Apple Watch is taking heart rate readings while being held in the air, not pressed against skin. How is this possible?

The heart rate sensor on the Apple Watch works by processing signal from two photodiodes. It is designed to have two green LED reflect from the wrist, but readings are likely due to picking up light reflected off another surface.

From Apple:

  The heart rate sensor in Apple Watch uses what is known as
  photoplethysmography. This technology, while difficult to pronounce,
  is based on a very simple fact: Blood is red because it reflects red
  light and absorbs green light. Apple Watch uses green LED lights
  paired with light‑sensitive photodiodes to detect the amount of blood
  flowing through your wrist at any given moment. When your heart beats,
  the blood flow in your wrist — and the green light absorption — is
  greater. Between beats, it’s less. By flashing its LED lights hundreds
  of times per second, Apple Watch can calculate the number of times the
  heart beats each minute — your heart rate. In addition, the heart rate
  sensor is designed to compensate for low signal levels by increasing
  both LED brightness and sampling rate.


Mac OS X does have built-in read/write support for FAT32, and read support for NTFS, so it should be able to at least see any Windows-formatted volumes. That said, it's possible that Finder/Disk Utility cannot see it, but the system might still know that it's there and something is connected, so we might be able to safely unmount it via the command line.

To see if that's the case, open up Terminal, and type
diskutil list. This will output a list of all the volumes connected to the system, even if they're not mounted. They'll appear under a header showing what physical disk they're connected to. In the example below, diskutil is able to see a disk with a NTFS Bootcamp partition, as well as an HFS+ partition.

/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *500.1 GB   disk3
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS mmotm                   409.0 GB   disk3s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                90.8 GB    disk3s3

To eject the pesky device, type in diskutil eject disk# substituting the # for the actual disk number (the part that appears after /dev/).

This has worked for me in similar situations.


Is removing network access to a shared Time Machine drive mid-backup similar to unplugging a physical drive?

The nature of backups is that you have an hourly window of time to start one, so the majority of the time, the majority of the computers are not mounting the network share. The algorithm itself is solid in my experience.

If you are starting the first backup, that can take quite a while to save, but if you corrupt the disk image then, you can nuke it and start over with no loss of data (there weren't any backups to lose).

The OS enables journaling so that the worst that happens in practice is the one interval that was in the middle of being changed gets cancelled and cleaned up. I've had very few OS X server backups have issues with network backups, so as long as the software you run on the NAS is equivalent to OS X implementation you should be just fine with your plan. You can also hedge your bets with periodic backups to hard drives. OS X supports multiple time machine destinations as well as ad-hoc adding and removing them to make more point in time ones that you can archive easier than trolling for changes on the NAS.

Some data points - roughly 100 Mac are backing up to about a dozen Mac Mini over the last 3 years, and the number of trouble tickets to assist with things users can't solve has been 2. One user was able to be guided to mount the backup destination and use Finder to remove the partial backup interval. The other made requested we copy their image to a hard drive from the server so they could get the files they needed. That user used a local HD to do backups in the interim and now backs up to that drive and had us wipe the server side image and is backing up to both destinations with no issues.

We don't manage anything or train users to do anything special. Power off, disconnect from network, they just expect Time Machine to run and we train them to check on it two times: a) before making a large change to a document that losing work would mean losing more than 4 hours of work. b) once a month, run a backup manually from the Menu Bar to ensure it completes.

On the server side, we have visibility into when backup images are not updating for more than 3 weeks by a script, so you can implement a check on your NAS if you desire to recreate that Server.app functionality. For $20 I'm a big fan of using server.app to handle things, but lots of people like DIY too.


Try this:
Plug your device into your computer. Download the app iFunbox. Go to the root file system, then open the directory "Application Archives" then delete all of the ipa files.

Another alternative (without ads) is iMazing it does an amazing job with my files. (It's a paid app)


`scutil --nc start` not connecting PPPT VPN - OS X 10.11

Was running into same issue. Ended up going the AppleScript route:

tell application "System Events"
        tell current location of network preferences
                set VPN to service "UniVPN" -- your VPN name here
                if exists VPN then connect VPN
                repeat while (current configuration of VPN is not connected)
                    delay 1
                end repeat
        end tell
end tell

(From https://superuser.com/a/358663/17760)


I solved my problem by installing the demo version of VueScan. If someone else find a free tool that installs a driver that is visible in Photoshop, I will accept his answer :)


Take a look at this page.

It suggest trying sudo ln -sf /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/libGIF.dylib /opt/local/lib/libGIF.dylib in Terminal.

(in your case; this exact command is not on the linked page)


Looking for an external bluetooth switch to run an applescript

Not exactly what your looking for but here's a script that will do something when a device is connected.

If you have a speaker (or other Bluetooth device) that connects automatically then you can use the on/off button as a switch.

Credit to Christian Stevenson on SO.

repeat
    set statusOld to checkStatus()
    set statusNew to checkStatus()
    repeat while statusOld is equal to statusNew
        delay 1 --for 1 second checks
        set statusNew to checkStatus()
    end repeat
    if statusNew is true then
        display dialog "Device Added - put some real code here"
    else
        display dialog "Device Removed - put some real code here"
    end if
end repeat

on checkStatus()

    (*Delete the 2 lines below when done testing*)
    --set myString to button returned of (display dialog "Connected?" buttons {"Yes", "No"})
    --set myString to "name: DR-BT101 Connected: " & myString

    (*uncomment line below when done testing*)
    set myString to do shell script "system_profiler SPBluetoothDataType"

    --initial check if it's not even there
    if myString does not contain "[Device Name]" then
        return false
    else

        --find out if connected/disconnected
        set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "name:"
        set myList to the text items of myString --each item of mylist is now one of the devices

        set numberOfDevices to count of myList
        set counter to 1
        repeat numberOfDevices times --loop through each devices checking for Connected string
            if item counter of myList contains "Christian’s AirPods" then
                if item counter of myList contains "Connected: Yes" then
                    return true
                else if item counter of myList contains "Connected: No" then
                    return false
                else
                    display dialog "Error Parsing" --this shouldn't happen
                end if
            end if
            set counter to counter + 1
        end repeat
    end if
end checkStatus


How can I force Safari to Save As webpage?

Don't know the reason and don't reproduce the problem. But according to this question you should be able to override this by clicking on option at the same time.


Truncated transfer of Time Machine backup contents to new flash drive

Time Machine uses hard links to link to multiple copies of the exact same data. Hard links are one of many features that exFAT does not support.

If you were to copy multiple files that link to the same data to an exFAT drive, it would be duplicated for each hard link, potentially making the resulting copy much larger than the original.

To avoid these problems, you should probably only ever copy Time Machine backups to an HFS+ or APFS drive. If reformatting the external drive is not an option, you might consider creating a disk image of the backup directory and save it to the external drive (via Disk Utility or the command line).


locate is not finding a zip file that exists

The shell script /usr/libexec/locate.updatedb is run by the non-privileged user nobody. Here's the snip it:

if [ "$(id -u)" = "0" ]; then
rc=0
export FCODES=`sudo -u nobody mktemp -t updatedb`
chown nobody $FCODES
tmpdb=`su -fm nobody -c "$0"` || rc=1
if [ $rc = 0 ]; then
    install -m 0444 -o nobody -g wheel $FCODES /var/db/locate.database
fi
rm $FCODES
exit $rc
fi

The script will barely touch anything within your home folder.


Remote login into Windows from Mac using Remote Desktop Client and VPN

I do this all the time and more often than not it is a subtle configuration issue on the PC side.

But first (once your VPN is active) open up terminal and ping one of your servers, network devices, workstations or a printer by IP address. One that you know will respond to a ping when you are AT work (EG no firewalls or stealth mode)

Once you have verified that you know that connectivity is there you want to verify that RDP works from one PC to another INSIDE your network. EG can you RDP in from someone else's PC to the PC you want to get to?

This should start you on the way. The first one to verify your VPN is working right and the second to verify your workstation responds properly to RDP requests.

That will significantly narrow down your search to your VPN connection being mis configured or an issue with your firewall and VPN or possibly your workstation having an RDP issue.

The new MS Remote Desktop for the Mac works very well (just remember that a two finger tap is a right click) and I have had no issues connecting with a variety of Win7, XP workstations and 2003, 2008, 2012 servers. so it is unlikely that is a problem.

And one more thing, do you have Little Snitch configured to block MS Remote Desktop?


The device in the photo is called a USB SuperDrive. It is a CD/DVD reader made by Apple. I wouldn't recommend making a backup on CD or DVD discs. But you'll use the SuperDrive to run the update on the update disc you have. Do not overwrite that update disc or make any changes to it, or it will become unusable.

I recommend using a USB external hard drive to back up your aunt's files. You can buy an external hard drive at Apple, Amazon or any computer store. 1TB is the standard amount of storage these days, and it is unlikely that your aunt has more than that to be backed up.

Finally, I highly recommend using Time Machine (an application that is already installed on your aunt's Mac) for backing up. It backs up the whole system (photos, music, applications, documents, everything), and it is the safest proprietary backup method. I recommend doing this before attempting an update.

You can use an external hard drive with Time Machine to backup the system. When you plug in an external hard drive for the first time, the Mac usually asks if you want to use it with Time Machine.

If your aunt really doesn't care about anything other than a few files, you can back them up to a free service like Dropbox designed to hold small amounts of data. Just be aware that if something goes wrong during the update, you risk losing everything that isn't backed up.

Short of this, Apple has really excellent technical support, and while I can't make promises for them I've found that they're more than willing to explain these concepts in more depth. (They just can't perform a backup for you.)


Safari's 'Shared Links' in Notification Center

No. There is no way to do this at the moment.


Unable to understand the instructions for building a symlink

Depending on the version of macOS you're running, the temporary files for a screen recording may be stored in different locations by default.

Later macOS use screencapture and the temporary recordings are stored in ~/Library/ScreenRecordings.
Earlier macOS use QuickTime and the temporary recordings are stored in ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.QuickTimePlayerX/Data/Library/Autosave\ Information.

In the following commands, replace /path/to/recordings with one of the above paths depending on your version of macOS. You can also safely run each command twice with each of the paths above to symlink both folders to the same destination.

Delete the existing folder to be able to create the symlink in its place.
rm -rf /path/to/recordings

Create the symlink.
ln -s /path/to/destination /path/to/recordings

where /path/to/destination is the path to the folder you want the temporary recordings saved to instead of their normal location. See How can I create a symbolic link in Terminal?.


Is it Possible To Move Menu Bar To Applications

No is the simple answer.

The Mac UI is based on the premise of the application menu always being at the top. The reasoning was that you just have to move the mouse to the top of the screen to ensure you were at the menu, no hunting to find the menu bar on a window that could be anywhere on the screen.

This has been the case since the beginning of Mac OS in the early 1980s

This can get some getting used to if you are coming from Windows.


Will Mac Mini i5 OSX 10.7.5 Boot in 64 Bit Mode

If you run this simple command in Terminal it will show you

system_profiler

Even more direct method is to use the:

sysctl hw.cpu64bit_capable

It will return 1=Yes, or 0 = no


How do I restrict internet access to specific hours in iOS 14?

I have found a solution! It's not perfect, but I've been testing it and it just about works:

In Chrome, on the device in question, go to this address: chrome://flags/
Then search for "screentime" (all one word).
You should see: Enables ScreenTime Integration
Switch this to ENABLED.

It's a bit glitchy, but it works. It locks Chrome in the way you'd expect it to.
In the meantime, tell the developers how important this is to you here: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1162695
It seems the longterm plan might be for Chrome to fully support Screen Time (like Safari does), allowing users to manually allow access to specific websites during Downtime.
More information: https://www.chromestory.com/2020/09/chrome-ios-screen-time/
It's unclear when this feature will be added however.


Unlock sim after passing opportunity to unlock on iPhone startup

On iOS 10, go to Settings > Phone > SIM PIN to unlock your SIM.


Simple answer, no it's not possible. The Target Display Mode is a function specific to the iMac and this functionality isn't incorporated into MacBooks.

You could of course pair the wireless keyboard and trackpad to your MacBook and use TDM on the iMac, but if you're trying to leverage the iMac's CPU power you're out of luck I'm afraid. You'd be better off buying a small cheap monitor if you need a secondary display for use with the iMac.


Copy selection to clipboard automatically

Copy Clip & it’ll sync with iOS devices, too.


What are you using to watch the stats on your website? Most stats packages that read the logs will give you a 404 report (eg. AWStats, Summary).

If you're looking for a program to run on your Mac to check that for you; Piltdown Link Checker, Integrity, WebLight or LinkByLink are all options.


I found two solutions on Apple Support Communities. Apple's solution is first. That didn't work for me. The second method worked for me on two computers and three devices. And no side effects so far, i.e. Time Machine is fine. It is not Apple's recommended method.

Apple solution:

1.1 Terminal:
defaults delete com.apple.SyncServer SyncServicesResetWorldRunOnce

1.2 Reboot your computer.

1.3 Unplug and reconnect your device(s)

See this link for the article

Hatchet solution

2.1. Go to ~/Library/ApplicationSupport

2.2. Find the folder SyncServices

2.3. Delete it.

2.4. Reboot your computer

2.5. Unplug and reconnect your iOS device(s).

Hope this helps others.


Is it possible to receive information from share action in a shortcut?

Yes, it could.

I asked a question on reddit and got an good answer.

Thanks StewieOi.

This is the final solution, if anyone encounters the same problem as me, you can refer: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/eb687b48bd1444e9b3f9169a8d1f1084


Have a time machine drive automatically disconnect itself after backup

I suppose you could put together a script which runs a diskutil eject command on the specific volume, then schedule it to run at 4:30 PM each day via cronx or another scheduling app.  When you go to leave at 5:00 PM, the disk has already been ejected.  The drive will always be something like /dev/disk2, so the script only needs to eject the specific volume name.

I would suggest ejecting it at the end of your day versus after a single backup.  This way, you're getting the benefit of multiple backups throughout the day.


Last week, I had a similar problem with my MacBook Pro performing uncommanded restarts. I solved it by performing a reset of the System Management Controller.
From Apple's Support page: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295:

Desktop computers

Shut down your Mac, then unplug the power cord.
Wait 15 seconds, then plug the power cord back in.
Wait 5 seconds, then press the power button to turn on your Mac.


Assuming you "purchased" El Capitan during it's availability you can download it from the App Store in the usual way. You will actually get 10.11.6 - there are no reasons to install 10.11.0, and Apple does not have an all-versions archive.

If you did not get El Capitan while it was available then you can't get it. Sierra is the current offering, but wait a few weeks for 10.12.1.


Can the Apple menu be moved to the right a substantial amount (screen failure)?

Try to use RDM to set whatever you like, and its free/oss, so id recommend that. Also you can take a look at QuickRes which can (probably) do the same but it's not free. There is also SwitchResX you can try if it has anything you might need.

Update: I found also this one here called resolutionator and there is a brew util I totally forgot about in cask cscreen, you can try to install it with brew brew cask install cscreen and then, for example:

cscreen -d 32 -x 1420 -y 1080 -s b42e7f0 -r 59 -f

You can also try this gist: https://gist.github.com/ejdyksen/8302862
After thinking about your issue seems to be in EDID. Also, what's your GPU in the MBP and what happens if you toggle the overscan option in pref's?

I forgot that to apply this patch you need to disable Apple's System Integrity Protection with csrutil disable from Rescue mode and then into macOS again and (re)apply the script from gist by running it with ruby: cd ~/Downloads; sudo ruby patch-edid.rb (assuming Downloads is the folder where you saved it), then reboot again.

To reenable System Integrity Protection you need to csrutil enable from terminal in Rescue mode and reboot, then check csrutil status if it's working again.

Soo.. the way I would try to solve your issue would be:

check the custom resolutions options in one of the apps above,
set a custom resolution which does not include your damaged part of the screen
enforce that custom resolution.
if the enforcement is not doable through custom system prefs:
inject custom EDID through clover during boot.
making sure that this solution is persistent after reboot

Update 07/01/2017

After some basic digging, there are native settings in macOS defaults .plist files that describe screen properties. I haven't tested it yet, but there are some interesting settings describing screens, snippet:

UnmirroredOriginX = 1920;
UnmirroredOriginY = 0;
UnmirroredResolution = 1;
UnmirroredWidth = 1920;
Width = 1920;

By editing those you can set new system defaults without too much system hacking and (maybe) macOS should apply those on logout/reboot

Remember, you have to disable SIP (see above), otherwise macOS wont' let you write changes even when using sudo

Get the Window Server defaults plist (property list)

sudo defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist
After this, defaults will list see something like this:

{
    DisplayAnyUserSets =     (
                (
                        {
                Active = 1;
                Depth = 4;
                DisplayID = XXX;
                DisplayProductID = XXX;
                DisplaySerialNumber = XXX;
                DisplayVendorID = XXX;
                ForceDeepMode = 0;
                Height = 1080;
                IOFlags = 34603015;
                LimitsHeight = 1080;
                LimitsOriginX = 0;
                LimitsOriginY = 0;
                LimitsWidth = 1920;
                MirrorID = 0;
                Mirrored = 0;
                Mode =                 {
                    BitsPerPixel = 32;
                    BitsPerSample = 8;
                    DepthFormat = 4;
                    Height = 1080;
                    IODisplayModeID = "-2147459072";
                    IOFlags = 34603015;
                    Mode = 0;
                    PixelEncoding = "--------RRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGBBBBBBBB";
                    RefreshRate = 60;
                    SamplesPerPixel = 3;
                    UsableForDesktopGUI = 1;
                    .....

Reading is possible without sudo although i'm not sure how (and if) user/admin NS differs, but the list starts with DisplayAnyUserSets.
For consistency use sudo for read/write operations.

To modify a single node:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist dot.path.PropertyName -int XXXX

-int is the type, can be float, bool, int or ... [see docs].
XXXX is a number (integer in this case).

Its basically a XML doc describing properties, before changing though - make sure to backup it, those are not User defaults but System wide defaults. Read documentation for details- man defaults.

Edit a single node, logout, see if something changes, if not- reboot.
Still nothing? Edit 3 nodes, logout/reboot again and hopefully see a change. Try editing the Orgin/Width/Height notes accordingly to skip the damaged area.

Also, add an extra Admin account in case stuff goes wrong so you can login with different default set of defaults (nice wording heh, o.O)


What is wrong in this command about grepping and pandocing?

If you get a blank line from pandoc then something is quite amiss.

My guess is you've got several `pandoc or the tex file is encoded oddly or throwing some error that the version I downloaded from dropbox isn't the same as the one you are using.

$ pandoc test_dummy.tex -f markdown -t html | wc
     311    1349   11676
$ pandoc test_dummy.tex -f markdown -t html | head

everything - etiology, symptoms, diagnostic tests, grades of aortic valve stenosis

Aortic regurgitation. The murmur of aortic regurgitation occurs during diastole as the aortic valve fails to lose completely and blood regurgitates from the aorta back into the LV. Murmur - high-pitched decrescendo murmur heard best along left lower sternal border.

Common causes of Aortic Stenosis Among Patients requiring Surgery. % http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/150638-overview#aw2aab6b2b4aa

<colgroup>
<col width="38%" />
<col width="38%" />
</colgroup>

$ which pandoc
/usr/local/bin/pandoc
$ wc test_dummy.tex
     210    1049    8801 test_dummy.tex

The troubleshooting would be to check the path to be sure you are using the tools you expect. Then break apart the chain of commands and inspect the beginnings of each output file using things like wc, head or more so you can make sure each link in the chain is working. The post you linked to is an exceptional answer by Kurt in that it explains exactly what the command line tools are doing with grep and why.


No allow button in security and privacy preferences

That's because it's not meeting the guidelines for the possible install sources.
Now, the remainder of this answer is going to assume you're a legitimate user of the box with Admin permissions (or access to an admin account on the box):
Easiest fix: when you launch the installer, hold down the option key. That should offer you a prompt to override the security restrictions.
More permanent, global fix: Launch your terminal, and enter the following:
sudo spctl --master-disable
This will provide you henceforth the ability to install untrusted app (read: not notarized by Apple) from any source.
Running
sudo spctl --master-enable

will reverse the process.


Trying to understand inconsistent web access

There's a lot in this question that revolves around misconceptions and this answer is an attempt to address them to give a more holistic view of how things work.
Connectivity

On the MBP, Safari says “server unexpectedly dropped connection” for
every website tried.
On Firefox, it’s connection timed out.

Your connection isn't browser dependent.  If your connection doesn't work, it's not going to work for any browser.

Ping takes 40-100 milliseconds to echo the same domains that the web
browser cannot reach.

This is not indicative of anything other than one device can connect (iPad) while one cannot (MBP).  A ping time of 40-100ms is well within what's considered "normal."

sftp times out on the command line. No ftp executable either (grr).
Finder connected to the ftp port and displayed contents, but then
announced connection interrupted

Like  your browser, CLI tools like sftp, scp, ssh, etc. aren't going to connect if there's no connection.  The spinning "pizza" (aka spinning beach ball of death) is Finder waiting for the result of the connection - either you get a directory to display or it times out.  This is entirely normal.
As for FTP and Telnet, those were removed because they are grossly insecure.
DNS Issues

DNS was resolving host names on both devices.

DNS is cached locally.  This is how you can be disconnected, but when you attempt to ping an address you've already been to, it will immediately resolve but give you a host not reachable or timeout error message.
The main point here, is that this is not indicative of anything.  To see if DNS is working correctly, you need to use a tool like dig or nslookup to actually query the DNS server directly.

Tor is able to connect to directory server but unable to establish
connections...

Same thing.  DNS is cached, but when you attempt to actually connect to a server, it can't because you're not connected.
Ancillary Assumptions
A few other minor details that need to be cleared up:

Hard to imagine library staff having any reason for device detection,
if even the ability to implement it.

Yes they do and, they most certainly do; in that order.  WiFi is not an unlimited resource and every organization must implement controls to ensure access for everyone.  They may require registration of your device, they may have a captured portal that asks for certain info, or they may look at traffic, but they can and do detect devices and filter content.
It could be as complex as device authentication mechanisms and device detection or as simple as they ran out of IPs on that particular subnet.  However, the next statement gives us a clearer picture:

I risked reprimand :-) by transferring the Cat-5 cable from their
Windows box to the MBP. en0 became active, but would not connect even
to their router. Prefs said that I had a self-assigned IP address, but
the menu said using DHCP, and renewing the lease got a 169.x.x.x
address which I would never manually assign, and is weird because
their WiFi router is 172.16.110.1 according to trace route.

Not just reprimand, but depending on the organization and how their AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) is written, you could have been banned and had a police report filed for "interfering with a government owned computer/network".  (I know, I write and update these things).
However, your results (getting a self assigned IP) tells us something very important - they use some sort of authentication to allow computers onto the network (probably RADIUS).  If it works on their Windows machines, but not on your MBP, it's a safe bet they have something preventing foreign computers from accessing their network  (so, yes, they have a reason and the ability to implement device detection).

Devices forty centimeters apart, so probably on the same router.

There's nothing other than getting a list of associated clients from each of the WAPs (Wireless Access Points; not routers) that can confirm this.  WAPs are placed  in physical locations for more than just signal strength, there may be high demand in particular locations so you may have more in one area than another.  Just because a WAP can support up to (for example) 256 clients, doesn't mean it can do so simultaneously.
TL;DR
Your MBP is not connected to the network while your iPad does and is.  If you've confirmed that your WiFi works properly everywhere else but the Library, you need to approach the Library support staff to look into it (maybe they're out of resources or you're actually blocked).  Do not circumvent their systems and/or policies in order to get connected.


Itunes put random photos on my iphone I cant delete

Connect the phone to iTunes and then deselect photo sync and then sync the phone. iTunes will remove all those photos


Can't boot from Big Sur installed on a USB

Get a new drive. That process is quite a bit longer than needed, but it’s correct. If you have errors with the install it’s likely these are the causes in order:

Bad USB storage
Bad download of the installer (very unlikely, but it happens)
Not following the guide
Failure of the Mac (more likely USB port or cable or hub)

Catalina is probably a safer bet for this activity for another couple months - Big Sur is still getting some edge cases patched up. So maybe get that downloading the next time you can let it run.


How can I wake up my Mac from sleep mode remotely?

From this post:

  Most modern computers offer a feature
  called "Wake on LAN". This is designed
  to allow a network administrator to
  turn on a computer remotely, even when
  it is turned off, by sending a "magic
  packet". This is used, for instance,
  to allow backup programs to run at
  night.

  Here is a Python script that does this
  (if your MAC address is01-23-45-67-89-0a:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import socket
s=socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_DGRAM)
s.sendto('\xff'*6+'\x01\x23\x45\x67\x89\x0a'*16, ('192.168.1.255', 80))

Or you can use Wake550.

or use this site.


Looking for an alternative browser that doesn't leak memory nor my data, and is secure

Use Safari or Chrome in Private Browsing or Incognito mode, and set Do Not Track.


How do I add the wifi and bluetooth icon to the menubar programatically (from the command line)?

I believe the Wi-Fi one is there by default, but if you want to be sure, you can use

open '/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Bluetooth.menu'

open '/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/AirPort.menu'

to add them to the menu bar.

(Note: those paths are valid from at least El Capitan to Catalina.)


Why does the highlighted text color in Xcode's Project Navigator sometimes switch to white with a blue shadow?

It's just a bug which happens sometimes in Xcode, still happening in 8.1.

You don't have to restart to fix it, you can just hide and show the navigator by clicking this button twice:


iOS 10.3.2: cookies will return after deletion. How to clean-up?

Also encountered the same problem on my iPhone 6s running iOS 10.3.2. There were some website data that could not be deleted and showed 0 bytes. It is definitely website specific as only a few domains keep popping up while others could be deleted. I tried rebooting my device, clearing safari history and manually deleting each cookie but nothing worked.
What fixed the problem was restoring my iPhone from a recent backup before I've visited the websites. I connected my iPhone to iTunes and clicked the 'Restore iPhone...' button on the device menu. After restoring, I set up my device from backup and all the unwanted website data were gone. Note that this may take a long time.


Applescript read specific data out of iWork Numbers

this is how I solved it:

tell application "iTunes"

    repeat with theTrack in selection

        set theFile to location of theTrack
        tell application "Finder" to set theName to name of theFile

        set ayahInSurahCount to 0

        --set ayah information from the name of the track

        set surahNumAsString to characters 1 thru 3 of theName as text
        set surahNumber to surahNumAsString as integer

        set ayahNumberAsString to characters 4 thru 6 of theName as text
        set ayahNumber to ayahNumberAsString as integer
        -- finished

        set track number of theTrack to ayahNumber
        set genre of theTrack to "Genre"
        --getting information from the number sheet
        set aName to my getAName(surahNumber)
        --set englishName to my getEnglishName(surahNumber)
        -- finished
        set the album of theTrack to surahNumAsString & "-" & aName
        set artist of theTrack to "Abdul Basit"
        set shufflable of theTrack to false
        --set description of theTrack to englishName
        set name of theTrack to ayahNumberAsString & " - "

    end repeat
end tell

on getAName(surahNumber)
    tell application "Numbers"
        activate
        tell document 1
            tell sheet 1
                tell table 1
                    set ret to value of cell 1 of row surahNumber
                    --set value of cell 5 of row 1 to "Salam"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
    return ret
end getArabicName

on getEnglishName(surahNumber)
    tell application "Numbers"
        activate
        tell document 1
            tell sheet 1
                tell table 1
                    set ret to value of cell 3 of row surahNumber
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
    return ret
end getEnglishName


"The operation can’t be completed because the item is in use" when deleting from Samba mounted drive

There are actually two messages you're referring to:

  "This operation can't be completed because the item is in use"

and

  "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to
  access some of the items."

If you see the first one - I sometimes get that message too. Quite often this can be resolved by running: sudo lsof | grep <filename> in Terminal.app - obviously replace <filename> with the actual name of the file you're trying to delete. I typically get this when trying to empty the trash, but if the trash is not supported on the filesystem you have mounted, you may see it when trying to delete.

What lsof does is it lists all open files, and shows which process opened each of them. Quite often this will be a quick look process that opened the file and somehow didn't close it (it will do that when you display a list of movie files in Finder - it will then try to show you the first frame of the movie in the preview, and it's using Quick Look to do that).

Usually after running the lsof the files are closed (that's if lsof doesn't show anything), or I can just kill the quick look process and then empty the trash.

As for the other message - the best thing to do is to run ls -la <filename> or ls -lad <directory> to see the permissions on the file or the folder you're trying to remove. This may give you a better idea where the problem is.


7th gen iPod radio with a bluetooth headset in motorcycle helmet

Assuming you are talking about an iPod nano.

  iPod nano uses the headphone cord as an antenna, so you must connect headphones to iPod nano to receive a radio signal. For better reception, make sure the cord isn’t tangled or coiled.
  FM radio will not play through a Bluetooth accessory.

Source: Apple support document


How to remove metadata from image files using AppleScript?

To make an ApplesScript droplet app, save the following example AppleScript code in Script Editor as an application:

on open droppedItems
    repeat with droppedItem in droppedItems
        do shell script "/usr/local/bin/exiftool -all= " & ¬
            quoted form of POSIX path of droppedItem
    end repeat
end open

Now drag and drop the target file(s) onto the app's icon to process the file(s).

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


Will Excel formulas be OK if they are imported within a spreadsheet into iPad Numbers?

In general yes - but there are some functions that are only in Excel.

Googling found this comparison for Apple Numbers for Mac OS.


How do I disable the volume control overlay?

Hold up, don't modify important system files!
Mac OS has a nice way to start/stop services without doing permanent damage.

To turn off bezels for this user until next login:
launchctl unload -F /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI.plist
To undo, change unload to load, or just log out and back in.

For macOS 10.12 Sierra: Disable System Integrity protection, then:
launchctl unload -F /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper.plist
Don't forget to enable System Integrity protection when you're done.

To turn off bezels indefinitely for this user:
launchctl unload -wF /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI.plist

For macOS 10.12 Sierra: Disable System Integrity protection, then:
launchctl unload -wF /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper.plist
You can now enable System Integrity protection again -- your settings will persist.

To undo, change unload to load.

To turn off bezels indefinitely for all users:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI Disabled -bool YES

For macOS 10.11 Sierra: Disable System Integrity protection before doing the above.

To undo, change YES to NO, or:
sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.BezelUI Disabled

For macOS 10.12 Sierra: Disable System Integrity protection, then:
sudo defaults write /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper Disabled -bool YES
You can now enable System Integrity protection again -- your settings will persist.

To undo, change YES to NO, or:
sudo defaults delete /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.OSDUIHelper Disabled

Users can override this global setting using the two methods above.

More info: launchctl is the command-line interface to launchd, the program that manages services and jobs on Mac OS.

To reverse any of the above actions, just change unload to load.
-w means write preference to disk so that it will be used for subsequent logins
-F means force un/load regardless of the global Disabled key

You can read more about it in man launchctl.


How can I search the contents of PDF email attachments that are backed up to Time Machine?

To search the PDF contents embedded in an email using grep you are facing at least one if not two challenges.

The first is that files embedded in an email are not preserved in their raw form and instead are encoded into plain text for transmission in the email message.  The MIME format commonly used is Base64 but it's not always the case.  You can find more details on base64, including encode/decode methods here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Base64

Assuming the attachment was encoded in base64, it's still not as simple as taking your search string and turing it into a base64 representation because the resulting encoding depends on where in the input string your target string appears. base64 takes every 6 bits of the input stream and turns it into a plain text character. Assuming the PDF document is using a simple 8-bit encoding for the string, 3 characters in the PDF will turn into 4 encoded characters.  A quick illustration of how character position can change things:

% echo "123456789" | base64
MTIzNDU2Nzg5Cg==
% echo "0123456789" | base64
MDEyMzQ1Njc4OQo=

In the first example, 123, 456, and 789 turn into MTIz, NDU2 and Nzg5 respectively. In the second, the encoded tuples are 012 => MDEy, 345 => MzQ1, ... etc.

Your search string could start at the beginning, middle or end of one of these tuples.  If you search for a long enough string you could carve out 3 search strings from the middle that would be searchable, each must be a multiple of 3 characters long.  For example, if I wanted to search for the string 123456789, I could base64 encode three possible search candidates:  123456789, 234567 and 345678.  One of the base encodings should show up in the encoded PDF file if the plain text string 123456789 is present.

Now we get to the 2nd big problem.  Through this we've assumed that the unencoded contents of the PDF file is in UTF-8, plain text encoding.  If you look at the contents of an actual PDF file, you'll find it has all sorts of internal encodings that include font indicators, text encoded in UTF-16 or UTF-32 and so on.  It's quite likely that your simple search phrase wouldn't appear in the PDF data exactly as you expect. There can be extra content in the PDF between characters, between words, and then there are also line breaks so if you are searching for a phrase that crosses a line break, more complication in building your target search string.

There are a couple other things you could try though so all is not lost.

If you know the name of the PDF, you could search for that instead.  The file name should appear in the MIME text of the email message in UTF-8 and thus is searchable.

You might also get lucky and instead of searching the emails, search for PDF files.  OSX Mail extracts attachments and stores them to a mail download directory.  I'm running Mavericks and Mail v7.3 and my attachments get written to subdirectories under ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail

By the way, your grep command is looking for an exact match so if you are unsure of upper/lower case usage you should add the '-i' option for a case insensitive search.


iTerm2 build 2.1.4 on OS X 10.11.4 has that capability built in:

View > Tab Colour:

Clicking one of the colours has the following result (Inactive):

(Active)


Time Machine backup extremely slow after upgrade to Yosemite

I have a Macbook air late 2013 on Yosemite with similar specs but I have an Apple time capsule instead and the only thing I have found to improve speed is an ethernet cable. Get a connecter from thunderbolt to ethernet and then use an ethernet cable to connect it to the external drive. I haven't really tested this much but it did work the few times I have. Also, your external drive might be getting old. For me it usually takes about an hour or less to do a 90 GB backup. Also check your other computers or devices because if they are backing up, it will slow it down. Hopefully this helps!


If the file's path is relative to the current working directory your could use:

find . -name targetfile

You could wrap this in a shell function:

mylocate () {
    find . -name "$1"
}

# Usage
mylocate targetfile

In zsh you can use the globstar feature:

printf '%s\n' **/targetfile

In ksh:

set -G
printf '%s\n' **/targetfile

In bash4:

shopt -s globstar
printf '%s\n' **/targetfile


iOS - Disable mobile data download restrictions (in mobile data mode)

iOS doesn't restrict data consumption in general sense. The data restrictions are present only for a few specific scenarios, such as downloading large apps and iOS updates and that too are in place only in mobile data mode and not when the device is connected to Wi-Fi network.

It should be understood that the that the restrictions are only in place while you are on mobile data. Though debatable, those are valid restrictions to keep the overall user experience for an average user smooth.

There is no way to work around the mobile data download restriction in iOS. The restrictions are in place not due to technical reasons but a policy to restrict a few users from hogging the mobile network thereby brining down the network for everyone. This is more about encouraging fair usage among the users in the network.

As far as app installation is involved, the cellular download limit is now increased to 150 MB from 100 MB (Source: Higher Limit for Over-the-Air Downloads). Updating iOS still require Wi-Fi connectivity.

  The data saving options are kind of arbitrary and actually moot anyways. If you allow some app to use data (which is the default), that app can then download as much as it wants on mobile.

This observation is correct, but it still isn't as common a use-case as installing apps and updating iOS.


How can I open Windows network links on Mac OS X?

Under the finder menu, choose 'Go' -> 'Connect to Server'.

In the box that appears you need to type the path to the SMB server share.

SMB stands for Server Message Block, which windows understands.

The path would look like this...

smb://ServerName/SharedFolder

I have done this on OSX Tiger and Lion.

There are many tutorials available, such as this one on lifehacker


How to forget Time Machine password from keychain

Launch Keychain Access, unlock your keychain, and then delete the entry you don't need. This will cause the keychain to forget that entry.


If only I had searched for fifteen minutes instead of ten....

It's "Wineskin" at http://wineskin.urgesoftware.com/tiki-index.php

Now to figure out how to use it....


Many apps missing after restoring iPad backup to migrate to iPad 2

The original iPad was on iOS 5.0, and the destination was iOS 5.1.

I ended up having to upgrade the original iPad to iOS 5.1, and then repeating the whole backup & restore operation.

After this, all the expected apps were present on the destination device.


How do I prevent my iPod nano's screen from going to sleep?

Go to the stop watch and press start, now slide back to the watch face and it should stay on.


Is it possible to scroll the tabs in Safari if there are too many like Firefox?

If you are running the latest version of Safari, you can pinch in on a trackpad to reveal all of your tabs. You can swipe through this list using two fingers or by clicking on the dots below the previews.


Is there any possible way to program a LPC1768 Microcontroller(using ULINK-ME) on macOS?

Apparently it is possible. After a long conversation on the platformIO community forum I was helped. here is the topic click me
And here is a link to a working Blinky(blinking LED) example that's doing all of the configuration stuff needed to upload it properly to the device.
click me - Github


Changing OS X Spotlight priorities for specific applications

You don't need to delete anything. And I strongly advise you not too, since it's a built-in app. It could be useful to other part of the system, and it will probably be added back on a system update.

About your problem, Spotlight is smart, it will learn that when you type "photo" you want to open iPhoto over the time.

Just keep on typing photo, and selecting iPhoto over PhotoBooth.

If Spotlight is not smart enough or fast enough for you, you can try an alternative launcher, such as Alfred. It may be faster to learn than Spotlight (at least, it's what I found happened for me).


There is Airport Utility by Apple which allows you to review and change the configuration of any Apple WiFi device in the current network.


A simple solution is to use the mute switch on the side of the phone.  The camera shutter sound is controlled by the ringer volume, since the mute switch mutes the ringer the shutter sound is also mute.  However, you are asking an optional permanent solution.  So far there is none.  The application doesn't have any additional options within the app or within System Preferences.

Digging into the app store there is a simple camera application called Secret Camera - Taking Photo Secretly for $1.99. Apple Store Link It looks like it functions like the normal Camera application, but reading its description it doesn't explicitly mention a shutter mute option.  I assume this is an implied feature due to the app's name.


How much current/power can be drawn from iPhone 30-pin connector?

Somewhere around 160 mA.

Kineteka sells a 30 pin breakout board and pin 18 supplies the 3.3 volts. I just connected a 500 ohm pot between pin 18 and ground and lowered the resistance while measuring the current. It tops out around 160 mA. Try it!

EDIT:

Kineteka has closed but here are some similar 30 pin breakout boards with which I have no experience: http://www.pc-mobile.net/iphone.htm


Why when I wake my new iMac from Sleep, I have to scrape away a layer of screensaver or Lion linen to log in?

I see this same problem. I see it on both user accounts on my 2011 iMac when the screen saver has been active and the user is automatically logged out. If the user logs themselves out this isn't present.

I don't believe it's a problem, just a video driver quirk.


Kernel panic after installing El Capitan

Same here, booted into recovery and back to yosemite

cmd-shift-r keys down while booting

I guess 3 of 4 updates have failed for me last few years, getting tired of osx OS updates. Usually installs after a few attempts with startup utilities.

Better make a time machine backup before you try installation.


Yosemite Time Machine Backup Failed Due to Full Disk

This somewhat of a long shot, but it sounds a little like you may have changed something on your disk. "Invisible" actions like changing file permissions or HFS+ compressing files will cause TimeMachine (TM) to assume that the files have changed and need to be backed up. Another scenario would be that the UUID of your hard disk changed. This article lists some further possibilities. So to answer your questions:

the warning is there because you would loose all previous backups and you would be left with only this one backup.
Time Machine thinks that all files have changed. My hypothesis is that you did some action changing attributes of all files or your disk's UUID.
you could try to inherit the files

I suggest you try the following:

Compare your disk's UUID with the one used in your Time Machine:

diskutil list and
look for a hidden file called com.apple.backupd.SnapshotVolumeUUID on your TM disk (not too sure about the file name, because I use sparsebundles)

Full Reset of Time Machine: Read this article for details. Basically you will have to delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
Reconnect your backup. Read this article thoroughly. You will have to use either of these commands:

sudo tmutil inheritbackup /Volumes/myTM/Backups.backupdb/myMac or
sudo tmutil associatedisk -a / /Volumes/myTM/Backups.backupdb/myMac/myDisk

Note that you might loose your entire backup. Please make a copy of your Time Machine backup.


How to remove App Store account on iPad?

It sounds like there's a little confusion. Let me elaborate a little bit... I used to be a Senior Advisor for Apple and this was by far the most common call.

First, migrating to a new Apple ID can be difficult, but you can do it. To make sure all future purchases ask for your new Apple ID, go to Settings > iTunes & App Store and then select your Apple ID. Is this your new one or your old one? If it's your old one, tap "Sign Out" and try signing in with your new one. All future purchases should then prompt you for your new Apple ID and password.

However, keep in mind that any apps that you've already downloaded with your old Apple ID will prompt you for that old Apple ID and password when the apps need to be updated. (This is what everyone else is talking about). In order to never see or think about that old Apple ID again, you'll need to delete those apps over time and re-purchase them on your new Apple ID.

Second, it is imperative that you understand what email addresses are and aren't associated with each Apple ID. To check this out, go to id.apple.com and sign in to each of them. It is possible to have multiple emails associated with an Apple ID. It is also possible to have an "alternate Apple ID," which basically means you can use either to sign in.

One more thing—with the announcement of iOS 8, Apple IDs can be conjoined or paired using Family Sharing. It may just be more confusing, but check out the synopsis on Apple's website here.


How does call blocking app work with conditional call forwarding?

RoboKiller uses a combination of carrier network (PSTN) and Voice over IP (VoIP) to deliver calls to your phone.  The technology and how calls are received on your phone are determined by the iOS version the device is running when RoboKiller is set up.  If you upgrade your iOS version, it is recommended that you disable/deprogram your phone, uninstall, and reinstall RoboKiller to ensure you have the best experience. You can find instructions on how to disable/deprogram RoboKiller in the Settings menu of the RoboKiller app.


Always prompt for Boot Device on Startup?

One way to do this is to install a boot loader such as rEFIt.

This will present you with a menu similar to the following when you start up your computer:


Is there a Mac equivalent for UDEV folder on linux?

udev doesn't exist on OS X. As an alternative, you can use the diskutil activity command to continuously monitor disks being mounted or ejected. The diskutil man page says

  Continuously display system-wide disk manipulation activity as reported by the Disk Arbitration framework until interrupted with a signal (e.g. by typing Control-C). This can be useful to watch system-wide activity of disks coming on-line or being ejected, volumes on disks being mounted or unmounted, volumes being renamed, etc.

Whilst running the above command and plugging in (then removing) my WD Elements USB drive, I get this output, which could be parsed (even though the man page says not to) to find, say, DiskMountApproval and DiskDisappeared to get the volume name and when the disk was added and removed.

***DiskPeek ('disk2') Time=20120331-11:56:22.7716
***DiskPeek ('disk2s1') Time=20120331-11:56:23.0801
***DiskAppeared ('disk2', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = '<null>', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20120331-11:56:23.0810
***DiskMountApproval ('disk2s1', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = 'hfs', DAVolumeName = 'Elements') Comment=Approving Time=20120331-11:56:23.0820
***DiskAppeared ('disk2s1', DAVolumePath = 'file://localhost/Volumes/Elements/', DAVolumeKind = 'hfs', DAVolumeName = 'Elements') Time=20120331-11:56:23.2574
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20120331-11:56:23.2576
***DiskUnmountApproval ('disk2s1', DAVolumePath = 'file://localhost/Volumes/Elements/', DAVolumeKind = 'hfs', DAVolumeName = 'Elements') Comment=Approving Time=20120331-11:56:44.2338
***DiskDescriptionChanged ('disk2s1', DAVolumePath = '<null>') Time=20120331-11:56:44.4515
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20120331-11:56:44.4518
***DiskEjectApproval ('disk2') Comment=Approving Time=20120331-11:56:44.4542
***DiskDisappeared ('disk2', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = '<null>', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20120331-11:56:50.1964
***DiskDisappeared ('disk2s1', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = 'hfs', DAVolumeName = 'Elements') Time=20120331-11:56:50.1970
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20120331-11:56:50.1972


Is there a more convenient VPN toggle in iOS 9.1?

Try VPNOn (AppStore link). It has convenient toggles in Notification Center and Apple Watch.


Specifying the keyboard layout for Chinese input

You set the Latin keyboard layout for Japanese input in the Kotoeri Preferences.  For Chinese, the IM normally uses the last Latin keyboard layout that you have used.

Settings you make in the system preferences/language & text/language or formats tab are irrelevant for the keyboard layout.  Only the input sources tab affects that (and Kotoeri preferences when that is chosen as an input source).


The real problem was that I had removed the Z: drive which pointed to my root directory. After adding the Z: drive back using winecfg, I was able to run Windows programs from any location again.

I finally got it fixed. I just deleted the .wine folder, ran winecfg again, and everything started working.

rm -rf ~/.wine
winecfg

Sometimes after trying this solution, I still have this problem. I have found that moving the program to inside the ~/.wine/drive_c folder fixes this.


Swap SSD between two 2011 MacBook Pro 2011 machines

Yes, it will definitely work. OSX comes with all the stuff you need to run on almost any Mac hardware (because they control it). In this case, the situation is better, because both machines are very similar.

You can safely switch them.


Hide Drafts "Unread" count Apple Mail App (Mac)? (Not badge)

Gmail Settings: "labels tab" - deselect folders ('drafts' in my case) from showing in IMAP
"Synchronize" mail account in Mail app ("Mailbox" menu bar)


Possibility to install ML directly from the hard disk?

If you boot into the Recovery HD (⌘ cmd + R or ⌥ alt/option then select Recovery), you can open Disk Utility and Erase the internal drive.

Then close Disk Utility and use the Reinstall option in OS X Utilities to reinstall OS X.


Is it possible to long press on Apple Maps screen in CarPlay and get directions to that location?

As of iOS 14.4, you're not able to long-press a location on Maps in CarPlay to select a destination.
Apart from selecting a destination on your iPhone prior to using CarPlay, you can only select a destination by choosing a previously entered Destination or by using Search.
I often just tell Siri where I want to go and I'm presented with different options that meet my criteria.


Make `hostname -f` return fully qualified hostname

OS X is different in this case in that it might change your settings when it gets a response from your router / DNS+DHCP.

If you aren't getting a FQDN out of hostname, you couod set a FQDN first.

The Mac tool is scutil

scutil --get HostName            # same as hostname
scutil --get LocalHostName       # same as hostname -s
scutil --get ComputerName

If you want jvf-imac.fritz.box then simply:

sudo scutil --set HostName jvf-imac.fritz.box

You could set the host name with sudo hostname ... as well and it wouldn't be wrong. If I were to guess, you probably have fritz.box in /etc/resolv.conf which is why the DNS lookup appends the domain name since you didn't specify one more fully.


HELP ! Terminal is frozen while copying files in recovery mode : What should I do?

If it's completely frozen, unless you have remote access via SSH and can start a new session, there's only one thing you can do: restart it. You'll have to continue the copying from where you left off – Allan 7 hours ago


iPhone 5s speaks the words I type when I text

Go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Speech and disable the options.


The very first thing to have tried would have been to change from your provider's DNS servers to a known public one.

Google is one of the most commonly known - also the numbers are easiest to remember

System Prefs > Network > [currently used] > Advanced... > DNS

The number currently in there will be the one assigned by your DHCP server, i.e. your router, so you don't really need to remember it, but write it down if you wish.

Hit the - button to remove it.
Hit the + button & add 8.8.8.8
repeat & add 8.8.4.4
OK
Apply

Reboot & test.

DNS issues usually sort themselves out in a day or two so if it works, keep it for a while, then swap back to your ISP's servers. You should be able to do that by simply removing both the Google servers & hitting OK, Apply. It will find the right one from DHCP.


Mountain Lion US keyboard layout .. bug? British layout when selected US keyboard

I think your keyboard has been modified and is non-standard.  If for some reason you want what is printed on the keys to match up with what is typed, you could make a custom keyboard layout using

http://scripts.sil.org/ukelele


Is it possible to know if a macOS startup drive has been used in another mac?

I need to know if the storage drive in a Mac (SSD/flash storage or
  hard drive), has been used on another machine (same model probably).

macOS logs the computer's MAC addresses in these files: /var/log/daily.out and /var/log/wifi.log.

Since a MAC address (MAC stands in this context for media access control) is unique to every network interface and thus different on every Mac, you can list the current computer's MAC addresses and check if they differ from what has been logged:

Launch the Terminal app, located in /Applications/Utilities.
Run:

ifconfig | grep -A 2 '^en' | grep ether | sed 's/\(.*\)\(..:..:..:..:..:..\)/\2/'

to list all physical MAC addresses on your Mac.

Output will be similar to this:

60:f8:11:8f:f0:00
e0:f8:43:42:6d:40
d2:00:11:8f:f0:00

Now run:

sudo grep 'initWithInterfaceAndIE: _myMacAddress' /var/log/wifi.log | sed 's/\(.*\)\(..:..:..:..:..:..\)/\2/' | sort | uniq

to list all logged physical MAC adresses.

Output will be similar to this:

60:f8:11:8f:f0:00

Compare the output of ifconfig with the logged MAC addresses.

If a MAC address listed in step 3 is not included in the list from step 2, it is very probable that the internal storage has been used with another Mac.


How can you listen to Youtube videos on iOS, while the phone sleeps?

Step 1. Launch Safari, the default iOS web browser.

Step 2. Search for YouTube in the address bar / search box, or simply type youtube.com and search for a video that you want to listen to.
How to listen to YouTube in the background in iOS 7

Step 3. Let the video begin to play - wait until any advert has finished and the actual video is playing.

Step 4. Press your device's home button to return to the home screen. The music will stop. But, swipe up from the bottom to display Control Center. Tap the play button to continue playing the audio from the YouTube video.
In later versions of iOS, you may have to swipe between tabs in the Control Center to see the playback controls.
Play YouTube in background iOS 7 - Control Center

Step 5. You can now launch another app, such as Messages or Mail and keep listening while using that app. Some games (those which allow you to keep listening to your own music) will still be usable without cutting off the audio from the YouTube video.
If you want to browse the web, you'll need to use a different web browser from the one which is playing the YouTube video, since switching tabs will cause playback to stop. If you don't have another browser installed, try Google Chrome, Firefox or Opera.

Step 6. You can listen to YouTube with the screen off, too. Press the sleep/wake button to turn your device off and the audio from Safari will stop. Now press it again and tap the play button on the lock screen to restart the audio. Now when you turn off your iPhone or iPad, the audio will keep playing.


LaunchBar script that returns the path of a folder "dropped" on it

The open() handler gets passed an alias (which is a kind of a pointer to a file or folder). You can then simply convert the alias to text, but it will show you the path with colons as separators (e.g. "Macintosh HD:Users:Username:Documents:Folder:").

Use POSIX path of to convert it to a UNIX-style path with "/" separators, and if you want to paste it into Terminal, especially if the path has spaces in it, you should use quoted form of to properly enclose it in quotes.

The following script works with both folders and files for me, when an item is passed to it via LaunchBar:

on open (thisItem)
    display dialog (thisItem as text) -- alias
    display dialog quoted form of POSIX path of thisItem -- POSIX path
end open


How to tile windows without going into full screen?

Pressing the green traffic light button would cause the window of most macOS apps to go full-screen.
You can press and hold the Option key when clicking on the green traffic light button to prevent the window from going into full-screen mode.
If you want to tile and align various windows belonging to same of different apps, you can use one of the many 3rd party window and tiling manager apps.
One such app that I use and find very useful is Divvy - Window Manager. It lets you tile windows quickly and efficiently for any macOS app and supports multiple displays too.
P.S.: No affiliation whatsoever with the developer of the app. Just a satisfied customer.


Can I install OS X Snow Leopard on 2006 mac mini?

Yes it is. See here.

As long as it is an Intel Mac Mini (with a minumum of 1gb ram) you'll be fine.

If its a Power PC Mac Mini then you'll only be able to install Leopard (not Snow Leopard)


So I fixed it by using the terminal. I moved all the content of the grayed out folder and to a new one.

//edit: a more detailed description on how I solved this problem:

with the help of the terminal I moved all the files in the strange behaving folder to a new location. Using the mv command. E.g. cp ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/YOUR_BROKEN_FOLDER/* ~/Documents (the * is for all the files).
Once this folder it empty you can safely remove it with the rm -f command. E.g. rm -rf ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/YOUR_BROKEN_FOLDER
If you want you can now recreate the folder normal in the finder and it should appear normal again.


Pressing a wrong key sheds blue light on whole screen in iTerm

Still have no idea what's wrong with it, but searching on Google gave me the following command to execute, and it did the job:

sudo killall coreaudiod


My 2TB external drive keeps disappearing every time I boot my Mac

After upgrading to High Sierra, I had the same issue with my LaCie shared not listed in shared devices, coupled with SMB hanging without connecting to remote servers.

The SMB issue was solved by changing the SMB version to v2 in the /etc/nsmb.conf configuration file and rebooting the Mac as recommended in this post on SMB share deadlock. After the reboot with the new /etc/nsmb.conf, shared devices were again correctly listed in the sidebar including my LaCie shared disk, so I surmise both issues are linked.

The /etc/nsmb.conf file I use is:

$ cat /etc/nsmb.conf
streams=yes
soft=yes
signing_required=no
protocol_vers_map=2
file_ids_off=yes


MacBook Pro keeps freezing, could Google Update be the cause?

These misbehaviours seem to come from a Google software update agent.

If this command:

launchctl list | grep google

tells:

-       0       com.google.keystone.user.agent

Then you may temporarily stop this agent with:

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
launchctl unload -S aqua com.google.keystone.agent.plist

On the system (where I do have regular crashes since the installation
of this agent: Snow Leopard) I noticed that this plist is starting an executable located here:

~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/MacOS/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent

which is a universal binary dating from May 2012:

file GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent
GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent: Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures
GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent (for architecture i386):      Mach-O executable i386
GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent (for architecture ppc):       Mach-O executable ppc

Hence I'm tempted to conclude that this agent is using obsolete code
and should be removed.

I removed this agent so as not to see it again on my next session with:

cd ~/Library/LaunchAgents
chmod 0 com.google.keystone.agent.plist

Tested with a new session. I have no more
CODE SIGNING: cs_invalid_page(0x1000):[…]


How to mirror my iPhone 6s on and iPad Pro

Note that the iPad contains a (1X/2X) emulator for all iPhone apps (except those that specifically require telephony).  So just run the iPhone app on your iPad.  No iPad code, storyboards, or iPad specific or Universal settings in Xcode are required to do this.


I'm sure that by "access my Gmail smtp account just using the terminal" you mean "Using a command line program in the terminal" :)

I personally don't use Mutt and don't know the program. However, it is one of the best command line email client.

Everything seems to be well explained on the webpage you provide via the link

I'm using alpine (same concept). Here is a tuto: How to set Alpine and gmail


Internet Sharing handing out wrong DNS server address

The article you reference  was indeed correct for when it was published and that's how it works prior to Mavericks. Under Mountain Lion 'named' get's launched when Internet Sharing is active with /etc/com.apple.named.proxy.conf as the config file. This is all observable under Mountain Lion - I verified it.

However, domain name resolution isn't just based on DNS under OS X like it is in other OSen, but instead it's based on Directory Services -- which permits DNS lookups from flat-files, NIS, NetInfo, LDAP, ZeroConfig/Bonjour ... and DNS -- and it's mDNSResponder that's used for resolution of these name turns. (As per its man page mDNSResponder is also the system-wide Unicast DNS Resolver. It's what is (or should) doing the DNS resolution for your Internet Shared clients under Mavericks. (It was odd that they fired up named under Mt Lion rather than using mDNSResponder back then.)

When Internet Sharing is activated either named (pre-Mavericks) or mDNSResponder (Mavericks) is the "DNS server" that should perform name resolution for Internet Sharing, and that correctly makes 192.168.2.1 the DNS server for the NAPT'ed clients of Internet Sharing. So the straight and simple answer to your questions is that it's not handing out the "wrong DNS server address".

This demonstrable worked for me setting up Internet Sharing to share out my WiFi connection via Ethernet. Clients served by Internet Sharing sent DNS requests to 192.168.2.1 were observed to receive there queries correctly from a browser and when issuing dig @192.168.2.1 apple.com; I observed this in action with tcpdump to verify. Everything "just works" as you'd expect.

I note that in this configuration from the hosting Mac I'm also able to telnet 192.168.2.1 53 and connect to mDNSResponder. I also note that I have the Service Order for the configured networks set with WiFi having precedence over the Ethernet.

However when running this in reverse, sharing the Ethernet connection via WiFi I initially experienced the same issue you were seeing. Namely I saw the UDP DNS request sent over but no response back, just like you observed. Ping passed through to 8.8.8.8 and resolving against 8.8.8.8 using dig worked fine too. I was all prepared to write this up as a bug but I later had the opportunity to restart my MacBook Pro and tried this again, also assuring this time I had Ethernet having precedence over WiFi in the Network preference pane Service Order. This time it "just worked" and I wasn't able to recreate the issue. Problem solved by reboot and checking service order.

Additionally I verified that I could:

Issue a dig @192.168.2.1 apple.com from a client (assigned 192.168.2.3) of Internet Sharing and receive a successful response. I also observed the UDP query and response using tcpdump:

01:01:05.620240 IP 192.168.2.3.58817 > 192.168.2.1.domain: 34923+ A? apple.com. (27)
01:01:06.051566 IP 192.168.2.1.domain > 192.168.2.3.58817: 34923 3/0/0 A 17.149.160.49, A 17.172.224.47, A 17.178.96.59 (75)

From the hosting Mac was able to telnet 192.168.2.1 53 and receive a connection.

Internet Sharing has always been a bit fragile. I've often seen weird behavior and have found it's best to restart before attempting to run Internet Sharing or at least to "Make [the] Service Inactive" in Network Preferences for the interfaces in question and then set them active again. (Be sure also to "Apply" when making such changes".) Additionally the Service Order (which controls the default gateways) can also have an impact (as would be expected.) You may also wish to make sure you're using the Apple supplied Location "Automatic" (or a reasonable facsimile). Remember when debuging also that each network interface can have it's own gateway and prefered DNS server to use since after around Leopard or so.

So I'd suggest three things: (1) a reboot and confirm your network service order precedence and/or (2) a clean install of Mavericks to see if this resolves your issues, as well as (3) verify you can get Internet Sharing working where Ethernet is shared out over WiFi and vise versa. If you can't make (3) work then you need to look at something specifically configured wrong on your Mac and again that suggests a clean install.

If you can get it working for Ethernet -> WiFi and WiFi -> Ethernet, this suggests something with the USB Dongle -- and perhaps adjusting the Service Order so it's a higher precedence may be required.

Make sure also you don't have any Firewall rules or are running Little Snitch or anything that may interfere.

Internet Sharing appears also to have some debugging options if you issue

$ /usr/libexec/InternetSharing --help

These, and it's log file, along with the log file for mDNSResponder, might also be useful if you're still having issues.

But as the answer to the question: It's not handing out the wrong DNS server address in DHCP as 192.168.2.1 is the "right" DNS server for Internet Sharing to be handing out based on how it's designed to operate. And mDNSResponder is what should be handling DNS on the host running Internet Sharing under Mavericks. No `named is needed.


iOS App Advertisement choice : iAd or AdMob ?

It is easy to combine both in the same iOS app.
This URL will provide you more information about this issue.

Summary:
You try to load iAd, if that fails to load or something else happens - you can fall back on AdMob.


Honestly, it's not advised to sync Google & iCloud this way. As you found out, two syncing services running against the same set of Contacts cause a lot of problems. Even if you get it working, over time you'll find information getting duplicated in a single contact, data that you can't remove (it keeps coming back) etc...

So don't rely on doing it the simple way (that you've already tried) cause it's unreliable at best.

Some links to other discussions with various ways of tackling this problem:

Q&A on Stack Exchange about this issue

Discussion on Google Groups


Keep Mac mini on Wi-Fi (for screen-sharing), but disable internet access... How?

There are a couple of things you can do, but by far the easiest is to just manually configure your IP address (don't use DHCP) and leave the router field blank.  See below...

Before you select "Manually" in the drop down, take note of the IP address that was assigned to it by DHCP.  Then when you select "Manually" just re-enter that same IP address.

With the Router field empty, your Mac Mini will not know how to get out to the Internet.

Update:  As pointed out by user3439894 in the comments, reusing the IP address from the DHCP pool could pose a problem.  To avoid this, assign it an address outside the pool.

Most routers will have a starting address (Netgear's typically start their addressing at 192.168.1.100 and assign 50 or 100 address).  So you either have addresses up to 192.168.1.49 or .199.  To make sure you don't cause conflict, just assign it an address either higher than or lower than the pool (i.e. 192.168.1.30 or 192.168.1.210)


In iMazing there is multiple ways to browse backups or app data.

Here is the few possibilities:

Browse a specific app's backup content

Browse all backup's files and folders

Use the function "Export Raw Data" (right click the device from the sidebar and click "Export Raw Data")


Would Apple still take its 30% cut if I collect donations for charities in an app I develop?

I have here some App Store Review Guidelines, but you can't use in-app for donations. There are some points in the Apple In-App Purchase Policy covering some of your questions:

21. Charities and contributions
21.1 Apps that include the ability to make donations to recognized charitable organizations must be free
21.2 The collection of donations must be done via a web site in Safari or an SMS

Source:
https://developer.apple.com/appstore/resources/approval/guidelines.html (late 2013)


Exclude Music from Matching by Apple Music or iTunes Match

After much testing the best solution I've found is to mislabel the track and album name. This is by no means optimal but at least it leaves the artist name intact so that the sorting stays neat without duplicate artists. Doing this manually for each problematic album would be a PITA but fortunately it can be automated to a high degree using MusicBrainz Picard.

In order for a track to bypass the matching algorithm it needs the title and album tag to be mislabeled with a character/number and a symbol before and after the name (and without any spaces). A track named Autumn Fog Lifts would for example become 0.Autumn Fog Lifts.0 if using my own personal syntax where I insert 0. before and .0 after.

Using Picard, one can set a script to do it like this:

$set(title,$replace(%title%,%title%, 0.%title%.0))
$set(album,$replace(%album%,%album%, 0.%album%.0))

This will add 0. before and .0 after. the title and album tag whenever music is added to Picard.

This is my recommended workflow of how to replace the mismatched music in the cloud:

Right click and show file on the problematic music in iTunes
Copy the music files to a new location, make a backup so to speak
Remove the music from within iTunes (make sure to select Move to Trash)
Add the music from your backup to Picard, it will retag everything
Inspect the results and save, add the music back to iTunes

For more information on how Picard works see How to Tag Files.


When will I use the FileVault 2 recovery key?

You will need the recovery key to decrypt the volume if you lose your password or, in the unlikely event that the encryption key associated with the password becomes corrupt. If you elected not to allow Apple to store the recovery key, keep a copy (or several) in a safe place other than your computer.

Recovery Keys can also be used by System Administrators to mount volumes for maintenance or recovery. (The Admin doesn't need access to an account password).  It is possible to encrypt a FileVault volume using a master key.

Apple's Best Practices for Deploying FileVault 2 white paper provides more information about the inner-workings.


.git-completion.bash producing error on macOS Sierra 10.12.6

I ran into the exact same problem. After some digging, I finally figured out what the root problem is.

They made some major changes to the git-completion.bash script which requires a new feature in git v2.18, --list-cmds. The problem is that none of the package managers have updated to git v2.18 yet.

Most of the instructions out there say to download raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/master/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash . But that is not necessarily the best option because sometimes you will be downloading a newer git-completion.bash than your version of git supports.

So the solution is to download the git-completion.bash version that matches your git version. Then source it again. In this case:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/git/git/v2.17.1/contrib/completion/git-completion.bash

Notice that it is referencing v2.17.1 instead of master. Later, when you install git v2.18, then you can switch back to master, or v2.18 tag.


How to merge files after using split command from terminal?

cat xaa > newfile
cat xab >> newfile
cat xac >> newfile

Basically using a single '>' operand send the output to a new file.  using a double '>>' operand makes it append the contents to the end of an existing file (and also out of interest create it if it does not already exist.

If all your files are definitely in a neat alphabetical order, then you could use:

cat x* > newfile

or

cat xaa xab xac > newfile

in case the filenames aren't in alphabetical order.


Speaker Icon grayed out and sound doesn't work

Thank you for displaying the audio output settings in System Preferences.
This is very likely physical issue with your MacBook Pro (MBP). Your MBP supports three outputs:

speakers
headphone jack
optical/digital output (using your headphone jack)

When the optical output is activate there is no way to change it to speakers using a macOS setting. As this output doesn't support volume changes your speaker icon is grayed out.
Please check with a flashlight if there is something stuck in your MBP's headphone jack (debris, dust or similar). The optical output setting is triggered using a physical
Carefully try to remove it with a toothpick.

Please report back if you

can see a red light coming out of the headphone jack when playing a song
could solve the issue with a toothpick
used wired headphone with your MBP in the last few weeks.

edit:
I've taken a picture to show how the port can determine whether it's a headphone plug or an optical cable. The optical cable is just a tad longer and triggers the optical output in macOS.:


How do I find out if my MacBook Pro supports virtual extensions?

Yes, All recent Macs support virtualization.

Apple released native hypervisor functionality with their OS X Yosemite release, their Hypervisor.framework.

What this does is it allows you to run a VM natively on OS X, without the need for client hypervisor (such as VMware Fusion or VirtualBox).

Source


Running Ubuntu on MacBook Pro 2015 — run natively (dual boot) or run in virtual machine for longer battery life?

Booting Ubuntu on a dual boot partition has a similar battery life to OS X, perhaps slightly shorter, due to less efficient optimization for the MacBook Pro's hardware.

In a virtual machine, despite lots of "clever" optimizations and CPU hardware virtualization features, there are two complete operating systems, with two kernels, and two display managers* running. There is no way around the fact that these require significantly more processing power, thus, sucking up more battery life.

If you want longer battery life in Ubuntu, try disabling the eye candy. (This, of course, is assuming the virtual machine is not running headless.)


How to prevent Terminal from resizing when font size is changed

Old question here ... but thought I'd add that this has been supported in iTerm for almost two years now https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/issues/2900

Just uncheck the "Adjust window when changing font size" box in the preferences.

2020 Update

The box is now here:


How to record camera with sound from external source on an iPhone 7?

There are a whole heap of external microphones you can use with the iPhone 7.

Use the included adapter

Firstly, the most basic option, is to simply use the Lightning Port > 3.5mm adapter that comes with the phone. This adapter supports Tip Run Ring Sleeve (TRRS), so you could just plug in an external microphone into the iPhone 7 that way (i.e. an external microphone that supports the TRRS plug).

Lightning port microphones

However, if you're looking for a more dedicated solution without an extra adapter in the way, you do have a number of options available if you want to connect directly via the Lightning port. Below are some options for you (ranging in quality, price and features):

Sennheiser ClipMic Digital
iRig Pro
iRig Mic HD
iRig Field
iRig Pro Duo
iRig Mic Studio
Rode i-XLR
Shure MV88
Zoom iQ5
Zoom iQ6

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of the above products.


I made a clean install of El Capitan which fixed the problem.


How to fix permission denied for home folder with Apache in Mavericks?

In your computer's main apache config file, there is a designated "DocumentRoot", which appears to be set to ~/Sites - hence /Users/nazeem/Sites.

Try setting a document root in your /etc/apache2/users/nazeem.conf file, something like this:

DocumentRoot "/Users/nazeem/Development/Websites"

That's NOT within the Directory section of your nazeem.theconf file.

Note that the main apache config probably also designates the directory aliased as "cgi-bin". It's probably /Library/Webserver/CGI-Executables. Either use that directory for your executables, or post a follow-up about ScriptAlias settings.

And of course after any change to your apache config:

sudo apachectl restart

HTH


Do I have to enroll an Apple Developer Program to access itunes connect as a team member?

As Apple states

  Important:  Although both systems may use the same Apple ID for account validation, the iTunes Connect users and roles are separate from the Apple Developer Program membership and roles. A member of the Apple Developer Program for your organization doesn’t automatically have access to iTunes Connect. A member with an Admin role in the Apple Developer Program doesn’t automatically have an Admin role in iTunes Connect.

A team admin in iTunes Connect can add you as an iTunes Connect user so you can access the site.

From the above link:

To add a new iTunes Connect user

As the team agent or other iTunes Connect user with an Admin role, sign in to iTunes Connect.
On the iTunes Connect homepage, click Users and Roles.
Click the plus sign. If it doesn’t appear, you don’t have access to create iTunes Connect users. The team agent, or an Admin user, needs to create the new user or update your roles to allow you to create new users.
Enter the individual’s user information (first name, last name, and email address), and click Next.

The email address specified must be valid to activate the account. The user receives an email as a confirmation.

Review the email address of a user with an existing Apple ID.
If the email address you entered is already associated with an Apple ID, a warning message appears asking you to confirm that you want to associate this Apple ID with iTunes Connect.
Click Next to continue creating the user account with the existing email address and associated Apple ID.
Select the roles to assign to this user, and click Next
Roles give access to iTunes Connect sections. For example, the Admin role gives a user access to create and update material in all sections except Agreements, Tax, and Banking. The available roles are listed in User Roles.

Only the initial iTunes Connect user (the team agent) has access to the Legal role.

Select the notification types assigned to this user by territory, and click Save.
A confirmation line appears stating that verification email has been sent.

The new user receives an email from the iTunes Store that includes a link to activate the account. (Make sure to have the user check spam and junk mail filters if the activation email doesn’t arrive.)

If the account was created with an existing Apple ID, the user is asked to sign in to iTunes Connect.


Global shortcut to have finder open my home directory

Go in System Preferences/Keyboard/Shortcuts/AppShortcut then add a shortcut for finder with the desired menu name (Home I think) and put your keybidding alt+cmd+e and voilà


Why can't I choose to set up Internet Sharing to computers using AirPort?

The option is not available because you have selected to share your connection from Wi-Fi.

You can't share your connection from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi. Use an alternative method of obtaining a connection to the internet (e.g. Ethernet) so that the internet connection can be shared over Wi-Fi.


Can I make a directory on OS X appear as a volume so I can backup using Super Duper?

If you can share arbitrary folders on your Transporter you can then mount that folder across the network and SuperDuper will see it as a volume.

Failing that you may just want to create a disk image in that folder and have SuperDuper back up to that. That is how I do it with an external drive on a Mac that is always on. Several Macs back up to that drive, each to their own disk image via SuperDuper


Gmail calendar not synchronising with Calendar on OS X

You need to add your Gmail account separately. Go to System Preferences → Internet Accounts, add a new Gmail account and enable the Calendars service to enable the sync.


How to connect two Dell P2415Q 4k displays to MacBook Pro 2016

I'm not sure why you would go from a Thunderbolt 3 connection to a Thunderbolt 2 to DisplayPort rather than go directly from Thunderbolt 3 to DisplayPort.

A general rule of thumb in tech (and for many areas in everyday life) is reduce complexity to increase reliability.  The best (IMO) solution would be to go from native DisplayPort to DisplayPort.

The Thunderbolt ports on the MacBook Pro actual have DisplayPort as a native signal (on a type C connector), so this Cable Matters USB-C to DisplayPort 4K  should fit the bill.


Why is syslog not logging where I tell it to log?

I can confirm the following worked on my Mac running 10.6.7:

I added the following line to /etc/syslog.conf (where <tab> is a tab character):

*.debug<tab>/var/log/messages

I HUP'd the syslogd process using sudo kill -HUP <syslogd pid>.

And tested it with logger -p debug test_msg and syslog -s hello.

syslog created /var/log/messages on the fly as I used the logger and syslog commands.

The man page for syslog.conf(5) specifies the use of tabs between the fields.  However, I tried using a single space instead and that worked as well.  Based on the man pages for syslog and syslogd, /etc/syslog.conf appears to be the only configuration file you need to worry about.


how will users be informed if an app is not running on their current iOS version?

When vieweing the update in the App Store it will tell the user it requires iOS 9 or above.


I was able to fix this from some hints from this site.

After installing, you run the configure command again. This will create the Ddd file in the ddd folder. Now you can follow any of the steps that are printed out, I personally used the DDD_HOME variable with the patch to the sourcecode directory of ddd, since Ddd is now in $DDD_HOME/ddd/Ddd.


Reading out a Macbook Pro 2013 (A502) SSD

You can find an external enclosure here : https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENVOYPRO/


How is genius info stored, and will editing a track's info change this?

The song name, album name and length are used for recognition by Gracenote - which means when you changed and added the song details manually, it was recognised.

As far as I know, the same details are used for Genius, so anything that Gracenote recognises will work - and the playlists are made on Apple servers.


I made such a service.

See

https://blog.tempel.org/2015/09/RunServiceForAutomator.html

and

https://github.com/tempelmann/RunServiceActionForAutomator


$PATH doesn't show .bash_profile, only shows /etc/paths

For anyone who experiences this issue, I apparently it was broken after my zsh update.

Found the solution here:

  .bash_profile is a file read only by bash, which is not compatible with zsh. If we start sourcing .bash_profile bad things will start to happen. Instead, you should copy those ENV vars to the .zshrc file, preferably at the end of it.

Apparently you have to put everything into .zshrc instead of .bash_profile after this update. Some things might work a little different, btw, e.g. PROMPT colors. That wasn't an issue in this case, though.

Note that like with bash, there's a bunch of other files that may be sourced depending on the kind of shell you open that can contain various different settings, see here for a related question.


OSX context menu and popups look strange

So after a long time, I found out that the actual behavior is a setting:

System Settings -> Accessibility -> Display -> Reduce Transparency -> On/Off

If you turn Reduce Transparency off, the usual, normal context menu will appear again. I have no idea who or what changed this setting.


Are there modifications I can make on a Mac Pro 2012 so it can run macOS Catalina?

There is a macOS Catalina Patcher by @dosdude1 that is supposed to be compatible with Mac Pro 5,1. As of this moment, it is currently confirmed to working with Dev Preview 9 and Public Beta 8.

With modifications like this, there is always the risk of data loss or bricking, so make sure to have good backups and follow directions carefully.


launchd hitting every modified file every 30 seconds

I had the same problem a while back but IIRC, it turned out to be the Spotlight indexing services (mds, mdworker, etc) which are spawned by launchd.

Open Spotlight in System Preferences, switch to the Privacy tab, then drag your home folder into the window.  This will cause Spotlight to ignore your home folder and all subfolders.

If you don't want to exclude all your files, create a folder specifically for this high I/O application and configure Spotlight to ignore just this folder.

For a geekier method, here are some shell commands to run that will exclude the entire drive from Spotlight indexing.  I use these commands on all external USB/flash drives as soon as I can.

Touch these files at the root of the drive to exclude, so
cd / for the main internal drive or cd /Volumes/USB_FLASH_DRIVE_NAME for an external USB/FLASH drive, then

sudo /usr/bin/touch .metadata_never_index
sudo /usr/bin/chflags hidden .metadata_never_index

and to stop prompting if you want to use the disk for TimeMachine backups

sudo /usr/bin/touch .com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent
sudo /usr/bin/chflags hidden .com.apple.timemachine.donotpresent


Move Window by clicking on any part (as on Linux)?

You can use the free utility called "Easy Move+Resize", which allows you to use Cmd + Ctrl + Left click anywhere inside a window to move it. The modifier keys can be customized so that you can choose for example Alt + Left click instead.

You can download the utility from here:

https://github.com/dmarcotte/easy-move-resize

Read under the heading "Installation".


Just clic on the A on the top right of your message window.


Does Mac have something similar to a Linux loop device (alternative to losetup)?

You can use hdiutil for that. Basically, it does the same as losetup on Linux.

If you are planning to work with images with non-standard layouts or filesystems (for example, live CDs), make sure to pass -nomount to hdiutil attach, as otherwise it will complain that it couldn’t mount it (it tries to mount everything by default).

After the image is attached, it will appear in diskutil list as an ordinary disk. You can work with it just like with a physical disc.

Here is an example of mounting a live CD:

$ hdiutil attach -nomount path/to/file.iso
/dev/disk2              FDisk_partition_scheme
/dev/disk2s2            0xEF

It prints the name of the new disk. Now we can see it:

$ diskutil list

<...>

/dev/disk2 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        +453.0 MB   disk2
   1:                       0xEF                         12.6 MB    disk2s2

This is a live CD, it uses ISO 9660 file system. You can’t mount it using diskutil, you have to use a special tool:

$ mount_cd9660 /dev/disk2 ~/tmp/mnt

When you are done, unmount and detach:

$ umount /dev/disk2
$ hdiutil detach disk2
"disk2" unmounted.
"disk2" ejected.


Macbook Air 2020  Acer-ET322QR Audio not integrating

The issue that you’re running into is that you’re going from DisplayPort to HDMI (signal conversion).  Now DisplayPort as an industry standard has support for audio as does HDMI.  However, DisplayPort and HDMI are very different signals.

What makes this confusing is that we bring the term “USB-C” into the mix.  USB-C is just the physical connector type.  That port on the MBA is several signals, including DisplayPort, in one port.

The first thing I would look at is going with an Active Adapter, not a passive one (cable) that just re-orders the pinouts to match what you need.

As for your audio, I’ve never been a fan of integrated audio speakers in monitors and definitely not a fan of HDMI video connections in my compute environment - it’s a consumer grade AV spec that I’ve found very flaky.  I would go with a USB audio adapter (DAC) that can connect to a much better set of speakers or even audio amplifier.


OS X: Any PDF to Kindle format converter to read technical material on Amazon Kindle?

Calibre is commonly used to convert ebooks (including PDF) from one format to another.  There is no guarantee that it does exactly what you want, but try it with your PDFs.


A quick search of "disk catalogs" on MacUpdate revealed some of the apps that used to be much more common. NeoFinder (formerly CDFinder) and Disk Catalog Maker
were well-rated. A search of the Mac App Store would I'm sure turn up more, though they all seem to have become more expensive.


I've heard it was used because that was the approximate time at which the iPad was revealed originally, and given the Apple attention to detail, the clock had to match up. It was used in everything else because a lot of the same materials were used in the presentations as in the ads.


What the “Other” Storage Space is in Mac OS X?

Essentially it’s anything that OS X does not allocate to the listed specified storage types of applications, backups, audio, movies, backups, and photos. That means a very broad list of items will be considered as Other, including things like the following:

Documents and file types, including PDF, doc, PSD, etc
Archives and disk images, including zips, dmg, iso, etc
Various types of personal and user data
Anything in the system folders of OS X, ranging from temporary files, swap, voices, etc
User library items like Application Support, iCloud files, screen savers, etc
User caches and system caches, including things like browser caches and locally stored message media files
Fonts, app accessories, application plugins, and app extensions
Various file and file types not recognized by Spotlight, for example a virtual machine hard drive, Windows Boot Camp partitions, etc

As you can see, this is not unnecessary junk or clutter. Basically, anything that is not one of the media types that the Storage tab specifies will be shown as “Other”.

Source: OS X Daily: What the “Other” Storage Space is in Mac OS X & How to Clear It Up


Share screen on Mac/iPhone without having Apple TV

You can connect the iPhone to Mac via USB and then open QuickTime. There's New Movie Recording -> Select iPhone as a video source. Then You can simply share Your Mac screen with the customer.