My App Store refuses to Download and Install the MacOS upgrade from 10.10.5 to 10.11

You have to go through the App Store to get to 10.11 (technically not true-- you can buy El Capitan on a USB drive, for example). What I mean is you can't just go to apple.com and search for El Capitan and download it. After you have some version of 10.11, you can apply the 10.11.5 Combo Update (although you will not have to since you will get the latest, freshest 10.11.x from the App Store and that's 10.11.5).

The 10.11.5 combo update is for taking a 10.11.x system to 10.11.5. It won't work on 10.10.x. So you are doing the right thing going through the App Store, but I think something is clogging up the download-- probably an older software update that didn't complete.

Look in the Purchases section of your Mac App Store app. You may have an older OS download that is stuck (or paused) too, in addition to the El Capitan. Maybe Mavericks, maybe something else. If you click "Resume" on that one I think it will simply disappear and your El Capitan will resume instead. I Basically you have to get rid of the OS download that is clogging up the works. You may be surprised to find such an old and incomplete system upgrade in the Purchased section-- I was, when it happened to me.


What shortcut does ⌦ symbol in Camunda macOS app indicate and how to invoke it?

In macOS, this symbol represents forward delete shortcut (to delete characters to right). It can be generated using the fn + delete key combination.

The aforementioned shortcuts are helpful on majority of Apple keyboards which lacks a dedicated forward delete key, such as MacBook and Apple Magic keyboard.

To reiterate:

⌫: Delete Left (like Backspace on Widows/PC)
⌦: Delete Right (fn + delete on compact keyboards. Also called Forward Delete)

This keystroke is used in the Camunda macOS app to remove selected object from canvas.

Notice the fn and delete keys in the accessibility keyboard.


You have to activate it once using a matching (netlock-wise) SIM. After activation you can remove the SIM again and use it in WiFi mode.


On Mojave the system doesn't generate correct thumbnails. The only workaround is to place the wallpaper into /Library/Desktop Pictures/ and place its thumbnail into /Library/Desktop Pictures/.thumbnails/ folder. This requires administrator password and can only be performed from terminal.

sudo cp mywallpaper.heic /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/
sudo cp mywallpaper_thumbnail.heic /Library/Desktop\ Pictures/.thumbnails/mywallpaper.heic

Thumbnail has to have same name as wallpaper. macOS Catalina can create correct thumbnail. Custom thumbnails are only supported for wallpapers inside Desktop Pictures folder.


Extending searching into the archives folder in Mail.app

Here is a solution fro this post that might help:
Alex

It appears that this is linked to Spotlight in some way.
I recently turned spotlight indexing back on for the volume holding my $HOME and immediately this started working again.
I assume that without the spotlight index it can't find the Archive directly automatically, then finds it via IMAP when I run through the steps in the question.


Why does an iPhone rename itself with (2)

That occurs when your Wifi network, or another Wifi network he's been connected to, think that there are two devices with the same name. It will then rename the device with a (2) or (3), etc. This is actually a bug in the software that Apple has used with the latest iteration of Yosemite and the Airport Extreme.

You can resolve this by shutting down your Airport Extreme, renaming your son's iPhone removing the (2), then turning the Airport Extreme back on.


Are there remote administration tools for iPad? Preferably screen sharing

I would probably recommend the Teamviewer app for iOS.

Full instructions found here.

It is Free and you can download it from App Store

For your specific case read this

How to Get Started with Mobile to Mobile Connections!

That will allow you screen sharing but not Control since iOS does not allow remote control at this time.

But there is an exception.
You can connect to any iOS based devices with TeamViewer for Remote Control for iOS. This feature, however, is limited to connections to apps that have the TeamViewer Screen sharing SDK for iOS integrated.

Therefore, only screen sharing is possible for connections from a mobile device to an iOS app.

On the Supported iOS App

This functionality is based on the implementation of the Screen sharing SDK by the app developer and meant for them to support their app on an iOS device.

Therefore, it is only necessary to initiate a support request from within the supported app.


It looks like Karabiner-Elements is what I'm looking for.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/281437/9422 has been quite helpful. So far, this mapping appears to do what I'd expect (unlike Apple's):


Google Chrome has Flash built-in, you could use that for those sites without having to install the stand-alone version.


Is there a fast way I can clone a partition on to another drive using a sector by sector copy, instead of copying individual files?

Use dd to clone your drive/partition.

The syntax is simple:

dd if=inputfile.foo of=outputfile.bar bs=blockSize

This will do a bit for bit copy of your drive.  Whatever your drive "looks like", including partition tables, will be copied.

For example, assuming your Time Machine drive's identifier is /dev/disk3 and your second USB drive's identifier is /dev/disk4, your command would be:

dd if=/dev/disk3 of=/dev/disk4 bs=1M

You can also write directly to the raw device by using /dev/rdiskX

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=1M

Keep in mind, you will need to unmount the devices first with the command sudo diskutil unmountDisk diskX

Copy Speed

You are correct in assuming that there is some overhead associated with copying files.  However, what you may not be aware of is that USB 3 speeds aren't what they are cracked up to be.  USB 3 is upto 5Gbs (gigabits per second)... in a lab, on a clear day, with a really strong tail wind, going downhill.

The actual speed of USB 3.0 is closer to 100Mbps1

So, doing a little calculation, we find that to transfer a 4TB file at 100Mbps means it will take roughly 10 and a half hours at best (it could go slower!)

What I have found to be the most reliable for me is that I copy the file to an internal drive (or a network share as a 1Gbs wired connection is significantly faster than USB will ever be) and once I have the image, I then copy it to my target.

Breaking it up into two separate processes:

sudo dd if=/dev/rdisk3 of=/Volumes/Some/Network/Share/file.img bs=1M

sudo dd if=/Volumes/Some/Network/Share/file.img of=/dev/rdisk4  bs=1M

This has the added benefit that if anything happens, there is a copy in a safe place.

1 PC World:  USB 3.0 speed: real and imagined


Automate removing the last page of a bunch of PDFs

I've done this using the Coherent PDF Command Line Tools Community Release.

You can download either the pre-built tools or the source code to compile the later on your own, however the latter requires OCaml be installed when compiling. So the pre-built tools are the easiest way to go. The downloaded distribution file, e.g. cpdf-binaries-master.zip, contains binaries for Linux, OS X/macOS and Windows and is ~5 MB in size.

Once downloaded and extracted (double-clicking the .zip file) you'd copy the, e.g. ~/Downloads/cpdf-binaries-master/OSX-Intel/cpdf, file to a location that is defined in the PATH environment variable, e.g. /usr/local/bin/ to make it globally available on the command line in Terminal. If it's not in the PATH then you'll have to use the fully qualified pathname to the cpdf executable or ./cpdf if it's in the present working directory (pwd). In Terminal, type echo $PATHso show the PATH.

The syntax for removing the last page when the PDF file has 3 or more pages is:

cpdf in.pdf 1-~2 -o out.pdf

The syntax for removing the last page when the PDF file has 2 pages is:

cpdf in.pdf 1 -o out.pdf

Because cpdf reads the original file (in.pdf) and writes to a new file (out.pdf) the out.pdf filename needs to be different if saved to the same location as the in.pdf file, or save it to a different location with the same in.pdf filename as the out.pdf filename, or whatever out.pdf filename you want.

Below, I'll show two examples of automation using cpdf to remove the last page of a PDF file, assuming it has two or more pages. One using an Automator workflow as a Service available in Finder on the Services Context Menu and the other as a bash script, to use in Terminal.

As an Automator Service Workflow available in Finder on the Services Context Menu:

In Automator create a new service workflow using the settings as shown in the image below and copy and paste the code below the image into the Run Shell Script action and save as e.g.: Remove Last Page from PDF

To use Remove Last Page from PDF, in Finder select the PDF files you want to remove the last page from and then select Remove Last Page from PDF from the Context Menu via right-click or control-click, or from Finder > Services > Remove Last Page from PDF

for f in "$@"; do
        # Get Page Count.
    p="$(/usr/local/bin/cpdf -info "$f" | awk '/Pages:/{print $2}')"
        # Get file extension.
    ext="${f##*.}"
        # Get filename without extension.
    fn="${f%.*}"
        # Rename original file to "filename (original).pdf".
        # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
    mv -n "$f" "${fn} (original).${ext}"
        # If page count is greater than 2, set 'p' to '3' as any
        # PDF with more than 2 pages the command will be the same.
    if [[ $p -gt 2 ]]; then
        p="3"
    fi
    case "$p" in
        3)
                # PDF file has 3 or more pages.
            /usr/local/bin/cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 1-~2 -o "$f"
            ;;
        2)
                # PDF file has 2 pages.
            /usr/local/bin/cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 1 -o "$f"
            ;;
        1)
                # PDF file has 1 page. Make a copy to the
                # original name for consistency of output.
                # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
            cp -n "${fn} (original).${ext}" "$f"
            ;;
    esac
        # If you don't want to keep the original
        # file, remove '#' from the next line.
    # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}"
done

Note that the PATH passed a Run Shell Script action in Automator is, /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin. So the code above is using the fully qualified pathname to the cpdf executable, /usr/local/bin/cpdf as that is where I placed it so as to be available in Terminal by way of using its name cpdf, only.

Also note that if you do not want to keep the original files, then uncomment (remove the # from in front of) the # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}" command, just above the last line of code done.

As a bash script to use in Terminal:

Create the bash script in the following manner:

In Terminal:

touch rlpfpdf
open rlpfpdf

Copy the code block, starting with #!/bin/bash, below into the opened rlpfpdf document and then save it.

Back in Terminal:

Make the script executable:

chmod u+x rlpfpdf

Now move the rlpfpdf script to, e.g.: /usr/local/bin/

sudo mv rlpfpdf /usr/local/bin/

You can then change directory cd ... to a directory that has the PDF files that you want to remove the last page from and then simply type rlpfpdf and press enter.

The original files will be moved to "filename (original).pdf" and the newly create PDF file sans the last page, if 2 or more pages, will have the original filename.pdf name.

#!/bin/bash

for f in *.pdf *.PDF; do
    if [[ -f $f ]]; then
            # Get Page Count.
        p="$(cpdf -info "$f" | awk '/Pages:/{print $2}')"
            # Get file extension.
        ext="${f##*.}"
            # Get filename without extension.
        fn="${f%.*}"
            # Rename original file to "filename (original).pdf".
            # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
        mv -n "$f" "${fn} (original).${ext}"
            # If page count is greater than 2, set 'p' to '3' as any
            # PDF with more than 2 pages the command will be the same.
        if [[ $p -gt 2 ]]; then
            p="3"
        fi
        case "$p" in
            3)
                    # PDF file has 3 or more pages.
                cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 1-~2 -o "$f"
                ;;
            2)
                    # PDF file has 2 pages.
                cpdf "${fn} (original).${ext}" 1 -o "$f"
                ;;
            1)
                    # PDF file has 1 page. Make a copy to the
                    # original name for consistency of output.
                    # Use '-n' to not overwrite an existing file.
                cp -n "${fn} (original).${ext}" "$f"
                ;;
        esac
            # If you don't want to keep the original
            #  file, remove '#' from the next line.
        # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}"
    fi
done

Note that the code above assumes the cpdf executable is in a directory that is within the PATH environment variable, e.g.: /usr/local/bin/

Also note that if you do not want to keep the original files, then uncomment (remove the # from in front of) the # rm "${fn} (original).${ext}" command, just above the last line of code done.


How do I access a mobile mailserver on a mac as opposed to a web mailserver?

Via The Browser
You'd have to send a mobile user agent to the mobile.company.com (there's a redirect on desktop devices). Safari will get you there via User Agent in the developer tools. First turn on Developer Tools.

Then change the user agent.

Now you should be able to access mobile mail server as a mobile user: mobile.company.com. I'm not sure if your ISP provides a webmail interface for mobile users. If not, you won't see much there.
Potential Solution: Spoof User Agent in Desktop Email Client
I can't quickly find an email client which directly spoofs user agent. If I had to guess which ones might be capable of offering an alternative user agent, you could try either MailMate (powerful high configurable shareware) or Thunderbird (geeky open source with an option for everything).
Contact info to MailMate creator Benny Kjær Nielsen is here.
Alternative Solution: Clean Up Your Mac's Certification Authorities
You may find it easier to reset your security certificates. Make sure Keychain Access is set up this way.

You should also delete expired or invalid certificates from under the System sidebar menu. Once you've done both of these things, you should run Software Update as Apple should replace some of the now missing certificates. Certificates and Signing Authorities can be imported by hand but that's beyond the scope of this answer.
I've just done this myself and it's allowed Chromium to load Github again. It may work with your email security issues as well. This is the lasting and flexible solution but perhaps the hardest to pin down.


How can I fix a weird WindowServer bug which only occurs on one machine?

I had to wait a while - but upgrading to Mountan Lion fixed this for me. (just in case anyone else had this issue - unlikely though it seems.)


How best to share a Mac-connected printer with Windows 7 PCs on a workgroup network?

If I wanted to connect a printer to my Mac mini instead, what do I need to do in order to share this printer on the network so both my other Mac and my Windows PCs can continue to print? Is a good reference for this procedure available online?

Share the printer, and install Bonjour on your Windows 7 PCs.  It's likely already installed if they run iTunes.

  Can OS X share a printer on a network using the exact same protocol that Windows uses to share a printer, or is it necessarily different? If there are protocol choices, how to choose?

No, it will use it's own protocols, and they are basically Bonjour, or nothing

  If the sharing protocol is necessarily different, are Windows clients still able to mount Mac-shared printers? Are there specific gotchas or caveats, say, about credentials or otherwise? Job management?

Operationally a shared Mac printer should present no gotchas that a Windows one won't, for example it may struggle to report Ink Levels as a shared printer rather than over USB etc, you may only be able to print to a multifunction printer, and not scan etc.


How do you launch an application.app stored in nfs share from bash script?

The primary issue I see with your command:

exec open -a "/path/to/nfs/"Sublime\ Text.app" "$@"

Is you have used a backslash to escape a space while also quoting the command. Use one or the other, but not both, e.g.:

open -a "/path/to/nfs/Sublime Text.app"

Or:

open -a /path/to/nfs/Sublime\ Text.app

I also see no reason to use exec when the open command by itself works in this context, or from a script, e.g.:

open -a "/path/to/nfs/"Sublime Text.app" "$@"

That said though, when using the open command with the -a option you might consider using the --args option, which from its man page states, "All remaining arguments are passed to the opened application in the argv parameter to main(). These arguments are not opened or interpreted by the open tool.", thus making the command as, e.g.:

open -a "/path/to/nfs/"Sublime Text.app" --args "$@"


Set up background for laptop and plugged monitor

You could try the following as a workaround that may meet your needs. Before proceeding, make sure you are also connected to your external display. Follow these steps:

Open Mission Control
If you haven't previously set up additional desktop spaces before, then click on the + sign at the top right of the screen to create a new desktop space
Now enter the new desktop space by selecting it (via the top of the screen)
Set the background image you would like for the ultra-wide screen on this desktop space
Open Mission Control again
Now enter the first desktop space by selecting it from top centre of screen
Set the background image you would like for your laptop screen on this desktop space

So far, what we've done is created an additional desktop space and allocated a unique image to each as a desktop background.

The trick that may work is to now assign certain apps to the space for the ultra wide screen. This is because if you use an additional screen and have apps running on it you will have an additional space for that screen.

So, in your case, let's say you usually use the ultra wide screen for iMovie. You can allocate iMovie so that it works on the second desktop space. Here are the basic steps to doing this:

Click on the app in your Dock and keep the mouse button down (if you don't keep it in your Dock, then just launch it first)
From the submenu move the mouse pointer to Options
You'll see you now have a number of options for where the App should display. In this example you'll want to select Desktop on display x (where x will be a '1' or '2').

The idea behind all this is that if you only use your ultra-wide screen when you're using certain apps, then you can automate some of this workflow. You can also add more apps to work on this screen by default.

Notes:

For this to work as described, ensure the Mission Control System Preference Pane has Displays have separate Spaces enabled.
This also assumes that Mirror Displays is off in your Displays System Preferences.

Hopefully you'll find something in all of this that works for you (or comes close). For more information on how this all works, see:

OS X El Capitan: Work in multiple spaces
Use Mission Control on your Mac
How to use Mission Control, Expose, Split Screen & Spaces on the Mac


How to disable "x days since last backup" reminders in High Sierra

I had the same problem - you have to have your back up disk installed / mounted.  Then 'Select Backup Disk' from System Preferences / Time Machine, choose to 'Remove' - this way you force it to forget the disk and so it no longer reminds you about 'XX days since last backup'.


How To Strip All Finder Attributes for Some Device

rm ._* does the trick for FAT, which has attributes are stored in these ._ prefixed files, but doesn't work for NTFS, which embeds them into filesystem.


Command+A -> Command+I -> Options -> Part of Compilation -> Yes -> OK

Not sure why you'd want to do this and I didn't test it because I don't want to do this to my library but that should be it.


Temporary Folder Difference for Apple Script

If you don't want or need those temporary files to be available to all users, then definitely using "from user domain" is ideal. If you require the files to be available to all users, then you should use the plain "path to temporary items".


Using AppleScript to find information about images in Pages documents

Nice work you almost got it. I would suggest looking at the properties instead of the data ;)

tell application "Pages"
    tell front document
        repeat with pg in pages
            tell pg
                set im to images
                repeat with i in im
                    tell i
                        get properties
                    end tell
                end repeat
            end tell
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell


Is there a way to auto spectacle every app / window that I open from different programs upon opening?

I set my windows to what size I like. Here is how I use my web browser.

You can adjust the windows to what size you like.  The come back to that size the next time you start.

For some reason, Windows seems to want you to work on one app at a time in full screen.  In the mac, I have multiple apps open at once.

One of the great features of macOS for me, is to use a keyboard manager, keyboard maestro.  I have set up F2 to be mail, f5 to be edit html, f4 to be a web browser, f8 to be bbedit and shift f12 to be activity monitor.  The neat thing is you can press these key to start the app or switch to the app.  Thus, there is no worry about whether the app is running or not. Thus, when I press f4, I get my web browser. I can "play" my function keys to quickly move between applications.


Is it possible to create a new Apple Developer account and create new Apple ID at same time?

Is the goal simply to have another account you can use to update the app in App Store Connect? If so, you do not need a developer account. All you need is for the owner of the developer account to invite you as a user and delegate access. Note that the invited account does not even have to be an Apple ID. This will grant you access to App Store Connect, but not all the resources of a full developer account. There are several roles and levels of permissions as detailed here: https://developer.apple.com/support/roles/

If you do need your own developer account, you must create the new Apple ID first, then enroll it in the developer program. You will have to sign into the new Apple ID from your iPhone initially to set a "trusted device" and enable two-factor (multiple Apple IDs can use the same trusted device). After you have set up your "trusted phone number" you can sign out from the new Apple ID and just use the SMS method for that account.


Does iOS 4.2 change the voltage on the camera kit USB?

I could have sworn I've managed to use a USB keyboard with my iPad, and it shipped to me with 4.2.1 installed. Maybe my keyboard uses less voltage (it's one of those semi-novelty foldable ones).

Perhaps you could get around this limitation with a powered USB hub?

Update: I've recently heard rumour of someone working on a solution for this.


Copy to clipboard from Tmux in El Capitan

Actually, I just find out very simple solution how to enable copying using Cmd+C again.

In default Terminal application go to View->"Allow mouse reporting" and uncheck it. Thats it.

PS: Obviously, the new nice features like dragging split screen in tmux stop working after unchecking the mouse reporting.


exFat Hard Drive not showing up on mac OS X 10.7.5

I haven't tried this myself as I haven't had this similar problem, but I read that it is the cluster size that you select during formatting which is the issue. If you plan to use with Mac, format the drive using a cluster size not more than 1024.
The problems I have are kind of different with exFat and mostly when the drive is not ejected properly under mac, everytime this happens i have to do a verify/recover step which takes quite a lot of time as mine is also a 1TB drive.


OS X - How to have starting applications (optionally) not take the focus?

open -jga TextEdit opens TextEdit hidden (-j) and without making it frontmost (-g). The -j option was added in 10.8 and it is only shown in the help message and not in the man page. If TextEdit is already running, open -ja TextEdit (without -g) would just make TextEdit frontmost and not hidden. For some applications like TextEdit and Mail, open -jg opens a new visible window if the application is running but has no open windows, but you can use something like pgrep -x TextEdit||open -jga TextEdit as a workaround.

A second option in 10.9 and later is lsappinfo launch launchandhide=true nofront=true /Applications/TextEdit.app.

A third option is osascript -e 'launch app "TextEdit"'. Unlike the open and lsappinfo commands, it is blocked until the application finishes opening. For some applications like TextEdit and Mail, the launch command opens a new visible window if the application is not already running.

Edit: none of the options above seem to work with VirtualBox, but you can hide VirtualBox after opening it:

open -jga VirtualBox;lsappinfo setinfo -app VirtualBox kLSApplicationIsHiddenKey=true

osascript -e 'launch app "VirtualBox"' -e 'delay 1' -e 'tell app "System Events" to set visible of process "VirtualBox" to false'


Convert Numbers.app spreadsheet to JSON document?

I don't believe that you can directly convert a Numbers document to JSON. However, you can export a Numbers document to any number of formats, shown below.

There are a bunch of converters for CSV->JSON. I found two online converters from a quick Google search: Convert CSV and Mr. Data Converter.

This is not an ideal solution if you have a lot of these documents to convert, but I am sure that it will be easier to find effective CSV->JSON converters than Numbers->JSON converters.


BootCamp "boot to OSX" boots to recovery instead of macOS

A possible solution would be to install rEFInd in your EFI partition. I would first test by installing rEFInd on a USB flash drive. If MacOS and Windows boot from rEFInd, then you could copy rEFInd to you EFI partition.


Your password will be in Keychain if you have ever signed in to the web site directly.
You're looking for the one that's listed as www.icloud.com(name@email.com) as a Web form password in the iCloud keychain.
None of the other items in Keychain that look like passwords are in fact "the password", they are all encrypted tokens of some sort & probably indecipherable.


How do I make my Apple earphone's play button not launch iTunes and instead pause/play a video on YouTube?

Taken from here: The short answer is that you can't select which media app has priority since they're all equally treated, but if there's nothing playing iTunes takes preference.
The linked answer also pointed to a patch for the Remote Control Daemon at https://github.com/thebitguru/play-button-itunes-patch, which might be what you were looking for. It's a 1 MB download and you will need at least El Capitan (OS 10.11). On that page it says:

This is a patch for removing the default OS X behavior of always starting iTunes when the play button on the keyboard is pressed. This feature can be useful for a lot of users, but it can also be annoying if you are using VLC, Nightingale or other similar programs that support the media keys.
The application will patch the Remote Control Daemon to prevent it from starting iTunes whenever you press the play button on the keyboard or an external remote control. This will only prevent iTunes from starting, all other functions (like play/pause while iTunes is running) will continue to work as before. The original file is backed up in case you would like to restore the original functionality.

It's unfortunately not a straight forward installation. You find the instructions and download on https://thebitguru.com/projects/itunes-patch.


There isn't a lot you can do about holding it up to your wife's head, perhaps it isn't close enough. You will notice that if you try to fool the phone by holding it up to your had or arm siri will not activate.

As for the geofenced reminders, you need to have location services turned on for reminders.

You will also need to set the address in your contacts, so add your home and work address to your contact.

For troubleshooting you will really need to look into the apps you are trying to control from Siri, as Siri itself is not an app, it is part of iOS. It is each individual app that will need to be looked at when troubleshooting.

Remember that Siri is still in beta and you can expect some teething problems with it.


Can I connect a Windows 10 machine with USB C to a Thunderbolt display?

No.

TL;DR: Thunderbolt 3 uses the USB-C connector and includes USB 3.2 signaling (including a DisplayPort signal), but a USB-C connector does not necessarily include support for Thunderbolt 3.

Few things to understand here.

USB and Thunderbolt are technology standards, both of which establish their own connectors, communication and connection protocols, power delivery standards, and other specifications. Both USB and Thunderbolt support carrying multiple different types of data/power.
USB and Thunderbolt both have multiple revisions—1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.2 Gen 1x1, 3.2 Gen 1x2, 3.2 Gen 2x1, 3.2 Gen 2x2, 4.0 (upcoming), and 1, 2, 3 respectively. Don't worry, everyone hates the USB names as much as you do, and yes, they did change it on you.
USB-C is a specification for a physical connector type (like USB-A, USB-B, mini USB, and micro USB), not a protocol in itself. While the physical connector does allow/limit what can be carried, it does not in itself specify what if carried.
USB-C can carry (or not carry) USB data (ranging in speeds from 2.0's 380 Mb/s to 4.0's 40 Gb/s (upcoming)), power, or any one of the display-oriented "Alternate Modes" (DisplayPort, MHL, HDMI, and confusingly, Thunderbolt Alternate Modes respectively.)
Thunderbolt 3 uses the USB-C port. USB 3.2 supports it, but does not require it, except for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2, which requires it.
The upcoming USB 4.0 is effectively identical to Thunderbolt 3, but it's not out yet anyways, so who cares.
The Thunderbolt display, no matter what, requires a Thunderbolt input, not just a display input, and will not function with just a display input. Basically, the Thunderbolt display is a Thunderbolt dock with a display attached to it, with no way to attach just the display part.
Although Windows tends not to play nice with Thunderbolt displays (and 2011 and newer iMacs in Target Display Mode), they will work with some finagling.
The USB-C port on the RTX 2080 implements VirtualLink, a proposed USB-C alternate mode that isn't quite the same as the other standardized Alternate Modes, but from a practical standpoint, is often largely compatible.

Whew. Got all that? Let's run through some scenarios.

Works (usually): Connecting a Thunderbolt Display to a Thunderbolt 2 enabled Windows computer (including Macintosh in Bootcamp.)
Works, but only under macOS because the adapter still doesn't work under Windows for reasons that I really don't understand and Apple couldn't seem to explain to me over the phone either, and even then only after updating macOS to... some version of Mojave not sure which: Connecting a Thunderbolt Display to a Thunderbolt 3 enabled computer using Apple's Thunderbolt 3 to Thunderbolt 2 (not USB-C to Thunderbolt 2!) adapter.
Probably, but might not actually work: Connecting an Apple Cinema Display to your RTX 2080 via it's USB-C port using an adapter.

N.b.: Different USB-C ports, as well as cables and devices, can support different parts or levels of the USB specification. Make sure everything in the chain is up to spec!

Still confused? Understandable. Thunderbolt 3, as frankly a godlike specification as it is, is massively confusing. The split between various individual companies, consortiums, regulatory/specification bodies, implementors, vendors, and most of all, the confusing marketing and specification of USB-C makes this an absolute mess to understand. I don't blame you for thinking this would work, but sadly, it won't.

So, my advice? You could go ahead and throw a Thunderbolt card in your motherboard, assuming you have one that supports it (or are willing to switch to one that does.) However, the easier solution is probably just to get a different display.


Terminal command to get all of a file's metadata?

This response might be late, but hopefully it will help someone.

There are numerous ways to view metadata in the terminal on an Apple computer:

mdls path/file.extension

mdls stands for Metadata List and you can look at the man pages (man mdls) to learn how to use it.

xattr path/file.extension

xattr stands for Extended Attributes. This can be used to display and edit extended attributes of files.
xattr -l path/file.extension causes the attribute names and values to be displayed. However, I've noticed that, at least on macOS, it seems that this only displays user-added data.

ls -l@ path/file.extension

ls is a powerful terminal listing utility. In its simplest form it lists the current directory contents. However, as you can see here you can list more than that.

exiftool path/file.extension

You need to install exiftool separately if you haven't already.  For example, if you use brew, you can do brew install exiftool.
exiftool is a useful utility for viewing and messing around with file metadata.

sips -g all path/file.extension (for images)

sips and identify are both for reading image metadata/info.

identify -verbose path/file.extension (for images)

Depending on your desired application, one of these might be more appropriate or convenient than the others. However, it should be noted that these all show different things, even if slightly.


Is it possible to find the serial number of stolen devices using a Mac that they've been connected to?

How to get serial numbers for displays:

Go to /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist. Open this with TextWrangler or a similar utility. Look for a DisplaySerialNumber key with an integer value that isn't 0. With any luck, this should be the s/n of your display.
If you haven't used this display for a while, the records of it may be gone.
Also, it appears that this isn't guaranteed. Double-check if possible.

How to get the serial numbers for iPods:

Open /Library/Preferences/com.apple.ipod.plist.
 Look under the Devices dictionary. Any iPod you've connected will have all its info there, including the s/n (under Serial Number).

Good luck.


There are two answers to this question.

The first is globally useable. I'll assume you're on a narrow/laptop keyboard. In those instances, Fn+Down ▼ acts as Page Down, and just to expand that thought out entirely:

Fn+Up ▲ = Page Up
Fn+Left ◀ = Home
Fn+Right ▶ = End

This will not work properly in some applications. Those that come to mind are things like vim, less, screen, and other "full screen/ncurses menued" programs. The above keystrokes scroll the terminal window, but if the terminal window has not been paged, then scrolling won't accomplish anything.

The second half of the answer is one that I can't answer without more detail.

Example:

In less, the spacebar or ctrl ^+f will page down one screen full.
In vim, ctrl ^+f will page down one screen full.
In screen, you will probably never have to Page Down, but if you scrolled back in copy mode, ctrl ^+f works there too.

If I haven't answered your question, you will need to elaborate on it, heavily.


You can't recover data directly - in the sense of recovering data lost by accidentally deleting files or formatting a volume - in Internet Recovery Mode/Recovery Mode because no appropriate tools are available in the Base OS X system.

You may clone a disk or volume with dd to an external drive and check the data on a second Mac using a recovery app like Data Rescue/Disk Warrior or Lazesoft Mac Data though. IIRC some of the apps even allow you to create a recovery DVD/thumb drive and by booting from this modified recovery OS X you may check your Mac's disk directly.


Using a USB-C dock with older MacBook Pros

(Assuming you mean to say that you have a MacBook Pro and not a MacBook because there is no MacBook that was made in 2014.)

You aren't going to find a Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C adapter as it makes no sense for vendors to create one.

First off, let's address the core (technical) premise of the question:

  ...I need a Thunderbolt 2 (male) to USB-C female adaptor,

There is a fundamental difference between thunderbolt 3 using the USB-C connector style as opposed to the underlying data and voltages being compatible for USB to Thunderbolt.  To use a car analogy, this is like asking for a gasoline that specifically works in convertibles.  USB-C is just how the port is physically laid out.  Thunderbolt is neither "compatible" nor "incompatible" with nor does it convert to  USB-C.  Thunderbolt 3 uses a USB-C connector; it "embeds" USB 3.1, PCIe, DisplayPort (DP) and power on the same set of cables.  It's like having 4 different adapters and plugs in one.

To continue the vehicle analogy - imagine having one pump that could safely detect if diesel (and which blend) or gasoline (leaded or unleaded) or ethanol (of many different blends) is needed from the same one hose that is inserted in to the side of the vehicle. Many fuel types can flow through one connector as opposed to designing a different connector for each fuel type.

  Being able to use a USB-C dock with older Thunderbolt 2 Macbook Pros
  would not only be cheaper but also allows me to use the same USB-C
  dock if I decided to upgrade to a future Macbook.

Yes it would be cheaper, but unfortunately, that's not how it works.  There are a couple of mix-ups between what a TB dock is and what a USB dock is:

The type of dock (TB or USB) is how the connection originates.  You plug a TB dock into a TB port.  You plug a USB dock into a USB port.  A TB dock uses the TB protocol, while the USB dock uses the USB protocol.
USB-C is just the plug type.  It's a USB 3.1 port.  So, to use a USB dock with a USB-C adapter it must go into a USB 3.1 port with a USB-C connector.
As such, there is no such thing as a "USB-C dock."  This is like asking for a "convertible gas station."  What exists is a USB dock.

A Thunderbolt 3 port with a USB-C connector supports USB 3.1.  However, a USB 3.1 port with a USB-C connector DOESN'T support Thunderbolt.

So, unlike TB3, TB2 does not have USB signaling embedded (and this is where it gets confusing). It's PCIe, DP, and power only.  So, to get USB, you need an adapter.

To better understand what PCIe is, the best way is to have a look at it in it's most common format.  Below is photo of a PC motherboard but not any technically different than an Apple logic board (they are essentially the same thing).

To add USB ports, you need an interface into this "bus" like the adapter below:

Thunderbolt is basically the PCIe port in the first picture in a nice, clean cable and your TB adapters (USB, Ethernet, storage, etc) are dongle version of the second picture.

You can't really "future proof" anything in Tech.  Ask anyone who purchased an Xerve G5.  What you can do is architect the solution that maxes out your investment.

So, what you need is a path to go from Thunderbolt 2 to USB 3.  Once you have USB 3, you can get whatever adapter it starts from (USB-A) and convert it to what you need (USB-C).  What is important to understand here is that while you can connect USB device with USB-C connectors, you will be limited to Gen 1 speeds - 5Gbs as opposed to 10Gbs.

The device that gets you closest to this is the Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Laptop Dock with Thunderbolt Cable.

To get your USB-C connected devices, you will just need the right USB 3.1 A to C cable

As to your questions as to why this adapter doesn't exist:

  If there is no such adapter please explain:
  Is it impossible to produce?

Not at all.  As explained above this is basically a USB to PCIe adapter and may adapters like Ethernet already exist.

  If not, why hasn't a vendor created one yet? I've explained that its a better financial investment than buying a TB2 dock...surely there's a market for those still using TB2 MBPs wanting to upgrade in the next couple of years. Not only docks but it would open a gateway to cheaper alternatives to those hideously expensive TB2 peripherals.

Is a better financial investment for YOU or for the manufacturer(s)?  Without getting into a lengthy history of TB1, TB2, TB3 and its market share, it's quite safe to say that the time between the release of TB1 and TB3 is quite short.  In fact, the time between TB2 and TB3 is about a year and the only major vendor to include TB2 ports was Apple.  TB2 never had a chance to even gain interest, let alone acceptance and adoption before TB3 and USB 3.1 was released.  As it stands, we are talking about a technology (TB2) that is already obsolete for a product (MBP 2014) that now 3 years old.

Keep in mind that Apple's Mac shipments for 2014 was around 7% of market share on about 20 million units.  While that sounds massive to you and me, keep in mind, it would be best case scenario that 10% of the market, or about 2 million potential units.  Again, huge for you and me, but tiny for the manufacturer(s) who, by the way, would have to split that small market between the other vendors.

Manufacturers are going to create products for markets that have growth potential, not for ones that will only continue to get smaller with the passage of time.

  Do you know the surest way to go broke?  Keep getting an increasing
  share of a shrinking market.
  ----Lawrence Garfield (Danny DeVito, Other People's Money)


How to find all iWork documents which are not yet converted to iWork'13?

I’ve put together an Automator Workflow to find all iWork documents that have not been converted yet. The workflow uses this shell script:

find "${1}" \( -iname '*.key' -or -iname '*.pages' -or -iname '*.numbers' \) -and \( -type d -or \( -type f -and -not -exec bash -c 'unzip -qq -l "${0}" Metadata/DocumentIdentifier >/dev/null' '{}' \; \) \) -and -print

Technically this script finds anything with the “key”, “pages” or “numbers” extension which doesn’t look like an iWork’13 document: documents created with iWork’13 are stored as ZIP archives and contain a “DocumentIdentifier”, whereas documents created with iWork’09 are ZIP archives without this “DocumentIdentifier”. The script also matches on directories, as the first versions of iWork stored documents as package directories.

The last action in the workflow creates an alias to the documents found by the script, making it easy to browse the results in the Finder. I recommend you change the action to use another folder than the Desktop though, as there may be a lot of results.

Edit: I have learned that the iWork document format as a ZIP archive with a “DocumentIdentifier” seems to have been introduced in iWork'14 rather than iWork'13, and is only used when saving to a Mac locally, not when saving to iCloud (as mentioned in the Ars Technica review of iWork’14). So the above script finds anything with one of the iWork extensions that does not look like a locally-saved iWork’14 document. I don’t feel a need at the moment to refine the script to only find pre-iWork’13 documents so I will leave it as it is.


Do not let the viewer go to the first page systematically

In Preview there is only a setting that let it start on the page that it was last used, but that is not necessarily the page with the modification made by emacs.


alternative to TotalTerminal that works with El Capitan

If you're willing to disable System Integrity Protection to continue using TotalTerminal, you can do that. If not, the developer of TotalTerminal says the reason he stopped working on it is that he switched to iTerm 2, which he says "offers similar functionality to Visor and comparable features to build-in [sic] Terminal.app." I've never used either, but another question on this site explains how to set up iTerm to work in a similar manner.


How do you remove MariaDB and NGINX from Mac via terminal?

Trying stopping the process - nginx -s stop should shut the server down. To restart it,  run which nginx to tell you where it's running from. Then run the main executable.

Instead of going for the nuclear option of removing it straight away, stop the server. Once you know where it's starting from, you can navigate there and look at the config files to see what port it's on etc. Or you could just nuke it using rm -rf on the nginx paths.


Is it possible to open Chrome's databases.db in another MacBook?

They certainly can but they need your keychain password from the originating MacBook.

On Windows the password store is encrypted using your system password.
 Regardless, any system ought to be encrypted and should never share your keychain password with anyone.


iPad Mini 2: iOS 9.1 iMessage doesn't work after restart.

It sounds like this is a bug. You should probably report this to Apple Support.

Try to sign out of you Apple ID, then force restart by holding down the Sleep and Home buttons until the screen goes dark, and release. Afterwards sign back in to your Apple ID.

If this fails, try making a backup in iTunes (download) then restore to the latest firmware. This does two things:

It "reuploads" all the settings on the iPad Mini 2 such that any weird setting bugs should be fixed.
It updates the iPad Mini 2 to the latest iOS firmware possible. Take note that usually there are multiple bug fixes in every new itieration of iOS firmware released.

I do not guarantee this bug will go away, but you should give this a shot.


The storage on a 4S is Flash-based, not magnetic-media-based, which would be my prime concern in a scenario like this—so you're safe there.  I'm not aware of any other components in the 4S that would be affected by a magnetic case.  I have personally carried my own 4S in various magnetic cases for about a year now with no ill effects.


External display occasionally shows just noise

I have had the same problem with Maverick (in clamshell mode) / external monitor (Samsung SyncMaster 2443) when I lock my screen and use my bluetooth mouse or keyboard to wake up the computer.

I was able to fix the problem in 2 ways:

open the lid, login and unplu, replug the external monitor (pretty annoying)
when the multicolor static shows, press CTRL+SHIFT+Eject as if to lock the computer again, then wake up the computer again and I now have the normal login screen as normal (not ideal but less disruptive solution).

I hope this helps !


No, not until you can install OS 10.9, which will have the iBooks app.  Until then, books created with iBooks Author can only be read on an iPad (not an iPhone or any other platform).  If you want a book which can be read on all platforms, you need to use the .epub format.  iBooks Author cannot produce that, but Pages can.


How to save video from my iphone 5 to Time Capsule?

No, the Time Capsule can only backup through Time Machine. Since the iPhone doesn't run Time Machine, you can't backup the video directly.


Even when you switch off you iPhone the system clock draws power from the battery to keep the time and date function on your phone. Addionally the clock needs much lower voltage to keep working while the kernel on iphone wont work or even display the "charging" graphic until a minimum threshold of voltage is reached by the battery.

I would suggest charging a minimum of 30 mins from a wall charger.
Also note, the older iphone including the iPhone 5 do not charge with USB 3.0 ports (0.95A) so avoid doing this with a newer laptop with USB 3.0 port as there wont be an indicator to let you know that its actually not charging.
I hope this helps and answers your question.


Unable to setup Command + Shift shortcut on Mavericks

You can use KeyRemap4MacBook to for example map option-shift to option-F19 and control-shift to control-F19:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <item>
    <name>test</name>
    <identifier>test</identifier>
    <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::SHIFT_L, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::SHIFT_L, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L, KeyCode::F19, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::SHIFT_R, ModifierFlag::OPTION_R | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_R | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::SHIFT_R, ModifierFlag::OPTION_R, KeyCode::F19, ModifierFlag::OPTION_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::SHIFT_L, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_L | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::SHIFT_L, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::F19, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyOverlaidModifier__ KeyCode::SHIFT_R, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_R | ModifierFlag::SHIFT_R | ModifierFlag::NONE, KeyCode::SHIFT_R, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_R, KeyCode::F19, ModifierFlag::CONTROL_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Then change the shortcuts for switching input sources to option-F19 and control-F19.


Making A USB Drive Bootable in Snow Leopard, Lion and Mountain Lion

Use Disk Utility to partition your external drive into three volumes. This kbase article can help you (use instructions for a startup disk). Name the volumes something that will help you identify them when you option-boot into them later (something like "Tech 10.6", "Tech 10.7", "Tech 10.8"). I recommend at least 8-16GB for each partition to allow the OS to install and room for additional software.

Then follow your normal procedure for creating your bootable Disk Warrior environment. If you are installing OS X 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 respectively onto each volume, just use the typical OS X installation instructions specific to each OS. Ensure that you are on a Mac capable of installing each OS and ensure you select the correct volume from the external drive.

When all is said and done you will be able to option-boot into each environment as long as the machine hardware/firmware is capable of booting into the respective OS you select.


How can I permanently force Xerox secure printing?

In Windows there is an opportunity to save individual, but permanent default settings for each application.  I'm sure the same option is there for Mac users as well.

Open the print driver settings.  Do the necessary adjustemnts to black-white vs color, one-sided or two-sided printing eg, and choose secure print.  The before pressing "print" choose the "save print defualts" ....  (I'm nt a Mac user so I cannot say where precisely that option is found.)


Activity Monitor, my system always runs in the red for CPU load - how to fix?

Your confusion is the result of a bad UX design decision on behalf of Apple.

Basically, the red colour in the CPU Load graph within Activity Monitor signifies the level of CPU usage by the System. The blue colour signifies the level of usage by User processes.

In other words, red isn’t being used to signify danger, or to try to alert users to a problem, it’s simply the colour chosen to signify system usage. So, if the system is using 1% or 99% of the CPU, it will always be displayed in red.


This is happening because you enabled your program to capture and use your mouse inputs so that your terminal app has to forward all mouse events.

However, most terminals have 'override' capability. In most cases holding something like Shift or Ctrl key brings control back to terminal and enables to select text, right-click and make other actions.

I found out that for Terminal app the override key is Fn; for iTerm2 it's Option.


How to prevent apps from from not letting you restart Mac OS

Use a text editor to create a new file "Shutdown.command" and place it in your Desktop folder. The file should contain the following:

#!/bin/bash
/sbin/shutdown -h now

Then when you double-click the new Shutdown file on your desktop, the system should immediately proceed to shut down without waiting for your apps. Your user needs to be an Administrator on the Mac for this to work.

I read from your comments to the original question that you assume that this is the same holding the power button on the computer - that is no so. Holding the power button on the computer simply shuts down the power supply to the computer, which is not good as this can lead to problems with file systems, data not being saved, etc.

When you use the above mentioned script, the system shuts down cleanly. This means that data still in RAM that hasn't been written out to disk will be written out to disk, and file systems on internal and external drives will be unmounted cleanly.


Disable "helpful" iMac message icon when text with my iPhone

Yes, this can be done.

The best way to restrict access to your Messages is to use separate login accounts for each person using your iMac. Each account would then only have access to their own Messages.

If you would rather not set up accounts for everyone, you could simply turn off the alerts on your screen within the Notifications Preference Pane in System Preferences by turning the alert style to "None". However, this would not stop someone from simply opening up the Messages application to see all of your texts.


USB 3 not working on Yosemite MacOS 10.10.2

Have you tried resetting your SMC and NVRAM? Doing both of these can help solve not only this problem but other problems you're having with your system as well.

See these articles from Apple.com for more details:
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
How to Reset NVRAM on your Mac


Apple infinite load. I/O error and even a new HD

First I would try doing the NVRAM reset by restarting and holding down Command-Option-P-R until you hear the startup sound a second time. Then I would try an SMC reset. Mavericks and Mountain Lion can be pretty finicky and even strange when new hardware is installed. I've had to reset the SMC on my system with Mavericks 3 times since I started using Mavericks. In my case, it's Mavericks, not the hardware. It's buggy.

The I/O error typically is either a bad drive or cable, so you probably did have a real hardware problem at some point. I'd be inclined to recommend Scannerz (http://scsc-online.com/Scannerz.html) to test it, but you need a working system to use it, and if you can't even get yours to boot, that obviously won't help.

Does the Mac Mini even have a SATA cable to the HD, or is it a connector that sits on the logic board with the HD plugging directly into it?


Macbook Pro 15 mid 2012 - not able to solve overheating

I understand your concerns (justified or not), you love your Mac and want to keep it alive as long as possible.

Here are some home remedy (Do it Yourself)-- (also available where you live).

If you want to keep your Mac cooler during HOT games, go to pharmacy and buy what they call a gel-pack (gel balení). Freeze it!

Then put it under your Mac with a towel in between (to prevent freezing).

That will provide additional cooling for few hours. Have second gel-pack if you want to continue gaming for 24 hours a day :)

As for your temperature reports, so far they look normal based on this example.

  Throttling

  This test wouldn't be complete if we didn't address the subject of
  throttling. Prime 95 and Furmark can extract the maximum performance
  out of the hardware. When both programs are run simultaneously, the
  core frequency drops (caused by Prime 95) to 1.2 Ghz. Running Prime 95
  alone, we measured temperatures between 92 and 104 degrees Celsius
  (197.6 and 219.2 degrees Fahrenheit), and the word "Throttling"
  flashes repeatedly in HWiNFO. Furmark on its own cycles through all
  available Turbo Boost steps. After about one hour, the temperature
  settled at a fairly consistent 85 degrees Celsius (185 degrees
  Fahrenheit) with the fan system running. We never measured above 100
  degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) with Furmark. This limitation
  might be due to the power adapter: in the above scenario, the system
  would require 86.6 watts - but the power adapter can only supply a
  maximum of 85 watts. Immediately after running our different tests, we
  subjected the system to 3DMark 06 and CineBench R11.5. The results
  were identical to after a cold boot.

The fastest way to quick check is to use the surface temperatures as shown here.


You can use  Cmd ⌘   `   (the key under escape) to switch between the windows of an application.


How to reset Logitech mouse's back/forward buttons?

As I mentioned in the comments, I found no other solution except changing the buttons to send the corresponding keystrokes. Fortunately, this works fine in almost every app I frequently use, including Finder.

The keystrokes I used were command+option+8 for back and command+option+9 for forward. Note that this is on a Finnish keyboard layout.


Yes, it will work as long as both the MacBook Air and the Denon receiver are on the same network segment. Your Air will need either the USB or Thunderbolt adapter to connect to ethernet (the latter provides Gigabit speed as well as supports jumbo packets) directly.

You can have many iOS devices and the Air also connect over a wireless bridge and they will see the receiver that is connected via ethernet to the main network switch.


I am running a while loop which ends in & and I closed the terminal, so I can't stop it now

Open a new Terminal tab/window
Run ps alx|grep "[s]leep 1" (maybe several times, until you get the sleep 1 as part of the output

pse@Mithos:~$ ps alx|grep sleep 1
  502  1268  1245   0  20  0  2432796   1460 -      S      ??    0:00.00 sleep 31536000
  502 80121   809   0  31  0  2432796   1772 -      S+   s002    0:00.00 sleep 1

Kill the shell it's running in by using the parent PID of the sleep command (the number in the third column, 809 in this case): kill -HUP YOUR-PARENT-PID-HERE


Access hidden "root-only" folders on Finder

Sometimes it is useful to quit the Finder application and reopen as the root user. You can quit the Finder application by entering the following command in a Terminal application window.

osascript -e 'tell application "Finder" to quit'

Below is the Terminal application commands for opening as root user. I assume here that you have first quit any previous opened Finder applications.

If using Mavericks (OS X 10.9) or Yosemite (OS X 10.10):

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder 2>&1 | logger &

If using Yosemite (OS X 10.10) or El Capitan (OS X 10.11):

sudo login -f root
/System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder 2>&1 | logger &
exit


How do Macs calculate the amount of Hard Drive space left?

Your question is hard to answer because you don't mention the layer you are looking at.

There at least four layers to consider:

Hardware layer

Usually the hardware consists of some administrative blocks, the "payload" blocks and some spare blocks. A hard drive contains some dozen and an SSD drive up to 15% of the official size of spare/reserve blocks. Bad blocks are remapped to the spare/reserve blocks by the drive's firmware. The operating system only knows the size of the payload blocks. Some low-level disk tools (e.g. Spinrite) may read out the number of available spare blocks.
Partiton layer

Depending on the size of the hard disk - propagated by the firmware/hd-controller to your EFI/operating system - your partitioning tool (e.g. Disk Utility) may create partitions by determining start values and end values for each partition in the partition table. The free space on your hard disk is determined by the final block of the last partition and the beginning of the second GPT table (provided that you partitioned your drive continuously and gaps don't exist). You may read out the free space on your hard disk with gpt.
Volume layer

Usually partitions have to be formatted with a file system to be usable. Almost all important filesystems contain a volume bitmap. The volume bitmap is a representation of all (file system) blocks or clusters of a volume. Free blocks and occupied blocks are marked differently. So one method to determine the free space on a volume is counting all blocks tagged free in the volume bitmap.
LVM layer (Logical Volume Manager) or CoreStorage

The LVM layer is an abstraction layer in between hard disks, partitions and volumes. Though determined by the basic partitions ("Physical Volumes") a Logical Volume may span over several Physical Volumes (Fusion Drive). I don't know it for sure, but a Logical Volume Group probably contains a counterpart of a partition table holding all informations about all contained objects (like Physical Volume(s), Logical Volume Family(ies), Logical Volume(s)). The available free space may be read out by entering diskutil cs list
block/cluster layer (this is not relevant for OS X file systems)

Some file systems support block suballocation. In short words: A lot of files don't occupy a full block/cluster of the volume layer because they are smaller than the block/cluster size. In the free space of the cluster you may store a second/third/forth small file. I don't know how to determine this free space (probably some i-node/B-Tree magic).

Depending on the layer you may now choose the appropriate method or tool to determine the "free space of your hard disk".


Cannot edit the "Release Date" field for TV shows in iTunes

You can "import" a TV show episode from the Windows system to your Mac, set the release date on the Mac and then copy it back to the Windows system. Not exactly a viable workaround for most but if you happen to have both platforms it may work until Apple gets their act together and starts to test their software before releasing it to their customers.

Quoted from Apple's Support Forums: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7567758?start=0&tstart=0

Seems like this is an issue for many and you might have to wait for a newer version.


What app/feature/software is this microphone image from?

This is the Mac OS X built in voice input mechanism.

To turn it off, visit preferences - it's possible to turn it on via a keyboard shortcut which may explain it's random appearance.

  Speech Recognition

  Speakable Items, built into OS X and located in the Speech pane of
  System Preferences, lets you control the computer using your voice
  instead of the keyboard. And you don’t have to train your Mac to use
  it. You can use Speakable Items to navigate menus and enter keyboard
  shortcuts; speak checkbox names, radio button names, list items, and
  button names; and open, close, control, and switch among applications

This article from Lifehacker explains how to use the feature is you are interested in learning more.


Adding login items from terminal in Catalina

Try enabling AEServer and/or Script Editor in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Accessibility. Occasionally I've had to quit and relaunch System Preferences for new login items added via AppleScript to appear.

After doing this I was able to add login items via AppleScript. Confusingly, after I disabled Accessibility access for AEServer and Script Editor I was still able to add login items via AppleScript.


Gigabytes of disk space shown as hidden space in DaisyDisk

Starting up from the recovery partition and repairing the disk fixed the issue. (Disk Utility showed an error about an invalid free block count.) Thanks @cksum.


Safari 12 compatible versions of ad blockers fail to block many ads

The situation is likely to persist.

Content blockers that are offered by Safari are limited to 50000 entries. uBlockOrigin  needs many more for example. 1Blocker for iOS circumvents that with a trick, using many of these and combining them. This is another builtin technical limitation, making 1Blocker inherently less effective.

In any case, these are different from the concept used in the traditional blockers – requiring a rewrite. Apple says these would be "faster and safer". Maybe. All we see is that our tried and tested favourite extensions do not work anymore, and if there are any successors even ready, they are apparently not up to the task on the level many were accustomed to.

Coupled with the newly enforced restrictions for devs requiring App Store distribution, this disincentivises independent developers. The latter are artificial policy enforcements. This raises the cost for the devs and will likely result in the withdrawal of most useful plugins altogether.

TamperMonkey and uBlockOrigin or JSBlocker devs are not happy. And for those three at least, it seems they have dropped the ball, citing the need for App Store distribution and certification as too costly, too much hassle, not worth it, bad on some fundamental principles:

  Safari/iOS: Unfortunately, after legal review, the EFF found Apple's developer agreement unacceptable. Furthermore, Safari seems to lack certain extension capabilities required by Privacy Badger to function properly.

And in its current iteration, the technology of content blockers as too limited in principle for blocking all that needs to be blocked. uBlockorigin cites the same reasons as JSBlocker:

  Safari has a feature called "Content Blockers" that allows for extremely efficient resource blocking on both the desktop and iOS version of Safari. As much as I'd like to incorporate this into JS Blocker, it is not feasible to do so. Using a content blocker will prevent JS Blocker from showing you exactly what's going on on a website (i.e. you won't see what's allowed or blocked.) It will also break all of JS Blocker's "other" features, such as showing alerts within the webpage and canvas fingerprinting protection. Besides the loss of features, content blockers are limited to 50,000 rules. While this seems like a high number, it isn't enough for efficient protection and a lot of rules would need to be cut out to even run a content blocker. Until Apple eases the restrictions (or at least raises the number of rules that can be in a content blocker), JS Blocker will not be using this API.

And:

  Safari App Extension

  I have no experience creating native mac apps; it will therefore be impossible for me to re-create JSB as one.

  Users who downloaded JS Blocker from the Safari Extension Gallery will probably not be able to update beyond 5.2.2. Apple is not responding to my requests for updates despite them saying they will accept submissions until the end of 2018.

We all need to complain to Apple directly and massively. It's a pity we haven't done so during the shocking beta phase.

Use Product Feedback - Apple, email, chat, your blog, or even better yet a developer feedback channel, file bugs.

Zotero connector is going to circumvent the stupidity enforced by switching to bookmarklets, other things break left and right and in the middle. This is just much too strict:

  Enable Your App Extension in Safari
  If you’re not part of the Apple Development Program, or if you haven’t yet configured a developer identity for your existing Xcode project, your Safari App Extension won’t be signed with a development certificate. For security purposes, Safari, by default, ignores unsigned extensions, so your extension won’t show up in Safari Extensions preferences.
  To develop without a certificate, each time Safari is launched, you must tell it to load unsigned extensions using the Develop menu:

Many might think it's about money, but for some, it's indeed more the technical parting of the ways:

  Safari Support
  As of RES v5.2.2, Safari is no longer a supported browser and will not receive updates or support from the development team. We want to support Safari and provide a good user experience for all, however we need Apple's support with this by improving extension development and publishing experiences.

  Apple have announced that as of Safari 12, support for this style of extension will be deprecated and will no longer work.

  Why did we do it?

  It ultimately came down to the direction development of Safari extensions was heading. Major browsers such as Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox were all adopting a standard commonly known as "WebExtensions". This provides a single API across all browsers. This is hugely beneficial as you can develop for all major browsers from a single code base. Safari is not adopting this standard and instead moving to their own format, with a strong reliance on Xcode. This would require significant investment from the development team to support the browser, as well as core developers having access to Xcode. Supporting this change would mean the codebase for RES would not be unified.

  Dropping Safari support was never solely about money as many think it is, we do not have a vendetta against Apple. The discussion lasted many weeks and it was not something we took lightly.

Complain, complain, …or switch to another browser.

After you have rightfully complained to Apple, workarounds:

go back to host based blocking (example) [do that anyway?]
use a local proxy, like https://privoxy.og (alternative upto Sierra (discontinued)) [do that anyway?]
combine both options with what is now available as extensions
re-enable uBlockorigin (incomplete solution and development has apparently stopped. Seems to need the gallery version, not the developer version)
switch to ka-block (not as effective as older methods, but efficient and free of charge, probably trustworthy?)

For the time being, you may want to stay with/downgrade to Safari 11.1.2 (not for very long though.) Or re-enable uBlockorigin in the preferences ignoring the misleading warnings about slow down or security. (This is cumbersome and I always lose all my custom settings on application relaunch. You will need the extensions-gallery version)

Not recommended, only listed to illustrate the dire situation!

The shady non-'origin' version of ublock seems to be back in the game, although with the 50000 limit mentioned above.
Plus: Use with caution, not sanctioned by upstream uBlockorigin
https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock :

ublock.org says:

  But that’s in the process of changing. If you’ve noticed recent updates to the product, that’s because uBlock has been acquired by the team responsible for AdBlock. We will be investing heavily into uBlock to help it deliver on the promise of being one of the best ad blockers available.

Equally shady Adblockplus is also back. Be informed that the owner company sells your data and sells ads ("only acceptable ones of course"). And limitations are still big. From the comments on that release:

  The sense of Adblock Plus is totally lost without filter Lists.
  Button “Uninstall” is missing in Safari! How to remove your AdBlock-extension manually?


If indeed you have a Mighty Mouse as pictured in that screenshot, it's possible that the capitative sensors aren't properly detecting the right click action.

The most common cause of this was still having your left-click finger on the mouse, or resting very close, which I recall confused the sensors a bit. Try right clicking with only one finger touching the mouse and see if that helps. If not, it's possible that it's simply a hardware failure.


upgrade to macOS high sierra, bootcamp win10 disk exists but can not prompt when turn on the power

If you just want the option when needed, hold the alt/opt key doing boot, it’ll let you choose which OS you want to boot...


Should I erase Website data in settings?

It is perfectly safe to delete Website Data, although that is unlikely to solve your battery life issues. Website Data only include things such as cookies and webpage caches.

If anything, your phone will have to work a little harder to redownload images, log you back in to websites, etc. the first time you visit each site after wiping Website Data.


How do I edit custom repeat intervals for events on iOS?

This article on OSX Daily teaches that using Siri can result in custom reminder intervals. To my knowledge, the custom reminder interval, once specified, cannot be edited.

http://osxdaily.com/2013/04/10/custom-repeat-reminders-iphone-siri/


Service to underline plain text with a line of dashes

BBedit can execute shell commands on selected text, so adapting something like
echo 'This is a line of text' | sed -n 'p;s/./-/gp'

to make it work when called from BBedit should work.

sed -n runs sed without echoing its input automatically
p is the first command applied to the input, it just prints the input (technically the content of the pattern space)
s/./-/gp is the second command, it replaces all characters in the pattern space by - and prints the result


60hz on LG Ultrafine 4K with Macbook Pro 2016

I'm switching between Gigabit Lan, superb usb mouse and 4k@30hz - and 4k@60hz in combination with only slow WLAN and terrible bluetooth mouse on my 2016 Macbook.

I experienced the same issues with a longer monitor cable in the 60hz Setup at a customer and his monitor. The problem was solved when I used my better and shorter cable. Display was a Samsung 4k display though.


How to enable location settings for the app when app is not on the list of location services?

I tried by opening http://www.hostelbookers.com in a browser. Same pop up shows up. I guess the website is not coded properly. They just made that button but its not probably working. Best alternative is search by entering city name.

Thanks


launchtl: any way to disable a daemon after removing the plist file?

To see ALL the daemons currently running, you need to type:
sudo launchctl list

Or sort them to nicely separate com.apple ones:
sudo launchctl list | sort

And then you can remove it, for example:
sudo launchctl remove com.sassafras.KeyAccess.daemon


Expedite iOS app review to less than 24 hours

I have heard of people using their paid tech support instances to expedite a review or determine why exactly it's being rejected if there is a code problem (such as Apple suspecting that a private API is being called when you are not calling any private API), but your best bet is probably to follow the normal process outlined here:

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/

  Urgent Bug Fix
  If you've submitted an update to fix a critical bug in your app on the App Store and you are requesting an expedited review, be sure to include the steps to reproduce the bug on the current version of your app.

Be sure to explain why the bug is critical before you burn a chance at an expedited review. I would call someone that's not a software developer and have them give you an honest reaction if your bug is really critical after you take 60 seconds to explain to them the nature of the problem.

If you can't explain to a lay person in 60 seconds why this is critical to them as a potential user of your app, you might not get Apple to bump you to the front of the line. If your description of the critical nature of the patch is in the end user's interests, this seems to be your best shot to move things to the front of the queue.


The general answer is your Mac Mini 2014 has two Thunderbolt 2 ports so your best bet is to drive one monitor from HDMI and the other from Thunderbolt so that you have another Thunderbolt port free for storage or networking.

Out of the box, fully supported by Apple is either two displays via Thunderbolt (and they can chain if one of the display is actually Thunderbolt and not DP or another adapter) or one display via Thunderbolt and the other via HDMI.

See http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT5219#18

  MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012), MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late
  2012), and Mac Mini (Late 2012 and later) computers can use an
  HDMI-compatible device on it's HDMI port while using one Thunderbolt
  display, or they can use two Thunderbolt displays.

If you can't or don't want to use Thunderbolt or HDMI, you could avail yourself of USB adapters. The part you listed looks like it will connect to a Thunderbolt port and end that chain and be seen by OS X as one display no matter which of the older ports you connect to one (or more) displays.


Touch ID Canceled by another authentication

My suggestion might sound redundant but see if below link helps. I went through same steps and it worked for me. I am also on Catalina.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7765052


Open Safari
⌘, to open Preferences
On the General tab there's a pull down that says 'Default web browser', the the one you want from the list


Go to Settings > Cellular and scroll down. There should be a breakdown of Cellular Data used by app.

If you didn't know this option was there, then you likely will not have reset it, so it will represent all of the cellular data you have used from when you first added your id to the device.

That being said it should give you an idea of what apps are the big cellular data users.

It also gives you the option to switch off cellular data usage on a per app basis, so that you can control which apps get to use the cellular data stream and which have to wait until your device is connected to Wi-Fi.


Do my original photos move to iCloud if imported to Photos?

No - You don't initially save any space on your Mac if you choose iCloud storage.
Yes - if you set "optimize" in Photos preferences, then once you fill your storage with other files, the Photos library will shrink itself.

You can choose to store the original size images in the cloud and let the Photos app "optimize" and resample/recompress images to reduce the storage space burden on selected devices.
For example, if your 80 GB library is half RAW files and/or very large JPEG files, you might save a substantial amount of space by selecting Optimize and then filling up your storage with other files to trigger the optimization.

As you can see from Photo preferences, only when you run low on storage space will the optimization start to take place. I've not tested this yet, but hope to try it on a second Mac with limited storage to see how the library looks when space runs low and "optimization" kicks in.


Does the "messages from iphone" icon only appear in the dock when my messages are opened from my iPhone?

It could be, if your iPhone was around (within the same Wi-Fi range as your Mac), but one could never be 100% certain, as it could be a bug in Handoff.


Files such as com.apple.finder or com.apple.dock

It's called ‘reverse domain name notation’ and is widely used for naming packages/etc.

  The suggested convention for generating unique package names is merely a way to piggyback a package naming convention on top of an existing, widely known unique name registry instead of having to create a separate registry for package names.

https://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-6.html
What is the significance of the reverse domain name for java package structure


I would manually download the AHT for your MBA and run it from a USB. The steps to do this are as follows:

Create a bootable USB flash drive by using Disk Utility's Erase function. Make sure you choose OS X Extended for the format and the GUID Partition Map for the scheme. For the purposes of these steps, also give your USB the name AHT when you're erasing it.
Download the AHT for your particular MBA here
Mount the downloaded image (it should mount as AHTCThree)
Now you will need to copy the AHT to your USB flash drive. To start, Launch the Terminal app (usually found within the Utilities folder)
In the Terminal window, enter the following:

cp -r /Volumes/AHTCThree/System /Volumes/AHT/
Now we need to make the USB flash drive bootable, so enter the following line in Terminal:

sudo bless --folder /Volumes/AHT/ --file /Volumes/AHT/System/Library/CoreServices/.diagnostics/diags.efi --label AHT
Enter your Admin password
Leave the USB flash drive plugged in and restart your MBA
Immediately hold down the Option key
Select the AHT from the list and boot up

NOTE for other readers: - The  AHT download and Terminal commands used in this answer are only for Mid-2012 MacBook Air models (both the 11" and 13"). Do not attempt this if your model Mac is different!


Obtain bad URL from Safari's current tab with Applescript

I've tried numerous times to reproduce the issue, however I couldn't. So this solution was tested by manually entering a standard URL twice, via copy and paste, and going from there. I also used the bad URL you've shown in your question.

In Safari, this essentially tries to build a valid URL from of the double URL using AppleScript run as an Automator Service when pressing ⌘B and sets the current document (window, tab) to the proper URL.

Create an Automator Service with the settings as shown in the image below and save it as: Fix Bad URL

Then in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, scroll down to General, select Fix Bad URL, click Add Shortcut and type: ⌘B

AppleScript code for the Automator Service:

on badURL()
    try
        --    # Put the bad URL on the Clipboard.
        tell application "Safari"
            activate
            delay 0.5
            tell application "System Events"
                key code 37 using {command down} # ⌘L
                delay 0.5
                key code 8 using {command down} # ⌘C
                delay 0.5
            end tell
        end tell
        --    # Retrieve the bad URL from the Clipboard.
        set theBadURL to get (the clipboard)
        --    # Trim the first eight characters off of 'theBadURL'.
        --    # This is done because the bad URL can have an occurrence of both 'http' and 'https' in the string in either
        --    # order and by trimming off, it lessens the amount of logic necessary to build a good URL from the bad URL.
        --    # The good URL, after all, is going to be built from what's after the second occurrence of either one.
        --    # Test first for 'https' then 'http', as that makes more sense logically to do so.
        set theBadURL to do shell script "awk 'BEGIN { print substr(\"" & theBadURL & "\", 9) }'"
        --    # Build the good URL from the bad URL.
        set theGoodURL to do shell script "awk -F 'https.*//' '{print $2}'<<<" & quoted form of theBadURL
        if theGoodURL is not equal to "" then
            set theGoodURL to "https://" & theGoodURL
        else
            set theGoodURL to do shell script "awk -F 'http.*//' '{print $2}'<<<" & quoted form of theBadURL
            if theGoodURL is not equal to "" then
                set theGoodURL to "http://" & theGoodURL
            end if
        end if
        return theGoodURL
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution
        return
    end try
end badURL

on run
    try
        tell application "Safari"
            activate
            set thisTabsURL to (get URL of current tab of window 1)
            --    # Check for bad URL and if found, build a good URL from it.
            tell current application
                if thisTabsURL contains "file:" then
                    set theGoodURL to my badURL()
                    tell application "Safari" to set the URL of the front document to theGoodURL
                end if
            end tell
        end tell
    on error eStr number eNum
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution
        return
    end try
end run

Note that while I tested this under OS X 10.8.5 and macOS 10.12 and it did work under my test conditions, nonetheless it may not work properly every time under every condition and hence why the try and on error statements are being used in the code. Hopefully this will trap any error(s) with appropriate output to then enhance the code to handle any error(s) that didn't occur during my testing.


Can I use target disk mode using an USB 2.0 to Firewire cable?

I can't find a specific Apple KB reference, but the consensus seems to be that you need Firewire, Thunderbolt or USB-C; USB 2 doesn't appear to be supported.

From the MacSales blog - Mac OS 101: How to Boot and Use a Mac in Target Disk Mode

  What You Need
  The list is short, but essential.

  Two Macs. That may seem obvious, but it makes sense to point out that Target Disk Mode only works between two Macs; you can’t chain multiple Macs together. All of the connection types (FireWire, Thunderbolt, and USB-C) support hot connecting, meaning you can connect a cable between the two Macs while they are powered on. We recommend shutting down both Macs before proceeding, however.
  An appropriate cable to make the connection. Ideally, you should connect similar ports; that is FireWire to FireWire, Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt, or USB-C to USB-C. There are, however, exceptions. Using adapters to connect Thunderbolt to FireWire will usually work, as will Thunderbolt to USB-C. But not all adapters are known to work correctly in Target Disk Mode, so if you can, connect directly to the same port type.


Canon Printer is producing garbage characters

It seems there has been a change in Apple's handling of printers -- at least mine.

When I print using the latest beta, the characters are malformed. When I print using 10.13.2, the printing is perfect.


Different category behavior in GUI vs. AppleScript

I had the exact same issue. I was able to resolve by applying the exact category id I wanted like:

set end of theList to category id 33

Rather than like:

set end of theList to category "Category1"

Here is how I got the category ids. I selected a message in Outlook that had only the category I wanted and then ran this script manually from Script Editor:

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"

    set msgSet to current messages
    if msgSet = {} then
        error "No messages selected. Select at least one message."
        error -128
    end if

    repeat with aMessage in msgSet
        set theList to categories of aMessage
        return theList
    end repeat

end tell

I then used the returned category id in the code below to set messages to this category in the future (I cobbled this together from many sources online over time, so unfortunately it's not easy for me to give credit to the right folks):

tell application "Microsoft Outlook"

    -- Workaround for Outlook 2016 Reminders window bug, part 1
    set windowClosed to false
    if "Reminder" is in (name of the front window) then
        set windowClosed to true
        close front window
    end if

    set msgSet to current messages
    if msgSet = {} then
        error "No messages selected. Select at least one message."
        error -128
    end if

    repeat with aMessage in msgSet
        set theList to categories of aMessage
        set end of theList to category id 33 -- CHANGE THIS TO THE CATEGORY ID RETURNED IN THE PREVIOUS SCRIPT
        set categories of aMessage to theList
    end repeat

    -- Workaround for Outlook 2016 Reminders window bug, part 2
    if windowClosed is true then
        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "9" using command down
    end if

end tell

I hope that helps someone else looking for a solution to adding a category to selected Outlook emails with AppleScript.

A great improvement would be removing the first manual step of getting the desired category id, and instead allowing setting category via the textual name of the category, looping through all existing categories in Outlook until you find it, and then applying that id to the selected emails. I'd be grateful if anyone improved my version this way and shared it.


How to change the way to switch between apps

You can't - but why do you feel the need to 'close' apps - i.e. Force Quit them.

The only time you ever need to do that is if they stop responding correctly, the rest off the time they will be perfectly happy to sit in the background, until memory gets short, then they are quietly dropped from active memory, leaving only a small footprint until they are needed again.

If it's to prevent them from being active whilst in the background, then it would be better to switch off Background App Refresh, in Settings > General.


Make a good backup in case anything goes wrong, but if you install Mac OS X Snow Leopard using the default options, applications previously installed will remain in place with licenses intact.

One particular issue facing Microsoft Office 2004 under Snow Leopard is that Office 2004 is a PPC app, and thus requires Rosetta to run under Snow Leopard. Rosetta is not included by default in a Snow Leopard install, but rather needs to be included in the list of checkboxed items when you get the list of what components to install.

For more details about the Snow Leopard install process, you can read this article from Macworld.


Can I configure a task to run while my MacBook lid is closed?

While the lid is closed, a pmset wake will only wake up your machine very briefly, after which it will go back to sleep again. To keep the machine awake long enough to preform a task, you can caffeinate the machine for the amount of time (in seconds) you expect the task to take. For example, to keep the machine awake for 2 minutes, simply add

caffeinate -t 120 &

early on in the script that runs your task.

Alternatively, caffeinate has options for tying the duration of the forced wake period to the completion of the task, but this runs the risk of keeping the machine awake indefinitely, so a safer bet is this expected-time-based approach.


How can I sync photos between iPhone 5s and iPad mini without using a laptop?

In my understanding, I suppose that Photo Stream will do the trick.

Go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > My Photo Sream, and turn it on.

Enable iCloud on both devices using the same Apple ID, and you can see the latest photos in Photos.

Apple - iCloud - Photos


Many programs notify me that "grep/sed/uname/... not found"; some run, some don't. My system(?) path is damaged, how do I go about a diagnosing it?

Your question is unclear as it seems to ask several things. However the issue re launching from the Dock can be answered.

The Dock does not call a shell. .profile and other startup scripts are only run when Terminal.app or similar starts a shell or you run a shell script via launchd etc.

To change the path used for Apps launched from the Dock, Finder or other GUI then you need to change the path your Workspace uses this is in ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist
e.g. mine is

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>WAFDIR</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/src/third_party/git-svn/waf</string>

  <key>PATH</key>
  <string>/Users/mark/bin:/Users/mark/env/bin:/Users/mark/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/libexec/binutils:</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Also have a look at this question.


How do I extract and combine messages from Time Machine backups of ~/Library/Messages?

Some of these backups may overlap with each other. The result is 10-20
  folders of messages with no obvious way to access them. I would like
  to unify all of them and remove duplicates if they exist.

Yes, you are going to have many, many duplicates.  This is expected behavior given the way backups work.

Time Machine does an incremental backup; meaning it only backs up what has changed since the last incremental backup.  Your chats are held in a single database file (referenced in your question), so every time you chat with someone, that database gets updated and ultimately gets backed up every time Time Machine runs.

  Are there any applications that do this or any sort of tutorial I
  could follow?

No.  Just go to the most recent backup; all of the chat files will be there.

  The files are sqlite so even a specification of the database structure
  would be helpful.

They are sqlite3.  If you want to get the database structure, you can use the following commands in Terminal:

$ sqlite3 chat.db

sqlite> .schema                            # prints out the database schema
sqlite> .tables                            # lists the database tables
sqlite> PRAGMA table_info(tablename);      # lists the columns of a particular table
sqlite> select text from message;         # raw output of all text messages


No, there is no such functionality on Apple Watch as standard as there are no text fields for entering text other than dictation.


Does Automator keep a log of all changed files?

Automator doesn't keep a log file, if you didn't include some logging routine in the action itself.

You should be able to find all falsely renamed index.html files by checking the modify date of superior folders: search for all files with the name index.php and check if the modify date of the superior folder is the same as the execution date of the Automator action. If the modify date is the same, the file (not located at the "specific" folder) was renamed unintentionally. If the modify date of the superior folder is earlier than the Automator action execution date the file wasn't renamed.

To get all folders containing a file index.php quickly, enter:

sudo find / -type f -name 'index.php' |sed 's#\(.*\)/.*#\1#' |sort -u

To get a list of folders sorted by modify date with ls use something like this:

ls -dl $(find / -type f -name 'index.php' |sed 's#\(.*\)/.*#\1#')

The last command doesn't work for paths containing spaces!


How can I make a flash drive with a portable app that runs without admin permission?

You can run an App no matter where it is located - even on a write protected volume unless the app is severely non-standard and attempts to write to the application directory or self-modify itself.

Are you certain that there are not some other form of managed preferences or parental controls enabled that is restricting non-whitelisted apps?


How do I alt+f4 in OS X? I want to close focused window

Shift+⌘ Cmd+w does what you want in Safari and Chrome. I don't think it's a system-wide standard, though.

It works in Finder too so maybe it is a standard.

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/157179?hl=en


Cannot transfer rented movie from iPod to computer?

Per Apple, if you rent a movie on an iOS device or AppleTV, you cannot move it to another device or computer.

(The reverse, however, is possible - you can rent on a computer then transfer to an iOS device.)


Can I extend my MacBook Air 13.3 A1369 SSD to 512GB?

Yes http://eshop.macsales.com/search/MBA2011.480

You will need to reinstall the OS onto that drive or clone your current drive to it.


The following related questions suggest that there doesn't appear to be an easy way for you to do this.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7217724/mac-os-x-how-to-monitor-a-window-change-event

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/853833/how-can-my-app-detect-a-change-to-another-apps-window

The best you can do is query the current active window in a loop and react when you notice a change.

HTH


How do I cancel a download in iTunes on the iPad?

you should be able to swipe from left to right along the item to get a delete button. The same way you used to have to delete on the iPhone before they added in multi-item delete.


How can I effectively lock down an iOS device for multi-app use for children?

You can use "Apple Configurator 2" from the App Store to supervise the device. Note that supervising the iOS device will wipe its current content.

When you have supervised the device, you can setup restrictions such as for example disabling the Safari web browser, disabling app installation from the App Store, etc.

Another approach might be to make an agreement with your children so that they know what they're allowed and not allowed to do, and then trust them to not install other apps. If they do, you can have a productive conversation on that topic - perhaps they can convince you that the new app is actually a benefit to them...


How can I get the raw text of an email in iOS Mail?

OK. I think I've got this figured out.

First, you need to have access to a gmail account. Great if the original email is already address to one. Otherwise you'll need to forward to a gmail address (or an account that's accessible via Gmail).

Next, open Gmail in a browser on your iOS device. I used Chrome, but that may not matter. Go to gmail.google.com and sign in to your account. It will likely take you to the mobile version. Scroll down the page and you should see Mobile | Older version | Desktop. You want Desktop.

Once there, open the email in question. Just under the address info for the email, you should see Reply, Reply all, Forward.... Show original. Click Show original and you should be golden.


HSTS.plist - anyone know what this is about/from?

HSTS.plist is a Safari settings file related to HTTP Strict Transport Security. It is a mandatory setting for Mavericks and newer OS releases. For more information about this security policy mechanism, you can read up about it at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Strict_Transport_Security