Is this launchd plist broken or is it just me?

It was as I expected. The version in the question doesn't re-launch the app, because /usr/bin/open doesn't return an error status when the app crashes. I wasn't able to find a better way than hard-coding the path to the executable, so I'm now using the following.

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>KeepAlive</key>
        <dict>
                <key>Crashed</key>
                <true/>
                <key>SuccessfulExit</key>
                <false/>
        </dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>com.getsync.bittorrentsync</string>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/Applications/BitTorrent Sync.app/Contents/MacOS/BitTorrent Sync</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

I've verified that this does successfully re-launch the app if it crashes.

A more easily downloadable version of this can be found at https://gist.github.com/atomicbird/ff2de46a594cdb5c8e69


I want to create a boot disk for El Capitan, just to start from so I can use disk utilities like Tech Tool. How do I do this?

TechTool Pro allows you to create a so-called eDrive. You will find the feature in the GUI choosing Tools > eDrive. You need an external drive (either an external HDD/SSD or a thumb drive). About 15.5 GB of the disk will be reserved to create a new volume "eDrive".

After choosing your system volume as source and a volume on the external disk as destination drive, the external volume will be resized and a new volume eDrive  will be created. All necessary files and folders will be copied to eDrive after starting the task.

Now quit TechTool Pro, open System Preferences > Startup Disk, choose eDrive as boot volume and reboot your Mac.

Your Mac boots from the eDrive and TechTool Pro will be opened and you are free to diagnose your main volume.

Since only about 5.5 GB of the 15.5 GB are used you may install additional tools.


Can I install Mavericks if I upgrade my RAM?

Short answer....No
If your system is unsupported then you cannot install Mavericks no matter how much memory you have. The problem is with the EFI not the memory.


CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) error not appearing in disk utility

The test in Disk Utility really only tests the file system - i.e. the high level structure of the disk’s organization into files, folders, metadata, etc. Structural errors would show up in Disk Utility.

If your file system is based on HFS+, there’s no CRC checksum or any other type of checksum at the file system layer.

If you’re running High Sierra or Mojave and have been upgraded to APFS, then there’s a checksum of the file system metadata. It’s not CRC though.

What Disk Utility doesn’t really check is your actual data - i.e. file contents. As neither HFS+ nor APFS stores checksums of data, it cannot be checked.

This means that either the repair shop used other software to store and retrieve data on the drive, and this failed CRC checks - or they’re talking about CRC errors on the SATA bus. The latter would be expected with a bad cable - and should then be fully resolved by replacing the cable - data might have been lost, but the disk isn’t broken.


OS X Cmd+G starts searching for same text in different programs

It's a 'feature' - though its use in a Find dialog may have been almost accidental initially, it is actually an intentional usage.

OS X, in common with several other flavours of unix, has two copy buffers.

The one you know & love, cut/copy/paste itself on  Cmd ⌘   X ,  Cmd ⌘   C  &  Cmd ⌘   V
& another, known as Kill & Yank, which can be called from  Ctrl ⌃   K  &  Ctrl ⌃   Y
though incidentally in Stack Exchange's markdown language,  Ctrl ⌃   K  will format as code instead.
Kill is the equivalent of Cut, rather than Copy, but Yank is equivalent to Paste.

It is actually this kill/yank buffer that most Find/replace dialogs use.
There is no way to avoid that, I'm afraid.


Your free space is before your disk2. The start position of a partition is fixed, and you can only resize the partition by changing the end position. You should back up your data, erase the disk as one partition and restore from backup.


Fake rectangle/window visible under some windows

I've seen a similar effect before, awhile ago. It's probably a program running in the background that has a transparent window on the desktop. Do you have anything running in the background that uses transparent windows or window overlays? I seem to remember an old version on Norton AV doing strange things like this many years ago.


Mac Pro - some keys in default shift mode

For some reason, my keyboard started working all fine after I connected my laptop to keyboard. I still don't know what was the reason for this.


How to deduplicate iMovie files in "Original Media"?

This page suggests replacing the video files with links to the original, which saves space. It has this gist in ruby, and I coded this gist in Python, which is also below. The iMovie library went from 300 GB to 5 GB because I skipped two projects I was still working on.

Like the ruby version:

it goes through an iMovie 10 library and replaces the files in Original Media for which it can find a correspondence with links
it requires you to import into the library, quit iMovie, and then run the script.

Unlike the ruby version:

it uses symlinks to the original media instead of hard links (I confirmed that it works just as well)
you can define the filetypes to replace (movie, audio, image)
you can adapt the global variable PROJECTS_TO_SKIP to avoid replacing media
on some projects that you may be working on.
you can skip projects that you're still working on
it assumes that your iMovie library and originals folder are organized by the same event name, because in my case I had multiple DSC001.MOV and I use the event name to distinguish them
if the event names are different, e.g. if you create two events titled "movie" then iMovie renames
the second to "movie 1", you can adapt the global variable
SHOW_NAME_CORRESPONDENCE to map the name of the iMovie event to the name of
the folder with the original content.

import doctest
import glob
import os
import pathlib
import shutil
import sys

FILE_SUFFIXES_LOWERCASE = [".mp4", ".mts", ".mov", ".jpg", ".jpeg", ".png"]

PROJECTS_TO_SKIP = []  # e.g., ["project 1", "project 2"]

SHOW_NAME_CORRESPONDENCE = {}  # e.g. {"movie": "movie 1"}

def skip(f):
    """Returns a boolean for whether to skip a file depending on suffix.
    >>> skip("abc.mp4")
    False
    >>> skip("ABC.JPEG")
    False
    >>> skip("abc.plist")
    True
    >>> skip("00114.MTS")
    False
    """
    suffix = pathlib.Path(f).suffix.lower()
    return suffix not in FILE_SUFFIXES_LOWERCASE

def get_show_and_name(f):
    """
    >>> show, name = get_show_and_name("/Volumes/video/iMovie Library.imovielibrary/my great show/Original Media/00117.mts")
    >>> "my great show" == show
    True
    >>> "00117.mts" == name
    True
    >>> show, name = get_show_and_name("/Volumes/video/path/to/originals/my great show/00117.mts")
    >>> "my great show" == show
    True
    >>> "00117.mts" == name
    True
    """
    path = pathlib.Path(f)
    name = path.name.lower()

    dirname = str(path.parents[0])

    imovie = "iMovie Library.imovielibrary" in dirname
    parent_dir = str(path.parents[2 if imovie else 1])
    show = dirname.replace(parent_dir, "")

    if imovie:
        assert show.endswith("/Original Media"), f
        show = show.replace("/Original Media", "")

    assert show.startswith("/")
    show = show[1:].lower()

    if show in SHOW_NAME_CORRESPONDENCE:
        show = SHOW_NAME_CORRESPONDENCE[show]

    return show, name

def build_originals_dict(originals):
    """Go through the original directory to build a dictionary of filenames to paths."""
    originals_dic = dict()

    for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(originals, "**", "*.*"), recursive=True):
        if skip(f):
            continue

        show, name = get_show_and_name(f)

        originals_dic[(show, name)] = f

    return originals_dic

def replace_files_with_symlinks(library, originals):
    """Go through the iMovie library and find the replacements."""
    originals_dic = build_originals_dict(originals)

    # List files recursively
    for f in glob.glob(os.path.join(library, "**", "*.*"), recursive=True):
        if skip(f) or os.path.islink(f):
            continue

        show, name = get_show_and_name(f)

        if (show, name) in originals_dic:
            target = originals_dic[(show, name)]

            print("Replacing %s with %s" % (f, target))
            os.unlink(f)
            os.symlink(target, f)
        else:
            print("No original found for %s" % f)

def main():
    args = sys.argv
    assert 3 == len(args), "You need to pass 3 arguments"
    library = args[1]
    originals = args[2]

    replace_files_with_symlinks(library = library, originals = originals)

if "__main__" == __name__:
    r = doctest.testmod()
    assert 0 == r.failed, "Problem: doc-tests do not pass!"

    main()


In Mac OS X Lion the user crontabs are stored in /var/at/tabs. In the past they were located in /var/cron/tabs.

You should use crontab -e to interact with these in general, but knowing the location is useful for when you want to restore them from a backup of your disk, or something similar.


iTunes store account can be transferred or not from one country to another

Before you change the country, note the following:

you must use any remaining store credit on your account
download all purchased content
ensure you have no current rentals(if you do, you'll have to wait for them to expire)
provide a new payment(such as a credit or debit card) associated with a valid billing address in the UK or an iTunes Gift Card purchased in the UK
content purchased from the iTunes Store is country-specific. If you wish to upgrade any of your iTunes Store content to iTunes Plus, you'll need to do this before you change countries. The content you purchased while your account was set to the previous country will not be eligible for upgrade once you've changed countries.
after you change countries, you will no longer receive application update notifications in iTunes for the apps you purchased in your original country. However, you'll still receive update notifications on your iOS device for any applications installed on it. In addition, you'll be able to download previously purchased applications again for free if they are available on your new country's store. You will not be charged and the download will not appear on your Purchased page. If a previously purchased application is not available in your new country, you will not be able to download it again for free.
If you have an iTunes Match subscription, you can't change countries until the subscription has expired.
If you have purchased a Season Pass, you cannot change the country associated with your account until that season is done airing and the last episode of the season has been added to the iTunes Store.

Taking the above into consideration, here's how to change your country:

Open iTunes and click Sign In.
Enter your iTunes Store account name and password, then click Account Info.
On the Apple Account Information page, click Change Country or Region.
Enter the updated information and save your changes.

OR: leave it as is and you would get a message like this, but your original account will still work regardless where you are.


Change font in Console.app in macOS Sierra

Unfortunately you can't change the font for Console.app OOTB with macOS 10.12.x.

Console.app uses the font that is located in the application itself ^. If you delete it, which is not recommended, the default font it will revert to Helvetiva.

^ /Applications/Utilities/Console.app/Contents/Resources/Fonts/.


How to prevent my iPhone from downloading music when using cellular data?

Go to Settings → Cellular (Mobile) and switch Music off.


I found the solution

1- In Lion the PAM scheme is a bit different than Leopad, the /etc/pam.d/pure-ftpd file in particular. That's why the default pure-ftpd configuration in Lion didn't work. As a quick fix, you have to:

cp /etc/pam.d/ftpd /etc/pam.d/pure-ftpd

i.e. you copy the Lions' default ftpd PAM scheme to pure-ftpd. It works.

2- For Lion, you have to install pure-ftpd-1.0.36, not 1.0.33 otherwise it hangs while trying to login to pure-ftpd.

3- Lastly, you have to set a password for the user you want to use. In my case I set for root (don't worry about the root access, the pure-ftpd is not open to Internet I use it solely inside LAN for development)

passwd root (enter any password)

Because you can set any password here, your root password can be different from the Mac OS X's user with root privileges.


Can iCloud synchronize contacts from Windows Mail?

I'm Michael and I work for connex.io and we do just that.

connex.io is an app that can sync, de-duplicate, clean and up-date your Address Book automatically. This means that you can sync between different devices such as your iPhone and Windows Live mail easily. Not only that you can sync it with a lot more devices and services (such as Facebook for example). You only have to connect them once and everything will be done for you automatically.


initramfs is something that is very specific to the Linux boot process (it's designed to make the kernel module loading process as flexible as possible) - you won't find an equivalent for OS X.

BusyBox, however, is available for Mac OS - see this Github repository for example.

That said, I'm not sure what problem you're trying to solve as Busybox is simply a set of small utilities that provide core Unix command line functions (ls, cp, etc). It's commonly used in boot environments and embedded systems due its wide platform support and small size.


Make a screen-shot and upload with a script

simply run shell command:

screencapture -i filename

this will start screencapture in interactive mode (selecting region). See screencapture -h or man screencapture

If you realy need run the screencapture command from the applescript just use:

do shell script "screencapture -i filename"

you can test the applescript from shell:

osascript -e 'do shell script "screencapture -i /tmp/filename.png"'


iCal is just the old name for what is currently Apple's main "Calendar" application (referenced here). They are exactly the same thing, Apple just rebranded iCal a few years ago.

That being said, there is a relatively easy (albeit lengthy) way to go about putting an Excel file into the Calendar app. Essentially you have to export the Excel document as a CSV, and then change it into an .ics format in order to get it to work. Instead of trying to repeat what I have found, here is the original article (updated as of 2013) which says it much better than I can in this small space.


How are default search criteria in Finder set

As long as SIP is disabled in your machine, you should be able to edit /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist to change the default search criteria.

Try this:

Make your desired default search in Finder and then save it like you would normally save your search.
Go to the saved searches folder (unless you saved it somewhere else) ~/Library/Saved Searches/

In newer OS versions the Library folder inside the user folder should be hidden, so just use the Go to Folder method in the top menu in Finder Go > Go to folder... and paste the path there.

Open your .savedSearch file with TextEdit.app
Copy & Paste all the contents of that file to that default_smart.plist file: /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist

You can locate this file with the Go to folder... method as well.
You may want to make sure you got a copy of that original default_smart.plist beforehand...

Then test out the search.


Unable to figure out how to disable/remove growl mail notifications

In Finder's "Go" menu there is a command "Go to Folder..." (or: shift + command + G when Finder is the active application)

If you paste in the /Library/Mail/Bundles it will take you to that folder.

I tried it on my computer and it didn't go (I just got an alert ding) because the folder doesn't exist.


How to convert .number file to any of the readble format including excel and pdf without having mac

The .numbers file is actually a directory.  There should be an image

file.numbers/QuickLook/Thumbnail.jpg

that contains a preview of the document.  It might contain the information that you are looking for.  The contents on the file are actually stored in a compressed xml file

file.numbers/index.xml.gz

If you are just looking for some bit of information, you might be able to find it in there.  For the most part, unless you have something to parse the xml, it would take quite a bit of work to reconstruct the spreadsheet from the xml.


How can I keep Safari from re-opening my tabs from my last session?

Quit it with ⌥⌘Q or run in the Terminal

defaults write com.apple.Safari NSQuitAlwaysKeepsWindows -bool false


Requirement when submitting app to Apple

I have seen many apps do this and there is no documented requirement as to what the support URL contains.

Table 10-2 of the iTunes Connect Developer Guide (Editing and Updating App Information) contains the reference to need to provide a support URL and there isn't any mention of requirements.

Clearly, the reviewer may visit your site during the review process and perhaps have a software monitor it periodically.

I've not known them to send a request for support during the review process, but I'd hate to fail review due to this item.

My advice is to be absolutely clear and indicate where on your blog the support avenue lies. I'd also set up third party monitoring of that URL in case it goes down during review and once your app is live on the app store.


convert 30 pin docks for lightning devices

My solution to your problem is to use the longer 30 pin to lightning adapter and lie the phone down rather than prop it up dock style, but I get the convenience of just dropping in a phone on any dock and not having to repurpose/recycle otherwise functional docks prematurely. I also just use one cable and bring it with my device rather than fixing all the docks (as I still use them with 30 pin devices more than I do with lightning devices).

If you don't mind the longer cable, get the Cradle with Audio port from Belkin - especially if you want the analog audio option or don't want to add height on top of the docking station.

If you need a commercial insert, the best one out is the Kickstarted project that ended funding 31 Jan 2013 that now sells the Flybridge insert commercially in packs of 1, 2 and 5 to save on both shipping and the per-unit cost.

Since these have been in the wild for more than a year, I've not heard of major problems and you might even find someone to fabricate a similar plastic insert if for some reason you don't want an injection molded piece or your docks aren't among the ones listed as compatible with the product.


Is there a free program for easily managing network locations?

Check out something called ControlPlane. I've been using it for a while now and it can automatically change a whole array of settings from networks to printers on your mac depending on where you are like sidekick, but its free and so much better.

Lifehacker and Mac AppStorm featured it not long ago.


How to start my personal Zoom room using Siri on macOS?

Solution: Use a script saved an application
Siri on macOS doesn’t support third-party integration yet, but it can launch applications—thus, we can save an AppleScript as an application and have Siri activate it.
Steps

Open Script Editor.

Create a new document and type in the following:
tell application "zoom.us" to activate

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "zoom.us"

        set StartMeeting to menu item "Start Meeting" of menu "zoom.us" of menu bar 0

        repeat while not enabled of StartMeeting
            delay 0.25
        end repeat

        click StartMeeting

    end tell
end tell

The repeat while not enabled section makes the AppleScript wait until Zoom has finished launching before trying to open your Zoom room. Otherwise, it won’t work.

Save it, and in the save dialog, call the script “My Room Zoom”, save it to the /Applications folder, and set the file format to “Application”

Done!

Now you can say “Hey Siri, open my Zoom Room” and Siri will interpret your command as “launch the application called ‘My Room Room.’”
This application will launch Zoom if it isn’t already running and then start a meeting with your default settings.
Note that the first time you launch the application, it will ask for some permissions on Catalina, and you’ll have to go into System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and tick the box for “My Zoom Room.”
Bonus: Create a global keyboard shortcut

Open Automator

Create a new document of type “Quick Action” (formerly called Services)

Drag in a “Run AppleScript” action and type in:
on run
    tell application "My Zoom Room" to activate
end run

Adjust the Quick Action image and colour if you want, and save it as “Open my Zoom Room.”
It should look something like this:

Now open up System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts. Go to “Services” and scroll until you see “Open my Zoom room.” Click to set a shortcut. I use Cmd-Ctrl-Opt-Z.

Done!
You can now press Cmd-Ctrl-Opt-Z anytime anywhere to launch your personal Zoom room, regardless of whether Zoom was already running or not.


You can do it technically. Legally I think you can do it if a) The VM is on Mac hardware and b) you purchase a unique disk (license) for the OS in the VM.


Should I be worried about a hardware error if my MacBook Pro is running ok?

Rember only tested less than 1 GB of your 8 GB of RAM, as explained within the screenshot of the Rember application.

  Memory allocated for testing: 947 MB

Apple Hardware Test will test all of the RAM in the system, since it runs outside of macOS.

As also explained in Rember, to be able to test more RAM with the program:

  run memtest (the core of Rember) in single-user mode


Apple occasionally provides updates to system binaries. The older versions are replaced by the newer versions. If you wish for more control over the versions used by certain software, you can use a package manager such as Homebrew.


v4.services.acrobat.com and denying keychain

I cannot add a comment so I am posting this as answer. Can you share a screenshot of your activity monitor. Since plugin is requesting keychain access for Acrobat, Acrobat safari plugin process should show in Activity monitor. Also are you getting this even when not opening PDF?

While opening PDF on Safari doesn't need any keychain access in itself, Acrobat services are available in browser too and since these are paid, it needs to check user login for which keychain access is required. Unfortunately Apple doesn't give a Deny Always.Check Here.

You can try adding safari plugin process to allowed application in keychain "v4.services.acrobat.com". The process is /System/Library/Frameworks/WebKit.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.WebKit.Plugin .64.xpc. Please note that this will actually allow access to plugin process and won't ask you again. Use keychain Access app, search for keychain item "v4.services.acrobat.com" and add this in allowed application. This is what Always Allow effectively does.

If you are not interested in opening PDFs on Safari, you can delete Acrobat plugins from /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/. Its named AdobePDFViewer,AdobePDFViewerNPAPI. Or move them to disabled. This would definitely fix it but you wont be able to open pdf on Safari using Acrobat.


What might be the problem with the authorization of my laptop while syncing the iPhone?

I suspect that you have multiple purchased items from multiple Apple IDs which would explain the multiple messages. Did you authorize your PC for only a single Apple ID? Try to authorize it with a different Apple ID each time you are returned the dialog box.

Of course this implies you indeed have multiple Apple accounts and know the user name and password for each one of them.


Rejection of iOS app due repackaged website

Regrettably, no-one on Ask Different is able to speak on behalf of Apple's reviewers.

Contact the App Store

The reviews can feel capricious, so do ask your question to Apple directly. Contact the App Store staff via the Support and Contact Us link at the base of the App Store Connect page. They are best placed to help you.


iPad AirPlay to Apple TV - 802.11n problems

I was poking around in the router's admin interface and examined the wireless
settings.  On this particular router, for each frequency band (2.4GHz
and 5GHz) there is a "Wireless Mode" setting that enables high-speed
operation. It has three settings for the 5GHz network:

Up to 54Mbps
Up to 145Mbps
Up to 300Mbps

The factory default is Up to 300Mbps.  I tested all three settings,
and the only one that works is the slowest Up to 54Mbps.

It appears that AppleTV's 802.11n implementation does not support
speeds above 54Mbps.


Example:
Cell A1 contains a number,
cell B1 contains a percentage number,
so cell C1 calculates A1 plus B1 percent

The formula you type into cell C1 is =A1*(1+B1/100)

See also: help page for calculating percentages in Excel 2016 for Mac.


You can also use any FTP client which supports Growl notifications (Transmit, Forklift, YummyFTP, whatnot).

In Growl's (v2) preferences, go to the Displays tab and configure the MailMe action. Then in the Applications > Application tab, select the MailMe action for all notifications or, alternatively, switch to Applications > Notifications and select the MailMe action just for the notification you want.


I don't know how it worked without issues for over a year... but the culprit is probably the drive cable. To put a long story short, the interface is SATA III on the motherboard, it's SATA III on the SSD, so they will talk SATA III.

But if your MBP shipped with a SATA II HDD, it most likely came with an interconnect cable only rated for SATA II.

I wouldn't have thought this would be that big of an issue (I sort of thought the difference was like the difference between a CAT 5 and CAT 5e UTP) but apparently with the models of SSD's on the market right now and their throughput, it causes an issue.

I couldn't tell you how to determine if the cable's the "updated" SATA III version or not when shopping for parts, but I do know that this one is.


Encrypt External Hard Drive for Mac and Linux

The easiest way to handle this situation is to buy a drive that uses OS-agnostic hardware encryption, then format it with a format which is readable by both OS X and Linux. Since both Time Machine and Ubuntu are referenced, you may want to install hfsprogs in order to enable Ubuntu to read OS X's HFS+, then format the drive itself as HFS+:

http://packages.ubuntu.com/trusty/otherosfs/hfsprogs


How do I stop Mojave Dark Mode turning itself on

There's no scheduling available for Dark Mode at all. Perhaps you're thinking of Night Shift, found in System Preferences > Displays, which changes the color of the monitor to display warmer colors, which are better at night to minimize the effect of blue light on the production of melatonin.


How do I set Command-Tab as the trigger for Witch?

I'm adding this because it took me a couple  weeks to find it:

Instead of trying to capture the key combination for Command-Tab, click the gear icons next to the Keyboard fields on the Witch preferences pane. It will give you options for setting the trigger to Command-Tab or Command-Shift-Tab.


How do I retain my photo edits when opening the files in other apps?

Assuming you're using iPhoto for iOS (please clarify):

Applications can only access photos stored in your iOS device's Camera Roll. When you edit a photo in iPhoto (and likely in other, similar applications), the app creates a copy of the photo and stores it within its own storage area, where other apps can't see it. In order to make the edited photos available to other apps, iPhoto lets you export one or more of your Edited photos in a variety of ways: select one or more photos and tap the Share button to see the options, which include sending the photo to your Camera Roll (where other apps can see it) and Open In... which lets you send the photo to a specific app.

I'll admit, this is somewhat inconvenient when you have a large number of photos, as even when selecting multiple, iPhoto limits you to selecting 100 at a time.


allow sudo to another user without password

sudo can do just that for you :)

It needs a bit of configuration though, but once done you would only do this:

sudo -u user2 -s

And you would be logged in as user2 without entering a password.

Configuration

To configure sudo, you must edit its configuration file via: visudo. Note: this command will open the configuration using the vi text editor, if you are unconfortable with that, you need to set another editor (using export EDITOR=<command>) before executing the following line. Another command line editor sometimes regarded as easier is nano, so you would do export EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano. You usually need super user privilege for visudo:

sudo visudo

This file is structured in different section, the aliases, then defaults and finally at the end you have the rules. This is where you need to add the new line. So you navigate at the end of the file and add this:

user1    ALL=(user2) NOPASSWD: /bin/bash

You can replace also /bin/bash by ALL and then you could launch any command as user2 without a password:  sudo -u user2 <command>.

If you want to be able to switch to any user just use

user1    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /bin/bash

Update

I have just seen your comment regarding Skype. You could consider adding Skype directly to the sudo's configuration file. I assume you have Skype installed in your Applications folder:

user1    ALL=(user2) NOPASSWD: /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype

Then you would call from the terminal:

sudo -u user2 /Applications/Skype.app/Contents/MacOS/Skype


MacBook Pro Retina Late 2013 slow down with 65W charger?

I would suggest that your analysis sounds completely reasonable.

I have a 2013 MBP without a battery and it runs at 1.2GHz instead of 2.4GHz unless I override the BDPROCHOT setting that is set in the case of missing battery.  CPU throttling to half speed is well known if battery is dead or missing.  See here,here and here as random examples.

Lets assume your PC has a I7-4850HQ this has a maximum TDP of 47W.  Add to this the demands of rest of the PC, your extra peripherals and you are easily using more than 65W so you drained the battery to zero (as you said) and this CPU limiting kicked in.

I'd suggest to prove it you download Intel Power Gadget and it will tell you the amount of power your CPU is using under whatever workload to which you can add your other peripherals.  Here you can see my CPU is using ~40W on a similar 2015 mbp to yours with the jump in power usage just being due to rapidly scrolling up and down in Firefox for the sake of this picture.

You can use various software cap the amount of power your CPU will use but that is another question.


How to download all photos and videos stored in iCloud?

In iPhoto or Aperture preferences on your Mac, select Photos (or Photo Stream) > My Photo Stream > Automatic Import. All of your photo stream photos will import into your Events, Projects, Photos, Faces, and Places folders in iPhoto or Aperture.

From My Photo Stream FAQ


Which Apple app condenses day names into weekday and weekend?

The Alarm Clock on iOS.

When you create an alarm, and set it to only repeat on the Weekdays or Weekends, the Alarm overview page will display the appropriate term.


Losing internet over & over again and still connected to wifi

I'd suspect that you have a problem with your home router.  Connect to its administrative console and have a look at its logs.

There could also be a problem with your internet service provider.

You see, your home router is your actual "route" to the Internet.  Any traffic that you want to send out over the Internet first goes to your home router which, through the magic of (mumble, mumble) actually sends the traffic out and returns the response back to you.

What your Mac is saying, then, is that it is able to detect that the router doesn't seem to be doing that consistently.  Even though you remain connected to your WiFi network (which eliminates any problems with your Mac ...), traffic destined for the Internet isn't consistently being delivered for some "upstream" reason.

  If you happen to be curious about how it all works, console commands like traceroute can actually show you exactly how a packet "bounces" from one server to another to another within the Internet as it magically gets to where it needs to go ... sometimes taking a different path each time.


Require admin password when changing Mac Wi-Fi

Go to System Preferences → Network preference pane.
Unlock the pane using the lock button in the bottom-left and authenticating.
Choose Wi-Fi in the services list, or whatever you called your Wi-Fi service.
Click Advanced….
Enable ‘Require administrator authorisation to: Change networks’.
OK and Apply.


Can you still make QuickTime to store temporary recordings on another drive?

It seems that Apple doesn't want you to do this for whatever reason, so they prevent the symbolic link hack from working at the level of the Data/ subdirectory. After fooling around with this, I found a workable solution one level up:

$ cd ~/Library/Containers/
$ mv com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/ com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX.backup/
$ ln -s /Volumes/<NAME_OF_VOLUME>/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/ .

No need for a double link trick this time around.


It looks like the screen sharing icon, from iChat; when someone is sharing your screen.


Is there a way to flip the touchbar icons?

I don't know if I understand your question current - BUT if I do, then here it goes.

If you open System Preferences=>Keyboard

Then you'll have a "Customize Control Strip..." button - which then allow you to build your own button order in the strip bar.


How do I find location of executable file?

From https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/272125/how-do-i-find-sfdx-cli-default-installation-folder-on-mac:

The simplest way is the type a command

which sfdx

in Terminal.

/usr/local/bin/sfdx

Another (longer and more complicated) way (which I initially used) is to type command

find / -iname sfdx

in the Terminal and search in the results for the actual path

/usr/local/lib/sfdx/bin/sfdx


According to the Time Machine documentation it requires a HFS formatted drive to work.

To get around this problem, on my external FAT32 USB drive, I split it into two partitions. One for Time Machine, in HFS, and the rest for FAT32 to share files.

In you case, since it already has files, I would find a tool to shrink the existing partition, then create a new HFS one in the now free space and voila! Your problem is solved. If the existing filesystem is NTFS then Windows Vista and above I think will happily shrink it. If FAT32 then have a look here.


How can I sync my entire home directory between my MacBook Pro to my Mac Pro

I don't try it except on PC in 2006 but this kind of software do it for you :
http://fullsync.sourceforge.net/index.php

or something like this : http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/31752/fsync-for-mac-os-x


Macbook restarts repeatedly while sleeping

if the issue persist in safe mode,  it means that is either an issue in the whole software or even a problem in the logic board.

to isolate the issue try the next steps:

Create a new user and set the computer to sleep, if issue is not reproduced you can migrate the data from one user to another.

if issue is reproduced and you have a time machine backup to date where everything is fine restore the backup to isolate the problem, if you do not have the backup , try removing the next file :  macintoshHD/library/preferences/powermanagement.plist and perform a PRAM

if you still have the problem, backup your files and erase and install

if you still have the problem, you will have to take it to service. if it is hardware it is normally the logic board the problem.

good luck


How to get iPhone ECID from MacOS terminal

You simply run this command:

ideviceinfo | grep UniqueChipID

The "unique chip ID" is what you know as the ECID.

Note: iTunes shows the ECID as a hexadecimal value, while ideviceinfo shows it as a decimal value.


Does the Mac still only have one hardware video decoder for the first video, and then it will be software decoder that is used?

Yes, depending on the specs it often does have only one hardware media decoder. This is either integrated in the CPU (Intel processors) or on a graphic card. (Note that some graphic cards can have more than one hardware media decoder / encoder).
But that hardware decoder can play multiple streams of media, upto a limit, before the OS is forced to switch to the CPU (software rendering).
The limit though depends on the hardware decoders capability. For example, if a particular hardware media decoder claims it can decode a 1080p H.264 videos at 600 fps, then you should theoretically be able to play ten 1080p videos of 60fps (600/60 = 10) simultaneously on it.
Ofcourse, all this depends on the app playing the media and even on the OS.
For example, on Google's Chrome browser Youtube will often send you a VP8/9 encoded video or a H.264 encoded video depending on whether your laptop is running on battery or main power (H.264 consumes less power than VP8, so if you are running on battery, Youtube on Chrome will opt for H.264). If your hardware decoder can't decode VP8/9 the OS will switch to CPU software rendering. Many media players have an option to explcitly enable Hardware Acceleration (to decode videos through the hardware decoder), and if this is not enabled, then the media player app will use the CPU (for software decoding) even if your computer has a hardware decoder.
It's not that easy to test as there are many other such factors at play too - can you open 10+ videos? Is your hard disk or internet fast enough to all play 10+ videos? Will the OS hang? And so on ...


Waiting until a window exists in Applescript?

I seem to have fixed the main problem of the "waiting for window" issue. Apparently nested "tells" are not so good - so I solved this by specifying the process which owns a particular UI element:

repeat until window "Print" of process "Evernote" exists

Haven't solved putting the current date into the filename field of the "Save" sheet yet but tomorrow is another day! Here's the full script:

activate application "Evernote"
tell application "System Events"

    # Open the print dialog
    keystroke "p" using command down

    # Wait until the Print dialog opens before proceeding
    repeat until window "Print" of process "Evernote" exists
    end repeat

    click menu button "PDF" of window "Print" of process "Evernote"

    # Wait until the Menu button menu is created before proceeding
    repeat until exists menu item "Save as PDF…" of menu 1 of menu button "PDF" of window "Print" of process "Evernote"
    end repeat

    # Select the "Save as PDF" menu item
    click menu item "Save as PDF…" of menu 1 of menu button "PDF" of window "Print" of process "Evernote"

    # Wait until the Save dialog opens before proceeding
    repeat until exists window "Save" of process "Evernote"
    end repeat

    set theDate to current date

    #tell (current date) to get (it's month as integer) & "-" & day & "-" & (it's year as integer)
    #set the clipboard to result as text

    #set myDate to result as text
    #set the clipboard to "dog" as text
    #if (get (the clipboard) is not "") then
    #set value of text field 1 of sheet "Save" of process "Evernote" to get (the clipboard) & ".pdf"
    #end if

    set value of text field of sheet "Save" of process "Evernote" to "dog" & ".pdf"
    # Paste the contents of the clipboard in and Save
    # This is sorta hack; Probably best to leave the 'Save As" dialog open and let the user finish it off but I have a special purpose

    # click button "Save" of window "Save" of process "Evernote"

end tell


Internal HD not mounted after upgrade: Encrypted: ERROR -69808

Even though you have now wiped the drive and are using your MacBook, I would strongly advise that you look at the SMART reports for your drive, especially if it is a traditional spinning HDD — mount: Input/output error suggests that your drive is failing.

For future reference, if your drive is failing, a tool like ddrescue will allow you to create a byte-for-byte copy of the readable data on the drive to another drive. The copy can then be inspected further to attempt data recovery without any risk of complete data loss due to the failing drive becoming completely inoperable.


Do you happen to have a computer you trusted before with your Apple ID logged in? If this is the case, there's little possibility you might be able to get to your data. I have just blocked my iPhone and tried with iTunes, still could get to all data stored.

I know the answer is probably not, yet may be you previously have done a back up of this device? You'd just restore the device from it with all contents.


As long as you're not using FileVault it won't be a big problem.  If you are using FileVault or encrypted drives in Mountain Lion then Tiger won't be able to read them but even then it won't cause damage as long as you don't erase them when Tiger complains that they are unreadable.

Spotlight works differently in Mountain Lion so Tiger's spotlight and Mountain Lion's Spotlight will each have to reindex all your drives when you switch back and forth but that just takes time, it's not permanently damaging.

The riskiest part is trying to create a dual-boot disk.


Upgrade system frameworks without upgrading OS

Ableton Live 10 isn't even released yet.

https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/live-10-coming-february-6

You should also check the system requirements.

https://help.ableton.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001663530-Live-10-Minimum-System-Requirements

  OS X 10.11.6 or later

So I think the answer to your question is don't modify system frameworks (sounds like a recipe for dependency hell) and either upgrade to macOS 10.11 or stick to using Ableton Live 9.


How do I backup my Mac without a different storage device or computer?

Saving two copies of your files to the same drive isn’t a backup type that will protect you from a Boot Camp error.
You’ll want to get an inexpensive USB drive to copy your critical documents. Then when you can afford a drive that’s at least as large as your internal drive, set up Time Machine so you are protected by automatic backups of the Mac data. Note, Time Machine does not backup Boot Camp.


How to check the type filter in file open dialog?

The granddaddy of macOS modifications DefaultFolderX that has been around since "classic" Mac OS does not even offer this option. Making me think that is not something that is available.

And after 20+ years working on Macs I have not seen anything like that I would generally think that there is no mechanism available to end-users that allows you to do this.

It may be possible to add certain apps to the database of programs that can open a particular file but that is usually done by an App when it is installed.

I would say that you are likely out of luck in situations like this.

However I have been known to drag 'n drop a file onto a program icon that will open pretty much any file (I'm lookin' at you BBEdit) and that, I have found, is a useful workaround, at least for me.


How to stop a iCloud Drive file or folder download in OS X?

This plugin helped! - lets you select which folders to sync: https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control. To download it, go to https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/autodesk-sketchbook/id883738213?mt=8 and select the latest zip file. (Right now it's at https://github.com/Obbut/iCloud-Control/releases/download/1.1.0/iCloud.Control.app.zip.)

If it doesn't unzip automatically, unzip it and move it to your Application folder.

From the site:

Place the app in your Applications folder
Launch it by right/control clicking and choosing "Open" (to prevent gatekeeper from preventing the app to open) and follow the instructions on screen

Usage

The following options are provided through a toolbar item in the Finder.

Remove selected item locally: the selected item(s) will be removed
from your device, while remaining in iCloud.
Download selected item: download previously removed files from iCloud. On macOS Sierra, the cloud icon provides the same functionality.
Publish public link: places a link to the selected file in your clipboard.

Compatibility

iCloud Control should work on macOS 10.2 Sierra, and on OS X 10.11 El Capitan.


How could I remove mysql from manually installation version

To completely uninstall MySQL OS X it is necessary to remove numerous files and folders and edit one file.

To uninstall MySQL and completely remove it (including all databases) from your Mac do the following:

Open a Terminal window
Use mysqldump to backup your databases to text files!
Stop the database server
Remove files and folders:

rm -rf ~/Library/PreferencePanes/My*
sudo rm /usr/local/mysql
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM
sudo rm -rf /Library/PreferencePanes/My*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/mysql*
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/MySQL*
sudo rm -rf /private/var/db/receipts/*mysql*
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.oracle.oss.mysql.mysqld.plist
edit /etc/hostconfig and remove the line MYSQLCOM=-YES-


How much can iTunes download on my MacBook? Not talking about iCloud

You are only constrained by the storage capacity available on your MacBooks internal storage.

iTunes creates its library for storing media and metadata in ~/Music/iTunes directory by default.


Connecting two computers via audio cable

Dangerous?

No.

Streaming sounds from one computer to another or simultaneously isn't going to damage your computer(s).  An input soruce is an input source.  It doesn't matter if it's an iPod, and iPhone, your stereo system or your old WalkMan.   Likewise, line/speaker output sends analog audio out.  If your output device is capable of playing it, you will get audio.

Efficient?

I don't see how sending sounds via an analog port is an efficient way to transmit audio.  Transferring the file or using something like FFmpeg to stream audio to a network port is much more efficient as there is no digital-to-analog-back-to-digital conversion that needs to happen.


How to open folder in Finder as root (like right-click on folder does in Linux)?

To run Finder as root, you need to login as root.
This is NOT recommended.
You can enable the root user and then login as the root user.  The procedure is covered in this old article by Topher Kessler.
How to browse another account's files in OS X
But, I repeat, you should NOT do this unless you have a specific need that can't be met by using sudo in Terminal.
It is not something that I would choose to test, but I believe it is still (mostly) accurate.


FN key seems stuck on MacBook Air. Can't use function keys as normal

By updating to Catalina the problem was fixed! Although I don't belive it was solved by the update itself but rather some sort of reset or reboot that occured while updating.


How to fix the mail sent (whoosh) sound when disappearing intermittently, especially after iTunes is opened?

I got my whoosh back. I lost my mail whoosh after updating to 10.7.2

I resolved it by going into mail preferences, general tab & changing the sounds to "none" and unchecking "play sounds for other mail actions".

Then I quit mail from the top menu bar. I restarted mail, went back into preferences did the opposite: changed sounds to "new messages sound" and checked "play sounds for other mail actions", I then quit mail again from the top menu and then reopened it. Magically, my whoosh was back.

I don't know why it went away after updating. And I don't know why this fixed it, but it did.


Why is Time Machine showing a "Preparing disk for decryption" progress bar?

Time Machine prepares the drive for storing backups when you set it up. This means, disrupting filesystem-level encryption that wasn't made by Time Machine. If you want encryption on top of Time Machine encryption, it has to be below the filesystem level, or you'll surely lose it in favor of Time Machine. If you want encrypted Time Machine backups, simply enable encrypted backups when setting up Time Machine instead of encrypting in Disk Utility.


can't connect two hard-drives to my airport

If the USB hub is bus powered (it doesn't have to plug in to a wall socket) then the problem is that your Hard Drives are drawing too much current. USB Standards state that each USB port needs to be able to output 500mA.

When you divide that by four (assuming your USB hub is 4-port), you get 125mA, which isn't nearly enough to power two hard drives.

I suggest you get a externally powered USB hub (one that requires a power supply other than USB), as that will ensure that each USB port receives 500mA each.


In GarageBand, why does the damper/sustain pedal make the piano less bright?

Pianos in Garageband and Logic have separate samples for pedaled and non-pedaled keys, I do not think this is done by effect or anything like that. It simply reflects the sound of real piano when damper goes down.

In Logic you can edit the EXS24 instrument and replace the pedaled samples with non-pedaled ones if you want. That could work.


FileVault2: how do I use the recovery key when asked for a "Disk Password"?

Use the recovery key to reset the login password

Retrieve the recovery key you copied down when you turned on FileVault disk encryption.
If you cannot find your recovery key, but stored it with Apple, contact Apple Support.
Restart the computer.
On the login screen, click on the account to unlock and reset the login password.
In the password field, click on the Question Mark (?)
If you created a password hint, it is displayed.
If you remember your password then enter it now.

If you still need to reset your password, click the bottom line “reset it using your Recovery Key,” and then enter your recovery key.

Alternative method:

Recovery

If a user forgets their password, and a recovery key was installed before FileVault 2 was turned on, you can use the following steps to unlock an encrypted disk. Note: This procedure only works when the computer is started from OS X Recovery.

Restart the client while holding the Command and R keys.
Connect an external drive containing the FileVaultMaster.keychain file with the private key.
From the Utilities menu, select Terminal.
If the keychain containing the private key is stored in an encrypted disk image, use the following command to mount it:

hdiutil attach /path/to/diskImage

Use the following command to unlock the FileVaultMaster.keychain file; be sure to insert the correct path to your keychain file:

security unlock-keychain <path to Keychain File>

For example, on a volume named ThumbDrive:
security unlock-keychain /Volumes/ThumbDrive/FileVaultMaster.keychain
Enter the master password to unlock the keychain. If the password is accepted the command prompt will return.
Use the following command to list the drives and corestorage volumes:

diskutil cs list

Look for the UUID of Logical Volume, usually the last in the list. Select and copy the UUID for the next command step.
Use the following command to unlock the encrypted disk. Be sure to insert the UUID from the previous step, and the correct path to the keychain file:

diskutil cs unlockVolume <UUID> -recoveryKeychain <path to Keychain File>

For example, you'd use this command if there was a UUID of 2F227AED-1398-42F8-804D-882199ABA66B on a volume named ThumbDrive:
diskutil cs unlockVolume 2F227AED-1398-42F8-804D-882199ABA66B -recoveryKeychain /Volumes/ThumbDrive/FileVaultMaster.keychain

Enter the master password to unlock the keychain. The volume will be mounted. You can now back up data using Disk Utility, or by using command line tools such as ditto.


Change characters in press and hold popup? Seems changed in Yosemite?

Pressandhold.app should be in exactly the same place in Yosemite that it was in Mavericks.

I just checked on both my Macs that I upgraded to Yosemite.

/System/Library/Input Methods/PressAndHold.app exists exactly where it should.

And to try to confirm whether this is a holdover from Mavericks (since both my Macs were upgraded from Mavericks to Yosemite) I checked the Info.plist with the PressAndHold.app bundle. It lists "10.10" as the LSMinimumSystemVersion and "macosx10.10internal" as the DTSDKName both of which indicate Yosemite.

So please check that folder on your Mac again. I'd be very surprised if that folder was empty.


Can I connect to a L2TP/IPSec VPN linux server using a Snow Leopard client?

I would start with the built-in VPN software on the mac. You basically add a new network interface of the VPN kind.

Here's the quick tour:

Open System Preferences
select Network
add a new VPN interface to match your server settings

The Finder help menu has several articles worth reading - the top 5 hits show how to understand, set up, use as well as basic troubleshooting. Apple's support site has more in-depth information if you need to learn how to set up a VPN server (it's geared to the OS X server, but the concepts are the same on any server and once you get the terminology, the button location won't matter so much)


How do I use time machine to access system files like /etc/hosts?

For OS X 10.11, El Capitan, the steps are:

Open Applications > Time Machine; or use the Time Machine menu bar item and select Enter Time Machine.
Reveal the Go to Folder sheet within Time Machine using the key combination: Command + Shift + G.
Within the Go to Folder sheet enter the path /private/etc and select Go.
You can now browse your back-ups of /etc/ and restore files as needed.


How to uninstall rEFInd (0.8.2) on Yosemite

The gptsync_x64.efi program file was probably installed with rEFInd, but is a separate program. Leaving it in place should do no harm, but will also probably do no good, so it's a judgment call on your part. If you remove rEFInd, chances are the only thing that would run gptsync_x64.efi would be a subsequent install of rEFInd (or of its predecessor, rEFIt) or launching it manually from an EFI shell.


Quicktime screen recording creates a green movie

The (Ugly) solution that works is installing gfxCardStatus, Choosing "Integrated Only" and screencasting my laptop monitor without any external monitor.

It's is ugly indeed - will welcome any proper solution.


Change output color of terminal (in Mac) to be different from typed text color

I think you can do this by installing a DEBUG trap in ~/.bash_profile.

See the answer to this superuser question.

I added the following:

preexec() {
    tput setaf 4
    :
}
preexec_invoke_exec() {
    [ -n "$COMP_LINE" ] && return
    local this_command=`HISTTIMEFORMATE= history 1 | sed -e "s/^[ ]*[0-9]*[ ]*//"`;
    preexec "$this_command"
}

trap 'preexec_invoke_exec' DEBUG

tput setaf 4 changes foreground colour to blue.


Blue screen is indicating a user level problem loading your specific settings.

You can overcome this in two ways:

boot in safe mode and log in and make a new admin account - set that new account to auto-log in or disable auto log in.
boot in single user mode, run fsck as directed, then mount the filesystem and delete /var/db/.AppleSetupDone and type exit

At that point, you can let the setup assistant create a new temporary admin (and temp_admin might be a good user name to choose to avoid matching an existing user name) so you can look at the system logs and clean up whatever user preference or program is interrupting the boot cycle.

If as you mentioned, you really can't boot at all off that drive, then you have bigger problems and need to bring a new OS on an external drive (or perhaps SD card) to the mix or seek help from someone that can back up your files or assist in reinstalling the OS from an external source.


Is there a keyboard shortcut in Mail.app for moving the active email to the top of the inbox?

It's annoying that there isn't a simple keyboard shortcut for this. I suggest providing Mail feedback to Apple if you'd like to see it work properly.

For a workaround, try the following AppleScript:

tell application "Mail"
    set the selected messages of message viewer 1 to {} -- deselect messages
    tell application "System Events"
        key code 115 -- scroll to top
    end tell
end tell

You can make this into a Service and assign a keyboard shortcut to it from the Keyboard section of System Preferences.


iCloud Keychain is stored on disk in a different format than a traditional keychain ref1, ref2. It's located at ~/Library/Keychains/ in a folder named as a long UUID. You can see the modified timestamp change on the contents of that folder as you change something in your iCloud keychain.

Whilst you can use AppleScript and Usable Keychain Scripting to work with the system and login keychains, there's no way to access the iCloud keychain.

So the only option you're left with is to AppleScript GUI operation of the Keychain Access app.


caldav stopped syncing - how to fix without losing entries?

Sorry i dont have enough rep to comment instead. However, if you feel lucky and really really need your calendar events, i would try this:

Backup the iPhone using iTunes to your computer, make sure its a Unencrypted backup.
Navigate to ~/Library/Application\ Support/MobileSync/Backup/
Look for the folder updated recently.
Copy that folder to the desktop.
Start quicklooking through some files from the copy on the desktop, you will find some events (one file is one resource, like contact, calendar event, photo etc)
Sort out the events you need, import them to Calendar again by double-clicking on the event (try one first, make sure you have a backup of your calendar as well)

Best of luck, its a tedious job.


Is there a mail app handling maildir format on one's mac in a reliable manner?

I can only suggest that you run a local mailserver on your Mac using Parallels and on there you create a virtual machine being Ubuntu Linux. Strip down the install so you have Dovecot, Postfix and Getmail, and of course the GUI bits. you can then instruct Thunderbord to read mail from  Maildir store. I had this done and it works perfectly. One caveat though is that the VM MUST be able to connect to the client. otherwise you end up with a mailstore that is not accessible by Thunderbird, nor can it retrieve Internet email. YMMV depending on Linux knowledge.


I realised that the only volume I was having issues with was a NTFS-formatted volume, for which I use Paragons software to write to the volume. I searched for a solution to my problem and found someone having the same problem:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1280829

It turns out Paragon writes the files with read, write flags, AND also the execute flag, which causes the files to not be recognised by the Finder. To solve this, you simply have to put the flags to read and write using chmod 644.

Thanks for all the help!


Added myself to /etc/sudoers but sudo still asks for password

None of your modifications of the sudoers file is needed if you start xampp with a launch daemon:

Create a file org.xampp.startup.plist  in /Library/LaunchDaemons with sudo touch/nano ... and the following content:

<?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>org.xampp.startup</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/bin/bash</string>
                <string>/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp</string>
                <string>start</string>
        </array>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/org.xampp.startup.stderr</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/org.xampp.startup.stdout</string>
</dict>
</plist>

If you installed XAMPP somewhere else please modify <string>/Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/xampp</string> accordingly.
chown/chmod the file:

sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.xampp.startup.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.xampp.startup.plist

Load the daemon with:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.xampp.startup.plist

If everything runs well, you may remove the following part of the plist:

        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/org.xampp.startup.stderr</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/tmp/org.xampp.startup.stdout</string>

Restore the default sudoers file with visudo:

...
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
%admin  ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Uncomment to allow members of group wheel to execute any command
#%wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL

## Same thing without a password
#%wheel ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL
...


Here is how you will do it

Create two different folders ( Printer & Pictures) on your System/mobile sync with Drop box.
Go to Drop Box> Sign in>  Check the folders ( Printer & Pictures)  you just synced from desktop/mobile
Click on share link for printer folder to share it to only "printer folder"  put email of the required person and hurray !!

let me know if you get stuck.


Constant external disk activity when MacBook is in sleep state

A couple of questions that might shed some light on your subject:

By chance, did you clone your HDD onto the SSD?
If so, is your original OS X install still on the HDD?
Are any of your active data files located on the HDD?
Is the HDD activity constant or intermittent?

If (1&2) or 3 are true, the system on the SSD might be making calls to files on the HDD. This could be happening, especially if you didn't rename the HDD since your transplant. If 4 is constant, the activity cold be due to the USB 3 chipset attached via USB 2.

Here's a simple way to check:

SSD to HDD calls:

Launch a program on the dock
Does the external HDD activity light start flashing as the program launches or shortly thereafter?

Use your Mac "normally" for a while.

Close all obviously open data files.
Eject your external HDD by dragging the icon to the trash.
Does the OS show an error that it cannot eject the drive because files are open?

HDD dependency

Shut down your MacBook.
Disconnect your HHD.
Reboot your Mac.
Run programs you don't expect to need anything from the HDD and watch for errors or "missing" data that could be attributable to an older data file.

If any of the above conditions happen, your Mac has open files on the external drive.

Compared with "old" operating systems, recent editions of OS X are rather advanced operating systems, especially when compared with our "archaic" notions of how computers work. Power constraints, most noticeable in notebooks and tablets, are the new target for today's advancements. Newer hardware is often "asleep" when we are actively using the computer--not just powering down the processor or video subsystem when it can. Today's systems shut down motherboard-level systems, like the network connection, whenever it can... sometimes even while we're surfing the net!

Today's Macs have what Apple calls "power nap". This is a sleep state where the computer "wakes up" portions of the system to download updates, make back ups, and other necessary system maintenance. Even if your MacBook doesn't fully support power nap, your MacBook is probably making periodic updates to various system files.


Cannot enter Time Machine on rescued drive from dead Time Capsule

As noted in some comments, I would not rely completely on that disk since it was part of a failed system.

However, since it seems like the time machine files are stored inside a disk image, it should be possible to use Disk Utility to restore that image to a new empty harddisk, as long as it is at least the same size (like 2 TB in your case). When that is done, I would expect the new disk to be recognizable for Time Machine as as a backup disk, and continue your backups from there.

First, connect a new, blank hard disk. Open Disk Utility and make sure the new disk appears in the Disk Utility Window. Now drag the icon of the disk image from your old backup drive that contains the Time Machine partition (named 'mac' in your first screenshot) into the left sidebar of the Disk Utility Window. Then you are able to restore that disk image onto the new blank disk. The new disk will now contain the complete filesystem of the disk image and should be recognizable for Time Machine.

Be aware though, if the file system is corrupted on your old disk, it would mean that continuing backing up on top of that file system would continue to be corrupted, and therefore you are at risk of having an unusable or incomplete backup, even after several incremental backups.


After moving my home folder to different drive, Photos behavior broken

Make sure the system photo library path is configured correctly. Open Photos with the photo library, then choose Photos → Preferences, double-check the path displayed for the photo library is correct and press Use as System Photo Library.


Why my Only NAS is shown as NAS-2 in Finder

There is probably a “JBPersonalCloud” remnant in /Volumes directory. When you connect the NAS, the system sees that there is already a “JBPersonalCloud” and appends the “-2” for the newly connected NAS.

Disconnect the NAS and delete the remnant with the Finder or Terminal then reconnect the NAS.

Finder:
Select “Go to folder...”, enter /Volumes and tap “Go”. This will open the Volumes folder in a window where you can delete the remnant. Simply drag it to the trash (you may need to authenticate).

Terminal:
Open Terminal.app and type

cd /Volumes
ls -la

This will show you the list of drives that are currently mounted. If you see the remnant it can be deleted with...

sudo rm JBPersonalCloud

It will ask for an administrator password.


How can I recalibrate quick look window?

I know I can drag it back, but is there a way to just resume it default position?

One way that I know of, without dragging the window back, is to in Terminal use the killall Finder command.
This works for me in macOS Catalina.


Can I load an iPad with content without using an Apple ID (prize for conference)?

There is no way to load apps/content onto an iDevice without using an AppleID. You should give the prize iPad away untouched and give the winner an Apple gift card to allow let them purchase the apps and content they want. After all, the iPad belongs to the prize-winner.

This is what we've done at my place of employment in similar situations.


Should I create a Fusion Drive before or after downgrade (from Yosemite to Mavericks)?

Your first idea is the only way that it can be done.

Boot into recovery HD and create a Fusion Drive (erasing all data)
Install Mavericks on SSD part of Fusion Drive

A Fusion drive is for all intents and purposes a single drive, the OS sees only one Volume. The promise of a Fusion drive is that it will optimize the contents in such a way that you will receive the highest performance possible while having a large volume to store your data in.


Keyboard layout editor that works on Lion

I use KeyRemap4MacBook, it works on Lion. It's a preference pane.


What can I use a iMac G5 17" 1.9GHz for?

It can do moderate Photoshop provided you use version CS2 or earlier. Or do a home server job.
But it's too slow for modern internet (I mean Youtube, Gmail, Facebook, any flash etc.) and it will not play any HD h.264 compressed video (even 720p) without lag.

Have a look at Geekbench Mac benchmark to have a broader picture how this one compares to other Macs


Not on the App Store. Something like this is a likely violation of privacy laws as well. There's no way Apple would allow it.


Web browsing on Mac slows down after a few days of use

I have the Cisco AnyConnect agent installed, which is only used for VPN and not Web Filtering. Still, the acwebsecagent process is running and slowing down my web browsing.

To uninstall acwebsecagent, run:
sudo /opt/cisco/anyconnect/bin/websecurity_uninstall.sh

Credit to this post for the above command.


Can you please specify that how much apple paying for per app downloads

It depends on the price of your app.

For each sale, Apple charges a 30% tax on the price paid by the user.


Can I change the location of the iTunes iPod Photo Cache folder?

Purpose of this folder:

  When iTunes synchronizes photos to your iPod, it actually converts and resizes them into 16-bit bitmaps in resolutions appropriate for the iPod. It stores the converted photos in the iPod Photo Cache folder before transferring them to the iPod. This basically allows iTunes to quickly add/remove photos from your iPod without having to reconvert them every time. If you remove a photo album/folder from your iPod (by unchecking the box in iTunes preferences), it will still leave the pictures in the cache in case you want to add them again in the future.

Possible workaround:

  Move the iPod Photo Cache folder to the location of your choice, and make an alias (shortcut) to the folder in its new location. Place the alias in the folder where the iPod Photo Cache originally was (usually in the Pictures folder) and make sure the alias is named "iPod Photo Cache". When iTunes looks for the iPod Photo Cache folder in the Pictures folder, it will instead find the alias, directing it to the new location.

You didn't specify the OS of the computer but on Windows that would be a junction point.


No, as on Macintosh closing Applications' windows ( by either clicking on the top-left red button or doing Command+W ) doesn't quit it.

To quit it, instead of closing all windows, you have to actively go into the menu option through [Application Name] / Quit [Application Name] or by doing Command+Q


Apple TV control external HiFi - difference between direct control or Airplay

In order to control the volume of your HiFi, you will need to use HDMI-CEC between your AppleTv and your Receiver/HiFi. Data (audio) transmitted over optical is sent at a fixed volume, and relies on the receiver of the signal to control the volume.

If your receiver does not have HDMI with ARC, you may be able to get around this in the following way:

Connect AppleTv to TV via HDMI
Connect TV Audio Out to your Receiver.
Configure HDMI-CEC to control the volume on your TV from the AppleTV remote.
Configure TV Audio Out to be "variable", not "fixed" or "line level". This step will vary wildly depending on your TV.

There will be tradeoffs depending on your TV & Receiver's input/output options.


Setting environment variables (TEXINPUTS) in El Capitan

The problem is well known and is due to Apple - the /usr folder cannot be anymore written. The solution is to add a link to this location: /Library/TeX/texbin - depending also on your TeX version, see more info in this link: https://tug.org/mactex/elcapitan.html


Fixing "a sealed resource is missing or invalid" warning

Ok, I managed to do this. It's dirty but pretty safe so far.

The database holding that info is located under /var/db/DetachedSignatures. This is an SQLite database, so it can be easily modified using the built-in sqlite3 tool. Here's an example session that deletes entries matching the "eclipse" keyword:

# we're using sudo, so be careful
$ sudo sqlite /var/db/DetachedSignatures

# what tables does it contain?
sqlite> .tables
code global

# what are the column definitions in code?
sqlite> .schema code
CREATE TABLE code (
        id integer primary key on conflict replace autoincrement not null,
        global integer null references global (id),
        identifier text not null,
        architecture integer,
        identification blob not null unique on conflict replace,
        signature blob not null,
        created text default current_timestamp
    );
CREATE INDEX architecture_index on code (architecture);
CREATE INDEX id_index on code (identification);
CREATE INDEX identifier_index on code (identifier);

# what are the column definitions in global?
sqlite> .schema global
CREATE TABLE global (
        id integer primary key on conflict replace autoincrement not null,
        sign_location text not null,
        signature blob null
    );
CREATE INDEX location_index on global (sign_location);

What we're interested in are code.identifier and global.sign_location.

sqlite> SELECT * FROM code WHERE identifier LIKE "%eclipse%";
sqlite> SELECT * FROM global WHERE sign_location LIKE "%eclipse%";

Take a look and make a backup before deleting all matching entries from both queries.

sqlite> DELETE FROM code WHERE identifier LIKE "%eclipse%";
sqlite> DELETE FROM global WHERE sign_location LIKE "%eclipse%";

I've also restarted my laptop, although I don't know if it's really necessary.

That's all!


OS X Mavericks scrollbars appear even without external mouse

For what ever reason you have this enabled in your general preferences


Way to limit how much RAM an arbitrary process can take up?

A similar question to this is noted here How Can I Limit the Amount of RAM a Mac OS Application Can Use?

They recommend using the ulimit command, but they were unable to successfully limit the amount to what they desired. I think the problem that they ran into was the fact that the option being set -u or -v was not accounting for the memory paging system, eg you can only allocate X amount of space for you process in real RAM, but we can page you out to virtual memory all day long.

Note that this may be Dangerous disabling Virtual Memory, it could result in your Mac just locking up, etc when it runs of of RAM.

Try running ulimit with arguments -l, -m, or -v however as noted in the ulimit man page it up to the OS if it will pay attention to these settings or not as noted.

  ulimit: ulimit [-SHacdefilmnpqrstuvx] [limit]

  Modify shell resource limits.

  Provides control over the resources available to the shell and processes
      it creates, on systems that allow such control.

Can't really find any definite source that confirms if OS X ignores ulimit or not, but after the referenced ulimit fail

If you can get ulimit to work for your needs by itself then give it a go, if not a combination of ulimit and or disabling virtual memory may be able to let you set up that 3 GB limit on select processes. FYI here is a good link for more information onCompletely Disable Virtual Memory in Snow Leopard System 10.6

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


Will an US purchased Mac receive Warranty coverage while in Brazil?

TL;DR - Yes, the warranty is international, but you may have to pay shipping and wait longer for service if Apple USA can't find a local provider and/or you can't find a local provider for service while in Brasil.

What holds true is an owner always can contact AppleCare for the country in which the Mac was first sold. In this case, a web query or phone call to the US offices of AppleCare are your best options from Brasil unless you can find a local service provider that will honor Apple's US warranty.

Most of the time, Apple providers get paid enough and are happy to get reimbursed directly from Apple and can rapidly determine warranty coverage from your serial number, but that's really up to each local service provider to decide if and when they will do the work to accept a cross-border repair.
I can't make a blanket statement that all will say no or yes since it'll be somewhere in the middle most of the time.

Check here for worldwide options - https://locate.apple.com/country and here for options within Brasil - https://locate.apple.com/br/pt/


Time machine backup is very slow (new TM drive and large amount of data)

I recently added a 4TB external drive to back up my Mac Pro.  I had about 2.4 TB of data in the initial pass of the backup with TM.  It took about 9 hours to complete.  I'm not sure the initial estimate is accurate, but it does take a very long time on the initial pass.  Once that is done though, the incremental updates are very quick.

I think in this case you just have to be patient, and don't pay too much attention to the estimate of completion time.


You'll need to connect a USB cable (probably A/B) from the monitor to your laptop.


Is there a way to use TouchID for iTunes and App store only?

Sorry for my image being Dutch, but you can disable the unlock functionality easily after setting it up correctly.

No, you need to have a password in case Touch ID doesn't work. There's no way (at least without jailbreak) to get this 'fixed'.


Found the answer to this question over the past few days.  I performed a 'fsck_hfs /dev/diskXsX' and it went through fixing the drive a couple times and everything started being listed again.  Hopefully someone else can use this info.  It had nothing to do with the drobo and just the fact that filesystem was messed up.


Creating a Linux boot drive on a MAC for a Kangaroo Mobile pC install

In your dd command,

sudo dd if=~/Desktop/linuxmint.iso of=/dev/sdx bs=1048576

/dev/sdx for the output is incorrect.

This is a Linux convention, not macOS; use /dev/diskX.
X is the specific disk identifier.  If you are using instructions from a Linux site, they are most likely providing the instructions for doing this on Linux (not macOS) using X as a variable for the specific identifier since the identifier can be different for each user and/or instance as the device is removable.

In Linux it's /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, etc.  In macOS/BSD is /dev/disk1, /dev/disk2, etc.

Also (thanks to user3439894 via comments) you need to make sure you disk is unmonted but not ejected.  Do this by issuing the command diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskX where X is the number of your disk identifier.


Force Repair/Unmount External Hard Drive?

You can use the device id as well as the mount path for diskutil. Get the device id using diskutil list (disk3 in my example) and then force unmount it:

diskutil unmountDisk force disk3

And then erase the disk (HFS+ with GUID Partitioning Table):

diskutil eraseDisk HFS+ Untitled GPT disk3


Does Safari for iOS 4.2.1 support WebGL?

Not at this point, no. WebKit, that which Safari for Mac OS and iOS are both based on, is supposed to support WebGL but I have yet to be able to get it work properly on Mac OS 10.6, much less iOS. I get the impression the whole thing is too new (relatively) for proper support.


Different temperature reports by different apps?

I did some digging into the temperatures returned by the system management controller (SMC) of my macbooks - a MacBookPro2,1 and a MacBookPro11,2. As far as I know they are not published and below are the labels I could identify - mostly from this question on Stack Overflow Description for Apple's SMC Keys and iStat Pro.

As you can see apart from there being lots of choices of what to report (temperatures for CPU proximity sensor, individual core temperatures, package temperatures, CPU PECI sensor) their location doesn't remain constant between models.

If your app was designed to report label 2 which is "CPU 1 package" temperature on a MacBookPro2,1 and you ran it on a MacBookPro11,2 (with no other checks) you'd end up reporting the temperature of the first battery sensor instead.

If your apps are giving different temperatures they are either choosing a different sensor value to report as the temperature or (possibly) reporting the results of the wrong sensor.

Of the options in this question Can I get the CPU temperature and fan speed from the command line in OS X I'd be inclined to trust the sudo powermetrics option (as it is part of the OS) or Intel Power Gadget (as they made the CPU).

chip "applesmc-isa-0300"

# Macbookpro2,1
    label temp1 "Battery TS_MAX"
    label temp2 "CPU 1 Package"
    label temp3 "CPU 1 Proximity"
    label temp4 "CPU 1 Heatsink"
    label temp5 "GPU 0 Proximity"
    label temp6 "GPU 0 Discrete Thermal Diode"
    label temp7 "Mem Bank A1"
    label temp8 "TTF0:"
    label temp9 "Heatpipe 1"
    label temp10 "Heatpipe 2"
    label temp11 "Mainboard Proximity"
    label temp12 "Palm Rest"

chip "applesmc-isa-0300"

# Macbookpro11,2
    label temp1  "Battery TS_MAX"
    label temp2  "Battery 1"
    label temp3  "Battery 2"
    label temp4  "TBXT"
    label temp5  "CPU 1"
    label temp6  "CPU 1"
    label temp7  "CPU 1 Proximity"
    label temp8  "CPU Core 1"
    label temp9  "CPU Core 2"
    label temp10 "CPU Core 3"
    label temp11 "CPU Core 4"
    label temp12 "PECI GPU"
    label temp13 "TCMc"
    label temp14 "PECI SA"
    label temp15 "TCTD"
    label temp16 "PECI CPU"
    label temp17 "TH0A"
    label temp18 "TH0B"
    label temp19 "TH0F"
    label temp20 "TH0R"
    label temp21 "TH0V"
    label temp22 "TH0a"
    label temp23 "TH0b"
    label temp24 "TH0c"
    label temp25 "Mem Bank A1"
    label temp26 "Mem Module A1"
    label temp27 "PCH Proximity"
    label temp28 "PCH Die"
    label temp29 "Airport Proximity"
    label temp30 "Ta0P"
    label temp31 "TaSP"
    label temp32 "Heatpipe 2"
    label temp33 "Heatpipe 3"
    label temp34 "Palm Rest"
    label temp35 "Memory Proximity"
    label temp36 "Ts1s"


Macbook Pro Retina 13,3" tingling/buzzing sensation

In Denmark you have 2 types of wall plug.

Both have ground connection.

The left one is standard European type and it has two ground connection showing as springs. Your Apple plug should just fit in that one.

I am assuming the socket it is actually connected to the ground in your place.


After some googling and experimentation, I found that I can fix this by deleting the folder ~/Library/Containers/com.Apple.Preview/. Hopefully this will be helpful if someone else has the same problem.
From a comment below by Joy Jin, it seems the specific folder is
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.Preview.savedState
Deleting only this folder should resolve the issue without affecting other settings. (I haven't tested this.)


Adding a photo to iPhoto by right clicking in the Finder

You can create a custom service for Finder using Automator.app.
Open Automator.app located in /Applications/ folder by default.  When prompted to choose a document type, choose "Service".

On the top you will see a a box with drop downs.  Select "image files" for the drop down box "Service receives selected" and choose "Finder" for the in.

Then on the left hand side with the "Actions" tab selected choose "Photos" then drag "Import Files into iPhoto" into the workflow area to the right.

Configure the settings to where the photo will import into iPhoto.  The defaults are Existing album and Events.

Save your workflow and give it a name that will make it obvisous when you choose Services in the Right click menu.  (Ex.  "Import photo to iPhoto")

Services you create from Automator are saved in the path: ~/Library/Services/


Turn on Back To My Mac via a Script or Command Line

There is no supported way to do this. Having said that, you can do it using scutil:

louis@Arios:~$ sudo scutil
> set Setup:/Network/BackToMyMac
> d.add <YYY>  <XXX>.members.btmm.icloud.com
> set Setup:/Network/BackToMyMac
> quit
louis@Arios:~$

Replacing <YYY> with the UID of the user account on the system (for most people with  single account that is 501), and <XXX> with your iCloud account number. If you don't know that you can check your dns-sd registrations:

louis@Arios:~$  dns-sd -E
Looking for recommended registration domains:
 DATE: ---Wed 22 Aug 2012---
 9:11:04.789  ...STARTING...
Timestamp     Recommended Registration domain
 9:11:04.789  Added     (More)               local
 9:11:04.789  Added                          icloud.com
                                             - > btmm
                                             - - > members
                                             - - - > <XXX>

The last line will list your iCloud user number. I think they are all 8 digit numbers, at least mine is.


Is it possible to connect an external camera to an Ipad Mini?

Connecting a webcam to your iPad isn't as straightforward as you might think. The iPad doesn't natively support USB cameras through the Camera Connection Kit, nor can it wirelessly connect to a webcam over Wi-Fi.

Nevertheless, there is a way to view your webcam's video feed on your iPad and even record what it's seeing -- but only with a small number of webcams that have their own iPhone and iPad apps.

Ensure your webcam has its own dedicated iPad app. The easiest way is to search the App Store for the name of your webcam manufacturer. For example, typing "Linksys" reveals several apps that support wireless video streaming.
Install the app of your choice. The My Webcam app for iPad is compatible with Logitech and Creative webcams; the Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion app for iPad is compatible with AXIS Cameras.
Open the app and follow any on-screen instructions to connect to your webcam. Usually this involves entering your username and password before logging in to see the webcam feed.
Choose an app such as Viewer for AXIS Camera Companion if you have multiple cameras and you want to see each feed as a thumbnail. Apps such as My Webcam enable you to remotely move cameras by swiping your finger across the screen.

Things Needed

Webcam with the dedicated app

Tip
•   If you have an iPad 2 or later, you can use it as a dedicated webcam and stream the video feed from its camera across the Web. The app iWebcamer, available in the App Store, allows you to access the iPad's video feed using camera-enabled programs such as Skype.

Also, I recommend to explore on this too


Connect to server - password syntax (symbols) confusing the expression

I wasn't sure whether this would work, but after comments it appears it does…

Use percent encoding like you see on web addresses, where potentially confusing symbols are replaced by a percentage sign followed by a hexadecimal number, as this table...

So the initial p@s$w%rd would become p%40s%24w%25rd


How to reset my terminal prompt to default - post mess-up

So you're using zsh now not bash?

The following applies to zsh:

To make your change persistent you have to include the export PS1 line in your ~/.zshrc file. If you already have such a file, open it and check for an export PS1 line and edit it to suit your needs.

If not, run:

echo 'export PS1="%M $ "' >> ~/.zshrc

which will change your prompt to include the full machine host name followed by $ as requested (see here for more details).

To see the effects of this change you either need to open a new terminal window or source the .zshrc file (in every terminal that was open when you made the change):

source ~/.zshrc

You can achieve the same results in bash but using either the ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc files (and not forgetting to source them).

A little aside:

I'm sure you've done your research by now but if you get stuck in vim again, the following key combination will help: ESC : q <CR> (where <CR> is the enter key). If you've made changes though this won't work. You can either discard the changes:

ESC : q! <CR>

or write the changes to file:

ESC : wq <CR>

If your experience didn't scare you off from vim, here's a great cheat sheet I'd recommend: https://vim.rtorr.com/


I agree with patrix, use open in dropbox from the mail.

Or, to file handling app like FileBrowser and then rename the extension to .txt and mail it to your web email.

Dropbox seems far easier.


Opening specific email causes Mail to crash

When the screen goes back to the home page, it means that Microsoft Office Mail is crashing because of some problem.

In this case, the email that you're trying to open contains something that causes the app to crash. This is an issue with Microsoft Office Mail, and not with your iPhone. The only solution right now is to either open this email on your computer, or wait for Microsoft to fix this bug in a future update.


This is a sample script to try and fit the needs/wants you expressed.  As coded it's going to make 3 five second recordings on your Desktop named "Recording_n.m4a" when 'n' in the name will be incremented automatically 1 to 3, e.g. "Recording_1.m4a", "Recording_2.m4a" etc. to whatever howMany is set to.

Open Script Editor and copy and paste the code below and press the "Compile" button.

set howMany to 3 -- The number of recordings to make.

set recordingNumber to 1 -- 'recordingNumber' is used to increment the recording number in the filename when exporting.

tell application "QuickTime Player"
    activate
    close (every document whose name contains "Untitled") saving no -- I set this just to have no other Untitled windows open when starting the recordings, especially if having broken out of the repeat loop.
    repeat howMany times
        set savePath to (the path to the desktop folder as text) & "Recording_" & recordingNumber & ".m4a"
        set recording to new audio recording
        start recording
        delay 6 -- Add an additional second to the wanted value, e.g. for 20 second recording set delay to 21.
        stop recording
        export document "Untitled" in file savePath using settings preset "Audio Only"
        delay 2 -- Set appropraite delay to allow export to complete.
        close (every document whose name contains "Untitled") saving no
        set recordingNumber to recordingNumber + 1 -- Increments recording number by one.
        -- Close "Export Progress" window.
        tell application "System Events" to click menu item "Hide Export Progress" of menu "Window" of menu bar 1 of process "QuickTime Player"
        display dialog "Click OK or press Enter to start next recording."
    end repeat
end tell

Run the script as is a time or two so you can see what it's doing and then you can change the value of howMany to the number of recordings you want/need to make, change the value of the first delay from '6' to '21' for a 20 second recording and the value of the second delay from '2' to e.g. '5'.  The value of the second delay you'll need to determine ahead of time by setting the value of howMany to 1 or 2 and the value of the first delay from '6' to '21' so you have a 20 second recording to see how many seconds it takes to export.  This value (of the second delay) can be higher then actually needed, say if you want a little break between recordings to catch your breath and collect your thoughts for the next recording, although there is another control in the form of a dialog message box between each recording.

Note the line display dialog "Click OK or press Enter to start next recording.", it's there as a control mechanism to start the next recording or to break out of the repeat loop. There are many different of ways to code and accomplish a task like this and this is just meant to give you a starting framework to build upon if you want to use AppleScript to accomplish an automated task such as you've mentioned.

There is no error checking written into this script as is, meaning if the script is run a second time it will overwrite e.g. "Recording_1.m4a", "Recording_2.m4a" etc. So if you need to break out of the repeat loop by clicking "Cancel" in the dialog message box or "Stop" in the Script Editor, make sure you set recordingNumber to the appropriate number, which would be the number used of the last exported file + 1.  Also, the first close (every document whose name contains "Untitled") saving no line will close any file opened in QuickTime Player whose name contains "Untitled" without saving it or prompting to be saved. It can be commented out by placing -- in front of it if you wish although if you broke out of the repeat loop you'll have to manually cleanup before restarting so you may want to leave it as is.  Just when using this script only use QuickTime Player for the task at hand if you don't understand why I coded it this way.


No internet even when connected to the WiFi or 4G (iPhone)

The 1st thing to do when you are facing a network misbehaviour is to deal with one way of connection at a time.
This is what the genius at the bar should have told you first.

Practically focus on your mobile Internet conectivity first:

turn off Bluetooth;
turn off Wi-Fi.

Test your mobile Internet connectivity in different places.

Then conclude: your problem is on the mobile network side or not.

If your mobile phone network is OK

then analyse your Wi-Fi in the same way:

turn off Bluetooth;
turn off mobile phone network (Mobile Data).

Test your Wi-Fi connectivity in different places.

Then conclude: your problem is on the Wi-Fi network side or not.


Can mac os support greater than 2x retina (for a small 4k screen)?

While macOS currently does not support scaling to more than 2x, you can always run a display at less than native resolution. For example, run the display at 2560x1440 while using 2x, so the size of the UI would be equivalent to 1280x720. This should still look perfectly fine on a small screen with such high resolution.
The display tells the Mac which resolutions it supports. macOS may not show all of them in System Preferences, but the important ones are usually there.


Can I install/upgrade from SL to Lion on RAID0?

I think you should be fine. I upgraded to Lion on a Mac Pro that has a RAID 0. While the OS is installed to an SSD, not RAID, Lion still detected the RAID just fine. That's obviously a different scenario than what you have, but as the software RAID is handled at a higher level than the OS, I think you should be fine.

Obviously, have a backup ready to go just in case, but my guess is that your upgrade should go smoothly.


It is able to do so, I'm doing this exact thing right now. I've got two 1080p monitors connected, one via HDMI (to DVI), one via Thunderbolt (also to DVI) - works all fine :-)


Securing VGA Output Plus Audio From An iPad

The Apple Lightning to VGA Adapter works, and when paired with a 3.5mm audio cord plugged directly into the output on the iPad, will allow for sound and video output.

If you have a system that allows for digital audio, it is possible to use a DSP for passthrough from the iPad to the Sound Board, however one usually runs for around $100-$1400.


Is there a way to install Mountain Lion on a Mac Pro 1,1 2006?

Yes its possible. The limitations that need to be over came are three fold.

  There are two things that prevent 10.8 from installing on a MacPro 1,1.

  The first is the lack of EFI64. Mountain Lion as has no support for 32bit kernel and extensions so it will not boot. This is true of many early Intel macs.
  The other thing is that checks are made by the installer; against a supported machines list. If your mac isn’t on the list, it refuses to install.

  It’s important to note that an upgraded graphics card is virtually essential. The stock 7300 GT isn’t supported and will cause Kernel Pannic. I don’t think the X1900-xt is either, my 8800GT did odd things on DP1 but may be OK on newer builds. Ideally Id try and source a HD5770 or other newer card.

Solutions:

  New compatible graphics card will need to be obtained.
  The first issue can be dealt with by using the Chameleon bootloader. Chameleon will emulate EFI64 and therefore load 10.8.
  Customization of the 10.8 Installer by adding your machine kind back onto the list of supported machines.

Sources:

http://www.j4mie.co.uk/blog/2012/02/18/how-to-install-mountain-lion-on-macpro11/
http://www.jabbawok.net/?p=47


Selecting from a list of applications using an Apple Remote

BetterTouchTool has a section for Apple Remote buttons that can be configured to perform a number of actions:


There was no iTunes Library location set in iTunes preferences.


cannot use the mac_alias package to generate an alias

Technically this question was answered by mmmm.  In any case, symlinks do bascially the same things as aliases.  So if you want to create a symlink in python:
import os
os.symlink(source, destination)

And that should do it.


Can the built-in OS X "Location" feature auto select locations based on wireless networks?

Since you mentioned Firesheep, let me put in a plug for Sheepsafe:

Sheepsafe was built to automate the task of switching your network configuration to use a SOCKS proxy whenever you join an untrusted network.
Sheepsafe works by keeping a configuration of known safe wireless networks. When you join an untrusted network, Sheepsafe switches to a network location that has a SOCKS proxy configured and starts a SOCKS proxy by SSH'ing into a remote server, thus protecting your browsing traffic from FireSheep and other snoopers on the local network. When you switch back to a safe network, Sheepsafe switches back to the default, trusted location and shuts down the SOCKS proxy.


Is it possible to change the iphone date picker?

An individual application could present their own date picker if it were programmed that way. You cannot change the applications made by other people.

A jailbreak tweak could potentially try to make this change, but I do not know of any.

If you are looking to make your own application, I would recommend asking in the regular Stack Overflow.


A better way to remove keyboard grease from a MacBook Air's normal keyboard?

The ideal solution (that I've found after years of cleaning Apple products) is not to use alcohol directly. Instead, mix it with water. The proportion to mix is simple:

Three parts isopropyl alcohol
Seven parts water

I use a bottle cap, fill it with alcohol three times then the same cap with water seven times (you can use something bigger if you want more).

With that solution, you're safe to clean all your mac and the alcohol presence guarantees a slow but secure grease removal without leaving the typical alcohol stain/residue that occurs when you use pure alcohol. Also the low concentration makes it safer against things that may get damaged by the usage of pure alcohol like rubber compounds or human skin.

For occasional cleanup you can use the simple, free and excellent Keyboard Cleaner. All it does is make your screen black (so you can clean it better) and lock your keyboard so you don't trigger accidental keys while cleaning. Of course, you can always shutdown the computer too.

Regarding products like iKlear and such, they are ok, in fact I'd recommend you always get a bottle of iKlear around, it's good to have and their small wet towels are very handy for quick clean. Remember never to use toilet/kitchen paper, use instead any "approved" cloth (like iKlear, TomBihn, etc.) the "micro fibers" are designed to not scratch your surface.

I wouldn't use pure alcohol.