What iPad app will allow me to present .PDFs or .PPTs that include OTF (and other) fonts?

It might be that the fonts aren't being embedded into the PDF, that would cause them to not render correctly on a computer that did not have the fonts installed and Adobe Reader may be faking the look of fonts that it doesn't have. Open the PDF in Acrobat on your PC and in the "File" menu select "Properties..." and then click on the "Fonts" tab. Each font listed should have a remark like "Embedded" or "Embedded Subset".

If that is the case, you may have to change your PDF creation settings (not sure how you are creating the PDFs, so I'm no help there) to make sure that all fonts are embedded.


Will Apple EarPods functions work with an Android phone?

The audio output will work fine with any Android phone with a 3.5 mm headphone jack. The audio input from the microphone on the EarPods will only work on compatible Android devices—this is not guaranteed. As far as I am aware, there are no Android devices which work with the remote controls on the wire.


Control Mac Remotely From Multiple Different Networks using only Apple Software

In order to control another Mac you'll need to go to 'Apple Menu -> System Preferences...' on the Mac you want to control and enable 'Remote Management'.

In the 'Allow access for' section of 'Remote Mangement' you can leave the default selection of 'All Users', which will allow any account on the controlled Mac to be used to login for remote management or you can select 'Only these users' and define specific accounts that can be used.

Click 'Options...' to define what remote management actions are allowed. You'll probably only need to select 'Observe' and 'Control'.

If you're both on the same network then you can do a Command + K from the controller Mac and type vnc://mygirlfriendsmac or vnc://ipaddress to connect to the Mac you want to control.

Regarding the issue with controlling a Mac on a different network, this is where things can get complicated since there are a lot of variables depending on what network the Mac you want to control is on. This is one possible solution:

First, you'll need to know if port 5900 is open on the network the Mac to be controlled is on. A lot of firewalls block this port. (You can do a VNC tunnel on port 80, but that's probably beyond the scope of this question.)

If port 5900 is open then you'll need to know the publicly accessible IP address of the Mac to be controlled. One way to do this is to use http://DynDNS.com.

This is how DynDNS works:

You can signup for a free account that allows you to create a DNS entry that you define (ie- mygirlfriendsmac.dyndns-ip.com). You'll then need to install the DynDNS app on the Mac you want to control. This app will send the public IP address to DynDNS every few minutes so that you'll be able to do a Command-K on your Mac and connect to the DNS entry you defined (mygirlfriendsmac.dyndns-ip.com) and you can be assured it will be mapped to the current IP address of the Mac you want to control.


For most apps, it's easy as navigating to your Applications folder in the Finder, then dragging the application to the Trash icon in your Dock. You can also right-click and select 'Move to Trash', or hit ⌘-delete.

I should also add, many apps store your settings and data in a different directory which doesn't get deleted simply by deleting the app in the Applications folder. This is both good and bad. If you ever reinstall the app, all your settings and data will still be in place. Keeping these extra files around doesn't really do macOS any harm. Although if you're concerned about removing EVERYTHING for a particular app, it can be tough to make sure you get everything. There are various utilities that make this a bit easier, one I've used in the past is AppZapper.

If you're curious, these files are usually in ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences.


Prevent Yosemite from appearing in Software Update section of App Store?

Yes. I have had pretty good success with this method I describe below.

Disable Mac App Store

The App Store is simply not suitable for administration. Barely a quasi-package manager, it is not nearly as useful or reliable as real package managers like pkgsrc, FreeBSD ports, aptitude, RPM, macports or even softwareupdate. In my experience, it is unpredictable and a beard for commercial developers to hock their wares. So there is really only one rational and responsible way, as a competent administrator, to work with App Store:

 sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.store_helper.plist

 sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.storeagent.plist

 sudo mkdir /System/Library/LaunchAgents\ \(disabled\)/

 sudo mv /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.store* /System/Library/LaunchAgents\ \(disabled\)/

And just put it out of your mind, it won't trouble you any longer. ;-)

Use Apple Remote Desktop Admin

Use ARD instead, though not a package manager, it manages packages, installations, updates, and upgrades, it will do what you want, save you time, and will not let you down:

For Apple Remote Desktop 3, for 10.9:

Check out the admin guide first to convince yourself that this is the way to go:

curl -Ok http://images.apple.com/ca/fr/remotedesktop/pdf/ARD3_AdminGuide.pdf

    open ARD3_AdminGuide.pdf

Then install:

curl -Ok http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/031-2845.20140313.rerft/RemoteDesktopAdmin372.dmg

hdiutil attach -quiet -noverify -nobrowse -noautoopen RemoteDesktopAdmin372.dmg

sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.7.2\ Admin\ Update/RemoteDesktopAdmin372.pkg -target /

but that might throw a funny error if not running 10.9, or if no previous version of ARD is installed, and if it does, try:

pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.7.2\ Admin\ Update/RemoteDesktopAdmin372.pkg ARDexpanded/

or to equal effect (either/or here, don't need to use both pkgutil and xar... I'm just being thorough):

mkdir ARDexpanded

cd ARDexpanded

xar -xf /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.7.2\ Admin\ Update/RemoteDesktopAdmin372.pkg

And we no longer need the disk image attached, so eject it:

hdiutil detach -quiet /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.7.2\ Admin\ Update/

And now what you'll see if you

cd ARDexpanded/RemoteDesktopAdmin372.pkg/

ls

is

    Bom         PackageInfo Payload     Scripts

What's in the Payload file, which is a cpio archive compressed with gzip, is what you're after. So with a few piped commands we can get to the app bundle:

cat Payload | gzip -d - | cpio -id

ls

returns:

    Applications Bom          Library      PackageInfo  Payload      Scripts

And you're nearly done.

cp -R Applications/Remote\ Desktop.app /Applications/

Now you have installed Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.7.2

So all that's left to do is purchase your license:

open http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/product/D6020Z/A/apple-remote-desktop-3-volume-licenses-20-seats-price-is-per-seat

Launch /Applications/Remote\ Desktop.app and serialize. And get some work done.

For 10.6 Snow Leopard, you'll need a slightly earlier version of ARD:

curl -Ok http://images.apple.com/ca/fr/remotedesktop/pdf/ARD3_AdminGuide.pdf

curl -Ok http://supportdownload.apple.com/download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/Mac_OS_X/downloads/041-6789.20120917.xD6TR/RemoteDesktopAdmin353.dmg

hdiutil attach -quiet -noverify -nobrowse -noautoopen RemoteDesktopAdmin353.dmg

sudo installer -pkg /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.5.3\ Admin\ Update/RemoteDesktopAdmin353.pkg -target /

and if it throws back at you this:

    installer: Cannot install on volume / because it is disabled.
    installer: This update could not find Remote Desktop on this volume.

then try:

pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.5.3\ Admin\ Update/RemoteDesktopAdmin353.pkg ARD353

hdiutil detach -quiet /Volumes/Apple\ Remote\ Desktop\ 3.5.3\ Admin\ Update

drill down to the Payload:

    cd ARD353/RemoteDesktopAdmin353.pkg/

    ls

returns:

    Bom         PackageInfo Payload     Scripts

So run:

cat Payload | gzip -d - | cpio -id

ls

returns:

Applications Bom          Library      PackageInfo  Payload      Scripts

And you're nearly done:

cp -R Applications/Remote\ Desktop.app /Applications/

purchase your license:

open http://store.apple.com/us_smb_78313/product/D6020Z/A/apple-remote-desktop-3-volume-licenses-20-seats-price-is-per-seat

Launch /Applications/Remote\ Desktop.app and serialize. And get something done.

Remove users' admin rights

Also, you may want to deeply consider removing admin rights for your users; although this will create more work for you if your users often need to authenticate with admin passwords, it may also help prevent "bad things." And if you have ARD installed, you can connect to their logins from your desk to authenticate for them remotely.


Can I prevent some iPhone apps from needing to be reloaded?

Your apps are being offloaded. You can easily turn this off by going to settings > iTunes & App Store > Offload Unused Apps.


Connect my Windows XP to Mac OS X Internet Sharing

WOOHOO! think I finally solved the problem.

From the taskbar I right-clicked on the MacOSX network and hit configure...(which now shows up as properties...) and saw that the security type had defaulted to none even though encryption type was still set to WEP.  I changed the security type to Shared and it now works.  It took a few minutes to register the network and only once I changed it to a home network did the internet connectivity kick in.  A 40bit wep key works fine, ABC12 or 4142433131...


If, by 8GB DVDs, you mean they're DVD+R DL DVDs, then the answer is yes.

The Apple SuperDrive supports the following media types:

CD-R, CD-ROM, CD-RW
DVD+R, DVD+R DL, DVD+RW, DVD-ROM


You do have to create a new shared album, but you can create the album from the contents of the existing album so you don't need to find the images again manually.

Open the album.
Choose Select in the top right, then Select All in the top left.
Tap Share in the bottom left, then create a new iCloud Photo Sharing album as usual.

Once you've created the shared album, you can delete the old album.


Logic board replacement or repair (for booting issue)?

I would trust the technician that opened the mac, replaced some parts and knows what they’re doing. Apple training is very good at fault isolation and repair skills and accurate quoting. They would likely have tested a battery or offered you a battery swap which is the typical part failing when the board won’t charge a battery.

The cost of becoming skilled enough to repair a logic board is why it’s almost always cheaper to get a service part from Apple (which you can’t do anymore due to this being vintage/obsolete) and having Apple rework the part and/or scrap it for a new logic board when it’s uneconomical to repair your board.

Unless you can get 5 Macs for scrap prices and try swapping and hope you hit the lottery, swapping the board for one that’s good is going to be the only chance you can get a cheaper repair than paying an expert to source your spare parts or perform some diagnosis on what’s failing on your specific board.


Two things you can try :

If you don't need the preview feature in column mode (or for a short term fix), you can disable the preview column by going to View Options cmd-J in Finder and unchecking the "Show preview column" checkbox.

Alternatively, you can disable Quartz 2D Extreme (which should be disabled by default, but may be active and been known to cause Finder and preview slowdown). You can run the following command to disable it regardless.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Quartz2DExtremeEnabled -boolean NO

Run this command in Terminal (found in the Utility folder in Applications).  You will then need to reboot your Mac.


MacOS Catalina mouse/system hiccups when external monitor connected via Green Cell USB-C Hub

It turned out to be a broken Green-Cell USB hub.
When I changed it to the newer model it works perfectly fine!


If it doesn't boot and the device isn't jailbroken, you can't get the data off it.

Hopefully you have an iCloud backup that you can restore to after restoring iOS (using recovery/DFU mode).


uBlock-Safari

You could replace AdBlockPlus with the open source Safari extension uBlock-Safari and import the filter list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock_Plus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin

See FilterLists for a good source of filters - including cookie notification specific lists.


Did Mavericks change the Mac's color profiles?

Looking at the standard profiles included with Mac OS X suggests two profiles have changed:

Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc
Generic Gray Profile.icc

Profile md5 Signatures

The profiles were compared using a simple file content check using md5:

cd /System/Library/ColorSync/Profiles
md5 *

OS X 10.8

MD5 (AdobeRGB1998.icc) = dea88382d899d5f6e573b432473ae138
MD5 (Generic CMYK Profile.icc) = 25352f2fbfee39fe64c943b6fb0c8c4e
MD5 (Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc) = ad1250d8b778217110effe8e3423a9fb
MD5 (Generic Gray Profile.icc) = 38b0f5b73c0e2eb5beca4d8deef9cde9
MD5 (Generic Lab Profile.icc) = f7d68a979692ff32180a87a4b6837a70
MD5 (Generic RGB Profile.icc) = 0d258bad36b64cebfb9e6826c3ed5037
MD5 (Generic XYZ Profile.icc) = aad1e8dbdf81721d9e983f0b0ffcb046
MD5 (sRGB Profile.icc) = 1d3fda2edb4a89ab60a23c5f7c7d81dd

OS X 10.9

MD5 (AdobeRGB1998.icc) = dea88382d899d5f6e573b432473ae138
MD5 (Generic CMYK Profile.icc) = 25352f2fbfee39fe64c943b6fb0c8c4e
MD5 (Generic Gray Gamma 2.2 Profile.icc) = 242a41879c1d88202a6863d14fa729b2
MD5 (Generic Gray Profile.icc) = 475ffd27e43ca94bd4bf997990076e0a
MD5 (Generic Lab Profile.icc) = f7d68a979692ff32180a87a4b6837a70
MD5 (Generic RGB Profile.icc) = 0d258bad36b64cebfb9e6826c3ed5037
MD5 (Generic XYZ Profile.icc) = aad1e8dbdf81721d9e983f0b0ffcb046
MD5 (sRGB Profile.icc) = 1d3fda2edb4a89ab60a23c5f7c7d81dd

ColorSync Utility

You can use the included ColorSync Utility to examine the ColorSync profile in use by your displays.

Applications > Utilities > ColorSync Utility.app

Using this utility you can compare profiles with your last OS X 10.8 back-up and, optionally, restore any custom profiles you created. Restore easy access to prior profile by placing them within the /Library/ColorSync/Profiles folder.


Mac laptop cannot connect to disk on Mac desktop

Make sure you have the user enabled in sharing (File sharing/options)
Then try ssh localusername@hostname.local


You can remove directories from the Spotlight Index under the Privacy tab in System Preferences > Spotlight

(Described in this other question)


How to install modules from CPAN without sudo?

You can configure cpan to install modules outside of the system default path. Point it to some place under your home directory and you shouldn't need to call it with sudo to install modules.

The o command in the cpan interactive shell lets you change options for cpan and the makepl_arg option changes the options that are passed to the perl Makefile.pl call that CPAN makes to build the Makefile for the module.

If you wanted to change the install path to ~/lib/perl5 you'd do:

mkdir -p ~/lib/perl5
perl -MCPAN -e shell

And from the CPAN shell:

cpan> o conf makepl_arg 'PREFIX=~/lib/perl5'
cpan> install MyModule

To use modules installed in this location you'll need to add this path to your PERL5LIB environment variable. For bash do:

export PER5LIB=~/lib/perl5

Or whatever environment variable setting syntax is required by your shell of choice.

There's a nice discussion of customizing CPAN for a single user here.


Migration over wifi requires specific network configuration?

My first guess is that your work's network configuration could be blocking Bonjour broadcasts. But in my experience doing a migration over WiFi can be a bit flaky anyway. Try it several times and maybe it will eventually work.

Instead of using WiFi, I would recommend using a wired connection if possible. It will go many times faster. If both computers have an ethernet port you can just connect them directly to each other with an ethernet cable. Or you can connect them via FireWire or Thunderbolt if you have one of those cables.

If only one computer has ethernet, try plugging that computer in via ethernet and connecting to WiFi with the other. That will help the speed and reliability.


delete a standard account and log with the admin account

Please see the following Apple KB on resetting the Administrator password:  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1274


It's possibly the carrier.  Try restarting your iPhone and if it happens again check your cell strength.


Open Firefox preferences (⌘+,) and select appropriat(e) choice(s) under 'Tab'. Functionality you are looking for is 'Open links in tabs instead of new windows' (but others may or may not be helpful as well). If this is selected clicking on link to pdf file will open it in a new tab:


USB HDD can’t be opened because the original item can’t be found

Just go to Apple menu then go to force quit then relaunch the Finder. It worked for me.


Gmail iOS app: What’s a work around to *save* all my deleted gmail messages?

Unless you indicate to actually delete emails in Gmail (or move them to Trash), it actually simply changes the tag on an email to the 'All mail' tag. (some apps, like Apple Mail, give you a button to move to Trash). In the Gmail all, go to settings and change the swipe action to 'Archive'. This will remove the message from view, but will move it to 'All mail'. You can go into the 'All mail' folder to see all these archived emails.


What can developers see in my address book?

It can access everything that's displayed in the Address book.

More about that can be found in the documentation.


tl;dr

Open the terminal and write

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop
defaults write com.apple.screencapture target file
killall SystemUIServer

Explanation

Being on Mac OS 10.14 (Mojave), I ran into the same issue. At one point the screenshot shortcuts 'would not work' anymore.
(I was able to save a screenshot to clipboard using Cmd+Shift+Ctrl+3, but it wouldn't work to save a screenshot to the desktop anymore.)

Looking at the output of defaults read com.apple.screencapture in the terminal, I noticed a target = clipboard; being set:

{
    "last-messagetrace-stamp" = "568547998.720744";
    location = "/Users/kim/Desktop/";
    target = clipboard;
}

Changing the target back to file (defaults write com.apple.screencapture target file) and restarting the SystemUIServer (killall SystemUIServer) would restore the expected behaviour.

It looks like the new screenshot controls which were introduced in Mojave overwrite the target setting (Cmd+Shift+5, see the official apple support page for more information). When selecting "Clipboard" in the "Save to" menu, the target in com.apple.screencapture will also be set to clipboard. For some reason, this setting will then also affect the "take screenshot to file" shortcuts.

Note: Of course, you could also reset the target setting in the new screenshot controls. Just choose any folder location in the "Save to" option (e.g. Desktop, Documents or any other location) and the target should be set to file again.


iPad battery drain after update to iOS 7

yurkennis! I haven't seen that problem with iOS 7.

Have you tried restarting or resetting your iPad?

Restart: Press On/Off button until the Slide to Power Off slider appears, select Slide to Power Off and, after the iPad shuts down, then press the On/Off button until the Apple logo appears.

Reset: Press the Home and On/Off buttons at the same time and hold them until the Apple logo appears (about 10 seconds).

If these don't correct the problem connect to iTunes and do a restore.

If all else fails to do so:

In Settings, turn on Airplane mode, then reset your device by holding Power + Home button 15 seconds until you see the Apple logo. Power back on, then turn off Airplane mode.


Allowing subdomains through restrictions iPad 6th gen

Your title and body seem to be asking slightly different questions.

Subdomains are distinct in restrictions. That is, a.example.com and b.example.com are distinct, and a restriction on one does not affect the other.

Furthermore, subdomain restrictions override domain restrictions, such that if example.com is blocked but a.example.com is unblocked, then a.example.com will remain unblocked but b.example.com will be blocked.
Paths (a.k.a. URL prefixes) are not distinct. That is, example.com and example.com/a are both regarded as example.com. It's not possible to use iOS restrictions to independently block or unblock just one of these.


No - you would need to search the mailbox and filter on the sender. At that point, you have the sort for just that one From sorted by order received.


Big Sur - Logging in after sleep sometimes doesn't work

I am also having this issue. So far it looks like giving it more time to “wake” before entering password helps a bit for me.
And there are already other people seeing the same problem with old macOS releases, so I guess Apple will fix it.  see here: Macbook Pro stuck after I enter my password


Why does F4 not work in MacOS X (Touchbar macBook, or macBook Air)?

I have seen elsewhere that some key combos stop working until you reinstall iTerm2. If you have homebrew and cask installed, you can use brew cask reinstall iterm2.

(I'm so unsure about the efficacy of this that I would have posted it as a comment, but I can't comment yet)


AppStore is missing after updating to iOS 10

Make sure you don't have Restrictions set up: go to Settings -> General -> Restrictions and make sure restrictions for deleting and downloading apps are off. Then find the App Store app:

On your home screen: Just tap its distinctive blue icon.

Using Siri:
Hold down your iPhone's home button and say, "Launch App Store".

Using Spotlight Search:
From your home screen, swipe your finger down from the center of the screen, then start typing "App Store".


How to tell if dmg file contains universal binaries, i.e. if it has been compiled for arm64 hardware

A DMG is just a container, it doesn't know about it contents.
If application is distributed without a package (so it's application you can just drag&drop to /Applications) you can run
hdiutil attach THE_DMG
file /Volume/THE_DMG/THE_APPLICATION.app/Contents/MacOS/*

to see what kind of binary it is.


In Google Drive on iOS, how do you change sharing permissions to be anything other than "Private"?

I cannot find a way but I did find a work around.  Open google drive via web browser and change view to desktop.  This option is located at the very bottom of the screen.  It's irritating but at least you can do it on your iPad.


Switch between ringer and vibrate based on schedule?


What iphone app could snooze every 5 minutes?

Have you tried Due? It’s very configurable.
This link shows that after a reminder is triggered you can auto-snooze the notification in as low as 5 minute intervals.


In iMovie 11, how do I export at my custom resolution/aspect ratio? It only allows 16:9/4:3?

I can address your first question. You can't export into a custom resolution. For that, you need Final Cut Pro X and Compressor. See this blog post for a description of the process.

  (Apple's) suggestion was to edit your video using standard video formats in FCP X, then export it to Compressor and use the Geometry tab in Compressor to create the final movie size you need.


Disabling Audio on Internal Speakers for High Sierra onwards?

I found this for you...

How to set the volume level to the secret minimum

So here's the deal, normally when you set the volume to 0 the speakers are automatically muted. On the keyboard you can hit the mute button while the volume is at 0 and it will unmute to the secret lowest volume setting.

Likewise, you can instruct AppleScript to not automatically mute the volume:

osascript -e "set volume without output muted output volume 1 --100%"

How to set the volume without unmuting

Sometimes you want the volume to stay muted, but to come on at a particular level when you unmute.

This is how you prevent the audio from unmuting when you adjust the volume level:

osascript -e "set volume with output muted output volume 42 --100%"


Unable to boot into recovery mode on Mavericks Mid 2009 17" Macbook Pro

Your MacBook is too old to use Internet Recovery. You will need to reinstall from the restore discs that shipped with your Mac, a retail copy of a 10.6 DVD or a Mavericks USB installer (created on another Mac).

If you still have access to the drive that was replaced you could put it in a USB enclosure and boot from that, then go through the Mavericks install routine, selecting your new SSD as the destination.

To build a USB installer from the Mavericks/Yosemite installer application you can use 3rd-party utilities or follow this procedure...

Download the Mavericks/Yosemite installer but quit it when it tries to run.

Take an 8GB USB stick and name it Untitled.

Then run this command in Terminal (replace both instances of Mavericks to Yosemite if using 10.10 install application)...

/Applications/"Install OS X Mavericks.app"/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/"Install OS X Mavericks.app" --nointeraction


How to escape spaces in the results of `mdfind`?

Quote the variable:

mv "$(!!)" ~/Documents/


Display connected via DisplayPort disconnects, reconnects when resuming, resizing windows on display

This appears to be an issue with OSX & Windows. HDMI devices are able to be queried by the connected computer to check display resolutions even when powered off, so this is a non-issue. DisplayPort devices seem to not have this feature. When Windows & OSX wakes up from a sleep state, it checks to see if the monitor is still connected but finds the DP monitor to be in powersaving mode and cannot determine if your 2560 x 1080 desktop is still there and so resizes everything down.

Windows users appear to have a bassackwards solution:

Connect monitor via DisplayPort and HDMI/DVI
Configure Windows to mirror desktop on the 2 displays.


If you have reinstalled the operating system of Apple just decides to make another change I have not quite figured out yet, I often find myself needing to go in and reenable the iMessage and FaceTime feature. It is fairly straight forward

Go to Settings>Messages and turn off iMessage.
Then go to FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.
Restart your device.
Turn iMessage and FaceTime back on.


Creating a GROUP via Users & Groups in command line

To create a group, add some users and enabling remote login for the same group from scratch do the following:

Locally:

Create group:

sudo dscl . create /Groups/servsupport

Add some details like real name, password etc.:

sudo dscl . create /Groups/servsupport RealName "Service and Support"
sudo dscl . create /Groups/servsupport passwd "*"
sudo dscl . create /Groups/servsupport gid 799

Use an unused groupID number as gid! You get a sorted list of used gids by entering:

dscl . list /Groups PrimaryGroupID | tr -s ' ' | sort -n -t ' ' -k2,2

There is also an answer somewhere at apple.stackexchange.com how to find the first free uid or gid greater than x and how to apply it to new groups or users.

Add an admin user (here I assume the user name is admin):

sudo dscl . create /Groups/servsupport GroupMembership admin

If you want to add a second user use the subcommand append:

sudo dscl . append /Groups/servsupport GroupMembership admin2

Test whether the group SSH Service ACL exists:

dscl . list /Groups PrimaryGroupID  | grep com.apple.access_ssh*

If the group doesn't exist create it similar as the Service and Support group:

sudo dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh
sudo dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh RealName "SSH Service ACL"
sudo dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh passwd "*"
sudo dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh gid 399

Add the group servsupport as nested group to the SSH Service ACL group if the SSH ACL is already enabled:

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a servsupport -t group com.apple.access_ssh

or if SSH ACL are dsiabled:

sudo dseditgroup -o edit -a servsupport -t group com.apple.access_ssh-disabled

Enable remote login:

sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on

A script doing essentially this except creating a new Service and Support group is available here: add_localadmins_to_ssh. The linked script requires slight mods to meet your requirements.

Based on the linked script I made a new one meeting your requirements. Take it with a grain of salt and test it thoroughly:

#!/bin/bash

# set the input for lazy convenience
IFS=$' '

# We first need to test if the access_ssh group exists and create it if it doesn't

/usr/bin/dscl . list /Groups PrimaryGroupID  | grep com.apple.access_ssh* >  /dev/null 2>&1
rc=$?
if [[ $rc != 0 ]]; then
    /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh
    /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh RealName "SSH Service ACL"
    /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh passwd "*"
    /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh gid 399
fi

# create  "Service and Support" group and add admin users

localadmins=$(/usr/bin/dscl . read /Groups/admin GroupMembership | awk -F': ' '{print $2}')

for account in `echo $localadmins`; do
    # add additional blocks like >> && ! [ "$account" == "username" ] << for additional exclusions
    if ! [ "$account" == "root" ] && ! [ "$account" == "itstech" ]; then
        userID=$(/usr/bin/dscl . read /Users/$account | grep GeneratedUID | awk '{print $2}')
        if [ "$userID" != "" ]; then
            # Test if the servsupport group exists and create it if it doesn't
            /usr/bin/dscl . read /Groups/servsupport > /dev/null 2>&1
            sc=$?
            if [[ $sc != 0 ]]; then
                /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/servsupport
                /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/servsupport RealName "Service and Support"
                /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/servsupport passwd "*"
                /usr/bin/dscl . create /Groups/servsupport gid 799
            fi
            /usr/bin/dscl . append /Groups/servsupport GroupMembership "$userID"
        else
            echo "$account has no local GUID"
        fi
    fi
done

# Add the "Service and Support" group as nested group to the SSH Service ACL group depending on the state of SSH Service ACL.

GroupState=$(/usr/bin/dscl . list /Groups RealName | grep "SSH Service ACL" | awk '{print $1}')
dseditgroup -o edit -a servsupport -t group $GroupState

if ! [ "$GroupState" == "com.apple.access_ssh" ]; then
    /usr/bin/dscl . change /Groups/com.apple.access_ssh-disabled RecordName com.apple.access_ssh-disabled com.apple.access_ssh
fi

# Enable Remote Login service

systemsetup -setremotelogin on

In a managed environment (OpenDirectory or AD) with OD/AD users/groups with local admin access permissions it's much simpler.

If you've already created the group you can lookup the groupID and the group name (servsupport above) by right-clicking the group name in "Users & Groups".


How can I downgrade the OS on a Mac to the original one it came with?

You can reinstall the OS back to the same version that it shipped with by using the restore discs that came with your Mac to wipe your disk and reinstall Mac OS X.

However, just because Apple has officially dropped support for XP and Vista with Boot Camp doesn't mean it will stop working - the most likely situation will be that new computers will have hardware that Apple will only provide Windows 7 drivers for. Existing hardware should be unaffected.


Why is Mail app taking ages to setup my new Apple ID?

I don't think closing the window "messes up" anything.
Either your Apple ID is created, or it's not!
Check if you can login using your Apple ID in related services like iTunes Store. If you can't login, then there was an error on Apple's side and you can repeat the process again. On the other hand, if you can login, then your Apple ID is already created and ready to use.

The reason this kind of problems happen is mostly because of poor error handling. My best guess is timeout error which is very common, but the application (Mail.app in this case) doesn't know how to properly handle the error (and notify the user).

In your case, something caused the server's response (whether it be success or error) to not reach you, but the client side, is still waiting for server's response.


App Store on Mojave: "We could not complete your purchase. cancelled"

From https://ericasadun.com/2020/05/22/broken-app-store-downloads-on-mojave-we-could-not-complete-your-purchase/:

Quit App Store
In Terminal: open "$TMPDIR/../C/com.apple.appstore/"
In Finder: trash everything in that folder including any pending updates / stuck items.
In Terminal: killall -9 appstoreagent
Relaunch App Store
Done

If you feel confident with Terminal you can also quit the App Store and then run
rm -r "$TMPDIR/../C/com.apple.appstore/"*
killall -9 appstoreagent


Disconnecting external display without unplugging - turning off monitor doesn't work

One option is to use SwtichResX

  SwitchResX is the most advanced tool for Apple computers to take
  control of any screen connected to the Mac. No matter whether a
  MacBook Screen, an external monitor, a Retina display, a TV set or a
  beamer: SwitchResX can handle them all – if you want, straight from
  the menubar, a contextual menu or both. It's that easy!

It works as you need.


How can I know which setting TinkerTool is modifying?

Here’s a generic solution to find out what changed after applying a certain setting. I used this to create my .osx file which is full of hidden OS X tweaks.

Open Terminal.app, cd into a temporary directory, and check the difference between defaults read output before and after changing the setting.

cd /tmp
defaults read > a
# change the setting using TinkerTool or however you like
defaults read > b
diff a b # view the difference

If you’d rather use a UI to view the diffs instead of the diff binary, you could download the Kaleidoscope.app trial.

Alternatively, you could do a Spotlight search within the past hour/day/minute for plist files. That will only tell you which file changed, though; you would still have to figure out which setting in the file was tweaked.


you need to have your email address turned on for iMessage on your
  iPhone in order to enable Text Message Forwarding. If you don’t, the
  numeric access code will not appear on your iPad or Mac during the
  setup process. As soon as you enable your email address for iMessage
  (you only need to do this on your iPhone) the numeric access codes
  appear as expected. Once you have text message forwarding setup you
  can disable your email address again in iMessage as it seems to only
  be necessary for the numeric access code setup step, not the actual
  text message forwarding itself.`

  To enable your email in Messages, grab your iPhone and head to
  Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. There, you’ll find all of the
  addresses at which you can be reached via iMessage. Enable your iCloud
  email address by tapping on it, then head back to your Mac or iPad and
  again request the pairing verification code from the Messages app.
  This time, you should see a box appear on your iPhone in which you can
  enter the code.

Source: http://www.tekrevue.com/tip/sms-relay-configuration-fix/


Can I devote more room to my voicemails?

Voicemail is handled by the carrier. The size of your mailbox depends on the plan & features you have with Verizon, not on the free space available on your phone.

I doubt Verizon will keep old messages indefinitely, so if there are messages that are important to you, you should save backup audio files of them. Then clear out old messages to make space to receive new ones.


Is there a way to record 'on board' audio on iPad?

In general, no.  On a stock iOS device, the OS security sandbox prevents any app from recording, or otherwise accessing in any way, the audio generated by any other app, unless that other app explicitly exports its audio (via AudioBus or Inter-App Audio).  Some (but not all) synthesizer and drum machines (etc.) apps document support for such.


Mac OS X runaway process: AuthBrokerAgent

Problem solved. The AuthBrokerAgent is responsible for handling proxy credentials. If the credentials of a proxy setup are improperly stored (for example in one's keychain) then the AuthBrokerAgent can runaway.

More details and context on a follow-up posted on Apple Community forum, but the solution was to clear out bad user/passwords from the keychain and use Safari to re-ented the correct user/pass for the web proxy and check the box to have Safari save the password in the keychain.


What are the numerous incoming connections I see on public wifi for?

netbios

You could block the netbios connections with Little Snitch. These connections are connections attempt most usually coming from Windows sharing the same Wi-Fi network and testing which share and printers are available on your computer. This protocol behaves like a guy entering a new building and testing all door knobs, when the door opens he asks: What's your name? What do you share? Do you print?
This protocol is stupid, and dangerous, but most notably for Windows.
This protocol is the leading vector of malware broadcast inside LAN of companies using Windows since more than 20 years (toward the floppies era). This protocol is responsible of the largest security damages within big companies.

netbios is a security threat.

On all my Mac I tear off this service (netbiosd), during the post installation procedure (see: …to disable WINS in Network settings, working on 10.7, 10.8, 10.9).

mDNSResponder

You couldn't and shouldn't block the mDNSResponder because you would break the normal working of the DNS on your Mac. I.e. you won't be able to find the IP address of www.microsoft.com.

mDNSREsponder isn't a security threat (today).

Firewall setting

Your method to block connection through the MacOS X firewall is the correct and safe one within any aggresive environment.


DNS: Search Domains not working correctly?

The domains in the search directive should be separated by whitespace only, not commas.  So replace

search loc1.sitea.example.net, loc2.sitea.example.net, loc1siteb.example.net

with

search loc1.sitea.example.net loc2.sitea.example.net loc1siteb.example.net

and try it again.  Note that in general it is better supported if you set these things up via System Preferences and then you don't get syntax problems like this.

System Preferences -> Network -> [Select the interface from the list on the left] -> Advanced... -> DNS -> Search Domains:


Can i turn my Old 2009 Imac into a Multi-use NAS server?

Sure you can.

Give that Mac a static IP on your home network.
Locate it near your home router so you can connect it to the router by Ethernet cable for stability and performance.
Set its power settings to never sleep.
Turn off or uninstall all unnecessary applications.
Think about what users/account settings you will use to allow access.
Set suitable ACL permissions on the directory you will use for the NAS root storage path.
Turn on AFP, SMB, or NFS sharing as needed.

You now have a basic NAS.


Can't seem to redirect input in Terminal

Far less can go wrong if you pipe the input:

cat words.5.txt | /path/to/redirect

In your case, ./program might be needed depending on where you are compiling things or omitting the path entirely. From your edit this should work too:

./redirect < words.5.txt

That bash error is due to the program not existing in $PATH

echo $PATH


Why can't I just dd an entire APFS disk?

I am going to go out on a limb and assume the OP's new Mac has a boot drive with a 4096 byte sector size and the flash drive has a 512 byte sector size. Using the dd command (as the OP has described) would result in a flash drive, where the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition table could be read, because this occurs in the same place regardless of sector size. This would be the first sector (also known as sector 0). However, the GUID Partition Table (GPT) starts at the beginning of the second sector (also known as sector 1). The second sector on the Mac boot drive has a byte offset of 4096. When you used the dd command, the GPT would be placed starting at byte offset 4096, but the actual location should have been at byte offset 512. The result is documented in the OP's question.
BTW, the same type of problem would occur with the backup (also known as the secondary) of the GPT stored at the end of the flash drive. Although, it would seem unlikely that Mac boot drive and the flash drive have exactly the same total size in bytes. I assume this is what the OP meant by the use of the phrase "a flash drive of the exact same capacity as the disk".


Install and import site-packages for Python 2 and 3 on Mac

You should consider install pyenv for this.

  pyenv lets you easily switch between multiple versions of Python. It's simple, unobtrusive, and follows the UNIX tradition of single-purpose tools that do one thing well.

To install, just type:

$ brew install pyenv

Add this to your .bash_profile:

echo 'export PYENV_ROOT="$HOME/.pyenv"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'export PATH="$PYENV_ROOT/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo 'eval "$(pyenv init -)"' >> ~/.bash_profile

Once installed use pyenv to install python versions you need:

$ pyenv install -l/--list --> List all available versions
$ pyenv install 2.7.6
$ pyenv install 3.3.3

Run this command after you install a python version:

$ pyenv rehash

You can specify multiple versions via PYENV_VERSION at once. Let's say if you have two versions of 2.7.6 and 3.3.3. If you prefer 2.7.6 over 3.3.3,

$ pyenv shell 2.7.6 3.3.3
$ pyenv versions
  system
* 2.7.6 (set by PYENV_VERSION environment variable)
* 3.3.3 (set by PYENV_VERSION environment variable)
$ python --version
Python 2.7.6
$ python2.7 --version
Python 2.7.6
$ python3.3 --version
Python 3.3.3


Why do I need internet to listen to my music library?

Yipee! I figured it out! My problem is, as I forgot to mention in the question, I just got a new iPod. Aaaaaaand, I never realized it, but apparently when you get a new device, you have to download all your music into your library. Otherwise, you can still listen to it, but only over internet. Probably to save space. Downloading your songs can be done by tapping on the song or album, and then tapping "Make available offline".

Thank you everyone for your help!


Using speakers on both screens depending on window location

Rogue Amoeba make SoundSource [$29 USD plus any local tax] which can direct sound per app - though not per monitor, you'd have to set that up manually.


This should be working and is certainly working on my Mavericks box.

If you don't have a "MAILTO" line in the crontab then output should get sent to the owner of the crontab.

Are you sure the job actually outputs something? Have you tried putting a job in the crontab that will be sure to have some output such as

*/10 * * * * *  /bin/echo "Working fine"

Are you sure you don't have a .forward file in the user home directory?

Have you tried using sendmail to send some mail to the account and see if it gets through.


Screen won’t lock after upgrading to Catalina

Check the battery settings in the Energy Saver. You should be able to see a dial to change the time needed for your Mac to sleep. The defaults for these have been known to change from time to time, so you may be able to put it back to what it was originally.
Incidentally, locking your computer by leaving it unattended for 10 minutes is not a good security practice. If you want a quick way to lock it, see here for sleeping and here for locking. This is a habit that is worth picking up.


Safari - Display Favicons In Favorites Bar

I was looking for something similar as I use the Chrome bookmark bar in that way, but I couldn't find anything suitable. So I made an extension and have submitted it to Apple, Favicon Bar:

https://github.com/RoryCombe/FaviconBar


How to mail link from mobile Safari to an Exchange address book entry?

Outlook Personal Contacts do show in the Global Address List because the global contacts are controlled by the domain administrator. You'll have to browse All Contacts for the contacts you wish to share the page with.


Certbot Renew is returning this in the log...Unable to read ssl_module file; not disabling session tickets

The problem was Port 80 had become blocked. Once opened again. Everything works as normal.


Stuck in upgrading PHP version on localhost Mojave

You're trying to use the PHP module from HomeBrew with the Apple-provided Apache web server. That is an unsupported configuration on Mojave.

It doesn't work because macOS tries to validate that your software is correctly signed (i.e. not tampered with) - and it fails this check after you have changed which binaries are going to be loaded in. You can fix this by disabling SIP (System Integrity Protection) - but that is a really bad idea, as this would disable the protection on your other programs as well.

The correct way to proceed is to stop using the built-in Apache web server, and instead use a different web server. The easiest transition is to simple use Apache provided by HomeBrew instead.

You can do that by first installing Apache from HomeBrew:

brew install httpd

Then stop macOS from starting up the Apple-provided Apache on boot:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.apache.httpd.plist

Make sure that the new php module line you have inserted is now not commented, and the old is - i.e. make it look like this:

#LoadModule php7_module libexec/apache2/libphp7.so
LoadModule php7_module /usr/local/opt/php@7.2/lib/httpd/modules/libphp7.so

Then start up the new Apache web server installation:

brew services restart httpd

Depending on your settings you will then be able to connect with your browser to localhost:80 or localhost:8080 to view your site.


How to update latest MacBook pro EFI firmware manually?

The EFI partition is used when the firmware is updated. I assume this EFI partition must be on the primary internal disk. Apple posted that firmware updates require a GUID partition scheme at the archived website Firmware updates for Intel-based Macs require a GUID partition scheme, although the site does not explicitly say this must be the primary drive. When a SDD or HDD is formatted to use a GUID partition scheme by the Disk Utility or diskutil command, the EFI partition is automatically created.

Basically, the firmware update is copied to the FAT32 formatted EFI partition. The firmware is then instructed to update itself. Basically, the same procedure occurs for firmware updates on my HP PC running Windows. So, this is not unique to Apple Macs.

Having to update the firmware to run High Sierra makes sense. The APFS is new and older Macs would need a firmware update before being able to recognize this filesystem and read the boot files.

You used to manually update the firmware. At some point, Apple decided to include firmware updates in the macOS installs. Apple posted this in the now archived website About EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Mac computers.


Install Windows on MacBook Pro without Optical or USB Boot

You can boot from an external USB drive from this MacBook Pro. Use bootcamp to copy the ISO on a 8Gig (or more) USB Drive. Then boot from it by pressing option at the boot chime.


Can I restore from a 16GB backup to an 8GB iPhone

Ok, I got it done, but it took a little bit of a run around.

I had failed to mention in my question that the size of the original 16GB backup was indeed close to 16GB.  Clearly not going to fit on the new 8GB phone.

The very first time I tried to restore from backup, I got a message about the size incompatibility.  Every subsequent time it would just hang at "Estimating Time Remaining..."

Next, I decided to remove much of the superfluous data on the old phone, to get a new backup of it under 8 GB.  Trying to use this new, now smaller, backup resulted in the same hang up.

At this point I thought it just might not work.

With nothing to lose, I decided to have iTunes restore the phone to factory.  Then, the very first thing I did was try to restore from the new smaller backup...  Success!!

Somehow the failed attempts before hand, were keeping the phone from successfully restoring from backup.


Can't get write permission on external hard drive when exporting from Lightroom

macOS doesn't natively contain the software (drive) to write onto a disk formatted with NTFS (but it can read NTFS formatted drives fine). That's what the error is implying that only read privileges are available.

A drive formatted with NTFS can be written to by installing NTFS driver software in macOS. For writing to external disks made by WD, you will need to install a proprietary NTFS driver for macOS provided by the disk manufacturer called Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac.

You can follow the instructions in this support article on WD website, How to Install the Paragon NTFS Driver for Mac, to install the software and gain the ability to write files to the disk.


iMac will not boot with anything connected via USB

Try holding down the Opt key (aka Alt) when you are booting. This should give the option of choosing a boot device. If you see anything in addition to the hard disk then it is probably because one of the USB devices has a mass-storage mode. This might make the Mac try and boot off that instead of the hard disk.

You can also go to Startup Disk in System Preferences to see if anything invalid has been selected by mistake.


How do I restore my lost Address Book entries on my iPhone?

Check if she's stored the contacts anywhere else, such as in Hotmail, Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.  You can pull them into the phone by linking an account in Settings, Mail, Contacts, Calendars, Add Account..., or you can synchronize with the PC by going through the iPhone options in iTunes.

Otherwise, start typing...


Using applescript to create spaces and launch apps

To add one Desktop Space to each monitor/display:

do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events" to click (every button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "add desktop") of group 1 of process "Dock"
delay 0.5
do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control 1"

One can modify the code to add more desktops.

To switch to a particular desktop / fullscreen app in a dual display setting, e.g. Desktop 3:

do shell script "/Applications/Mission\\ Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Mission\\ Control"
delay 0.5
try
    tell application "System Events" to click (first button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "exit to Desktop 3") of list 1 of group 1 of process "Dock"
on error
    tell application "System Events" to click (first button whose value of attribute "AXDescription" is "exit to Desktop 3") of list 2 of group 1 of process "Dock"

end try

There are discussions out there about turning an app to fullscreen mode with script.


Html file became a rtf file then a txt file

I had the same problem and found this resource to help me:

Create your HTML document by writing the HTML codes in TextEdit. But when you try to save do not choose Web Page in the file formats drop-down. If you choose this, all of your HTML codes will appear on the page.
Go to the Format menu and choose “Make Plain Text.”
Save the file with a .html extension. Then you can edit the file in any other text editor as plain HTML.

But if you need to edit it in TextEdit later, you need to change TextEdit preferences. If you don't change the TextEdit preferences, it will open your HTML file as an RTF file, and you will lose all your HTML codes. To change the preferences

open TextEdit and choose “Preferences” from the TextEdit menu.
Switch to the “Open and Save” tab.
Make sure the checkbox is checked in front of “Display HTML files as HTML code instead of formatted text.”
It also helps to have TextEdit default to text files (instead of Rich Text) if you use it to edit HTML a lot. To do this, switch back to the “New Document” tab and change the Format to “plain text.”


Apple doesn't allow major iOS updates over cellular. You can update from 10.3.1 to 10.3.2 over LTE, but not from 10.2 to 10.3.
This is not a technical limitation of cell data or wifi, per se, but rather a policy limitation (though some carriers have limits of how big individual files transmitted over their networks can be). Major OS updates can run into the gigabyte range, and while many users have multi-gig or unlimited data plans, not all users do - so updates above a given size are disallowed, per manufacturer policy, from downloading over cellular.
If you hotspot your phone and download the update to your laptop, then run the install via iTunes, you can get around it. Or if you find a wifi connection elsewhere (that won't cut you off for excessive data use (as some free/public ones can/will)).

Side note:
It's - generally - fastest to do OS updates via iTunes from your computer, because the update does not have to download to your phone, then extract, then install, then clean up after itself (especially important to consider if you only have 3G free on your device, but the update download size is 4GB: the update will likely still install if you do it via iTunes, because it will be overwriting existing files (along with removing some and adding some) on the phone, using your laptop/desktop as its workspace for extracting the update archive).


Triple-booting Ubuntu on MacPro w/ Win10 and High Sierra (two separate drives)

You can make Ubuntu appear in the Startup Disk pane of the System Preferences application, but unfortunately you can not select Ubuntu as the system you want to use to start up your computer. For example, if you try with macOS 10.13.6, you get the following error message.

However, if you have rEFInd properly installed, you can use an application to select the system you want to start up your computer. For example, I have the following rEFInd icon on my dock.

Clicking on the icon produces the following window.

Here, I can select the startup system.

The same is true for Ubuntu. I have the following rEFInd icon on the Ubuntu launcher.

Clicking on the icon on the Ubuntu launcher produces the following window.

Basic steps to implement this answer

Allocate a small (200 MB) "MSDOS (FAT32)" partition for rEFInd. I would suggest at the end of disk1. The command for doing this is given below.

sudo diskutil resizevolume disk1s2 999G 1 MS-DOS REFIND 200M

  Note: The above command will move up disk1s3 and place the new partition disk1s4 last.

Download rEFInd.
Install rEFInd on the "MS-DOS (FAT)" partition.
Configure rEFInd to recognize the 3 operating systems.
Install the software (scripts) in each operating system to choose the default operating system to boot at startup.

Brief explanation of use

rEFInd does not change the Startup Manager menu, except rEFInd itself will now appear in this menu. In fact, you will use the Startup Manger to make rEFInd the default operating system to boot at startup. rEFInd will the silently instructs the firmware to boot what ever operating system is defined as default in the rEFInd configuration file. The software scripts you install and execute on each operating system (as shown in my answer) rewrite the rEFInd configuration file to change the default operation system. – David Anderson 21 mins ago

So, if the firmware is booting macOS through a default boot to rEFInd and you hold down the option key at startup to boot to Windows, then this boot to Windows is temporary. Next restart will boot back to rEFInd, then to macOS. If you hold down the control key while selecting Windows from the Startup Manager, then Windows will become the default operating system and rEFInd will be bypassed.

You can use the Startup Manager to enable or bypass rEFInd. The firmware has two modes to startup the Mac. The first mode boots the default operating system every time. The other mode, boots a selected operating only on the next startup and leaves the default unchanged. The rEFInd Boot Manager only uses the second mode. So, when you use rEFInd, you are actually booting the Mac twice on each restart. The first boot is to rEFInd and then second boot is after rEFInd instructs the firmware to boot to the desired operating system


How to fix non-bootable OS X, after Boot Camp problems?

Eventually, I fixed it by following a guide I found online (cannot find it anymore). I took a live cd with [TestDisk](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk), and ran that. It found the deleted partition, and I recreated it withgdisk`. That worked like a charm ;)


After enabling iOS COVID exposure notifications, why was I not prompted to enable Bluetooth?

I would go back to basics. How are you disabling Bluetooth? The radio is active for system services in almost all cases and I would expect enabling COVID 19 exposure notifications implies that each device hardware listens and broadcasts on a separate hardware channel than any other Bluetooth emanation or pairing.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/10/ios-11s-misleading-ish-setting-bluetooth-and-wi-fi-bad-user-security
https://covid19-static.cdn-apple.com/applications/covid19/current/static/contact-tracing/pdf/ExposureNotification-BluetoothSpecificationv1.2.pdf

Both Google and Apple have the same design document up and someone with a Bluetooth sniffer could validate this as well.


iPhone 3G - Uninstall the jailbreak from within the phone

Put your iPhone in DFU mode and that should help you restart your iPhone once again.

To put your phone in DFU mode, do the following:

Connect your iPhone to a computer with iTunes.
Press and hold the lock button for 10s.
Without releasing the lock button, press and hold the home button for 10s.
Release the lock button but keeping holding the home button till the iTunes logo comes on the screen.
Your device is now in DFU mode. iTunes should automatically detect the device in recovery and prompt you to restore it.
Follow the steps and you should have your iPhone working again.


Chrome Mac - NET::ERR_CERT_AUTHORITY_INVALID

Chrome is reporting that DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA root certificate had expired on July 2014. This issue can be address by following these steps:

Manually deleted my local copy of DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA

(open Keychain Access, select keychains:login, select category: certificates, search for DigiCert, right click, delete)

Downloaded the real cert(s) from DigiCert Root Certificates - Download & Test | DigiCert.com

Root Certificate Authority that the sites use:

DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA

Intermediate Certificate Authorities that the sites use:

DigiCert SHA2 Extended Validation Server CA
DigiCert High Assurance CA-3

Added these certs to Keychain Access simply by double clicking them
If that doesn't work you can manually import via File > Import.

Use following link to test it:

DigiCert Root Certificates - Download & Test | DigiCert.com


Why large size calculation difference: Mac Finder vs du?

I'm not entirely sure but 145GB is exactly 135 GiB so I think Finder gives result with decimal prefixes while du uses the binary ones.
See this article


Can multiple email addresses *with names* be pasted into Mail.app?

The expected format for multiple e-mail address is:

Joe Blow <joe@blow.com>
Jimmy Dean <jimmy@dean.com>
Sally May <sally@may.com>

Copying and pasting this into Mail.app on macOS 10.12 works as expected. Three people are added to the e-mail; each with their name associated with the e-mail address.

Individual entries can be separated by a comma:

Joe Blow <joe@blow.com>, Jimmy Dean <jimmy@dean.com>, Sally May <sally@may.com>

The angle bracket format originates from RFC 822 Section-6.1. This Request For Comment (RFC) defined the basis of the e-mail standard used on the Internet.


Why is my /usr/local/bin only accessible by root user? Which rights to fix it?

The /usr folder is protected by System Integrity Protection (SIP) and owned by root, as are all of its contents, with the sole exception of /usr/local (and its subdirectories).

The root user is uid 0, not 504. The 500-series should be user- or app-created accounts. /usr/local/bin on my system is owned by my username "tubedogg" in group "admin", and has drwxrwxr-x as the permissions.


How do I write a script that opens an iTerm2 window and runs a command?

Try this:

tell application "iTerm2"
    set newWindow to (create window with default profile)
    tell current session of newWindow
        write text "echo it works!"
    end tell
end tell

The write command, when not using without newline, executes the write text command because of the default added newline after the "text to send". Thus the window stays open after the command completes, ready for additional use.

From the iTerm AppleScript Dictionary:

  write v : Send text as though it was typed.

        write specifier : The session to send to
              [contents of file file] : Filename to send the contents of
              [text text] : Text to send
              [newline boolean] : If newline should be added to end of text (default: yes)


Should I trash old CS6 programs before reinstalling CS6 on same disc?

Er... in answer to my own question, I came upon the Creative cloud cleaner tool at https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/kb/cc-cleaner-tool-installation-problems.html, followed instructions and cleared all old adobe CS applications before reinstalling CS6.


Performance Tweaks/Tools for MacOS (Macbook Pro)

Onyx is a great app to help you clear out a lot of the clutter you may have accumulated over the years and speed you up a bit. Be careful though, it's a powerful tool so make sure you know what you're doing with it before you do anything.

As for boot time, make sure you don't have a lot of daemons loading at launch. One easy way to check is to go to System Preferences > Users & Groups > [Your User] > Login Items and remove anything listed there that you don't need launching at startup. Anything with a default document icon means it doesn't exist and can be safely removed. Ideally, the only item that should be listed is iTunesHelper, but if you don't use any iOS devices, then you can remove that too.

Another few places to check for daemons and login items is "~/Library/LaunchDaemons/", "~/Library/LaunchAgents", "/Library/LaunchDaemons" and "/Library/LaunchAgents". If you see anything listed for software you don't use anymore, trash it. Certain other apps load daemons in to here too that you might not need; Adobe is a big culprit here with their Flash Player updater, Adobe Reader updater, and AAM. If you're unsure, leave it where it is.


How to I delete WINS name from Network > Advanced > WINS

Turns out that the solution was to

Remove all the NetBIOS name entries in /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist (there was one for every interface)
Killall -9 cfprefsd
Issue the

sudo defaults delete/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.smb.server.plist

command for good measure.
Restart

I hope this can help others.


how to navigate system dialogue boxes never touching the mouse?

If you've got one of the standard macOS file save sheets, such as:

  Do you want to save the changes you made in the document ‘untitled’?
  Don't Save | Cancel | Save

↩ enter will save.
⎋ esc will cancel.
⌘⌫ command-backspace will not save (usual Finder delete shortcut).

If the sheet is a slightly different macOS file save sheets, where the document has not been saved previously, then ⌘⌫ will select the Delete button from the options

  Delete | Cancel | Save

For macOS file save sheets which prompt for a destination to save the file, you can quickly jump to a standard folder using the following shortcuts:

⇧⌘O for ~/Documents
⌘D or ⇧⌘D for ~/Desktop
⇧⌘H for ~ (your home folder)
⌥⌘L for ~/Downloads
⇧⌘I for iCloud Drive
⇧⌘G or / or ~ to enter a path name by typing the path

Some of these shortcuts are described in the Apple KB article Mac keyboard shortcuts

The ‘don't save’ shortcut used to be ⌘D, however many save sheets have an option to specify the location for the document, in cases where the location is undefined. ⌘D chooses the Desktop for the destination. To revert macOS back to ⌘D for ‘don't save’, set the following key:

defaults write -g NSSavePanelStandardDesktopShortcutOnly -bool true


Using external microphone disables internal speaker

Since I posted this question, I got a new external monitor that connects to the DisplayPort (Acer EB321HQU). It has its own speaker, so the Sound menu allows me to choose between Internal Speakers and the monitor.
When I plug in the microphone, the Internal Speakers choice changes to Headphone, so it still disables the built-in speakers. But the option to use the monitor as the output device is still available. So I can select that and get audio without a headphone. Plugging in the microphone automatically changes the selection from the monitor to Headphone, but I can easily switch it.
This solution won't work more generally, it's only for configurations with a monitor that can be used as a sound output device.


iOS 8 Safari verify server identity error

You can email your certificate to the ios device and add it in profiles as a server certificate. After doing so, Safari will recognize and trust the server.


How can I determine what application is asking "Where is GrowlHelperApp.App?"

You could have used sudo opensnoop to see what files are being opened or fseventer to see what files are being modified.

Those dialogs are often shown by AppleScripts that have reference a missing application. You could also have tried running mdfind GrowlHelperApp, but it doesn't search the contents of compiled scripts or scripts saved as applications.


MacBook Pro Mid-2012 starts but does not respond anymore

One thing that does happen at times with MacBooks of this kind (own one myself and had it happen to me) is that batteries can over time "inflate" and slowly but surely push themselves against something — in this case it would be weird if the something was the mainboard since it's not located under the battery but rather beneath it). But maybe you could take it apart and see if the battery looks odd or even a little blown-up and ask your friend if she ever replaced it before..?

Some basic steps to perform:

To rule out possible battery faults, you could take the battery out,
then try turning it on with the power cable attached
Give the obvious "mac-things" a try such as SMC reset, PRAM/NVRAM
reset etc.
Take out the SSD and attach it to another computer to see if you can
start it up from there


Mid '11 Mac Mini boot loops at Apple logo, but can boot to Safe Mode

Reinstalling from Recovery mode should work. Here is how to enter recovery mode. On a normal working computer, it usually takes a few tries to get into recovery mode as the timing is very important. Maybe try a few times to get into recovery mode. Make sure you go into the regular Recovery Mode and NOT Internet Recovery Mode.

Another thing you could try is to see if it is a hardware problem or a software problem. You could check this by creating a bootable usb drive with another OS(it doesn't really matter which OS) and attempting to boot into that OS on your Mac Mini. If booting into another OS works, you'll know it's a software problem.

If you have access to another Mac use this guide(by osxdaily) to safely install macOS onto your Mac using a bootable USB drive or use this guide(by apple).

If you need a .dmg file for macOS/OS X(to create a bootable USB on non macOS/OS X systems) try this link.


Can I make Safari under iPad save passwords?

Yes. Go to the Settings app, and select safari. There will be a section called "Autofill", and you can enable it to save your passwords and auto-fill your personal information taken from the address book. Also, iOS automatically saves all Wi-Fi passwords, so there is no need to save it manually yourself.


Why can't my laptop stay connected to WiFi when locked?

All right, so I've figured out a way to do it. I tried using the command pmset displaysleepnow, and it works as intended. The additional thing is that you have to go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General and require a password immediately after the computer display goes to sleep. I then set up an alias:

alias lscreen='pmset displaysleepnow'

and it works as intended. I use the terminal a lot, so lscreen is an easy way for me to lock my screen and come back with my screen being locked but both my WiFi and VPN still connected.


Once you've installed it (I used Macports) your ~/.surfraw.conf file should look like this, at a minimum:

SURFRAW_graphical=yes
SURFRAW_graphical_browser=open

The open command opens the default GUI application for whatever it's passed. In this case it's passed a http:// URL so it opens it in the default browser.


What may have caused losing 5-30 of our two iPhone4's contacts without using iCloud or any other sync?

If you go into your Contacts app, select Groups in the top left corner and click on All Contacts -- do they show there? The phone only caches a certain amount of addresses and you may need to manually select lesser known Contacts if they get purged from the cache.


It has a microphone. It is the little hole beside the back camera (no idea why they put it there).


Boot Camp Assistant does not let me change my destination drive

Best way to do this, delete the FAT partition and re-expand your HFS+ partition to fill up the space.

Use bootcamp assistant to create a bootable USB key (you'll need an 8GB one). It will ask for the ISO to make the installer.

Once it is done boot from the USB key and follow the prompts. Bootcamp will partition your drive for you at the beginning of the setup process and set it up properly to dual boot.

My guess is that something in the way you made the partition (location, type, etc.) was incorrect. If you let BootCamp do it, it works great.


iTunes library file damaged after manual migration to new Mac

As user33958 has pointed out, iTunes Library.xml needs to be copied too.


Was the mac shipped with 3gb ram? It is possibly not the reason but advice all the same, apple strongly recommends you run ram in identical pairs or individual modules, so a single 1, 2, 4 etc GB stick or 2 x 1, 2 x 2GB and so on, but not 1 x 1gb and 1 x 2gb.


I use Image Capture for exactly that purpose

The overview scan can be avoided by setting Image Capture to always scan the full page (A4 or Letter) and to not do object detection
If you scan multiple documents they get written into distinct PDF files (which actually just get numbered)

For more specific needs there's also the option to create an Automator Workflow for Image Capture.


I think you may be hitting El Capitan's System Integrity Protection [SIP] which is preventing access..

Borrowed from How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on OS X 10.11, El Capitan? ...

Apple's documentation covers disabling SIP, About System Integrity Protection on your Mac.

An article on lifehacker.com lists these steps:

  Reboot your Mac into Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down Command+R until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
  Click Utilities > Terminal.
  In the Terminal window, type in csrutil disable and press Enter.
  Restart your Mac.


Disconnect external HD when installing El Capitan upgrade?

Quick answer: No, you shouldn't have to, as long as you don't select to install to it during the upgrade process.  It shouldn't hurt to disconnect it though, if you want to.


Using rsync to sync between 2 Macs wirelessly

Even though I can tell, that this is a bad idea, here is my answer :

If you have a router in between, that should work, if not, you need to setup an Ad-Hoc network.

Set-Up a ssh-keypair :

  ssh-keygen -t rsa
  ssh-copy-id 'user@otherMac'

And write your rsync for each mac :

  rsync -e "ssh" -rc --delete ~/ user@otherMac

(-e "ssh" = use ssh for transfer
-r = recursive
-c = compressed
--delete = delete files that are not on the local device
~/ = Home-Folder )

U can, of course, adjust those.

If you don't have static IPs on the Macs, I guess you can call them by their DNS-Name, like "Toms-MacBook.local" or you can ping the DNS-Name and output the IP and give it to the rsync command.

And the delete option is the problem. If two macs are working at the same time, files are deleted when you are working. In such cases you would use a server.

In the end, you have to try it out and decide for yourself, if there is nothing to lose, I would also give it a try.


If you go to Settings on your phone and then go to Phone, there is an option that reads 'Calls on other devices'. You can turn that off when you leave and the other devices should not ring. Only your iPhone. It will list other devices on your network and you can turn off the ones you choose.


You cannot change the port sshd listens to by changing it in sshd_config since sshd is not yet running when the connection comes in. sshd is instantly launched by launched when a connection arrives. So you need to change the port in the appropriate launched item, or create another one to have a second port listening for incoming ssh connections.

You can find the correct file in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh.plist

Copy that to /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh-alternative.plist and change the following part:

            <key>Listeners</key>
            <dict>
                    <key>SockServiceName</key>
                    <string>ssh-alt</string>
            </dict>

Notice that the SockServiceName has been changed from ssh to ssh-alt.
To make it work you need to add a service named ssh-alt to /etc/services
For example like this (to match your example) add this line:

ssh-alt         12345/tcp   # ssh-alt

You can then load your new ssh-alternative config with
sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/ssh-alt.plist

If you're running ipfw make sure to allow tcp connections to the new port. The Sharing.PrefPanel will only allow you to turn on and of the standard port 22 listening sshd (Unless you change ssh in /etc/services which I do not recommend).

In addition you can prevent this service to be advertised by Bonjour by removing the corresponding part from the launched item.

        <key>Bonjour</key>
        <array>
            <string>ssh</string>
            <string>sftp-ssh</string>
        </array>

If this was already running you need to unload and load the item again.


Disable Bluetooth on Apple keyboards and trackpad

If I open up Bluetooth preferences I can still see both of these
  devices listed.

Yes.  These are the Bluetooth devices that you system has remembered.  Just because they are listed doesn't mean they are connected.

If you want to remove a device, go into System Preferences -> Bluetooth, then select the device, right (or Option) click it, then select
"Remove"

  I'd like to completely disable any Bluetooth communication and use usb
  as the only communication channel.

Turn off Bluetooth and plug in a USB keyboard/trackpad.

You can turn off Bluetooth by going to the same screen and clicking the button "Turn Bluetooth Off"

As for the keyboard and track pad, they are both Bluetooth 4.2 LE (Low Energy) devices.  This means they don't transmit anything unless they are paired (or pairing) with another device.  They sit in "listen mode" until it receives the signal to being broadcasting.  Basically, there's nothing to turn off.


Is there any reason to switch from MobileMe to iCloud if i'm still on Snow Leopard?

With Snow Leopard, you cannot Sync Docs, you can work around to sync Calendars and Contacts.

I would stick with MobileMe as you have the iDisk.

iOS5 and iCloud does sync docs accross devioces every time you make an edit. But sadly for me (Snow Leopard) I cant sync Docs to my Mac without first uploading from a device to iWork.com which is a bit of a shoddy work arround.


Will an iPhone only activate using the SIM card that it was originally activated with?

No - any valid SIM from the correct carrier will activate a phone that is locked to one carrier.

In the rarer case - iPhone 3G was sold or is now authorized unlocked in which case, you don't need any SIM to activate the device after a restore operation.

If the device is carrier locked (in the US - AT&T is the likely carrier), you can either buy a valid SIM from the correct carrier. A prepaid line or locating the SIM that was last used to activate the phone are good options for low expense.

Apple has articles that can guide you in this process:

Using an iPhone without a wireless service plan - This covers setting up an old iPhone like an iPod touch.
iOS: How to back up your data and set up as a new device - The end of this covers restore, set up as new and more explanation of carrier plans.
About swapping the SIM card
iPhone: Troubleshooting authorized unlock issues


Mac turns off randomly and has lines on screen

On first guess, based on the description of the symptoms, I would say that you are having an issue with your graphics card.

The best way is to run Apple Diagnostics or Apple Hardware Test. Hold D while booting from a powered off state.  Run the diagnostics and post your results and I will update my answer.

First update based on the comments:  I found this video on YouTube that details this exact problem and it's related to the graphics card.  Now, one word of advice: don't do the fix shown in the video.

While the diagnosis is correct, that fix is pure nonsense.  I have had much better results getting the board repaired by a shop that specializes in that type of fix (from eBay - I have used the one in Dana Point, CA with great results and for the record, I am not affiliated with them).

Normally I would say to replace it, but the prices are ridiculous - sometime over $700 for the graphics card.


Unable to boot up my Mac. Getting a flashing folder with a question mark

Take a look at EveryMac's Retina MacBook Pro page here. There is valuable information regarding compatibility (or lack thereof) of SSDs between different models, options for 3rd-prty upgrade offerings and lots of stuff you generally need to know about SSDs for Retina models.

Dealing with your actual problem at hand, SSDs aren't difficult to test, and any decent technician should be able to diagnose the issue. If your technician says it's died then by all means get a second opinion but SSDs have the capacity to fail like any other electronic or mechanical component.

If you're an EU resident you may have a case for a free replacement from Apple as EU-wide consumer law forces companies to offer a 2-year minimum warranty period. Getting them to honour a warranty may not be easy but it's another option. You never know, you could get lucky and find someone sympathetic to your plight who's willing to swap out the defective SSD.


How to stream radio from the command line?

While not (strictly speaking) playing from the command line, you could use a set of AppleScripts (or AppleScript calls) wrapped in shell scripts to control a GUI player or website. In the likely case that the player or site doesn't directly support AppleScriptability, you can use AppleScript GUI scripting to control the mouse and keyboard.

If you're looking at a "normal" streaming radio station (i.e, one that has a downloadable file that specifies the stream), you can put that in iTunes and use its (relatively excellent) AppleScript dictionary to remotely control it.

With either option, if you want to get fancy, you can use remote scripting to send Apple Events from an arbitrary source machine to control your radio-iMac.


How do I run an app using launchd at regular intervals?

Use oascript to call your ApplesScript.

$ oascript foobar.applescript

In your plist your ProgramArguments definition to launch the app would be as follows:

<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>foobar.applescript</string>
    </array>

To get your item to run, you need a StartInterval definition which takes an integer for the number of seconds (1800 for 30 mins) between runs.

<key>StartInterval</key>
<integer>1800</integer>

A simple but functional plist would look as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.user.foobar.app</string>
   <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>osascript</string>
        <string>foobar.applescript</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>1800</integer>

</dict>
</plist>


Magic Mouse & Bluetooth Keyboard Won't Pair in Lion

I don't think this is your problem, but it might be and doesn't seem to have been raised elsewhere.  I bought a new MacBook Pro running Lion a few months ago, and found that the (also new) Magic Mouse would not connect automatically—I had to force it to connect after any disconnection from switching off the MM or from rebooting the MacBook.

One of the genii at the Genius Bar, after ½ hour of experimenting and in the process of telling me that Lion would have to be reloaded, suddenly realized that the MM connected upon being clicked.  He stated that he had not run into this before and that it must be a new feature in Lion related to battery preservation.

Bottom line, try a single mouse click to initiate the Bluetooth connection.


How to reset the MissionControl/Expose/Spaces settings to defaults on Lion?

just go to system preferences click keyboard and disable launchpad and mission control then
click trackpad and go to the third tab and disable mission control and launchpad


I have a "Remove" button next to app icon on iTunes' app-page

Are you referring to the App section of the iPad that you are viewing on iTunes?

If so, the Remove button removes just removes the app from the iPad. It only permanently deletes the app from the iPad. You don't have to worry about it being deleted from iTunes or even from your Apple ID. To re-install the app from to your iPad, you will just need to click on "Install" (it will replace the "Remove" button) or go to the App Store, tap Purchases, and find the app, then tap on the icon with the cloud and a down arrow.


How to perform FileVault authenticated restart when updating OSX from AppStore?

It sounds like you want the next restart, whenever it might occur, to skip FileVault authorization. You can use the -delayminutes option with a value of -1 for this.
From the fdesetup man page:

authrestart [-inputplist] [-delayminutes number_of_minutes_to_delay] [-verbose]

If FileVault is enabled on the current volume, it restarts the system, bypassing the initial unlock.   The optional -delayminutes option can be used to delay the restart command for a set number of minutes.  A value of 0 represents 'immediately', and a value of -1 represents 'never'.  The command may not work on all systems.

Try running the following command before the system update:
sudo fdesetup authrestart -delayminutes -1


There is another way. Per this instructables an iTunes backup of the iPhone contains the voicemail files in these folders:

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Mac
\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Windows XP
\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\
Vista and Windows 7

However, the bad news is that these voicemail files are mixed in with a ton of other random files from your iPhone, and all the files have long, meaningless filenames with no extensions. To determine what the files are, use the file * command. Note that the backup must not be encrypted for this approach to work.

file * | grep audio
file * | grep GSM

(on Windows install Cygwin and use the Cygwin terminal to get the file command)

The two file contents that seem likely are

RIFF (little-endian) data, WAVE audio, Microsoft PCM, 8 bit, mono 44100 Hz
Adaptive Multi-Rate Codec (GSM telephony)


What are the '~previous', '-previous' and '~orig' files in /private/etc/?

The ~orig and similarly suffixed files are previous and likely corrupted versions of the settings/plist file where the "current" one is pretty much a duplicate of the "bad"one, not helping most situations (like when your ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist is corrupted).

In my experience though it usually ends up that the current file still has part or most of the corruption the previous one had. Depending on the location, it should be safe to delete the ~orig and similarly named files.

The current ones in /Library/Preferences should be safe to delete, I've never had negative results from that.

In the previous iTunes example, the freshest plist still may cause wonkiness like slow start and quit of iTunes. I had this happen to me about ten years ago, took 5 minutes to open iTunes, 10 to quit when I had this issue. When I checked the plists I must have had 200+ bad copied (in this case they would be com.apple.iTunes.plist. ). Removed them all and reopened iTunes, it created a new plist without trying to inherit any issues from the previous ones and it was smooth sailing since.

But like I said earlier, the ones in non-user and non-/Library/Preferences I would leave alone or be careful with, especially in /etc and /private.


Where are the /dev folder and the /dev/null device located on Mac OS X Mountain Lion?

It should be there as a character special file:

bash-3.2# cd /dev
bash-3.2# ls -l |grep null
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel       3,   2 Mar  8 11:04 null

Finder doesn't show these folders so you need to be in terminal to see them.


Flash videos, or more specifically, movies streamed via a Flash Object will likely never ever be officially supported in iOS as a first-party (built-in) feature.

Apple and Steve Jobs have a very firm stance against Adobe's Flash technologies, claiming that they perform poorly on mobile devices, cause the web browsing experience to be diminished, and drain battery life excessively.

Flash is not an announced feature in iOS 5.


Repeat a 3 second loop 10x in a 30 second video

Copy and paste the three second clip ten times in a row. The fastest way to do this is with keyboard shortcuts and the insertion point moves along as you paste.


How to recover factory reset in iPhone 5 apps without backup

But if you have a apple ID you can get apps back by simply downloading them on device with no extra fee


"Connection insecure" error when trying to manage a Gmail or Yahoo account

Check the Login/Certificates container in the keychain for anything with a red mark that says "Certificate is invalid". It's probably an old CA on the box that's conflicting with the current one from those accounts.


How do I launch Play-in-window from AppleScript

You can define custom keyboard shortcuts for pretty much erverything via System Preferences.
Open the "System Preferences" app ➔ "Keyboard" preferences ➔ "Shortcuts" pref pane ➔ App Shortcuts. Click the Plus (+) button.

Choose Keynote from the "Application:" list. Enter the name of the menu title, in this case "Play Slideshow in Window" exactly as it appears in the menu item (spaces, upper/lower case etc.). Enter a keyboard shortcut (Control-Option-Command-W in the screenshot below). Click the "Add" button.

Tadaaa! :) Custom keyboard shortcut in Keynote.

You can then automate this via AppleScript just like with "default" keyboard shortcuts, like so:
tell application "Keynote"
    activate
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "w" using {control down, option down, command down}
    end tell
end tell

(The keystroke in the script is corresponding to the example used above.)
Please remember that you have to allow the respective script editor/compiled script app to control the computer in the Accessibility settings pane in "Security & Privacy" ➔ "Privacy" settings so that the app can send keystrokes.


Can I use a Thunderbolt 3 cable in place of a USB-C cable?

Since Thunderbolt 3 is a "multi-plexing" of several signals including USB 3.1, you can use a Thunderbolt 3 cable in place of a USB-C cable.   As you stated, it can't be done the other way around.


Missing icons in Safari Favorites tab (OS X Yosemite)

I was having this same issue. Try deleting the Library/Safari/Touch Icons/ folder

After that, relaunch Safari and it should download them all again. This worked for most of my icons with the exception of the websites that don't have any custom icons available.


Unable to install macOS Catalina with bootable USB without macOS recovery partition

You will surely get this to work once your download completes from Apple servers. Things are busy with iOS 14 release,  it if you can’t get this over several hours, take your Mac to a new network.
Internet recovery needs you to connect to some main servers - unfiltered access with no firewalls which can be problematic in some countries and some networks.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210060

Or have someone make you an installer if you trust them.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

The only other option is hardware repair if your device doesn’t erase when you correctly follow arch of the erase install steps.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904


Force quit on a MacBook that uses a touchbar

You can use Karabiner to customize shortcut on your keyboard as you please, give it a try !

You can remap the Esc key to another key or combination or just add another force quit rule than Command+Option+Esc (like Command+Option+Q).

From Karabiner Manual :

Change a key to another key

You can change a key to another key in Simple Modifications tab.

Step 1 : Choose target device, then press Add item button.

Step 2 : Select From key and To key.

Step 3 : Confirm the result in Karabiner-EventViewer.

Use more complex rules

Step 1 : Open Complex Modifications tab and press Add rule button, then press Import more rules from the internet button.

Step 2 : A web browser is opened. Press Import button in the page. A confirmation dialog is shown. Press Allow button.

Step 3 : Karabiner-Elements is shown again. Press Import button, then new rules are imported. Press Enable button.

Step 4 : New rule is enabled. Confirm the result in Karabiner-EventViewer.


Can you make OSX mount just certain partitions when you connect an external HDD?

Yes. You'll need to create a file called "fstab" in /etc if it is not already there:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Next, we'll need the partitions Unique Universal Identifier (UUID). Open Disk Utility, and highlight the partition you'd like to no have auto-mounted. Then hit CMD+I and you'll be greeted with the following screen (notice the UUID highlighted):

We will then need to enter the following line into our fstab file. The following example will prevent my "Shockwave" partition from auto-mounting:

UUID=27C2148B-1734-3900-B89C-FE3EB7E11DBC    none   hfs   rw,noauto

Hit CNTRL+O to save when you're done. You can add as many as you like; one per line. Reboot and those partitions specified in fstab will not be mounted.

The UUID is the partitions unique identifier (consult the man-page below if you'd like to use device's label instead). The noauto tag tells OS X not to auto mount on load. You can still mount them using Disk Utility, but OS X won't do it for you initially.

If you'd like to learn more about fstab and what you can do with it, you can view it's respective man-page.


Theres nothing you can do to improve significantly the signal, as the iPhone doesn't support hardware or software upgrades that can improve this side of things.

Here's an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOuYASBuWJc


How long does a login to "Find my Friends" persist?

just a guess:
As in the App Store app a session is 15min, I would asume that a session in Find My Friends is also 15 min.

If you configured your phone to be locked (need to enter a pin after swipe to unlock), then you don't need to enter a password at all in find my friends [read somewhere, never tested myself].


Mac/PC: How to change the developer of an Apple Disk Image?

No. The developer certificate signs the application and any modification of the seal will make the validation fail.

Basically any trivial cut and paste won't work. You would need to:

sign up as a developer and sign your package
get permission from Apple to sign kernel extensions if that is the nature of the driver
work with the maintainers of the lab to find and install drivers for your hardware.


Time Machine: many different Macs on one disk?

Yes, sharing a single drive amongst several Macs is doable. For more details, here are some resources to review:

This Apple.SE question may provides some pointers, such as not using File Vault 2 when sharing the drive with Macs running OS X prior to Lion.
Another Apple.SE question provides some suggestions for network backup.
Other discussions (such as this post) recommend using multiple partitions on the shared drive.


"err_certificate_invalid" for only one host, on only one device, but in all browsers

Your certificate is issued by StartCom. The company has recently endured a number of scandals where they broke the rules governing certificates.

This means that for example new versions of Firefox does not trust StartCom certificates issued after the 21st of October 2016. Your certificate is from 2017.

Your problems are probably caused by this. The iPad likely has newer software/certificate updates than your Windows or Android device.

In time expect that no one will accept your StartCom certificate.

I suggest replacing the certificate with a new certificate!


Is there any way to bring back H.264 support in Chromium

While announced in January, Chrome hasn't actually dropped support for H264 yet.


Uploading photos from iPhone to iCloud Photos, using iOS 14 - is it working / what is the status?

On your iPhone, in the Photos app, at the bottom, select the Library tab. Then select All Photos.
Then swipe upwards.  This should reveal some hidden information about the status of the iCloud Photos upload, which I've highlighted with a red box in this screenshot:

Here, this uncovers that the iPhone has paused the upload, to save battery power. I'm not sure if it warns you about this - perhaps it doesn't, or do you eg have a kid that might have dismissed an alert without telling you?
If you press the blue Resume "button" / link, it'll continue uploading.
The iCloud Photos support document does have a hint about this in the (literally) small print. Emphasis is mine:

Your collection is uploaded to iCloud each time your device connects to Wi-Fi and your battery is charged. When you have iOS 11 or later, your library can be updated over mobile data also.

If you've spent a long time trying to figure this out before finding this information, don't blame yourself. In my opinion, this is an example of poor design from Apple - this feature has low discoverability.


iCloud has space but iCloud Backup says that I don't have enough to complete a backup

This could easily be explained as the 120 MB of used data is likely for the data all the apps store in iCloud. Contacts, calendars, specific third party apps can have storage in iCloud. You can determine this by looking at the Manage Storage pane in settings app (see below).

The warning you describe comes up when the expected size of the next backup is greater than the available free space.

You can reduce the size of the expected backup on iOS (updated for iOS 12) as follows:

open the Settings app
tap your AppleID/iCloud avatar (first item, top of list)
tap iCloud
tap Manage Storage
tap Backups
tap the name of the device in question (it usually says this iPod touch, this iPhone or this iPad to help if you have many devices connected to iCloud)
look at Next Backup Size
toggle off any unwanted apps from the list below

If that is less than the available space, you may need to contact Apple support to have your account fixed on the server side. In most cases, you can toggle off the largest few items and then attempt a backup when the estimate is less than the available space.

Once the backup is complete, you can tune the backups or manage your space as needed on iCloud.


Wi-Fi voice calling methods on a jailbroken iPhone?

The tweak Phone GV Extension integrates Google Voice into the normal Phone app. I haven't tried it myself, but it's pretty popular and has a free trial available. Here's a Lifehacker post that recommends it and also suggests an App Store app: GV Mobile +.


Wrong app is focused when quitting another one?

Just asked the same question and saw yours after…
It's actualy not related to Finder/PDF/Preview:

I had the issue with a first Mac (iMac): every time an app was quit (auto or by me), MAMP software (that I always let hidden) was reactivated. I thought it was a MAMP bug, but I just updated to Mavericks on another Mac (MBP – yes, I'm a bit late), and exactly the same thing is happening with Firefox (I have MAMP installed on it too).

So I just think this is a Mavericks bug…
https://developer.apple.com/bug-reporting/ !


How to paste today's date *and initials* with keyboard shortcut?

Below is the Service created to put your date stamp and initials into any document.
The first line returns today's date.
The second line is the text to include after the date.
The third line appends the date and text together.

Following the directions in the previous thread, create the Service and assign a keyboard shortcut in System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. (In System Preferences, Services are organized by type. The new Service you created will appear under the "Text" group of services.)

Note that your new Service will not appear in the Services menu unless the cursor is inserted into a field as if you were about to type the date and initials manually.

The output of this shortcut is circled in red below.


Reset Admin password/ unauthorized password change

Resetting User Account Password (10.7 +)

Boot into your Recovery Partition holding down Command + R at the startup chime
Select "Terminal" from your "Utilities" Menu Bar
Type the following command in: resetpassword
From the window that appears, select your boot volume and the appropriate user account
Type in the new password and confirm the new password
Click "Save", close this pane and quit Utilities
Select boot volume again when presented with "Choose Startup Disk" and reboot your machine