless as change directory in the first Run Shell Script action has absolutely no bearing on the subsequent Run Shell Script actions.  You should work all the commands into a single Run Shell Script action.
In a single Run Shell Script action you could use the following example shell script code:
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:
cd "$HOME" || exit
brew update && brew upgrade

As coded, it does the following:

The PATH statement includes /usr/local/bin where I'd assume brew is.
If the cd command fails the script is stopped.
brew upgrade is only executed if brew update succeeds .

That all said, I would just use Terminal normally to perform any brew commands so as to be able to see what is going on.


Unable to delete Dropbox folder from my local hard disk

Assuming the folder is in the Trash now:

Open Terminal
cd ~/.Trash
rm -r Dropbox

If the folder isn't in Trash, skip the second step.


Is it legal to use 2 authorized computers in different households?

This is covered under the USAGE RULES section of the iTunes Terms of Service, which reads, in part:

  USAGE RULES

  (i) You shall be authorized to use iTunes Products only for personal,
  noncommercial use.

  (ii) You shall be authorized to use iTunes Products on five
  iTunes-authorized devices at any time, except for Content Rentals (see
  below).

  (iii) You shall be able to store iTunes Products from up to five
  different Accounts at a time on compatible devices, provided that each
  iPhone may sync tone iTunes Products with only a single
  iTunes-authorized device at a time, and syncing an iPhone with a
  different iTunes-authorized device will cause tone iTunes Products
  stored on that iPhone to be erased.

While I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, I do not see where it limits usage to one person, or declares that all these devices and authorized computers must be owned or operated by only one person.

I suggest you carefully read the entire legal agreement if you want to resolve this for yourself.


This is a way to hide the whole menu bar:

Open System Preferences.
Click General
Under the Appearance section, check "Automatically hide & show the menu bar".
Close System Preferences; the menu bar on your computer should now automatically show when you mouse over it, and hide when you move your mouse cursor somewhere else.

PS. This applies to all applications, not just Chrome.


where is ~/.vim folder? and how to install themes?

~ always is your home folder (/Users/rororo for instance). If ~/.vim exists, that's where you'll find it. Unless you've used vim before, the folder likely will not already exist, so to create the folder, open Terminal.app and type

cd ~
mkdir .vim

Assuming you downloaded ColorSamplerPack.zip to your Downloads folder you can then proceed with

cd .vim
unzip ~/Downloads/ColorSamplerPack.zip

to unpack the content into the folder. A restart of gvim may be required afterwards.

On second thought, the same result can be accomplished by just opening Terminal.app and executing

unzip ~/Downloads/ColorSamplerPack.zip -d ~/.vim


Is WiFi calling supported on ios 8 on iPhone 5?

As of right now, it is only available on 5c, 5s, and 6.

Whether or not this is intentional is unsure since t-mobile themselves thought it would be available for the 5 as well.  We will have to wait for some kind of update for iPhone 5


How can I cut off/block all traffic when I lock the screen (and resume when unlocking) in MacOS?

This is almost as fast as having a lock script. Basically, just turn your ethernet interface(s) off/on.

in a terminal run 'sudo -s'
before locking run 'ifconfig en1 down'
after unlocking run  'ifconfig en1 up'
leave the terminal open but just minimize it for later use

if you don't know which is your active interface, run ifconfig and look for the entry with an IP Address. In the example above, my WiFi interface is en1.
** if you have multiple interfaces just concatenate the command:
'ifconfig en1 down && ifconfig en2 down' …&etc as needed.


I'm having the same issue with GPU on my MBP 2011 and was using the same solution as yours (plus additionally disabled AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext). Saving money for motherboard replacement (or the new Haswell MBP whatever)…

I'm able to play most of videos with Miro player.

Although, I'm starting to have difficulties with my eyes since it's not possible to control monitor brightness anymore…


Where is "`" key on a physical Finnish keyboard using English layout?


I can't tell you where all your favourites have gone, but since you have a Time Machine backup from three weeks ago, your best bet is probably to recover them from there (as I'm guessing you haven't added a lot to your bookmarks in the past three weeks).

The file you're needing to replace is your Bookmarks.plist file. This is located in your user's Library folder. The full path is typically: Macintosh HD ▸ Users ▸ username ▸ Library ▸ Safari ▸ Bookmarks.plist

If your user's Library folder isn't visible, follow these steps to open it:

Go to Finder
Press and hold the option key while you click on the Go menu
Select Library
You can let go of the option key now
Within the Library folder open the Safari folder
Now you'll see the Bookmarks.plist file that you need to recover from your Time Machine backup

Since following the above steps has resulted in the same outcome, it's time to check whether some of your Safari settings have changed. To do this:

Go to Safari > Preferences...
Make sure you're on the General tab (first icon along top)
Now check the options for each of the following settings:

Favorites Shows:
Top Sites Shows:

Exit Preferences
Now click on the Bookmarks menu
Double check that the Show Frequently Visited in Favorites option (second from top) is ticked

Now test again to see if this returns the previous behaviour?


macbook pro out of warranty, two keys not working in built in keyboard. Options?

Your two options are roughly;

You can still take it into the Apple Store, and they can repair it. Obviously, for a cost. Your question notes that you appear to need a whole new keyboard tray, as it's not just a key dead at the surface-level. I don't know how much this would cost, you could perhaps call ahead to save you a trip and essentially just get an expected quote.
Fix it yourself. I love iFixIt for this purpose, start at their MacBook Pro parts page, pick your MacBook Pro's size/model, and check the price for the "upper case" part. I can't imagine that specific key death could be anything other than the keyboard tray and particular circuit boards attached to it.


In MacOS, is there a way to prevent unwanted input when the screen is locked?

Did you set your Mac to lock by going to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General, and then select Require Password, as shown below?


Can I delete the video part of a Live Photo and just keep the photo?

Starting with iOS 9.3 and macOS El Capitan 10.11.4, Photos can strip the video portion of a Live Photo natively.

On your Mac, right-click the Live Photo, then Duplicate 1 Photo.
On iOS, open the Share Sheet from your Live Photo, then tap Duplicate.

Select Duplicate as Still Photo, and you are then free to delete the original Live Photo.

You can even select multiple Live Photos and process them as a batch this way. This can prove especially useful starting with iOS 10.3 and macOS Sierra 10.12.4, which provide a new built-in smart album containing all your Live Photos. Simply go into Albums view and scroll down to Live Photos right below Selfies.


Go to the iTunes music folder, and move the files to your external drive (if this is the location you want them, ofcourse). Afterwards, import them again in iTunes and there you go. Everything is on your external HDD now.

Edit: If this is not what you're looking for please leave a reply with more specific information.


Cannot mount USB with anything, including Disk Utility

I'm guessing the drive is in a filesystem that is either not supported by Mac or corrupted. First, you should connect the drive, open Terminal and type

diskutil list

Then you'll see a few disks (shown similar to /dev/disk1) and their name and size. Based on their name/size, locate which one is the problematic drive and edit your question to include it's entry.

But either way, the case is probably that the drive is just not formatted so good. Mac can be really picky sometimes when it comes to disks, so I really recommend you try to burn the ISO onto the drive using Rufus. Rufus is an incredible tool which is also completely free, but unfortunately it's only available for Windows. So try to get yourself one (or maybe ask a friend to allow you to use his) so you can use this tool, then just open Rufus, choose your disk in the drop-down menu (make sure you choose the right disk!!), check the box saying "Create bootable disk" and click the disk button, choose you ubuntu ISO, and hit format. I use Rufus a lot and it hasn't failed me yet.


Finder jumping to currently selected item

Simply press "esc" to de-select an entry and you'll be able to scroll to your heart's content without the annoyance of jumping back to a selection.


How to Create Templates for Windows Publisher on a Mac

I understand that there may be different ways to achieve the end goal but since no one has come up with a solution at this point, here is what I suggest you try:

There is a neat little application for the Mac called Wine. All in all it allows you to run Windows applications on a mac.
About 7 months ago, I used it to run Publisher on mac without a single hiccup along the way. Your client will save a bit of money with the InDesign app and (depending on the size of your project) perhaps it does the job better than any other third party applications.

Here is a link:
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/open-microsoft-publisher-mac-56433.html

Give it a go and let me know if this answer suits your project.


Since when is it possible to CMD-Q Finder?

The Quit menu item in Finder can be enabled by

Onyx, Cocktail, Secrets etc
Directly in Terminal with defaults write com.apple.finder QuitMenuItem -bool YES


If you only want to host VNC on your Lion server I'd suggest opening the specific port for that service (TCP 5900) on your modem/router and forward it to your Lion server, as opposed to putting it on a DMZ which fully exposes the machine to the internet.

To be able to get to your server using a human readable address like - server.mydomain.com, you need to own a domain (mydomain.com) and then link your actual internet IP address (that your internet provider gives you) to that domain (e.g. server.mydomain.com). It's pretty much as simple as that if your internet IP address doesn't change (is static). If your IP address regularly changes, this kind of approach isn't really possible...

The easiest way to get a DNS (human readable) address is to use a service like DynDNS or No-IP. These constantly check what your IP address is and keep internet DNS records up to date with your current IP address. It requires that your modem/router is compatible with such a service, or that you run a piece of software on a machine (your Lion server maybe) that's inside your network.

So;

1) Forward port 5900 TCP to your Lion server (Port forwarding settings in your modem/router)

2) Set up DNS so that you don't have to remember your IP and so that if your IP changes, you can still connect back to it.

3) Enable screen sharing on the Lion server. Tell it which users you want to be able to connect. Set a password.

I'd recommend looking into using your Lion box as a VPN or SSH server so that you can do all these kinds of things over a single encrypted link. VNC isn't the safest of protocols!


First I want to know whether you can find notes on your iPhone 5c now, have you check your iPhone 5c? If the notes are still preserved on your iPhone 5c, upgrade iOS to the latest version and update iTunes. then you can try to backup them on your computer and iCloud again. If you have multiple email accounts each email account gets its own Notes account.


MacBook Pro 5,1 will only turn on after SMC reset

Have you tried giving the MacBook a PRAM reset? With the firmware password turned off hold down Cmnd+Opt+P+R, turn the computer on and wait for it to restart and you hear the start up chime before you let go.


Why does Finder's scp folder disappear when ssh is invoked?

You need to use the -ovolname option. Using your example:

sshfs users@fqdn.com:/mnt/CRUZERFIT16/Directory /Users/user/Documents/scpbox -ovolname=scpbox


What is `intu-ec-client` listening on TCP port 8021?

So a colleague pointed me to a resource that kind of helps explaining the issue.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201014190758/https://lists.freeswitch.org/pipermail/freeswitch-users/2013-October/100619.html (kudos to @vikasgarg86 for finding  and sending me that link).
Turns out there is this native launchd service com.apple.ftp-proxy.plist living at /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ftp-proxy.plist that fires /usr/libexec/ftp-proxy (https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide/blob/master/launchd/15B42_launchd.csv#L94) which apparently binds to TCP port  8021.
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Disabled</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.apple.ftp-proxy</string>
        <key>UserName</key>
        <string>_ftp</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/usr/libexec/ftp-proxy</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>ftp-proxy</string>
                <string>-p</string>
                <string>-n</string>
                <string>-V</string>
                <string>-D3</string>
                <string>-t1800</string>
        </array>
        <key>inetdCompatibility</key>
        <dict>
                <key>Wait</key>
                <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>Sockets</key>
        <dict>
                <key>Listeners</key>
                <dict>
                        <key>SockNodeName</key>
                        <string>localhost</string>
                        <key>SockServiceName</key>
                        <string>8021</string>
                        <key>SockType</key>
                        <string>stream</string>
                </dict>
        </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

However that's only half the way into actually understanding what is going on. What the original author of the conversation linked here couldn't figure and myself too, is how that service got there in the first place. Why is it even running? and what are the consequences of changing the port from 8021 to something else.
Please comment bellow if you know the answers.
By the way sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ftp-proxy.plist does the job of stopping the service.


Apple is famous for making things proprietary.

Since iBooks doesn’t actually use space on the hard drive there is no way to access the books from outside of iBooks.

I don’t see any way to share a file from iBooks on iOS.
I don’t have my Mac available at the moment, but I am going to bet you can’t share it from there either.

I guess you are stuck reading the file on iBooks.


How to Decouple iCloud-Sourced Photos from the iCloud in Photos Application

You cannot in Photos designate some photos as "local" and others as "iCloud Photo Library". It is all or nothing.

However, you can have locally stored photos outside of the Photos application, which will be untouched by iCloud Photo Library.

Regarding your comment about storage capacities: In Photos Preferences under the iCloud tab, you can set your storage policy to either (a) store photos and videos in full resolutions on this Mac, or (b) store photos and videos in full resolution on iCloud primarily and only cache photos/videos in full resolution locally as available storage allows.


Why doesn't OS X require graphics card driver updates?

Apple makes its own drivers & they are included in the OS updates.

The way to be up to date on drivers is to always be running the latest OS.

There is debate over whether Apple make the entire driver set themselves, or just take NVidia/AMD's core code & add their own hardware/OS-specific code to it. The latter seems more plausible to me, but either is just speculation.

The end result, though, is that there are rarely issues with Apple graphics drivers & regular software or games; again speculation, but for games I imagine they write to a pre-defined rule-set, rather than try to constantly be pushing the boundaries.

As noted elsewhere, NVidia themselves make OS X drivers for Quadro cards but these are aftermarket cards anyway, not supplied in any Mac build option available directly from Apple.

Apple provides core drivers, currently up to OpenGL 4.1 or 3.3 - depending on your card, of course - plus legacy drivers for OGL 2.1 compatibility. Which one you get to use in any particular game etc is up to the writers of that game.

Traditionally, if your card has full OpenGL support for the first monitor, it will also have it on the second, unlike many PC cards with 'clipped' performance on the 2nd monitor.

Link to OpenGL support by Mac model

After comments & other answers here…
NVidia do have their own release for certain Mac GPUs - this is the current driver as of December 2015
However, they are predominantly for the Quadro series of aftermarket cards rather than default cards supplied by Apple.
There is also support for some cards which have been legacied by Apple - namely the GeForce 680, 285, 120 & 8800
There is mention of beta support for some recent mobile cards, presumably as Apple are dropping legacy support on these in favour of AMD in the current lineup.


Turn a Mac Mini into a public WiFi hotspot

You could do it with LinSpot. They take a 15% cut of for-pay access. You can install their software on your Mac. http://www.linspot.com/

As for doing it yourself, it's a bit trickier. You'd have to run your own DNS server, so when a user connects to your network, the first request would be redirected to your splash page. Then all subsequent DNS requests would pass through your server to a real DNS server. That type of policy may be possible with OSX Server or iDNS server, but I'm not 100% sure on how it's done. You will need server administration software, and you will need capture the DNS to create your own Captive Portal (as it's called).


How to clear out this Photos/ Camera Roll related data taking space on the iPhone even after Deleting all Pictures?

It is likely that a wipe and restore will fix the issue.

As the iPhone is essentially a pocket computer with a simplified and locked down interface it is difficult, at best, to get into the inner workings to apply fixes that are needed to solve a particular problem .

I have found that many issues like this are readily solved by a simple, though tedious, process.

Back up your iPhone via iTunes to your local computer. Give the backup a password so it saves the app passwords already on the iPhone
Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase all content and settings and wipe the phone
When the phone reboots, plug it back into the computer and restore from the backup you just created.
You will have to now enter AppleID/iCloud passwords to reconnect it to your Apple accounts

You should now see that the space formerly occupied by (deleted) photos and the like is now freed up.


The sound file for moving an item to the trash is located here:

Go to your HD > System > Library > Components > CoreAudio.component (right click and choose "Show Package Contents") > Contents > SharedSupport > SystemSounds > dock > "drag to trash.aif"

This "drag to trash.aif" is the sound file responsible for the audio effect.

Back up the current file just incase and replace it with a silent one (a quick google search will do - you might need to get the silent file as mp3 and then convert it to aif).

You may need to restart for it to take effect.


How do I keep track of the bandwidth usage through my Airport Extreme wireless router?

The Airport Express/Extreme allows monitoring via SNMP if you enable it via the Airport Configuration Utility (version 5.6 ONLY).

Apple removed advanced configuration parameters from Airport Configuration Utility 6.0. Please download a version 5.6 of the utility from Apple’s support page to get a full access to all configuration parameters of your router. SNMP configuration is located under Advanced settings.

From there, ANY snmp polling engine can get traffic as a whole.

You would be hard-pressed to find anything that could differenciate traffic between devices that isn't a real router (Cisco, etc) or custom built Linux box.

I just found this during a quick serach: NetUseApp via iTunes Store allows you to monitor any SNMP device with a pretty interface.


Spotlight doesn't find the contents of at least one file

I would suspect a corrupt file. It may be just damaged enough to stop Spotlight reading it properly.

If you select the file in the Finder and hit the space bar does it open in Quick Look? If it doesn't then it is broken.

Try opening it in Excel and copying and pasting everything into a new file.


2018 MacBook Pro experiencing very poor battery life (<4 hours) with light usage

Considering your updated question that your problem is that running a Java-program forces the discrete GPU active thus draining your battery:

This is a known bug with some older versions of Java and JavaFX. Upgrade your Java to the latest version to see if that fixes this for you (see java bug JDK-8132775 and JDK-8041900).

If that still does not fix it, find the offending application and open its application bundle. Inside you'll find a Info.plist file, which you'll want to edit to add the key:

NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching

the key should be a boolean set to true.

This should fix the problem if the application uses a sufficiently new version of Java.

If you're not confident doing this, report the GPU behavior as a bug to app developer and hint them about NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching. Hopefully they will put out an update fixing the problem.

If your Java program does not come as a .app but instead is a bare jar-file, you'll want to convert it to an app first. Use the jar2app script to convert it to an app, and then use the instructions above to add the NSSupportsAutomaticsGraphicsSwitching key. Download jar2app from here:

https://github.com/Jorl17/jar2app


Change to an different keyboard layout when entering passwords

I can see that this is likely to be very restrictive until you find a solution, so I offer this workaround to ease things while other answers come in.  If you enter your password into your username field, then select it, copy it, and type over the top with your actual user name, you can then paste the password into the password field..  This is 3 extra taps overall, but will at least allow you to use your logins in the meantime.


Timer Lockout for iOS allowing multiple apps

There is a free and very simple way to limit time on iOS if you have an activation passcode.

Launch the Clock app
Set a Timer
Make sure that "Stop Playing" is set under "Sounds."

If a sound is set, naturally that plays. If "Stop Playing" is set, the device will go to the lock screen. Naturally, this will require your passcode or fingerprint!

This technique allows another user (my kids in this case) to use whatever apps they want, but only for a set amount of time until they need my passcode. You can also use guided access (linked above) to restrict them to only one app.


Macbook Pro 15" bad hissing sounds when connecting external monitor and external speakers

What you're hearing is just electrical noise interference. The reason it depends on what's on the display is probably because it takes the display more power to show white than black.

To fix/help this problem:

Make sure that everything is plugged in all the way to its proper connector.
Make sure that you're using high- or
medium-quality cables, connectors,
and other components.
Use an external sound card like this one or USB speakers like these.


Macbook Mail plays incoming mail sound even after turning off all notifications

I have had a similar issue. I use SpamSieve and I was unaware (or had forgotten) that there is a preference within SpamSieve to make a sound after a message is identified as 'good'. That is why the Basso sound (the default from SpamSieve) was being played after the 'New Message' sound - that, in experimenting, I had chosen in Mail.

Are you using SpamSieve? Or perhaps another filtering service that rides on Mail?


Converting spoken word audio files into text

My experience is that unless you get a very good speech to text solution, you are simply letting yourself in for a lot of frustration. You'll be spending more time making corrections to garbled transcriptions than you would have spent typing from the start.

There's a reason there are not many effective solutions on the market: this stuff is HARD!

The Dragon engine from Nuance is the best I've tried.


Can Mail.app be configured to always load remote images from certain domains?

Short answer

There is no specific option for this. But you can define a rule and run an applescript.

Solution

Save applescript below with any name and to any folder you want.
Go to Mail app > Preferences > Rules and click Add Rule. Give name theRule to your new role and select conditions that you want to display remote images. For your question this should be From > allsongs@n.npr.org.

You could also select Sender is in my Address Book to display remote images for all mails come from  your contacts.

Under Perform the following actions: section, select Run Applescript and choose the file you wrote at step 1.
Save the rule.

Applescript

--BEGINNING OF SCRIPT
using terms from application "Mail"
on perform mail action with messages theMessages for rule theRule
tell application "Mail"
activate
repeat with eachMessage in theMessages
open eachMessage
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Mail"
set loadButton to a reference to button 1 of UI element 1 of row 1 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of front window
if loadButton exists then click loadButton
end if
end tell
end repeat
end tell
end perform mail action with messages
end using terms from
--END OF SCRIPT


Why are my iMessages showing as coming from my email address when I've set my Caller ID to my phone number?

Go to settings on the iPhone.
Go to the 'Messages' settings.
And select Receive At.

See what it says there.
It should be your phone number not Apple ID or email.

If you have a Apple email listed. You can remove it by.

Clicking the 'Apple ID youremail@me.com'
You will get a popup which lets sign out thus removing the mac email address.


MacBook Pro 13" 2011 not booting -- question mark folder

Folder showing ? means, that there is no bootable system found on your hard disk.

Booting in Recovery Mode means, that your HDD is still working.

Disk Utility not showing HDD means, that there is no formatted HDD.

To recover your data try following step:

Shut down computer
Turn on again pressing "T"-Key down till Firewire Icon is shown.
Take another Mac and a Firewire-Cable
Turn off "new" Mac
Plug your "Firewire"-Mac into the "New"-Mac

Hopefully, your "Firewire"-Mac will show up as an external Drive.

go here for detailed information


Unable eject a USB drive, Finder just hangs

If you can not eject, then the next best thing to do is unmount the volume using the Disk Utility application. Once unmounted you can remove the device from the USB port.

For example, I have an mp3 player plugged in to my USB port. The volume has the label PEARL. If I highlight the volume the Unmount button will appear.

If I click on Unmount, the button will change to Mount. You will also notice the volume is no longer appears in the Finder. I can now unplug the mp3 player.

Another solution would be to log out of your account, then disconnect the device.


Ping command with parameters from iPhone

IT Tools - Network Analyzer iOS app has a configuration screen for ping, which includes Payload Size:


Which iOS app tracks jogging distance accurately?

The Nike+ GPS with a foot sensor has two sorts of input and can be more reliable than apps that only rely on GPS.

The main sources of foot sensor measurement error are:

an odd gait (which will throw off the foot accelerometer - even when calibrated)
incorrectly calibrated foot sensor
your run routine typically covers several uneven stride lengths

You might be better with a foot sensor over a pure GPS application, but it's hard to tell in general.

I find the hassle of a foot pod not worth the extra accuracy and use GPS only apps. The best for me is made by Abvio. Their GPS apps are superb and allow detailed control. The only downside is this adds complexity to the UI and you need to know a little to operate the tuning controls properly. (I chose the Runmeter over Cyclemeter or Walkmeter since I like a red color and the shoe icon's looks - they are all exactly the same engine and you can use all of the settings on any app - you don't need more than one to get all the route types.)

The developer is very responsive to email support - I was getting errors on my motorcycle settings and they guided me to get the accuracy I wanted since each activity type has some assumptions that can cause errors for some users.

Depending on where and how you jog - this app allows you to tune and filter the raw GPS data to your liking. Since you can recreate this one path again and again, you should be able to get things dialed assuming it's not a problem with jogging in a canyon or under heavy tree / large buildings where interference and multipath effects will render all GPS faulty.


For a start, you could look at ControlPlane to trigger iTunes when you come home.

from http://www.controlplaneapp.com/about/ :

  ControlPlane allows you to build configuration profiles, contexts in ControlPlane lingo, for your Mac based on where you are or what you are doing.  ControlPlane determines where you are or what you are doing based on a number of available evidence sources and then automatically reconfigures your Mac based on your preferences.  Evidence sources can include your current location, visible WiFi networks, attached USB devices, running applications and more.


How to execute a Parallels Windows application with command line parameters from Mac?

APPROACH 1

This approach is a hack, but works with the least expensive version of Parallels.

On the virtual Windows machine:

Create a *.bat file for each possible set of parameters. For example:

     @echo off
     start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\MyApplication.exe" --myArg
     exit

On the Mac:

Navigate to $(HOME)/Applications (Parallels)/VMNAME Applications, where VMNAME is the name of a virtual machine.
Duplicate the MyApplication.app application bundle and rename the duplicate MyApplication --arg.app.
Right-click MyApplication --myArg.app and choose "Show Package Contents*.
Open Contents/Resources/AppParams.pva in an editor (e.g., TextEdit), and change the value of the App Path property to the absolute path in the virtual machine to the *.bat file, rather than the application. Save the file.

This is similar to @johnl's answer above, which provided the vital clue. However, at least in Parallels 11, the App Path property would only work with an application path, not with a command line.

APPROACH 2

As of Parallels 11, this approach requires one of the more expensive editions of Parallels - Pro or Business. I don't have either, and haven't tested this approach.

According to the Parallels manual Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition, the command prlctl exec can accept a command to be executed on the Windows virtual machine.

  prlctl exec

  Executes a command inside a virtual machine. Parallels Tools must be installed in a virtual machine to use this utility. Commands in Linux guests are invoked with bash -c.

  Syntax

  prlctl exec vm_id|vm_name command

  Parameters

  Name Description

  vm_id|vm_name The UUID or the name of the virtual machine.

  command A command to execute.


Installing Windows 10 on MacBook early 2008 without bootcamp - black screen blinking cursor

I assume you are trying to install a 64 bit version of Windows 10 because your processor is 64 bit. After Reviewing the web site Install Windows 7 and earlier on your Mac using Boot Camp, I found Apple documents only 32 bit versions of Windows 7, Vista or XP are designed to run on your Mac Book (2008).
The computer used to enter this answer is a 20" mid 2007 iMac running 64 bit Windows 10 Pro. The same web site documents that my iMac can not run 64 bit versions of Windows, so this site can be wrong. On the other hand, just because I can do it does not mean you will be able.
The first thing I would check is the Mac's firmware. Current Apple firmware can be found at this site: About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers.
Neither of our Macs can boot the Windows 10 installer from a USB flash drive. So, there is no point to trying that method to install Windows 10.
My iMac can not boot from a standard 64 bit Windows installation DVD. This is because these DVDs contain both the BIOS/MBR and EFI/GPT methods of booting. When you tried your DVD, the icon labeled "Windows" was the BIOS/MBR method and the icon labeled "EFI" was the EFI/GPT method. If you are having the same problem as me, you would have to remove the EFI/GPT method from the DVD. Unfortunately, this requires a machine running Windows. The procedure is given at “Select CD-ROM Boot Type:” error during Windows install.
The XP, Vista and Windows 7 32 bit DVDs only contain the BIOS/MBR method of booting. I assume this is also true for Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. If you can find a 32 DVD,  you could test to see if dual booting is your problem. You can download a free 90 day trial of 32 bit Windows 10 Enterprise at this site.
Another option will be to install VirtualBox on you Mac. Since you are using OS X 10.7, you would need to download and install the last version 4.3 release of VirtualBox. This would allow you to test the DVD by booting from the DVD in a Virtual environment. You could also install Window 10 in the virtual environment, but I am afraid your Mac is to slow for this to be of any use. (If you do, be careful not to active the Windows 10. To be safe, maybe you should not be connected to the internet while using the virtual machine.)
You could use VirtualBox to just install Windows to Mac's Boot Camp partition  and then run a physical version of Windows 10 without the aid of VirtualBox. The difference between this method, and directly using the DVD, would be that you could remove the EFI files before booting the Windows 10 installer. The procedure would be a merger of the instructions given here and here.
I am sure I have not answered all you questions. Feel free to post comments with additional questions.
BTW, the partition tables you added to your question look good. The output from the command gpt shows the GUID Partition Table (GPT) used by OS X. The command fdisk shows the legacy Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table that will be used by Windows. The first entry in both tables is the (hidden) EFI partition. This partition always starts at different values in the tables, but ends at the same value. The next three are your OS X, (hidden) OS X Recovery and Boot Camp partitions. The negative values appear to be a bug in fdisk. The values are suppose to be printed as unsigned values. What is shown are signed values. You can convert to the correct values by adding 2 to the 32nd power (i.e. 4294967296). In other words:
fdisk value                gpt value
-1861551096 + 4294967296 = 2433416200
-1861141456 + 4294967296 = 2433825840
-1859870720 + 4294967296 = 2435096576


How does "sharing" of purchased apps work on iPhone and iPad?

There isn't a limit to this (or there isn't yet a limit that is imposed by Apple); you should be able to install iOS apps that you purchase on all your iOS devices (obviously using the same Apple ID).
From the Apple iTunes Terms of Service:

APP STORE PRODUCT USAGE RULES
(i) If you are an individual acting in your personal capacity, you may download and sync an App Store Product for personal, noncommercial use on any iOS Device you own or control.


macOS Catalina installer freezes just after choosing disk

I found a fix for me.
Something told me that a disabled Spotlight might be the reason (I had similar issue long time ago and re-enabling Spotlight did the job).

If you have Spotlight disabled, then re-enable it using this in Terminal:

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

After installation you can disable it once again :) Hope it helps someone.

*Can also make this change in System Preferences > Spotlight > Privacy = Then drag and drop hdd into the window. To undo the action, just click on the hdd, and select the minus symbol. This did the trick for me.


Is the installation of Xcode from App Store enough for having the developer tools?

Installing Xcode 4.3 does install the developer tools, but not for command line access. With this version, everything has been moved into the application bundle, which means there is no need for a uninstaller, since you can just delete the application. If you want to install the command line tools, open Xcode and go to Xcode > Preferences > Downloads, select the Components tab, and click the button next to Command Line Tools. (This might add an uninstaller somewhere, but I'm not sure.)

As for Homebrew, you might have to wait for an update before it supports Xcode 4.3, since everything was moved. I would suggest trying /Applications/Xcode.app as the <xcode_folder_path>, since most of the hierarchy appears to be the same.

The homebrew developers are tracking these changes in their bug database so, you may want to monitor this thread for workarounds and notification of when the homebrew system will effortlessly work with the new changes for Xcode 4.3.


Ignoring for a moment that the daily, weekly, monthly jobs are running automatically anyway, you need to make sure that you are either in the correct directory or using absolute paths when running rm:

rm -rf /PATH/TO/.TemporaryItems
rm -rf ~/.Trash


Shortcut to accept top spelling suggestion of the last word

Edit:
If you want it to be automatically corrected, go to System preferences > Keyboard > Text and turn on "Correct spelling automatically".

Original answer:

Which OS X version are you on?
I'm on Mavericks and if I move the cursor so it touches the misspelled word, the suggestion pops up automatically and I can chose the correct one using the arrow keys.


Question about adding SSD to my 2012 MBP (non-Retina)

I am not familiar with that particular SSD, however if it is a standard form factor 2.5" SATA drive then it should work. This take apart on fixit.com shows replacing the HD in a 13" 2012 MacBook Pro.

I don't know where you heard that Macs can't boot from an optical drive but that is patently false. macOS used to come on optical media that you had to boot from to install  the OS. Also many repair utilities came on optical disks that you booted from.

Technically speaking it is possible to replace an optical drive with another kind of drive (SSD, HD, etc.) and there are a number of places you can find the instructions for this specific thing.

IfixIt would be a good place to start, I think they have a kit that adapts the optical drive bay to another kind of drive. Try MacSales too. I seem to recall they carried things like this.


It should work if you boot into recovery mode. Hold cmd+r when booting, then use Disk Utility to recover. If your drive is encrypted, you will have to mount it and unlock it first.


If your Apple ID works to log you into iTunes Connect and you lack some authorities on your primary Apple ID - here are the things I would do in order:

Log out and then open a private browsing / incognito window and then log back in without any pesky cookies or other history.
Go to Agreements, Tax, and Banking and verify that you have two valid Master Agreements that are both effective and not expired and then click done.
Go to Users and Roles and click on the AppleID you are using.
Go to Roles and verify that the Legal and Admin check boxes are grey and selected.
Repeat the above step for any additional AppleID that are associated with your account to verify the proper roles for each (if you have secondary accounts).
If all else fails, go to Resources and Help and click the Contact Us to request one-on-one help with your specific account since you will be unlikely to fix whatever is wrong at that point yourself on iTunes Connect since it would be a server side data issue and/or that you haven't accepted the required legal agreements during the sign up and activation process.


Black line appears below screenshot when I paste it into Word

I just found another post regarding Word. If I change the "wrap text" setting in the picture properties to "Square", the black line disappears.


Not resizing, but you can set the banner to be permanent/ persistent instead of temporary in Notification Settings.


How does FireWire daisy chaining work between two Macs?

Found the solution, and that is that both system will mount the drive simultaneously in a potentially data corrupting manner.

Source: Macintouch Reader Reports FireWire: Connecting Drive to Two Computers

  Q: Vy Tri Truong
  I have a stack of 2 FireWire Hard Drives next to my Mac Mini. I also have a PC laptop that I sometimes use to access the drives. My Windows XP PC has MacDrive 6 installed which allows it to recognize Mac formatted discs (which these drives are). On one of occasion, I accidentally left the drives plugged into the Mac while connecting my PC to it. I found that both computers were able to access files and write to the discs.
  Is having 2 computers access the same hard drive simultaneously advisable?

Turns out it is not a good thing to do, may cause data corruption, according to the same source.

  A:Daniel Figucio
  Is having 2 computers access the same hard drive simultaneously advisable?
  No, it is not advisable in this configuration at all. The file systems on the drives are not concurrent file systems. This means that the PC has no idea where the Mac may have written data and vice versa - which means that they may both try to write data to the same block on the disk because they think it is free, when the other has already written data there - which will obviously corrupt data. The Mac and the PC WILL NOT communicate and tell each other what they have done. So use at your own risk..

  ...


I'm streaming a basketball game and one computer, but I want to simutainiously share to another computer in the house

VNC connection is rather slow and without audio. I would recomment NoMachine if You want to stream video and audio. It works really well especially on LAN. It uses video codecs and smart compression mechanisms to keep the stream fluid. Interface is not as good as native Apple app though.
It's free for private use.


How do I switch between multiple channels on the YouTube app for the iPhone?

If you go to the 'Account' screen there should be a little arrow next to your name, if you click on that you should be able to switch channels. As for making it default you may just want to sign out of both accounts and then sign back into them in order of priority. Hope that helps.


What happens if I put an unsupported version of iOS on my iPhone?

Simply put: iOS 5 came out in 2011. It does not have the drivers to control hardware from the future.

I guess the real question is: why do you want to do this? Is there some old app that you want to run? Some aspect of the UI that you prefer? Perhaps there's another method of achieving your goal.


I found the answer.

File → Revert to → Browse All Versions, and there you go.


Which text editors support both tabbed windows & rtf documents?

I've been using FocusWriter to good effect. It supports RTF, has files in independent tabs, and doesn't require a login.


terminal: how do i pipe the results of grep to open a file

Try open $(ls | grep 3). Depending on your specific needs, you can also skip the grep part and use open $(ls *3*) (or even open *3*) directly.


A microfibre cloth works great for the iPhone/iPod/iPad screens. If you've purchased a Mac, the cloth that came with that works great too so you don't have to purchase a separate one.


Setup local network on Mac and share it via WiFi, but with no internet connection

If you have WiFi turned on then you have a pizza slice icon at the right of the menu bar. If it isn't there then open Network in System Preferences to make sure WiFi is on and you have Show Wi-Fi status in menu bar selected.

Select Create Network... which will open up a dialog where you can specify a network name and security. I usually change security to 40-bit WEP just so the link is secure.

You can now connect to this network from your iPhone in the same way as any other WiFi net.


Capturing USB HID keys in OSX, for keyboard?

Key Codes by Many Tricks

https://manytricks.com/keycodes/

  Key Codes is a little utility that displays the key code, unicode value, and modifier keys state for any key combination you press. If you're a developer, this might be useful to you.


You can add a message to Lost Mode, informing 'honest finders' of how to contact you. See - iCloud: Use Lost Mode

It's also possible to add text to your lock screen [We have that on both my & my partner's lock screen images, just in case either of us walks under a bus... which of course would not be a 'lost mode' situation]

I've been trying to Google some ideal lock screen info - but they all seem to be based on apps... all you really need is to know the screen size of your current lock screen image, add the text in Photoshop or Gimp etc & set as your new lock screen :/

This gives a decent general overview of how to change your lockscreen, but what you really need are the sizes, so you can make one with the '3D' view or just static - this page has a guide to image sizes [ignore that they're trying to sell you an app to do it, any image editor can do this].

This is my lock-screen...


How does Windows 10 run on a Mac that officially only supports Windows 7?

Microsoft tried to focus on backwards compatibility with Windows 10, supposedly retaining support for drivers designed for Vista. I've been running Windows 10 on a newer Mac and it works fine. I'm sure you'll have no issues.


Macbook Pro 13 inch mid 2012 not running two daisy chained thunderbolt displays

I think it's that my laptop is on the edge of being powerful enough for both.

I made some space on my hard disk, stopped any applications from opening automatically on login and restarted whilst plugged in to both monitors.


Does app review rejection list all issues?

There is no guarantee all reasons for rejection will be listed in your initial rejection response although like the previous poster I have had multiple reasons listed in the "App Submission Feedback" email which tells you of the rejection. But the rejection points were related. If one point for rejection was a HIG violation and another was around In App Purchase I wouldn't be so sure both would be included.

We have also experienced multiple/sequential rejections as we tried to submit the same target version to the store and we've learned a little bit more with each submission.

We have also tried to open up a conversation and get more detail and ask for guidance on how we may have interpreted something differently when we saw some ambiguity. This process is slow and every time we have re-submitted according to the original guideline. Don't pursue this option thinking you might change the policy or get a special exception especially if there is any kind of time sensitivity to your release. I say this especially in relation to this question because even if you were approved for that one item there is no guarantee something else would not be found on your re-submission.

Just as another point of context, most of our rejections have come around In Application Purchase and specific interpretations of the product types.


Are you sure you're hitting the 'audio' button correctly? I found that it needs to be tapped very precisely.

Sometimes iOS incorrectly assumes that the tap goes to the whole FaceTime row, which is then highlighted in gray during the tap and starts a FaceTime video call.


Generally application (.app) bundles are meant to be stored in /Applications of ~/Applications. I recommend using /Applications for the vast majority of installations, since the apps there will be accessible to other users' accounts`.

Application bundles aren't directly executable. Instead, their executable file is stored within the bundle (right click and select "Show package contents"), in {APPLICATION.app}/Contents/MacOS/

To open an Application bundle from the terminal, you can use the wicked open command with the -a flag, like: open -a /Applications/Application.app. This comes in handy occasionally, though I don't know why you'd want to open applications through terminal, rather than through the dock, dock stack, or spotlight.


EDIT:Make sure that you save everything you want before doing this

Try changing the hibernate mode to RAM only, run this Terminal command:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

And, try deleting the sleepimage. From /private/var/vm/sleepimage.

Do:

sudo rm /private/var/vm/sleepimage

Then type your password.


Script to click app on Menu Bar on Mavericks

Although this is not an ApplesSript (and I would still like to know how to resolve the question via clicking etc) there is another way to skin the cat.  The application can be installed with a command line interface.  If installed: you can turn NoSleep on as follows:

NoSleepCtrl -a -b -s 1,1

That is easy enough to script that I can even do it.


Derive the launchd config plist based on a launch label

locate com.spotify.webhelper should do the trick as long as the plist is properly named (and the update process for the locate db has at least run once since you installed Spotify). Otherwise have a look at /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons and their equivalents in your own Library folder.


How can I set the iOS Springboard wallpaper to a different image than the lock screen wallpaper without jailbreaking?

After going to the Wallpaper section from within Settings.app and choosing an image;

On the iPad, there are 'Set Lock Screen', 'Set Home Screen', and 'Set Both' buttons on the top of the screen while previewing the image.
On the iPhone, a menu pops up asking whether you'd like it on the Lock Screen or Home Screen, or Both, after tapping 'Set'.


Position all slides titles at the same exact coordinate - Keynote

From Keynote type some text on a slide. Select the text and on the top right side be sure to click on Format. Then on the line below Format click on Arrange. In the pane that appears, you can set the x and y positions of the text. There is an option below that to lock this into place.


Are iOS in-app purchases information not shared on M1 MacBook?

Each app developer decides how they validate receipts and licenses. Microsoft Office 365 designed their licenses so macOS, iOS and iPadOS all share the same one license. Apple provides shared app storage so even if the developer doesn’t want to host their own license servers and validation logic, an app developer could easily design shared licensing model via Apple App Stores.
I don’t see Rosetta Stone saying clearly in support either way which they chose, but there’s no technical reason why they don’t honor one license on all versions of the app. They could easily expect you to pay as well and Apple doesn’t really weigh in which model a developer chooses.
I would open a support ticket with Apple (since you paid them presumably for the subscription) and with Rosetta Stone (since they publish both apps) to ask how it is intended to work. Once you know their intent you can then pursue support if your license isn’t working or know they just don’t intend this to work.


If you are willing to install and use a local filtering proxy:

The venerable Privoxy will allow you to deanimate GIFs.

While a fine grained setup can be quite involved, that deanimated GIF-thing is quite easy to configure with the preset "medium" already. (Or via one radio button in the settings page.)

Playing those GIFs in a website you do want to see is then quite a hassle, though. That would require a trip to System Preferences, change proxy settings and then reloading the page. Depending on how often you need that feature, it's easiest to use another browser for that that does not get filtered.

As two examples: Firefox comes to mind, since it has proxy settings differing from the system preferences, or OmniWeb, which ignores the system settings.


The iPhone home button is sometimes unresponsive. How can I fix it?

Take it to the Apple Store. Tell them exactly what is going on and that it's a real problem for you. Even if they can't recreate the problem there in store, they will replace the device. I had a similar issue with my iPad. I took it in and explained everything and even though they couldn't replicate it they replaced it.

If anything, they will help you get a resolution. I've never gone into an Apple store with a problem only to have them tell me "Sorry, nothing we can do."


Will Apple TV work if I connected it to a DVD player?

The apple TV 2 supports 480p. In my case it works through my AV/Amplifier which is connected with an HDMI cable to my TV.

The only catch would be HDCP which requires end to end protection of data. But from what I understand HDCP allows non HDCP compliant hardware to receive lower quality image using legacy connectors (RCA, S-Video ...). So it all depends on how your DVD player is connected to the TV.


FTDI USB to serial module doesn't work in Catalina

I followed the FTDI forum as well and got it to work with their 2.4.4 driver. Keep in mind that only the old 2.4.2 driver is available on their website as of now.


Why does iOS 9 have different glyphs for some characters on keyboard vs. on screen?

This problem has existed an every version of iOS until 10 as far as I know, and best I can figure is intentional since it probably would have been fixed by now. It's just more visible with San Francisco.

I don't know why Apple does it. Could it be that it looks better on the keyboard?

iOS 11 no longer has this behavior as it has added "smart quotes" à la Microsoft Word. Most of the time, as a result, you you will see the character you expected to see typed.


Calendar sharing with iCloud and MobileMe

This is a dilemma that I too have been struggling with and am sorry to say that at this time, I don't believe a real solution exists.  The new sharing interface in iCloud seems to have removed any and all methods of sharing an editable calendar with a non iCloud user.  The only sharing option for non iCloud users that seems to have remained intact is the ability to create a public calendar, viewable from a web browser.  There is however a partial work around that will solve a portion of your problem, but not all of it.

You can get around the new iCloud sharing interface and restrictions by moving the calendars in question from the cloud to each individuals respective Mac locally.  The simplest way I've found to do this is to export said calendar to your desktop and then open the resulting ".ics" file into iCal.  When prompted for a destination calendar, select "New Calendar" from the bottom of the list.  This will create a new calendar stored locally on the Mac with the same name and events of the first calendar. (Be aware, that this will result in duplicate events unless you choose to then delete the iCloud counterpart.)  Once you've done this, the new local calendar will give you a "Publish" option inside of it's contextual menu (Right or Ctl Click) which leads you to an option to publish to Mobile Me, giving you a web cal link that any standard calendar service can subscribe to.

There are too major downsides to this, the first being that it only provides viewing options, no editing ability.  The second problem is that it is now dependent on syncing your iPhone to your computer in order to keep everything up to date.  Local Calendars are not privy to either iCloud or mobile me cloud syncing.

I know that this is definitely not the solution you're looking for, but hopefully it will provided some sort of stop gap until either Apple or some of our more industrious developer friends out there come up with something both more elegant and fully functional.  As always, I highly recommence backing up iCal before moving and or removing any calendars.

I look forward to seeing what the rest of the community comes up with as well, hopefully there is something simple that I have missed.


Force install Mavericks or newer on a A1181

Yes it can be done. You would need the MLPostFactor that could also install Mountain Lion. But in Fact it is very unlikely, that this is gonna work out. The Intel GMA950 is not a 64Bit Graphics Chip and has only 64MB of VRAM.

So you would get Glitches and poor (veryp poor) graphics performance.
Even with the 2.4Ghz 2007 MacBook (Black Edition) with full RAM equipped, you won't have fun with it. It was unusable in Lion already.

The worst that can happen is having your MacBook in an unusable condition.


According the LTE page at Apple.com the model in UK and Australia should be compatible:

Model number:

  iPad mit Retina Display (4. Generation) Modell A1460

  iPad mini Modell A1455

LTE Band Support:

  1 (2100 MHz)
  3 (1800 MHz)
  5 (850 MHz)
  13 (700c MHz)
  25 (1900 MHz)

For both UK and Australia. You should be fine buying the iPad down under :)


Due to the thermal mass it is not possible to have temperature spikes.

If that is the case please verify the software you are using to get the temperature readings.

Also please consider that the conversion Algorithm from temperature diodes readout requires calibration, that in your case was probably not done.


This was a long time ago, but I found out how to delete the recently shared items and haven't answered yet. So here is how it goes:

Delete the plist file:

Old: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.sharekit.recents.plist

New: ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.preferences.extensions.ShareMenu.plist

I forgot when exactly macOS changed the file location, and maybe both file are present after an upgrade.

You can use plutil -convert xml1 <filename> to convert the plist into a human-readable XML format if you want to inspect it.


I'm wondering if anyone knows what features will be offered in iOS 4.3

While in beta, we, Apple Developers with access to the developer portal, are prohibited to say anything regarding the beta iOS.


When we go to a program we go there to create a new file or
  resume work in one.

Or, we may want to open a file that was created with another app. For example, we may have created a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) file with another app and want to open it in Numbers to format it as a spreadsheet.

  When one clicks the Numbers Application icon Why does
  Numbers in Mavericks list files with different extensions
  and not just Numbers files?

Numbers shows you all of your files, because hiding some files is disorienting and prevents you from finding your way around the file system.

However, notice that some files are grayed-out within the Numbers Open dialog box. Those are the files you cannot open with Numbers. If a file is not grayed-out, then you can open it (or Quick Look it) with Numbers. This includes many files that are not Numbers documents, or were not created by Numbers, such as Excel spreadsheets, or text files of all kinds.

  Only Numbers files are allowed a "quick look" and nothing else.

That is incorrect. If a file is not grayed-out because Numbers can’t open it, and you can Quick Look it in Finder, then you can Quick Look it in the Numbers Open dialog box. Try Quick Looking an Excel spreadsheet or any kind of text file.

  This whole thing seems like a waste of time.

If that is so, then toggle the Numbers Open dialog box from “On my Mac” to “iCloud,” where you can Save your Numbers documents in one flat hierarchy of Numbers-Saved documents. That way, when you activate Numbers, you can choose only from the documents you previously Saved with Numbers.

Numbers is giving you a choice of 2 ways to work: iCloud’s straightforward “Numbers owns these Numbers documents and that’s all I want to see,” and the “On my Mac” method of incorporating files into Numbers that were not created by Numbers, and which may be Saved in arbitrary places in a larger filesystem. Some people prefer one way, some people prefer the other. It sounds like the iCloud method is right for you.


Migrate local user account to network account

Why wouldn't you use the Migration Assistant to move users?

It's wicked fast over gigabit ethernet, knows what preference files are needed and can handle special cases better than rsync or other simple file copy methods.

Once the user is there, you can delete it (preserving the home folder) and then re-create the user with the proper server UID / home folder location or just edit these in the directory service where user data is stored.

It really depends more on how you want your server set up than just getting the files. Some setups it's easier to move first and fix later - others you should just set up the new account and let users move their files by hand once they have logged into their new accounts.

I would probably set up the server account for the user and once you have created the Home records in Workgroup Manager you can copy the files from a backup or the old client machine (paying attention to ownership by moving the contents of the home folder directories and resetting permissions to match the server UID/GID) before binding the client machine to the server accounts.


How to reinstall previous iOS version on iPhone or iPod touch

This might be not possible, depending on what device you have. Because Apple has stopped signing 4.2.1, unless you have backed up your SHSH, there is no way back on iPhone 3GS or 4.

If you have jailbroken before, Cydia might have backed up your SHSH. Then you should use Cydia's server to perform a restore.


In the iTunes source list, select the device, then click on its name again and hold the mouse button down until the device name becomes editable.


Can hard-drive benchmark apps damage your hard-drive?

Disk benchmarks perform many read/write operations to measure the performance of your disk. It is recommend to save any work as high amount of those operations may cause some applications to slow down and crash by being unable to load/save data from/to your disk.

  Can benchmark app damage your disk?

No, however if your HDD or SSD has been extensively used over its lifetime then it is likely that its health status has decreased, making it more likely to fail. Keep in mind that it would be nothing but a coincidence if it would fail during the benchmark.


Unlink iPhone from a computer and switch to another

If any apps or music came preloaded on the phone, make sure you have copies in your iTunes library before starting.

Plug in the iPhone and start syncing as you normally would.  iTunes will ask whether you'd like to wipe the phone and sync with this computer instead.  Just say yes.


I found the answer googling for applescript make start time random.

I used the following code from this apple support community thread:

tell application "TextEdit"
launch
repeat
delay (random number from 2 to 8)
set textToType to "text" & some item of {"hello", "goodbye"} & text
end repeat
end tell

and for text:

some item of {"blue", "red"}

Here is the final script that worked for me:

tell application "iCal"

    set myCal to "Scheduled tasks"
    activate
    set allEvents to every event in calendar myCal
    repeat with anEvent in allEvents
        set modTime to (random number from 0 to 30)
        display dialog modTime with title start date of anEvent as text
        set newStartTime to (start date of anEvent) + modTime * minutes
        set start date of anEvent to newStartTime
        set (end date of anEvent) to ((end date of anEvent) + modTime * minutes)
    end repeat
end tell


How to edit a text file on an iDisk using the iPhone?

Notes.app stores its messages on a mail server, basically as a specially formatted mail message.

If Apple ever brings Pages to the iPhone, then you may be able to do this. Im pretty sure with the latest update for Pages on the iPhone lets you open and modify items on your iDisk.

QuickOffice for the iPhone may let you edit docs, it says that it can save to your iDisk, so you may be able to open the files there and edit and save back to iDisk.

There are quite a few apps that do let you edit text files and save them to a Dropbox account, which (outside of mobile me) is much more popular. I have used a few of these, and would recommend an application called PlainText.

Finally, one of the nicest and most straightforward note apps for the iPhone I think is Simplenote. Its now free, and syncs notes to its server. You can then edit these online, on your mac, etc.


How do I completely reset and delete all Music.app settings and configurations

I attempted to delete the Music library from ~/Music, but Music seemed to want to rebuild that, and discovered that downloaded music and other things were missing which lead to some issues.
I decided to delete the Library from ~/Music and when launching Music, hold the option key until you are be prompted to open or create a new Library, select to create the Library and you should be good to go!


Automator apps as Login Items not working

I confirmed that the same thing occurs on my system. One Automator applet runs perfectly, two or more seem to result in nothing happening.

The workaround I found was to make an Automator application called "Login Items", and have this Automator application run the others (by using the "Run Workflow" action to call each one). Testing this it seemed to work perfectly.

Alternately you could combine the actions of each Automator application into a single long Automator application, but I prefer the granularity the first option provides.


Window Position Makes Applications Open Off-Screen | Mavericks

I have found that you can move the app window if you position the mouse over the edge to get the horizontal or vertical resize arrows.  The trick is to move the mouse horizontally if you have the vertical resize arrows or vertically if you have the horizontal resize arrows.  It is a bit tricky, but it works on Mavericks 10.9.x  This trick does not work with the diagonal resize arrows.  The trick works better if you get the resize arrows the furthest away from the window without turning back into a normal pointer.  You can practice this trick on any window, off screen or not.


Installing ruby to specific directory/usb

So I figured this out:

What you must do is download the ruby source, and extract it wherever. Then you have a folder named ruby-2.1.2, or something reflecting your ruby version.

Then, in terminal, cd to that directory. Then run:

./configure --prefix=/Volumes/USB_STICK_NAME/folder/to/install/into/osx_ruby
make
sudo make install

Protip: drag-n-drop the ubs-folder you want into the terminal to get the desired folder path. Much easier than writing it

That will install ruby into your usb-stick named "USB_STICK_NAME" under the folders folder/to/install/into/osx_ruby. Feel free to name it differently, but remember; The folder you select as install directory is where all the internal ruby stuff ends up,  like bin, lib. I would recommend naming that folder "osx_ruby" or something similar.

Hope someone finds this useful.


Mavericks not able to use external display at full resolution

Finally I found this. Looks like the default EDID configuration for Dell displays is not quite right.

On that post there's also a ruby script that suposedly generates the right file for your display, but it ended up screwing even more my resolution.

I downloaded the file from the first post, and after copying it to /System/Library/Displays/Overrides and rebooting, my display was showing again its awesome full resolution.
The files are suposedly to correct issues with U2713H and U2713HM, but it worked with my U2711 also.

Hope this helps someone as it helped me.


How can I keep bugs out of the MacBook Pro's hinge vent?

Hmmm....I have a pc and it's bug free.

[non-troll answer]

Ok, ok....you might try flushing the vent openings with canned air while the computer is off.  Turn the can upside down so that you can actually get that super cold dangerous liquid in there.  Maybe there's some kind of scent that's drawing them in (is it the same species?).


Personal hotspot can't be detected on Iphone 6 iOS 9.3.5

for an iOS hotspot to work wirelessly you need to make sure you have the personal hotspot screen (this is the screen that displays the password to your hotspot) up whilst trying to connect and that the wifi on your iPhone is on otherwise your network will be undiscoverable.
Ubuntu should have no issue connecting to a personal hotspot over USB so that may be easier, however that might have changed since I last used Ubuntu.
Hope this helps!


Dismiss Calendar notification popups more easily

This is a really good question - I am bothered by the same issue.  I Googled, and found this exact topic, posted here about 6 years ago.
Can macOS have a keyboard shortcut to dismiss notifications?
There's a pretty good discussion about this, and I downloaded the "Alfred" workflow solution since I own the app.  The alfred-notification-dismisser by zakyum on GitHub is located here.


MacBook Pro Retina (13-inch, 2015) keyboard and trackpad unresponsive

It seems the trackpad cable is a potential cause, due to it rubbing on the back cover as demonstrated in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPFCIE0U1ew&t=26s


How to make Bluetooth headphones appear in Sound Output

Basic solutions:

Try restarting your device ;
Try disabling and enabling Bluetooth back ;
Try resetting your Mac Bluetooth cache ;
Check this answer from this question.

Hope I helped you.
Léo


IntelliJ / Android Studios: hide the project pane

That is the Escape (esc / ⎋) key.

You can find more explanations for Mac Keyboard Symbols here.

The click with option/alt/⌥ function exists to hide the entire sidebar. The sidebar can contain multiple panes, such as the Favorites pane. Without holding option/alt/⌥, it will hide only the Project pane and expand any other pane in the sidebar (if none, it will hide the sidebar).


How does noise-cancellation work in Mac laptops?

The microphones are not placed in the same spot exactly!

The 2018 MacBook Air actually has 3 microphones in a sort of triangle configuration. There are two microphones aligned on the right-hand side of the laptop under the speaker grille besides the Delete and | buttons (given a US keyboard). The third microphone is underneath the Delete button itself.

In addition to their placements, the three microphones also have different orientations. If you look from the top-down, the second microphone is rotated 180 degrees when compared to the first. The third microphone is rotated 90 degrees when compared to the first.

These different placements and orientations allows signal processing algorithms to seperate ambient noise from the desired signal (to a degree).


Can't reinstall Mac OS X El Capitan because the only partition is a locked OS X Base Image taking up the full HDD

Here is an OCRed version of the screenshot (it may contain small errors):

-bash-3.2#  gpt -r show disk0
     start      size  index contents
         0         1            PMBR
         1         1            Pri GPT header
         2         4            Pri GPT table
         6     76800      1     GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     76806  61043841      2     GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  61120647    158692
  61279339         4            Sec GPT table
  61279343         1            Sec GPT header
-bash-3.2# df
Filesystem     512-blocks      Used Available Capacity   iused     ifree    %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2    488350728   2506264 485332464     1%    377281  60666558       1%   /
devfs                 374       374         0   100%       648         0     100%   /dev
/dev/disk1          10240     10240         0   100%      1278         0     100%   /private/var/log
/dev/disk2           1024       288       736    29%        34        92      27%   /Volumes
/dev/disk3           1024       296       728    29%        35        91      28%   /private/var/tmp
/dev/disk4           1024       312       712    31%        37        89      29%   /private/var/run
/dev/disk5           1024       280       744    28%        33        93      26%   /System/Installation
/dev/disk6           1024       504       520    50%        61        65      48%   /private/var/db
/dev/disk7          12288      6552      5736    54%       817       111      53%   /private/var/folders
/dev/disk8           4096       448      3648    11%        54       456      11%   /private/var/root/Library
/dev/disk10          1024       328       696    33%        39        87      31%   /Library/Preferences
/dev/disk11          1024       312       712    31%        37        89      29%   /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
/dev/disk12          2048       280      1768    14%        33       221      13%   /Library/Keychains
/dev/disk13         12288      1712     10576    14%       212      1322      14%   /private/var/tmp/RecoveryTemp

On your main disk a third partition usually containing the Recovery HD is completely missing: the line in the gpt output starting with 61120647 should look like this:

     61120647     158692      3     GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC

Instead the content of Base OS X image (usually residing on the Recovery HD partition) seems to be written to disk0s2 as visible in the df output:

/dev/disk0s2    488350728   2506264 485332464     1%    377281  60666558

The occupied 2506264 (512) blocks are roughly equal to the size of a decompressed Base OS X: 1.2 GB.

The content of Base OS X probably got copied to your main volume somehow. Booted to this volume, any attempt to erase the disk or volume will fail.

To solve your problem boot to Internet Recovery Mode (hold altcmdR while booting) and open Disk Utility.

Choose the superior SSD disk (and not the inferior volume) and hit the erase button. Choose a name, OS X Extended (journaled) and the GUID partition scheme.

If this fails for whatever reason open Terminal in the menubar Utilities > Terminal. Enter diskutil list to get the disk identifier of the internal disk (probably disk0 - below I assume it's disk0)

Then enter diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ "Macintosh HD" disk0. If this fails also, hammer the stubborn SSD with either:

diskutil umountDisk disk0
gpt detroy disk0
gpt create -f disk0

or

diskutil umountDisk disk0
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk0 bs=4096 count=6

Be sure that it's disk0 though!

Now enter exit and quit Terminal. Open Disk Utility again and partition the disk like described previously.

Quit Disk Utility and in the Utilities window open Restore OS X and follow the instructions..


How to pesistently configure a Macmini4,1 to boot after power failure?

The correct solution is to execute:

setpci -s 00:03.0 0x7b.b=0x19

Be carefull that this line is for this model, for other models read the full article from http://www.mythic-beasts.com/support/macminicolo_howto.html

Also, put this in rc.local, for some strange reason it block the computer if I put it in grub.cfg


This is typical of a keychain error or issue or just an inconsistency in caching of auth tokens that indicate the grace period to not ask for a password after you log in once.
Causes can be system keychain, user keychain, login keychain, time and date inconsistencies, system corruption.
You’ll need to isolate and troubleshoot these one by one if entering the passwords becomes troublesome.


As Rabarberski says, lsof can be used to find any process that has the file open. Note that you need to run the program as root, i.e., using sudo, and that you can give the pathname to the file you're interested in as an argument, so there is no need for the grep invocation in the hint that Rabarberski points to. Also, if a process holds a lock on the file, you're supposed to be able to see that from the FD column in the lsof output. See the manual page for the details. (When I run sudo lsof on my machine, I see no locked files, so I won't guarantee that this works right on the Mac. sudo is after all a generic unix program, and conceivably some features don't work on OSX.)

You cannot unlock a file without killing the process that holds the lock. But you can remove it with rm from the command line.


Chromecast: maximize tab on TV while multitasking on Chrome?

Have you tried creating a new space, opening a new Chrome window in that space, opening ESPN in that new window, and cast that single tab on that isolated Chrome window to your TV? Then you should be able to work in your other space(s) and leave that one alone/aside to stream to your TV.

I do something similar when I want to work in Chrome but stream Hulu/Netflix/whatever to my TV via AirPlay (I set the AirPlay display as a separate display and drag over a totally separate Chrome window to that AirPlay display).


Backing up full resolution photos from iPhone while using 'Optimize iPhone Storage' with iCloud Photo Library

They may have updated the iCloud Photo Library for Windows capabilities:

  What you can do with iCloud for Windows

  Safely store your photos and videos in iCloud. With iCloud Photo Library, any new photos and videos that you take on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch automatically download to your PC. And you can upload new photos and videos from your PC so that you can access them from your other devices too.


How to automatically start a VirtualBox VM in OS X Lion?

Add the .VDI file for the VM you wish to auto run to your System Preferences > Users > Login Item. You can find the .VDI file in the folder of the VM. The default name of the folder VirtualBox saves these to is called VirtualBox VMs.


Can I use different SSDs with different operating systems on a MacBook Pro?

The boot volume does not need to be internal for OS X. Use any USB drive, boot while holding cmd+R. You will boot the recovery partition (from the disk of existing or other online, so it might ask you for a network connection).
Then just install on the external drive and boot from that by holding alt/option during startup.


iTunes 12: How to cycle through View Options with script/shortcut?

Use the select command to select the row.

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "iTunes"
        set frontmost to true
        delay 1
        tell pop up button 2 of window 1
            click
            tell (select row 5 of table 1 of pop over 1) to click UI element 1
        end tell
    end tell
end tell


How to boot my mac mini up when my iPod Touch is near?

On your Mac mini enter Energy Saver in System Preferences and enable the Wake for network access.  Then find an app in the App Store that does Wake on Lan, this is one such app - http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inet-wol-wake-on-lan/id318696675?mt=8 that I found during a search.  There might be others that fit your needs better.


C compiler with openmp support on Mavericks via Homebrew

You called the Xcode gcc which is gcc 4.2 iirc. To use your Homebrew gcc just run gcc-49 and to compile with OpenMP support append -fopenmp.

Example with g++ for C++11:

g++-4.9 -fopenmp -std=c++11 omp_code.cpp -o omp_executable

This should give you insight about gcc and show that it's just a symlink to Xcode's llvm.

ls -la /usr/bin | grep gcc

You could just change the symlink to your new gcc-49, but you should be careful, as this might break other things for you.

If gcc-49 isn't available for you, you still have to add Homebrew to PATH.

PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin
export PATH

To permanently add this to your PATH, add these lines to your ~/.bashrc . If you use a different shell, you need to find the right file for it (~/.zshrc for zsh i.e.)

Invoke 'brew doctor' to see if Homebrew is set up correctly.


stty device baud-rate resets once no longer being used

For anyone who stumble upon this (yes, another...), here a shell solution (Bash at least):

The 'trick' is to open a file descriptor for the serial port before using stty. And keeps it open during all the reading/writing.

Example:

exec 3<>/dev/cu.xxxxxxxx           # open a file descriptor
stty -f /dev/cu.xxxxxxxx raw 19200 # configure the serial port
cat /dev/cu.xxxxxxxx               # do stuff...
exec 3<&-                          # close the file descriptor

Thanks to @crasysim for his comment on the same question.


I cannot change the home page of Safari anymore

Yes, Malwarebytes just came out with a new update. Download this and have it scan your system. It is best malware scanner and works well for me. It said I had no malware and indications were I didn't. But reviews claim it works well.

Also, look in the system preferences for a "Profiles" section. You will want to delete any and all profiles you don't understand why they are installed and what they do for you. Many businesses and MDM install a profile so they can remote wipe and enforce settings. Apple makes sure they explain what they do in that app when you have one installed so you can decide to remove them or question the necessity of some of the choices if you so care to.


Simple. Try the following workflow:

Ask for Finder Items
Convert Format of Powerpoint Presentations
   New Format: Outline (Rich Text Format)
Move Finder Items
   To: Desktop (or as you wish)

This should work.

I tested it. Then right click on the RTF and open with MS Word.

Here it is for you to download Powerpoint to RTF workflow.


Hard drive cable failure is almost guaranteed to be your problem. We have a deployment of around 70 2012 13" MBPs for staff members, of which around 10% have had a hard drive cable failure. I had a suspicion you were going to say you had the same model from the symptoms you described.

The symptoms on our problem MacBooks are exactly the same as yours with the MacBooks running excruciatingly slowly on the most basic of operations. Replacing the cable has restored full speed without any further work needing to be done. Simply re-seating the cable's connector on the logic board has worked on a couple of occasions - in the short-term - but these have generally slowed down again, sometimes completely failing.

The odd thing is some of these MacBooks haven't been subject to any abuse and the cable has showed no signs of damage. However, the simple fact is that replacing the cable has worked.

The cables are available online (genuine cables can be had at a reasonable price on a certain auction site) and can be changed in under 10 minutes. The fiddliest part is disconnecting and reconnecting the IR receiver/status LED as there's a tiny latched connector to undo, but otherwise it's an easy fix.


Is there a way to determine what application/process is supposedly using a file/folder?

Yes, the lsof command will show you that.
Open a termin and type "lsof [folder name]" and the command and process id should be listed.


Can the alert sound in Mountain Lion's notification center be customized?

An even better Idea is to got to ~/Library/Sounds and create a sound file with the same name as Basso.aiff and it will supersede Basso without the need for deleting a system sound file.


Hosts file being reset after every reboot

You have two choices.

One is stop using Cisco AnyConnect -not a solution just a choice.

The other is just use the Cisco AnyConnect host file and modify it with your modifications, since it will will overwrite your /private/etc/host.

Cisco host file:
    /private/etc/hosts.ac


You just need to ctrl + click on the Finder Icon in the Dock. Go to the Options, and choose how the finder windows show in Desktops

All Desktops

All Window show in Desktop Spaces

This Desktop

All Window show Only in the current Desktop Space.
When your are in another desktop space it will jump to the one for finder when you open folders into windows or switch to the finder.

None

Each finder windows will stick to the desktop space you open them in.


According to this thread from macosrumors (caveat emptor) at least as of the iPhone 5 it should be possible to use a Verizon iPhone in Scotland.


How to toggle between normal, vibrate and silent modes like in Android

iOS is different than android in this aspect.

Vibrate is implemented as two software binary switches in iOS.  Vibrate can be on or off in silent and independently on or off in non-silent.

Volume is a software slider that can optionally be controlled by the external buttons.  When the silent switch is orange / down / silent most sounds are muted.

There are plenty of apps that control volume but not vibrate status outside the settings app. Take Five is my favorite.

Unless there is a jailbreak app that someone has created to emulate android, there is no program that does precisely what you ask.

When I want zero chance of any sound or vibration, I power down my device.


Why isn't iPhoto '11 showing an event present in the library?

Seems like the problem only was that I had managed to sort the events "manually" (View > Sort Events > Manually) which hid the newly created events in-between my rather large amount of existing events. Sorting by date (View > Sort Events > By Date + Descending) shows my new events first in the list as they should.


iPhone 6 hot, no camera, won't hold a charge

When I have seen this behavior, it has been hardware failure (usually due to water damage). If your phone is less than 6 months old and you have no reason to suspect water damage, you should contact Apple at https://getsupport.apple.com/


How can i speed up the animation of hiding the menu bar?

As of macOS Sierra 10.12.6 there is no preference for controlling the animation speed of the menubar hiding animation. It used to be there, but was removed in Yosemite. The only workaround is to press Ctrl-Fn-F2 (or Ctrl-F2 if you inverted the Fn key) to immediately show and activate the menu bar. You can then navigate by keyboard or click items with the cursor.


How do I do an "or" orperation for a search in Apple Mail?

You can use Boolean operators:

Use Boolean searches:
Use Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT. For example, to search for messages that contain “yosemite” and “yellowstone” but not “teton,” type “yosemite AND yellowstone NOT teton” or “yosemite AND yellowstone -teton.” You must type Boolean operators in uppercase.

Souce: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14902


It just happened to me on 10.9.5 for the first time; don't know what caused it but unplugging the external monitor and then plugging it back again helped.


How to set Mail.app to always open URL's in the external browser in the background?

Is there anyway to make Apple Mail open all links in a browser behind
  Mail without the need to right click?

Command-click the link (same thing in Safari will open links in a background tab).


How can I use a lower sample rate for songs on an older iPhone, in order to fit more songs?

There's an option to downrate the sample rate within iTunes when you sync to iDevices, however this has it's issues and advantages:

songs are reencoded on the fly during sync
the original sync will take a long time (in order of hours)
only songs needed to be synced will be re-encoded so choose your music carefully

This option is only available when your iDevice is connected.  Select your device from the iTunes left hand side bar, then choose the Summary section from the main window.

The option is labelled (in the English locale) as "Convert higher bit rate songs to..." as in the image below.

In current versions of iTunes, the Capacity bar at the bottom will resize to show your savings if you choose to sync.


Windows 10 on Imac mid 2011 High Sierra 10.13.6

You may not be able to boot from the second drive. If this is true, then one possible solution would be to put the Windows boot files in a very small partition on the first drive and there rest of Windows on the second drive. The method of booting is covered in the Microsoft document BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions. Below is an example.

  Since you are EFI booting from the flash drive and installing to BIOS boot, the Graphic User Interface will not allow you to install Windows. Therefore, I have chosen to use the Command Line Interface (CLI).

Below is an example of how to partition the drives. Basically, the difference between your question and below is the following.

A ~100 MB FAT formatted partition labeled SYSTEM was added to the end of disk0.
disk0 is hybrid partitioned with partition 4 marked active.
There are no active partitions marked on disk1

Next is a outline of the steps.

Download and mount latest Windows ISO from Microsoft. You should do this from macOS or OS X.
ExFAT format a flash drive. Use the Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme.
Copy all the files from the Windows ISO to the flash drive.
From the Mac Startup Manager, EFI boot from the flash drive.
Follow the sequence below to open a Command Prompt window.

When the image below appears, click on Next.

When the image below appears, click on Repair your computer.

When the image below appears, click on Troubleshoot.

When the image below appears, click on Command Prompt.

The result should be the image shown below.

Enter the command echo list volume | diskpart to get the drive letter to volume mapping. In my case the following was observed.

C: The small volume labeled SYSTEM on disk0
D: The larger volume labeled BOOTCAMP on disk1
E: The installation media.

If you have different drive letters, then make the appropriate substitutions.
Enter the following commands to NTFS format the Windows partitions.

format c: /v:SYSTEM /fs:ntfs /q
format d: /v:BOOTCAMP /fs:ntfs /q

Apply the Windows 10 Pro image to the BOOTCAMP volume. If you need a difference image, then post a comment.

dism /apply-image /imagefile:e:\sources\install.wim /name:"Windows 10 Pro" /applydir:d:\ /checkintegrity

Add the boot data and files to the SYSTEM volume and the Master Boot Record (MBR) of disk0.

bcdboot d:\windows /l en-us /s c: /f bios
bootsect /nt60 c: /mbr

Close the window and turn off the Mac.

exit

When the image below appears, click on Turn off your PC.

Use the Mac Startup Manager to make Windows the default operating system. Boot to Windows and complete the installation.

  After you finish installing Windows, do not forget to install the Windows Support Software from Apple.

References

BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions
DISM Image Management Command-Line Options
Dual Boot Win 7 on MBR with Win 10 on GPT
Bootsect Command-Line Options


Why doesn't the power connector on my thunderbolt display fit in my 13" macbook pro?

Your Thunderbolt monitor has a MagSafe Connector - your MBP has a MagSafe 2 Connector. Apple now supplies a MagSafe to MagSafe 2 converter with the display (check the packaging - the adapter is small). If you are missing the converter, check with Apple - they should give you a replacement.


How do I stop my iPhone auto-deleting my files?

Can you try disabling iCloud syncing for the said app, if it doesn't trouble you  much ?

iBooks for iPhone showed the same behaviour, automatically deleting books despite available storage. I had to turn off iCloud for iBooks .


How can I replace certain strings of symbols automatically?

Go to system preferences/keyboard/input sources and add the keyboard called US International PC to the list.  Then remove the others.  This keyboard turns ` ~ ' " ^ into dead keys to add accents.  So 'e produces é, ~n produces ñ.


Wiping all content under /Users but admin

If this is a lab you may just want to reset them back to a disk image periodically. This way any changes including any saved files will be lost, but it would return the machine back to a predetermined state.


DropBox and iAnnotate, and since iAnnotate supports DropBox you really only work with one program as requested.


recombine iMovie clips from miniDV without volume problems between them?

This could have two reasons:

Transition between clips

 If you can see that symbol between your clips you have a transition between the individual clips. Delete the transition and the audio blending is gone.
Audio blending

If you see these inverted parabola arms on the audio it means you have an audio fade out and fade in. Drag from the end of each fade to the beginning/end to your clip and it should be gone.


Can I use Open Office on my new MacBook Air?

You have just seen GateKeeper in action.

If you are confident you downloaded a safe copy of the program, you can tell your Mac to "trust" that program and let it past the gate.

Right click on the icon
Select Open
Read the dialog and agree or disagree to let that program run

The linked article above goes into much detail on GateKeeper and I would scan it and review the steps above. If you find a lot of software you need triggers the warning, you could relax the settings, but I prefer to keep them at the defaults as I like to know when new code runs on my Mac.