How do I use homebrew less instead of system less?

This might be due to bash's hash table of commands in PATH still using the old value. Remove the hash of less, or clear the hash, so that bash re-searches PATH:

hash -d less
# or, hash -r

You can also manually add a path to the table:

hash -p /usr/local/bin/less less

From the Bash manual (emphasis mine):

  If the name is neither a shell function nor a builtin, and contains no
  slashes, Bash searches each element of $PATH for a directory
  containing an executable file by that name. Bash uses a hash table to
  remember the full pathnames of executable files to avoid multiple PATH
  searches (see the description of hash in Bourne Shell Builtins). A
  full search of the directories in $PATH is performed only if the
  command is not found in the hash table.


WIth the new iMac how do we connect an external screen?

Thunderbolt is a superset of Displayport Apple page on Thunderbolt says

  And because Thunderbolt is based on
  DisplayPort technology, the video
  standard for high-resolution displays,
  any Mini DisplayPort display plugs
  right into the Thunderbolt port. To
  connect a DisplayPort, DVI, HDMI, or
  VGA display, just use an existing
  adapter.


Is there a known issue where USB audio sounds for a few seconds then stops?

The problem cropped up after my Mac took delivery of the High Sierra 10.13.3 update, and solved itself today when my Mac took delivery of the High Sierra 10.13.4 update.


I managed to resolve this on my own.

Looks like the smartcard was actually working even if the pcscd executable is not present. Most probably the functionality was integrated into another service.


Apple has just announced OSX Mountain Lion which incorporates iMessage into the OS in the form of the Messages app. This will work in the same was as iMessage for iOS.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/

You can currently download the messages beta free from Apple here


So the actual solution was to go to:

Settings > Calendars > Accounts > Fetch New Data > [My Account name] >and here tap on "Push".

Selecting "Push" in
Settings > Calendars > Accounts > Fetch New Data
was not enough.


What exactly are the files . and .. on mac?

Technically and practically, they represent directory entries for the current directory (.) and the parent directory (..), respectively.
So cd . always keeps you in the current directory (useful mainly in scripts when a directory is assigned to a variable and the value should represent just the current directory), whereas cd .. always takes you one level up (unless you are already at /, in which case .. is the same as .).


How to switch from Spotlight to Alfred via Terminal?

Alfred requires Spotlight to function properly.

  Alfred relies on the same OS X metadata index as Spotlight. As such, it's important for you to let Spotlight run on your Mac to maintain an index of the files on it.

http://support.alfredapp.com/kb:spotlight

This answer to a similar question provides a shell command to stop Spotlight's GUI only, which will disable Spotlight's shortcut.


Internet Sharing to iPhone over USB not working

Try this tutorial.  It will share your ethernet over Bluetooth instead of USB.


What solved the issue for me was using First Aid on the Macintosh HD from the Disk Utility app:

Start Disk Utility
Make sure to select Macintosh HD and not the top level storage (which represents the physical disk). You want to fix the logical partition.
Click the First Aid button at the top of the window.

Hope that helps


How can I prevent "Reset network settings" on my iPhone from affecting my Laptop?

Check to seen if your passwords still exist under Safari > Preferences > Passwords on your Mac. Maybe they are still there.

If this doesn't work, try the following: Unplug your router's ethernet cable (so that iCloud cannot sync with the server) and try to restore your from Time Machine. This should revert your Key Chain. I recommend disconnecting your router because if you just turn off your wifi, it will probably turn back on after the restore is done and sync with iCloud again.


what does an app do to satisfy the dock bounce?

An application's icon will bounce in the macOS Dock until the application enters its main event loop and begins responding to user input.
See How do I make the dock icon stop bouncing after my app wrapper script starts?


No. To post on or view the developer forums, you must be a paid member.

http://developer.apple.com/devforums/

  The Apple Developer Forums are available to iOS, Mac and Safari Developer Program members.


How to change the default macOS login window keyboard layout?

In Terminal, run this to copy your keyboard settings to the default settings:
sudo cp ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.HIToolbox.plist /Library/Preferences/
via Change the default keyboard of OSX login screen permanently


iPhone 6 low on storage and becoming non-functional

I am assuming here that you have synced your phone to a Mac or PC and continue to do so? If so and you have the options in iTunes checked to sync photos (on a Mac it would be photos.app and on Windows it is usually a folder in your Pictures folder) you should be able to verify that they are on your computer.

Once you have found your missing photos and verified all you need is safely on your computer I would do a wipe and restore. That cleans out temporary/cached files and files left over from deleted apps and the like. To be safe I would make another backup of your phone on your local computer. And I would password protect the backup so it preserves any passwords saved on your phone. Once that is done...

On the phone it is in Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content And Settings.

Erase the phone and then restore it from the backup you just made. That, in itself, may clear enough space on your phone to help the issue. If not you may have to remove some apps, music or photos to clear more space.


In your case, you would want to use Automator. You do not need to know about AppleScript to use Automator (in fact, if you open up Automator, you will quickly find that it really is self-evident).

The trick is not just to tie your CLI service to an Automator app, but to be able to get to that globally using a Keyboard shortcut. That can be achieved using a Service. This tutorial explains quite well how to do what you are looking for... in fact, describing a very similar scenario.

I take no credit for the tutorial content, only found it to solve a similar problem (I needed to map some drives at Startup without Finder.app opening while doing so).


Apple Configurator 2 - How to edit an installed Configuration Profile?

There isn't a way to do this. The device doesn't keep the complete profile around.


How to jump to album in iOS 8.4 Music app?

The currently playing song shows up in a horizontal now playing bar.

Click the three dots on the right hand side of the bar.

Click on the album name at the top of the pop up menu.


Annoying lag while searching in iOS Safari

I had the exact same problem! I got the following solution, courtesy of a call to Apple.

Go to Settings > Safari
Select "Clear History and Website Data" (note: this will wipe your history on your phone and any devices that sync their Safari data with your phone's over iCloud.
Change the Block Cookies setting to Always Block.
Close Safari from the app switcher.
Change the Block Cookies setting back to Allow from Websites I Visit.
Enjoy your non-laggy Safari!


ExFAT thumb drive not recognized in Mac OS Big Sur

Don't hesitate to force a little to connect this key. I noticed that on MBA M1 some USB-C / Thunderbolt devices were a bit "complicated" to plug in and sometimes were not fully connected.


Name resolution is using proxy server over my local DNS server

It seems as though setting the search domains explicitly to be:

*.dev
corporate.com

In System Preferences fixes the problem. For some reason otherwise website.dev gets suffixed as website.dev.corporate.com automatically. I'm not sure why as it is already a valid domain.


How can I use OSX and/or iOS to wake up in the morning depending on calendar events?

There is an application for OS X named Power Manager. You can schedule your Home, School, Work or Office times and assign triggers and actions. This application runs as a daemon in the background. It can wake up or sleep your Mac, open other applications, interact with other OS features, or even extend its functionalities with making and running external scripts.


Piece of cake, boot the Mac in target mode, connect it to a computer and repartition / erase the drive. You also can remove drives from portables easily and connect tem to an inexpensive ($5) USB to sata adapter and format things.


can I use my OS X Lion upgrade on a different machine?

It is tied to the new mac. The store verifies the mac rather than the Apple ID to allow the download if you need to reinstall the OS.

Some people are reporting that the few macs that shipped with Snow Leopard from the factory, but were changed later get a redemption code that works more like you purchasing an upgrade. That purchase seems to work on 5 macs like the other App Store purchases.


To remap home and end in Terminal, run f=~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.terminal.plist; plutil -convert xml1 $f; open $f -e, and change this:

<key>F729</key>
<string>scrollToBeginningOfDocument:</string>
<key>F72B</key>
<string>scrollToEndOfDocument:</string>

To this:

<key>F729</key>
<string>&#x1b;OH</string>
<key>F72B</key>
<string>&#x1b;OF</string>

To change them in normal text views, create ~/Library/KeyBindings/ and save a property list like this as DefaultKeyBinding.dict:

{
    "\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraph:;
    "\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraph:;
    "$\UF729" = moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:;
    "$\UF72B" = moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:;
}

Another option would be to use KeyRemap4MacBook. See the "Use PC Style Home/End (except in Virtual Machine,RDC)" setting in https://raw.github.com/tekezo/KeyRemap4MacBook/master/Tests/lib/string/data/checkbox.xml.


On Yosemite:

Double click the window top bar (Like in MS Windows)

or

Option-click the green dot in the top left.

On older OS X versions: Shift-click the green (+)


Why can't I use my buds as 2-channel now, when I've always used them as 2-channel?

I think it's always been that way, but I have no idea why.
If an output has a joint channel, like the older single speaker "built-in output" then it has a single master fader & the two separate channels are disabled.

If it has distinct channels, then the channels are active & the Master is disabled.


I would try resetting both the SMC and PRAM/NVRAM.

SMC

The instructions for resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) will differ depending on whether your computer:

runs from a built-in battery?
runs from a removable battery?
can only run from power off a wall socket?

Since you haven't specified your computer I will provide the instructions for all three possibilities.

For MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, and MacBooks where you can’t remove the battery on your own (i.e. it's a built-in battery), here’s what you do:

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

For MacBook Pros, MacBooks etc that you can remove the battery from, here’s what you do:

Shut down your computer
Disconnect the MagSafe plug (power cable) from the computer
Remove the battery
Press the power button for 5 seconds and release
Put the battery back in
Reconnect the MagSafe cord (or power cable)
Turn your computer back on with the power button

For iMacs, Mac Pros, Mac Minis, etc that only run from a power point in the wall

Shut down your computer
Unplug it from power
Press and hold the power button for 5 seconds
Plug it back in and turn it on.

PRAM/NVRAM

Older Macs had what's called Parameter RAM (PRAM), newer Macs use Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory (NVRAM). Regardless of what Mac you have, the instructions for resetting this are as follows:

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

Note: When you log back in you may need to readjust some of your system preferences (e.g. mouse speed, time and date/timezone, etc).


Where can I find the latest release of Darwin?

Unfortunately, ISO files are no longer made available. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_%28operating_system%29#History:

  Up to Darwin 8.0.1, Apple released a binary installer (as an ISO
  image) after each major Mac OS X release that allowed one to install
  Darwin on PowerPC and Intel x86 computers as a standalone operating
  system. Minor updates were released as packages that were installed
  separately. Darwin is now only available as source code,[4] except for
  the ARM variant, which has not been released in any form separately
  from iOS. However, the older versions of Darwin are still available in
  binary form.

  [4] http://lists.apple.com/archives/Darwinos-users/2007/Oct/msg00006.html


Connect to printer on Windows PC via smb - authentication required

Figure it out:
You should open keychain access tool and find there your printer name in the keys list and remove it.

After that open Print queue window and select in the top menu: Printer - print test page.
Window with login password will appears. Print there username - guest without password.
After that printer should work.


As a graphic designer, a huge part of my jobs are logo recreation.  Most of the time, these logos have text that I need to identify what fonts are used.  I actually wound up creating a small AppleScript application for auto scrolling in FontBook. For my purposes, I usually have the original design with their font on one side of the screen and Font Book window right next to it so I can visually compare.

I actually posted a question on stackoverflow regarding the script I wrote (which nobody replied to LOL) Applescript for auto scrolling in Font Book

In that post, I have the full AppleScript code with a complete explanation for all of its functions. It's a great little script for font comparisons and such.  Maybe it could be of some use to you.


As you can see in several threads like the one pointed by @Ohnomycoco, this is not a software problem but a hardware problem.

Lighting a "smart" connector with a microchip build-in the cables head. It's most likely due to a damage cable, so you'll have to replace it.

Also - be sure to test since in many cases it's the iOS device that needs repair and not the cable:

Only my cable can recharge my iPhone


Can I install TextMate 2 and keep TextMate 1?

No need to use /Applications or ~/Applications, you can put text mate 2 in any folder you wish.

For example if you have Textmate in /Applications/Textmate.app, create a folder in /Applications/TM2/Textmate2.app


How do I get photos from iPhone 4s onto iPad when taken on 3G?

The short answer is you cannot - it works only when the device is connected over WiFi.
Quoting from iCloud: My Photo Stream FAQ (emphasis at the end mine):

When do photos upload to My Photo Stream?
When you enable My Photo Stream on your devices, all new photos you take or import to those devices will be automatically added to your photo stream.
iOS devices: New photos you take are automatically uploaded to your photo stream when you leave the Camera app and are connected to Wi-Fi. My Photo Stream does not push photos over cellular connections.

Such limitations are usually imposed by Apple because cellular Internet is quite expensive in most places when compared to DSL/cable broadband. So uploading photos that are a few MBs each could quickly run the bill up to a hefty amount. Another example of limitations on cellular connection is App Store downloads, where iOS will only download an app or update if it's smaller than 100MB in size when the device is connected over cellular.


Imported tv show metadata is inaccurate, in iTunes

Try reimporting these two episodes. Delete the from library and import them again into the library. Sometimes the library file get messed-up and re-imporing solves the problem.


What audio quality is available on newer iPhones?

TL;DR: It appears the iPhone 6 supports 24-bit audio and 48 kHz playback.

So I found a way to empirically test playback.

This first screenshot shows a recording of playback over iPhone USB into Quicktime. You can see from the spectrogram that there is data in the 22-24k range, which means that playback is at least 48 kHz.

This next screenshot shows playback over USB straight into audacity. Basically, I played -95 dB and -97 dB tones at both 16- and 24-bit audio. -97dB is below the minimum volume of 16-bit audio. While all the other tones made a sound, the 16-bit, -97 dB chunk of the recording shows no sound, while 24-bit -97dB does play a sound.


Can I change the Terminal background color in my Mac?

From the Terminal Menu > Preferences > Profiles

Take your pick - fully customisable...


Yes and no.

Full access to all efivars is not that feasible or easy in macOS / from OS X.

But if you want to achieve the goals from the link and command you cited then go here please: GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen

There you will find the equivalent for a pure Mac environment:

nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

Read the whole guide, though. It's still a bit of a dance to apply that variable and manage the consequences of it.


How to find your stolen mac on a network using the MAC address/Serial number

If they do come back to the same network and you just happen to be on and looking.

From the command line.

    arp -an

This will show you the IP and MAC addresses of any hosts active on the network at that time.

    $arp -an

    ? (10.0.1.1) at e4:ce:8f:68:85:c8 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.13) at 0:19:7e:b0:37:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.20) at 64:b9:e8:2b:ab:97 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.28) at d8:30:62:76:ab:a0 on en1 ifscope [ethernet]
    ? (10.0.1.255) at ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff on en1 ifscope [ethernet]

This will at least tell you if your computer is back on the network. I doubt they would go through the trouble of spoofing the MAC address.

Did you have Remote login turned on? If so and it shows on the network, you could login to your computer. This opens up more options.

Such as:

You could SSH into your computer.

Once in you could run something like this.

    while :  ; do sudo osascript -e "set Volume 10" && say here i am && sleep 30 ; done &

Adjust "here i am" to what ever you want your Mac to say at full volume. I put a sleep 30 in to keep them from just powering it off right away and give you time to find them. It would probably take them a few times to figure out that it was the Mac talking. I'd scope out the Macs in the area before running it so I'd know where to look first.


It is possible to download these individually. Many blogs provide links when new updates come out to the direct downloads. For example, heres a page that has links to IPSW's for 4.3.2.

It will come preloaded with the OS, you don't have to worry about that. Though, depending on delays and when you get it (And when it was packaged), you may have a minor update to do (ie, updating from 4.3.1 to 4.3.2).

While you can download these updates, its really not worth it - or there is no real reason to do so beforehand. And it adds an extra step to apply it. When you get your device, it will ask you if you want to update it (you have to option-click 'Update' in iTunes). This is a common way to apply beta iOS builds for developers.

So, to answer your question - yes, it is 'possible', but really not worth it whatsoever. And your final guess is incorrect - it will come preloaded with an OS. The only thing you have to do to start using it once you get it is plug into iTunes to activate it, then can either start using it, or apply applications, etc.


50Hz hum from macbook air headphone port

Most of the Macintoshes I've had over the years have had a buzz in the headphone port. It is especially noticeable with low impedance headphones. Some have even had a click when the sound is turned on (i.e. when an alert sound plays, or a song is started in iTunes).

You could try taking it to the Genius bar, they might replace it if it is still under warranty. There could be a short somewhere, or it could just be considered "normal" which is why audiophiles use digital output.


I still use Mac OS X 10.5.8 for web development. It has a built-in Apache server with PHP, but I easily installed MAMP.

As for node.js, the V8 engine under the hood requires Intel CPU, but RingoJS and Rhino work fine. There is Rhinode for node.js-like API on top of Rhino, but I haven't tested it.


Time Machine error creating the backup folder on a spacious hard drive

I had the exact same symptoms with a Nov 2013 MacBook Pro (came with Mavericks already installed) using WD "My Passport" USB drives for Time Machine backups.  The solution was to erase and reformat the external drives using Disk Utility as described in
   http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5911 under the heading "Erase and reformat the storage device".

I had a spare drive so, in order not to lose existing backups, I did the following:

erase spare drive as above
use Disk Utility to "restore" the backup drive's volume to the erased drive
(you have selected the volume correctly (rather than the drive) if the Disk
Utility window shows
    "First Aid; Erase; RAID; restore" as options
not
    "First Aid; Erase; Partition; RAID; restore")

After this I have no problem doing multiple backups in a row, putting the machine to sleep without ejecting the backup disk and then doing a further backup, and no problems with ejecting the disk.

Good luck!


Color profile switches with random application launch

Yep, seeing the same thing on an early 2011 MacBook Pro as well. It seems to happen when the display switches to the GeForce GT chip from the Intel integrated graphics.

It doesn't seem to be random -- I can get it to switch the colour palette back and forth by using gfxCardStatus, which switches the graphics modes. Integrated = goes to normal palette, GeForce = blueish.

Seems like Apple has buggered up the colour profile for the GeForce chip.

Edit: For what it's worth, logging out and back in seems to help.


If on mac:

Open up calendar app.
Right click on the specific calendar you want to share with someone.
Click on "Share Calendar..."
Write the name of iCloud user you want to share that calendar with.

If on ios:

Open up calendar app.
Find the calendar you want to share.
Press the "i" icon aligned at the right of each calendar.
Click "Add Person" and write your friends iCloud adress, name, whatever..

I gotta mention it mainly works on iCloud calendars, not for lets say "Google" account's calendar.
I hope it helps, feel free to comment here if you got any more question.


Same happens on Big Sur. But the standard tcsh in macOS hasn't changed for years, you can install tcsh 6.22.03 (Astron) 2020-11-18 via Homebrew.
% ls
foo_1   foo_2   foo_3   x
% echo foo_[1-4]
foo_1 foo_2 foo_3
% echo foo_[2-4]
foo_2 foo_3
% tcsh --version
tcsh 6.22.03 (Astron) 2020-11-18 (unknown-apple-darwin) options wide,nls,dl,al,kan,sm,rh,color,filec


I would try two things:

First, make sure the battery in the remote is good.  I know this may sound obvious, but I always try to make sure there are no issues with power or connectivity.

Second, go into System Preferences-->Security & Privacy, and click the lock at the bottom to unlock the "Advanced..." button.

Make sure the last checkbox ("Disable remote control infrared receiver") is unchecked.  Then click the pair button.

It will ask you to do the same procedure as before (holding menu and next buttons until you see the paired-remote graphic on the screen).  I know you already tried holding the buttons, but maybe you'll have better luck at the pairing prompt.

Hope this helps.  Best of luck and happy holidays!


how fast does sierra overwrite over a permanently deleted file?

The OS, technically, has nothing to do with how fast something gets deleted; it's how quickly your drive implements the "erase" ATA command.

If you deleted a file by "moving" it into your Trash, it will be there until you empty the trash. However, if you deleted the file by using a Terminal command (rm for example), it's gone as you have bypassed the Trash altogether.

Now, if you are using a hard disk drive, there is a chance of recovery; the sooner you attempt recovery, the better the chances.  However, if you are using a solid state drive (SSD), it's gone for good.  The TRIM command to erase happens almost instantaneously; there's no remnants to recover because the block(s) that your data occupied are immediately marked as "new and unused" and the SSD is instructed to return zeros or random values if you attempt to read from it/them.   See this answer for additional details on this process.


How can I switch from mac server App to Apache?

How to deactivate MacOS server apache

This command deactivates web services

$ sudo serveradmin stop web

These commands should unload the launch daemons inside Server app. Following my experience Server Apache takes over as soon as you install server app. Stopping web services in some cases is not sufficient. By unloading the Apache daemon server app is unable to start its Apache.

$ sudo launchctl unload -w /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.server.httpd.plist
$ sudo launchctl unload -w /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.serviceproxy.plist

When configuring Server’s Apache the following configuration files are used. By uncommenting any listen section Server Apache will not be able to run.

$ nano /Library/Server/Web/Config/Proxy/apache_serviceproxy.conf
$ nano /Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/services/ACSServer.conf

When Server Apache does not know which ports it has to listen to, it does not run.

Depending from your system some steps or all of them might be necessary to stop Server Apache from running and for your Apache installation to take over. All these steps will only affect your server web services.

With the next Server App web service will be gone.


View original full-resolution image in Aperture 2.0

I you can just go to the view Menu. And toggle the 'Show Original Image'

This will stick a label on the image so you know you are seeing an Original rather than a Preview.

The setting is global by the looks of it. And works in the compare mode.


Disk Utility message "Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required"

The message from Disk Utility is simply there to tell you it's checking the hidden EFI partition (if present) and updating as necessary. In your case it won't be necessary so nothing will be updated.

Disk Utility performs this extra step if you run a disk repair on a parent disk rather than on one of the partitions within that disk.


Is it possible to take simultaneous screenshots of two windows?

You could use Layers - it screenshots the entire screen but saves each object in a separate layer. You then export to PSD or a set of .png (or .tiff) images


Installing a Windows partition on Mac HD - dual boot in short

If you have a bootable copy of the recent OS you can boot from that and instead of using the installer go to the menu and select Disk Utility. That will let you delete partitions at will.

Alternatively you can boot into Recovery Mode (Command-R during boot, if I recall correctly) and that will also have Disk Utility available to you.


I'm prompted on every reboot for a password for a stale iCloud account

The application icon suggests the password is being requested by Messages.app.

Messages.app

Launch Messages.app and check the accounts listed in the preferences do not include or mention your stale @gmail.com account.

Internet Accounts

Look for legacy accounts in your Internet Accounts within System Preferences.app:

Preferences

Check your preferences for mentions of the old address using the Terminal.app command:

grep -r old@gmail\.com ~/Library/Preferences/*

If this matches a file, modify the following command to examine the file's contents:

defaults read ~/Library/Preferences/MobileMeAccounts.plist > ~/Desktop/output.txt

In the example above, a new file called output.txt will appear on your desktop. This file can be opened with TextEdit.app.

This file may hint as to which application or tool has your old account listed.

If you find a matching preference, consider deleting or renaming it. The preferences will be lost but they should never contain critical information.

Remember to log out or restart after altering the preferences file.


What's the Way to clean out my mac ahead of giving it out?

To give it a full fresh and clean and welcome experience I would suggest you remove all stuff accumulated over time including all non apple aps.

To do that you can erase all the information from hard drive and simply reinstall the OS X.

Apple's knowledge base article has the steps:

OS X Lion: Erase and reinstall Mac OS X - http://support.apple.com/kb/PH4439.

On most computers, the erase and install takes 30 minutes plus how ever long it takes to download the installer package from Apple's servers. That part is about a 4 GB download if you haven't saved it and follow the above instructions.


List extensions that are opened with a specific application

If you want all files with a certain extension (not the 1 specific file) to be opened by a certain app, do the following:

Right click the file and click Get Info (or highlight file and hit cmd ⌘ + i )
Change Open with: to preferred app
Click Change All...
Click Continue in the confirmation box

Is this what you meant to do? This is different from right clicking a file and choosing the 'Always open with' option. That seems to only apply to the specific file, not all files globally.

You will have to repeat this for each extension.


Can I "play higher rated songs more often" in iTunes 11?

One not very simple way:

create smart playlists for various ratings.
Create a simple playlist.
Drag and drop the smart playlist into the simple playlist.  Drag the 5* list 5 times, the 4 star list 4 times, and the 3 star list three times.

This will NOT automatically update the simple playlist.


New "Resource busy" error when trying to mount DMG files

I'm having this issue as well and its driving me crazy. Here is what I found out but I don't have a solution.
After I download a .dmg (image) file through my browser, even though I do not open or mount the image the following things occur:

diskimage process runs against the downloaded dmg. Duration of this seems to last for quite a bit of time. (in my example it was about 12 seconds on my machine for this 160MB image file but with larger images it could last longer and depends on machine resources)
A directory appears in my /private/tmp with a copy of the image. When the diskimage process completes, this directory disappears.

If you try to mount the image while the above conditions are occurring, you will get a resource busy error.
How do you know when you can mount the image? Use the lsof command. And if you are using homebrew, you can install a handy utility called watch. Watch just runs the command repeatedly ever 1 second (-n 1)
So use a command like this from the terminal. In my example, I'm just downloading the image file to my Downloads directory. I'm not trying to open the image or mount the image.
watch -n 1 "lsof +D /Users/gman/Downloads"

After the download finishes, then the output of the command shows this:
Every 1.0s: lsof +D /Users/gman/Downloads                          w4sp Sat Feb 20 10:18:06 2021

COMMAND     PID USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE  SIZE/OFF    NODE NAME
diskimage 46638 gman    3r   REG    1,5 159570818 8771639 /Users/gman/Downloads/Notion-2.0.11.dmg

When the diskimage entry disappears from the lsof command (and this may take some time), you can then open image and mount it without getting the resource busy message.


There is no other way to unlock your phone other than to do a factory reset / restore backup.

You can have your local Apple Store employees help you, or if you change your mind, you can follow one of these two Apple support pages on factory resetting / restoring a backup of your phone.

Erase and reset your phone to factory settings
Restore a backup of your iPhone

Good luck!


VoiceOver's Trackpad Commander does this, although I doubt you can use it without having VoiceOver on. Here is Apple's tutorial on Trackpad Commander.


Accessing certain diacritical vowel characters in the Spanish layout in Mac OS X

Option/alt + ñ on the Spanish ISO layout, followed by a or o gives you ã and õ.

To make a custom layout, use Ukelele

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele

PS If you are running 10.7, you can also get those characters by holding down the a and o keys until the Character Picker popup menu appears.


Is there free software for recognizing a song when it plays?

I'm not sure if you have a smartphone, but Shazam and SoundHound work well by using the phone's mic to identify songs while they're playing.  And I know you said you don't want to use MusicBrainz, but have you tried the scan feature?  It scans the song and tries to identify it based on a musical "fingerprint", not just by metadata.


Why do I get notifications about new Photos memories from a decade ago?

10 year old photos must have been scanned for faces and scenes by now. Whatever new processing happens might be due to some changes or features they bring to Photos or Siri.

As far as memories are concerned from Apple,

  Rediscover favorite and forgotten moments from deep in your photo library. Memories automatically creates curated collections of your most meaningful photos and videos.

So (These are my guesses) whichever photos involve you in a happy state, your friends, or those shared or opened a lot would appear back.


How can I update my 3rd generation iPod touch from iOS 5.1.1 iOS 6.0

Unfortunately you can't, iOS 6 requires at least an 4th generation iPod touch (as noted in the System Requirements (right hand side) of Apples Update overview).


Printer Deploy with and custom preset profiles to Mac OS X workstations

You will need to install the drivers before you are able to setup the Mac systems to use that printer's Authentication method.  You'll need to download the drivers from Sharp Website for MX-2600N Mac Drivers.

Once you have downloaded that DMG, you'll need to open it, deploy, and install the PKG file inside correlating to the Mac OS version you are running on the destination system.  So for a client machine with Mountain Lion (10.8) you'll need to deploy that package to the machine either via SSH, email, Apple Remote Desktop, or some other method.  You mentioned through SSH so if you have a session open you would SCP it from your machine to that machine.

To install, you would run this command sudo installer -pkg /path/to/package.pkg -target /

Once the drivers are installed, you can then add the printer to the machine and have the user select the Secure Print feature in the Printing Preferences.


Is there a way to force an update to Google Maps' offline maps on iOS?

It is almost one year after your post, but with the current version of Google Maps I have:

In Google Maps, go to the Menu, Select "Your places" > scroll down to "Offline maps" section


Automatically download software update over a specific network

here is a working script, you just need customise it by changing the target_network value, which is the network you wish it to Enable AutoUpdates. And for all other wifi networks it will disable updates.

#/bin/bash

# Get WiFi network name
wifi_network=`/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport -I | grep '\sSSID:' | sed 's/.*: //'`

# Set the name of the target network where you
# want it to ENABLE Automatic Downloads
#
target_network='MyHome_Network'

echo "Currently Connected to: $wifi_network wifi network"

if [ "$wifi_network" == "$target_network" ] ;
        then `sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate AutomaticDownload -bool TRUE`
        echo "Download updates ENABLED";
else
        `sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate AutomaticDownload -bool FALSE`
        echo "Download updates DISABLED";
fi

You have to put it to run on cron as root, or create a launchctl system service daemon (it is just a .plist XML file) to schedule it to run at some time interval.

For testing, you can read the current system updating settings with this command:
sudo defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate

Run the script, read the settings, you will see it changes.

Complement:

here is a good tutorial to create a launchd daemon [with a XML example file included on the tutorial] to run a bash script as job in time intervals, I am adding it here because it fits perfectly as a complement to my answer, and will explain step by step how you can put the script above that I created, as a launchd daemon.

https://alvinalexander.com/mac-os-x/mac-osx-startup-crontab-launchd-jobs


How to recover emails backed up in iCloud

This issue is most likely something to do with Gmail and it's syncing. Check Gmail.com to see if your mail is still there.

If it is, try deleting your Gmail account from your iPad (Tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > (your Gmail account) and press "Delete Account". Then add the account back by tapping Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > New Account. Select Gmail and input your credentials. This should bring back your mail.

If you need to restore from an iCloud backup because the mail on your phone was archived locally and not synced to Gmail, restore from an iCloud backup as detailed in Apple's Support article:

Erase your iPad by tapping Settings > General > Reset All Content and Settings
After your iPad has been erased and your device has presented the greeting screen, follow the steps. Join a Wifi network, and follow the next steps.
Tap "Restore from iCloud Backup". Sign into iCloud and choose the backup you want to restore to your device.
Continue to follow the steps until you have restored your iPad and your locally archived mail should be where it was put.


Encrypting issue, laptop restarting all the time

The encryption process speed varies, and it can take a day per TB.

Just let it run all the time (overnight included)

There is not much you can do to sped it up.


How do you rotate a cell in Numbers (3.2)?

This is currently not possible within cells.

As a workaround, you can change the angle of the text labels for the X axis on a chart and use this as the header for your table.

Alternatively, you can create text boxes and rotate these.

You can provide feedback to Apple regarding this on the following page:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/numbers.html


How can I read Exchange 2003 email on a Mac with Outlook 2011?

Outlook 2011 can also connect to POP and IMAP accounts, so if your Exchange implementation supports those (IMAP preferred over POP) you should be able to use OL.  Of course, that's not a 'true' Exchange client setup.

Likely better to use your company's Outlook Web Access (OWA), or acquire Entourage 2008.


How should I install software from source so that I can make my configuration manageable and reproducible?

I think that a package manager will do most of what you need. I will show macports as that is the one I know but the others have similar functionality.

If you use the standard packages ie the up to date ones that have been packaged then macports will do all the dependencies for you. e.g. building scipy knows it has to build numpy first and will do it. You can also ninstall a port easily - macports will tell you if any ports depend on it. If a port is chnaged then macports will update the ports depending on it.

You can also manually chnage the port to deal with development versions of numpy for example. You will have to produce a copy of the port file and edit that see macports guide. The minimum would be to change the version and the rules for downloading so you get different code but can include many patches for OSX specific functions.

You can keep track of what you have installed by port list (also more advanced calls to minimise the number of commands you need. The changes you made will be in your local  Portfile repository  which will need to be backed up and a small change to the defualt macports config made.


How to update virtual machine disk space in VMware Fusion?

You need to extend the windows disk size from a running windows.

Here is how you do it: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1007266

Now that you have extended the VMware image size, you need to start at #6 in the link.

EDIT:

I don't want to write a new answer, and the comment text-box isn't large enough - so here is a more less re-write of the link:

1) extend the VMware image size.

2) attach the HD image to an existing virtual disk of the same OS as the resized image (Virtual Machine Libary->[select the VM to use]->Settings->Hard Disks->[click +]->[select the new HD in left menu]->File name->Choose existing disk...->[navigate to the resized image, and select the .vmdk]->[choose "Share this virtual disk....."]->Open->Apply) - if you will go the safe way, you'll choose "Make a separate copy af the virtual disk" instead of the "Share this virtual disk...."

3) Start the virtual machine that you just attached the new HD to.

4) Now because you are using Windows 7, you need to go to "Start->Computer Management->Disk Manager" and right-click on the partition you need to extend, and select "Extend Volume".

5) power off (shutdown VM) - and remove the HD attached in #2 - don't delete it...!

6) if you in #2 choose to make a copy of the .vmdk, then you need to replace it manually in the VMware image file (package) - right click on the VMware image (.vmwarevm)->Show Package Contents.

7) Power on the virtual machine from #1, and verify the disk size change.


Make sure that in your iCal settings all of the boxes about deleting past events are unchecked.

Also, if you have numerous devices' calendars syncing to your Mac/iCloud, make sure that in each device (i.e. iPad, iPhone etc) under calendar settings the "delete events older than..." are disabled.


Keyboard for IPA, open back rounded vowel "ɒ"

Give a try to IPA phonetic keyboards, it is not free, but definitely worth it

Then add it to your keyboards:


Safari on MacBookPro opens mobile YouTube

Found the next solution: clicked on my avatar, then settings. There was the sacred button "full-version"


There are two possibilities:

The OS is displaying the image file incorrectly.
The image file itself is corrupt.

If you can find an application that uses different routines to display the image file, then you may be able to rule out the first option, if you can get the image to display correctly in a third-party app.
Otherwise, it's an issue for the developer.


`brew doctor` gives warning for newly opened terminal windows

Edit your PATH variable in your ~/.profile (assuming you have not changed your default login shell).
There should be something like this:

export PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

change it so that /usr/local/bin in before /usr/bin.

If you do not have a ~/.profile (or it is empty) type the following:

echo 'export PATH=$PATH' >> ~/.profile,

Make certain that you use >> instead of one >.

Now edit the ~/.profile like described before.


How to easily clean up photo folder using Finder?

When I try this it works. Not that I would actually do this.

I use QuollEyeTree (freeware)

This lets you Tag files of interest, then you can perform operations on the tagged files e.g. Delete, Move etc.


How to tell if PCIe card is supported in my MacPro?

There is no comprehensive and easy place to check. Whatever pci card you place in will get power and send data to the rest of the system, but each OS has different drivers included.

The safest bet is for the card vendor to list or provide drivers or compatibility notices for you to know if it works natively without adding a driver on some or all versions of macOS / OS X.

That being said, storage is one of the safer bets since the API/interfaces there are stable for quite some time and PCI is not bleeding edge or likely to be something the vendor didn’t anticipate.

The next safe bet is to buy from a vendor that has clear sales and return policies or can support you before you buy. This usually means paying for that service (or them charging a slightly higher price across the board) since the vendors with the lowest price can just list things and not care if you get what you need since they have to pay someone to know and test things or at least follow up on returns and learn by trial and error what works and what gets returned.


How to connect to wifi while connected to a device through thunderbolt bridge

Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Network. In the
list on the left, you see the connections/services.
Click the Action pop-up menu at the bottom, then choose Set Service
Order.

Drag a service, in your case WiFi, to the top of the list.

Click OK, then click Apply to make the new settings active.


Given the same remote LDAP server, why does Directory Utility work on one machine but not on the other?

I learnt the following whilst fixing this problem. Perhaps it will help someone else in the future.
A MacOS LDAP client configured with Directory Utility stores the configuration data for LDAP servers that it knows about in /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/LDAPv3 in plists named <servername>.plist. These files can be manipulated with odutil (see man odutil).
Directory Utility can be used to upload those plists from the local file system or from the LDAP server itself.
To access the plist from the local file system, copy it to ~/Library/Application Support/Directory Access/LDAPv3/Templates and ensure that it is called <anything>.plist (i.e. it must have the filetype .plist). After that has been done, if you edit the server data in Directory Utility under the 'Search & Mappings' tab, in the drop-down labelled 'Access this LDAPv3 server using' you will see the text '<anything>' from the filename of the plist. If you select this, the settings from your plist will be applied to the client.
Similarly, it is possible to create an entry in the LDAP server itself that contains exactly the same text and use that instead. The following shows what I see in ldapvi when I look at the entry I created:
13 ou=macosxodconfig,<local RDN>,<LDAP base DN>
objectClass: top
objectClass: organizationalUnit
ou: macosxodconfig
description:; <?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>\
    ...the rest of the plist comes here ...
</dict>\
</plist>

Note: everything from the ";" to the end of the definition is the contents of our plist - without the "\"s, which are an artefact of ldapvi. How you get the plist into your server is up to you: I use Apache Directory Studio. The only apparent restriction is that the entry must be an organizationalUnit called ou=macosxodconfig. After that has been done, if you edit the server data in Directory Utility under the 'Search & Mappings' tab, in the drop-down labelled 'Access this LDAPv3 server using' you will see the option 'From Server'. If you select this, you will be prompted for a search base (I suggest you choose '<local RDN>,<LDAP base DN>', replacing the stuff in angle brackets with something that makes sense on your context. The settings from your plist will then be applied to your client.
Just in case you forgot, you have to tell MacOS that your are using an LDAP server. You do this in System Preferences -> 'Users & Groups' -> 'Login Options': to the right you will see the label 'Network Account Server' with an 'Edit...' button next to it. Authenticate yourself by clicking on the lock at the bottom of the window, click on the 'Edit...' button and add your server(s) to the list here.
You may also need to go back to Directory Utility and add your LDAP server(s) to its 'Search Policy' (tab on the home window).
Steve


Editing the /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist file

Some paths and applications in El Capitan are protected by System Integrity Protection. Even root can't modify the files. You first have to disable SIP before editing or modifying them.

Reboot your Mac to Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down CommandR until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
Click Utilities -> Terminal.
In the Terminal window, enter in csrutil disable and press Enter.
Restart your Mac
Modify the file(s)
Reboot your Mac to Recovery Mode by restarting your computer and holding down CommandR until the Apple logo appears on your screen.
Click Utilities -> Terminal.
In the Terminal window, enter in csrutil enable and press Enter.
Restart your Mac


In full-screen mode, Chrome only sometimes reveals tabs -- why?

Make sure "Always Show Toolbar in Full Screen" is enabled under "View" when Chrome is open.


Upgrade path for CouchDB 1.x to 2.x on macOS?

As of now, Apache CouchDB 2.1 is available via Homebrew Cask.

Executing:

brew cask info apache-couchdb

lists the following output:

apache-couchdb: 2.1.1
https://couchdb.apache.org/
Not installed
From: https://github.com/caskroom/homebrew-cask/blob/master/Casks/apache-couchdb.rb
==> Name
Apache CouchDB
==> Artifacts
Apache CouchDB.app (App)


aText MAS version doesn't work El Capitan due to sandboxing. You can switch to non-MAS version for free, by downloading http://www.trankynam.com/atext/downloads/aText.dmg

Check their Facebook page

  I am sorry for the late responding. Unfortunately aText Mac App Store version does not work on OSX 10.11 El Capitan. This is not fixable.
  aText 'full' version (not sandboxed) still works with OSX 10.11 El Capitan.
  Please switch to non-MAS version for free, by downloading http://www.trankynam.com/atext/downloads/aText.dmg

You can also check their video link on their website.


How to reload app preferences and documents on iPhone?

Once you've installed the relevant apps back on the device, open iExplorer or similar app and copy the files back on to the device in the app's data container.


Save the keychain folder(/Users/[UserName]/Library/Keychains) on an external drive or in the cloud.
After the reinstall, then replace the "/Users/[UserName]/Library/Keychains" with the data you saved in the step before.

(Some of your keys may already be saved in iCloud)


Music collection is not sorted by Album on iOS 8.4

Go to Settings > Music and under Library check if "Sort Albums" is set to Artists or Title

Change to "By Title" to sort them the way you described.


most music players, you have to go into the settings and there should be a setting where you point the app to the folder where your music is stored. the same as you do in itunes settings in the advanced tab. look for that. its got to be in the settings somewhere. you could also just try to open the music app, and drag the music folder into the player screen. also the same as itunes.


This application requires iOS XX.x or later

After doing a bit more googling and a suggestion here I found a work around.

It appears the AppStore will not offer you the older version of the application if you have not downloaded it in the past (ie own it already). So the solution is,

Log in to the appstore from an up to date device (borrow one if you must).
Download the app you need.
Go back to your older device and locate the app in the appstore.
The icon to download the app should now be a cloud with the down arrow.
Press the cloud button and it will advise you that it will download the older version.


iPhone 6 storage, iCloud usage in general lists 2 phones

It's most likely an old phone of yours; Perhaps you upgraded to a different model recently?

Either way, you should be able to click on it & then click 'delete backup'


is there any way to enable the Silverlight Plug-In in Safari 12?

No, there is no way to make the current version of the Silverlight plugin work with Safari 12.

As of today, no actively supported web browser on macOS can run the current Silverlight plugin (neither Safari, Chrome nor Firefox, see below for more information). The culprit is the technology the plugin is based on: NPAPI, which has been deprecated in all major browsers because of security concerns, the latest of them being Safari with version 12.

This means that you must use an unsupported browser, with all the risks that entails.

If you insist on using Silverlight on macOS, I think your "safest" bet would be Firefox 52 ESR for that specific sports site. You can download it from Mozilla's release repository.

Firefox 52 ESR has been replaced with Firefox 60 ESR, but its latest version is somewhat recent, released on June 25 2018.

As explained above, neither Safari 12, Chrome version 45 or later nor Firefox 52 or later support NPAPI plugins, with the exception of Adobe Flash.


How to automatically watch for file changes and perform a custom action inside shell?

The $25 Codekit does watch folders and files for changes and does compress/minify/combine JavaScript and CSS files.

I know this is only a partial answer for your question, as it is not a generic watcher, but it does fit your example:

  whenever I edit a JavaScript source file to output a compressed
  version


Can't Rename Images Sequentially Via Applescript Because Other Images Already Have That Name

The main problem is similar to your other topic - the new name + suffix is not checked against what is already in the folder.  My answer to that topic used a general-purpose handler for getting a new name, so without using that, the (stripped down) contents are used instead:

set all_files to (choose file with prompt "Choose the Files you'd like to rename:" with multiple selections allowed)
set theName to "Hello World " -- includes separator text

tell application "Finder"
    set theFolder to container of first item of all_files -- the base folder
    repeat with this_file in all_files
        set theExtension to name extension of this_file -- keep existing extension
        if theExtension is not "" then set theExtension to "." & theExtension
        if name of this_file does not start with theName then -- don't rename renamed items

            # the "increment suffix number until the name is unique" part
            set counter to 1 -- starting suffix
            set newName to theName & counter & theExtension
            tell (get name of items of theFolder) to repeat while it contains newName -- get new name
                set counter to counter + 1
                set newName to theName & counter & theExtension
            end repeat

            set name of this_file to newName
        end if
    end repeat
end tell


Time Machine backup of renamed computer fails

Try to use tmutil inheritbackup:

sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/Data/OldHostname.sparsebundle

From man tmutil:

inheritbackup {machine_directory | sparsebundle}
        Claim a machine directory or sparsebundle for use by the current
        machine. Requires root privileges.

        Machine directories and sparsebundles are owned by one computer
        at a time, and are tracked by unique identifiers rather than com-
        puter name, host name, or ethernet address. The inheritbackup
        verb reassigns the identity of the specified item, reconfiguring
        it so the current host recognizes it during backups. When inher-
        iting a sparsebundle, the machine directory within will also be
        claimed.

        Inheriting is typically only one step in the process of configur-
        ing a backup for use by a machine. You may also need to use
        setdestination, associatedisk, or both, depending on the situa-
        tion.

        One machine can own multiple machine directories and sparsebun-
        dles, but it is ill-advised for them to reside in the same place.
        In such a situation, which will be chosen during a backup is
        undefined. As a result, inheritbackup will attempt to detect pos-
        sible identity collisions before making changes.

See also http://pondini.org/TM/B6.html.


If having such characters in decomposed form (represented by two codepoints, base character plus combining accent mark)  is a problem for further processing you need to do, then you can use an app like Unicode Checker to convert the text to Unicode Normalization Form C.  That will change them into the composed, single-codepoint form.

http://earthlingsoft.net/UnicodeChecker/


how much traffic iOS Maps using while in turn-by-turn navigation mode?

Apparently, not much:

  My 20min 6 mile commute this morning used up about 150KB. Which could have been just traffic.

Source: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=15684662&postcount=6

This is without flyover and using standard maps (without satellite view).


File Not Found Error while including bits/stdc++.h

Since, bits/stdc++ is a GNU GCC extension, whereas OSX uses the clang compiler.

You have to create bits directory inside /usr/local/include and then make a header file stdc++.h inside bits and paste the contents of this code inside it. Then, it should compile as expected.


How can I remove a signature once it's saved in Preview.app?

A possibility is to try
File > Revert To > Browse all versions...

though I guess it will depend on how far back that version history goes. I've been unable to discover just how far back that would be & for how long it may be saved.


Are OS installations on a disk linked to a system?

This shouldn't be a problem. I have done similar things both with an external disk and an internal disk. The first boot may take a very long time, but it is working — leave it to do its thing. Of course, double check your backups before performing something like this.


How to save data from a time machine backup that has gone bad

I am simply going for an answer with this because I believe it is the only one.

First of all don't use Finder. If you do, don't copy it all because Finder does not understand what a hard link is.

If you would like to keep the data in sort of the same structure you can use rsync with a version number greater 3. Not the version supplied by Apple. With that you would be able to copy the volume including hardlinks while preserving xattrs and permissions. With one caveat. Not the ownership because that is set to nobody right now.

Tmutil keeps track of it and you can inherit them on another machine/installation. But restoring seems (as far as my research has lead me) also to be limited to tmutil. While I am sure that there are certainly commands that would do this at will they are not documented in

man tmutil

In order to get all data off you will have to run rsync as root. Which will then be the owner afterwards. Alternatively it will set them back to how they were but at nobody as the owner isn't that useful either. The rsync route would allow you to only copy the files that actually exist if you choose to preserve hardlinks. The resulting data set would be about the same size, should be identical in properties with the only difference being that the folders are now not hard-linked. Only the files are.

Personally I would be interested in trying to ask tmutil afterwards to adopt this data set. In any case you will then be able to browse the data freely.

If you just wan't to get all the unique data that is on the time machine disk you can ask fdupes to list hard-links as duplicates (it has a switch for that) and then have them deleted. This should leave you with one unique set. There will still be loads of files that are practically identical but not actually bit for bit. So it might be still messy.

I have gone trough something similar myself. Basically Time Machine should either you once your backup has reached a certain age and tell you to start over. Because it is impossible to restore a working installation from a time machine backup that is a couple of months old (depends on usage, obviously). It simply becomes a really fragmented mess if it has to keep track of millions of files in order to create the consistent set at point X in time. The alternative would be to reconsolidate the sets permanently but that would mean that the resource usage of Time Machine would go up. For mobile computers that would also be unpractical since the disk would need to be connected for extended periods of time. If you like the idea that you can reinstall your computer to the state it was 1h ago before you installed "xy" or did some "rm"ing on something that seemed useless you better keep only 2 or 3 months worth of time machine around (again, depends on usage). Or start using rsync and multiple targets, either with a self written solution or with one of the commercial wrappers around it. Separating the Backup strategy for stored data and working data also helps.

If now someone will turn up an say that using something like ZFS Snapshots would be better then I can only recommend to test that for a couple of weeks and not just blabber on what is written on the internet. This does need considerably more resources to the time machine solution. If it is used for files that change a lot you either end up with pretty gigantic snapshots and are running out of disk space which won't be restored if you delete the snapshots in between. If you even can delete them, which is unlikely. Which only leaves you with the option to delete the oldest ones frequently but in that case Time Machine works absolutely fine as well. From my experience even better. Deduplications would need a very fine graded adjustment since so many files are altered every couple of minutes on OSX but are still kept for years.
Incremental backups over a long time seem so of alluring but in practise that might not be the best approach.


On your iphone go to Settings > Messages and turn off "text message forwarding".  Then scroll down and look for "Send and Receive" where you can control what addresses or phone numbers messages can be received using.

You may or may not want to turn Settings > Messages on the iPad off, I think the above two changes will handle what you are looking to accomplish.


Are there personal finance applications offering both an iPhone and a mac version?


Can I update Mail.app to fix persistent crashing?

The version of Mail.app available to you to is pinned to the version of OS X you're running as it is considered a core application that is bundled, shipped and installed with the operating system.

If you want a new version of Mail.app you'll need update OS X. Your iMac, assuming it's the Late 2006 model I think it is based on what you wrote, should be able to run OS X 10.7.x Lion. Upgrading to Lion is a fairly painless activity though you should be certain to follow best-practices and make a backup of your system before you do the upgrade. The upgrade tools will maintain all your Mail.app settings and you won't lose email, contacts or any other such thing like that.

Alternatively you can look for a third party mail application that's compatible with OS X 10.6.8 and try running one of those. Honestly, I can't recall any that were 10.6.8 compatible off the top of my head though.

A third option is to try and figure out what's keeping Mail.app from running on your machine. The best place to start is by looking in Console.app -- run Console.app and then start Mail.app and look at the error messages that are printed in the Console. They might shed some light on what's going wrong. Or they might form the basis of a new question here on Ask Different to figure out what's going wrong!


Start XQuartz automatically on X11 app launch

I was having the same problem. Quitting XQuartz and deleting ~/.Xauthority resolved the issue for me.  I got the idea to do this from the Mountain Lion, Xquartz, and (lost) autostart thread in the Apple Mailing List. Other suggestions from that thread include:

Logging out and then back in after installing XQuartz.
Ensuring that the $DISPLAY variable is being set by by launchd and not clobbered by your shell scripts (see http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X11-UsersFAQ#sshXforwardingdebugging)


Notes loss caused by email-account deletion

If your notes are really stored in your email account, you should be able to reconnect to the same email account over IMAP to gain access to your notes again. Do not configure the email account as POP3 for example.

However, if you really have a new MacBook, it is probably running El Capitan. With El Capitan notes are no longer stored on IMAP email accounts - in fact it is not supported at all. Most likely your notes are really stored in iCloud, and you need to relogin to iCloud or reenable Notes in the iCloud preferences to access them.


"drag n drop" application to convert images to base64 string (for web development)

Base64 Automator Droplet

You can use Automator to create your own Base64 droplet. Mac OS X includes openssl which can encode files to Base64; this superuser question explains how, OS X: Base64 encode via command line

Launch Automator.app
Create a new application
Add a Run Shell Script action
Set Pass input: to as arguments
Within the script, replace echo with the script below.
Save your workflow as an application

To use your application, drag and drop files onto it. A new base64 encoded file will appear next to the original file.

Shell Script

for f in "$@"
do
    openssl base64 -in "$f" -out "$f.b64"
done

To learn more about using Automator, see Apple's Mac Basics: Automator.


Who is hosting the remote disc when reinstalling OS from remote disc

Remote Disk is a method for sharing another user's CD/DVD drive over your local network, if your own Mac doesn't have an optical drive. It's not a method for installing an OS onto a blank Mac.

For that you would use Internet Recovery to reinstall your OS from scratch;
hold  Cmd ⌘   Opt ⌥   R   at the boot chimes.
This will load the image directly from Apple.

See Apple KB: How to reinstall macOS


Why is my new mid-2011 Air dropping wifi signal which old 2008 MacBook can hold? And is this related to my complete machine failures?

Is your old MacBook (the one which doesn't drop connection) running Lion or a previous OSX release?

The reason why I'm asking this is that I suspect it might be an issue with Lion, and not with the Air.

I have an early 2009 17" MacBook Pro that never dropped Wifi while at home, ever. Since upgrading to Lion 1 week ago, I lost Wifi 3 or 4 times, but only for a short period (it automatically reconnects after a few seconds).

I am confident that it's not a router failure, as one of the time my MBP dropped wifi I was downloading a file on my wife's iMac (over Wifi) and it didn't drop.

Fwiw, my router is a 2nd-gen (dual-band) Time Capsule.


Make sure the iPad is turned off. Hold Home and plugin the Dock Connector cable. If the iPad shows an attach to iTunes screen, you can restore it. If it doesn't, you have to put it into DFU mode. It's a bit tricky, so don't panic if you doesn't manage it the first time. When you're in DFU mode, iTunes will ask you to restore it.

A tutorial for iPad DFU is this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWy2xG0U4u8
It's looking as if you would have to have a running iPad, but it does work the same way if it's turned off. This is also true for iPods and iPhones.

There is no way to brick your iDevice using software. If you can't get it to work using these two tricks, its hardware is faulty. Good luck!


Backing up a disk image with Time Machine

To back up a disk image, you back up the .dmgfile itself, instead of the virtual disk the system shows you.

However, unless the disk image is a sparse bundle image. Time machine will have to backup the entire disk every time the disk changes.


How to store home and applications folder on another drive

Moving your Applications folder to anyplace BUT "/Applications" can cause issues with certain apps, particularly when it's time to update. It may work with a symlink.

The home folder is much easier. Make a new admin user and log in to that. From there, move your home folder to the location you want. Then open up System Preferences, and click on Users & Groups. Unlock the pane, if locked. Right click on the user who's home folder you are moving and choose "Advanced Options".

From that sheet that slides down, you can choose the new location of that user's home folder.

I've used this in the past to have the OS and Applications folder live on an SSD boot drive, while the home folders live on a larger HDD.


How can I select a single photo form a photo burst using Photos.app on MacOS Catalina?

Double click on it, click "Make a Selection..." on the top left corner, and you'll get an interface for that.


How to tell the difference between a legitimate Apple request for my password, and an app phishing attempt?

Press on the Home button on your device - if the app quits, it is a fake popup. If the app persists, it is real.

The safest is to always assume that the popup is fake. Then access the Apple supplied program that supposedly gave the popup (for example Settings => iCloud) and enter your password there if indicated.


UI controls in Firefox, Opera, etc. are broken, old-fashioned or blurry (Retina)

All the problem (except the 4th one -- Adobe Acrobat) disappeared recently without me doing anything specific. At first all buttons except the colored default button are replaced with new button styles, and then the default buttons are fixed some hours later. Note that an upgrade to Mavericks does NOT solve the issues, nor any restarts or permission repairs do.

I installed updates for iTunes, iBooks, Mail and Xcode just before the problem disappeared. I also installed a Java VM for running Java applets in my browser, though I don't think all these programs are Java-based. This information might give hints on what actually fixes the ugly UI.

P.S. I just noticed some other changes in the overall UI. Maybe Apple is changing the UI in the background, without showing anything in the App Store?


How to go to the position of spotlight's result?


Using Mac to connect PlayStation 4 to VPN

It sounds like you need an inexpensive switch. Plug the router in to the switch and your PS4 and Mac into the switch.

TP-Link 5 Port Fast Ethernet Switch | Desktop Ethernet Splitter | Ethernet Hub | Plug and Play | Fanless Quiet | Unmanaged (TL-SF1005D), White https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FNFSPY

You could get faster networking in your building to go to gigabit speeds, but it’s unlikely your VPN or internet are faster than the switch I linked to. This won’t solve the VPN side, so ask that on a network site or once your physical network is working.

I would not have your Mac relay traffic when network gear is so much faster and power efficient.


Can I capture a zoomed-in screen with the "Screen Capture" feature of OS X?

No, because the capture is capturing the pixels that comprise the selected area, not the 'screen' as it is displayed to you.

It's something I've wished for in the past, too.


Switch between workspaces with mouse (not trackpad / magicpad and not keyboard)

You can, of course, use the mouse to click on Mission Control in the dock and then click on your space. It takes 2 clicks but still pretty quick!


Karabiner:

  <item>
    <identifier>private.w2wRepeat</identifier>
    <name>Turn W key to W key repeat</name>
    <autogen>
      __KeyToKey__
      KeyCode::W,
      KeyCode::W,
      DelayUntilRepeat::RawValue::1,
      KeyRepeat::RawValue::1,
    </autogen>
  </item>


How can I export all calendar entries from iCloud?

Found a workaround for this:

Make the calendar public in iCloud
Open the Calendar.app on an iOS device
Tap the Calendars button on the bottom and then the i on the calendar you want to share
Tap the Share Link... button and send the link to yourself somehow

For some reason this link works fine, but the one from https://icloud.com doesn't.


How can I use a keyboard shortcut to go to my Dropbox folder

System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > select Application Shortcuts in the left column > click the "+" button > Application = Finder, Menu Title = Dropbox, Keyboard Shortcut = whatever you like > click Add

test it out. worked great for me from Finder

Note that this uses the Finder's "Go to > Recent Folders" Submenu. If the Folder isn´t in the List (and there's no way to keep it there), you won't be able to jump to it.


Transfer purchases was actually disabled in iOS 9. Apple disabled it because there are many different variants of an app from the App Store. This means that an app that was on an iPad Air that was then transferred to a PC can't be used on an iPhone or an iPad Mini.

A thread was posted here about why it was disabled and goes into more detail.

If you want to put all your data onto a new iPad, just backup your old iPad and restore as a backup on a new iPad.

Good luck!

Cheers


This happens whenever I erase the free space on my hard drive (probably for the same reason -- that process creates a big file that eats up all the free space, then overwrites it, creating a low space condition in the process).  Typing this command at the terminal:

  sudo mdutil -i on /Volumes/Hard_Disk_Name_Goes_Here

will rebuild your index. Substitute your own disk's volume name in the obvious place.


Trackpad Issues - Should I let them prevent me from upgrading to Yosemite?

Your fears are unfounded, although kudos to you for being so conscientious about the unique circumstances of your machine before attempting to upgrade. In any case, consider an iMac or Mac Pro which must have an external mouse, there is no internal pointing device. You'll be fine as far as a USB pointing device goes as long as the mouse you're using did not require any special drivers when you first began using it.


I can't record my voice using GarageBand, but can still record instruments

I'm assuming the Instruments are already-loaded samples, you're just lining up along a track, or as a midi track to fire single note samples.

If so, that requires very little additional storage - the samples are already there, it just needs to remember what order they go in.

An actual audio recording, on the other hand, is going to eat about 5MB data per minute, mono, or 10MB/m stereo.


Xcode 6.4 does not start on OS X 10.10.5 Yosemite

Make a new user account (admin role) and log out.

If you can start Xcode from Launchpad or Finder in the new account - it's a user level issue. If not, then start with system issues like restart / reinstall latest combo updater or safe boot.


So you mean browser tabs rather than application windows? Answer is no. That's the purpose of private mode / incognito tabs. Once closed - they are gone.

If you talk about opened programs, that is possible.


How to detect network connectivy on an interface?

If they are watching the screen why not go to System Preferences -> Network and watch the connected indicator.  It will show connected when connected to a switch even before DHCP.

This is also where a cable tester comes in handy.  Even the cheesiest of testers will work for this.  Check these out:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Klein-Tools-LAN-Explorer-Data-Cable-Tester-with-Remote-VDV526-100/309925931

Or a simple tone tester...

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Sperry-Lan-WireTracker-Tone-and-Probe-Wire-Tracer-ET64220/202520187


Why my contacts have disappeared? How to get them back?

I think you should sign into the site of iCloud to view all the contacts every time you saved contacts.


How can I permit SSH connection terminal programs to access Camera?

You can access the list of permissions in System Preferences => Security & Privacy. Select the Privacy tab and then choose Camera in the list on the left. You can then checkmark the apps on the right that you want to have access to the camera.

If you have previously denied access to a program, it should appear here where you can checkmark it to allow access again.

As you're running a command line program from within the Terminal, it is Terminal.app that appears in the list on the right - and this is the program that needs to be checkmarked.

UPDATE: After your edit I realize that your problem is specifically when run via SSH, and not in general via the command line. In that case try prefixing your command with the "open" command.

For example like this:

open -a /Path/To/imagesnap /Path/To/imagesnap


osascript Expected end of line but found class name?

The line

click button "Allow" group 1 of window 1

is missing an ‘of’

click button "Allow" of group 1 of window 1

If the button isn’t in a group, omit the group completely

click button "Allow" of window 1


ls command: What does the @ in file mode mean, and how to get rid of it?

From the ls manual (man ls) section The Long Format

  If the file or directory has extended attributes, the permissions field printed by the -l option is followed by a '@' character.

You can then display the extended attributes with -@

  -@      Display extended attribute keys and sizes in long (-l) output.

To manipulate extended attributes you can use the xattr command. See for example How do I remove the extended attributes in Mac OS X or Dealing With Extended Attributes on OS X


Is there any way to protect the M1 SSD by sacrificing space / How to over-provision an SSD on MacOS?

SSDs just don't work like that.
Formatting & partitioning aren't placed in 'zones' like on an HD. The sectors/cells that the drive keeps as spares aren't even accessible to the OS, only to the drive's internal firmware. SSDs 'spray' data right across the usable sectors using complex algorithms really only known to the drive itself to prevent excessive wear.
The way to ensure an SSDs life is to keep a lot of free space on it. The smaller the drive, the larger the percentage. 10-15% minimum free on large drives; teeny ones, 128GB & 256GB, I'd keep a minimum of 25-35GB free.


Can I purchase regular DDR3 RAM for my MAC (not from an iMac store?)

Generally in principle yes. You do not need to purchase expensive Apple memory.

However you will need to check for each model - the best thing is to go to a reputable memory supply company website which sells certified RAM and look up your model.

You can search for them online but here is a respected store (I have no affiliations with)

http://www.crucial.com


First of all, when you create an iCloud account it is also automatically an Apple ID as well. So, based on your question, you now actually have two Apple IDs at your disposal. However, this doesn't mean you need to use both, or that you only have to use one. Let me explain...

An Apple ID can be used to access Apple services such as the iOS App Store, macOS App Store (if you have a Mac), Apple Music, iCloud, iMessage, FaceTime, and so on. So, if you wanted, you could use your Apple ID to sign in to all of Apple's services (i.e. using a single Apple ID and password).

However, you don't have to do it that way. For example, you could use your iCloud account to sign into iCloud on your iPhone X and still use the first Apple ID you created to sign into the App Store on your iPhone X. And you could manage these happily (and simultaneously) on your device. Some people even use three IDs (e.g. a different one for Game Center).

So, based on what you're wanting to do, you can choose to sign out of anywhere you've already used the first Apple ID and then sign back in with the iCloud account you created.

However, there are a couple of scenarios you should be aware of in case they apply to your circumstances:

If you've purchased any apps (free or paid) from the App Store using a particular Apple ID, then you're going to need to enter that Apple ID's password when updating those particular apps in future. One way to get around this would be to delete those apps and then sign out of the App Store. Then, sign back in using the other ID and download those apps again. One negative of this approach is that you'd have to pay for it again if they weren't free.
In the unlikely event that your first Apple ID is attached to one particular country's services (e.g. the US iTunes Store), and the second ID is attached to to another one (e.g. the UK iTunes Store), then you may lose access to any purchases you made using the first ID (depending on the content, as this doesn't apply in all cases). Regardless, this is not something you need to worry about, as this would only be the situation if you deliberately created accounts in multiple jurisdictions for a particular purpose - it's not something that would have happened by accident (unless you purchased the iPhone X in one country and created an Apple ID, and then visited/moved to another country and created your iCloud account there). However, if you were in this situation, then you can still choose to switch between IDs if/when you needed to access/view the other content.

Finally, if you've only just purchased the iPhone X and don't have a lot of data already on it, you could choose to set it up from scratch again and just use the ID you want. If this is the case, post a comment below and I'll explain how to go about doing this.


Delete user account - High Sierra - 10.13.2

You need to wipe the Mac & start over.
Right now you don't own even the OS, let alone any of the other software on the Mac. You will at some point come up against the issue that an update requires the Apple ID of the original owner & you will then be stuck.
See Apple KB - What to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your Mac
The original owner should have done this. As they didn't, you need to do the last one - Erase your hard drive and reinstall macOS.
By wiping the Mac & starting afresh with your own Apple ID, you will then have full control over the Mac.
Depending on precisely which Mac it is [if it is new enough to have a T2 chip*] you may need the original owner to retrospectively do the first 6 steps or you may be locked out. If you reach that point & cannot trace the original owner, then only Apple can unlock it & will require proof of ownership.
*Apple KB - About the Apple T2 Security Chip


How can I make ctrl+right/left arrow stop changing Desktops in Lion?

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Mission Control and change the settings for "Move left a space" and "Move right a space" or disable them completely.


Will Terminal show a progress bar when I copy with "cp"?

You can use rsync instead.

rsync --progress /copy/from /copy/to


How to transfer an App Store app after developer enrolment ended?

You can't do it until you renew your developer account.

But, I know a couple of cases where calling Apple and explaining the case, Apple renew the account for 10 days to let users delete apps (don't know about transferring, but you could try).


Can you go to an Apple store for a problem with a product you bought in another country?

Absolutely go to an Apple retail store if one is convenient. Worst case, they can assist you in setting up service in the country of origin if that is needed, but in many cases, parts are universal should you need an actual hardware repair.

Both countries you mention also have web service, so you can set up service and possibly a repair without needing a trip to the store.

Technically, Apple could ask you to mail the product back to the country where you bought it, but my experience is that is reserved for rare circumstances and not the normal procedure.


How can I move everything from my MacBook Pro Retina mid 2012 to a new MacBook Pro without reinstalling everything

Several ways to do this, you have partially answered your own question... Most "hassle free" way would be using Migration Assistant on both Macs.

The procedure is described with a step by step procedure below:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5872

I would suggest you avoid the Wi-Fi option altogether, due to a lot lower speeds than a thunderbolt cable, but it can be used if you have no thunderbolt cable, or no external HDD that you can create a Time Machine backup on.


Reattaching remote servers: no such file or directory in terminal

As of El Capitan, OSX 10.11.0, this is no longer an issue.  Terminal is now able to recover once the remote server has been remounted.


~/Library/Containers

This directory serves multiple purposes, some of which may be not yet documented by Apple.

Untitled, Unsaved documents for supporting applications

Applications such as Preview and TextEdit.

Example

Copy an image to your clipboard. Open Preview, close all windows, use the New from Clipboard command, quit.

Open TextEdit, close all windows, type something in a new window, quit.

In Terminal, run two commands:

ls -@l ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information

ls -@l ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.TextEdit/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information

Unsaved… files will be listed.

System-saved versions of user-saved files, where the file system or volume does not support permanent version storage

File systems such as MS-DOS (FAT); volumes mounted using AFP 3.3 or SMB; and so on.

Example

Make an AFP or SMB connection to a file server. Use Preview to open an image on that server, edit that image, quit without saving a version, disconnect from the server.

In Terminal, run a command:

ls -lrt ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Preview/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information

At the foot of the list will be a directory that contains the version automatically saved by the System.

In the same network environment: if you re-open Preview, the system may reconnect to the file server. Then in a version browser view of the remote file, the timeline will include a local file.

(I could go into greater detail, but it would be off-topic from the opening question.)

Other purposes

Beyond the two purposes noted above, ~/Library/Containers may have other purposes.

Hint

Allow the System to manage files in these areas.

Avoid dataloss; do not attempt unnecessary changes to ~/Library or its subdirectories.


Try uninstalling any keyboard or pointing device drivers. Or delete ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/.GlobalPreferences.*.plist and restart.

You can also use PCKeyboardHack to remap caps lock. Other modifier keys can be remapped with KeyRemap4MacBook:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<root>
  <!-- <devicevendordef>
    <vendorname>KINESIS</vendorname>
    <vendorid>0x05f3</vendorid>
  </devicevendordef>
  <deviceproductdef>
    <productname>ADVANTAGE</productname>
    <productid>0x0007</productid>
  </deviceproductdef> -->
  <item>
    <name>swap_command_and_control</name>
    <identifier>swap_command_and_control</identifier>
    <!-- <device_only>DeviceVendor::KINESIS, DeviceProduct::ADVANTAGE</device_only> -->
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_L, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::COMMAND_R, KeyCode::CONTROL_L</autogen>
    <autogen>__KeyToKey__ KeyCode::CONTROL_L, KeyCode::COMMAND_L</autogen>
  </item>
</root>

Related questions:

Logging out and in resets modifier keys to defaults
Permanently swapping option and command keys on a non-Apple keyboard
How do I make Mac OS X remember "Modifier Keys" remappings for my external keyboard?


iPhone 3G dead and unresponsive to charger and buttons

You could attempt to put the iPhone in DFU Mode, and see if you can restore from iTunes. But this is almost certainly a hardware problem, and will require a trip to an Apple Store or a service provider.

To try DFU mode (note that this does a complete wipe, you'll have to rely on whatever backups you made previously):

Plug the phone into your computer.
Turn it off.
Hold the sleep/wake and home buttons for 10 seconds.
After 10 seconds, release the sleep/wake button, but keep holding the home button.

If this is successful, you should get an iTunes popup stating that it has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You can then follow the iTunes instructions to restore the software.


Wine in OS X: Issues with paths that include spanish special characters

There are many other locale variables besides LC_MESSAGES.
Try doing the same for LANG and also for LC_ALL.


How is my $PATH variable built on macOS?

The INVOCATION section of the bash man page says

  When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interactive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands from the file /etc/profile, if that file exists. After reading
  that file, it looks for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and
  ~/.profile, in that order, and reads and executes commands from the
  first one that exists and is readable.

Of particular interest is /etc/profile, which uses path_helper to build a path from what it finds in /etc/paths and /etc/paths.d/*.


Seeing the desktop while in Unity mode in VMWare Fusion?

You can view the Desktop as a folder in Windows Explorer.


It’s not baked in. Magnet seems to be the most popular app, and it’s what I use.


What rules does OS X use for naming mounted volumes?

Yes, this is standard OSX behavior. If you have two identically named volumes, OSX will suffix 2-N with a digit in the filesystem (however, I don't believe they appear differently named on the desktop)
OSX mounts everything under /Volumes/. You can see what the interface is by running the mount command. Physical volumes are mounted in /dev/diskXsY, where X and Y are interface ID's.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ - you asked it in the Apple area.


Receiving spam email from my own iCloud account and my own IP address

I believe I've figured this out. This is the well known Gcal spam, but in my case, at least, and I assume @derpymcderpson's case, the Google calendar is linked to Calendar.app (formerly iCal). That means that an email alarm from Calendar when the Gcal spam is added sends an email from your primary email account using Apple Mail (or, more specifically, MailServiceAgent). No hacking. Just unfortunate behavior. It's also, fortunately, why it only goes to your own Gmail account.


How to install both Cocoa and X11 of Emacs (preferably with Homebrew)?

In this case I would install Aquamacs or Emacs for OS X to get the Cocoa version and Homebrew for the X11 version.

Aquamacs is tuned to appear more Mac like so might not do exactly what you want - but all this is done in configuration so easy to change for an emacs veteran


How to make Application's windows always display in the same Monitor when having multiple displays?

hold the "control" key and click the App's icon on the dock, from the context menu, choice the "Options" and you can set the app keep opening on which display you want.


Emptying the trash failed with "can't copy" on Yosemite

Open the trash folder, try to rename few sub files and main directory in which the file content and then try to empty the trash. By doing the same, it will not show error and will empty the trash.

For me this worked. Hope it also helps you.


Whenever I watch videos, my screen gets flashes of snow

Depending what kind of flashes you have it is unknown, but there is one we can take care off.

Go to your system preference and click on Accessibility.

Check if the Flash the screen on error is enabled.

If yes, disable it.


How do I completely get rid of a potentially compromising picture?

I received a potentially compromising picture in a WhatsApp chat

So someone else sent it to you.

If you delete the image from within the application, emptied the trash, checked your photo stream / iPhoto folders, deleted the contents of Library/Caches on any computers linked to the same service account, and checked Time Machine in the same locations it is highly unlikely that it still exists on your computer.

But someone else still has the original.

As many public figures have discovered, it's more-or-less impossible to permanently delete an image once someone else has it.


This is actually the correct mode of operation for your OS. This improves the security of the operating system by ensuring that all expanded permissions must be intentionally set, rather than simply inherited. However, you can change this by using Access Control Lists (ACLs) in OS X.

Using the Terminal app in Application > Utilities, navigate to the parent folder in question using the cd command. Then, run the following commands:

chmod -R 774
chmod +a "group file_inherit,directory_inherit" .

The first commands allow everyone in the folder's user and group to access all files and folders in the directory, and allows people outside the group to read the files. The second sets those permissions to inherit  to all new files and folders within the shared directory.

For more information on chmod syntax and man page, look here:
http://ss64.com/osx/chmod.html

And here is a general chmod tutorial:
http://catcode.com/teachmod/


Why do i need a new email account to sync my notes in iCloud?

iOS Notes syncing works through the IMAP protocol, which in iCloud is integrated into the email service. Although Apple could technically choose to allow for notes syncing without explicitly requiring an email address, they have chosen to make it a part of the email, almost like Notes is its own email folder.

You should also be able to sync your Notes using your Gmail account since it is also based on the IMAP protocol:


How to i update an iPhone 4 with iOS 4.3.5 offline

There exists direct download links for the restore images that you can download from one computer and use for the restore on your own computer, however you will still need an internet connection for the final part of the installation (iTunes needs to verify with Apple servers).

Once you have the .ipsw file on your computer, hold down ⌘ Command (or control if on a PC) while clicking 'Update' in iTunes, and select the .ipsw file for your iPhone.


Encrypting the entire user folder will break OS X 10.10 since certain user processes get started before you log in.

You might have to re-evaluate your security levels for users if you can't trust administrators to not abuse their power. FileVault only protects you against non-users. Admin users are root and you can only hope they a) don't know that or b) refrain from bad behavior.

Look at a MDM solution like Casper from JAMF. It has a self-service tool that allows app updates and limited administrative tasks without needing end users to be admin. All users can easily be normal users whether you make tools to do the limited things they need or purchase a tool that has those policies already created.


Macbook Pro mid-2012 restarts after entering password

Without the firmware password you will need to take your machine to an Apple Store or official Service Provider, along with proof of ownership.

Ref: Apple KB: How to set a firmware password on your Mac

The old 'remove the RAM' or 'reset NVRAM' tricks etc only work with older PowerPC Macs, not Intel.


Where is the keyboard definition file for a custom input source?

After some investigation the location is:

/Users/$USER/Library/Keyboard Layouts/MyLayout.keylayout


No the caller is not notified if you block a contact from an iOS menus and they try calling you. The call rings through normally on their side and would be routed to your voicemail.  A section in voicemail will appear that is called 'Blocked Messages' where any voicemails left by callers you have blocked are kept.


Shortcut for jumping between words in Sublime Text 2 wanted

I use Sublime Text 2 (version 2.0.2, Build 2221) under OS X 10.8.5 and I move from word to word by pressing the option key and left or right arrow key.

option+←

option+→

These are the OS X standard shortcuts so most apps that use the standard SDK behave similarly.


Win7 iTunes no longer sees new iPhone SE

Go to: iTunes - Help - Run Diagnostics... - select Device connectivity tests

The tests will show what service is dead or running.

Usually a dead service could cause this problem.

If still not solved , go to this page for more information.


iOS 9.1 beta 3-4 eating up my wifi downstream

I would do three things to narrow down the culprit:

Connect to Xcode and look at the console logs for the phone - activity might be logged
Connect to Instruments and profile the network activity
Connect to iTunes and make snapshots of the storage sizes (or use storage and usage on iOS) to see what bins are growing over time.

You can turn off iCloud to reduce many downloads, but it really depends on which apps you have installed, how they background data load and what data stores they are configured to pull. Since you are on the betas, you have many options to pick apart the data flow using diagnostic profiles provided by Apple and the developer tools similarly provided.


How to access previous support articles?

If you are lost on the Apple support globe and its new appearance and older forum links are leading to nowhere, the wayback machine may be helpful:

About the Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) diagnostic LEDs

This support article doesn't mention beeps but only flashes and colors.

BTW the Apple support site still features searches:

The result is not very helpful though, despite the fact that the article is still available in the archive. I haven't been able to find it in the 100 listed results.