iPad doesn't display the captive portal login window after connecting to a WiFi network

iOS attempts to connect to http://captive.apple.com. If this request doesn't return the string "Success", the captive portal page is opened on the device. Therefore if the router isn't redirecting this request, the captive portal won't be shown.

Usually in these cases you can open Safari and connect to a non-HTTPS URL where you will be redirected to the captive portal. If you know the URL of the portal through another device, you can enter this in Safari to go straight there if the redirects aren't working properly.

If DNS is really not working, you might even need to browse something like http://1.1.1.1 if you don’t see the captive portal log in.

In the majority of cases (maybe 98%) this is a problem on the network,  it the iOS device. If you reboot your device and still can’t connect, you’ll need the person(s) that run the network to assist in all likelihood.


How to transfer iTunes library between user accounts on Windows?

Under the old user, launch iTunes, then Preferences, then the Advanced tab and discover the "iTunes Media folder location".

Switch to the new user and launch iTunes. From the advanced tab, verify that the new user location path corresponds to the new user name. If it doesn't, quit iTunes, create the iTunes Music folder (using the path structure of the old location as a guide).

Relaunch iTunes. Set the location to the new folder you just created.

Quit iTunes and use Windows Explorer to copy everything in from the old user folder to the new user folder. Launch iTunes from the new user and your music should be there.


Are apps that use LSUIElement in their plist causing google account problems?

Modifying the Info.plist of an app usually invalidates its code signature, so it's not allowed to access the keychain automatically.

You can see if the code signature is valid with for example codesign -vv /Applications/Sparrow.app. An invalid signature can be replaced with sudo codesign -f -s - /Applications/Sparrow.app.


How to "Ctrl-F" in iPhone's Safari browser?

I don't have an iPhone anymore, but my memory tells me this:
iPhone
Search using the standard search bar.

The web search suggestions are at the top.
The website search results of the currently viewed website are at the bottom.

iPad
Search using the standard search bar.

The web search suggestions are at the top.
To search the website use the entry box which pops up right above the keyboard.

All of this may change with iOS 6 and Mountain Lion. The WWDC2012 announced that Safari for OSX will integrate a Chrome like omnisearch bar . Most likely we'll see something similar for iOS as well - at least i hope so :).


OS X is repeatedly asking for login keychain password

I had exactly the same problem with Lync messenger - request to enter a keychain password, over and over again, even though password was the correct one. Tried numerous suggestions, nothing worked. Until I found this one:

go to the folder userid/Library/Keychains
look for a key with the file name from the password request window
delete this file (only this one!)
try again your app - password is accepted now

Somehow this key was not shown in Keychain Access, like it does not exist. But actual key file was present in keychain folder.

Seems to be some bug in macOS (I am on Sierra) when it can't see key-file, and then another bug - system tries to create a new key-file, but file operation fails (file already exists there).
I would suggest to the apple devs to add a proper exception handling there, but I am satisfied for now - problem fixed.


What do the appleprofilepolicyd and wdhelper processes do?

From the Apple Developer man pages:

  appleprofilepolicyd is a system daemon that implements a policy for the services provided by AppleProfileFamily.  When an AppleProfileFamily user asks to perform an action, this daemon is invoked to make the final policy decision.

Essentially, this governs what apps, accounts, processes, etc. have access to what services and activities.

I believe wdhelper is a LaunchDaemon that is implemented by, for example, a WD MyBook drive when it is installed to the Mac.


How to get the hex color of a cell in Excel 2011

Digital Color Meter

In '/Applications/Utilities/` there is an app 'Digital Color Meter'. You can use this to find the color codes (HEX, RGB, etc)


Behavior of macOS After Toggling Secure Boot on T2 Chip: Does It Remember the ECID?

Yes, the T2 always "remembers" its unique ID (ECID) even if you turn Full Security off and on again. It is never discarded.

However, this is really not the question you would like to be asking:

The ECID is burned into the T2 chip and cannot change. The actual signature file created when the operating system is installed is stored on your disk drive as an im4m file. A valid signature can only be signed by Apple, and it contains the ECID from your T2 chip, limiting its validity to your specific computer.

The real question you want to ask is if those signature files are retained when turning off Full Security - and the answer is yes, they definitely are.

Every time you have a new signature created (for example when installing a new OS), the system creates a new, uniquely named im4m file on your drive. The old ones are not deleted.

When you disable "Full Security" and set it to "No Security", then the T2 chip stops checking the validity of the signatures in those im4m files. It doesn't discard them, delete them or anything of the sort.


Can I recieve messages from someone not in my contacts?

AirDrop and text messages have nothing to do with each other.

AirDrop lets you use your iOS device to send or receive files from nearby users who also have iOS devices.

Text messages are just that - text messages. You use the Messages app to send or receive text messages to or from any cell phone number.


Does Mac OS X Lion support surround sound on optical audio outputs?

The optical output (Mini TosLink) does support multi-channel sound, up to I think 7:1 - but the standard 2.5mm doesn't.

iffi9211
Re: surround sound
Jan 30, 2012 2:49 PM (in response to parker612)
I was able to fix this problem, my speakers are connected to my pioneer receiver and I used it to create surround sound. iMac has toslink output which is connected to my receiver. iMac however gives only 2 channels and doesn't have option for surround sound on every track. It will not create surround sound from mp3 songs like some sound cards can. However if I play dvd that has surround sound then iMac will output 5 channels.

Thanks for the reply.
Edit: second post down here explains it.


27" iMac SSD + HDD Migration from old iMac 10.7.3

Besides the obvious issue of you having too much information to load onto the SSD, I've done this basic procedure in the past.  However, it's much easier now using Time Machine, but you have a few options:

Time Machine

If you don't currently have a backup that can hold all your data, do yourself a favor and pick up a drive that can.  Time Machine should be built into the OS you're currently running.

Do the backup.  For 400 GB, you probably want to set it up before you go to sleep and let it run overnight.  Once  it's complete, unmount the drive and unplug it from the computer.  Go through with the drive install and then install Lion.  When the computer reboots, before you start to work with the setup assistant, plug in the new drive.  At some point it will prompt you for a location from which to migrate data.  Select your backup.  Let it run for a while and when you get back, it will contain all the data you backed up, in a usable form.  This is my current favorite method for cloning user workstations.

Super Duper

If you can't get an external backup, you can use SuperDuper to create a full-system backup from the active system disk.  You'll have the ability to trim the data to the size of the disk to which you're copying in the interface.  This route is a little more technical and requires a bit more time hands-on.

File Copy

I wouldn't recommend copying a user folder for a logged-in user due to open  preferences files.  You'll get all kinds of "File In Use" errors and it will probably exit the copy prematurely.  Instead (if you're dead-set on using this method - which I advise against) create a second admin user and copy the folder over into a temporary location before staging it into the actual /Users/ location.  You'll also need to make sure the permissions for the entire folder are set so that the user whose home you are copying can actually access and write to their files.  To do this, you can use the Finder's Get Info on the folder and then add the user to have full permissions.  Once it's staged into the /Users/ folder, you can log back in to the main user and delete the secondary admin.  You may have permissions issues in the future using this method.

All that said, it's totally worth it to get an external to back up to for Time Machine to clone your new SSD from.


Applescript failing even though variables are equal

Your x values are strings when the value is less than ten (because you use string concatenation to prepend a zero), however they are plain numbers when the value is greater than or equal to ten.

Your y values are always strings.

So, for values less than ten, your final comparison compares a string to a string; this works as expected. For higher values, the comparison will always yield false because it is comparing a number to a string.

If you want exact string matches, then you can use use this comparison code:

if y is not equal to x as string then …

If you only care about numeric values, then you could remove the zero-prefixing code and use this comparison:

if y as number is not equal to x then …

Equivalently, you could do the coercion when you fetch the y value:

set y to (do shell script "sed -n '" & x & "p' ~/Desktop/numlist.txt") as number

The parentheses are necessary there because do shell script has its own optional as parameter that is not the same as normal coercion.


Audiobook files do not play correctly in iOS 5

I had a similar issue with the default music app and the Steve Jobs biography audiobook (ironically).

I had to manually delete the audiobook from my device by checking the box for Manually manage music and videos in iTunes, then delete the files, then re-add them again.

Have a look at the audiobook entries under your device in iTunes - mine had a sync icon next to them as if to indicate that the problem was getting them onto the device, rather than with the player itself.

I haven't yet tried to uncheck the box for Manually manage music and videos for fear of breaking the audiobook again.


Easiest way for two people to switch an iPhone 4 and 4s

Connect both phones to their current respective computers
Open iTunes and perform a backup on both phones
Swap the phones to the opposite computers.
Once swapped, click on the Restore button in iTunes, then click
Don't Back Up.
When iTunes finishes the restoring process, set up your 'new' phone
from a backup, making sure to click on your old phone's latest
backup (the one you just completed.)

This should restore the new phone to your old phone's last condition.


Change "Group windows by application" preference using command line

The defaults command for Group windows by application in System Preferences > Mission Control is e.g.:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-group-apps -bool false

In older version, it used to be:

defaults write com.apple.dock expose-group-by-app -bool false

The value can be true or false.

However, that will not immediately change it in the UI and it may get overwritten anyway.

The safest way to change it is from the UI.

Note: As suggested in the comments one can use killall Dock directly afterwards however, killall Dock will force all minimized windows to show, as well as it's visually disruptive. I'd suggest using AppleScript to change it as it will not force minimized windows to show nor it is as visually disruptive.

The following AppleScript code will check/uncheck the Group windows by application checkbox in System Preferences > Mission Control, and will not cause the same visual disruption that killall Dock will. It can be saved as an AppleScript application in Scrip Editor.

tell application "System Preferences"
    set the current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.expose"
    tell application "System Events"
        click checkbox "Group windows by application" of group 2 of window "Mission Control" of application process "System Preferences"
    end tell
    quit
end tell

Note; This AppleScript code was tested under macOS 10.12.5 and my need adjusting for some earlier versions of OS X.


Where is the video my sister sent to me on iMessage? I clicked save and can't find it

Check in your 'Videos' app; it should be saved in there.


How to thin your local Time Machine Snapshots on macOS High Sierra

Spoiler: I went from ~50 GBs free to ~277 GBs free, about 227 GBs difference, over the course of this answer.
There's not a tonne of information from the basic tmutil function but you can call man tmutil to get more details, specifically on thinlocalsnapshots:
thinlocalsnapshots mount_point [purge_amount] [urgency]
             Thin local Time Machine snapshots for the specified volume.

             When purge_amount and urgency are specified, tmutil will attempt (with urgency level 1-4) to reclaim purge_amount in bytes by thinning snapshots.

             If urgency is not specified, the default urgency will be used.

A noticeable omission is what the default urgency actually is and whether 1 is high urgency or 4 is high urgency.
To show you what's happening in real-world usage, here is my starting list of local snapshots:
$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-14-173102
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-14-212356
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-052254
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-084940
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-094508
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635

When running without the purge_amount and urgency options, it's likely that no local snapshots will be purged:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots /
Thinned local snapshots:

With purge_amount set to 1000000000 (1 Gigabyte):
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000
Thinned local snapshots:
2017-12-14-173102

And if I run that again:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000
Thinned local snapshots:
2017-12-14-212356

Here's what's happened to my local snapshots list:
$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-052254
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-084940
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-094508
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635

Let's try running that same command one more time:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000
Thinned local snapshots:
2017-12-15-052254
2017-12-15-084940

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-094508
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635

And again:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000
Thinned local snapshots:
2017-12-15-094508

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635

And once more to try and remove that final local snapshot:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000
Thinned local snapshots:

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635

You can see it didn't do anything this time.
Let's try increasing the bytes to 10 GBs:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 10000000000
Thinned local snapshots:

Still nothing. Let's try 100 GBs:
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 100000000000
Thinned local snapshots:

Again, nothing.
So, when it gets to the last local snapshot, it must have to do with the urgency option rather than the purge_amount.
Let's go back to just 1 GB for the purge_amount but try with urgency set to 1 (another omission in the manual is whether 1 is high or 4 or high, but @Clete2 thinks 4 is high):
$ tmutil thinlocalsnapshots / 1000000000 1
Thinned local snapshots:
2017-12-15-121635

$ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
com.apple.TimeMachine.2017-12-15-121635 (dataless)

Success!
You can see that it thinned the last remaining local snapshot and now when you listlocalsnapshots you'll see only the latest one but it is tagged as (dataless).
I'm willing to bet that urgency being set to 1 means "very urgent" and urgency set to 4 means "meh, whenever".
Over the course of these trials my hard drive has gone from ~50 GBs free to ~277 GBs free. A freeing up of about 227 GBs!
I would assume that these local snapshots would get thinned automatically, especially when additional space is required so you shouldn't have to worry about this too much.
But, I ran into this because

I was wondering how I was losing all my free disk space so suddenly, and;

I was trying to make a Boot Camp partition to run Windows and I didn't have enough space, even tho most of that space was just being taken up by local snapshots.

Going forward, I'm wondering if I should have a cron job run a thinning command every week or so, just to keep things clean. I'll see what happens after a few more days and add anything back here that I find.
Here is the Apple site for more information about how Time Machine's Local Snapshots are used:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204015


Windows Putty connect to OSX SSH Server with SSH key

You will need to use a program called PuttyGen.exe on the Windows side to generate a public and private key.

Using the "Generate" button, generate the keys using the above program.  You will then need to move the public key that is generated to your mac.  Save a copy of the private key to use later using the "Save private key" button.

On your windows machine copy the contents of your public key exactly and paste them in the authorized_keys file you will create below.  The easiest way I think is to open an ssh connection using Putty to your mac machine, the first time you will have to enter a username and password.  Then create the folders and file structure and use an editor to move the contents.  From the putty terminal window connected to your mac enter:

sudo mkdir ~/.ssh
sudo touch ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo chown root:wheel ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Then the editing part of the file you created:

vim ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Press the i key to insert text.  Paste in your public key, and press the keys esc then, :wq to save it.

Now you can re-open Putty and create a new session.  On the left hand tab expand SSH and select the Auth tab.  Towards the bottom you will need to browse and load in the Private key that you saved earlier.

I got most of this from the help file in PuttyGen.exe the first time I did it.  When you open Puttygen.exe there is a Help tab up top.

PuttyGen.exe download


Can still boot to Windows even though I deleted the partition

First of all the Recovery partition has nothing to do with BootCamp. BootCamp installs a small Windows boot partition that then points to the (separate) Windows partition where the rest of the installation is, if I recall correctly.

When you hold down the Option key at boot (it's only called "ALT" on Windows) the Mac only sees the small boot partition not the second one with the Windows installation on it.

I would be willing to bet that if you selected to boot from Windows from the boot menu you would get an error about *no bootable disk found" or some such.

In the case of BootCamp it is best to not do anything outside the BootCamp installer environment unless you have a bit of experience with it and know just how the partition map is set up. Apple likes to insulate users from the innards of the OS so you rarely see the whole story.

Just like you won't know how to remodel an 1890s Victorian by watching This Old House, watching what the BootCamp application seems to do won't tell you the whole story.


Does iOS 10 Allow Self-Signed Certificates for PEAP?

Found out the issue was indeed the RADIUS certificate, as Apple deprecated the SSLv3 cryptographic protocol and the RC4 symmetric cipher suite in iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

More Info Here


I personally use Homebrew, which is a very nice package manager.
If you want to give this a try, first of all make sure you have the XCode Command Line Tools installed on your Mac.
Then install Homebrew by typing

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

in the Terminal.
Homebrew will place its "Cellar" (the set of all the packages you installed with Homebrew) in /usr/local/Cellar.

Now, about Python 3, once Homebrew is installed simply type

brew install python3

and there we go. You have Python3 installed on your Mac.

Notes:

this version will automatically take place instead of the OS X version (if it doesn't, just run brew link python3 - this will symlink python3 into /usr/local/bin/)
to update python run brew update in the Terminal (this will update Homebrew) and then brew upgrade python3 if a new version of python3 is found by the command brew update
at the end you can run brew cleanup python3 to remove every old version
with this fancy package manager, you can also take care of R


Consistent Console error message: invalid signature for com.cisco.kext.acsock

I had the same issue. kextd was consistently using around 14% CPU and tailing of /var/log/system.log showed that it was trying and failing to load com.cisco.kext.acsock over and over again.

I uninstalled the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client using its installer caused the problem to end immediately.

I suspect I had an old version of AnyConnect installed that was from the pre-El Capitan days, and hence it didn't have a valid the signature. Luckily I don't need the AnyConnect client (I had installed it a while back briefly for some troubleshooting) since I use the built-in client.


Keep Finder On-Top While Dragging Links From Safari URL Bar

You can just drag the link to the Finder icon in the Dock, and hold for a couple of seconds. That’s show you all the available windows of Finder, then you can select the one you want to drag the web-loc to. As @Phoenix mentioned in comment, you can aways ⌘+Tab to switch between open apps. Another way would be to use Mission Control, the shortcut of which is F4, or ⌃+↑ (configurable in Keyboard Pref Pane).

It should be expected behaviour to switch to the app you clicked on so Finder has to lose focus, for Safari to respond.


Activity Monitor data, in recent history?

Instruments.app can be used to profile Activity monitor data. But this is not viable for constant background usage as this itself might lead to the beachball. I haven't used it a lot, but see if you can find how to reduce the data collection.


How do I make sure I purchase the correct replacement gfx card for my iMac?

The NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS is not available anymore, but you can try the NVIDIA GeForce GT 680, which you can find here: http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=02G-P4-3682-KR
You will also need to upgrade your RAM to support this card. The RAM I suggest is here: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/8566DDR3S4GP/


Large (800 GB) Disk Image on Time Capsule as pseudo-NAS?

This is a bad idea on a Time capsule. It is possible, but it will be extremely slow to set up and very slow in use.

See Pondini's Time Capsule Q3

You can use Disk Utility to create a custom-size disk image (normal, not sparse) and specify it to be 800GB size, but you have to create that empty 800GB file locally first, then upload it to your Time Capsule. The Time Capsule's disk and network connections are not built for speed.

Even if you reserve 800GB of space on your Time Capsule, there is no quota to shared the remaining 1200GB fairly between your users.

For example - One user could repeatedly fill their SSD with junk, back it up to the Time Machine target on the Time Capsule, delete the local junk and download fresh junk to the SSD. They could repeat this until the 1200GB space is used up. Only at that point would their oldest junk be automatically deleted from their Time Machine history. The other user would not be able to prompt any clear-out of the junk, they would only be able to lose their own oldest material.

Shorter answer: Time Capsule is great, but it is a backup device not a NAS: it is too slow and has no NAS functions. Don't try to use it like a proper NAS. It is handy for storing a few shared files like a very very basic NAS can, but that is very limited.


How can I keep my MBP's battery from charging without removing it?

I do not know of any software solution, but there is a hardware solution.

Use a piece of tape and cover the middle pin on the Magsafe plug.


Migrating parallels PVM from Mac to Windows

To launch the PVM under Windows you need Parallels Workstation running on your Windows box. Unfortunately Parallels withdrew that product either later 2013 or early 2014 which is a shame.
I run the Windows product all the time with multiple VMs running (Windows desktop with lots of disk space) and then move the PVM to my MacBook Air (limited disk space)when I have to go to a customer site


Where does launchpad store folder information? (database, etc?)

Ok, I think i've found it. Turns out that (at least under El Capitan) things are a little different.

This AskDifferent answer by Greg Hacke pointed me in the right direction.

It seems the databases are stored in $TMPDIR/../0/com.apple.dock.launchpad/db/, with the main sqlite db being aptly named db.

(After reading Geoff Hackworth's AskDifferent response, it seems a better way to get the path would be getconf DARWIN_USER_DIR rather than $TMPDIR/../0/)

Editing this with a sqlite GUI showed that the groups table stores the folders, with title holding the folder name.

After making any desired changes, and writing them back to the db, we still need to do a killall Dock to refresh the launchpad screen.

Some observations:

There are a number of groups that don't have a title (set to null), so not really sure what they are for.
It seems that just creating a new entry doesn't cause a group to show up (maybe because it would be an 'empty folder'?).

In this case, how can we create a new folder and move apps into it from the db?

By editing the title field in the apps table we can change the display name of the app.


Yes at first approximation they are the same, but the mechanism of the update is different since one can be a delta and self-applied update and the other installs a complete build rather than patching the OS.
Digging deeper, the OTA update implies the OS and device is working properly, so Finder or iTunes is a good bet if you really want to ensure the update goes well or want to put the device into recovery mode to ensure the new OS and only the new OS is written. Obviously, if the device is having problems, you may opt for a computer to control the update rather than hoping the device stages, installs and executed cleanup of the patch properly.
Assuming your device is working well, you can safely update OTA and in many cases - the download is a delta update that is smaller than the entire image if you are doing an update that isn't a major version (4.0 or 5.0 which started the OTA capabilities and presumably 6.0 when it ships).
Using Finder or iTunes also gives you a chance to transfer purchases and reduce the number of apps you will have to re-download after a major update. Again, not an issue on incremental updates like 5.1.1 update from 5.1.

iOS version history on wikipedia
About iOS 5.1.1

In practice, this even has been called out as a deciding factor for the jailbreak that was first released for iOS 7 where the notes said the exploit won't work against an OTA iOS 7 device, and only against a cleanly restored device. I don't know if that has to do with the signing key or an actual difference in the two images, but it shows that the processes are indeed different in some respects.


Is there anywhere I can get a complete list of historical Safari release notes?

Safari uses Webkit as it's rendering engine. If you're specifically looking for when it began to support HTML5/CSS3, it as a fully open-source repository where you can review changes commit by commit. As such, you can see the full comprehensive, intricately detailed history here: http://trac.webkit.org/timeline


Why is my boot partition listed as Unmounted in Disk Utility?

The best option is to reboot with the option key held down.  Boot from your Recovery HD and first repair the volume containing the partition you indicated, then repair the partition itself.

It is unusual, but not unheard of for the verify function to not be available since the design is to be able to self-verify but nor self-repair the boot volume.


I couldn't ring out or accept incoming calls on new Iphone 5 as it had become unresponsive, there are very few apps installed on phone as it is new. Turned power off and back on and phone works again. Hope problem is not recurring.


Yes! Simply create a second user:

Add a user

In Users & Groups preferences, click Add (+) below the list of users.
Choose the type of user you want to create from the New Account
pop-up menu.
Type a full name for the new user. ...
Enter a password for the user, then enter it again to verify. ...
Click Create User.

Source


You can add a Key Command to any app [or all apps] from
System Prefs > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts
I don't have Airmail, but using Safari as an example

Hit the + button, select which app, type the menu name & your chosen key combo
For an app you don't want the original key combo to work for, replace it with something difficult to hit, or something you would never use, like
 Cmd ⌘  /  Opt ⌥   /  Ctrl ⌃  /  Shift ⇧  /  F15   etc

Alternatively, if you want to replace Quit with Close Window, you add  Cmd ⌘   Q   to Close Window instead, [so long as that command appears in the menu somewhere] which will automatically remove  Cmd ⌘   Q  from the Quit item


Why doesn't Spotlight show invisible files that I know exist?

Though, it won't update the results in spotlight I use the below script to toggle hidden files on and off every time it's run:

To make:

Open TextEdit
Make sure it is in Plain Text Mode (Format > Make Plain Text from the menu)
paste in the below text:

    #Load current state into I
    I=$(defaults read com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles)
    if [ "$I" == "false" ]
      then
        # Flip
        I=true
        echo -e "\t>> Showing Hidden Files"
      else
        # Flop
        I=false
        echo -e "\t<< Hiding Hidden Files"
    fi
    # Write I to com.apple.Finder.plist
    defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles $I
    # Restart Finder
    killall Finder
    exit

Save the above file to your desktop as togglehidden.command (be sure not to append .txt to the end of the file)
Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
Enter the command chmod u+x ~/Desktop/togglehidden.command to make your new file executable.
Double Click togglehidden.command on your desktop to show or hide hidden files.


Is it possible to upgrade a Mac Pro (2007) with Lion (10.7) to Yosemite (10.10)?

OK, this might be somewhat opinion-based, however...

Possible, yes.
Worth it, no.

Possible
There are tools & online guides far too long to repro or précis here on how to achieve it. It requires hacking the firmware & needs re-hacking at each update -
These guides from MacRumors are as good as they get, one for Yosemite & another for El Capitan.

Worth it?
The 1,1 & 2,1 are really end-of-life & now very slow compared to a 'modern' machine.
I really guess it depends on your budget, but you can get an absolute top-flight 5,1 [or the smart money goes on a 4,1 with the Apple upgrade kit] with two 6-core hyperthreading Xeons @3.46GHz & 64GB RAM for under £1800 in the UK. Your existing drives will just carry over [though idk about the OS itself, mine did from a 3,1 to 5,1].
The Geekbench scores on those are about 32k, that's slightly under the current top model 'trash-can' at 33k. I just checked the score for the 2.66 Mac Pro, 6k.

I took the latter path, even though I was only moving up from a 3,1 - which is now in the hands of my partner & very happily running El Capitan. I wanted a speed boost & the upgraded 4,1 was right on the money for me.


How can I find a changelog of core utility versions in OS X?

Apple documents the open source components for each release at the web page:

http://www.opensource.apple.com

Internally, they clearly do work before it's publicly documented as we have 10.9.2 out today but only 10.9 is listed publicly with the versions.


This is very easy to do.
For efficiency (and cool factor), I would use a tool like Lingon to launch this script periodically using launchctl/launchd instead of each time you start a shell. On my MacBook, it takes 3 seconds to update the second time (no work done, DNS cache set, etc...) and it take 10 second to run the first time (no work done) or 15+ seconds if a package needs to be downloaded or compiled.
Perhaps once a day or once an hour - running in the background would be sufficient given those times to execute?
You could make a simple script /usr/local/bin/brewup that calls brew in turn and logs the results to the system log. If you don’t like chasing logs in the centralized log store, “teeing” them to a text file works well, too.
#!/bin/bash

brew=/usr/local/bin/brew
logger=/usr/bin/logger

$brew update 2>&1  | $logger -t brewup.update
$brew upgrade 2>&1 | $logger -t brewup.upgrade
$brew cleanup 2>&1 | $logger -t brewup.cleanup

I just call the brewup when I'm about to go make tea or when I get started and let it run in the background.
brewup &


How to use iMac mid 2010 (21.5 inch display) as monitor

The Display Port on the 21.5" iMac is output-only, so you can't use it in target display mode.


Where is Android SDK manager download files?

In Android Studio, open the Settings dialog (Preferences on macOS), then navigate to Appearance & Behavior > System Settings > Android SDK.
  Change the value of Android SDK Location to C:\WorkFolder\AndroidSDK.

  To avoid downloading the SDK again, make sure to copy the existing SDK directory, located at %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Android\SDK by default, to the new location.

From https://developer.android.com/studio/intro/studio-config#antivirus-impact


Preview copies aliens. How to change the encoding/make it work?

The PDF file has been protected. You can’t copy-paste text from it. Plane 16 is displayed when a character is in the “private” area of the Unicode specification. This has been deliberately done to prevent you from copy-pasting.

Also, this is not OS X’s error character. It just appears when it encounters something in the private area of the Unicode spec.

A PDF file optionally contains a mapping to the Unicode private area for each character in the font. This particular PDF contains such a map, so it will display the correct glyphs only in a PDF reader.

Simple English: The PDF file is full of characters, which are mapped to different places in the Unicode private area. Normally, it would just display Plane 16, but because the PDF file contains a map which translate the private area characters into readable latin glyphs (a, b, R, F, etc), you see words in the PDF but aliens in other places.


Allow user to SSH to my Mac, but sandbox the account

Secure Shell (ssh) Jail

The phrase you need to search for is jail ssh user.

See the questions and articles linked below for a range of approaches; being Unix-y, these approaches should also work on macOS:

Restrict SSH User Access to Certain Directory Using Chrooted Jail
Simple & easy way to jail users
Jail user in SFTP + SSH


How to change the spelling language in OS X with AppleScript?

The AppleScript code, below, employs UI Scripting and because a popup menu is involved, System Preferences will be made visible (activate) during the process. Had a popup menu not been involved, this could have been done without making it visible.

That said, technically it still can be done without making the primary window visible, but then all you would see is the popup menu flash for a moment on the screen. As this might be more of an annoyance, wondering what just flashed on the screen, showing the whole System Preferences window is probably less of an annoyance. You can see the difference and try it by commenting out activate, e.g. -- activate, and choose which you prefer.

The AppleScript code does the following:

Opens System Preferences to: Keyboard > Text
Changed the language in the Spelling: popup menu based on the following:

If set to Automatic by Language, changes it to U.S. English.
If set to U.S. English, changes it to Türkçe.
If set to Türkçe, changes it to U.S. English.

Closes System Preferences.

Essentially, once it is not set to Automatic by Language, it then toggles between U.S. English and Türkçe. each time it's run.

You can save this as an AppleScript application, place it in the Dock, then each time it's clicked it will toggle between the two languages. (Once it's first set to one of the languages.)

Note: Saved an AppleScript application it will need to be added to  System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility, adding the app to the Allow the apps below to control your computer list.

This also could be made into an Automator service, where a keyboard shortcut could be assigned. (See the directions at the end of this answer.)

Note: The following AppleScript Code was tested under OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 and may need to be reworked for use with other versions of OS X/macOS.

AppleScript Code:

tell application "System Preferences"
    activate
    reveal anchor "Text" of pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
    delay 0.5
    tell application "System Events"
        tell pop up button 3 of tab group 1 of window 1 of application process "System Preferences"
            if (value) is "U.S. English" then
                click
                click menu item "Türkçe" of menu 1
            else if (value) is "Türkçe" then
                click
                click menu item "U.S. English" of menu 1
            else if (value) is "Automatic by Language" then
                click
                click menu item "U.S. English" of menu 1
            end if
        end tell
    end tell
    quit
end tell

Note: Because UI Scripting can sometimes be dependent on the timing of things, the value of the delay command may need to be adjusted and or additional delay commands may need to be added as/if necessary when run on your system. Make those changes as appropriate.

Also, if you want to make it just always toggle between the two languages, having already set it to one or the other under normal circumstances, you can remove the following lines of code from the if statement block in the script:

else if (value) is "Automatic by Language" then
    click
    click menu item "U.S. English" of menu 1

To use this AppleScript code as an Automator Service, do the following:

In Automator, select: File > New > Service
Set: Service receives no input in any application
Add a Run AppleScript Action.

Delete the lines containing (* Your script goes here *) and return input.
Paste in the AppleScript code within the on run handler.

Save the Automator Service, giving it an appropriate name, e.g.: Toggle Spelling Language

In System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services > (Name You Gave The Service), you can add the keyboard shortcut to trigger this service.


iTunes keeps asking about incoming network connections

I reinstalled iTunes again, and this time was successful.


Is there some way to specify memory limits on specific apps in MacOS?

Even though you can limit memory for specific apps on macOS, you will not achieve the result you're looking for:

The problem is that when you limit the amount of memory an application can have, this means in practical sense that programs are going to crash when they reach that limit.

So you essentially have the option of having crashing programs or pausing them when they reach the limit. Pausing them is something you have to implement a program to do yourself (not very complex, but you would need some scripting experience or programming experience).

In simple terms, memory limits are not going to help you any more than simply quitting one or two of those hogs when you need to do something else.

UPDATE: In the comments you wrote that you wouldn't mind crashing applications, and that you are an accomplished software engineer, so you would be able to do scripting/programming yourself.

In that case you can implement a memory limit in a variety of ways:

Simplest version

The simplest would be to create a small script that periodically runs ps x -o rss -p $PID | tail -n1 to observe the memory usage of the indicated process ID. This grabs the resident set size, but you might for some odd reason want to use vsz instead of rss to get the vsize instead.

If the observed memory usage is above a threshold you specify, you can then terminate the process. The best way to do this would be to run a command like kill -15 $PID and then after a time run kill -9 $PID. The first is SIGTERM, which tells the process to start closing down by itself. The latter is SIGKILL, which kills the process if it refuses to close down by itself.

Advanced version

A slightly more advanced version is to create a small wrapper program that calls setrlimit() to set a limit on the process, such as for example RLIMIT_DATA (maximum data segment size) or RLIMIT_RSS (maximum resident set size). Afterwards it needs to call execl() or similar to start the application for which you want to limit memory usage.

Note that there's also a possibility of using ulimit instead of rlimit, however my experience is that these limits are not observed on current macOS.


Put owner information on iPhone lock screen (via provisioning profile) without wiping device?

Why wouldn't you just add the owner information to whatever wallpaper image you're using?  There's no need for an overly technical solution.


At least in the App Store app in iOS 6 you can copy the link by tapping on the Sharing icon.

If this is not available in earlier versions there is always the option of sending a mail to oneself and taking the link from there.


No, holding option on restart simply lets you boot off a different device. It doesn't erase anything. But having said that, downloading MacOS updates from anywhere except Apple is very risky, and I wouldn't recommend it. Booting from a different device won't erase your hard disk, but running a rogue installer could.


How to make Numbers accept the "." instead of the comma "," when inserting data?

Numbers seems to use the decimal separator selected in System Preferences:

I didn't find any way to use both comma and period as decimal separators though.

Note that if you change the region from the menu at the top, it also affects things like the default values of locale variables in Terminal and iTerm.


bi-directionally sync Google Photos on external drive

Move Google drives folder to the new drive
In Google Drive's settings, you should be able to select another directory.

I'm not completely sure if this works, as I've only done it this way:

Sign out of drive
Resign-in, and during the setup process, select advanced, and choose the folder location


How do I make Command+Tab only bring the active window for an application to the foreground?

Apple's solution, like it or not, is to use Exposé or Mission Control (Lion) to switch between windows. ⌘ + tab is considered an application switcher.

There are third party solutions to change this behavior, but I don't have experience with them. There is some discussion about these solutions on this Super User question.


/Library/Preferences/com.apple.PowerManagement.plist
I recommend EasyFind to track down system files, as Spotlight won't search them. It doesn't index, so it's slower, but if it's there, it will find it.


Why does my new bootable external SSD show up as 2 volumes?

You are seeing Catalina's way of setting up boot volumes, that's all. In Catalina, when you install macOS on a drive, it gets split into two volumes behind the scene: one read-only where the system and all system files reside, and one writable where your user files and every file that must be writable resides.

This is a way to further harden and protect the system from any accidental or malevolent change. The split is done by some file system level 'magic' and the volumes occupy overlapping space on the physical disk.

The preceding is a bit simplified, but you get the idea. When you see this volume in Catalina, it is presented as a single volume to the user. But when you see it in Mojave, it is shown as the two volumes it appears to be for Mojave, since Mojave has no knowledge of Catalina's boot disk setup scheme.

To use under Mojave, you can just ignore the volume without the "- data" and use the volume with "- data". All changes you do to that volume (as you have already seen with the icon) should show up back in Catalina.


Finally got it.

As per @duci9y it takes approximately 3 days to complete transaction.
Since my transaction wasn't complete, apple was forcing me to put my credit card details. When I put my credit card details the appropriate amount was deducted and then the option "none" was visible.


More a sidestep than a workaround but have you considering using Flip4Mac to play WMV's in Quicktime rather than use VLC?

if you can lose the extra functionality you get from VLC, the playback is much better.


mdworker process always at 100%, even when not indexing

Ok it seems to be fixed now. If it can help someone else, here's how to debug the issue:

Open the "Activity Monitor" application.
Click on the "mdworker" process.
Click on the "Inspect" button.
In there, click on "Open Files and Ports"
Somewhere in this window, check which files are open. Among others, look for the ".mdimporter" files (Spotlight plugins).
If one or more mdimporter file always seems to be open, you can disable it by renaming to something else. Open the terminal and run sudo mv /path/to/the/file.mdimporter /path/to/the/file.mdimporter.disabled
Then reboot your computer.

In my case, it was the file /Applications/Britannica 13.0/Ultimate Reference Suite.app/Contents/Library/Spotlight/BritannicaBookmark.mdimporter that was constantly open. After renaming it, things are back to normal.


IMAP folder named Notes does not appear in Mail.app

With the advent of Mountain Lion, Mail.app has removed its Notes capabilities in preference of the Notes.app. This Notes folder is used (if enabled) only in Notes.app on Mountain Lion and iOS 5+.

What you can do is rename it something other then "Notes". You can change it to something like "Notes1" or "My Notes", and it will then appear as a normal folder in Mail.app (as an example).


Where do I look in iTunes to find sync errors?

I had the error again this morning - three items failed to sync.

I do finally have a potential culprit. The presence of App store updates seems to correlate with these errors. It fits all the criteria so far that come to mind.

temporary and sporadic (most of the time, I'm not in the process of downloading apps while syncing and even with simultaneous downloads, my internet is such that this is generally a 1-10 second window or less per app)
resolves itself without needing user intervention

I've poked at this several times and it doesn't seem to correlate with the sync errors in a pattern that I can detect.

The only explanation I can guess is that there is no log where these errors are collected.


Simple answer: You don't have a 3GS, but rather a 3G. The last iOS update for the 3G was 4.2.1. A 3GS ran all the way up to 4.3.5, which was the last public release of iOS 4. If you are running 4.2.1 and iTunes doesn't even see the 4.3.5 update, then, well, that's pretty telling that you don't actually have a 3GS but a 3G.


Can you blindly navigate the boot selector screen with a non-flashed video card?

Better yet, is there another way I can still use Boot Camp with a non-flashed PC video card?

Whenever you want to reboot into Bootcamp, open System Preferences and then the Startup Disk preference Pane. Select your bootcamp partition from the list, and then hit restart.

Your computer will automatically reboot into Bootcamp. This setting only affects the next reboot, which means that whenever you're done in Windows, you can reboot normally to get back to macOS X.

You can expedite this process slightly by creating a shortcut to the Startup Disk preference pane.


Can Windows 7 on Bootcamp cause problems?

Bootcamp will create a separate partition for the Windows installation. This NTFS-formatted Windows partition is completely separate from the OS X partition.

Moreover, you can always delete the Windows partition and return your HDD to its original state.

In other words, Bootcamp should be pretty safe and won't touch your Mac installation nor should it touch your files on the Mac partition.


wireshark says yes, the Twitter OSX client is using https.

  199.59.148.139    TLSv1   Server Hello, Certificate, Server Hello Done

I did not check if it has anything to do with the https account settings, so it might use http if you didn't opt-in for https.


Can Homebrew be used to install AppleScript bundles?

This should be possible to call Apple Script like this one for example since it is a command line tool: https://github.com/dronir/SpotifyControl/

After that I don't know if Apple Script are accepted on homebrew maintainer.


Process (fmfd) spamming my console with sandbox denies

I just found how to solve this problem.

Go to the /System/Library/Sandbox/Profiles folder, you will find a file named fmfd.sb. You can't modify it here, so copy it to your desktop.
Open the copy with TextEdit, locate the allow file-read-metadata section and add a new line under (literal "/Volumes") for the folder that can't be read, for you that should be (literal "/Volumes/Macintosh HD").
Replace the original with the copy (don't forget to make a backup), since it's in a system folder it will ask for your password.
Reboot your Mac the error messages in Console should be gone!


Why can't I access File Sharing when Open Directory is enabled in macOS Mojave?

The issue is the ACLs are not set up in the local directory for SMB and AFP. These used to be created in the older Server apps that had File Sharing in them. I've written an AppleScript that takes care of all this. It creates the appropriate ACL groups in the directory (/Local/Default/Groups/com.apple.access_smb and com.apple.access_afp), then adds all the users to it. The script is below. I threw it together today trying to solve this very issue. Hopefully it will help others.

-- Script to sort out ACLs for file sharing
set savedDelimiters to AppleScript's text item delimiters

display alert "Setup File Sharing ACLs" message "This script will set up the appropriate ACLs in the local directory to allow users to connect to file sharing on a macOS 10.14 server with OpenDirectory.

WARNING: Changes will be made to your local directory. Administrator privileges are required (you will be prompted for a password).

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Set for all users, or only a single user?" buttons {"Cancel", "All Users", "Single User"} default button "Single User" cancel button "Cancel"

if button returned of result = "All Users" then
    set progress description to "Loading User List..."
    -- Load all directory users from the server
    -- (identified by UserShell value of '/bin/bash'; most likely to be normal users)
    -- The delimiter is horrible, but it's the only way to do it
    set delimiter to tab & tab & "UserShell = (" & return & "    \"/bin/bash\"" & return & ")"
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {delimiter & return, delimiter}
    set users to every text item of (do shell script "dscl /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 search /Users UserShell \"/bin/bash\"")
else if button returned of result = "Single User" then
    repeat
        set username to the text returned of (display dialog "Enter Username:" default answer "" with icon note)
        if username is "" then
            display alert "Please enter username, or click cancel to end"
        else
            exit repeat
        end if
    end repeat
    -- Add blank element to end, as this happens with output from dscl above
    set users to {username, ""}
end if

-- Create the SMB & AFP ACL groups if necessary (this may be the first user)
createACLGroup("afp", 250)
createACLGroup("smb", 110)
-- Go through all the users now
set total to (length of users) - 1
set progress total steps to total
set progress description to "Adding Users to ACLs..."
set current to 0
repeat with idx from 1 to total
    -- Need to use indexed repeat because of issue with missing username in list from dscl
    set username to item idx of users
    try
        set progress completed steps to current
        set progress additional description to "User " & (current + 1) & " of " & total & " (" & username & ")"
        -- Now, check to see if the user is already in the file sharing lists
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to {" "} -- Split words, not letters!
        set currList to every text item of (do shell script "dscl /Local/Default read Groups/com.apple.access_smb GroupMembership")
        if username is in currList and length of users is 1 then
            -- Only alert if in single user mode
            display alert "Username already set up"
        else
            -- Go ahead and set it up
            -- Firstly, get the user's GeneratedUID from the LDAP directory
            set isError to false
            try
                set guid to second item of (every text item of (do shell script "dscl /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1 read Users/" & username & " GeneratedUID"))
            on error
                display alert "Error" message "User " & username & " is not a directory user"
                set isError to true
            end try
            if not isError then
                -- Add the user to the group
                addUserToACL("afp", username, guid)
                addUserToACL("smb", username, guid)
            end if
        end if
        set current to current + 1
    on error
        -- Likely an empty username from the delimiters tokenising the list from dscl
    end try
end repeat
set current to total
display alert "Process completed!"

set AppleScript's text item delimiters to savedDelimiters

on createACLGroup(acltype, groupid)
    try
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default read Groups/com.apple.access_smb"
    on error
        -- Doesn't exist, so we need to create it!
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype with administrator privileges
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " RealName \"" & changeCaseOfText(acltype, "upper") & " ACL\"" with administrator privileges
        do shell script "dscl /Local/Default create Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " PrimaryGroupID " & groupid with administrator privileges
    end try
end createACLGroup

on addUserToACL(acltype, username, guid)
    do shell script "dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & "  GroupMembership " & username with administrator privileges
    do shell script "dscl /Local/Default append Groups/com.apple.access_" & acltype & " GroupMembers " & guid with administrator privileges
end addUserToACL

on changeCaseOfText(theText, theCaseToSwitchTo)
    if theCaseToSwitchTo contains "lower" then
        set theComparisonCharacters to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
        set theSourceCharacters to "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
    else if theCaseToSwitchTo contains "upper" then
        set theComparisonCharacters to "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"
        set theSourceCharacters to "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
    else
        return theText
    end if
    set theAlteredText to ""
    repeat with aCharacter in theText
        set theOffset to offset of aCharacter in theComparisonCharacters
        if theOffset is not 0 then
            set theAlteredText to (theAlteredText & character theOffset of theSourceCharacters) as string
        else
            set theAlteredText to (theAlteredText & aCharacter) as string
        end if
    end repeat
    return theAlteredText
end changeCaseOfText


In fact what Apple did here is better than before :

If you write in only one of these 3 columns it behaves as if there were only one column.


Is it advisable to replace the internal HDD of an old Mac mini by a Solid State Drive?

Since the decoding of Flash videos primarily stresses CPU and depending on the codec and the video card the GPU an SSD doesn't help much (assumed you have enough RAM).

Another caveat is the internal HD Interface of the Mac mini 1.1/2.1: Serial ATA (1.5 Gb/s) which roughly equals to a max. throughput of 150 MB/s. Modern SSDs provide up to 600 MB/s / 500 MB/s (read / write). As a consequence you will lose up to 2/3 of the possible bandwidth by attaching the SSD to your internal interface.

So better save the money and get a more recent Mac.


Create a service using Automator to compile .tex file in Mac

This is not the optimal solution, but it's working for now. Here is the Automator window:

The first shell script compiles the .tex file using the sequence pdflatex - biber - pdflatex and contains the following code:

for f in "$@"
do
    file_ext=${f##*.}
    if [ "$file_ext" = "tex" ]
    then
        foldername=$(dirname "$f")
        export foldername
        filename=$(basename "$f")
        filesimple=${filename%.tex*}
        cd $foldername
        /usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/pdflatex "$filename"
        /usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/biber "$filesimple"
        /usr/local/texlive/2013/bin/x86_64-darwin/pdflatex "$filename"
    else
        echo $f n\'est pas un fichier TeX
    fi
done

The second shell script deletes all temp files and opens the .pdf file. It contains the following code:

for f in "$@"
do
    file_ext=${f##*.}
    if [ "$file_ext" = "tex" ]
    then
        foldername=$(dirname "$f")
        filename=$(basename "$f")
        filesimple=${filename%.tex*}
        cd $foldername
        rm $filesimple.aux
        rm $filesimple.bbl
        rm $filesimple.bcf
        rm $filesimple.blg
        rm $filesimple.log
        rm $filesimple.run.xml
        open $filesimple.pdf
    else
        echo $f n\'est pas un fichier TeX
    fi
done

I'm still waiting for a better solution using the latexmk command!


Updated mid-2009 MacBook Pro to Mavericks, now it shuts down while not in use

Well that crash report just says that a printer driver is improperly installed and that is causing some issues. However it's not likely crashing your whole computer. The kernel logs are the more likely place to find that info.


Why does Apple Music say that my student email is in use when trying to switch to a student account?

It sounds like you have two Apple ID’s. Close the one with your student account and add/change the email on your personal account. Use “forgot password” with your student email to get into your student account if you don’t know the password.

BTW, r/AppleMusic says you have 90 days to pause a subscription without losing your data:

  Your library is kept on the server for 90 days - meaning, as long as
  you restart your Apple Music 90 days of the previous subscription
  coming to an end, you'll get all your library back.


Download app from iPad to iPod touch with different Apple ID

Correct, it won't let you do that.

You'd need to re-purchase it on the other ID, or investigate Family Sharing - one credit card, multiple family members, multiple account IDs, shared apps & content, with Parental Control.


How do I move a file into a folder in the iOS version of DropBox?

Steve

There is no method on either iPad or iPhone to move an item between folders.


Why does Mountain Lion keep using the wrong screen saver?

If your computer is locked, the screensaver settings for the root user account is used instead of your own. You can change those settings according to the answer to this question: How can I set the Mac OS X screensaver when not logged in?


How do I edit an info.plist file inside of a kext file?

All files under /System/Library is protected by SIP. So in El Capitan you can't do that without disabling it.

Boot into Recovery HD, open Terminal under Utilities menu, and type:

csrutil disable

Restart you computer. Navigate to the kext file, right click Show Package Content. Now go to Contents then you can find the Info.plist file. You might needs to change permission of the file before you can edit it. After you're done, boot into recovery again. Open Terminal and type:

csrutil enable

Then reboot and you're done.

But in later versions of macOS you may also have SIP enabled and only disable the kext-sign requirement, which may be a bit more secure than having it disabled entirely:

csrutil enable --without kext

Note that your changes might be reverted at a macOS update.


The tomcat formula is now able to start and stop tomcat with:

brew services start tomcat

and

brew services stop tomcat

Thanks to Maxime Faye and this commit.

Run:

brew upgrade

to obtain this new feature.

== Old answer

Here is the modified formula coming from the closed pull request mentioned in the comments. You can brew edit tomcat, replace the whole content and then brew upgrade tomcat. I've tested it and it works well. Hopefully, it will be soon merged in the master branch.

class Tomcat < Formula
  desc "Implementation of Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages"
  homepage "https://tomcat.apache.org/"
  revision 1

  stable do
    url "https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.16/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.16.tar.gz"
    mirror "https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.16/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.16.tar.gz"
    sha256 "939fb7c9fae3298dd0ccb4724b9c943c524e8af287531c8f3bbec0707e5780f1"

    depends_on :java => "1.7+"

    resource "fulldocs" do
      url "https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.16/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.16-fulldocs.tar.gz"
      mirror "https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-8/v8.5.16/bin/apache-tomcat-8.5.16-fulldocs.tar.gz"
      sha256 "89fb481635834af7abc9cfefd67b530f1f3154c3bc2a820ceeb80e2e9c0d91c0"
    end
  end

  devel do
    url "https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.0.M22/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.0.M22.tar.gz"
    mirror "https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.0.M22/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.0.M22.tar.gz"
    version "9.0.0.M22"
    sha256 "c1b359d52edae793dde83cb65ef47dc202e8394d7328c823a9a53c02d09f2742"

    depends_on :java => "1.8+"

    resource "fulldocs" do
      url "https://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.0.M22/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.0.M22-fulldocs.tar.gz"
      mirror "https://archive.apache.org/dist/tomcat/tomcat-9/v9.0.0.M22/bin/apache-tomcat-9.0.0.M22-fulldocs.tar.gz"
      version "9.0.0.M22"
      sha256 "57223a9dd8d1b164a492432f04fbcf02a390777e2aaa252b5574d5ed607acc60"
    end
  end

  bottle :unneeded

  option "with-fulldocs", "Install full documentation locally"

  def install
    # Remove Windows scripts
    rm_rf Dir["bin/*.bat"]

    # Install files
    prefix.install %w[NOTICE LICENSE RELEASE-NOTES RUNNING.txt]
    libexec.install Dir["*"]
    bin.install_symlink "#{libexec}/bin/catalina.sh" => "catalina"

    (share/"fulldocs").install resource("fulldocs") if build.with? "fulldocs"
  end

  plist_options :manual => "catalina run"

  def plist; <<-EOS.undent
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
    <plist version="1.0">
      <dict>
        <key>Disabled</key>
        <false/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>#{plist_name}</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
          <string>#{opt_bin}/catalina</string>
          <string>run</string>
        </array>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <true/>
      </dict>
    </plist>
    EOS
  end

  test do
    ENV["CATALINA_BASE"] = testpath
    cp_r Dir["#{libexec}/*"], testpath
    rm Dir["#{libexec}/logs/*"]

    pid = fork do
      exec bin/"catalina", "start"
    end
    sleep 3
    begin
      system bin/"catalina", "stop"
    ensure
      Process.wait pid
    end
    File.exist? testpath/"logs/catalina.out"
  end
end


How can I irreversibly prevent Safari from being used for web browsing?

Enable parental controls in System Preferences and black list Safari on Mojave and older. On Catalina it’s called screen time, but you can blocks apps like a safari there as well.

If you need the high security option, get the self control app. Warning, you will not be able to use the internet or blocked sites until the time you enter passes. If you mistakenly choose one day rather than one hour (or worse), you will have to erase your Mac or wait for the time to expire.

https://selfcontrolapp.com


How to stop iPhone from "erasing its contents" when I want to "manually manage" it?

The solution is a two part solution.

If you routinely want to sync one device with two libraries, the easiest manner is to disable all automatic syncing on the first iTunes library before you bring the iOS device to the second computer.

You can always wait for the "erase" warning and cancel the sync. (which is the point you have in your screenshot). At that point, go into the current device settings and turn off automatic sync for all of the categories that cause the warning dialog to appear. Keep in mind, that music, ringtones, and other settings can all get the warning to pop up, so your work may not be done by simply un-checking music. The settings on the computer you get the warning are in conflict with the settings from the previous computer so you have to reconcile that before the manual sync can start.

Once you have figured out all the "silos" that matter to you, you can easily take one device to multiple computers for backup but only certain computers for syncing. Using one computer to sync the data (contacts and calendar) and another for the media is a use case that Apple fully supports in iTunes. Once you set things up, you should not expect to have issues with a one device and many computers situation.


It turns out iStat Menus was the culprit. Upgrading to the latest version resolved the issue.


Is there a way to stream what is on my Mac's screen to my TV?

None of the devices currently connected to your television can help you display audio and sound from your Mac without hacking. And even then, it's not likely you'll get them to work as a wireless display/sound bridge.

You could use something like the Atlona PC to HDTV Wireless Adapter to send your audio and video from your Mac to your TV (that one is Mac-compatible). Are you going to enjoy this experience? I'll admit I'm very skeptical that this wireless streaming approach is going to produce a 1080p frame rate that makes you happy and comfortable playing a game. And at $200 that seems like an expensive experiment to me.

Your best bet is to get a HDMI adaptor for your specific Mac (see the Apple Store for compatible adaptors) and run the HDMI cable to your television. You can run HDMI about 50' before you need to start worrying about a repeater to ensure signal fidelity.


How do I get text to speech to pronounce git and github correctly?

I found through trial and error that using 2 'g's will make it pronounce the 'g' as a hard 'g'.  Example:

    say -v Daniel 'And as for the Cat — what an unbelievable ggit.'

The one that really confuses me though is this:

    say -v Daniel "gitt"

I have no idea why this is pronounced as "grit".  All I can say is, "Think different."


Try changing the channel of your WiFi router. Might fix confusion of the AirPort. To do, see the documentation for your router, for suggestions as to which channel you should choose, option-click the wifi button in the status bar, click Wireless Diagnostics, and then after the application opens, click window, and Scan. This will tell you the best channel to choose for your router.

If changing the channel doesn't fix the issue, try running the Apple Diagnostics Tool.

OR

If your iMac is pre-2013, try the Apple Hardware Test after completing the steps above with the exception of the Diagnostics tool.


How to identify assembled top case after MBP repair?

The iconography on the 2018 keyboard does differ from that on the 2017 and 2016 keyboards. This can be used to identify the generation.

The YouTube video New 2018 MacBook Pro Keyboards MIGHT fix Keyboard Problems shows the differences between these three models' keyboards. The 2018 option key has a far taller icon than the 2017 option key.

The MacBook Pro 2016 and 2017 models will not receive the 3rd generation MacBook Pro 2018 keyboard according to the MacRumors article: Apple Says Third-Generation Keyboards Exclusive to 2018 MacBook Pro.


Can we use Apple Remote Desktop to hold internal meetings screen to screen over LAN ? Like Join.me

Can you do it?

Yes.  It's a bit sketchy to do this using ARD, but you can.  There is one massive caveat, however.  You will need a license for every client you wish to install ARD on.

From the ARD License Agreement

  (i) to download, install, use and run for personal, non-commercial use, one (1) copy of the Apple Software directly on each Apple-branded computer running OS X (“Mac Computer”) that you own or control; and

  (ii) if you are a commercial enterprise or educational institution, to
  download, install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software for
  use either: (a) by a single individual on each of the Mac Computer(s)
  that you own or control, or (b) by multiple individuals on a single
  shared Mac Computer that you own or control. For example, a single
  employee may use the Apple Software on both the employee’s desktop Mac
  Computer and laptop Mac Computer, or multiple students may serially
  use the Apple Software on a single Mac Computer located at a resource
  center or library.

This can get quite expensive especially when the ARD software is $79 per install.
That, and it's overkill.  You really don't want to give users admin level tools to just share a screen with a group for a meeting.

When I worked in the edu space, one of the products we used was Splashtop.  It allowed folks to share their screens from either Mac or Windows machines.  It was designed to do specifically what you are requesting - allow users to share their screens.  We had an enterprise license but I believe the license for each user is under $20


Based on your question, you're probably familiar with much of this process but I'll lay it out from start to finish just in case.

In System Preferences > Keyboard > Text, add an item. On the left, pick a shortcut sequence. On the right, you need to enter the desired character. There are a variety of ways to do this here but one straightforward way to do so would be to Show Emoji and Symbols†, enter the character name (e.g. meteg) in the search field and then double-click on the result‡. This will place the character wherever the cursor would be, which in this case, should be in the 'With' field in the Text preferences.

From within Pages (or TextEdit) enable Edit > Substitutions > Text Replacement. When done, there should be a checkmark beside the option. As far as I can tell, this setting will stick as long as it's a standard Cocoa app.

To use in Pages, open a doc and type the shortcut and hit space (or some punctuation character).

† I have 'Show Input menu in menu bar' checked in the Keyboard > Input Sources preferences so I typically grab the 'symbols' from there. But if you don't have that enabled, and don't want to, you can select 'Emoji & Symbols' from the Edit menu of most standard apps.

‡ Other methods might be to enable the appropriate script in the Symbols and Emojis window, or to paste the character from wherever you might find it.


How to set up Loki Render on Mac OS X Lion

Loki render passes files around internally, so you don't need to set up any type of file sharing, whether it be Mac, Windows or Linux. Just make sure your computers can ping each other, and Loki's grunts should be able to connect to the master no problems. If you still have trouble, check firewall settings.


Is it safe to charge my iPhone using my lightning cable and someone else’s adapter at the Airport?

Being that its the airport, you're most likely safe, but good rule of thumb is try to avoid free charging stations and use wall outlets wherever possible. Your iPhone can have malicious data transferred in and out of it if one of the ports has been tampered with.


What iOS Twitter apps support custom API URLs?

Tweetbot for iOS does. It relies on the "tweetbot://" prefix. Using it without a suffix launches the app. But you can also tack on things like "timeline" to load up a users own timeline (the full command would be as follows tweetbot:///timeline). Other commands are tweetbot:///post?text=hello which will tweet "hello" or tweetbot://cksum/post which will tweet with a username (in this case "cksum"). Others include things like search or pull up a user's profile.


Itunes will encrypt your backup by defualt however you can turn this off (its in the options when the device is connected)

There is a program called iExplorer which will allow you to view the contents of your backups and allow to export the data.


how to have an active display but keyboard locked

There's a program for this called Lockey

I have not tested this, nor I own this. But you could try it out.
It's not free (at this moment) and they do not support Mavericks (yet) as they claim OS X 10.5 up to 10.8


Assuming that it is definitely a Mac Pro 3,1 (i.e. early-2008 Mac Pro model), the logic board should contain some diagnostic LEDs. These were used by technicians for troubleshooting purposes, so you may be able to leverage off these to isolate your problem.

The following chart explains each LED:

As you can see, normally LEDs 3, 4, 5, and 6 are off. In other words, they shouldn't be lit up unless there is an error. If any of these are lit up, then you know you have the corresponding problem explained in the Indicates column.

As for the other LEDs (1, 2, 7, 8, and 9) you will need to press the DIAG_LED button (it's next to the LEDs) to display them. Use the Color column to determine the status (i.e. this indicates the LED colour).

I would check all of them, but obviously you'll want to pay particular attention to LED 7. If LED 7 is not lit up as green when you press the DIAG_LED button, then you know the GPU hasn't been configured.

Once you've done this, let me know how you went.

[UPDATE]

Okay, since you're only getting LEDs 2, 8 and 9 light up upon pressing the DIAG_LED button, we know that the computer isn't recognising the GPU because LED 7 is not green.

One of the issues you mentioned in your question was a potentially faulty power supply. I would actually re-install the one you bought on eBay. The reason for doing this is that some GPUs need more power to function, which is available from connectors on the logic board. And if you have any question marks over the original power supply, it's probably best to put it aside (although I acknowledge the one you bought was a used one).

Now I have seen instances of the ATI Radeon HD 5770 needing to have the auxillary power connected in order to run. So it may be worth looking for the connector on the logic board (usually it's close to the front of the board, under the plastic slot holders). So I'd plug that in (if not already) and see if that gets it working for you. Make sure you check the cable is connected properly at both ends!

If not, in terms of general troubleshooting when there is no LED 7 lit up, you would want to try each of the following (NOTE: I know you've already done some of this, but for the sake of completeness and other users I am still including them):

make sure the power supply and its cables are properly connected
make sure the graphics card is seated correctly
try the graphics card in each of the PCI slots
try a different graphics card
try replacing the PS3 power supply cable (as this is what supplies power to your PCI slots)

Normally if you have no joy after all of the above troubleshooting steps, I'd say it's time for another logic board.


The quick answer is that if you open Documents/thesis.tex after editing it in your Dropbox folder on another computer, you will see the changes. As @Mark said in a comment, a symlink is simply a pointer to another location on your computer. If that other location has its contents changed, those changes will be visible when using the symlink in Documents, just as they would if you examined the file directly in the Dropbox folder.


Have you taken that keyboard to another computer or tried another keyboard on the Mac Mini?

The most elegant solution to your problem would be if it's a hardware issue on that specific keyboard.


How can I get the original Sierra installer now that High Sierra is out?

If you downloaded the Sierra installer before using your Apple ID, you should be able to download it again using the Purchases tab in the Mac App Store. If the installer does not show up in that list, try downloading it directly from the Mac App Store.

I do want to point out that it’s quite easy to reinstall macOS in case something goes wrong while updating. Just make sure you have a backup (e.g. with Time Machine) and you should be fine. In case something does go wrong, press and hold the power button to force you Mac to shutdown. Turn it on and immediately press and hold cmd + R until you see the Apple logo. You should now be able to reset your Mac from there.


Terminal redirection not working on MacOS Mojave?

If STDOUT is redirected to a non-terminal (e.g. a file) a default buffer size of 4096 Byte is used. In the Terminal STDOUT defaults to line buffering.

Executing the command top | grep idle | tee >> ... will fill the 4k buffer with ~45-50 Byte/s (depending on load and sys|usr|idle split). After a while the first buffer will be written to file. Here, it took ~85 seconds to write the first buffer to the file system.

So either be patient  or if you want the file to be updated immediately (i.e. every second), modify grep buffering:

top | grep idle --line-buffered | tee >> ./utilization.txt

Result after a few seconds:

$ cat ./utilization.txt
CPU usage: 9.5% user, 11.49% sys, 79.44% idle
CPU usage: 5.24% user, 10.48% sys, 84.26% idle
CPU usage: 2.86% user, 4.74% sys, 92.39% idle
CPU usage: 2.3% user, 1.91% sys, 96.5% idle
CPU usage: 3.79% user, 2.25% sys, 93.95% idle
CPU usage: 2.3% user, 3.35% sys, 94.61% idle
CPU usage: 1.91% user, 1.91% sys, 96.16% idle
CPU usage: 2.15% user, 2.51% sys, 95.33% idle
CPU usage: 2.50% user, 4.29% sys, 93.20% idle
CPU usage: 1.43% user, 1.7% sys, 97.48% idle

If Terminal output is also required use: top | grep idle --line-buffered | tee ./utilization.txt saves the output to file and the result is visible in the Terminal window!


Are all Notes.app notes stored in iCloud encrypted?

Yes. All iCloud data is protected at rest minimally by encryption as described in the security white paper Apple publishes regularly.

  Each file is broken into chunks and encrypted by iCloud using AES-128 and a key derived from each chunk’s contents that utilizes SHA-256. The keys, and the file’s metadata, are stored by Apple in the user’s iCloud account. The encrypted chunks of the file are stored, without any user-identifying information, using third-party storage services, such as Amazon S3 and Windows Azure.

https://www.apple.com/business/docs/iOS_Security_Guide.pdf - Page 44

iCloud Drive and CloudKit data have additional layer(s) of encryption / keys added, but for notes you get the described level of security where data is encrypted before it leaves the device and hits the network.

The local password feature is solely to prevent access of the note on your device(s) once the note is retrieved from the cloud.


Compress a folder via a command line while persisting its icon

The command-line zip command doesn't seem to be able to hand certain aspects of macOS, including icons, but the more traditional unix tar utility can. You can make use of this by replacing your command with the following (this will also compress the folder using gzip):

tar -czf Folder.tar.gz Folder


I did this:

Add a variable to .bash_profile file

SHELL_SESSION_HISTORY=0

restart the terminal and after that it is working as I'd like. (It saved the commands after I closed the terminal)

P.S. I also use the HISTFILESIZE and HISTSIZE variables

HISTSIZE is the number of lines or commands that are stored in memory in a history list while your bash session is ongoing.

HISTFILESIZE is the number of lines or commands that (a) are allowed in the history file at startup time of a session, and (b) are stored in the history file at the end of your bash session for use in future sessions.


How to parametrize the sleep/hibernate behavior of a MacBook Pro

You need to open System Prefences > Energy Saver. In the "Battery" tab, you'll find a slider for "Computer sleep".  This determines the amount of the time the computer stays awake when idle (i.e. user not actively at the computer).

If you set the slider to "Never", it will let operations continue indefinitely (even though the display itself is blanked). Ofcourse operations will stop when the battery runs out.

When you close the lid on the computer, the Mac will go to sleep as usual.


Can I attach 2 dual-DVI screens to a Radeon 5870?

Apple Store: Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter or similar.


Aperture: during Import, keys to check/uncheck an image?

What can you do is to select the photos you want to import by:

click and dragging
cmd + click to add one photo
shift + click to select the range from the current selected.

Then click on any photo's checkbox, and all checkboxes will be checked as well.


In the app where you're pasting the text you've copied from Notes, make sure your document format is plain text, and then use the "Paste and Match Style" command in the Edit menu (or hit cmd-opt-shift-V):

Any macOS app that uses a system standard text field should support this.


Using Google Chrome on macOS to run Windows executable (.EXE files)

No, you can't run exe's via Google Chrome. You may be able to use some sort of remote desktop solution such as Chrome Remote Desktop, whereby you install the exe on a Windows computer which you can see and control from your Mac—but that's not quite the same thing.

There are a number of solutions for running Windows executables on a Mac, each with their own set of compromises:

Wineskin / Wine. Works perfectly with a minority of Windows programs, but doesn't work at all with others. When it does work, this is the best solution by far.
Bootcamp Assistant, which is preinstalled on every Intel Mac in the Applications → Utilities folder, will guide you through the process of installing Windows on a separate partition. Once done, you will be able to reboot your computer into Windows—effectively turning it into a PC, temporarily—and reboot again to return to macOS. Note that this will require a purchased copy of Windows. While rebooting is a pain, this is the most "no compromise" solution, in that every Windows app will work and you won't loose any performance.
Virtualization software such as Virtualbox (free) or Parallels (paid, and expensive). Like Bootcamp, but you'll be able to switch to Windows without rebooting your computer. The catch is that you lose performance—applications will run considerably more slowly than normal. Note that the performance loss is much worse in Virtualbox than in Parallels—you get what you pay for, in this respect.

The problem is that all of these solutions requires either additional third party software (1, 3) or administrator privileges (2). I don't know your situation, but it seems to me that you need to have a discussion with a supervisor or similar about obtaining the resources and privileges necessary to do your job.


Delete Old DRM Copies of iTunes Music and Download DRM-Free Versions
If you purchased any music from iTunes between 2003 and 2009, you downloaded tracks with DRM (Digital Rights Management) in them. Apple's long since removed the DRM, but you might not have. Wired shows how to update your music library with the new, DRM-free versions.
The process here is pretty simple, but if you're anything like me, you never bothered to actually do it:

Before starting, make sure you are signed in to the iTunes Store [Store menu] & can see the columns for Kind & iCloud Download in your Songs view in iTunes, then sort by Kind
Scroll down to find 'Protected AAC audio file' as a Kind - those are the ones you need to replace.

In iTunes, select iTunes > Preferences and click the "Store tab"
Make sure "Show iTunes in the Cloud Purchases" is checked and close the Preferences panel
Click on the cloud icon in your list view and make sure all your purchases are there (note which songs are here and do not delete anything in step 5 that isn't available for download)
Now, delete the old DRM versions by sorting by "Kind" in the list view (if it's not there, go to View > Show View Options and select it)
Scroll down to see if any tracks are listed as "Protected AAC audio file." That's the DRM music you need to replace. If you can download it again from iTunes with the cloud icon, you can delete the DRMed version

Once you run through the process of deleting those songs you can download them from the cloud at any point, DRM free. This has been around for a while, but if you haven't grabbed those DRM free versions, now's as good a time as any.
Source: Lifehacker Delete Old DRM Copies of iTunes Music and Download DRM-Free Versions
Also see - Which songs in my iTunes library are DRM protected?


Does OneNote for Mac support graphics tablet input?

Running OneNote on Mavericks here, and right now it does not support tablet input in the way you have described (I wish it did). A possible compromise is to run Windows and OneNote in a virtual machine (or BootCamp), but it really depends on your needs and what you’re willing to put up with.


Can I use iChat with MSN through its new XMPP/Jabber compatibility?

No, it is not implemented yet.

In the meanwhile, you can use Cocoon for MSN chat as an iChat extension.


how to create daily task for GMVault in automator

As you mentioned you can use cron which is more transferable knowledge since it's used also on other platforms. Or you can use LaunchDaemon which is more Macish ;)

Cron

Please refer to question How do I run a cron job on a Mac?

Launchd

Doc
short how to

file for service looks like this
you will copy that file into /Library/LaunchAgents. If you want the daemon to be launched when you login, not when your computer start, just prepend ~(home) before the path

I am sorry for linking the code instead paste it here, but it seems i am not compatible with code adding here on apple.stack ;)


iOS - Album metadata displayed incorrectly

Sometimes things get messed up. Have you considered removing it from the library on a computer - manually fixing the metadate using iTunes or another program and then re-adding the songs to your library?

Before removing it - look for flags like “compilation” and “composer” to try disabling that.

Also - you will want to check how your iOS library syncs - whether it’s iCloud / Apple Music / or a more manual sync. Things could need a resync if you make changes in iTunes off the iOS device.

Since it seems you already tried editing and syncing you might need to remove it entirely and sync to remove the songs and add them correctly.


How do I rename an app in MacOS properly?

Renaming the .app package in Finder only changes the name there, it doesn't change the name shown in the menu. To do so edit YOUR.app/Contents/Resources/XY.lproj/InfoPlist.strings (with XY being the language you are using) and change CFBundleName there.

For applications without localization files you can also edit YOUR.app/Contents/Info.plist and set a new value for CFBundleName there.


Help needed to recover Unsaved 'Notes' on Mac OS X 10.6.8

It is possible that the data is in a different folder than the app. I use a little app (on my Mac) that allows me to read the contents of iPhone data, grab photos, etc. It might work for you. Here's the link. Hope it helps.


Batch replace substring with another in filenames

Unless you need a solution you can use in a script, you can do this directly in Finder.

Select the files you want to rename
Right click one of them, and choose Rename N Items... (where N is the number of selected files)
Choose the Replace Text option in the dropdown
Enter the text you want to replace (".pngEND") and the text you want to replace it with ("_")
Click Rename


Will installation of macports automatically install or update OpenSSL?

MacPorts will not replace your system-provided version of OpenSSL. If you install OpenSSL using MacPorts, it will do so in a separate prefix (by default /opt/local).

To check the version of the OpenSSL library, run /path/to/openssl version where /path/to/openssl is the path of the OpenSSL binary that corresponds to the library you want to check, e.g. /usr/bin/openssl for the system OpenSSL in /usr/lib/libssl.dylib and /opt/local/bin/openssl for the MacPorts OpenSSL in /opt/local/lib/libssl.dylib.

You can also check the OpenSSL library version directly using

$> strings /path/to/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'

e.g. for MacPorts:

$> strings /opt/local/lib/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'
OpenSSL 1.0.1i 6 Aug 2014

and for system OpenSSL:

$> strings /usr/lib/libssl.dylib | grep -E '^OpenSSL'
OpenSSL 0.9.8y 5 Feb 2013


How do I restart the cron service on OSX?

The cron daemon is managed with launchctl.

If you insist on restarting it, you have to unload and load the respective launch daemon:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vix.cron.plist
sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.vix.cron.plist

But: adding or removing arbitrary crontabs shouldn't require a reload of the daemon to enable or disable them.

The above launch daemon plist contains a Watch Directory directive which detects (crontab) file creation and deletion or modified dates and "instructs" cron respectively.


What's a good place online to sell a used Mac?

If you're in the USA, gazelle.com can be a good place, but the prices aren't always great.


How to send an email to everyone in the address book?

Easy - use MailChimp or some other bulk mailing service to get around all the reasons (spam) that mail clients (spam) and mail services make this (spam) hard to accomplish.

You also might set a vacation auto-reply on the old address and ensure that people get a timely reminder when they email the old.


Using Package Installers behind company firewall

The common answer is to setup a local proxy like squidman or cntlm, so your login/pass credentials are only stored in one place - and all of your CLI tools point at a local proxy:port.

You can also go to your network people (who think all your broken developer tools are a personal problem, not theirs) and point out that you're forced to hardcode your login and password (GASP!) not only all over your machine, your virtual machines, and even AWS instances...

And then it VERY MUCH becomes their problem. Auth proxies are so nineties!


iLife doesn't appear in "Purchased" after installing ML on a registered MacBook Pro

I just went through this same problem. Originally I called Apple and they said that iLife was linked to someone else's account so I could not download it. Upon further research I found the above mentioned method.

1) In Finder, click on the Go menu.

2) Click Go to Folder.

3) Enter ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.appstore/

4) Drag adoption.plist to the Trash.

5) Restart and see if they appear in purchased items.

I actually chatted with apple first and had them reset the account.  They did this, and I should have been able to get the purchases within 24 hours using this method.

It did not work, I chatted with Apple again (chat session). They took me through the above step, with still no result. After not being able to access it, Apple gave me a redemption code through the app store. All in all it was not too big of a problem and I now have all of the factory standards.


Is a "Not Charging" iPad still drawing power when not sleeping

Yes.  It's just that the power it's drawing is not enough to both run the device and charge the battery at the same time.


How to remap 'Context Menu' key on external keyboard?

Bad news. Apple's XML DTD format that Ukelele targets does not support modifiers outside of shift keys, option keys, control keys, and command keys.

As @Lri suggested KeyRemap4MacBook supports mapping the Context Menu Key, which it calls the Application Key. In KeyRemap4MacBook's preferences go to For PC Users -> Change PC Application Key to see all the supported options. Mappings that may be of use for Emacs: Fn Key;  Shift_L Key; Option_L Key; Control_L Key; and, Command_L Key.


Why does the Watch app on my iPhone state that my apps will need to be updated during setup when I already have the latest versions installed?

WatchOS apps are a complex hybrid since they started as all being dependent upon iOS and now they can be independent or dependent. You need to get both sides synced in some cases, hence the message to update iOS when watchOS is in play with one or more paired watches.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/watchkit/creating_independent_watchos_apps/

To be clear - some updates only apply if the watch component is required to be active or the developer ties them together when submitting their builds to Apple. This is all standard and you might even learn that some apps get different builds based on different hardware - not all apps are monolithic based on hardware versioning and software versioning. (Like an older watch that’s still supported but not the latest watchOS might get a different app than the latest watchOS gets).


Increasing the number of reminder snooze options in MacOS

Those notifications are managed by the Notification Center App Extension inside of Reminders.app: /Applications/Reminders.app/Contents/PlugIns/com.apple.RemindersNC.appex
and displayed by Notification Center. Sadly none of the information used to create the window is editable by the user.

Interestingly, there were more options when this feature was introduced in Mavericks. http://www.mactricksandtips.com/2013/11/change-the-snooze-time-of-a-reminder.html


The free (and open-source) program MusicBrainz Picard would be a good option to consider. It can identify songs and albums by their acoustic ID's and automatically enter the ID3 tags.

The program will "play nice" with iTunes as well. Just use it to organize and tag your music, then do the following (copied from the MusicBrainz Picard website)

Open iTunes, then go to File > Add Folder to Library
Point it at the top of your iTunes directory ("My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Music" on Windows, by default).
iTunes will rescan your music.


Why one can Control+Option+U to edit a cell on Numbers?

They behave differently. If the cell has a formula inside, ⌃ Ctrl  + ⌥ Option  + U  erases the formula and makes the user type over it while ⌥ Option  + ↵ Return  allows the user to edit the formula as well.


Show actual image size inside Apple Mail

Not certain for Yosemite, but on Mavericks it's on the left of the window, level with where you choose the image size to send


iPhone claiming low battery in cold weather

I would question two things about your framing of the issue (and will sidestep the whole repair discussion/issue entirely):

1) Apple's warranty does cover batteries that don't retain a percentage of their useful life based on aging at one, two and three years (two for most iOS warranty / coverage, but there are exceptions in some cases). You should open a ticket with them if you have coverage and see if they will repair it for you.

2) I use an iPhone regularly outdoors when the temperature reaches -30 C and even then, the decrease in capacity is temporary. While the device is colder than 0C - you get less juice out of the cell, but once you warm it (in a pocket, next to your skin to warm it temporarily - or when you are inside a heated space for long enough to warm the battery), the devices recover full capacity.

(You will want to watch to control condensation to prevent liquid damage / especially if you bring a very cold device into a warm humid space, that warm air will carry liquid inside the product. Similarly, a warm device when rapidly cooled could have liquid condense inside it and then freeze.) Devices left in a car overnight such as iPad and Mac also see no measurable decrease in battery life once I get them inside and warm - whether I charge them or not.

I'll leave the DIY repair / pay for a repair discussion for another thread where you get specific on what model, but from what I see, the environmental behavior is that cold batteries still have all the charge they took, but they don't produce as much voltage and current while they are cold.


Is it possible to recover a deleted APFS volume?

Most commercial file recovery utilities for the Mac also will perform recovery of deleted partitions. Disk Drill Pro, EaseUS, Stellar Data Recovery Pro, etc.

Primary concern is avoiding writing anything to the drive with the deleted partition. Don't run any disk repair/maintenance utilities or attempt to re-create the partition. Avoid using the affected drive (and if it's the boot drive of the Mac, then the Mac itself) at all if possible. My suggestion would be either:

boot the Mac into Target Disk Mode and run recovery software from a different Thunderbolt-connected Mac
(if your recovery software offers this option) create a bootable recovery USB drive on a different Mac and boot the affected Mac from it


Any way to know the cluster size for a hard drive formatted in exFAT?

Unless you specified a cluster size when formatting the drive (which I assume you did not as you would then know it) the cluster size varies by the size of the drive being formatted. And since you didn't include the size of your drive in your question you will have to refer to the table here (scroll down a ways to exFAT) to figure that out.


Recommended MacBook Pro 13 (mid 2012) SSD upgrade?

Your warranty won't be invalidated although Apple can refuse to work on it until you reinstall the original drive (so put it away on a shelf).  A local shop might be more flexible. Or not.