Open terminal and run this:

sudo fs_usage | grep cron

I'd run it using tmux or screen so that you can detach and check later. Depending on how many cron jobs you have, this could generate a lot of messages and you'll want to not run it where a runaway process could cause harm. (backup, check filesystems for space, etc...)

You can also use mdfind to see if you can locate the file/script/package that is calling crontab (perhaps) and correlate that with the times when the actual filesystem changes are happening.

mdfind crontab


How to add photos for contacts in iPhone 6s?

Unless I'm missing something from your question, all you need to do is:

Launch the Contacts app
Select a contact
Tap on Edit (at top right)
Now the circle at top left will show the add photo text
Tap on add photo
A prompt will appear with three options:

Take Photo
Choose Photo
Cancel

Select Take Photo if you want to take a photo to use, or select Choose Photo if you want to pick one from your Photos app.
The rest should be self-explanatory

If I've misunderstood your question, let me know.


Can't start mac because startup disk is missing

Partial answer: boot into recovery mode and open disk utility.  If the SSD is visible, do “first aid.”
What to do next depends on what you see in Disk Utility.


Built-in Activity Monitor (Applications → Utilities) shows you network usage. Also you can see open network ports for each running process.


No, voice control is not native to iPad 1.


Deleted apps on my iPhone stays in iTunes

Allow me to answer this by providing a counter-example.

I own two iOS devices; An iPhone 4 and an iPad (original). I use slightly different application sets on them. For example I don't have a notification app called Prowl on my iPad because it's intended use is to get my attention anywhere I am. And the iPhone is always by my side or at least in very close proximity.

And of course, there are iPad only apps such as the iWork series until recently. Even then, I only have the iWork apps on my iPad because working on something like that on an iPhone is admittedly kind of terrible.

So, when managing my apps, if deleting an app on device deleted it in iTunes, the other device would lose the app on next sync. This is not a good thing for me.

When you delete an app in iTunes, it unchecks it from the sync list. This way you continue to receive updates for it via iTunes, and if you ever want the app back, it's a simple operation to check the box.

I do believe @Hand-E-Food's example of a paid app is a good example. While we know that you can re-download any app not in your library you already paid for, not having to jump through the "Yes I do want to re-download this app I purchased" hoops is handy.

If you deleted an app because of crashes or general instability, than you can watch iTunes and wait for it to update, and then update it and see if it's better.

Why is best answered by Apple themselves, as it was obviously a design consideration that I'm not sure anyone else here will have the answer too.

But unfortunately I don't believe you can change it. The easiest way to change it would be to delete apps only via iTunes, and not on your iPhone directly.


Resized/Rotated PNG image using ImageMagic is blury. How to sharpen?

The trick here is to increase the density(resolution) of the original image before doing any other processing like resizing or rotating.
% convert -density 300 inputfile.png inputfile.png

Normally, it would be necessary to specify the units (-units PixelsPerInch or -units PixelsPerCentimeter) along with density, but since PNG files only use the pixels /cm unit, it's not necessary here.
The reason we have to do this is because to resize an image, it must pass through one (or more) of several filters (algorithms).  With a low resolution (like 72 dpi for printing) there simply isn't enough data for the algorithms to use for their calculations.  ImageMagick has a lenghthy section on resizing and the different filters you can use and how they work:  https://legacy.imagemagick.org/Usage/resize/#other.  Unfortunately, none worked well enough until I realized that the data in the image was just too "thin."
By doing nothing other than increasing the density we're essentially giving the same element (a single bar code line for example) more data points to work with when we do manipulate the image later on.  The more it has, the more accurate it can be though the trade off is speed.  It will take longer to process.
By doing this first and then manipulating the image, I was able to achieve a crisp and clear image at the size I needed for printing on my laser printer.  The other option I had was to purchase a dedicated label printer (like the Zebra or Brother printers) so I could use the high quality PDF they supplied.
Below is a more step-by-step process of how to manipulate the image to get the desired result

If we look at the resolution of the original image file (identify -ping -verbose image.png | head) we see that it's set for a resolution of 28.35x28.35 ppcm and a print size of 42.328cm x 63.4921cm (16.66" x 25").
  Filename: sample_label_orig.png
  Format: PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
  Mime type: image/png
  Class: PseudoClass
  Geometry: 1200x1800+0+0
  Resolution: 28.35x28.35
  Print size: 42.328x63.4921
  Units: PixelsPerCentimeter
  Colorspace: Gray

Since everything is metric, to convert to inches, multiply by 2.54.  28 ppcm translates to 72 ppi (or 72 DPI).  This is supposedly the correct DPI for printing.
 You can use the same filename for both input and output so it makes the changes "in place." I'm using a separate file for this example.
% convert -density 300 sample_label_orig.png sample_label.png

When the density/resolution is increased to 300 ppcm, everything falls into place. However, don't be fooled by the new print size though; it's 4cm x 6cm not 4" x 6"!
  Filename: sample_label.png
  Format: PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
  Mime type: image/png
  Class: PseudoClass
  Geometry: 1200x1800+0+0
  Resolution: 300x300
  Print size: 4x6
  Units: PixelsPerCentimeter
  Colorspace: Gray

Now, instead of resizing the label, we simply specify the new label geometry.  Note that geometry not the print size of the label.  It's the dimensions of the label multiplied by the density.  So, a 4x6 inch label would be 10.16x15.24 cm meaning the final geometry would be 300*(10.15x15.24) = 3048x4572.
% convert sample_label.png -geometry 3048x4572 label_out.png

Now, when we look at the details of the label (identify -ping -verbose label_out.png | head), everything is as it should be.  It's a 4x6 inch label (converted from cm) with a 300 ppcm resolution
  Filename: label_out.png
  Format: PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
  Mime type: image/png
  Class: PseudoClass
  Geometry: 3048x4572+0+0
  Resolution: 300x300
  Print size: 10.16x15.24
  Units: PixelsPerCentimeter
  Colorspace: Gray

We can even rotate the label at the same time we change the geometry to make the process more efficient.
% convert sample_label.png -geometry 3048x4572 -rotate -90 label_out.png

This will create a crisp and clear label in the correct orientation to be printed on the laser printer.


Does shaking iPad violently going to damage its orientation hardware?

The iPad Mini's accelerometer is a solid-state (with a microscopic mechanical - thanks Graham Parks for the correction) device so shaking should not hurt it. Electric shocks (for e.g. immersing iPad in water while it's on) and heat do damage electronics.

You're more likely to break the adhesive that connects the gorilla glass to the aluminium back before hurting the accelerometer.


There is no way to disable the fast delete. There is an undo command, however, for when you've deleted too much. When the keyboard is up, shake the phone. A popup asks if you want to undo.


Can I snap windows to fill 1/4 of the screen like in Windows?

There’s an App that I use to gain the Windows “snap” like functionality in macOS - Magnet

There are a number of configurable shortcuts that allow you to snap Windows in halves, thirds, quarters, etc.  It costs $2USD, but is well worth the price


No backlight on Macbook Pro 2015 and backlight fuse is burned out

How would one check the display pins for a short-circuit?

You don't know that this is the issue.  What you do know is that you have no backlight.

  I heard Apple recommends...as the display be shorting out the logic board

That's hearsay and not necessarily your diagnosis.  Research is fine, but you need actual troubleshooting for a positive diagnosis.  You wouldn't be pleased if your doctor gave you a terminal disease diagnosis if he/she didn't do anything but tell you "they heard from the AMA that...."

Just to give you a broad overview of what your looking for, there's no one diagnosis for a failed backlight.  It could be

the backlight itself failed
a blown fuse
shorted pins

Each has their own diagnostic procedure like

simple observation (burnt/corroded/damaged components)
checking for open circuits (continuity testing)
short to ground
measuring resistance (Ohms)

To get an idea of this actual repair, take a look at this YouTube video.  In the end, if this seems outside your wheelhouse, he's a good person to send your board to (not affiliated, just a happy customer).


Quartz Filters not working on High Sierra—is it fixable?

This is a known issue (I reported it directly to Apple engineering) and they are working on a fix in a future update. In the meantime it does mean you need to use 3rd party software or find a workaround.

Without knowing what your ultimate aim is, one workaround I have discovered is to first export the PDF as an image file (e.g. a .jpg image) and then open the newly created .jpeg file in Preview and export it again. When you export it, select the PDF option and the Quartz Filter you want. This will then save the file as a PDF again, but this time in grayscale or B&W.

Of course, this is not ideal in the case of multiple pages. One possible option may be to use Automator, but I haven't pursued this as I already have access to 3rd party software.

However, I can update this answer as soon as it's fixed (the Apple Engineers have committed to letting me know as soon as it's fixed - and I will be following up with them!

UPDATE

After further investigation Apple's Engineers contacted me on 9 August 2018 to advise they have determined that this issue only occurs when PDFs have been originally produced by certain 3rd party products, typically older ones. As a result, a fix for this may no longer be in the pipeline because as time goes by users are less likely to come across PDFs originally produced by these older legacy products.

In my own testing I have found the problems do not occur with PDFs originally created with MS Office 2016 or later (both Mac and Windows versions). However, the problem does occur with PDFs originally created with older versions of MS Office (e.g. 2010, 2013) and other software such as PDFCreator.

The age of the original software is not necessarily indicative of whether a PDF will have issues. For example, PDFs produced with Adobe InDesign CS5 (2010 vintage) and QuarkXPress 9 (2011 vintage) work fine with Quartz Filters.

At present this has been left open by the Engineers until macOS Mojave is released. However, if it is not rectified by then it will be closed as it's unlikely to ever be.

Workaround for multi-page PDFs

In my own testing I have found a workaround that works perfectly for multipage PDFs, albeit somewhat ironically. However, it is an easy workaround:

Open the problematic PDF in Preview
Go to File > Export as PDF...
Give it a name, choose a location and click on the Save button
Open the newly created PDF in Preview
Go to File > Export...
Select PDF as your format
Choose the Quartz Filter you want (e.g. Black & White or Grey Tone)
Give it a name, choose a location and click on the Save button
Now your newly exported multi-page PDF will have the Quartz Filter applied


How can I add an HFS+ partition to an MBR-partitioned external drive

Obligatory warning: You seem to have found your way to fdisk. Keep in mind that, like most BSD-Unix-style command line fdisk tools, the Mac OS X fdisk's editing feature does not 'do' safeguards, it has even less safeguards than whatever other platform's command line fdisk tool you're thinking of.  It will happily let you accidentally use the erase command (which removes all the partitions) or edit a partition that Mac OS X is currently using (rendering your system unbootable) and even has few safeguards against putting numbers that just plain don't make any sense under any circumstances right into the partition table, so please be careful.  Its only saving grace is that the changes are only in memory until it writes them, so if you are careful you can exit without saving.

You can use fdisk in interactive mode to edit the entries in the partition table. For instance, to edit the partition table on disk 1:
sudo fdisk -e /dev/rdisk1

Then edit your first blank partition table entry (e.g. edit 3), set it to type AF, press return for the default to the CHS mode question, press return to accept the default of starting the partition after the end of the last one, then enter the end sector number you want (the default is the end of the disk; to figure out one for a size you want: divide the size you want by 512 bytes to get the number of sectors you want, and then add that to the start sector number and subtract one to get the end sector number ). Do a print to make sure it looks okay (nothing has been saved yet, so if there's a mistake you can just exit (not quit) at this point and run fdisk again to start from the beginning.) Then write to save the partition table over the old one on the disk. Then exit.
If you get a warning at write that the changes will require a reboot, that's okay; answer y, and reboot Mac OS X after exiting.
Now the partition table has been updated, but the partition itself still has the whatever old blocks of data were in that space before; Run Disk Utility, and from the Erase tab, choose the new partition, give it a name, and Erase it.


So we found a workaround via https://discussions.apple.com/message/25159423?ac_cid=op123456#25159423

"Interestingly, I think I stumbled on a workaround.

For one of the emails with an attached PDF that I have been having trouble with, if I tap on the PDF icon to download it, and then tap on it to open it, I get the error (black or white screen).

But, with this same email, if I first tap on the "Download Full Message" link at the bottom of the email, the PDF will then open correctly when I tap on the PDF icon.

I confirmed that this works on two different iOS 7.1 devices."


AppleFontSmoothing Has No Effect On My ViewSonic VX2450

A couple things to consider:

Do you see a difference with the various AppleFontSmoothing settings on your main display?
Are you seeing this in all apps, or just one or two?

Some programs render fonts independently of the OS, so changing the global font smoothing won't make a difference in them

What is the physical connection between the MacBook and the Viewsonic?

mDP to VGA adapter?
mDP to DVI adapter?
mDP to HDMI adapter?

Analog signals on VGA might not support the resolution
Make sure any OSD controls for the port you're using have the correct settings

How have you configured the Viewsonic, relative to your MacBook's main panel?

Mirroring the internal display

Select a resolution for your main display that is an even factor of your Viewsonic's native resolution

Set as its own independent display

Choose the Viewsonic's native resolution

Hope one of these leads you down a path that ends in a pretty picture.


Is there no way to dismiss a timer/alarm with the earpod controls on iPhone that does not result in resuming playback?

What I do to stop alarm sound is to call Siri twice. First time to stop the alarm itself, second time to stop Siri from listening. This can be done with a very short interval. For reassurance, you can tap thrice each time (in case you tend to miss one of 2 taps required for the command to be registered by AirPods).

P.S. I know the question is about EarPods, but it's quite similar to what some people experience with AirPods. And for EarPods the same could be performed by double-clicking the central button.


Keynote default style for graphic elements

Here is how you can get the default behavior :

Open the inspector > Text tab > Bullets > Select No Bullets


Change .jpg quality of terminal screenshots

Simply add the command:

sips -s formatOptions [low|normal|high|best|<percent>] ~/Desktop/AutoScreenCap/$vardate.jpg;

after the screencapture line.

Finally it looks like this:

while :; do
    vardate=$(date +%d\-%m\-%Y\_%H.%M.%S)
    screencapture -t jpg -x ~/Desktop/AutoScreenCap/$vardate.jpg
    sips -s formatOptions [low|normal|high|best|<percent>] ~/Desktop/AutoScreenCap/$vardate.jpg
    sleep 600
done

Use only one of the sips formatOptions but without square brackets. The square brackets, the single angle quotes and the vertical lines are meta instructions which mustn't be  entered literally. They mean: choose one of the listed and  the last one is a freely selectable percentage (which should work with or without the %-symbol).

Using low will save about 55% of disk space needed, 10% about 65% and 1% about 70%. This depends on your screen content though.


For Maximum Safety, Copy Everything

The safest option is to copy everything, including invisible meta-data files.

Files tend to exist for a reason and as software changes, so will the existence, purpose, and contents of these meta-data files. Copying everything will reduce the maintenance burden and offer ease of mind that nothing is being lost.

The log file created by rsync will be technically involved by the very nature of rsync being a command line tool. Consider presenting a tidied up, meta-data filtered, and maybe even coloured coded output for the user to check. You could do this with a wide range of scripting tools and languages. Please ask more questions here on Ask Different and on StackOverflow if you need help with this approach.

Delete Last & Copy OS X Resources

Regarding the rsync flags, take a look at the question Fastest and safest way to copy massive data from one external drive to another. In this question, a few additional flags are used and explained:

sudo rsync -vaE --progress --delete-after /Volumes/SourceName /Volumes/DestinationName

In this situation, the E will ensure resource forks and other Mac specific properties are copied.

You may want to consider --delete-after to avoid deleting until the copy has completed; please note that this approach will potentially require a destination drive twice the size of the source.

Possible Exclusions

An answer to a related question, How can I omit FCPX Render Files from a Time Machine backup?, provided a useful link of OS X files and folders that can be excluded from most back-ups. This link provides a practical list of file patterns, folders, and paths that you could exclude.

Include dot Files

There are good reasons to back up files beginning with dots, .* matching files.

Some software keeps preferences, settings, and other information of value in folders at the top of the user's folder in invisible dot prefixed folders. Running ls -la ~/ will reveal these folders and files.

If any user uses or has software that in turn uses version control software, be sure to back-up dot files. Software like subversion and git both store critical information within their dot folders. These hidden folders can be scattered across your file system, where ever a project is checked out.

Spotlight and Disk Access

Spotlight is OS X's search service. Spotlight uses the mdworker process to index and update the search catalogue. If you are concerned about possible disk corruption or slow copies, disabling mdworker while running rsync may help. Personally, I leave Spotlight running while running large rsync transfers.


This is a known bug with 8.0.x.

There's a beta currently in progress for a completely re-developed Microsoft Remote Desktop, currently on 8.2.22, which fixes almost all the known bugs with the existing app. You can download the latest beta here:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=619698


How can I create Apple ID for a child without a Credit Card?

Sign out.
Search for any free app.
Select "Get" and "Install App".
You should see screen, that you need to log in to download. Select "Create New Apple ID".
You should see "None" option when selecting payment method.
Activate Apple ID and you have created new Apple ID for your son.

Then just sign out from son's Apple ID and log in to yours.


Prevent Macbook from Charging past a certain level

In short, no. Well, at least not without changing the SMC Firmware.

The SMC (System Management Controller) is responsible for controlling a range of power-related functions (e.g. controlling fans, reading and responding to sensors, controlling temperature levels, the battery, etc). This is not something you want to mess with.

In terms of battery swelling, there are many factors that contribute to causing this and one of those factors is time. For example, I was responsible for a small fleet of MacBookPro5,1 models being used by five staff members, all of whom had two batteries (so they could hot swap them as required). All of these batteries swelled over time, despite the fact these laptops were used off AC Power for most of the day five days a week. The fact these devices were not kept at 100% charge made no difference whatsoever!

In a nutshell, if you're happy using FruitJuice then keep doing that. But trying to force the SMC (or circumvent its function) is likely to cause you more problems than its worth.


Does iPhone's new HEVC video format also halve file size for 720p and 1080p?

Yes, iOS 11 supports lower resolutions HEVC resolutions as well.

Please note that the bit rate reduction will be lower at lower resolutions. The setting Settings > Camera > Formats is a global setting an will affect video and photo capture at the same time.

Source: Wikipedia/TK Tan; Marta Mrak; Vittorio Baroncini; Naeem Ramzan (2014-05-18)


MacBook Pro 2016 USB-C to HDMI (Apple Multiport Adapter) problem

I had to replace the adapter. It seems the one I was using was broken. Now everything is fine and the display displays :).


Why are some pop up boxes (or "select" boxes) colored blue but others aren't in Mac OS X?

The blue style is the default "Aqua" style for drop downs, which is what you'll see in most applications. However, sites can customize the appearance of dropdowns using CSS, in which case browsers like Safari and Chrome switch from the default style to the other one you see.

Here's a little example where you can see the style change when you put your mouse on the dropdown.


Help with VNC (via school Wi-Fi) without consent? Opsec

The only way they are going to be able to watch your screen is if you have installed something specific to allow them to do so or they have a password and you have screen sharing (and or remote management) turned on.

So turn off screen sharing (System Preferences > Sharing. Uncheck screen sharing and remote management) and change your password and any other passwords on the system in System Preferences > Users & Groups.

This all presupposes this is YOUR Mac and not one provided by the school. If it is provided by the school they likely have it locked down so you can't make those changes because the computer does not belong to you.


What to do about a bad video card in a 2010 Mac?

This answer is based on the assumption that you've got an iMac, however, the general solutions (not anything iMac specific) presented here will work for virtually any Mac model.

Use Target Disk Mode

If you can boot your computer (even if the screen is dead) put it into Target Disk Mode by booting it while simultaneously holding the T key.  The computers need to be connected by a Thunderbolt or FireWire cable.  The iMacs from this vintage (through late 2011) all came with a FireWire port.  Thunderbolt didn't come onto the scene until 2012.

FireWire Cable
Thunderbolt to Firewire Adapter - Only necessary if using a newer Mac with Thunderbolt ports

Once connected, you can boot the computers and copy the files over.

Remove the Hard Drive

Since your graphic card has died and they are quite expensive on the secondary market, it makes sense to simply extract the drive and connect it to a USB adapter to copy the files over.

The iMacs through late 2011 all came with the removable glass where you could simply use a couple of suction cups to pull the glass off.  The display panel was held in with 12 Torx screws.  Once removed, you have access to all of the components.  Ifixit has an excellent step-by-step guide to do this.

* Source:  iFixit.com. Photo credit: Sam Goldheart and licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

Remove the HDD and connect it to another Mac with a USB to SATA Adapter with Power.  The drives in the iMac are 3.5" so they need a 12V supply - more than what a USB port can provide by itself.  If you have a spare 3.5" drive enclosure, that will work as well.

Again, once connected, you can copy your files over from the drive to your connected computer.


Settings - Network - Thunderbold Ethernet - Configure IPv4: Manually: 192.168.1.20. After this I am able to access the router.


Can volume automatically decrease during communication activity?

Skype has a preference called "Pause iTunes during calls", enabled by default. In "Telephone" it's called "Pause iTunes during call" and iChat pauses iTunes automatically, without any preference. There is no system-wide setting however, but there are not many phone apps remaining than those as well.


What is the recommended way to set up and run an OS X web server for a busy public website?

For my own outward-facing servers, I did everything from within the built-in server software itself, except managing virtual hosts, for which task I used VirtualHostX.

The best tutorial I know for configuring Mavericks for web server use is done by Charles Edge, at his site, Krypted. I followed this same process essentially, and thus far, I've seen no issues since deployment.


You are (perhaps inadvertently) using Handoff between your iPhone and your Mac Mini. This Support Page at Apple describes the Handoff setup process.

Extracted from the Support Page:

Turn Handoff on or off

Note: If you don’t see a Handoff option on your device, it doesn’t work with Handoff.

On your Mac: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click General,
then select “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices”
(below “Recent items”). To turn it off, deselect the option.
On iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch: Go to Settings > General > Handoff,
then tap to turn on Handoff. To turn it off, tap the option.


If I use LaunchBar can I disable Spotlight?

I've contacted their support and here's their reply:


Automator workflow triggered by another app?

You would probably need an API for the pomodoro app that you're using. The only other way this could be created is by looking for any change instantiated on your native os when the timer is done. Then create an apple script which watches for the identified trigger and plays the sound bite you want when this trigger to call on the custom apple script.


Why do iPhones sometimes forget battery usage by app (Settings > Battery)?

Power usage logs are a low priority item and if that subsystem crashes or the device runs low on space, I've seen it nor populate until a restart. If you restart and the battery isn't 100% - that also suppresses the usage.

In dire cases - a backup and restore is needed to remedy the software and filesystem issues that could cause this function to not work at all.


Restore Backup can this still be done after choosing setup as new?

No, because you set it up as a new device instead of restoring from an "existing device".

Therefore, it will treat it as such, and not move data from your backup to your iPad,

You can still move that data over once you're done setting up the iPad, by using the restore button in iTunes. But you will loose the setup and any changes done before the restore.


How to enable cut action (and shortcut)?

Things are "Different" on Mac. There's only Copy action. Hovewer if You want Cut feature, instead of Paste You'll need to Move the item with shortcut ⌘ CMD+⌥ ALT+v.


Currently, it is not possible to gift Mac App Store apps directly. There is a workaround where you could buy an iTunes Gift card (from the iTunes store home menu) for exactly the price of the app and the recipient can redeem the code in the Mac App Store


How to display the VLC playlist and the main window simultaneously

It is rather simple. The question is old but since I was just checking myself for the same problem and others might to.

Hit ⌘ + , to open VLC preferences.
Uncheck the Play video in main window option. In the interface tab the one that usually opens first.

Videos will spawn in a seperate window and the main holds the playlist.


What was the original Mac's (1984) development stack?

Actually the original Macintosh development environment was not on a Mac at all. Quoting from this article on Folklore.org...

  Macintosh development in the early days (circa 1983-1985) was done
  using the Apple Lisa computer and its Lisa Workshop development
  environment

Most of the stories on folklore.org are written by the Apple employees who did the work and no longer work at Apple. A fascinating site. Careful, once you get started you may not come up for air for hours.


How to approve iPhone if you have no other device?

I had the same problem.  I actually had an old ipod associated with my account that I didn't realize and had to remove it.
Go to: https://appleid.apple.com
And choose "Manage your Account".
Look at your devices and see if you  have any old devices.  If so, remove them.  That is what worked for me.


After installing iOS 11 public beta, then deleting profile, will I receive the official release of iOS 10.3.3?

No, you won't get an update to iOS 10.3.3, as this would amount to downgrading (not updating) your iOS, which isn't possible at all (except by restoring the iPhone from an old backup).


Adding page numbers and running head to a pdf file

I used iLovePDF's on-line tool to add the page numbers to a non-sensitive document.

https://www.ilovepdf.com/add_pdf_page_number

I say "non-sensitive" because you have to upload the source material, and then download the result, so in theory they could do something with the original. However, I can't find anything that says iLovePDF isn't safe.

iLovePDF have several other PDF tools: https://www.ilovepdf.com/

An alternative is to download PDFPen from the App store or here:

https://smilesoftware.com/pdfpen

Though I've not tried this tool, I have heard good things.


Will Apple TV from Canada work in Europe (Norway)?

The Apple TV functionality is almost entirely tied to your Apple ID. I believe the Apple ID "nationality" is tied to the billing address and/or credit card on file. If the address is Canadian, you'll have access to the Canadian iTunes and App stores, if it's Norwegian, you'll get the Norwegian stores. You can use iTunes gift cards purchased in a given country to buy content on that country's stores, but switching back and forth between two countries seems to be problematic (you may only get access to the content from one country at a time, and it requires two billing addresses, or two iTunes accounts).

Apple has a few useful articles you may want to look at, including the types of content available in each country, the availability of iTunes Match and iTunes in the Cloud (which allows you to re-download purchased content on a Mac or iOS device) and whether you can buy or rent Movies and TV Shows.

From the looks of it, the content and options available in the Canadian store is superior to that of the Norwegian store (e.g. Norway doesn't have any TV shows), so if it's logistically feasible for you, it may be worthwhile to set up your iTunes account with a Canadian address and credit card (or just buy a lot of iTunes credit in Canada).


How to diagnose slow file transfer performance?

You should download the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. It will measure your read and write speeds for your drive. You can then determine if your getting equivalent performance.  The app is free and available from the App Store. Blackmagic Speed Test is designed to determine the speed for watching a video but should serve the purpose. It will give you disk read and write speeds for your SSD.


What are the requirements to use iMac screen as a second monitor - Target Display Mode?

No.  You cannot do this.  The 2019 iMac is not supported for Target Display Mode.
This is an attempt to write a canonical QA for this issue, as per the Meta post:  Where is the list of canonical questions stored for Ask Different? I expect it to be periodically edited with the goal of becoming a comprehensive information resource.

Which iMac Models Support Target Display Mode?

General Rule of Thumb:  If it's after 2014, Target Display Mode isn't supported.

27 inch iMacs from 2009 - 2010 support TDM via Thunderbolt or mini DisplayPort (mDP)

All iMacs (21 inch and 27 inch) from 2011 through mid 2014 support TDM via Thunderbolt only.

Retina iMacs from late 2014 and on do not support TDM at all.

Which Mac models can you use as a source?
All Mac models through 2019 that meet the above requirements can use Target Display Mode.  Currently, 2020 Macs will not connect (i.e. 2020 MacBook Pro running Catalina), but a 2019 MacBook Pro also running Catalina works fine.
What version of macOS is required?

On the Target iMac, it must be running High Sierra or earlier.
TDM is not supported on any iMac running Mojave or later.
It doesn't matter what version of macOS you're using on your source computer

Can I use my iMac as a Target Display for a PC?
Yes! As long as the target Mac meets the above requirements and the PC has the proper port;  Thunderbolt or mDP.  The OS on the source computer doesn't matter at all.
Can I use a "bricked" or broken iMac as a Target Display?
No.  Your iMac must be a fully functional iMac running High Sierra or later.

Sources & Further Reading:

Use your iMac as a display with target display mode

iMac and connected external displays, all as monitors for MacBook Pro?

Using iMac late 2013 as external monitor to HP EliteBook 820 G3 on Windows 10

How could i use an iMac as secondary monitor for a Windows 7 laptop

Using an iMac as a display for PC laptop in dual mointor configuration


How does Apple Watch Activity app deal with timezone changes?

I love traveling but I have the same problems with my appleWatch.

I contacted the Support, It's a well known problem since the watch have launched. The "Bug" isn't fixed yet.

The Genius told me, the only way to handle that problem is to deactivate the automatic time adjustment of the iPhone and Watch.

Well it's not a satisfying solution but it works. The only problem is that you need to calculate the current time as it won’t display the correct local time.


In a sense there are multiple answers to your question.

Law Enforcement

You asked how the FBI did it. In a nutshell you won't get an answer here as they paid a huge sum of money to obtain the vulnerability, which in itself only applied to a particular model of iPhone running a specific version of iOS. So the approach the FBI used most likely wouldn't work for you, but even if it did, no-one is going to be able to tell you how they did it.

Law enforcement also uses a tool developed by Zdziarski five or so years back, however current versions are not available to the public. Even if you could source one of the earlier versions originally available to the public, this is not likely to work with iOS 9.3.

Forensic options

There are a number of forensic options available, none of which are cheap. However, since you stated that the cost isn't important, here's a few you may find of interest:

Lantern 4 - US$1,999 up front, US$800 annual maintenance
Spotlight - US$2,000 up front, plus the cost of compulsory training
UFED - There are a whole range of options/versions available

'Disk Image'

Once you have your disk image of the iPhone you will need analysis tools that are capable of connecting to and analysing a mounted iOS image. In your case you're likely to find that some of the open source community tools are powerful enough for a search and retrieval investigation. Here is a list of some of these tools for you to research:

Scalpel
DD
Find
Stings

iTunes backups

In terms of whether iTunes will perform a full bit-by-bit backup, the answer is no. Even selecting the "Encrypt local backup" option will not result in a full backup, although it will capture account passwords, Health data, HomeKit data and various other additional files not usually included in the backup.


The power button is on the right hand side, it's part of the "tube" at the back and clearly marked with a power button symbol.

Did you check the batteries as well?


There are no native IDE available for iOS. Apple restricts unsigned code from being run on all iOS devices, thus making an IDE on iOS impossible. (this is possible on android to run code directly on the device that is written on device)

Your best bet is to get a regular text editor such as nimbus or anything that can checkout documents and edit them from git, svn or dropbox. You will never be able to run this code on iOS, so you will need to push it to your repository and compile and run it via a remote desktop client or via a SSH terminal.

To really fully automate this process you would have to edit your code, push it to the repository, compile it on another machine and then have that compiled binary shipped to your device using a distribution mechanism like testflightapp via a series of scripts (test flight has an API for this). It's not impossible, just hard.

Another option is to use a remote desktop client and remote to an IDE on a PC to edit and run your code there.


Is there a web viewer for photos stored on iCloud?

Not at the moment. To view your Photo Stream you need to access it on an Apple device (Mac, iOS or Apple TV) that's signed in with your iCloud ID. iCloud.com doesn't offer any functionality to view the Photo Stream, and it seems unlikely to any time soon.


iMessage - Why is someone prompted to pick one of my connected iMessage contact points?

There are a few cases were this could be helpful, e.g. I change numbers frequently -say because of traveling- and because of that I prefer to connect my mail for iMessages.

But of course contacts can also regular-SMS me at my old number and so on.

To cover these cases (and probably make the logic behind them simpler) they have decided to create the (i)Message threads per phone or mail and not per contact.

As for you second question, there is not really something you can fix. Just ask the other person to contact you on a specific "endpoint" and delete the other threads. Use only that one to communicate.

I suggest you use your email for that purpose, unless you are using regular SMSs too.


QuickTime add-ons? How to tell what's needed?

Perian is frequently chosen, for being complete and suitable. A lot of people say it's one of those things you should put on every new Mac. VLC has browser plugins, but I've never noticed Perian not handling everything (not sure I would know, neither are bloated).


External ISO keyboards treated as ANSI since MacBook Pro upgraded to macOS Sierra 10.12

I had the same problem with my keyboard and a German layout. Although I had "German" set up as "System Preferences/Keyboard/Input Source" most of my keys had the wrong mapping. E.g. the key right to the Left Shift Key on my keyboard is "<>" instead it was mapped to "^°".

The problem was that my keyboard was setup as an ANSI-type of keyboard (used in the US). Instead it should have been set up as a ISO-type (used in most european countries).

There are several possible solutions to this mapping problem as described by Tom Gewecke on his Blog.

  The fix for this is to run the Keyboard Setup Assistant again. Sometimes there is a button for "Change Keyboard Type" visible in "System Preferences/Keyboard".

  If not, you can try trashing the file
  /Library/Preferences/com.apple.keyboardtype.plist
  and restarting your machine.

  Another possibility may be to open Terminal and type:
  sudo open /System/Library/CoreServices/KeyboardSetupAssistant.app/Contents/MacOS/KeyboardSetupAssistant

When the Keyboard Setup Assistant appears again after reboot be sure to choose the right type of keyboard - ISO.

If none of that helps follow the above link to Toms post with further options.


What's this statistics-looking icon on my TouchBar?

Are you watching a video in Safari? That slider is telling you that you're watching a video in the app displayed in the icon, scrubbing on that slider scrub the video you're playing. Or if you're not watching a video, it might just be a bug. Try refreshing the Control Strip by going into activity monitor and find the process "Control Strip" and quit that process(it won't do any harm, your touch bar will blink once).

P.S. As for taking screenshot of the touch bar you need 10.12.2 beta.


Macbook air wifi problem when is on my legs

I have solved removing all ssid stored and then creating a new location in network preferences. However the issue seems to be caused by the energy saver system. In fact, using automator pinging the router ip address every 0.2 sec works too.


After doing a bit more research I found this video on Youtube which provides a simple easy to implement solution. https://youtu.be/oR8FsCQQH9Y


Terminal Equivalent of Finder Sort Order

GNU ls has the rather useful -v option that will do exactly what you want. Unfortunately there's no similar option for OS X's BSD-based ls.

A quick solution is to do the following:

$ ls | sort -n -k1.5

That sorts the output starting at the 5th character of the first field.

The same question was asked at StackOverflow and there are a number of other possible solutions listed there (some are Linux-specific though).


Go to Settings -> General -> Dictionary.
Select the languages you wish to use with the QuickType keyboard (allow it time to download).
Return to the General -> Keyboards. Tap Keyboards again, then tap Add New Keyboard and select the languages you just downloaded.

Instructions are from this site and they also have screenshots in case you need them.

Edit: Apple's iOS10 features site lists the languages that are supported.  If it's not in this list then it's not supported (yet).


Entering a password with a diacritic works as expected. You have to use the proper keys though:

To enter an umlaut you have to use altU
To enter an accent grave you have to use alt`
To enter an accent acute you have to use altE
To enter an accent circumflex you have to use altI
To enter a tilde you have to use altN

The above are all dead keys and have to be followed by a second key. If you enter space the diacritic itself is the "entered sign". Entering a dead key in a password field you neither get the typical yellow/orange dead key indicator nor a bullet - you get a beep only!

The back tick itself is no accent (dead key) but simply a back tick.

E.g. to enter an ü using an US English input source and an Apple keyboard with a (physical) US English layout you first have to hit altU and then U again.

In my virtual machine I get an alert sound but no bullet after entering the first key combination (the dead key ¨) and then after entering the second (single) U a new bullet. The resulting letter is the (lower caps) ü.

BTW the ¨ is no accent. Like accents it's a diacritic though.


I resolved the issue by doing an SMC reset.


How can I create a keyboard shortcut to access a specific folder in Finder?

One option would be to create an Automator service and assign it a shortcut in the Keyboard preferences.

tell application "Finder"
    reopen
    activate
    set p to (system attribute "HOME") & "/Downloads/"
    set target of Finder window 1 to POSIX file p
end tell

You could also save the script to ~/Library/Scripts/Applications/Finder/ with AppleScript Editor and use FastScripts to assign the shortcut.


A third option would be to open the files (for all typefaces), and click the Install Font button in the window, which copies the font files to ~/Library/Fonts/.

I usually just move the files manually because I keep each font in their own folder.


Is it possible to install Mac OS 9 on a VM?

SheepShaver will be your best bet. There's several tutorials laying around on getting OS 9 running in SheepShaver.


How do I delete a phone number from iMessage or facetime on ipod 4th gen?

Using the device attached to the phone number, make sure you're not on wifi and that you are using the network to which your number is registered. Turn off iMessage in the messages settings. That should do it.


Why my imessage and facetime button turn off by itself?

When the registration cannot complete the software indicates that failure to you. Basically when you tap "on" the device undergoes a handshake and registration over the network to set up the cryptographic keys that Apple will then use to uniquely encrypt the data going to that device (and that device only) using your AppleID/iCloud credentials to build up the keys.

Apple has a troubleshooting article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201422

It's always best to go through those articles slowly, and in order (especially when it says restart - you really need to restart).

I've seen the date be wrong on the iOS device, so if you like guessing on hunches, you could sign out of iCloud and then toggle the "set date/time" setting in General and be sure the clock is correct on the iPhone. Then you could try enabling iMessages.

Lots of things can mess this up including:

two factor authentication / unique passwords (in that your iCloud password isn't the same password your iMessage/FaceTime password)
OS running out of space or iPhone needing to be restored
problems at Apple's end for all iMessage users http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/
carrier not sending SMS validation message to your iPhone
problems with your AppleID


How can I diagnose what is interfering with my Wifi signal?

A request timeout on ICMP (ping) going from your Mac to your your network device simply means that the device, not your Mac failed to respond to the ping request in a given amount of time.  There is a good explanation of that here.

This can happen for any number of reasons; network congestion, device load, wifi signal interference, power loss, etc.  Most importantly, it has absolutely nothing to do with services that are running on your Mac.

Based on the address you used, it looks like you are pinging google.com.  This means that between your Mac and Google's servers there are a number of "hops" that your packet must go through.  Your Mac to your Wifi is one hop.  Wifi to your router/modem is another hop.  Modem to your providers gateway is another hop and so on until you get to Google.

To see how your hops are performing, issue the command traceroute google.com and it will output something similar to the following:

    1  pfsense (192.168.10.1)  0.401 ms  0.176 ms  0.223 ms
     2  96.120.36.197 (96.120.36.197)  23.503 ms  8.269 ms  8.470 ms
     3  xe-1-3-0-0-sur02.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.82.157)  9.371 ms  8.740 ms  8.517 ms
     4  xe-11-2-2-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.46)  10.091 ms
        xe-11-2-0-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.14)  20.572 ms
        xe-11-1-1-0-sur03.miramar.fl.pompano.comcast.net (69.139.183.177)  9.440 ms
     5  te-9-1-ur01.wellington.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.219.25)  16.879 ms  9.370 ms
        xe-1-0-7-0-ar02.stuart.fl.pompano.comcast.net (68.85.219.29)  16.575 ms
     6  be-20214-cr02.miami.fl.ibone.comcast.net (68.86.90.205)  10.963 ms  12.427 ms  11.617 ms
     7  68.86.82.74 (68.86.82.74)  10.475 ms  11.337 ms  9.979 ms
     8  23.30.207.242 (23.30.207.242)  47.521 ms  45.935 ms  47.899 ms
     9  209.85.241.136 (209.85.241.136)  10.958 ms  10.625 ms  10.479 ms
    10  216.239.42.79 (216.239.42.79)  10.616 ms  11.121 ms  10.590 ms
    11  mia07s35-in-f14.1e100.net (216.58.192.110)  17.763 ms  16.857 ms  11.290 ms
traceroute to google.com (216.58.192.110), 64 hops max, 52 byte packets

That's my currently traceroute for Google.  Yours will definitely be different.  Either way, anything in between could be contributing to a dropped packet which is the request timeout error you are seeing.


Identifying which iOS app caused the notification sound to play

In the settings, go to Notifications, and select Notification Center for every app with Sound selected.

Then chose to Sort Apps by time.

That way, when you hear the sound, just access your Notification Center, and the culprit app will be on top.


If you use TimeMachine you can encrypt the backup. Go to system preferences, (re-)select the drive and tick the checkbox for encryption.
As for the external drive as a whole, you could only apply certain permissions to folders using the information screen (right click the specific folder) or use a drive that supports password protection.


Why is is not possible mark text in my Terminal window anymore?

Sometimes things go wonky in the preferences files and you need to delete them to get things working properly again. Once you restart the app, it will rebuild it's preferences.

Try this:

Quit Terminal completely and then delete this file:
(your home folder)/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist

Hopefully that works for you! If you can't see your library folder, follow this quick guide.


Yes, it won't hurt the iMac. In fact they can even be used sideways, as long as you don't block any vents. Hard drive bearings are said to last longest when they are either upright or flat, but apart from the convection-cooled Mac Cube I don't know of any Mac that depends on orientation for cooling or anything else.

If you are putting them away for any length of time, get some silica gel packets or a "Thirsty Hippo" or local equivalent to ensure humidity does not speed corrosion or otherwise damage your machines. Wrap them tightly in plastic to prevent critters crawling in, there is nothing worse than finding something living in your old computer. Dead bodies or other debris may be corrosive or conductive. If your iMac is the CRT kind consider cutting a panel out of plywood to protect the glass screen. CRTs are hard to smash but easy to scratch or chip.

If you are putting away anything really precious (iMac signed by the Steves?) best practice is sealing the computer in an environment of dry nitrogen gas - it's a serious measure but not actually that hard to do since airtight bags are easy to find and nitrogen is becoming common in auto tire shops. Removing oxygen prevents oxidisation (rust) and will also make it impossible for creatures to colonise your Mac since they cannot live without oxygen.

In the last decade the ROHS directive has seen the use of lead-free solder increase. One big problem with this is the growth of "whiskers" from the solder and other circuit elements that can bridge what should be gaps between circuit paths. While the exact cause of whiskers and the right way to prevent their growth post-manufacturing is still unknown there are minority suggestions that vacuum or nitrogen environments help - but from my reading, a temperature-controlled or even cycling environment is more likely to be effective. When the exact facts are known the right way to store computers long-term will probably change. But it's sad to think that there is a risk to our machines even if they are well cared-for. Modern Apple machines, since about 2006, conform to the ROHS directive so this applies to them. Older machines may well be manufactured using lead solder and so tin whiskers would not be an issue. I could not find a definitive answer.


Devices not supported by iOS 5:

iPhone (original)
iPhone 3G
iPod Touch first generation
iPod Touch second generation
AppleTV

Source: http://www.apple.com/ios/features.html . "iOS 5 is compatible with: iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod Touch 3rd generation, iPod Touch 4th generation, iPad, iPad 2."


Second monitor on iMac not working with Lion

As it turns out, it was the Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI cable. I connected the secondary monitor with a Mini DisplayPort-to-HDMI Adapter and everything works fine.

To the best of my knowledge, the cable is fine, although, apparently, it is an unlicensed HDMI cable, and manufacturers can no longer sell them. Has Apple dropped support for these? Not sure. At least everything works again.


Can iBooks be read without a data connection?

Yes, iBooks can function normally while not connected to the internet. As long as you have the book(s) present in the iBooks app before you get out of coverage you will be fine.

If you are out of your coverage area and connect to another network, or roaming, you might have additional expenses for using another network.


Why are my guests in VirtualBox so slow?

Are you sure it isn't a graphics configuration issue?

You mentioned both that the GLXGears window moves slowly and that the mouse cursor lags.

Try disabling all forms of graphics acceleration.

Is the "guest" running slowly or just the graphics?


watchOS 4: Can you display complications on the photo albums watch face?

Yes, the 'Photos' watch face supports complications including Activity.

It's not possible to display the complication Activity as rings, just as a text.


Try this:

Press the Down arrow on the keyboard to highlight any user (make sure the password entry box is NOT open.)

Press Option + Return on the keyboard.

This should bring up the username and password fields on the login screen.


What is the best way to view Wikipedia offline on the iPad?

I use the Wikipanion free version on my iPad and there's a Wikipanion Plus available that supports offline viewing.  I'm happy with Wikipanion on my iPad and iPhone.  Hope that helps!


How do I enable Time Machine local snapshots on an iMac?

It seems that local snapshots are enabled automatically in High Sierra.

The text in the red box translates to "local snapshots, as long as disk space is available".

I didn't find something from Appe on this, but this blogpost comes to the same conclusion.


Can AppleTV stream content directly from iTunes in Windows

According to Apple you should be able to as long as they are on the same Home Sharing network.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH12352


Exporting the filepath of all music files to a text file

You might just use find:

find ~/Music > ~/music.txt

Or add for example -iname \*.mp3 to only include files that end with .mp3:

find ~/Music -iname \*.m4a -o -iname \*.mp3 -o -iname \*.flac -o -iname \*.wma > ~/music.txt

If the problem is that your music is scattered throughout your directories and not contained within your ~/Music folder - and if you want to export the paths to a file - then you would want to do this:

find ~/ -iname \*.m4a -o -iname \*.mp3 -o -iname \*.flac -o -iname \*.wma > ~/Desktop/music.txt


What folder do alchemy samples get saved to in Logic Pro X?

Both are accessed when looking to load content, but the one in your user area is used when saving your own content. This is consistent with the majority of apps, where the /Library folder is for all users and the ~/Library folder is for your own user.


How to create an Automator "Mail Service" to compose the body of email from the content of a file?

The solution I have found is this: the first action in the workflow is "Run Shell Script" which just cat ~/Documents/MailBody.txt. This actions returns "text", which is passed as input to action "New Mail Message". It seems to work fine, even when the txt file has multiple lines.


How to add reminder to ios 5 Reminder app from my PC?

As far as I know there would be two ways.

1. Outlook

Reminders is synced through iCloud, so you should have iCloud installed on your PC. Here is an easy guide provided by Apple. You only really need to follow up to step 2 to sync Reminders; step 3 is to keep your Purchased Music from iTunes in sync too.

Reminders is synced through "Calendars and Tasks". You'll need Outlook 2007 or 2010 to sync.

2. Web App

The other option I can think of is adding your reminders directly to iCloud through the Web App. This is done by going to the iCloud Website. Sign in with the Apple ID you use on your iOS device and click on the "Calendar App" once signed in.

You should see your Reminders on the Right Column. If you don't, go to the Action Menu (the cog icon on the top right corner) and select Show Reminders. You can add new reminders by clicking on the Action Menu > New Reminder, or double-clicking on the bottom of your reminder list.

Syncing With Google

About syncing with Google, this other thread might be useful.

BTW: I don't think you can add locations on Outlook or the Web App. I could be wrong, but I don't see the option.

Hope it helps!


iMessage shows the wrong name for a phone number

Try closing iMessage (Settings > Messaging > iMessage).
Turn off your phone and wait 5-10 minutes.
Tap Settings > Phone > My number and verify that your phone number is correct.
Finally, reopen iMessage (Settings > Messages), then go to Settings > Messaging > Send & Receive and see if the correct number is displayed under "Start a new session from".
Hope this helps you.


As the library is in /opt/local this probably means that the WordMaker executable was compiled using Macports libraries. So you need to install the libSM library via Macports like this.

sudo port install xorg-libsm


In bash, how to open .png file in a Mac app which only has “import” in the app menu

engauge Digitizer indeed provides a CLI at least using the pkg installer available at github to install the app.

In theory you can simply enter a command in Terminal to either open a *.dig file (the native engauge Digitizer file format) or import one of the supported image formats (jpg/bmp/png etc.):

/Applications/Engauge\ Digitizer.app/Contents/MacOS/Engauge\ Digitizer -help
/Applications/Engauge\ Digitizer.app/Contents/MacOS/Engauge\ Digitizer ~/Data/test.jpg
/Applications/Engauge\ Digitizer.app/Contents/MacOS/Engauge\ Digitizer ~/Data/test.dig

The app (I've tested v.12.1 in 10.15.2 Catalina) has some serious sandbox issue though and even after enabling full disk access/Development/... for any app or exec involved, I get a deny-read warning in the Console in my whole user folder and all relevant subfolders:

  Sandbox:     Engauge Digitize(1981) deny(1) file-read-data /Users/user/Data
  Violation:     deny(1) file-read-data /Users/user/Data
  Process:      Engauge Digitize [1981]
  Path:           /Applications/Engauge Digitizer.app/Contents/MacOS/Engauge Digitizer
  ...

It works if you move the files directly to the container folder ~/Library/Containers/Digitizer/Data/ and open or import the files from there.

Importing files invokes some additional modal windows. I doubt that you can handle this with a shell script.

My advice: file an issue at the developer's github page.


How to manually detect infections on Mac

The problem with getting pirated software is three fold:

The websites that host the software will often do contain  trackers, adware, spyware, malware, etc.
The software itself can be modified to install additional malware
Some of it is innocuous - simple scripts to open ports/back doors, log keystrokes or steal your identity.

Microsoft and IDC published a whitepaper entitled  The Dangerous World of Counterfeit and Pirated Software (making it quite apropos considering it was pirated Office software) and this answer makes extensive use as a resource.

In  the  search  for  counterfeit  copies  of  Office  on  the  Internet  (across  270  Web sites and P2P networks), we encountered malware just by visiting these sources: tracking cookies and spyware detected on our virtual PCs from 75%of the sites, Trojans and malicious adware at 14%

What this means is that just showing up to search for and download the software, you're immediately attacked using a wide array of tools like malware, adware, spyware, trackers, etc.  It's a shotgun approach by the site/hackers to see what they can get from you.
Needless to say, not only are they trying to get something on your computer, the fact that they're using trackers tells us they're building a profile.

However, 60% of the downloaded software didn't come with activation keys, which meant  some  users had to  go  back  to  the  download  site  at  least  once  and sometimes  repeatedly  to  obtain  illegal  keys.

This is an interesting technique...what better way to get a better "picture" of your victim than to force them to return to get activation keys or cracks.  This  also inherently treks them that the installation of their compromised software was successful!

Most  of the  CDs/DVDs  came  with  extra  software,  whether  wanted  or  not,  and often the installation process displayed unusual behavior, such as music playing during installation, pop-ups showing up with Web links to dating or pornography sites, or links to other sites known to be potential security threats

Emphasis mine
Granted, you didn't get an actual CD/DVD media, but these care commonly distributed as disk images (ISO/DMG) and the "unusual behavior" is in line with what you and/or your brother saw with respect to Terminal.
This is the crux of the problem!
A simple script (bash or sh) is all that's is required to open some firewall ports or modify a user shell environment file like .bash_profile or .zprofile to source some malicious code every time you open a Terminal shell.  These types of scripts won't necessarily show up as malware.  It could be a simple script using curl to connect to a website run by a hacker sending something as innocuous as you IP address or using scp to silently copy a file like your key chain.
Remember, the genuine installer requires Admin credentials to run and you provide them when you enter your password. Any nefarious steps added will then be installed with admin (sudo) privileges.
I'm assuming that the Terminal screen you're referring to is showing a login from a different TTY. (It's very difficult to see the Terminal prompt in the 4th picture). The script could have opened a backdoor to your computer.
The Risk

A good majority of people worry about data loss and they should be.  Ransomware can bring you or your business to a complete halt because the perpetrators are literally holding your data hostage by making it inaccessible and unusable.
The second is identity theft (this is the bigger risk IMO).  Having the installer add some scripts (even to cron so they run periodically) to  send things like browser cookies, your IP address, your bookmarks, password files (keychain) and even install keyloggers (we'll get back to this one).  It would be super easy to figure out that you banked at ACME bank, did your shopping at H&K and Amazon, you have a VISA from BankOne, and a MasterCard from BankTwo and you use the same username for them all.
Keyloggers
Keyloggers are a very special type of malware.  They straddle the line between bona fide malware and legitimate software.  From Malwarebytes:

Although for our purposes, keyloggers operate in the context of malware, they are not always illegal to install and use. Keyloggers are a common tool for corporations, which information technology departments use to troubleshoot technical problems on their systems and networks—or to keep an eye on employees surreptitiously. The same goes for, say, parents, who want to monitor their children’s activities. Suspicious spouses are another market for keyloggers.

This means a keylogger commonly used by (for example) parents to oversee their children's' behavior while online can be utilized by a hacker to capture your keystrokes.  Using a simple bash script, it would be super easy to scp that file to a website somewhere.
Putting this altogether now, we potentially have a method to gather all of your browsing/surfing info creating a profile or a "picture" of you, your password (key chain) files, your location on the web (IP) and your passwords (and other credentials) all sent to an obscure web location.  All of it operating under the radar because technically, none of it is malware; they're just scripts calling built in tools like curl or scp.
Mitigation

Make a different back up of your data!  Ransomware works by encrypting your existing data with a key only your attacker knows.  If your data happened to get compromised, you don't want overwrite an older, but clean Time Machine backup with bad data.

Wipe your drive and reinstall your OS.  It's not impossible to clean this up; it's tedious and time consuming.  Additionally, you'll always be wondering if you "got everything."  The most efficient way to be positive that you've removed all potential threats is to wipe your drive clean and reinstall macOS (from a trusted source, of course).

Reinstall your Apps manually or restore from a Time Machine backup taken prior to the install of pirated software.  This way you can be certain you're not bringing back compromised files.

Manually copy/restore data that was backed up post infection as you need it.  It's very likely the data is safe, but for piece of mind, take an extra step and give it a once over before copying back to your system.

Change your passwords!  Especially if you reuse credentials for different services.  The problem here is that you don't know what was compromised - so the safest course of action is to change the password so that if it was compromised, the exposure is limited.  It's very important to use different credentials for different services.  Using a (paid) product like 1Password, Keeper or the open source KeePass can help you do this.

Going forward, consider using APFS snapshots before installing software.  This will allow you to roll-back to a previously known-good state of your system.

TL;DR
The pirated software obviously did something when it was installed.  The problem is, if it simply installed some scripts that copy files and installed a keystroke logger, it can circumvent detection by malware scanners and anti-virus tools.
The only efficient and surefire way to fix this is to wipe your drive clean and reinstall.  The problem is, you don't know what was done, so you have to assume the worst and mitigate it from that standpoint.
Loss of data is always a big concern so having regular backups would be (again) a saving grace here. Identity theft is (IMO) more of a concern so changing your passwords to your accounts, especially ones that have critical data on you (i.e. financial, medical, taxes, etc.) is a high priority.  Even though you may have to reuse login/username (lots of websites use email addresses), never reuse your password - don't make it easy for the attackers!
Finally, understand the time/effort that goes into fixing this all to save a few dollars by getting some pirated software.  Hopefully I've painted a picture of the immense risk that you were opened up to, but as you go through the clean up process, you'll see how time and labor intensive this is.   Your brother owes you big time on this one...I see you being treated to a very expensive restaurant visit in the near future.


When can I remove the El Capitan install drive?

Yes, you can now remove the install media and shut down the computer. Once the machine reboots into the Setup Assistant, it's safe to remove the install media.


iOS 8 Family Sharing on, but not showing shared purchases

Download a new free app & see if it jogs the server.

From http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/09/18/how-to-start-an-ios-8-family-sharing-account-to-share-apps-music-movies-more


How do I prevent 'Open with...' showing multiples of same app?

From the comments, I was able to resolve this using the following command:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


Command/Control keys are split on PC keyboard with Mac

Please note that <Ctrl> on a "PC" keyboard is the same as <CTRL> on a Mac keyboard.  Normally on a Mac you would need to use <Command>-C for copy, not <CTRL>-C.

Note that on a PC keynote <Alt> and <Command> keys are normally reversed. Maybe this is what you are trying to fix via the Modifier keys in the keyboard control panel?

Below is the mappings hatI have for his exact configuration:


After an OS update, should you remain logged in?

You can disable automatic login from the User & Groups control Panel...

System Prefs > Users & Groups
Click the lock & supply your password to unlock
Login options - set Automatic Login to Off


iPhone 6 iOS 11 Public Beta: Camera format

Hardware encode for HEIF requires an A10 chip, and thus is only supported on iPhone 7 and newer. This is why you don’t see the option to save as HEIF on your iPhone 6:

Hardware decode support starts with iPhone 6s and iPhone SE:

  For iOS, we have hardware decode on the minimum config of the A9 chip.

Introducing HEIF and HEVC - WWDC 2017

However since all Apple devices will support at least software decode, you will be able to share HEIF images natively (by iMessage, or any other sharing service that negotiates decode capabilities) with all Apple devices.


Schedule jobs with at or crontab on Mac OS X and some alternatives

launchd

On macOS, launchd is Apple's replacement for cron. I don't know what the "official" replacement for at is.

See the StartCalendarInterval key in launchd.plist(5) to get started.


Obtaining a particular effect called "Lazy Mouse Smoothing" in a graphics application

I've had a look around and can't find any specific sites that show how to enable/use 'lazy mouse smoothing' on OSX.

EDIT: Unless this does the job (SmoothCursor): http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/41736/smooth-cursor/ - have not used and am not affiliated with the app/company

  SmoothCursor is a little utility that allows you to customize the acceleration settings of your mouse or trackpad separately. Totally recommended for drawing applications and FPS games*!

Developer's site: http://apps.leftbee.net/SmoothCursor

LazyNezumi itself states:

  I’m sorry but there is no Mac support, and I don’t plan on ever providing any (this was already tricky enough to program for Windows, and I’ve never owned a Mac or programmed with them).


Can anyone recommend a decent free stop watch widget for MacOSX?

Depending on the functionalities you want :

Simple & Design : iChrono

More features & like a real stopwatch : Stopwatch widget


How to manually change orientation of iPad

Seems like you have issue with the gyroscope inside the iPad. He's the one detecting when the iPad is turned.

Your better chance would be to go to an Apple Store if it's still under guaranty, maybe they'll find a problem and change it for you.

To answer your question, no, there's no hardware button to change the orientation. But you can lock it, and here's the 2 possibilities. If under Settings • General • Use Side Switch to

Lock Rotation
Just flip the switch over the volume button to lock the iPad in it's current orientation.
Mute
Double-click the Home button, slide the apps to the right and click the button to the further left. It will lock the orientation.


Turn off automatic preview in apple mail

In Terminal, type:

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool yes

If you want to turn it off again, use

defaults write com.apple.mail DisableInlineAttachmentViewing -bool no

You may need to restart Mail after running this to change the behavior.


Any memory usage that you can get rid of with purge is, by definition, not a leak.

OS X has always tended to use memory for its disk cache, and newer version have become fairly good at keeping memory busy with caching when not used actively by programs. When a program uses that memory for computation, the amount used for the disk cache is used correspondingly.

Why do you think it’s bad that your memory is used? Unless you’re seeing performance degradation, it tends to be a feature to effectively use your installed RAM.

ETA: What @zigg said above.


How do I create a Folder Action Script to tar items dropped in folder?

Rather than spending your time with Folder Actions (which I, and many others, have found to be unreliable), might I suggest that you give Hazel a try?

http://www.noodlesoft.com

Disclaimers: I'm going to start off by telling you it isn't free (it's US$28), but if you like automation, this is the place to start. There is a free 14-day trial. I am completely unrelated to the company except as an extremely happy user.

Hazel allows you to create 'folder actions' very easily using a nice GUI which is similar to creating Mail.app rules. You can take action depending on filename, extension, kind (i.e. "images, documents, movies") and many other.

Here is the rule I use for any file/folder added to ~/Action/ZipIt/

Hazel looks for any file which is not already an archive (I could have told it to act on any files at all, but I want to avoid compressing files which are already compressed). I could add other criteria (which could be options or requirements, like boolean "AND" or "OR" statements).

Whatever it is will be archived, then moved to the Desktop, then it will be shown to me in the Finder.

See the little "Options" button next to the 'Move to Desktop'? Click on that and you can tell Hazel what to do if it detects that the file you are going to move is a duplicate.

There is also an option to have Finder brought to the front or not.

There are lots of other actions Hazel can do besides archive:

(Note: iPhoto and Aperture are greyed out because I don't have them installed.)

The options to run AppleScript/Automator/shell scripts means that you have the power to do pretty much anything you can imagine.

I could go on and on, but here's one more example: I have Hazel watch ~/Downloads/ for .zip files. When it finds them, it unzips them to ~/Action/Unzipped/ (you can do this either by telling Archive Utility to use that folder, or use The Unarchiver). Hazel then looks in ~/Action/Unzipped/ for new files which end with .app and, if found, moves them to /Applications/ and opens them. Voilà! Instant installation of apps.

In the world of 99¢ apps, $28 probably sounds like a huge expense, but to me Hazel is one of those tools which takes something Apple did, but not very well (Folder Actions), and replaces it with something that will make you wonder why Apple didn't do it. You get a 2 week trial, and a dedicated developer who has worked on this app for years, and who is very good at answering support questions.

Sorry to sound like a fanboi, but when it comes to Hazel and a few other Mac apps, I really am.


adding a exception rule to do not disturb?

The only exceptions to Do Not Disturb are calls or texts from individual contacts that you have marked with Emergency Bypass. (Edit a contact, tap on Ringtone or Text tone, then enable Emergency Bypass at the top of the screen. You have to do this for each of calls [ringtone] and texts [text tone] if you want both to get through.)

You cannot add exceptions for any other kind of notifications or activities.


Removing duplicate application entries in context menus

This worked:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user


can I make a facetime call while blocking my number

No - FaceTime is peer to peer and exposes either your phone number or AppleID / email to the caller.

You can of course accept the call, and they will know someone has that account. And by virtue of answering, you have confirmed the contact they dialed has someone looking at the device and signed in.


How to write ExifTool keywords which Spotlight can see?

As of OS X 10.11, this appears not to be possible.

JPEG but not PNG

That you can not find a working example suggests the Spotlight indexer does not extract the meta-data from Portable Network Graphics, png, files.

According to Searching EXIF data with Mac OS X Spotlight, it does work for jpeg files.

File an Enhancement Bug

Report an enhancement bug through Apple's Bug Reporting web site – and through general OS X feedback. This is the best way to directly tell Apple what you want.


Is it possible to make the terminal background live?

Launch your favorite browser, download node.js and install it. Then download Hyper for macOS (direct download link!) and install it.

Then struggle with configuration and install some "plug-ins" like hyper-cat:

Hyperpower:

hyper-command-gifs or rediscover your programming skills and create your own themes & animations.

To install a plug-in (here hyper-cat) do the following:

cd ~/.hyper_plugins
npm install hyper-cat

Then in Hyper's menu choose Hyper > Preferences. Depending on your EDITOR variable (here the default nano) scroll down, replace

  plugins: [],

with

  plugins: [

  "hyper-cat"

  ],

and hit ctrlO and ctrlX to save the changes. Then reload with cmdR.

The plugin update error can be resolved by replacing shell: '', with shell: '/bin/bash', (or another shell) in ~/.hyper.js.


This could be two things.

The video could be using a codec that iPhoto doesn't recognise. Unfortunately Apple don't seem to publish a list of video codec that they support. Even Apple's listing of image file formats is vague.

The video could be using a recognised format but the file could be corrupt.

I would try opening the file in something that supports a wide range of video formats, like VLC. If the file doesn't open at all, there is a good chance it is corrupt. If it does open, you can check the file format with CMD + I.


Command "istats" gives "-bash: istats: command not found" after "gem install iStats"

Thanks to historystamp's comment here is how the problem was solved (for bash shell):

Open/Launch Terminal
gem uninstall iStats (source)
gem install iStats --user-install (source)
export PATH="~/.gem/ruby/2.6.0/bin:$PATH" (source)
source ~/.bash_profile (source)
istats

If you use macOS Catalina, the default shell is zsh. The adapted instructions are the following:

Open/Launch Terminal
gem uninstall iStats (source)
gem install iStats --user-install (source)
Open or create ~/.zshrc
At the end of the file (or where appropriate) insert: export PATH=~/.gem/ruby/2.6.0/bin:$PATH (source)
Save file ~/.zshrc
Source the .zshrc file: . ~/.zshrc (source)
istats


How can I change the tags in the context menu?

From Finder prefs [Finder menu > Preferences... or  Cmd ⌘   ,  > Tags

You can check which to show in the sidebar in the top section & in the lower section you can drag & drop the set to use on contextual menus.  It will replace the tag you drag to with the new one.


Jittery macOS mouse cursor when hovering over links

So happy to hear I'm not the only one with this issue. Bought a new MacBook Pro 16 inch earlier this year in May, having that issue since.

After I bought it, I noticed the issue. Contacted Apple, told me to send it in for repair or exchange it for a new one at the retailer. So I replaced it. Brand new MacBook, same issue (however only after logging in with my Apple ID).
We're now deep into August and I've been in contact with several people at Apple since May. To no avail. We're now trying to escalate the issue to other departments, but not sure how long this will all take. The general comment they've made is "that the resolution might come in the form of an update, so keep an eye out on that"..

Some things I've noticed that might be helpful for others to know:

At first I thought the issue was with external displays. But after further debugging it seems the issue has to do with my GPU (AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB). The reason it seems the  issue has to do with an external display is that the MacBook will switch from the embedded Intel UHD Graphics card to the better GPU when plugging in certain displays.
You can try the above by opening something like Final Cut Pro without an external display plugged in. The issue will then appear since the MacBook switches to the other GPU. You can also verify this by disabling "Automatic graphics switching" in the "Energy Saver" settings.
A clean install doesn't fix the issue. It also doesn't seem to be a hardware issue since the problem appeared on two separate MacBook Pro's.

I'll update the answer when I hear back from Apple. If anyone else has more info, glad to know.


Can't boot after enabling FileVault macOS Sierra

First if all, thanks to @klanomath or I likely would still be assuming the wrong issue. He was correct that the data was never actually encrypted due to FileVault's incompatibility with CloverUEFI. I used a Mavericks install USB, and used Terminal from inside it to confirm that the data was not encrypted, followed by using the "Turn Off Encryption..." option for the disk in disk utility, and immediately rebooting after double checking that the disk was not actually actively decrypting.

I now have access to my Sierra install again, and will shortly test my Sierra and El Capitan recovery partitions to see if they are working.


truecrypt 7.1a requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later on Yosemite 10.10

Copy the mpkg from inside the downloaded disk image onto your Desktop.
Right click the mpkg file and choose Show Package Contents, then open the Contents folder.
Open distribution.dist with a text editor.
Remove lines 13 to 18.

Save the file and open the mpkg normally.


How can I add a private key to my keychain?

You have to create a .p12 file. In order to do that you need your private key and a certificate for that key. Then run the following on your console:

openssl pkcs12 -export -clcerts -inkey private.key -in certificate.crt -out MyPKCS12.p12 -name "Your Name"

where private.key is your existing private RSA key, certificate.crt is your existing certificate and MyPKCS12.p12 is the name of the file to create. This file can then be imported into your keychain.

If you need your key for SSH access (SFTP, SCP or similar), it doesn't have to be in your keychain. Simply copy your private key to ~/.ssh/ and edit/create the ~/.ssh/config file. There you would put something along these lines:

# replace the host, location of the private key and the remoteUserName
# with valid values.
Host remote.domain.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/private.key
    User remoteUserName


Transfer Videos From iOS5 Device to Computer Wirelessly: Possible?

I haven't tested it with videos, but I've had some decent results using PhotoSync. I think it's $2 or $3 on the app store, with a free Mac side client. Transfers photos and videos to/from your iOS library wirelessly without using iTunes. It also supports albums in iOS 5.


Why doesn't Microsoft Office/2008(& later) support RTL languages?

“Why” is a question for Microsoft, but I'm guessing it boils down to a simple lack of resources on the part of the Mac Business Unit. They have to prioritize certain features, and RTL support is not a priority for them.

To address the underlying need, you have several options:

OpenOffice and NeoOffice support RTL text in Microsoft Office documents.

Mellel has a reputation as the best RTL/multilingual word processor (it certainly has a nice feature set for it, like a direction breaking space so you can mix RTL/LTR in a paragraph), but I don’t know how good its Microsoft Office document interoperability is.

This would also be a use case where it might make sense to run Office 2010 inside a Windows virtual machine.


Cannot factory reset a MacBook running OSX 10.5 using Disk Utility

There is no recovery partition on that one so no "Internet Recovery." you will need to make an installation DVD or USB key.

Log onto the app store and see if you have the option to download MacOS Lion (the latest version compatible with that Mac).

Failing that and a friend with the ability to download a compatible OS install for you, you might want to see if an Apple Genius can help you get that OS downloaded.

Failing that, it's time to hit Craigslist or eBay


How to leave the Rename Printer dialogue without renaming the printer

I tried and just like what you said, if you don't change the printer name then you can not change the location field neither.
Without renaming the printer, there are two situations:

The "Location" is not changed. Then just leave the dialogue by click the "Cancel" button.
The "Location" is changed. As far as I know, you have to rename the printer name then you can change the "Location".

Once entered the Rename Printer dialogue, you can always exit by clicking the "Cancel" button.


Activity Monitor not showing correct memory usage?

Most of the difference was marked probably memory marked as inactive. Any app can still use this memory, so it's not marked as used by some process.
For more info about inactive memory, see this thread.

Wired memory usually makes up a much smaller portion. This is memory used by the OS; it isn't available to your apps.

For more info, see the Apple article Reading System Memory Usage in Activity Monitor.


I am getting this message - Could not save as ... because write access was not granted

That sounds to me like a file permissions issue:

Check if the file you are trying to open in Photoshop is currently open anywhere else (ie. another program is using it, hence locking write access).
Right-click the file in Finder and check if your user account has full access privileges to manipulate the file, if not, add them

Hopefully those two hints may get you closer to your desired outcome. Let me know how you get on.


If what you are asking is how to delete an Apple ID from Apple's servers the answer in short it that you can not. At least they do not have a simple process to do so. There is no way to remove an Apple ID from Apple directly from their associated websites, instead you have to call Apple support directly and see if they will assist you.

If you are worried about information that you have stored on Apple's database you can go into your Apple ID settings (https://appleid.apple.com/#!&page=signin) and remove information you no longer want them to save.


Backup Disk Not Available - Time Capsule

I see this every few months and all other features of the device seem to work fine when it happens. The short answer is a restart has always fixed it for me, either from the Airport Utility or if you must by cycling the power.


Chrome Bookmarks vanished after clearing history!

Try this to see if you're just looking in the wrong place...

Quit Chrome
Switch to Finder
Open a new Finder window,  Cmd ⌘   N
Go To...  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   G
Copy/paste this ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/ (including the tilde ~) into that Go To window
Hit Enter

What do you see?

Bookmarks ought to be in there, along with Bookmarks.bak
Hold  Alt ⌥  & drag both to the desktop, for safety.
Delete Bookmarks.
Rename Bookmarks.bak to Bookmarks
Launch Chrome

BTW, ~ (tilde) is Mac shorthand for your home folder, in My hard drive/my user name/ without needing to know what they are called. It always goes to your home folder.


"Allow Deletion of Running Applications" Option

The answer turned out to be something silly. I was using an app called "AppCleaner" to uninstall the application in question. The option to "Protect Running Apps" was actually in AppCleaner, not in the Mac OS itself. In order to delete the running application, I had to uncheck "Protect Running Apps." I was able to locate the Preferences within AppCleaner and re-check "Protect Running Apps."


Can't log in to iTunes Connect : blank square?

Trying on Safari and a slightly bigger screen :
my password expired and the blank screen was on Safari a screen asking to update the password.


Lion's Preview regularly hangs when unhiding with open documents

I’ve been having this problem in Lion, and the only workaround I’ve found is to disable Resume, on a once-off or total basis for Preview.

Disabling Resume permanently

If you open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app), and enter the following string, then Resume for Preview will be disabled permanently:

defaults write com.apple.Preview NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false

You can also disable Resume for all apps in System Preferences: in the General pane, untick the checkbox marked Restore windows when opening and quitting apps. I find Resume generally useful, so I haven’t, but you might want to do this.

One-off disabling or Resume

If you don’t switch it off permanently, and you’re working with a lot of files in Preview, you might not want it to re-open them the next time you launch it. When you quit Preview, hold down the option key; then the Quit Preview command becomes Quit and Discard Windows. Use this, and it won’t reopen all of your files next time. (Keyboard shortcut is opt-cmd-Q).

If you forget to do this when you close Preview, and it starts hanging, then you can flush the Resume data. Navigate to ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState and delete the file or folder stored there. This deletes all the saved data for Preview, so when you open Preview later, it doesn’t restore any of your saved documents.

This is probably more useful if it’s misbehaving intermittently, than for the problem you describe.

Further comments

If you’ve set Preview to never remember your files, you can temporarily get it to remember them. As with the one-off disable, hold down the option key when you quit Preview, then you get the command Quit and Keep Windows.
I disabled Resume for Preview shortly after Lion came out, and I’ve not had any problems since. However, I only use Preview for images, not PDFs (I use TeXShop for that), but even so, the hanging is completely gone.
You can also have “opt-in” Resume using these steps. If you disable Resume for all apps, then run the Terminal command above with true instead of false, then you can whitelist Resume-enabled apps, rather than blacklist them. You can find the com.apple.Preview equivalent for any app by looking at what the appropriate file is called in the Saved Application State folder. (A quick Google search for Terminal commands involving that app
would also do the trick).

I hope some of this is useful and speeds up Preview: it certainly worked for me.


Adding Bookmarks for multiple tabs in Safari with a keyboard shortcut

You can use this Applescript; it creates a shell script containing the links for all the tabs in the current Safari window:

-- Set the default folder to Home -> bookmarks
set bookmarkFolder to "/bookmarks"
set username to do shell script "whoami"
set defaultFolder to POSIX file ("/Users/" & username & bookmarkFolder)

-- Initialize the text ot the script.
set cmd to "#!/bin/bash" & linefeed & linefeed

-- Add commands to open all the tabs.
tell application "Safari"
    set n to count of tabs in front window
    repeat with i from 1 to n
        set cmd to cmd & "open -g " & URL of tab i of front window & linefeed
    end repeat
end tell

-- Open/create a file and save the script.

tell me
    activate
    set scriptAlias to choose file name default name "tabset" default location (defaultFolder as alias)
end tell
set scriptPath to quoted form of POSIX path of scriptAlias
set scriptFile to open for access scriptAlias with write permission
set eof scriptFile to 0
write cmd to scriptFile starting at eof
close access scriptFile

-- Change the file attributes to make it double-clickable.
do shell script "chmod 777 " & scriptPath
do shell script "xattr -wx com.apple.FinderInfo '00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00' " & scriptPath

The original version is by Dr. Drang.

I have changed two things:

the script allows for whitespace in the file name
the default folder is ~/bookmarks

To run it, you can either use a launcher (like Quicksilver or Butler) or wrap it in a System Service with Automator:

create the service

add a Run Applescript item
select Service receives no input in Safari
paste the Applescript

create a shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services

⌘⌥D does not work if you use it to toggle the visibility of the Dock


How to script a global keyboard shortcut in MacOS

Well, if you want to set the "Move focus to next window" to ⌘ ⇧ § you'll obviously also need two modifiers along with the § key. (Your screenshot is contradictory to this, though.)

Your script has to contain an additional "$" here: '{"Move focus to next window"="@$§";}'.
Maybe this will work?


How Do I Set the Default Language in Pages?

You have to change the settings in the "International" panel in System Preferences.

Go to System Preferences.
Go to the Language & Text (In 10.6) panel (the language tab appears first by default).
Put your preferred language at the top of the list (you might have to edit the list).

Relaunch your iWork application (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) and your preferred language will be used as default language.


First of all, they do not (should not) require your root password, but your admin password (superuser privilege). Secondly, if you happen to be working as a standard account (so no admin privileges) on your daily basis, than yes, installing to /Applications requires an admin´s authentication; if you have admin rights, then installing something into /Application/ (and only there) should not be a problem (if it is, you need to fix permissions).

More in general, if we assume that the application developers know what they are doing (which unfortunately is sometimes not the case), then no, installing the ApplicationName.app bundle into your userfolder would still require admin rights. Because if they really need admin-rights to install their software, it´s probably (hopefully) because they need to install stuff other than the ApplicationName.app bundle; this can range from kernel extensions (say, you install a VPN software like OpenVPN, Hotspot Shield, etc.) to simple utilities that display your network traffic and even some Adobe Tools that all need to go into folders that are owned by other users (not in your group) to enhance overall security. And even if they just place an application into /Applications/ , they might still want to play nice and fix the permissions to root:wheel 755 .

Basically, the Applications you install per drag&drop should be free to go where ever you want, but Installers for software that (even just for add-ons) require more than your daily userrights to run need to be run with admin rights, and thats an actual security feature.

Or even shorter: If you do not trust the installers source, do not install. With or without admin rights, your personal data might be endangered.


What's this separate "Phone" task section in app switcher?

That allows you to open a browsing session active on your phone in Chrome on your Mac in Chrome


All my Folder and Application icons disappeared in Finder

I was having a similar problem--not with icons in the dock--but Illustrator icons in Finder list view would just display as blank white icons instead of the Illustrator CC icons.  Using the info in this thread, I showed all hidden files.  This can be done using the XtraFinder app.  Once all hidden files were shown, I went to the path below and moved the store.index file to the desktop and logged out and logged back in.  The store.index file re-created itself and all of my Illustrator icons were back.  You can delete the one on the desktop and empty the trash before once again hiding all the hidden files through XtraFinder.  Solved!

HD/private/var/folders/*/*/C/com.apple.iconservices/store.index

The asterisks represent random folder names that are different for each computer.  The last asterisk may have more than one folder.  Find the C folder that is not locked.


On closer inspection, it looks like the display is not actually uniformly black. This led me to conclude that perhaps the backlight was just not turned on properly, and led me to discover the following workaround:

Log into the iMac
Change the brightness to a different level (e.g. up or down by one). The level seems to need to be different from the one previously used.
Enable Target Display Mode again, by pressing Command+F2


How can you verify that FileVault 2 is enabled on a macbook?

You can check whether FileVault2 is enabled by opening System Preferences > Security & Privacy and looking at the FileVault tab.
Passwords for FV2 work slightly different than what you are used to from Linux:

The FV keys are stored on your computer
Your account password is required to unlock the keys (and therefore the encrypted disk)
You need to specifically allow users to unlock a FV encrypted disk so there could be user accounts which aren't allowed to unlock (and therefore can't login until an authorized user unlocks the disk first)


Macbook Pro early 2007 SSD to the new Macbook Air 2017 install?

Your "old"ssd has a sata connector, while the MBA has a pcle connector. Aso the old SSD is much larger than the one inside the MBA. In short: no way.
But you can insert an SD card and format that as GUID, Mac OS extended (journaled)as a storage expansion.
here is an Apple article that describes the slot:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204384
and here is an article that describes the uses for the SD slot:
https://www.macworld.com/article/3329753/macs/older-mac-sd-card-slot.html
Altogether an easy and cheap solution for your "problem".


Check the status of a Finder copy-paste operation from Apple Watch

I doubt such an app exists even for iOS, leave aside watchOS, for watching Finder file operation progress. This is a very specific use case and I am not certain if there are any official APIs that lets you obtain this data in a watchOS or iOS app.

A simple solution that I can think of is to install a VNC viewer app on your iPhone (many available on the App Store). Configure your Mac for screen sharing. Now using the viewer component on your iPhone/iPad, you can visually see the screen of your Mac and check file operation progress.

VNC apps are not just viewer and you can also control your Mac from your iPhone, thereby giving you the ability to perform operations on your Mac remotely.


Why is Xcode 12.2 as large as macOS Big Sur?

Xcode 12.2 unpacked is 16.8 GB, 13.2 GB of which are platform operating systems.

iPhoneOS.platform is 5.9 GB
AppleTVOS.platform is 3.6 GB
WatchOS.platform is 3.3 GB

In comparison, MacOSX.platform is only ~300 MB since most of the platform is already available in a normal installation of macOS. Xcode doesn't just build apps for macOS — it also builds apps for other operating systems and runs a simulator of each OS.


Mac Pro with fresh install of Ubuntu Server 14 will not boot

I was able to solve it by wiping the drive again, and reinstalling. Must have not installed correctly