If you've configured a regular Time Machine backup onto your Time Capsule, mounting (or unmounting) the sparsebundle is not needed. It's already mounted or you wouldn't be able to backup your data regularly.

To mount the remote Time Machine sparsebundle and get the path to it simply enter:

tmutil latestbackup

(or tmutil latestbackup > /dev/null 2>&1 if you don't want any output)

The command triggers the mounting of the sparsebundle and the output is the path to your last backup.

Entering mount will show you the mount points of the Time Capsule and your sparsebundle.

Your result will be something like (example listing):

/dev/disk1s2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
//%user%@%IP% on /Volumes/%TimeCapsule% (afpfs, nobrowse)
/dev/disk2s2 on /Volumes/%Time Machine-Backups% (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, nobrowse)

The second last line is the Time Capsule share, the last line (disk2s2) the mounted sparsebundle image. The mounted share/sparsebundle aren't visible in the Finder because they are flagged as nobrowse.

To access your backup you can simply enter something like:

cd "/Volumes/%Time Machine Backups%/Backups.backupdb/%LocalHostName%/

(All terms framed by percent signs depend on your environment and you have to replace them by proper names/addresses - get them by diving into the folders with cd and ls -la.)


Scratch on MacBook Pro LCD screen (not the glass)

You have no good options for repair.

Any mechanical stress you add could sabotage the panel later making it more likely to crack. Any coating you try has worse side effects as it ages.

I would make a judgement call based on the location of the scratch, the depth of the scratch and your temperament. If you can live with it, just continue with the repair.

If you know it will drive you nuts or is on a part of the screen you look at often, bite the bullet and buy a new LCD panel. Sell the scratched one to someone that isn't as picky (you probably know several people that use a phone with broken glass for months and maybe someone that even uses one with chunks of the digitizer missing). You could probably charge someone your costs for the panel to repair their Mac and come out of it even.


How to disable auto password filling (Keychain) while in private browsing mode in Safari?

There is no way currently offered by Apple to disable auto-fill based on the browsing mode. However, you could try to switch auto-fill on/off based browsing mode by making a trigger-effect script or macro with AppleScript or an application like Keyboard Maestro.


iOS 7 app to create a password protected PDF or DOC file

molgar is right, just open in Pages app, set password and export as any file format and email it.

Set password

Open in another app

Choose export format

If you wanna email any file just download MailAnyFile from iOS AppStore.


How to get Java 6 in OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)?

The simplest solution I found is to

Download the jdk6 (download button is on top right)
Unpack it to somewhere. Preferably to /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6. This is what it looks for me:

> ls /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6
Classes       Commands      Home          Info.plist    Libraries     MacOS    Resources   version.plist

Set your $JAVA_HOME to your new location by doing export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home/ before your $PATH in your ~/.bashrc (or ~/.zschrc) file
Prepend $JAVA_HOME to your $PATH by doing this export PATH=$JAVA_HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/us..........
Restart your shell or do source ~/.bashrc


Why is my 2010 MacBook Pro not detecting RAM?

Verify that all the RAM you're trying is actually good, by installing each the SODIMMs in another machine. If the RAM is recognized, then it's OK.

If the RAM is good, then the memory modules are not being electrically connected to the motherboard in the Macbook (either because of a RAM socket problem, or a bad electrical connection(s) between the socket and the board), or there might be a failure within the electronics on the board.

If the RAM is good, the repair sounds like something that'd require professional attention. The Macbook may be considered "Vintage" or "Obsolete" by Apple; more information is on Apple's page here. If the machine is Vintage or Obsolete, Apple may decline to repair it and may further decline to provide replacement parts.

However, you may be able to find a non-Apple service provider who can examine and perhaps repair the fault(s), as repair may require no parts, or parts which can be sourced other than from Apple.


External monitor for Macbook Pro Retina 13" 2015 laggy (UHD like P2415Q)

I had a similar problem - it is due to your MBP not being able to "drive" the larger monitor.  It also has to do with how you are connecting to your monitor.  When I tried to go from mDP (mini DisplayPort) to DVI, there was lag.  But when I went to mDP to DP, the lag was gone.

The UltraSharp monitor that I am using is this model:  U2312HM UltraSharp IPS Monitor

I found this on Apple's Support site.  If you notice the resolutions and frequencies for HDMI go down as the resolution goes up.  This also applies for the other display formats.  You really can't drive anything more than 1080p at 60Hz  the more Hz, the smoother (less choppy) things look.

I will bet that if you tried this monitor on a PC with dedicated graphics, you would see no performance lag.


Why does Pages, export to *.doc a file that is larger than expected?

There is a bug in Pages. When you export a file in ".doc" or ".docx" format it embeds 489KB PNG files (a single one in a docx file, three in a doc file). These files are intended to be used as the background fill on default shapes, but they are present whether they are used or not.

I documented the bug here.

And reported it to Apple as rdar://17089255.

At the moment the simplest solution is to open and close the file in another application like Microsoft Word or LibreOffice. They both strip out the unused PNG files.


bootcamp: automatic change of audio output device like in OSX ? (if headphones plugged in, mini toslink, ..)

Activate the 'Mute the rear output device when a front headphone
plugged in' under the advanced settings menu.
Click on the Folder Icon next to Analog.
Click on the 'Disable Front Panel Jack Detection' button.

I've got both green connectors set to headphone.

It has always worked for me.


How are paths to files and folders constructed in OS X?

There's no disk letter in OS X unlike Windows.

The mount point for disks is usually /Volumes. For example, files on a flash drive with the name FLASHDRIVE will be located in /Volumes/FLASHDRIVE/.

The startup disk is the root, /. Therefore, the Users folder is /Users. No drive letter is prepended to this.


Applescript "Can’t make {x:651.0, y:675.0} into type real." number -1700 from {x:651.0, y:675.0} to real

The error you're getting is because you can't round() a structure as a whole, so you need to round its individual components. Replace this:

round (theList)

set theList's x to round (theList's x)
set theList's y to round (theList's y)

Then you'll need to fix a subsequent error caused by theList having x and y keys. Replace this:

  click at {theList}

    click at {theList's x, theList's y}


The firmware password on newer machines isn't stored in nvram anymore (which is why anything newer than around 2010/2011 cannot have the firmware password removed by reseating RAM).

Source: https://github.com/munkireport/munkireport-php/issues/43#issuecomment-29738033


You can delete everything from the EFI partition if you wish. OS X will recreate what it needs when the operating system starts. Basically, OS X copies the Firmware.scap file from the boot partition to the EFI  partition.

The files and folders marked below for deletion are not part of OS X.

BOOTLOG                            <---- Delete
BOOTLOG.OLD                        <---- Delete
screenshot__001.bmp                <---- Delete
screenshot__002.bmp                <---- Delete
EFI/
    APPLE/
        CACHES/
            CAFEBEEF/
                (empty)
        EXTENSIONS/
            Firmware.scap
        FIRMWARE/
            MBP91_00D3_B0D_LOCKED.scap
    Ubuntu/                             <---- Delete (Part of Ubuntu)
    tools/                              <---- Delete (Part of rEFInd)
        gptsync_x64.efi                 <---- Delete (Part of rEFInd)
    reFind/                             <---- Delete (Part of rEFInd)

The rest of the files were put there by OS X or related software.


Is it possible to create a special character and add it to special characters?

You can add a line over p, c, s either with the US Extended keyboard layout (base letter then option/alt + a) or the Character Viewer (double click on unicode 0304 after the base letter).  Best just copy them from here:

p̄
c̄
s̄

You may need to try different fonts to get them to display properly


Difference between iOS and OSX/macOS connecting to Exchange?

This is because your iOS device supports the Exchange Active Sync (which is for mobile only) protocol where Mail and Calendar do not.

For your OS X Mail and Calendar to work, you either need:

Exchange protocol support in Mail and Calendar meaning Apple has to pay for licensing (not likely to happen)
IMAP, CalDav, and/or POP3 service enabled on the Exchange Server

It sounds like your company has enabled IMAP and/or POP3 support, but nothing for the calendar which is why email works and calendar does not.

However, if you have Outlook 2016 and VPN in (or they enable services on an "edge server"), Outlook Mail and Calendar will be able to sync up.


I haven't found "official" information on this, both my 2007 Macbook and my 2011 Macbook Pro will rarely show a 100% charge, I assume it's normal behaviour.

Take into account that the battery measurement is only an estimate so even if it shows 100% it does not mean that the battery has reached exactly full charge.


How do I launch Finder from terminal or command line

To open your current directory in Finder from Terminal, type open .

So, if you want Documents: open Documents

Library: open /Library

Downloads: open Downloads

And so on.


Re-installation from the internet fails with error code -2005F, what does it mean?

It looks like you need to reset your device's NVRAM. Check out Apple's documentation that explains how to do that: How to reset NVRAM on your Mac

This thread on the Apple Support Communities suggests an NVRAM (or PRAM) reset will resolve this issue. If that doesn't work, it wouldn't hurt to try an SMC reset as well.


It's 6 song skips per hour for each station.

I also have iTunes Match turned on and I'm still limited to 6 skips.


Thanks to Gordon Davisson question.  It pointed me in the right direction.
I was connected to both wireless and wired. Once I turned off wireless and rebooted, I was able to login with a network account. the problem was, I was connecting to the guest netowrk and it was unable to find the domain. Once I turned off Wi-Fi I was able to log in

Thank you all,
Mike


Cover Sutra has a nice player bezel, which, while larger than the iTunes MiniPlayer, has more info (such as a progress bar). If it was smaller, and offered the ability to change the color (it's black), I'd want to keep it visible all the time.


Jogger mode on iOS 9.0.2 - Disable track shuffling when shaking the iPhone

The mentioned "Shake to Shuffle" feature is gone since iOS 8.4, so enabling or disabling it doesn't make sense anymore - so the option for this is also gone from the Music options screen. (Thank you Tetsujin for the tipp.)

On iOS 8.1 one can find it in options under the Music category. It is right the first option in the Music options category. You can enable or disable it here. (In English it is called "Shake to Shuffle", but I am using the iPhone in German, so is called "Schüttelfunktion" here (= "Shaking function").)


What is the CAS latency of the memory in a Mac Mini 2018?

Based on iFixit teardown which says these RAM pcs are Hynix model "HMA851S6CJR6N-VK" I'm assuming that they're the same as the ones you can find by browsing this model name (i.e. here) - and they're described as CL 19.

However, there's a video of this guy that switches his Mac Mini's RAM to CORSAIR "CMSX32GX4M2A2666C18" that has CL 18 and it seems to work fine.


If the disk is unreadable then recovery disk will not work - and when you put in a new blank disk it won't be on that one either, so the recovery procedure outlined will not work here.

You need another boot disk. (This is where you should wish you had backups with SuperDuper! which creates fully bootable clones of your hard disk).

Assuming that you don't, you need to use your other Mac (note that the installation disks from another Mac will not work in yours - only purchased OS X disks can be used in any machine).

If you have a firewire cable the easiest solution would be to cable the two Macs together. Set one of them to TargetDisk mode, boot the other one off the good disk (I don't think it matters which is used here?).

Because your other Mac has 10.5 Leopard you don't have App Store and so can't easily get Mountain Lion (even assuming the failed machine is compatible). Instead I recommend you just clone the hard disk from machine to machine.

Download SuperDuper! (free license is sufficient, but recommend you pay for full license, it is a wise investment).
Clone the disk on the good mac to the new hard disk.
Disconnect and reboot.

You now have two working Macs with identical files on them - from there it is up to you.


How can I open a folder called something.app in various applications?

UPDATE: Recent versions of OS X have removed this ability. The answer below applies to OS X 10.9 or earlier.

A simple right-click of the folder will enable you to view the contents using "Show Package Contents."

If you're trying to access the folder from a Save/Open dialog, then try changing your view type from icons to Column mode.


Is the iPhone 5s physically similar enough to the iPhone 5 to use a close fitting case?

Per Ars Technica:

  "Every measurement, right down to the 3.95 ounce weight and 0.30-inch thickness, is identical to the iPhone 5."

Visually from looking at photos the ports, buttons, etc. are all identically placed. Also, one of the image captions in that article:

  "The leather cases for the iPhone 5S will also fit the iPhone 5. This should also hopefully mean that third-party cases for the iPhone 5 will continue to fit the 5S."

The only possible issue would be the iPhone 5 LED flash vs the 5s' dual-LED flash. But as long as the cut-out on the third-party case looks like Apple's does (i.e. it goes around the camera and the LED in one cut-out), there shouldn't be any reason they don't fit.


Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) 3.7 - how to drag n drop copy files from local to remote

I can confirm that the file copy still works on the newer versions including ARD 3.7.1 so it's something you'll need to use logs to troubleshoot.

You may have to use the copy tool to try copying the file and look over the logs to determine what has changed between your remote computers and the controlling remote desktop computer.

That interface has better error messages and reporting and has helped me figure out what firewall settings were preventing me from using ARD in the past. Feel free to post your log if you can't make sense of the details it lists.


MacVim -- switch to tab where file is opened if trying to open an already-opened file

You can remap tabnew to tab drop so you will be switched to already opened files or directed to newly created file.

cnoreabbrev <expr> tabnew getcmdtype() == ":" && getcmdline() == "tabnew" ? "tab drop" : "tabnew"


This app works for me: MuteMyMic. Available in the App Store at that link.

Appears to be free, as well.

It puts an icon in the menubar with a mic input level slider:

Disclaimer: no financial or other ties to the developer of this amazing app which I just found using Google.


postfix: warning: /etc/postfix/main.cf, line 690: overriding earlier entry: config_directory=/etc/postfix

I have the same problem using postfix reload in Yosemite server, with the same error. Postfix is running, however, and I can restart it by using the GUI in server.

Sierra's postfix config files are, in fact, in  /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/ and the files in /etc/postfix are not used and obsolete. Changing files in /etc/postfix won't do you any good. The file you need to sort out is /Library/Server/Mail/Config/postfix/main.cf


According to Apple you should try a few options:
Check the mouse and keyboard

This issue might occur if a mouse or trackpad button is pressed during startup. Make sure the button isn't pressed.

If the issue persists, shut down your Mac with its power button, disconnect any external mouse and keyboard, then turn on your Mac with its power button. If the flashing question mark issue persists, reconnect the keyboard and mouse.

If your Mac still starts to a flashing question mark, follow the steps below. If any step resolves the issue, you don't need to continue to the next one.

Select your Mac OS X startup disk with Startup Manager by restarting and holding the Option key. After your Mac starts up, restart again to verify that the flashing question mark does not appear.

If the issue persists, insert your Mac OS X installation disc. Be sure to either use the disc that came with your Mac, or, if you installed a later Mac OS X version from disc, use the newer disc.

MacBook Air note: On a MacBook Air, there are two options for starting up from Mac OS X media: Either connect a MacBook Air SuperDrive to the MacBook Air via the USB port and restart the computer, holding down the C key during startup, or use Remote Install Mac OS X to startup from a system software DVD that's located on a partner computer. Once started up from Mac OS X media, skip to step 3.

Restart the computer, then hold the C key during startup.

From the Utilities menu, choose Disk Utility. Don't click Continue.

Select your Mac OS X disk (named "Macintosh HD" by default) in the left side of the Disk Utility window.

Click the First Aid tab.

Click Repair Disk to verify and repair any issues with your Mac OS X startup disk.

After repairing the disk, try to start up normally.
Important: If Disk Utility finds issues it cannot repair, you may need to back up as much of your data as possible (or use Time Machine to back up to a different disk), then erase the disk and reinstall Mac OS X.

If the issue persists, and Disk Utility didn't find any irreparable issues, quit Disk Utility, quit the Installer, select your disk when prompted, and restart.

If the issue continues, reset PRAM. Note: After resetting PRAM, if the computer starts up normally, reselect the startup disk in the Startup Disk preferences.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, start up from the Mac OS X Installation disc and reinstall Mac OS X.

From:
A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1440


Command Backspace keep going past the line

I think Control + Option/Alt + Delete may be what you are looking for.

Edit: mistyped the shortcut :P


How do I listen to music on my computer through my iPad?

Here are a few possible solutions:

Plex

I haven't used this but it appears to do exactly what you ask for. Install the free server on the Mac and the (paid) app on the iPad. You don't need to sign up for a subscription and it says you don't even need to sign in to stream from a local server, which should help assure you that no streaming from the internet will take place.

Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil

Install Airfoil for Mac on the Mac Mini where your music is and Airfoil Satellite for iOS on the iPad.

Airfoil is not free, but you can try it before you buy and it should work reliably and is well supported. It routes any audio source(s) you choose on the Mac to play simultaneously on one or more compatible destinations - so you can use any Mac audio player you like, including but not limited to iTunes. Airfoil Satellite has basic remote control capabilities for some applications such as iTunes and Spotify, but you would need something else to create and edit playlists - I'm pretty sure Apple's iTunes Remote can do this, for example, or if you use VLC on the Mac there's VLC Mobile Remote for the iPad.

Logitech Media Server

The server you run on the Mac is free, on the iPad you would need the SqueezePad client app (paid).

DLNA

Install a UPnP/DLNA media server such as Kodi (free) on the Mac and use a DLNA client app for iOS - I don't know which to recommend, but there are lots to choose from including some free ones.

iTunes

You say you don't want to use iTunes and iOS Music because of the risk of it using too much data. I'm not sure whether you're talking about iTunes on the Mac Mini downloading purchased or matched (if you have iTunes Match) tracks, or Music on the iPad streaming these tracks or playing from Apple Music (if you have Apple Music), but there are two ways you should be able to use Music on the iPad without this happening:

Sync the music from iTunes on the Mac to the iPad via USB. You will need enough storage on the iPad to fit it! In Music on the iPad, make sure you only play from within the Downloaded Music section of your library.
Turn on Home Sharing on iTunes and only play from within the Home Sharing section of your library. I (and others) have never found Home Sharing to work reliably but feel free to try it.

The only problem with these two is if you accidentally play music from outside the Home Sharing or Downloaded sections of the library.

Block streaming traffic on your router

A final suggestion, depending on what router and/or other equipment for the satellite internet connection you have: is there a setting you can make to block or throttle streaming audio traffic, and/or iTunes downloads? I don't know what servers, protocols or ports you would need to block but you might be able to get that answered with another question here.


How have I got two identical Amazon Prime Video apps on my phone?

I can answer this one for you. Amazon are trying to transfer everybody to a new app. The one you linked to is the old one. Search the app store and you'll find the new one (at V6.4 vs 6.1 for the old).
A while back Amazon sent a push message with a link telling everyone to update. You probably did and didn't delete the old one.
What the difference is at this point in time between the two? Probably nothing. That might change though.


My airport never stops searching for networks, even when I'm already connected

It's the refrigerator light problem.  It's searching because you pulled down the Airport menu.


ffmpeg transcoding audio to MPEG-4 HE AAC instead of AAC

The problem is your ffmpeg. If telling ffmpeg to use aac causes it to encode in he aac, if that is true, then there is something wrong with your ffmpeg, because specifying aac should never result in he aac. Only telling ffmpeg to encode using libaacplus or libfdk_aac should result in he aac encodes.

Here's an idea... build your own ffmpeg from source, because your binary was built wrong (if what you are saying is true).

You can download the ffmpeg source and build it manually:

  git clone git://source.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg.git ffmpeg

But its far easier to install it using package management, like macports:

MacPorts requires an appropriate version of xcode; xcode_5.1.1.dmg is the most recent version for Mavericks (after registerring for a free developer account, and logging into developer.apple.com, that link will begin your xcode download). Once the download completes, open your Terminal.app and complete the installation:

 hdiutil attach -quiet -noverify -nobrowse -noautoopen ~/Downloads/xcode_5.1.1.dmg
 cp -npR /Volumes/Xcode/Xcode.app /Applications/
 hdiutil detach -quiet /Volumes/Xcode

Download and build macports:

MacPorts Guide

 curl -Ok https://distfiles.macports.org/MacPorts/MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 tar xf MacPorts-2.2.1.tar.bz2
 cd MacPorts-2.2.1
 ./configure
 make
 sudo make install     # *not war!*
 cd ..
 rm -rf Macports-*
 sudo /opt/local/bin/port -v selfupdate
 diskutil quiet repairPermissions /

add macports to your $PATH:

 export PATH=/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:$PATH
 export MANPATH=/opt/local/share/man:$MANPATH

build your ffmpeg

 sudo port -vsc install ffmpeg

you can keep everything updated simply with:

 sudo port -vsc selfupdate
 sudo port -vsc upgrade installed

If you are unsatisfied and/or need to remove MacPorts:

 sudo port -dfp uninstall --follow-dependencies installed
 sudo port -dfp uninstall all
 sudo rm -rf /opt/local
 sudo rm -rf /Library/Tcl/macports*


AppleScript: How to open text file and move cursor to specific location (signaled by specific character)?

I don't know if there's an easy or pretty way to do what you're asking. In other words, you can't just simply say something like open target file and move cursor to first empty line, however the code below will do that.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    repeat (firstEmptyLineNumber - 1) times
        key code 125 # Down Arrow
    end repeat
end tell

The code above is coded to open the text file in TextEdit, which is what open -e in the second do shell script command is doing and it's coded this way because System Events needs to know where to sent the down arrow keystrokes to. If you want a different text editor then remove the -e and the open command will open it in whatever app the .txt file extension is registered to open with. Then you'll also need to change:

tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"

To:

tell application "System Events" to tell front process

And replace:

tell application "TextEdit" to activate

With: delay 1

In the first do shell script command, awk is getting the line number of the first empty line and exiting and this is what's used to calculate how many down arrow keystrokes to repeat.

I modified my original answer slightly to get rid of the delay commmand but wanted to add my take on adc's answer while eliminating all the menu_click stuff.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
if firstEmptyLineNumber = "" then set firstEmptyLineNumber to 1 as string
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    key code 37 using command down # ⌘L
    keystroke firstEmptyLineNumber
    keystroke return
    key code 123 # Left Arrow - So the line is not highlighted.
end tell

Update:

The code below has been modified from the code above at the top of my answer, not my take on arc's answer although it's applicable there too, to address the issue you're having with TextEdit writing two carriage returns instead of the expected and normal two line feeds for an empty line after a line containing content or two empty lines in a row.

set filePathName to POSIX path of (path to desktop as string) & "My Fruit Log.txt"
set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '$1 == \"\" {print NR;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
if firstEmptyLineNumber is equal to "" then
    set firstEmptyLineNumber to (do shell script "awk '/\r\r/{print NR+1;exit;}' \"" & filePathName & "\"")
end if
do shell script "open -e " & quoted form of filePathName
tell application "TextEdit" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell process "TextEdit"
    repeat (firstEmptyLineNumber - 1) times
        key code 125 # Down Arrow
    end repeat
end tell

Note: Although the modified code works with your testfile.txt file from the link in your comment, nonetheless I personally do not subscribe to this workaround and would instead find out the root cause of the issue and fix it and your files!


Actually the concept of segues was introduced first in iOS5, however it is also stated in the library documentation.

Nevertheless, you can try to create standalone nib files and copy your UI*ViewControls from the storyboard into the nib file(s). Of course you are still not allowed to use segues but you can easily reintroduce IBActions to handle transitions between the views. It's still some effort to migrate, but not an impossible mission.

In order to avoid such a situation, I would suggest you to make a short requirement analysis (functional as well as non functional) before coding.


Could the High Sierra root bug have been exploited over SSH?

The login mechanism for SSH and for Aqua are two entirely different things.

sshd is the OpenSSH daemon (what allows you to log in via SSH) is sourced from BSD.  This vulnerability doesn't exist there.

Additionally, the default configuration for OpenSSH is to disalow the root user to login whereas this bug/flaw allows you to log in as root with no password by simply pressing a button twice.


What happens on the other end when you press "End call"

If you press "End Call" you effectively terminate the call and the other person is also immediately disconnected.

If you don't want this to happen, you have to press the "hardware" volume down button to "silence" the phone or mute the phone with the hardware button (as far as I can remember). This way the phone will keep ringing but you won't hear it, and the other person won't notice it.


How to check if iPhone has been backed to iCloud?

I'm sorry to hear about the broken phone.

Checking for iCloud backups:

iCloud.com will at least show you if there are any backups, but yes unfortunately no info about the date. The existence would be under Account Settings, and then seeing space taken by Backup.

If someone has a Mac, you can create a separate user account on that computer, and then set it up as your relative, using their iCloud credentials. (Just be sure to use a password they know AND delete the account/sign them out/remove the device from their iCloud after you're done so it doesn't become a source for a secondary password for them to set up iCloud later.) Once you have the macOS account, you can see the backups in the manage iCloud storage section of system preferences. https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/manage-icloud-storage-mh36833/10.15/mac/10.15

Checking for iTunes/local backups:

Open iTunes, and select Edit > Preferences (Windows) or iTunes > Preferences (macOS). Under the devices tab, you'll see a list of the backups.
On macOS Catalina, connect any iPhone/iPad, just so you can get a Finder window and select a phone. Then click manage backups, and you'll see a list of backups on that Mac.


Remove and Reinstall Python on Mac -- Can I trust these old references?

So, I ended up removing all python installations, and reinstalling things via Homebrew.

which python ---> /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
Delete the entire Python.framework directory from /Library/Frameworks.
which python3 ---> /usr/local/bin/python3  Delete the entire python3 directory.
I was a bit nervous about the symlinks.  I initially renamed the ones that were obviously going to cause me trouble. It turns out that was unnecessary.  Instead, just use:

$ brew doctor
Warning: Broken symlinks were found. Remove them with 'brew prune':
  /usr/local/bin/python-32
  /usr/local/bin/python2-32
  /usr/local/bin/python2.7-32
  /usr/local/bin/python2_DNU
  /usr/local/bin/python_DNU
  /usr/local/bin/pythonw-32
  /usr/local/bin/pythonw2-32
  /usr/local/bin/pythonw2.7-32

So, brew prune (or brew cleanup --prune in newer versions of Homebrew) worked perfectly. It removed all of the above symlinks.
Reinstall python and python3 via homebrew.  All done.

At no time did I touch the python installation located within the /System folder.

Oh, and to be clear.  The answer to the original question is

  Yes, you can trust the old references, as written! That guidance is still valid.


How to Limit Wifi Connection to Only One Application?

Use Little Snitch 3 for that.

You can use Automatic Profile Switching for your filter rules depending on the network you are in.

For your specific WiFi just block everything except your browser for that.

https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html


Macos Big Sur port 80 permission denied with root

No, everything is working as intended. You need sudo to have a command line process listen on low ports. There’s nothing you want to unlock here as this is a protective feature.
I usually just test on ports higher than 1024 to avoid this risk entirely until it’s time to write a proper wrapper script, but all three options are just as suitable. (Use sudo, use setuid permissions, change the port listen number)
To use sudo - run a shell first, then the npm command
sudo -s
npm run dev
exit


Can I bind multiple key shortcuts to the same action?

It seems like adding a shortcut in the Keyboard preferences will override the built-in defaults. You can use Keyboard Maestro (a paid app) to add such things - easiest would be to add a trigger for the alternative combo which translates into a menu action or into the original keyboard shortcut being sent to the application of choice.


How to have podcasts autoplay after the iOS 11 upgrade?

Yes. On 11.1.2 (maybe earlier versions as well, haven't checked), you can create your own station and the app will play the next one in the list after the podcast ends.

Example to autoplay all episodes of a single podcast:

In the "Library" screen of the podcast app, choose Edit -> New -> Name it something.
Set Station Play to "Oldest to Newest" (to mimic play order of previous podcast app versions)
Set Include Episodes to "All Episodes"
Choose Podcasts -> the Podcast you want to auto-play.

Now play your new station and autoplay next will work.


How to change Cmd+Tab on OS X to make it behave like on Windows or Linux?

You will need to buy another app. Two I know of are

Witch
Optimal Layout

Or get used to Apple's way which is use Exposé


MacBook Pro battery charging stops early

The first thing I will look for is dirt in the MagSafe port, there might be something there, but the chances are small.

The second thing I will do is a reset on SMC and PRAM, and any of the hardware stuff. I am not sure if PRAM is related, but hey, we want to rule out any possibility.

You can find how to reset PRAM here, SMC here. (SMC is a more likely problem, do that first)

The third thing I would do is a clean install, but no need to tell you, backup first. Whether a data backup or a Time Machine backup, but data backup will be cleaner.

Here comes the last thing we could do, open it up. Nay, just kidding, send it to Apple, have them figure it out. If it's not out of warranty for long, you could get a free repair, it's about chances.


Open text file in Numbers when it is space delimited, but some fields are strings in quotes with spaces

if you have an editor that can use regex (for example textwrangler or bbedit)
or you are willing to use sed (in this case remember the -E flag)
or you can write a small filter in any language you know (for example perl or python),
you can first change the brackets into "s and then use the regex:
    s/\ (?=(?:[^"]"[^"]")[^"]$)/\t/g
to convert any space not between quotes into tabs, so that Numbers will import it correctly (it's not that I am this good with regexes, it is explained here: regex101.com/r/sU3fA2/29)


Problems with macOS path on Synology NAS (SMB)

Unfortunately, this is not how macOS works.
SMB or Server Message Block is a Microsoft Windows technology so it stands to reason that sharing links to SMB shares (or as Microsoft calls them, network shares) is baked into the OS.  The UNC share isn't "mounted" like it is in Unix where "everything's a file".  In Windows, you can "map" a network drive to a share, but in Unix, you have to mount it.
Finder and SMB
When Finder "sees" the smb:// it invokes the mount_smbfs command behind the scenes and creates a mount point in the /Volumes/ sub-folder.  Using your example, the first time you send the link smb://HAL9000/Video, it will issue the following command:
`mount_smbfs //domain;user:password@HAL9000/Video /Volumes/Video`

If that name exists, you will get the following path /Volumes/Video(1) and if that exists, (2) and so on.  Using my SMB mounts on a Synology Diskstation, as another example, I have the share "Network Share" already mounted.  When I try to mount again using "Connect to Server" (⌘ CommandK and just connecting directly to the server with no share specified, you can see that it's greyed out.

That's because it's already mounted.  Issuing the mount command gives us:
$ mount
/dev/disk2 on / (hfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)
/dev/disk5s1 on /Volumes/MUSIC (msdos, local, nodev, nosuid, noowners)
/dev/disk4s2 on /Volumes/My Passport for Mac (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled)
/dev/disk3s2 on /Volumes/FreeAgent Go (hfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)
//allan@diskstation.home/Network%20Share on /Volumes/Network Share (smbfs, nodev, nosuid, mounted by allan)

The last line confirms it - "Network Share" is already mounted and can't be mounted again.
So why can't I share links?
Because you don't access the file through smb://server-foo/share-bar/filename.txt (ignoring authentication).  You access it by going to /Volumes/Share-bar/filename.txt
The problem with that is /Volumes/Share-name may be completely different for you and me (see above re: existing names).  The only thing you can do is to rewrite the UNC path to let Mac users know which file you're referring to.  Example:
Windows:  \\HAL9000\Video\GoPro - IMPORT\filename.txt
macOS:    /Video/GoPro-Import/filename.txt

The user will then have to manually navigate to that share to get to the file you're referencing.
This is why they created WebDav because now you'll be accessing the file via a universal https:// link which is the same for everyone.  The downside is that if you intend to share with Windows clients, you'll need to implement SSL certificates.  And yes, Synology does support WebDav


How to prevent MacVim from inheriting .profile as if it was Bash itself?

There is a preference in MacVim to do this.

defaults write org.vim.MacVim MMLoginShell 0


Can an individual add their own email tracking pixel to Apple Mail?

You can add HTML img tags (linking to your tracking pixel) by manually editing your Mail.app email signature files. Of course these will only work if the recipient's email client loads remote images.

Signature Location

The .mailsignature files will be in one of two locations depending on whether or not the email using the signature is an iCloud account.

If the account is an iCloud account, the .mailsignature files can be found here:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data/MailData/Signatures/

If the account is not iCloud, the .mailsignature files can be found here:

~/Library/Mail/[Vx]/MailData/Signatures/ (where [Vx] is a version dependent on your current install, in Mojave mine is V6).

Editing .mailsignature Files

You may want to create a new signature (and associate it to your desired account). It will then show in these folders as the most recently modified .mailsignature.

Edit this file in a text editor that can view the HTML code (replace anything in the  tags below the "Mime-version: ..." line).

For the simplest example, your file could look like:

Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Type: text/html;
    charset=us-ascii
Message-Id: <C29....>
Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 12.4 \(3445.104.11\))

Important Note for non-iCloud Accounts

If you're not using an iCloud email account, you MUST lock the .mailsignature files after editing, or they will be overridden.

Using the .mailsignature Files

Once you've edited the .mailsignature file, quit Mail and reopen. You can now select the .mailsignature you edited.

NOTE: Images from  tags will not appear in either the compose window or in the Signatures tab of Mail preferences, but they WILL appear in messages you send (if the recipient loads remote images).


Transferring info from a new MacBook to an older one?

Migration assistant doesn't like migrating to older systems so here's a quick and dirty way of doing most of what you want...

On both machines create a temporary account with admin privileges.
Start up the older machine in target disk mode and connect your Thunderbolt cable.
Log into the new temp account on the newer Mac, in Finder navigate to the Users folder and find the Home folder you wish to migrate across to the older Mac.
Copy your Home folder to the Users folder on the older Mac. You will most likely receive an error that certain items weren't copied, don't worry about this.
When finished eject the older Mac and restart it normally.
Log into temp account on older Mac and go to System Preferences>Users & Groups.
Create a user account (with admin privileges), using exactly the same name and password as the account you just copied over. You will be warned that a user folder with that name already exists, just continue on.
You will probably run into disk permission issues with your home folder, an easy fix is to download and run Onyx which will allow you to reset your home folder permissions (Disk Utility just checks system files and Apple apps).

Hopefully at this point you will be able to log into your user account and access your data, but you will have to copy over any applications over manually.

Another way would be to clone the Users folder using Carbon Copy Cloner, then follow step 7 above. The end result should be the same. I wouldn't copy the whole Applications folder over as there will be many version mismatches with the Apple software - just copy over the software you've installed where possible.

As I said at the start it's a Q&D method but really there's no easy "official" way to migrate to an older system.


Mac Pro - Early 2009 - 4,1 wont boot under OSX

You have moved drives around, what about memory? Set it up with the minimum memory, then try with other memory modules, maybe you have a bad stick or two. Maybe one of the memory daughter cards is bad. Swap those, will a MacPro boot without an (empty) daughter card? Not sure about that

Also try unplugging the Optical drive.

You tried the Video card in another slot. How about another video card?

Anything that can be removed, should be removed to see if it is at fault.


Turn off vibrate when charging wirelessly

Build a stockade.

Cabinet maker's supply stores sell stick on bumpers that are used to keep wood hitting wood on cabinet drawers and doors.

The set below is from Lee Valley Tools.

Stick them on the edge of your charging device so that it can't crawl off, and then let it skate to it's heart's content.


Photos stream not delivering photos from old device to new

Photostream is a funny one, I have spent some time looking at the workflow so I think I know what is happening here.

When you take a picture with an iOS device (assuming wifi etc):

It is uploaded to the iCloud.
It is stored there for 30 days.
During those 30 days it will be pushed to other photostream devices (iOS, OS X).
After 30 days it is 'purged' (deleted) from the iCloud servers.

Some points to note:

Although it is purged from iClouds servers it will STILL appear in the photostream album on your iPhone.

Thus take this example:

If I take 50 pictures on my iPhone 2 months ago, and 2 new photos today. and then bought a Brand new iPhone and signed into iCloud the following would happen,

On my original iPhone the photostream album would have 52 photos.

On my new iPhone only the 2 photos taken within the last month would push down to the phone.

Some extra points.

I guess this is why Apple says photostream doesn't count towards iCloud storage! They only store items for 30 days.
Although photos may no longer be in the cloud devices still sync - ie if you delete an old photostream photo (older than 30 days) on your iPhone it will delete on any other device that it synced to during the original 30 day period.
iOS only holds your last 1000 photos in it's Photostream album, to keep a photo forever you must save to camera roll, OS X (iPhoto, Aperture) holds them all.
A nice example of this behaviour was when I first got Aperture on my mac, I couldn't understand why so many of the photos in my iPhones 'Photostream' album were not syncing across, check the dates on the photos and you will see!

Finally You can manually add photos from iPhoto, Aperture, or the Windows desktop to your photo stream. You may want to do this if you’d like to add photos that don’t appear in your photo stream automatically.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2606

Additionally, after you asked this question, Apple has documented some of the photo stream limits, but you should be well under the volume of photos that would be capped to enter the stream assuming they were all recent photos and no device exchange in the middle.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4858


How to install a FTP client from the command line on Mac?

Both ftp and telnet have been removed from High Sierra. If you have Sierra installed and are using either of these commands, you will need to make a copy before upgrading to High Sierra.

You would not necessary need Sierra. If you can find another Mac running macOS or OS X, I suppose you could copy ftp from this machine to your Mac.


Is 4GB of RAM enough for a new Retina MBP?

No it is not enough to have 4GB, since it is minimum you can have and you will always run at max of it.

Mavericks will do the best to manage the space, but there is a limit what it can do.

Big RAM users (aside of the OS) are the web browsers.

It is all dependent what is your activity, apps you use. As said Mavericks will do great job in working your RAM to keep it to a workable levels, but adding RAM can only help.

Here is an example from my MBA with 4GB.

And the top 10 totaling 1.5GB  (as you can see I do not run RAM heavy apps but do get over 4GB.

Yes, do the RAM upgrade, it is worth the money.


Open your Windows VM and go to Actions -> Configure... in the menubar

Choose the Options-tab and highligt Sharing in the left pane

Uncheck all boxes like in the picture below:

Hit the Custom Folders... Button and remove any user-defined OS X folder by highlighting it and clicking the - button:


Software to convert video to image sequence beside QT?

I find it frustrating that questions like this exist on stack overflow, but do not show up on google -- oh well, long after my project had become old, I stumbled across this gem: http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-mac.html

Works on Mac OSX Lion (and I assume it has compatibility with older versions of mac of course) -- I would get the beta version, it's more up to date and as of the writing of this answer, seems to be stable.

To export to image sequence (amongst other fun things such as zoom or rotating), go to: "File > Export to Other Formats...", then at the top there should be a format dropdown, one of the options being "Image Sequence"

When you click done, you are given the option to select a file name. Each of the image files will be that file name with a space and the sequence number appended (however you may disable the adding of a space in the export settings). The sequence numbers start at 1.

I realize this question is nine months old, but I am answering it more for prosperity -- hopefully people will be able to actually google for the answer to this question now, instead of aimlessly wandering the internet until they stumble upon a solution.

Up voted for good question with had to find answer :)

Other software that can do this:
Quick time 7 pro
kdenlive (extremely tedious format system, I suggest using ffprobe -show_streams to find out the avg_framerate (will be expressed as a fraction))


iPhone mail doesn't show email address anymore

Clicking on the sender or recipient name from within an e-mail header of the iOS Mail app opens the contact information page. This is extremely unfortunate because sometimes a contact can have several e-mail addresses associated with it. In these cases, it is impossible to determine the recipient/ sender e-mail address from within the iOS mail app.

The only fix for this issue is to use a different mail app which doesn't coddle its users in such helpful ways.


Black Screen when Upgrading RAM in 2019 iMac

The 2019 iMac computer have different memory specifications depending on which model you get - the 21" and 27"; the 4K or 5K models.  Not all models support 128GB of RAM.
It's also important to note that OWC is not the original memory.  OWC is an after market brand.  If you're positive all of your memory works, but when you install the rest you get a black screen, you may be trying to install too much.  Confirm you have the right memory for your particular application.
The 21" models officially support up to 32GB of RAM and the 27" models 64GB.  However, independent testing per EveryMac.com confirms that they can support 64GB and 128GB of RAM for the 21" and 27" models respectively.

21: i3 4K iMac uses up to 64GB of PC4-19200 2400Mhz DDR4 RAM
21" i5 & i7 4K iMac uses up to 64GB of PC4-21300 266MHz DDR4 RAM
27" i5 & i9 5K iMac uses up to 128GB of PC4-21300 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM

You should be installing these in pairs, but there's no requirement to stagger the installation (slots 1 & 3 or 2 & 4).  See Install Memory in an iMac.  Memory is usually sold in "kits."  A 32GB kit is two 16GB SO-DIMMs and a 64GB kit is two 32GB SO-DIMMs.  So, for example, for the 21" iMac, you'll need two 32GB kits which will have four 16GB SO-DIMMS for a total of 64GB of RAM.
Here's a breakdown of the maximum memory per slot for each model:

21" iMac → Max RAM per slot = 16GB
27" iMac → Max RAM per slot = 32GB


I can't 'Screen Share' on my MBP with OS X Yosemite

If you are not connected on the same LAN segment (both computers on the same network) and you are going through a router, chances are the router's firewall is blocking the connection.

What you have to do is open/forward the ports on the router Apple screenshare  (remote desktop) uses to communicate.  The ports are:

TCP: 5900, 5988
UDP: 5900, 3283

Screen sharing behind a firewall-- What ports?

One thing that I personally like to do is test out on the same LAN segment first (behind the router firewall).  This way I know that my machine is fully functioning and the service is working properly.  This way, when trying to troubleshoot a connection issue across the router, the changes of it being my machine is greatly reduced.

You will need to edit your REMOTE router to allow incoming connections of the ports that I mentioned.  You do this by:

1)  Find out what IP address the computer is using

2)  Go into the router admin page via web browser (it will the the "router" address in your network settings.  You will need the username and password.

3)  Under Firewall, you may see an option to forward different ports.  Create entries for the ports listed above.  In each entry you should have a "source" and a "destination."  In source, leave blank for "all" and for destination, enter the IP address you got in step one.  This will forward all traffic from these ports to the computer.

4)  You should now connect over the internet.

If that doesn't work, I suggest looking into TeamViewer.  It's a third party solution, you will need the software on both machines and it is a bit slower.  However it is much easier than configuring a router.


How can I check the health of my SSD disk

DiskTester from diglloydTools and its "Recondition" seems like one of the only options.


Empty the cache from the Develop menu.
Quit Safari.
Lock ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db from Finder's Get Info inspector.

This prevents Safari writing to the cache.

If you're here looking for how to disable cache now the option mentioned in the question is removed in Safari 11, see How to disable all caches in safari 11?


This was resolved, leaving it up in case anyone gets into a similar problem.
Took the Mac to an Authorized Repair Shop, and they installed Mojave OS from a flash drive and this worked.
An explanation they provided was that Downloading and Installing OS via Recovery mode may not handle network errors gracefully, and simply installs just the partial files which have been downloaded, which may have resulted in the above errors.


Possible to disable custom Javascript keybindings in Safari?

Here is Rob W's script from meta, updated to only block cntrl-* and fixed so that it works with NinjaKit which is a safari extension for running user scripts.

NinjaKit:
https://github.com/os0x/NinjaKit

Script:

// ==UserScript==
// @name           Cya WMD shortcuts
// @namespace      Rob W
// @version        1.0
// @include          http://apple.stackexchange.com/*
// @include          http://stackoverflow.com/*
// @include          http://superuser.com/*
// @include          http://meta.superuser.com/*
// @include          http://serverfault.com/*
// @include          http://meta.serverfault.com/*
// @include          http://askubuntu.com/*
// @include          http://meta.askubuntu.com/*
// @include          http://*.stackexchange.com/*
// @include          http://answers.onstartups.com/*
// @include          http://meta.answers.onstartups.com/*
// @include          http://stackapps.com/*
// @run-at         document-end
// @grant          none
// ==/UserScript==
(function () {
    var p = document.getElementById('wmd-input');
    console.log("wmd-input:" + p);
    if (p) {
        p = p.parentNode;

        function ignore(e) {
            if (e.ctrlKey) {
                e.stopPropagation();
            }
        }
        p.addEventListener('keydown', ignore, true);
        p.addEventListener('keypress', ignore, true);
        p.addEventListener('keyup', ignore, true);
    }
})();


Deleted iTunes app on iPhone with no backup

iTunes app cannot be deleted from the iPhone. In any case, you probably don't need the iTunes app but what you are trying to access is the Music app instead - which lists all your iPhone songs and playlists. Simply search for Music and open the app. You should see your music intact.


TL;DR

If you remote wipe the phone then the device will be erased including keys if it is online or if it is offline it will be erased when it comes online.
If it is offline but someone extracts the keys from it those keys are still useless as they are only able to decrypt messages specifically encrypted for that device and if you've remote wiped the phone then Apple won't tell other iMessage devices to encrypt messages to be sent to that device.
If you change your iCloud password then your device will no longer be able to use the iMessage service and will also render the keys useless.
If you remote wipe the phone but the phone is kept offline and the thief can access your phone (e.g. - break your passcode) then they can read old messages that were received before you did so.  In this case the iMessage keys don't come into play and normal passcode/TouchID security is what safeguards the messages already received by that device.
You cannot directly manage the iMessage keys for your iOS devices but you manage their access to iMessage by managing the device itself.  When you remove a device from your iCloud account you implicitly remove the iMessage keys and render them useless
Sniffing the connection between your stolen phone and Apple would not reveal your private iMessage keys because they are never sent over the connection and besides this it is difficult to sniff these connections since they are encrypted.  Only public iMessage keys are sent over the connection.

Long Answer

The detail of this is mostly covered by Apple's iOS Security Guide which describes the mechanism iMessage uses in detail, see excerpt below.

  iMessage

  Apple iMessage is a messaging service for iOS devices, Apple Watch, and Mac
  computers. iMessage supports text and attachments such as photos, contacts,
  and locations. Messages appear on all of a user’s registered devices so that a
  conversation can be continued from any of the user’s devices. iMessage makes
  extensive use of the Apple Push Notification service (APNs). Apple doesn’t log
  the contents of messages or attachments, which are protected by end-to-end
  encryption so no one but the sender and receiver can access them. Apple can’t
  decrypt the data.
  When a user turns on iMessage on a device, the device generates two pairs
  of keys for use with the service: an RSA 1280-bit key for encryption and an
  ECDSA 256-bit key on the NIST P-256 curve for signing. The private keys for
  both key pairs are saved in the device’s Keychain and the public keys are sent
  to Apple’s directory service (IDS), where they are associated with the user’s
  phone number or email address, along with the device’s APNs address.
  As users enable additional devices for use with iMessage, their encryption
  and signing public keys, APNs addresses, and associated phone numbers are
  added to the directory service. Users can also add more email addresses, which
  are verified by sending a confirmation link. Phone numbers are verified by the
  carrier network and SIM. With some networks, this requires using SMS (the
  user will be presented with a confirmation dialog if the SMS is not zero rated).
  Phone number verification may be required for several system services in
  addition to iMessage, such as FaceTime and iCloud. All of the user’s registered
  devices display an alert message when a new device, phone number, or email
  address is added.

  How iMessage sends and receives messages

  Users start a new iMessage conversation by entering an address or name. If
  they enter a phone number or email address, the device contacts the IDS to
  retrieve the public keys and APNs addresses for all of the devices associated
  with the addressee. If the user enters a name, the device first utilizes the user’s
  Contacts app to gather the phone numbers and email addresses associated
  with that name, then gets the public keys and APNs addresses from the IDS.
  The user’s outgoing message is individually encrypted for each of the receiver’s
  devices. The public RSA encryption keys of the receiving devices are retrieved
  from IDS. For each receiving device, the sending device generates a random
  88-bit value and uses it as an HMAC-SHA256 key to construct a 40-bit
  value derived from the sender and receiver public key and the plaintext. The
  concatenation of the 88-bit and 40-bit values makes a 128-bit key, which
  encrypts the message with it using AES in CTR mode. The 40-bit value is
  used by the receiver side to verify the integrity of the decrypted plaintext.
  This per-message AES key is encrypted using RSA-OAEP to the public key of
  the receiving device. The combination of the encrypted message text and the
  encrypted message key is then hashed with SHA-1, and the hash is signed
  with ECDSA using the sending device’s private signing key. The resulting
  messages, one for each receiving device, consist of the encrypted message
  text, the encrypted message key, and the sender’s digital signature. They are then dispatched to the APNs for delivery. Metadata, such as the timestamp
  and APNs routing information, isn’t encrypted. Communication with APNs is
  encrypted using a forward-secret TLS channel.
  APNs can only relay messages up to 4KB or 16KB in size, depending on iOS
  version. If the message text is too long, or if an attachment such as a photo is
  included, the attachment is encrypted using AES in CTR mode with a randomly
  generated 256-bit key and uploaded to iCloud. The AES key for the attachment,
  its URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), and a SHA-1 hash of its encrypted
  form are then sent to the recipient as the contents of an iMessage, with their
  confidentiality and integrity protected through normal iMessage encryption,
  as shown in the following diagram.

  On the receiving side, each device receives its copy of the message from APNs,
  and, if necessary, retrieves the attachment from iCloud. The incoming phone
  number or email address of the sender is matched to the receiver’s contacts so
  that a name can be displayed when possible.
  As with all push notifications, the message is deleted from APNs when it is
  delivered. Unlike other APNs notifications, however, iMessage messages are
  queued for delivery to offline devices. Messages are currently stored for up to
  30 days.

The basics of the section above is this:

Someone writes a message destined for you
Their device contacts apple and retrieves the public keys for all your current devices
Their device encrypts their message for each of your devices and sends it to Apple
Apple forwards each individually encrypted message to your corresponding devices and will cache undelivered messages for up to 30 days

If your lost/stolen phone is no longer associated with your iCloud account (because you removed it) then the sender's phone would not receive a public key from Apple with which to encrypt a message for that device so a copy of that message would not be sent to your lost/stolen device which renders the keys on that device useless, so even if someone managed to pull your iMessage keys from the device, as long as that device isn't registered to you anymore they'll never receive a message that can be decrypted with them.

If you haven't removed the device from iCloud then sniffing on the connection between your device and Apple's servers shouldn't be possible will be very difficult since it's done over a forward-secret TLS connection and the connection would fail if the device did not get a valid TLS certificate signed by the expected Certificate Authority which should make it difficult to perform a Man-In-The-Middle-Attack

If your phone was not deactivated with Find My iPhone and you did not change your iCloud password then the thief could just use your lost phone to read your messages as you would expect, however if you follow Apple's instructions for lost iPhones then the phone would either be inaccessible and/or not receive new messages, they have no way to extract your iMessage keys from your iPhone so they can't just put them on another device and if you put the phone in Lost Mode they can't even get into it to read your old messages without a passcode.
There is no way for you to directly manage your iMessage keys, they are managed under the covers by the devices registered to your iCloud account.  When you remove a device from iCloud Apple will no longer send that device's public keys out when an iMessage sender asks Apple to send you a message. The keys on the device no longer matter as no new messages would be encrypted with the public keys so no new messages can be decrypted with the private keys on the device.
It is then down to your device security (passcode/touch-ID and on-device encryption) to protect the contents of the phone i.e. your old messages.

You can also read about some ideas on weaknesses in this security model at the links below:
https://blog.quarkslab.com/imessage-privacy.html
https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2015/09/09/lets-talk-about-imessage-again/

UPDATED

I've added this section to address specific concerns of the OP on the iMessage key-thief sniffing their network.

You seem particularly concerned about the following scenario;
Your iPhone has been stolen (or hacked) and is now back in your possession but your iMessage keys have been stolen by a thief who is now going to sniff the network your phone is on so that they can read your messages.

Let's firstly say straight off the bat that what you are worried about is entirely possible, since anything is possible, and any system can be hacked with enough time and effort unless it is completely powered off (battery out and unplugged) and never connected to a network.  So with that out of the way, let's explore how likely this is.  In order for someone to obtain your iMessage keys and sniff your network to read your messages here's a list of what would need to happen.

your phone would need to be stolen and returned to you
the thief would need to have hacked your phone and extracted your iMessage private keys, defeating any device security that was in place such as TouchID, passcode or device encryption to do this and would then need to hack the OS or the hardware to extract the keys as there's no provided way to get at them
your would either need to not know your phone was stolen or you may know but choose not to remove it from your iCloud account (thereby requiring the keys be renewed)
the thief would then need to gain access to the same network as you, for example your home WiFi network.  This will be relatively easy if it's unencrypted which is not typical and it will be relatively difficult if encrypted and password protected or has a MAC address whitelist for example.  I can't comment on how secure your specific home WiFi is however.
the thief would then need to intercept (or "sniff") packets destined for your phone and determine if they are iMessage messages and decrypt those using the keys, but there's a further hurdle, the traffic between your device and Apple is encrypted using a forward-TLS connection.  So the thief would need to also crack that encryption to manage to read the message data, then use the keys they had extracted to decrypt the messages within after reassembling the messages over the TCP stream.

Frankly, all of the above is incredibly complex and unless you're Edward Snowden, or some other Enemy of the State I don't think anyone could be bothered that much to read your messages

:op


Can an xbox360 be connected to a thunderbolt iMac to be used in target display mode

Currently, you can only use a 2010 or 2011 27" iMac with this Adapter.

iMacs build in 2009 and before doesn't support input signals.

  iMacs build in 2010 or 2011 support input, but you have to convert the
  HDMI signal to MiniDisplayPort.

iMacs with Thunderbolt does support input, too. But there is no adapter yet to convert the signals. Thunderbolt is from Intel and they aren't very open about the drivers yet.

EDIT: Found a german article about your problem.


If it were h:m:s there would be a colon before the seconds, but it can't be seconds because in your screenshot there are 75 of them. Neither is it milliseconds since there  are only 2 digits. It's 75 hundredths of a second.

Picture showing longer-running processes, more clearly indicating hh:mm:ss.ss/100


System Preferences > Security & Privacy

Uncheck the box "Require Password Immediately"


AirPods sound is quieter on the right side

Check your System Preferences -> Sound -> Output (tab) -> Balance. Is it in the middle?


"Put Display to Sleep" with no fade out time

I use a shell script: do shell script "pmset displaysleepnow"

This is in an AppleScript App wrapper.
you can also send the command pmset displaysleepnow straight from terminal.

Works on several of my Macs. Yours nmay differ.


Enterprise Mac Mini Server - Remote Desktop

You get two graphical interface log in sessions simultaneously on OS X (server.app or without server.app) and there is no configuration needed as this is the default settings. Just use any VNC client and set up two or more users local to the server.

You'll want to set up the Mac Mini with Xcode Server running and then have each developer run Xcode locally. When they make code changes, you can have the server compile things "continuous integration" style.

Similarly, you could just run your own CI infrastructure on the Mini running whatever OS you wish, but count on the server to only let two workers (either one local and one remote or both remote) to run Xcode GUI itself from each Mac.


Alternate to iPhone Configuration Utility for installing Certificates?

In Apple Configurator 2, choose File → New Profile. Fill out the General section and add your certificate to the Certificates section. Connect your device and choose the profile you just created to apply to the device.


Mouse/Keyboard stop responding for short time at random intervals - OSX v10.10, 13 inch MaBookPro Retina

There have been bugs reported with certain OSX Operating systems regarding your issue. There are a multitude of things you can do.
 1. Update the OSX on your computer.
 2. If the OSX is updated, try uninstalled that OSX and re-installing it. Sometimes there are issues with typical functions when the computer is being installed or updated.
 3. Try switching accounts, often times there are some circumstances that have altered the settings on your computer. In such a case, create a new account and test if it is doing the same thing.
 4. If none of these solutions have helped, your computer may have a manufactures default and I suggest you take it to your nearest Apple Store or Certified apple care specialist.

I hope this could be of help.

If this helped you, please accept the answer so that it can help the community find this answer if they are having the same issue as you.


Yes indeed it is possible. Turn off the silent mode of your iPhone (toggle on the left) then set your ringtone to be audible and voilà! Your iPhone will ring even with the earphones plugged in.


Why is there an active progress wheel ("turning worm") in the right hand corner of the Finder status bar?

In my case, it just means the Finder is gathering the contents of a folder in order to present them to you, that's all. It shows only when displaying a folder full of hundreds of file, or while browsing network shares.


Can't open PDF's in Outlook using Parallels 8 vm

Solved the issue. I needed to re-associate PDF's w/Adobe in the Win 7 Control panel.


brew doctor complains unexpected dylibs '/usr/local/lib/libecomlodr.dylib', deletable?

The dynamic link file you see has been installed by something else, not homebrew. That's why it is "unexpected".

Unless you are having a problem installing something with homebrew the best thing to do is ignore it.

It's not easy (perhaps impossible) to know what may have put the file there or needs it there to run.


iOS5 - "“Remind me to call Mum when I get home.” - How does it know when you're home?

You've got it exactly right.

In the video, the person had set up the phone to recognize 'home' as a specific address. iOS 5 uses its location features to determine when you arrive at the address of 'home' and alerts you when you do.

This feature can also be used to trigger alerts when you leave a place: "Remind me to pick up the groceries when I leave work."


Where can I download/update to OS 10.10?

I don't think Yosemite is still available for download, but El Capitan is. El Capitan is basically just Yosemite with some bug fixes, and has the same system requirements as Yosemite, so there's no real reason not to go to El Cap if you're already planning to go to Yosemite. (High Sierra is, obviously, even better if your Mac meets the requirements.)


How do I transfer a photo in Preview to iPhoto?

There's numerous methods:

Drag the photo from Preview (press ⌥⌘2 to show thumbnails) to iPhoto's main window, or on the Dock.
Drag the photo from its location to iPhoto's main window, or on the Dock.
Go to iPhoto and select File → Import to Library and select the location of the photo.


Stop Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client from starting up automatically

Removing the following worked for me.

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.anyconnect.vpnagent.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist

Update:
For macOS Catalina and anyconnect 4.7.x removing this single file seems to be enough:

/Library/LaunchAgents/com.cisco.anyconnect.gui.plist


Will buying a new hardware stop my Apple TV+ subscription payment for a year?

No. If you are already on a paid subscription plan, you don't get a free year of Apple TV+.
The free year offer is only made available to new users, and is available only if you have not availed of a free trial or a paid subscription before.


Can I install a 256gb SSD from a late 2010, early 2011 MacBook air 13 inch (A1369) into my late 2010 11 inch MacBook Air (A1370)?

Yes. The drives are the same physical dimension. There will be no issue with it being recognized.


Inside the xip file was just Xcode.app. Developers(in fact anybody) can download the xip file from Apple Developer Website. Downloading from there is the same as downloading from the App Store. Probably is because if App Store is slow you can download from alternative(or some other reason). If you have a paid developer account, you can download a beta version of Xcode by downloading the xip file, which is not available from the App Store.


Downloads and Updates still ask for old AppleID password

If an item is purchased with an Apple ID (even if it is a free item) it can only be updated using that same Apple ID.

For example, if you downloaded the Facebook app using the Apple ID "foo@example.com" and you now use the Apple ID "bar@example.com" then you must either update the app using "foo@example.com" or delete and re-download the app using "bar@example.com".


iPad update/restore iOS 8.1 stuck at 10%; cannot exit recovery mode

I am restoring my ipad as well, but the process has not stopped on me. either try at home, or take it to the apple store, they can help you, trust me, many people have already done it, and everything is okay


I want to restore iPhone data that didn't get restored a few weeks ago, but don't want to lose data since then

The sad and short answer is No.

Restoring to an old backup will erase any data accumulated on the phone in the meantime. There is no way to merge backups or such.
App-specific restores are possible for apps which offer some sort of cloud support. So if she is syncing her contacts with iCloud or Google they should still be here after the restore.

However, the long answer is maybe.

First, make a list of the programs where you do want to attempt to merge or replace her data. You will need to rename the current device so the backup is saved, then restore the device to get at the old data. At that point you can extract the "old" data to a computer. Then you would restore the "new" backup and merge the data back for each case where you could get it onto a computer.

You can see how this is tedious, prone to error, and requires you to learn the specifics of each app where you want to get your data. All great things to know, but you have to balance it against the time it would take you to simple re-create the data in the first place.

This also serves as the perfect use case for iCloud backup. In this case, you would never have not restored the backup since the cloud is so much more accessible than a computer and a USB cable.

Angry Birds used to store the game settings in a file that you can use a utility like PhoneView to read onto the computer.

I would say - once you have a list of the apps you want to "pick" - come back and ask that single question - how can I access the saved game levels for game X and people here will step up if it's an easy google search or they know how to get that one file off the device.


Mac admin account deleted -- have I lost my files?

There are a few options given when deleting an account on a Mac:

Save the home folder as a disk image: This will archive all the
user’s documents and information so the user can be restored later if
needed. The disk    image is saved in /Users/Deleted Users/.
Leave the user’s home folder as is: Select “Don’t change the home
folder.” The user’s documents and information remain and the user can
be restored later if needed. The home folder remains in /Users/.
Remove the user’s home folder from the computer: Select “Delete the
home folder.” The user information will be deleted and the storage
space will be freed. If you want to prevent programs that read raw
data from retrieving any files, select “Erase home folder securely.”

If she chose the second option, to save the home folder, you might still have your files. Are you comfortable using terminal? If so, you can navigate to the users/ folder and see if you see your old username and if anything is in there. If there is, you can use some commands to move the files onto the desktop

cd /Users
ls -l
sudo mv -r [username] ~/Desktop

If she chose the first option, then cd/Users/"Deleted Users" instead of /Users.
If she chose the third option, that's beyond what I know to do. Either way, check those two folders.


Not sure whether they will do exactly what you want, but HippoRemote or Mobile Mouse should be worth a look, and both have (at least some) support for multi-touch trackpad and gestures. Both have Windows servers and should work on the iPad too.

HippoRemote actually has a dedicated profile for controlling Windows Media Centre, so unless you specifically want to use gestures, this might be the way to go.


Would it be possible for a share sheet item to open a specific browser?

Yes you can. You will have to develop it yourself. Or the developers have to develop for their respective apps. I am a developer so this is an easy to do for me, but if your not a developer it may be more costly than its worth. Time, finances, hardware. You could look into jailbroken options though ( I don't know too much about that department )

If you are a developer look into the following :

UIActivityViewController

You will have to subclass it in order to customize it to your needs.

The proper documentation is located HERE


How to pass user input to Apple Script then execute?

There is no need to use AppleScript here, you can pass data from Automator directly into a shell script.

Depending on where you've stored the script, you may have to include the full path to the script in the action (/path/to/video-dl "$@").


How to launch a terminal which executes vim from a script?

First create a wrapper script for vim:

#! /bin/ksh
#
# vimwrapper
#
#
/usr/bin/vim

Make the script executable- chmod 755 vimwrapper and call the script like this

open -a Terminal.app vimwrapper


Changing a Volume's "Device / Media Name"

The "Device / Media Name" is the partition label from the disk's partition map (GPT - GUID Partition Table).

To change the label for a volume, you'll need to use the terminal.

Get the disk number of interest: diskutil list
Show the current partition labels (note the index of the entry you would like to change):

sudo gpt show -l /dev/disk0

(Note: replace disk0 with the disk number from step 1)
Eject the disk from the Finder (or use the unmount terminal command if you'd like). If you don't do this, you may get a Resource busy error message during the following step.
Change the partition label as desired:

sudo gpt label -i 2 -l "My New Partition Label" /dev/rdisk0

(Note: replace the "0" in rdisk0 with the disk number from step 1 and replace the "2" with the index number from step 2)
(optional) Verify the changes by either repeating step 2 or typing: diskutil info disk0s2

For more information see the manual page for the gpt command-line tool: man gpt


Is there an official policy behind the 'S' in 'iPhone 4S' and 'iPhone 3GS'?

Apple itself hasn't released any information regarding the S. The three most common theories out there seem to be "S" for "Siri", "S" for "speed" and "S" for "Steve". My guess is the "S" means "speed", like the iPhone 3GS.


I am not sure whether you have tried this step or not.

Open Terminal window from LaunchPad.

First, turn off Spotlight:

sudo mdutil -a -i off

Next, unload the metadata file that controls Spotlight’s index:

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist

Use the following command to re-loads the index :

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist'''

As a last step, turn Spotlight back on:

sudo mdutil -a -i on

After a few minutes to rebuild the index, Spotlight should be functioning as normal.

Let me know how it goes.

Update: I have a script for it and it is helping me in such kinds of issue.

#!/bin/bash
# This script is designed to fix Spotlight indexing issues
# by removing the existing Spotlight index and forcing Spotlight
# to create a new search index.

# Turn Spotlight indexing off

/usr/bin/mdutil -i off /

# Delete the Spotlight folder on the root level of the boot volume

/bin/rm -rf /.Spotlight*

# Turn Spotlight indexing on

/usr/bin/mdutil -i on /

# Force Spotlight re-indexing on the boot volume

/usr/bin/mdutil -E /

Save this as .sh and run from the terminal. It should help you to fix your issue too.


Is it possible to update timestamps on multiple photos using new Photos app?

Select the photos you want, then select the menu command "Image" -> "Adjust Date and Time..." which pops up the window that you are looking for. It seems as though it also gives control over the time zone for images with location data.

When adjusting the date/time of a group of photos, you adjust the date for one of the images, and all the other images time stamp is changed by the same amount, enabling you to correct for time zone shifts or improperly set camera date/time issues, rather than making the time/date of all the photos identical.


Yes - you can slow down podcasts by pressing the 1x button to the left of the rewind by 15 seconds button:

In the above screenshot I have pressed the 1x button until it has become ½ x button.

If the voices are "too fast to be understood," then you may have actually increased the playback speed (2x or 3x), and may want it back at 1x. Either that or their voices are actually that fast and you will want to slow it down.


Xcode 7.2 support 3D Touch in Simulator?

Right now Apple haven't done the 3D touch for the iPhone Simulator yet, but on the Apple Watch Simulator it is fine. If you want to test for the 3D touch feature of your app, you need a capable iPhone to do it. Right now if you go to the Hardware menu, then there are a force touch pressure menu. It is disabled. That is the 3D touch feature that Apple might implement.


Use clamshell mode without power adapter

You can use Insomniax to disable sleep when the display is closed. This will mean that you can close the lid and display the screen on a secondary monitor mode without needing to have a power adapter connected as the Mac will not sleep when you close the lid.

Insomniax is now abandonware and no further updates or binaries will be supplied. Further info.


You can make an exact copy of your internal HD via Carbon Copy Cloner (edit: former freeware, now commercial but with a fully functional 30-day Demo). I recommend that you first check your MacBook Pro Model if you can use a standard 2,5" SATA HD. Then you just have to:

Buy an external 2,5" drive case in which you install the 1 TB HD first. (Or some other way to connect an internal drive to your computer's external ports, i.e. a USB to SATA adapter.)
Then connect it, start up Carbon Copy Cloner and transfer all the files (this will be slow - about 5 hours for 200 GB).
Physically switch the internal 500 GB Drive with the external 1 TB.
Start your MacBook Pro as usual.

For disassembling your MacBook Pro you should check out several model-specific Guides you can find f.e. at iFixit.com.


Check this article out on OSX Daily, worked for me


Get text of most recent notification with applescript

Using the following example AppleScript code to generate a notification:
display notification with title "Macro Cancelled" subtitle "Cancel All Macros."

In the example notification, Cancel All Macros. is in:
static text of scroll area 1 of window 1 of process "NotificationCenter"

Using:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
    get value of ¬
        static text of ¬
        scroll area 1 of ¬
        window 1 of ¬
        process "NotificationCenter"

It returns:
{"Cancel All Macros.", ""}

As you can see what's returned is a list and will need to be process as such.
Note however, in this example, Cancel All Macros. is actually static text 1 of scroll area 1 and static text 2 of scroll area 1, which is blank, is when display notification uses:

display notification [text] : the body text of the notification

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.

With Error Handling:
tell application "System Events" to ¬
    if exists window 1 of ¬
        process "Notification Center" then ¬
        get value of ¬
            static text of ¬
            scroll area 1 of ¬
            window 1 of ¬
            process "NotificationCenter"


How to restore OS X on MacBook Air after installing Windows 8?

press the Option key + R
select the disk that installed
Mac OSx.
maybe you're starting with
Windows.

Now if you want to
a new installation, you will
need access to another Mac,
to mount the flash drive installation.
follow these steps: http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/


Assuming you can see the contents on the file system, the backups are located at /Users/yourusername/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ in relation to the root of the drive.

Heads up that the Library folder located in your user's directory is hidden. You can use shortcut Shift + Command + G in Finder to bring up the 'Go To' dialog so you can copy + paste that location to get to the file. Just be aware that if you're mounting the drive, you will need to append /Volumes/DriveNameHere to the beginning of the path.


Add this to your ~/.inputrc:

# ↑
"\e[A":history-search-backward
# ↓
"\e[B":history-search-forward

# Try to stay at the same the cursor position when moving through the history.
set history-preserve-point on

The way this operation works is you first type your partial command prefix and begin pressing ↑ and ↓ arrows to begin cycling in reverse and forward respectively through the command history matches to your typed prefix.


How do I disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) AKA "rootless" on macOs [OS X]

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

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.

You can verify whether a file or folder is restricted by issuing this ls command using the capital O (and not zero 0) to modify the long listing flag:

ls -lO /System /usr

Look for the restricted text to indicate where SIP is enforced.

By default (=SIP enabled), the following folders are restricted (see Apple Support page):

/System
/usr
/bin
/sbin
Apps that are pre-installed with OS X

... and the following folders are free:

/Applications
/Library
/usr/local


How to update packages installed via Homebrew?

To have your packages and apps you just need to run these commands in your terminal:

brew update && brew upgrade && brew cask upgrade


Macbook runs consistently hot sometimes, but consistently cool other times

It is not normal to have computer overheating to the point of shutting down.

You can look up in your Activity monitor to see who is consuming CPU.

Possible problems:

You cooling fan is not working at all or sporadic.

Your SMC (that controls the fan) needs to be rested.

Follow the instructions here based on your model to reset SMC.

You can also download the Intel Power app that will tell you what your CPU is doing.

The CPU is the single highest source of heat generation followed by GPU.

However, sometimes (rarely) the battery can do that due to the edit currents (internal) that will heat it up. Check you battery status and condition.


Can I use a different carrier with my iPhone 4s received from provider?

If you got your iPhone from a carrier, it is almost certainly locked to that carrier, so you can only use it with a SIM from that carrier. The carriers subsidize the cost of the phones, for the opportunity to make money selling you the data/phone plan.  This is why purchasing an iPhone from a carrier typically costs $0-$200 while an unlocked phone costs $600-$1000.

It can be possible to unlock iPhones.  An unlocked phone can be used with a SIM from any mobile carrier, including carriers from other countries.

Unlocking is completely independent of jail-breaking, which relates to modifying the software to accept non-Apple-approved apps.


Why does JDownloader use 9666/tcp on localhost?

Basically it's a port JDownloader is listening to to make browser integration easier (aka you can add an extension to your favorite browser which then passes URLs to JDownloader for downloading).

Some details about this Flashgot interface can be found here.


Watch Mac's iSight (webcam) on another Mac over LAN

Try IP Cam by Senstic available on the Mac App Store (no affiliation with the developer).

This app claims to work over a private network without needing active connection to the Internet. From the app description:

  INSTRUCTIONS:

  Start IP Cam on your mac.
  Take a note on the HTTP access address shown by IP Cam.
  For Wi-Fi remote viewing, enter the same HTTP address into the web browser from another computer or iOS device on the same Wi-Fi network.


MacBook Air didn’t download the system update successfully, and hang in the mid. Pls adv how to go back to normal OS

This worked for me (could probably be streamlined). The goal is to remove macOS' files related to failing install attempt.

Booted into to 'Safe Mode' by holding down shift while restarting.
Opened a Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app)
Deleted /Volumes/Macintosh HD/macOS Install Data as described here. I needed to use sudo and rm -rf so be careful. (Could also be done from macOS Recovery: see below, but Volume names may differ).
Rebooted and got only a question mark. Uh Oh.
Booted into macOS Recovery by holding down Command-R during reboot and selected the start-up disk to boot from.
Restarted and ALL OKAY!

Will try the update again when feeling braver.

UPDATE: After backing up I took the cautious approach and downloaded the full combo update from https://support.apple.com/en_GB/downloads, manually killed any app that might mess with shutdown and ran the update package. It all worked fine this time around.


If you are using Mac OS X 10.5 or later, it's just a matter of enabling in in your Address Book:

Address Book --> Preferences --> Accounts --> Synchronize with Google


How to prevent storing the WiFi password on the recovery partition?

I've always wondered the same thing: how to keep OS X from storing the WPA passphrase (or PSK) in NVRAM.

Using 'nvram' I could never find the variable that I thought held these credentials. Today, I tried booting to a USB live image of Linux and running Chipsec. Its command to list EFI variables has many more results than I was getting by running nvram within OS X. Among the variables in my MacBook Pro (mid-2010) were:

current-network
preferred-networks
security-password

The current-network variable's data includes the SSID of my home router, in plaintext. Then it is padded with 0-bytes up until the end, which is 32 bytes, and represents the 64 hex digits of the Pre-Shared Key (PSK).

The preferred-networks variable looks like the same contents as current-network.

The security-password variable holds exactly the same number of bytes as the EFI password I set, so I assume this is the Firmware Lock password. I suspect it uses some kind of masking/encoding. One theory I had is that these passwords are stored as keyboard scan codes or something, but I don't have enough info yet.

Perhaps using Chipsec or another EFI tool, you can zero out these EFI variables and set an access control / permissions flag on them so that they cannot be rewritten. Perhaps even just zeroing them out will be a workaround for you (if you just need to resell the laptop or something). It's unknown to me whether OS X rewrites them regularly or just when you change your WPA credentials.

EDIT:
I just learned of a command for retrieving wifi passwords from NVRAM:
    /usr/libexec/airportd readNVRAM

Also, by attaching the GUID, nvram can actually read these values:

nvram 36C28AB5-6566-4C50-9EBD-CBB920F83843:current-network
nvram 36C28AB5-6566-4C50-9EBD-CBB920F83843:preferred-networks
nvram 36C28AB5-6566-4C50-9EBD-CBB920F83843:preferred-count

So, maybe you can blow those variables away and see how it goes.

EDIT 2: as mentioned by an earlier comment, the method to delete an EFI variable is as follows (sudo required to delete): sudo nvram -d 36C28AB5-6566-4C50-9EBD-CBB920F83843:current-network

It's unclear as of yet whether the variable will return.


Is it safe to remove "rdmgrab" in Mojave

I did a bit of searching on this. I don't suppose you have TeamViewer, LogMeIn, VNC or another remote viewer installed? Chrome desktop anywhere?

This could be related to that?

See this other stack exchange post:

https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/71344/strange-tcp-traffic-on-mac-os-x-from-rdmd

Thanks,
Ed


Can I replace my internal drive with a 320+ GB memory stick instead (MacBook Pro 13" c. 2009)

Yes, you can do this, provided your system will successfully boot from an external volume still. Failing logic boards don't always do this. Each time you boot you will need to hold the Option key down.

The speed will be noticeably slower, maybe even painfully so. The internal drive connects at 3000Mb/s. A USB 2.0 stick will connect at a peak speed of 480Mb/s with regular throughput being much slower.

The largest USB stick you're likely to find is 32GB or 64GB. A 320GB+ drive will be a full portable external hard drive, much bigger than a simple USB stick. And bear in mind above all else that this is not a long-term solution. Your logic board will only get worse over time, not better.


Terminal displays directory of previous SSH location even when not running SSH

Taken wholesale from this SuperUser.com question and answer...

The issue is that the shell on the remote host is configured to send an escape sequence to set the terminal window title. This is a fairly common setup. The solutions mentioned in the blog post you linked to are correct.

The simplest and most direct solution is to configure that same remote shell to reset the window title when it logs out. e.g., if the remote shell is bash, put this in ~/.bash_logout:

printf '\e]0;\a'

Alternatively, if you'd like to have your local shell update the window title with something useful, anyway, then do that. When the ssh connection ends, the local shell will set the window title to something else instead of leaving the stale value. e.g. put this in ~/.bashrc:

PS1='\[\e]1;\s\$ \W\a\e]2;\u@\h\a\]'"$PS1"

This puts the user and host name in the window title (which is typically what remote shells are configured to do), and also sets the tab title to show the shell name and type (normal user or root) and current working directory.


Upgrade from Mountain Lion to Mavericks and my iMac got slower

That is a matter of personal choice.

If your Mac is not running the way you expect and this is affecting your work and the use of your computer, I would go back to an OS which served your needs.

On the other hand you may want to persist and find out why your computer is running slowly.

Certainly there are people out there who have issues with OS X 10.9 however I have it running on three different Macs without too many issues and I quite like it.

For the users of this forum to help you will need to provide more information about what slow means.  What symptoms are you experiencing?  What is the configuration of your iMac - which one is it? Processor, memory etc.


The short answer: We can't tell you exactly.

The algorithm that controls this is sure to be Apple-proprietary. I'm sure they've spent lots of work perfecting it, so they wouldn't share it for other hardware manufacturers to 'take'.

Basically, Apple's algorithm tries to strike a balance between not turning on the fan when unnecessary, like for a short spike in load, (so the computer is quieter and the battery lasts longer) and not letting things get too hot. Just how hot things are allowed to get probably depends on the components in your computer, the various temperatures of those components, how well the computer is ventilated at the moment, the ambient temperature, and maybe even things like load average.

Bottom line: If the computer's doing a lot of work, the fans go on to cool it off. There's no way to say exactly what temperature triggers the fans because it varies based on a lot of things.

Sorry I can't provide anything more concrete.


Applescript to get MS Word current word count?

Yes. You could use this:

tell application "Microsoft Word"
    set theDoc to document 1
    return document property "Number of words" of theDoc
end tell

Since you asked for the word count of "the currently open Microsoft Word® document" this does it. This script works ONLY in the case where you have a single Word document open.

It works for Word 2011 and for Word 16.25 (from Office 365).


Why do subtitles not work when streaming via AirPlay to Apple TV?

try Beamer app, it makes subtitle configuration much easier. I never managed to get subtitles on my iTunes -> TV via airplay. Beamer made it easy. Well worth the $15


Adding a comment to Facebook post acts weird when using Safari

I had this same problem as well a few weeks ago, I believe I hit tab and it fixed itself never to glitch out again. I should note though that it was a different website, I'm running Yosemite, and my memory is always not the greatest.


How can I install a non-notarized application that is not in the App Store and not from a verified developer?

In macOS 10.14 and 10.15, when an app fails to install because it hasn’t been notarized or is from an unidentified developer, it will appear in System Preferences > Security & Privacy, under the General tab. Click Open Anyway to confirm your intent to open or install the app.

See Safely open apps on your Mac from Apple Support.


Open source alternative to Adobe Edge Inspect

Try this software: Muir

Its what you search.


How would I restore Spotlight search to my menu bar? (10.7)

I would imagine that inverting your commands would do the trick. Try:

sudo mdutil -a -i on
sudo chmod 755 /System/Library/CoreServices/Search.bundle/Contents/MacOS/Search
sudo killall SystemUIServer