Before you find yourself in the same situation again, you need to first ascertain and mark each disk with its serial number where you can easily see it, or at least know where it is, if it's already on the outside of the case.
You can run the following command in Terminal with one disk at a time mounted:
system_profiler SPUSBDataType

Review the info and mark the case of the target disk. Then do the same for the second disk.
Then when you find yourself in this situation again, you can use Terminal to determine which disk is being written to.
First run the mount command.
When mounting two disks whose name are the same, using the mount command in Terminal, the second one mounted will show as e.g. /dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/Name 1 while the first one mounted will show as e.g. /dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/Name, e.g.:
/dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/Name (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
/dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/Name 1 (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)

Now using sudo fs_usage -w -f diskio you'll see lots of messages, e.g.:
11:31:08.015616    WrData[ANT1]    D=0x0345b918  B=0x80000  /dev/disk4s2  /System/Volumes/Data/Volumes/Name 1/path/to/file

Seeing that it's /dev/disk4s2 being written to, then in this example case, you'd run diskutil eject disk3 to eject the disk of the same name that's not being written to, under the use case you described in your OP.
You would then run  system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -E '.*Serial Number:|.*BSD Name:' in Terminal, looking just at the information where there is a BSD Name: immediately following a Serial Number: to see which disk is, e.g disk3 by its serial number in this example.
Look at the serial number on the case of each disk and unplug the one that's not being written to base on the output of the commands run in Terminal.


How to remove specific local symbols using `strip` on macOS?

You can't remove a subset of local symbols only because the strip program doesn't support it. The reasoning behind is out of scope for AskDifferent, but I would assume that it is simply because the need to do haven't come up for Apple Engineers or third party software developers often enough.

If you still want to do this, it is relatively simple to enhance strip to work like the Linux version, where you can strip a single, named, local symbol. Download the code for strip here:

https://github.com/opensource-apple/cctools/blob/master/misc/strip.c

Then take a look at the code for the -X option, and make your own option that strips the symbol you want instead of the ones beginning with L.

Others have in past created more capable versions of strip. For example the "striptease" program here:

https://github.com/mackyle/striptease

You can find inspiration there for possible enhancements.


is it available for Linux too?

It's highly unlikely to be available in Linux.

This is a macOS utility to improve the security of Apple Mac products.  Apple typically doesn't make available (aka open source) the tools they develop as they are proprietary to Apple.  There's no incentive for them to port this (or any other utility) to Linux since it's Apple's objective for you to run macOS on Apple hardware.


Cannot set up Touch ID, unlock System Preferences, or reinstall Big Sur [2020 Intel MBA i3]

Answering my own question, but... resetting the SMC (as explained here https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295) ended up doing the trick for me.


Mac Postfix - Force from address, prevent from using Mac Username

The issue was caused because Postfix was sending email using my username from the logged in user.

I was able to get around this problem following this guide:
Sending Email With Postfix And MAMP Pro


Core dumps aren't generated in El Captain

The issue was missing sticky bit on the /cores directory permissions:

$ ls -lh /
...
drwxr-xr-x    2 root  admin    68B Jul 29 09:55 cores/
...

fixed by:

sudo chmod 1775 /cores


I just had the same problem. Here's how I solved it:

Sign out from your Account
Just try to download something from iTunes / AppStore
iTunes will promt you to sign in
Enter your credentials for your account

You're done. Worked for me. I hope it works for you.


You can try to "symlink" the files on your other partition to your Applications-Folder.

For example:

ln -s /Volumes/Macintosh2/Applications2/App.app /Applications/

Launchpad follow the symlink and show the Apps.


iPhone 4 having trouble connecting with dock

Have you tried looking inside your iPhone side of the connector?  I've noticed that a lot of pocket lint tends to build up in there over time and I just took a toothpick and dug all of it out.  My wife's iPhone wasn't syncing when connected to my laptop and this turned out to be the issue.


How to make script to convert lower case characters into upper and vice versa

You can do it for a lot of apps [not all, but certainly all Apple apps] from

System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App shortcuts


What's the point of using FileVault if OSX automatically decrypts the disk?

The following is my experience from using FileVault 2 in Yosemite.

After enabling FileVault 2, you will need to login as a user who is authorized to decrypt the disk, every time you boot up your Mac. If you attempt to login as a user who isn’t authorized to decrypt the disk, you will be prompted to provide the FileVault password, or to login as an authorized user first.

Once a Mac has been unlocked, any user account can login normally (until the next restart).

Authorization is granted on an account-by-account basis. The account that setup FileVault in the first place is implicitly authorized.

Logging in doesn't mean decrypting the entire disk at once. Files are decrypted on-the-fly, as they are accessed, and file system permissions still apply. So users are unable to access other users’ files unless those files have been shared. Otherwise, since they cannot be accessed, they cannot be decrypted either.

If a thief extracts your hard drive, they won't be able to steal your data without providing either an authorized account password or the FileVault password. Until then, that data is encrypted.

Yes, if a thief steals your computer and has your account password, then they get access to your data. But the purpose of FileVault isn’t to protect you from yourself (which, in essence, it would be doing by requiring you to enter both your account and FileVault passwords every time you logged in). Without FileVault, a thief wouldn’t even need your account password to steal your data.


If we install "modified games" on our iPhone or iPad, what risks are we exposing ourselves to?

Strongly recommend not to install such apps via any such (untrusted) medium

There's a likelihood that you may be exposing yourself to innumerable risks. These apps are distributed by gaming the Apple Developer Enterprise license.

They are distributed without going through the standard Apple's App Store Review Process. So it's likely that may be breaking one or more review guidelines and posing risk to the security of device and data.

Apple continuously discovers and suspend enterprise licenses where they are gamed to distribute apps to general public without going through the App Store Review process. Enterprise license is created solely for the purpose of distributing apps within an enterprise, and not to general public.

Apple's Enterprise Developer Program Also Being Used to Distribute Hacked Apps

  The only I can think of is that it fakes a log in screen to your iTunes account and lead you to type in the user name and password (Trojan horse), so I will always cancel such log in popup and go to iTunes and log in there myself.

If you are concerned about this particular risk, i.e. an app presenting a fake iTunes login popup and stealing password, there's an easy way to trust it's authenticity.

Just press the Home button (or on devices without Home button, navigate back to Home screen). If the popup is presented by the app (fake), it will be sent to the background along with the app. If the popup is presented by iOS (genuine), pressing Home button won't let you dismiss it. You will be able to dismiss it either by entering password or the pressing the cancel button.


You can set up repeating reminders based on location using several different methods. Workflow and Shortcuts are native iOS apps that have functions for reminders based on location. I do not recall if they can be triggered automatically or have to be manually triggered.

You could also use a third party app/service such as IFTTT which supports repeating triggers. Use the location service connected to a notification service to create your reminder.


What happens if you plug more than one charger in the new MacBook Pro (2016)?

The system will choose the power source that provides the most power, and it will not draw power from the others.
Apple has released a support article (and another one) describing this:

Your MacBook Pro draws power from only one power supply, even if more
than one is attached—so using multiple power supplies will not speed
up charging.

If you connect multiple power supplies to your MacBook
Pro, the one that provides the most power will be used, regardless of
the order in which you connected them.

You should not connect any
power supply that exceeds 100W, as it might damage your Mac.


With you not having a Mac and with him having such an old OS, you probably aren't going to be able to remote in.

That said, even without a browser he should still be able to download Safari v5.0.6 which is the latest version supported by his OS.

Type the following commands into Terminal exactly as they appear, pressing Return after each one, and he should end up with Safari in his Downloads folder.

cd ~/Downloads
curl -O http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/041-5122.20110720.2HQcx/Safari5.0.6Leopard.dmg

(That's a capital O in the curl command.) It reports its size as 52.2 MB.

There is one big caveat, though - depending on what the Safari v7 installer did to his system, it may not work to reinstall v5, in which case he may need to reinstall the OS.


Stop downloading Lion from the App store

Purchasing is like being pregnant, but a little more black and white. It either went through or it didn’t. In your case, you can pause the download and delete the temporary file (turn off automatic downloads) and then decide if it’s worth it to ask for a refund.

  Is it possible that somehow I can get back my $30, which is a wrong charge?

To apply for a refund, contact Mac App Store Support.


How to make root volume writeable again in Catalina?

You can create a symbolic in root directory via synthetic.conf, as an example see below the creation of a symbolic link named bar at /, which points to System/Volumes/Data/bar, a writeable location at the root of the data volume.

echo -e 'bar\tSystem/Volumes/Data/bar' | sudo tee -a /etc/synthetic.conf

After executing the command above, you need to reboot to see effects.

SEE ALSO

man synthetic.conf


How to use my phone number on my Macbook's Messages?

Yes - it's entirely possible to have your Mac send and receive iMessage using your iPhone's message as the "caller ID" only.

Setting this up is normally a two step process.

First ensure that your phone with the number you wish all computers to use as your "caller ID" for the Mac has your Apple ID enabled for Messages. Until that device has activated the phone number to your Apple ID account, you can't go to step two.

Next, in the preferences on your Mac, look at the bottom of the pane for that Apple ID and choose to send a message from your Phone number rather than from the Apple ID mail address.

I prepared that picture for another answer and you might read there in case things are not working. I find it best to set each and every device to send from the same one string - whether it's a string of phone digits or a string of email address to avoid having people reply to your non-preferred account. In that case, you can either deal with two conversations or train them to send to your preferred address. It's a bit of tough love, but the most effective way is to only accept messages from your preferred string and then send read receipts. That way people realize some messages do not get delivered and self correct.

Apple has a nice article that covers how things are supposed to work as well as what to do when things don't.

iOS: About Messages
iOS: Troubleshooting Messages
iOS: Troubleshooting FaceTime and iMessage activation


How can I use AirPlay to watch on the television, but audio through my headphones?

This cannot be done natively from an iOS device as there are no output settings built in to the iOS platform that allow the splitting of the audio from the video while streaming a file. With the use of extra hardware and/or 3rd party software though what you're trying to accomplish can technically be done in a round-about way, just not the exact way you're describing, where your headphones would be connected to your phone.

This link has some options (some fairly cheap) that you could explore though:
Use Headphones with Apple TV.

I did notice you mentioned owning a Mac though. One option not mentioned in that article (because it's not Apple TV related) would be to just use your Mac connected to your tv, using a long HDMI cable and a 'Mini display port to HDMI adapter' ($10 on Amazon). That way you could sit with your Mac beside you and your headphones plugged into it, although you would have that HDMI cable strung across the room while in use that you would have to be careful of. (And you would have to remember to select your headphones from 'System Preferences > Sound > Output' likely every time you go to use it this way.)


Apple provides a standard warranty of one year on all the products they sell. You may purchase AppleCare any time within that one year period to extend your coverage, which for Macs is two additional years, for a total of three. The total coverage period begins from the date of purchase of your MacBook.

Waiting to buy it means you have money in your pocket, but go without phone support once your 90 day complimentary support expires. Your coverage is pinned to the date of purchase of the Mac - not of the plan. Also, Apple offers a pro-rated refund if you wish to cancel the plan before it's term is due. This is handy when you sell and the buyer doesn't want that protection or something like a loss or uncovered accident means you don't want to repair the out of warranty issues to benefit from the plan going forward.

This is the route I tend to do, as I never need phone support, and the cost of AppleCare is usually around $200 more. Of course, you run the risk of forgetting and not getting it, as I have done on more than one occasion.


The obvious thing to try is eject the Time Machine volume (or otherwise make it unavailable - turned off) and reboot the mac. mds will only use RAM when a program is asking it to supply spotlight answers. The files you have are using a large amount of space and being called upon. A clean boot should get your mds with little or no RSS until you start to launch apps or TM starts.

Whether this is normal is harder to tell - even if it's caused by your files, it's likely made worse a direct result of the PPC architecture not having as optimized a time of indexing than the Intel architecture. The mds program likely is coded with parts of the code for PPC and part for Intel as part of the normal performance optimizations Apple or any large corporation will do before releasing a daemon that runs all the time. Furthermore, the frameworks it uses will be native to the processor - so it's not really the same program running when you have a different CPU.

The comments to the question show that you have really down your homework and played around a bit with excluding volumes to see if the large memory is happening in response to many drives being indexed.

Sadly, you don't have any real control over how large the process gets. It simply runs based on the spotlight importers that are present on your system and in response to all the filesystems you expose the spotlight subsystem to.

If the obvious step of isolating Time Machine doesn't reduce the RAM usage, You can also try:

cleaning out third party spotlight extensions
add more RAM and live with it
permanently disable the folders that are causing RAM usage to spike (and forego the usefulness of spotlight)
temporarily disabling all volumes by putting them on the privacy exclusion list and then slowly adding folders to be indexed and hope to determine which sort of data is causing the worst spike in
use Shark and their kind (part of Xcode and the CHUD tools) to sample the running mds process and map out the memory allocation as it is happening. This is fairly high on the skill level and won't change your end solution either way - you'll just know why - and maybe still not have a cure.

Also sadly for you - most people are not running 10.5 on PPC chips, so the number of people that can run some tests or have seen this and poked around the issue it to find out what sort of file or importer might be likely to  take more memory once mds gets it's hands on the metadata store.

It does sound odd - so you have a very valid point with more than usual RAM usage. But, it's not necessarily something that is wrong - you just might have data that needs that large amount of RAM. Only by taking your data to a similar mac or doing the process of elimination can you know for sure.


FaceTime: unable to answer incoming calls on macOS

Try rebooting in safe mode as shown in this apple guide: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262 and then restart your mac normally.
This should clear the caches and fix the issue.

Source: https://medium.com/@ambroselittle/fix-call-failed-with-continuity-on-macos-sierra-e9e662ad6947


Signed binary being warned as signed by unknown developer on OSx

It appears the security settings of the computer in System Preferences → Security & Privacy are set to Allow apps downloaded from: App Store as shown in the error message. Regardless of how your application is signed, if it's not distributed through the App Store, Gatekeeper will show that message. To allow all other signed apps, the setting needs to be changed to ‘App Store and identified developers’.


macOS 10.15.1. Software Update won't pick up upgrades

Make sure you use the combo updater if you are trying to manually update by more than one "point" release - 10.15.6 is the latest - https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2048
For future reference, Google can always find these very easily - just search "combo update 10.15" etc & the latest will be the first result.
The combo updater is capable of jumping from any point release to the latest.
It may at the same time fix your Software Update control panel issue, though you may not find that out for sure until the next update.
If that still doesn't work, double check your free drive space. Use Disk Utility & the "Free" value rather than the "Available" value.


Actually, Apple has only just in recent weeks made iTunes available on the Windows Store.

While it was originally planned to be released at the end of 2017 it ended up taking somewhat longer.

The version of iTunes on the Windows Store is the latest Windows version and, as you've discovered, updates are handled through the Windows Store updater rather than through iTunes directly.


How to output results of an AppleScript image resizing script and display in automator

Give this a try:
use scripting additions

global target_width
global selImgs, chgList -- list of selected images, list of scaled images
global ctr, imgCt -- processed image counter, progress bar image total

set selImgs to {}
set target_width to 2000
set chgList to {}

display dialog "Enter maximum width" default answer "2000"
set target_width to the text returned of result as integer

-- Close scaled list (if open from previous run)
tell application "TextEdit"
    if exists document "scaled.txt" then
        close document "scaled.txt"
    end if
end tell

-- Selected images > list of alias
tell application "Finder"
    set selImgs to selection as alias list
end tell

-- construct progress bar
set imgCt to length of selImgs
set my progress total steps to imgCt
set my progress completed steps to 0
set ctr to 0
set my progress description to "Scaling images..."
set my progress additional description to "Preparing to process."

-- the horror…
repeat with ei in selImgs
    rescale_and_save(ei)
end repeat

-- Notification of changes (filenames if < 4, otherwise count)
considering application responses
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to space
    if length of chgList > 4 then
        set imChg to length of chgList as text
    else
        set imChg to chgList as text
    end if
    display notification imChg with title "Images scaled"
end considering

-- Publish list of scaled images
set AppleScript's text item delimiters to return
set chText to chgList as text
set scFile to (((path to desktop) as text) & "scaled.txt") as «class furl»
close access (open for access scFile)
write chText to scFile as text
tell application "TextEdit"
    open scFile
    set bounds of front window to {30, 30, 300, 240}
end tell

-- the horror….
to rescale_and_save(this_file)
    tell application "Image Events"
        launch
        -- before each test run, I duplicate the images, so I won't have to re-fetch the originals
        if name of this_file contains "copy" then

            -- open the image file, increment progress bar
            set this_image to open this_file
            set ctr to (my progress completed steps) + 1
            set my progress additional description to "Scaling image " & ctr & " of " & imgCt
            set my progress completed steps to ctr

            -- process image (measure, scale, save, collect name)
            copy dimensions of this_image to {current_width, current_height}

            if current_width is greater than target_width then -- wide enough to process
                set txName to name of this_image as text

                if current_width is greater than current_height then -- when landscape
                    scale this_image to size target_width
                    save this_image with icon
                    copy txName to end of chgList

                else -- when portrait
                    -- figure out new height
                    -- y2 = (y1 * x2) / x1

                    -- NB as 'scale to size' requires integer, round up
                    set new_height to round (current_height * target_width / current_width) rounding up
                    scale this_image to size new_height
                    save this_image with icon
                    copy txName to end of chgList
                end if
            end if
            close this_image
        end if
    end tell

end rescale_and_save

Notes:

For looping through the files, it is simpler to make some_items a list of aliases

When scaling with size rather than factor, new_height should be integer

Save within if…then block, otherwise every selected file will be re-saved, even when not scaled

Use Image Events to save the files

If your folder is a subfolder of Pictures, you can enable 'Dimensions' in list view, which displays something like '2097 ×
3014', letting you see which images will be scaled. It doesn't
update rapidly so it won't typically display the changed dimension,
instead, it displays '--', which at least has the virtue of
identifying which files have been changed.

Progress bar

Track scaled images and raise a notification when done, as well as create a text file log on desktop

Optional: Have a dry run script — tests each image's dimensions and reports back (e.g. count of images to be scaled, filenames of
images to be scaled). You could even have it change the selection to only those files in the Finder when complete. Then when you run the
final script, it will be clear which files will change.

FWIW, I tried using factor to scale but I found that after working for a while, it became erratic, and would often lock up the script (and overheat my mac, and require me to manually quit sips). I grew bored of that and used size (but with forcing new_height to be an integer). After that change, it became more reliable. You may find the tracking unnecessary.


Unread mail count on iPhone / iPad is often out of date

Unfortunately No

As far as Apple is concerned this is by design, and even the latest mail upgrade on MobileMe did not enable this functionality. This has been discussed at length on the Apple forums and hopefully at some point this change will be made.

There is no known workaround, as this is controlled by the server, and not the local app. Even jailbroken their is no solution I am aware of.


Is there any difference between zooming and cropping on iOS?

About the only thing I know is different is that when the photo is cropped after the shot is taken, it will take up more space than if the camera was zoomed in when taking the picture. Why? Because in iOS, photo editing is non-destructive. The part that was cropped out will always be there, you just can't see it. However, when zoomed in, that part of the photo was never taken, so, obviously, it doesn't exist.

Also, currently (iOS 9), one can't edit a Live Photo and retain the Live part of the photo. Though, I believe iOS 10 allows one to edit Live Photos.

Aside from that, there's really nothing. Like you put in your post, it's just digital zoom and basically is retroactively zooming the camera in.


How can I change multiple line code indentation in Textmate?


Can i remove OS X completely and install Windows?

No you don't need PC hardware since Yes you can delete OS X entirely after getting the drivers installed from Boot Camp on OS X.

Follow the directions for creating the bootcamp USB key that comes with bootcamp (you'll need an 8GB key). When you boot from the bootcamp key and it gives you disk utility just delete the OSX partition (I believe this is an option, it's been a while) And make the whole thing Winders.

The Mac IS an Intel PC and Bootcamp is only the drivers and whatnot to create the bootable windows installer with the Mac drivers in it.

Hold onto that key, it's your repair disk and Windows re-installer should you need to sometime in the future.


How can I reclaim quick-keys from special characters I never use?

Is the ⌥⇧P shortcut a default in Byword? In OS X, shortcuts involving option without command or control as a modifier are for inserting special characters, like the symbol you're seeing inserted. I'm surprised that you're only seeing this functionality recently, as it's been there for many years - perhaps a recent Byword update changed something?

To my knowledge, there's no way of disabling these in System Preferences. You might be able to create a custom keyboard layout that would remove these, but I haven't tested that. I would suggest either setting a different shortcut for the functionality you want in System Prefs. The other (more awkward) way is to take advantage of the fact that the special character shortcuts only do anything in text entry fields. If you don't have a text entry field active, the shortcut should return to it's previous functionality.


How can I edit the original Myst app so that it no longer requires the CD to play?

You could make a disk image of the Myst CD and mount that for sheepshaver.

The original Myst for Mac was indeed an enormous Hypercard script. The Myst: prefixes you refer to are the program referencing the Myst CD. Classic Mac OS used colons as directory delimiters, so the file paths would appear as Myst:Images:Clocktower.jpg in Classic Mac OS or /Volumes/Myst/Images/Clocktower.jpg in OS X. You'll need to rewrite the paths to point to some local file directory.

Say you installed the Myst app in an Applications folder at the root of the system disk. (This is the OS X location and is not correct or typical for Classic Mac OS, but I have no idea where Classic users stuck apps, so I'll use OS X conventions as a fallback.) This would be /Applications in OS X, so it's Macintosh HD:Applications in Classic (assuming, of course, that you haven't renamed the boot disk). Drag the contents of the Myst CD to a Myst folder on the root level of the boot disk (Macintosh HD:Myst:). Then you can re-point all the file paths in Myst to that directory.

Programming note: I'm on Windows at work at the moment, so I've no way to test this immediately. Caveat emptor, but this ought to work.


Why is `/etc/sysctl.conf` not determining my `kern.maxfiles` setting?

See /etc/launchd.conf

For some reason, I had this in /etc/launchd.conf:

limit maxfiles 2048

This apparently overrode my settings in /etc/sysctl.conf, either by being considered more important or by being executed later in the bootup process.

After I removed this and rebooted, my settings from /etc/sysctl.conf had taken effect.


Downloading OS X Lion after the release of Mountain Lion

You can download apps you've purchased before (including OS X installers) from the Mac App Store application. Sign in and switch to the purchases tab:

All of your previous purchases should appear, including the Lion installer:

If you don't have the App Store, make sure you've updated to at least 10.6.6.


What happens after an iOS magazine subscription is canceled?

From a technical perspective your subscription is only valid as long as you're paying for it. After that Apple's servers return the same response for you, as they would if you had never subscribed.

You will probably still keep access to all your issues, although restoring old issues has to be implemented by the app itself. For example wired magazine requires you to create a wired account to later restore all magazines. (But even without the account you can keep your downloaded issues as long as you want. I expect that to be standard across other magazines as well - but again, that's up to the publisher.)


Software written for Mac that was later ported to Windows

Microsoft Word in 1984
Microsoft Excel in 1984
Aldus PageMaker (later Adobe PageMaker), circa 1986
Adobe Illustrator, 1986
Fontographer, the first commercial scalable-font authoring software, 1986.
Microsoft PowerPoint, 1987 (originally called Forethought Presenter)
Adobe Photoshop circa 1987
Adobe Illustrator circa 1987
QuarkXpress, 1987
Macromedia Freehand
Avid, the first professional personal computer-based video editing software, 1988
Make Music Finale circa 1989, the publishing industry's leading application for typesetting sheet music
AOL, 1990-1991. America Online and its client software application were originally Mac-only.
Digidesign Sound Tools and Pro Tools, starting 1989
Adobe Type Manager, circa 1990. The first scalable screen fonts on a computer display.
FileMaker Pro database software (an independent division of Apple), circa 1986
Apple QuickTime
Apple iTunes
Apple Safari
Scrivener, 2009

The Mac and its operating system went on the market in 1984. Remember that while Microsoft Windows existed in various forms in the late 1980s, it did not catch on and become widely adopted until Windows 3.1 in 1991. Before that time virtually all PC users were still using MS-DOS with a text-only interface and no graphics, GUI or mouse.

Microsoft provided text-only applications called Word and Excel (no graphical user interface or mouse) for MS-DOS before 1985, but the first programs called Word and Excel with a GUI were designed and written for the Macintosh. It's not accurate to call them a "port" from MS-DOS as they had to be re-designed and implemented with the Apple Macintosh assembly language and proprietary new API for the mouse, GUI and specific user interface elements in mind. So practically speaking, Word and Excel as we know them were first written for Mac and then ported to Windows.

The entire industry of digital photo editing and desktop publishing was born on the Macintosh platform, which was the first platform to support PostScript laser printers (and Apple designed and marketed the first of those printers, the Apple LaserWriters, with PostScript software licensed from Adobe. HP or Hewlett-Packard laser printers did not support PostScript, resolution-independent fonts, or graphics until some time later.)

All of the original software applications for editing photographs and doing text layout and typography first appeared on the Mac. Those that survived the marketplace competition and flourished were later ported to Windows. This includes essentially the entire Adobe product portfolio throughout the 1980s.

Microsoft and Adobe also bought software from smaller independent companies and adapted it to their needs. The predecessor to PowerPoint was an independent Mac-only company, and the very first version of Microsoft PowerPoint was Mac-only. Aldus was an independent company that made the first great desktop publishing program, PageMaker. It was bought by Adobe.

The adoption of personal computers for editing film and video for the industries of motion pictures and broadcast television also began with applications on the Macintosh platform, starting with the Avid offline film editing program.

The same thing happened with the music and recording industry. While there were MIDI sequencer applications for MS-DOS and other platforms, the first widely-successful personal-computer-based programs for recording and editing music appeared on the Mac, from Digidesign and others. This hastened the demise of professional multi-track analog tape recorders. I should mention that with regard to music and audio, capable Windows-based programs that were not ports (Cubase, Sony Acid, etc.) appeared very shortly after the first Mac programs. At this point, in the early-to-mid 1990s, computer processing power was more up to the task and Windows was becoming a viable alternative to the Mac platform, so implementing solutions on Windows rather than the Mac became more attractive to developers.

AOL (America Online) was originally for Mac users only and its original software was licensed from Apple Computer. But some time after the launch for Mac users, AOL ported their GUI Mac application to Windows and accepted Windows users. All this was well before AOL had any connection to the Internet. It was a stand-alone closed system accessible directly by dial-up modems.

Before Adobe Type Manager, circa 1990, computers could not display fonts at any arbitrary point size, or "zoom in". Fonts for screen display before that time were only fixed-size bitmaps, and text on the screen of Macs or Windows could look quite blocky and hard to read. I seem to remember that Adobe Type Manager for Mac predated Adobe Type Manager for Windows by some length of time, but I have not confirmed this. Subsequently Apple and Microsoft worked jointly to develop the TrueType font scaling specification and method of screen display, which was rolled into the Mac operating system and Windows, circa Windows 98 in 1998. This made Adobe Type Manager obsolete. I have not researched the exact dates.

The entire Microsoft software development division that wrote games for the XBox was created when Microsoft bought Bungee, which was up until that time a Mac-only game company. When Microsoft absorbed Bungee, they cancelled all their Mac products. The developers who created Halo, therefore, had been working on Mac products only--up until the time that Halo for XBox was released.


Make custom keyboard layout switch by Caps Lock

Switching the keyboard layout using CapsLock is a feature added to MacOS 10.12 in 2016.  It does not seem to be very well documented by Apple–which should not come as a surprise to anyone who's been using their products for very long.  I haven't managed to find any 'developer-level' documentation of this function at all.

So, basically, to answer your question: In order to switch from one language/layout to another using CapsLock you must create a custom keyboard layout which combines both layouts.  I believe that Ukelele would be the easiest way to accomplish this.

However, be aware that this is work-around that comes close to duplicating the original feature although there are some minor discrepancies which for me personally are actually preferable to the way the original feature was designed to work–although your preferences & priorities may obviously vary.  While your work-around using Karabiner more closely emulates the original feature which makes my option somewhat redundant and potentially inferior.  But it has some advantages in my opinion so I've decided to post it.

In any case, in order to use my work-around you must create a single custom keyboard layout based on the US keyboard that also has the appropriate foreign language/writing system layout programmed directly into the CapsLock-based modifier combinations (keyboard layers or shift levels–such as Caps+Shift, Caps+Option & etc.). Mac OSX essentially treats CapsLock as a regular, but locking, modifier key without any limitations. So, with Ukelele you may create a layout which supports multiple scripts and uses CapsLock to switch between them.

The Latin-based modifier combinations can mostly (if not entirely) be created automatically in several ways (the easiest being to duplicate the US keyboard you use, or create a layout that mirrors the currently active layout).

For the secondary script layers you can open a keyboard for that language you wish to emulate (or approximate) and drag the key mappings from that keyboard to you yours (with the proper CapsLock-based modifier combination activated).

I don't think that a little bit of manual labor can be avoided, but you can accomplish your objective natively in this way. There are some potential advantages & disadvantages to this option depending on your preferences. For example, the flag will not change from US to another flag which may be seen as a disadvantage although that is irrelevant to me personally. However, you will have the CapsLock LED as an indicator which is visible on the keyboard itself which may be seen as an advantage. This also circumvents having to change the keyboard layout which is sometimes necessary when switching apps or documents, as well as the slight delay involved with that–that is of particular value to me as it drives me crazy when the keyboard layout is potentially different in each app.

Since you've already got a solution working this probably won't be of particular use, however, perhaps another user may find this solution helpful or informative.


Automator services replace selected text's spaces with underscore

Here is one example of how it can be achieved using an Automator Service and a Run AppleScript action:

on run {input}
    set input to replaceText(" ", "_", input as string)
end run

on replaceText(find, replace, textString)
    set prevTIDs to AppleScript's text item delimiters
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to find
    set textString to text items of textString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to replace
    set textString to "" & textString
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to prevTIDs
    return textString
end replaceText

Set the service to the settings shown in the image below:

Note that in macOS Mojave a service is now called a Quick Action.

Note that the replaceText(find, replace, textString) handler was something I found on the Internet too many years ago to remember where and give credit to its source.


Are there any files which are NOT restored from a Time Machine backup but taken from the recovery partition?

As long as you haven't excluded something manually from the backup it will backup everything, except some cache and log files.
I do also have custom programs in /opt, /usr/bin,... and everything still worked after restoring the system from my Time Machine backup.

There is a good collection of Time Machine FAQ on the web you may like to consult.


Finally, I have found the solution.
I have already turned off iCloud drive and iCloud photos. But for some reason, the phone was uploading my 50+GB data to iCloud drive. When I clicked my iCloud it was showing that there is a Backup in iCloud, the size is not showing up as it is not complete.
But on clicking it, it says 57GB needs to be uploaded or sort of. When I the backup, the phone is now normal, not using any extra data.


I solved it.

I moved the /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Slcache and Slstore into a backups folder.

Then I ran the installer again.

Running the uninstaller did not remove these files before - that's why we kept getting the error.


Change keyboard shortcut for hard refresh in Google Chrome for macOS

The Menu Title for hard reload in Google Chrome for macOS is Force Reload This Page with the default keyboard shortcut set to: Shift + Command + r. The Menu Title is revealed when the said key combination are depressed or when you search for matching title under Google Chrome Menu → Help → Search. (as user will not be initially aware of the shortcut.)

Menu Title revealed on key depression:

Menu Title revealed on searching:

When setting the keyboard shortcut, set Menu Title as: Force Reload This Page and register Control + F5 as the intended keyboard shortcut.

Reload This Page:

Force Reload This Page:

Keyboard shortcuts after assignment:


How to use macos camera as input source on windows with OBS Studio?

There is no direct way to share peripherals like this typically however in this case as you are shuttling video around the solution would be to look at video over IP solutions like the SMPTE standards and for this solution NDI:

NDI is a free/closed source protocol made by NewTek, it stands for Network Device Interface taken from SDI commonly used in broadcast video.

OBS is highly pluggable application and there is an NDI plugin for OBS on all desktop platforms.

There are two solutions to this problem:

Free Solution

Use OBS on macOS with the plugin, and output a fullscreen scene to NDI, then use NDI and OBS on the Windows computer to pull the video back in.

Sending the NDI source from OBS on a Mac

Once you've installed NDI and OBS on the Mac you need to create a new scene with the Video Device media source and configure it for your webcam, then make sure (if in studio mode) that this is the program output.

Then in the menu bar select Tools > NDI Output Settings and check the 'main output' box. This will make the program output available to the Windows computer.

Paid Solution

Buy an NDI Webcam app to capture the webcam to an NDI source then use NDI and OBS on the Windows computer the capture the video feed.

Capturing the NDI source on the Windows side

Once you've installed OBS and NDI you can add a new media source to your scene called NDI, here you use the drop down list to select your source.

Final note

NDI discovery is what populates the list of available sources, this uses a service discovery protocol that relies on both computers being on the same physical network and subnet, i.e. they need to be plugged into the same switch.


As an IT-service company we use several OSes. We use Freebsd on our internet servers, and Linux, Windows and OS X on desktop clients. I'm personally an OS X user since 10.1(Puma) and have never used Mac OS 9 (I have a strong unix background).

OS X's stability and upgrading smoothness is unmatched by either Windows or Linux! Only Freebsd is comparable.

We usually upgrade live servers with freebsd and clients with OS X immediately after release, and have never had any problems. (I mean any.) This is probably because we don't use any "special" applications, just common Apple products like iWork, iLife, and Omnigroup products, etc.

OS X (the system) runs immediately without any flaws. There can be some problems (as @boehj told above) with third party applications, but 95% of the applications usually work without problems, because developers build them in advance. You can already see applications that are Lion-ready.

So, if you are not a hardcore OS X user, ofc, you can wait a while "to make sure", but from my experience: it is enough check how your application run under Lion (by visitng the developer site) and if they are ok, simply upgrade & go. :) Forget the "windows service-pack" syndrome :).

As Kerri said above - ofc, backups are good. Not just when upgrading, but "just because". In 10 years I have never needed to restore anything because of an upgrade. Ofc, we restored when we moved from PPC->Intel and when switching to new Mac models, but never "just because the upgrade went wrong". I'm pretty sure that apple decided selling Lion ONLY as a download via the AppStore (without media) that the upgrade process would be well tested.


How to manually renew Apple Developer program with different credit card?

Login to the Apple Developer site: developer.apple.com.

Apple uses your account's default Apple Store credit card.

On the left-side menu select Membership.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to Auto-renew membership section.  This is where the Auto-renew Membership checkbox is located.

On the right-side of this row there's a link named Edit default debit/credit card.

A new browser window will, probably, pop up and require you to log into your account again.  Alternatively, you can just go to the page to change your account's credit card.  I go thru the developer site to ensure this is updated correctly (because I'm paranoid).

Scroll down to Payment & Shipping section.  Edit your card there.


No it is not possible. Due to sandbox restrictions built in iOS.

Even if you develop your own app you can only press a certain spot in your own app. You don't have any access to other apps or the system itself.


Is there a setting to make the Mac not change resolution when connecting to an external display?

In mirroring mode, both screens need to use the same resolution.  The external display probably can't support the huge 2880x1800, so it's lowering yours to match.

In System Preferences > Displays > Arrangement tab, uncheck the mirroring option.  Then you should see two separate preferences windows, allowing you to set different resolutions for each display.  Note — the Arrangement tab is only visible when you have an external display connected.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5266


Okay to charge iPad 2 with 14 Watt charger?

That's okay. As far I know, the actual charging power is selected by iPad. If the charger supports Apple 2.4A, iPad charges at 2.4A. Otherwise, a lower option will be chosen.
As long as you bought a proper charger, bad ones are unpredictable.


How to empty a cell in Numbers without formatting the cell

A formula, if it exists, is part of the contents of a cell. It is not possible to delete the outcome of a formula without deleting the formula itself.


iPad iOS 9 Today View - Calendar Listing

If you swipe to the bottom of the today screen you should see the edit button. If you tap that you should see the option to place the calendar in the 'Today' section (see below)

In the pull down menu, I now have two sections: the 'Today View' and 'Widgets View'.  The Today View shows me the current temperature, below that the next appointment on my calendar.  Below that it shows me the appointments in my calendar for the whole day.


iPhone 6 dropped on my sink no cracks but broken inside

Ouch! There's two ways you can possibly save your phone here.

Accidental damage is covered under AppleCare+, which is a separate purchase. If you don't know you have this, you probably don't.

(But try calling Apple support at 800-275-2273 and give them the serial number)

You may also have insurance through your carrier (commonly called Asurion, TEC, or something else similar), if you have this, it's a separate line item on your phone bill.

If not, I'm afraid you're out of luck :(


DMG is easy drag and drop install for softwares that don't require specific installations;

Package Installer is for softwares who need to have specific parts installed in a specific place (libraries, plug-ins...)

I would prefer the first one, because you can make easy and clean (un)installation with 1 mouse's click.


How do you turn on a iphone 4 when your power button doesn't work and your phone wont charge?

If you plug an iPhone into a charger it should power on. If it's on but frozen, you could connect to iTunes and reset/ wipe it, but that might lose some data depending on your backup situation and what is on the phone.

If it doesn't, then there is a hardware problem and you'll need to get that fixed or live with a faulty device.


Lacie Big 5 10tb to be used as external hard drive but want security so: ZFS Raidz?

Do RAID 0 or RAID 6 and just user HFS+ if you're on a Mac.

I think it's best. Although I don't think RAID 6 is an native option in Disk Utility.


Run this command in the Terminal:

ifconfig lo0 127.0.0.1/8

Or if you want to keep your current (odd) address for the lo0 interface, then add 127.0.0.1 as an additional (alias) address with:

ifconfig lo0 alias 127.0.0.1


Converting large amounts of JSON to CSV on macOS

jq works quite well for this, you can install it via Homebrew. Specific usage depends on the structure of your JSON file, the accepted answer on https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/570548/convert-json-array-into-csv has details which should help to get started.


MacBook Pro Retina 13" not connecting to some Wifi networks

Usually the 'Connection time out' happens on weak WiFi signal.

I am assuming you have a decent signal, and further assuming there is something wrong with the saved WiFi profile for that specific location.

To test that:

Follow this guide to connect using copy paste.

In Terminal type following (to turn the airport on)

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Next type (to scan for networks and find the one you want)

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

From the Scan above you will get a display of available networks, so pick the one you want and type following (to connect).....while at it look at the RSSI number, the lower the better like (-) 50 or lower.   The RSSI is the signal to Noise ration, and if it is a high number (70 or higher) there is your problem.

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD

skip the password if none.

If above worked, then lets open your WiFi find and Delete that profile, then make a new one.


Mac dictation custom commands not working

I have been experimenting with the dictation app a lot recently since some  RSI issues. Had issue with user created commands at first. Not sure if you got yours working yet but we'll add my scenario and fix for general FYI:

multiple choices of the same app in the app List : for example Google Chrome showed up twice. When I created a user command and chose the first Google Chrome app in the list. User created command did not work. When I chose a second Google Chrome option it works. Somehow and I'll have to sort that out I have multiple choices of the same app. So maybe check that.
increased memory: overall dictation working better since I increased memory on my computer from four gigabytes to sixteen. Actually a whole lot better. And I know dictation uses a lot of your memory. For example if you open up Activity Monitor you can see the resources being used and what application using it. And when you're low on memory features in certain applications are sacrificed or affected.

One last suggestion or maybe more of a qualification Beyond your OS what hardware are you working with – ie what type of Mac product an what year–information found in About this Mac


Dragon Dictate (or Mavericks Dictation): How do they work? Do they have an API?

http://voicecode.io does exactly what you are describing here and is for Mac. It allows you to extend its grammar resulting in very efficient voice control for programmers.

*disclaimer - I'm the creator of VoiceCode


Using a macbook SSD as a replacement in iMac

According to this definitive guide of Apple SSD modules:
https://beetstech.com/blog/apple-proprietary-ssd-ultimate-guide-to-specs-and-upgrades
your iMac can use the 'Generation 5' SSD module that comes in your MBP, even though the iMac originally comes with 'Generation 4'.
Don't forget that if you replace one part of a Fusion Drive, the data on the 'volume' is entirely lost, so make sure you've got a backup before starting. (I'd recommend keeping the hard drive as a separate volume from now on.)
However, if you want to save yourself the bother of opening up the iMac, an external Thunderbolt drive may be just as fast.


iTunesU course with PDFs for personal use

You can't do this — courses with additional documentation such as PDFs can't be constructed in this way for personal use only.

Additional course materials need to be added to a course using iTunes U Course Manager. You need the iTunes U Course Manager to create such courses — setting the media type in iTunes doesn't work for this.

If you really want to make a course, you can use Course Manager and create a private course:

  private course
  An iTunes U Course Manager course available only to students invited by the instructor (no more than 50 students per course). By default, all courses created in Course Manager are private.

For more information regarding adding course materials to a course using Course Manager, see:

https://itunesu.itunes.apple.com/help/#itu71ED26AD-D083-40D4-8C6E-AB4DB846CA75


how to find the last time I used my usb drive?

Use the system.log. There you can find when your device has been disconnected. For more info: Is there a system log which displays which external media/storage devices were connected/disconnected from my system? If so, please advise me on how to do so.


Is there a way to get different Google calendars syncing with different Apple devices?

From my understanding you decide at  https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect which calendars are to be synced with CalDav devices. No more, no less.

On the devices themself you can choose which calendars you want them to displayed. (It know this is quite trivial, but I do not quite see why this does not suffice).

Alternatively I would suggest creating mutiple Google accounts each one with its own CalDav syncing settings.
For each one you can decide which calendars are to be shared via CalDav. Each of your devices would be connected with one of these Google Account.
Then you share calendars among the Google accounts.

E.g.: Lets say A has all the calendars. You have an iPad and an iPhone. For each one create a google account (B and C). Now A shares the iPad related calendars with B and the iPhone related calendars with C. The iPad syncs with B, the iPhone with C.

It is not ideal but once set up it should run without any overhead.


Can I test iPhone apps downloaded from iTunes in the iPhone Simulator?

Afraid not. The simulator runs on x86 architecture and the iPhone apps are published to run on ARM.


Yes, telnet is deprecated and is not included in High Sierra. If you want it, you’ll have to install it yourself, e.g. using Homebrew. See here for more details.


The safest, most reliable way to move files from drive A to drive B

I'd use the same solution as for syncing, with the option given to rsync to remove the source files. Something like this:

rsync -azv --remove-source-files $INPUT $DEST

As you mentioned, why reinvent the wheel? rsync checksums each transferred file to be sure it has transferred correctly.


The best way to find files is through Terminal.  You don't need to download or install any extra applications.

Simply issue the command:

sudo find / -name rt.jar

It will ask your for your password; enter it.  Find will go through all of your directories and when it finds any instances of "rt.jar" it will output the directory to your screen.  You can then navigate to that directory via finder or through the terminal via the "cd" command

cd /the/path/where/find/located/your/file

you can delete it if you like with the "rm" command

rm rt.jar

If you want to see files in Finder just issue these commands in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE; killall Finder

After that, you will be able to search and view all of the hidden files.

If you want to go back to the default view just change the "TRUE" to "FALSE"

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE;killall Finder


Mac Pro 2013 that struggles to power a third USB 3.0 self-powered hard drive

Isn’t the Mac Pro supposed to power up to 4 USB 3.0 drives?

It depends.

The specification for USB 3.0 is 5V and 900mA per bus.   A spinning hard disk has a power requirement of about 1.8W (5V at approx. 350mA)*.   That's just for the drive not counting the enclosure power requirements.  4 drives would mean  1400mA or 1.4A which is well above the available power supplied.

If you want to drive 4 USB drives, you want to get a USB hub with a power supply capable of supplying enough power (i.e. a USB hub with a 3A power supply)

* Specifications for a WD Black 2.5" 1TB HDD internal drive; USB drive wasn't used due to lack of power requirements noted.


This may achieve what you're looking for: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6605847?answerId=26864942022#26864942022

Copy and paste from the above link:

  It's pretty much impossible to get the complete iCloud Drive folder in
  your dock. I did, however, find out how to add just the folders from
  iCloud drive that I manually added. It's a bit of a workaround, but
  this is how I did it.
  - In finder you have to use go to folder (CMD+SHIFT+G) and navigate to ~/Library/
  - Scroll down to Mobile Documents (This folders seems empty, but actually all your iCloud folders are hidden here)
  - Drag Mobile Documents to your dock (Once added to your dock you can see it's contents).
  - Look for the iCloud Drive folder via your new dock folder and drag this one to your dock again (yes it's possible to drag a subfolder,
  opened via dock, back to your dock)
  - Now you have a Folder called iCloud Drive in your dock. Remember this only contains the folders you manually added to iCloud drive, it
  doesn't show the standard folders. So this solution might not be
  good/work for everyone.

  As far as I understand, it's not possible to add your complete iCloud
  drive folder to your dock. The reason for this is that it's contents
  are actually fragmented in the ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ folder.

  Ow and don't play around (e.g. delete) any of the folders you find
  under Mobile Documents. This will damage your iCloud Drive
  functionality. That's a situation you don't want!


So... simple with ssh-tunnels:

Into the terminal:

ssh -N -p 22 -c 3des user@firewall.example.com -L 15900/10.1.1.1/5900 -L 13283/10.1.1.1/3283

Where:

user@firewall.example.com - is an valid username on the firewall, and
10.1.1.1 - is the address of the lion-server on the internal network

This will create two tunnels between local computer and remote firewall.
In the Remote Desktop.app you should manually add the remote server like this:

Now, you can observe/control the "internal-server" via tunnels thru firewall.example.com.


Is there a way to improve YouTube performance on the iPad?

With business class cable (10 to 30 Mb/s), even HD videos are basically instant on and play through completely. It's more a matter of selecting a smaller stream size by picking your web site or setting a preference if you can't getting a wider pipe to the internet.

Latency isn't a big issue with streaming video - lots and lots of bandwidth is the major factor you can influence. Your mention of DNS is very important for things like Apple, Netflix, Google (YouTube) and others that set up content delivery networks to send you the files from a data center closest to your internet provider.

Streaming takes little RAM and the CPU is barely involved in video as the GPU handles the vast majority of that specialized task.

The iPad is capable of huge bandwidth on 802.11n networks so it's not something you have to fix or tweak on the iPad end of things...


Apple Ad-Hoc Certificate not generating beta-reports-active anymore

For anyone coming to this point at a later stage, we contacted Apple about this and most likely there was an undocumented change that removed the Beta Entitlements key from AdHoc certificates, you now have to use the Distribution certificate in order to upload a TestFlight build (which worked for us).


Open Terminal and enter the following in a single line:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

There isn’t any confirmation, the desktop is immediately locked and the lock screen appears regardless of what is currently going on with the active user account.

The menu item being used is the same Fast User Switching menu that displays a user name in the upper right corner, and the lock screen shown is identical to what is summoned if one were to select “Login Window…” from that same menu.

You can lock a screen using a keyboard shortcut as well, but using the command line offers two obvious advantages; it can be included within scripts or entered from SSH to remotely lock a Mac.

Source : Lock the Mac Desktop from the Command Line


Is there an iOS app that uploads files to websites?

iCab Mobile claims to support uploads.

https://appsto.re/gb/mKwxs.i

You will probably need to do an "Open in ..." to get it into iCab first.


Connecting from windows to my macbook gives access to all files

When you connect to your computer (presumably) as yourself you will see absolutely everything on the computer as you are the owner. If you want people to connect to your computer and only see certain folders you will have to create local users that only have access to the folders that you assign them rights to.

It works the same way on Windows and Linux: you control access to folders (and the files within them) by assigning various users specific rights to specific folders.

Let's say you have two folders on your Mac "Accounting" and "Pictures." You only want your sister to access the Accounting folder because she takes care of your finances and that is where you put the spreadsheets and receipts that enumerate your finances and expenses. So you create an account for "sister" on your Mac and add her to the list of users who have access to that folder (which will be you (the owner of the Mac) and your sister).

But you want your brother, mom and dad to view the pictures and only the pictures. So you create three accounts (called brother, mom, dad) and add them to the list of users that have access to that folder.

Each user needs their own password (which you assign when you create the account) and a username which can be as above or uses their name, your choice.

And then when they need to access the files they log in with their username and password and only have access to the folders that you assigned them rights to.

That is a "10 mile view" of file sharing. I've not gone into details as there are lots of tutorials out there (you will have to learn how to use Google for this) that tell you in detail how to do file sharing on the Mac. But this gives you an outline of the process.

For a newbie it is annoyingly complicated, for someone who does system administration for a living, it's second nature and easy.


Get photos from non-photo stream on iPhone to PC

After a lot of research it seems like the only way to do this is by using special software, none of which are free.

My solution was a lengthy workaround of copying my photos off of my iMac, and onto a DVD, then offload them onto my home computer.


This has changed in iOS7. Look up a word, at the definition UI push "Manage" in the bottom left, and a list of foreign dictionaries comes up:

English, Apple, Oxford-EN, Spanish, Korean, KOR-EN, JP-EN, Italian, German, French, Dutch, Simplified CN, SCN-EN, and Japanese.

Any & all can be downloaded from inside this "Manage" screen, and the definitions will trail (as things do on the OSX side with Dictionary.app).


In Europe, every electronics product marketed to consumers must pass a battery of tests, one of them for the photobiological safety of any included light source according to IEC/EN 62471:2008, a slight revision of IEC 62471:2006. This is mandatory since September 2011, so almost any iPhone in existence must have qualified in order to be marketable.

Since all major electronics manufacturers design their products for worldwide sales, Apple has to subject all iPhones to this standard. If any eye damage is to be expected, a warning label needs to be present (see below, source).

In the absence of such a warning, eye damage from exposure to the flashlight is extremely unlikely.


Is it possible to upgrade the CPU on a mac mini?

"The soldering is very difficult" is rather an understatement.

The CPU architecture is BGA [Ball Grid Array] which requires a special machine to replace.

If all you have is a soldering iron, you can forget it.
eBay has BGA rework stations from about $£€ 400 to 4,000.

Once you've got the gear, then you could watch this YouTube video to see how easy it is… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK62KML0D04


It should show up in the latest version of iTunes like so:

OK, that's an iPhone, but my iPad is all the way downstairs.


Change Font Size of entered text on PDF in Preview 9.0

In the markup toolbar, all you have to do is add a text box and then any text will be customizable using the text formatting options


Gaining access to data acquired by AppleScript outside of the script

Take a gander at this page. It has a few examples on how to write variables to a file.


This is exactly why Apple made the cut-off for machines that don't support the Metal graphics framework.

You can expect all sorts of graphics glitches if you're trying to run an OS that expects hardware you don't have.


Contacts have disappeared since iOS 7 update, and iCloud is not available

Go to Settings>General>Restrictions>Accounts, set this to Allow Changes.

This should render your grey iCloud settings useable again.


Two developer licenses under the same Apple ID (same company)

No it is not possible with the same Apple ID.

You can simply just create a new Apple ID, then join the developer program (as Individual), then your company can invite you to the team as a developer. You will have access to the tools and profiles just like user #1.

Every time you log in you will be asked if you want to be logged into your Individual account, or your company account you are apart of, just choose the company team.

Note: Your company account needs to be a entity type, 'Company / Organization'. This will not work for entity type 'Individual'.  As an 'Individual' count as 1, you can't have any other members.


How do I keep my SSH private key passphrase away from OSX?

I have no inside information about the MacOS internals, but from my experience using this feature, the passphrase is accepted by the GUI only to add the corresponding key to an ssh-agent. On my system it did not store the passphrase in the keychain (which I also do not want), but I'm not sure that's default behavior. My terminal would report "saving to keychain failed", but I could then ssh using that key until I logged out / restarted.
See the "AskPassGUI" and "KeychainIntegration" options in ssh_config (superseded in more recent MacOS versions, though).
Because it did not save the passphrase in the keychain, I happily entered my passphrase only once a week (shutting down on the weekend and never logging out).


My computer will not recognize that python exists

That is an old bug, see this bug report. They basically recommend installing and using a newer version of python. Depending on whats using python you might want to get a newer version 2 release and not go all the way to the newest version 3 release.


Why would an iPhone 4S drops from 100% charge upon unplugging it?

It’s neither a problem nor a sign of ageing.

iOS devices, since the first iPhone, have used a method of charging their Li-ion batteries, which is different from normal charging as you know it.

Suppose your device is at 10% charge and connected to the charger. The device will charge up to 80% in 2 hours. This is called fast charge. Now the device will charge up to 100% in another 2 hours. This is called slow charge.

When the device reaches 95% actual charge, it displays “100%” as the current charge in the status bar. The device keeps charging till it reaches 100% actual charge, at which point charging is stopped and the battery discharges naturally. Note that still the displayed charge is “100%.” Now, when the battery reaches 95% while discharging, charging starts again and continues till you reach 100%.

This cycle is repeated until you disconnect the charger, at which point the displayed charge changes from “100%” to the actual charge, which may be anywhere between 95%-99%.


I updated my iPhone to iOS 10.0.2 & got an email saying my AppleID was used

No, you weren't hacked.

This is perfectly normal depending on the settings of your device at the time of the update.


Remove everything from Mac and reinstall OS X

You don't necessarily have to remove everything to repair OS X

Depending on OS X version you can just reboot holding the R key, to boot into the recovery partition. Alternatively you can hold alt/option to display current boot options and select your recovery partition.

Once in the recovery partition, you can use Disk Utility to erase your OS X partition if you want to wipe everything, or you can just select "Reinstall OS X" from the main menu. This will reinstall OS X system files and leave your home directory, settings, documents, etc alone. I'd recommend trying just the reinstall of OS X first, and if this doesn't work to fix your issue, proceed to erase your OS X partition and then reinstall OS X.


Mac Mini has slowed to an unbearable crawl!

Before I even saw your DropBox Link, I was about to say it's DropBox Syncing the Files ON your Computer (MacMini) with your Online DropBox Account. This happened to me, as well. I emailed DropBox and they said it is normal during File-Sync. I went into DropBox Settings in the MenuBar and UnChecked All the Folders, so that the Files don't have to be on my Local Computer AFTER they have been Uploaded to DropBox.com (So, they were only needed locally to initially upload to DB without uploading via the website/browser. This is helpful if you have many Folders and Files inside other Folders.) Since the Upload was successful, I also turned-off DropBox Opening at Computer Startup.


Where can I find statistics for most searched apps in the App Store?

Officially? You can't. Apple does not provide any specific metrics about apps nor searches except those provided in Keynotes (we have $x apps, paid $y to developers, etc.). You could really only make assumptions based off the list of "Most Popular" apps in the App Stores.

Your closest bet would be whether or not a third-party ad network like AdMob or LinkSynergy publishes statistics of their own. Their own scope will of course be limited compared to the overall searching traffic, but it may be as close as you're going to get.


How to disable sparkle.framework updates for specific app?

You can try steps listed below - it worked in case of All2MP3 app, that was taken by rogue developer and changed into malware deployment platform.

Make backup of your original old app version!
Right click on the app and choose Show Package Contents.
Open info.plist file in your preferred text editor (I use TextWrangler)
Search for SUEnableAutomaticCheck
In the line below change YES to NO
Save file. Your app should stop updating automatically.


How can I get automator to select the correct already open document?

Nevermind, solved! Just added an applescript for switching windows using the shortcut "backtick"+command


That would be correct.

If you are trying to send a pic to your contact that is not on iMessages, then it would use the MMS system (the phone system) to deliver it.

That has little to do with WiFi but with how else should it deliver it without knowing the other persons WiFi connection. The iMessages would use the other person phone number as identification to deliver a MMS.

If you use any other communication system like Skype, Twitter, Facebook ..., both parties have to be on it, so the messages/pictures flow occurs using that app.


Drivers for Logitech QuickCam Orbit AF: Any third-party options?

First thing I'd try would be Macam. Your camera is listed as 'it depends (UVC)' on the supported list, which suggests it's getting most of its functionality from the built-in UVC driver anyway. But it's free, so you've nothing to lose by trying it...

EDIT: Scratch that. The details page for your camera says it doesn't yet work with Macam at all, only with the built-in UVC driver.


From your question it is not clear what you put into those USB ports. Memory sticks appear to the system as a disk, so the message you quoted might be caused by a memory stick that had been formatted in a file system your Mac does not know (possibly from a Linux computer?).
If you want to widen your possibilities, you might consider installing OSXFUSE. But I would appreciate if you first clarify what you mean by "use either of the two usb ports".


Why do I have duplicate groups in Contacts app on my iPhone?

The best procedure is to one by one, turn off each cloud sync source of contacts.

They will remain in the cloud and be removed one by one from your iPhone.

When you have all cloud accounts turned off as far as injecting contacts into the contact app, you will be left with only the local groups and contacts stored on the device itself. If you don't wish to have a local contact on the phone, sync and delete these from a computer (or manually from the device).

At that point, re-establish the cloud sync for each account - checking that there are no duplicates after each addition.

Once you have eliminated the possibility of duplicates locally vs. cloud - you can quite easily clean up the cloud source of duplicates if needed.


"Installation requires downloading important content..." error message preventing me installing macOS Big Sur

I had the same error "Installation of macOS could not continue" while trying to install macOS 11 "Big Sur".
I had to install Catalina first (see the "Download macOS" section of this support article for instructions) and then the upgrade to Big Sur worked fine.


There are some errors in your private.xml like SHIFT_L/OPTION_L are no KeyCodes but ModifierFlags. The | to link the 2 modifiers was just guessing (and luck).

Use this xml snippet instead:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
    <item>
        <name>Change Right Command Key to Shift Alt</name>
        <identifier>private.right_command_to_shift_alt</identifier>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_8, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_8, ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
        <autogen>
            __KeyToKey__
            KeyCode::KEY_9, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R,
            KeyCode::KEY_9, ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::OPTION_L
        </autogen>
    </item>
</root>

Tested with a german keyboard, danish keyboard layout, Mac OS X 10.7 and KeyRemap4MacBook:

{}{}{}{} :-}

Please don't forget to reload the xml in the Change Key tab in Karabiner/KeyRemap4MacBook (that's the same but different named app for Mac OS X < 10.9) after applying the changes in the private.xml.


Do you need a Macbook Pro w touchID to test the authentication in your Swift app?

No, you do not need it to develop such applications. However you do need a Mac with Touch ID in order to completely test that feature. There’s no simulator in Xcode for macOS applications with Touch ID as such.

Usually it is not really necessary to actually test Touch ID though. It is a single line change to swap out Touch ID with local authentication so that you can test with passwords until you are satisfied that works, and then change it to Touch ID.

No one can know if you need this in the future. The future is, after all, still undecided.


What impact will a dropping Internet connection have on an in-progress iCloud backup?

iCloud backups are incremental. You'll continue to complete backups when connectivity is restored.


Do you have it backed up to iCloud, Google Photos, or OneDrive? If not, then try activating the phone with a different Apple ID. This has helped me in the past. If this is not helping, then contact your carrier and see if they can help. Usually they are the best people to contact when there is an activation lock. Good luck!


How can I completely uninstall DisplayLink?

Just download app again from this link, open the installer file, then select uninstall from there :)
http://www.displaylink.com/downloads/osx


Is it possible to rebuild the ~/Library folder completely?

If you log into the Guest account and everything is running as you suspect, simply create a new user (make sure they are an administrator). Log into the new account and then take ownership of the previous user's Documents, Photo's, Music, etc. folders and move them into the new profile. Depending on how many files you have to move this way it is a quick and easy way to "start over." :D


Issued sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/External-SSD” and got back "Indexing and searching disabled.” for external HDD.
Defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean true ; killall Finder (shows all file)
Go to hdd where indexing is not working. externalssd in my case. find locate .metadata_never_index & delete it.
sudo mdutil -i on "/Volumes/External-SSD” started spotlight indexing and indexes are created.
Tags working now.

This concludes that Tag functionality is dependant on spotlight and needs to be enabled.


By default pf is silenced at startup, a launch daemon com.apple.pfctl.plist exists though in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/. To enable pf while booting you would have to add an -e switch in the plist.

Since all files in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ are protected by SIP in macOS 10.11 and later you have to disable it first.

Then, after booting to the main system, edit the launch daemon plist:

sudo nano /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist

and replace

  ...
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/sbin/pfctl</string>
    <string>-f</string>
    <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
  </array>
  ...

with

  ...
  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>/sbin/pfctl</string>
    <string>-e</string>
    <string>-f</string>
    <string>/etc/pf.conf</string>
  </array>
  ...

Reboot to Recovery Mode and enable SIP again.


Select font when converting .txt to .pdf from command line

The solution is to create an afm version of the font you want to use which is American-typewriter for the enscript program to create with.

What you need to do is grab a copy of the  AmericanTypewriter font. Which is located at /Library/Fonts/AmericanTypewriter.ttc

Next obtain and run the program ttf2pt1.  Copy the output file that you can name atw.afm to enscript's afm directory located at /usr/share/enscript/afm.

Edit the "font.map" file located in /usr/share/enscript/afm

Add in the AmericanTypewriter font to the list.

AmericanTypewriter         atw
AvantGarde-Demi            agd
...                        ...

Lastly re-run the enscript and choose the new font, process as you would normally after that but now including the AmericanTypewriter font.

enscript -f "AmericanTypewriter12" -p postScriptOutputfile yourFile.txt


How do I retrieve previous iTunes purchases

You can download previous purchases from the App Store, iBooks Store and iTunes store. The following Apple article outlines what you need to do depending on the store and platform you are using.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519


Does Erase Disk delete the Recovery Partition?

When you want to reformat there are two things you can do, reformat the partition or reformat the drive. Or more properly "Re-partitioning."

It is important when you don't want to do what you did (repartition the whole drive -or perhaps reformat both, not sure-) to select the "Macintosh HD" entry (or whatever your HD is called) on the left side of Disk Utility.

Note that each drive has (at least) two entries. The physical drive and the partition (or partitions). Apple usually does not show the recovery or boot partition (grrr....). And if the discovery triangle is pointing right instead of down then you just see the drive and not the enclosed partition.

You can open disk utility safely and just look to see which is which and safely select either entry to see what options are available for each. The differences are subtle.


is it possible to buy and download iTunes movies at an Apple Store?

It should not a problem as you are using your Apple ID to purchase the content. If the store employees are ok,then do it.


You've downloaded adware and possibly malware onto your computer. You'll need to remove it.

To check for adware, try AdwareMedic:

http://www.adwaremedic.com/

For malware removal, ClamXav is a free and effective choice:

http://www.clamxav.com/

Good luck with the cleanup!


Marcus,

Yes, certain things (bad reboot, disk marked dirty, not cleanly unmounted on shutdown etc) will tricker a fsck (disk check) on startup.

If you startup in verbose mode you can see this happening.

Shut down your Mac if it is on.
Press the power button to start the computer.
Immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and one of the following:

The "s" key for single-user mode.  (Command-S)
The "v" key for verbose mode.  (Command-V)

In addition, much like other unix systems there are scheduled daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. Using a tool like OnyX you can see these and force them to run.


How to fix periodic ding sound on Mac Book

After a trial and error I found Chrome is causing the irritating ding notification.


How can I change a defunct Apple ID email address?

Perhaps you could try addressing the problem from the other side of the issue.  When I faced a similar problem with my now defunct student email address on another account, the solution turned out to be contacting the IT department of my old school and convincing them to temporarily re-instate my student email address.  Once I convinced them to do it, it turned out to be a really simple process.  I was able to change over and recover passwords from several services tied to the old email address, and once completed just had them deactivate it again.  Your milage may vary depending on your educational institution, but it's definitely worth a shot.


This discussion in Apple Support Community may shed some light.  First, check to see that Mute is not checked.  You may need to reset the system PRAM.  Here are the steps: (From Apple Support)

  If your Mac doesn’t seem to be remembering your speaker volume,
  display resolution, or the disk it should be using during startup, you
  may need to reset your computer’s PRAM.

  Resetting PRAM may change some system settings and preferences. Use
  System Preferences to restore your settings.

  Important:   To print these instructions, click the Share button  in
  the Help window, then choose Print. Choose Apple menu > Shut Down.

  Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Option, Command (⌘), P, and
  R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.

  Turn on your Mac.

  Immediately press and hold the Option-Command-P-R keys. You must press
  this key combination before the gray screen appears.

  Continue holding the keys down until your Mac restarts, and you hear
  the startup sound for the second time.

  Release the keys.

  After resetting your computer’s PRAM, you may need to update your
  speaker volume, display resolution, and startup disk preferences. For
  more information about PRAM, see the Apple Support article About NVRAM
  and PRAM.

If you are nervous about doing so, if you have an Apple Store close by, you may wish to make an appointment with the Genius Bar.


X11 application from 'administrator' account


I made a backup of my iPad Pro using iTunes. Can I restore that backup onto another iPad?

Yes you can restore the backup to your new iPad. I've restored my iPad backups many times when I went from model to model, starting from the iPad1 all the way to the iPad 6th gen. Note: I don't use Windows iTunes, but I think the function is the same.


Office lock files on SMB share seem to still be present after Office is closed

This happens all the time in my experience for enough Mac clients that hit a server that can’t keep up with the requests. You almost surely cannot change this on the Mac end and need to either deal with broken temporary files or be sure your support organization reviews the performance / loading of the appliance and OS that actually runs the SMB shares.

At best, you could check what version of SMB was negotiated and if you’re using an older protocol, try to force your mac to connect SMB v3 or so. (This is the only time when you might be able to “solve this” on your end)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207520
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208209
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205926

You can also upgrade to High Sierra as it has a lot of settings changes to make SMB browsing and sharing better.

Things to ask the people that support the SMB share at work:

give them specific dates, times, IP address of your mac when you see these issues.
give them the full path
ask if the storage / disks have convention or performance overload
ask if there is a macOS best practices document from the vendor and if they can or plan to implement all the items.

Some specific items are patching to recent SMB versions that include things like vfs_fruit extensions, disabled changing permissions from mac clients on file moves, clean up scripts or suppression of things like .DS_Store files, whether .TemporaryItems is writable by all at the root of the share, if they can enable debugging logs for the folder where you save your files or set up a small test share so they can change that to match the “best practices” and see if these orphaned / ghost files no longer happen

tell them if you can make this happen reliably and on command - that is gold for them to debug a share - without it they can’t test things out methodically and have to wait for a timing or repeat of the issue


Copy screenshot to Google Drive Document

What key combo did you use for capture to clipboard? I just tried it and it worked fine. I'm running Sierra too. I used control-shift-command-3 as my keys and then pasted into Notes. All went as expected. I had same setting in system pref keyboard as you showed. Also make sure that wherever you are pasting it accepts image files.


Flashing Folder on Mac Pro 1,1 after trying to Bootcamp

You probably killed the boot sector for the OS X.

Use the CMD-R to restore the OSX.


How do I stop Apple from offering me iTunes 11 as a software download in OS X

The methods differ based on whether you are using OS X Mountain Lion, or an earlier edition.

For OS X Mountain Lion (where updates are now merged with the Mac App Store):

Refer to HT2357 How can you ignore a software update in Mountain Lion? – Apple Support Communities. Quoting the accepted solution from DickVH:

  For the software update you would like to hide - make sure the full
  description of the update is shown - click "More..." if needed to show
  the full description

  Right click on the update window.  Select "Hide update"

  This will hide the update and it will not show in the App Store
  Updates Window or counted on the dock icon. [...]

  [emphasis above is mine]

For OS X Lion and earlier:

Refer to OS X: How to ignore a Software Update – Apple Support. Quote:

  How to ignore an update
    [Mac OS X 10.3, Mac OS X 10.4, Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X 10.6, OS X Lion]

  Choose Software Update from the Apple menu.
  Click Show Details when prompted.
  Click to select the name of the update you wish to ignore.
  Choose Ignore Update… from the Update menu. A confirmation dialog appears that states, "Are you sure you want to
  remove the update (name of update) from the list? You will no longer
  be notified of new versions of this update. To see this update again,
  choose Software Update > Reset Ignored Updates."
  Click OK.


What is an quick way to create a new blank file in Lion?

A simple drag-and-drop solution works for me.

Create a folder called "New documents". In this folder, save a blank document of each type you want. In my case, I have a blank TextEdit document (.rtf) and a blank TextMate document (.txt).

Lock this folder (select, cmd-I, click 'Locked').

Put the folder in the Dock.

Now, whenever you want a new document, you simply drag it from this Dock folder to wherever you want it. Because the "New documents" folder is locked, the original won't be deleted; rather, the Mac will make a copy for you.


After opening a new pdf the cursor doesn't really exist and depending on your settings Left/Right arrows work properly for Page Up / Page Down.

As soon as you move the cursor into the document you will navigate inside your pdf and Page Up / Page Down won't work anymore with the Left/Right arrow keys.

To restore the previous behavior just click on the dark grey background.
That's a bit difficult if View -> Zoom is set to 'Fit Width', because the gap between document and frame is very small and hard to hit with the cursor.


How can I get the exact URLs/requests that a program is trying to connect to?

The most full featured way to peek into web traffic is to install and configure your system to use a web proxy.

The mitmproxy proxy (and mitmdump tool) is mature, reliable and well documented so I would start there unless you have another that meets your specific needs.

Also, widely used, superbly documented and well regarded is Charles Proxy


com.apple.iconServicesAgent using a lot of RAM in 10.9

Observations

You may observe natural rises and falls in usage.

You should not treat the usage as a problem.

Background: about icon services

For an idea of what's done by icon services (the com.apple.IconServices daemon, com.apple.IconServicesAgent processes and related files), run the following command in a Terminal window that's maybe 257 characters wide, or wider:

sudo fs_usage -w -f filesys com.apple.IconServices | grep write

Then in Finder:

browse a folder that has not been browsed since you started the Mac
browse away
browse back to the same folder.

You should find that:

the initial browse causes writes (to a cache)
second and subsequent browses cause no additional caching, for as long as the contents of the folder are unchanged.

To abort the command, Control-C

For an unfiltered view of things:

sudo fs_usage -w -f filesys com.apple.IconServices

Benefits of icon services in Mavericks

It seems to me that Apple's approach to caching icons is of particular benefit to apps/processes where primary functions include reading metadata from a variety of types of file system. Apps such as Finder, processes such as Dock, and so on.

As part of a broader approach to maximising performance, icon services should allow presentation with minimal delay of the subset of metadata that is of greatest interest to the user.

For the Recent Applications stack in Dock: probably names, icons and dates/times as essentials within a subset.

For views in Finder: subsets may be entirely different, depending on what's required by the user.

Additional thoughts

In HFS Plus (Mac OS Extended), with reference to retired documentation, we have the performance-oriented hot file B-tree, attributes file and so on. With everything else that has been done to that file system, it is now debatably over-extended.

The performance-related benefits of icon services should be relatively file system-agnostic. This is pleasing. I expect the benefits to be realised by users of ZFS on Mavericks, and so on …


If you're serious about terminal work, I would suggest looking at tmux, especially as new builds of iTerm 2 come with it precompiled in (though I use the 'vanilla' version). In your case, if you were using tmux you could detach the current session from the window you're in, and then reattach in a new one (i.e., full screen), or just have multiple windows attached to the same session. There are some other advantages to using tmux, but I'm sure you'll discover them as you're using the program more.

Alternatively, have iTerm show the tab bar even if you only have one tab (make sure Appearance > Hide tab bar… is unchecked), and then you can 'pull' the tab out into its own window to continue using it.


Exactly what are the limitations of geofenced reminders?

I'll split your question into two main areas since one is easily answerable, the other isn't without inside knowledge of how location services work within iOS.

How to make a reminder for when you re-arrive at the place you sit now?
What is the special sauce and all the ways I can tweak location in iOS?

To make a reminder, start by turning on "At a Location" and then choose when I arrive instead of the default when I leave. Sometimes I have poor location signal and the alarm may go off, but that seems to happen very rarely in practice. When that happens, I just set it to when you leave. That seems to be less sensitive to radius so when it goes off, I then remember to change it back to arrival.

The deeper question of how location really works and is implemented is not publicly disclosed. As an end user, you can't set radius or other parameters that affect the location engine. It is either off or on. You either have the radios on or off.

I would encourage you to get Xcode and play with some of the demonstration projects to learn how location works in the iOS simulator and perhaps you can gain a better understanding of how iOS presents this data to apps.


iPhone 6 Battery quickly drains and jumps battery percentage

This is the symptom of a weakened iPhone battery that is failing (especially on iOS 10). My recommendation is to determine your battery's current capacity and health by downloading a couple of battery health apps. You can monitor your battery health to determine if you need to replace the battery soon.

If replacement is needed but your iPhone is not under warranty or AppleCare, you can replace the battery yourself for about $35 (battery and proper tools). I was having these issues with my iPhone 6+ and replaced the battery which was not too difficult. My phone is like new now.


Chrome and Safari keeps hanging after upgrading to macOS High Sierra

Frustrating to say the least.  try this: http://scaleup.us/2017/11/09/high-sierra-slow-chromefirefox-issues/

It appears to be an issue with the WindowServer running when running your display in scaled mode.  After setting the resolution for my displays to "Default for display" chrome and firefox issues disappeared.
Granted, the resolution is shit, waste of my 4k displays but, I'll take that over the freezing nonsense.


How to uninstall application from iOS when there are many of them?

You can plug it into iTunes and delete them from there by pressing uninstall, and apply.
Also, on newer iOS, you can just let iOS offload unused apps. Thirdly, you can now delete apps from settings app.

settings > general > iPad storage


How can I share all document revisions with another Mac?

One person sharing two or more Macs, all running Lion

Method A: physical share of a disk

For your file to be versioned, save first to removable media with a file system that supports permanent version storage. Save all versions of the file to that volume.

Eject/unmount the volume. Use the volume with other Macs running Lion.

Examples:

a USB flash drive using MS-DOS (FAT) lacks support
a USB flash drive using JHFS+ does support permanent version storage.

Method B: electronic file share of a disk image

In a directory that is shared using Apple Filing Protocol (or any other appropriate distributed file system), create a disk image, maybe a sparse bundle. Choose a format — a file system — that supports permanent version storage.

Open the image.

For your file to be versioned, save first to the volume that is imaged. Save all versions of the file to that volume.

Eject/unmount the volume.

At another Mac running Lion:

connect to the file server
open the image.

Hints

The Secrets preference pane can help you to enable advanced image options in Disk Utility.

An image of a volume may be not reliably backed up whilst the volume is attached/mounted. For reliability, unmount/eject the volume before backing up.

Multiple users

Either method A or B will work, but both require negotiation between humans :-)

Method C

For each version that you wish to share, use the Duplicate command then save a separate file.

The downside of this traditional approach is separation. Users of other Macs (not necessarily running Lion) might take a Cover Flow view of the files, but that's not as neat as a versions browser view of a single file.

AFP, Apple versions and security/privacy

You might wonder why saving to an Apple-oriented file service, for example a service using Apple Filing Protocol, does not save Apple versions on the server. Think: privacy, security.

Example

Someone in Government saves a file that describes the true state of the economy, a state that is terrible. The person changes the file to present a different truth, a truth that will keep the lions at bay, saves his or her changes.

When ready to share, the author puts the one file on an AFP server.

Other users of the server open the file in any application that supports Apple versions. They see only one version, the most recent.

We (other users) might wish to see all versions of a file — including versions that were not intended for sharing — but for Mac OS X 10.7 (Build 11A511) the sanest default is:

share nothing other than the most recent version.


Safari can't connect to the server "localhost"

It seems like you are using Mac's built-in server and maybe somewhere along the line, web sharing was disabled.

Go to your System Preferences and enable Web Sharing.

To be sure httpd has started do what @Kerri mentioned in the comments

ps -eaf | grep httpd

which will display all processes that contain httpd as well as the Process ID

if you only get something like the following

501 22299 22030   0   0:00.00 ttys001    0:00.00 grep httpd

grep is the only process running referencing httpd

At this point try stopping and restarting the server manually

sudo httpd -k stop
sudo httpd -k restart

Look also into the Console.app log and filter to see what information you can get from there.

If it is enabled you should get the following on pointing to localhost within a browser

  It works!

So far so good, the server is running.

Now to navigate to the cgi-bin folder, if you used the scripts before then it should be mapped already in your configuration.

You could get

  Forbidden

  You don't have permission to access
  /cgi-bin/ on this server.

or an Internal Server Error if you went straight to the script

and you can chmod 755 the script and that should give you the correct permission to run it.

You can also check the access and error logs to see what's up

/var/log/apache2/access_log
/var/log/apache2/error_log

/var is the symbolic link to private/var