Is there an OS X app to route keyboard via bluetooth?

Type2Phone

This app does pretty much exactly what you're looking for. It turns your Mac into a Bluetooth keyboard that you can pair your iOS device to. When you type into the app, that text gets sent to the device as if you were using a directly connected keyboard.

It's available on the Mac App Store for $4.99.


Unlock iPhone 3GS iOS 5.0.1 with baseband 06.15.00

I've used this tutorial before. In fact, I'm using it right now to unlock my boss's iPhone.


How to change color profiles on ssh iterm2 on SSH?

Very late answer, but I've found a way here that I wanted to share. This assumes you're running Zsh and oh-my-zsh but with some shell scripting experience you should be able to adjust this to other shells.

I've copied these instructions here for posterity:

Create two iTerm profiles:

*   Your personal preference theme (can be named anything)
*   SSH color theme (must be named SSH)

Go into your ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom directory and create a new file entitled iTerm2-ssh.zsh. Copy and paste the following or copy from the repo:

function tabc() {
    NAME=$1; if [ -z "$NAME" ]; then NAME="Default"; fi
    # if you have trouble with this, change
    # "Default" to the name of your default theme
    echo -e "\033]50;SetProfile=$NAME\a"
}

function tab-reset() {
    NAME="YOUR_CUSTOM_PROFILE_NAME_HERE"
    echo -e "\033]50;SetProfile=$NAME\a"
}

function colorssh() {
    if [[ -n "$ITERM_SESSION_ID" ]]; then
        trap "tab-reset" INT EXIT
        if [[ "$*" =~ "web*|production|ec2-.*compute-1" ]]; then
            tabc SSH
        fi
    fi
    ssh $*
}
compdef _ssh tabc=ssh

alias ssh="colorssh"

The breakdown of this code:

tabc() grabs the ssh name after the command $ ssh is entered. This
changes the SetProfile name to ssh.

tab-reset() is responsible for when you exit the ssh session to return back to
a profile name of your choosing. Remember to create a custom profile name and replace the _YOUR_CUSTOM_PROFILE_NAME_HERE_ with your profile name.

colorssh determines when to change the SetProfile name. Currently it will
change to the SSH profile when one of the following values exist after $ ssh:

-   web *
-   production
-   ec2-.*compute-1

Again, not my code, just a happy user. Thanks for this one, Hector Leiva!


iPhoto library was deleted, had me create a new library. Went into Finder & don't have the "Masters" folder. Where are my original photos?

I think ...

That's a bad beginning. You need to know what you did.

  I hit create library, and all my photos were deleted and I was redirected to iPhoto's introduction page

When you entered a name, did it ask "___ exists. Replace?"

  ...go to iPhoto on Finder...  the names of the folders I have are: _CodeSignature, _MASReceipt, Frameworks, MacOS, Library, PlugIns, Resources, and XCPServices.

That's the iPhoto application. Not the iPhoto Library. Look in Home -> Pictures for something like "Theresa's iPhoto Library" and double-click on it.


Can I transfer content from an existing iPhone to a new iPhone which is using a new (different) Apple ID?

I'm a little hesitant to post this because I can't try it right now and there is, as always, a chance that it won't work. But, because you are willing to repurchase apps, the transfer should be fairly achievable.

I would first restore from a backup of your old iPhone to your new iPhone. If you have already setup the new iPhone then you would need to wipe it and start over which would erase any data that you have created since getting the new phone. Through this process, you will sign in with your old Apple ID. After everything is restored, I would delete the iCloud account off your phone. It should ask you whether you want to keep notes, contacts, calendar, etc. choose to keep all of those items. Sign into your new Apple ID and create a backup of your data.

Again, as I'm sure you are aware, you will still have to work through your apps and repurchase or download all of them again. Apps like Evernote are easy because your data is in your account and you would just have to sign back in. Other apps like games are notorious for losing data.


I have the exact same problem with my 15" mid-2010 MacBook Pro.  It does not suddenly reboot when in Safe Boot-- only in the normal boot.  Apple is aware of this problem but will not assign even one engineer to look into this problem as I have been complaining to them for over 6 years about this.
I was told that possibly the battery needs to be changed-  but Apple stopped making batteries for this model years ago.
So, theonlygusti, if you change the battery and it works properly or not, please let me know. I'll be very appreciative.


How can I determine if the screen is asleep in Mountain Lion, from the command line?

Though not directly answering your question this line will give you the time in seconds since the last user interaction which comes from what OS X considers to be an idle user. (independently of screen-savers or black displays.)

echo $((`ioreg -c IOHIDSystem | sed -e '/HIDIdleTime/ !{ d' -e 't' -e '}' -e 's/.* = //g' -e 'q'` / 1000000000))


First, I know little about Garage Band, but I got it on or with my first Macbook. The old version now shows up in the App Store under the 'Purchased' tab at the top of the page. You could try getting that version again.


fsck_apfs fails with "btn: invalid value" and "Snapshot is invalid."

See the comments above for the approach I wound up taking. It appears Apple's tools don't allow recovery of the filesystem in this case, so I had to back everything up and reformat/reinstall/restore. That seems to have fixed the filesystem errors and disk space problems.


How can I duplicate myself in a movie (using iMovie)?

There are some good tutorials on this on Youtube here and here. The problem in both of these examples is the obvious lines where you can see the contrast and lightness changes.

However if you had either Adobe Premiere Elements or Adobe After effects this effect is a lot easier, and more professional like this you can find those tutorials here (Premiere) and here (After effects)

Have a rummage around the Creative Cow website for good tutorials


How can I type the currency symbol for Costa Rican colón on my Mac?

Add it to the Press & Hold character picker

You can add it to a letter's Press & Hold character picker.

Navigate to System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app/Contents/Resources/.
Backup the Keyboard-en.plist file.
Append the following to the Keyboard-en.plist file (before the closing </dict></plist>).

<key>Roman-Accent-w</key>
<dict>
    <key>Direction</key>
    <string>right</string>
    <key>Keycaps</key>
    <string>₡</string>
    <key>Strings</key>
    <string>₡</string>
</dict>

Feel free to change the Roman-Accent-w to any character you wish, providing it does not already have Press & Hold keys assigned.

If you wish to use a character with an existing Press & Hold set, you can append the ₡ to the relevant <string> lines for that character.


Itunes won't display total number of songs when I'm in my music playlist

If you're still looking for an answer, go to Playlists, then on the right side it will have a drop down menu that says Songs, if you choose Artists instead, it will show you how many songs you have on the left side


How can I exclude certain ports from the firewall notifications?

The dialog is not coming from ipfw but from socketfilterfw, the OS X Application based firewall. That one is not port based, like ipfw but based on processes. If an application/script wants to bind a port the application firewall checks it's ruleset and subsequently asks the user if that should be allowed which is what you already see. If you allow this, the binary in question gets signed and is allowed access in the future without user interaction. If the binary changes, you get asked again.

The only way to prevent getting asked is to turn off the app firewall which I do not recommend. Alternatively you could start signing each change of your python files which is likely to become annoying.

Sidenote: If you need a port based firewall as well you should be using pf (pf.conf(5), pfctl(8)) on Mountain-Lion as ipfw is deprecated.


Check Remote Management Status via Terminal

You can tell if it's enabled by running launchctl list | grep '^\d.*RemoteDesktop.*'. That will output a line if there's an active process for the RemoteDesktop agent, and will output nothing if not. There's an active process for the agent whenever Remote Management is enabled, even if there's no active connection (unlike something like Screen Sharing, where the process is only active when there's a connection made).


Macbook Pro frequently experiences drops in WiFi connection with Linksys WAG120N

Do you have DHCP enabled? Your laptop might be loosing its connection to the router due to IP conflicts resulting from other devices on your network using the same IP address.
Try using different broadcast channels. I think the default Linksys channel is 6. I usually use 8 or 1.
How good is the signal strength? You might have to boost the antennas transmission signal.
Make sure someone like your neighbors are not running APs with the same SSID.
If you use signal encryption try using different key encryption WPA/WPA2-PSK(AES/TKIP).
and the obvious one, run software updates, just to make sure that there is no new firmware for the MacBook NIC.


If your goal is to completely wipe all data which is on your current boot disk, then follow the procedure below.

Insert the Mac OS X CD.
Restart the computer.
Immediately after the startup sound, press and hold the "C" key to start up from CD.
When the Installer screen appears, do not click Continue. Instead, choose Installer > Open Disk Utilities.
Select the hard drive to erase.
Click the Erase tab.
Select the volume format from the Volume Format pop-up menu.
Click Options.
Select the checkbox for "Zero out data". (other options also available)
Click OK.
Click Erase.

The reason to perform this procedure as described above is it removes all traces of data by securely wiping the entire disk.  This means that even with recovery tools, somebody couldn't find what was on your disk.  It's the best way to wipe a disk if you're selling/disposing of your computer or hard drive.

UPDATE: Some additional information regarding theories on multi-pass erases can be found here: http://www.howtogeek.com/115573/htg-explains-why-you-only-have-to-wipe-a-disk-once-to-erase-it/
TLDR; Its generally unnecessary with modern disk drives


Problems with saving to external USB Flash Storage

From your problem description your filesysyem might be damaged.
Check this with Disk Utility > verify.

If Disk Utility does report any error

then fix them.

Next run verify many times (10 is what I use) on your USB key.

If errors appear,

then your USB is aging and start to behave
badly when heating,
in this case: change it;

else problem fixed.


Add a hosts file entry without jailbreaking

Use Weblock - AdBlock for iOS app to create a redirect rule from http://app to the IP and port you like.

(Only works when on a WIFI network)


How to edit "kMDItemXxx" file metadata on macOS?

The Spotlight system collects a variety of types of metadata about files. Some kinds of metadata are what I'd call "superficial", and can be easily changed by changing the file properties; but some "deeper" ones depend on the contents of the file, and cannot be changed without significant changes to the file itself.
kMDItemFSName is an example of a "superficial" attribute -- it's just the filename, so renaming the file will change it. kMDItemBitsPerSample, on the other hand, is a property of the data in the file (it's the bit depth of an image or audio file). Changing kMDItemBitsPerSample would involve some sort of recoding of the image or audio file.
Mind you, there are some attributes that are in-between in superficiality. For example, mp3 files include metadata like the album name (kMDItemAlbum) and track number (kMDItemAudioTrackNumber) that are part of the file's contents, but can be edited (by some apps, like the old iTunes) without touching the audio content of the file.


App Store doesn't show Mountain Lion as installed

When you purchase Mountain Lion in the App Store, it will first download an application called Install Mac OS X Mountain Lion.app to your /Applications directory. When the download is finished you're automatically prompted with the following window:

After that Mountain Lion installs and reboots into your Mountain Lion install. The installer application will be automatically removed - because most users won't need it anymore.

If you open the App Store, you're offered you to re-download Mountain Lion (hence the button says "download"), which could be useful if you wanted to create an install USB with the .dmg image.

You can verify if you have installed Mountain Lion by going to the menubar and click: Apple icon → About this Mac. In case you have Mountain Lion installed, you'll see this:


How to boot Mac from CD from verbose command line

Mac hardware will always boot to an os chooser holding down option. You of course need a USB / thunderbolt / FireWire drive with bootable media at that point.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255

Newer Macs use internet recovery to net boot and from there you can repartition any drives and reinstall all drivers needed to boot macOS and start again.

Accessing Internet Recovery

For a PowerBook, you might also use cd / DVD media since internet recovery isn't an option for PPC hardware.


Stop information syncing between iPad and iPhone

Apparently, you have signed into iCloud on both your devices using the same Apple ID. Devices setup with the same Apple ID sync a lot of user data between them for built-in apps by default.

If you concerned about keeping company and personal data segregated, it is recommended to use different Apple ID for your iPad and iPhone (personal Apple ID for iPad and a separate one for iPhone).

Alternatively, if you have reasons to use the same Apple ID, you can selectively choose which data to sync. On your iPad/iPhone, go to Settings app → Tap on your name and picture shown on the top (Apple ID, iCloud, iTunes & App Store) → iCloud and under Apps Using iCloud section, turn-off the switch in front of all the apps for which you do not wish to sync data.

Specifically, to disable syncing website history, turn-off iCloud for Safari (it will also stop syncing bookmarks and open tabs from one device to the other), for text messages, turn off iCloud for Messages. If the SMS from your iPhone are also showing up on your iPad, you will additionally need to disable Text Message Forwarding on your iPhone. For that, go to Settings app → Messages → Text Message Forwarding and turn off the switch shown in front of your iPad.


My icon for photo is missing not only from dock but from launch pad on my MacBooks Air

The quick way to find any app you might be able to delete is open the App Store app and find the app using search.

if the app is deleted, you can reinstall it
if the app is just moved, you can open it

Once it’s open, keep it in the dock with a control click or right click. Spotlight can help you find the app in finder if you need to put it back in the Applications folder


You can save the image file in a folder such that it is the only file in the folder. Whenever you generate a new image save it with the same name to the same folder. Then with the finder window open, have the file viewed using the 3rd view icon. See image below. My image file is a simple plot.

Whenever you generate a new image and replace the old image with new image the view will automatically update.


How can I prevent sleep in OSX Recovery mode?

If you're already in Recovery Mode doing some operation you don't want to interrupt, you can try this trick to run caffeinate.

Go to the Wi-Fi icon on the menu bar and pull it down.  Select "Join Other Network..."

The "Find and join a Wi-Fi network" dialog will be there, but look at the application title.  It's "macOS Utilities." Go to the Utilities menu and select "Terminal".

In the terminal, issue the command caffeinate.  When your operation is done, control-C out of it.

If it bothers you that the display sleeps and you don't really trust that the operation is still going, you can issue a stronger version:

caffeinate -dismut 65500

This is sort of like 'sleeplessness with prejudice.'  With the -u flag you get an implicit -t 5, which stops caffeine after five seconds.  So I overrode this by adding '-t 65500' which makes the caffeinate command last about 18 hours.

Finally, because I'm really, REALLY paranoid, I actually put caffeinate in the background and run a shell loop with ps -ef running every 75 seconds.


How to download additional text-to-speech voices for later installation?

The downloaded voices are stored in /System/Library/Speech/Voices.

You can copy these between Macs. Download the desired voice on one Mac through System Preferences and copy it to the other Macs that you want.


Locate iPhone without an internet connection

Unfortunately with today's technology it is not possible to locate your iPhone, if it has no connection to the internet of any kind.


Can I charge my headphones with the MacBook 12" charger?

A USB charger is universally compatible with devices that use the USB interface to recharge.  An Apple MacBook USB charger will charge any device including Android, Microsoft, or no-name type devices - including your Plantronics headset.

Apple provides you a USB-C port as shown in the image (below left) .  You just need a cable that's compatible with your device and in your case, a USB-C to USB micro cable (right)

As long as you have the right cable, you can recharge anything so long as you don't exceed the power rating on your adapter.

This means that if your headphones require only 5W to charge, then this adapter will work.  If your Android tablet requires 10W it will charge.  However, if your friend brings his shiny new MacBook Pro which requires 65W, it will either charge very slowly or not at all.

You can always use/charge devices that are less-than or equal to the wattage rating of the charger, but not vice versa.

As for picking adapters/cables, always buy a quality product.  You can rest assured that Apple is a quality brand (though expensive).  As for cables, stick with reputable manufacturers from reputable sellers.  Saving a few dollars on poorly made adapters can cost you dearly in the long run.  See this video for what happens.


Execute terminal command "rsync" from BetterTouchTool

According to the format of the answer to that question, you'd want to specify the full path to the rsync program. I looked around a bit and found my rsync executable inside the folder /usr/bin/.
If your rsync is in the same place (it should be), you should modify your command in BetterTouchTool to:

/usr/bin/rsync -r /Users/owendostie/Dropbox/Ohouse /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/Ohouse

Unfortunately I don't use BTT so I can't test this, but that is how the other answer solved the issue.


Why can't my MacBook Air run Software Update?

This is an ancient question (bumped by Community♦), but invalid checksum doesn't have anything to do with admin privileges, it is a bad download.

Since you tried multiple times you are either not getting the file despite the multiple tries, or the original file you are downloading is not complete.

I would look for another way to get the update.


It would be a good time to swap the HD for another startup system.
You could do that with a thumb drive startup disk that you or someone else setup already, and you could use a USB cable connected to any external drive that had this. You could probably get one online if you've never made one. You could pull that drive out and connect it to another Mac, then use Disk Utility on it. Here is an article with some helpful stuff.


How downgrade macOS to previous versions safely?

There is no downgrade option available which let's you 'go back to a previous macOS version'. Most Mac Apps automatically convert your Photo, Mail or iTunes files to a newer database version. So you won't be able to import Mails out-of-the-box from Mail (Mojave) into Mail (El Capitan).

You will need to backup your data, first
Erase your disk or volume using Disk Utility
Reinstall from macOS Recovery or USB drive.
Move back your data from backup

There's no need to reinstall your system due to USB adapter issues. It rather sounds like a incompatilbity issue. Your USB adapter is too old. Try using your USB adapter on another friends, collegues computer for further testing.

The only guaranteed step is to erase the system, reinstall a clean OS and only migrate / import data that was backed up to the lower version of the OS or older. You generally can load an older backup on a newer system, you generally cannot load a newer backup level on an older system.


How to automatically run apps in iphone?

Using the example in your question, if you're wanting this to happen automatically without some sort of user intervention, then I doubt this is going to be possible. This is because of security restrictions in place to protect your privacy, data, etc. For example, being able to open the YouTube app would require the iPhone being unlocked, so it's not something that can be set to just happen at 8am every day with or without you.

If you're talking about a way to quickly do this sort of thing with a single tap of a button, then you may want to check out Apple's Workflow app.

It does take a bit of exploring and getting used to, but once you create a workflow it can be launched from the Today Widget or even be exported as a standalone app on your home screen, amongst other options.

I don't think the exact example you give in your question would be possible, at least not yet, but Apple is working very hard on increasing the functionality of both Siri and Workflow to incorporate better integration within and between apps. It's a case of 'watch this space'.

But, even with the current version, I've seen people achieve some pretty cool workflows, so it may be possible to do what you want if you find the right app. By this I mean that there's a Workflow Action Extension that allows workflows to be run from other apps - so if you could find an alarm app that uses this extension I suppose in theory you could use that to trigger your workflow automatically because it'd be an alarm going off.

Finally, if the example you gave in your question is actually all you're wanting to achieve, there are many 3rd party alarm apps that play YouTube videos at the allocated time. You could check to see if any of these will play whatever video is first on the YouTube list.


Suddenly Siri started to drain battery on iPhone SE (iOS 12.3.1)

Non-solutions:

turning Siri Suggestions off
turning Siri off "completely"
playing a song in iTunes/Music (suggested here by DRH255)

These made no change.

Solution:

disable the option Settings / General / Keyboard / Enable Dictation (got the hint here and in the above link)

Funny thing, I did not have that option at all, because it appears only when a keyboard language that supports it is added. So I had to add "English (United Kingdom)" to my keyboards, then the dictation option appeared, I turned it off and... the problem is gone.

PS: This post on reddit suggests it is not really draining the battery, only the indicator is showing the wrong value....

*edit*: this seems to (also) be the case. I left my iPhone to drain the battery completely and when it reached 1% it kept going for 5 more hours, always showing 1%. Before that it decreased by 2-3%each hour.

PPS: It still uses about 15% during night, which is too much according to some, but that is probably a separate problem.


High memory usage on iMac MacOS Catalina

I too started experiencing this problem after I installed Catalina on my 2019 iMac Retina 5K with 3.6 Ghz 8-Core I9 processor and 32 GB memory (4 days ago).  I had no such problems prior to my upgrade.  I turned off Airdrop with no effect.  Unfortunately, I can't disable remote disks as I'm very much in need of icloud and screen sharing.  I tried turning off all my other icloud devices, but that didn't seem to have any effect either. My CPU usage by the "sharingd" processis 15 times higher than my next most CPU intensive process.  It also appears to be cycling up to 100% plus CPU usage for about 5-10 seconds every 20-30 seconds.  Fan speed is also varying in line with the cpu temperature,  as would be expected (1200 RPM goes to 2400 RPM).

I tried taking the issue to Apple Support, but even after getting pushed up to 2nd level, they were no help.  They seemed clueless about what sharingd does and how to troubleshoot it.  They basically ran me through POPO and SMC Reset and then gave up.  They suggested it must be a hardware problem even though diagnostics ran clean and no other evidence supports that conclusion.

I've also tried shutting down all my 3rd party apps and no effect from that either.

I am now wondering if possibly Apple is running some form of file conversion/tweaking on my icloud stored photos, movies, or music in background as part of the upgrade and maybe this is causing file sync issues. If so, hopefully it will eventually finish and go away! But I'm not hopeful.  Personally, I think it is a Catalina bug that Apple is not yet acknowledging.

UPDATED 4/19/2020  (PROBLEM PARTIALLY IDENTIFIED and TEMPORARY FIX)

After further investigation, I found that turning off icloud on my system (or turning off the network so it couldn't talk to icloud) caused sharingd to go quiet (vs. near 100% CPU utilization).  I also started to notice that the process AddressBookSourceSync is also running (at moderate levels) when sharingd is running at high CPU.  On a hunch, I turned my icloud back on, but just disabled Contacts (in System Preferences > AppleID).  With Contacts off, my system is back to running quietly.  Therefore it appears that the high CPU utilization of the sharingd process somehow relates to trying to sync with Contacts (address book) in icloud.  So at least I have a temporary fix (i.e. turning off contacts, except when needed), but caution, losing contacts has negative impacts on identifying people in imessage threads, etc.  So admittedly this is a very limited fix.

FIXED 5/3/2020  (at least on my system)

Realizing my above temporary fix was not cutting it for me and still being suspicious that my address book system (Contacts) was somehow corrupted during my upgrade to Catalina, I decided I needed to completely unload and reinstall my local copy of my address book system.  Not knowing exactly how to do that, I searched and found this article https://ugetfix.com/ask/how-to-fix-addressbooksourcesync/ which walked me through the process.  This procedure should work as long as your local address
book is synced with iCloud.  Although the article addresses symptoms I didn't have, it did the trick as far as allowing me to unload and reload my local address book system.  Once I performed this procedure it was immediately apparent that this fixed my problem with high sharingd process CPU usage and the corresponding high memory usage by addressbooksourcesync. My sharingd process is now only using small amounts of CPU, somewhere approximately in the range of .1% to 4.5% CPU (vs 100+% CPU previously).  AddressBookSourceSync's memory use also is much lower now too, about 300MB vs. Gigbytes prior to the fix (sorry I forgot to record the exact memory usage initially).  I don't know if this will help others, but it might be worth a try.  Just make sure your local addressbook (Contacts) and icloud addressbook (Contacts) are in good syncronization before you start. I also added one step to this procedure as an added measure of safety.  I exported all my Contacts to a PDF file prior to starting.  I did that just in case something went horribly wrong and I had to re-enter them manually. Fortunately, that was not necessary!  One last comment: for whatever reason, I found no .plist file (the one that the author of this procedure mentions) in my ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book/ folder, either before or after performing the procedure.


You can try installing Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro) onto a USB. Then, start a live session. Open GParted and reformat your iMac’s HDD or SSD to GUID. After that, try booting into recovery mode again.


MacBook Air display to external projector

In a pinch, this usually works:

Connect your computer to the projector and turn the projector on.
Restart your Mac.
It should now work.


How to access icloud.com on Chrome for Android?

This restriction can be bypassed by changing your browser's user agent.  This can be done by clicking the "..." menu and selecting "Request desktop site".  Apparently Apple only blocks Chrome for Android, not for desktop.

References:

New York Times
USA Today


All-day events don't show in Notification Center.

You can provide feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html


You could use a combination of tools to remove the old ToC, and attach a new one:

use PDF SAM ("split and merge"; it's FOSS and cross-platform) to take off the old ToC;
use PDF Outliner ($4.99 in Mac App store) to generate a new one.

See other helpful tools in another Q&A.


Installing Python 3.5.6.1: python contains a recursive dependency on itself:

You can download any python version directly from the python website and install it manually. As you're trying to use a specific version, I'm guessing that you're not planning on upgrading it later. That way you can keep both versions if you want.


Online collaborative whiteboard / drawing app for iPad

Works GREAT: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/air-sketch/id376617790?mt=8

Theres a lite version too.


Automate setup of Win7 VPN, including registry settings and security policy changes

Here are some links on the Connection Manager to setup VPN connection and deployment to users.

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc752995(v=ws.10).aspx

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2693643

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd672647(v=ws.10).aspx


Visually distinguish different lines (for long wrapped lines) in iTerm2 / Terminal

Here's a starting point.

In iTerm 2 go to Preferences > Profiles > (Your profile) > Advanced, then click Edit under Triggers.

Add a new Trigger using the + button at the bottom left, then set:

Regular Expression: .$
Action: Highlight Text…
Parameters: Red on White (or a colour combination you find appropriately funkadelic)

Close the Triggers pane.

You should now see a white "line" at the far right of the iTerm window. This is really iTerm changing the last character on the line to red text on a white background. This should help you spot lines that are wrapped versus new lines.

Example screen grab below (I use fish shell, btw)…


Streaming video from shared Mac folder to AppleTV?

You are right about streaming to the iPhone (or iPad) and then to the ATV. Check out the VLC streamer. The application is installed on iOS, and a companion app goes on the computer. VLC Streamer will transcode non-native video (e.g., AVI) from the computer, pipe it to the iOS device, and then pipe that to the ATV via AirPlay. I have tested this and it works exactly as described. The quality of your results will be dependent, of course, on your LAN bandwidth and processing speed of the machines. You can set some of these parameters in VLC Streamer, though, which maximizes output. Enjoy!


The Wallet app is coming with iOS 9, and is not yet supported in iOS 8.4.

I've tested iOS 9 in Germany, and it will be supported in every country. They 'just' changed the name (and introduce a collective place for Apple Pay in the future).

Source


I just ran rm -rf /*, but nothing happened

The good news: your system is working afterwards
The bad news: user installed apps and user data will be deleted

The command rm -rf /* tries to remove all files in the whole root hierarchy. This is done with the privileges of the user executing it.

An admin user will remove all admin user installed apps and his/her/* own files - including files installed to /usr/local/ (e.g. with brew). Additonally some files and folders in /private/tmp, /private/var/tmp and  /private/var/run are removed.

A normal user will remove his/her/* own files and probably some files and folder in  /private/tmp and /private/var/tmp.

BTW a good reason to configure at least a dual user setup: one admin user and a user for the day-to-day routine.

The reason why even sudo rm ... can't remove system files/Apple's apps are Catalina's new security measures. Most parts of the file system are mounted read-only.

Removal of files - if possible at all - is more or less alphabetical. In my test it started in /Applications, continued in /Library, /System, /System/Volumes/Data (and all subdirs like the "Users" folder) and finally finished in /usr/local.

If you have a normal Time Machine backup simply restore the last snapshot.

If you don't have Time Machine backup but localsnapshots enabled you will be able to restore the previous state of your Mac.

Local snapshots will be listed with the command:

tmutil listlocalsnapshots /

You can restore your Mac either by doing everything manually (i.e. get snapshot name, make a temporary folder, mount the snapshot with mount_apfs there and restore everything with a lengthy and error-prone tmutil restore ... command.

The alternative way is the Time Machine GUI in Recovery Mode:

Reboot to Recovery Mode (cmd-R while booting)
Choose "Restore from Time Machine Backup" in macOS Utilities and hit continue

Restore from Time Machine chit-chat and continue

Choose the name of your main system volume (here System, usually Macintosh HD) and continue

Choose the last snapshot before issueing the fatal rm command and continue. I made several snapshots because I forgot to make admin created app folders (lower- and uppercase) containing apps to detect whether they are deleted alphabetically (shell style: first uppercase then lower case) - they are not.

Restoring

Automatic reboot

Fun fact: thanks to APFS' snapshot tech restoring took 35 seconds while trying to remove all files almost 30 minutes.


Extending the Safari Address Bar When Many Extensions Installed?

Have you right-clicked the toolbar, gone to Customize Toolbar, and moved some items off of it?


PowerPoint Macro for Mac - load pictures like "Insert Photo Album"

I would forget your VBA based macro from PowerPoint for Windows and instead create a macOS service that you can user whenever you want, including directly from PowerPoint. To do this you will need to use Automator to create a service that runs an Apple Script.

Create a service using Automator

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Service and click Choose (Note: in macOS Mojave and above, select the Quick Action option)
In the top right hand of the window that appears, ensure that "No input" is selected from the Service receives drop-down list
Ensure the In drop-down list is showing "Any application"
In the second column containing the long list, find "Run AppleScript" and double-click on it
This will add the Run AppleScript window on the right
Now, replace the (* Your script goes here *) with the following script1:

tell application "Finder" to set frontmost to true
tell application "Finder" to set picFolder to every file in folder (choose folder)
log (count picFolder)

tell application "Microsoft PowerPoint"
    activate
    set newPres to make new presentation
    --set properties of slide 1 of active presentation to {layout:slide layout blank}
    set theSlide to make new slide at end of newPres with properties {layout:slide layout blank}
    repeat with xName in picFolder
        make new picture at end of last slide of active presentation with properties {file name:(xName as text), top:0, left position:0, height:541, width:722, lock aspect ratio:true} --makes pictures full sized
        make new slide at end of active presentation with properties {layout:slide layout blank}
    end repeat
end tell

Save the service using a meaningful name (e.g. Create PP Photo Album).

Now you should be able to run the service from any application, not just from within PowerPoint. You can do this by going to the Services list within any Application menu (e.g. PowerPoint > Services, Finder > Services, Safari > Services, TextEdit > Services, etc) and select the service you just created.

Notes:

When it runs, it'll open a Finder window asking you to select the folder containing your pictures. Once selected click on the Choose button. PowerPoint will then open a new blank presentation and insert all of the pictures in the selected folder into their own slide.
PowerPoint does not need to be already open when you run the service, but it will run quicker if it is.
You can also choose to create a keyboard shortcut to automatically run the Service for you. You can do this from Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard - just select the Shortcuts tab, pick Services from the lefthand side and choose the Service you created from the righthand side.

1. This is an old script I adapted from one I found on the web some years ago for use with MS Office 2011. I do not recall offhand from where I obtained the original script, but I can vouch for the fact it still works with the latest version of MS PowerPoint.


Launchd plist runs everyday instead of only weekends

As Ted Wrigley stated: "The key for specifying day of the week is Weekday, not WeekDay. Launchd may not recognize the capital-D keyword, and might be ignoring it."

After correcting the key, launchd is now not triggering everyday.


Show date on the Apple Watch Series 2 Home screen

Apple Watch doesn't have a great variety of faces to choose from. You have to choose one that has a "complication", which means configuration option and/or display option, that can be configured to display the date. Press and hold your current face at a location that doesn't activate another function, swipe left and right to look at available faces, then choose the customize button at the bottom or the New choice, and select one that includes date by default or lets you add one thru the use of a complication. You can control this process with greater intricacy using the Apple Watch app on iPhone.


Is it possible to configure OS X  to use the domain-name supplied by DHCP option 15?

Not understanding whats exactly your problem. Maybe this can help you.

If you set the search option, in your own config (network->advanced->dns->search domains) or by your dhcp server. You basically eliminate the need to add this part to a fqdn.

Example:

  search: foo.com

then,

  ping test

would try to resolve test.foo.com

So, in your case that would be test.my.example.com

Futhermore, setting your local name, you can change under:

  Sharing -> Edit...


iPhone/Google contacts switched from Exchange to CardDAV but one way sync only

My understanding is that CardDAV does not push changes from server to clients, but rather requires that clients poll the server. Perhaps you have polling turned off?

Launch Settings.
Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
Select Fetch New Data.
Under the Fetch heading, is Manually selected? If so, then your phone is not automatically checking for updates.
Select Advanced.
Find your Google CardDAV account in this list. Is it set to Fetch or Manual? If the latter, then your phone is not automatically checking for updates.


Constant application crashes on 4S running 6.1.2

This ended up being a funky one. The result -- something wrong with my iCloud synchronization. It was causing Notes to have hundreds of thousands of copies that resulted in NoMemory crashes.

Not your textbook issue.. but keep it in mind.


I fixed my problem by downloading the latest beta version found here: https://www.xquartz.org/releases/index.html


How can I tell what "Audio" and "Other" contains in iTunes's iOS device capacity meter?

The other part of the graph, as far as I know, consists of caches, cookies, history, logs, ... (mostly from safari). Also, things like contacts, calender events, ... are in this part, too. I don't think any app document (like Evernote's or Instapaper's) goes to this part. It's all in the app part.

So, for example, it can be cleared up a good amount by going to safari settings and clearing all caches, history, ... You'll be amazed at how much space they've claimed!

About the audio, it is really strange that with no music and some audiobooks, it have taken up so much space. I don't know any other stuff other than that to be included in that part.

As a side note, sometimes doing a resync in iTunes will change the graph. Sometimes even the other part shrinks and goes to apps. So maybe you can try and see what happens.

Hope it helps.


I would assume you would use the latest combo update for 10.6, which should update you completely to the current version in one shot.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1399?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


Is there any way for me to use the original Mac Plus or Mac 128k mouse with a modern Macbook Pro?

As far as I know, the old mac mice used a DE-9 connector, but this isn't RS-232-compatible. If it was, you could have used an adaptor from RS-232 to PS/2 and then a standard ps/2-usb-converter (both must be active converters).

If you get an ADB-mouse you will be able to use them as there are adaptors for these.

If you're into electronics and programming, you could build your own converter eg. using a teensy-board for few bucks. It shouldn't be too hard as the old apple mouse just sends quadrature signals which should easily be translated into pointer movements.


Boot into Recovery HD, open Disk Utility.  Choose Yo Drive in the list and select the Restore tab.  Make Yo Drive the Source and Macintosh HD the Destination.  This will erase all content on Macintosh HD and replace it with the contents of Yo Drive.  Back up anything important on Yo Drive before hand in case of failure during the restore.  After that you should be able to erase the second partition and extend to take up the whole drive.


How can I forcibly shut down my Mac at an appointed time?

Ok, so further to my previous answer, I can walk you through getting cron (a built in UNIX schedule service) to run a scheduled shutdown command for you.

It will run as root and will be forced.

Open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal)
Input sudo crontab -e

You'll need to enter your login password and then press enter.

You'll now be in a text editor (vim). Carefully input the following keystrokes.

Press i once (this will allow you to enter text)

Let's say you want the machine to shutdown at 2am every day, we'd now enter:

* 2 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now

If you wanted the machine to shutdown at 2:30am every day, you'd enter:

30 2 * * * /sbin/shutdown -h now

When you've typed this in, press esc
Then press shift+z shift+z (that's uppercase "z" twice, to writes the changes and quit the editor)

You should now be dropped back to the command line where you started.

You're done!


App or tool for auto-crop receipt-like pictures?

On OSX/Linux you can try with ImageMagick command-line tools (e.g. Trimming 'Noisy' Images -- Scanned Images).

Alternatively you can try Scan Tailor (at GitHub), an interactive post-processing tool for scanned pages (installation via Homebrew: brew install scantailor). Convert the images either from ScanTailor's GUI interface or from the command-line (Run: scantailor --help for help).

Check similar Q&A for Windows/Linux: Auto-crop black margins dynamically of scanned images?

For iOSX app (also available for OSX), you can try Evernote, so you can take a picture of documents or business cards (including OCR), and the app can auto-crop it (based on the content).

Other apps include: Receipt Bank, Expentory, Xpenditure, Kagazz.


iPhone 6 causes Bose Mie2i to skip tracks

Turn off shake to shuffle in Settings > Music


[edit after more research]

You can use Applescript to turn on and off the dock's autohide.
You can't use Applescript to determine whether you have open/visible windows. This is because Applescript treats each application as an object, and some applications handle windows differently, meaning they can't all be manipulated or detected. I haven't even been able to find an applescript that can reliably count open windows, and there's absolutely no recent documentation on how to handle spaces with applescript.

From within the Script Editor, select File > Open Dictionary, and you will be presented with a list of applications that have dictionaries of scriptable objects & behaviors that you can access. You want to select System Events and search for "dock". The dock preferences object has the property autohide, which looks like a good bet to do what you want: i.e. turn on autohide when there are open windows, and turn it off when there aren't. You can find more information about what's available by looking through different dictionaries and reading the documentation.

Apple's own introduction


Stop Docker from automatically starting on startup

Click the Docker icon in the right hand side of the menu bar, and click "Preferences". In the dialog that appears, untick "Automatically start Docker when you log in".


iPhone scam message - did not open picture but pressed preview

If you see it on your screen, it has been downloaded (would be difficult to show something which has not been downloaded). It doesn't matter whether you just preview something or open it in an app, technically there is no real difference.

The question behind the question probably is "should I worry?". Nobody can say for sure without much more information about the specific content, but most probably "no, not all all".


Garageband still taking up space in High Sierra

These are all the GarageBand folders...make sure they are all empty.
Also, quit and restart Storage Management after you have cleared those folders to see the changes or even a reboot, might help sort some other things out. Hope this helps...

/Applications/GarageBand.app
/Library/Application Support/Garageband
/Library/Application Support/Logic
/Library/Audio
~/Library/Application Support/Garageband
~/Library/Application Support/Audio


What you need is the refit tool.  Then on the Mac (via DiskUtil) shrink/resize your Mac partition and create a partition for Windows in the free space.

Then, via Refit (on the Refit boot menu under tools), sync the Mac partition table and MBR-partitions (this will create a windows-readable MBR type partition map that matches the partitions you created on the Mac).

Then just boot from a Windows CD and install in the new partition.  Do NOT modify the partitions (adding, removing, etc.) from Windows though.


flickring 1.5” or 2” column in screen of 17" macbook pro early 2011

I think there's a replacement program for your model:
http://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/

Here are the affected models:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2012)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Early 2011)
MacBook Pro (17-inch Late 2011)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15 inch, Early 2013)

I wish 13-inch mid-2012 was included as well, because I have a similar issue.


iPhone has stopped updating apps automatically

As I was in the middle of relocating, I had updated my country amongst other personal information in my Apple ID. It appears installed apps stop updating until you reinstall them from the App Store for the new country even if the app is available under the very same name. You will be informed App Store switches country upon opening App Store for the first time after updating country in your Apple ID.

I have rung Apple about this issue, and they did not have much of a solution other than reinstalling the apps.
You could switch back to your old address to have automatic updates resume, but keep in mind your new ‘foreign’ payment details (ie credit cards) will not be accepted. At the time, I was told there is no way around this. I hope Apple changes this policy in the future as it is the only service which does not accept my foreign issued Mastercard to this day.


keyboard preferences ignores modifier key settings

Okay I fixed it. New keyboard (still Windows-style, needing modifier key remapping), uninstalled USB overdrive, moved keyboard from external self-powered USB hub to port in back of second monitor, then back to hub. Modifier key remapping started being obeyed once I'd switched the keyboard to the monitor's USB port, and kept working when I switched back. Go figure!


How do I create automatic sections in Quark Xpress?

There are two ways to go about this. You can either get commercial QuarkXPress XTension software that handles database publishing or you can attempt to write your own AppleScript that talks to some external data source and builds elements in a QuarkXPress document.

I haven't used commercial database publishing software, I just know they exist. So I can't help much beyond suggesting to search for "Quark database publishing" and looking around. I would imagine that this type of solution would support more different types of databases and would be easier to implement. This would also probably be a little expensive.

The second option - AppleScript - can be difficult, as whoever is implementing this would need to have access to and be familiar with QuarkXPress and AppleScript. I don't think you can even start to develop an AppleScript for an application that isn't installed on your computer.

You would also need to find a way to talk to your database using AppleScript, which might limit the kinds of databases you could use. I've mostly created scripts that used delimited text exports from databases as a starting point, which may not be enough for you.

Writing an AppleScript can be painstaking work, as the documentation is hard to follow and finding the right syntax to accomplish something is often just trying different things until you find something that works. But, you might not need to spend any money at all, especially if you can work from delimited text exports.

Telling you how to write an AppleScript is a little beyond the scope of a StackExchange answer, but searching for "Quark AppleScript" should at least get you started. There are also normally example AppleScripts installed with Quark, I think in the application's folder.


Blurred Lines on screen, then computer shuts off

I went to Apple Care and they quoted me $700 to fix the issue, which I think they said was the logic board...Is it likely that the logic board is the real problem?

If apple ran in house diagnostics on the machine and told you that you had a faulty logic board, then the logic board needs to be replaced. The issue could specifically be the with the integrated graphics component of your CPU, but it's a moot point since it still requires that the logic board needs replacement.

This is a hardware issue for which no troubleshooting can ameliorate the problem or make it disappear. This problem will only get worse; inevitably (and without warning) the logic board will completely die and the computer will not boot.

  Is it worth investigating/replacing myself?

That's subjective. According to iFixit, the OEM part costs either $400 or $600 dollars depending on which processor you have. In addition, factor in the cost of necessary tools and difficulty of fixing it. Draw your decision based on the cost/benefit of doing it yourself vs. taking it to Apple.

Best of luck.


How can I set Time machine interval to several minutes in Mojave?

NVM I figured it out.

This is a great timing to finish the answer, right? ...No? Okay I'll show you what was the problem then...

What is required to do that in Mojave is:

disable csrutil.
sudo vi /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-helper.plist, and then edit Interval, Delay, GracePeriod. I just set them to 1/4 of original value.
Reboot. You were going to re-enable csrutil anyway, right?

After that, time machine prefpane will still say it's going to backup 1hr after last backup, but automatic backup happens 15 mins later in my case.


Start program in response to system events (like ip address changes, etc.)?

ControlPlane has many of the functions you're looking for, though I don't think it has any rules for connected users.  I've been using it for a few months on my work MBP to switch between home and office and it's been quite good.


iOS - Can I "white label" certain apps not to be auto-offloaded?

I can find no option to whitelist individual apps, which is a great idea. It seems to be all or nothing. I've taken to removing a lot of apps I rarely use manually, foregoing this utility, unfortunately.
Apple's official wording states: Automatically remove unused apps, but keep all documents and data. Reinstalling the app will place back your data, if the app is still available from the App Store.
Perhaps you should write to the developer of CCTV Viewer if the setup/pairing data is not retained when the app is off-loaded and then re-installed.
You should also go to the Apple Feedback site for iPhone and make a feature request. You won't get any reply unless you provide your email address, and they have further questions, but at least it'll get on their (very long) list of enhancement requests.


How to permanently change my MAC address in macOS?

If you have Homebrew, install SpoofMAC with

brew install spoof-mac

You can also install SpoofMAC with pip, or directly with:

git clone git://github.com/feross/SpoofMAC.git
cd SpoofMAC
python setup.py install

Add a local.macspoof.plist file in /Library/LaunchDaemons:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
        <dict>
            <key>Label</key>
            <string>MacSpoof</string>
            <key>ProgramArguments</key>
            <array>
            <string>/usr/local/bin/spoof-mac.py</string>
                <string>set</string>
                <string>ca:fe:ca:fe:ca:fe</string>
                <string>en4</string>
            </array>
            <key>RunAtLoad</key>
            <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Adapt the interface name and address to your need then reboot.

Then load the launch daemon:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/local.macspoof.plist

P.S.: There is a similar question Change MAC address in OS X Yosemite but the question is not about permanent change and is only for Yosemite.


Is it possible to connect an iPhone to a WiFi network that you've previously connected your Mac to without having to enter the password on the phone?

As far as iCloud keychain goes, it will save a lot of your passwords that you enter on websites (as well as usernames) but I don't believe it will do it for wifi passwords.

Once you enter the password once on your iPhone though, it should remember it from then on, so you will not have to enter it each time.


how to use the + on the numeric keypad for "+p in vim, Mac Os X

It’s Vim, feel free to remap anything to anything you want.

To detect what you numpad + sends to Vim press C-v then + on numpad – you will see something like

^[Ok

^[ is escape, so you may command your Vim

:map "<esc>Ok "+

Now it should work as expected by you.

However, it would be better to do this kind of mappings not in Vim but in your terminal emulator (which you have not mentioned) by two reasons:

In Vim you have to map all possible prefixes explicitly. You can perform :map <esc>Ok + but it won’t affect "<esc>Ok.
Mapping <esc>Ok to something will add a delay in processing single <esc> press (see :h timeoutlen).


What are the large .f136 and .f171 files in my Downloads folder?

I found the following comment on Reddit.

  tl;dr you need to add ffmpeg or avconv executables to your PATH Sounds
  less like a problem with youtube-dl and more like you do not have
  ffmpeg or avconv on your PATH. Without one of the two, the streams
  cannot be muxed into a single file, so you're winding up with two
  files named .f136 and .f251 then you have a separate audio and video
  files, where you probably just want the single file with both audio
  and video streams contained in MP4/MKV/WEBM.

and,

  They are separate audio and video files. You don't have ffmpeg
  installed and working, so it can't merge them into a single file.
  Install ffmpeg and make sure to add it to your path (google how to do
  this).

I cannot find anything about a .f171 file.


No, there is no history of notes. Once modified and synchronised, the note is overwritten and older versions are not available. Per my answer on your last question, you may be able to obtain older versions if a device has been offline, but besides this, unfortunately not. You can provide feedback to Apple at apple.com/feedback.


What traffic is sent over the build-in VPN connection?

This really depends on the routes your VPN server is pushing when you connect. It could push only routes to private networks or it could push a route for the default gateway.


How to make Photoshop use multiple windows?

Go to the Window menu and un-check the Application Frame menu item. The palettes will pop to the edges of your screen and the documents will turn into floating windows.


iPhone/iPad GMail Stopped Sync'ing Properly

Go to mail, contacts, calendars>Fetch Data> check every 15 minutes!!
Took me a few minutes and found no one posting this fix!!


Why don't I receive Logic Pro X update notifications in App Store?

The reason you are not getting update notifications is that your macOS version is no longer compatible for Logic Pro X.

From the specification page:

  macOS X 10.12 or later

You are running 10.11.6 and hence your version isn't compatible.


How to get pictures from all sub folders in to 1 single folder?

The following find command will do this for you:

find ./Backup*/ -type f -exec mv {} ./all \;

The ./Backup* says to look in all the directories that start with the word 'Backup'. The -type f says to look for all files; the -exec switch executes the following shell command, which moves the found files (represented by {}) to a directory you should create (in this example, I called it "all"; create this with mkdir all). Note the escaped semicolon at the end of the line -- this is essential to tell the find command that this is the end of the -exec option.


Script menu: how to reference user-path utilities (PATH / environment is missing)

bash can startup in three different ways and how it uses rc files is different in each case.
To give a short answer when it is called as a login shell it reads .profile or .bash_profile to set things like PATH. When it is called as an interactive shell but not a login shell, say you run bash from the command line, then it reads ~/.bashrc to set these things.
If it's run from a shell script (or by launchctl) then it looks for an environment variable BASH_ENV and runs the file named in the variable.
Check https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/Bash-Startup-Files.html
To answer your question you should set all variables in .bashrc, call that in your .bash_profile file with the line if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then source ~/.bashrc; fi Finally in .bashrc you should set the BASH_ENV variable export BASH_ENV='.bashrc'
This would then give you a PATH and so on everywhere.
When you move to the zsh shell things are slightly different, read http://zsh.sourceforge.net/Intro/intro_3.html
Most Mac admins and engineers ignore it all and we hard code the path to all our software in scripts. I've certainly never seen an Apple script that didn't have all the tool paths hard coded.


Updating High Sierra installation is not progressing further

From my own experience:

Why this happening? Why my installation is not progressing further? Because issue is in my network. I connected my system with WiFi and sometimes signal comes with very low quality and in between installation for some second signal was lost and at that time installation is stopped/pushed. That was reason of installation is not progressing further.  But I tapped on cancel but even don't know what will happen! and restart my system and clicked again for installation. It will not be started from begging but started from where we stopped/pushed. Its really good things. And I was write comment like

  if we canceled installation and restart again then any major problem will occur?

Answer is No you can do cancel and reinstall process any time It will be managed by core system.


How to supervise an unsupervised iOS device keeping the users Data?

According to this discussion thread, you can try the following method:

WARNING: I have not tested this and you may lose data!

  Disable "Find my iPad” on the old iOS device, perform iCloud backup on the same device
  Plug in the new device to Apple Configurator, Supervise and update the device to the latest iOS
  Once Supervised, unplug the new device and go through the Setup Assistant to restore from iCloud
  When the iCloud restore of the new device is complete, do not touch the Setup Assistant, plug it back into Configurator
  Before you refresh, change the "Restore" and "Update iOS" options to "Do not Update/Restore"
  Once refreshed, proceed through the Setup Assistant, your device should now be Supervised and ready for MDM Enrollment

Note that this is for cloning a device, I have not found a way to use the backup of the same device to supervise it.

Also, it does appear that you can try this with an iTunes backup as well if you'd like. Just follow the same steps and use iTunes instead of iCloud to get a more complete backup.

It looks, however, like some versions of Apple Configurator do and do not work, so your mileage may vary.


Is there a way to downgrade a 2nd gen iPod touch from iOS 4 back to 3.1.3?

There are two ways.

The first way was if you backed up your SHSH blobs with Cydia. (you would know if you did this) During a software update, iTunes verifies the software with an Apple server to make sure it's a valid, Apple-approved release. With major upgrades now 3.x, 4.x, Apple has stopped signing older versions, so if you try to restore normally to an older SW version, the verification process will fail.

The tutorial above will register your specific device on Cydia's server, then force iTunes to verify there instead of Apple's servers. Unfortunately, if you didn't back up before you upgraded, this will not work.

The other option requires some terminal work and downloading iRecovery, but it's not so bad. Here's a tutorial for it.


Should I update to Sierra 10.12 if I already have it?

Is this just showing at the top of the window in the App Store? I think that will show the latest OS version independent of what is installed on your system. If it is coming up as an update, in the "updates" tab, that's a different story - if so, install it, otherwise ignore it, it's just an advertisement.


Is my Time Machine backup encrypted or not?

I deleted the old backup and created a new one, with encryption on:

Yes, the checkbox in the above screenshot is displayed as checked if the backup is encrypted.


How do I navigate to Mouse & Trackpad in Accessibility Settings with AppleScript?

You don't need UI Scripting to be able to do this.  System Preferences has an applescript dictionary that allows you to open up specific preference screens (panes) and specific items in the table (anchors).

tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "Mouse" of pane id "com.apple.preference.universalaccess"
    activate
end tell

Will open up the mouse and trackpad section. I found this by looking at the AppleScript dictionary for System Preferences, and some googling took me to an excellent discussion of using these commands.


Why is the menu bar showing the VPN "Disconnecting" animation  forever?

If you're using a PPTP VPN, try manually killing the "pppd" process.

sudo killall pppd

If that doesn't solve it, you may need to add a -9 to forcibly kill the process. You should try without first though.

sudo killall -9 pppd


Creating encrypted disk image passphrase in Keychain, and strange GUID account

Getting the UUID:
The account field in the keychain entry corresponds to the UUID of the encrypted disk image which can be retrieved like this:
hdiutil isencrypted example.sparsebundle 2>&1 | grep uuid | cut -f2 -d" "
Note that the hdiutil isencrypted command always prints its output to stderr for some reason which is why we must redirect stderr to stdout (2>&1) before piping it to grep. Alternately, you can use the -plist option and parse the XML if it fits your use case better.

Creating the Keychain item:
For Time Machine to automatically do scheduled backups to a Time Capsule, the disk image password must be stored in the system wide keychain located at /Library/Keychains/System.keychain rather than your password protected user login keychain.
To non-interactively create an entry in the System keychain, you can do:
$ security add-generic-password -D "disk image password" \
-T /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Versions/A/Resources/diskimages-helper \
-a `hdiutil isencrypted /path/to/your/TimeMachine.sparsebundle 2>&1 | grep uuid | cut -f2 -d" "` \
-s "TimeMachine.sparsebundle" \
-w $YOUR_PASSPHRASE \
/Library/Keychains/System.keychain

we invoke the uuid command from the previous step in a subshell here to use as the account name.
Security Concerns:
Instead of a password, the System keychain is secured using a key file at /private/var/db/SystemKey. When the system is running, all admin users have permission to access the keychain.
This isn't a security risk per se, but people often forget/overlook when enabling Time Machine that it's for the whole computer and not just their user account. Keep this in mind when choosing your Time Machine password not to use one that's very personal or private to you if you share adminship  (and, obviously, make sure you've enabled FileVault full disk encryption to prevent 3rd party access).
Another concern is that while including your password inline as an argument with -w avoids the interactive password prompt, it is also insecure as it will be saved in plaintext to your shell history (if you don't supress it) and in the output of commands like ps. And because you must specify the System keychain path as the last argument, it is very tricky to non-interactively add an item to the system keychain without exposing the password in this way.
But there is an alternate, albeit more involved solution for adding items to the user login keychain that avoids exposing your password:

Using expect to handle interactive password prompts:
Since you can't pipe the password to security directly, you can instead specify -w as the last option and omit the password. This will make it prompt for a password, and then you can use expect to handle the interactive prompts programmatically - the caveat being you cannot specify which keychain to add the item to, so it will be added to the default login keychain.
I'm not sure if this is within the scope of your question, but just in case, here's a quick and dirty expect script that allows you to non-interactively provide a password to the prompt:
#!/usr/bin/env expect -f

# Get passphrase piped through stdin
fconfigure stdin -blocking false
set PASSPHRASE [read stdin]

# get the uuid of the disk image
set IMAGE_PATH [lindex $argv 0]
spawn bash -c "hdiutil isencrypted $IMAGE_PATH"
expect {
    -re "\[A-F0-9\]{8}(-\[A-F0-9\]{4}){3}-\[A-F0-9\]{12}" { set UUID $expect_out(0,string) }
    -re "hdiutil: isencrypted failed.*" { exit 1 }
    "encrypted: NO" { exit 1 }
}

# add password to keychain
set send_slow {1 .1}
spawn -noecho security add-generic-password -a $UUID -s "[file tail $IMAGE_PATH]" -D "disk image password" -T /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DiskImages.framework/Versions/A/Resources/diskimages-helper -w
expect "password data for new item:"
send -s -- "$PASSPHRASE\r"
expect "retype password for new item:"
send -s -- "$PASSPHRASE\r"

expect eof

For example on how to run it, here I save it to a file hdiutilAddToKeychain.exp and pipe it a password from an imaginary function that you can substitute for however you get the password in your workflow:
$ getPassword | ./hdiutilAddToKeychain.exp /path/to/example.sparsebundle
This should create the appropriate item in your login keychain, but the OS may still give you a GUI password prompt to allow access the first time you try to open it. I'm not aware of any way around this first time prompt.
You may also be able to use security's export and import subcommands to copy the password from your login keychain to the System keychain once it's been added this way.


Are there known DTS or Dolby Digital encoded videos readily available on Apple TV for testing?

After about a week of use, I have not come across any free content on AppleTV that is 5.1 encoded.  My search was by no means exhaustive, but even the previews for blockbuster movies seem to only be plain old stereo.

The good news is that various movies on Netflix (e.g. a Big Year) and iTunes (e.g. The Hunger Games) are Dolby Digital encoded, so if you play them on Apple TV, discrete audio channels are played back if your audio equipment is capable.

Edit:
Other notable Dolby Digital encoded content:

iTunes festival 2012 - Usher (free, but probably not for long)


My iPhone 5s is frozen with iTunes symbol and plug in picture with arrow

Your iPhone is stuck in Recovery Mode. Connect your phone to a computer with iTunes and do a hard reset on it (hold down both your home and sleep button for several seconds).
From a small article on getting in and out of Recovery Mode:

To get out of recovery mode, make sure your USB cable is connected to both the laptop running iTunes and your device.You may need to hold the home button while connecting your USB cable as above.
Now hold the home and sleep/wake buttons together until you see the Apple logo appear. Don’t let go until then – it can take several seconds: the recovery graphic will disappear and a black screen might be shown for a while, but keep holding the buttons down until the white Apple appears.


How to connect a YPG-625 keyboard to a modern Mac

After some searching, I found out that, even though the keyboard page doesn't point to these drivers, the generic USB-MIDI drivers from Yamaha work.


Crackling/Popping Right Speaker on Mid 2015 15" Macbook Pro

Paste following in Terminal:
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.audio.coreaudiod && sudo launchctl start com.apple.audio.coreaudiod

It helps me.


iTunes Match error 4010 when adding songs to iCloud

So what worked for me was to sign out of iTunes Store then sign back in.  This will disable iTunes Match. You then need to turn Match back on. It looks like it is starting completely from scratch (!) but it doesn't and instead adds all songs to iCloud that were missing.

I had 3 albums to add and I had to go through this process for each one.  I am assuming that something has changed or gone wrong on Apple's server side for it to start behaving this way when it previously worked fine.


Check the "me" card.  Open Address Book, go to the "Card" menu, and select "Go to my card".  Edit if required.  Restart Mail, and send yourself a test email.  Check the from address.

Also, I know you've already checked this, but please check again. In Mail.app, go to Preferences, Accounts, and make sure that the email address is set correctly.


I have the same issue with Lync 14.2.1 (150923) and El Capitan (10.11.2 (15C50)). It occurs only when sending messages to Lync for Windows (I'm not sure which version but one compatible with both Office 2010 and 2013). Mac to Mac messages look fine. The symptom is with line spacing (the vertical distance between lines of text) that causes text to be clipped and difficult to read.

I have done extensive testing to try to find the solution, by changing font sizes on both the sending side (Mac) and receiving side (Windows) to no avail. When I log in to my account on Lync 2010 (4.0.7577.4484) for Windows 7 through a Windows 7 VM, my messages look fine to recipients.

To conclude, Win-to-Win and Mac-to-Mac are fine, but Mac-to-Win is not, regardless of the font or font size selected on both ends.


Create Dock Icon for Spyder (installed with Anaconda)

Platypus is not necessarily needed to add an icon to spyder:

Starting spyder in the CLI is a two stage process:

~/anaconda/bin/spyder is a shell script executing the "proxy app" ~/anaconda/bin/python.app which itself launches another "proxy app" ~/anaconda/python.app/Contents/MacOS/python including an argument.

Since the last shell script resides in an app bundle you can simply add an icon:

The two proxy apps are "wrappers/launchers" for all other python science apps included in Anaconda. You don't want to break Anaconda - therefore you have to create two "spyder-only" launchers.

Make a copy of ~/anaconda/bin/python.app: ~/anaconda/bin/python.spyder.app and change the shell script inside (don't forget to also change the user in the path!).

#!/bin/bash
export PYTHONEXECUTABLE=/Users/user/anaconda/bin/python
/Users/user/anaconda/python.spyder.app/Contents/MacOS/python "$@"

Then create a copy of ~/anaconda/python.app: ~/anaconda/python.spyder.app and add an icon to it.

Started from the Terminal the command spyder will launch python.spyder.app with the custom icon.

Now you may use Platypus to create an app to launch spyder (instead of using Terminal.app). Use the following settings:

This may break after an Anaconda or a spyder update.

I don't think you can run spyder with a single spyder dock icon (with the Platypus spyder launcher as a permanent Dock item) because the python.spyder.app/python.app itself is a wrapper for spyder again. So after hitting the Platypus spyder app icon in the Dock you will always get a second spyder icon - the reason why your solution shows the default python.app icon.


Can I access a Thunderbolt drive with the AirPort Extreme?

At the moment, the only storage ports on the Airport Extreme is a USB port. So, if your Thunderbolt drive has a USB connector as well, then you can use it, otherwise you will have to wait for Apple to make a Airport Extreme with a Thunderbolt connector.


Text processing should be done with shell script. Usually it can be done in one short line:

sed 's;^[^0-9]*2 TEXT1;& MY TEXT HERE;' text_file.txt

Assuming there wasn't some sort of indentation problem above. Based on what it sounds like you meant though, here's another solution:

sed 's;^[^0-9]*2 TEXT1;&\'$'\n'' MY TEXT HERE;' text_file.txt

AppleScript is not the right tool for this job.


Bluetooth Speakers for Apple TV (4th Generation) Volume Control

I think Bluetooth will do. The volume can be controlled using the Siri remote. Also, it won't have the problem of sound lagging with AirPlay.
The only problem is that the Apple TV doesn't have a disconnect option for the Bluetooth speakers (this is a problem if you are sharing the same speakers among your computer and your Apple TV). Once you have connected with your Apple TV, there are two ways to disconnect them:

connect the Apple TV with another Bluetooth speakers so that the first pair will disconnect.
forget the speakers (but need to pair again next time)


You will need to edit the gitk file.

To find the location of your gitk file type the following

which gitk

Open the gitk file in a text editor, near the top you should see a line like the following

exec wish "$0" -- "$@"

Edit the line so that it looks like this

exec wish "$0" -- "$@" & exec osascript -e "tell application \"Wish\" to activate"

The next time you invoke gitk from the terminal it will come to the foreground

Your question is similar to a question on stackoverflow, if you don't want to edit the gitk file you can find other ways to achieve it there https://stackoverflow.com/q/11248284/1873471


iPad 2 has suddenly lost ALL Contacts, ALL Calendar entries

Any one of the paths - WiFi syncing down from iCloud or choosing to sync contacts over iTunes should work to get contacts on your iPad.

Since it's the one device having problems, you will want to back it up and restore it to factory settings and test one set of data - perhaps contacts from iCloud.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414

At the end of the steps linked above - choose to set up as new and then text contacts. This isn't a definite answer since you'll need to troubleshoot a bit, but it's a start on that process.


Remove unnecessary backups from TimeMachine to get space

You can simply enter Time Machine and select folders, apps, and files and select to delete all backup copies of that item. The command line tmutil compare also gives exhaustive detail of what changed between backup intervals if you don't mind using the terminal and a UNIX shell. Even without shell tools, you can micromanage storage from the Time Machine GUI as follows - quoting Apple's article on Mac Basics: Time Machine:

  You can also enter the Time Machine restore interface and find files that can be removed from the backup drive itself to conserve space. To do this, select the file(s) and from the Action pop-up menu (gear icon) in the Time Machine Finder window choose "Delete All Backups of...". Be sure to only delete files you are sure you won't need or want to restore later.

Next, you can use a tool like BackupLoupe to analyze your Time Machine backups to identify how much space each interval used, how much space your average backup takes, how long it will be to fill the drive at the current rate, etc…

With that level of detail, you can curate your storage needs as little or with as much detail as the situation requires. This tool has helped me figure out problematic backup drives, Macs with filesystem corruption (when each backup is larger than it should, etc…) Once you have visibility on what's being stored, you can delete folders, entire snapshots and configure your backup exclusion lists to be in harmony with your available storage and backup needs.


Mac won’t display WiFi login box after upgrade to El Capitan

for me this trick always worked - even on the iphone!

Browse directly to the log in screen: http://captive.apple.com/hotspot-detect.html


How to remove white side bar in terminal app?

System Preferences > General > Show scroll bars > When scrolling

reference

There is "terminal only" option as well


Deleting files and empty trash does not increase free space

The disk utility error is the main issue you face.

Make sure your important files are backed up.
Boot to internet recovery or an external drive so you can re-run Disk Utility not from the booted container. If you can't clear the errors or flush all the snapshots and get a clean run - it's time to erase and reinstall.

Also - you'll want to remove snapshots from all of your volumes - not just /System. find all your volumes on the synthesized volume and check them with diskutil instead of tmutil

diskutil list
diskutil apfs listsnapshots disk1s1

As for the end result - you'll get the most space back deleting the apfs snapshots against /System/Volumes/Data as you mentioned in your post:

diskutil apfs listsnapshots /System/Volumes/Data
diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot disk1s1 -name com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-12-27-124916.local


I hate that the caller id display moves across screen

As of now, on iOS 12.0, this is not something that can be altered. It was part of the update, and it unfortunately does not have a way of being changed back to the original format.


How to block "Twitter’s Promoted Tweets" on iOS

Twitter is injecting the promoted tweets into the stream. It's only a matter of time until they lean on every third-party app provider to stop filtering out the promoted tweets as this is how they're going to pay for the service.

In the short-term you can use a different client but in the long term all signs point to you being forced to see promoted tweets promoted tweets or leave Twitter.

Even in fall of 2013, most major third party twitter apps aren't showing promoted tweets. I use twitterrific and don't see promoted content in my streams.


MacBook unibody 2010 will not charge reliably

Unfortunately you've tried everything... If there is enough power left to boot you could go to the Apple Menu > About this Mac > System Report > Power > AC Charger Information and have a look if it recognises the charger, and check the battery health.

If this isn't an option because the battery is flat, or health is good and the charger isn't recognised. Then sadly you are going to have to leave the house.


How can I boot back into macOS if Windows install in Bootcamp fails?

Shut off the computer. If you can not shutdown the computer, then hold down the power button until the computer shuts off.
Start the computer and immediately hold down the option key until the Startup Manager appears.
Select the icon represent the macOS operating system volume.
Hold down the control key and then select the circular arrow below the icon.

Note: On really old Mac models, you will only get a straight arrow when holding down the control key. If this happens, you will have to set the default startup operating system from the "Startup Disk" window in the System Preferences application.


The answer appears to be "No". I have also tested this with the commercial screen-capture utility SnagIt, and it behaves the same way, which is different in Lion from the way it behaved in Snow Leopard.

My suggested work-around is to use Automator's built-in "Scale Images" action to create a workflow to scale your screen shots to the size you want.

[Commercial programs such as GraphicConverter and Pixelmator can scale screen captures, and they also provide additional Automator actions with additional capabilities. You can see some of these in the example above--I own both GraphicConverter and Pixelmator, so these additional options are visible under Automator on my system.]


Changing OSX Mavericks Server to default to personal website rather than welcome page

The way to do this within Mavericks Server is to adjust the Server Website Preferences to the folder you are locating your HTML pages.

Here's how to do it:

Open up the Server application, and select on Websites, under
Services.
Double click on "Server Website" under Websites.
Next to the option titled "Store Site Files In:", click the text
box, select "Other...", navigate to the location where your website
is stored, and select its top level folder.
Click the "OK" button

That should be all. If networking/DNS/Port Forwarding are properly set, you should now be able to load your site.


How to update all the drivers to latest version(bootcamp)

The important Apple drivers which Windows invariably doesn't have updates for are Facetime camera, Apple keyboard/trackpad/mouse, and the IR receiver.

Beyond these you can update any drivers that MS has to offer through Windows Update, and I've had no issues with downloading video drivers directly from nVidia. Always create a restore point so you can backtrack if you install something that doesn't work as well as it should, link to MS help page here.


Installing old OS X version and the "It may have been corrupted or tampered" message that can't be fixed by changing the date

This is not so much a definitive answer as some speculation based on prior known behaviour.
One thing to note is that the 'date/certificate issue' should now be fixed for all older installers & so shouldn't need any workaround in that respect.
I haven't tried any of these older installers in a while, but in the past some were only valid if your computer could not run any newer OS. The El Capitan installer was specifically 'sold' that way.
The Apple site you linked  also obliquely points in the same direction. Each of those links says "can upgrade…"  (I don't have any recent hard evidence to know if this is true or not).
See How can I download an older version of OS X/macOS? for some history behind this, though the answer is probably falling behind the times now. I can't maintain it any more as I have no Mac capable of running anything newer than Mojave.
On a Mac Pro I'd test this by removing the drive with Catalina on it & installing from USB to a fresh clean drive. Not sure that's so easy on a laptop.
One thing I would definitely try… You appear to be creating the installer on the same partition you want to install to (if I'm reading you correctly). I'm pretty sure this isn't going to work. Create the installer on a separate USB stick & boot to that, then attempt install to the internal partition.
Alternatively, you could try installing from Internet Recovery. If you boot holding  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   Shift ⇧   R  the installer presented should be the one that originally shipped with your Mac. If that's successful, then the earlier potential caveat of 'can update from' would then be on your side.
One other thing to note is that as these installers are all designed "to update" then I'd be pretty sure they will run as an app if mounted to a Mac already running any OS older than the installer. It wouldn't need to be made into a USB boot drive. That would make your upgrade from your original OS over Internet Recovery much simpler… maybe ;)
From comments
Apparently the new installer dmg files install the "Install macOS (name)" into your apps folder, from where you can run the update.


What app could open text from anywhere in the editor of your choice?

Thanks to jherran’s comment I found the app: QuickCursor from Hog Bay Software (GitHub repository).


How to delete Google apps from my launchpad?

Type following in Chrome address bar

chrome://apps/

Now when you right click you will have the option to remove the app.


Unfortunately I cannot comment on the other answer.  Ian is correct in that the drive inside the new rMBP's are solid-state drives, however, you can upgrade the drive to a larger drive yourself, but in doing so you may void the warranty so make sure that you verify that first, otherwise, you can take it into an Apple Store and they likely will upgrade it for you.  Either way, this will only give you more space and chances are will not increase your read/write speeds.

Here's the link to the instructions on replacing the SSD.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Pro+13-Inch+Retina+Display+Mid+2014+SSD+Replacement/27849

Your only obstacle might be finding one.  Currently, the SSD's that Apple uses are made by Samsung and use a PCIe connection.  They are very difficult to find as they are not yet on the mainstream market.


There are some basic troubleshooting steps you could start with to help diagnose and/or fix this.

The first things I'd try are to reset both the NVRAM and SMC in that order. Before following the steps below, ensure you have no external hardware connected (so, unplug your external display) and make sure you use the built-in keyboard.

Reset the NVRAM

Here’s how to reset the NVRAM on your particular MBP:

Shut down your machine. Yes, a full shut down, not just logging out.
Press the power button and then press the commandoptionpr keys. You have to make sure you press these keys before the gray screen appears or it won’t work.
Hold those keys down until your Mac reboots again and you here the startup chime.
Let go of the keys and let your Mac reboot normally.

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information, etc).

Reset the SMC

To reset the SMC on your particular MBP, follow these steps:

Shut down your computer
Keep the power cable plugged in.
Press at the same time shiftoptioncontrol (on the left side of the keyboard) and the power button
Let go
Turn your computer back on with the power button.

After resetting both the NVRAM and SMC, use your computer to determine if the issue still persists. If it does, try booting into Safe Mode as described below.

Boot into Safe Mode

Follow these steps to boot your Mac into Safe Mode:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the Shift key and keep it down
Let go of the Shift key when you see the login window (NOTE: If you have FileVault enabled you may need to log in twice).
Take a note of what happens (i.e. with your external display attached, do you still notice issues with your built-in screen?)
When ready, exit Safe Mode just restart your Mac as normal
Now test your Mac again to determine the current status of your problem

If your Mac is still having this problem after trying all of the above, I'd test your hardware by running Apple Diagnostics.

Run Apple Diagnostics

Follow the steps below to run Apple Diagnostics:

Fully shut down your Mac
Restart your Mac
Immediately press the D key and keep it down until you see the Diagnostics screen appear
Wait for Diagnostics to finish (this typically only takes a few minutes)
Once complete, one of two things will appear on the screen:

a No issues found message
a brief description of any errors found plus further instructions

If the diagnostics test does find errors, take a note of what they are

Note: If pressing and holding the D key at Step 3 doesn't work, start again at Step 1 and, at Step 3 press and hold both the OptionD keys instead. This will try and run diagnostics from the internet instead, so you will need to allow more time for it to complete.

Regardless, take a note of what happens and let me know how you went.


Why does iPhone Music app show me "Apple Music" logo instead of my iTunes songs?

I've learned more ... I may have an answer to my question.

According to this article here ... when I told Siri to "Play Accept Yourself by The Smiths", she may have played that from Apple Music, not from my own library.

That would explain why "Apple Music" got turned on.

But I don't know why this would happen because I did not renew my Apple Music subscription after the trial last summer.

After ensuring the "Show Apple Music" setting was OFF, I powered off my iPhone.  Restarted, and it looks like I'm back to "iPod" mode in Music.


How to use an iPod touch with big fingers?

One option is to use the Zoom function from the Accessibility options. From the Settings app, choose General > Accessibility > Zoom and turn Zoom on.

Zoom provides several features:

Once Zoom is turned on, you can double tap with three fingers (assuming you can fit three of your fingers on the screen at once!) to zoom in or out.
With three fingers you can drag your fingers around to change the area of the screen that is zoomed in.
Tap with three fingers then tap again and drag your fingers up and down to  zoom in and out more.

These should make the targets a bit easier to hit although it will probably slow you down a little.

This function was discovered by a friend who accidentally turned it on after a few drinks and couldn't work out hour to turn it off. An iPod touch is really hard to use when zoomed in if you don't know why it is zoomed in.


How can I tell whom a text message is addressed to?

I'd guess you probably can't.

The entire Apple/iCloud paradigm is to be able to get messages to you across multiple devices simultaneously.
To make it easy for you to deal with those messages wherever you may be.

The last thought of the manufacturers/programmers was to differentiate message recipients inside one device containing multiple yous.


In the release of OS X El Capitan, just shake the cursor to locate it.

From Apple:

Call out your cursor.
Lost your cursor on your crowded desktop? Just shake your finger back and forth on the trackpad or give your mouse a shake, and the cursor gets bigger so it’s easy to spot.

To enable/disable this feature, go to System Preferences > Accessibility > Shake mouse pointer to locate

Shake mouse pointer to locate
Quickly move the mouse pointer back and forth to make it bigger.


Exiting/Starting the Terminal (El Capitan)

When the Shell exits, it means that you are done. So one option is to close the window and manually start another one (or you can simply press cmd+N to automatically open another shell).

Another option that can save you some time is to make Terminal automatically close the tab after the exit process has been performed properly.
Open Terminal Preferences > Profiles > Select your profile > Shell tab > When the shell exits --> Close the window. In such a way, if you want to start again your shell (after having exit) you should just open another one.


CSS Zoom does not work iPad OS (v13- latest) Safari

I see your issue. Unfortunately, I have noticed that Apple has broken several aspects of webpage rendering on iPadOS, leaving several minor visual quirks that didn't exist in Safari 12 for iPad.

Although it is very annoying that they broke Safari, unfortunately, we have to live with it in the meantime. What I would do is create a script that will increase and decrease the size of the elements, text, borders, etc. when you change the "zoom" size. Doing this would also give support for the Firefox browser, as it doesn't have support for the CSS zoom.

This suggestion might not be ideal, depending on what you are trying to do, but hopefully, this helps somewhat.

Also, it should be noted that the iPadOS Safari browser's built-in zoom feature using a keyboard will work correctly, just not the CSS zoom.


Calendar Mac/iPhone timezone support question

Time Zone support allows you to view and set events in a time zone other than the one in which you are currently located.   The time in which you are viewing events can be set in the time-zone support preference.

Events created whilst time-zone support is off default to the native time-zone of the calendar which was set when it was created and turning time-zone support off lets the iPhone automatically shift the times of appointments to the local time.

A good explanation from apple of the time-zone support can be found here and here.

As for the design rationale, I believe that the confusing naming originates from the development of the feature in iCal.   When the feature was built into iCal iCal displayed events in the time-zone of the computer clock which was set manually.   Enabling time-zone support permitted "power users" to set the iCal time-zone independently of the computer clock.

If you want your events to act in the way you describe you must disable time-zone support and remember to enter the event times in the local time of the location in which you set it.   Alternatively you must enable time-zone support, change to Eastern Time, enter the time of the event and alert in Eastern time, then disable time-zone support.

One thing to note is that time zone support can be simultaniously enabled on your computer and disabled on your phone.   If your calendars are synced with iCal this allows you to use the computer to enter the event into the calendar and have it behave as you expect on your phone without mucking around in the settings all the time.


Any way to make a transparent Keynote background?

Screenflow supports Chroma Key, to automatically remove the background of your video.

In your Keynote presentation, open the Format inspector and choose Edit Master Slide.
For each master slide in use, set the slide background to green, then choose Done.

When you import your Keynote video into Screenflow, select the video and under Video Properties, add a Video Filter for Chroma Key.

Screenflow - Using Chroma Key


Is it easy to mount my Time Capsule after a clean install (without any restore) so that I can copy individual files from it?

All the below answers assume that you are using TimeMachine for your backups on your TimeCapsule.

1) Will my new, clean and fresh Mountain Lion installation be able to recognize and mount Time Capsule on Finder?

Yes

2) Will I be able to easily locate, browse and copy the files from my last backup to my computer?

Yes - you will be able to find whole directory structure in folders with various time-date stamps.

3) Will I have any permission problems to copy the files?

No

4) Will my new computer try to use Time Capsule to make backups and wipe out my previous backup? (that would be very bad!)

Your new install may ask about using TimeCapsule for TimeMachine backups.  If you have a new hard drive, it will start a fresh structure.  If you have the same hard drive, it will probably continue with the same backup you currently have. But it will not wipe out previous backups, beyond the normal default backup intervals (saving once an hour for 24 hrs, once a day for a month, once a week after that).


Apple Support: 1-800-275-2273 (Or you can get it from here)

Call, it wont take long, and you don't need to have applecare or anything like that. And this way, if something breaks, maybe you'll be eligible for some kind of reimbursement.

You can do the whole thing with your phone on speaker. I actually tried to call them myself (and then relay the information) but one of the first things they ask for is a serial number.

The occasions i've called them are all blurred together, but i vaguely remember being told to hold the power button for some specific length of time, holding some key while it started up (which might have been to activate disk utility), and unplugging the iMac.

The key thing, though, is that i called them, it didn't take long, and in doing so i was able to fix it.


Macbook Air 2013 OS X 10.8.2 acting funny

The 10.8.2 wont help most probably you were on 10.9x

Start with Disk Utility and see if you can repair your disk.

While in disk utility look if you have hidden partition called recovery.

If yes use the cmd-r to try to repair your os.


iOS 11+: is there a way to temporarily mute sound output?

You can do this with  Workflow using the following workflow. Workflows can be run from a share menu, Today widget or by opening the app.

Since Workflow was acquired by Apple and integrated into iOS 12, it should also be possible with Shortcuts in iOS 12.

Download  Workflow, then install this workflow  Mute Temporarily.


How can I lower the media volume on my iPhone when no media is playing?

The control center works (swipe up from bottom of screen and slide volume slider as desired).

In iOS 9 at least, you can also go Settings -> Sounds and under the Ringer and Alerts section, turn off "Change with Buttons", then use the volume buttons on the side of the phone to adjust the media volume. You can leave this option off to always have media volume control with the hardware buttons if you are OK with the ringer volume being just off or on at a preset level using the silent toggle switch on the side of the phone.


Podcast-containing playlists on modern iPhone

I've been struggling with this. Although I don't have a iPhone 6, I think your problem is that you have iCloud Music Library turned on. Try turning iCloud music library off on your phone. Compile your smart playlists in iTunes and make sure "Sync podcasts" is checked and also check the smart playlists that you want to sync under "podcasts". Those smart playlists will show up in the podcasts app as a podcast station that contains all of your smart playlists. They won't, however, show up in the music app. That boat has sailed.

This has been working for me with the new iOS versions. What's not working is now that I want to try Apple Music and I turn iCloud Music Library my smart playlist station in the podcast app disappears!