Will Apple's Mac Remote Wipe delete items on external disk?

If Apple's incredibly vague description of "your Mac" and "the disk" also includes what is attached to it, which anyone might assume — then YES. On the other hand, if fluff marketing jargon and disappearing statements might leave some doubts in your mind, I would say NO. The only way to really know is to do what myhd suggests.

Taken from a cached page published by Apple on Jul 15, 2012 21:25:58 GMT:

  Instant wipe

  With FileVault 2, instant wipe removes the encryption key from your
  Mac instantaneously, making the data completely inaccessible. Then
  your Mac performs an entire wipe of the data from the disk. External
  drive support

  FileVault 2 supports encryption of external USB and FireWire drives.

Source: Apple - OS X Lion - Over 250 new features. Read about all of them.

Visiting the same (live) page now displays:

  FileVault 2 encrypts your data.

  With FileVault 2, your data is safe and secure — even if it falls into
  the wrong hands. FileVault 2 encrypts the entire drive on your Mac,
  protecting your data with XTS-AES 128 encryption. Initial encryption
  is fast and unobtrusive. It can also encrypt any removable drive,
  helping you secure Time Machine backups or other external drives with
  ease. Want to start fresh or give your Mac to someone else? FileVault
  2 makes it easy to clean data off your Mac. Instant wipe removes the
  encryption key from your Mac — making the data completely inaccessible
  — then proceeds with a thorough wipe of all data from the disk.

  OS X and iCloud can help find your missing Mac.

  OS X and iCloud can help keep your Mac safe even when you misplace it.
  Sign in to iCloud.com from another computer or use the Find My iPhone
  app on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to locate your missing Mac on a
  map. If your Mac is offline when you try to find it, you can ask to
  receive an email as soon as it makes a Wi-Fi connection. You can also
  display a message on your Mac screen so whoever has it knows how to
  get it back to you. And until your Mac is back in safe hands, you can
  set a passcode lock remotely, or even initiate a remote wipe to delete
  your personal data and restore your Mac to its factory settings.


Sounds like the exact use case for the Shelf Plugin for Quicksilver. That plugin gives you a place where you can put stuff (can be anything you can have in the first pane in Quicksilver, but in your case it will be text snippets) and then easily call them up again and use them.

For that to work you need to install both the Shelf Plugin and the Clipboard Plugin.
Then you can call up Quicksilver, enter a text snippet in the normal Quicksilver text entry mode and choose "Put on Shelf" as action.

To see what's on the shelf, you call up Quicksilver, and use the shortcut ⌘+⌥+s. That brings up a little window showing you all the things on your shelf. when that window is open, you can also use the mouse to drag any text to that window to add it to the shelf.

The best way to use the things on the shelf is this: Set up a trigger with "Shelf" as the object and "Show contents" as action. That opens the contents of the shelf in the normal Quicksilver interface, so you can search them or just scroll through them. Once you selected the text snippet, you can use the "Paste"/"Paste as Plain Text" actions to paste it in your document.

There are some more cool things about that plugin: If you use the mouse from time to time, you can have easy access to the shelf window by dragging it to the side of the screen. If it's close enough to the edge of the screen, the window will slide into the edge and hide there. To call it up again, just move the mouse to that edge of the screen and it will slide out again. You can then use the mouse to drag-and-drop stuff from the shelf to wherever you need them.

The Clipboard Plugin has a similar window that provides a history of what you copied and pasted, which is also very handy.


I figured this out myself in the end. One needs to relaunch the com.apple.applespell service (from the command line).
launchctl stop com.apple.applespell
launchctl start com.apple.applespell


Make Macports use HTTPS (SSL/TLS) to fetch packages

The obvious solution would be to modify the source URLs for the packages. The source URLs for a lot of packages appears to be /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/ports/_resources/port1.0/fetch/mirror_sites.tcl.

Having said that, I'm not sure whether it is a good idea to modify that file.

If you do a selfupdate your modified file will be replaced.

Also not all the mirrors are set up correctly to work with HTTPS. For example, the mirror in your example above http://lil.fr.packages.macports.org/ presents an error if you try to access it at https://lil.fr.packages.macports.org/ because the host name of the certificate doesn't match.


Are the changes to Lion's screen sharing documented anywhere publicly?

Maybe … multi-session screen sharing — the license for Mac OS X (Lion) uses the expression separate graphical desktop session.
Mac OS X v10.6 to v10.7 API Diffs
Items of interest but nothing overtly related to screen sharing.
Open source
Released for 10.7 but some of what's there (example: Open Directory) is not amongst Apple's list of open source projects, so I would not treat the latter as comprehensive.
Again I can't see anything specific to screen sharing in Lion.
Timeline of recent documents in the Mac OS X Developer Library
http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/navigation/
Filtering the list of documents for the word screen doesn't reveal anything obviously relevant, but you might like to review that list occasionally.
Overall
Considering what's in the license, my hunch is that Apple will not be especially open about recent and forthcoming changes (if any) to screen sharing in Lion.
Update
Comments from bmike rung a bell. Apple's article HT4715 About Apple Remote Desktop v3.5 includes a section Lion screen sharing with the following information:

A third party VNC viewer will always be connected to the login window. If the login window is not on the display, a new login window is started that is not shown on the display. The screen sharing user can then log in with any valid account on that computer.

If a third party VNC viewer has difficulty, then maybe it's not following best practice, or the most appropriate standard … whatever those practices/standards may be! With apologies for teaching grandmothers to suck eggs (bmike won't need this but someone else might): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Network_Computing


Which are main technical reasons to switch to Lion?

Lion's improved security is worth a mention. Don't get me wrong, Lion still has its share of security issues (see LDAP and enterprise updates).  But Apple's inclusion of sandboxing, full hard disk encryption, and a better ASLR goes a long way to reducing exposure to a wide variety of attacks.


What does it mean for `cp -a` to "not [preserve] directory structure"?

It means that if you copy into an existing directory it will not delete existing files and subdirectories (and existing subdirectories will have their existing permissions and ownership information, even if there is a directory of the same name in the source copy). This is equivalent to the "merge" option when copying a folder in the Finder, and there is no equivalent to the replace option.


how can I filter out unwanted search results in Alfred (ie node_modules folder, caches)

Go to Preferences -> Spotlight -> Privacy (TAB)
Then add the folders you want to exclude to that list.


The solution was to press "Add file to library" and shift-click to select all the books... Weird that iTunes can't add PDFs with "Add folder to library".


With dual monitors, changing one desktop will change the desktop of the other screen as well

This is a Mission Control pref.
System prefs > Mission Control > check "Displays have separate Spaces"

Personally, I don't consider it "weird" at all. This is my default working method, but I never use fullscreen, so I never get the blank screen.


Right click on the item and select delete.    The popup will look like this:

make sure to click the *Also delee this song from iCloud box.

must be on Computer with Itunes Match enabled.

Check http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4915?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


Installed the PL2303 Driver in my Mac, but I still can not find the `tty.usbserial*` under `/dev`

You have the driver for the prolific chipset AT-232 cable installed - VID 0x067b, PID 0x2303.

The device you have connected is not reporting as a prolific AT-232. The device you have connected is reporting as a QinHeng Electronics CH340 - VID 0x1a86, PID 0x7523.

I'd recommend trying the driver for the CH340 http://www.wch.cn/download/CH341SER_MAC_ZIP.html


How to share Mac System which has Lions OS 10.7?

Have you checked out the built in Screen Sharing in OS X? Check out System Preferences -> Sharing -> Screen Sharing. Click on the Computer Settings button and you should see a dialog which allows you to enable VNC connections.

You should then be able to use any VNC Client like Chicken of the VNC to connect to the remote system running Lion.


Audible alarm for iPod Touch low battery

Unfortunately not. The battery warnings are fixed system behaviour, and not configurable by the user currently.


Uninstalling freetds from OS X Mavericks

I was able to successfully uninstall freetds and tiny_tds gem.

first I uninstalled tiny_tds gem as below:

 gem uninstall tiny_tds

To uninstall freetds follow the instructions to configure and build the freetds before running make uninstall.(otherwise it will give this error: make: *** No rule to make target `uninstall'. Stop. )

cd freetds-'0.91'
./configure --preifx=/usr/local
make
sudo make uninstall
sudo make clean

You will have to remove freetds.conf file manually as below:

sudo rm /usr/local/etc/freetds.conf

To ensure you have successfully uninstalled freetds run the following:

tsql -C

It should not report freetds details.


In OSX App Store exist a update for a app that is not installed, and can't be

Try this.

Quit App Store
Use Activity Monitor to quit the following processes

storeaccountd
storeassetd
storedownloadd
storeinappd

On Terminal delete the following folders:

/Users/jj/Library/Caches/storeaccountd
/Users/jj/Library/Caches/storeassetd
/Users/jj/Library/Caches/storedownloadd
/Users/jj/Library/Caches/storeinappd

Restart app store and download!


Dual monitors causing wireless drop outs on MacBook Pro running Lion

Looks like I accidentally stumbled across a solution: if I move my laptop an extra 30cms away from the monitor, the internet connection doesn't trickly away to nothing.

It's probably some kind of interference that is causing the problem, and it seems that keeping some distance between the monitor and the laptop is enough to resolve the issue.


Would upgrading to SSD solve my performance issues?

A RAM upgrade is inexpensive (~$70) compared to an SSD (~$1 per GB e.g. $250 for a 240GB) and based on your pagefile usage and available RAM I would start there.  That being said, an SSD is a massive performance upgrade and worth every dollar in my opinion.  I won't use a machine without an SSD anymore.

Links to: RAM and SSD.

Could you provide some more details as to what specifically is slow?


How do I tell other users/contacts my iMessage is turned off?

As far as I know you can only do that manually.

There are few differences between a Text Message and an iMessage.

The most obvious an iMessage has a blue colored background and a regular Text Message has it's background green

The name of the contact/number you are sending to will turn blue or green respectively for iMessage and for a regular Text Message

After resolving the phone number of the receiver(described above), the text box will automatically say what kind of message will be send and the "Send" button will be colored blue or green respectively for iMessage and for a regular Text Message


How to create a 'Sharing Only' account via terminal in OS X?

Based on bispymusic's answer to a previous question:

#!/bin/sh

dscl . create /Users/sharinguser    # use whatever account name you want
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser RealName "Sharing-only Account"
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser hint "Password Hint"
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser picture "/Path/To/Picture.png"
dscl . passwd /Users/sharinguser thisistheaccountpassword
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser UniqueID 550    # Pick something unique
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser PrimaryGroupID 20    # Staff group
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser UserShell /usr/bin/false    # No shell access allowed!
dscl . create /Users/sharinguser NFSHomeDirectory /dev/null    # No home directory!

As with the script it's based on, you'll either need to run it with sudo, or prefix each dscl command with sudo. Be sure to adjust the account name, RealName, password, and UniqueID (and probably the hint and picture). Note that the critical attributes to make this a sharing-only account are the UserShell and NFSHomeDirectory attributes -- leave these as I have them.

It's a bit confusing that all of the lines refer to /Users/sharinguser (or whatever account name you choose) despite this not existing in the filesystem -- this is because it doesn't refer to a file path, but to the path to a record in OS X's directory service. The filesystem and OS X directory services both use the same path notation, but actually have very little to do with each other. Thus, the home directory path can be set to /dev/null while the account's path directory service stays normal.


You've selected the Master Boot Record option. Only 4 primary partitions are allowed. disk2s5 and disk2s6 are actually extended partions. You cannot change the name conversion via DiskUtility.

If you select GUID Partiton Table option, you'll get this:

$ diskutil list disk2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Documents               200.0 GB   disk2s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Downloads               200.0 GB   disk2s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Movies                  200.0 GB   disk2s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Music                   200.0 GB   disk2s5
   6:                  Apple_HFS Others                  199.2 GB   disk2s6


Unsupported hack or workaround to get 64-bit OS X to install on a MacBook Pro having only 32-bit EFI?

I found a post on the subject from the guy who wrote this book about Mac OS X internals.  His post mentions Snow Leopard (10.6), but the issues would be similar for 10.7. See Mac OS X Internals - Is Your Machine Good Enough for Snow Leopard K64?

Here's the part I found most relevant to your question:

  [...] Unfortunately, a 64-bit processor alone doesn’t suffice. Out of the
  box, boot.efi will not boot K64 even if you have a 64-bit processor
  and explicitly request K64 if at least one of the following is true.

  The machine has 32-bit EFI.
  The machine’s model is prohibited from booting K64 through a hardcoded list within the boot loader. (A cursory look suggests that
  the list excludes "non-Pro" machines.)

  Both of these "limitations" are technically artificial, albeit to
  different degrees.

  The first limitation actually does have merit and is arguably not all
  that artificial. Although a 32-bit EFI could launch a 64-bit kernel,
  the kernel, when running, would not be able to use firmware services. [emphasis mine]
  In particular, you wouldn’t have NVRAM. For kernel developers merely
  wanting to run a 64-bit kernel for testing and debugging, this may not
  be an issue [...]

On the one hand, the author states that the limitations may be artificial, which still indicates some promise of a workaround, but on the other hand, as @Koen van Rhee's answer also already pointed out, you may end up with devices without support under 64-bit.

(Aside: Why do you want to run the 64-bit kernel, anyway? The OS X 32-bit kernel can run 64-bit programs.)

I did some more digging searching for a real workaround of some kind, not just theory.  I found the following: OS X Daily - Got an Older Mac? MLPostFactor Installs OS X 10.8.3 on Old Unsupported Macs.  OS X Daily's article links to a series of forum posts at MacRumors - [Guide] Success! Install 10.8 on old unsupported Mac.  It is a very long thread.

I still don't definitively know if you can get the OS X 10.7 64-bit kernel running on your specific kind of Mac, but I suspect for the reasons mentioned in this image from the MacRumors forum thread that you can't: "Problem is cards like [...] Does NOT have 64-bit Kexts [...] 64-Bit Kernel will NOT load these 32-bit kexts".  Essentially, what @Koen van Rhee already said.

But then I found this. Quoting: "Apple has included 64-bit drivers for GMA950 in the OS X 10.6.2 update. These drivers can be used to provide partial support for GMA950 under OS 10.8."  ... and I'm thinking: maybe such kexts exist for your card and might work on 10.7 too, if they'd work on 10.6 & 10.8? You may have to hunt and mix & match bits from elsewhere.

To sum up:  I don't believe there to be a single or simple workaround for your desired OS version and hardware version.  If you want to proceed, everything I've read indicates it may be possible (to some degree — accept there may be missing drivers and so missing functionality and/or poor performance), but your work will be cut out for you.


Some songs are not syncing with iCloud in iPhone

I had the same problem, I fixed this bug doing this steps:

Remove the musics with this problem (also remove from iTunes Match).
Update iTunes Match (if you use)
Sync the iPhone
Add the musics again from my backup (not the backup from iTunes Library, I've all my musics in other place)
Sync the iPhone


SMB connections throws authentication error after upgrading Mac OS X to 10.13

My experience is 10.13.4 broke things.

I have 2 macs, the iMac is running 10.13.3 and logs into the freenas server just fine. The mini was running 10.13.3 and then upgraded to 10.13.4 and it will not login to the freenas server on my normal share.

Needless to say I have switched off all OS upgrades on the machine running 10.13.3. I can login to the Freenas from the mini if I use the guest account but I'd rather not use that.


Have you tried to "hard reset" the Apple Watch?

Launch the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
Tap on General.
Tap on Reset.

Tap on Erase All Content and Settings.
Type in your passcode (if required).
Tap on Continue to confirm the reset.


Where are Photo Stream pictures stored on my Mac?

Photo Stream pictures are stored in

~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub

locally.


How to edit the Plist so as to remove all reference to wireless cards and drivers if it involves no risks?

Removing the plist is not going to solve the issue.  The 3 wire versus the 2 wire are for the WiFi and Bluetooth antennas, and have no bearing on whether or not your Mac sees the hardware.

If you go into System Information (About this Mac > System Report) then scroll down to WiFi, it should give you information about the WiFi adapter.  If it doesn't, it's not being detected and no amount of jiggering with plist files will fix it.  It's time to look at either the new WiFi card is defective/incompatible or the mPCI slot on the logic board is faulty.

Given that you are attempting to fix a 2008 MacBook Pro, I wouldn't spend too much time trying to repair a WiFi adapter or deal with a potentially bad mPCI slot..  Instead, get a USB WiFi adapter like the DLink DWA-171 which supports 802.11ac and is fully Mac compatible (I'm using it on a 2009 MacBook Pro as I type this).


Using Airport Express connected via Ethernet to extend Airport Extreme wireless lan?

what you want to do is setup your express to be a "bridge" for your airport extreme network, you want to create a "new" wireless network (but if you use the same settings as your extreme, most macs should seamlessly work and switch as required)

make sure your airport express is configured not to do any NAT or give out IP's as that is maybe what is conflicting with your network currently, also make sure you give it an IP in the same subnet as your airport extreme and also that it does not conflict with any other machines


Chapter 8 of Apple's Open Directory Admin 10.6 manual describes in great detail the operations you wish to complete. Also, skimming the table of contents for the word "bind" will also reveal information useful to you. Further, the dsconfigad man page will also help you accomplish your goal. There are easy instructions on how to use dsconfigad here. You can also achieve what you are attempting using the Directory Utility in your /Applications/Utilities folder. There are easy instructions on how to use the Directory Utility here, and it lists the prerequisites each Mac needs to bind to such a network. Also, flushing the DNS cache might do the trick:

 dscacheutil -flushcache


You want to use NTFS for Mac. I had to use this a few months ago to access an external drive (from a Windows user) that I had to work with.

For the hard drive that will be used for your Time Machine, that needs to be Mac OS Extended (Journaled).


Access photos from Google Photos/Drive with iPad Air 2

You can install the Google Photos App and access your photos from there. It works in a similar fashion as the Photos app on iOS, you see device sized photos and download only the photos you wish to copy to the Camera Roll. You can even sync your photos with drive if you like to.


Can't access About.com from my Macbook pro 2011 (lion then mtn lion), no matter what I try

The new version of Mac OS X (Mountain Lion) has disabled the ability to use localhost. I was looking for the same thing—my development page wasn't working and I started to worry. Turns out its Apple's way to get you to pay another 19.99 for OS X server. Do a quick Google search, there are a few sites out there that explain how to force it back on, since Apache is still built in.


If you've enabled Messages in iCloud on iOS, are the messages still on the device and backed up when the device is backed up?

Your messages will be backed up if stored on the device you are backing up. For example, if you are backing up A and the messages are stored on B, it won't back it up.

A backup is recommended as if you loose your messages on all devices they will be lost.

  Messages in iCloud are updated automatically, so you always have the same view everywhere you use iMessage. When you delete a message, photo, or conversation on one device, it’s removed from all of your devices. And since all of your attachments are stored in iCloud, you can save space on your device.

(Source)


EFI Partition seems to have been replaced, can still boot with rEFInd but need to repair EFI Partition

In case anybody has the same problem in the future, I solved it by following these instructions
How to fix broken EFI partition?


Stopping own iPhone from being erased after being deleted from within Find My iPhone on iCloud.com

I am not sure if the same would happen in all similar cases but I just want to tell what happened to my friend's iPhone after posting the above.

For about two weeks she made sure her phone did not connect to the Internet by disabling the Wifi and taking out the SIM card. In the meantime, she wrote down the details of her important contacts missing from the iCloud. Once she wrote down everything she needed, she turned the Wifi on and ... nothing happened. The iPhone connected to the Internet and continued to operate as usual as if the Erase iPhone option was not activated via iCloud.com.

When we checked the iPhone's status on iCloud via Find My iPhone, it only appeared to be offline. Out of an abundance of caution, we disabled the Find My iPhone menu option through the iPhone's settings. This caused the iPhone to be removed from the list of Apple devices listed under the Find My iPhone menu on the iCloud associated with her Apple ID. She has been using her iPhone as usual since then.


Foreign language entries appearing in Safari context menu

Try going to system preferences/language & text/language and using the Edit button to uncheck the box for Portuguese and restarting.

There are many reports of such mixed localization bugs in 10.7.


iPad keeps disconnecting from ad-hoc networks

i'm having the same problem, i use my laptop as internet server, all other computer is connected to the network and have internet access, when i use my tablet and after a while it losses the internet access even though it's still connected to the network (only skype keeps working, no browsing and no facebook).

to fix it you need to do the following:

right click on Computer >> Properties >> Device Manager >> network adapters >> right click on Ethernet Controller >> Properties >> Power Management >> uncheck the box "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

it should work fine now


To get around that, all you need to do is Right Click and Open This will now allow you to open up unsigned or 3rd party apps.

Its an automated safety feature within SIP (System Integrity Protection)


Transfer content from one Apple ID to another?

You cannot. It's not possible to share content from one Apple ID to another. Apple actually recommends everyone have their own Apple ID.

You can load the content on your daughter's device and she can access them all normally. You can then log her into her own Apple ID, where she can begin to make her purchases on her own account. The only downside is she will have to know your Apple ID's password as iOS will ask for it on rare occasions (when restoring the device for example). It's possible to store content from multiple Apple accounts on a single device, the user will just need to enter the password should the OS ever require it. That is the only feasible solution in your case (other than starting over). This will at least circumvent having to re-purchase any content.

This has always been a sore spot for Apple customers as they have historically been very firm in never being able to even close an Apple ID, let alone share content between them.

You can read more about Apple IDs here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5622?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US


No, there's no requirement (new or old) to use ssh-agent.
And no, the whole idea of ssh is not that it won't require a password. One of the ideas behind ssh is that it provides an encryption connection between the server and the client.
Determining whether the server and the client are the "right ones" (i.e. the ones you want to allow talking together) can be done through many means. One of them is simply requiring the client to enter a username and a password. If you do not supply a username, the currently logged in user's username will be used instead.
Another way of authenticating yourself to the server is using keys. The tech support agent that stated that you should paste your private key was wrong. Never give out your private key!
Instead you want to paste the public part of the key to the server's interface. This way you can login using the key instead of a username and password.
In order to ensure that others do not misuse your key, it is common practice to protect the key itself with a passphrase (i.e. not username/password, but a "long password"). If you do that, you can either enter the passphrase every time you want to login, or you can use a program like ssh-agent so that you only have to enter the passphrase once when logging in to your computer, and then the key would be ready to use without further passphrases whenever you need to login.
The guide you have followed instructed you to create a config file. You're right that the config file is as such not required, but I won't say that it is not usual practice to have one. The reason why they ask you to create one when following the guide is to have the special instruction "UseKeychain" set. This makes it so that the passphrase protecting the key is stored in your macOS Keychain.
The practical benefit is that now you won't even have to enter the passphrase when you login to your computer. When you login to your computer like normal, that usually unlocks your Keychain as well - including your passphrase.
The fact that you're still asked for a password when logging in seems to indicate that your keys setup is not used. Make sure it is actually the password that you need to enter (and not the passphrase) - if so, that is usually because you haven't properly pasted the public part of the key to their SSH panel.


Can't modify selection of "use cellular data for" for some apps in iPhone 6 after update to iOS 9

There's been a bug with iOS since iOS 7 where the CellularData.db can become corrupted. Once the file has a problem, the Settings app can't save changes to it and there's no easy way to wipe just that file and start over.

This file is saved as part of the backup process and then restored, still broken, when you restore from backup.

Now that a jailbreak is available for iOS 9, you can manually delete the CellularData.db to reset it which avoids the need to restore the device (and not restore from backup) which is an alternative.


How do I remove icon from the launchpad if I already moved app to trash

Emptying the trash would have worked as well.
Launchpad shoes all apps it finds via spotlight, not just those who are in the Applications folder.


How to trap ssh breakin attempts on El Capitan

I don't believe pfctl was enabled by default in either Yosemite or El Capitan. You can still edit the /etc/pf.conf file, add rules, tables, etc., and then load and enable pfctl and you'll be up and running:

sudo pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf -e

See http://128bitstudios.com/2010/06/13/stopping-ssh-brute-force-attacks-with-pf-on-freebsd for a really simple but effective way to get an SSH rule to prevent bruteforce attacks.

Also see http://krypted.com/mac-security/a-cheat-sheet-for-using-pf-in-os-x-lion-and-up

If you want pfctl to load at boot you'll need to roll your own launchd script.

Another option is a GUI app like Murus. You can then examine the launchd file it creates and the PF files in /etc/murus and understand better how to make this work for you.


OS X 10.12.16: "URLs with the type 'afp:' are not supported"

I have discovered that AFP is now deprecated, and that I will need to turn to other mechanisms to provide the remote Time Machine. I presume this is the reason for this error message.


How do I create an app-specific password for iCloud?

The missing information was provided by @GordonDavisson (and if he wants to post an answer I will accept his instead of mine):

  To generate and use app-specific passwords, your Apple ID must be protected with two-factor authentication.

This is actually on the Apple Help page, but oddly not included in the section "How to generate an app-specific password" (even though it was the missing step for exactly that question) but instead buried between an explanation of what an app-specific password is (which was of no value to me) and fine print about different OS versions.   I used the headers to skip right to the relevant information (which is what headers are generally for) and didn't guess that a critical piece of information would be placed elsewhere.


@Tetsujin earns the garland.

The iMac's Safari had uBlock Origin 1.16.0 installed. When deactivated in Safari > Preferences > Extensions, Safari now loads the two problematic webpages correctly.

I'll guess that one of uBlock's data streams (it was subscribed to several, in aid of my trying to block persistent cookie-approval popups) was changed sometime last week, and began hobbling Safari. The cookie-popup blocking was very effective, but the impaired usability turned out to be a cure worse than the disease.


How can I get a logged user's username without the domain?

Local Domain

See Get current users username in bash? for a range of approaches:

logname

or

echo $USER

or

whoami

or

id -u -n

Network Domain

If you are on an (Active Directory) network domain, you can use

echo ${USER#*\\}

or

u=$(logname)
echo ${u#\\}

to just get the user name part.


So, I finally managed to have a working version of homebrew, but it wasn't that simple.

First, download from sources and make install of Git following these instructions.

Then, using git, get the sceaga Tiger branch of Homebrew.

All should then work correctly (more or less).

EDIT There seems to be a tarball hidden somwhere that could be used with root installation procedure. It has the obvious interest of avoiding one to install git just for the sake of having a running homebrew to ... install another git version.


Problem Installing Windows 7 via Boot Camp

Answer to the New Question

  Your new question: What if I just swap the drives and leave them swapped? Does the SSD get slower if put in the DVD caddy?

From the menu bar you can select "About this Mac". From the pop up window, you can click on "System Report...".

Part of this report for a iMac (20-inch, Mid 2007) is given below. (Click on the image or open in a new window for a better view.)

The image shows the "Link Speed" of the SATA controller on the logic board to capable of 3 Gigabit per second transfers. The actual transfer rate (Negotiated Link Speed) with the connected HDD is also 3 Gigabits per second. I happen to know the HDD is a replacement 1 TB drive capable of 6 Gigabits per second transfers. So the controller is limiting this new disk to half of its capable transfer rate.

Part of the "System Report" for a iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) is given below.

The image shows the "Link Speed" of the SATA controller on the logic board to capable of 6 Gigabits per second transfers. The actual transfer rate (Negotiated Link Speed) with the connected HDD is 3 Gigabits per second. So the HDD is limiting the controller to half of its capable transfer rate.

These examples should aid in answering your question.

You should also consider the cable between the controller and the drive. Most SATA optical drives operate at 1.5 Gigabits per second transfers. So, if replacing the optical drive results in a "Negotiated Link Speed" of 3 or 6 Gigabits per second, the cable may not be able to accommodate the high speed transfers. To determine what was the "Negotiated Link Speed" with the optical drive, you would have to temporarily put this drive back in your Mac.

Here is another image from the 2011 iMac.

This image shows the optical drive to have a transfer rate of 1.5 Gigabits per second. More important is the controller with has a maximum "Link Speed" of 3 Gigabits per second. This is half of the maximum "Link Speed" the the controller connected to the HDD. So there can be a difference between which way you connect your SSD and HDD. At least this is true for the 2011 iMac used in this example.

  Note: From your comments, I see the opposite is true for your Mac. For the HDD (in the primary slot) you reported a "Link speed" of 6 Gigabit and a "Negotiated Link Speed" of 3 Gigabit. While for the SSD (in the caddy), you reported a "Link Speed" of 6 Gigabits per second and a "Negotiated Link Speed" of 6 Gigabits per second. So the "Link Speed" of both controllers is the same.

Answer to the Original Question

Basically, there is no reason Windows can not be installed on your Mac. Your problem is that you want to install in BIOS mode on the HDD, which is /dev/disk1. Normally, the Windows installer creates a small (100 MB) System Reserved partition on the same drive as the rest of Windows installs. The Boot Camp Assistant forgoes this partition scheme, opting instead for a installation that mergers the contents of these two partitions into a single partition.

So far we have learned:

The USB Windows installer can be created using the Boot Camp Assistant.
We can not boot Windows from the HDD because it is the second drive
in the computer.

What I propose is to return to Microsoft intended design where there are two separate partitions for the Windows 7 operating system. The first small 100 MB partition will need to be created on the SSD, which is /dev/disk0. As before, you can keep the much larger main Windows partition on the HDD.

These partitions will need to be created using OS X and be MS-DOS (FAT) formatted. Later, when installing Windows, these partitions will be reformatted NTFS. It would be best if the partition number assigned to each of these partitions is 4 or less. While this is not an absolute requirement, the steps to installation increase dramatically when the value is greater than 4.

If you can create these partitions while still maintaining your Fusion drive, let me know. I will update the instructions with the rest of the steps. If you succeed, it would help if could post the output from the following commands. These command will not change your computer. Some may ask for your login password. This is normal.

sudo  gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk0
sudo  gpt  -r  show  /dev/disk1
sudo  fdisk  /dev/disk0
sudo  fdisk  /dev/disk1

Below is an outline of the rest of the steps.

Boot from the Windows USB flash drive installer.
Open a Command Prompt window.
Execute the diskpart command.
Mark the FAT formatted partition on the SSD (disk 0) as active.
Exit the diskpart command.
Enter the command setup to continue installing windows.
During the installation you will need to select the partition to
install Windows. Before selecting the partition on the HDD, reformat
both FAT partitions as NTFS.

The idea here is that Windows will start booting from SSD and finish from the HDD. I tested this boot method using VirtualBox with two virtual drives. At least in this virtual environment, I know the idea is sound.


In one line, from Terminal:

sudo -b "/Applications/Textedit.app/Contents/MacOS/TextEdit" /etc/hosts

Make your changes, save and close.


Did Mountain Lion fix Launchpad's re-arranging curse?

Yes, it is fixed.  I have been rearranging program icons for hours every day, over two days, rebooting repeatedly, on a Fall 2010 MacBook Air, and the order and orientation has stuck (stayed) every time.

As far as I can tell, this is finally fixed.


How to get correct bookmark (webloc) icon to show?

Download the correct icon.
Convert it to .icns with CloudConvert.  (Note: If you convert an image to .icns, the image must be 16 × 16, 32 × 32, 48 × 48, 128 × 128, 256 × 256 or 512 × 512)
Right click on the .webloc file and click get info
Drag the .icns file you just made into the icon on the top left corner of get info.

If that doesn't work, let me know.  I'd be happy to help you! :)


How to type ろ in Japanese kana mode on US-English keyboard?

Using the Japanese Hiragana Input Source, with the preference for Typing Method set to "Kana", you should find ろ at Shift plus け (the key marked ' on the US keyboard), next to the return key, as shown below:

Keyboard Viewer is useful for solving such problems.


This is because your iPad has a lower resolution. It has to stretch the iPad's screen to fit onto your TV, while losing some resolution during the streaming. There is no way to fix this because with current software, this just isn't possible.


Magic Keyboard + Windows 10 -- disable fn lock?

So, I couldn't tell you why or how, but I downloaded this software:

https://magicutilities.net/download

After installing it, this "feature" went away and the fn key no longer caused other modifier keys to become sticky. Downside is there's a yearly fee for this software, so if anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them!


Game Engine Encryption for iTunes Connect Export Compliance?

You can safely select no in this case.

The said clause is applicable if you are encrypting user/app generated data either using iOS SDK provided or any other 3rd party APIs.

What you are getting from the Game engine is getting added as an asset to the Xcode project, which will ultimately generate the iOS app, the clause doesn't apply in your case.

Additionally, take a look at this help document from Apple:

 Export compliance documentation for encryption.

It should further help in answering your query.


Is system maintenance software required? If so, what is the best?

Are there Mac equivalents that monitor startup, configuration and the like?

OnyX, Snow Leopard Cache Cleaner, iTweax are some options.

  How necessary are they?

Not very. Any optimization that needs to be done is already built into the Mac OS X.

  What is the best general purpose package?

Can't help you there, I don't use such utilities.


macOS 11 Pyenv Python 3.9.0 Install Error

You should go to python.org and click on the download 3.9.0 link. You'll get an option to load python 3.9.0. Follow the instructions there.


How can I tell if a QuickTime movie is prepared for streaming?

You may want to try QTIndexSwapper by Renaun Erickson. It's an Adobe AIR app that detects if a movie is ready for web and if not it tries to move the index (header) to the beginning of the file thus allowing a simultaneous download and playback.


Single key shortcut to invoke Launchpad or Spotlight

MacBook keyboard and Apple Magic keyboard comes with dedicated key to invoke Launchpad. The special functions are labelled on the row of function keys (and equivalent in case of MacBook Pro equipped with Touch Bar). Look for key labelled F4 on your keyboard.

If you are using a non-Apple keyboard, go to System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → Launchpad & Dock and select the checkbox next to Show Launchpad. You can also double click on the keyboard shortcut and change it to something else.

You can also define custom keyboard shortcut(s) easily by going to System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts. Since you are essentially looking for single key to invoke the desired operation(s), you can do so by creating a single key shortcut (if not natively provided by macOS).


iMac login screen a mess. Logging in crashes the machine. Able to go into safe mode

So the fugly screen was the result of a burned out video card. I found a replacement (same exact model) online, and performed the surgery on my iMac. The patient lived and video problems went away. Repairing permissions on my SSD drive still don't work, but that's another problem.


Malware attack freezes Safari—prevention or detection?

I have run into similar situations. I gather the host DNS name from the url and put a matching line into my /etc/hosts file. The I force quit safari and relaunch.

The line I add to /etc/hosts looks like this:

127.0.0.5        badhost.com

This will redirect all browser requests to the badhost to localhost (the local machine) where the requests timeout. This breaks the javascript that is holding your browser hostage. I'm using 127.0.0.5 (instead of 127.0.0.1) so I can distinguish the bad requests from normal localhost requests with my networking tools.


how to activate internet tethering in iPhone 3G

it would involve jailbreaking your phone and using an app like MyWi


Why does my zsh program run fine in terminal, but not as an automator app?

This is the standard issue with GUI apps in macOS. These are launched via lanuchd from desktop, no part of the process has run through a shell so what is in any of your shell start up scripts e.g. $PATH does not matter.
What you need to do is use the full path to anything you call in your case the full path to youtube-dl and if that is a script that might need editing to provide full paths to what it calls.


Edit default alert in subscribed calender

On a Mac running a current OS, this is how you would go about adding multiple alerts for one event.

Double-click your event
Click the date/time of the event
Click the 'Alert' field and select when you would like your first alert
to happen (notice that there is a 'custom' field)
Now that you've selected a time period for your first alert, if you
hover over the 'Alert' field you should see a small '+' symbol to the right; if you click it, it should trigger a second alert option.

On an iPhone:

Locate your event and tap it to open it
Click 'Edit' in the top right corner of the screen (Note: If you don't click edit and instead only try to adjust the alert section from the main window, it will not give you the option to set up a second alert.)
Scroll down to the Alert section; choose the time frame for your
first alert
Now that you've set the first alert, you should see an option for
'Second Alert' below the original 'Alert' option (Note: The 'Second Alert' option doesn't look like it exists until you set up the first alert)
Choose a time frame for the second alert and then click 'Done' in the
top right hand corner of the screen


How do I insert a function along with a word in numbers

You can do this in the custom cell format rather than the function.

Go to the cell click format>manage custom cell formats
From the Type pop-up menu, choose Number & Text
Drag the (blue) Entered Text element from the Date & Time Elements box into the
empty format field above the box.
Place the insertion point after the element, and then type your text 'checkboxes'
Click Ok to save.


I Installed The Unarchiver from the App Store - where should it be?

App Store apps end up in /Applications.

I'd uninstall all copies of The Unarchiver using something like TrashMe and then reinstall via the App Store if it's the App Store release that you really want. The App Store's ability to upgrade non-App Store purchased software is hit and miss.


What is the framerate of the macbook pro mid 2012 non retina facetime hd camera?

The hardware is capable of 30fps, I have this model (MacBookPro9,1, i7 2.3 GHz) on my desk in front of me and just shot a movie that lists as 29.81fps at 720p.

However, Apple will, in software, reduce the frame rate if your HDD/SSD/other storage and/or processor and memory are not capable of handling the maximum frame rate at the time of capture. The do this to ensure you can still use the camera even in non-optimal conditions.

How much free space (percentage) do you have on your storage? Are you running any processor intensive applications. How much RAM do you have? These factors can have a serious impact on capture rates.

It is also entirely possible that the frame rate is being affected by other factors if you are using a 3rd party application such as Skype.

Hope this helps?


Finder shows me filenames and folder in inverted order. Why?

If you take a close look at your Finder bar, you'll see a little triangle that is to the right of "Name" (which is just above the file names).
Click it, Finder will order your files alphabetically and Finder will remember your choice. By so, it will display the list in alphabetic order next time you open a Finder window.


The CUPS web interface would allow you to direct the print job to another printer.

However it's possible to capture a PDF file from the CUPS queue:

/private/var/spool/cups
total 472
drwx--x---  24 root  _lp      816 Mar  1 14:30 ./
-rw-------   1 root  _lp     4403 Mar  1 14:30 c00025
drwxrwxr-x  13 root  _lp      442 Mar  1 14:30 cache/
-rw-r-----   1 root  _lp    86110 Mar  1 14:28 d00025-001
drwxrwx--T   5 root  _lp      170 Mar  1 14:28 tmp/
-rw-------   1 root  _lp     4391 Feb 25 12:13 c00024
root@Macbook: file d00025-001
d00025-001: PDF document, version 1.3

You can copy (in this example) d00025-001 to somewhere and rename it with a pdf extension (n this case), after fixing permissions, ownership and group you can open it.

The matching file starting with c is the cover sheet.  You should be able to recover the job in the the printers native language from the tmp directory:

/var/spool/cups/tmp
total 288
drwxrwx--T   5 root  _lp     170 Mar  1 14:34 ./
drwx--x---  28 root  _lp     952 Mar  1 14:50 ../
-rw-r-----   1 root  _lp    1234 Mar  1 14:28 17ed254faebef
-rw-r-----   1 root  _lp    1193 Mar  1 14:34 17ed254fece74
-rw-------   1 root  _lp  136512 Mar  1 14:28 17f025500d2e2
david_koontz@Macbook: file *2
17f025500d2e2: PostScript document text conforming DSC level 3.0, Level 2

This all done with an aging HPLJ-5000N LaserJet specified as a PostScript printer, the print job one page out of an ODT file (OpenOffice).

The original (in this case ODT) file isn't kept in the print system, which would force you to format it again.


How to automatically hide notifications after a timeout in OS X Sierra?

System Prefs > Notifications
On a per-app basis, you need to switch from Alerts to Banners ...

  Banners appear in the upper-right corner and go away automatically. Alerts stay on screen until dismissed.


Try to manually mount it:

Open Disk Utility.app
Click File > Open Disk Image
Select the .dmg file.

This should allow you to mount/open the dmg file and install its contents.


App download progress in redesigned Mac App Store (macOS Mojave)

Has this been removed in the redesign?

Yes.

The dedicated Purchases tab present in the older design of the Mac App Store has been moved under the Accounts tab (accessible by clicking on the user's display picture towards bottom left). The new Mac App Store no longer shows the currently downloaded and total size numbers for app installation in progress.

For newly purchased app(s), you can check the download progress by clicking on the profile picture and looking for the app icon(s) towards the top. The apps are listed in order of purchase with most recent purchase shown on top (just like older design of the Mac App Store).

Download progress is also shown on the specific app page in Mac App Store.

However, Mac App Store has adopted iOS style of circular progress bar to show the installation progress which doesn't show the app data downloaded and the total size.

As an alternative measure, you can launch Launchpad.app (by clicking on its icon in Dock, searching in Spotlight or from Applications folder) and still see the progress in terms of data downloaded and total size just below the app icon.


Laptop keyboard randomly not registering

I would reset the SMC on your Mac. Of course you would need certain keys to work for it to be successful.

How to reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

If that doesnt help, my next suggestion is to boot the Mac into Safe Mode and test the keyboard. If the keyboard works then you may need to just reinstall MacOS. If it doesnt then you may need to call Apple Support and set up an appointment for your local Apple Store if you have one.

Use safe mode to isolate issues with your Mac -
 https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201262

Here is an interesting article by MacWorld

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-fix-mac-keyboard-3598931/


Purpose of XPCservices and Agent related to an Application

XPC Services
From Apple's Creating XPC Services:

There are two main reasons to use XPC services: privilege separation and stability.
Stability:
Let’s face it; applications sometimes crash. We don’t want it to happen, but it does anyway. Often, certain parts of an application are more prone to crashes than others. For example, the stability of any application with a plug-in API is inherently at the mercy of the authors of plug-ins.
When one part of an application is more at risk for crashes, it can be useful to separate out the potentially unstable functionality from the core of the application. This separation lets you ensure that that, if it crashes, the rest of the application is not affected.
Privilege Separation:
Modern applications increasingly rely on untrusted data, such as web pages, files sent by email, and so on. This represents a growing attack vector for viruses and other malware.
With traditional applications, if an application becomes compromised through a buffer overflow or other security vulnerability, the attacker gains the ability to do anything that the user can do. To mitigate this risk, Mac OS X provides sandboxing—limiting what types of operations a process can perform.
In a sandboxed environment, you can further increase security with privilege separation—dividing an application into smaller pieces that are responsible for a part of the application’s behavior. This allows each piece to have a more restrictive sandbox than the application as a whole would require.
Other mechanisms for dividing an application into smaller parts, such as NSTask and posix_spawn, do not let you put each part of the application in its own sandbox, so it is not possible to use them to implement privilege separation. Each XPC service has its own sandbox, so XPC services can make it easier to implement proper privilege separation.
For more information about sandboxing, see App Sandbox Design Guide.


This worked for me:

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/preferences.plist

Find the vpn connection you want the disconnect-dialog to go away and set the key “DisconnectOnSleep” to 1 (instead of 0)


How to stream Mac desktop to Windows Laptop

Looks like you want screen sharing / remote desktop software? VNC Viewer for PC looks like it would be your friend in this case.

Here is an article that should help you.

http://www.howtogeek.com/214220/how-to-access-your-macs-screen-from-windows-and-vice-versa/


How to sync iPhone contacts to Gmail and update them on in-use Android phone

To sync contacts with your Android phone, you need to make sure that you're adding the contacts to your Gmail account on your iPhone rather than to your iCloud account.

Turn on Contacts syncing with your Gmail account by going to Settings -> Mail, Contacts and Calendars -> your Gmail account -> turn on Contacts.
Turn off Contacts syncing with any other account there.
Turn off iCloud contacts syncing by going to Settings -> iCloud -> turn off Contacts.

Now, when you add contacts on your iPhone, they should automatically sync with your Nexus 5X over Google's servers.

Note: If you lose any contacts you added previously on your iPhone, have no fear, they're still accessible at icloud.com and you can export them as a vCard and open up that file on your iPhone to sync them with your phones as well.


Why can I not use `sudo` as a `Standard` user in macOS?

sudo on macOS does work as it does on other platforms - at least through macOS 10.15.6:
If you, as a "Standard" user, want or need privileges to perform certain tasks, those privileges may be granted by the Admin user in the sudoers file. If you are both the Admin user, and the unprivileged StandardJoe user, this becomes a bit trite, but here's how it works:
% su AdminUser
# authentication, and then:
Adminuser %

Now, as Adminuser, use the visudo command to edit the sudoers file:
Adminuser % sudo visudo

This will open the sudoers file in an editor (perhaps pico). This next step is not the way things would be done on a multi-user system, but in this case as there's only one user, and we're trying to make a point, we'll abandon convention & 'throw caution to the wind' :)
Add the following line to the sudoers file:
StandardJoeUser ALL = (ALL) /usr/sbin/visudo

Save the file, and exit the editor. Then exit the Admin user's shell:
Adminuser % exit
%

What have we just done? We have given your StandardJoeUser user permission to make any changes he wishes to the sudoers file. With that permission, you - as StandardJoeUser - can add the privileges you need - or ALL the privileges available to the Admin user if you choose.
To continue as StandardJoeUser, we'll now grant him the same privileges under sudo as the Admin user has:
% sudo visudo
# authenticate with StandardJoeUser's password

Again, the sudoers file is opened in the editor. This time, add the following line just below the one added previously:
StandardJoeUser ALL = (ALL) ALL

Once again, save & exit. Now - StandardJoeUser can sudo anything - same as the Admin user. There is no need to change to the Admin user (su); you may sudo under your Standard user's credentials.
Debating the wisdom of this change could be classified as opinion under SE rules, so I'll stop here. The answer to the question should be clear enough now: Yes, sudo on macOS does work the same as on other platforms; it seems the document you referenced could be classified as inaccurate under some definition of the word.


My MacBook Pro 15.4" (A1286 - Late 2008) trackpad is missing clicks and generally not working

The battery might be swelling and pushing up against the bottom of the trackpad. If this is the case, as soon as you remove the battery it will work as expected (assuming no permanent damage has been done).

Replace Immediately! Swollen batteries can be dangerous.


AppleScript: Take a file from a directory and find the file name and POSIX path. Next do a shell script passing the file name and path to the script

Errors in folder actions will fail silently unless you trap them.  You can use a try statement, but in your snippet you are ignoring errors, such as:

AppleScript itself doesn't know about file names, so you need to use something that does, such as Finder;
The shell uses spaces as delimiters between arguments, so you need to make sure they are used as needed when appending the various text items;
File paths should be quoted or special characters (spaces, etc) otherwise escaped to prevent misinterpretations.

I don't know the purpose of passing the folder name in addition to the full path (also note that a list of the dropped items are passed to the handler in the added_items argument), but after fixing the above items, your snippet would be something like:

on adding folder items to this_folder after receiving added_items
    try
        tell application "Finder" to set filename to name of this_folder
        set p to quoted form of POSIX path of this_folder
        do shell script "/path/to/script " & p & space & quoted form of filename
    on error errmess number errnum
        display alert "Error " & errnum message errmess
    end try
end adding folder items to


Problem when extending windows partition using Disk Utility

Use Hard Disk Manager to repair and partition BOOTCAMP.

You can get Hard Disk Manager from here (https://www.paragon-software.com/hdm-mac/#) or here (includes trial reset) (https://nofile.io/f/aWdNwtb3Ry9/Hard.Disk.Manager.v1.3.873.dmg) (link will expire in 24 hrs)


How to print a selection of a PDF document: Safari on Mac using MS Word

Take a screenshot of the part you want to share using CtrlShiftCmd4 (puts it into the clipboard)
Create a new mail to someone and paste the picture


Runs the setup software under Windows. The pedal stores the settings itself.


Cron job cannot find ffprobe/avprobeor ffmpeg/avconv even though its installed

Specify the absolute path to the ffmpeg/avconv binary with the --ffmpeg-location option:

--ffmpeg-location PATH
Location of the ffmpeg/avconv binary; either the path to the binary or its containing directory.


How do I fix Double NAT caused by sharing wifi internet on my local wifi network?

you need to put the base station into "Bridge Mode" so that it does not think it is on a separate network and merely participates in your building's WiFI.

Open up the Airport utility, select the Airport in question, Click the Network tab, then choose "Off (Bridge mode)" from the Router menu.

When you apply those changes the Airport will need to restart and you should be good to go.


As suspected by @klanomath in the comments (thank you!), the problem was that my ISP, Time Warner Cable, blocks port 445.

The solution was to change macOS's SMB listening port, which can be adjusted by editing /etc/services. Open the file and scroll down until you find two lines that read:

microsoft-ds    445/udp     # Microsoft-DS
microsoft-ds    445/tcp     # Microsoft-DS

On both lines, change 445 to a different, unused port. Save and reboot your computer†. From now on, you will need to append :port-number to the end of your IP address whenever you connect to your Mac via SMB.

Potential security issues aside, this solution feels very "clean" and allows me connect to my iMac via Finder, whereas a protocol such as sftp would require 3rd party software. While my own research has not turned up any concrete security risks affecting the latest version of macOS, anyone opening SMB to WAN should be sure to set a very strong password on their user account.

Credit to this answer on Superuser for pointing me in the right direction.

†If you opened the file in TextEdit or a similar graphical program, you may get a permissions error when you try to save. Either save in a different location and copy to /etc/ manually, or use sudo nano to avoid the problem.


How do I simulate a bad Wi-Fi connection on my iPad?

There are a few ways you can do this, depending on your situation:

Move further away from your router. While this may seem a bit obvious, I realize that it isn't always possible while testing/debugging (for example, if you are working on a desktop computer).
Put aluminum foil around the router and/or antenna. This will (partially) block some or all of the radio signals by creating a makeshift Faraday cage. The results you get will depend on the strength of your router signal, distance from the router, and other environmental factors.
Set your router's wireless signal power to a lower setting. The method for doing this is different for each router, so you will have to look at the user guide for instructions on how to do this.

I hope this helps solve your problems!

EDIT:

Another thing I just thought about would be to make your SSID hidden. iDevices are known to have problems reconnecting to hidden networks, and you might be able to programmatically disconnect from the network at random intervals.


OK if you're a new Mac user you really should start with getting to be acquainted with HomeBrew. Leave the python on the system as it is and use your own Python installation you get from HomeBrew.

See here: http://brew.sh/

Pip is provided if you install python with brew. I can really recommend using pyenv also and if you want to do Python development have a good look at the community variant of PyCharm (https://www.jetbrains.com/pycharm/).


How to stop Automator / other task running in background

Bring up Spotlight (press command-space) and type in folder action setup and then press Enter when it comes up.

You can then disable/delete/etc the folder action on the target folder.

You can also, in Finder, right-click (control-click) on the target folder that has the folder action assigned to it as then select Folder Action Setup... in the Services section of the context menu.


What is "legal authority" which is required for iOS developer program?

Apple's phrasing is deliberately wide because the terms need to cover a wide range of countries and legal systems.

Depending on the jurisdiction you are in, the meaning of legal authority will differ. Typically, it means the individual agreeing has the power to make a binding agreement between the individual or organisation and Apple Inc.

As an example, a Limited Liability company registered in England and Wales would typically require a Director to make the agreement. The Director in this case being able to represent the company unlike an employee or sub-contractor.

As always, if you are unsure of your legal role or position, please get professional advice.


The hard-drive looking thing on the desktop is a mounted disk image; the .dmg file is the file where the data for the image is.

To get rid of the image, unmount it. There are three four five good ways to do it:

Drag the disk to the trash. The trash will turn into an eject icon while dragging.
Highlight the disk on the desktop and select File > Eject in the Finder menu bar.
Highlight the disk on the desktop and press Command-E.
In any Finder window, press the Eject button next to the disk in the sidebar.
Right-click (or control-click or two-finger-click) on the icon and select Eject. (from JoshHibschman in the comments below)
You can also eject from the commandline using diskutil if you really want.

After you eject the disk

Insofar as the application "file" is concerned, there is only one copy of the application: the one in the /Applications folder. The icon in the dock is only a link (not really a shortcut, as there's no file like a shortcut in the Start menu or the Quick Launch bar, but it's not bad to think of the Dock icon as a "shortcut".)

And to answer your first question, this is a great place to come with questions. Hope you have a good time on the Mac!


I think I would approach this differently to what you're doing, but then again my suggestion is a bit of a workaround compared to what you want.

My approach would be to have your script set up so that it triggers the shutdown as part of its code. In other words, instead of having the Shutdown trigger the script, have the script trigger the shutdown.

The advantage of this is that you can use this as your usual shutdown option if you want, but if you ever need to shutdown without also running your script you can (e.g. if you're having to shutdown multiple times for troubleshooting purposes, or if an installation automatically shuts down your Mac, etc).

If this is an acceptable option for you, then the Applescript code you need is as follows:

tell application "Finder" to shut down

In other words, you effectively need to add the above code to whatever your script is.

Once your script works as you want, I would then create an Automator Service that runs it. This isn't mandatory, but it does mean you'll be able to run your script from the Application menu of any application. And, it also means you can create a keyboard shortcut to trigger it.

If either or both of these options interest you, proceed below.

1. Create a service using Automator

Launch Automator (usually found within your Applications folder)
Go to File > New
Select Service and click Choose
In the top right hand of the window that appears, ensure that "No input" is selected from the Service receives drop-down list
Ensure the In drop-down list is showing "Any application"
In the second column containing the long list, find "Run AppleScript" and double-click on it
This will add the Run AppleScript window on the right
Now, replace the (* Your script goes here *) with your script
Save the service using a meaningful name (e.g. ShutMeDown).

Now you should be able to run the service (and therefore your script) from any application by going to the Services list within any Application menu (e.g. Finder > Services, Safari > Services, TextEdit > Services, etc) and select the service you just created.

If you'd also like to set a keyboard shortcut to trigger things, proceed below.

2. Creating a keyboard shortcut

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts
Select Services from the sidebar
Find your service (it'll be in the list on the right-hand side)
Add a shortcut by double clicking on the service name
Now go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy
Select Accessibility in the sidebar
Click on the + sign (you may need to unlock the padlock if it's locked)
Add Automator.
Add Finder (to find this you will need to navigate to /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app).
Exit your System Preferences.

Now you should be able to use the keyboard shortcut to run the service (and therefore your script).

NOTE: I am aware that for some users keyboard shortcuts do not seem to work even though they've been assigned to a service. This is a whole other topic, but if this happens in your case, at least you can run the service from within any application you're using.

If you decide to give this approach a go, feel free to comment me if you have any questions/problems.


Sync multiple devices to iTunes but only one device for playcounts or ratings

I'm pretty sure sure that any time one of your devices is plugged into iTunes it's going to update the play counts regardless of whether or not you have "manually manage music and videos" turned on. More than likely this is because the metadata is completely separate from the fact that you are manually managing the syncing of songs to and from devices.

I'm not 100% sure if that's the case with the metadata but it seems to be given that play counts are updated on your iTunes library even with "manually manage music and videos" enabled.

The only way I could think of checking that would be to enable "manually manage music and videos" on all of your devices and run a test again to see if play counts update. If they're still updating then I would say that the play counts are part of the metadata in the song file that's transferred to and from your library by the devices even when no actual song files are being transferred or synced between them.


macOS not allowing me to reallocate free space!

Ok so the error is now solved. What I did!

First I ran diskutil list to view all the active partitions, now I had only on partiton so added a new partiton via DiskUtility

Then I once again ran diskutil list, now I was able to see the newly added partiton

Now what I did ti remove the free space is that I merged both the partitions together

To merge two partitons I simply ran this command in terminal

Sayans-iMac:~ sayanhussain$ diskutil mergePartitions
Usage:  diskutil mergePartitions [force] format name
        DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode

Merge two or more pre-existing partitions into one.  The first disk parameter
is the starting partition; the second disk parameter is the ending partition;
this given range of two or more partitions will be merged into one.

All partitions in the range, except for the first one, must be unmountable.

All data on merged partitions other than the first will be lost; data on the
first partition will be lost as well if the "force" argument is given.

If "force" is not given, and the first partition has a resizable file system
(e.g. JHFS+), it will be grown in a data-preserving manner, even if a different
file system is specified (in fact, your file system and volume name parameters
are both ignored in this case). If "force" is not given, and the first
partition is not resizable, you will be prompted if you want to erase.

If "force" is given, the first partition is always formatted. You should
do this if you wish to reformat to a new file system type.

Merged partitions are required to be ordered sequentially on disk.
See diskutil list for the actual on-disk ordering; BSD slice identifiers
may in certain circumstances not always be in numerical order but the
top-to-bottom order given by diskutil list is always the on-disk order.

Ownership of the affected disk is required.

Example: diskutil mergePartitions JHFS+ NewName disk3s4 disk3s7
         This example will merge all partitions *BETWEEN* disk3s4 and disk3s7,
         preserving data on disk3s4 but destroying data on disk3s5, disk3s6,
         disk3s7 and any invisible free space partitions between those disks;
         disk3s4 will be grown to cover the full space if possible.
Sayans-iMac:~ sayanhussain$


Applescript to create outgoing message in Mail.app with specified sender

From here

Slightly different format for the sender property.

tell application "Mail"
  set theOutMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true}
  tell theOutMessage
      make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:"first@mail.com"}
      set sender to "FirstN LastN <josh.stackexchange@gmail.com>"
      set subject to "Message Subject"
      set content to "Message Text"
  end tell
end tell

So yours would be...

tell application "Mail" to make new outgoing message with properties {sender:"FirstN LastN <my@email.address>"}

You can find and edit the FirstN and LastN in System Preferences>Internet Accounts>[Email Name]>Details>Name


iMac refuses to boot, Disk Utility always says there are drive errors it can't repair -- what to do?

Having solved the problem I can answer my own question.

It was a problem with the iMac's internal hard drive. Scanning the drive after the fact revealed a whole host of bad sector errors. Not sure why I couldn't pick this stuff up when I was trying to restore to it.

In any case, even with a new drive installed in the machine I couldn't get the Utilities -> Restore method of restoring the machine from my TimeMachine drive to work. It did the same thing with a new drive: it's just hang forever on boot, no chime, just Apple logo and a spinner for hours and hours.

The solution was to do a clean OS X install from the OS X DVD (instead of using the Utilities -> Restore menu option to restore the machine). Then, on first boot, when you first log in to OS X it'll ask you if you want to restore this machine from a TimeMachine drive. I said "Yes" to this option, it found my TimeMachine drive, I selected all the available types of things to restore (System Settings, User Data, Applications and Other) and let it do its thing for a few hours.

And this time it worked. Reboots were fine. My data is there and intact. All is well.


The connection from my macbook to my t.v. is delayed/slow

Check if your TV has a mode called PC mode or Game mode. TVs now a days perform some additional processing to the input signal to supposedly improve the picture quality. This, however, can add a bit of delay. Samsung TVs have a mode called Game mode which turns this off. I am not sure what it is called on Sharp TVs. If you cant find one, cycle through each video preset and try to find one which has no delay.

Additional info:
In case your TV doesn't have a game or PC mode, it may still allow you to modify the required settings manually. Search for something along the lines of 'Picture Noise Reduction', 'Motion Enhancer' or 'Skin Tone Enhancer' in the video settings and turn it off.


How to connect Apple TV (3rd Gen) to the Internet through proxy?

I've not used this particular service but from the looks of it it seems pretty straightforward and easy to setup and configure with a Apple TV. There's a video titled: Apple TV Setup for Smart DNS Proxy on that page that'll guide you through the steps.

Basically what you'll be doing is the following steps:

Setup an account on Smart DNS Proxy website from a PC
On your Apple TV go to Settings → General → Network
Go to Configure DNS and select Manual
Select an IP for a DNS server from this page that's reasonably close to you
Reboot your Apple TV

NOTE: The full steps are here if you need to change your location etc.


Mac OSX: strange shaking (jitter) of screen

That jitter is pure software. The CSS/javascript are not executing fast enough to prevent a redraw from being noticeable.

You could try reducing the load on the CPU by quitting other apps or just run some instruments on the pages where you see jitter and either block the js that is slow or decide to edit your text elsewhere and then copy/paste it to avoid seeing the constraints being redrawn.

The detailed video was awesome and allowed me to be certain what I was seeing was software.


There are several programs that provide NTFS support. However, I would hesitate to claim that any of these programs can provide 100% compatibility and support.

Here's a subset of the NTFS list in Richard Austin's Blog Champion's discussion of OS X file system choices:

Tuxera - I've used this program with no issues in Lion and Mountain Lion
Paragon - site claims to support Mountain Lion, personally haven't used
OSX Fuse - a freeware successor, don't know if it works with Mountain Lion, personally haven't used

I don't have a retina MBP to test with, but any of these should offer you a good starting point. Since you've already tried Tuxera, Paragon appears to be your best bet, while OSX Fuse would be a good option to try out.


Will running a double monitor in clamshell mode put more stress on my computer?

Not sure how to answer this objectively, but running it in "clamshell mode" is fine. I've been doing the same for a long time with my MacBook Pro with no issues.

If your external screen is bigger (resolution-wise) than your laptop's native screen, then it will of course need some more graphics power to run, but this is rarely an issue in practice.


Copying data to a different drive negates the risk of losing all your data due to physical failure of your primary drive (as would be the case if you merely partitioned it and used the other partition as a backup).

Since that’s the principle cause of data loss (way easier to repair a corrupted partition scheme than a broken HDD/SSD), it makes sense that copying data to a different physical device is the most effective method of backing up — it’s the only one in which true redundancy exists.


How to set a specific email address in Automator, from a variable?

Unfortunately, the New Mail Message action only uses variables in the Subject text field, so instead you would need to use something like another Run AppleScript action to create your new message.

Something like:

on run {input, parameters}

          set theFile to item 1 of input

          set theRecipient to item 2 of input

          tell application "Mail"

    set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:"My Subject"}

    tell content of theMessage

      make new attachment with properties {file name:theFile} at after last paragraph

    end tell

    tell theMessage

      make new to recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:theRecipient}

    end tell

          end tell

end run


Activate an AT&T iPhone 3GS outside of USA after iOS upgrade

Yes - you just need any new or secondhand AT&T SIM to get the device activated. If you can keep that SIM to do the activation so much the better, so having a friend bring one would be easy if you can wait.

The process won't care where in the world you are, just that when the device connects to Apple's activation servers, the SIM number from the card is in an AT&T range. At that point, you'll need to do the jailbreak work appropriate for the device and the OS level but it will work as a WiFi based device with just the correct SIM and no AT&T contract required.


Can receive but cannot make outgoing calls on an iPhone 5S

This happened in my iPhone 4S since one of iOS 7 updates, sent many messages on Apple's contact form, no answer and no fix to date with the latest iOS 8.3, I temporary fix it by dialing *#31#.

It shows a message "Setting Interrogation Succeeded, Calling Line ID Restriction Disabled" and then can call normally.


How to change terminal $HOME variable? My terminal can't even be opened now

By default the $HOME variable is set to your home directory, you have nothing to do yourself in .bash_profile. I think something goes wrong in the process of starting your Terminal session. It is likely that your ~/.bash_profile is corrupt.

You can fix this without your terminal:

Open TextEdit and press CommandO to open a file.
Press CommandShiftG and enter ~/ to go to your home directory.
Now press CommandShift., this will make sure you can see hidden files.
Open .bash_profile, create a backup if needed, delete the contents and save.

This should fix your problem. You can try this for ~/.profile (if it exists) as well.

You can check your HOME variable by opening Terminal and type:

echo $HOME

This will return your current home directory. It is most likely that you do not want to change this. But if so, it is best to change it just before you run the command, not in your .bash_profile.

This example will show you how to change your HOME temporarily (for Bash):

# store original HOME location ('/User/CousinCocaine')
ORIGHOME="$HOME"
# set new home location
HOME="/User/CousinCocaine/my/new/home/is/here"
# check new home location
echo "~/ " ~/
echo "\$HOME "$HOME""
# set home location back to original
HOME="$ORIGHOME"
# test old home location
echo "~/ " ~/
echo "\$HOME "$HOME""


Is it possible to control the CPU core clocks on macOS?

There are a few variables of unknown quality and quantity.

The i9 MacBook Pros were known to provide strange behaviour due to potentially high power consumption, temperature but not performance output, throttling. Not only the machines are new, so is the OS Mojave. All this can then be amplified by a bug in the software to run. Even Mathematica is not perfect. In this case it seems that the task is single-threaded and pretty taxing for the one core that has to handle this. Internal management of the Intel chip may then take over what is not in Apple's control, given the hardware conditions and designs chosen.

While there might be some reason to hope for further updates to the MacBook Pro's firmware, the macOS Mojave's handling of this or Mathematica to squish bugs or provide workarounds, that is unsatisfying as it does not provide you to try something on your own.

Some fixes are said to have been delivered for this as of 10.3.6 supplemental update and presumably also rolled into 10.14. As it is unclear whether these are installed or not, make sure you have the latest versions of all software. Although presently these fixes are known to improve things generally and considerably, they fail to deliver improvements for exactly Mathematica.

Even if mentioning disasterous thermal design will attract downvotes, this is just another case. Case, cooling system and an i9 just are not he perfect mix.

The generally known ways to tinker with these settings –– although in no way a guaranteed fix for the current problem at hand –– are the following options:

Disabling TurboBoost with TurboBoost Switcher
Volta: Ultimate Power Control for Mac**$**
VoltageShift (explanation)

Background:

  Apple MacBook Pro 2018: Much more performance with a few clicks
  The new MacBook Pros have problems with the performance utilization of the Coffee Lake processors. We show why Apple's power management fails and how you can fix it with just a few clicks.

  2018 macbook pro runs faster if you limit the cpu via software
  Further fueling the dumpster fire that the 2018 Macbook Pro is turning out to be, notebookcheck.net has discovered that by manually limiting power consumption you can actually get better performance.

  Apparently, Apple elected to ONLY use temperature as a parameter for ramping up clock speeds, which results in the cpu not having enough time to cool down before trying to boost again. This leads to fluctuations that severely harm performance.

  2018 i9 MacBook Pro throttling discussion [merged]
  Reviews are finally rolling in on YouTube. Finally a review compared exporting a video on a maxed out 15” 2018 vs 2017. The 2017 finished exporting it 2 minutes faster because the i9 throttled so bad causing worse performance when compared to the maxed i7 CPU in the 2017 model.

  Tested: Thermal conditions in the 2018 i9 MacBook Pro dramatically hampering performance
  So, Apple can also change the fan speed thresholds to accommodate a CPU load better, by setting them to kick in sooner, and faster than it does at present. This probably won't completely eliminate the thermal situation, but it will lengthen the time it will take to get there at the cost of a louder device when under heavy load. Users can do this with Macs Fan Control, or similar utility.

  We didn't expect a fix from Apple any time soon. But, at least the first steps were taken with a patch on July 24. Time will tell how much of a difference that patch makes, and how well it holds up over time.

  Tests Confirm Apple's Throttling Fix Improves Performance for 2018 MacBook Pro Models [Updated]
  The bug fix came in the form of a supplemental update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, which many new MacBook Pro owners have now installed on their machines. Multiple MacBook Pro owners and media sites have been testing the new patch, and the results appear to be largely positive -- the throttling issue has been resolved for the most part and the machines are performing better.

Unfortunately, Mathematica is the exception:

  In all other published practice benchmarks with the exception of Mathematica, the results with and without patch fluctuated within the measurement accuracy range. These tests are either completed too quickly, do not require full CPU power throughout, or test the SSD speed.
  MacBook Pro 2018 im Test: Auswirkungen des Throttling-Updates


Why does Yosemite add a number to my system name and how do I stop it?

Check the answers here. (I don't have the reputation to mark this as a duplicate.)


What is the latest version of OS X that I can run on a Black MacBook 4,1 (Early 2008 model?)

As you mentioned, OS X El Capitan will run on the MacBook (13-inch Aluminium, Late 2008) model, known as MacBook 5,1.

The latest version of OS X that you can get running on a MacBook 4,1 (Early 2008 model) is Mac OS X 10.7.5. El Capitan will not run on the non-Aluminium 2008 models (Early or Late).

I have verified this information against the Mactracker app (not affiliated with Mactracker in any way).


Is there a way to prevent iTunes from renaming TV Show filenames?

If you don't want iTunes to manage your files at all then go to:
iTunes > Preferences > Advanced, and uncheck the Keep iTunes Media Folder Organised checkbox.

Alternatively, iTunes uses each item's Title to rename the file, so if you edit the info of a file within iTunes (CMD + I) you can set the title to something to your liking such as <show name> <season no.><episode no.> e.g. Silicon Valley S03E01.


You have two options to "talk" to your modem on serial ports on macOS:

Minicom
Screen

Screen is built in, and minicom is 3rd party.  Before using either of the tools, you will need to know the device your modem is attached to.  It will be listed in /dev/ttySX where X is the number of the actual device (most likely /dev/ttyS0).  Verify for your machine.
Using Minicom
Minicom is a small, free communications program that's been around for decades and is quite solid.  I personally prefer it over screen.

Homebrew:  brew install minicom
MacPorts:  port install minicom

This assumes you've already installed the Homebrew or MacPorts software.
It's a simple ANSI graphic interface that will allow you to set your serial device, flow control, port speed etc.

Once you have it set, you will be connected to the device on your serial port you can then send your AT commands to your modem by typing AT+CBST=71,0,1

Using Screen
You can use the built in screen to issue the commands (though admittedly, I am not very familiar with the utility as I favor Minicom)
You can connect to your device by issuing the command (assuming your modem/serial port is configured to 115200bps, 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit or more commonly known "115200 8N1"):
screen /dev/ttySX 115200,cs8,-parenb,-cstopb,-hupcl

Where /dev/ttySX is the serial device connected to your modem as before.  This example sets the comport to 15200 8N1.
And just like in the Minicom example, once connected, just send your AT commands to the modem.


My custom shortcut for Preview app doesn't work

Just to give this an answer for future Googlers…

This appears to have been a bug, fixed in El Capitan 10.11.1 & Preview 8.1 (877)

Or, as mentioned in comments, the initial tests were mistaking three full-stops for an ellipsis
… instead of …


Apps disappearing from purchased section in App Store

You cannot re-download a purchased app from the App Store if either the developer or Apple has removed it from sale.

Once removed from the App Store, it also gets removed from your list of purchased apps.


Will use of FireVault reduce lifetime of SSD?

I can't see file vault impacting the life of the drive since it's a block level encryption and doesn't add or subtract any overhead in terms of what data is written.

Put another way, if you asked - "Does writing 80% zeroes to a drive reduce the life of the drive over writing 80% ones?" the answer would also be no. The life of the drive is based on power on hours and write volume and not the exact values of the data being written.


Apple Mail configured to use exchange but To and CC addresses coming from other sources

The solution is to go to Window-> Previous Recipients and remove those you don't want.  This is discussed in the help page "Manage email addresses in the Previous Recipients list".


How to convert a cell with a duration (datetime difference) to number in Numbers?

Use the DUR2HOURS() formula.

DUR2HOURS(F3)

Pass the duration from F3 to the formula.


Access to many websites under OS X Server on port 80

You need a web server in front of your sites, acting as a proxy.

With Apache web server, use the mod_proxy module (I think on Apache you'll need to enable the module from httpd.conf, by uncommenting the line starting with LoadModule proxy_http_module).

If you prefer nginx, use the http_proxy module.

Both are pretty much straight forward to configure.


Is Disk Partitioning User Data Sensible in Catalina?

If I totally bork my OS somehow and want to completely reinstall from scratch, will the separate APFS volume be untouched?

You are talking About the read-only system volume in macOS Catalina changes and no, the data volume will not be totally untouched.  If you completely reinstall macOS from scratch it will be overwritten.

The Macintosh HD - Data volume is not really analogous to /home as it contains caches, logs, /usr/local and other non-static parts of the OS.  The Macintosh HD read only volume contains only things that don't change (by definition). When you do a re-install all of this is overwritten.

Here is what the data volume contains (from The Eclectic Light Company Catalina Boot Volumes page).

  So to me, it seems as if I should indeed create a separate partition so that any potential reinstall operations would not touch my personal data

That is a matter of opinion.  If you didn't reinstall everything the same you could end up with things in ~/Library that no-longer matched what was installed. The same as could happen after reinstalling with regard to config files on Linux (after relocating /home) or %AppData% on Windows (after relocating /Users).

You may find it more convenient to simply use data volumes outside of /Users for your data or to restore your data from backup after a reinstall.  It depends how big your data are and how often you plan to reinstall I suppose.

If you want to though you can update the location of your users home directory to be on another volume.  This location is stored in the directory services database in /var/db/dslocal/nodes/Default/user and can be updated by either

System Preferences > Users and groups or
sudo dscl . create /Users/yourUser NFSHomeDirectory /new/path/yourUser or
Directory Utility

A new folder hierarchy will then be automatically created at the new location when the user next logs on.  See Relocating /Users folder in MacOS 10.15 (Catalina).

Then after a complete re-install it would just be a matter of updating the location again to point to the other volume containing your existing data.


Can my employer access my iCloud data if I sync it on my managed Mac

With a managed Mac where "everything is controlled by the employer", the employer could technically access your personal data stored on that Mac - yes. It doesn't matter if the data comes from iCloud or other places.
Note that your employer probably does not access your personal data, and depending on where you live and what you agreements are, it is probably not legal for them to do so. However, it is very probable that they could access the data given the necessary intent and technical knowledge.
My advice would be not to store any personal data on a company laptop, unless you wouldn't mind your employer or a system administration to stumble upon that data.


Image quality of various Apple cinema displays

Using this calculator, I discovered that the following:

24" cinema display has 94 PPI
27" cinema display has 109 PPI
30" cinema display has 100 PPI
15.4" MacBook Pro has 110 PPI

Thus the 27" is going to be the closest PPI to my current display.


Why am I being prompted for my password for updates in the iOS App Store?

I think the restriction settings may be the cause. Even though I have a PIN on the home screen, it prompts me for a password when I update.

I went to Settings > General > Restrictions > Require Passwords and set it to 15 minutes. I'm not sure how it got changed to this, possibly an update?


How can I recover photos from Photo Stream to my computer?

As this is tagged photo-stream I presume that you 'backed up' to Photo Stream. You can recover the photos from your Photo Stream by opening the Photo Stream on your computer.

~/Library/Application Support/iLifeAssetManagement/assets/sub

Inside this folder are all the photos from your Photo Stream. Copy them to your new phone.


How to know which files iTunes could not import?

I have found that importing songs with ampersands and commas in their title or album name can cause problems.  I haven't found a workaround, but exporting the library to a text file and then searching the proper columns might help identify the missing files.


Why might iChat not connect after upgrading to Lion?

For some reason iChat defaulted to selecting "https only" on aim and gtalk for me. Once I deselected both https options, iChat accounts connected successfully.


Desktop icon spacing - bigger gap on the left of desktop

The zero point (0|0) of the grid coordinate system is the upper right corner of the desktop (either with or without menubar - depends on your settings in System Preferences > General > Automatically hide and show menubar).

With a fixed grid size progressing to the left and the bottom of the desktop you usually will get gaps (=incomplete grid boxes) at the left and at the bottom.

Example with your screenshot:

Each box has a fixed size (pixel x pixel) depending on the grid spacing setting. The leftmost column is incomplete and the bottom row is overlapped by the dock. Both usually won't be used to place items in there.

AFAIR Windows uses a relative grid size and a natural number (=positive integer) of tiles (in the x- and y-direction).

Assuming the grid spacing is in pixel (or better some natural multiple), you can set it to a whole integer divisor of your monitor size. I think 60 will fit a lot of common sizes:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Set :DesktopViewSettings:IconViewSettings:gridSpacing 60" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist

Check the settings with:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "Print :DesktopViewSettings:IconViewSettings:gridSpacing" ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist


My Mac Book Pro switch between charge and not charge when running a long program

There's actually nothing you need to fix - it is intended behavior.
Consider that your laptop at idle is consuming (fictious numbers) 10W of power. You plugin a 61W power adapter, and it starts charging the battery at a rate up to 51W. I.e. this means that the power from the power adapter is used to power the computer primarily, and secondly to charge the battery.
Now you run a very power hungry program on your computer, and the computer starts to use 65W of power. Now all the power from the power adapter is used to power the computer, and the battery is also discharged slowly. This means that the status on the display will change from "charging" to "not charging".
Your Python script most probably does different things at different times - some that take a lot of power and some that take less power. As a result, you'll see that some times the battery is being charged, and at other times it is not being chargd.


Why can I sometimes not enter my password on my iPad?

Just like a computer, an iPad is a software-driven device, and unresponsiveness like this is commonly the result of imperfect memory management.

From my experience, the leading cause of iOS software instability is running low on application memory. This can happen after long periods of use without ever power cycling the device — days or even weeks. (How often are you needing to power cycle your device?) Even if the device works great, if it has been a while, turning it off and on is a healthy action, as it can re-allocate its full memory once again, just like restarting a computer.

If you aren’t noticing delayed or unresponsive behavior elsewhere, then perhaps a backup and restore would be a good thing to try, to rule out corrupt or damaged system software.


Can I change the default dialer on iPhone 5s with some other app on iPhone

If I understand your question correctly, then you want to use the Jio4GVoice app as your default phone dialler?

As far as I'm aware there's no way of doing this and, to be honest, you may not want to as this app isn't playing so nicely with iOS 11 (it doesn't seem to remain in the background properly as it used to under iOS 10).

It may be possible to make another app your default dialler by jailbreaking your iPhone. However, this is not something I would generally recommend anyway.

If you're happy with the app, then the best you can do is probably add it to your dock and hide the default Phone app from view. However, you'll find the default phone app will still be used when tapping on phone links etc.


You can use this Terminal command:

cat /private/var/log/system.log | grep "Failed to authenticate"

Feb 11 16:48:04 g authorizationhost[15313]: Failed to authenticate user <grgarside> (error: 9).
Feb 11 16:48:06 g authorizationhost[15313]: Failed to authenticate user <grgarside> (error: 9).